Ready do become employed by an Airline?

[pellelil 59]

One reason the previous release, as well as the upcoming one, have been in development for such a long time (aside from "real-life" sometimes getting in the way), is due to a brand-new feature I've added to Flightplan Visualizer (FV). In fact, even before version 1.17, many of the changes I made to FV were in preparation for this new feature, as this idea wasn't new to me.

Personally, my primary motivation for using FV is to find inspiration regarding which aircraft and which routes to fly. Initially, the bundled flight plans only incorporated commercial airline traffic, but later versions included lots of business jet flight plans as well. If you're primarily interested in general aviation, there are other, more suitable tools available to provide inspiration for your flights. When you use the Leg-search feature in Flightplan Visualizer, it indeed finds suitable routes based on the criteria you set. However, the choice is still up to you. It doesn't automatically tell you what to fly. So instead of having to decide on an aircraft and route, you must decide on the criteria to specify before the program can suggest anything.

Ready to be Employed?
I had an idea a while back: why not let users be "employed" by one of the airlines for which the program has access to flight schedules in the form of bundled flight plans? There are plenty of other alternatives if you want to rent or buy your own aircraft and gradually build up your own airline (e.g., OnAir). But most of these require you to start from scratch and fly "for some time" in small/single-engine aircraft before you can qualify to rent or buy larger aircraft. If you only want to fly an A321 or 737-800, you have to do a lot of "grinding" before you can get there.

 

Back when I was using P3D, I disliked flying small GA aircraft because they fell short when compared to the airline aircraft I had purchased (e.g. Majestic's Q400, PMDG's Boeings, and Aerosoft's A319/A318/A320/A321/A330). However, for MSFS, I sometimes enjoy taking the TBM930 or, less frequently, the C172 for a spin (but I would still detest being "forced" to only fly these before being able to operate bigger aircraft).

Consider this feature as an "early access/alpha-release"
Before delving into the details of this new feature, it's crucial to note that this should be considered as an "early access/alpha-release" at the moment. I don't anticipate it, but there's a chance a significant bug might emerge that could erase all of your employment data, causing you to restart from scratch. Therefore, to enable this new (early access/-release) feature, you must acknowledge its preliminary status. If you are concerned about losing your employment data, I strongly recommend performing regular backups of your logbook that contains this data. I have numerous ideas for additions not currently in the program, and I can't predict if- or when I'll be able to incorporate them - real-life responsibilities often have a knack for interfering. As of now, the flights you conduct are not "recorded" by FV, and you have to manually record the outcomes of your flights.

 

Create Logbook
The cornerstone of this new feature is the Logbook. To use this feature, you first need to create your logbook. In this logbook, you can record both your employment flights and your free flights. Besides providing the program with some personal information such as name, age, nationality, and gender (used for selecting avatar illustrations), depending on the selected "difficulty", you can also choose initial aircraft type-ratings. Before operating an aircraft, you need to be type-rated. As mentioned earlier, I loathe the necessity to grind flying small single-engine props for a long time, so if you only want to fly your A310, Boeing 737's or whatever, you can simply choose to be initially type-rated for these, enabling you to fly them from the get-go:

 

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When you create your logbook, you have the option to select one of five "difficulty" settings (Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, or Very Hard). This selection influences many aspects (beside your avatar illustration), such as the number of aircraft you can initially type-rate, the required logged hours for type-rating other aircraft, the rate at which your rank will increase during your employment, the frequency at which you must log assigned flights while employed, and so on. The following illustration displays the avatar illustrations, alongside a list of the settings for a "Normal" difficulty:

 

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Once your logbook is set up, you can fly "Free" flights where you manually select a route, or based on a leg-search result, you can choose to fly a "Chartered" flight (where the route is derived from a flight leg from an embedded flight plan). When conducting these flights, you can only select an aircraft for which you are type-rated (hence the reason for selecting a few initial type-ratings when setting up your logbook). However, if you opt for a "Training" flight, you can select any aircraft you desire, whether you are type-rated for it or not (so feel free to take the AN225 for a spin every now-and-then, even if not type-rated). In fact, based on the difficulty settings chosen when creating your logbook, you will need to accumulate type-rating points and log a certain amount of time in an aircraft type before qualifying for its type-rating. For example, you might need to log a total of +50 hours before qualifying to type-rate an aircraft at the "size" of an A321, and you might need to log 5-10 hours of training-flight in the particular type for which you are type-rating.

