Messages

1

General Chat / Sudden Lag.

« on: August 28, 2008, 09:15:09 pm »

Anyone else been experiencing this lately?  Everything will be running perfectly smooth then out of nowhere you click update on a route and everything freezes up, sometimes for a minute other times have to get out of AM and come back later. 

It wasn't really a problem for awhile.  But lately its been every single time I'm on no matter what time of day or night it is.  Get a few routes edited then have to stop because everything is creeping along at a snails pace.  No other website does this so its not my connection.

2

General Chat / Its so Hot!!!!

« on: July 01, 2008, 12:39:44 am »

A funnel cloud passed right over me once :shock:
It was a premature tornado that was just about to touch down, but never did.

Try having a tornado rip the metal barn roof off right over your head :shock:  I quite frankly never want to see one again :? Sad part is my boss and I were enjoying watching it move around the field not 30 seconds before  :cry:

Nice 75°F day, this is a very odd summer so far, usually hanging in the high 80's to mid 90's and a drought right now.  Been cool with rain a floods this year with the occasional 90ºF+ day here and there...defiantly a change for us

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General Chat / Its so Hot!!!!

« on: June 30, 2008, 06:13:28 am »

Indiana, if you want to know the weather just look out a window  Forecast changes every 5 minutes :?

Decent, cool day tomorrow, looking at around 72°F.  Unusually cool for this time of the summer, but nothing about the weather patterns this year are normal for us

 We too get the extremes here, over the winter (early January) we went from 25°F with a foot of snow on the ground...to 65°F severe storms and a flood that broke a 100 year old local record after several inches of rain and all snow melting...back to 15°F and another foot of fresh snow on the ground with an inch of ice under it..........all in about 36 hours :shock:

We see days over 100°F every now and then, mostly in mid to late July.  Only problem we have with those days is the high humidity that makes the heat index rise even higher.  I've seen a heat index reach 125°F before.  Try baling hay in that heat :shock:  Nothing like a 103°F day with 90% humidity :oops:

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General Chat / How often does your PC crash?

« on: June 19, 2008, 07:01:16 am »

Never...custom home built I put together in November 2007.  Vista Home Basic

Now the system before that...had it for about 3 years...$500 store bought piece of crap...upgraded from 98 to Windows XP Home (shudders :oops: ) it crashed so many times a day that when the CPU heat sink malfunctioned causing a literal meltdown of the motherboard...it got the 12 gauge buckshot solute...case and all  May it rest in peace pieces :twisted:

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General Chat / Maintenance Cost

« on: June 01, 2008, 07:35:11 am »

Fees out of whack again :shock:   Added one aircraft type (7 currently in service) to my fleet and suddenly my maintenance fees shot up an extra 200 million :shock:  I lost nearly 1/4 of my monthly income in one night :?

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General Chat / Concerning €1 Routes

« on: June 01, 2008, 07:27:27 am »

Would you like some cheese to go with your whine?

Got any Cheddar :?   As for wine...I'd rather have whiskey

7

General Chat / Concerning €1 Routes

« on: May 29, 2008, 03:06:57 am »

Bring this thread back to life for a minute.

Little pet peeve thats driving me crazy at one of my hubs.

If your bored and don't feel like playing a world anymore...then remove yourself from said world.  Not be childish and set every single route (250+) you have to €1  :x   Theres no extra factors playing into this game yet...doing this even when theres only a year or so left in the game is pointless and just plain annoying to the rest of us :?  Yes its not technically against the rules...but whats the point...your making negative profit  Just speeds up how quickly this game reaches a standstill. This is the exact same stupidity that drives people away from this game...why bother spending the time to create a nice hub when you know within 3-4 years some idiots just going to ruin it because hes bored :x

There ought to be some sort of limit to these kinds of actions...theres playing and trying to drive people away from a hub (which rarely works)...then theres just bored stupidity that brings this game to a screeching halt earlier then it should.

8

General Chat / Whats the price of your fuel?

« on: May 24, 2008, 10:06:31 pm »

Northern Indiana $3.99 a gallon for regular, watered down, crap fuel.  Diesel is nearly $4.75 a gallon.

This discussion has been argued many times one every forum I visit.  There is no way to compare the US prices to Europe prices...Two completely different worlds,

A...Most of us have NO public transportation what so ever...cant just hop a bus or train to go across town.
B...Things are very spread out, a lot of us where I'm at have at least a 15-20 mile drive to work every day.
C...Wages are completely different.  Europe's high prices have an impact on the normal worker just as much as they do here even though there is nearly a $4 difference per gallon.

I know from what I'm going through at the moment, having an old 1/2 ton truck for work.  The higher the price of gas goes the more it hurts.  Currently...about $140 a week...JUST for work...I get about 15-20 miles to the gallon depending on length of the drive (highway or stop and go through town) and if loaded, or pulling a trailer.  People say to get a little car, not everyone has the option...If I didn't have a truck I wouldn't have a job.  4 years ago it only took about $45 MAX a week.  My wage has barely moved since then, maybe a whole $20 more per week...but gas now costs me nearly $150 a week on average.  Thats a little over 1/2 my pay check after taxes were taken out :x  With the cost of everything going up more and more how are we expected to make it.  When driving is your only option for work the price at the pump pretty much just says bend over :?

