Flights are booked out just before the start of the flight. Pilots record the aircraft, persons on board and the estimated departure and return times. If no flight details are added to book the flight back in, the system generates a notification to the person who booked the flight out. This reminder is sent some time after the estimated return time, configurable in settings.
To allow for cases where there is no network connection at the airfield, pilots can book out early up to a maximum number of hours you specify in Maximum hours early. The estimated time of departure should be changed to the best estimate of when the flight will commence.
To allow for cases where pilots may have forgotten to book out, you can allow them to book out for a time in the past. Pilots can then set the actual departure time up to your setting for Maximum hours late. It is of course not recommended, but the setting allows for mistakes to be made. You may wish to enforce a more strict setting of zero.
Pre-flight checks
You can ask pilots to confirm a short checklist when they book an aircraft out — for example “Weather checked”, “NOTAMs checked” or “Fuel sufficient”. This is a simple way to encourage good pre-flight discipline.
To set up the list, click the Admin tab, then Booking out, and add, edit or remove check items. Each item you add appears on the book-out form and the pilot confirms it before the flight.
Note: Use of pre-flight checks is optional. Office staff (and anyone with permission to manage bookings out) can book out an aircraft without completing the checks, for example when booking out on a pilot’s behalf over the phone.
Pilot currency
The system can keep track of whether a pilot is current to fly as pilot-in-command. If a pilot has not flown a particular type recently, the system can prevent booking out.
To configure this, click the Admin tab, then Booking out, and open the currency settings. Here you can turn currency checking on or off and set up “equivalents”, so that flying one aircraft type can keep a pilot current on a similar type (for example, time on one variant counting towards another).
Note: Currency is enforced for regular users; they will not be able to book out if they are out of currency. But office staff and instructors will see the message as a warning. You can allow certain roles (for example, examiners or instructors) to book out even when the system would treat them as out of currency, using the permissions for booking out.