Livery Review QRH
Introduction
This page was created to provide members and staff an easy to reference/easy to share resource to address common questions and concerns about livery reviews. All information in this document can be found in the Flight Operations Manual.
How this document is used: You may be linked this page in a staff comment on a PIREP along with a section number. Matching the section number you were given to the numbered sections below will give you a quick summary of why your PIREP was held for review, rejected, or invalidated due to the livery and what, if any, next steps you can expect.
Section 1
Booked aircraft type must match flown aircraft type
This will be mentioned several times below, but this is the most common livery related error that we see when reviewing PIREPS.
You must fly the same type of aircraft that you booked for your PIREP. When you book your flight, if you select an aircraft type different from the one you intend to fly, you must cancel that booking and re-book the flight with the correct aircraft type.
Your PIREP will be invalidated if the booked aircraft type does not match the flown aircraft type.
Please pay attention to the both the aircraft type you book as well as it's subvariant.
For a few reasons, we give a little more flexibility with the MD-80. We have many MD-80 operators in our schedules who operated both the MD-82 and the MD-83. We do not penalize PIREPs when an MD-82 is booked as an MD-83 and vice versa. The MD-88 is sufficiently different, however, that the PIREP will be flagged, the user warned, and the PIREP possibly rejected or invalidated, if it is booked for an MD-82/83 or vice versa. As of September 2024, we do not have any MD-88 operators in our schedules.
Section 2
Booked airline must match flown airline
We require you to fly an appropriate livery matching the operator of the flight you book. In other words, if you book a Piedmont flight, you need to use a Piedmont livery; if you book a Northwest flight, you must use a Northwest livery.
Liveries of similar or related operators cannot be substituted for the booked airline. For example, Wardair Canada merged into Canadian Airlines in 1989 and the merger produced several transition liveries. You cannot use a Canadian Airlines livery in place of a Wardair livery.
Please also note that we do not allow blank liveries or "house"/manufacturer liveries as stand-ins for a livery you can't find. We do our best to make sure that appropriate liveries exist for the most popular aircraft add-ons before we include an airline in our schedules, but unfortunately we cannot ensure 100% coverage. We know this policy may seem too restrictive for some, but we hope our dedication to accuracy and realism will seem admirable to most of our users.
Section 3
PIREP Status: "Livery flagged for review. No reply needed unless contacted. See FOM for more information."
If you see this status on a PIREP, you do not need to be concerned, and you do not need to leave a comment unless a staff member leaves a comment on your PIREP asking you for more information. From the FOM:
Every time a PIREP is submitted, Pegasus and vAMSYS logs the livery used on the flight and compares the logged livery against a database of previously flown liveries.
When it flags a livery as having been seen for the first time, it is placed into a manual review queue for the admin/staff team to check. This allows us to ensure you have flown the correct aircraft type and used an appropriate livery.
Having the PIREP held for livery review is not necessarily an indication that there is a problem with your livery and/or PIREP. If you used an appropriate livery and your PIREP was marked by the system as Awaiting Review, please feel free to continue flying and the member of staff reviewing the PIREP will approve the livery and it will be added to the approved livery list.
Section 4
PIREP Status: "Livery automatically rejected. Contact staff with questions or see FOM."
If you see this status on a PIREP, it indicates that your livery has been reviewed previously on another PIREP and a problem was identified and the staff team has marked that livery to be automatically rejected.
This status will send the PIREP for manual review and staff will review the PIREP and the livery used to verify that there is, in fact, a problem, and staff will either approve, reject, or invalidate the PIREP, and may leave a comment with more information if we think it is necessary.
The majority of the time when this happens the system has correctly identified something is wrong with the livery you used and the PIREP will be rejected or invalidated.
The most common cause for this is a booked aircraft type vs. flown aircraft type mismatch. It is important to remember that, to the vAMSYS system, a livery is the aircraft type flown combined with the livery used, it is a package. You may have downloaded a livery from the Recommended Livery List, but if you booked a different aircraft type to the aircraft type that that livery is for and that you flew, your PIREP is going to be flagged and likely invalidated.
Section 5
“I don’t understand why my PIREP was held for review, I used a livery off the Recommended Livery List!”
It is important to understand that a livery downloaded from the Recommended Livery List may be flagged for review again in the future.
An update to the addon that was used, a change to the livery’s folder name, changes to the aircraft’s name in its configuration files – things of this nature may prompt a re-review. It is not necessary for you to tell us that the livery came off of the Recommended Livery list as it will not speed up your PIREP’s review, nor will it prevent additional reviews in the future.
For X-Plane users, the most common cause of this is because ToLiss includes the version number of their aircraft in the aircraft name such that it is part of what Pegasus logs. Thus, anytime ToLiss updates their aircraft, every ToLiss livery ever reviewed and approved will ultimately need to be re-reviewed.
Having a PIREP held for livery review is not necessarily an indication that there is a problem with your livery and/or PIREP. If you used an appropriate livery and booked the same type of aircraft taht you flew but your PIREP was sent by the system for manual review, please feel free to continue flying and a member of staff will review the livery and PIREP as soon as practible and, if everything is correct, the livery will be accepted and added to the approved livery list.
Section 6
“I don’t understand why my PIREP was held for review, I used this livery last week and it was fine!”
It is important to understand that a previously approved livery may be flagged for review again in the future. It is not necessary for you to tell us that you’ve used a livery before as it will not speed up your PIREP’s review, nor will it prevent additional reviews in the future.
The most common reason for a livery you have used before to be flagged by the system is a mismatch between the booked aircraft type and the flown aircraft type. It is important to remember that, to the vAMSYS system, a livery is the aircraft type flown combined with the livery used, it is a package. You may have downloaded a livery from the Recommended Livery List, but if you booked a different aircraft type to the aircraft type that that livery is for and that you flew, your PIREP is going to be flagged and likely invalidated.
Other reasons for this happening can be: an update to the addon that was used, a change to the livery’s folder name, changes to the aircraft’s name in its configuration files – things of this nature may prompt a re-review. For X-Plane users, the most common cause of this is because ToLiss includes the version number of their aircraft in the aircraft name such that it is part of what Pegasus logs. Thus, anytime ToLiss updates their aircraft, every ToLiss livery ever reviewed and approved will ultimately need to be re-reviewed.
Having a PIREP held for livery review is not necessarily an indication that there is a problem with your livery and/or PIREP. If you used an appropriate livery and booked the same type of aircraft taht you flew but your PIREP was sent by the system for manual review, please feel free to continue flying and a member of staff will review the livery and PIREP as soon as practible and, if everything is correct, the livery will be accepted and added to the approved livery list.