Back from scuba diving & fun bush flight to resort/correction to Econ page

Hello pilots,

Just a note to say I'm back from my annual diving trip-just one this year, and have corrected the Econ display for completed flights (I think <img src="tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wallbash.gif" alt="wallbash">). Anyway, I had the opportunity to fly one leg of our flight in a small plane and have shared some pics of me having the privilege to sit in the right seat next to the pilot. I also took this rare opportunity to update my forum pic to be more current and appropriate. Additional pics are in my gallery album.

Changes to the flight listing on the Econ page correct the error of multiple flight listings for the same flight number, now showing only the first official flight (additional flights of the same number always count towards your hours and appear in your logbook, but only the first one is recorded on the Econ page). This may change the totals a bit, but was the original intent-and conforms to the previous display of the original Econ module.

Now, back to work...and hopefully some flying and Econ flights of my own.

Hello Alf,


<strong><em>I see all my flights I done so far, show on the Econ 2018 Module. Am I supposed to have the setting off?</em><u></u></strong>

Your flights will show up in the Econ Practice Flights area regardless of what type of flight you fly if you have Econ Mode checked in the SPAACARs settings area. They should not show up in the official Econ-2018 page (currently under the only active "Juneau Center") unless you fly the flight with one of the official flight numbers and have your cargo and pax set to match that required by that flight. This allows pilots to experiment with various aircraft and settings and different flight characteristics or settings without risking penalties or revenue loss on one of the official flights. It also allows pilots to fly Econ flight mode even if they don't wish to fly the official econ flights.

<strong><em>Anyhow, another question. If I fly a C280, it usually can take 14 pax, but SPAACARS only allow to load 6 pax, which will make the profit margin very low. Is it because the flight is not part of the Econ 2018 Flight Schedule?</em></strong>

Basically SPAACARS can only set pax and cargo based on the current payload weight you have set in your simulator's payload area. It then splits that weight between cargo and pax depending on how many pax you add to your plane on the SPAACARS field.

Please refer to the following link forum link that explains the SPAACARS pax and cargo settings and how they actually relate to the inner workings of flight simulators in great detail and answers additional questions regarding this process - including pictures:

<a href="index.php?module=pnForum&amp;func=viewtopic&amp;topic=2982&amp;start=0">www.stpaulairlines.com/index.php?module=...pic=2982&start=0

Let me know if you still have questions or problems and I'll be happy to look into them for you.

John<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: jer029, Apr 05, 2018 - 09:18 AM</em><!-- end editby -->

Bill,

This is more in MIke D's wheelhouse as he's the one who developed the cost/revenue formula, but by taking a quick look at the type of plane you're flying and the payload required for the various flights, it appears on several occasions you've opted for much larger aircraft than are required for the payload. Thus, you're flying a heavier aircraft only partially filled which can result in negative revenue. I believe the golden rule is to try to fill your aircraft as close to capacity as possible based on the required payload, and the faster and more fuel-efficient aircraft also improves the bottom line. Note that your first flight obtained a very good profit, but as you switched to larger aircraft, even when the payload was considerably less you end up flying flights at a loss.

Mike says that this is what would happen in real life, and airlines sometimes must operate a flight at a loss because it's scheduled and they can't fill the plane adequately to make the trip profitable. That's why they often overbook, etc. For our purposes, we can ensure that we can 'fill the plane adequately' by selecting the correct size aircraft that can fly the required payload at the near-capacity of the aircraft. The closer you can come to that goal, the more profit you're likely to get.

Lastly, I strongly recommend that you fly questionable aircraft/flights first in the practice area (ie. with SPAACARS and your simulator/aircraft set to the required flight origin and destination and using Econ Mode, but with any flight number you wish to use that is not an official flight number (Don't use the '6######' series as these will be used for future Econ flights). Any other number, like "9ONLINE", or EconTest, etc. will allow you to fly the flight, get credit in your logbook for the hours, and will show up in the Econ Practice area (and on the Daily Flight Arrivals area) with the same Econ data that would have been recorded on the official page if you flew an official Econ flight number. Once you're satisfied that the plane can make profitable flights with the required distance and payload, then go ahead and fly the official flight and you should see satisfactory results unless you take an unexpected penalty hit for hard landings, etc.

I've personally held off on flying the official flights until I do some practice flights, as I want to improve my fuel planning for the aircraft given variable wind direction and speeds. Of course one can just fly with no wind, but I want to improve the experience by flying with real weather as Mike suggests, while trying to maximize my profits - barring those unforeseen penalties of course.

Hope this helps,

John