Part 1 - Getting Ready
As already noted, our aircraft of choice for this flight is a US Airways Express ERJ-145. In Flight Simulator, I've challenged myself to simulate to as best I can the operation of regional jets to and from the US Airways Express hub at the E Terminal of Charlotte airport. This particular airplane was one I flew into Buffalo a couple of nights ago, and this fine early afternoon of Sunday, January 9th I'm ready to take it back to my "home" base at Charlotte. I've definitely been to both airports in real life, which always makes these flights more interesting - I remember my own first time boarding an ERJ in Buffalo, and I'm all the more ready to fly.
As always, I try to match up the goals of my flights with the real airline's schedule. Taking a look at the US Airways timetable... I spy US2491, a daily flight from Buffalo to Charlotte that leaves at 1:41pm and arrives at 3:30. In real life it's operated by a CRJ, an aircraft very similar to to the ERJ. So that will be my ticket then!
The next step is to create a flight plan. I've already flown this route before, so I already have a plan prepared - so it is now a matter of loading and reviewing it.
The suggested flight plan starts with our departure from Buffalo. I'm not positive what the ATC will want us to do on departure, but I know that the first part of the route will have us joining the jet airway leading south from the Buffalo (BUF) VOR beacon - so that's our first point of reference. From there we proceed due south along our airway, through the border area between Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland, and then continue south until changing airways and heading southwest at the Flat Rock (FAK) VOR. From there we continue to the Liberty (LIB) VOR in central North Carolina, from which we anticipate to join a standard arrival (STAR) to Charlotte, MAJIC ONE, which I add to our flight plan. MAJIC ONE specifies that we intercept waypoint MAJIC, which is 40 nautical miles northeast of Charlotte, at an altitude of 12000 feet. On reaching MAJIC and turning toward Charlotte, we should receive our approach instructions. To merge with the MAJIC ONE arrival, we have to begin descent before reaching LIB, from which we will proceed west directly to MAJIC.
So, with all of that settled, I'm ready to go take a look at my actual airplane! It's where I last left it - at Gate 4.
It's now 13:00 local time, 41 minutes to our departure, so I grab my clipboard and head off to do a quick walkabout to see the plane's condition. FSPassengers and its 'economic mode' helps me keep track of that. While it's certainly possible to play the economic mode as a management game, my main interest in it is to add yet another dimension to my simulation - the fact is that bad flying costs money. Good flying costs money too, of course, but less so - so by having a balance sheet to stick to with my aircraft, and always having long-term maintenance costs looming, I know that I have to do everything I can to treat the airplanes well to avoid repair costs, treat my passengers well to make sure we have their business, and treat things like fuel consumption, on-time arrivals and above all safety very seriously indeed.
I've flown this specific plane for 12 hours now, and it's done good service with little trouble! The plane is still quite new, with only 437 hours of service, so things look good on the technical front. I do a short walkabout in the snow and make note to keep the threat of icing in the area in mind. The flurries are pretty light, though, and the tarmac is clear.
Note the exhaust of the Allison jet engines here - you can tell these are modern turbofans, with that wavy cookie-cutter shape designed to reduce noise from the jet blast.
Our technician hands me the report on the plane's maintenance - just labour costs and routine maintenance after the plane's last flight here, no repairs needed.
Now back to the economic mode to look at the pricing involved.
Like I said, I don't treat this as a management game, but costs and quality of service do have an important effect of the number of passengers willing to fly and their satisfaction with the service. It would be easy but extremely boring to always fly full loads of happy passengers and still make some money - but that's not how things are in the real world! So, I have my own methods of setting semi-random price ranges using dice. Just part of my house rules - keeps things unpredictable.
Today's tickets look a bit pricey, but the service is reasonable and our record as an airline is solid. We're also a regular operator here at the airport, so I'm sure we'll have plenty of virtual passengers queuing up at the gate today!
So with that, we have green lights from management and maintenance on this flight, and about half an hour to departure. The passengers should have all checked in by now, so it's time to get our manifest and have this bird loaded!
Stay tuned for our next part here at Gate 4 as we continue our preparations for flight US2491!
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To be continued...