It's a sunny Thursday in May, you open the group calendar to book Saturday, and the same member's name is already sitting on it. And on the Saturday after. And on the public holiday weekend.
Nobody's done anything wrong, exactly. There just aren't any rules. What a one-aircraft syndicate needs is a calendar every member can see on their phone that won't take a second booking for the same time, and a short set of booking rules everyone has agreed in writing. Below are five rules and a sixth for contested dates, ready to paste, plus the weekend sum that explains why you need them.
A club with six aircraft can give two members the same Saturday morning in different aircraft. A syndicate can't. Every booking takes the aircraft away from everyone else, and the member who booked the long weekend is someone you'll sit next to at the next group meeting. So the calendar causes as much friction as the money does (sometimes more), and it's worth getting right early.
How many weekend days each member gets#
Most weekend rows in a syndicate start because nobody has sat down and counted how many weekend days there actually are to share. It's fewer than people think.
Say eight members share one four-seater. A year has 104 Saturdays and Sundays, give or take one or two (2028 has 106). Say the yearly maintenance inspection keeps the aircraft in the hangar for two weekends, which leaves 100. Then assume one weekend day in three is unflyable for the kind of flying your members do. That leaves about 67 usable weekend days, split eight ways.
| Step | Weekend days |
|---|---|
| Saturdays and Sundays in the year | 104 |
| Less two weekends in maintenance | 100 |
| Less one day in three lost to weather (illustrative) | about 67 |
| Shared between eight members | about 8 each |
About eight. On those figures, a member who books four Saturdays in a row in June has used half their year in a month, and probably hasn't noticed. We'd put your own group's numbers into this table before anyone talks about rules. Once people see their own figure, the rules stop feeling arbitrary.
Weekdays are a different story. In most groups some members can fly midweek and some can't, and the aircraft sits idle most weekdays anyway. So ration the weekends and leave the weekdays alone.
Syndicate booking rules to copy#
Change the figures in brackets, agree them at a group meeting, then put them in the syndicate agreement or send them round. The next section explains why each one is there.
- Bookings may be made up to [10] weeks ahead. Trips away that need accommodation may be booked up to [6] months ahead with the group's agreement.
- Each member may hold one future weekend booking at a time. Weekday bookings are unlimited.
- A trip away from base is charged at a minimum of [2] hours for each day away, flown or not.
- Cancel as soon as you know. Bookings dropped with less than [48] hours' notice, other than for weather or a defect, are recorded.
- Leave the aircraft refuelled to [a stated level], with the [meter] reading recorded, covers on, keys returned and any defect written wherever the group records defects.
- Contested dates are settled by [ballot / rota], and the record of the last winner is kept in the calendar notes.
Why each rule is there#
Syndicate agreements tend to cover ownership, money and what happens when someone leaves. The booking rules usually live in an old email thread, if they're written down at all, and everyone remembers that thread slightly differently. Get them into one place, keep them short, and set the calendar up to follow them.
How far ahead members can book#
With no limit, your most organised member can book every public holiday for the year in January. They're not being greedy. They're just organised. A window of eight to twelve weeks gives people time to plan a trip without anyone taking the whole summer. Allow longer only for trips away that need accommodation booked, and write that down as the exception it is.
One future weekend booking at a time#
Each member may hold one future weekend booking at a time. Once it's flown or cancelled, they can make the next. Weekday bookings are unlimited. If a one-aircraft group adopts only one rule, we'd make it this one.
Anyone can check it just by looking at the calendar, and it spreads the scarce days around without anyone having to run a rota. Larger groups, or groups with a short booking window, sometimes tighten it to one weekend day rather than one weekend.
Trips away and overnights#
Say a member takes the aircraft away for four days and flies six hours. That's four days gone for everyone else, but they pay for six hours. Many syndicates add a minimum charge for each day the aircraft is away from base, for example two hours a day whether it flies or not. Under that rule, the same four-day trip is charged as eight hours instead of six.
The minimum pays the group back for the days the others couldn't fly. It also makes people think twice about booking Friday to Monday for a Saturday lunch. Set the figure together, write down whether it applies on weekdays as well as weekends, and decide who makes the call when weather strands the aircraft away and the trip runs over. Better to settle that over a coffee now than on the phone to someone stuck in a guesthouse watching the rain.
Cancelling early#
A Saturday released on Wednesday gets flown by someone else. One released at 0800 on the day is usually just lost. So ask members to cancel the moment they know.
