# 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.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/ramp-out-and-ramp-in
Section: Scheduling and dispatch. For: Owners, Admins, Dispatchers, Instructors, Students, Renters.

Open the booking and use the button under the Dispatch section. **Ramp out** records the departure Hobbs
and tach and takes the aircraft off the line. **Ramp in** records the return readings, puts
the aircraft back, and moves the booking to Awaiting review. These two steps are what turn
a plan into a billable flight.

**Who can do this:** Owners, Admins, Dispatchers, Instructors, Students, Renters

Staff can ramp any booking. Everybody else can ramp the bookings they are on, and the
maintenance they scheduled themselves, unless an admin has given them **Ramp any flight out
and in** (see [Let an instructor ramp any flight](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/ramp-out-and-ramp-in#let-an-instructor-ramp-any-flight)).

## Reading the close-out

The section shows four things, in this order:

1. **Where the booking is**, as a row of steps: Dispatch, In flight, Review, Billed. Done
   steps carry a tick, the live one is filled in, and anything still grey has not happened.
   **Billed** stays grey until a charge or invoice actually exists, signing off the review
   is not enough. A booking with no aircraft has three steps rather than four, because
   nothing ramps.

2. **What has been recorded so far**: the Hobbs and tach readings, the hours flown, the
   instruction time, and the times the aircraft actually left and came back. Nothing at all
   before it has flown.

   ![Hobbs, tach, hours flown and instruction time recorded on a flight](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/close-out-readings.png)

3. **The one action it is waiting on**, as a single button.

4. **Everything else, folded away**: who pays what, the training records, and the
   adjustments. Each says what it holds while it is shut ("2 payers, split recorded", "1 of 2
   graded"), so a booking that needs nothing from you can be read without opening anything.

A folded card that has a problem in it opens itself and says so. That happens when the
individual hours do not add up to what the aircraft flew, or the shares do not come to 100%,
which are the two things the server will refuse to bill.

## Ramp out

1. **Open the booking**

   The section headed **Dispatch** carries a **Not started** badge.

2. **Press Ramp out**

   Both readings are already filled in from the aircraft's current Hobbs and tach.

   ![Ramp out modal](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/ramp-out-modal.png)

3. **Confirm or correct the readings**

   Both are required. Readings carry one decimal place, for example 1014.2.

4. **Press Ramp out**

   The badge becomes **In flight**, the aircraft is marked off the line, and
   a Ramped out line with both readings is written to the booking's timeline.

Ramp out is refused if the aircraft is already out on another booking, if the aircraft is
grounded (maintenance is the exception), or if somebody on the booking is grounded.

### If the aircraft is still out on another booking

The message names the booking that still has it. That flight only needs to be **ramped in**;
the next booking does not wait for anybody to sign off or for the flight to be billed. If its
pilot has gone home without ramping in, anybody who can ramp that booking can do it for them:
staff, or somebody given **Ramp any flight out and in**.

## Ramp in

1. **Open the booking when the aircraft is back**

   The section now asks for the ending readings.

2. **Press Ramp in**

   Hobbs and tach are pre-filled from the recorded out readings.

   ![Ramp in modal](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/ramp-in-modal-hours-flown.png)

3. **Type the ending readings**

   **Hours flown** is worked out and shown live as you type, so a mistyped
   digit is obvious before you save.

4. **Press Ramp in**

   The aircraft goes back on the line and the badge becomes **Awaiting review**.

Ending readings below the recorded out readings are refused. The difference between out and
in is what the flight is billed on, so a reading that runs backwards would produce a
negative flight.

> **Note:** The aircraft's own stored Hobbs and tach are only moved forward when this is the latest
> booking for that tail. Closing out a flight from last Tuesday does not wind the aircraft
> back to Tuesday's numbers.

## Instruction time on a dual

The ramp in modal offers **Instruction time (hrs)**. On a flight it is optional extra
detail, billed at the instructor rate.

