Career Mode User Guide
FSFO Career Mode User Guide
This page explains how Career Mode works in the current FSFO v6 build, including the Career Snapshot page, Pilot Portal integration, schedules, bidding, readiness rules, scoring, type ratings, fatigue, and company discipline.
Career Mode is now a Pilot Portal-backed system. FSFO still performs the live in-sim validation and scoring, but your career identity, synced rule settings, next assignment, training, schedule workflow, and broader career data are driven by Pilot Portal.
Overview
Career Mode is designed for pilots who want one persistent pilot identity instead of isolated flights.
Your career includes:
- your pilot identity
- current company
- rank and career tier
- pay and balance
- type ratings
- current location
- schedule and next assignment
- fatigue and readiness rules
- long-term progression
From a user perspective, the flow is simple:
- Sign in to Pilot Portal
- Open Career Snapshot in FSFO
- Review your next assignment and current rules
- Make sure the aircraft, location, and route all match
- Fly only after FSFO says the career flight is ready
- Let FSFO score and upload the result
Career Snapshot, Contract, and Portal
The main Career page in FSFO is now Career Snapshot.
It is not the old all-in-one local dashboard. Instead, it is the place where you confirm that your live career state makes sense before departure.
The top buttons serve different purposes:
- 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
Use Career Snapshot as your final preflight check. If the next leg, company, route, type rating, or location looks wrong there, fix it before flying.
Quick Start
To begin using Career Mode in the current build:
- Create and sign in to your Pilot Portal account
- Open Career Snapshot in FSFO
- Use Portal to manage your career settings, current company, schedule, and training
- Review the synced rule settings shown in FSFO
- Confirm your next pending assignment
- Load the correct aircraft
- Start from the correct airport
- Fly the leg only after FSFO confirms the career flight is ready
Important: A flight can still be flown and scored without advancing your career. If schedule enforcement is active, the leg must match the next pending assignment correctly for progression to count.
Career Rule Settings
Career rule settings are synced from Pilot Portal and then enforced by FSFO during readiness checks and post-flight progression.
Current synced rules include:
- Start from last airport
Requires you to begin near the pilot's stored location. FSFO checks that you are within 10 NM of that saved airport before the flight is considered ready.
- Fatal crash starts over
This is part of the synced career policy and should be treated as a high-stakes crash rule for your career profile.
- Must fly scheduled flight
Only the next pending scheduled leg counts toward progression.
- Passenger comfort
Enables the comfort and passenger-outcome scoring model described below.
- Can be fired
Enables warnings, discipline, and possible termination for repeated poor performance.
- Enable fatigue
Turns on workload-based fatigue checks. If fatigue is too high, the flight may not be considered ready.
- Schedule based on rank
Uses your current rank to set the maximum leg distance during schedule generation.
- Must have type rating
Requires the pilot to hold the correct rating for the aircraft being flown.
- Lock schedule until complete
Prevents generating a new schedule while incomplete legs still remain.
- Application based on rank
Restricts which company tiers you can join and applies rank-based hiring chance.
- Upload data
Controls whether the career flight result is intended to upload through the live portal-backed workflow.
Before You Fly: Readiness
Before a career flight is allowed to count cleanly, FSFO can validate:
- Pilot Portal sign-in and synced identity
- current company
- next pending assignment
- departure location
- type-rating compliance
- fatigue
- the currently enabled career rules
The most common readiness blockers are:
- wrong departure airport
- wrong route
- wrong aircraft or missing type rating
- fatigue above the allowed threshold
Schedule Generation
Schedules are now generated through Pilot Portal, not through the old local Career Dashboard workflow.
The active schedule still matters to FSFO because it is used for:
- next-leg validation
- progression credit
- schedule completion tracking
- schedule lock enforcement
On the portal side, schedule generation currently supports a requested leg count and builds a continuous assignment from the pilot's available route network.
If Schedule based on rank is enabled, the current maximum leg distance by rank is:
Cadet = 600 NM Second Officer = 1200 NM First Officer = 2500 NM Captain = 5000 NM Senior Captain = 10000 NM
If the portal cannot build a complete schedule under that rank-based limit, it retries using the broader eligible route pool.
If Lock schedule until complete is enabled, you must finish or clear the current schedule before generating a new one.
Bidding and Reserve
Career bidding is now handled through the portal's Bid & Reserve workflow rather than the older freeform route-bid text box model.
In the current system:
- you stack bids from the available route list
- you submit them through the portal
- the portal shows a live Award Chance
- that chance is influenced by both:
- your current rank
- your completed company-leg history
This means bidding is no longer based on rank alone. Senior pilots generally have a stronger bidding profile, but consistent company flying also helps.
If you are documenting the current product, do not describe bidding as a comma-separated airport-pair text field. That was the older model.
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 the actual flight against the next pending assignment.
For the leg to count, the pilot must correctly match:
- the scheduled departure airport
- the scheduled arrival airport
- the next pending leg in order
If the flight does not meet the progression rules, it can still be flown and scored, but no career advancement is applied.
That means the flight will not update:
- Total Legs
- Average Score
- Company Legs
- Contract Remaining Legs
- Balance
- Rank
- Career Tier
- Pay per hour
Total Score and Qualification
Career Mode stores both a Landing Score and a Total Score.
They are related, but they are not the same thing.
Each career flight begins at Total Score = 100. Deductions are then applied for critical, configuration, lighting, speed/angle, and general-performance failures.
If Passenger comfort is enabled, final score also includes:
- the running comfort-event penalty
- the end-of-flight passenger outcome penalty
The final score is:
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
Below are the main deductions used by the current career scoring model.
