Online Scheduling

Our flight school is currently trying to move to an online, internet
based scheduling system, using a service provided by "MyFBO".

The idea is to schedule via the internet (even when standing at the
counter at the flight school) for all flights that occur after the
current day. Every morning, the staff will print out a schedule for
the day and any changes for that day must be done to the paper
schedule.

The consensus of the flight instructors and staff is that the
interface is extremely difficult to use, and slow. There will be only
one computer available for all users to make changes to the schedule
and the internet connection is a bit flakey. While frequent users
will probably be able to learn the system, it seems unlikely that
students/renters will develop any kind of proficiency with the system.
As far as I can tell, there are no contingency plans about what to do
when the system goes down.

Does anyone have an experience with online scheduling with large
flight schools? How well did it work?

Thanks for any thoughts.

"Greg Esres" wrote in message
...

SNIP

Does anyone have an experience with online scheduling with large
flight schools? How well did it work?

The Aeroclub at Edwards AFB uses:

http://www.flightschedulepro.com/

Like everything, someone will find something about anything to gripe on.
This one has one or two features that I think could work easier -- but, hey,
that's just me. The aeroclub uses this to schedule seven airplanes and ten
instructors for more than 100 members.

In article ,
Greg Esres wrote:

Our flight school is currently trying to move to an online, internet
based scheduling system, using a service provided by "MyFBO".

The idea is to schedule via the internet (even when standing at the
counter at the flight school) for all flights that occur after the
current day. Every morning, the staff will print out a schedule for
the day and any changes for that day must be done to the paper
schedule.

The consensus of the flight instructors and staff is that the
interface is extremely difficult to use, and slow. There will be only
one computer available for all users to make changes to the schedule
and the internet connection is a bit flakey. While frequent users
will probably be able to learn the system, it seems unlikely that
students/renters will develop any kind of proficiency with the system.
As far as I can tell, there are no contingency plans about what to do
when the system goes down.

Does anyone have an experience with online scheduling with large
flight schools? How well did it work?

We (Alameda Aero Club -- alameda-aero.com) use www.aircraftclubs.com
for all scheduling (150 members, 6 aircraft). It's not perfect, and
it's not the cheapest such service, but it's hard to believe we could
do without it any more. We don't have a paper system at all now except
for after-flight billing and squawks -- and we've never had more than
very minor problems in getting the club members to use it or learn it,
and it lets people schedule (etc.) from work, home, wherever. I think
it's been very reliable and successful -- much better than the old
system we used on the club's PC -- and it almost immediately increased
aircraft usage and renatl income. But there are other similar services
out there that may be better and / or cheaper.


Hamish (remove the xyz's...)

In article ,
Hamish Reid wrote:
it's been very reliable and successful -- much better than the old
system we used on the club's PC -- and it almost immediately increased
aircraft usage and renatl income.

The place I was renting from before I bought a plane could definitely
use such a system. The 'interface' is calling someone who might be
grumpy or preoccupied and trying to figure out when a suitable block
of time in a suitable plane is available.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

West Air Aviation at VGT (North Las Vegas NV) uses "Always On Schedule" for
their flight school, instructors and renters. Easy access from any internet
access point, and used real time by the dispatchers.

www.westairaviation.com

http://schedule.accessweather.com/al...vices/main.asp

BT


"Greg Esres" wrote in message
...
Our flight school is currently trying to move to an online, internet
based scheduling system, using a service provided by "MyFBO".

The idea is to schedule via the internet (even when standing at the
counter at the flight school) for all flights that occur after the
current day. Every morning, the staff will print out a schedule for
the day and any changes for that day must be done to the paper
schedule.

The consensus of the flight instructors and staff is that the
interface is extremely difficult to use, and slow. There will be only
one computer available for all users to make changes to the schedule
and the internet connection is a bit flakey. While frequent users
will probably be able to learn the system, it seems unlikely that
students/renters will develop any kind of proficiency with the system.
As far as I can tell, there are no contingency plans about what to do
when the system goes down.

Does anyone have an experience with online scheduling with large
flight schools? How well did it work?

Thanks for any thoughts.

On Sat, 03 Apr 2004 03:05:56 GMT, Greg Esres
wrote:

The idea is to schedule via the internet (even when standing at the
counter at the flight school) for all flights that occur after the
current day.

Can I do the scheduling from home? Neat!

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
The Piper Cub Forum www.pipercubforum.com
Viva Bush! www.vivabush.org

My FBO uses www.schedulebook.com

Works great, can be accessed from any computer, anywhere... and I find it very
easy to use.


