A4Flight Academy

Documentation

A4Flight Academy handbook

How the club, the aircraft, the training syllabus and the member portal work — written for members, students, instructors, mechanics and administrators.

Quick start by role

Guided walkthrough — every screen, step by step

A screen-by-screen tour of the portal with screenshots: home, schedule, flights, billing, logbook, documents, training and maintenance.

Step 1 — Sign in and land on Home

  1. 1Go to app.a4flight.com and sign in with your email and password. Tick Stay logged in on your own device.
  2. 2You land on Home. The cards at the top are the numbers that matter for your role; below them are the actions you'll use most.
  3. 3If you hold more than one role, set the Acting as picker in the top bar. Everything — menu, defaults and the records you see — follows that choice.
  4. 4Pin any screen you use daily with the star so it sits at the top of the menu under PINNED.
Home: the Acting as picker sits in the top bar, pinned screens at the top of the sidebar, and your account card bottom-left.

Step 2 — Book an aircraft on Schedule

  1. 1Open Schedule. Use Day / Week / Month and the arrows to move through time; This week jumps back to today.
  2. 2Check the Aircraft availability panel on the left — only tails that are available and bookable appear; anything grounded, under contract, sold or retired is out.
  3. 3Click an empty slot in the grid for the tail you want. Set start/end time, purpose and instructor if you need one, then save.
  4. 4Reservations show Dispatch and Calendar links: Calendar adds the flight to Google or Outlook, Dispatch opens the sheet on the day.
  5. 5Use Subscribe once for an iCal feed URL — paste it into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook and every booking, change and cancellation keeps itself up to date.
Schedule: filters and Day/Week/Month across the top, availability per tail on the left, click any empty cell to book.

You are billed on meter (Hobbs) time, not time in the air, in one-tenth-hour steps with a one-hour minimum.

Step 3 — Fly it: dispatch and check-in

  1. 1Open Flights (Operations → Flights) and pick your flight, or use the Dispatch link from your reservation.
  2. 2Before you go: confirm the squawk list is clear, fuel and Hobbs out are recorded, and print the dispatch sheet if you want it in the cockpit.
  3. 3After you land: record Hobbs/tach in, fuel added, and complete the check-in items — Select all covers a clean airplane in one tap.
  4. 4Report anything wrong with Report squawk. It notifies maintenance immediately and can ground the aircraft.
  5. 5Sign the sheet. A signed sheet is the master record and is what billing bills from.
Flights: each row shows the sheet value versus what was billed. Any variance is flagged so it can be reconciled or written off.

Step 4 — See what you owe and pay

  1. 1Open My Billing. The top row shows credit on account, net due after credit, and your recent payments and deposits.
  2. 2How this is applied explains exactly how a deposit is being spent and what is still available as credit.
  3. 3Every invoice can be previewed or downloaded as a PDF, and each payment or deposit has its own receipt download.
  4. 4Make a deposit adds funds (or a prepay package) to your account; the credit applies to your next invoice automatically.
  5. 5Balance reminders lets you set the thresholds for the email and in-app alerts you receive.
My Billing: credit and net due at the top, invoices with line-by-line charges below, PDFs and receipts one click away.

Step 5 — Keep your logbook current

  1. 1Open Logbook. The cards summarise total, dual, solo/PIC, cross-country, night, instrument and last-90-day time — tap a card to filter the entries below it.
  2. 2Add entry records a flight by hand; existing entries stay editable so you can correct a number.
  3. 3Upload scan imports a photo or PDF of paper pages — each transcribed entry is shown for your review before it is saved, and the original scan stays viewable.
  4. 4Instructor signatures and endorsements appear against the entries they belong to.
Logbook: tap any metric card to filter entries; paper pages import by photo or PDF.

Step 6 — Documents and signed agreements

  1. 1Open Documents. The cards at the top show your medical, flight review and other credentials with expiry countdowns.
  2. 2Anything red under Action needed is blocking or about to block booking — use Add document to upload a photo or PDF.
  3. 3Signed agreements holds every club agreement you've signed, with the version and date; view, print or email yourself the PDFs.
  4. 4Club-wide holds the current operating rules and forms everyone shares.
Documents: credential expiry up top, your signed agreements underneath.

Step 7 — Training (students and instructors)

  1. 1Open Academy → Training courses. My training shows your active course, stage and worksheet progress.
  2. 2Open your course, then View curriculum in detail to read the whole syllabus, lesson by lesson.
  3. 3Complete the ground portion of the worksheet before the lesson; worksheets unlock in sequence as each flight is graded and signed.
  4. 4Instructors grade each task, add remarks and sign the worksheet after the flight — that is what advances the student's stage.
Academy: your active course and progress at the top, the full Part 61 catalogue below.

Step 8 — Maintenance and airworthiness

  1. 1Open Maintenance. Each tail shows its airworthiness state, Hobbs and open squawks.
  2. 2Report squawk logs a defect; Add inspection tracks an item with a due date or hour.
  3. 3Ground aircraft blocks new reservations instantly; Return to service releases it once the defect is cleared.
  4. 4Aircraft logbooks can be imported from photos or PDFs the same way as pilot logbooks.
Maintenance: airworthy or grounded per tail, with the open squawk queue in context.

Step 9 — Club billing (admins and billing managers)

  1. 1Open Finance → Billing. Billed, collected, outstanding and collection rate sit at the top for the period you choose.
  2. 2Every charge lands in the Billing queue first — signed dispatch sheets, instruction, dues, fuel, fees and credits.
  3. 3Select what belongs together and invoice it. Review the draft, regenerate the PDF, then email or take payment.
  4. 4Add charge or Add credit adjusts a member's account by hand; Card reader takes a card in person at the front desk.
  5. 5Finance → CFI Comp approves instructor earnings, which books the payout and emails the payable invoice.
Finance → Billing: period metrics on top, the billing queue and invoices below, in-person card reader in the same place.
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