Neat iPhone apps

[Izulde]

I started in Japan but haven't kept up with it. Need to join the FOFC group, though.

[DataKing]

DK Air is up to seven aircraft with service to nine cities in the Caribbean:

Cancun
Georgetown (Guyana)
Guatemala
Havana
Iquitos (Peru)
Oaxaca (Mexico)
Panama City
San Jose (Costa Rica)
Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic)

Guatemala is the only Class 2 airport, the others are all Class 1. I've added a number of the small, cheap cities (Iquitos and Georgetown most recently). Mexico City is out of my price range right now (~45,000 to unlock). I think I'm going to unlock Miami for 28k to have a connection to the U.S. market, then concentrate on expanding into South America. I figure we'll have plenty of people handling North America under the FOFC banner.

One thing I've noticed, checking the logs, is that my Airvan-C (3 cargo capacity) is only slightly more profitable than my 1-seaters. More often than not there aren't any profitable runs for 3 different cargo loads available in the same airport. I'll keep it running, because it does make me some money, but I'm concentrating now on filling out the rest of my fleet with Navigators and Wallabies. The Airvan will probably be relegated to dedicated cargo runs between Guatemala and Miami once I've opened it up.

One question I have is about weather. So far I've experienced a Tropical Storm in San Jose and Iquitos is currently fogged in, but neither seems to be impairing my ability to take off or land. Does anybody know the effects of the weather conditions? Do they only affect aircraft of a certain class? Or am I running a risk of crashing by taking off or landing in poor weather?

[britrock88]

I needlessly started playing this hopelessly addictive game yesterday. :-D

I'm flying in Australia. Started with a Class 2 in Melbourne, a Class 1 in Adelaide, and a Class 1 in Brisbane. Have since expanded to small cities -- Rockhampton (northern outlier), Broken Hill (central), and Hobart (southern outlier). Also added Sydney's Class 2 airport at great expense. Was finally able to expand to Auckland last night, so I'm making flights over ocean now! Unfortunately, only 3 of my 6 planes have the range to get from AUS to Auckland, so I'm working out those logistics.

Also flying under the FOFC banner, FWIW, though I don't see signs of any of you guys at this point. Not sure how that feature works, exactly.

[wahoomac]

Had my Pocket Planes game get borked yesterday and I had to uninstall. So I had to start completely over again. Sucks. I'm level 6 in the Caribbean with a link to Orlando, Cancun, Santo Domingo, and Panama City. Didn't get Oaxaca as it doesn't service enough population. Looking to expand maybe to Miami, Bogota or Caracas.

[DataKing]

Originally Posted by wahoomac

Had my Pocket Planes game get borked yesterday and I had to uninstall. So I had to start completely over again. Sucks. I'm level 6 in the Caribbean with a link to Orlando, Cancun, Santo Domingo, and Panama City. Didn't get Oaxaca as it doesn't service enough population. Looking to expand maybe to Miami, Bogota or Caracas.

Oaxaca is definitely hit-or-miss, but I'm definitely happy with the addition of Santo Domingo...good regular work out of there for only a Level 1 airport. Once I've added my U.S. connection through Miami, I'll be targeting either Bogota or Caracas as well.

[spleen1015]

I've been out of town the last 2 days.

I have 7 planes going, best one is a Kangaroo-M, 2P/2C. I have Thunder Bay, Quebec, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Cincinnati and St. Louis opened. Currently level 7.

I just joined #FOFC tonight.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by DataKing

One question I have is about weather. So far I've experienced a Tropical Storm in San Jose and Iquitos is currently fogged in, but neither seems to be impairing my ability to take off or land. Does anybody know the effects of the weather conditions? Do they only affect aircraft of a certain class? Or am I running a risk of crashing by taking off or landing in poor weather?

I'm up North and have had quite a few airports closed because of storms. When it happens, you can't land or take off from those. Thunder Bay is a regular one on that list of closed airport.

Originally Posted by britrock88

Also flying under the FOFC banner, FWIW, though I don't see signs of any of you guys at this point. Not sure how that feature works, exactly.

There are contracts to fill out and if many of us work at fulfilling the same contract, we could receive a share of some sort of prize when the timer for the contract comes to an end.