Greg Esres wrote:

Our flight school is currently trying to move to an online, internet
based scheduling system, using a service provided by "MyFBO".

The idea is to schedule via the internet (even when standing at the
counter at the flight school) for all flights that occur after the
current day. Every morning, the staff will print out a schedule for
the day and any changes for that day must be done to the paper
schedule.

The consensus of the flight instructors and staff is that the
interface is extremely difficult to use, and slow. There will be only
one computer available for all users to make changes to the schedule
and the internet connection is a bit flakey. While frequent users
will probably be able to learn the system, it seems unlikely that
students/renters will develop any kind of proficiency with the system.
As far as I can tell, there are no contingency plans about what to do
when the system goes down.

Does anyone have an experience with online scheduling with large
flight schools? How well did it work?

Thanks for any thoughts.



David Martin
Mountain Home, Ar.
(to respond, get rid of the NOT)

Our 5-person club uses AircraftClubs.com. I'm not sure how well it will
serve a large set of "resources" that include instructors, but I find
that this site provides great service for us. (I was going to write an
application like this, but found AircraftClubs.com.) I am not
affiliated with the organization in any way. Just a happy customer.
BTW, we used to keep a paper calendar at the airport. No way of knowing
where the plane was unless you made a trip out there. Our biggest
challenge was getting some of our luddite owners to move to the 20th
century and get a computer.

Greg Esres wrote:
Our flight school is currently trying to move to an online, internet
based scheduling system, using a service provided by "MyFBO".

The idea is to schedule via the internet (even when standing at the
counter at the flight school) for all flights that occur after the
current day. Every morning, the staff will print out a schedule for
the day and any changes for that day must be done to the paper
schedule.

The consensus of the flight instructors and staff is that the
interface is extremely difficult to use, and slow. There will be only
one computer available for all users to make changes to the schedule
and the internet connection is a bit flakey. While frequent users
will probably be able to learn the system, it seems unlikely that
students/renters will develop any kind of proficiency with the system.
As far as I can tell, there are no contingency plans about what to do
when the system goes down.

Does anyone have an experience with online scheduling with large
flight schools? How well did it work?

Thanks for any thoughts.




--
Remove "2PLANES" to reply.

The club I belong to uses www.schedulemaster.com. Another FBO I instruct
at uses paper scheduling. There is a world of difference between the two.
However, I have not been able to convince the FBO that an online
scheduling is a good way to go. Probably the main reason for this is the
management is not very comfortable with computers.


Greg Esres wrote in
:

Our flight school is currently trying to move to an online, internet
based scheduling system, using a service provided by "MyFBO".

The idea is to schedule via the internet (even when standing at the
counter at the flight school) for all flights that occur after the
current day. Every morning, the staff will print out a schedule for
the day and any changes for that day must be done to the paper
schedule.

The consensus of the flight instructors and staff is that the
interface is extremely difficult to use, and slow. There will be only
one computer available for all users to make changes to the schedule
and the internet connection is a bit flakey. While frequent users
will probably be able to learn the system, it seems unlikely that
students/renters will develop any kind of proficiency with the system.
As far as I can tell, there are no contingency plans about what to do
when the system goes down.

Does anyone have an experience with online scheduling with large
flight schools? How well did it work?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Our flying club with 100 members, 10 airplanes, and a flight school uses
MyFBO. It works very well. You can schedule any time from any place with
internet access. We used to use a different internet scheduling program and
switched to MyFBO. As usual, some people will moan, but it's really very
easy to learn. Our club requires us to fly at least once a month, so we
tend not to forget how the schedule program works.

Rod
"Greg Esres" wrote in message
...
Our flight school is currently trying to move to an online, internet
based scheduling system, using a service provided by "MyFBO".

The idea is to schedule via the internet (even when standing at the
counter at the flight school) for all flights that occur after the
current day. Every morning, the staff will print out a schedule for
the day and any changes for that day must be done to the paper
schedule.

The consensus of the flight instructors and staff is that the
interface is extremely difficult to use, and slow. There will be only
one computer available for all users to make changes to the schedule
and the internet connection is a bit flakey. While frequent users
will probably be able to learn the system, it seems unlikely that
students/renters will develop any kind of proficiency with the system.
As far as I can tell, there are no contingency plans about what to do
when the system goes down.

Does anyone have an experience with online scheduling with large
flight schools? How well did it work?

Thanks for any thoughts.