United / Republic / Skywest

[nrholland]

Has anyone noticed that the United Express flights use planes that say "Skywest" or "Republic" instead of United.  I live by the Sarasota-Bradenton Intl. Airport and the majority of United flights are United Express.  However the planes say "United".  Here in the sim Delta Connection flights just say "Delta", not "Delta Connection".  Is there a mistake by someone who made United Express flights.  What are your thoughts?  Will someone do anything to change it or do we have to wait for the next version?

[hexzed]

I believe the callsign is generic, just like the livery, but you can change the callsign in the respective airlines text file to whatever you want.

Just remember that if you change the callsign to 'United', all respective flights will say this callsign even if flying for Delta or American.

To get around this somewhat, change each airports airline text file callsign to the majority of the flights into that airport

eg DFW regionals change to 'American', at Seattle change them to 'Alaska' etc

The slightly more complicated way to do it is to add each regional to the airline text file, this will however require the schedule and terminal file to be changed as well. You will also end up with white planes.

For an example this is how i do it in my schedules

SKW_, ASOO, Sky West, Sky West Airlines [Alaska], United States
SKW., AAOO, Sky West, Sky West Airlines [American], United States
SKW', DLOO, Sky West, Sky West Airlines [Delta], United States
SKW`, UAOO, Sky West, Sky West Airlines [United], United States

Changing the callsign of course, to whatever you want it to be

 

Ben

[scoobflight]

13 hours ago, nrholland said:

the United Express flights use planes that say "Skywest" or "Republic" instead of United

Are you saying the livery is wrong or that you don't like the callsigns?

Callsigns are based on the carrier. In the case of United Express the planes are not operated by United but by one of the regional partners.  Callsigns are based on owner/carrier not what is painted in big letters.  (There is actually, real world, a smaller sticker by the entry door that will say the carrier ... something like, 'United Express operated by Skywest.')

Here is a current list of United's regional carriers -

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/company/united-express-partners.html

[crbascott]

To directly answer your questions and add upon what has been shared by @scoobflight and @hexzed:

1 hour ago, nrholland said:

Is there a mistake by someone who made United Express flights.

No. If you listen to LiveATC (for your airport or any other airport for that matter) you will never hear them say United Express or Delta Connection. Looking at a few flights for KSRQ this evening, you'd more than likely hear the callsigns of Brickyard (Republic) and Air Shuttle (Mesa). Real Traffic and custom schedules both reflect correct use of regional carrier callsigns.

2 hours ago, nrholland said:

What are your thoughts?

Due to game limitations, Real Color basically only allows for one livery per carrier/plane type. This is not optimal since several of the regional airlines operate for more than one major carrier.  SkyWest, for example, operates for Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines. So, for SkyWest the decision was made to use SkyWest's own livery instead of one of the major's. One could argue that it was the wrong choice, but based on game limitations there is no right choice.

2 hours ago, nrholland said:

Will someone do anything to change it?

You've been around long enough to know that the hope for developer based enhancements/improvements to T!3DP died 3 years ago. There are workarounds (like hexzed's), but to get one thing (more accurate terminal assignments) there is a cost (no liveries).But there is no workaround to get 100% accurate liveries for any regional airline that operates for more than one major carrier.

2 hours ago, nrholland said:

or do we have to wait for the next version?

There were multiple wishlist items addressing the handling of regional airlines. Vic hinted that most of our "schedule related requests" made the "must" list. But we'll still just have to wait and see if regional airline improvements make the cut or not. 

[FeelThere_Vic]

Let me explain what you see.
There is a BTV callsign with a BTV livery. It can park to the BTV gates (let's say Brickyard in Delta Connection liveries at DAL terminal)
Also a BTV airline with a Cargo option. The callsign can be the same (BTV) and it will park at the cargo terminal so Brickyard would be parking at the Cargo terminal (indeed this is just a non real world situation as Brickyard is not a cargo airline)
BTV also flies for CTV (United) and DTV (American) so it can park for to the CTV (United) gates and the DTV (American) gates too.

What I didn't share (but already implemented) BTV is defined as a US airline. It lands at KLAX which is defined as a US airport so BTV can go to a BTV domestic terminal or the BTV International terminal too as the airport knows if the airline is US or not and can split the same airline to domestic or international terminals. 

I hope we fulfilled every request for the schedule makers 🙂

Thank you

 

Vic

[crbascott]

@FeelThereThanks for the explanation Vic, looks very promising - covers everything that was asked for as best as I can tell. 👍

In your attached image, the approach altitude override (feet) column has me intrigued. I’m struggling to think what this could be for.

[battlehawk77]

Vic, this looks good for us custom schedule makers. I could see something like this being used for one-off schemes or alliance liveries (Skyteam, One World, Star Alliance).

[FeelThere_Vic]

Quote

In your attached image, the approach altitude override (feet) column has me intrigued. I’m struggling to think what this could be for.

Of course I could've edited it out but you know me.. I love to tease 🙂 
I'm glad you like it. We (as far as I remember, but please don't quote me) implemented all requests about schedules. 

Right now we are working on things such as the editors, but as it goes now we plan to announce the product (not the ETA for release) by next month. By then I hope to show you some screenshots or even a video. No promises indeed 🙂

 

Vic

[FeelThere_Vic]

1 hour ago, battlehawk77 said:

Vic, this looks good for us custom schedule makers. I could see something like this being used for one-off schemes or alliance liveries (Skyteam, One World, Star Alliance).

Thank you, I hoped it will be welcomed by the community. 

 

Vic

[crbascott]

3 hours ago, battlehawk77 said:

Vic, this looks good for us custom schedule makers. I could see something like this being used for one-off schemes or alliance liveries (Skyteam, One World, Star Alliance).

Yep, a custom schedule that comes with a “bonus special livery” will be a fun novelty. The possibilities are endless with Southwest, Frontier, Norwegian, various Star Wars, and Icelandair’s awesome Northern Lights coming to mind.
 

Here is just a small sampling of some fun liveries for your viewing pleasure: https://thepointsguy.com/news/best-airline-liveries/

 

 

 

[DeltaVII]

14 hours ago, crbascott said:

In your attached image, the approach altitude override (feet) column has me intrigued. I’m struggling to think what this could be for.

The 3° glideslope is not carved in stone. London City Airport (EGLC), for example operates with a 5.5° glideslope, which means that aircraft start their descent out of 2,000 ft at 3.4 DME. The ILS Y approach in EDDF is 3.2° descending out of 5,000 ft at VAGUL (13.9 DME). Might have something to do with that.

[crbascott]

1 hour ago, DeltaVII said:

The 3° glideslope is not carved in stone. London City Airport (EGLC), for example operates with a 5.5° glideslope, which means that aircraft start their descent out of 2,000 ft at 3.4 DME. The ILS Y approach in EDDF is 3.2° descending out of 5,000 ft at VAGUL (13.9 DME). Might have something to do with that.

Something like that should be part of the airport design, rather than part of the schedule. But, we’ll see.

[DeltaVII]

4 hours ago, crbascott said:

Something like that should be part of the airport design, rather than part of the schedule. But, we’ll see.

I won't disagree with you on that point. (Then, again, it might be easier to adapt in case the approach procedure changes, but that could also be achieved by changing parameters in an xml/ini/config file...)