Chief Pilot
Tell me when it lands
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot is the career mode and logbook for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Missions from wherever you landed, a fleet to grow, bases to build, a rank to earn.
Tell me when it landsA Mac app, coming to the App Store. The iPhone and iPad versions are on the way, included in the same purchase.
Microsoft Flight Simulator gives you the aircraft, the world and a planner to prepare every flight. Chief Pilot keeps all of it, and adds what happens around the flight.
Before you take off: a mission worth flying, generated where you parked last night. While you fly: a second screen beside the TV. After you land: a receipt, a boarding pass and a new trail on the map.
And over all of it, the part the sim leaves to your imagination: an airline. Its fleet, its bases, its money, its reputation, and you, working your way up to captain.
An evening with Chief Pilot has four steps. Trouble is, the fourth leads back to the first.
Pick a mission from the board.
Work leaves from the airport where you last landed, sized to the aircraft you chose and to the legs you like.
Plan it where you always plan.
Make the flight plan in the MSFS planner, as usual. Chief Pilot reads your saved plans, finds this one and links it to the mission.
Fly it in the sim.
In the sim, EFB › Import Route. On the Mac, Off-block: the clock starts, with the route and the load sheet in view.
Land, and get paid.
Tap Landed, say how it went, read the receipt. The next missions leave from right here.
EGPO EGPB
StornowaySumburgh
64 passengers · ATR 72-600 · ≈ 0:41
Pay ≈ €5,450, more for a good landing.
Accept missionPlan EGPO → EGPB found in the planner. Ready for Import Route.
FL110 · runway 18 to 27 · saved 21:31
Estimated on the clock: there’s no telemetry from the sim, and the app says so.
Take-home€2,940
Butter landing · on time · next: 6 departures from Sumburgh
Pick an aircraft. Each one flies its own kind of work, and every job comes with a few lines to read before you take off.
First lesson with this student: you ask what they already know. “Everything, in theory.” The stall is clean; in the sixty-degree turn the student loses a hundred feet. They notice it themselves and ask to go again. In the climb you pass a flock of gulls in formation. For a moment you look like an aerobatic display team. Back to LIPZ: the circuit is clear and the windsock is waiting.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
It's clear at destination today: if there's ever a day for a properly flown visual approach, this is it.
No tarmac today: gravel, grass and the odd stone with ambitions. The lake is flat as a sheet of tin. The anglers love it; you're hunting for a smoking chimney to tell you where the wind's coming from. Before you head back, walk the strip to the far end. Holes show up better close to.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
The ferry does the same round in half a day, seasickness included. You'll be quicker, and nobody needs a sick bag. Ten people on holiday and one guidebook between them, passed hand to hand from the front row to the back. When the tower hands you over to ground, the flight's nearly done: keep the taxi chart where you can see it.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Clear skies at destination: fine weather brings all the VFR traffic out at once. Eyes peeled in the circuit.
The flying club log has a fresh page with your name at the top. She's got her headset on crooked and laughs at everything. He isn't laughing at all, and his lips are moving as he rehearses. A power line runs near the field. On the chart it's a little dash; up close it's steel cable. You dial the wrong frequency and land on a flying club's: two students are arguing about who lost a cap. On the stand, let the engine idle for a minute before shutdown. The manual says so, and so does the engineer, which is worse.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
In still air at destination, the wake of whoever's ahead hangs around longer. Leave a gap.
General aviation: no gate, no jet bridge, just a small plane, a full tank and a sky to use. You fly low along the coast as the sun goes down. Everyone on board stops talking. At parking, compare the fuel remaining with what you planned. If they match, treat yourself to an ice cream.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Sunshine at destination: keep your sunglasses handy, the glare off the panel is blinding.
The strip at the other end is as long as a football pitch and a half. The plane knows it, and so do you. The farm's letterbox is an old milk churn at the end of the strip, its lid tied on with wire. Out of Anchorage you take off with the city sliding under the wing. A view that never gets old. Below 200 fpm there's a bonus. Above it, there's only your conscience.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
On the manifest the surnames come in clusters: whole families are flying today. A little girl has brought her teddy as hand luggage, with its own boarding pass drawn in felt-tip. The deadline, Thursday at 09:00, is in bold on the contract. Head office cares, apparently.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Clear skies at destination: the only clouds in sight are the ones painted on a hangar door.
