American Airlines Virtual

Kaylan, Here is the paragraph from the Pilot handbook;

5.3 - Flight Reports (FREPs)
Flight Reports (FREP) are the reports that each pilot must file upon completion of a flight, in order to receive credit for the hours flown. As mentioned earlier, these reports can be filed through the AAV web site using the online form provided or by using the FSACARS utility which automatically records the departure and arrival times . All departure and arrival times must be reported in Zulu time as the form states. All flights should depart as close as possible to the actual scheduled departure time shown in the time tables. This can be accomplished by changing the flight simulator time to match the approximate scheduled departure time. For the purpose of flight time reporting, the departure time is the time the aircraft leaves the gate and starts to move under it's own power. The arrival time is the time the aircraft arrives at the gate and the brakes are set. FREP's should not be saved and filed all at once, but rather upon completion of each flight.



Now , I belong to two HUBS as a pilot and as an Asst Manager. One of my hubs follows the rules here closely. The other quite a bit looser. Why would you, unless your flying on VATSIM have a weather or time delay, even then you could adjust the times for your sim to match what the RW flight is.
I try to keep it with in 5 minutes of departure but the arrival goes out the window almost each and every time as I don't fly the speeds they do for the times, nor do I calculate it that exact. I don't fly a 2 hour flight in 5 hours though, it has to be close.
As far as I know there is no provision for any weather. Now if you encounter weather enroute and divert around which extends your times so much it affects the flight time, the comments section in the flight report can be utilized to note that.

I like to play realistic also, to a point. I am not going to wait sitting for the time or weather to keep me grounded.
A key word in the paragraph is "should". This is a place to enjoy the flying experience.
WLP

I have been held up on Vatsim at airports that have one runway and many departing and arriving planes all at the same time. I know it's rare, but it can happen. I usually note something in the comment section about traffic delay or some sort so my Hub Manager knows. (I fly for a different hub than I manage). Now I can only speak for KLAX since I'm the Hub manager there. I don't usually like to see much of a time delay leaving unless it was stated in the frep of why the delay took place. As far as arrival time goes, I'm not too picky cause I know there can be alot of variances along the way as long as it's relatively close to the actual length of flight. Alternative airports are allowed if the weather is really really bad, but that just makes it that much more interesting to land if you ask me, I mean this is a sim and all. However even if you do divert to an alternative airport (like they would in real life), when I go to approve your frep, I will edit it and change it back to the original destination so it will look like you flew to the destination airport anyways. Hope that makes sense, and again this is only for KLAX hub.

Well.....Mr. I-can't-make-an-arrival-time Meek.... LOL j/k As the ORD HM I will speak only for O'Hare. The Pilot's Operating Handbook is probably the best source of information for questions like this. I still refer to it from time to time, but it has been written with a certain level of.... I don't want to say vagueness.... It gives hub managers a certain level of discretion to run the hubs the best way they can. One of the biggest issues I have run across is explaining to pilots how to fill in the time blocks on their FREPs. Most of the time I see pilots putting in what must be real world times for their flights. I say this because they are definitely not the times on the schedule. Other times pilots just don't know how to make the conversion from local to zulu time or don't know that the times on the tables are, in fact, local times. This and other issues have a big effect on the flight times that are reported. Having said that, I have flown a LOT here at AAV and I have a pretty good idea of how long a flight should take. As long as the duration of a particular flight is reasonably close to what it should be I will approve a flight. If I can identify a consistent problem with the FREPs I will take that up with that pilot specifically. I occasionally get two-leg flights in two FREPs. (You have the option of flying two-leg flights as one or two legs, as in the r/w) I handle weather diversions the same way. Personally, I landed at DCA a month or so ago with winds gusting from 27-35 kts, at night, with 1/2 mile visibility in a snow storm. Flightaware.com showed a big aerial parking lot to the south of the airport at the time so real flights were either holding or diverting. I have more fun going for the landing. (which results in a lot of bent struts ) If you, as PIC, make the decision to divert due to weather I will respect that and approve your FREP, but you have to complete the flight. i.e. I ask that you fly a leg from your alternate to your original destination and file it as a separate FREP once the weather allows. After all, your virtual passengers paid an imaginary fare to get from point A to point B, and they have to get there somehow right? In other words, if you want to be a hard-core, as-real-as-it-can-possibly-get virtual pilot then I'm all for it. If you just want to finish your flight you can try and push the landing or simply clear the weather out on your sim and land normally. The only time I will have a problem with a delay is when a 1.5 hour flight turns into 3 hours or something like that and I have no comments to account as to why or I see a pattern of consistent overstatement of hours. If that happens then I just think you're trying to stack hours just so you can do a checkride. That's not fair to the rest of us who actually flew 1000 hours and passed 6+ checkrides to make it to Commander's rank. I apologize if that seems rude or arrogant, but I'm proud of what I have accomplished here at AAV and so should every pilot on our roster. We earn what we get here and that's what makes it rewarding. I'm confident that as long as you stay within the bounds of the PIlot's Handbook, no one here is going to discourage you from trying to keep it as real as it gets.