A few issues from a newcomer

[rav72]

Hiya,

Firstly, I must express how grateful I am for this great platform massively enhancing our hobby and passion. I'm hugely impressive with all the work done and we're looking forward to being a part of this community. I represent Polonaise VA which is one of the three airlines within a Polish group called SimNetAir. All our flights are always flown on Vatsim and we do take care of doing things as real as it's possible
We've decided to replicate our current fleet within FSA and then move on to the transition we've been planning to introduce. It's going to be a long journey even to get to the point, in terms of our fleet, where we are now but Rome was not built in a day, was it?
Anyway, I''ve managed to set up our VA and we've got our first plane leased courtesy to Air Shuttle Express (thanks for this great offer Gents! ) and we're going to bring more of our pilots in to generate enough income to start the ball seriously rolling. I've got a few, presumably simple, questions and would be grateful if someone more experienced could help us to clarify these things.

1. I gave my Vice CEO the rank of Manager though it appeared he wasn't able to add any new routes. When I changed his rank to Flight Director things came back to 'normal'. Is it how it works?
2. Hubs - we'd like to introduce a few hubs in addition to our main one. Is there a special feature for this or we should just place our designated to a particular hub planes at that airport? I presume we could create additional fleets to make it more transparent to our pilots and the management?
3. The 250kts below FL100 rule. I'm fully aware of the purpose of this limit but some heavier birds have their clean speed slightly higher than 250kts. So, does it mean that when flying for example a heavy loaded 747 we have to either fly below the clean speed and hence burn much more fuel or face constant penalties?
4. One of our rules is that pilots can pick a plane they have their TR for, from our hub and fly wherever they want to. The sky plus the plane's range are the limits If I'm correct pilots operating on this platform can only use previously created routes. Is there any way we could have our (no)limit back? Apart, obviously, from making all our pilots Flight Directors.
5. The last thing is the pilot rating system. Do all pilots on FSA start as Second Flight Officers? We have our own structure and I think it would be great if we could reflect it here as well.

Thanks a million in advance for your help!

Ralf Wawrzyniak
CEO Polonaise VA

[CAPFlyer]

Ralf,

First, welcome to FSAirlines! We're glad you decided to join our network. Your questions are actually common ones. I suggest you visit the "Tips & Tricks" forum and read the 2 threads that are addressed to all new users to read. They are near the top of that forum. This will answer most of your questions. I also suggest you use the forum search function as other questions you raised were just addressed within the last week.

If you are unable to find the answer to your questions, please don't hesitate to ask for further information or clarification, but usually your questions are better answered in those established threads where you can read all of the information and not have anyone "summarize" them (which usually leads to confusion) .

[rav72]

Thanks for the welcome Christopher. I should have mentioned that I did read those two threads (plus many others) and found lots of useful stuff and answers. I was also trying to use the search engine to get my doubts sorted before harassing people her The reason why I'm asking is because I'm still having my doubts. For instance having read the thread about VA ranks my understanding was that each Manager can do the same what a Flight Director can plus other things unavailable to FD. Unfortunately it seems not to be the case. Also, I think I might have missed the explanation of the low speed rule for heavy planes. I'm sorry to bother yous with my simple questions, the good thing is though that I never ask the same one twice Seriously speaking, I thought I would introduce myself to the community and try to find some more detailed information about possible (or not) ways to get my issues sorted. Just in case I've missed something rather than have not read at all
Thanks again matey!

Ralf

[flightsimer]

as for the ranks, you can edit each rank so they can do certain stuff and for pay... if you havent, i would just go into each rank and hit the edit button and you can see what exactly each rank can do. you can also create ranks...

there are no formal hubs here... just make the flightplans for your hubs you want...

TR is just a training rating, so they will only be able to fly training flights. you give them the full rating to make money and for them to be able to fly any route...

the pilot rating is just something FSA does i believe... you can make your own ranks and then give them to your pilots. ex... my airline has: junior first office, first officer, senior first officer, junior captain, captain, and senior captain in addition to the default ranks that FSA give all airlines. i did that so that as you work your way up, you will increase in pay...

hope that helps and welcome to FSA!