 

Simulator Aircraft (and substitutes).
Every scheduled leg of a flight plan specifies a particular aircraft-type intended for the flight. However, we don't have all these many aircraft types at our disposal in our simulator, be it MSFS or another simulator. For this reason, the program permits the use of a substitute. There are, nonetheless, restrictions on which aircraft you can substitute (for instance, you can't substitute a TBM930 for a flight plan referencing a B747-400F - the types are simply "too different"). In version 1.17, I introduced a feature that allowed you to register your "Owned Aircraft". Here you could list the flyable aircraft you "owned" for your simulator, and indeed, this could be used when performing your leg-search (to only include legs employing aircraft that you "owned"). This feature has since been renamed to "Simulator Aircraft", where you can add the simulator aircraft you possess, and define your substitutes. For example, as I don't have a flyable Q400 for my MSFS, so I might opt to use the ATR 72-600 as a substitute for the Q400, allowing me to update routes where the flight plans otherwise would reference a Q400. The difficulty-settings specify how closely the simulator aircraft must match the aircraft it is substituting (e.g., with the "Normal" difficulty, the match can't be less than 80):

 

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Applying for job:
Once you've created your logbook and added your Simulator aircraft (at least those you want to fly), you are able to apply for a job. The first time you apply, you'll need to set your flight criteria for the program to generate assignments for you to fly (for instance, if you don't want to fly flights shorter than 1 hour or longer than 4 hours, there's no need for the program to assign these to you). So, based on your criteria, your type-ratings, and the simulator aircraft you've added (along with their substitutions), the program will display all potential "employers" (airlines) and the number of distinct routes they can allocate to you. All airlines are classified by size (determined by the number of flights available in the flight plan, the size of their fleet, etc.). For a brand-new pilot, it's VERY challenging to secure a job with anything other than a "Tiny" airline. If you apply for a job with a "Huge" airline, you might only have a 1-2% chance of your application being accepted (even with A LOT of experience, your chances will only hover around 50%). In the screen-shot below you see that AirExplore is classified as a "Tiny" airline, and the "Advisory" text-box tells you that you have approx a 84.1% chance that your application will be accepted:

 

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After choosing the airline you wish to apply to, you click the "Apply" button to submit your application. A pop-up message will inform you when to expect a response. Typically, this ranges between 3-10 (real-life) days depending on your chosen difficulty level, but for your very first application, the reply will be available within a few (real-life) hours. Once the application's response is ready, the program will automatically notify you upon opening the program, or the program it's currently running. After the reply is ready, you have a certain number of days (based on your settings) to either accept or decline it. For Normal difficulty, you have 16 days to decide. If you don't respond in time, the program will automatically decline the application, and there's a penalty affecting how quickly you can reapply for an airline that did not accept your application. In this case, we got the job:

 

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Performing assigned employment-flights:
Immediately upon accepting your new job, you will be assigned a batch of 10 flights to carry out, selected based on the criteria you specified when applying. With the Normal difficulty setting, you must complete this entire batch within 180 days, and you must perform at least one of these assigned flights every 30 days (as soon as you complete a flight, you have a maximum of 30 days to complete the next one). The 10 assigned flights must be flown consecutively, but you can choose to skip up to 3 of these (hence 7 flights of each batch of 10, must be completed). Skipping flights will negatively impacts your "loyalty score" with the airline, which in turn affects your chances of securing a job the next time you apply (e.g., at a larger airline). After performing 30 assigned flights, you will have a good loyalty-score, but to achieve a perfect score, you must complete at least 50 flights without skipping a single one. In this form, you also select which Simulator aircraft to use. The displayed substitution score will influence the points you earn by completing the flight:

 

