SPAACARS v. 7.0 and New Econ Module Is Now Released !

Pilots,

Version 7.0 SPAACARs program is now available for download. This is required for use if you wish to fly the Econ Mod flights. The Econ module is active now as well, and I've completed two 'official' flights there as a test and demo. Note that the flight numbers must not have any spaces between the numbers and letters. The flights are listed in the "Cargo & Freight" area of the Special Operations area of the Main Menu. The flight results for your Econ Module flights is located in the Economics area of the Main menu. Instructions for SPAACARS and the Econ Module are also located in the Economics area.

Sadly, Carenado's C208 Caravan seems to have issues yet in the P3d v4 platform - transparent VC textures, so I was forced to run my test using the Aerosoft DHC-6 Twin Otter on the first flight and the B1900D for my second flight - return flight to KMSP.

For those who, like me, choose to use a heavier aircraft with a larger capacity payload (as shown in SPAACARS after it initializes with your simulator), you will want to add just enough payload (passengers/cargo) from your simulator's payload menu so that your total payload weight equals the 2014 limit for these current flights. SPAACARS will then recognize that you're carrying the max allowed 2014 Lbs. cargo. Don't add extra payload or fuel and you won't get charged extra for that weight - just perhaps the weight of your heavier aircraft. But don't short yourself too much on fuel - remember there are penalties for that too.

When choosing a suitable aircraft, you may wish to do a side-by-side comparison of my two flights made with very different aircraft - although both twin-prop, the 1900 is a faster plane but burns fuel faster. I might also note that there were very different flight routes for these trips, with the 1900 flight much farther following IFR low-alt chart routes while the dhc-6 flew direct GPS. The combination of longer route and higher fuel-burn rate caused me to burn almost twice as much fuel as I did with the dhc-6. This almost doubled the fuel costs for the 1900, and with the added costs for the increased weight and flight time, added additional costs in the other areas. I again managed to avoid penalties this flight - but just barely I think - coming close to running below the 30 min reserve on landing.

Not sure what else you can take from this when picking your aircraft and planning your flights. You should note that a very short flight is not economical and can result in a net loss. It's clear from this example that a longer flight won't necessary equate to higher profit either.

Lastly - I haven't yet added the award icons for the Econ Module - or even decided how best to implement them, but I'll get to that soon.

Good luck, and enjoy this added detail for your flight sim experience.


Also - feel free to add any questions or issues here in the forum - or feel free to email me, because once you're flying Econ - you're on your own.

John<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: jer029, Nov 05, 2017 - 11:51 AM</em><!-- end editby -->

Jim,

Since SPAACARS version 6 you have to select the ini file through the "file" option in the settings menu as listed in the instructions:

<img src="www.stpaulairlines.com/Econ/sp9.jpg" border="1">

It no longer "pops up" the file menu for you.

If you're doing this according to the instructions - choosing the ini file through the "File" menu option and it's still not working - please let me know. I've not noticed this problem, but one other pilot with release of version 6.0 made similar comment when SPAACARS didn't automatically serve up the ini file for them after a new reinstall of the program.

John<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: jer029, Nov 05, 2017 - 07:12 PM</em><!-- end editby -->

Jim,

I'm not seeing an econ flight for you currently. Sorry for the confusion, as there have been many changes lately - hopefully for the better when pilots get comfortable with the changes.

Due to recent changes, I encourage pilots to review the instructions again - as they have been updated to explain these many changes (Especially the Econ Mod Instructions).

Note:

-The Econ Instructions are the middle link under the Economics section of the Main Menu - <em><strong>Please review this page! Much new information here!
*Note in the instructions that the cargo flight numbers must match those special econ flights ending with "CB"
</strong></em>
-The Econ Page is the first link "Cargo Econ Page" under Economics section of the Main Menu

-The flights for the Econ Module are located under Yoland's Bush Ops section titled "Cargo and Freight".

* Sorry for the location of the flight numbers under Bush Ops, but I started by using Yoland's original Cargo schedule he originally designed around the Econ Module. I will duplicate that
information today to the Cargo Econ Page so it's all in one place.

John

No Bill,

You get credit for all flights in your log book and flight hours totals. That includes any type of flights. Hub credited flights have always been based on hub schedules and you get credit for them there. Econ flights are a separate type of flight and were not originally intended to be inclusive of all flights. The new Econ Mod flights will be recorded differently and not listed as a hub flight. They actually count as Special Ops flights (prefixed with the number '9'). Again - in all cases all flights appear in your logbook and count as flight hours for you.

I have archived the previous econ data from the econ display - you still have credit for those flights in your log and hourly totals and hub listings. They just don't show in the Econ Module page any longer.

Those flights and flight data still exist, I just want to 'reset' the current Econ display using the new Econ criteria. It would not make sense to combine the old econ data with the new data because the new econ settings record the data very differently.

The old econ flights used a different cost-revenue structure, allowed pilots to fly wherever they wanted to in whatever they wanted to which defeated the original intent of the Econ Module - ie. pilots flying under similar cargo capacity, routes, etc. The new econ model corrects that, however, mixing old econ data and new econ data would be meaningless for comparison among the different participants in the Econ Model.

In order to "reset" the econ flight display to only include the new data, I'm only displaying currently dated econ flights matching the required flight numbers.

As stated in the Econ Instructions - you can still fly passengers (Econ Model doesn't differentiate between cargo or passenger for revenue generation). It just currently limits the capacity of the plane you fly). This will likely be expanded to include a larger aircraft capacity group if the new cost/revenue adjustments and other efforts to standardize Econ flights among pilots is successful in this restructuring.

Is this a problem?

If so, in what way?

Thanks,

John<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: jer029, Nov 06, 2017 - 11:52 AM</em><!-- end editby -->