As for my own fleet, I tried something crazy today. I went and built two airports in Europe, Prague & Vienna. I put a plane in Prague, thinking I'd go back and forth between the two and would eventually expand in Europe to do some quick shuttling since all airports are pretty close to one another. Kind of a mistake. Most of the contracts in either Prague or Vienna are always intercontinent contracts that my planes can't do, cause they don't have the reach for them. Only once in a blue moon do I get a Prague to Vienna kinda contract. So now I have a nice Kangaroo-M sitting in either of these cities waiting for a contract most of the time. Oh, of course, if I had the range, I could have had a 4 bux passengers moving from Prague to Denver, but heh, no I can't make the flight over the big pond...

I might end up eating the loss and closing these two, or I might wait.

FM

[FrogMan]

and as I post this, I get an offer to move a passenger for 1 bux and a second one for money. Weeeeee!

FM

[Qrusher14242]

i started in africa...but taking a while to be able to just get Cairo, need $32k...seems to take a while to get coins in this compared to tiny tower

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Qrusher14242

i started in africa...but taking a while to be able to just get Cairo, need $32k...seems to take a while to get coins in this compared to tiny tower

once you have 6-7 planes going around, it goes faster. 32k is less than a day now.

FM

[samifan24]

Sparrow, a fantastic 3rd party email client, is 99 cents today and tomorrow. It is the best 3rd party email app I've found for the iPhone. An iPad version is forthcoming as well. Highly recommended.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I've been out of town the last 2 days.

I have 7 planes going, best one is a Kangaroo-M, 2P/2C. I have Thunder Bay, Quebec, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Cincinnati and St. Louis opened. Currently level 7.

I just joined #FOFC tonight.

I started in the same area and have most of the same airports. I did just add New York today, so that was exciting. That along with Boston and DC give me a few bigger airports to play with. I was surprised at how few jobs I have seen for New York. Hopefully that will get better. Thunder Bay has had a surprising amount of jobs available, but that is tempered with the frequent weather closings. I've had a few times of having multiple planes stuck there.

[law90026]

Just started out in Japan and looking to expand southwards towards Southeast Asia!

[samifan24]

How do I join FOFC? Is it just under the flight crew page?

[Neon_Chaos]

I currently have 8 planes, all serving the Northeast US. All of them at least 3-space planes.

A good strategy is to save up and buy the Blue / Red cities, so you can slowly move away from the grey ones.

Toronto, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, Montreal.

Unlocking NY for 51k was well worth it. Quickly racking in the dough right now just ferrying so much stuff all over the place.

Once I save up some more to buy out Washington DC and Atlanta, I will be phasing out Cincy and Montreal from the rotation/

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by samifan24

How do I join FOFC? Is it just under the flight crew page?

yeah, you simply write FOFC on the flight crew page and your work on cotracts will be counted with ours, as a team.

FM

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Unlocking NY for 51k was well worth it. Quickly racking in the dough right now just ferrying so much stuff all over the place.

Agreed. I have trouble sending a full plane to New York, but I have been consistently filling my 4-seater flying out of NY. My last trip had a profit of 866. I am now saving up to add Chicago.

[spleen1015]

Has anyone done any planning with regards to their planes and how they use them? Something like use your bigger planes between the big cities and you smaller planes with the smaller cities? I've just be going at it random, but that idea seems to make more sense to me.

[spleen1015]

Also, has anyone upgraded any planes or airports yet? I'm wondering if the benefit is worth the cost.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Has anyone done any planning with regards to their planes and how they use them? Something like use your bigger planes between the big cities and you smaller planes with the smaller cities? I've just be going at it random, but that idea seems to make more sense to me.

I haven't done that yet, but I think it will become necessary. I'm looking at buying my first class 2 airplane, and they can only travel the blue/red airports. I have also started making use of layovers. Rather than flying multiple legs with one plane, I stop in the first airport and look to pick up more passengers before flying the second leg. If there are no more passengers there for the second leg, I'll drop them off an go somewhere else.

[spleen1015]

Layovers make a lot of sense. I'll start using them now.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Also, has anyone upgraded any planes or airports yet? I'm wondering if the benefit is worth the cost.