Some places have it made...Spending 3 weeks in Taiwan I was amazed by the public transportation...we were able to get to anywhere from anywhere by either a bus or train.  Only rode in a car 3 times in those weeks...two times was to and from the airport...and then a 3 day trip clear around the island.  Mopeds got us around Chung-Li most of the time.

Would never see that kind of transportation system here, not even in the big cities I've been too, like Chicago.  Some of it exists...but its not really effective from what I've seen  :?

9

General Chat / Maintenance Cost

« on: May 23, 2008, 05:04:01 am »

It is slowing things down for some of us...I've added nearly 5 million to my DOP in the past couple days yet monthly profit has dropped nearly 100 million  And actually have a few less aircraft then I did the other day :?   Cant purchase the aircraft I'm planning quite as fast...Just started a new hub for Trans-Atlantic service last night and need a few more L1011-500s...on top of growing my domestic hubs :oops:

There needs to be a different formula for figuring maintenance costs.  Usually your techs would be specialized on an aircraft type.  So the more aircraft types you have the more techs you will need at a hub.  But if your in my case...each hub has its own aircraft type.  

Hub A...737-500s
Hub B...MD-87s
Hub C...A320-200s (My one foreign hub)
Hub D...L1011-500s

Each hub instead of having 4 tech groups really only needs 1 as there is only one aircraft type to deal with.  But at current costs its like all 4 hubs have 4 tech groups even though only one aircraft type will be serviced there.  Something to consider :idea:

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General Chat / it is very tired edit nearly 100 routes daily

« on: May 15, 2008, 09:23:55 pm »

Till someone fully bans scripts and has a way to either disable them or find the offenders easily nothing will change.  Editing isn't to bad when you start out and maybe have 50 routes.  But now with 336 routes seems like its impossible to keep them decently updated.  Once a week maybe have them all back to 100% load just so an hour after finishing 50 of them are back down again  Some people I wonder about, seems like when editing, 2 out of 3 times there will be 5 or 6 routes that will drop back down from 100% instantly after clicking create route...The odds of someone being on the other end just happening to edit those same routes at the exact same time is zero to none.  This will continue till the next time I edit them and then they will stick for awhile...almost has to be a script.

Its hard to grow...the only way to grow is to expand.  But after a couple hundred routes maintaining them all is nearly impossible.  Wouldn't be so bad but on some routes €1 means the difference between having 100% load and a 25% load.

Some people may have no job and sit at the computer all day but some of us work for a living and have a life.  Its a great little time killer and once a few more additions are added it will be a good game.  But as with every game the cheaters ruin it quickly.

I mean, come on...how can someone have 2255+ routes and manage to keep a 98.7%+ load all the time...I can't even do that with only 336 routes...and thats spending probably an hour in editing every day or so  Even if its someone who sits at the computer 12 hours a day...they never seem to drop below 98% any time, impossible without some kind of script or something...I sometimes drop from 100% to 90% in a matter of 2 hours :?

Why can't people just play fair...who cares if your #1...its how you play the game...not like theres a big cash prize at the end.

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General Chat / A Cheeky Disquisition on the Revenue Model

« on: May 14, 2008, 04:33:39 am »

There defiantly needs to be some changes in how the fares are calculated.  I can make more out of a 200 mile flight then a 3000 mile flight with the current set up :?

Multi class seating would be nice and defiantly make a drastic improvement.  But there is some simpler things that would make a difference.  Using one currency is perfectly fine, makes things simpler and less confusing.  Its the already mentioned fare issue that needs work.  Who in their right mind would pay €600 to fly 150 miles  But then the long hauls take the biggest hit.  If you have a 747-400 in the current set up its a complete waist, high fuel, long turn time, and a profit that is minimal.  But on a long haul you can barely max it out around €275 for a 1 frequency round trip....I assume that by one frequency that is the fair for both directions as .5 doesn't seem to make much difference.  Thats about $425 USD for a round trip ticket.  I paid nearly $1050 for a round trip cattle class from LAX-TPE-LAX a couple years ago.

The pricing is just out of whack.  You wouldn't pay more for PHX-LAX then you would PHX-LHR in real life...thats just absurd.  The current structure makes things rather boring in a matter of the first year.  Its all who has the fastest fingers and the lowest price...wheres the fun in that.  Its annoying to set get a route to 100% and a few seconds later its back down to 60% because of a €1 difference :x

Also its all about the bigger the airports on a route the higher you can charge.  Not usually like that in real life from what I've found.  My closest airport is Fort Wayne, FWA.  Small regional, not many flights to choose from.  I've always flown from there simply because of convenience in distance, but also because its a great airport being so small, its an enjoyable experience instead of a LAX nightmare.  But the thing is, I could just as easily drive down to Indianapolis, IND.  Every booking I've made you will pay about a $100-$150 more to fly out of FWA then you would IND...Even if the connection city is the same.  FWA is closer to Chicago then IND...yet its generally about $100 cheaper to fly from IND and connect in Chicago then it is to fly from FWA and connect in Chicago...flights arrive about the same time, same airline, same aircraft.  Unlike AM in real life you will generally pay more to fly from a smaller airport then you would to go from a larger airport.  Something to be considered.

