Career Mode User Guide

FSFO Career Mode User Guide

FSFO Career Mode User Guide

A user-friendly guide to Pilot Portal-backed Career Mode, including Career Snapshot, schedules, bidding, type ratings, scoring, fatigue, promotions, and company discipline.

Flight Simulator First Officer • Career Mode • Pilot Portal • Schedules • Scoring • Progression

Career Mode is connected to Pilot Portal. FSFO still monitors and scores the flight inside the simulator, but your career profile, company, schedule, rules, training, and progression are managed through Pilot Portal.

Most important rule: If you want the flight to count toward career progress, make sure Career Snapshot shows the correct assignment before you fly. A flight can be flown and scored without advancing your career if the route, airport, aircraft, schedule, or rating does not match.

Quick Start
What to do first

Career Snapshot
Your preflight career check

Readiness Checks
Why a flight may not be ready

Schedules and Bidding
Assignments and award chances

Scoring
Total, landing, and comfort scores

Fines & Penalties
Flight, comfort, and contract charges

Progression
Ranks, pay, tiers, ratings

Discipline
Warnings and termination

Troubleshooting
Common problems

Overview

Career Mode gives you one persistent pilot identity instead of treating every flight as a standalone session. Your pilot can join companies, receive schedules, earn money, complete type training, build seniority, and move through ranks over time.

Your career can track:

Career item	What it means for the user
Pilot identity	Your persistent career profile in Pilot Portal.
Company and rank	The airline or company you fly for, plus your current career rank.
Schedule and assignment	The next career leg FSFO expects you to fly.
Type ratings	Aircraft qualifications that may be required before a flight can count.
Scores and progression	Your performance, average score, pay, balance, promotions, and career growth.

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Quick Start

Use this as the basic workflow when you want a career flight to count:

Step	What to do
1	Sign in to Pilot Portal.
2	Open Career Snapshot in FSFO.
3	Review your company, rank, next assignment, current location, type rating, fatigue, and enabled rules.
4	Load the correct aircraft and start at the correct departure airport.
5	Fly the assigned route only after FSFO says the career flight is ready.
6	Let FSFO score the flight and upload the result at the end.

User tip: Career Snapshot is your final preflight check. If something looks wrong there, fix it before starting the flight.

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Career Snapshot

The main Career page in FSFO is Career Snapshot. It is not meant to replace the full Pilot Portal. Instead, it gives you the important live career information you need before departure.

Career Snapshot shows your current career status, next assignment, and readiness information.

The top buttons are used for:

Button	Purpose
Help	Opens the in-app Career guide.
Contract	Opens the current career agreement and scoring summary.
Portal	Opens the Pilot Portal side of Career Mode where schedules, bidding, training, and company management are handled.

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Career Rule Settings

Career rules are synced from Pilot Portal and then enforced by FSFO during readiness checks and post-flight progression.

Rule	Plain-English meaning
Start from last airport	You must begin near your saved career location. FSFO checks that you are within 10 NM of that airport.
Fatal crash starts over	A fatal crash can have major career consequences according to the synced career policy.
Must fly scheduled flight	Only the next assigned leg counts toward career progression.
Passenger comfort	FSFO tracks passenger comfort and can apply comfort-related score penalties.
Can be fired	Poor performance can lead to warnings and possible termination from your company.
Enable fatigue	FSFO checks recent workload. If fatigue is too high, the flight may not be ready.
Schedule based on rank	Your rank affects the maximum distance of generated schedule legs.
Must have type rating	You need the correct aircraft rating before the flight can count cleanly.
Lock schedule until complete	You cannot simply replace an incomplete schedule unless the portal workflow allows it.
Application based on rank	Your rank affects which company tiers you can apply to and your hiring chance.
Upload data	The career result is intended to upload through the portal-backed workflow.

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Readiness Checks

Before a career flight counts cleanly, FSFO can validate your sign-in, company, assignment, departure location, type rating, fatigue, and enabled career rules.

Common blocker	What to check
Wrong departure airport	Make sure you are starting from the airport shown in Career Snapshot.
Wrong route	The departure and arrival must match the next pending assignment when schedule enforcement is active.
Wrong aircraft or missing rating	Confirm the aircraft profile and required type rating.
Fatigue too high	Career readiness fails if fatigue is 75% or higher.

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Schedules and Bidding

Schedules are generated through Pilot Portal. FSFO uses the active schedule for next-leg validation, progression credit, schedule completion, and schedule-lock enforcement.

Pilot Portal is where career schedules, assignments, and related career management are handled.

Schedule distance by rank

Rank	Maximum leg distance when rank scheduling is enabled
Cadet	600 NM
Second Officer	1,200 NM
First Officer	2,500 NM
Captain	5,000 NM
Senior Captain	10,000 NM

Bidding and reserve

Career bidding is handled through the portal's Bid & Reserve workflow. You stack bids from the available route list, submit them through the portal, and review the live Award Chance.

