"Emergency" button
Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 2:34 pm
I definitely like the new "emergency" button, but I think you should have 2 buttons. One that says "emergency" (like after a FlyNET-induced failure) and one that says "divert" for if the weather isn't good enough at the destination. An "emergency" would have a higher penalty.
For example-
Real World - An airplane has a hydraulic system failure. The crew diverts to the nearest airport. The plane has to make a belly landing on the runway. Now, the passengers & potential customers are quite frightened because of this accident you've just had. The crew did what they were supposed to, but you still loose some reputation. The plane is put on its landing gear, towed to a hangar and repaired (obviously you're not going to be allowed to fly it until it's fixed). The passengers are flown on to their destination on another flight or a special flight brought in by the airline.
FlyNET - Plane has a FlyNET induced failure (landing gear). Pilot diverts, makes a successful belly landing. Plane damaged (probably down to somewhere around 75% due to the damage to the engines and/or belly) and grounded until repaired. VA takes a 10 point reputation penalty and looses any ticket revenue for that flight. Pilot gets a flight rating of 95 for doing a good job of landing the plane in one piece. Once the plane is fixed, the VA can either transfer the plane to another location or have it flown out by adding a temporary flight.
Real World - Flight takes off with weather forcasted to be marginal but improving at the destination when it arrives. Flight gets in the vicinity of the destination but weather hasn't improved as it's supposed to, so they go into a hold near the airport. After a while, the weather improves to near minimums so the crew decides to attempt an approach. They do and the approach hits minimums with no sight of the runway so they go around and try again. Again, they don't see the runway, so now it's time to divert. They divert to their planned alternate where the weather is acceptable. They land, get fuel, and the crew and passengers deplane and wait for the weather to improve. A few hours later, the weather improves, everyone reboards the plane and they continue to the destination. The cost to the airline is little. Passengers understand that weather forecasting isn't perfect and that you did what was safe. There is a little repuation hit because they didn't make their connections or those picking them up had to wait a long time, but nothing major.
FlyNET - Flight diverts for the same reason as above (poor weather at destination). Pilot hits the "divert" button on the FlyNET console. FlyNET lets them input the airport they're diverting to. Now all FlyNET does is monitor the rest of the flight. When the flight lands, there are 2 things done. First, the airline takes a 5 point reputation penalty. Second, a flight using the same flight number is automatically created in the FlyNET database for that flight and automatically booked to the pilot flying the flight that gets the flight from the airport they landed at to the actual destination that they were supposed to land at. This flight will have no ticket or cargo revenue (you don't get paid twice for flying the same passengers) but will have the same amount of cargo and passengers as the original flight. This way, as soon as the weather improves, the pilot will then finish the flight, even if it means turning off FS weather. If the pilot is unable to finish the flight within 24 hours, then FlyNET will automatically transfer the airplane and pilot to the destination and charge the VA for the movement of the plane and the pilot for his movement using the existing transfer code.
This sounds somewhat involved, but it eliminates a lot of work for the VA managers & CEOs and it makes things simple for the pilot. All he (the pilot) has to do is hit one button and type in 4 letters and/or numbers and it's all taken care of.
For example-
Real World - An airplane has a hydraulic system failure. The crew diverts to the nearest airport. The plane has to make a belly landing on the runway. Now, the passengers & potential customers are quite frightened because of this accident you've just had. The crew did what they were supposed to, but you still loose some reputation. The plane is put on its landing gear, towed to a hangar and repaired (obviously you're not going to be allowed to fly it until it's fixed). The passengers are flown on to their destination on another flight or a special flight brought in by the airline.
FlyNET - Plane has a FlyNET induced failure (landing gear). Pilot diverts, makes a successful belly landing. Plane damaged (probably down to somewhere around 75% due to the damage to the engines and/or belly) and grounded until repaired. VA takes a 10 point reputation penalty and looses any ticket revenue for that flight. Pilot gets a flight rating of 95 for doing a good job of landing the plane in one piece. Once the plane is fixed, the VA can either transfer the plane to another location or have it flown out by adding a temporary flight.
Real World - Flight takes off with weather forcasted to be marginal but improving at the destination when it arrives. Flight gets in the vicinity of the destination but weather hasn't improved as it's supposed to, so they go into a hold near the airport. After a while, the weather improves to near minimums so the crew decides to attempt an approach. They do and the approach hits minimums with no sight of the runway so they go around and try again. Again, they don't see the runway, so now it's time to divert. They divert to their planned alternate where the weather is acceptable. They land, get fuel, and the crew and passengers deplane and wait for the weather to improve. A few hours later, the weather improves, everyone reboards the plane and they continue to the destination. The cost to the airline is little. Passengers understand that weather forecasting isn't perfect and that you did what was safe. There is a little repuation hit because they didn't make their connections or those picking them up had to wait a long time, but nothing major.
FlyNET - Flight diverts for the same reason as above (poor weather at destination). Pilot hits the "divert" button on the FlyNET console. FlyNET lets them input the airport they're diverting to. Now all FlyNET does is monitor the rest of the flight. When the flight lands, there are 2 things done. First, the airline takes a 5 point reputation penalty. Second, a flight using the same flight number is automatically created in the FlyNET database for that flight and automatically booked to the pilot flying the flight that gets the flight from the airport they landed at to the actual destination that they were supposed to land at. This flight will have no ticket or cargo revenue (you don't get paid twice for flying the same passengers) but will have the same amount of cargo and passengers as the original flight. This way, as soon as the weather improves, the pilot will then finish the flight, even if it means turning off FS weather. If the pilot is unable to finish the flight within 24 hours, then FlyNET will automatically transfer the airplane and pilot to the destination and charge the VA for the movement of the plane and the pilot for his movement using the existing transfer code.
This sounds somewhat involved, but it eliminates a lot of work for the VA managers & CEOs and it makes things simple for the pilot. All he (the pilot) has to do is hit one button and type in 4 letters and/or numbers and it's all taken care of.