Start flight was refused

For: Pilots · Hangar admins

Find the message you got, or what you’re seeing, below.

The button says End flight, not Start flight

A flight is already open on this aircraft – yours or someone else’s. The Flight in progress bar at the top of the app says who is flying and the hobbs it started at.

It’s yours: close it out with Close out flight, or press Cancel if you never went. See Start a flight and close it out.
It’s someone else’s: only that pilot or a hangar admin can close or cancel it. You still see the buttons, but closing it says “You can only close your own open flight”, and canceling it says “You can only delete your own flights”. Ask them, or an admin.

“There’s already an open flight for this aircraft.”

Someone started a flight on this aircraft after your page loaded. Reload the page, and you’ll see the Flight in progress bar with their name. Then see above.

“You don’t have access to this aircraft”

Your hangar admin has limited which aircraft you may fly, and this isn’t one of them. RampMates moves you to an aircraft you can use. See I can’t see an aircraft.

The hangar’s RampMates subscription needs attention. A banner across the app gives the reason, for example “This hangar is read-only (the trial has ended) — nothing new can be logged.” The reason is one of “the trial has ended”, “payment is past due”, “the subscription was canceled” or “there’s no subscription”.

While the banner is up, everything already in RampMates stays readable, but nothing new can be logged, booked or changed. Rather than let you fill in a form it can’t save, the app turns those controls off up front:

Start flight (or End flight), Add fuel and Log MX are grayed out, and so is the raised button in the middle of the tab bar on a phone.
In the sidebar and under the More tab, Log maintenance, Log a flight and Add fuel are grayed out.
Forms are grayed out, fields and save button alike. That includes Close out flight and Cancel on the Flight in progress bar, so a flight that’s already open stays open until the subscription is fixed.
On the Schedule, Book is grayed out, and a booking no longer offers Edit, Cancel, Check out or Check in.
The ⋯ menus that only edit things – on flights and fuel purchases in the Logbook, and in the oil and inspection history – don’t appear, and neither do the buttons that add or delete a photo.

On a computer, hover over a grayed-out control to see why: Read-only: and the reason, for example “Read-only: the trial has ended”.

If the hangar went read-only while you had RampMates open, the first thing you try to save is refused with “This hangar is read-only until its subscription is fixed”, and the banner appears.

Pilots and mechanics: tell your hangar admin.
Hangar admins: press Manage billing in the banner.

“Your account is … below the minimum balance this hangar requires before flying.”

This only happens in hangars that bill their members through RampMates and require money on account before you fly. You’re short by the amount in the message. It stops both Start flight and Check out, and an admin can’t wave it through: an admin checking out your booking is checked against your account, not theirs.

A new booking is refused with the same message. A hangar admin can make the booking for you with a reason, but check-out is still refused until your balance is back up to the minimum.

Pay the hangar, or ask whoever keeps its books to record a payment you’ve already made, then try again. A flight you’ve already flown can always be logged after the fact.

A reading was refused

“start_hobbs (…) can’t be before the current known hobbs (…)” or the same for start_tach – you set your own starting reading below where the last flight ended.
“start_fuel_gallons (…) is more than 5 gal below the current known fuel level (…)” – RampMates expected much more fuel on board than you entered.

Both are covered in Start a flight and close it out.

Checking out a booking was refused

“The aircraft is under a maintenance block right now.” It’s held for maintenance, and a block that covers the current time stops the aircraft leaving. Talk to whoever scheduled the block.

The minimum-balance and open-flight messages above can come from Check out too. See Check out and check in.

There’s no Start flight button at all

Mechanics don’t log flight time, so they never see Start flight. On a phone the middle of the tab bar is Log MX instead. If you fly as well, ask your hangar admin to make you a pilot. See Roles.