If you’re like me, you may be curious if it’s actually worth it to fly the whole flight, skip certain parts, or skip it all. So I set out to run some analytics of my own on each scenario and if you’re stuck in the grind, the fastest way to make cash quick. For all intents and purposes, I targeted in the top 25% highest paying flights for VIP - Private (Vision Jet) and Cargo - Medium (C208). These shook out at advertised mission values of about $72k and $450k respectively (before bonuses).
First, it’s important to understand how I fly, when I use Sim Rate, etc. as it certainly plays into the analytics:
Taxi & Startup:
- Only perform mandatory preflight activities (Chocks, pitot, engine covers)
- Use keyboard shortcuts to enter cockpit & start engines (no switch flipping)
- Taxi at 1x speed when maneuvering, but try to kick it up to 2x (sim rate +1) when on straight taxiways at about 20 kts ground speed
Climb, Cruise, & Descent:
- File a flight plan pretty low (~18,000 feet / FL180) to expedite my time to cruise
- Fly at sim rate 2x (+1) or 4x (+2) depending on weather, bobbing, or gremlins. Sometimes kick down to 1x to fix whatever got out of whack for the moment
- Use FLC to climb (165 kts in Vision Jet, 105 kts in C208)
- Use VNV to descend
- Execute Direct + Straight approaches without holds or overfly’s
Ok, enough of the context, onto the numbers. I timed each phase of flight, both for full duration of the phase AND for the “mandatory” portion of the phase. Example, skipping everything still requires intervention to climb, descend, and perform some ground maneuvers, so I separated “mandatory” time from “skippable” time. I then compared and analyzed the No Skip Bonus for flying, and used that to calculate the Revenue Earned Per Second Flying (REPSF) for each of the following flight scenarios:
- Skip Nothing (Fly entire flight)
- Skip Ground Activities (Skip pre-flight, taxi out, taxi in, skip to shutdown, etc.)
- Skip Cruise (Execute all ground activities)
- Skip Everything (Ground Activities + Cruise)
And here’s how the numbers shook out:
For BOTH planes, the order of efficiency by Flying Scenario is the same:
- Lowest efficiency (Worst bang for your buck): Fly whole flight & skip nothing
- 3rd Tier: Skip Cruise Only
- 2nd Tier: Skip Ground Activities Only
- Most efficient: Skip everything
Yep, that’s right. There’s a lot of math behind the scenes, but here’s how the margins worked out for both of these planes:
Vision Jet:
- Fly entire flight - Baseline
- Skip Cruise Only: +28% REPSF
- Skip Ground Activities Only: +39% REPSF
- Fly only what you have to: +89% REPSF
Cessna C208 Caravan:
- Fly entire flight - Baseline
- Skip Cruise Only: +79% REPSF
- Skip Ground Activities Only: +107% REPSF
- Fly only what you have to: +265% REPSF
These numbers are staggeringly different despite the same order, and that is because the No Skip Bonus is (for some reason) not at all proportionate across these 2 planes. Don’t ask me why.
One final thought - Bad Weather Bonuses can make a huge difference on your returns as well. As long as you can use Autopilot and not crash the thing, it is almost always worth it to fly in at least some wind, rain, or snow. It’s free money.
Disclaimer time: These numbers are based on a limited data set and based on the way I fly. They also do not take into account the amount of time it takes to load in and find a flight, so if you’re looking to skip, grind, and repeat flights, you also need to factor in the amount of time outside of the mission you are wasting. And finally, this results in flying that is not realistic at all, which should be obvious, but calling out anyways.
Hope this helps anyone who’s curious like I was