8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
1/28
Maintenance Income Tool
Simple economy and maintenance for FSX
Changes made to this document because of a new release version are marked in pink.
You can download this document in various formats from the “File -> Download
As…” menu!
Table Of Contents
Features
RequirementsDownload
Installation
Configuration
User Interface
Using MIT (Tutorial)
Concepts Used In MIT
Addendum
License
Credits
Changelog
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
2/28
Features
● Buy (and sell) your aircraft
● Haul payload anywhere you want and get paid for it (or don’t)
● Maintenance and repairs
● Build a reputation or lose it
● System Failures
Requirements
● Flight Simulator X SP2/Acceleration/Gold/Steam Edition
● XMLTools (v2.0)
● An aircraft with at least a single engine
Notes:
● Might work in Prepar3D v1/v2
● Really complex aircraft (with AccuSim or so) might have to do without any failure
modeling on MIT’s part
Download
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6K_xiE2GqmMTU82Zm5VSExMRlU/view?usp=sharing
(Always links to the latest version.)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6K_xiE2GqmMTU82Zm5VSExMRlU/view?usp=sharing
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
3/28
Installation
ATTENTION: As of the revision published on August 7th 2015, the installation method for MIT
has changed! If you have been already using MIT, uninstall the previous version, then install the
new one. You can keep your save files as long as you edit MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml accordingly!
The installation procedure for MI Tool can be divided into three major steps: Installing XMLTools,
installing the base gauge and installing the aircraft-specific gauge.
I ‐ Installing XMLTools
FSX:SP2/Acceleration/Gold and FSX:Steam Edition single installations may use XMLTools’
autoinstaller.
FSX:SP2/Acceleration/Gold and FSX:Steam Edition side-by-side installations might require a
manual installation. See XMLTools.pdf which is included in XMLTools’ download.
Prepar3D v1/2/3 users, see the note below.
1) Download XML Tools 2.01 from the link below, then install it by running the installer:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/xmltools-2-01-xml-expansion-module-for-fs
x.148/
2) On the desktop: Click “Start” → “Run” and enter this: %appdata%\Microsoft\FSX\dll.xml
3) This should open the dll.xml in Notepad. Check if there is an entry for XMLTools. If there
is, ignore the next paragraph and read on. If there is not, try a manual installation as
noted in XMLTools.pdf on page 2.
If XMLTools was successfully installed, you should get a popup upon starting FSX for the
next time.
Note: The dll.xml for FSX:SE in a side-by-side installation is located in:
%appdata%\Microsoft\FSX-SE
Prepar3D v1/2/3 users should use XMLTools3D:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/xmltools3d-for-p3d-v3-x.168/
Make sure to follow the installation instructions in XMLTools3D_v3x.pdf. According to Tom,
XMLTools’ maintainer, the module is backward compatible. In case you run into problems, the
FSX version allegedly also works in P3D as long as the correct SimConnect version is installed.
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/xmltools3d-for-p3d-v3-x.168/http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/xmltools-2-01-xml-expansion-module-for-fsx.148/http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/xmltools-2-01-xml-expansion-module-for-fsx.148/
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
4/28
II ‐ Installing the MI Tool base gauge
Simply copy and paste the “MI_Tool” folder into FSX\Gauges.
III ‐ Installation into an aircraft
1. Put the “MI_Tool_Aircraft” folder into the “ panel” folder of the aircraft that you want to
install it to.
2. Pick one of the two installation methods described below.
3. If a plane has multiple panel variations, repeat the process for each one.
Automatic
1. Simply run Install.bat in “MI_Tool_Aircraft” and follow the instructions.
It will backup your existing panel.cfg, but an additional, manual backup won’t hurt!
The script will add the necessary entries for MIT to the panel.cfg.
You can also let it check if there is an entry for the “No Smoking” chime in the panel.cfg.
If there is none, it will add one.
2. Review the generated panel.cfg. If automatic generation did not work, try the manual
method described below.
3. Read the section about configuring MIT below.
Manual
1. Open the aircraft’s panel.cfg. If an aircraft has multiple panel variations, repeat the steps
below for each one.