But either way the pricing structure needs a serious tweak even before multi class seating is ready to be put into effect.  Long hauls are not really worth it at the current set up.

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General Chat / Your faveorite Airline

« on: April 17, 2008, 04:58:08 am »

Best...

1...American...Their little ERJ-145s are so comfy...the 757-200W's and MD-83's ain't to bad either.

2...Northwest...mainly on the flights from DTW-ANC-DTW...food was great and seats were decently comfy.  Only downside was the landing at ANC...think they probably had to look over the landing gear after that one...turbulence was pretty bad the whole way down and a down burst caught us right before touchdown...we hit hard enough to open some overhead compartments  :shock:

Mixed...

1...Malaysia Airlines...LAX-TPE-LAX...747-400's, AVOD didn't work on the flight to Taiwan but worked on the way back, service wasn't to great on that leg either but decent....From TPE-LAX the service was great, supper and...erm...supper was great (best airline food I've had)  They actually had some decent shows and movies...and even a country music station Neat to land at LAX 3 hours before we even took off

Their downfall...if you have long legs its not a good choice if going Cattle Class.  There was no leg room what so ever to begin with, then when the person in front of you reclines you can forget moving your legs at all :cry:  Seats were way to firm for my liking, couldn't really get comfy at all...Makes a 14+ hour flight miserable really quick...a good supply of beer got me through the TPE-LAX leg :?  Going over was not fun after already spending over 16 hours hopping from FWA-DFW-LAX...a 14.5 hour flight in that seat made it nearly impossible to move after a 30 hour journey.  Even though the service was much better and the food was great it wasn't exactly how I wanted to start my 37 hour journey home either.

2...TWA...Was my first flights by myself, was only like 13 years old.  Took a little J-31 from FWA-STL and sat over the wing...rivets rattling and duct tape flapping  The DC-9 to RDU wasn't much better, especially when we took off from STL and we just kept circling the Golden Arch at a fairly low level...eventually the pilot came on and said we were returning to STL due to some kind of problem, what ever it was we couldn't climb...maybe the duct tape was causing to much drag...there was more then enough on the wing :shock:  Somewhere I have a picture of it ...Hopped on a different DC-9 an hour later and made the flight.  Coming home it was another DC-9 to STL...little less tape but more rivets rattling.  Then the J-31 flight back to FWA started off with a rejected takeoff right before liftoff.  Rough flight with bad weather the whole way.

Overall it wasn't the best I've experienced...but the staff was friendly and having child assistance being so young I got to meet all the pilots  And a few extra snacks  

Worst...

Don't really have one.  NW, AA, TW, and MH are the only airlines I've flown other then a couple with Continental.  Guess they would be the worst if I had to pick...but Continental took me on my first ever flights after NW canceled a bunch and my mom and I got transfered to CO.  Thats been quite a few years ago though and I was pretty young.  Just remember the food and service truly sucked.  Don't know if its changed...but back then the sandwiches we got on the way from CLE-RSW looked and tasted like something they had just pulled from the garbage  Really enjoyed the little B-1900 as my first flight though...I thought that thing was tiny till I flew on TWA's J-31's

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General Chat / Where are the players come from

« on: April 10, 2008, 03:24:33 am »

From a little tiny farm town in Indiana.  Would die if I ever had to live in a city :?

Travel around a lot though including 3 weeks in Chung-Li City, Taiwan a couple years ago, beautiful country

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General Chat / Boeing 747-300

« on: March 13, 2008, 08:22:51 pm »

Even in long rounds such large aircraft are more of a luxury then a necessity.  For the current set up they are full to the max with PAX.  Wait till aircraft layouts are put in then large aircraft will be more practical.  What real airline flies a 747 on a long haul that is packed only with economy seats...none that are known.  550 PAX is way to many for just economy.  Only all economy 747s I know of in real life are JAL's 747-400D's which are only used on short flights, that many PAX reduces range.

Once layouts are available you reduce the number of PAX considerably but should actually make a little more profit as there will now be classes.  Say 10 first class, 30-40 business and 250 economy.  Wont have such a drastic impact on everyone else and will be able to charge differently by classes instead of one set rate or everything.  I've learned last round that large aircraft really are not worth the money with the current one price setup.  I could make quite a bit more off a 150 seat aircraft then a 400 seat aircraft.  The demand is not high enough even on long hauls with the competition to support 500+ PAX on one flight.  But it will allow for 300 or so to make it decent.

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General Chat / price of food and drinks

« on: March 08, 2008, 05:24:36 am »

Misc Revenue: €1,290,490 with about 31,000 PAX.  Food and drink prices are set pretty low, tempted to raise them and see what happens. :twisted: