Cargo Search Improvement

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ApovanGulb
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Cargo Search Improvement

Post by ApovanGulb » Thu Sep 24, 2020 2:47 pm

The cargo search while great in concept is still somewhat clunky to use. It's especially hard to identify the destination in range that offers the most profitable cargo from where you are currently at.

My procedure to do this is:
1. Enter Virtual Airline/Packages
2. Set your current or the closest possible airport as "destination"
3. Set "distance" according to the economic range of your plane
4. Select the right cargo sizes
5. Scroll through the list and look for clusters of priority packages

This is because if you are at an airport that is not woven into the flight plans of your VA, you can't select it in Database/Packages as package location. And Airlines/Packages won't work if you don't filter on any destination - I guess because there are gazillions of packages in the database.

My proposals:

a) Since my one and only goal is to find a route which will let me fill my cargo bay with sweet "priority" labelled packages, it would be much appreciated if you could add a filter for "priority only".

b) Make it possible to enter the ICAO code in the Database/Packages menu as an alternative to the pull down menu which only lists airports from your VA flight plan. Or add all airports at which one of your planes is present.

c) On the long term it might be a good idea to implement all of this into an optimized "book charter flight" procedure. Either generate a list of destinations that offer the highest ticket prices or highest cargo fees - or a combination of both. This would make the whole thing look more like driven by economics than by "where do I want to fly today?"

Charter flights and the cargo system open up a lot of flexibility for pilots who don't want to fly the same routes over and over again while still being guided by economic factors. Find the most profitable route from the airport you are currently at and go make some money.

We are a small VA planning with 2-5 pilots, some of which like to do some globetrotting. This would be perfect for that style of playing.

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joefremont
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Re: Cargo Search Improvement

Post by joefremont » Fri Sep 25, 2020 5:49 pm

Some good ideas here. There is something like this already, but not quite as flexible as you are suggesting. Off each airport information page is a page titled 'Package Summary'. On this page it shows the top 30 destinations for outgoing packages and top 30 sources for incoming packages. For each group it shows a table with columns for each size and the total weight, and each column is sortable, but it only shows the top 30 and you can't filter by distance.

Maybe what is needed is an enhanced airport summary that you can get to from VA->Packages that allows filtering by range and priority.
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ApovanGulb
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Location: Germany

Re: Cargo Search Improvement

Post by ApovanGulb » Wed Oct 07, 2020 3:30 pm

Yeah, the top 30 destinations are quite out of range most of the time if you are flying non-jets. Filtering by range and priority would do the trick I think. Sounds great!

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joefremont
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Re: Cargo Search Improvement

Post by joefremont » Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:34 pm

I have updated the package summary page so that now there is a drop down list of all aircraft your VA owns that can carry packages. There is also a checkbox to filter for priority packages only.

If you select an aircraft the packages will be filtered by the range and package size that can be carried by that aircraft type. Now it may be that because of the seat configuration the aircraft may not be able to carry its maximum size package, so be aware of that.

I have also added links between the airport package summary and the VA packages page so you can find those pages easier from each other.
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ApovanGulb
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Location: Germany

Re: Cargo Search Improvement

Post by ApovanGulb » Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:44 am

Nice work Joe. One can really tell you are putting work into developing this.

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