Splitting the bill: group ground school and shared flights

The problem with one reservation per person

Most scheduling software makes you build a separate reservation for each pilot when they share a flight, then check them in one at a time in the right order. It works, and it is tedious enough that people stop doing it. The class goes on the schedule once and the other three students never get billed.

The alternative some tools offer is a two-person “ride share” that splits a bill in half. That covers two renters and nothing else: it cannot hold a class, and it typically cannot account for an instructor’s time at all.

AerScheduler puts everyone on one booking and works out the money from rules you set once.

Five ways a charge can divide

A booking is priced in two parts: the aircraft, simulator or room, and the instruction. Each part can divide differently. A classroom class can charge every student the full instruction rate while the room itself is shared.

Every one of those figures is calculated by the same code that prices your invoices, and the settings screen shows it to you before you choose, so what you read is what lands on the bill.

Shared flights, and why they aren’t solos

When two pilots share an aeroplane with no instructor aboard, whether splitting a cross-country or one flying under the hood with the other as safety pilot, that is a shared flight, its own booking type.

It is deliberately not a solo with two people on it. 14 CFR 61.87 defines solo flight as the time during which a student pilot is the sole occupant of the aircraft, so recording a two-pilot flight as a solo would put something in your records that isn’t true, and dual-versus-solo is the split a training record and an examiner actually read. Your solo hours stay solo hours.

• Each pilot can be billed for the hours they personally flew
• The individual legs are checked against what the aircraft actually ran
• A safety pilot can be on the booking and not billed, with the reason recorded
• What each person was doing on the flight is recorded, so it is auditable later

Start from the kind of operation you run

Flight school, flying club, FBO or partnership: each has a starting point that writes sensible rules, and you can change any of them. A school that never opens the screen bills one person for the whole booking, exactly as before.

Questions

Can I put more than one student on a single reservation?

Yes. A ground school class can hold up to twelve students, a simulator session six, and a flight with an instructor up to four. Everyone on the booking has to be free for the slot, and each of them gets their own invoice when you close it out. You do not create a reservation per student.

How do two pilots split time on one flight?

Book it as a shared flight and enter each pilot's own Hobbs readings at close-out. Each is billed for the hours they flew, and AerScheduler checks that the individual legs add up to what the aircraft actually ran. If they don't, it tells you rather than quietly billing a different number of hours than the aeroplane flew.

Why is a shared flight not just a solo with two people on it?

Because solo has a regulatory meaning. 14 CFR 61.87 defines solo flight as the time during which a student pilot is the sole occupant of the aircraft, so a solo booking with two people on it is a false record, and dual-versus-solo is the split a training record and an examiner actually read. A shared flight is its own booking type, so your solo hours stay solo hours.

Do I charge a ground school class per student or divide the hour?

Whichever your school does. It is a setting, per booking type. Most schools sell a class per seat, so four students in a two-hour class each pay for two hours. AerScheduler shows you the arithmetic before you choose, because per-head multiplies what you collect rather than dividing it, and that is the one setting worth getting right first time.

What about a safety pilot who isn't paying?

Mark them as not billed, with a reason. They stay on the booking, so they still count for the double-booking check and the record of who was aboard, but owe nothing. You can also record what each person was doing on the flight, which is what makes a shared flight auditable a year later.

Does splitting a booking change what I collect?

Not unless you choose a rule that says it should. Dividing rules collect exactly what one person would have been charged for the whole booking; the split only changes who pays which part. Per-head is the deliberate exception, and it is labelled as such.