4E - The In-flight report

Pressing CTL+SHF+I will bring up the in-flight report.

It contains useful information about your flight data, the passengers’ opinion and advice about the hunger level or crew actions being taken.

It also shows your destination if set it when you loaded the aircraft.

The in-flight report does not pause your FS2004 flight.

The in-flight report:

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5 - How to make a perfect flight and avoid penalties

In FsPassengers most penalties assessed are simply based on real world limitation.

Thus someone following real world rules/procedures will avoid these penalties.

FsPassengers can educate you in this domain.

There is nothing complicated here and most penalties are logical.

This being said, FS2004 remains a game with limitations so you might read the text below to help you complete a successful flight and avoid penalties.

In FsPassengers all the penalties are applied with a safe margin.

This means that you will not get a penalty exactly when you exceed some number but sometime later, so when you get a penalty it’s really because you went way beyond a limit.

Errors might affect only your pilot’s points (typically over-speed or flight error) or affect only your passengers’ satisfaction level (such as a movie interrupted by arrival).

The things to remember with the standard penalties are:

. Fly smoothly, do not over bank or dive like a Stuka dive bomber, do not shake your passengers.

. Do not forget to set at least one notch of flaps during take-off or landing.

. Do not use the parking brake unless your aircraft is stopped.

. Do not use full thrust with the parking brake set.

. Do not roll off the taxiway or landing strip (see below as this limitation doesn’t apply to all aircraft).

. Do not use reverse thrust under 60kts.

. Do not exceed 250kts under 10'000 ft. without clearance.

. Do not pitch too much on landing or on take-off (at 10° pitch most aircraft will tail strike the ground).

. Ensure you have a 45mn fuel reserve fuel at landing.

. Do not forget the seat belt sign at low altitude and during landing or take-off.

. Do not extend your flaps or gear at high speed.

. Do not open the door(s) during flight or fly too high with a non-pressurized aircraft.

For optional penalties, please refer to “5B . Optional penalty”.

5A . Usual penalty

Stall, G excess, high descent rate, too much bank or pitch angle

You will be penalized not only for your poor piloting skills, but also for upsetting your passengers.

Over-speed

You must not exceed the “VNE” speed of your aircraft.

This is the “Speed NEVER to exceed” (not “sometime”).

It is your responsibility to ensure that you never reach the red line.

If this happens because of wind conditions in FS2004, your weather is not set properly to smooth the wind sheer.

We recommend using a third party software such as FSUIPC to correct this situation.

Overspeed can damage your aircraft in economic mode.

Gear or flap speed excess

If you exceed gear or flaps speed limitations, you will get a penalty and your gear or flaps will be damaged.

You might then have to declare an emergency and make a landing without flaps or perform a belly landing.

In this case, keep your speed as low as possible and land as gently and straight as possible.

You may save all your passengers if you land smoothly enough.

Rolling outside landing strip:

You will be penalized and passengers will be afraid if you roll off a runway or a taxiway.

This rule applies to ALL JET aircraft without weight consideration, and to all other aircraft in excess of 40'000 kg (88’184 Lbs).

This was done to preserve the DC3’s and other lighter aircraft “grass capabilities”.

Because some airports in FS2004 have incorrect surface declarations (i.e.: you can see that you roll on the taxiway but internally the surface is declared as “grass”), this penalty is only triggered when your speed is higher than 35kts.

This being said, your can set the detection speed back to the original 5kts (see “10J . Disable/tune basic penalty”).

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Using parking brake when not stopped:

The parking brake is not intended for normal braking and you should only use it when the aircraft is stopped.

In economic mode, setting the parking brake while your aircraft is in motion could damage your aircraft!

Too much thrust with parking brake set:

You must not push the engine(s) to their maximum power with the parking brake set.

Use the normal brakes if you need to remain stopped with full power.

In economic mode, setting the parking brake with full engine power could damage your aircraft!

Hard landing

You will be penalized for a hard landing and your passenger’s satisfaction level will drop.

In economic mode, a hard landing could damage your aircraft!

No flaps on take-off or landing:

You must set flaps on take-off and on landing.

FsPassengers cannot detect if the flaps are set as recommended in the flight manual of any given aircraft, but it will penalize you if forget to set the flaps.

Too fast under 10'000 feet

Like in the real world, FsPassengers restricts your speed to less than 250kts under 10’000 ft.

You can request an ATC clearance to exceed this speed.

If you are not authorized to do so, you will be penalized for flying at speeds over 250kts under 10’000 ft.

Exit opened in flight

If you open a door during flight, you will receive a hefty penalty.

In this case, you must also declare an emergency and land as soon as possible.

If you open a door at high altitude, you might get an explosive decompression, injured passengers or even worse if you do not descend to below 12’000 ft in time.

The mini-report will display a “pressure/oxygen” level warning to show you how your passengers are surviving the lack of oxygen at high altitude.

Use of reverse thrust below 60 kts

In the real world using reverse thrust below 60kts is forbidden as it can damage the engine(s).

The same applies to FsP.

Tail strike at take-off or landing

A tail strike may happen if you pitch your aircraft too much during take-off or landing (typically more than 10°).

In this case, you will be penalized and, if you are in economic mode, your aircraft will be damaged.

Flying too high in non-pressurized aircraft

Flying above 12'000 ft without pressurization can injure your passengers.

