enhancement Idea

[cessnaman]

It would be nice to have a preflight procedure which would simulate being in the dispatch office. This would be done before passengers are allowed to board. I think this can be done because some of this info is available during flight.

What I'm thinking, after a flight is picked from dispatch and after FCOM is powered up and before passengers board have the FCOM simulate the pilot in the dispatch office and have the following info available:

Weather at destination.

Destination alternate.

En-route alternate. (don't know if this can be done)

En-route flight conditions with special regard to turbulence and
low fuel possible. (don't know if low fuel possible can be done)

Altitude selection with regard to estimated weight/expected wind. (don't know if this can be done since it's in the flight dispatch)

Fuel calculations and extra fuel to be carried.

runway status for relevant airports.

Notams as appropriate. (don't know if this can be done)

I know a lot of info is already there, when selecting a flight, but it would be nice to have it appear in the FCOM before boarding.
Once info is read, have a button to press and accept this info, as read and acknowledged from dispatch.

After this, another thing that would be nice to see before boarding is allowed (and I don't know if this can be done).
Have a sound bit play, to simulate the pilot briefing the cabin crew of expected flying time, flight conditions with special regard to turbulence, and also destination weather. Maybe anything else that might be of interest. Maybe it can somehow be a generic sound. Also a generic sound bit where the captian breifs the first officer on flight.
After sound file is played with this info, the screen would finally pop-up with ready for boarding.

I don't know if this can be done, but if it can I think it would be a nice enhancement to FScaptian.

Thanks,
Gabe

[Travis]

Sorry it's taken so long to respond.

I think I can sum up your ideas into two main categories:

1. An FCOM delivered "dispatch briefing" presented to the captain prior to loading.
2. Audio effects to simulate the FO and crew briefings.

Breaking down those, this is what I see:

A. The FCOM only has 40 characters per line with 8-9 effective lines to display text thereon. (Allowing a line for "headline" and one for "commands/" I think most of the items you list can fit in that area. (NOTAMS?)

B. When it comes to the fuel/weight page, I think the current Release data would fit (removing some horizontal whitespace of course) but whatever format this takes, I think I'd like to have an option to adjust the fuel numbers at this point to account for whatever last minute thing might crop up. Something like adding 200lbs of reserve fuel, etc. Have to be mindful of Max Weights and fuel minimums though....

C. As for the FCOM items:

I. Wx at destination and at alternate. Easy... as long as there's a good connection to MSFS and/or NOAA. It'd be great to call up TAFs....
II. Enroute alternates / wx. Currently a PLN file doesn't support alternates, although I use my EFB route file to keep track of mine. Perhaps an enroute alternate text entry box (space delimited, room for no more than 10 alternates, simple logic checking on entry) on the Flight Dispatch / Planning area could be used for this?
III. Altitude selection vs. winds. Tell me more about what you'd like to see here....
IV. Fuel and weight page. See B above.
V. Runway status for airports. Real world METARs can carry runway status info; is that what you're looking for? MSFS runways are always open until I write my own ATC module maybe in the next decade. Perhaps a "slick runway" report and/or forecast might do here???
VI. NOTAMS. Are you thinking of data pulled from the FAA or from one of the online ATC networks? Or some sort of synthetic NOTAMS perhaps???

D. On to the audio bits. The Captain briefing the FO would be "you" talking to your computer. Ahem. What would you think about having your FO brief the crew though?? It would take a miracle of audio enginerring followed with some clever splicing and coding, so I can't make any promises of what might be possible. But if this gets Dutch's fancy, I'll bounce around some ideas and get ready to fire up the old Mr. Microphone.

[Martyn]

On this note, i would rather see FS captain have an expanded schedule info, to work with out Virtual Airline data.

So in short, rather than FsCapt generating and displaying a briefing, id like to be able to put in everything i have from a VA briefing page.

These are things like ETA, ETOR, Pax, Bags, My Fuel etc

With PFPX just around the corner, working with a great pre flight tool would be great!

[Travis]

Martyn,

Feel free to generate a rough draft of what you're thinking of (include any source files, etc.) and pop it into email if you'd prefer. (My forum username @ fscaptain . net)

This post from late last year has an HTML dispatch that I generate which combines elements from various sources - including a TOPCAT report and real-time FAA Operations data - into a "souped-up FS Captain dispatch."

Is that something in the vaguest area of what you're thinking??

[cessnaman]

Thanks for the reply. No problem with the long response, I know you've been busy with real life matters.
Thanks for the detailed answer.
As for the Altitude selection with regard to estimated weight/expected wind, I was thinking that during the briefing if we have info on winds aloft at different Altitudes we would be able pick an altitude that best fits our flight and then verify with dispatch that we will fly at that altitude and we would have to comply with that unless we encounter unforeseen things such as turbulence, ect. And if so, we would request Alt. change with ATC, then notify Dispatch of ALT. change. I know you have the menu in FCOM that has the different altitudes with winds so we can choose the best Alt. to fly, I think it would be good to have that menu before boarding. Now that I think of it, this may not work good. If anyone that has Radar Contact like I have, then you can load the flight plan after the preflight briefing from dispatch and change the alt. you will fly. I just don't know if it will work with other flight planners and default ATC. The only factor the weight has, is in determining what Alt. to fly. For example if you see the winds at FL370 is perfect for flying with minimal fuel usage,, but or gross weight is to high for the climb, then you would have to pick another Alt. until you burn enough fuel for climb to that Alt..

