Hoplist questions part 2

[Randy]

OK, further investigation raises more questions. . .     

In normal hop lists, you start at XYZ and fly to ABC, etc., then on to DEF, GHI, etc.  A from/to environment.  This makes perfect sense in light of the from/to concept.

What I'm working on is more closely akin to an airline flight timetable.  There might be several flights that depart from ABC at or around 9am, for many different destinations, and the same from those outlying destinations.

I believe that, using the ?HOP= and the ?HOPLIST commands, pilots could easily view the available flights, choose which flight to fly, and then move to that airport, and using the ?HOP= command, begin flying a particular leg.  For example, PDQ Air flys out of KMCI with 22 flights a day.  Out of the 22 flights, 6 of them are to the same destination but different times of day.  The remaining 16 are to other destinations, though they may be in groups of 2-4 flights per day to the same place.  The others are a once a day flight.

When the pilot moves to KMCI, and does the ?HOPLIST command, it should return him a list of hops that would allow him to choose which flight(hop #) to perform.  Upon arrival at the destination, he would/could follow the written hoplist directions for this particular leg/flight he's flying. . .

Why, you ask?  Well, for virtual airlines mostly, though my Classic Prop server could also utilize this concept.  What I'm thinking is to turn the VA or prototypical timetable into a "hoplist" of sorts.  For a VA, this would enable a pilot to fly his routes, using the hoplist as the "dispatch center", providing the pilot a "dispatch" from the hoplist to simulate the dispatch center a normal airline would run.  The logging feature would be extremely useful in this concept as well, as it already is.

So, do you think this will work?  I'm not in favor of spending a lot of time writing a hoplist just to find out it won't work as I thought, or I'm offbase on my assumptions. . . .   we all know what assuming does to us. . . LOL

[Midnight_Aviation]

Randy,

I believe that we have our flights set up similar to what you're describing.  Hops are grouped in different flight categories.  Flights may be taken in any order.  To view individual flight info you type ?flight# [# = flight you wish to view, example ?flight5].  See the following example:

Flight 1:  PANC-PAFA-PASC-PAEI-PANC, Round Trip: 1106.6nm, rwy lengths: 6500'-15000', Suggested Aircraft: Large, Type ?hop=1 to start

Flight 2:  PANC-PAEN-AK39-PAWD-AK07-PADQ-46AK-AK00-PAEN-PAED-PATK-PANC, Round Trip: 702.9nm, rwy lengths: 1250'-12000', Suggested Aircraft: Medium, Type ?hop=5 to start

Flight 3:  PANC-0AK3-1AK6-6AK-8KA-01A-33AK-3AK7-PANC, Round Trip: 317.4nm, rwy lengths: 900'-1200', Suggested Aircraft: Small-Bush, Type ?hop=16 to start

And so on.

Drop by our server some time and take a look.  Let us know if there are any questions, we are more than happy to help (and learn).

Midnight Aviation
IP: midav.hopto.org

Good luck – The sky isn't the limit – The ground is.

[Randy]

Now, see. . . . I knew someone else had thought this idea up before me. . . .       

What you're describing is exactly what I've been working on.  Your flight plans enclosed also mirror what I've been working on. . 

Here are a few examples of what I've been testing lately:

KMCI = Flt# 1201, B737, departs KMCI @ 610 for KIND by 727, then departs KIND @ 742 for KPHL by 916

KPHL = Flt# 1202, B737, departs KPHL @ 946 for KIND by 1120, then departs KIND @ 1135 for KMCI by 1252

KMCI = Flt# 1203, CRJ, departs KMCI @ 946 for KIND by 1012, then departs KIND @ 1135 for KPHL by 1201

I hadn't thought about putting the instruction on how to select the hop in there, but that's an excellent idea. .   I'll have to work that in.  The above examples are flights the VA's I used to have flew.  It's ironic that you chose Alaskan flights to use as examples, cause my VA had an Alaskan branch - Midnight Sun Airways.  I recognized some of the flights you used. . .LOL

I'll visit your server sometime soon, just to see what refinements you've come up with that I hadn't thought about.  It looks like you're doing something right along the lines of what I had in mind.  Thanks for the input, I'll be visiting soon!!