Leasing an aircraft

To fly an aircraft, lease it. A lease gives you exclusive access to one specific aircraft. No other pilot can fly it until your lease ends.

How to start a lease

• Find an AVAILABLE aircraft in the Aircraft Registry, or on its aircraft page. Then select Lease.
• The dialog shows the position of the aircraft and its record: its flights, its pilots, and the length of its usual flight. You can cancel a lease at each moment, with no penalty.
• The status of the aircraft changes to LEASED immediately, and it leaves the available fleet.
• You start at the position where the aircraft is parked. That airport is your departure airport.

How to select a flight type

When you lease, Tailstrike asks what type of flight this is. Select one. You can change it later on the lease page.

• Just fly: no plan. Fly to the place that you want.
• AI assignment: Intelligent Dispatch writes a flight for you, with a destination, a briefing and cargo. The flight matches your aircraft and the time that you have.
• Mission: fly a leg of an active mission that you joined.
• My own destination: give your destination to Tailstrike. It becomes your personal plan for the leg.

Your lease page

• Each lease has its own page. The page shows the status now: if your flight is active, if your plugin is connected, and the live flight data after you are airborne.
• Your assignment, or your declared mission, also appears here, with its briefing and its destination.
• If you use SimBrief, your operational flight plan also appears here.
• A Did you know? card shows a fact about the life of this aircraft on the network.
• While a lease is active, a banner on each page gives a link back to the lease page.

How a lease ends

• Completed: you land at a permitted airport. The lease closes automatically, and the aircraft moves to its new position.
• Cancelled: you cancel the lease before you fly. The aircraft becomes AVAILABLE at the same position.
• Terminated: your flight disconnects, or you land at an airport that is not permitted, or you do not depart in the period. The lease ends. The aircraft becomes available again, at its last permitted position. This has no effect on your record. The leg does not count. See Flight completion rules.