2. Add this to the bottom of the “[WindowTitles]” section at the top*:
WindowXX=MI Tool
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
5/28
Change “XX” into the next highest number after the previous entry.
Example: Present entry: “Window04=...”, MI Tool’s: Window05=MI Tool”
Note: If the number of MI Tool’s entry is greater than “08”, you won’t be able to open the
subwindow with the “Shift+[number]” key combination!
You have two options:1. Use the keyboard shortcut mentioned in the “Usage” section
or
2. Reshuffle the panel windows to have MI Tool on one of the Shift+[Number] key
combinations.
3. Add this after the last “[WindowYY]” section:
[WindowXX]
background_color=0,0,0
position=8size_mm=200,600
window_size=0.125,0.5
window_size_ratio=1.0
alpha_blend=0.8
visible=0
ident=39146 //NEVER CHANGE THIS!
gauge00=MI_Tool!MI_Tool, 0,0,200,600
Make sure that you make “XX” the same number that you’ve assigned to MI Tool’swindow in the [WindowTitles] section.
4. Find the “[VCockpit01]” section and add the following line to it:
gauge98=MI_Tool_Aircraft!MI_Tool_Aircraft,1,1,1,1
gauge99=MI_Tool!MI_Tool_System,1,1,1,1
You do not change the “98” and “99” unless they are already taken. In that case, assign
a number greater than the one for the previous entry in the list.
If a plane does not have a [VCockpit01] section, check the bottom of Panel_cfg.txt and
paste the entry below the last [WindowYY] entry in the panel.cfg
Note: Keep the gauge entry for MI_Tool_System below the one for
MI_Tool_Aircraft!
5. Read about configuring MIT in the next chapter.
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
6/28
*If you have difficulty copy-pasting the panel.cfg entries, check “MI_Tool\Panel_cfg.txt”
Updating MIT
Updates are announced by me in the support threads in various forums with mentions of
affected files or other instructions.
MIT save files are generally compatible across revisions unless mentioned in the update
announcement.
If MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml was updated by me, make sure to carry over any customizations (such
as aircraft or company save file names or custom values) to the new version.
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
7/28
Configuration
The Maintenance Income Tool can be configured on two levels: Local and Global.
The local configuration is done in MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml, the global configuration in
MI_Tool_System.xml.
Any configuration variable listed in MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml can either be set to a value that will be
used by the panel (variation) currently used in FSX or set to use the configuration value
stored in MI_Tool_System.xml. The latter is useful if you want to run a company-wide, uniform
configuration, the former allows tweaking MIT for a specific aircraft.
Theoretically, MIT can be used without altering any configuration value whatsoever. It is,
however, recommended to at least set the most relevant configuration parameters like company
name and crew size.
After you’ve installed MIT into an aircraft, open MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml with a text editor (my editor
of choice is Notepad2, but the regular Notepad will do as well).
Generally, all configuration parameters in MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml are commented, outlining
their function, default value and consequence of altering their settings.
Save files
The first thing to deal with are the save files for aircraft (or panel variation) and company.
XML Tools will write the current status of the aircraft and company to these files. The save files
will be located in your Flight Simulator X root folder.
Aircraft
By default, MIT will generate the save file name for the aircraft from the “atc_type=” and
“atc_model=” lines in the aircraft’s aircraft.cfg.
If those lines read “Boeing” and “737” respectively, the aircraft-specific part of the save file,determined by the “AircraftName” macro will be “Boeing_737”.
You can set this to anything you want as long as you edit between the “>” “
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
8/28
Unaltered, the aircraft-specific part of the save file name would apply to both panel variations
and read “Cessna_C172”, as specified by the aircraft.cfg.
When saving a file, the “aircraft” part of the save file name is then joined with the parts specified
by the “prefix” and “suffix” macros in the lines below.
The “prefix” part of the save file name is intended to facilitate finding it in the FSX main folderand helps to associate the file with MIT. Thus, it is recommended to leave the prefix intact. It
can, however, be altered, to anything you like as long as you only edit between the brackets.
The suffix part contains another identifier for the save file as well as the file ending (.txt). The
latter should not be altered, but the identifier can be altered at will. This time, only edit
between the closing bracket (“>”) and the dot of the “.txt” .
