Maintenance Schedules

Overview

Maintenance schedules are the backbone of a safe, well-run flying club. Aircraft are complex machines with regulatory requirements — annuals, 100-hour inspections, oil changes, and more — and keeping track of all of them across a shared fleet without a system is error-prone and risky. A missed annual doesn't just ground an aircraft; it can void insurance coverage and make every flight logged on an unairworthy aircraft a liability.

Proactive maintenance scheduling also saves money. Catching a problem during a scheduled inspection — when a mechanic is already under the cowling — is dramatically cheaper than an unscheduled teardown caused by a failure in the field. Centerline's maintenance schedules let your maintenance team stay ahead of the work rather than reacting to it. Members benefit too: they can see what's coming due and plan accordingly, avoiding the frustration of booking a cross-country flight only to find the aircraft unavailable when an inspection due date arrives.

Viewing Maintenance Schedules

Click Maintenance in the navigation bar to see all scheduled maintenance. You can filter by aircraft using the dropdown near the top of the list. Each schedule item shows:

• Aircraft — The tail number and type the schedule belongs to
• Name — A short label for the item (e.g., "Annual Inspection", "Oil Change")
• Type — Either Due Date or Recurring (see below)
• Last Completed — The date (and tach time, if tracked) when the item was last done
• Next Due — When the item is due again, calculated from the last completion
• Progress — A visual bar showing how much time or tach time remains

Schedule Types

Centerline supports two types of maintenance schedules, matching the two most common ways aviation maintenance is tracked:

Due Date — A one-time or hard-calendar item due on a specific date. Use this for items like a known avionics repair appointment, an upcoming IFR certification, or a squawk-driven inspection with a fixed deadline. The due date is set directly — there is no recurring interval.

Recurring — Items that repeat on a calendar interval, a tach-hour interval, or both. Use this for annuals (12 months), 100-hour inspections (100 tach hours), oil changes (50 hours or 4 months, whichever comes first), VOR checks (30 days), and similar. When both a month interval and a tach interval are set, the schedule tracks both and shows progress bars for each — the item is due when either threshold is reached.

Progress Indicators

The progress bar fills from left (just completed) to right (due soon) as the aircraft approaches the next maintenance event:

• Green — Plenty of time or hours remaining
• Amber — Approaching due date; within 30 days or within the final 10% of the tach interval
• Red — Overdue; the due date has passed or the tach interval has been exceeded

When a schedule shows amber or red, plan maintenance soon. An overdue schedule doesn't automatically ground the aircraft in Centerline, but it signals that the item needs attention and your maintenance coordinator should be notified.

Tach Time Tracking

For recurring tach-based schedules, Centerline calculates progress using the aircraft's current tach time compared to the tach time at last completion. The current tach time and average daily usage for each aircraft are displayed on the maintenance page and can be updated by members with the Maintenance role.

If your organization has flight time logging enabled, maintenance team members can also click Refresh from Flight Logs to recalculate the current tach time and average daily usage automatically from logged flights, rather than entering these values manually.

Filtering by Aircraft

Use the aircraft dropdown above the schedule list to show maintenance items for a single aircraft. This is particularly useful when preparing an aircraft for a specific trip or coordinating with a shop before an appointment.

Maintenance Blocks on the Calendar

When maintenance is scheduled (using the separate Scheduled Maintenance feature on the calendar), it appears as a red block that prevents reservations during that period. Maintenance schedules tracked here are separate — they track recurring due dates but do not automatically block the calendar. Your maintenance coordinator needs to create a calendar maintenance block when the aircraft will actually be taken out of service for work.

Managing Maintenance Schedules

Members with the Maintenance role can:

• Add new maintenance schedule items using the Add Schedule button
• Edit an existing item to update the name, type, interval, or last-completed date and tach
• Mark an item as completed by setting the completed date (and tach, if applicable)
• Delete schedule items that are no longer relevant
• Drag and drop items to reorder them within the list
• Update the aircraft's current tach time and average daily usage directly from the maintenance page
• Refresh tach data from flight logs (when flight time tracking is enabled)

Tips

• Set up schedules for every recurring maintenance item when you onboard an aircraft. An incomplete list gives a false sense of confidence.
• When maintenance is completed, update the Last Completed date (and tach) promptly. Stale completion data makes the progress bars meaningless.
• For items tracked by both calendar and tach (like many oil changes), set both the month interval and the tach interval on a single recurring schedule. Centerline will show progress bars for each and the item is effectively due when either is reached.
• Check maintenance status before booking long trips. An amber or red item doesn't prevent booking, but it's a signal worth discussing with your maintenance coordinator before you commit to a 500-mile flight.
• The Refresh from Flight Logs button is the most reliable way to keep tach data accurate in clubs that log every flight — it eliminates manual data entry errors.