Chatper 3: Flight Planning
Not intended for real world pilotage. For entertainment purposes only. Consult your manufacturer, operator, and/or local regulatory body for all operational requirements.
Cost Index
Though we now offer schedules after 1999, in our hearts it's still the 1980s at PVA-HG. That means Cost Indices are not something we're concerned about - gas is free and who cares about the planet. We have no recommended CI for PVA operations and leave those choices entirely up to the pilot.
Weight and Balance
Each aircraft add-on is modeled by the developer to represent different subvariants and reference aircraft, and so it is impossible for there to be a standardized aircraft weights and payloads across the PVA-HG fleet.
When booking a flight with the Dispatch via SimBrief method, the default values of 230 pounds per passenger (175 for the person, 55 for their bags) will be used. The Cargo field in the booking screen will therefore always be empty as the weight of bags is already factored into the passenger weight.
Fuel Requirements
It is each pilot’s responsibility to ensure when planning their flight that they carry enough fuel on board to reach their destination, as well as fuel for any required alternates and/or contingency fuel.
Pegasus will detect any and all instances of fuel changes in-flight, and any PIREP with a fuel increase during flight is subject to immediate invalidation without appeal by the admin/staff team.
If a flight cannot be completed due to the fuel load, the pilot should divert to the closest company airport rather than increase fuel in flight. Diverting appropriately combined with an honest assessment in the required PIREP comment will upgrade the resulting PIREP from invalidation to rejection (hours granted, no points).
Alternate Airports (3-2-1 Rule)
All flights must be dispatched with at least one (1) alternate airport included in the flight plan, unless the following condition is met: for at least one (1) hour before and one (1) hour after the estimated time of arrival at the destination airport the forecasted weather indicates the ceiling will be at least 2,000 feet above the airport elevation and the visibility will be at least 3 miles.
Extra Fuel and ETOPS Planning
When booking a flight via the Dispatch via SimBrief method, a pop-up window will appear offering an Extra Fuel amount – defaulted to zero pounds – and a tick box to enable ETOPS planning.
The ETOPS Planning tick box corresponds to the ETOPS Planning tick box in the New Flight screen on the SimBrief site and selects whether SimBrief should find ETOPS alternates if the route requires them.
Domestic and International Fuel Reserves
All flights are prohibited from pushing back from the gate unless the following fuel requirements are met:
Domestic Flights:
- Sufficient fuel to fly to the destination airport
- Sufficient fuel to fly to the most distant filed alternate (if an alternate is required)
- 45 minutes of normal cruising fuel consumption (FAR Reserve)
International Flights (Flag): You may apply the domestic reserve fuel policy to all international destinations that are within 950 nautical miles of the Continental United States. All destinations outside of that 950 nm range must follow the flag fuel reserve policy:
- Sufficient fuel to fly to the destination airport
- Sufficient fuel to fly to the most distant filed alternate (if an alternate is required)
- 30 minutes of normal cruising fuel consumption (FAR Reserve)
- 10% contingency fuel
In the future, we will explore the feasibility of publishing fuel requirements per operator if sufficient data can be gathered to compare.
Weather Minima
A flight may not depart if the arrival airport is forecasted to have visibility below the published approach minimums at the time of arrival. If the weather deteriorates enroute, visibility must be above the published minimums for that approach prior to beginning the final approach segment. If visibility drops after beginning the final approach segment, the approach may be continued but a missed approach must be executed if the runway cannot be seen visually at minimums.
Diversions
This functionality has changed with vAMSYS v5 and this section will be re-written post launch when we understand the functionality better and can provide screenshots, etc.