Sticking to the default values and the example of a Boeing 737 from above, the save file for the
aircraft would be named ZZZ_MIT_Boeing_737_State.txt
Company
Company save files are shared between multiple aircraft or panel variations. They contain the
amount of Funds, the reputation or statistics like the number of flights for the company.
You can have multiple companies at once for different aircraft types, like a mainline butt hauling
company with its own save file and its regional subsidy with smaller butt haulers in its fleet.
Pick a fancy name for your company like “Haul-A-Butt_Inc” and enter it between the “>” and
“
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
9/28
Further relevant settings
If you scroll down, you’ll arrive at the actual configuration section for MIT.
To change a setting, simply change the number at the beginning of the line of interest towhat you think will work better for the particular aircraft or panel variation. Keep the space
between the number and the “(“ bracket intact!
The most relevant setting to look at is the number of crewmembers (including flight attendants
or loadmasters) on board. Set this to whatever you need.
Next is the autosave interval, if you desire to use it. If you use tools like FSXSave, you might
want to sync MIT’s save interval with the one it uses.
Another item to look at is the altitude, below which the landing lights have to be switchedon. By default, the required altitude is 4000 ft, but this might not work for smaller aircraft.
Further down, there are the settings for attention management. If you can do without the MIT
panel window popping up at various occasions or don’t want to hear the chime, you can disable
these two options by setting them to zero.
Optionally, if you want to tweak revenue and cost generation before even having tried a few
flights with MIT, read the “Tweaking Revenue” chapter below and change the associated
parameters.
The rest of the configuration options are mainly means to tweak your experience and/or
difficulty.
If you find that different values work better for you than my defaults, feel free to post them in the
related forum threads.
http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=fsxsave&CatID=root&Go=Search
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
10/28
Configuring global values
The configuration area for global values in MI_Tool_System.xml is - with the exception of save
file name generation macros - almost exactly the same as in MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml. The only
difference is that each configuration value is enclosed in an evaluation code block. This blockserves to determine whether the parameter will receive its value from MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml or
MI_Tool_System.xml.
If the block receives a value for the given parameter that sets the parameter’s evaluation result
to “true”, it will overwrite the parameter’s value with the one inside the “if{ }” statement. The
parameter’s value is then used in the remainder of the gauge until the next gauge update cycle.
As MI_Tool_System.xml is updated last in a gauge update cycle in FSX, the global value for
the parameter will always be used as long as the condition to use it evaluates to “true”.
In case of the evaluation equaling “false”, no overwriting will take place.
To adjust a parameter’s value in MI_Tool_System.xml make sure to edit the value within the
“if{}” statement. To be precise, only edit the number between the “{“ and “(“ brackets and
keep the spaces between them and the number intact.
So much for configuring MIT. Next stop: The user interface.
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
11/28
User Interface
I’ve tried to make the user interface as self-explanatory as I could.
Each clickable item has a tooltip to help you along (might not work in DX10 fullscreen
mode).
1 ‐ Purchase Screen
This is the screen you will see if you don’t own the current aircraft.
It lists your company funds, the price for a new aircraft and the price for a used aircraft.
Left click the “New” lock bitmap to purchase the aircraft in factory fresh condition.
If you’re low on Funds, you always have the option of purchasing a more run down version of
the aircraft.
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
12/28
Right clicking the “Used” lock bitmap will generate a new used aircraft offer in randomly
chosen condition. You might want to do this for a few times until you find a combination that will
work for you. Generating a new used aircraft takes a few seconds. You will see a “(Wait)” in the
purchase price field during this time.
Left clicking the “Used” lock bitmap will buy the selected aircraft in the condition displayedbelow.
Note that you will not be able to buy the aircraft if you do not have the required funds.
If you have disabled the purchase requirement in the configuration screen, you will not see this
page.
