# Add an aircraft

> Tail, make, model, year, category and class, meters, rates and a home base. Get the rates and meters right now, because billing and maintenance both read them.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/getting-started/add-an-aircraft
Section: Getting started. For: Owners, Admins.

`Aircraft → Add aircraft` (web console), or **Add aircraft** in the **+** at the top
of any page. Tail number, make and model, category and class, current Hobbs and tach, the
hourly rate and a home base. Everything else sits in a row of buttons under the form and can
be left as it is. Save, and the tail is on the schedule and billable.

**Who can do this:** Owners, Admins

## Before you start

At least one location has to exist. Without one the **Home base** picker is disabled and
the form will not save.

If you meet "Add a home base location first, every aircraft needs one before it can be
scheduled"press **Add a location** beside it. That opens
`Facilities → Locations` (web console) with the create form already up. Save the
location, come back, and the picker works. You only do this once per airport.

## Add the tail

1. **Open Aircraft and press Add aircraft**

   Admins and owners only. Everybody else can view the fleet but not change it.

2. **Enter or search the tail number**

   This is what appears on the dispatch board, on invoices and in every report.

   On the web, start typing in the tail field. On iPhone, tap **Tail number**. Matches
   from the public US aircraft registry appear as you search. Pick yours and the make,
   model, year, category, class, engine and seats fill themselves in, and the serial
   number too when our copy of the registry has one for that tail. Everything it fills
   stays editable.

   Nothing appears for a registration outside the US, or for a very new one. That is
   normal and not an error: use the tail you typed and fill the rest yourself.

3. **Check the category and class**

   Category is what the aircraft is, airplane, rotorcraft, glider and so on. Class
   narrows to the ones that belong to that category. See
   [Categories, classes and meters](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/getting-started/aircraft-categories-and-meters).

4. **Fill in anything the lookup could not**

   Make and model are required. Year is optional. Engine, fuel, gear, seats and fuel
   capacity are buttons in the row at the bottom of the form, each showing what it is set
   to: click one to change it, or leave it.

   The **Serial number** is optional too, above **Home base**. Choose a US tail number from the lookup and it arrives already filled:
   every row in the federal file carries a serial. What the file does not carry is a
   non-US registration, so a G-, D- or LV- aeroplane is typed off the data plate like
   everything else about it. It is the
   number an Airworthiness Directive names its affected aircraft by, and it prints on the
   Airworthiness compliance report. See
   [Choose how much AerScheduler does about ADs](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance/choose-how-we-handle-airworthiness-directives).

5. **Enter the current Hobbs and the current tach**

   Type the readings exactly as they show on the meters, for example 1234.5. These are the
   starting point for billing and for every hour-based maintenance inspection, so get them
   off the actual aircraft rather than off a spreadsheet.

6. **Set the hourly rate**

   Under it the form says how it is charged: **Wet rate** (fuel included) or **Dry rate**,
   and **Billed on Hobbs** or **Billed on tach**. Change either from its button in the row at
   the bottom.

   ![Aircraft, edit form](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/aircraft-rate-fields.png)

7. **Choose the Home base and press Add aircraft**

   The home base is the airport the aircraft lives at, and it is what the schedule's time
   zone resolves against. With only one location it is chosen for you.

## Wet or dry, and Hobbs or tach, are two different questions

They sit next to each other and both sound like "how is this billed", which is why they get
confused.

| Control                           | The question it answers                    |
| --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| Wet rate or Dry rate              | Does the hourly rate include fuel?         |
| Billed on Hobbs or Billed on tach | Which meter do the billed hours come from? |

A wet rate billed on tach time is a perfectly normal combination, and so is a dry rate
billed on Hobbs. Pick each one on its own merits.

More on what happens to those numbers at close-out in
[How billing works](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/how-billing-works).

## What adding a tail changes

- It appears as a lane on the dispatch board and in every booking form.
- It becomes billable at the rate you set.
- It counts toward your subscription, which is $20 per month per aircraft. Simulators and
  ground-school rooms are free.

## Editing an aircraft later

Open the tail and press **Edit**. It is the same form, filled in with what is already on
record. The tail-number lookup still works if you need it, but nothing is overwritten
unless you pick a match yourself.

To add or change the aircraft's photo, click the picture (or the airplane icon) at the top
of its page and choose an image. Owners and admins can change it; everyone else sees it.

## After the tail is in

- [Track its inspections](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance/add-the-standard-airworthiness-inspections): Annual, ELT, transponder, pitot-static, VOR, altimeter, 100-hour.
- [Check renters out on it](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/getting-started/approve-a-member-on-an-aircraft): Record who is approved to fly this tail.
- [Rates in detail](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/set-aircraft-and-instruction-rates): Aircraft rates, instruction rates and what a lesson costs.
- [Ground it](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance/ground-an-aircraft): Take a tail off the line, by hand or automatically.