Dear FG sim-pilots
I recently posted an invitation to the USA tour. It still feels lonely back there. I also participated (kinda crashed) H5's event in Amsterdam - Omega could certify.
Anyways, I keep having a feeling that we can give more multiplay to the servers. I mean, nothing wrong with flying around and enjoy the FG's sky anyways, but I admit I like the going together feeling, and I must say I found H5 events neat and of improved realism.
And I still have my USA tour plans lying around. And trust me, it is fun and unpredictable. So I want to go long in my suggestion/invitation. I want to ask, who is up for a FG competition Mayhem?. (competition, uh? that sparks some of my interest: does it for you?)
Here is my plan (it's a suggestion still and anyone is welcome to help me improve it with Ideas).
1. Every week (or 2-weeks) I release the leg: departure and destination; Kind of KPHL-KOKC, like this week. Leg distances are variable, I say again. So I will indicate also The leg choosen plane. Planes are variable but I will try to keep it in the best tested FGs. So LEG AND PLANE ARE FIXED.
2. I will also release the competition time frame. To begin with, lets say it's SAT or SUN. Departure will be about 3 hours span. Arrival about 4 hours span. During those times, an ATC will be operating on Fgcom on the given airport. volunteering ATCs may be required to the competition, but ie I am doing the ATC job (100%inexperienced so far). For our example, I will be at TWRKPHL from 16:00-19:00UTC travel day, anounced (3 hours). For this leg, in the given plane (Citation X) it should take 2-3 hours to arrive/land; So I (or the volunteer -some loves ATCing too) will be at TWRKOKC starting 18:00-22:00 handling arrivals (anounced). Last plane departing KPHL at 19:00 taking 3 hours (its really 2h20min) will arrive at 22:00. First plane departing at 16:10 will arrive around 18:35. I hope this explains the ATC schedule.
3. The competitors, that is you, the co-players (c'mon where are my fellow simpilots???) will accept challenge. That, I hope. Up to 2 hours before the leg starts, you submit your Flight plan to the ATC/forum. Departure, Destination, and airplane is FIXED (to keep it fair). You provide your Flight Plan, including suggested FL and cruising speed, and requested showup time--that is, what time you are showing up at the airport. Based on that ATC will validate your participation and assign your exact departure time (around showup + 5 ->10 min for your prechecks, depending on traffic) and gate (no random locations either). I am not a great example, but you are expected to follow ATCs (right omega?). Be there, get navigated to take off, follow your plan, fly, enjoy, and be navigated to land. Have real ATCs and real traffic fellows competing with you
(that'll be great!!)
4. A competition requires scoring system; right?
I suggest the following base on points.
4.1 Flight hour represents 50 points. i.e; a leg like KPHL-KOKC will likely provide 2:20 min of flight time ; that is 115 points. a) Remember you submited your route before departing and got it approved it. This avoids artificially long flights b) before getting scored you have to submit your tracked flight so testify you followd your plan. points deducted for deviations, departure ATC or arrival ATC player is judge.
4.2 Departure; A proper take off -ATC guided- scores up to 50 points. ATC judges and assigns every participating pilot.
4.3 Arrival; A proper arrival and landing -ATC guided- scores up to 100 points (I suppose I find landing quite harder... I do not know about you). Again ATC judges and assigns the pilots.
* A leg such as the one example / may give you up to 265 points (50TO+115flight+100Land). A larger leg consequently will mean scoring higher due to longer flight time.
* Pilots are not penalized for not participating a given leg. (well naturally they score 0 points)
* 100 points are deducted from a total score (all legs) IF pilot schedules and fails to show up. Yes! your worst score can be -5700 points!
* ATCs get 25 points for hour serving departing / arrival station (--any suggestions?). Serving both ATCs here will produce 175 points.
* If your simulator crashes you will receive your score for taking off, and awarded your flight time provided you show your flight tracked. i.e, FG crashes after you flew 1hour, you get your departing (I assume) 50 points plus 50 points of your first hour. I think that is fair.
4.4 Score per leg and total score will be tabulated for all participating pilots. There are 57 flights and quite a lot of flying hours.
5. EVERYBODY can participate. 1) get FG going. 2) get your Scenery (Believe me, you'll need it). 3) get the plane necessary for the leg, and perhaps test fly it before trying competing it, rite? 4) get FGCom going too (I do not know if we can trust MPChat!/ I do not know how to operate it). Plan and show. I believe we can go massive and learn/practice/fly.
Apendix: Long legs. Some legs are truly long. Remember you may choose not to participate. ATCs will be same about same time, it will be at departing organizing planes for 3 hours. ATC will show up at arrival 1 hour before first plane schedule arrival and 30 min after last plane schedule arrival, unless plane communicates he/she is on route arriving late. Or until last scheduled plan lands and taxi away RWY.
So that is it. Guys... I am open to suggestions. Is there any simpilots out there willing to game? how about the H5 guys? they've got lots of practice too. I will be attentive to see if there is people to join. If we hit 6 participants to begin with, then I think we'v got game. If you think you kind of like it, but!; let me know your objections here. Lets discuss it.
Current pilot table:
callsign | legs completed | points per leg | ATC hours serve | ATC points | total points | rank
IAHMCOL | 0 | 0+0 | 0 | 0 | | 1
, 
A given leg of this tour is of no practical use to figure out what's next. Every state or territory (a total of 56) is visited once only, with the exception of California. This is because the last trip arrives to FlightGear homeland at San Francisco International (not a largest city). 
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