After having bought your first airplane, you’re taken to the…
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
13/28
2 ‐ Status Window
This window is the main information window regarding your aircraft and company. It is as self
explanatory as I could make it. This section mostly deals with the click spots. Check the “Usage”
chapter below to find out what each
Page 1
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
14/28
“Status Overview” Section
The green area contains the icons and click spots for conducting system repairs and
checks. Each system can be repaired or the aircraft can be checked when there are enough
funds available and the component health has dipped below 99%. Checks are possible after at
least a few minutes of flying time. To conduct checks or repairs, you have to be stationaryon the ground with your engines turned off.
Yellow area: In case of an engine fire, the engine’s health status in this area will be clickable.
Left click to extinguish the fire (in case a working fire extinguisher is not modeled on the
panel).
“Current Flight” Section
The blue area contains the “Save” and “Load icons. These are always visible.Saving can be done in one of three ways: Automatically in certain intervals (if enabled),
manually by saving the flight from FSX’ “Save Flight” menu and manually by left clicking
the “S” icon.
Loading is normally done automatically from the save file whenever you first load or reload the
aircraft. If this does not work, right, then left click the “L” icon. This is done to prevent
unintended loading of the last saved status.
The click spot marked in magenta toggles between revenue and non-revenue mode. This is
useful for when you still have a flight plan loaded, but do not want to make the next flight arevenue flight (see concepts below). Right, then left click the area to toggle between modes.
“Status” section
Right, then left click the orange area to force a flight reset. If something went wrong and you
do not wish to record the flight after you’ve landed, use this area to clear the current flight
tracking data. Only works when the aircraft is on the ground!
A check mark icon will appear in the area with the cyan marking after you’ve finished a flight.
Left click it to put the flight result to your record.
Left click the red area to go to the next page. Right click the area to go to the previous
page.
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
15/28
Page 2
The dashed green outline marks a click spot that is only active when the plane is on the ground
and marked as “landed”. Right then left clicking it will advance the current flight plan to the
last leg if it did not do so automatically.
The yellow click spot and associated icon will appear under the same condition as the repair
icons (stationary on the ground with engines off). Right, then left click to sell the currently
used aircraft. The MIT instance for this aircraft will then go back to its “Locked” state.
Note: You should delete the save file for the aircraft from the FSX root folder after doing
this!
Left click the red area to go to the next page. Right click the area to go to the previous
page.
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
16/28
3 ‐ Destination Finder
The destination finder is a new feature (as of Jan. 2016) to help unimaginative pilots (like the
author) to find a suitable destination for the next MIT-powered flight. It uses FSX’ default airport
database (including add-on scenery) and the same functions as any of the default GPS models.So if the GPS can find an airport, so can the destination finder.
Usage instructions are displayed in the window, so this chapter mainly deals with the click spots.
Every field possesses helpful tooltips!
Note: All fields displaying numerical values can be altered by clicking on them and using
the number keys on your keyboard (not the numpad!). The “backspace” key resets the
value to zero while the “Enter” key confirms the entered value.
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
17/28
The red area can be clicked to override the maximal aircraft range. By default, Destination
Finder will take an educated guess regarding the current aircraft’s range capability. Aircraft
range determines the maximal radius in which the database can be scanned. You might
therefore want to override this value with a more accurate figure. The upper limit for this value
is 22000 nm, which is nearly a trip around the planet.
Clicking the blue area allows altering the minimum search range for an airport. The minimal
value is 1 nm and can not be larger than the maximal value . If the entered value for them
minimal search radius is greater than the maximal value for the search radius, the
maximal value will be set to the minimal value plus 50 nm .
The yellow area is the click spot for the maximal search value. As previously mentioned, the
maximal search radius has to be larger than the minimal one and can not be larger than
the aircraft’s maximum range. So in order to override the maximal range limitation of your
aircraft, you’ll have to adjust the maximal range first.
Cyan marks the click spot for altering the minimum runway length for the aircraft. By default,
Destination Finder will guess the minimal runway length based on your aircraft’s maximum
takeoff weight (MTOW). Since this does not take any STOL capabilities into account, you will
most likely have to manually adjust this value. Setting this field to zero will auto-fill it with the
suggested value.
Click the magenta area to set the maximal runway length of the destination airport. This
number, of course, has to be greater than the minimum runway length. If the value for the
minimum runway length is larger than the value for the maximal runway length, the
maximal length will be auto-adjusted to the minimal length plus 5000 ft. Based on 2016airport data, the greatest value that can be entered is 20000 ft.
