Practical guides for pilots and clubs.

How to read a METAR in the US and Canada Statute miles, inches of mercury and a long tail of remarks. We'll read real reports from Boston, Santa Rosa and Toronto with you, group by group. Read the guide → How to read a TAF in the US and Canada before you fly Flying tomorrow and the TAF looks like code. We read NWS and NAV CANADA example forecasts and explain each change group in terms of whether you'd go. Read the guide → How to use the crosswind clock rule Work out the crosswind in your head in a couple of seconds, then use it with gusts, variable winds and a runway in degrees magnetic. Read the guide →

Aircraft waiting lists: who gets the cancelled slot Saturday's slot is cancelled on Friday night and four members want it. How first come, first served and best match decide, and how long offers should last. Read the guide → Billing flight time on Hobbs, tacho, airborne or brakes-off Same hour in the air, four different bills. How Hobbs, tacho, airborne and brakes-off time compare, and the clock we'd pick for most clubs. Read the guide → Block-hour packages: price them safely and track hours Selling ten hours up front brings money in early, but every point of discount comes out of your margin. Here's how to price a block and track the balances. Read the guide → Booking rules for currency, flight reviews and medicals How we'd turn the flight review, 90-day currency and medical rules into club booking rules members can meet, with the Part 61 references. Read the guide → Chasing overdue balances without falling out with members Most overdue flying balances get paid after one polite reminder. A written policy, a timetable and wording a club treasurer can copy and send. Read the guide → Discovery flights: turning customers into student pilots Most discovery flight customers never book a second flight. Here's how the booking call, the debrief and a quick follow-up bring more of them back. Read the guide → FAA flying club rules at airports that took federal money If your field took FAA money, Order 5190.6C decides if you're a club or a rental business. Here's what it asks of your board, rule by rule. Read the guide → How to set an aircraft hire rate that pays its way Work out what an hour in your club aircraft really costs, set a rate that covers it, and plan for the engine's 12-year overhaul limit before it arrives. Read the guide → Moving a flying club off spreadsheets in eight weeks An eight-week plan for getting your club's members, licence dates, bookings and balances out of spreadsheets and into club software, one step at a time. Read the guide → Part 61 or Part 141: what changes for your school Part 141 changes who keeps the records, who can do a stage check and how your week gets booked. Here's what moves, with every rule cited. Read the guide → Pro-rata membership fees for members who join mid-year Someone has joined in September and you need to know what to charge them. Here are both ways to prorate, with worked sums and wording for your rules. Read the guide → Self-fly hire checkouts and currency rules for your club What to cover before a member hires your aircraft for the first time, and a currency rule renters can actually keep. Read the guide → Syndicate booking rules when you share one aircraft Eight owners, one aircraft, and everyone wants the same Saturday. The booking rules we'd agree in writing, ready to copy, with the weekend maths. Read the guide → Utilisation heatmaps and your club aircraft's empty hours Your aircraft is full on Saturday and idle on Tuesday. How to read a utilisation heatmap without being fooled by averages, and fill the quiet hours. Read the guide → Wet or dry hire: setting rates for club aircraft What wet and dry hire really change on a club rate card, with the same flight priced both ways and a fair rule for fuel bought away from home. Read the guide →