American Airlines Virtual

Brad, the POH states.

SECTION 4.0 - Aircraft qualification
Aircraft qualifications are based on pilot rank. A pilot may fly any aircraft belonging to his rank's category, or a lower rank's category.

And, since your Retro qualified you may fly the routes in a DC-3 if you want to, and when you reach the Sr Captain rank then old heavy planes come into play, if there is one.

I substitute aircraft quite often, adhering to the rule that an ERJ isn't going to fly to Hawaii.

Fly your favorite aircraft.

I have a slightly different interpretation of the equipment that can be utilized. Obviously a pilot can only fly a/c for his rank, but only I allow pilots to substitute a/c as long as it is in the same "class" as the a/c called out in the timetable. For example if the schedule defines a MD-80 for a particular flight it would be ok to substitute a 738 for that flight. I would not expect a 767 to be substitute for this flight. Having said that however, I cannot find anything in the POH that specifically addresses this.

I also was along the same line of thought as Theodore. I always fly and enforce at my hub the aircraft in the same classification. Maybe I'm wrong too since there isn't exact wordage in the POH addressing this. Kind of like Theodore said if the timetable calls for a boeing 737-800 and you used an MD-80 that's fine, but to upgrade to a larger aircraft I've never done that before.

Todd Meek wrote: ... but to upgrade to a larger aircraft I've never done that before.

Todd, you really ought to try it sometime. Feels real good.

Todd, Ted, Wayne,

You are the hub managers. Run your hubs as you see fit.

Michael Blakely wrote:Todd, Ted, Wayne,

You are the hub managers. Run your hubs as you see fit.

OK Mike, thanks for that.

Just to be clear, for all DFW pilots you should select a/c in the same classification as the a/c defined in the timetable for your flight. If the flight calls for an MD-80 and you fly a 757 or 767 instead the flight will not be accepted.

Glad this came up. I was going to fly a super long haul flight for an ATR; DEN to LAX just because, I hadn't flown the ATR in a while. FSX crashed on me, and when I reflew it and used a more appropriate aircraft..although a different class since I do not own a regional jet (super 80 as opposed to ERJ 145). Would an ATR had been appropriate since it was an EGF, but flown by a jet? The distance is 880 miles. Very good topic indeed.

Brad, don't forget that you have the ability to file for 4 charter flight per month. I think it would be appropriate to fly any aircraft you are ranked for in these flights regardless of distance. After all, it's up to the "virtual" client as to what aircraft he/she wants. for example, you can't pack an NFL football team into an ERJ or ATR regardless if it's a short trip.

Theodore Martin wrote:

Michael Blakely wrote:Todd, Ted, Wayne,

You are the hub managers. Run your hubs as you see fit.

OK Mike, thanks for that.

Just to be clear, for all DFW pilots you should select a/c in the same classification as the a/c defined in the timetable for your flight. If the flight calls for an MD-80 and you fly a 757 or 767 instead the flight will not be accepted.

Same goes for LAX. If the timetable calls out an MD-80 and you use a B737 that's fine but if you use like a B757 or B767 it will be deleted. I'll be sending out an email describing this in more detail.

Rey Ramon wrote:Glad this came up. I was going to fly a super long haul flight for an ATR; DEN to LAX just because, I hadn't flown the ATR in a while. FSX crashed on me, and when I reflew it and used a more appropriate aircraft..although a different class since I do not own a regional jet (super 80 as opposed to ERJ 145). Would an ATR had been appropriate since it was an EGF, but flown by a jet? The distance is 880 miles. Very good topic indeed.

Rey,
If you are using FSX you could have used the default CR7 since you didn't have an ERJ for that flight. Also the ATR would have been ok (assume it would make 880 miles) since we allow Trainees to fly ERJ routes using the ATR.