Write down how much notice the group expects, and what happens when someone doesn't turn up. Groups rarely charge for a late cancellation made in good faith for weather, and we wouldn't either. The member who keeps holding weekends and dropping them on the morning is another matter. Raising it with them is awkward, and a written rule gives the group something to point to that isn't personal.
Maintenance and defects#
Put the yearly inspection, and any other scheduled maintenance, in the calendar as soon as the date is agreed with whoever maintains the aircraft. Entered months ahead, everyone plans around it. Entered the week before, it cancels someone's trip.
Unscheduled defects are harder. Agree in advance that a member who finds a defect that grounds the aircraft writes it wherever the group records defects (the tech log, defect log or squawk sheet), tells the group straight away, and contacts whoever holds the next booking. That person should get a phone call before they drive to the airfield. Finding out when they get there, flask packed and passenger in the car, is a miserable way to spend a Saturday.
Handover between members#
With one aircraft, every flight hands over to the next member, so agree the state it's left in:
- Fuel. For example, refuelled to a stated level, so the next member doesn't have to refuel before departure or plan around an unknown quantity.
- Hours. The reading on the meter your group charges by, written down where the group records it, at the end of every flight. If you haven't agreed which meter that is, read our guide to billing flight time first.
- Covers, locks and keys. Where they go, and who holds the spare.
- Defects. Written wherever the group records defects, minor ones included, so the next pilot reads them before starting up.
Who may book#
Everyone in a syndicate knows when a member hasn't flown for a while, and nobody wants to be the one to say it. Write the group's own recency rule down so it reads as a rule, not a personal remark. A common version is a minimum number of hours in the aircraft over a set period, say three hours in the last 90 days, with a check flight with an instructor as the way back in once it lapses. A booking system made for aircraft can enforce a rule like this, so nobody has to raise it over a pint.
Keep the group's rule separate from the law. The legal requirements to carry passengers, and the periodic checks a pilot needs, differ by country. We cover them region by region in our guide to booking rules for licences, medicals and recent flying.
When two members want the same day#
With the one-weekend rule in place, clashes are rare, and first booked, first served settles most of them. The exceptions are the handful of days everyone wants, such as a fly-in, a long weekend or the best week of the summer.
Agree how you'll settle those before they come up, while nobody has a date in mind. Either of these works:
- A ballot. Members who want the date put their names in and the group draws one. The winner sits out the draw for the next contested date.
- A rota. Contested dates go round the members in a fixed order, recorded in the calendar notes, so everyone can see whose turn is next.
Put the method in the rules, and keep a record of who won last time. Memories get selective about that sort of thing.
What each booking should say#
A booking with just a name and a time leaves everyone else guessing. Ask members to record:
| In the booking | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Who is flying | The pilot in command, who may not be the member who made the booking |
| Start and end time | Including time to preflight, refuel and put the aircraft away |
| Local or away | Whether the aircraft leaves base, and whether it stays away overnight |
| Expected return | For trips away, the date and approximate time it will be back |
| Anything the next member needs to know | Fuel plans, a known defect, a trip that may run late |
Choosing a calendar for a syndicate#
Most groups start with a shared spreadsheet or a general-purpose calendar, and for four members who talk every week that can be fine. It gets harder as the group grows. Those tools are built for meetings, where two events at the same time are normal, so a shared calendar will usually accept two bookings for the same morning unless someone has set it up as a resource that declines clashes. They can't tell you who's out of date on their medical either, and once the flight is over they do nothing about the money.
A booking system made for aircraft refuses a booking that overlaps one already made, checks the member's licence, medical and membership before it accepts the booking, and turns the hours flown into a charge without anyone retyping them.
Running the calendar in Volanti#
In Volanti, every member sees the same live calendar on their phone, so anyone can check the one-weekend rule before they book, and a slot that's already taken can't be booked over. Bookings appear in members' own Google, Apple or Outlook calendars through an iCal feed, with confirmations, reminders and cancellation notices by email. Booking rules the group sets up check each member's licence, medical and membership when they book, so a member whose medical has expired can't book until the group's administrator records a current one.
After each flight the hours are priced at the group's own rates and added to that member's balance, with a monthly statement as a PDF.
Volanti doesn't share out time between owners or limit how many weekends each member books, so the weekend rule, the daily minimum for trips away and the ballot stay in your written rules. See how other groups run one aircraft on the syndicates page, or look at a shared calendar and accounts for one aircraft.