ECON

The econ flights work specifically with the Econ Module flight listings although many of us like to keep econ-mode on for the passenger comments, landing rates, etc. The larger the plane, the more off the cost/revenue model. It's set primarily for smaller aircraft. You will have to reload the plane and reset ACARS for the return trip because Econ mode auto-sends pirep upon landing. More instructions are under Instructions from the main menu at the link "Econ-2018".

If you missed a flight, it's likely that the flight number was incorrectly entered. They must be exact and Econ mode must be set for the flight. We can check your logbook for the flight number entered and compare it to the 'missing' flight to see what went wrong.

The purpose of the auto-pirep send is to keep pilots from only sending the pireps when they like the results of the flight.

Lastly, a crash occurs with a landing rate of 500 fpm or greater. I think that between 200-500 results in landing gear damage and additional financial penalties.

I'd have to look up the details as I don't remember the exact settings for that. The landing rates were based on an Internet search of what are safe landing rates.

Hope this helps for a starting place.

John

Terry,

Unfortunately the MSP Center section of the Econ Flight Module has a slight bug in it still that causes a delayed refresh of the flight schedule until after the first pilot of the day views the page. My fixing that long-standing bug has been delayed. It works, but you want to make sure that you've refreshed the page to see positive hours remaining for the flights. If they show negative hours remaining, you will want to refresh the flight schedule until it shows positive hours - and as always, make sure there are enough hours left to complete the flights before it updates a new schedule again.

For example, right now the schedule shows 6 hours remaining. I must make sure that I select a flight and complete it in those 6 hours or the flight schedule changes. If I miss the deadline, the flight will not be recorded and you will take an additional financial hit for selecting a flight that you didn't complete. In every case, the flight will be recorded in your logbook so you get hourly credit for the flight, but you will not get Econ Credit for it on the Econ "Income Statement" page.

The nice thing about the MSP Center is that you can fly larger aircraft that will give you a larger revenue than you would get in real world, so you can recover the losses you may have sustained initially rather quickly. The MSP Center is kind of a work in progress - including an improved cost/revenue model that works with larger aircraft. Mike D. created the latest cost/revenue model and can probably weigh in on what aircraft weight class exceeds the current model and will produce unrealistic numbers.

Even with the shortcomings of the Econ Center, it still offers a fun alternative for pilots wishing to have some additional excitement and consequences based on their flying technique. It adds a new dimension having to pay particular attention to the amount of fuel you carry, how gently you handle your aircraft, and how softly you land it. Avoid thunderstorms as real pilots would because turbulence will scare your passengers and also cause a financial hit. These considerations can add some additional challenge for pilots wishing a bit more than "Point-A to Point-B" flights.

I particularly like the other Econ Centers that include our optional addon scenery for the scenarios and the scenery. Also - the flights use the bush aircraft so it's low and slow scenic flights in a very scenic area.

Again...nothings perfect, but a fun alternative to our other offerings - especially if you have P3d/FSX and can use the optional scenery. Even without the scenery, it will should offer some fun scenarios to fly.

Happy flying,

John<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: jer029, Jun 10, 2020 - 07:48 AM</em><!-- end editby -->

Hah Terry, it's no bother. Mike and I put in lots of work on the Econ Module, so we're always happy when pilots enjoy the fruits of our labor. Here's some additional hints on filling out your aircraft. First, yes you must choose an aircraft that can accommodate the passengers, cargo and fuel. I've sometimes over-weighted my aircraft a bit to make that work to a profit, but be careful because too much weight can interfere with the flight ability just like in real life.

Don't start up the SPAACARS app until your plane is loaded and ready to fly. It initialized based on your plane when it starts and, even if you change pax/cargo weight to your plane afterwards, SPAACARS won't recognize it. Once you get the plane, PAX Cargo and Fuel setting correct as shown in the example in the Instructions section of our main menu (but with the numbers that match your particular flight), then you can start SPAACARs. It will then initialize the total weight of your PAX + Cargo and set up with 1 pax and the rest as cargo. You can then adjust the pax number to the desired number. Remember that PAX includes the pilot(s) in the count. This automatically deducts the weight from the cargo (170lbs for each Pax I think).

SPAACARs will not let you exceed the amount of PAX + Cargo total weight originally initialized when you started SPAACARS, so if you have less than 170 lbs of cargo left, you cannot move any more over to 'create' another pax.

Note that if you get into multiple digits of Pax numbers, you might think that SPAACARS will not let you change the pax number - even though you have more than 170 lbs showing on the cargo side. This is likely due to the way you are trying to enter data into the Pax field. You cannot just add an extra digit without highlighting the entire field and starting over with your data entry.

For example, if I have 12 pax and I have 170 lbs of cargo, I can add one more pax for 13 pax and 0 cargo, but I cannot just add a '3' to the end of the pax field with the idea that I will then delete the '2' to result in 13 pax. That's because it will not accept a 3 before deleting other digits because now you have temporarily asked SPAACARS to give you '123' pax, even though you had intended to delete the '2'.

The solution to this data entry issue is to highlight the entire pax field so that when you retype the entire pax number (in this example, '13'), the '1' will replace the entire '12' in the pax field with a '1' and will allow you to put the '3' in place without your creating a pax number in excess of what your combined pax+cargo weight will allow.

I hope this explains things a bit and is not too confusing. If you need further help...just ask and I'll try to clear this up further.

John<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: jer029, Jun 10, 2020 - 05:46 PM</em><!-- end editby -->