Today the plane is a lift: up to ten thousand feet, down empty. The seven on board squeeze in tight, headsets on crooked and smiles on straight. Out of St. Moritz you climb over the rooftops: on a balcony someone hanging out the washing doesn't even look up. The ramp agent pulls the chocks, then comes running back for the one he forgot. By the time you touch down, the jumpers are already on the grass packing their canopies. Last to land, as always.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Not a breath of wind at destination: on final the nose points straight down the runway and stays there.
Scenic from LIPZ: wide circles, gentle turns, nothing that sends a phone sliding under a seat. The photographer asks for two orbits over the pool. Then a third, “just to be safe”. The round bales in the fields around Venice look like draughts scattered across a table. If the flight goes smoothly, the crew room will talk about something else. Great sign.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Fine weather at destination: you go over the approach chart anyway, runway in sight or not.
Today you land where the roads don't reach, and the lorries don't either. The spare is smeared with grease and wrapped in a jute sack. It smells of workshop and countryside. Shut down, breathe, smile. Then the PIREP.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
The tour operator's manifest has a hotel room number next to every name. You read it anyway, out of curiosity. Ten passengers and a dog called Captain who knows the route better than they do. Once you shut down, note the time in your logbook before it slips your mind.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Clear skies at arrival: the visual approach is a postcard.
Jump briefing: height, winds aloft, exit order. You mostly need the first item. The club headsets have padding that crumbles at a touch. Yours are in the car, naturally. The field at St. Moritz has three things: a runway, a hangar and a bar. In reverse order of importance, say the members. On the taxi the controller changes your route three times. By the fourth you've guessed before he says it. On time for Saturday at 23:00 and the wheels down gently: that's the whole contract, more or less.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Calm air at destination: a good day to try that landing you usually only half pull off.
At 07:40 the morning rush is in full swing, and you're queued for push behind two colleagues and a catering van. The manifest has 49 names. One is identical to a famous footballer's, but he's a plumber from Lodi. Butter on the runway and on time on the stand: the two things the airline remembers.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Clear over Lamezia Terme: whoever's on the apron shades their eyes to watch you come in.
The loader shows you the most important piece. Then he shows you all the others, one by one. 1.1 t of servers for a data centre. The client is tracking you live and wants to know why you're sitting at the holding point. The ramp at Naples sends you off with a toot from the tug and a thumbs-up. There's a cat in the warehouse that sleeps on the incoming pallets. Nobody knows whose it is; everyone feeds it. Unloading is when you find out whether the straps did their job. Make sure there's nothing to find out.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
The air at destination is like a millpond: the aircraft comes down without a single bump.
Scheduled service to Rome: the departures board shows your number in yellow and an “on time” to defend. 48 passengers plus the crew for the next sector, riding at the back asleep with their caps over their eyes. The ramp at Naples sends you off with a toot from the tug and a thumbs-up. Two minutes of silence on frequency. You check the volume: all fine, it's a quiet day. Only switch the beacon off once the engine has stopped completely. Then celebrate, if you like.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Clear skies and excellent visibility at arrival: you'll see the runway from miles out.
1.1 t to take to Zadar. Weight and balance is done, the rest is up to you. Somewhere, a grounded aircraft is waiting for these parts. The label says AOG: aircraft on ground. From LDZD the load will go on by lorry across the whole region. The forklift died halfway across with a flat battery. The loader finished the job by hand, puffing. The client only rings when something's gone wrong. Keep that phone quiet today.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Fine weather at Zadar: no low cloud, nothing significant, just sky.
Flight SRV 3471: the ops room has written your name on the whiteboard, in permanent marker. First aboard is a gentleman in a wheelchair, by ambulift, waving to the ramp from on high and taking his time. At Naples ATC moves you from one frequency to the next without wasting a second. Have the next one ready. The checklist is always the same. Today you read it out loud, item by item, as if it were your checkride. Turn off where they tell you and thank the tower before changing frequency: it costs you two seconds.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Clear skies at Naples and the tarmac is warming up: over the threshold you'll feel a few bubbles of rising air.
