ECON Flights
2 years 7 months ago #17487
by jer029
John Rogers
Webmaster
Replied by jer029 on topic ECON Flights
Good morning Chili,
If I recall correctly, I started the Econ module (even before 2018) with a very simple but unrealistic formula for calculating cost and revenue. Around about 2018 Mike D. took on the project of improving the cost/revenue model of the module. He came up with a relatively complex model, but that model tended to become less accurate as the plane size increased. That's why there is a suggested limit of plane size (weight category) for flying Econ flights, and why our official econ flights limit the amount of passengers and cargo. I think Mike was planning to look at attempting to expand that model to larger aircraft, but I think it kind of got put on hold indefinitely.
Regardless, I and many other pilots tend to fly with Econ mode activated all the time because we like to see the flight review and comments that are included with the Econ flights. It also offers pilots a chance to practice making various Econ flights to see how profitable their desired aircraft is under differing payloads so that they can decide if they want to use that plane for official Econ flights.
The only time I turn off Econ mode is on a flight with multiple takeoff and landings like Larry's Group Flight on Wednesdays. That's because the Econ mode forces PIREP auto send after landing and we want SPAACARS to keep running until the end of our flight session regardless of how many airport "hops" we make. Leaving Econ mode off allows for multiple takeoffs and landings and then PIREP can be manually sent with a button push on SPAACARS when the pilot is done flying.
Happy flying,
John
If I recall correctly, I started the Econ module (even before 2018) with a very simple but unrealistic formula for calculating cost and revenue. Around about 2018 Mike D. took on the project of improving the cost/revenue model of the module. He came up with a relatively complex model, but that model tended to become less accurate as the plane size increased. That's why there is a suggested limit of plane size (weight category) for flying Econ flights, and why our official econ flights limit the amount of passengers and cargo. I think Mike was planning to look at attempting to expand that model to larger aircraft, but I think it kind of got put on hold indefinitely.
Regardless, I and many other pilots tend to fly with Econ mode activated all the time because we like to see the flight review and comments that are included with the Econ flights. It also offers pilots a chance to practice making various Econ flights to see how profitable their desired aircraft is under differing payloads so that they can decide if they want to use that plane for official Econ flights.
The only time I turn off Econ mode is on a flight with multiple takeoff and landings like Larry's Group Flight on Wednesdays. That's because the Econ mode forces PIREP auto send after landing and we want SPAACARS to keep running until the end of our flight session regardless of how many airport "hops" we make. Leaving Econ mode off allows for multiple takeoffs and landings and then PIREP can be manually sent with a button push on SPAACARS when the pilot is done flying.
Happy flying,
John
John Rogers
Webmaster
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