Request: extended PE service time in the weekends

[uncertifiedpilot]

Dear PE crew,

I couldn't be more happy with the PilotEdge service. Great quality, great customer support, great community.

Nevertheless, I just feel I have to share one personal frustration. In the Netherlands, PE goes live at 5 pm local time, which leaves me and other European PE customers with just a few hours to fly each day. This limitation is quite frustrating, especially in the weekends, given the joy and learning opportunity that PE brings.

Just for the sake of feedback: I would be willing to pay extra for PE offering ATC service a few hours earlier in the weekends.

[Keith Smith]

Understood. There are options which will hopefully be more palatable for a European audience in the future. But, for argument's sake, what would you consider a reasonable surcharge per month, and how many extra hours of coverage on Sat and Sun?

[uncertifiedpilot]

@Extra hours
Personally, I would like to be able to complete a 1 hour-ish cross-country flight before dinner, so I can do another after dinner. If PE would go live just one hour earlier in the weekends, that would already give me and most other European customers a slot for completing a small/medium range flight before dinner.

@Surcharge
On average, I fly about 15 hours per month on PE. In my personal case, that translates to a rate of 1.33 dollar per hour on PE (20 dollar monthly subscription). However, because the weekends provide such a big advantage over flying in the evening of working days (not being tired from work, more awake/proficient, etc.), I would be willing to pay:

@1 hour earlier: +2 dollars (22 dollars per month)
@2 hours earlier:+5 dollars (25 dollars per month)
@5 hours earlier:+10 dollars (30 dollars per month)

Thanks for taking notice, Keith. Looking forward to PE's future developments!

[Matthias Geiss]

It would surely be great to have some additional hours during the weekends, maybe even a "european weekend" with 24 hours coverage for Saturdays and Sundays as a separate subscription in the future?

I think a handful of dollars for some extra hours would be fine for me. For a "european weekend" subscription... Maybe 50-60% on top of the base price(s)? Would depend on the exact terms.

I don't know how feasible it would be to hire and train one or two european controllers, in order to avoid night shifts for you guys over the pond.

[jiva602]

I'm on the East coast and on many days I could potentially fly on PE for 2-4 hrs from 7-11am but, alas, that is before the PE day begins.

Indeed, the ACT group was born out of my work schedule reality and, although it may be frustrating for many at times, right now I cannot see how PE could possibly cater to everyone's schedule. But, isn't it pretty to think so? Someday...

[BFG]

I'm on the East coast and on many days I could potentially fly on PE for 2-4 hrs from 7-11am but, alas, that is before the PE day begins.

Indeed, the ACT group was born out of my work schedule reality and, although it may be frustrating for many at times, right now I cannot see how PE could possibly cater to everyone's schedule. But, isn't it pretty to think so? Someday...

Ditto. Weekends before 11 AM ET is prime time for me to fly on PE ...

[Marcus Becker]

Considering all of our controllers are states side, and we are all working even more hours with the expansion coming. I would say this is more than a long shot to be happening. I can only speak for myself and this is not an official message from Pilotedge or it's management.

[Matthias Geiss]

No problem at all! The service as-is is great already, you guys (and girl) do an awesome job! Having 24h coverage on weekends is just a nice dream for now, not something I would consider necessary in any way.

Who knows, maybe some years from now we will have a european divison of PE, covering central Europe, with a separate crew in order to keep the workload managable for everyone. Speaking of dreams.

[Keith Smith]

There are options which will hopefully be more palatable for a European audience in the future.

[Keith Smith]

Thanks for the responses, we'll keep it in mind. We have opened early in the past for a specific commercial customer. However, that was only on Sunday per month. Doing it Saturday and Sunday on every weekend is a different prospect.

I suspect a European presence on a European schedule will be the next logical step, but if there is viable model for an earlier opening on the weekends, we may look into it in the future.

Marcus is correct in that an expansion of hours for the current services areas will not be happening any time soon as we are stretching our controlling resources to the limit with the expansion. There are more new controllers on the way, but they are still being trained.