Maintenance

[Unknown98]

Alright so lets talk about maintenance. I want two different types of maintenance to happen:

Daily maintenance checks
A/B/C/D checks

So daily maintenance checks would be done every day and the A/B/C/D checks would be done at particular intervals. For the daily checks, I was thinking you could set it up to run at a particular time every day for each aircraft. It would last for a few hours - maybe 2 or 3 hours - and then it would end and the aircraft would be back in service.

The A/B/C/D checks would be more expensive and take more time, obviously. The game would prompt you somewhere, probably on the fleet page, that a particular aircraft is nearing it's next maintenance check. 

Maintenance cost will increase as age, hours and cycles increase. 

Now once infrastructure and buildings are implemented, you would have the option to lease or build maintenance hangars at certain airports that would make your maintenance employees happier (so they're not working outside) and also lower the cost of doing the maintenance. 

So those are my ideas. Anyone have more ideas or things you think we should consider when implementing maintenance?

[Ryan97]

I really like the sound of what you have thought of so far. It would be good as you said to have the daily checks done at certain times of the day. That would mean for me for example I could have the checks done overnight one my planes land at 12-1am in the morning. The A/B/C/D checks sound good

[POTKC]

What happens if the aircraft is still flying a route when the time for the daily maintenance check rolls around?

[Dokhu]

The only thing I want to say is that the system must advice when the airplane requires maintenance, but it should not oblige us to do it immediately so that we have time to return the plane to the HQ or any Hangar or a Hub of our own. If someone delays too much the maintenance it could have a greater damage.

[Carde]

The only thing I want to say is that the system must advice when the airplane requires maintenance, but it should not oblige us to do it immediately so that we have time to return the plane to the HQ or any Hangar or a Hub of our own. If someone delays too much the maintenance it could have a greater damage.

The point is the checks are mandated, if you fall behind I believe with the larger checks you are not even allowed to fly so you would need to request a special ferry permit to fly it your HQ, so you would take a hit in costs for the permit and for a non revenue flight. The only check that can be delayed in special conditions is the A check.

Anyhow I also would like to see the option for those of us who buy older planes to put them through a full D check after purchase to reset the clock as it where on the checks and also seeing D checks are used by airlines to do things like cabin revisions, repainting and all it kind of makes sense. It also would bump the purchase price of used aircraft a fair bit if we cannot just change the layout of them for no costs. Changing the layout for free with a new plane makes sense you order it in a certain config, but with a used plane you get what you get and anything else you would need to handle and hence pay for.

[Unknown98]

What happens if the aircraft is still flying a route when the time for the daily maintenance check rolls around?

I presume it would just skip the daily check and try again tomorrow. But skip enough daily checks and aircraft condition will fall and potentially lead to bigger problems.

The goal is that players would be able to schedule their aircraft and their routes around the maintenance. If you have a route that flies overnight and you want that plane's maintenance to take place at 1pm, before it takes off on the next leg of the route, then you could do that.

The only thing I want to say is that the system must advice when the airplane requires maintenance, but it should not oblige us to do it immediately so that we have time to return the plane to the HQ or any Hangar or a Hub of our own. If someone delays too much the maintenance it could have a greater damage.

The point is the checks are mandated, if you fall behind I believe with the larger checks you are not even allowed to fly so you would need to request a special ferry permit to fly it your HQ, so you would take a hit in costs for the permit and for a non revenue flight. The only check that can be delayed in special conditions is the A check.

Anyhow I also would like to see the option for those of us who buy older planes to put them through a full D check after purchase to reset the clock as it where on the checks and also seeing D checks are used by airlines to do things like cabin revisions, repainting and all it kind of makes sense. It also would bump the purchase price of used aircraft a fair bit if we cannot just change the layout of them for no costs. Changing the layout for free with a new plane makes sense you order it in a certain config, but with a used plane you get what you get and anything else you would need to handle and hence pay for.

Daily checks could be skipped I think, if you want to risk that. But for the major A/B/C/D checks I think the game will force those upon you. But you would be warned say a month or so ahead of time that a check is coming up.

Yeah I was planning on letting players do the checks before they were due if they wanted to. Depending on the check you perform it would reset the clock. D checks are only what, like every 10 years?

And charging money for changing the cabin layout is something I need to add as well. Just need to come up with a formula to figure out the cost depending on plane size, seat types etc (first class seats are more expensive than economy seats). I also need to edit the used market to have used planes generated with various cabin layouts, currently it's all pure economy.

[Carde]

Daily checks could be skipped I think, if you want to risk that. But for the major A/B/C/D checks I think the game will force those upon you. But you would be warned say a month or so ahead of time that a check is coming up.

Yeah I was planning on letting players do the checks before they were due if they wanted to. Depending on the check you perform it would reset the clock. D checks are only what, like every 10 years?

And charging money for changing the cabin layout is something I need to add as well. Just need to come up with a formula to figure out the cost depending on plane size, seat types etc (first class seats are more expensive than economy seats). I also need to edit the used market to have used planes generated with various cabin layouts, currently it's all pure economy.

D checks happen roughly every 6 years and take 2 months to complete hence airlines schedule them years in advance.

C checks every 2 years takes about 1-2 weeks

B check 6-8 months 1-3 days

A check 400-600 hours 200-300 cycles and takes about 10 hours

Above according to lovely wikipedia


Question now is how are you going to translate this to the game in a way that keeps it fun

[chaitanya]

It would last for a few hours - maybe 2 or 3 hours - and then it would end and the aircraft would be back in service.

A good way to beat the 3 a.m. ZERO passenger rule. Start the service at 2 am and it ends at 4 am.

D checks happen roughly every 6 years and take 2 months to complete hence airlines schedule them years in advance.
C checks every 2 years takes about 1-2 weeks
B check 6-8 months 1-3 days
A check 400-600 hours 200-300 cycles and takes about 10 hours
Above according to lovely Wikipedia
Question now is how are you going to translate this to the game in a way that keeps it fun

How about

A Checks every 250 hours (~ 10 days).
B Checks every 1000 hours (~ 40 days).
C Checks every 2500 hours (~ 100 days).
D Checks every 5000 hours (~ 200 days).

[Unknown98]

Accelerating the maintenance checks wasn't actually something I had thought about doing. I was just going to keep it at the actual intervals seeing as the game is real-time. But I suppose 6 actual years is a long time to wait for D-check. Although keep in mind used aircraft will play a big factor as well.

[skifans]

When people menchon 6 years or a number of days/hours, are people proposining these as actualy days/hours or flying days/hours?