I periodically lose access and a Grade overnight due to the Landing Count auto reduction and it’s getting old. I fly daily and find myself with a grade loss because I don’t maintain the Landing count thresholds. As an example, I fell short of the required 200 Landings requirement for my grade by 5 points yesterday and lost a grade. I spent an hour or so flying T&G’s to plus up the count and was reinstated automatically to my former grading with a quit standing of 210. On first flight today I noted that I had an auto reduction overnight which reduced my grade and put me in a 10 Landing overnight auto-loss. With this excessive daily auto-loss it’s difficult to keep up particularly if you miss a few flying days. You find yourself scrambling and bouncing rather than aviating. (Last vacation with 30 no flying days I lost an auto bundle which in part caused me to lose Regular Status.). That’s GripeOne. Gripe Two, the Double Violation count for a minor infraction like an Overspeed. The system gives you 2 downers for a single overspeed. A 1 Day Plus a 3 Day access loss, now that over kill. That downer is Ghost like and its truly punitive. Accordingly, I suggest FDS relook at the auto violation & grade thresholds. Take them out of the punitive realm and apply a more reasonable non-punitive and member friendly approach. That’s my position and I’m sticking with it, What say you members?
I totally agree, the auto-loss is ridiculous. I’m not trying to be harsh here, but most of us including me don’t have the time to fly multiple times daily. It seems like that’s the new regulation FDS is imposing in order to maintain our grade, it’s unfair. Just because someone can’t fly multiple times daily doesn’t mean that they forget how to fly!
For some reason I had 277 landings in the past 90 days last time I checked. I have to admit that I fly mostly short hops tho 😎
HEHEHE…oh MAX i want to say something here, but i know you will put me in time out for it…so less is more. I think we all go thru this and they invented it and has been talked about and not going anywhere soon. PM me on my real comment.
I agree with you Max! Since when does one forget how to fly because they haven’t met the landing requirement???
Now, I spend more of my IF-Related time on this forum than the actual app, and to be totally honest I couldn’t give two hoots about my grade as long as it’s at “3” and grants me access to the “expert server”. I understand that this feature is probably a good way to get the customer to use the app everyday, but it is a huge annoyance especially since some days people just can’t commit!
A game shouldn’t require a daily commitment in order to maintain stats that are actually supposed to represent your level of skill. Sure enough, I do believe that skill comes from practice, but there should be a limit what one has to do in order to maintain the skill level.
The total number of landings is a good idea and a valid stat that shows how much you practice and might represent your level of skill, but the 90-day landing stat just measures activity. It is not necessary for it’s removal, but activity should not have an impact on one’s grade.
Now I for one didn’t think that Max would be quite as concerned if he was a Grade 3 or a Grade 5. I am happy with being a Grade 3 event though I have the XP, Hours and total landings to be a 5, however the 90 day average is a killer I agree! I seem to average about 70-85 landings in a 90 day window so to reach the “magic” of a 5 I would have to do a lot in a go and then 90 days time would be in the same position of being “down graded” over night!
Perhaps this calls into question as to how they Grades are calculated however they do need to show a way of 'maintaining currency". Perhaps the currency for 3 needs to be increased to around 30 every 90 days instead of 3 and have 4 and 5 90 day landings reduced to 50 and 100 respectively?
Once again, reducing activity required still has the potential to lower your grade over night.
For example:
A child that receives a day a week to play on his iPad (random example) might never be able to make it past the grade 3 mark, even though he might be more skilled than all of us.
Why should that child’s activity influence the grade which is supposed to demonstrate his skill?
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Both are very different factors… The taste of an apple pie shouldn’t determine the rating of the cheese pizza.
I have to say something:-
Grading System is Bad, Why?
Because its simply Unfair!
A stricter no-requirments-overtime version of the standing+Automated Version Of Ghostings+standings can go to 120% for professionalism
However it is vital in some form to be able to show how current your skills are, the 90 day window is a good indication (I use 90 day windows at work for various KPI’s in order to show currency or otherwise as well).