As far as runway status, you know how we get braking reports, I'd like to see that as part of the briefing. Of course runway conditions can change by the time you get their.

Your question about NOTAMS. FAA would be good if simulating flying real world with real world weather. ATC networks would be good for online or off line flying. Synthetic NOTAMS may be the best way. I really don't know, I guess whatever way that would be easiest, if it can be done

On the audio, briefing the cabin crew would be excellent. With regards to first officer I agree we would be talking to the computer. I just thought it would be nice to have a generic sound file play for that also.
I'm going to e-mail you a generic briefing with FO that I made when I was creating a Adventure with X-Plane. This may give you a idea. I was thinking (boy I get in trouble when I start thinking) Anyways can it be possible for us to add our own generic sound bit for briefing the F.O. that may be the way to go about it. Then The First officer can give a generic briefing to crew. (or we can create our own crew briefing like we would for the F.O.).
Actually if you can somehow have some blank spaces available in the communications area were you have the welcome sound bit play, then we can add some of our own sound bits to play during various parts of our flight.
Just a thought.

Thanks,
Gabe

[martyp187]

I like that dispatch, its great.

I love FS Captain, but for one reason or another don't even up using it on many of my flights as i always struggle to get my head around the process if not using the built in schedule, and using with my VA.

I know this is open ended, but given you guys created the software.
What would you do?

Pre Req:

I use ActiveSky / REX Essentials for weather
I use Aivlasoft EFB for charts, moving map, true EFB.
VA software for flight tracking.
Aerotexas for fuel plans

If i want to use FS Captain with my VA's schedule flights, how should i do and in what order?

Normally i login to the VA website, book a flight after searching based on departure, duration, aircraft type etc.

Once ive booked i have a dispatch like below.


dl.dropbox.com/u/419917/dispatch.jpg

How can i get the best our of FS captain, bearing in mind i cant import the whole VA schedule, and I Fly online with current AIRAC data and valid routes (do not use FSX route planner or gps)

Thank you for your suggestions in advance. I will repay you once i get it nailed by posting to all the VA members and make sure they know they can ditch FSpassengers for the real deal!

[Dutch Owen]

You are going to be very happy with a new feature in 1.3.2 which will allow you to just specify all necessary details for a flight and then book it in the administrator. The 'destination' field on Flight Dispatch has been replaced by a button 'Specify Flight Details' and leads to this dialog:



As you can see you can plug in the details of a flight from your VA and have it placed directly in the log ready for you to start. It's the same as the previous 'destination' option except now you can override some of the generated fields with your specifications. Anything you leave blank will be generated/filled in for you.

Dutch

[Travis]

Thanks Dutch, can't wait to give that a tryout!

And thanks to you as well Marty for your kind words.

Now I use current AIRACs as well - I'm now using the Aerosoft NavData across my entire fleet - as well as "proper routes," so I think I have a small understanding of where you are.

If you don't have your VA's schedule in FS Captain, what I'd recommend - after geting your current assignment and route from your VA of course - would be to take the route string and generate a PLN file (I use AivlaSoft's EFB obviously or Urs would disown me ). While you're in EFB, feel free to include any SID or STAR to your route that you'd know you'd be using since knowing that can lengthen the trip!

Then run FS Captain's Administrator and set up a charter flight for a B738 - in this case EGLL to EGPH, with an alternate of EGPF. Load in your PLN file to have your Flight Level and all of your waypoints recorded. (It wasn't until a few days ago that I noticed the FCOM indicated my "next waypoint" while enroute.)

Then - still in the Administrator - if your WX engine uses Upper Level winds, you can use the waypoints to revise your EET/ETE/ETA. If your VA allows your Time Enroute to be different than their calculation, you can keep the FS Captain value. If you have to follow your VA's schedule, you can ignore the FS Captain value but enter your VA's EET value into the Administrator's ETE box and have the Administrator accept it. Or you could specify firm Departure and Arrival times and jolly well meet them.

I'm not in a VA - I'm not a "joiner" so no offense - but I think you'd also enter your VA's flight number in the Flight Dispatch panel. That should allow the Adminstrator to export the flight details to your VA via the FS Passengers' web protocol.

If you do this prior to Dutch releasing 1.3.2 you'll likely get a flight with a different loadout (PAX and cargo) so if that makes a difference in your loading procedure, you may want to use the FCOM's manual load procedure, or otherwise bypass the FCOM's auto-loading process. Or you can use the new panel in 1.3.2 that Dutch has just shown off.

As for fuel, you can't adjust the values in the Administrator, but I've used TOPCAT to calculate fuel for some of my flights... and I know some secret locations to change the overall fuel load for a flight before climbing into the cockpit. My "enhanced dispatch" merely lets me use TOPCAT-generated values to update the FS Captain dispatch ones.

Who knows if or when initial fuel loads can be specified?

[martyp187]

Wow, this is what im talking about! Cant wait to give that a try!

Thanks for taking the time to lay all that out Travis. I will give that workflow a try and let you know how i get on!

Thanks,