Setting Up a Flight
There are two main ways to set up a flight:
- Inside of smartCARS 3's Flight Center. This can be used for:
- Scheduled flights
- Tour legs
- Events
- Charter flights
- Importing from SimBrief (if plugin is installed)
- From our website. This can be used for:
- Tour legs
- Events
- Dispatching a Schedule
- Dispatching a Tour Leg
- Dispatching an Event
- Dispatching a Charter Flight
- Importing flight details from SimBrief
- Dispatching a flight from our website
Dispatching a Schedule
Access the Flight Center via the icon in the left sidebar.
You will be presented with the My Dispatched Flights screen, which will show any dispatched flights that are ready to be flown.
Dispatch a Scheduled Flight
To dispatch a new flight from our vast list of schedules, click the Dispatch Schedule button.
Search for a Flight
This screen lets you search through all of our schedules.
The results will always be limited to a maximum of 100 flights.
The following search criteria are available to help customize your results:
- Departure Airport
- queries from our list of over 80,000 airports based on data from OpenAIP and OurAirports
- Arrival Airport
- queries from our list of over 80,000 airports based on data from OpenAIP and OurAirports
- Aircraft
- queries from a list of SimBrief supported aircraft
- Flight Number
- search for any real-world flight number
- Duration
- use the slider to set a minimum and/or maximum duration in hours
- Distance
- use the slider to set a minimum and/or maximum distance in nautical miles
At any time, you can click inside the row of any result to see more details about a flight.
Selecting a Scheduled Flight
Note: the screenshot is out of date. There is only the dispatch button, the luggage icon.
Once you've found a desired flight, you can click "Bid on this flight" to add the flight to your Flight Center's list of dispatched flights. Note that you should choose a desired aircraft from the list if it is not already populated. You're welcome to change the preselected aircraft as well.
Dispatching a Tour Leg
This works similarly to dispatching a schedule, but you click the Dispatch Tour button.
You're then presented with all the tour legs available for you to dispatch.
In order for a tour leg to appear here, it must meet one of the following conditions:
- Be the first leg in a tour
- Be any leg of a tour where the Legs Flown in Order is not a requirement
- Be the next leg of a tour where you've flown all previous legs
- Be any leg you've already flow (this will be signified by a checkmark icon)
Dispatching an Event
To dispatch an event, visit the Flight Center and click Dispatch Event.
Here you will see all events that are upcoming.
Note that only events that are currently active (current time is after the start date and before the end date) will have the dispatch buttons enabled.
Dispatching a Charter Flight
Access the Flight Center via the icon in the left sidebar.
You will be presented with the My Flights screen, which will show any dispatched flights that are ready to be flown.
Create a Charter Flight
A Charter Flight is merely a flight that you create on your own, based on whatever flight criteria you desire.
To create a new Charter Flight, click the Dispatch Charter button.
Provide Charter Flight Details
On the "Charter a Flight" screen, populate the details required to create the flight. All fields except for the route are required.
Here is an explanation of each field:
- Callsign
- This may be a real-world flight number, such as ACA80, or your pilot callsign, such as CAN1001.
If in doubt, use your pilot callsign.
- Aircraft
- Choose the aircraft you plan to fly based on the list of SimBrief supported airframes. If the plane you intend to fly is not in the list, choose the next closest match.
- Flight Type
- Choose between Passenger and Cargo
- Cruising Altitude
- Specify the altitude you plan to fly at. SmartCARS 3 will use that to determine when you've reached the cruise stage.
- Departure Airport
- Select from our list of over 80,000 airports based on data from OpenAIP and OurAirports
- HH
- Provide the estimated departure time in 24 hour format
- MM
- This is the estimated departure minutes
- Arrival Airport
- Select from our list of over 80,000 airports based on data from OpenAIP and OurAirports
- HH
- Provide the estimated arrival time in 24 hour format
- MM
- This is the estimated arrival minutes
- Route
- This is an optional description of the route
If you have the SimBrief plugin installed, you may click the Import from SimBrief button to import all the required data.
Click the Create button to create the Charter Flight.
Importing flight details from SimBrief
Access the Flight Center via the icon in the left sidebar.
You will be presented with the My Dispatched Flights screen, which will show any dispatched flights that are ready to be flown.
Import from SimBrief
To import flight details from SimBrief, click the Dispatch Charter button.
If you have the SimBrief plugin installed, you may click the Import from SimBrief button to import all the required data.
Click the Create button to create the flight.
Dispatching a flight from our website
Flights can also be dispatched from our website. This applies to schedules, events, and tour legs.
Visit the Scheduled Flight, Tour Leg or Event in question and look for the Dispatch button.
or
Once clicked, the Scheduled Flight, Tour Leg, or Event flight will appear in the Flight Center in smartCARS 3 as well as the My Dispatched Flights page.
Note that some tour legs are required to be flown in order and may not be dispatched if the previous leg has not been completed. Similarly, Event flights can only be dispatched after the event's start time and before its end time.
You can also dispatch a Charter Flight via the website by using the Dispatch Charter page in the Crew Centre.