Scheduling and dispatch
The dispatch board, the booking form behind it, and the self-serve version members use. Everything from putting a flight on the schedule to closing it out and handing it to billing.
22 articles
Start here
How this part of AerScheduler fits together.
How-to guides
Step by step, with the real screens.
Book a reservation from the dispatch board
How the front desk books a flight, a lesson, a sim session or a room for somebody else, and what happens the moment you press Book reservation.
Book your own flight or lesson
Pick Solo, choose the aircraft, then pick a start time from the list. Only times when you and the aircraft are both free are offered.
Set up a lesson that repeats every week
A repeat creates a real, separate booking for every date, so each one can be ramped, reviewed and invoiced on its own. Every repeat has an end, and if one date conflicts none of them are booked.
Book a trip that keeps the aircraft overnight
Multi-day bookings are off until an admin turns them on, and they cannot be turned on until the school has a time zone, because the number of nights decides the bill.
Move a booking to a new time or a different aircraft
Three ways to move a booking: edit it, drag it on the board, or nudge it with the arrow keys. Dragging up or down on the day board swaps the aircraft.
Change or cancel your booking
Open the booking and press Edit reservation. On the web, cancelling is limited to staff, technicians, and the instructor on the flight, so students and renters cancel from the iOS app or ask the front desk.
Cancel a booking and record why
Cancelling needs a reason type and a short note, both required, because that is what the cancellation report counts. A no-show is recorded by cancelling with the No-show reason after the start time.
Ramp out and ramp in a flight
Ramp out records the departure Hobbs and tach and takes the aircraft off the line. Ramp in records the return readings, puts it back, and moves the booking to Awaiting review. These two steps are what turn a plan into a billable flight.
Sign off a flight with your PIN
Every pilot on a booking confirms the close-out with their own four character PIN. The invoice is raised automatically when the last person signs off, so a flight nobody signs off is a flight nobody is billed for.
Close out a ground lesson or a booking with no aircraft
Nothing ramps in a classroom. A ground lesson goes straight from Not started to Awaiting review in one step, the button reads Review times instead of Ramp out, and instruction time is the only figure recorded.
Close out and bill a discovery or guest flight
A guest has no account and no PIN, so an admin or the instructor on the flight closes it out for them. The guest is emailed a secure link and pays by card.
Split a flight between two or more people
The Who pays what panel divides one flight into a stake per person, and the booking mints one invoice per payer. Fill it in after the flight is back and before it is invoiced.
Set your weekly availability
Set the hours you can be booked under Profile then Availability. The iOS app honors these hours when someone books you, and the web console does not.
Check your currencies and fix one that blocks booking
Your Currencies page shows medicals, flight reviews, and checkouts. Anything not current can stop you booking an aircraft, including one that has simply never been signed off.
Find a booking on the schedule
Search matches titles, notes, tail numbers, people and guests. Resource and Location remove lanes from the board. Every other filter dims what does not match instead of hiding it, on purpose.
Reference
Look things up: fields, rules, and permissions.
Which reservation type should I use?
Dual, solo, shared flight, rental, guest, ground, sim and maintenance. The type decides what resource is booked, who may be on it, how many, and who gets the invoice, so picking the wrong one is the most common reason a booking is refused.
Booking rules: the settings that change how booking works
Every setting that changes what your members can book and when, what each one actually does, and where it lives.
Who can book, edit and cancel: scheduling by role
Everyone in the school sees the whole schedule. What changes by role is which lanes are drawn, what you can create, and what you can act on.
Why the schedule shows airport time, and how to change it
Every time on the schedule is drawn in the airport's own zone, not your device's, so a 9:00 AM lesson stays 9:00 AM wherever you check it from. You can switch to your own zone for yourself.
Troubleshooting
When it does not do what you expected.
Why was my booking refused?
Every message AerScheduler gives when it will not create a booking, what it means, and the shortest way past it.
Why can't I edit, move or cancel this booking?
Bookings lock as they move through the day, and a few actions are narrower than they look. This page says which rule caught you and what to do instead.