On a booking with no aircraft it is the only figure recorded, and it is required. The help
text under the field changes to match. See
[Close out a ground lesson](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/close-out-a-ground-lesson).

## Let an instructor ramp any flight

At an organization without a front desk, the instructor at the airport is often the one who
sends aircraft out and brings them back, including on bookings they are not part of. An admin
can allow that one person at a time:

1. **Open People and choose the person**

   In the console, open their record and choose **Permissions**.

2. **Turn on Ramp any flight out and in**

   It is under **Scheduling**. The change takes effect straight away.

They can then ramp out and ramp in any booking in the organization, and before anybody has
signed off they can also correct the readings and split the flight between payers. They
cannot sign a close-out for somebody else (each pilot still confirms with their own PIN),
and they cannot edit, reschedule or cancel bookings they are not on.

Admins and dispatchers can already ramp any booking, so they need nothing here. The readings
entered at ramp in are what the flight is billed on, so give it to people you would trust at
the dispatch desk.

## What locks once the aircraft is out

From the moment a booking ramps out, its start time, its aircraft and its crew are frozen.
They are part of the flight record now.

The **Edit reservation** button disappears from the web console entirely at that point.
The one thing you can still change is when the aircraft is due back, by dragging the
trailing edge of the block on the board. Hovering the block says so.

## The overnight minimum notice

If the booking spanned nights and your school charges a minimum per night away, the ramp in
modal says so live, before you save, in plain numbers: how many nights, what the minimum
is, and what the flight will bill instead of what was flown.

It is repeated at every close-out step until the invoice exists, because the person ramping
the aircraft back in is often not the person who booked it. See
[Book a trip that keeps the aircraft overnight](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/overnight-and-multi-day-trips).

## A booking with no meters

Nothing ramps in a classroom. A Ground booking, or any booking with no aircraft, never sees
these two steps. Its button reads **Review times**, it asks for instruction time only, and
it goes straight from Not started to Awaiting review in one press.

This keys off the reservation type first, so a ground lesson booked sitting in an aeroplane
still behaves that way.

## If you entered the wrong reading

Open the booking and choose **Correct times**, on the booking's own page in the console
(under **Adjustments**) or in the app's actions menu. On a booking with no meters both call
it **Correct instruction time**. In the console the panel beside the board is a summary: use
**Open the full booking** at the foot of it to reach the close-out in full.

You can only correct the figures the booking already has. A flight ramped in on Hobbs alone
offers Hobbs and nothing else, and a ground lesson offers its instruction time. This is a
correction, not a way to record a flight nobody ramped, so it opens once the aircraft is
back and not before.

> **Careful:** Correcting the times after somebody has already signed off **wipes every sign-off on that
> booking**, and everyone has to confirm again with their PIN.

Sign-offs do not close the door. On a solo booking you are the only person who signs off, so
you would otherwise have one tap between entering a reading and being unable to change it.

**Money closes it.** Once the flight has been invoiced, or charged to a member's account
ledger, the readings are fixed while that bill stands, because the bill describes hours the
booking would stop claiming to have flown. Void the invoice (or reverse the ledger charge on
the member's billing tab, using **Reverse** on the charge) and **Correct times** is available again.

## If something is wrong with the aeroplane

**Report a squawk** is in the close-out of any booking with an aircraft on it, on the
booking's own page in the console, with the tail already filled in. It is there for everybody who can ramp the booking, which is the point:
the Maintenance page is staff-only, so this is how the person who just flew it reports what
they found. See [Report a squawk](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance/report-a-squawk).

Next: [Sign off a flight with your PIN](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/sign-off-with-your-pin), which is
what actually produces the invoice.

## Moving the home base on ramp in

If your school has turned on **Update aircraft home base on ramp in** under
`Settings → School → Joining & fleet` (web console), the ramp-in form includes a
**Home base** picker. Choosing a location moves the aircraft before the meter
readings are saved. Leave the setting off if every aircraft always returns to the same field.