point system

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Tomorrow 1:25 AM
Hello Pilots,

After a few flights under the flag of the Air Child I am quite impressed how flexible and pilot friendly is this VA.
So first of all let me congratulate to all of the people who gave her/his contribution to achieve this result.
As all of us knows we have the pointing system, which calculated based on the completed flights and flight time. I know with so many acars system what we have in operation it is not possible, but maybe in the future it would fun -I guess- to differentiate a bit on the given points: i.e. based on the V/S of the landing the total 3 points which is given by the completed flight could be 1,2 or 3 (or whatever). A pilot who makes smoother landings, taking care of the airframe, shows more experience could be promoted on this way. It is just one example, and of course I also do not support to go in a very complicated direction, just to have some "bonus" motivation to push us in a "professional" way.
As far as I know only the XAcars doesn't reporting the TD V/S, but I am not an IT expert.

So, it is just an idea, feel free to share your pros and cons or whatever you think :)

Greetings,
Tibor
 
Dear Tibor (Sir! :) )

I don't know if it is feasible to implement further criteria for the points system, but I agree with you that not all flights are the same - regardless of distance. I am currently trying to learn how to fly in controlled airspace, and so far I am so frightened by the idea to be asked to perform some maneuver that I don't know how to do (example: change landing rwy and/or star "on the fly") that I am still doing my flights in remote and wild areas... :think: I know full well that my "rank" is not = to those who earned it puffing and panting it the hard way with ATC but I guess I have to accept that this is part of my learning curve... In conclusion: it is clear that flights are not all the same and whoever is honest enough to acknowledge this should find in himself the motivation to learn and improve his skills (I do!). More complicated points system could help but are not indispensable and not the only way to motivate pilots - I can think of other ways. For example: how about having our Board of Directors select one or more "special challenge flights" every week or month, and then review the data of those brave pilots who made it assigning a reward to the best? Just another idea... On another note, given that I am particularly creative tonight: how about having a few of our controllers (I assume we have also controllers in our airlines or some controller friends) staff a couple of airports (not too far away) and help novices like me improve their controlled airspace skills? Looking forward to everybody's reply... Good night!
 
Hello Giuseppe,

Of course the main purpose of my suggestion is not to differenciate between "good" and "bad" pilots, as finally it is a hobby and everyone can do it as he enjoys it :) It is more for challange yourself, to have a nice T/D for instance, to gain more points and to have a higher rank.
What you propose is also a good idea, just personaly I do not want to give continous workload to someone to deal with the event planning, etc.
Anyway let's see what the others saying.

Tibor
 
Yopu can perform VATSIM flights and get hours in that type of flights. And there are some parts of VATSIM Pilot Training already available. Something simmilar to controlers certification, but valid for pilots, who want some prestige (certificates for pilots will not be required to fly in same way as certificates for controlers are required to control airspace). There will be some kind of teoretical test and practical flights in specified conditions to pass and get certificate on higher level. More details on vatsim webpages.

For VA rank is more like getting patient in flying, its NOT easy to get high rank in short time. Especially when You are flying with complex airplane on vatsim and using acars of FSPAX. In my opinion fsPAX is one of best acars available, including emergencies and some hardcoded stuff like speed limits under FL100/10,00ft, proper lighting during each stage of flight, emergencies and other fun stuff. It really need more planning and attention during flying, not only in term of flight preparation, using maps etc, but also slower and more accurate flying - pax does not like tactical landing approach type in L100 :devil:
 
Wonderful ideas, Giuseppe and Tibor! Especially the "guided" flights on Vatsim, controlled by ACH controllers (or also "instructor" pilots), would be a great addition. Actually we had that in mind since the beginning of the VA. At first, we fancied a flight school with one designated instructor (we had an agreement with a retired pilot for Air Berlin) on fixed days/evenings. But soon we realised that it wouldn't work this way. It's difficult to gather enough people at a certain day and time. Something we learned from our company events on Vatsim. Maybe tis will be possible once the airline is bigger (about 200 pilots may look much, but the regular core is not more than 50).

Something that could work is if people made personal appointments on the forum for instructor/controller guided flights. In that case it wouldn't matter if only 2 or 3 people meet at one time. For that matter, we'd like to encourage all of you to come to the forum and leave a note, if you'd like to instruct someone or be instructed.

About the landing VS (or rewards, in general): basically, we didn't invent those challenges because we wanted to avoid too much competition between members. Competition can have a positive aspect in terms of motivation. On the other hand it can be negative because there's always people who have more time and/or skills than others, and the latter might feel left behind.
So, I really don't know about that point. What's your opinion? Rewards? Yes? No? Tell us ...
Note aside: the VS "challenge" is actually difficult, as you say, because it would leave out all the XAcars users.

Anyways, once we have implemented the VA business and financial simulation (don't ask me when exactly that will be...), there will probably be some kind of challenges or even rewards, like, for example, performing effective flights in relation to time/fuel cost, etc.
 
Sorry, crossposted with Szymon .... ;)
Szymon Kurzacz said:
In my opinion fsPAX is one of best acars available, ....
Agreed, except that it has just NO acars functionality (live messages / position reports) and that the support is more or less non-existant ... ;)
At some point we thought about the option to concentrate the VA on only one add-on (most likely FlightKeeper), but we dropped the idea because people would be forced to pay.
There was also the idea to make an acars client on our own but, honestly, it's way too much work and I don't know of a VA where it worked (Austrian VA had a custom client, once, but stopped it after FSX was released).

@Szymon (totally off-topic): are you finally married?? ... we want pictures!! :lol:
 
Nice to see some life on the forum :)
Anyway, it was just an idea, maybe you are right such a point system could have a negative aspect as well, but on the other side I guess the financial simulation makes a much bigger competition, as we can influence more stages of our flight. I tried once this financial simulation, but to be honest for me that is way above what I expect from a flight simulation and I feel loose my flexibility, but this is my pers. opinion.
The online event is nice, but as you mentioned, it is hard to arrange people in same time at front of the PC, but of course in case of interest it is not impossible :)

So, keep going the brain storming guys !

Tibor
 
I think this is a good idea, point system for all phases of flight including VS "challenge", so everyone will get a bonus for some phase of flight. I mean, If someone does not land very well, he can receive bonus for other things - speed limits, proper lighting, time/fuel cost etc.
 
Hi to all I was curious how to point sistem is down after flioght ios completed. I mean how many points for what ,is it lenghts of the flight,flight critigues.... ? cheers Petr :think:
 
Petr, regarding the piont system, please refer to the Pilot Manual on page 6. ;)
you will find the Pilot Manual in the "documents" section.
 
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