.The AVbook system is a reliable and easy to use online scheduling system designed exclusively for the needs of general aviation. All that is needed to use AVbook is Internet access and a suitable web browser. The computing power behind AVbook is on a commercial web server, not your computer. AVbook dynamically creates efficient web pages that download quickly, even over a slow connection.
In order to use the AVbook system, you must sign in with a user name and password. You may have been given a user name and password, with which you can sign in directly. This means your account is set up. Or you may have been given an access code. The access code allows you one-time limited access with which to set up your own account, including assigning yourself a user name and password of your choice. After doing so, you can immediately use your user name and password to sign in.
If you have been given an access code, enter it in the space indicated on the Entry Page. It doesn't matter whether you use capital or lower case for letters. Click the "Sign Up" button. You should be taken to the Add New User page.
Every access code, when it is created, is set to expire in a certain amount of time, from 1 to 10 days. If you are told that your access code is already expired, you will need to get another one.
When you are done filling out your information on the Add New User page, click the Submit button at the bottom. Please note that once you click the Submit button, your access code is marked "used" and cannot be used again. This means you must complete the process of assigning yourself a user name and password, before you end your session, or you will be unable to get back into the system, and will have to get a new access code. After clicking the Submit button, you are able to go back and fill in missing information if told to do so. However, if you don't change pages for 30 minutes, your session will time out.
Your user name and password must each be at least 4 characters long, and each character must be a letter, number, dash, or underscore. It is possible for other users to see your user name, so your password should not be easily guessed based on your user name; for example, they should not be identical.
Select what type(s) of resource you wish to view (and possibly schedule):
Select this option to make changes to your account information.
This page lists all the resources of the type(s) selected on the Main Menu page. Clicking on a resource name brings up a separate window with its details. (If this doesn't work for you, see Web Browser compatibility.) You can select as many resources as you like by checking the box to the left of each one. You can then click the Schedule button to proceed to the Schedule page, where each selected resource will occupy a separate column. You may optionally choose a starting date other than the current day by selecting it on the calendar. The Schedule page will usually show 7 days at a time, but you can optionally select "show 14 days".
On the Schedule page you can:
To quickly check or uncheck a sequence, check or uncheck the starting box, and then hold down the shift key while clicking the ending box. This will check or uncheck the ending box and everything in between.
You can make as many schedule changes as you wish on the Schedule page, and submit them all at once. For example, you may schedule both aircraft and instructor for several different days.
Clicking the Submit button will commit your changes. Clicking the Clear button will erase all of you pending changes not yet submitted. Clicking the Done button returns you to the Main Menu. Clicking Done will not submit your pending changes.
At the bottom of the Schedule page, there is a button to view the following time period (the next 7 or 14 days).
If you enter the AVbook system by entering an access code and clicking the Sign Up button on the Entry page, you are taken to the Add New User page. Here you can:
Select this option to make changes to your account information.
Because you must sign in to use the AVbook system, it doesn't work to "bookmark" (or "Add To Favorites") individual pages within the system. You can bookmark the Sign In page.
The AVbook online system is targeted for use with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5 or later, or Netscape Navigator (Communicator) version 6 or later. It is also assumed that JavaScript is not disabled.
Other web browsers, or older versions of these web browsers, will likely not work properly with these pages. Netscape Navigator versions older than 6 are known not to work properly in some respects at this time. No harm will come to data stored on the system as a result of using non-supported web browsers. It mostly means that some convenience features will not work. In particular, clicking on a resource to see its details relies on JavaScript and will not work without it.
The line of text that follows will tell you whether or not JavaScript is currently working in the browser you are now using.
To turn on JavaScript support in Netscape version 6, on the Edit menu, choose Preferences, then under Category, select Advanced, and click to make a check mark next to Enable JavaScript for Navigator.
If this sentence is not red, your browser is too old to support CSS, and some formatting will be missing, such as rules in schedule tables that make for easier reading.
You can download current or recent versions of the supported web browsers for free from www.microsoft.com/downloads or www.netscape.com.
If you see what you believe to be incorrect behavior with one of the supported web browsers, we encourage you to report it through our Support page.
To report a problem, or submit a question or suggestion, please use the "Support" button in the upper right corner of any of the pages in the Avbook Online System.
When reporting a problem, try to do this from the page where the problem first occurred, since the Support Help Desk will record the steps you took that led up to that point. This may help us resolve the problem more quickly.
You should receive an "auto-reply" email shortly after submitting your Help Request. You can reply to this email if you wish to follow up on the same matter. We will make every attempt to respond to your help request in a timely manner. We will ordinarily respond by email. We ask for a phone contact mostly to cover the case where we are not able to reach you by email for some reason.
If for any reason you are unable to use the Support Help Desk,
please send email to
.
We encourage you to report problems, make suggestions, and ask questions which are not answered in the Online Help. We appreciate your help in making the AVbook Online Scheduling System an even better product.