Econ 2018 is Live

Jim,

That's a good question - and it deserves a bit of explaining for all pilots to understand how the sim works with SPAACARS and ECON-2018.

First, the simulator itself doesn't see passengers, baggage, etc. It only sees payload weight and fuel weight. All these extra things you see listed are additions handled by a particular aircraft model and controlled by programming for them - similar to the issue in the earlier post on this thread about how landing light switch won't trip the "prepare for takeoff/landing" of SPAACARS (because SPPAACARs reads simulator settings while these are handled by some payware programming outside of the simulator settings on some models).

SPAACARS - SPAACARS takes the total payload weight your simulator is showing and allows you to make the necessary changes as to how much of that weight is for PAX and what is for cargo. It gets the total payload weight from the simulator AFTER you have initialized the payload and fuel for your plane in your simulator, so SET YOUR PLANE UP FOR PAYLOAD AND FUEL BEFORE STARTING SPAACARS. Actually, SPAACARS should recognized changes to fuel/payload settings made prior to starting your flight, but you'll want to check the totals on the main screen of SPAACARS to be sure it's correct for PAX and cargo.

For some reason, when I originally programmed this (perhaps to include them in the payload weight), I included pilot/copilot weights as passenger weights. Thus, for the purpose of ECON-2018 and SPAACARS, when calculating for the PAX number shown in the ECON-2018 flight schedules, you will want to consider the pilot and copilot as a PAX, otherwise it won't come out right on the main SPAACARS when you add it all together with the cargo.

For example, I fly the DHC-6 Twin Otter (Aerosoft) on flight 600000, the first Econ-2018. It requires 15 PAX and 650 cargo. Aerosoft has set up payload and pax settings, plus pilot/copilot areas in their fuel/payload area. When this gets plugged into the actual simulator, as previously stated, it only sees this all totaled as payload weight along with the cargo. So, I have to add my 13 PAX in the passenger area at 170 lbs. each along with the pilot and copilot at 170 lbs. to equal 15 pax. I then add my 650 lbs. of cargo weight to the cargo areas supplied in the fuel/payload area by Aerosoft.

Now when, SPAACARS sees the payload weight on the main page of SPAACARS, you can move your 15 PAX over to the PAX column and the cargo will correctly display the cargo weight at 650 lbs. Additionally, SPAACARS provides the "Cargo Capacity" field which will show the remaining cargo capacity that SPAACARS believes is available given the current fuel, cargo and pax weight according to the simulator readings. If you fill your plane to Max takeoff Weight this field will read "0", as there is no unused capacity remaining.

So...the short answer is:

Ensure that your aircraft payload weight is set for (#pax * 170) = ttl pax wgt + cargo wgt = ttl payload wgt.

This will allow you to adjust the number in the PAX field of SPAACARS to show the number of passengers required by your ECON-2018 flight and the remainder should show the correct value of cargo for your flight in the cargo field of SPAACARs.

Here are two pics in my photo album showing my settings for ECON-2018 flight # 600000 as explained above. Click each of them to follow the link to my photo album where they are explained further in the comments area of each pic.

<a href="modules/gallery3/index.php/John-Rogers-Pics/fp1" target="_blank"><img src="modules/gallery3/var/albums/John-Rogers-Pics/fp1.jpg?m=1521039774" width="600" height="800"></a>


<a href="modules/gallery3/index.php/John-Rogers-Pics/spaacars" target="_blank"><img src="modules/gallery3/var/albums/John-Rogers-Pics/spaacars.jpg?m=1521039774" alt="" width="600" height="472"></a>

Hope this helps clarify some things for all pilots.

John

<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: jer029, Mar 14, 2018 - 11:21 AM</em><!-- end editby -->

Hi James,

Yes, that's definitely the problem. You have to be using SPAACARS 10.5 for Econ 2018 to work. However, congratulations on being the first pilot to give it a try.

Mike Daugherty
MSP Hub Manager