The Naples cargo apron is a graveyard of empty pallets. Yours, luckily, is full. Among the dailies is a stack of puzzle magazines. The loader has already helped himself to a copy. There's a calendar of cargo aircraft in the warehouse. This month's looks like yours, only cleaner. With every on-time delivery, the name Sirio Virtual gets passed round the forwarders a little more.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Clear skies at destination: the only clouds in sight are the ones painted on a hangar door.
The client has booked the whole plane. So every bump is personal. They had you sign a non-disclosure agreement before boarding. From now on you know nothing, which happens to be true. At Sirio Virtual HQ they'll mark it with a green tick. Make sure it's green.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
The seaside weekend was decided on Wednesday, booked on Thursday, and it starts today. Nobody packed calmly. Two friends have a suitcase each and a third between them, purely for shoes. At Geneva the ground crew wave you off, the way people wave to someone going to sea. Your pen dies halfway through the clearance. You memorise it and read the whole thing back. Soft landing, and you're cleared for the next chapter of your career.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Fine weather at Calvi: no low cloud, nothing significant, just sky.
The broker sold the flight as “experienced pilot, immaculate aircraft”. Now it's up to you to prove him right. The best man has the weekend planned minute by minute. Under “flight” it says “no messing about with the pilot”. At the big Bergen hub you'll be one of many. Make sure you're the one with the best landing. The flight plan is accepted first time. It's so rare that you check it again out of suspicion. The pay is written in the contract. The landing grade, you write yourself.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Flight SRV 5012: the ops room has written your name on the whiteboard, in permanent marker. 125 passengers. In row 6 a student revises anatomy with a highlighter, half the book already yellow. At GMTN you may end up behind something heavier than you. If ATC gives you spacing, use all of it. On the walkaround you find a screw on the apron. You hand it to the engineer, who studies it like evidence. Land on time and the next one leaves on time: on a rotation, delays get passed along like a cold.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Calm at destination: with no headwind, the landing roll will be longer. Allow for it.
Check-in closed on time. Now it's up to you to be on time for everyone. 123 passengers. The one in 2A already has a spreadsheet open, and you're still at the gate. At LPPR someone aboard has a tight connection, and the whole row knows it. The more punctual you are, the less they'll have to run. Let the aircraft come to a complete stop before you reach for your phone.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
No wind at destination to cover the engine: anyone on the apron will hear you from miles off.
Second leg of the duty day: the aircraft is still warm and the ramp already knows you. 109 passengers aboard: some on business, some on holiday, one for a funeral and one for a graduation. On the ground, set the parking brake before you look at the score. The score isn't going anywhere.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
No wind at destination to cover the engine: anyone on the apron will hear you from miles off.
Full to the last seat, and the last seat is a middle one at the back. Whoever got it already knows. 253 passengers, among them a touring magician who made two boarding passes vanish at the gate. He gave them back. On take-off one passenger throws his hands up like he's on a rollercoaster. His wife puts them back down. Arrive on time and the gentleman in 3C writes a five-star review. Arrive early and he writes a poem.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
It's clear at destination today: if there's ever a day for a properly flown visual approach, this is it.
Ground clears you to start with a sequence number. You're fourth, which leaves time to run through the departure again. A girl is off for a year abroad with a thirty-kilo suitcase. Her parents are still behind the gate glass. Arrive on time and your reputation climbs. Arrive smoothly and it climbs higher.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Clear skies at destination: fine weather brings all the VFR traffic out at once. Eyes peeled in the circuit.
At Rome the gate's closed, the list is final, and down the back someone's still looking for 14B. 249 passengers, each in their own hurry. The calmest is a gentleman doing the crossword in pen. Land, vacate at the first sensible exit and leave the rest of SRV 8809 to the ground crew.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
The air at destination is like a millpond: the aircraft comes down without a single bump.
