Howto Getting more airports

[Bobby 0]

Hi folks,

 

Thank you for all the previous help; I"m really enjoying AH and have pretty much settled into a happy routine. I do have a question.

 

I know to use the sliders slowly and cautiously, and also wait a while for some things to take effect. I also learned from John to set the "range" value for my aircraft to an unrealistically low value for shorter distance flights. I set all my DC-6B aircraft to 500 miles because I want to keep my company inter-island rather than flying all over the Pacific Ocean. I also know I can add bases to force planes to fly there but I also read that non-base airports produce higher revenue than bases. What I'd like to be able to do is be able to increase the number of different airports within my service area without adding bases. I did read from John where the distance out and a few other factors made that determination. I must have an oxygen leak in my system because I couldn't figure out how to do that. Here is a picture of my sliders options and service area. A "move that slider to there" would make this old crate pilot happy

 

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

If I understand correctly, the objective is to maximize the number of different airports you see on the Jobs list.

 

Given that you are based in Hawaii and are using a 500 NM range on your aircraft, I think you must be pretty much limited to those airports that are situated within the Hawiian Islands group. I believe that's as you want it to be. I make that to be around 40 airports total, without looking to see if any are helipads or seaplane bases. That's the best you'll do if you limit the range of your aircraft in that manner.

 

Looking at the job generation process... it's important to remember that there is a large amound of random variation in AH, by design. If you were in the middle of an airport rich environment such as the eastern US with 500 NM range aircraft you might very well see some jobs of several hundred miles more than that and some very short ones as well. The sliders bias the selections but do not set absolute limits. You can expect a normal distribution around a mean for each of the parameters (Distance, Cargo Size, Airport Size) but some will inevitably be longer/larger or shorter/smaller than you might expect. That random variation is a design feature, not accidental.

 

In your situation, given that you are in a self-imposed, 40-airport world, you'll do best with settings approximately like this...

 

Job Distance: 50%

 

Number of Jobs Generated: Max (always - there's no downside)

 

Job Cargo Size: Immaterial with respect to number of airports in the jobs list - set it as you wish.

 

Airport Size: 50%, assuming airport size in AH is absolute and is not handled by AH relative to AC weight. I believe that to be the case but am not certain.

 

Base to Base Job Generation: Immaterial with respect to number of airports in the jobs list. Immaterial with only one base.

 

Re Aircraft Range Settings: Note that AC range settings are individual for each specific aircraft, so multiple aircraft of the same type can have different range settings. Also, understand that the range setting does nothing other than bias job generation. You may do a 500 NM job with an AC whose AH range setting is 20 NM, as long as the aircraft as it exists in Flight Simulator is capable of the longer distance.

 

On the other hand, the Job Distance slider is global, but relative. It biases job generation for all the AC in the AH company, regardless of type, but does so in accordance with the range setting of each individual aircraft. AH will generate some jobs for each individual aircraft, but those jobs, once on the board, may be flown by any aircraft you assign.

 

The problem here is that you want to generate jobs for all the airports in the region, or as many as possible. This is going to be somewhat dependant upon the number of aircraft and their range settings. I think the best way to cover the entire range of possibilities is to have three or more aircraft with ranges set initially at 1/2, 1 and 2 X the distance between the two most widely separated airports. Then set the Job Distance slider to about 50%. Each aircraft will cause AH to generate some jobs that are roughly half its range setting, but with random variation producing other jobs at greater and lesser distances. I'd experiment by varying only the range settings of the aircraft, allowing a couple of days for jobs to expire and new ones to be generated before assessing the effect of the current settings. It could take several weeks to optimize this and there will always be some variation.

 

By all means, if you try this, keep good notes and report back what your results are. Many of us would like to understand this better.

 

John

[Bobby 0]

Thanks John,

 

I'll kick the distance slider up to 50%. I do know that if I go to high, I start getting jobs for Midway and Christmas Islands....which is fine for the AI pilots but is a pain for me since the DC-6B doesn't have a good autopilot and even worse GPS. I set the range at 500 because the greatest distances in the Hawaiian Islands is a little less than 200 miles. Here is a picture of my job map so you can see what I'm talking about. I get no jobs on Molokai which has 2 airports, one of the two has long runways. I only get PHLI on Lanai and I should be able to get into Barking Sands and Port Allen. And I only get 3 airports on the big island and I should be able to slide into a few more. The only thing I thought to do is buy a couple of DC-3's to make the program think I can handle smaller fields....but all my pilots, and myself, are all flying the DC-6B.

 

I appreciate your advice and will take your suggestions and post back as the job board repopulates.

 

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

You don't have to accept every flight. If you get one for Midway, just ignore it, unless you want to fly it.

 

John

[Bobby 0]

I scheduled throughout the night and all day so the job board would re-populate. I did manage to get a couple airports I didn't have before but they were all one way jobs....I couldn't get a job out of that airport so ended up repositioning them. I also ended up with huge load factors even though I did not touch the job size slider. I'm running 10 pilots all flying DC-6B's.

 

So what I did is send everyone to the bar and backed up the files so I could try something. I bought a couple Maules and then my job board populated with all the airports I wanted. Of course the job size was several hundred pounds and my guys can carry 13,528 pounds with a full fuel load on a single leg. So evidently my service area has a limitation on available airports given the aircraft I fly. I reset the backup and I think the easiest way for me to do this is to simply open a couple new bases at those fields I like to fly into.

 

Thanks for the help John; I appreciate it

[Bobby 0]

ok...added the 2 bases and I am happy I'll take the revenue reduction for the pleasure of flying into my favourite fields.

 

 

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

If you're happy, I'm happy. I normally prefer only one base and no AIs, but that is just a matter of personal preference. AH allows each of us to follow our own whims.

 

John

[Bobby 0]

Thanks John,

 

In the beginning I restarted the Company several times till I found my niche. In a very real sense, I re-created my past including the airports, the aircrafts, and even renaming my AI pilots to real people in my past. I have one pilot who keeps banging up her airplane but I've imparted human qualities to AH to the extent that I won't fire her. Every time she costs me money, I just fly extra routes to pay for it.

 

I've been flying the sim since the SubLogic days but nothing has made it as fun as Air Hauler. Yes, I am happy

 

Take care,

Bobby

[brett 2,283]

....... I have one pilot who keeps banging up her airplane but I've imparted human qualities to AH to the extent that I won't fire her. Every time she costs me money, I just fly extra routes to pay for it.

 

 

 

Hmmm...that should get the gossip train a smok'in.  

[Bobby 0]

LOL .... true story in real life.  I ended up marrying her  

[brett 2,283]

Haha, the picture becomes clearer now.