Does Vaeroly understand my aircraft?

Watch the video: When a flight wasn't recorded

Vaeroly checks your flight from the switches and levers it reads from the simulator: the flap lever, the gear lever, the ground spoilers, the parking brake, the lights, the transponder, the seat belt sign and the pitot heat. Many add-on aircraft keep some of these in their own code, where the simulator's standard readings don't follow them. Open Flight tools → My aircraft to see what Vaeroly reads of the aircraft you flew last.

What the page shows

The page lists the last three aircraft you flew with ACARS, at any of your airlines. For each one it lists every reading with one of four answers:

Read from the aircraft itself: a pilot taught Vaeroly where the aircraft keeps this switch, and Vaeroly reads it from there.
Read from the simulator: the simulator's standard reading follows this switch on this aircraft.
Not reported: the aircraft doesn't give this switch at all. Its checks are skipped, so it never counts against you.
Not checked yet: nobody has taught Vaeroly this aircraft. Vaeroly uses the simulator's standard reading, which is right for the simulator's own aircraft but may be wrong on an add-on.

When the flight was recorded with ACARS 2.8.48 or newer, the page also says where each switch really came from on your last flight.

The flap lever without a recording is named from the type's real lever for as long as the simulator's count agrees. That is often right, but not on every add-on, so it shows as not checked yet until someone teaches it.

Teach Vaeroly an aircraft

Load the aircraft in the simulator and stay on the ground with a booked flight.
In Vaeroly, open Simulator → Add-on aircraft → Teach Vaeroly this aircraft.
Move each switch once and the flap lever through every position. Each one ticks as soon as Vaeroly sees it move.

Vaeroly checks your recording by itself within a day. It leaves out anything that looks wrong, like a camera or another add-on's value, and uses the rest. Until then, the page says it's waiting. Once it's approved, every pilot flying that aircraft gets it, at every airline.

Vaeroly also learns from flights

You don't have to teach an aircraft. Every day Vaeroly looks at the ACARS flights on each aircraft and works out which reading follows each switch. When at least 3 flights by at least 2 pilots agree, every pilot flying that aircraft gets it, at every airline. One pilot alone can never change how an aircraft is read. If later flights start to disagree, Vaeroly checks that aircraft again.

Some aircraft were tested on a PC first, so they read right from your first flight. On your PIREP, each judged switch says where its reading came from: learned from flights, a taught profile, or a built-in profile tested on a PC.

"Was it on?"

When a switch check fails, ACARS may ask you after the flight, for example: "Vaeroly read the beacon as off when the engines started. Was it on?" It asks about the beacon, strobes, landing lights, nav lights, probe heat and transponder, and only once for each aircraft and switch.

Yes, it was on: tells Vaeroly the reading may be wrong on this aircraft.
No or Not sure: nothing is sent.

Your answer doesn't change the score of that flight. It helps Vaeroly spot a stuck reading sooner.

Switches that aren't judged

A switch that isn't judged never counts against you. Your PIREP says why:

The aircraft doesn't report this reading.
Its reading is stuck on most flights (see below).
The reading never moved on your flight, and it has never moved on any flight of this aircraft.
Its reading is being checked again, because pilots' flights and the PC test disagree.

Stuck checks

Some add-ons keep a switch where the simulator can't see it, so the check fails for everyone. Vaeroly spots this by itself. When a check fails on at least 4 in 5 flights of an aircraft (at least 5 flights, by at least 3 pilots from at least 2 airlines), it isn't judged on that aircraft any more. When 2 pilots answered "Was it on?" with yes, 3 flights by 2 pilots are enough. The check comes back by itself once flights stop failing it, for example after an add-on update.

Points back

When a switch reading turns out to be wrong, the points you lost only because of it come back to you automatically. Nobody has to approve it.

The notice on your dashboard

When the aircraft you flew in the last 30 days still has readings that nobody has checked, your dashboard shows a short notice with a link to this page. Close it with ×. It comes back only when the answer for that aircraft changes.