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Creating a flight (log-entry) to fly (use SimBrief):
Whether you're creating a Free, Training, Type-rating, Chartered, or Employment flight, you'll use the form displayed below. For chartered or employment flights, certain fields are locked (e.g., you can't change departure/destination airports). The program can generate a load-sheet (number of pax and/or amount of cargo) and it performs a (very) basic fuel calculation. After you've configured the data to your liking, you can transfer it to SimBrief for flight planning (including fuel calculation) and dispatch. You have some flexibility in deciding what data to send to SimBrief. For instance, if you don't provide the flight time (the flight's duration), then SimBrief will calculate it based on its own algorithms, and you can use SimBrief to suggest alternates to use, and so on:

 

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Upon accepting the settings above, your browser will direct you to SimBrief and transmit the data (if you're not logged in, SimBrief will prompt you to do so). In SimBrief, you have the freedom to manually modify anything you want (at least ensure it has selected the correct Aircraft). Once your SimBrief dispatch is generated, you can import it back into your Log-entry. In doing so, the program will ask what information you want to update (or "overwrite" with data from the SimBrief dispatch):

 

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Once all the data is properly set, you save the Log-entry. Now, you're ready to start the simulator and carry out your flight. As previously explained, currently the program doesn't track/record your actual flight. So, if you want to "fake it", you can, but if that's your thing, you're free to do so However, once you've completed the flight, you need to "Commit" it (to the logbook). Choosing to do this, the same screen that appeared when you created the flight will reappear. Here, for instance, you can update the actual time you departed/arrived, and the remaining fuel on board and so on. In some cases, the program will reward you with one or more achievements, such as having flown a certain number of flights in the same aircraft, to/from the same airports/countries, the volume of passengers/cargo transported, the amount of fuel burned, or receiving a promotion:

 

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When you are first hired you rank will change from "Private pilot" (not employed) to "Junior first officer" (lowest rank, as employed). Opening your log-book the avatar illustration will show your current rank, and the progress-bar shows your progress towards the next rank (based on logged flight-time). The Totals/Statistic text-box contains a lot of statistics regarding what you have logged, such as number of-/total hours logged both in total, and split per type of flights, which sim-aircraft/aircraft-types those flights have been flown in, and which airports/countries you have departed from-/arrived at the most. The globe-trotter trophy (upper/right corner) as earned by flying out off-/into different countries. Here you only see an outline of it, hence you haven't earned any yet:

 

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The statistics (visible in prevous screen-shot) are shown on the first of 5 tab-pages. On the 2nd you can see a list of all previous flights you have committed, and double-clicking a flight you are able to see all the details of that flight. The 3rd tab-page shows all your type-ratings, the 4th shows all your achivedments, and for wich flights they were earned, and the 5th and last tab-page shows both your current, and any previous employments.

 

Once hirred you must perform your assigned flights. Using a "Normal" difficulty you have a total of 180 days to commit all 10 assigned flights, and you have to commit a new flight within 30 days of when you last committed a flight. However I do understand that real-life obligations can sometimes disrupt your simulation experience. Normally, if you fail to finish a batch of assigned flights in time or are unable to commit your next flight promptly, you'll be fired from your current job. This dismissal can negatively impact your loyalty score, consequently reducing the likelihood of acceptance of your next job application by any prospective employer. However, should you encounter a period during which your time for simulation activities is limited, the program provides an option to request a leave of absence. This action pauses the necessity to complete assignments. The length of your leave of absence and the frequency with which you can request one are determined by the difficulty setting chosen when you created the logbook. With a "Normal" difficulty-setting you can ask for a 90 day leave of absence, and after it have enden you need to wait at least 7 days, before being able to ask for a new leave of absence.

 

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So the million dollar question ... when will this next version release? The short answer: I don't know, but I hope it will be within a few weeks, pending the results of a few more tests that I would like to perform. To get ready for the upcoming feature, you can start by adding all your simulator aircraft, or at least the ones you plan to use initially. The tutorial video recorded for version 1.17, which can be found in the Help menu (starting at 11 minutes and 15 seconds), demonstrates how to create user aircraft. Please note that what is currently referred to as "Simulator Aircraft" was previously known as "Owned Aircraft" in this video. Additionally, the next version of Flightplan Visualizer will be targeting the .NET Framework version 4.8.1, which is necessary for running the application. If you haven't installed this framework yet, you can download it from this link: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework/net481. You only need to download the runtime version.