Real Flights

Real Flights connects your flight to the real airline traffic of today. Every 10 minutes, Tailstrike records the airline flights that are in the air or at the gate in the real world. It uses them to suggest real flights that you can fly now, and to mark each completed flight that matched a real one. There are four levels.

The four levels

Fly to real position

A Tailstrike aircraft has the same registration as a real airline aircraft, but it is parked at a different airport. On the dashboard, Real Flights then shows a Fly to real position card. It offers a flight from the airport where the Tailstrike aircraft is parked to the airport where the real aircraft is now, or to the airport where the real aircraft flies now. Tailstrike shows this card only when the two airports are 30 nm or more apart.

When you fly it, the Tailstrike aircraft is in the same place as the real aircraft. Then you, or the next pilot, can fly a Real Flight + tail from there.

Real Route

The airline of your aircraft flies this city pair in real life, but not as a real flight that matches your time and your type. A route of a different airline does not count.

• In Intelligent Dispatch: the airline flies the pair, but Tailstrike cannot confirm a flight today.
• After you land: the airline flew the route in the 7 days before your flight, but no real flight fits the type or the time.

Real Flight

You fly a real airline flight: the same airline, the same departure and arrival airports, and the same type family (for example a B738 for a real B739).

• In Real Flights: each flight is at the gate now, or departed in the last 12 hours. A Tailstrike aircraft of the same airline and the same type family is parked at the real departure airport.
• After you land: the real flight departed within 12 hours of your departure, before or after.

Real Flight + tail

A Real Flight in the very same aircraft: your Tailstrike aircraft has the same registration as the real aircraft that flies the flight. This is the highest level.

• In Real Flights: these flights are highlighted. A filter shows only these flights.
• After you land: the real flight departed within 6 hours of your departure. After 6 hours, the real aircraft flies a different flight, so the mark is Real Flight.
• It also appears in the network feed.

How to fly a real flight

1. 1
   Open Real Flights.

   Open Real Flights, or select Fly a Real Flight on the dashboard.
2. 2
   Select an aircraft type.

   Enter a type, for example B738. Select Whole family to include the related types, for example the B737, the B739 and the MAX. You can also filter by airport, airline and length.
3. 3
   Select Fly.

   Tailstrike leases that aircraft. Intelligent Dispatch sets up the flight with the real callsign, the real destination and, when they are known, the real gates. Fly it as a normal leg.

An Intelligent Dispatch request for an airline aircraft also looks for a real flight of that airline from your airport. When it finds one, the real flight is your assignment.

How Tailstrike marks a completed flight

• When you land, Tailstrike compares your flight with the real airline flights that it recorded, and gives the highest level that fits.
• It does this for each flight, also for Just fly and for your own destination. You do not need Real Flights or Dispatch for it.
• Only the airline of your aircraft counts. The callsign that you used does not count. A general aviation aircraft gets no mark.
• The mark shows on the flight page and in the Flight Log, where a filter shows only the real-world flights. Real Flights shows the Real Flights that pilots flew this week.

Who can use it

• Each pilot can browse Real Flights.
• A Supporter can lease from Real Flights at each time.
• A free pilot uses one of the 5 free Dispatch credits for each flight that they lease from Real Flights.
• The marks on completed flights are for each pilot. They use no credit.