Career Mode User Guide

FSFO Career Mode User Guide

This page explains how Career Mode works in FSFO, including pilot progression, schedules, training, scoring, fatigue, and the permanent flight log.

Career Mode uses a local database to track your pilot profile, your active schedule, and your long-term flight history.

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Overview

Career Mode is built around three main areas:

• Pilot Profile

Your pilot's name, company, rank, tier, balance, location, type ratings, score, errors, contract legs, and training status

• Current Schedule

Your active scheduled legs

• Flight Log

Your permanent flight history and performance record

Use Career Mode if you want persistent progression across multiple flights instead of isolated one-off sessions.

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Getting Started

To begin using Career Mode:

1. Open the Career Dashboard
2. Click Rebuild Database the first time you use Career Mode
3. Enter your pilot name
4. Select a company
5. Optionally select a type rating
6. Click Apply Company

Once accepted, your pilot profile is created and Career Mode begins tracking your progress.

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Career Dashboard

The Career Dashboard includes the following major functions:

• Rebuild Database

Creates or recreates the local career database

• Apply Company

Applies for a company and creates your pilot profile if needed

• Apply Type Rating

Starts type-rating training

• Generate Schedule

Builds your current schedule

• Load Stats

Refreshes pilot statistics

• Save Options

Saves career settings

• Flight Log

Opens the permanent flight history window

NOTE: The current Show Contract button is not implemented yet.

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Career Options

These options affect how schedules are generated, when flights count toward progression, and whether readiness checks can block a flight.

• Start from last airport

Requires you to begin your next career flight from your saved current location. If enabled, FSFO checks that you are within 10 NM of the pilot's stored airport before the flight is considered ready.

• Fatal crash starts over

If enabled, a fatal crash can end your current career and force you to start over.

• Must fly scheduled flight

Only credits career progress when you complete the next pending scheduled leg in order. If enabled and you do not fly the correct leg, the flight can still be logged, but it will not advance total legs, average score, balance, rank, or career tier.

• Passenger comfort

Enables passenger-comfort rules so smoother, better-managed flights matter more to your career results.

• Can be fired

Enables the career rule that allows poor performance or major failures to put your employment at risk.

• Enable fatigue

Turns on fatigue tracking. If enabled, FSFO checks recent workload and can block career-flight readiness when fatigue rises above the allowed threshold.

• Schedule based on rank

Automatically builds schedules using the pilot's current rank and tier to determine the maximum leg distance. If a full schedule cannot be built within that cap, FSFO falls back to the full eligible route set.

• Must have type rating

Requires the pilot to hold the appropriate type rating before operating aircraft that need one.

• Lock schedule until complete

Prevents generating a new schedule while an existing schedule still has incomplete legs.

• Application based on rank

Makes company applications depend on your current rank, including tier eligibility and hiring probability. It also enforces the rejection cooldown for repeat applications.

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Companies and Company Tiers

Companies are loaded from Airlines.cfg. Each airline has a tier. That tier affects hiring rules, contract leg requirements, and pay scaling.

Current contract-leg requirements by company tier:

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 satisfying the required legs, Career Mode can apply a contract-break penalty.

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Ranks

Career Mode uses a five-rank system:

• Rank 1 - Cadet
• Rank 2 - Second Officer
• Rank 3 - First Officer
• Rank 4 - Captain
• Rank 5 - Senior Captain

Your rank affects:

• the maximum leg distance used in automatic scheduling
• your bidding advantage when schedules are generated
• which companies you can apply to if rank-based hiring is enabled
• your promotion eligibility
• your pay multiplier through Career Tier

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How Promotions Work

Promotions are based on two things:

• Total Legs
• Average Score

Requirement: Your Average Score must be at least 92.0 before any promotion is possible.

Promotion thresholds:

50 total legs  = Second Officer
125 total legs = First Officer
200 total legs = Captain
350 total legs = Senior Captain

If your flight is not credited toward progression, it will not count toward promotion.

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Career Tier and Pay

Each company has a base hourly pay rate. Base pay is assigned by region (e.g. US, Europe, or Middle East) and is intended to reflect the average starting pay for airline pilots in that part of the world. Career Tier increases with promotion. Pay is recalculated using a fixed hourly raise, not a multiplier.

Current Career Tier hourly raises:

Tier 1 = +$0/hr
Tier 2 = +$5/hr
Tier 3 = +$10/hr
Tier 4 = +$18/hr
Tier 5 = +$28/hr

Final hourly pay = company base hourly pay + current Career Tier hourly raise

When you are promoted, FSFO updates:

• your rank
• your career tier
• your pay per hour

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Company Applications

If Application based on rank is enabled, not every pilot can freely join every airline tier.

