Hello, everyone, have a great day: A suggestion. It’s happened to me several times: I choose an aircraft to fly (B738, for example) in a certain location, visualize it, select the aircraft with the button… but while I start the simulator, load the scenario, set up the flight plan, and configure the plane for said flight (a delay of about 20 minutes, minimum), when I go to press the “start flight” button, it tells me that the plane has already been rented.
Yes, it’s fine, they beat me in terms of time, but I don’t know how the rest do it. However, in my particular case, being a PPA, I take my time, since for me it’s not a game, you understand? I do or try to do things as professionally as possible. The suggestion is… to enable a 45-minute maximum reserve option on the selected aircraft to optimize and fly it appropriately… that way we also avoid pilots who hop from airport to airport, moving and disabling aircraft for hours… and another option would also be to leave the aircraft in the hangar based on the percentage flown. It’s unacceptable to store an aircraft for 30 hours after a 20-minute flight.
As always, thank you very much for enabling this way of communicating with you, and I appreciate your reading. From Argentina… Captain Charata.
I like your idea, or lock the rental to a specific user in a specific timeframe, if the owner wants. We must avoid bad actors to start blocking airplanes without then using them. Maybe leave a PAX deposit that is returned when the airplane is used? SO each airplane can have a calendar, and people can request rentals from a specific airport at specific date and times… but what if the previous renter is still flying? mmmm we must think something that works ok…
Totally agree, it’s really annoying to find an aircraft at the airport you’re interested in, and by the time you’re transferring the license to that airport, the aircraft has disappeared.
If we could reserve the aircraft for 2–5 minutes to allow time to transfer the license to the selected airport, that would be great.
It’s always a challenge trying to mix real life experience with simulations, but indeed we can get close. I think for the eventuality described, a “booking” feature is essential. Just as professional pilots would do, as scheduled flights, then booking the airplane is the first thing.. maybe a second button to click and “hold” the aircraft for at least 30/40 minutes with a countdown visible, could be an idea. Ps. Minutes oh holding could be different on category aircraft. From 1 to 3cat 20 minutes , above 40 minutes.
The realistic approach would be to ensure that the aircraft will be available for you, so that once you know the flight you’re going to make, you can prepare the flight plan, charts, METAR, etc.
If the aircraft suddenly disappears, you might have to look for another one at a different airport with different weather conditions.
I usually don’t fly liners, so i might not need so much time, but what nobody stops anyone for clicking START FLIGHT from a renting aircraft I choose and then do whatever preflight procedure needs to be taken. Flight plan, dep charts, weather and so on.. I usually start the sim, and then look around what planes i want to rent, if I luckily find one in a planned departure, ok, otherwise I change departure.. I can understand that some planes are more requested than others, so it will be more difficult.. the need of booking and “hold” is essential for those planes.
Maybe a VFR flightplan need more time than IFR with all available tools
As I said, nobody stops us from starting the flight and then do whatever we want to do, IFR or VFR. You just need to transfer eventualy your license. the rest, you can do it after.
Exactly, that’s what I propose