Yeah, I've added fuel range to a few of mine to be able to get from Sydney/Brisbane to Auckland. Pretty expensive, but it'll pay itself off over time. Haven't upgraded an airport yet, though. I would think about Sydney first because of how often I use layovers there.

[spleen1015]

I feel like an idiot for not using layovers before today.

[DataKing]

So how exactly do they work? Something like this?

1. Use smaller planes to collect passengers and cargo from smaller east coast cities that want to travel to L.A.
2. Deposit said passengers/cargo in New York
3. Board said passengers/cargo onto a big plane and fly them all to L.A.

Since they're all headed to the same place (L.A.), the payment gets huge...is that pretty much how it works?

If so, how many passenger/cargo spots do you need on the big plane for it to truly be profitable, since you're effectively losing money on the smaller flights?

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by DataKing

So how exactly do they work? Something like this?

1. Use smaller planes to collect passengers and cargo from smaller east coast cities that want to travel to L.A.
2. Deposit said passengers/cargo in New York
3. Board said passengers/cargo onto a big plane and fly them all to L.A.

Since they're all headed to the same place (L.A.), the payment gets huge...is that pretty much how it works?

If so, how many passenger/cargo spots do you need on the big plane for it to truly be profitable, since you're effectively losing money on the smaller flights?

I don't think you can do it the way you are describing. Here's what I have been doing for example.

3P plane in Montreal picks up 2 for Toronto and 1 for Detroit. It flies to Toronto, drops of 2 and then picks up 2 for Detroit. Then flies to Detroit and drops off 3.

[spleen1015]

Dola, it looks like you can unload at other destinations. That's interesting.

EDIT - that begs the question, how long do those layovers stay there.

[Barkeep49]

Data:

Yes that is possible. I don't think I've reached a scale yet though where that's really practical. Instead I think the method Spleen outlines is much more doable at a smaller scale.

[DataKing]

Ok, what spleen says makes sense. I'm going to try that.

Just out of curiosity, are people mostly running dedicated passenger and cargo planes, or the mixed-type? My fleet is a bit of a hodge-podge right now.

[spleen1015]

This game just got much more interesting, IMO.

[BrianD]

Here is how I have been arranging my flights for the 3- or 4-passenger planes.

If I can't get more than 2 people going to the same place, I'll board passengers to bigger airports and wait for the 4-minute job refresh. This locks those passengers in and basically gives a bigger pool of jobs after the refresh.

If I can fill all but one spot to a single location, I'll add "somebody" to fill the seat. Say I am taking 3 people to from St. Louis to Detroit. I'll add a person to go to Boston and take them all to Detroit. Once I get to Detroit, I'll see if I can fill the plane with more Boston people. If I can't, I'll drop the person in Detroit and figure that I'll pick him back up sometime. I don't know if layovers time out, but I don't think they add much (any?) to the cost of the flight. The chance of allowing them to be delivered later is better than the empty seat.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Here is how I have been arranging my flights for the 3- or 4-passenger planes.

If I can't get more than 2 people going to the same place, I'll board passengers to bigger airports and wait for the 4-minute job refresh. This locks those passengers in and basically gives a bigger pool of jobs after the refresh.

If I can fill all but one spot to a single location, I'll add "somebody" to fill the seat. Say I am taking 3 people to from St. Louis to Detroit. I'll add a person to go to Boston and take them all to Detroit. Once I get to Detroit, I'll see if I can fill the plane with more Boston people. If I can't, I'll drop the person in Detroit and figure that I'll pick him back up sometime. I don't know if layovers time out, but I don't think they add much (any?) to the cost of the flight. The chance of allowing them to be delivered later is better than the empty seat.

I didn't know you could board people and they locked in after the Job refresh. That is good to know. Thanks!

[Professor58]

What I have read is that the layover folks don't care if you never pick them up. The will stay there untill you are ready.
Airports show number of layovers on the map. If you have a layover job somewhere, that airport will show "1L" next to its name on the map. There is an upper limit on the number of layovers, but I have not tested to see how many.

[britrock88]

It's 5 for a Class 1 airport, 10 for a Class 2 airport (and I assume 15 for a Class 3). It displays it on the top info bar whenever you're loading/unloading a plane.