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, FSFO enforces a 7-day wait before trying again.

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Type Ratings and Training

Use Apply Type Rating after you have joined a company.

Type rating requests will be blocked if:

• no pilot profile exists
• the pilot is not currently employed by a company
• the pilot is already in training
• the pilot already holds that type rating

Two training paths are available:

• Private Training

Costs money immediately

• Company Training

Extends contract legs instead of charging the balance directly

Training duration and costs depend on the type rating group.

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Schedule Generation

Schedules are built from your route data and filtered by:

• current airline
• rank
• type rating, if type-rating enforcement is enabled
• current location and preferred airport logic

If Schedule Based On Rank s enabled, FSFO automatically applies a maximum leg distance by rank:

Rank 1 = 750 NM
Rank 2 = 1500 NM
Rank 3 = 4000 NM
Rank 4 = 8000 NM
Rank 5 = 10000 NM

FSFO first tries to build a schedule using that cap. If it cannot build a full schedule, it falls back to the full eligible route pool.

If Schedule based on rank is disabled, the Max NM value entered by the user is enforced strictly.

If Lock schedule until complete is enabled, FSFO will not generate a new schedule while an incomplete schedule already exists.

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Schedule Bidding System

Lets you request specific route segments when generating a Career Mode schedule. Enter your bids in the Route Bid box using directional airport pairs separated by commas, for example: KBOS-KBGR,KBGR-KDEN. Bids are directional only, so KBOS-KBGR is different from KBGR-KBOS. FSFO applies bids in the order entered, and each bid must maintain schedule continuity — the next bid must depart from the airport where the previous leg ended, otherwise the remaining bid is wasted..

If Schedule Based On Rank is enabled, each bid leg is awarded based on the pilot’s current rank:

Current rank-based bid chances:

Rank 1 = 20%
Rank 2 = 40%
Rank 3 = 60%
Rank 4 = 80%
Rank 5 = 90%

If Schedule Based On Rank is disabled, FSFO will try to honor the requested bid exactly as entered, but only if it can still build a continuous schedule from the pilot’s current location.

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Preferred Airport

You can set a preferred airport for a company. FSFO uses that airport when generating schedules and gives preference to routes that end there, especially near the end of a generated trip.

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Route Map

After a schedule is generated, FSFO can build a route map from the loaded schedule legs and open it externally.

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When a Flight Counts Toward Progression

A flight does not automatically count toward career progression.

If Must fly scheduled flight is enabled, the flight must complete the next pending leg in order.

FSFO compares:

• the actual departure airport
• the actual arrival airport

For the leg to count, the pilot must:

• start at the correct airport
• arrive at the correct airport
• match the next pending scheduled leg

If the flight does not meet that requirement:

• it can still be logged
  • it will not increase Total Legs
  • it will not update Average Score
  • it will not reduce Contract Remaining Legs
  • it will not update Balance
  • it will not trigger promotion

If the next scheduled leg is completed correctly, it is marked COMPLETED. If that was the final remaining leg, the schedule is cleared.

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Flying a Career Flight

Before flight, FSFO captures:

• company
• flight number
• aircraft
• departure airport
• arrival airport

During flight, Career Mode monitors multiple operational and scoring categories.

Examples include:

• pitch exceedance
• bank exceedance
• G-force exceedance
• IAS exceedance
• taxi-speed exceedance
• light misuse
• fuel-management failures
• landing-performance issues

These events affect the total score and increment the appropriate error counters.

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Landing Score

Landing Score is based on:

• vertical speed
• G-force
• distance from the runway threshold

When runway data is available, the current weighting is:

Vertical speed      = 40%
G-force             = 30%
Touchdown distance  = 30%

If runway threshold data is unavailable, the distance portion is redistributed proportionally between vertical speed and G-force.

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Total Score and Qualification

Career Mode stores both:

• Landing Score
• Total Score

A flight is currently marked Qualified for Progression when the total score meets the system's qualification rule. The flight log stores that qualification result along with pay, fines, and error counts.

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Fatigue

If Enable fatigue is turned on, FSFO calculates fatigue from your recent workload using both:

• number of legs
• block hours

It evaluates three rolling workload windows:

• Last 24 hours
• Last 72 hours
• Last 7 days

Current formula:

Acute Load  = max(legs in last 24h / 3.5, block hours in last 24h / 7)
Short Load  = max(legs in last 72h / 7,   block hours in last 72h / 16)
Weekly Load = max(legs in last 7d  / 14,  block hours in last 7d  / 32)

Each load is clamped from 0 to 1.

