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The following are the basic steps you take to fly a PGA charter:
Make a Charter Argument and post it on the Forum
Fly the charter
Post your PIREP on the Forum
Repeat as often as you like
Pilots flying the prewritten charters still post their Charter Arguements and PIREPS on the Forum. This way we can see what you are doing and enjoy it along with you.
First, either choose a mission from the Missions section of the site, or make up where you want to fly, what plane you will fly, what you want to carry as cargo and the conditions of the flight. That's right, You can make it up.
If you're making up a flight, use your imagination. In a Matrix game, everything is possible. Just keep in mind, not everything is equally probable. See Rating Your Argument below for details.
If you are using a mission from the Missions section, your argument is automatically rated "Very Strong" as written. You may change parameters of the flights (e.g., the rate you charge, or flying a mission set above your current rank), but then you must change the rating of the argument in accordance with the guidelines set forth below.
To properly rate your Charter Argument you will need to know the following details so make sure you have them all thought out:
Starting airport, any intermediate stops and destination.
The aircraft you will fly.
The time of day.
The weather.
Whether the charter will be made under VFR or IFR conditions. Make it match the weather!
The straight line (as the crow flies) mileage (in nautical miles) between the starting airport, any intermediate stops and the final destination. Straight line distance multiplied by the rate per mile is how you determine how much cash you earn for your trip. Measure the distance and round to the nearest 5 nautical miles. You can measure the distance on a regular VFR sectional, the flight planner in Flight Unlimited 3, or another 3rd party flight planner. If you don't have access to any of these then you can go to Landings: Aviation Database and plot in your path to determine straight line distance (actually great circle distance, but it's close enough).
The rate per mile you will charge. Here are the base rates per mile that PGA charges its customers:
| Deadheading | $5 |
| Single Engine | $10 |
| Malibu, Turboprops, Jets, Multiengine & Seaplane | $15 |
| Helicopter & VIP | $20 |
A pilot can always ask for more. Ask in $5 increments. Asking for more than the base rate will lower your Charter Argument's strength unless you justify it in the argument somehow.
Flying a charter in a private plane automatically earns you twice the payment rate without effecting the argument's strength at all. Don't even worry about the double payment until after the charter is flown and you file your PIREP and enter the money earned into your records.
The charters that have already been written for PGA will remain on the web site to give you a basic idea of what a good PGA charter should look like. You may continue to fly these if you are stumped for ideas, however you must still make an argument to fly them. You argue for payment based on the new pay scale rather than the old charter's somewhat arbitrary system.
Look your proposed charter over. If all the flight parameters; cargo, weather, airfields, aircraft, and payment, fall within the parameters given above, then your argument is rated Very Strong.
If any of the flight parameters fall into a rank higher than you have then your argument is reduced one (1) step for each rank above your current rank that parameter falls.
If the rate per mile you are asking exceeds the standard rate per mile, then your argument is reduced one (1) step for each $5 increment above the standard.
Argument reduction is cumulative. That is if you have two parameters that fall outside of teh standards then your argument would be reduced by two steps, i.e. from Very Strong to Average.
No argument may be reduced past Stupid. No argument may be rated higher than Very Strong.
Example 1: Your current Rank is Private Pilot. Your charter is to haul a box of china from San Jose airport to Gnoss Field, a distance of 55 nautical miles. The weather is CAVU and you will fly the charter VFR in an Cessna 172. You are asking to be paid $550 for the charter. All the parameters of this mission are within the parameters of a Private Pilot so this charter's argument is rated Very Strong.
Example 2: Your current Rank is Captain. Your charter is to fly to Bonny Doon Village and pick up a Mr. X. You are then to fly him to Travis Air Force Base after night falls. You are to file no flight plan, fly below 500 feet at all times, with no lights or radios being used. You want to use a helicopter to fly the mission. You are asking $1500 to fly the charter. The parameters of this mission make it a VIP flight, a category of flight that only Senior Captains are supposed to fly. This reduces your argument from Very Strong to Strong. Helicopters require a special license to fly. Not having one reduces an argument to fly a helicopter two steps. So your argument gets reduced from Strong to Weak. You are asking to be paid at $20 a mile, the VIP rate, but your argument was already reduced once for that, so we won't reduce it further. Hmm. Perhaps you should save this charter until you are a Senior Captain? No? Then take a chance and roll for it. That's what PGA is all about! The rules don't apply to us. Getting the job done is all that counts. Just don't get caught.
Roll a six-sided die or use the virtual die located here. This will give you a random number between 1 and 6.
Your argument strength compared to your die roll determines whether you succeed or fail.
| Very Strong | 1 | 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 |
| Strong | 1 or 2 | 3, 4, 5, or 6 |
| Average | 1, 2, or 3 | 4, 5, or 6 |
| Weak | 1, 2, 3, or 4 | 5 or 6 |
| Very Weak | 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 | 6 |
| Stupid | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 | 7 |
If you succeed you won the charter! Post the Charter Argument on the PGA Forum and go fly the charter.
If your roll failed, don't panic. All is not lost. You have several options open to you.
You can put forward the same argument and roll again. If you take this path, reduce the arguments rating by one level. You can do this, hoping for a 6, until the argument's rating drops to Stupid. Then you might as well give up. This is not the preferred way of doing business, but what the heck. You get lucky sometimes.
You can change the parameters of the flight, reducing what you are asking for. Reassess the argument's strength then re-roll. This is like negotiating with the customer.
Some pilots look at a failed roll as the customer negotiating for a better rate. A total failure (missing all the rolls) indicates that the customer looked at your ragged, smelly appearance or the dilapidated aircraft you were taking them to and had second thoughts. Perhaps they were put off by Baldrick's poetry. Maybe they decided to go see what OAC has to offer. Use your imagination to justify it, then move on.
Win, lose or draw, but especially when you win, you need to post your argument and your die roll results on the PGA Forum
Post your arguments under the area where you flew the flight i.e. Bay Area, Seattle, Alaska, Long Haul. Start a new thread. You will post all your Charter Arguments and PIREPS under this thread. If the thread becomes too long then you may start another thread.
The minimum information that needs to be posted is the following:
SJC SFO SAC Cessna 172 N7LG Printed Material 95nm $10 $950 CPL Very Strong 5
That tells all who see the argument that you argued to fly printed material from San Jose International to San Francisco International and on to Sacramento Executive. You wanted to fly the mission in PGA's Trainer. The straight line distance was 95 nautical miles for a total payment of $950. You are asking for $10 a mile, your current rank is Commercial Pilot and you rated the argument Very Strong. Finally, you rolled the die and obtained a 5 which allows you to fly the charter.
That's the minimum information you should post. A preferred method is to write the argument out in narrative form, telling a story. See the descriptions in the old charters for examples of how this is done.
"Why do I have to post my Charter Arguments?" you ask.
Several reasons. Here are a few:
PGA exists in the combined minds of its pilots. Everything said done or thought about the VA that is put out in public becomes part of its reality. Posting your arguments allows you to become part of the project of constructing this reality.
Publicly posting your arguments keeps you honest. If you are going to post something up for all to see, there will be less tendency for you to fudge.
Publicly posting your arguments allows your supervisor or management to see if you completely understand the argument rating system. It allows us to make corrections before small errors become large errors.
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