If you are taking an aircraft that has just been returned by the lessee for maintenace particularly a C or D check and you don't operate or no longer fly that fleet type will you be billed for fleet commonality maintenace while undergoing maitnenace since the a/c is going to be with you for a long period. I noticed as soon as a fleet is returned, it comes up on the fleet commonality page with all the costs associated of flying a new fleeet type even though it's going to be leased out when repairs are done.
Yes, your fleet commonality will go up.
But, being that the plane was returned due to an impending maintenance, this actually makes sense. If that's going to happen regularly (and it does) then you're going to have to maintain parts and training to maintain that particular aircraft, which is exactly what the Fleet Commonality expense is supposed to be.
If anything you're getting off a bit lightly because you're only paying it the second it arrives until the second it leaves. In reality, if that happened all the time, you'd have to keep your employees up to speed on those aircraft and constantly maintain at least some level of a parts pool to fix them.
Yeah - Haven't scoped out the 'Feature Request' thread, so this may have already been shot down....but I'd love to see a Budgeting type screen where you allocate a fund for each AC class/type etc. If you have no AC of a type - budget nothing for that type. The time/extra cost of maintenance would then be a function of the % that you funded vs an (unknown to the player? Fluctuating?) 100% mark. For planes types that you only lease out, you can afford to keep a lower budget since you aren't generally doing the A/B's and getting a plane turned around fast on a Check isn't as time critical.
The Budget part of the cost would represent the facilities, heavy equipment and constant training. The cost of the actual A/B/C/D Check would represent the actual extra hours of labor, replacement tools, inspections and supplies needed.
Edit - Just occurred to me that Sami could use the current CI formulas as a template to show a steady budget increasing your Facilities Skill/Score/Expertise % up to a max for your current spending etc. For example....Do you start budgeting a few weeks before the new plane type is delivered to get a head start on your Maintenance Training etc....or wait until after they are delivered.
Thanks guys. Might have to sell some of my strangely willl-be diverse leasing operation and maybe just stick to the ones I actually operate since that lessens the impact on costs when I have to take in the a/c.
Might as well ask in here instead of starting a new thread, so:
I have a couple of Dash 8 Q400's that I'm not using (for sale/lease), and a lessee just when bankrupt so I got one of them back. The thing is, as soon as I got it back, fleet commonality costs went down for my other aircraft, and up again when i put it back for sale. Shouldn't really be like that, should it?