Understanding the Flight Release

Summary

Before a dispatcher can check out an aircraft for a scheduled flight, FlightSense evaluates the Flight Release — a go/no-go check that aggregates instructor compliance, student compliance, aircraft airworthiness, open squawks, and live weather into a single verdict. The result is either a green Released, a yellow Released — Advisories, or a red Blocked — Override Required. This tutorial explains what drives each verdict and what to do when you're blocked.

Who this is for

Admins and Chief Instructors who manage dispatch. Users without dispatch view permission see a "You don't have permission to view the flight release" notice in place of the panel.

Where the Flight Release appears

The Flight Release panel lives inside the Dispatch Drawer — the right-side panel that opens when you click a scheduled event on the Schedule page. The panel is labeled Flight Release (clipboard icon) and is collapsible. It loads automatically when the drawer opens and refreshes each time you reopen it.

The Check Out button sits above the Flight Release panel. For a blocked event, the button is disabled with a tooltip explaining the missing override permission; users who hold override permission can still click it to proceed.

The three verdicts

• Released: "Cleared for dispatch. No outstanding items."
• Released — Advisories: "Cleared for dispatch with advisories noted."
• Blocked: "A hard-block ([reasons]) must be resolved or overridden before check-out."

The block reasons in the subline are listed from the specific conditions active: aircraft grounded, expired compliance, or open "Do Not Fly" squawk — any combination may appear.

What triggers each verdict

Hard blocks (Blocked — Override Required) — any one of these triggers the red verdict:

• Aircraft is Grounded (status set in the aircraft record)
• Any expired compliance record for the instructor, student, or aircraft (inspections, ARROW documents, member compliance, or qualifications past their expiration)
• An open Do Not Fly squawk on the aircraft

Advisories (Released — Advisories) — non-blocking, but shown for dispatcher awareness:

• Compliance entries that are expiring or in a non-active status (but not yet expired)
• Any open Info or Discrepancy squawks on the aircraft
• METAR flight category is MVFR, IFR, or LIFR (weather never hard-blocks dispatch)

All three advisory types can be present at once; the verdict still reads Released — Advisories, not Blocked.

Reading the panel

Below the verdict banner, the Flight Release panel shows three compliance groups — Instructor, Student, and Aircraft — each with per-category rows. A row with a green chip is current; yellow is expiring, critical, or missing; red is expired.

The Aircraft group additionally shows:

• Squawk summary — the same panel used in scheduling dialogs: green "No open squawks" when clear, or a severity-colored card with a count and summary (e.g., "1 do not fly · 2 discrepancy") that expands to show individual squawks
• Aircraft status — a binary row showing whether the aircraft is airworthy or grounded

At the bottom, a Weather section shows the current METAR for your home airport (see the Weather section below).

The entire detail section below the verdict banner collapses when you click the Flight Release header — useful if you only need the verdict at a glance.

Override flow

When the verdict is Blocked, a user who holds override permission can still proceed to check-out. The Check Out button is enabled for them; for everyone else it is greyed out with the tooltip: "Dispatch is hard-blocked. You need override permission to check out."

Clicking Check Out on a blocked event opens the Check Out dialog with a warning notice at the top:

"This flight is hard-blocked. Dispatch override requires a reason (recorded in the dispatch audit trail)."

Overriding does not resolve the underlying condition. The squawk, grounded status, or expired record remains until corrected separately.

Check-out form

Once the Flight Release is Released (or overridden), clicking Check Out opens the Check Out dialog. Meter fields pre-fill from the aircraft's current reading — click Correct to enter a different value. If no current reading is on file, the field opens blank. Submitting records the dispatch and moves the event to In Progress.

Weather — METAR

The Weather section at the bottom of the Flight Release panel shows the current METAR for your organization's home airport. The card is color-coded by flight category: green (VFR), blue (MVFR), red (IFR), magenta (LIFR). When a METAR is available, the card shows:

• Flight category chip (e.g., VFR)
• Observed time (e.g., "Observed Jun 10, 2:30 PM")
• A decoded one-line summary (wind, visibility, ceiling, temperature)
• The raw METAR string in monospace

A SPECI badge appears when the observation is a special off-cycle report, indicating conditions crossed a threshold mid-hour.

Weather is advisory only — MVFR, IFR, or LIFR raises the verdict to Released — Advisories but never triggers Blocked.

When no METAR is available:

• No home airport set — "No home airport set. Add an ICAO identifier in 'Manage Organization' to show weather." (Admins see this; non-admins see a message to contact an administrator.)
• Station offline or unavailable — "Weather currently unavailable for [station]."
• Frozen past dispatch with no captured weather — "Weather was not captured at dispatch."

Setting your home airport

To enable METAR in the Flight Release, go to Manage Organization (sidebar) → Details tab → Organization Details card. Enter your 4-letter ICAO identifier in the Home Airport (Optional) field (e.g., KAPA) and click Save. The Flight Release panel will fetch live weather on the next open.