Recapping Free Flights, Tours, Schedules, Charters and Scoring
The moderation team at VirtualFlight.Online regularly find themselves answering questions from members about the various rules surrounding free flights, tours, scheduled flights, and charters within the virtual airline - wondering how the pilot rank affects their options - both in terms of flights they might complete, and aircraft they might use.
Let’s break it down.
How the Rank Structure Impacts You
Each tour and aircraft in the fleet is assigned a minimum rank. Therefore as you log more hours, you increase in rank and more tours and aircraft become available to you for tours, scheduled flights, and charters.
Free Flights
If you begin a flight within the ACARS client, there are no restrictions. You can fly whatever you want, wherever you want, and log the hours.
Tours
The virtual airline has a number of tours - where pilots can fly one leg after another to complete a tour and earn a badge for their user profile as a result.
Each tour has a minimum rank - which is displayed in the details of the tour. The index page of all tours groups them into broad class groups as well.
Most tour legs do not specify aircraft type - meaning you can use an aircraft of your own choosing.
If you dispatch a leg of a tour via Simbrief, any rank restrictions for that aircraft will come into play.
If a leg of a tour specifies an aircraft type, you can only fly that leg if you have the appropriate rank for that aircraft type (only the flight school event legs specify aircraft type).
Scheduled Flights
If you wish to dispatch a scheduled flight, you can only use aircraft you are qualified for (only Class D aircraft and above have scheduled flights).
If you wish to dispatch via Simbrief, you can also only do so using aircraft types you are qualified for.
Chartered Flights
If you wish to dispatch a Chartered Flight (via the dispatch page), you can only do so using aircraft types you are qualified for.
Ranks
The various ranks, and their associated hours are listed here for convenience - you can also find this table within the airline itself.
Student Pilot - 0 hours logged
Only the pilot school event is open to you
You may also fly "free flights" (filling in ACARS directly)
Private Pilot - 1 hour logged
All of the GA aircraft in the fleet become available to you.
Class D - 10 hours logged
All of the Turbo-props and many historic aircraft become available to you
10 hours - Class D First Officer
20 hours - Class D Captain
Class C - 30 hours logged
Many of the business jets and longer-range turbo props become available to you
30 hours - Class C First Officer
40 hours - Class C Captain
Class B - 50 hours logged
The airliners become available to you
50 hours - Class B First Officer
60 hours - Class B Captain
Class A - 70 hours logged
The longer range airliners and transport aircraft become available to you.
70 hours
80 hours
The Fleet
Scheduled and chartered flights require that you specify the aircraft type you will be using for the flight. The aircraft type ICAO code is used as identification - the aircraft available to each rank are listed below.
Note that scheduled routes are typically tailored for different aircraft based on range and flight time. You don’t want to see the software I wrote to come up with the schedules :)
Student Pilot
C152 Cessna 152
C172 Cessna 172
DR40 Robin DR400-100
Private Pilot
A5 Icon A5
B58T Beechcraft Baron G58
BDOG Scottish Aviation Bulldog
BE17 Beechcraft Model 17
BE18 Beechcraft Model 18
BE36 Beechcraft Bonanza G36
C170 Cessna 170B
C182 Cessna 182 Skylane
C195 Cessna 195 Businessliner
C310 Cessna 310
C337 Cessna 337 Skymaster
C414 Cessna 414A Chancellor
DA40 Diamond DA40-TDI
DA40 Diamond DA40NG
DA62 Diamond DA62
DG1T DG Flugzeugbau DG-1001e neo
DV20 Diamond DV20
FDCT Flight Design CTLS
G21 Grumman G-21 Goose
G2CA Guimbal Cabri G2
H4 Hughes H-4 Hercules
HUSK Aviat Husky
JN4 Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck"
L1P PZL-104 Wilga
LG8 DG Flugzeugbau LG8-18
M20R Mooney M20R Ovation
NYP Ryan NYP "Spirit of St Louis"
P28A Piper PA28 Warrior II
P28R Piper PA28 Arrow
P28S Piper PA28 Turbo Arrow
PA34 Piper PA-34 Seneca
PA44 Piper PA-44 Seminole
PIVI Pipistrel Virus SW 121
SR22 Cirrus SR22
SF50 Cirrus Vision Jet
TMOT de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth
VL3 JMB VL-3
WACF WACO WMYF-5
Class D
B247 Boeing 247
BN2A Britten Norman BN-2 Islander
BN2B Britten Norman BN-2 Trislander
C208 Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
DC3 Douglas DC-3 "Dakota"
DC6 Douglas DC-6A
DC6 Douglas DC-6B
DHC2 de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver
DHC4 de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou
DHC6 de Havilland Canada Twin Otter
G21 Grumman Goose
KODI Daher Kodiak 100
L10 Lockheed Electra 10A
PC6P Pilatus PC-6
Class C
B350 Beechcraft King Air 350i
B462 BAe 146 200
B407 Bell 407
C510 Cessna Citation Mustang
C700 Cessna Citation Longitude
CJ4 Cessna Citation CJ4
CRJ7 Bombardier CRJ 700
EC35 Airbus H135
EC45 Airbus H145
HDJT HA-420 Honda Jet
MD82 McDonnel Douglas MD-82
PC12 Pilatus PC-12
TBM9 Daher TBM 930
Class B
A310 Airbus A310
A320 Airbus A320
B736 Boeing 737-600
B737 Boeing 737-700
B738 Boeing 737-800
B739 Boeing 737-900
Class A
B748 Boeing 747-800
B787 Boeing 787
How your flight is scored
The Virtual Airline flight tracking system scores your flight on a number of parameters when you finish a flight. Those parameters are shown on the flight report as a series of ticks, and culminate in an overall score.
The score is primarily calculated by a number of tests - which (if failed) reduce your score by a ratio.
Scoring Parameters
The tests are as follows:
Landing rate was over 200 ft/min - score reduced by 5%
Landing rate was over 250 ft/min - score reduced by 7%
Landing rate was over 500 ft/min - score reduced by 10%
Crash detected - score is set to 0
Landing lights on above 10,000ft - score reduced by 1%
Landing lights off below 10,000ft - score reduced by 1%
Aircraft overspeed detected - score reduced by 10%
Slew detected - score reduced by 20%
Taxi overspeed detected - score reduced by 5%
Overspeed above 250kt below 10,000ft - score reduced by 5%
Beacon Off, Engine On - no affect on score
Stall detected - score reduced by 25%
Beyond these procedural tests, there are other factors, which will be covered soon.
Notes
The landing rate failures are cumulative - i.e. if you land at 280ft/min, your score will be downgraded by 12% (5% + 7%)
Due to incompatibility with some of the 3rd party aircraft in Flight Simulator, we have lowered the penalty for the Beacon Off / Engine On test - because false positives were being reported.
We have lowered penalty for the landing light test because it is unfair on GA aircraft (ACARS cannot differentiate between GA and commercial aircraft).
Remember this is just for fun!
And finally...
When recording flights either with ACARS, or manual PIREPs, you will be expected to record fair, accurate, and representative information. This is based on trust.
You will not manipulate time (through acceleration or deceleration) within the simulator
You will not use SLEW, teleportation, or any other method of artificially moving your aircraft
If filing a manual PIREP your report will be as accurate, fair, and as representative as reasonably possible
Still have questions?
If you have further questions about the virtual airline, don’t hesitate to search or start a topic within the #support channel in our Discord server.
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