Flying Club Software

A club schedule only works when members trust it. These rules apply when members book for themselves.

• Advance booking. Require aircraft bookings to start a minimum number of hours from now, from 1 hour up to 2 weeks, so nobody grabs the airplane 20 minutes before they show up.
• Cancellation notice. Set how close to the start time a member can still cancel. Pair it with a cancellation fee, a number of free cancellations, and reasons that never carry a fee, such as weather.
• Finish open flights. Cap how many uncompleted flights a member can hold, so the schedule doesn't fill with bookings nobody closed out.
• Minimum balance. If you run on prepaid accounts, require a minimum balance before a member can be booked. Admins can override it when they need to.
• Who sees what. Member categories control who can book, who can complete their own flights, and whether members can see each other's names on the schedule.

Recurring bookings cover the member who flies every Saturday morning. Members can add bookings to their own Google Calendar, which updates when a reservation changes, and they can use the Sky Schedule iOS app to book, check out, and close out flights from the ramp.

Prepaid balances. Members top up their balance online, and invoices for their flights can be paid from it. The ledger shows every top-up, charge, and manual credit, so a member asking about their balance gets a line-by-line answer. Admins can charge or remind members who run negative.

Memberships. Set up dues as a recurring Stripe subscription, monthly or on another interval you choose. A membership can carry member pricing: a percent or dollar-per-hour discount on aircraft rental, flight instruction, and ground instruction, for all aircraft and instructors or only the ones you pick. Board members or honorary members can get a complimentary membership with the same discounts and no dues. The Reports page charts monthly recurring revenue from memberships, so the treasurer sees dues coming in.

Getting paid. Members pay invoices online by card, with Apple Pay on supported devices. You can also charge a card or bank account a member keeps on file. Paid invoices can sync to QuickBooks Online for the treasurer. More detail is on the flight school billing software page.

1. Check out. The member fills in your check-out form for the activity, which can ask for Hobbs and Tach photos, fuel, squawks, and notes. The form is saved as a PDF and emailed to admins.
2. Fly. The dispatch report pulls weather, a risk assessment, aircraft status from open squawks and overdue inspections, and any document gaps into one view.
3. Complete the flight. The member or instructor enters Hobbs and Tach in and out. Aircraft times update automatically.
4. Bill it. Sky Schedule drafts the invoice from the meter your club bills on: Hobbs, Tach (with an optional multiplier), or scheduled time. Charge the card on file, take it from the member's balance, or send it.

Fuel reimbursements. Members who buy fuel away from home log it on the reservation with a photo of the receipt. Turn on the fuel reimbursement discount and it shows up as a credit on the flight's invoice, so nobody writes a separate check.

Squawks. Members report a squawk from the check-out form or the app. A grounding squawk puts a red marker next to the tail number on the schedule, so members see it before they book, and makes the dispatch report a no-go. Completing the work order returns the aircraft to service.

Inspections. Track inspections with due dates, and choose whether an overdue inspection blocks new bookings or only check-out and check-in.

Documents. Members upload their medical, flight review, and ID with expiration dates, and admins verify them. The compliance dashboard, in beta, shows what's expiring across the membership.

Aircraft checkouts. Each aircraft can carry its own requirements: an instructor sign-off, a checkout flight, an endorsement such as tailwheel or high performance, or a document. When a member books an aircraft they haven't met the requirements for, the booking form flags it and the dispatch report shows the gap, so the safety officer or an instructor can decide before the flight.