The light green area is the click spot for the minimal airport bearing (direction) from the
user aircraft. The maximal possible value is 359 degrees.
Similarly, the orange click spot controls the maximal airport bearing from the user aircraft. If
the entered value is smaller than the minimal bearing, the maximal value will be
automatically set to the minimal value plus 45 degrees. The maximum possible value is
360 degrees.
Clicking the light blue area cycles through the airport types. “H” is for hard surface airports
(default), “S” is for soft surface airports, “W” is for water runways and “O” is for other types,
e.g. helipads. When “other” is selected as airport type, the minimum runway length will be set to
zero!
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
18/28
The dark red area is important because it controls the maximum number of items from FSX’
database that are to be scanned (this does NOT control the maximal number of items to
display!) The more items are scanned, the more likely is the chance of you getting a high
number of results at the cost of longer scanning times and lower frame rate during the scan.
The “Scan Database” button and its click spot (marked in dark green) will appear when validsearch range and scan limit value have been entered.
Once a list of valid results with more than 19 items has been created, you can hover your
mouse over the dark yellow area and use your mousewheel to scroll the airport list.
Airport finder usage notes
● Scan time scales with the number of items scanned!
● Frame rate will drop to a few FPS at best during a scan. If you want to avoid this,
decrease the number of items to be scanned.
● A scan might take a very long time. If you run out of patience, click the click spot for
minimal radius or maximal radius or Scan Limit and try again with more specific
search inputs.
● If no valid results are displayed after you’ve waited a long time and your frame rate
stays low, reset the search (see previous item) and try again.
● The compliance with the minimal or maximal search radius, as well as minimal and
maximal bearing decreases with increasing airport distance. You might get airports that
are 1700 nm away from your position as a valid result for a search limited to 1500 nm.
Results thus generally get less accurate the farther they are away from you.
● Database performance gets really, really bad at search radii above 1500 nm (on a 4
Ghz i5 with 8GB RAM at 2.4 GHz and a SSD!). So it is recommended to stick to lower
values. Just because you can doesn’t mean that you should!
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
19/28
4 ‐ “Attention Required” Mode
The “Attention Required” mode is an overlay over the current page. If so configured, it will be
accompanied by the “no smoking” chime ringing and the MIT window opening
automatically.
If you see the window pop up in this mode, a failure has occurred that requires immediate
attention. Simply click the window and then check the “Status Overview” area for the
affected system and then the message area for details.
Clicking the overlay will reset it, so it can pop up again in case another failure occurs.
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
20/28
Using MIT (Tutorial)
So you’ve installed MIT, configured it and know where to click. Great!
Here’s a walkthrough of what to do next:
1) Buy the aircraft
Provided that you have not disabled the purchase requirement, you can now buy a new
or used version of your aircraft.
If your starting funds are not enough to buy the aircraft, change the amount in
MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml or MI_Tool_System.xml and reload the aircraft.
After a successful purchase, the initial status of the aircraft will be saved.
If you already own a company (i.e. same save file name than a previous company of
yours), the company’s current funds will be displayed in the “Company Funds” field.
2) File a flightplan If you want to conduct a revenue flight, first file a flight plan with FSX’ flight planner.
Go anywhere you want to or where your airplane is capable of going to. Use the
Destination Finder if you need.
Or don’t file a flightplan, but you won’t get any revenue for it.
If you want to fly using a plane’s FMS, that’s perfectly possible. In that case, simply file
a “Direct To” flight plan in FSX’ flight planner.
3) Check your payload
Your allowable payload is determined by your aircraft’s payload capacity, the current fuel
load, your company’s reputation, the amount of crewmembers on board and a bit ofrandomness.
In order to do a revenue flight, your current payload will have to be equal to or
lower than the maximum allowed payload.
Use FSX’ fuel and payload manager to adjust your fuel and payload accordingly. MIT
will not do this for you!
Payload managers for payware planes are supported as long as they manage the
payload stations defined in the aircraft.cfg.
Payload calculation is only possible on the ground before takeoff, so do that there!