[CAPFlyer]

Ralf, thanks for clarifying that you tried to look. Usually the simplest search words or phases works best, however they're not foolproof. I will try to clarify somewhat your questions.

1. I gave my Vice CEO the rank of Manager though it appeared he wasn't able to add any new routes. When I changed his rank to Flight Director things came back to 'normal'. Is it how it works?

As was said above, the CEO can edit each rank and their permissions. By default, a Manager does not have the authority to add routes. A Flight Director does as that's basically what his job is. A manager simply manages pilots and their type ratings and aircraft. They typically don't deal with routes.

2. Hubs - we'd like to introduce a few hubs in addition to our main one. Is there a special feature for this or we should just place our designated to a particular hub planes at that airport? I presume we could create additional fleets to make it more transparent to our pilots and the management?

If you wish to keep certain aircraft on certain routes, you can assign aircraft by tail number to a group of flights. The details on how to do this in a "mass" fashion is covered in the Mass Upload tutorial.

3. The 250kts below FL100 rule. I'm fully aware of the purpose of this limit but some heavier birds have their clean speed slightly higher than 250kts. So, does it mean that when flying for example a heavy loaded 747 we have to either fly below the clean speed and hence burn much more fuel or face constant penalties?

We are in the process of putting in place a method to allow for pilots to disable this penalty during the climb portion of flight for certain aircraft where such a need is present on a regular basis. The problem is preventing it from being abused by pilots.

4. One of our rules is that pilots can pick a plane they have their TR for, from our hub and fly wherever they want to. The sky plus the plane's range are the limits If I'm correct pilots operating on this platform can only use previously created routes. Is there any way we could have our (no)limit back? Apart, obviously, from making all our pilots Flight Directors.

I think Tyler got confused with this question. You are speaking of your in-house Type Ratings. You are correct that you would have to make all of your pilots Flight Directors or give Route Editing permission to all of your pilots to be able to continue in the fashion you suggest. Real Airlines don't operate in this fashion, and thus we did not create the system to be able to handle such operations. We plan to add a capability for "charter" flights of some sort in the future, but in the meantime, we have a function that allows for a flight to only be flown a fixed number of times before being automatically deleted.

5. The last thing is the pilot rating system. Do all pilots on FSA start as Second Flight Officers? We have our own structure and I think it would be great if we could reflect it here as well.

You can change your ranks by clicking on the "Edit VA Settings" and adding the ranks with proper permissions and then manually assigning the proper rank to each pilot.

Thanks a million in advance for your help!

Ralf Wawrzyniak
CEO Polonaise VA[/quote]

[rav72]

Gents,

Thank you ever so much for your help, it's much appreciated. With regard to the ranks I completely missed this option to edit/add/delete VA ranks - I'm sorry for that. Regarding the 250kts rule I think it's quite common, in many FIRs, that ATCo allow for high speed regardless of whether it's a descent or climb. I know, it's difficult to have everything and I'm far, far away from any complaints!
I think there is only one more thing I'm slightly confused with. Is the multiplier that one can change when editing VA settings related to the pilots' remuneration whereas the multiplier used for calculating the VA's flight income depends on the current value of the VA? I assume that if this multiplier applies to pilots salaries the rule is the higher the value the more income goes to the pilot's pocket. What happens though when it's set to dynamic?

Ralf

[flightsimer]

dynamic just means as your VA value increases it will automatically decrease the multiplier...

also the multiplier is strictly based on the VA's value. so when you start, your every flight your va make no matter who the pilot is will have a multiplier of 1000, but as you grow, it will slowly come down to 25... mutliplier is done to the flight after the pilots wages are taken out, so the pilot will only make a % off of the origional income from pax/cargo.

so if a pilot is making 10% and books a flight that's income from pax and cargo is 10K, then the pilot will make 1000. Then the 9k will be multiplied by the multiplier and the VA will earn 9,000,000. (that simple example excluded all cost you will have on that flight (fuel, crew, food)) but those items are included in being multiplied...

so if i have a flight that has 10K in bookings, the pilot will make 1K, so 9K is left in profits but has a 6K fuel bill then the VA will only make 3,000,000 after the multiplier. However if the flight is at a loss, then the pilot will not make anything for it, and his pay will stay and go towards the expense(s). this flight from my VA should show that... http://www.fsairlines.net/index.php5?st ... 711&p=4631

hope that helps...

