# Book an aircraft in for maintenance

> Start a booking, choose the Maintenance type, pick the aircraft and the window, and save. Nobody is assigned to it, it blocks the whole window on the dispatch board, and it is never invoiced.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance/book-an-aircraft-in-for-maintenance
Section: Maintenance and squawks. For: Technicians, Owners, Admins, Dispatchers.

Start a booking, set the type to **Maintenance**, pick the aircraft and the window, and
save. It blocks the whole window on the dispatch board and is never invoiced. Pick the
**Technicians** doing the work so it goes on their calendars. To book a job, pick it under
**Work order**: the work and the bill live on the job, and its technicians fill in the
booking's when you have not picked any.

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

## Make the booking

1. **Start a new booking**

   From `Schedule` (web console), or from the app. A technician-only account goes
   straight there: the call to action reads "Schedule maintenance" rather than "Book a
   flight", and the Type is already fixed to Maintenance.

   ![Book a reservation, technician view](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/me-book-maintenance.png)

2. **Set the type to Maintenance**

   If you hold another role as well, pick it from the Type list.

3. **Pick the aircraft and the window**

   Book the whole time the aircraft will be unavailable, including the ferry out and back
   if it is going to another field.

4. **Say what it is for and who is doing it**

   If you open work orders, choose the job under **Work order** (below). Pick who is doing the
   work under **Technicians**. Otherwise put what is being done in the notes: without a job,
   they are the only place the shift on the other end can read what this block is for.

5. **Save**

   The aircraft is blocked for the whole window on the dispatch board.

## Technicians, not a crew

A maintenance booking has no instructor, student or renter: it takes the aircraft off the
line rather than putting somebody in it, so nobody flies, pays or signs off on it. What it
can have is **Technicians**, the people doing the work.

- **Only people with the technician role** can be picked. Give someone the role first if
  they are missing from the list.
- **They are told.** Each technician newly put on the booking gets a notification with the
  aircraft and the window, unless they put themselves on it.
- **A job fills them in.** Pick a work order while **Technicians** is still empty and the
  job's technicians are copied over. Linking a job to a booking from the job's page does the
  same, as long as the booking has no technicians yet. A booking someone staffed by hand is
  never overwritten, and taking people off the job later leaves the booking alone.
- **Changing the type clears them.** Turn a maintenance booking into any other type and its
  technicians come off it.

## Book a customer's aircraft in for a job

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

A maintenance booking holds the aircraft and the hangar for a work order. The job carries who
is doing the work, what is being done and the bill; the booking carries only the time.

- **Link the job from the booking.** On a Maintenance booking, **Work order** lists the open
  jobs on that aircraft. Pick one, or choose **Open a new work order**: the job opens with the
  booking and its **Technicians**, with your notes as its request, at
  **Scheduled** (or **Aircraft received** for a booking that has already started). A new job on
  a customer's aircraft at either stage emails its owners straight away. A repeating booking
  cannot hold a job: one job is one visit.
- **Or link it from the job.** On the job's page, **Booked for** under **Details** picks one of
  the aircraft's maintenance bookings. See
  [Run a work order](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance/run-a-work-order).
- **The block says whose it is.** On the schedule, a booking that holds a job shows the
  customer it is billed to and, for owners, admins and technicians, what they asked for. A
  grounded aircraft's block carries a small grounded mark. Dispatchers see the customer and the
  mark but not the request, and pilots never see a customer's aircraft at all.
- **Drag the booking to move the dates.** The job stays linked to it. Owners, admins and
  dispatchers can drag it. The aircraft's owner is not emailed about the move, so if the day
  you promised it back changes, change **Promised back** on the job: that tells them.

## It works on a grounded aircraft

Maintenance is the one booking type a grounded aircraft accepts. Every other type is refused
with "Resource is grounded."

![New booking, airworthiness notice](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/booking-airworthiness-notice.png)

That exemption holds all the way through: creating the booking, editing it, dragging it on
the dispatch board, and ramping it out. It exists because these bookings are how a grounded
aircraft gets to the shop and back.

## It is never invoiced

Closing out a maintenance booking never produces an invoice, whatever rates the aircraft
carries. Shop time is not a rental.

## Whose calendar it is on

A maintenance booking is on the personal calendar of the person who booked it and of every
technician on it, and **Only mine** in the app keeps it for them. Anyone else sees it on the
dispatch board, where it blocks the lane in the normal way, or on the aircraft's own
schedule. To put a second technician covering the shift on it, add them under
**Technicians**.

## Which roles can book maintenance

| Role                        | Can book maintenance?                      |
| --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| Owner, Admin                | Yes                                        |
| Dispatcher                  | Yes                                        |
| Technician                  | Yes, and it is the only type they can book |
| Instructor, Student, Renter | No                                         |

## Aircraft only, not simulators or classrooms

A maintenance booking is refused on a simulator or a room. To keep a sim or a classroom
clear while it is being worked on, block the window with an ordinary booking instead.

> **Tip:** Booking maintenance is not the same as grounding. A booking blocks one window. Grounding
> stops every booking on the tail until an admin or a technician lifts it. If the aircraft is not airworthy,
> do both: ground it, then book the shop time. See
> [Ground an aircraft](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance/ground-an-aircraft).