Difficulty bonus

Watch the video: Let clean flights accept themselves

Some airlines give extra points for a landing flown in hard weather: a strong crosswind, gusts or low visibility. The bonus is judged on the real weather report (METAR) at the airport where you landed, so fly with live weather in your simulator.

How it works

File your flight with ACARS as usual.
When the flight is filed, the crew centre reads the weather report in force when you landed, at the airport where you landed: the latest one issued before your landing, or up to 10 minutes after it. A report from more than 75 minutes before your landing is not used.
The crosswind is worked out for the runway you landed on. When that can't be told, the runway most into the wind is used.
Each condition your airline rewards adds its own line to your score, such as Difficult landing: crosswind 22 kt on runway 27.
Your PIREP shows the report it used under Weather at landing (difficulty bonus).

Good to know:

A hard landing (beyond your airline's firm-landing limit) or a landing ACARS didn't measure earns no bonus.
File soon after you land: the crew centre looks back two hours for the report, so a PIREP filed much later may get no difficulty bonus.
Only flights filed after your airline switched the bonus on can earn it.
Your airline's Rules page lists the conditions and the points.

For staff

Open Staff › Operations › Scoring, then Difficulty bonus. For each condition set the limit and the points:

Crosswind at least (kt) and its points.
Gusts at least (kt) and their points.
Visibility at most (m) and its points.

Every bonus is 0 points to start with, which means off. Changes count for flights filed from then on. A re-score works the bonus out again from the weather kept with the PIREP; a PIREP filed while the bonus was off never gets it.