So I want to simulate scheduled cargo flights with a C208/Beech 99/Emb-110 type of plane.

If "A" represents the hub and "B", "C"... etc represent other airports, how does a typical day look like?

A-B-C-D-E etc. to A

Or A-B, B-A, A-C, C-A, etc.

and then what time? first in the morning for dropoff and then after 5pm for pickup or ?

a little guidance would help me, thanks.

You could try putting a C208 filter into Flight radar 24 - picked on a random flight - they'll be a mix of short commuter flights or cargo - maybe use the replay mode to find flights after midnight on any chosen day, bound to be cargo, then if you have a FR24 subscription, you'll see all that planes flights for any chosen day - for the last year. Eugene

There are many Fedex C208 feeder routes on Flightaware. They operate 230+ C208's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx_Express

Don't know about GA aeroplanes, but I should imagine it's similar to being a scaled-down version of large freight aeroplane ops, and with those, it's not uncommon for a freight aeroplane such as a Fed Ex 757 to be sat on the ramp for a few days waiting for a full load before it will depart, whereas the smaller Fed Ex aeroplanes which feed from the main hubs will come and go more often, but we do see things as small as an ATR sat for a few days sometimes.

Unlike with passenger ops, this is a feasible way to operate because with passenger aeroplanes you have a schedule and passengers pick the day they want to go, but with freight, the requirement for things to get somewhere can be a much more planned in advance affair, whereby if you need something to get somewhere by a specific date, you can get it to a shipper several days or even a week or so beforehand and not worry about it sitting in a warehouse for a day or two before it gets loaded up. so the short answer is, you go the route that makes the most sense in terms of economics.

Some stuff you might like to know concerning cargo:

With the cargo that we load up on stuff such as the passenger airliners we handle (BA, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Icelandair, Loganair, Aurigny, Vueling), we generally only find out about it the day before it is due to go. So when the flight is a couple of hours from departing, we we go over to the cargo handler's warehouse (mostly WFS) and collect it from their cargo warehouse (this is located off the airport's airside area). So we pick up the cargo manifest from their office (there are three copies of this, we sign all three, leave one with the handler, and take the other two with us), then we find the cargo trailer or package in the warehouse and if it is something small like a cardboard box or some such, we just sling it on the back of a truck or onto a curtain trailer (the trailers which bags are loaded onto). If it is something big and heavy, it will have been loaded into in a ULD (aka a cargo can and it will be strapped in position within the can itself, so we'll just hook that up to our truck). Sometimes it will on a PMC (that's a cargo pallet, where the cargo on the pallet will be secured with nets and possibly have clingfilm over it too in order to weatherproof it and prevent tampering with it).

We then drive to the barrier which you go through to get back airside and stop the truck there. The truck and trailer is inspected and our credentials are checked and logged, then one of the signed copies of the manifest is given to the gate staff so they can compare it to the load and have a record of it). Whilst the cargo is being checked, we have to go through security (metal detectors, drug and explosive sniffers etc), then when we are through the cargo will hopefully have been checked and we can then drive onto the airport and take the cargo to the stand where the aeroplane it is due to go on is going to be. When dropping cargo off, we basically do the reverse of this, but the cargo is not checked unless it is something such as radioactive goods.

With smaller aeroplanes, things will probably be small packages or things strapped to a pallet. All cargo has to be strapped down of course to prevent loads from shifting in flight and its weight and location on the load plan has to be properly figured out for the trim settings. The third copy of the cargo manifest is given to the despatcher so they can suss that out, then the cargo manifest is either given to the cockpit crew, or put with the cargo itself. The despatcher gives the pilot a NOTOC sheet which details where the cargo is to be located in the aeroplane and what it is. This is so that if there is any kind of emergency, the crew can report what is on board and what it is (i.e, flammable, explosive or corrosive etc). There are codes for this kind of thing to make it easier (live animals for example are AVIs, human remains are HUM, etc). Some cargo is transported to the aeroplane in specific trailers, sometimes these can be locked, for example hazardous goods, or coffins, that kind of thing. This is why ULDs and PMCs have identifying numbers, which you can see on these ULDs:

If you look at the ULDs being loaded onto that aeroplane, you can see one of these cans in the aeroplane has the ID number AKE59935. What this means is: the A means it is a cargo can suitable for air transport, the K is the size of the base so that it will fit the floor lock stops in that type of aeroplane, the E is the profile of the can, which in this case is angled at the bottom to fit the curve of the fuselage, so you can tell from these cans that there will be two of these across the width of the aeroplane because it is a widebody, with the straight edges of these two cans being back to back and the angled bits fitting the curves. The five digit number is the can's individual ID, and the last two letters are the airline it belongs to, in this case Japanese Airlines. So if you see a can with AKH on it, you know it will fit in an A320 and it will have an angled bit on both sides to allow this, and so on with all the other codes for these ULDs. Thw large amounts of cargo in these ULDs will be transported to main hubs, then it will usually be broken down into smaller individual packages and either forwarded on by road, or by smaller aeroplanes.

There are rules about where and how things can be positioned in an aeroplane and there are loads of charts for this which help in doing this, for example, you can't have certain classes of radioactive goods positioned in a hold within a specific distance (vertical and horizontal) of a passenger cabin, and there are rules about how far apart from one another such things can be too. Invalid carriages have to have batteries disconnected and the terminals masked off and so on. The packaging on cargo containers, such as cardboard boxes, are to a certain UN specifications and the labelling on them indicates the class of goods; from this you can determine how much of that item can be carried. Most aeroplanes which carry cargo have a strengthened floor with a lot of loops or rings attached to the flooring so things can be held securely with straps or ropes with ring clips, and generally speaking, cargo is placed onto a couple of spreader boards (wooden planks) to ensure the weight is evenly distributed. Most airlines require loaders to have attended an airline-specific training course so they are familiar with that carrier's requirements for loading stuff. There are some other modifications to cargo aeroplanes which are not always obvious, for example, they will have a ballistic cargo net between the cockpit area and the cargo area so that in the event of a crash landing, the cargo should be prevented from being thrown forward to harm the crew or possibly block the cockpit door to prevent egress. In some cases, the cockpit window will be modified to allow this to be used for escape if the cargo is likely to impede a rapid egress in an emergency, you will see this on cargo-converted B737s.

Firearms and ammo is something which has some specific rules too. Usually, something like a rifle will be in a case but there will be specific paperwork for it and it will be brought to the aeroplane by security staff, there will be few identifying marks on the case and the same is true for ammo, so that this cannot be easily matched up by someone up to no good. Unless the airline has a special dispensation, the ammo and the weapon will never normally be placed into the same hold and in some cases, the ammo will be held by the pilot. Some aeroplane only have one cargo hold though, so in cases like this, there will likely be a special dispensation to allow ammo and weapons to go in the same hold (the Embraer 135 is an example of such an aeroplane).

Of course in a sim you don't have to worry about all this stuff if you don't want to, but it might add a bit of fun if you take some of it into account.

 

Edited October 24, 20214 yr by Chock

Wow, thanks for all of that.