Making a Reservation

Last updated 4/7/2026

Overview

A reservation is your claim on a shared resource — the aircraft, the time, and the sky. In a flying club, that resource is finite and valuable, and every member is competing for the same slots on the same machines. Centerline's reservation system exists to make that competition fair, transparent, and friction-free. When you book through the calendar, every other member instantly sees your claim, which prevents double-bookings and removes the awkward back-channel negotiations over who gets the Cessna on Saturday morning.

Beyond fairness, reservations create a paper trail that matters operationally. Your booking tells the club when the aircraft is expected to be out, helps the maintenance team plan inspections around flying schedules, and gives anyone checking the dashboard a real-time picture of fleet availability. A well-used reservation system means fewer surprises, fewer conflicts, and more time in the air for everyone.

Steps to Make a Reservation

  1. Navigate to the Calendar — Click Reserve in the navigation bar to open the club calendar.
  2. Select an aircraft — Use the aircraft filter dropdown at the top of the calendar to narrow the view to the aircraft you want. This makes it easier to spot open time slots at a glance.
  3. Click on a time slot — Click directly on the calendar at the time you want your reservation to start. Alternatively, click the New Reservation button in the top-right corner of the calendar.
  4. Fill in the reservation details in the dialog that appears:
    • Aircraft — Select the aircraft you want to book. Only aircraft your organization has granted you access to will appear in the list.
    • Start Date/Time — When your reservation begins. Click the date and time fields to adjust them.
    • End Date/Time — When your reservation ends. Be realistic — padding your block beyond what you need is unfair to other members.
    • Destination — Where you're flying (optional but encouraged). Even a general note like "Local pattern" or "KORD" helps other members understand fleet usage.
    • Instructor — If your organization has club instructors set up and you're flying with one, select them from the Instructor dropdown. This field only appears if instructors are configured in your club.
    • Comments — Any additional notes about your flight (optional). Useful for things like "checking out the new avionics" or "student's first solo XC."
    • Promote this flight to fellow members — Check this box to make your flight visible in the Social Flights section of the dashboard, so other members know you're flying and where. See the Social Flights article for details.
  5. Click Create Reservation — Submit your booking. You'll see it appear on the calendar immediately.

What Happens Next?

If there are no conflicts with existing reservations or maintenance blocks, your reservation is confirmed immediately and appears in cyan on the calendar. Every other club member can now see your booking.

If there is a conflict — another reservation or a maintenance block already occupies that time — your booking becomes a backup reservation, shown in orange. It's saved in the system and will be automatically promoted to confirmed if and when the conflict clears. See Backup Reservations for more detail on how that works.

Scheduling Rules

Your organization may have configured rules that protect fairness across the membership. These limits vary by club, but common restrictions include:

  • Maximum concurrent reservations — A cap on how many future reservations you can hold at once. This prevents any one member from monopolizing the schedule.
  • Maximum total reserved hours — A rolling limit on how many hours you can have booked across all future reservations.
  • Maximum single reservation length — A cap on how long any one booking can be, to encourage members to book what they actually need.

If you exceed any of these limits, Centerline will show you an error message that explains the specific restriction. If you believe a limit is set incorrectly for your situation, reach out to your club's booking administrator.

Tips

  • Check fleet status first — The dashboard shows current aircraft availability. A quick glance saves you from navigating to the calendar and finding everything blocked.
  • Be specific with your destination — Even a rough destination (airport identifier, local area, practice area name) helps other members plan and gives the club useful data on how the fleet is being used.
  • Book what you need, not what you might need — It's tempting to add buffer, but oversized reservations block other members. If your plans grow, you can always edit the reservation later.
  • Add an instructor when applicable — Logging your instructional flights accurately helps the club track instructor utilization and your own training history.
  • Plan ahead — Reservations can be made as far in advance as your club allows. Popular weekend slots fill up fast, especially in good weather.
The Calendar View