Start while passengers are boarding/un-boarding

If you use real time load and you start your flight while passengers are still boarding the aircraft or if you open the door at the end-of-flight and restart your flight when some passengers are still aboard you will be penalized.

Ensure you have 45 mn fuel reserve at landing

Flight rules and FsP require that you have a 45 minutes fuel reserve at landing.

The in-flight report will show your actual reserve.

No seat belt at low altitude, on take-off or landing:

Logically the seat belt sign must be turned on during the potentially dangerous phases of your flight such as landing, take-off or when flying at low altitude.

Seat belt always on

If you do not have special weather considerations passengers will not understand why they are required to keep their seat belt on for the duration of the flight.

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Ensure having enough time to serve

Typically, each service can last 10 to 20 minutes and movies about 1h20.

Take care to time your service and movie so that they end prior to the descent.

Passengers get annoyed if they are not fed or if they miss the end of the movie.

5B . Optional penalty

See difficulty setup in FsPassengers setup menu to allow optional penalties.

By default they are OFF.

As for basic penalties FsPassengers always applies a safe cushion.

For example, you will not be penalized if you forget to turn on the landing lights under 9'999 ft., but you will be penalized if you go below 8’000 without turning them on.

Altimeter penalty:

If this option is set to realistic you must monitor your altimeter setting.

Below Transition Altitude (TA) you must tune ATIS station and set it to the current pressure, above TA you must set it to standard pressure 1013/29.92.

FsPassengers applies a safe cushion: you will only get penalized if you exceed 2000ft above the TA without altimeter set to standard pressure and you’ll get penalty for a bad altimeter setting only when you are at low altitude and about to land.

You may set the TA altitude detection (see ≪ difficulty setup ≫ dialog).

Realistic light penalty: Works as in the ≪real world≫.

. Beacon must be turned ON when the engine(s) is/are about to be started.

. Strobe and landing lights must be turned ON when you leave the taxi way and enter the landing strip.

. Landing lights must be turned OFF above FL100 and ON under FL100.

. Strobe and landing light must be turned OFF when you enter the taxi way after landing.

. Beacon must be turned OFF only after you have shut down the engine(s).

. NAV light must be ON during the entire flight.

Notice: FsPassengers consider you are on the ≪ taxi way ≫ when your parking brakes are set.

Simple light penalty:

Landing lights must be turned ON under FL100 and OFF above FL100. No other light penalty applies.

Transponder penalty:

If you check this option you will need to set your transponder to Emergency Code 7700 if/when you declare an emergency, otherwise you'll be penalized.

You will also receive a penalty if you set a false emergency code like 7500 (hijacking), or set 7700 without declaring, or without there actually being, an on board emergency.

Be warned that FS2004 will cancel your IFR flight if you set 7700 when you have an emergency because FS2004 doesn’t consider the transponder emergency code.

This said, this might not be too bad because in an emergency you might land at another airport.

5C . Disable basic penalty by config file

In the folder “FsPassengers/config” which is located in your FS2004 directory there is a file named “more_option.cfg”.

Editing it with notepad allows you to disable or set values for most penalties.

Have a look at “10J . Disable/tune basic penalty”.

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5D . Get more points for completing an exceptional flight

A pilot’s points are important because they have a direct impact on his career progression.

Good flights will eventually lead to promotions and bad flights could result in an immediate demotion.

While a bad flight results in a loss of points; you can gain points by flying normal, good and exceptional flights.

You can event get more point by doing the following:Successful landing with a failure:

You will get bonus points if you land safely after an emergency.

The worse the emergency is; the more points you will earn.

You will also gain point for a successful belly landing with a gear emergency or a “successful” crash with a low count of injured aboard.

A “successful crash” is made by descending with the lowest speed possible and landing with the lowest vertical speed, pitch and bank angle possible.

Declare an emergency:

If you have a problem aboard you will receive a bonus for simply declaring an emergency.

Make sure you do have an emergency because declaring a false emergency will cost you points.

Bonus for landing at the declared airport and precise arrival time:

If you set a destination and/or an arrival time in the payload dialog when you start your FsPassengers flight, you will get a bonus if you land at the planned destination and/or arrive at the planned time.

Bonus/penalty table for planned arrival time:

Flight Time

Bonus Range

Penalty late

Penalty early

1 hour

6 mn

20 mn

30 mn

2 hours

12 mn

20 mn

36 mn

3 hours

18 mn

22 mn

54 mn

4 hours

24 mn

29 mn

72 mn

5 hours

30 mn

36 mn

90 mn

6 hours

36 mn

43 mn

108 mn

7 hours

42 mn

50 mn

126 mn

8 hours

48 mn

58 mn

144 mn

9 hours

54 mn

65 mn

162 mn

10hours

60 mn

72 mn

180 mn

Example:

If you fly 2 hours and your planned arrival time is 10h00 GMT you must arrive between 9h54 and 10h06 to receive a bonus.

You will be penalized if you arrive before 9h24 or after 10h20.

Bonus for long flight with satisfied passengers without using time acceleration:

The bonus will be proportional to the duration of your flight.

Flying in war area and safe landing:

You will get a bonus if you land safely after flying through a war zone.

Bad weather bonus at landing or take-off:

You will get a bonus if the passengers remain satisfied when taking-off or landing in bad weather conditions.

Flying without time acceleration:

Time acceleration is convenient but costly.

You will lose 30% of all bonus points if you activate the time acceleration at any point during the flight.

The 30% loss is NOT applied to penalties.

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