I would say this is somewhat realistic. When a part is broken and you need to order it under AOG (Aircraft On Ground), you pay a lot more for the part and shipment of the part in real life. Kind of like an express service.
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The video gives a solid, quick overview of how airlines approach engine maintenance and replacement. It highlights the key concept of engine service life not being measured in years, but in flight hours and cycles (one takeoff and one landing). This is a crucial distinction that a game could use to make its career mode more realistic and challenging. Either way you shouldnāt need to buy a new engine every few days.
Worth a watch 
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It should be both, engines and landing gear (excluding tires and brakes) are limited on cycles and hours but also have a limited time on the airframe (which usually isnāt the limiting factor of course). Even if the aircraft doesnāt fly a single hour, there are parts that reach their due date and need to be replaced.
Each landing is usually counted as one cycle, so each flight contains 1 cycle. Some types I have flown a go-around would be counted as an additional cycle (essentially each time take-off thrust is set), other types donāt count this.
Preferably maintenance should be based on:
Time of part installed on airframe +
Cycles (landings / pressure cycles):
- Landing gear
- Airframe
Cycles + flight hours:
- Powerplants
Wear (landings, amount of brake applications):
- Brakes
- Tires
- Landing gear oleos
Turbine engines burn quite some oil, so they frequently need a top off (not full replacement).
Then there are environmental or operational factors, some of which could be simulated?
- Pilot excessive use of brakes, or many short field landings reduce brake and tire life.
- Use of max thrust versus de-rate / flex.
- Not avoiding weather might cause load events that require inspections and repairs.
- Lightning strikes cause major downtimes and costs to find and patch all the entry and exit holes.
- Hard landings might require unscheduled inspections and where needed repairs.
- Operation in hot climates, near seas (salt) or dusty environments (desert) cause additional wear of engine parts.
- Volcanic ash encounter requires inspections and repairs.
- Bird strikes.
- ā¦
And of course, sometimes stuff just randomly breaks without a good reason.
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I donāt think you replace avionics, fuel tanks, engines, landing gear struts after 36 hours of flight let alone after 100hrs. They might have a service. You donāt replace the elevator surface after 36 hours. Maintenance schedules are unreasonable and unrealistic, period. They need to change this. It, amongst the unfair penalties is making this mode unattractive.
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I havenāt tried that part of carreer mode, that sounds unreasonable indeed. You donāt replace an elevator surface probably ever 
.
I donāt object to a fair maintenance schedule. It is the unfair and irrational amount of expensive replacements we object to. An unfortunate aircraft build aside or crash damage, an aircraft should not have an entire component replaced as frequently as we have to do it in this game.
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Agree, but I donāt agree with the original poster to make maintenance costs based on the level of wear. If a tire is 10% worn and you decide to replace it, you pay for a new tire. If you wait until something is broken before you replace it, you need to order as AOG which comes at a premium.
Not saying that rate of wear and price of parts is accurate. A lot of parts such as avionics shouldnāt really wear. Of course something could break randomly like in real life. But the way it is now doesnāt seem to reasonable.
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My main issue is the flat-rate system for repairs, especially for the engine, which is the most expensive part. There are no options for intermittent service; I have to pay for a complete new one. I bought a 737 on Monday and use it for passive income only, making around Ā£1 million per hour. Since Monday, Iāve made about Ā£18 million. My engines are now almost at 50% wear, and in a few days, Iāll be hit with a Ā£17 million bill for new engines. After that, Iāll be lucky to make about Ā£6 million in profit for the week. Take off the Ā£600,000 inspection fee daily, which is a ludicrously high amount that basically erases my first hour of income, and I might just break even if Iām lucky..
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Maintenance is a clickfest nightmare, terrible UX design.
Itās bad enough with a single 172, Iād hate to do it with multiple aircraft.
I think it might be cheaper (and faster maintenance process) to just kamikaze the plane with 80% insurance and get it replaced/repaired for 20% cost (and fix a few small extras), then just flog the hell out of till you need to do it againš
Itās terrible how bugged (technical and design wise) the career mode still is, this far down the track from release.
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It would be realistic having to buy or loan a spare engine, then one engine can be send to the shop and youāll receive whatever bill for that later which is based on the amount of wear (= more parts replaced), and then you rotate them. Buying new engines every time makes no sense.
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I completely agree with this. The current ābuy a new engineā model is not only unrealistic, itās economically unviable in the long run. The system youāre suggestingāwhere you can service and rotate enginesāis exactly the kind of strategic depth a flight simulator should have. It would make maintenance a core part of the gameplay instead of just a constant money drain.
What an absolute joke. Ā£17M for engine replacements on a 737, then another Ā£12M for flight control repairs. Thatās a Ā£29M total bill on a plane I never even flyāitās just for passive income. Now Iām about Ā£10M down. Passive income is trash and this whole system needs a complete overhaul.
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I have 1 737 which I keep on OFF and only fly if I want to. I have decided to put most of the high maintenance planes on this too now . I have about 150 planes of all shapes and sizes and had to spend 60,000,000 maintaining them. That is more than 2 thirds of what I earned. I also find that if I fly a 172 or PC-12, TBM or any other planes that does not earn millions at a time, then I am seriously out of pocket. It forces you to only fly ever larger planes that have very high maintenance fees. You also canāt enjoy the missions like showing folk around the beautiful scenery spots because they donāt earn enough.
It is a really unfair expenses system.
Flying the 737 is great, but itās a shame there arenāt more profitable missions in the UK and Europe. The fees for transfer, inspection, and maintenance just eat up any profit on a 2-3M mission. Iāve also got a Cessna Longitude, but it seems impossible to find any missions for it in this area. Iāve heard the 5-6M missions exist, but Iāve never seen one myself. For now, Iām stuck flying my PC24 on 1-1.2M flights.
They do exist, I have flown a couple with the Citation but it is usually to a military airport in India or Russia and 7/8 hrs long where you will have to enter a restricted airspace and get a ding.
The best way to earn passive and cover the ridiculous high costs in the 737 are 8hour flights and go and repair all your fleet after each flight you will get 20mio for the flight and every 8 hours inspection shouldnt get you high maintenance repairs unless your crew have had a crash
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Repairs after each 8 hr flight still add up in the end to the cost of an equivalent 15/16 hr maintenance schedule. I suggest there is hardly a modern plane in the world that needs maintaining every 15 hours. Pretty rubbish plane if it does.
Only the vintage planes might need this.
Never knew crew could crash your planes 
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Well I just assumed so with the 45mio maintenance bill lol
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Ugh, these inspection and repair fees are absolutely ridiculous. And the worst part is, itās pretty obvious this isnāt changing anytime soon. 
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