Critical
- Crash detected = score set to 0
- Stall detected = -10
- Overspeed warning = -10
- Aircraft overweight = -10
- Unstable approach = -10
Unstable approach is evaluated only between 1000 ft AGL and 100 ft AGL. It is triggered if:
- vertical speed is outside -1200 to -300 FPM
- or bank angle is greater than 25 degrees
Configuration
- Flaps misconfigured / flap overspeed = -6
- Gear misconfigured / gear overspeed = -6
- Spoilers not deployed on rollout = -6
- Excess G-force = -6
- Fuel management failure = -4
Fuel-management failure is triggered when landing fuel is below 7% of total fuel capacity.
Lights
- Navigation lights misconfigured = -2
- Beacon lights misconfigured = -2
- Strobe lights misconfigured = -2
- Landing lights misconfigured = -2
Landing-light misuse also includes leaving landing lights on above 18,500 ft AGL.
Speed / Angle
- Pitch angle exceeded = -5
- Bank angle exceeded = -5
- IAS exceeded below 10,000 MSL = -4
- Ground speed exceeded while taxiing = -4
General
- Landing score below passing threshold = -6
Landing Score
Landing Score is calculated separately from the rest of the Total Score model.
Current landing-score weights:
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 in-flight comfort events and also evaluates how the cabin actually finished the flight.
The comfort system monitors categories such as:
- taxi speed
- hard braking
- jerky turning
- G-force
- bank angle
- pitch-rate changes
- slip/skid
- landing firmness
FSFO stores the highest bucket reached for each comfort category. Repeating the same or lower bucket does not keep stacking the same penalty.
At shutdown, FSFO also computes a separate passenger outcome score from:
- Satisfaction
- Anxiety
- Health
- Hunger
- Thirst
Poor cabin outcomes can add an extra end-of-flight penalty, capped so passenger effects matter without fully dominating the pilot score.
Fatigue
If Enable fatigue is turned on, FSFO calculates fatigue from both:
- recent leg count
- recent block hours
It evaluates three rolling workload windows:
- last 24 hours
- last 72 hours
- last 7 days
Current model:
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) Fatigue = (Acute Load x 50) + (Short Load x 30) + (Weekly Load x 20)
The result is capped at 100 and rounded to the nearest whole percent.
Career readiness fails if fatigue is 75% or higher.
Companies, Tiers, and Contract Commitments
Career companies are grouped by tier. Tier affects contract commitment and application access.
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 completing the required contract commitment, a contract-break fine can be applied.
Ranks and Promotions
Career Mode uses five ranks:
- Cadet
- Second Officer
- First Officer
- Captain
- Senior Captain
Promotions are based on:
- total legs
- average score
Before any promotion is possible, your Average Score must be at least 92.0.
Promotion thresholds:
50 total legs = Second Officer 125 total legs = First Officer 200 total legs = Captain 350 total legs = Senior Captain
If a flight does not count toward progression, it does not count toward promotion either.
Career Tier and Pay
Each company has a base hourly pay rate. Career Tier then adds a fixed hourly raise on top of that base rate.
Current Career Tier 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 raise
Career pay is not a simple percentage multiplier model in the current build.
Company Applications
If Application based on rank is enabled, company access is restricted by rank and 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, there is currently a 7-day wait before retrying.
Type Ratings and Training
If Must have type rating is enabled, FSFO verifies that the pilot already holds the required rating for the aircraft being flown.
A missing rating can block the flight from being ready or from counting cleanly.
When applying for a new type rating, there are two training paths:
- Private Training
Uses personal funds immediately.
- Company Training
Extends the current contract instead of charging the full training cost directly to your balance.
Private training cannot be started if it would push the pilot below -75,000 balance.
Current training profiles:
CRJ / F7X - 5 training days - Private Training: 15,000 x regional multiplier - Company Training: +20 contract legs A32 / B73 - 7 training days - Private Training: 25,000 x regional multiplier - Company Training: +35 contract legs A31 / A33 / B76 / B77 / MD1 / MD11 - 10 training days - Private Training: 45,000 x regional multiplier - Company Training: +60 contract legs All other supported type ratings - 7 training days - Private Training: 20,000 x regional multiplier - Company Training: +30 contract legs
Company Discipline and Termination
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.
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
A pilot can be terminated if any of the following occur:
- warnings on file reach 3
- most recent flight Total Score is below 50
- total average score falls below 80.0
If terminated, the current build applies major penalties, including:
- current company cleared
- pay set to 0
- company legs reset
- contract remaining legs reset
- error counters reset
- warnings reset
- current schedule cleared
- rank reduced by one level, down to a minimum of Cadet
- career tier adjusted to match the new rank
Troubleshooting
My career flight is not ready
Check these first:
- Are you signed in to Pilot Portal?
- Does the next assignment in Career Snapshot match the route you are about to fly?
- Are you starting from the correct airport?
- Does the current aircraft satisfy the type-rating rule?
- Is fatigue below the failure threshold?
My flight did not count toward progression
If Must fly scheduled flight is enabled, verify that:
- you flew the next pending leg
- you started from the correct departure airport
- you arrived at the correct destination
I cannot generate a new schedule
If Lock schedule until complete is enabled, finish the current schedule first or regenerate only after the lock condition is cleared in the portal workflow.
I was rejected by a company
If rank-based applications are enabled:
- confirm your current rank allows that company tier
- wait out the current 7-day retry cooldown if you were recently rejected
My score seems lower than expected
Check for:
- unstable approach
- landing score below 80
- low landing fuel
- lighting/configuration mistakes
- comfort penalties
- poor passenger outcome at shutdown
For initial setup help, see Getting Started. For voice features, see Voice Commands. For general problem solving, see Troubleshooting.