4) Set the parking brake and start your engine(s) If everything went well, the status message on page 1 will read “On Ground” and the
message window on page 2 will display “Revenue” mode.
5) Fly
Go and fly your flight. MIT does not care if you fly directly to your planned destination or
do multiple stops in between (for refueling or so). The only thing that counts is
arriving at the destination defined in the flight plan!
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
21/28
During the flight, you will see the current status. After takeoff, you will see “Climb” in the
status window, followed by “Cruise” and then “Descent”.
Make sure you have your landing lights on below the limit height if you want to avoid
penalties. A notification about the landing lights will be displayed in the message
area as long as you are below the “landing lights required” altitude plus 500 ft.
Watch your aircraft’s condition deteriorate in real time and hear your wallet scream asyou struggle to keep fuel flow down to keep the flight profitable.
In case a failure occurs during the flight, the health status of the affected system will
turn into a red colored “!!!”. Go to page 2 of the window to see what exactly is wrong
with the plane. Knowing your emergency procedures finally comes in handy!
6) Landing
Watch your vertical speed!
After touchdown, the status message window will read “Landed”.
Come to a complete stop or taxi to your parking spot and stop there.
7) Confirm arrival
Check page 2 of the status window. “Next waypoint” should display the name of your
arrival airport (and a waypoint number of one less than the number of waypoints in your
flight plan). If not, use the click spot on page 2 (see the click spot reference section) to
manually advance your flight plan to the last leg. Without the last leg being active,
FSX will not consider a flight as “arrived” at its destination and thus, you will not
be able to end the flight in MIT.
8) End the flight Turn off the engine (or at least one engine if in a multi engined aircraft). By default, the
MIT window should pop open to grab your attention. Review your flight’s income, the
landing vertical speed and your performance ratings on page 2, then either reject the
result (see click spot references) or accept it by clicking on the checkmark icon on page
1.
Your status will be saved to the aircraft and company file.
9) What now?
File a flight plan to the next destination, tweak some configuration settings or engage
non-revenue mode and do whatever you please.
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
22/28
Concepts Used In MIT
Flight Tracking Modes
Revenue and non-revenue. The former will require you to keep your payload within the limit andland at your planned destination, the latter does away with these two requirements.
There is no restriction regarding your destination. If you want to do a revenue flight from
Anchorage to Melbourne in a DC-3, go ahead. The only thing that counts is arriving there.
Flight tracking is done from engine start to engine shutdown at the destination.
Money
Funds are used to pay for new aircraft and maintenance and can be shared between aircraftunder the pretext of a company. Generate income by flying revenue flights.
If you don’t have enough Funds to pay for maintenance or repairs, you’re screwed. Either try to
get some in by doing a revenue flight or cheat (see farther below).
You can sell your current (owned) aircraft whenever you’re stationary on the ground with
all engines off.
Reputation
Reputation is gained from successful flights, good landings, well maintained aircraft, smooth
flying and adherence to the landing light rule.
The better your reputation, the higher your maximum payload limit and thus the higher your
profits.
Likewise, a bad flight, especially one with a failure occurring, can make your reputation take a
fairly strong hit. So fly well and keep your aircraft in tip top shape.
System degradation
Each system will degrade over time. This process will be accelerated by placing higher stress orloads on it. Don’t fly too fast with your gear or flaps out, don’t pull many G’s, don’t overspeed
your aircraft, be conservative with your power settings, etc, etc...
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
23/28
Repair and maintenance
Repair and maintenance is divided into two areas: Checks and repairs. To conduct either, the
aircraft must be stationary on the ground with all engines off.
Checks are mandatory after a certain time and cost a fixed amount of Funds. They will alsoimprove each system’s condition by a certain amount. The C-check will completely fix up your
aircraft at the cost of a horrendous amount of Funds.
Keep in mind that running late on a check will have a negative impact on your reputation.
Repairs can be conducted whenever a system’s health is lower than 99%. The cost of a
repair is composed of a base cost and scaled with the amount of damage requiring to be
repaired. Hence, you should repair early and often.
If you do not have the necessary funds to conduct a check or repair, both icon and click spot will
not appear.Note that you should manually save MIT’s status after conducting repairs!
