SUMMARY

FSE has updated the method in which it conducts "overspeed checks". Overspeed "violations" for an otherwise legitimate flight will no longer be cancelled.

An "Overspeed Violation" is where the "average speed" between two points is much faster than the FSE-listed Cruise Speed for that aircraft model. Any "average speed" that was faster than an arbitrary threshold resulted in the flight being rejected by the FSE Server.

The revised method will no longer cancel a flight that should normally be within the capabilities of the aircraft. Instead, the "overspeed" will be ignored and the flight will be logged using an FSE-calculated flight time instead.

The revised flight time will be calculated using the distance between the two FSE airports and that particular FSE Aircraft Model's cruise speed. Any flight that is adjusted to FSE Time will also have the fuel consumption evaluated at the FSE-calculated flight time, and not the simulator's flight time. If the client-submitted fuel consumption is still within “tolerance” of the new, higher FSE time, the client-submitted fuel consumption will be logged. Otherwise, the fuel consumption will also be adjusted and logged based on the FSE Aircraft Model’s consumption rate for that amount of time. (Fuel consumption "window of tolerance" is still a vague, unknown, unpublished number - just like it always has been. Fuel consumption checks are not new.)

All distance calculations that the server needs to do will be based on the full FSE Airport to FSE Airport great-circle distance, using the lat/lon coordinates from the FSE Airport Database.

INTENT

The intent of the overspeed checks has always been to prevent short-duration flights that result in moving aircraft long FSE-distances while only consuming small fractions of the required flight time and fuel.

ORIGINAL CHECKS

An example of the previous overspeed check: if the two FSE Airports are 500 miles apart, a Cessna 172 should be expected to take approximately 5 hours at the listed cruise speed of 100kts. If the FSE Player flew only 2 hours, FSE would calculate an "average speed" of 250kts. Since this calculated speed is more than twice the listed performance speed of the C172, FSE would reject the flight for an Overspeed violation. The exact arbitrary threshold delineation between "too fast" and "ok" was intended to be vague - "fly appropriately, and you should be fine". However, log reviews show that many people have determined this "magical number" and are repeatedly logging flights at the absolute bare minimum flight time. This falls outside of both the "intent of the rule" as well as the "Spirit of FSE".

UPDATED CHECKS

Although the same numbers will be used (FSE Distance and published Aircraft Cruise Speed), there will no longer be an arbitrary threshold that must be exceeded in order for the flight to log successfully. Instead, any flight that is calculated at "faster than published cruise speed" will be reduced to the exact published cruise speed, and that calculated time will be used to log the flight as long as the new "FSE Time" is also a legitimate time for that aircraft model. There are three specific intents that this new calculation process attempts to address:

1. Avoid cancelling legitimate flights. Any flight that should be within the aircraft's range limitations should be accepted by the FSE Server. For the example flight above (C172, 500nm distance, 2hrs reported time), the revised Overspeed Check method will no longer cancel the "250kts average speed" flight. Instead, the flight will be logged with the appropriate 5 flight hours added to both the aircraft logbook as well as the player's logbook.
2. Eliminate the arbitrary "unknown" speed threshold. Instead of some flights being allowed to log with a slightly-faster than expected time, but cancelling other flights that are also slightly faster than expected, this arbitrary speed threshold will be eliminated. If the FSE Player does not fly for at least the minimum calculated flight time, the minimum flight time will be used instead.
3. Prohibit non-legitimate flights. As part of the new checks to prevent cancellation of "legitimate" flights, any overspeed flight that is adjusted to "FSE Time" will be cancelled if that total FSE Time is beyond the FSE Estimated Endurance time that is published for every FSE Aircraft Model. Example: if the FSE Player submits a 2 hour flight in a Cessna 172 that covers 800 FSE miles, FSE will adjust that submitted flight time to 8 hours and attempt to log the flight with 8 hours. However, the maximum estimated endurance published for the FSE C172 is only 6.8 hours, so the flight will be cancelled.

IMPACTS:

• Pro: Long distance flights by high performance aircraft with generous tail winds, or better-than-FSE performance specifications, should no longer experience a "Flight Cancelled for Overspeed" rejection by the server.
• Con: Legitimate off-airport operations that were previously possible, but with slightly shorter than normal flight times, will now be logged with the higher "mandatory minimum" flight times.
• Neutral: Players experiencing "heavy tailwinds" pushing aircraft along the route of flight at faster-than-normal ground speeds will not benefit from this faster ground speed if it results in lower than the mandatory minimum flight time calculation.
• Neutral: Players who had found the "magic arbitrary threshold" were able to continuously log flights at lower-than-normal flight times. This allowed for more room under the 30/48 ceiling and also extended the time available between 100hr inspections. These flight hours will now be increased to match the FSE Expected Times.
• Pro: Players who had discovered a bug in the code were able to exploit the "zone boundaries" and move aircraft very short distances in a very short amount of time, while still moving the aircraft large FSE distances. This will no longer be possible, and attempted flights will logged at the full flight time.

EXPLOIT BUG FIXES

This overall change came about when attempting to address a bug that had been discovered and was actively being exploited, in which the Overspeed Checks weren't functioning properly.  The bug was allowing players to  fly short flights of 5 or 10 miles across FSE Airport Zone boundary lines, moving the FSE Aircraft hundreds of "FSE miles" while only accumulating 3 or 4 flight minutes.  This was not only cheating FBO Operators along the route of flight out of fuel purchases (little to no fuel was being consumed), it was also cheating FBO Operators along the route of flight out of maintenance services. Aircraft that should have accumulated 100hr inspections on a long ferry flight were instead moving between continents in just a few total flight hours.  The cheating players themselves were also collecting job pay designed for multiple flight hours in just a few flight minutes, and were also able to avoid 30/48 restrictions.  What should have been several hours of flying and running out of available flight hours was being accomplished in less than 1 logged flight hour, leaving nearly all of the 30 available hours unused.