Introducing Real Flights on Tailstrike

Fly a real airline flight that is happening today, in the very aircraft flying it.

Tailstrike is all about realism. Real aircraft don't disappear at the end of your flight. Each is a unique machine with a unique registration, existing in the world at a specific location, with a history written by many pilots over many flights. This is the underlying principle behind Tailstrike.

Now we are taking that realism a step further.

Introducing Real Flights, the newest Supporter feature on Tailstrike, and an extension of Intelligent Dispatch. Real Flights uses live flight data to match your lease with a real-world commercial flight happening right now around the world.

With one click, Intelligent Dispatch will create a flight plan that mirrors an active real-world flight, matching your chosen aircraft's airline, type, and departure airport. You'll get the real-world callsign, destination, and parking spots of a flight about to depart or already in the air. Dispatch picks the closest match it can, in this order:

• Real Flight + Tail. A real flight today, in the same registration as the real aircraft flying it.
• Real Flight. A real flight today, in an aircraft of the same airline and type.
• Real route. A route the airline really flies, in an aircraft of the same airline and type.
• Fly to real position. A route that takes your aircraft to where its real-world counterpart is now.

In addition to suggesting flights that match real operations, Dispatch also considers other factors, including selected flight length, weather, online ATC and VATSIM events. Each of these contributes to a flight that combines realism with pilot preferences.

Letting Intelligent Dispatch choose a real flight for you is one way to take advantage of this feature, but for pilots who want more control, we've got you covered.

The Tailstrike dashboard now automatically suggests real flights you can fly with Tailstrike aircraft, based on your preferences. And the Real Flights page (Flights menu -> Real Flights) lists thousands of real airline flights operating today, around the world. For every flight on the list, a Tailstrike aircraft of the same airline and type is parked at the real departure airport, ready to go. Pick one, press Fly it, and Dispatch leases you that aircraft and sets up the real flight: the callsign, the route, and the gates and times when they are known.

Maximum realism: The same airframe, the same flight, the same day

Every aircraft on Tailstrike is one shared airframe with a real registration and its own history. This is what makes Real Flights truly special. When the Tailstrike aircraft at the gate carries the same registration as the aircraft flying the real flight, the match is 1:1. The same unique airframe, the same route, the same callsign, at the same time.

These "perfect match" flights show a check icon and display "Real Flight + Tail" on the dashboard. They are also highlighted in blue on the full Real Flights list. Click "Fly it", and you are flying that one-of-one airframe's real flight, in a world where it keeps its location, its history, and even its exact panel state and condition, from one pilot to the next. It doesn't get more realistic than that.

How it works

• Pick a type. Choose the aircraft type(s) you want to fly.
• Pick a flight. Flights closest to their real departure time come first. Filter by airline, departure region, flight length, ATC online, or "Exact aircraft": only flights where the Tailstrike aircraft has the same registration as the real one.
• Click "Fly it". This leases the aircraft and Intelligent Dispatch writes the flight: real callsign, real route, passengers or cargo, and a briefing to match.
• Follow the real flight. Every flight links to FlightAware, so you can see the status of the real flight and aircraft.
• Fly to the real position. When a real route isn't possible, Intelligent Dispatch will route you to the current or future location of the real-world aircraft.

See the full board at app.tailstrike.net/real-flights.

Try it for free through November

Real Flights is a Supporter feature. Supporters keep Tailstrike alive and get special perks, including Real Flights and Intelligent Dispatch on every lease. But we're giving every pilot on Tailstrike 5 Intelligent Dispatch credits to try these features, through the end of November. Each Real Flight or Intelligent Dispatch lease uses one credit. Become a Supporter to get unlimited use.

Flying on Tailstrike is free forever, and you can always lease and fly aircraft on Tailstrike with the "Just fly" option.

Check out all the Supporter features.

Improved Intelligent Dispatch and Flight Builder tools

We continue to tweak the Intelligent Dispatch engine for all flights, including general aviation, military, civil, and other special aircraft, in addition to the Real Flights for commercial aircraft.

• Built from context. Every dispatch draws on the exact aircraft, the real world, current events, VATSIM ATC, and Tailstrike history.
• Commercial. Charter passengers and cargo manifests on routes the airline really flies, or today's real airline flight from the same airport, with realistic loads.
• General aviation. Dispatch now has more continuity between GA flights and missions, and stops trying to predict the future (maybe you don't want to do a return flight). Dispatch also provides a bit of humor here and there.
• Special aircraft. Medevac runs, military taskings, airshows, survey work, and other special missions now more accurately match the aircraft that you leased.
• Be more precise. You can now set the desired destination and/or callsign and let Dispatch fill in the rest. Or leave it all blank and get a full brief from scratch.
• Simpler lease dialog. Leasing now presents just two choices: Intelligent Dispatch, or Just fly. Fill in the details you want, or nothing at all. And remember, you can always divert, and the flight will still count.
• Real flight details. When a dispatch is a real airline flight, the briefing shows it, with the real flight number, callsign, gates, and a link to the real flight.
• Exact match flights. When your flight matches a real-world flight exactly (the same registration, on the same route, within hours of the real one), it shows on every flight log with a check icon and a blue accent.
• Redesigned Flight Builder. Find the perfect lease and flight by aircraft, type, weather, region, ATC and destination, with today's VATSIM events as destination ideas and the departure field's weather at a glance.
• SimBrief in one click. Generate an OFP for your dispatch straight from the lease page. Every detail is filled out for you, including passenger and cargo payload, callsign, type, registration, departure, and arrival. Once you have your flight plan, click "File on VATSIM" from the lease page to prefile on VATSIM, with everything filled out already. (Flying on VATSIM is optional.)

See more real dispatches and how it all fits together on the Intelligent Dispatch page.