Failures
The chance for a failure depends on a system’s condition, i.e. a failure will become more
likely as the condition of a system decreases. Once a system fails, another throw of the dice
will decide the exact type of failure. Do your emergency procedures and do them well!
Engines can shut down either with or without being restartable or outright catch fire. If an
engine catches fire, you can click its health status (the “!!!”) to extinguish it. After that, the
engine will be considered permanently broken until fixed. If you fail to extinguish an engine
fire within 60 seconds, the control surfaces will incur damage, making flying very difficult.
Flaps can either get asymmetrically or symmetrically stuck in their current position.
Landing gear may become partially or fully stuck, the nose or tail wheel steering may fail, brakes
may fail or tires may blow. The last is the default complete failure for fixed gear aircraft. Hard
landings may also blow tires. Floats or skids will still incur damage due to airspeed, but will
never fail.
Airframe failures are either aileron or elevator or rudder degradation or all of the above.
Statistics
Present for “nice to know” purposes. The “Best Landing” item is the best landing ever in your
company’s history. Care to set a new high score?
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
24/28
Addendum
Tweaking Revenue
Use these for tweaking revenue and costs. Variables prefixed with “A_” can be determined fromFSX’ “Fuel And Payload” screen. Variables prefixed with “MIT_” can be tweaked from the
configuration section in MI_Tool_System.xml.
Payload calculation
Actual:
[ A_Aircraft_Weight - A_Fuel_Weight - A_Empty_Weight - (MIT_Crew_Count *
MIT_Crew_Weight_Per_Person) ] * (Random_Payload_Factor) = Actual_Payload
Maximum:
[ A_Maximum_Gross_Weight - A_Empty_Weight - A_Fuel_Weight - (MIT_Crew_Count *
MIT_Crew_Weight_Per_Person) ] * ( Reputation_Percent / 100 ) = Maximum Payload
Costs
Other:
( A_Maximum_Gross_Weight / MIT_Other_Cost_Factor ) * Flight_Time = Other_Cost
Crew:MIT_Crew_Count * MIT_Crew_Salary_Per_Hour * Flight_Time = Crew_Cost
Total:
Fuel_Used * MIT_Fuel_Cost_Per_Pound + Crew_Cost + Other_Cost = Total_Cost
Revenue
Revenue per pound per flight hour:
( Reputation / MIT_Payload_Yield_Factor ) + 0.1 = Payload_Yield_Per_Pound_Per_Hour
Flight Income:
Payload_Yield_Per_Pound_Per_Hour * Actual_Payload * Flight_Time = Total_Income
Net Income:
Total_Income - Total_Cost = Net_Income
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
25/28
Example
Assume you’re just starting out with MIT with a GA aircraft.
Crew: 1 person, 170 lbs
Empty weight: 3000 lbsMaximum gross weight: 4000 lbs
Random payload factor: 0.945
Reputation: 50
Other Cost Factor: 20
Crew Salary Per Hour: 40 Funds
Fuel cost per pound: 0.224 Funds
Flight time for the first flight: 1.5 hours
Current fuel on board: 200 lbs
Projected fuel required for the trip: 100 lbs
Rough desired net income: 100 Funds
Maximum payload: [ 4000 lbs - 3000 lbs - 200 lbs - (1 * 170) ] * ( 50 / 100 ) = 315 lbs
Assuming that the current payload is the maximum possible payload:
Current aircraft weight: 3000 lbs + 1*170 lbs + 200 lbs + 315 lbs = 3685 lbs
Actual Payload: [ 3685 lbs - 200 lbs - 3000 lbs - (1 * 170 lbs) ] * (0.945) = 297.675 lbs
Other Cost: (4000 lbs / 20 ) * 1.5 h = 300 Funds
Crew Cost: 1 * 40 * 1.5 = 60 Funds
Total Cost: 100 * 0.224 + 60 + 300 = 382.4 Funds
What value for MIT_Payload_Yield_Factor is required to attain a revenue of +100 Funds after
the flight?
