Terms of Service

The short version

• TrueCourse helps you learn to fly, plan flights, and book with your flying club or school.
• The course is for study. Never use it to make a decision in flight.
• You must be 13 or over.
• If you are under 18, or a club has not yet confirmed your age, chat has extra safety rules.
• Follow our Community Rules.
• We act on anything illegal, or that puts a young person at risk. We don't settle disagreements between members and clubs.
• Nobody at TrueCourse reads your messages unless they are reported, or the law says we must.

Who we are

TrueCourse is run by Zerobatics Ltd, a company registered at Companies House with the number 15501115. In these terms, "we" and "us" mean Zerobatics Ltd. You can contact us at support@zerobatics.com.

What TrueCourse is

TrueCourse is an app for learning to fly. It has lessons, quizzes and practice exams, and tools for planning and flying a route. It also lets flying clubs and schools run their members, aircraft bookings and instructors, lets students share their progress with an instructor, and lets members message each other.

TrueCourse is a system for booking, learning and training. It does not take sides. A disagreement or complaint between you and a club, a school, an instructor or another member is for you and them to sort out. That includes anything about a booking, money, or teaching. TrueCourse does not take payment for bookings.

Educational use only

The material in TrueCourse is for study. It does not replace lessons from a qualified flight instructor, and it is not an official source of aeronautical information. Never use anything in this app as the basis for a decision in flight. Always use current official publications from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, your aircraft's approved flight manual, and current NOTAMs and weather information.

Your age

You must be 13 or over to use TrueCourse. We ask for your date of birth when you sign up, and we don't create an account for anyone under 13.

In chat, everyone is treated as under 18 until a flying club or school has confirmed their date of birth, whatever age they entered. We do this because anyone can type any date. Under these rules:

• you can message only an instructor at a club or school you belong to, one to one, and only after you have agreed to be linked with them;
• if you are under 18, you can chat only after the club has checked your parent or guardian's details;
• you can't be in a group chat.

These rules are the same for everyone treated as under 18, whatever their age.

If you think we have your age wrong, ask your club or school to confirm your date of birth in Profile › Age Check. You can also email us at support@zerobatics.com.

Your account

Keep your password safe. You are responsible for what happens on your account. Tell us at support@zerobatics.com if you think someone else has used it.

Chat

Chat is for members of the same flying club or school. You can't search for strangers to message.

• Messages are text only. Photos, videos and files can't be sent.
• Web addresses can't be sent in a chat that includes anyone treated as under 18. Between adults whose age a club has confirmed they can be sent, but they are shown as plain text, not as links you can tap.
• Group chats are for members whose age the club has confirmed as 18 or over. A club's owner or administrators start them. Nobody is put in a group: you are invited, and it's up to you whether to join. Everyone in a group sees your name and your messages. You can leave at any time.
• You can block anyone. They can't message you, and you can't message them, until you unblock them. In a group you are both in, you don't see each other's messages. They aren't told.
• Messages are deleted 12 months after they are sent.
• Nobody at TrueCourse reads your messages unless they have been reported, or the law says we must. Every time we do, it is recorded.
• If a chat that included someone treated as under 18 is reported, the owner and administrators of that club or school may read our copy of what was reported. Not the live chat.

If you are an instructor: a student under 18 can agree that their parent or guardian may ask for a copy of their messages. If they ask, and we decide it is right to, your messages to that student are included.

The checks on every message

Every time someone sends a message, our server checks it before it is delivered.

• It looks for words on a list we keep of words that are not allowed. If a message contains one, it is not sent, and the sender is told why.
• In a chat that includes anyone treated as under 18, it looks for web addresses. A message with one is not sent, and the sender is told why.

The same word list checks the name of a group chat.

These checks are automatic. Nobody reads your message to do them. A message that is stopped is not saved, and we don't use the checks to build up a picture of you.

Illegal content

Illegal content is not allowed anywhere on TrueCourse. When someone reports it to us, or we find it any other way, we take it down quickly. Taking it down hides it from everyone. We look at every report within 24 hours if someone under 18 may be involved, and within 72 hours otherwise.

• Child sexual abuse and exploitation, including grooming: we take it down, stop the account from sending messages, and report it to the National Crime Agency, as the law requires. We keep the evidence the law tells us to keep. We do not warn the account first.
• Terrorism: we take it down. We remove any account run by or for a banned (proscribed) organisation, and we tell the police.
• Any other illegal content, such as threats, harassment, hate crime, or fraud and scams: we take it down, may stop the account from sending messages, and tell the police where a crime may have been committed.

The way TrueCourse is built also limits what can be posted. Messages are text only, you can only message people at your own club or school, and web addresses can't be sent where anyone under 18 might be.

Keeping young people safe

Some content is harmful to young people even when it is not illegal. The law lists the kinds. Here is how TrueCourse keeps each kind away from anyone treated as under 18.

First, the protections that cover every kind:

• Under 18s can message only their own instructor, one to one. They can't message other young people or strangers, and they can't be in group chats.
• Messages are text only, so no photos or videos can be sent at all.
• Web addresses can't be sent in their chats, and messages can't be forwarded into or out of them.
• They can block and report anyone. We look at those reports within 24 hours.

Then, kind by kind, what we do when it is reported in a chat with someone treated as under 18:

• Pornography and sexual content: photos and videos can't be sent at all. Sexual messages in a chat with someone under 18 are taken down, and the account is stopped from sending. We may report it to the police or the National Crime Agency.
• Content that encourages suicide, self-harm or an eating disorder: taken down, and we get help if anyone is in danger.
• Abuse or hate aimed at someone because of their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability or gender reassignment, or that stirs up hatred against them: taken down.
• Bullying: taken down. An account that keeps doing it is stopped from sending.
• Content that encourages serious violence, or describes serious violence or injury to a person or an animal: taken down.
• Content that encourages dangerous stunts or challenges, or taking harmful substances: taken down.
• Content that shames someone about their body or weight, or that could make someone's low mood or depression worse: taken down.

These protections are the same for everyone treated as under 18, whatever their age.

Reports, complaints and appeals

To report a message, a conversation or a person, use Report in the app. You don't need to give a reason in words, and the person you report is not told. You can follow what happens in Profile › My Reports.

To report something anywhere else in TrueCourse, such as a club's name or website, or the reason given for a booking, email jamie.bentley@zerobatics.com.

To appeal a decision we made, such as taking a message down or stopping an account from sending, email support@zerobatics.com. Tell us which decision, and why you think it was wrong. We will look at it again. If we got it wrong, we will undo it as far as we can.

To complain that we are not following these terms or the law, email support@zerobatics.com too.

If you think we have broken these terms, you also have the right to take us to court.

What we may do

If someone breaks these terms or the Community Rules in a way that is illegal, or that puts a young person at risk, we may:

• take down what they posted;
• stop their account from sending messages;
• remove their account;
• tell the police, the National Crime Agency, or the club or school involved, as our Safeguarding Policy explains.

Everything we do is recorded.

Copying the course

You may not copy, share or sell the course material. Our Copyright Policy explains more.

Keeping TrueCourse running

We aim to keep TrueCourse working, but we can't promise it will never stop. We update the course as the rules of the air change.

When these terms change

When we change these terms or the Community Rules in a way that matters, the app asks you to agree to the new version. Until you do, you can still read your messages, but you can't send any.

Governing law

Which country's law governs these terms will be set out here, with legal advice, before TrueCourse is published.