Book a Flight

You book a flight from the Schedule. Staff can book for anyone. Customers can book their own flights when their school gives them Can Create Reservations.

Steps

1. Open Schedule.
2. Click New Reservation, or click an empty slot on an aircraft's row. Clicking a slot fills in that aircraft and time for you.
3. Choose the Activity type, such as a dual flight, solo, or discovery flight. The form shows the fields that type needs.
4. Set the Start date, Start time, End date, and End time.
5. Pick the Instructor, the Customer, and the Aircraft.
6. If your school requires it, choose VFR or IFR.
7. Add any Comments for the instructor or front desk.
8. Click Create Reservation.

The flight appears on the schedule. When Reservation emails is on in Settings > Email, the customer and instructor get an email with the details.

Two instructors or two customers

Some activity types put two people in one seat. The form then shows Instructor 1 (main) and Instructor 2 (billed), or Customer 1 (main) and Customer 2 (billed). Instruction and rental rates on the invoice come from the main person.

Conflicts and warnings

Sky Schedule checks the booking as you fill it in and shows a banner above the Aircraft field when something is off:

• Time slot unavailable: the aircraft, instructor, or customer is already booked. The schedule won't double-book an aircraft unless you override. If the overlap is intentional, click Override, then Create Reservation.
• Activity requirements incomplete: the customer is missing a document or endorsement your school requires for this activity type. Staff can click Override and book anyway. The gap also shows in the preflight check and at check-out.
• Overdue inspection (customers see Unavailable): shown when your school turned on Block overdue aircraft and this aircraft has an overdue inspection. Whether anyone can override depends on how your school set it up.

Booking rules your school may set

In Settings > Scheduling, admins can turn on:

• Advance booking: flights must be booked a minimum number of hours ahead.
• Finish open flights: limits how many open flights a person can have before booking another.
• Flight rules: makes VFR or IFR a required choice.

Tips

• To book the same lesson every week, check Recurring at the bottom of the form. See Book Recurring Reservations.
• After booking, open the reservation and click Add to Calendar to save it to your own calendar, or connect Google Calendar.
• Customers without booking permission can still request a time with Find a Time if your school allows it. See Approve Find a Time Requests.

Troubleshooting

• "Advance booking required." The start time is inside your school's notice window. Pick a later time or ask the front desk.
• I don't see New Reservation. Your account doesn't have Can Create Reservations. Ask your school.
• The aircraft isn't in the list. It may be set to Unavailable. See Ground an Aircraft.