[spleen1015]

I am thinking about using some sort of hub city approach, ie everything going to NY gets a layover in Montreal. Everything coming from NY gets a layover in Montreal and distributed from there.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Rather than flying multiple legs with one plane, I stop in the first airport and look to pick up more passengers before flying the second leg. If there are no more passengers there for the second leg, I'll drop them off an go somewhere else.

This has been my key the last two days. My revenue has increase dramatically.

I also like how the value of passengers/cargo does not change when you do a layover with them.

I can fly a $300 plus passenger from Toronto to San Deigo and layover them in Las Vegas. Then in Vegas, I can wait until I can fly a short trip to San Diego with a full San Diego load and collect the 25% bonus on larger $$$ deliveries.

I'll be up to 10 planes in the next hour or so.

I started in Phoenix and currently have San Francisco, Portland, Spokane, Bismark, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, San Diego, Chihuahua, Kansas City, Thunder Bay and Toronto.

My next purchase after plane 10 will probably be two more airports with my targets being Dallas and Denver.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by britrock88

It's 5 for a Class 1 airport, 10 for a Class 2 airport (and I assume 15 for a Class 3). It displays it on the top info bar whenever you're loading/unloading a plane.

It is about this, though not exactly. Really, 5-10 for Class 1, 10-15 for Class 2 and 15-20 for Class 3.

I just added up the income/hr of my 9 planes and came up with about 16k. It is starting to add up a bit more quickly now.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by chadritt

Only downside is that it is KILLING my battery. Im going to be flying a lot next month and this would be a great timekiller on the flights if it wasnt incredibly important my phone be working when I land.

Amazon.com: Energizer XP2000 Universal Rechargeable Power Pack with 2000 mAh - Black: Cell Phones & Accessories

I carry a couple of these. They're small and they work pretty well.

/tk

[terpkristin]

I have grabbed it but haven't started playing yet. Work is keeping me too busy.

/tk

[chadritt]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Amazon.com: Energizer XP2000 Universal Rechargeable Power Pack with 2000 mAh - Black: Cell Phones & Accessories

I carry a couple of these. They're small and they work pretty well.

/tk

This looks perfect. Ive never flown this much in my life, two flights a week for 6 weeks and most are to the east coast, so I simply dont own things like this yet. Thanks.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by chadritt

This looks perfect. Ive never flown this much in my life, two flights a week for 6 weeks and most are to the east coast, so I simply dont own things like this yet. Thanks.

Would recommend picking one or two up and seeing how they work for you. Luckily they're small and relatively inexpensive (especially compared to some of the "designed for iPhone special battery extenders").

/tk

[Qrusher14242]

do airports change in price? i could swear the other day it said it would cost $32k for Cairo....but now its up to $51k! thought they stayed the same.

[Izulde]

Bad news. Kairosoft is dropping iOS for a while because of bug issues on releases.

So that means Android, which got Pocket Clothier today, now has 3 titles not available on iOS:

World Cruise Story
Cafeteria Nipponica
Pocket Clothier

Whereas the iOS exclusives are:

Venture Towns
Oh! Edo Towns

...Yeah. iOS got the short of the exclusives deal.

[Qrusher14242]

wtf? damn!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Bad news. Kairosoft is dropping iOS for a while because of bug issues on releases.

So that means Android, which got Pocket Clothier today, now has 3 titles not available on iOS:

World Cruise Story
Cafeteria Nipponica
Pocket Clothier

Whereas the iOS exclusives are:

Venture Towns
Oh! Edo Towns

...Yeah. iOS got the short of the exclusives deal.

Glad I have an iPhone and a Kindle Fire.

[DataKing]

DK Airways. "We'll get you there...


...eventually"

[BrianD]

Has anybody unlocked Philly? My game kept crashing when I tried. I changed my choice to Atlanta and that worked fine.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Has anybody unlocked Philly? My game kept crashing when I tried. I changed my choice to Atlanta and that worked fine.

I just unlocked it. No issues.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Has anybody unlocked Philly? My game kept crashing when I tried. I changed my choice to Atlanta and that worked fine.

I too had no problems with Philly.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

I too had no problems with Philly.

I was eventually able to buy it. Not sure what the issue was. Maybe it actually costs more than the listing or something.

[DataKing]

DK Airways has recently expanded operations to Caracas and Bogota. Now 'Smugglers' Blues' plays in my head every time I fly down there.