Aircraft base - clearly indicated

[Durango]

Suggestion - home base of an aircraft

I'm new to FSA and still learning, but at the same time I see it with fresh new eyes, and as such I have a different perspective

for example, in real life and any other situation, an aircraft is based at one single airport

it can travel all over the world, and it can be temporarily based at another airport, for maintenance, or other temp jobs, but ultimately is based at its home base

so, I suggest introducing a new field in the Aircraft info page, to clearly indicate its home base, a field that we can edit as needed when needed

for example, if I have a B744 based in NYC, or L.A, or whatever existing airport based on the airline's agenda, I'd like to be able to see its assigned home base, and for me, and any other pilots in the airline, and for anyone looking at that aircraft info

not just its location, it can be located across the world, in Sydney Australia, or Entebbe, Uganda, or any other valid airport but its home base is unique for that plane, and anyone should see it, maybe even to help bring it closer to its home base if that is desired from the owners/operators of that aircraft

and clearly, that aircraft should NOT pay any parking fees, at its home base, if there is an active ground facility of the airline at its home base, assuming with the ground facility, some parking slots are included by default

also, since I'm covering the Aircraft info page, I'd suggest showing also other info that we need to check often, like:
- the optimal cruise altitude
- optimal climb and speed
- maximum range

as it is now, we don't see it there, and if we need to check that info, we need to navigate to "Aircraft type info' and that means more navigation on the website, more clicks, more loading times per more pages, so more wasted time combined just to reach the desired info, and not last more workload on the servers, from users doing all this navigation around the website

thank you for reading my suggestions

[Cat]

For each fleet in your VA, you assign an airport as that fleet's "home base" and you get 50% off parking fees for those aircraft when they are at that airport.

You can change any fleet's home base at any time using the "update fleet" tab on the right margin.



As far as assigning a home base to each individual aircraft, that is a whole lot of unecessary work when you have them already assigned to fleets with a home base for each fleet.

Regarding altitude, climb/speed and range, that is all very payload dependent so there is no fixed number as it all depends on your fuel load and your passenger / cargo weight on how the airplane performs. Very rarely will an airplane be able to carry a full maximum payload with full fuel (exceeding max takeoff weight) the full maximum range. If you want to fly the maximum range of the aircraft, you must give up something in cargo and passenger capacity. That's just the way it is in the real world too. A heavily loaded aircraft has nowhere near the climb performance of a lightly loaded one and many times in the real world, "step climbs" are required until enough fuel has been burned off on a long distance flight for the airplane to be able to actually attain the desired cruise altitude.

[Durango]

thank you, Sam, or Cat

I agree with you about the aircraft values for maximum range, cruising altitude, climb speed, and more depending greatly on the payload

I was just simply stating that we should see on the aircraft page that is ours, operated by the airline, the info we see as far as specs, in the aircraft info, that's the general info for that aircraft

yes, we can see that info anyway, by navigating to the next page of Aircraft info type, but that's extra clicks, loading time for pages, and as such a waste of time for the user, and increased server workload on the server side

I still maintain my idea of having a base per aircraft, not just per fleet, this is how it is in real life, and this is a practical way to operate an aircraft

a fleet can have hundreds of aircrafts, and if all are parked at almost the same fleet base, will be a mess, and no airport administration would allow that in real life

the fleet base is mainly for administrative offices, for management operations, not for the planes in that fleet to be parked there, to enjoy a 50% discount

a base for the aircraft is the place where the airline has hangars, usually rented or built and as such owned, and the plane is parked there - free of charge - as long as the airline has a facility in good standing with the airport administration at that airport

if it would be a lot of "a whole lot of unnecessary work" from the FSA standpoint, that's something I can't control, but this is how it is in real life, each plane has its own base, and usually a dedicated parking spot or a hangar

I'm now using the "Edit Aircraft Info" to clearly set the plane's base, for all using that plane to see, it's acceptable for the time being, but if you name the aircraft, indicate its base, and maybe its role (local, regional, etc) that field will get cluttered with a lot of info and the reader may get lost in the clutter

I'm OK using that for now, but I was just suggesting an extra field, dedicated to the plane's base would be useful, and with free parking for its base

I will say it again, a plane's base is not the same as the fleet's base, and we can agree to disagree on that if you will, but this is how it is in real life

I am pleasantly impressed by the level of realism in FSA so this is just in line with this realism and authenticity

thank you for considering my suggestions

[joefremont]

Personally I think putting a base on each aircraft is a bit excessive. If you want to specify which airport an aircraft is based at I have seen airlines use the aircraft name field for that, but being able to set the base on an aircraft and expect a parking discount for that is a non starter. Just set the aircraft base to what ever the plane has just landed at and get a discount.

Remember there is no limit to the number of fleets you have and a pilot can be assigned to multiple fleets at the same time, so there is no reason you can't subdivide your large fleets.