Pilops Client

The Pilops Client is the Windows desktop app that connects Microsoft Flight Simulator to Pilops. It reads the simulator through SimConnect, follows your flight from the gate to the gate and saves the result to your account. The website plans the flight; the client flies it. For download and setup, see Installing the Pilops Client.

What it does

Shows the flight you prepared on the website on its Preflight screen.
Checks that the simulator is in the right place with the right aircraft before the flight starts.
Tracks the flight: position, state, altitude, airspeed, fuel burned, G-force and the landing.
Sends a position report about once a minute, which is what the Dashboard map shows to everyone.
Saves the finished flight, with its landing data and alerts, to Pilops.
Updates itself. On launch it shows "Verifying your client version, please wait…" and, when a new version exists, "Update available!" with a progress bar; "When finished, the Pilops client will restart to install the update."

Preflight checks

With a flight prepared on the website, the client shows it and asks you to "Open the flight simulator and start a flight with correct aircraft and current location." Click I'm ready to connect. If the simulator is not running you get "No instance of Flight Simulator was found. Please open Flight Simulator to proceed."

Once connected, the client compares the simulator with the plan before letting you start:

Aircraft — the aircraft loaded in the simulator must match the type of the plan: "You have selected a wrong aircraft, you must select the aircraft: {type}, you've selected: {title}".
Stopped — "Your aircraft must be stopped to begin your flight."
Airport — the aircraft must be at the origin airport of the plan: "You need to start a free flight at airport: {ICAO}" or "You are in a wrong airport: ({ICAO}), you should start at {origin}".

When everything matches, I'm ready, start my flight starts the tracking. Reschedule flight is also here, for a flight that had already started and needs a fresh start. See Flight cancellation.

Flight states

State	Trigger
Boarding	Tracking started, ground speed is zero.
Taxing	Ground speed becomes non-zero.
In Flight	The simulator reports the aircraft off the ground.
Landed	The simulator reports the aircraft back on the ground. The landing score is computed from this moment's data and a sound plays for the result.

See Active flight for what the client displays in each state.

What cancels a flight

The client cancels the flight, immediately and without partial credit, when:

the aircraft jumps more than 2 nm between two readings (slew, map teleport, MSFS replay);
the simulation rate is not 1x;
fuel appears in the tanks and the confirmed gain exceeds 5% of the tank capacity. Short blips from the simulator's own fuel recalculations are ignored: a gain must persist for ten seconds to count, and small gains are added up so that topping up a little at a time is caught too;
the engines are burning but the tank level does not move, the signature of an unlimited-fuel setting.

Pausing the simulator is safe. The client stops counting fuel and time while the simulator reports itself paused, and also when the aircraft is frozen in the air.

Alerts

During the flight the client raises G Force exceded alerts (WARNING or CRITICAL) and, at touchdown, a Bad landing quality alert when the score is under 70. They are listed in the client as "Problems that can impact your flight evaluation and your reputation as a pilot." and saved with the flight. See Landing score.

Finishing

Park, stop the aircraft and click Finish and save flight. The client refuses while the aircraft is moving: "Your aircraft must be stopped to finish your flight." While it saves, the screen reads "SAVING FLIGHT, please wait". The result screen shows the state Landed, the Flight assessment with Experience gained and Landing score, the distance, used fuel and flight time, the landing data, and the Earnings: Profit and Flight fee (the Origin fee and Destination fee lines are always zero). Back to Home returns to Preflight.

Pilops resolves the destination as the airport closest to where you stopped. See Active flight.

If saving fails

If the client cannot reach Pilops when you finish, the flight is kept locally: "Flight saved in memory. Use "Try again" or restart Pilops Client to sync with server." Click Try again once your connection is back, or restart the client; it will send the stored flight. Do not start another flight in the meantime.