The Complete Guide to Flight Scoring

Our Flight Scoring is a completely automatic process, however it has not always been transparent how it operates. Therefore, this post will give an overview of how it works.

The flight scoring is based on the data collected by VAbase ACARS during your flight. It collects data about your flight at a set interval, currently 5 seconds. However, this value is configurable remotely and as such may change at any time. VAbase ACARS will also send your data to the ACARS server at a set interval, currently 30 seconds. Using this data, the live flights page will be updated.

As you may know, after every flight, your flight is automatically scored (usually within seconds). This is a score from 0-100 percent. All Flights, will need to be approved by a staff member to be included in our flights list and in your flight hours.

Each flight’s score is shown at the bottom of the page, where each individual item is listed.

General

The first section is General, i.e. these checks are executed during all phases of flight. Firstly, they check your pitch, bank and G-force. If they exceed the listed value, you will lose all of the points. The same is true when the simulator reports an overspeed or stall. You will also lose all points for the max service ceiling item when you exceed the maximum service ceiling as listed on the aircraft model page, for the flight listed above it would be this page about the TWA Boeing 747-400, which lists the maximum service ceiling as 45,100 ft. For some of these items, a small grace period may be allowed.

An explanation of all phases

Pre-Departure

When you click Start Recording in vTWAcars (VAbase ACARS), the Pre-Departure phase is the phase you start in. In this phase, your plane should be in Cold & Dark configuration, i.e. your engines are off, your flaps and slats are up and your spoilers are stowed. All of these items are checked continuously, which means you will lose all points for the item when you do not fulfill the requirements for even a short amount of time. The parking brake check is of a different kind in that it only needs to be triggered once. This means your parking brake should be set, but the duration or timing does not matter. The last check is the ample pre-departure time. This check is a special check that is currently used no where else in the flight scoring.

Pushback

The pushback phase starts when you start your pushback. Make sure your engines are turned off when starting your pushback, as it is otherwise impossible to distinguish your pushback from your taxi-out and therefore you will not receive any points for this phase. We are still looking into solutions for this problem, as you might want to start your engines early in icing conditions or other special circumstances.

Taxi-out

After you have completed your push-back and your engines have started, your taxi-out phase starts. The maximum taxi speed is 30 knots, so please pay attention to this when taxiing. You should extend your flaps before or during the taxi-out, either one will give you full points. You should also have set the transponder to a squawk code given by ATC (or, if flying offline, an IFR squawk code) before starting your taxi. If the squawk code is still 1200 during your taxi-out, you will lose all points. You should of course also use your taxi light in your taxi-out.

Take-off

When you are on the runway and you start your take-off roll, the take-off phase starts. Before starting your take-off roll, you should turn on your landing and strobe lights. In the first few seconds of take-off, you should of course not pitch up too heavily, which is why there is a check for a pitch that does not exceed 15 degrees.

Take-off acceleration

Once you are more than 35 feet AGL (Above Ground Level), you will transition to the take-off acceleration phase. You should retract your landing gear during this phase and make sure you stay below the maximum speed of 250 kts.

Initial climb

When you get above 1500 ft AGL, you are in the initial climb phase. In this phase you should retract your flaps and turn off your landing light. You will transition to the cruise phase when you get to 11,000 ft AGL.

Cruise

The cruise phase is usually the longest part of your flight. It checks that you do not extend your landing gear or flaps or turn on your landing light.

Initial approach

The initial approach phase starts when you reach 10,000 ft AGL. Here we again make sure you do not exceed -15 degrees. If you do not get full points for this item, it means your descent was too rapid. We also check you extend your flaps and you do not exceed 250 kts. You should also turn on your landing light when you reach 10,000 ft, so that is also checked here.

Final approach

When you get to 1,000 ft AGL, we again check your pitch, flaps and speed. We also check you have extended or extend your landing gear. You should also not use your speed brakes in the final phases of flight.

Landing

The landing phase starts when you get to 50 ft AGL. In these final few seconds, your vertical speed should not be too high, or you will lose all points for this phase.

Taxi-in

Once you get to taxiing speed (30 kts), you will transition into the taxi-in phase. From that moment on, you should keep to the taxiing speed limit of 30 kts. You should also turn off your landing light, turn on your taxi light and retract your flaps.

Arrived

The arrived phase only starts when you are parked at the gate and your engines are turned off and spooled down. Their N2 should be less than 5.0. If you don’t let them spool down, you will lose all points in this phase, as it is impossible for the system to detect you are arrived. When you get to this phase, the final few checks are performed, such as setting your parking brake, having retracted your flaps, having stowed your speed brakes and turning off your taxi and strobe lights. Ideally you have of course done this while the engines are spooling down, such that you can click Stop Recording in VAS ACARS when you the engines have spooled down.>/p>

XP

XP or Experience Points. For every flight you will receive a maximum of 500XP. XP will be deducted as follows:

Landing rate lower than -200FPM ... 0.95

Landing rate lower than -250FPM ... 0.85

Landing rate lower than -500FPM ... 0.51

Crash detected .................... 0.00

Landing lights on above 10k ....... 0.95

Landing lights not on below 10k ... 0.95

Aircraft overspeed detected ....... 0.70

Slew detected ..................... 0.95

Taxi overspeed detected ........... 0.95

Overspeed above 250kt below 10k ... 0.95

Beacon off but engine on .......... 0.70

Aircraft stall detected ........... 0.53

Those were all the items on the list, so you can now better understand why you were scored the way you were.

Problems

As in any system, there are still some problems we would like to resolve. The biggest problem at the moment is that not all addons are compatible with FSUIPC’s light detection, which means that the system misses lights that are turned on/off. However, the lights are only a small part of the flight score and therefore won’t get your flight denied.

PMDG Aircrafts

[SDK]

EnableDataBroadcast=1

Other Aircrafts

Please Download the FSLights from our Download section and use this to broadcast the landing Lights to ACARS

Aircraft Lights

NAV Lights

MUST be switched on as soon as you enter the cockpit. Switch off before leaving cockpit

BEACON Lights

Switch on Beacon Lights after Push Back Clearance received from ATC. As soon as aircraft is moving, the BEACON light MUST be ON. It is MANDATORY that the BEACON is on while engines are running. The BEACON light can be switched off after arrival at Gate or Ramp and Engines are off.

TAXI Lights

Switch on TAXI lights when aircraft is moving by power of engines. After landing and before you turn to the parking position, the TAXI light MUST be switched off.

LOGO/WING Lights

During DAWN/NIGHT/DUSK

STROBE Lights

Switch on STROBE Lights before you enter assigned runway. STROBE Lights kept on until you landed and exit the runway

LANDING Lights

Switch ON Landing lights just before you enter the assigned runway. Landing Lights kept ON until you reach 10000ft. Above 10000ft, LANDING lights MUST turned off.

During decent, turn LANDING lights on, when you just below 10000ft. Landing light kept ON until you exit the runway and taxi to gate or ramp