Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | General Aviation Discussion | Simulating COVID

Mark Salgado
DVA11822
Captain, B767-300

Joined on November 13 2013
Everett Century Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary
Quatercentenary Club
Online Quadruple Century Club

Hellertown, PA

440 legs, 1,020.4 hours
435 legs, 1,013.7 hours online
435 legs, 1,012.5 hours ACARS
3 legs, 6.5 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 28 2020 22:59 ET by Mark Salgado

Hey everyone!

I stepped away from DVA for a while in March as COVID ramped up in the US in an effort to be as realistic as possible because I didn't know how it would affect RW Delta ops. I actually shifted to flying cargo, but I learned that I prefer flying pax.

Anyway, I've been considering a return for a while, so here I am, but I still want to be as realistic as possible.

My question to all of you is how are you simulating COVID in the realm of DVA, if at all?
Are you flying with reduced pax loads? And if so, how are you calculating how many?
Since I prefer to have ACARS automatically assign the pax load, will it take that into account to still give me a relatively full plane?

I just want to hear some perspectives on this and get some ideas for some upcoming flights. Anything else COVID related is welcome. The number of pax is the biggest thing that comes to mind, but I'm also open to hearing about cancellations, safety briefings, other on-board changes, etc.

Apologies in advance if this is posted in the wrong channel. Thanks for any input. Here's to wishing for blue skies ahead!

Mark Salgado

Captain, B767-300

Del Herwat
DVA13617
Captain, B767-300
OLP
DISPATCHER

Joined on February 08 2019
B757 100 Club
50 State Club
Everett 250 Club
Eurocap Club
Triple Century Club
Online Triple Century Club
Globetrotter
DVA Two-Year Anniversary

"If you find a kettle of crazy it is best not to stir it"
Horton, MI

371 legs, 975.9 hours
369 legs, 972.4 hours online
370 legs, 974.1 hours ACARS
22 legs, 47.2 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 29 2020 09:03 ET by Del Herwat

COVID has impacted many aspects of my life so the way I approach it is that Flight Simming is a COVID-free zone for me. It is one hobby that I can get away from COVID completely, but on the good side I have been flying more and being a 100% online flyer I notice a lot more ATC and traffic on VATSIM.

Del Herwat

Captain, B767-300

David Vega
DVA388
Captain, B777-200
OLP

Joined on December 14 2001
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
50 State Club
B757 100 Club
US Coastal Club
US Mountaineer Club
Online Century Club
Stage 1 Jet Triple Century Club
Eight Century Club

Midwestern United States

819 legs, 1,459.4 hours
137 legs, 154.8 hours online
739 legs, 1,329.2 hours ACARS
7 legs, 15.9 hours event

Posted onPost created on December 29 2020 11:11 ET by David Vega

Is interesting to see how we all do things somewhat different. I started a full time job, so I'm flying less during the week. I typically get pax count from simbrief. For extra realism, guess one could use published percentage of passenger drop due to covid and reduce whatever pax count we get by that percentage. Here's a source: https://www.icao.int/sustainability/Documents/Covid-19/ICAO_coronavirus_Econ_Impact.pdf

David Vega

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on December 30 2020 12:15 ET by Mark Salgado

Very interesting. I also started a new job in August, and I have a lot going on outside of work, so I'll be flying a lot less than I used to. Cons of adulthood I guess!

That was a really interesting link though. Any idea how SimBrief calculates the pax count?

Also, any idea if Delta has been reliably close to the 60% capacity I believe they've imposed?

Mark Salgado

Captain, B767-300

Posted onPost created on December 30 2020 18:19 ET by David Vega

I can speculate SimBrief generates a random pax number based on the airframe max pax figure skewed towards fullness. It's interesting they have a way to use a fuel factor to, for example, increase fuel estimates by a percentage. If they had the same for pax count, you could simulate pandemic mode and reduce by a percentage. You could do that manually by simply having a spreadsheet that would generate a random percent figure within a min and max range where you could input the number of passengers generated by SimBrief and it would tell you what the COVID reduction would be. It's like saying SimBrief says 98 and you enter that number and receive 47. We can only see what Delta is reporting. I'm sure they, and the other airlines, report every quarter or so. What's reported is also likely to change/vary.

David Vega

Captain, B777-200

Adam Magiera
DVA13420
Captain, B757-200

Joined on February 25 2018
50 State Club
Toulouse Century Club
Comrade Club
DVA Two-Year Anniversary
Quatercentenary Club

Columbia, MO

469 legs, 815.3 hours
468 legs, 813.2 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on January 02 2021 00:14 ET by Adam Magiera

My scarce flight sim time these days is in a COVID free world. I work as an inpatient physician so I am working with COVID most days...

Adam Magiera

Captain, B757-200

Dirk Depelsemaeker
DVA11755
Captain, B757-200

Joined on September 13 2013
Iditarod Club
Everett Century Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary
Double Century Club

Geraardsbergen, Flanders Belgium

203 legs, 476.1 hours
202 legs, 474.0 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on January 07 2021 12:07 ET by Dirk Depelsemaeker

Hi,

Simbrief allows you to manually set pax and cargo, I've always used it like that.

It's been almost a year since I've done a DVA flight. Done some airport editing, USPP and still working on USSS, UUEE next. And I've been doing some driving in ETS2...
I've got some FedEx textures for my B757 and B738 to do cargo flight with FSCaptain. I still need to do some loadstation edits and then I hope to finally get some flights done.
I'll be turning AI traffic way down to simulate the rather empty skies.

Regards,
DDP.

Dirk Depelsemaeker

Captain, B757-200

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