First, the net income equation has to be solved for Total_Income:
Net_Income + Total_Cost = Total_Income
With numbers: 100 Funds + 382.4 Funds = 482.4 Funds
Next, the equation for flight income has to be solved for Payload_Yield_Per_Pound_Per_Hour,
so…
Total_Income / (Actual_Payload * Flight_Time) = Payload_Yield_Per_Pound_Per_Hour
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
26/28
With the numbers from above:
482.4 Funds / (297.675 lbs * 1.5 h) = 1.08 Funds/lbs/h
Finally, solving the equation for revenue per pound per hour for MIT_Payload_Yield_Factor:
Reputation / (Payload_Yield_Per_Pound_Per_Hour - 0.1) = MIT_Payload_Yield_Factor
With numbers:
50 / (1.08 - 0.1) = 51.02
So the value for MIT_Payload_Yield_Factor has to be set to 51.02 in the configuration section.
Easy, huh?
If you’re lazy and want to do this via trial & error, there’s a spreadsheet containing these
equations.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16eTWv_eJObEakM_DqyqRbxJj16_15gI5TBb7nrWCc
a4/edit?pli=1#gid=0
(Click "File -> Download As", then select the format for the spreadsheet tool you're using.)
Cheating in MIT
The save files are composed of a single column of numbers. Each number corresponds to a
value that XMLTools will read and associate with a variable when loading. The status save
process works exactly the other way around.
A list that indicates what variable is saved at what position in a save file is included. For the
aircraft save file, the file containing the list of variables is called “AircraftSaveVars.txt”. For the
company, the file is called “Companyvars.txt”.
If you urgently need funds, find the line corresponding to the “MIT Funds” variable in the save
file and then increase its value.
The same principle applies to any other shenanigans you might want or need to do to your save
files.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16eTWv_eJObEakM_DqyqRbxJj16_15gI5TBb7nrWCca4/edit?pli=1#gid=0https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16eTWv_eJObEakM_DqyqRbxJj16_15gI5TBb7nrWCca4/edit?pli=1#gid=0
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
27/28
License
● Freeware
● No hosting on “Pay for access” sites
● Feel free to expand upon this tool if you’re inclined to do so. Just make sure to credit me.
● I can not be held responsible if this gauge or any part associated with it does any
damage whatsoever to your software, PC hardware, life, spouse, pet, house or whatever
else you hold dear.
● Use of your brain and common sense is mandatory during installation and use of MIT
Credits
Tom Aguilo and Robbie McElrath for XML Tools 2.0, FSDeveloper.com for being a really cool
place
Changelog
25/03/2016 Changed XMLTools installation instructions to account for the 2.01
update; put randomly generated numbers into discrete g: type variables
to make processing more robust; fixed a very small bug with MLG
failure type determination.
26/01/2016 Added Airport Finder functionality; fixed touchdown speed tracking bug;
increased default starting money; strongly increased aircraft purchase
prices; fixes to used aircraft generation process; improved and
simplified random element of failure generation; engines of newly
purchased aircraft now adhere to the user-defined maximum engine
time; selling, then re-buying an aircraft will now correctly reset the
current flight data; increased fire damage time threshold to 60 seconds;added “advance flight plan to last waypoint” click spot to status page 2;
modified the documentation here and there
05/01/2016 Improved aircraft value calculation; changed used aircraft value
generation; baseline for increased engine wear is now 92.5% throttle
(used to be 85%); purged some legacy code from the system file; fixed
8/19/2019 Copy of Maintenance Income Tool - Google Docs
28/28
semi-broken tire damage code; new bought aircraft will now adhere to
the TTF value for the engines that is specified in the configuration area
10/12/2015 Fixed display of large amounts of funds in the status window; fixed a
bug with reading aircraft-specific component wear rates
07/08/2015 Changed file handling, added panel.cfg generation script, small internal
change to allowed damage thresholds, added warning system, added
hotkey for status window, adjusted documentation to changes
28/07/2015 Payload calculation only done before takeoff (support for droppable
payloads!); flight plan information, last landing vertical speed and
landing light notification added to message window
06/07/2015 Fixed a critical bug concerning consecutive flights, adjustments for
floats or skids as an undercarriage type, vertical speed threshold for
blown tires and airframe damage now user-configurable
04/07/2015 Initial release
Björn K.