Sure, let the counter remain, going up and down everyday…
But why should it have any impact on your skill level?
@David_Lockwood… Spot on comments David & @Pradyut_Mandal. Grades mean nothing to me, I fly. What does have meaning to me is a skewed system that degrades irrationally and punishes the inexperience in a subliminal machine generated fashion. Some time I think the “Dark Side” is in residence at FDS HQ. You never feel the dark force till it jumps up and bites you right in the asp! Regards, Max
I worked for grade 5, enjoyed it, got the screenshot and then stopped bothering to keep up with the requirements. They are a bit too much to constantly maintain.
Grade 3 suits me fine - my flying does the talking, not my grade.
spot on, that is exactly how I feel…though I never got round to getting to 5 in the first place.
Well Said. To me, Infinite Flight and ALL it’s components are a great tool for education and relaxation. Not only does it develop your interest in Aviation related matters, but definitely brings out a new side of you that you might not share otherwise.
I have not and never will let an irrelevant title (that supposedly demonstrates my skill) get in the way of the learning process and my enjoyment of the game.
Representation is not through only one factor, you represent yourself through many things, every action you make and every sentence you speak. The title is usually supposed to sum up all of those factors, but in this case (being the grade) it sums up the wrong factors!!!
MaxSez: 5 hours and only 15 comments thus far. Not enough supportive comments yet to push the FDS quick fix envelope at this point. Rather disappointing that this unfair programming is not more evident to the great unwashed who are being cheated out of earned credits so ezly daily. So Sad, to bad.
Understand your ailment max, I like flying long and slow, not just touch and goes, and my landing count suffers
MaxSez: I did’t fly for 2 days. In that period I have had 25 Landings reduced from my 90 Day count. As noted previously by comment these automatic reductions need to be adjusted or better yet removed from the auto program. Lack of activity should not effect one’s Grade. Recognize you pay your money and take your chance but the Daily Landing Count Reduction is arbitrary and capricious!
I must agree with you Max. I consider myself a good pilot, better than average, but not the best by no means. I have a full time job a family with grand-kids I spend time with. I don’t have the time to fly as much as I would like and that leads me to choosing between doing T&G reps to keep my level up or flying routes on expert server with ATC (the reason why I got into Infinite Flight to begin with).
I have the Flight Hours, points and proven integrity shown for the past 3 years, it would be nice to see something that favors people is our situation a little better.
I know no system will ever be perfect, someone will complain but there’s always room for improvement.
That being said Infinite Flight is hands down the best most enjoyable Flight simulator I’ve ever used, I’ve been doing flight simulators since the Commodore64 days so I know my sims. I can’t say anything bad about it, they just keep making it better.
These Devs really care about the community, that’s very apparent. I’m very optimistic that we may see something to help ease this problem in the future.
And speaking of future I’m making my prediction for the global update… August 22nd.
@Ahrens_Airways… Thank for the rationale and support on this nit. Like you I’m a long time advocate of this platform. I do like to rub in a little salt from time to time on the overlooked and irritating that could be correct with the turn of a “screw” or the attention to detail that never gets off the do list as it not cost effective. On a personal note GranPa, my great grand daughter just arrived.
I’m 1 up. Warm Regards, Max
(Ps: Just got a 3 Day overspeed violation again, I hate that flukey so called “Auto” Pilot. Dang)
A lot of good points in this post.
Fact of the matter is that in IF grade is a matter if quantity, not quality (maybe expect for the violations) - you must keep that in mind
Whole system needs a revamp, don’t think global will make it any easier. The multiple violations at a time are necessary for the “auto-ghost”. Let’s say someone sits on a runway for a while, the way the system works is after 3 violations that aircraft will be auto-ghosted, otherwise one could sit on the runway the whole day (if no ATC). Logic can always be re-written but… global is coming.