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Engineer's LogProduction UpdateAxanar Production NotesDonors & Fulfillment

The Pilot Tax

November 20, 20251 min read
Daedalus-class hull in scaffold
Three platforms, three logins, and a year of ops-heavy work that rarely showed up as git commits.

Algorithm workflow

Parallel platforms & the pilot tax

Oct 2025 – May 2026 · git quiet, Gmail loudGoDaddy WordPressStorage violations · Premium Support · PHP7-era pluginsLovable + SupabaseSecond monthly bill · security remediation Feb 2026Fly partial stack~296h volunteer reconcile · donor beta QAFans: 3 logins · 3 UX shellsPeak overlap: $250–370/moUnified target: $120–185/moAfter sundown — stop paying parallel systemsUnification ≠ flip-switch — pay down overlap until one domain wins
Oct 2025–May 2026: three logins, ~296h reconciliation, peak spend $250–370/mo vs unified target $120–185/mo.

From October 2025 through May 2026 our git history looked quiet while Gmail looked loud. That is not idle time — it is the pilot tax:

  • GoDaddy storage violations and Launch hosting upgrades
  • WordPress Premium Support pilots on an aging plugin stack
  • Donor beta QA — Alec: "Lee is in charge" (Oct 2025)
  • Supabase security remediation (Feb 2026)
  • Sign-in flows tested across axanar.com, axanardonors.com, and the new host

Fans experienced three logins and three different UX shells. Operators reconciled exports, fixed webhooks, and answered support mail while volunteer hours stacked (~296h reconciled on the replacement stack alone).

Monthly recurring spend peaked around $250–370 across GoDaddy, Lovable, Supabase, and partial Fly hosting. The unified target is roughly $120–185/mo after sundown — but only if we finish the merge and stop paying for overlap.

This post is the honest middle of the story: unification is not a flip-switch; it is paying down parallel systems until one domain wins.

Engineer's Log — Unification series (Part 4 of 8)

From October 2025 through May 2026 our git history looked quiet while Gmail looked loud. That is not idle time — it is the pilot tax:

  • GoDaddy storage violations and Launch hosting upgrades
  • WordPress Premium Support pilots on an aging plugin stack
  • Donor beta QA — Alec: "Lee is in charge" (Oct 2025)
  • Supabase security remediation (Feb 2026)
  • Sign-in flows tested across axanar.com, axanardonors.com, and the new host

Fans experienced three logins and three different UX shells. Operators reconciled exports, fixed webhooks, and answered support mail while volunteer hours stacked (~296h reconciled on the replacement stack alone).

Monthly recurring spend peaked around $250–370 across GoDaddy, Lovable, Supabase, and partial Fly hosting. The unified target is roughly $120–185/mo after sundown — but only if we finish the merge and stop paying for overlap.

This post is the honest middle of the story: unification is not a flip-switch; it is paying down parallel systems until one domain wins.

Engineer's Log — Unification series (Part 4 of 8)

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Engineer's LogProduction UpdateAxanar Production NotesDonors & Fulfillment