[CAPFlyer]

Sorry Tyler, but your explanation is totally incorrect.

There are two things for you to set Ralf-

1) Pilot Pay (percentage of profit)
2) VA Multiplier

These two options are fully independent of one another and have no effect on each other. Let's address each in turn.

1) Pilot pay can be set as a blanket for all employees of the VA or, by using the "Add Rank" button, can be set for each and every rank used by the VA. Pay is simply the designated percentage of the profits made on a flight prior to the application of the multiplier.

2) The VA multiplier is based on total VA value and in the "Dynamic" setting will automatically reduce as the VA's value increases. The purpose of this is simply to allow new VA's to quickly get started and established. Once that's done, then there is no need for them to make the same amounts of money and thus the multiplier decreases. If you wish to operate at a lower multiplier at any time, then you simply set that multiplier. HOWEVER, if your VA reaches a value that exceeds that set for the multiplier selected, the multiplier will still be reduced. This is to prevent very large VA's from being able to set their multiplier to 1000x and making unreasonable profits which would allow them to have too much influence on the system. The multiplier is applied to the profit of the flight AFTER pilot pay is deducted.

The basic operation goes like this -

Ticket Revenue + Cargo Revenue = Gross Revenue (GR)
GR - Fuel - Catering = Gross Profit (GP)
GP * Pay Percentage = Pilot Pay
GP - Pilot Pay = Net Profit
Net Profit * Multiplier = Flight Revenue

IF Gross Profit is negative, pilot pay is 0 (Zero). However, Net Profit will still be modified by the multiplier, so Flight Revenue can (and will) be negative.

[flightsimer]

all you did was say what i said in a different way only thing i didnt put whic i though i had was that they were seperate of one another...

[alasizon]

Ralf, thanks for clarifying that you tried to look. Usually the simplest search words or phases works best, however they're not foolproof. I will try to clarify somewhat your questions....

5. The last thing is the pilot rating system. Do all pilots on FSA start as Second Flight Officers? We have our own structure and I think it would be great if we could reflect it here as well.

You can change your ranks by clicking on the "Edit VA Settings" and adding the ranks with proper permissions and then manually assigning the proper rank to each pilot.

Thanks a million in advance for your help!

Ralf Wawrzyniak
CEO Polonaise VA

Chris,

I believe that Ralf was referring to the system ranks based on the amount of flights, second flight officer, captain, senior captain, senior flight captain etc.

[Quantum]

so if i have a flight that has 10K in bookings, the pilot will make 1K, so 9K is left in profits but has a 6K fuel bill then the VA will only make 3,000,000 after the multiplier. However if the flight is at a loss, then the pilot will not make anything for it, and his pay will stay and go towards the expense(s). this flight from my VA should show that... http://www.fsairlines.net/index.php5?st ... 711&p=4631

hope that helps...

Tyler,

The above is where your explanation really went awry and why Chris corrected you.

Regards

John

[flightsimer]

i still dont see any differences... but oh well doesnt really...

[CAPFlyer]

Tyler, you said that the pilot is paid before any costs are removed (i.e. fuel and catering). This is not correct. The pilot is paid AFTER all other costs are taken out. The multiplier is then applied after the pilot pay is deducted.

[flightsimer]

alright i get what your saying, but i only said it that way to show that it wasnt affected by the multiplier... and it wasnt based on the final profit with the multiplier...

[rav72]

Folks,

Many things for all your answers and help, it's much appreciated. I think that everything is clear for me now and thanks to your replies I was able, hopefully , to set up our VA correctly.

Matt, you are right as I was referring in that question to ranks based on the number of hours flown. I just assumed though that this rank represents pilot’s achievement on this platform and everybody starts with the rank of Second Flight Officer. It' absolutely understandable and fair and our internal system I was able to replicate using the VA ranks.

Thanks a lot,
Ralf