Aircraft
This page would be edited by Administrative staff and Instructors only. It comprises a list of available aircraft. Below that is a link labelled "Manage Types" which contains a list of all the aircraft types in the fleet.
Add an Aircraft
Aircraft can be added into the Book-a-Flight system by clicking on the aircraft icon 
and then clicking the plus icon 
.
The system attempts to include all of the most critical information regarding each aircraft.
Aircraft Details
The first part of the form which appears when the plus icon is clicked, needs to be completed. The fields are as follows:
- Registration
- This field contains the registration of the aircraft, for example ZS-YLR for the aircraft in our example (based on Old Yeller, the P51 Mustang made famous by Bob Hoover)
- Name
- The aircraft name might well be the same as the registration, or it could differ. The name is the main field that displays on the booking sheet.
- Comments
- Any comment entered here will display in bold red font on the bookingsheet. Use this field to alert pilots to specific information about the aircraft.
- Type
- There is a separately maintained type list to ensure all aircraft are correctly sorted into the appropriate type. This field therefore offers a drop-down list. To add or edit types please see Aircraft Types
- Bill on Tacho?
- Indicate "yes" to bill on Tacho, indicate "no" to bill on Hobbs
- Normal Rate
- This would be the standard rate at which the aircraft is hired out. In the case of a club, this might be a special rate specifically for club members.
- Temp Rate
- Often used to set a more expensive rate for non-members
- Intro Flight
- This is a flat rate specifically for Intro flights, and is often set at the cost of one hour
- Next MPI Date
- The date of the next MPI
- Next MPI Hours
- The hours at which the MPI is due
- MPI On
- Indicate if MPI is due on Tacho or Hobbs
- Next Overhaul Hours
- Indicate when the next overhaul is due
- COA expires on
- Date that the COA expires
- Radio Station Licence expires on
- Date that the radio station license expires
- Insurance expires on
- Date that the Insurance expires
- Mass & Balance expires on
- Date that the 5 year Mass and Balance expires
- Compass Swing expires on
- Date that the compass swing certification expires
- Seats
- The number of available seats in the aircraft
- BEM
- The basic empty mass of the aircraft in pounds. This is used for the mass and balance calculation during flight authorisation
- BEM arm
- The arm (in inches) of the BEM. This is used for the mass and balance calculation during flight authorisation
- MAUW
- The max all up weight of the aircraft in pounds. This is used for the mass and balance calculation during flight authorisation
- Fuel Capacity
- Total fuel capacity in gallons
- Fuel Consumption
- Average Fuel consumption in gallons per hour
- Has Tacho
- Indicate if the aircraft has a tachometer.
- Sort Order
- An alphanumeric sort uses this field to determine the sequence in which the aircraft will appear in any list. So for example this might be used to group 2-seaters together, ahead of 4 or 6 seaters.
- Display
- The setting in this field governs whether or not the aircraft will appear on the booking sheet.
- Booking Group
- This defaults to zero, which indicates no group. You can allocate several aircraft the same group number, and then within that group you can allocate each aircraft a booking priority. The system can then move bookings up automatically, to higher priority aircraft within the group. This ability has to be enabled by the Book A Flight technicians. Please contact us if you wish to have booking migration enabled.
- Booking priority
- See explanation above, under Booking Group.
The second part of the form shows some calculations arrived at using the information gathered on the form. This is by no means intended to replace a detailed mass and balance.
Edit an Aircraft
On the left of each item in the aircraft list is an edit icon. Click on the edit icon 
to edit any of the fields described above.
Maintain Types
Details about the maintenance of types can be found on the Aircraft Types page.
Folio
When viewing the list of aircraft, there is a Folio icon 
after the Edit icon. Since all flights are recorded, a full log is compiled and can be viewed here.
Flights are listed for one month at a time. The default is to show flights for the current month. A link exists to the previous month. If the previous month is selected, flights for that month will be listed. A link will then exist for the month prior to that, as well as one to take the user back to the current month. As one moves back in time, there will be links for the month before and after the month being viewed.
Edit Folio Entries
An entry in a flight folio may be edited or deleted 
. If a Flight Folio has been completed incorrectly by a student or pilot, this is where corrections can be made.
Book Aircraft Maintenance
The third icon next to each aircraft name is the maintenance icon 
. This is selected in order to schedule maintenance for the aircraft.
A description of the maintenance to be carried out is filled in. The next two fields are a date and a time field. These should be set to the anticipated start of the planned maintenance. For unplanned maintenance the present date and time should be set.
In the next two fields - also a date and a time field - the anticipated end date and time for the maintenance should be entered.
Once this form has been completed, the aircraft is "booked" for maintenance on the booking sheet. It will override any other booked utilization for the selected time period. Bookings which were already in place against the aircraft which needs to be maintained will be highlighted in yellow and will need to be cancelled or rescheduled.