How to use PIREP Claim System?

[Lukas Jankauskas]

We have added a claims system (beta) as part of v3.6 release. It was built to provide an option for VA Owners to collect some data from Pilots in order to help create manual PIREPs to compensate for the ones which went missing between 18th and 20th March.

How does one use the system?

[Lukas Jankauskas]

How to enable the system?

VA Owner or a member of Staff with Management access needs to navigate to Orwell => Management => Airline Options.
Scroll towards the end of the page where 'Miscellaneous Settings' are located.
Toggle 'Enable Claims System' switch if it is not in the 'on' position already.
Click Save.

How to access the system?

Once the Claim System is enabled, it can be accessed as follows:

• Submissions by Pilots => Phoenix -> Flight Centre -> Claims
• Reviews by VA Staff with PIREP Review access => Orwell -> PIREPs & Liveries -> PIREP Claim Review

How to make a Claim?

Claims can only be made by Pilots. One claim is for one flight.

If you want to claim multiple flights, you will need to submit the form for each flight.

In the claims page, on the right hand side is a form which needs to be submitted:

• Departure Airport - 3 or 4 character IATA or ICAO code of the airport from which the claimed flight took off.
• Arrival Airport - 3 or 4 character IATA or ICAO code of the airport at which the claimed flight landed.
• Takeoff Date and Time - Time of takeoff, or as close to it as possible.
• Landing Date and Time - Time of landing, or as close to it as possible.

Further, there are options to include 5 files and 3 links.

It is expected that pilots will use these options to attach proof of flight - screenshots of Pegasus, STKP, Volanta etc or links to VATSIM/IVAO statistic repositories.
What classifies as proof is up to each VA to decide and we hope they will publish guidelines for their pilots if they choose to enable this system.

Once all the fields are entered (all fields are required, except File and Link fields - please populate at least 1 of the 8 fields there) click 'Save'.
Page will reload and on the left hand side you will see your claim history:

• Pending - claim has been submitted and is waiting review from the staff.
• Accepted - claim has been accepted and a PIREP has been created for you.
• Rejected - claim has been rejected and no PIREP has been created for you.

If you feel you made a mistake with your claim and it has not been processed yet - you may click on the X button in the Previous Claims list. This will remove your claim.

How to Review Claims?

Orwell Claims page lists all pending claims and data which we think is relevant in processing a claim.

Claims are ordered in ascending order - i.e. oldest submitted claims are shown at the top (similar to PIREP review).

Staff Claims Dashboard:

Field information:

• General Information:
  • Name - Pilots Name
  • Username - Pilot Username
  • Departure - Departure Airport Name - ICAO/IATA
  • Arrival - Arrival Airport Name - ICAO/IATA
• Pilot Claim History:
  • Last 5 Claims - In descending order, last 5 claims made by pilot. Data: Departure - Arrival Airports | Claimed Hours | Departure Time | Status (not pictured)
  • Last 5 Accepted Claims - In descending order, last 5 claims made by pilot. Data: Departure - Arrival Airports | Claimed Hours | Departure Time
  • Last 5 Rejected Claims - In descending order, last 5 claims made by pilot. Data: Departure - Arrival Airports | Claimed Hours | Departure Time
• Submitted Proof:
  • Files/Images - list of links to the files/images uploaded by pilot. Clicking will open the resource in new browser tab.
  • Links - list of links to outside websites submitted by a pilot. Clicking will open the page in new browser tab.
• Computed Data:
  • Pilot Estimated Time - how much time pilot is claiming. Difference in hours:minutes:seconds between Landing and Takeoff times.
  • Pilot Average Time - Pilot's average time across all their PIREPs.
  • Departure - Arrival Pair Average Time - Average time for this Departure-Arrival pair among all PIREPs of the VA. If VA Statistics for this pair does not exist (no flights have been made or the routing does not exist for your VA) it will show 0.
  • Pilot Average Time for Same Pair - Average time for this Departure-Arrival pair among all PIREPs of the Pilot who made the claim. If Pilot has not made a flight for this pair before, it will show 0.
  • Pilot Average Points = Pilot's average points across all their PIREPs.
  • Departure-Arrival Pair Average Points - Average point for this Departure-Arrival pair among all PIREPs of the VA. If VA Statistics for this pair does not exist (no flights have been made or the routing does not exist for your VA) it will show 0.
  • Pilot Average Points for Same Pair - Average points for this Departure-Arrival pair among all PIREPs of the Pilot who made the claim. If Pilot has not made a flight for this pair before, it will show 0.
• On Accept:
  • Award Hours - how many hours should the manual PIREP have - default is Pilot Estimated Hours.
  • Award Minutes - how many minutes should the manual PIREP have - default is Pilot Estimated Hours.
  • Award Seconds - how many seconds should the manual PIREP have - default is Pilot Estimated Hours.
  • Award Points - how many points should the manual PIREP have - default is Departure-Arrival Pair Average Points.

Buttons:

• Accept - Claim will be marked as 'Accepted', will disappear from Staff Claims list, manual PIREP will be created for the pilot automatically using the information provided in 'On Accept' section
• Reject - Claim will be marked as 'Rejected' and will disappear from Staff Claims list.

 

FAQ:

• Can VA Staff make a claim on behalf of pilot?
  No. In this case, VA Staff should make use of the option available here