Blog

Someone asked whether it was possible for the Hobbs meter be used to record logged engine hours and the Tacho to log airframe hours.

The system did not cater for this, it was designed to use the Tacho for engine hours and the Hobbs to pre-fill the flight times, which then go on to the airframe hours (minus the taxiing time). It's always been a bit of a headache setting systems up in just the right way because it seems each school does something different!

So we thought it was time to develop something better, and we hope you like it.

Now the government are easing restrictions on flying, perhaps this is a good time to think about currency and safety before self-hire members return to flying your aircraft!

By default the system allows students and members to book out any aircraft, but you can configure restrictions under Admin > Booking out.

Checklist

Before anyone can book out, they can be required to agree to certain statements. You specify these yourself under Admin, as an example, "I have checked the NOTAMs".

Every aircraft you manage is listed in the Aircraft tab, and instructors are listed under People (filtered by the Instructor role).

You can now restrict aircraft and instructors to certain groups of people.

As an example, some schools operate Group A and Microlight training, and customers need to make sure they book on the right type of aircraft and with an appropriate instructor. By adding two custom roles, you can make your Group A aircraft and instructors visible to only the people who fly group A, and similarly for a microlight group.

The safety reporting part of the system has been popular, especially with large schools.

We have identified a potential problem where reports could easily become lost and forgotten.

The aim is for all reports to be closed once the necessary steps have been taken, and while "open" the report should be updated regularly with comments to explain any work in progress.

By default, the system collects a single "grade" for each training session.

If you want to use your own grading scheme for flight and ground school training, you can. Once you have set this up under Admin > Training notes, the instructors will see a form similar to the one below:

Instructors sometimes train in a student's own aircraft. The system supports this by using a special aircraft with the registration "Other" and the type to "Various".

These aircraft are treated as a special case. When booking out, the actual registration and type are collected and confirmed when entering flight details. It is then these details that are transferred to the personal logbooks and training record.

Colours are used on the booking form to quickly see which aircraft instructors are working on. Each instructor has their own colour, which is assigned by the system automatically.

When sending a newsletter, you can now choose whether you want the email to show the school's address or your own.

Our document attachments feature allows you to upload images, PDFs and other files and associate them with a user or aircraft. Schools use it to upload the insurance certificates for each aircraft and have set reminders to warn them as the expiry date approaches.

But there are other places where you might want to attach files, down at a record level:

• Training records
• Safety reporting

Wouldn't it be lovely if you could just record the flights in Flight School Booking and let the system handle invoicing, payments and your bookkeeping?

Now you can!