Award Chance is influenced by both your current rank and your completed company-leg history. Senior pilots generally have a stronger bidding profile, but consistent company flying also helps.

Current workflow note: Bidding is no longer documented as a comma-separated airport-pair text box. Use the portal Bid & Reserve workflow.

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When a Flight Counts Toward Progression

A career flight does not automatically count toward career progression. If Must fly scheduled flight is enabled, FSFO compares your actual flight against the next pending assignment.

For the leg to count, the flight must match:

Requirement	Meaning
Scheduled departure airport	You must start from the departure airport assigned by the schedule.
Scheduled arrival airport	You must arrive at the assigned destination.
Next pending leg	If the schedule is ordered, you must fly the next leg in sequence.

If the flight does not meet the progression rules, it may still be flown and scored, but it will not update career progression items such as Total Legs, Average Score, Company Legs, Contract Remaining Legs, Balance, Rank, Career Tier, or Pay per hour.

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Scoring

Career Mode stores both a Landing Score and a Total Score. They are related, but they are not the same.

Total Score

Each career flight begins at Total Score = 100. FSFO then subtracts penalties for critical events, aircraft configuration, lights, speed/angle issues, general performance, passenger comfort, and passenger outcome.

Current formula: Total Score = Pilot Score - Comfort Penalty - Passenger Outcome Penalty

A flight is currently marked Qualified for Progression when Total Score is 90 or greater.

Major score deductions

Category	Examples
Critical	Crash detected = score set to 0; stall, overspeed, overweight, or unstable approach = -10 each.
Configuration	Flap, gear, spoiler, G-force, and fuel-management problems.
Lights	Navigation, beacon, strobe, and landing-light mistakes.
Speed / angle	Excess pitch, bank, low-altitude IAS, or taxi ground speed.
General	Landing score below passing threshold.

Unstable approach check: FSFO evaluates unstable approach between 1000 ft AGL and 100 ft AGL. It can trigger if vertical speed is outside -1200 to -300 FPM or bank angle is greater than 25 degrees.

Landing Score

Landing Score is calculated separately from the rest of the Total Score model.

Landing factor	Weight
Vertical speed	35%
Touchdown G-force	15%
Runway threshold distance	30%
Runway centerline	20%

A Landing Score below 80 triggers the landing-evaluation penalty.

Passenger Comfort

If Passenger comfort is enabled, FSFO tracks comfort events during flight and evaluates passenger outcome at shutdown.

Comfort can include taxi speed, hard braking, jerky turns, G-force, bank angle, pitch-rate changes, slip/skid, and landing firmness. At shutdown, FSFO also evaluates Satisfaction, Anxiety, Health, Hunger, and Thirst.

Fines and Financial Penalties

Financial adjustments are not all the same. Flight-performance fines are tied to simulator events. Passenger-comfort penalties, contract-break fines, and Company Mode charges use separate rules and are not added to the flight-performance formula below.

Flight-performance fines

A triggering simulator event can reduce your Total Score and also create a financial fine. The post-flight report and Pilot Portal finance entry show the specific billed item and amount.

How a fine is calculated

Fine = category base amount × pay-rate multiplier × number of recorded errors

Pay-rate multiplier = round(clamp(0.60 + ((hourly pay / 90) × 0.75), 0.75, 1.65), 2)

The multiplier is based on your current career hourly pay and is never lower than 0.75x or higher than 1.65x. That is why the same rule can produce different amounts for different pilots.

Fine category	Base fine per error	Billed examples
Critical	$100.00	Stall warning, overspeed warning, or overweight aircraft.
Configuration	$25.00	Flaps, gear, spoilers, or excessive G-force.
Lights	$10.00	Navigation, beacon, strobe, or landing-light violation.
Speed / angle	$15.00	Pitch, bank, IAS, or taxi ground-speed violation.

Worked examples

Example	Calculation	Fine
Critical: overspeed warning	At $72/hr: 0.60 + (($72 / 90) × 0.75) = 1.20x. One critical error: $100.00 × 1.20 × 1.	$120.00
Lights: landing lights left on too high	At the same $72/hr: multiplier = 1.20x. One lights error: $10.00 × 1.20 × 1.	$12.00

Landing-light mistakes are billed only as lights violations, not as critical violations. For high-altitude monitoring, FSFO allows a 500-ft sampling grace above 18,500 ft AGL; a momentary reading at 18,501 ft does not create a fine.

Where to find the reason

The Career / Pay section of the post-flight report shows a Fine Breakdown. Pilot Portal also records the itemized ledger entry, for example: FSFO flight-performance fine: Landing Lights: $12.00.

