Automated Flight Dispatch System

[Frank Seigler-KE5ETD]

In addition to choosing an AVAILABLE flight listed in this forum, you may also use our new Automated Flight Dispatch System that Russ developed for us. Simpley click on the Request Assignment link to below to access the system. You may also find the Airport City link helpful in determining the Airports near a given city.

Request Assignment - Alaska

Airport City - Alaska

Request Assignment - Pacific Northwest

Airport City - Pacific Northwest

[PaulNelson]

Frank,
Wow, I have been gone for a time, but just look into the auutomated flight dispatch system, thats out standing and thank you for this procedure, I will probably fly more now you make it so easy. Maybe tooo eeeasy.
Paul

[Frank Seigler-KE5ETD]

Hey Paul,

Russ deserves all of the credit for the Automated Flight Dispatch System. He designed and wrote it, I just did some research for him on aircraft data and I posted the finished system to the site.

[Frank Seigler-KE5ETD]

Russ has provided an update to the Automated Flight System. It now includes the Pacific Northwest. I have updated the orginal post above with the new links.

[Pugsley]

First - I love the random route generator (it gives you a lot of opportunities for travel)!

This might be a dumb question, but...has there been any thought to adding the other aircraft in the AAS inventory to the list (i.e., the helicopters for the rotorheads out there, the DHC-4 Caribou for us Cargo Dawgs, etc.)?

[Frank Seigler-KE5ETD]

Well, as long as Russ is willing to do an update and someone (hint, hint) is willing to collect the data to send to Russ, then it shouldn't be a problem.

[Pugsley]

I'd be happy to provide whatever information he needed ;D. If I only knew where to look (seriously..)

[Russ]

Frank,

To save me some time .. if you happen to have the email I sent you with the list of items and how to measure them .. could you post that here?

Thanks.

[Frank Seigler-KE5ETD]

I should still have it somewhere, I just need to look for it. I will try to find it and post it later today or maybe tomorrow at the latest.

[parrothead]

Hey Russ, I love that system.....any chance that you would be willing to share with Margarita Air?

Thanks!

[Frank Seigler-KE5ETD]

Just realized that I forgot to post the e-mail outlining the aircraft data that Russ asked me to post, so here it is.

For each type of plane here is the information my website needs ..

Name ...
Max Passengers (0 if this plane is cargo only)

Cargo Capacity lbs (0 if this plane is passengers only)

Pax Loading lbs (How much cargo in the passenger configuration can
the plane hold. You can sometimes get this
online. If you are calculating this yourself its
of course never more then
Cargo Capacity - Max Passengers * 180lbs.
Though sometimes its less, especially in planes
where the
cargo hold is behind the passengers, and upsets
the airplane CG.)

Minimum Runway ft (What is the shortest runway this plane can land
at)

Cruise Speed TGS (At normal operating altitude how fast does this
plane travel over the ground no wind)

Cruise Altitude (How high does the plane fly normally (should be
the same altitude used for Cruise Speed)

Average Climb (What rate of climb on average to altitude;
e.g. 737 starts out at 4000 ends at 1800 so I
said 3000)

Climb IAS (What IAS airspeed does the plane fly during its
climb to altitude)

Minimum Airport (What is the minimum type of airport you want this
plane to fly to. This is a subject thing. For
instance, I set the DeHavelind Dash-8/300 to 2 so
it wouldn't be flying to private air strips)

Runway Type (What minimum runway surface can this plane land
on)

Fuel Use Cruise lbs/hr or gals/hr (specify which please) used when
the plane is at cruise speed, and cruise altitude.

Fuel Climb lbs/hr or gals/hr (specify which please) used
during the takeoff run or very shortly after
liftoff.

FuelTaxi lbs/hr or gals/hr (specify which please) used when
the engines are set at taxi power settings.

In cases where a plane has two configurations (Floats, and non floats)
list the plane twice. Once with floats, and once without. That's
because the non float plane can usually land almost anywhere (grass,
dirt, etc), whereas the floats plane (Amphibious) is more restricted.


// ----------------------------------------------------
// Minimum Airport Size Minimum Runway Surface
// 1 - Private 0 Water Only
// 2 - Small 1 Water, Asphalt, Cement ...
(Amphibious)
// 3 - Medium (non City) 2 Grass, Dirt
// 4 - Medium (City) 3 Gravel
// 5 - Large 4 Asphalt
// 6 - Huge 5 Cement
// ----------------------------------------------------


How to fudge the numbers ...

Max Passengers Nothing really to fudge here
Cargo Capacity lbs Nothing really to fudge here
Pax Loading lbs Nothing really to fudge here

Minimum Runway ft If you make the runways too small your likely to
be
given an airport that you can't land at. I don't
take into account the effects of temperature or
altitude on airplane performance either, so
I usually don't put the published minimum here,
but something just a bit larger.

Cruise Speed TGS This is used to determine how long your flight is
going to be. If you make this number larger then
MSFS actually flies the plane, then a route will
take longer to fly then you requested.

Cruise Altitude I select the optimum cruise altitude for each
plane. For the King Air I selected 35,000, for
the Goose 8,000 (its unpressurized). Technically
the Goose can fly at 10,000 but usually wont and
so 8,000 is better since this number effects
"Cruise Speed TGS".

Average Climb This is used to determine how long your going to
be climbing. The lower this number the more time
the website I'll think it will take to get
from point a to point b. So smaller numbers here
in conjunction with "Cruise Altitude"
determine
how long of a route you get when you ask for a
60min flight.

This also controls how much fuel you use. The
longer it takes to get to cruise, the more fuel I
think you'll burn. So the more fuel I'll suggest
you take on board.

Climb IAS This is the number that is generally used for
climbing to "Cruise Altitude". Most
all planes
have a Vy, which is the IAS that the plane climbs
that fastest at (and is most efficient). This
number acts the same as TGS (i.e. the larger it
is the longer a route you'll be asked to fly if
you ask for a 60min flight).

Minimum Airport Nothing really to fudge here

Runway Type Nothing really to fudge here. Though some planes
like the Baron 58 can land on Gravel, but not
Dirt, Grass, etc .. not sure how much this
applies to a bush service where almost all planes
can land on anything.

Fuel Use Cruise Pretty obvious what this is gonna do.

Fuel Climb Pretty obvious what this is gonna do.

FuelTaxi Pretty obvious what this is gonna do. I
automatically add 10mins of taxi time to the
final fuel calculations.

BTW, the fuel calculations are like this.

Fuel to fly to From origin to Alternate Airport
Fuel to fly from Alternate to Destination
Fuel to fly from Destination to Alternate

[Frank Seigler-KE5ETD]

This system is no longer available due to the loss of our paid hosting service.

[Russ]

An slightly out of date version can be found here:

Pegasus Airways

Oh .. um ..

The Aurora Air Service link is the Alaska area
The Pegasus Regional link is the Pacific North West area
The Pegasus Equine link is the Continental USA (major airports only)