The contract has a confidentiality clause longer than the flight plan. Luggage: a diplomatic bag, an umbrella and a box of chocolates that nobody is to open. At Latakia they've given you a stand number that doesn't appear on the airport chart. At the holding point you're waved past the queue. The pilot behind you sighs on frequency, just loud enough to be heard. The fee is in your account before you've finished the PIREP.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
It's clear at destination today: if there's ever a day for a properly flown visual approach, this is it.
The loan was agreed two years ago. The flight is yours, and so is the relative humidity. Two Flemish still lifes, a nineteenth-century Tuscan canvas and a marble bust that weighs as much as a grand piano. Porto doesn't know you're coming, and the people who do know prefer it that way. Halfway there the curator tells you the story of every canvas. By the third you're cheering on the countess. The pay's high and the client wants a dull flight. Land on time and give nobody anything to talk about.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Not a leaf is stirring at Porto. A textbook landing, please.
There's a patient to fly to Salzburg, and their doctor has already called twice. The doctor brought a thermos of coffee and guards it like a life-saving drug. At Salzburg Airport a ramp agent in a hi-vis jacket is already waiting on stand, holding a sign with your name spelt correctly. On frequency another pilot hears “medevac” and wishes you well. You thank him on behalf of everyone on board. Fill in the PIREP slowly. It's the first calm thing all day.
Dispatch, Sirio Virtual
Dead calm at arrival: the windsock is asleep and the runway is all yours.
Chief Pilot draws on more than 3,000 lines in English and Italian, each written in advance, and puts them together for the mission, the load, the place and the real weather. A mission always gets the same story, and the story stays with the flight.
You fly to earn. Pay depends on what you carry, how you’re set up and how you fly. What’s left is yours.
An example flight, simplified. In the app every receipt lists its own lines: fuel, crew, airport fees and catering, the aircraft and your bases, and the bonus of any structure in the area.
Chief Pilot
SRV 214 · EDDF → EDDM
ATR 72-600 · 59 passengers
Take-home€3,726
Thanks for flying with us
Each flight is a boarding pass and a line of light on a night map. The more you fly, the more of the map comes on.
Your first aircraft can be a gift from the flight school, if it’s light or regional. The school also gives you a loan. It would like it back.
Short legs, full cabins, quick turnarounds. Fly it well and the second one comes out of the cash.
Few seats, long legs, and the VIP charters your lounge brings in. Small cabin, demanding clients.
Buy it with the airline’s cash, or lease it once you’re First Officer: a deposit, then a payment on the days it flies.
Lease one as Senior Captain. The ocean is the easy part. Filling every seat is the job.
Any type from the catalogue, or one you build by hand: the aircraft you fly in the sim. Each one wears: A-checks and C-checks keep it flying, and hard landings bring the C-check closer. Finances shows the cash, what each flight leaves you and the next aircraft within reach.
BuyWith the cash
LeaseJets only
Buy an area and choose a hub in it. Add airports. On each base, build. Every structure has three levels, and an area around it where missions pay more.
Level 1 +10 % on its missions within 100 NM.
Level 2 +20 % within 200 NM, and fuller cabins.
Level 3 +30 % within 300 NM. Where areas overlap, the best one counts.
Every base opens with a standard terminal. Most structures you add put their kind of work on the board, wherever you fly, and pay more when those missions leave or land inside their area.
Flying back to one of your bases costs nothing. Running them costs money on the days you fly, and a structure in the wrong place doesn’t pay for itself.
Chief Pilot splits the world into 15 areas. Your hub’s area comes with the airline. You buy the others, and a bigger area, or one farther from your hub, costs more.
Each one comes with a hub of your choice and a free level 1 passenger or cargo terminal. Missions still leave from wherever you land. You can open bases only inside your areas, tours and regional contracts start only there, and rare missions turn up there more often.
