Aircraft Maintenance

[Unknown98]

Any ideas as to how maintenance/repairs should work? A, B, C & D checks? What about daily checks? 

I was thinking having a button you could click for each aircraft to perform a daily check and bring the condition back up to 100%. Kind of like the repair feature on CA except more realistic. Then in addition to that you would have the required maintenance checks at various intervals.

[POTKC]

Perhaps a daily check feature...maybe automatic after the first landing of the (in-game) day? This could be made to not take up any time, just cost a set amount for each aircraft, deducted after the first landing of the day as 'maintenance costs'. And the B, C, D checks could be done when the time comes. An alert saying 'it's time for the D check on N552KL' or whatever the registration and check is, and a button you can press to start the check. Maybe buying in-house engineering services or other upgrades of the sort could reduce the cost of maintenance checks?

[Dokhu]

The A,B,C,D check should not stop the plane but there should be a money and time penalty according to the lapse time delayed. The same for the daily maintenance but it should not be automatic.

[POTKC]

On the contrary, B,C, and D checks should definitely ground planes for some time to maintain even a shade of realism. Definitely not as long as they would be in real life (or a D check would take out a plane for an entire...month, is it?), but still. A checks are not significant to have to simulate the plane being grounded.

[Unknown98]

Well if the game is in real-time it would make the most sense to have maintenance in real-time as well I think. But maybe not. From wikipedia this is what the checks consist of:

A check | 400-600 flight hours | 10 Hours downtime
B check | 6-8 months | 1-3 days downtime
C check | 20-24 months | 1-2 weeks downtime
D check | every 6 years | 2 months downtime

I mean how often are you going to have a D check or a C check in a real-time game like this? Not very often. In games like AE it is more pronounced because of the accelerated time. One of my goals for maintenance is to add an element of strategy and planning to the game, making sure you have replacement aircraft in place when maintenance comes up.

[skifans]

Id agree with using the times unk has listed above (at least initially) I think this could also add an interesting dynamic to the price of used aircraft, assuming that the seller can specify there own price, then it would be expected that the market would price aircraft nearer a check as cheaper, so it would be possible to get aircraft for a lower price if your willing to wait and may for the check. Presumably with talk of this sort of realistic maintenance times then it is possible to see the number of flight hours/time remaing before each check. I struggled to find a source for how this works for real airline but does anyone know, if an aircraft is leased then does the aircraft owner or operator pay for these costs. Regardless, would it be possible to allow the leasing system to deliver short term leases (maybe from 1 week) to cover the downtime from C & D checks at a more expensive per daily rate then a longer term lease?

[Carde]

Well if the game is in real-time it would make the most sense to have maintenance in real-time as well I think. But maybe not. From wikipedia this is what the checks consist of:

A check | 400-600 flight hours | 10 Hours downtime
B check | 6-8 months | 1-3 days downtime
C check | 20-24 months | 1-2 weeks downtime
D check | every 6 years | 2 months downtime

I mean how often are you going to have a D check or a C check in a real-time game like this? Not very often. In games like AE it is more pronounced because of the accelerated time. One of my goals for maintenance is to add an element of strategy and planning to the game, making sure you have replacement aircraft in place when maintenance comes up.

Like this, but you would need to point out maintenance bases (or have people build at for a fee at airports). If you use your own it is much cheaper, you can use an general existing one for a lot more money or you could even have players compete with theirs, but that sounds like an advanced feature for down the line.

Of course A and B checks can be done anywhere, most of the time A checks are done overnight and B checks can be done at hangar space, again on your own HQ and such it should be cheaper than elsewhere. This adds a bit more planning to everything

Also I would like to see cycles introduced and not just flight hours. Should not be to hard to make a system that tracks both and once one hits the mark flags the plane for a check.

Finally we should have the option to conduct the checks in advance. I might have 50 hours to go, but I just took the plane out of rotation so I am going to put it through the check now because I have the time



After each flight all you have is: Cleaning, refueling and restocking of the plane. Maintenance would only be done if the pilots or plane computers say something is wrong. This could be a random event of course reflected by your airlines spending on maintenance and what not.

[Unknown98]

Id agree with using the times unk has listed above (at least initially) I think this could also add an interesting dynamic to the price of used aircraft, assuming that the seller can specify there own price, then it would be expected that the market would price aircraft nearer a check as cheaper, so it would be possible to get aircraft for a lower price if your willing to wait and may for the check. Presumably with talk of this sort of realistic maintenance times then it is possible to see the number of flight hours/time remaing before each check. I struggled to find a source for how this works for real airline but does anyone know, if an aircraft is leased then does the aircraft owner or operator pay for these costs. Regardless, would it be possible to allow the leasing system to deliver short term leases (maybe from 1 week) to cover the downtime from C & D checks at a more expensive per daily rate then a longer term lease?

There are two types of leases, wet lease and dry leases. In a wet lease, the aircraft is provided with complete crew, insurance, maintenance, etc. These are usually short-term leases. A dry lease is more common and what most airlines use, where an aircraft is provided without crew, insurance or maintenance. These are long-term. Having the option for exceptionally short leases similar to a wet lease is a possibility, I think it'd add an interesting element to the game.

Additionally as you said the maintenance status of an aircraft would have a major effect on it's market value. If your aircraft is near a C or D check people probably won't be willing to pay as much for it. It would be one more thing to consider when looking for used aircraft.

Like this, but you would need to point out maintenance bases (or have people build at for a fee at airports). If you use your own it is much cheaper, you can use an general existing one for a lot more money or you could even have players compete with theirs, but that sounds like an advanced feature for down the line.

Of course A and B checks can be done anywhere, most of the time A checks are done overnight and B checks can be done at hangar space, again on your own HQ and such it should be cheaper than elsewhere. This adds a bit more planning to everything

Also I would like to see cycles introduced and not just flight hours. Should not be to hard to make a system that tracks both and once one hits the mark flags the plane for a check.

Finally we should have the option to conduct the checks in advance. I might have 50 hours to go, but I just took the plane out of rotation so I am going to put it through the check now because I have the time



After each flight all you have is: Cleaning, refueling and restocking of the plane. Maintenance would only be done if the pilots or plane computers say something is wrong. This could be a random event of course reflected by your airlines spending on maintenance and what not.

Cycles can definitely be introduced, I was planning on doing that anyway. Then maintenance could be flagged once you hit either the cycle count or the flight hours, whichever comes first. You would have the option to perform maintenance early, in fact whenever you wanted.

As far as maintenance bases and such that's not something I've thought much of. I suppose I could have several "default" maintenance bases where you can take your aircraft to perform the C and D checks. The option to build your own base would be cool, and would allow you to perform maintenance in-house for cheaper than paying someone else to do it.

[POTKC]

Perhaps putting in the locations of major airliner MRO bases? Those would then offer either lower prices or higher quality of service, although I'm not sure how that could be implemented. Maybe D-Checks would have to be done at these set locations, as normal maintenance organizations don't have that capability?