Booking System and IT Support

Good Afternoon Everyone,

We are hoping the Government will still allow us to begin flying again on March 29th. In preparation for this, we have implemented a new outlook on the booking rules to make sure fairness is key. We were concerned after such a long lockdown, and winter months, there may be a bit of a rush to book to fly. To make sure everyone gets a chance, initially we are being restrictive on how many sessions you can book per week. If it ends up being quieter than expected, this will get reviewed. The committee will discuss every week or so whether the current system is working, or whether it can be edited. Your input is also key to this, so let us know if you think it’s working by replying to this email, or emailing contact@wmac.uk when booking re-opens!

The rules will become:

Pre-booking sessions: You may book TWO booking sessions in advance of the current date per 7 days

On the day sessions: If you wake up and see free slots on the day, you may book these in ADDITION to what you have pre-booked. Technically, if sessions are always free each day, this means you could fly 7 days a week.

AM/PM/All Day pre-booked: Due to the anticipated rush to fly, we are restricting to booking AM or PM, and not any all day bookings and no combining AM and PM to create pre-booked all day bookings.

AM/PM on-the-day bookings: If you have booked an AM slot, whether that’s a pre-booking or on the day, you may book a PM slot to make it all day and remain at the field IF AFTER 12PM (midday) on the day there are free PM slots left. You will obviously need to check the booking system on your phone, and you will need to book.

AM/PM flying times: These are 9am until 1:30pm, and 2pm until dusk. Remember the site rules though, where before 10am is 3S electric only and after 8pm is 3S electric only. This is 5pm on Sundays at Hanbury, whilst no IC is allowed at any point on a Sunday at Rushwick.

Field Conditions: We are arranging to visit both sites to ready them for the 29th. More updates on this will come, but hopefully both sites are flyable on the 29th.

We are hoping this makes it fair for most members. We are trying to find the right balance between having slots available for everyone, but equally not allowing empty slots to go to waste if someone wishes to use them.

The rule of 6 is expected to be still honoured, so as before you will need to book and restrict it to 6 per session per site. We also ask if you have the NHS Test & Trace app, to please scan in at the fields and maintain social distance outside of your chosen bubble.

All of these rules are written out now on the booking page, but the booking system will remain offline until we have official confirmation that we can resume flying on the 29th March.

To address quickly to those querying about flying as of today (8th March) – the BMFA have sent an email out saying the government allow people to fly with 1 other person, but this is not on sites people have to pay for. So if you have a field or some land and are allowed to fly for free, this is legal. As we pay for our sites, we are therefore classed as a facility and so must remain closed until at least the 29th. So please don’t fly at Hanbury or Rushwick before the 29th!

The website is also coming back online today, but over the next week or so you may notice a couple of things ‘looking a bit weird’ whilst more updates are implemented.

IT Support:

We have implemented a new system to gain IT support from the webmaster. You will need to log in, and expand the ‘Members Menu’ and click ‘IT Support’. Upon doing that, if you need to raise a new issue, click the red ‘new ticket’ box and submit your problem / query. Ongoing tickets will be held in the window on that same page, and will be private between you and me. You will be able to see and send more replies in that window by clicking onto an existing ticket.

We have had to do this as a couple of members thought it acceptable to send hundreds of messages late into the night on WhatsApp, so to counter this and to push back operation of the website to my development business we are operating a ‘Support Ticketing System’. It is also to log any issues to record common problems, in order to allow easier recognition where website improvement is needed.

Emailing may now mean your query gets missed, plus not logged, so it’s best to use the ticketing system for the quickest response!

Thanks, and hopefully see you all down the field soon!

Sam Booton

Webmaster & Club Secretary