SRVSirio VirtualFirst
LPPTLIRF
LisbonRome Fiumicino
Take-home
+€8,410
Landing
Butter
Sirio Virtual
Island service · Keep this ticket
EGPOEGPL
StornowayBenbecula
Charter
+€1,240
Firm
6 pax, a wedding party
Sirio VirtualTour · 4 legs
Goal: Nuuk, Greenland
SRV 517 · PC-12Leg 2 · Butter+€3,980
Sirio Virtual Flying Club
Member’s logbook · No. SRV-0214
| Date | Aircraft | Flight | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct | C172 | Circuits | 0:40 | |
| 27 Oct | C172 | EGPO – EGPL | 1:05 | |
| 30 Oct | C172 | Touch and go | 0:45 |
Last landing: Butter+€310
Name it.
A name, a three-letter code and a radio callsign. It goes on every flight number, every boarding pass, every receipt.
Paint it.
A livery colour for the tail, the cards and the boarding passes. Logos come from the shop.
Choose how it flies.
The style decides what the board offers. You can change it any evening.
Give it a headquarters.
A marketing office fills more seats. A sales office raises fares. Operations put more work on the board, and the training academy speeds up your experience. Three levels each.
Then start another.
A second airline has its own cash, bases and style: a night cargo outfit, a flying club, a regional carrier on the islands. You stay the same pilot, with the same logbook.
Five ranks, earned with hours and experience. Each one opens longer missions, better pay and bigger aircraft.
Experience comes with the hours. Reputation goes from 0 to 100: on-time arrivals and soft landings raise it, abandoned missions bring it down, and the higher it is, the fuller the cabin. Along the way: a first flight, an Atlantic crossing, ten countries, every continent, a landing under 100 fpm, a hundred hours.
PS5XboxPCMac
Chief Pilot tells you the mission.
The MSFS planner holds your plan, as it does now.
EFB › Import Route brings it into the sim, on any platform.
Chief Pilot never connects to the sim, so you install and configure nothing, and a sim update can’t break it.
You fly on PS5, Xbox, PC or Mac. Chief Pilot runs on your Mac, and soon on iPhone and iPad.
I fly Microsoft Flight Simulator on a PlayStation 5, late in the evening, in a dark room, in front of the TV.
On a PC the sim has a whole family of career apps that read it while you fly. On a console there’s nothing to plug them into, so none of them run.
So I built Chief Pilot the other way round. It doesn’t read the sim at all. It reads the plan I was going to make anyway, and asks me how the landing went.
That’s why it works on a PS5. It’s also why it works on an Xbox, a PC or a Mac.
Francesco Gola
Maker of Chief Pilot, and its first pilot
Questions, ideas, a route you’d like to see? chiefpilot@bulbmode.com
Which versions of the sim does it work with? Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on PS5, Xbox, PC and Mac. Chief Pilot never connects to the sim, so the platform makes no difference. Chief Pilot itself runs on your Mac.
Do I have to install anything in the sim? No. No add-ons, no SimConnect, nothing in the Community folder. You fly as you do now.
What does it read from the MSFS planner? The flight plans you’ve saved there. You sign in inside the app with the account you use for the planner, and Chief Pilot reads your plans. It never creates, changes or deletes one.
Does it make flight plans? No. It tells you where to go, with what and carrying what. You make the plan, in the planner.
How does it know how I landed? It doesn’t: you tell it. Butter, firm or hard, and the rate if you noted it. The clock runs from off-block, and the progress bar is an estimate on time.
Which aircraft can I use? Any you fly in the sim. Pick the type from the catalogue or build it by hand, then give it a registration and a name.
Where is my data? On your Mac. No account with us, no servers of ours, no tracking. Export everything as CSV, KML or a JSON backup whenever you like.
Does it work offline? The logbook and the career do. Fresh weather and new plans need a connection.
Is it on iPhone and iPad? Soon. The iPhone and iPad versions come from the same app, and one purchase covers Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Which languages? English and Italian, stories included.
Is it made by Microsoft? No. Chief Pilot is an independent app, not affiliated with Microsoft, Asobo Studio or Sony.
Something else? Write to chiefpilot@bulbmode.com, or see the support page.
Chief Pilot
Where are you flying tonight? Chief Pilot lands on the Mac App Store soon.
iPhone and iPad versions follow, included in the same purchase.