Final fatigue:

Fatigue = (Acute Load × 50) + (Short Load × 30) + (Weekly Load × 20)

The result is capped at 100 and rounded to the nearest whole percent.

Career Mode readiness fails if fatigue is greater than or equal to 75%.

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Passenger Comfort

If Passenger comfort is turned on, FSFO monitors specific handling and comfort limits during taxi, rollout, climb, airborne flight, and final approach.

Passenger comfort is only monitored when:

• Passenger comfort is enabled
• the flight is a valid career flight

Current comfort limits:

Taxi speed
- >29 = Taxi Too Fast, level 1
- >34 = Taxi Too Fast, level 2

Taxi braking
- both brakes >22000 while moving >9 knots and not on a runway

Jerky taxi turning
- slip/skid >25 = level 1
- slip/skid >50 = level 2

G-force in air
- |G - 1.0| >0.30 = level 1
- |G - 1.0| >0.45 = level 2

Bank angle in air
- |bank| >25° = level 1
- |bank| >35° = level 2

Vertical speed in climb
- |VS| >2500 = level 1
- |VS| >3200 = level 2
- |VS| >4000 = level 3

Vertical speed in airborne/cruise
- |VS| >1800 = level 1
- |VS| >2500 = level 2
- |VS| >3200 = level 3

Vertical speed on final
- |VS| >1000 = level 1
- |VS| >1300 = level 2
- |VS| >1700 = level 3

Slip/skid in air
- slip/skid >25 = level 1
- slip/skid >50 = level 2

Landing firmness
- Landing G >= 1.40 or landing rate >= 350 = level 1
- Landing G >= 1.80 or landing rate >= 500 = level 2

Rollout braking
- both brakes >22000 while ground speed >40

Current comfort penalty values:

Taxi Too Fast         = 0 / 2 / 4
Braking Too Hard      = 0 / 4 on taxi, 0 / 2 on rollout
Jerky Turning         = 0 / 1 / 2
Excessive G-Force     = 0 / 2 / 4
Excessive Bank Angle  = 0 / 1 / 2
VS Too High (Climb)   = 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
VS Too High (Airborne)= 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
VS Too High (Final)   = 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Slip/Skid Too High    = 0 / 1 / 2
Landing Too Firm      = 0 / 1 / 2

FSFO stores the highest bucket reached for each comfort category instead of repeatedly stacking the same category over and over.

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Can Be Fired

If Can be fired is turned on, FSFO allows company discipline to escalate from warnings to termination.

Before a pilot can receive a company warning, the pilot must have at least:

• 5 company legs

After that point, FSFO checks four error categories against the pilot's total company legs:

Current warning thresholds:

Critical errors      = 10% of company legs
Configuration errors = 25% of company legs
Speed errors         = 35% of company legs
Lights errors        = 50% of company legs

If any category reaches its threshold, FSFO issues a company warning.

Termination rules:

Fired at 3 warnings
or
Fired if the last flight total score is below 80

If the pilot is fired, FSFO currently applies the following career penalties:

• clears the current company
• demotes the pilot by one rank, down to a minimum of Cadet
• resets pay to 0
• resets company legs to 0
• resets remaining contract legs to 0
• resets critical, configuration, lights, and speed error totals to 0
• resets warnings to 0
• clears the current schedule

If Can be fired is turned off, FSFO does not terminate the pilot through this system.

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Flight Log

The Flight Log is the permanent history of your career flights.

Each flight log entry stores:

• date
• company
• flight number
• aircraft
• from airport
• to airport
• block time
• landing score
• total score
• landing rate
• landing G
• block fuel
• critical/configuration/lights/speed error counts
• qualification result
• pay earned
• fines paid

Use the Flight Log window to review your performance over time.

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Notes

Quick reference notes for current Career Mode behavior.

• Career Mode currently supports one local pilot profile
• The current schedule stores only the active trip
• The flight log is the permanent historical record
• The current Show Contract button is not implemented yet

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Troubleshooting

"PilotProfile was not found"

Create or rebuild the database, then apply to a company.

No schedule was generated

Check that:

• routes.csv exists
• the file format is valid
• routes match the current airline
• type-rating rules are not filtering everything out
• the requested leg count is realistic for the route pool

My flight did not count toward progression

If Must fly scheduled flight is enabled, verify that:

• you flew the next pending leg in order
• you started at the scheduled departure airport
• you arrived at the scheduled arrival airport
• the flight number matched when required

I cannot generate a new schedule

If Lock schedule until complete is enabled, finish the current schedule first or turn that option off.

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For additional setup help, see Getting Started. For general problem solving, see Troubleshooting.