Other financial adjustments

Adjustment	When it applies	Where it appears
Passenger-comfort penalty	When passenger comfort is enabled and the flight score is below the applicable comfort threshold. A flight-performance fine takes priority, so the two are not posted together for the same flight closeout.	Pilot Portal finance ledger as a passenger-comfort penalty.
Contract-break fine	When leaving a company before completing the required commitment. The amount depends on the remaining contract value and the portion already completed.	Company-change result and Pilot Portal finance history.
Company Mode late or operating charge	When a Company Mode contract closes late or with operating costs such as handling, fuel, maintenance, airport, or ground-service charges.	Company contract closeout and company finance records; it affects company finances, not the personal Career Mode performance-fine table.

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Fatigue

If Enable fatigue is turned on, FSFO calculates fatigue from recent leg count and recent block hours. It looks at the last 24 hours, last 72 hours, and last 7 days.

Window	What FSFO checks
24 hours	Recent acute workload.
72 hours	Short-term workload.
7 days	Weekly workload.

The fatigue result is capped at 100 and rounded to the nearest whole percent. Career readiness fails if fatigue is 75% or higher.

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Progression

This section explains how your career moves forward over time.

Companies and contract commitments

Company tier	Required contract legs
Tier 1	30 legs
Tier 2	60 legs
Tier 3	90 legs
Tier 4	120 legs
Tier 5	150 legs

If you leave a company before completing the required commitment, a contract-break fine can be applied.

Ranks and promotions

Career Mode uses five ranks: Cadet, Second Officer, First Officer, Captain, and Senior Captain. Promotions are based on total legs and average score. Before any promotion is possible, your Average Score must be at least 92.0.

Promotion	Requirement
Second Officer	50 total legs
First Officer	125 total legs
Captain	200 total legs
Senior Captain	350 total legs

Career tier and pay

Each company has a base hourly pay rate. Career Tier adds a fixed hourly raise on top of that base rate.

Career tier	Hourly raise
Tier 1	+$0/hr
Tier 2	+$5/hr
Tier 3	+$10/hr
Tier 4	+$18/hr
Tier 5	+$28/hr

Pay formula: Final hourly pay = company base hourly pay + current Career Tier raise.

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Company Applications

If Application based on rank is enabled, company access is restricted by rank and tier.

Rank	Current hiring chances
Cadet	Tier 1 = 100%
Second Officer	Tier 1 = 100%; Tier 2 = 50%
First Officer	Tier 1 = 100%; Tier 2 = 100%; Tier 3 = 50%
Captain	Tier 1 = 100%; Tier 2 = 100%; Tier 3 = 75%
Senior Captain	Tier 1 = 100%; Tier 2 = 100%; Tier 3 = 95%

If you are rejected by the same company, there is currently a 7-day wait before retrying.

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Type Ratings and Training

If Must have type rating is enabled, FSFO verifies that your pilot has the required rating for the aircraft being flown. A missing rating can block the flight from being ready or prevent it from counting cleanly.

There are two training paths:

Training type	What it does
Private Training	Uses personal funds immediately. It cannot be started if it would push your pilot balance below -75,000.
Company Training	Extends the current contract instead of charging the full training cost directly to your balance.

Type rating group	Training days	Private training	Company training
CRJ / F7X	5 days	15,000 × regional multiplier	+20 contract legs
A32 / B73	7 days	25,000 × regional multiplier	+35 contract legs
A31 / A33 / B76 / B77 / MD1 / MD11	10 days	45,000 × regional multiplier	+60 contract legs
Other supported ratings	7 days	20,000 × regional multiplier	+30 contract legs

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Discipline

If Can be fired is enabled, FSFO tracks company warnings and termination risk. Warnings do not begin immediately; a pilot must complete at least 5 company legs before warning thresholds are evaluated.

Warning type	Warning threshold
Critical errors	10% of company legs
Configuration errors	25% of company legs
Speed errors	35% of company legs
Lights errors	50% of company legs

A pilot can be terminated if warnings reach 3, the most recent Total Score is below 50, or total average score falls below 80.0. Termination can clear the company, reset company-related counters, clear the schedule, reduce rank by one level, and adjust career tier to match the new rank.

Bottom line: Career Mode rewards consistent, safe flying. A single bad flight may hurt your score, but repeated poor performance can affect your company status.

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Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
My career flight is not ready	Confirm Pilot Portal sign-in, next assignment, departure airport, aircraft rating, and fatigue.
My flight did not count toward progression	If scheduled-flight enforcement is enabled, confirm you flew the next pending leg from the correct departure to the correct arrival.
I cannot generate a new schedule	If schedule lock is enabled, finish or clear the current schedule through the portal workflow first.
I was rejected by a company	Confirm your rank allows that company tier and wait out the 7-day retry cooldown if applicable.
My score seems lower than expected	Look for unstable approach, landing score below 80, low landing fuel, lighting/configuration mistakes, comfort penalties, or poor passenger outcome at shutdown.

For initial setup help, see Getting Started. For voice features, see Voice Commands. For general problem solving, see Troubleshooting.

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