MIT - Maintenance and Income Tool

[Bjoern]

Well, it's done. It's not really thoroughly tested and probably unbalanced, but it's done.


What does MIT do?

- Tracks your flight
- Allows you to make money by hauling payload
- Wear&tear
- Repairs and checks
- Reputation
- Failures

Works with every airplane that has at least one engine. Not sure about helicopters.
Entirely written in XML for FSX, but might also work in P3D.
Requires XMLTools v2.0!


More information and the download link can be found in the manual. Read it and read it well!

Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HUCYi9oLjpQQGUMv29CzjDirvzOlXjep6YluTYIPMk/edit?pli=1


P.S:
Any suggestions for better default configuration values are welcome.

P.P.S:
The manual contains enough information to get you started. I did not document every intricacy of the gauge.

P.P.P.S:
More information regarding the philosophy behind the tool can be found here:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?94557-Addon-Maintenance-regimen

[stansdds]

Sounds interesting. I've considered such things before, but not willing to shell out the money, I'm cheap, don't ya know! :biggrin-new:

[Wingmate]

Bjoren,

It looks like it could add quite a bit to flight sim. I do have a few questions though.

How would this work with fighter aircraft more specifically naval aircraft, would the hard landings cause undue wear and tear or does it check the gear strength of specific aircraft?
Would the much higher G maneuvers in fighters also cause it to wear out much quicker than planes designed for it should?

Thanks
-Josh

[DaleRFU]

I think a military version would be cool. A great little tool, makes it a bit more interesting

[Bjoern]

The tool is pretty indifferent about what kind of airplane it is used on. For military aircraft, you can scale back the airframe stress suffered through high G loading and high throttle settings.
You can even make money with it as weapons also count as payload. There will, however, never be a dedicated "military" mode.

As far as I know, carriers are not designated as airports in FSX' GPS. In that case, revenue generating flights to carriers are not possible. Being on the deck is, however, considered being on the ground, so the non-revenue mode will work. There might be a way around that though, as it would have its uses...

Normally, you may blow a tire if you exceed a certain vertical speed at landing. I can turn said treshold into a user-configurable parameter to accomodate for "rougher" landings.

[Bjoern]

New release (same link).

- The landing vertical speed limit for structural or tire damage is now configurable.
- Fixed a critical bug that prevented you from doing consecutive revenue flights.
- Only wheeled undercarriages will fail in various ways. Floats, skis or skids will degrade due to airspeed or ground friction, but will never fail*.


I've checked the possibility of adding flights to ships. Conclusion: Not possible without messing with the entire flight tracking system. More complexity = more potential for bugs.

Generally, the landing spot always has to be a designated airport, airfield, airstrip or seaplane base!
So unless a carrier or ship is designated as such, you can not do revenue flights to it!


*FSX has no sensible way of implementing broken struts.

[ryanbatc]

So this is kinda like a standalone FSE type of thing? Or like Air Hauler?

[Christoph_T]

Downloading now.
I will test it in P3Dv2.5.
Thanks for posting:applause:

[Bjoern]

Christoph: Please report back, especially regarding XMLTools in P3D v2.5. I don't have any idea if it'll work.




So this is kinda like a standalone FSE type of thing? Or like Air Hauler?

MIT does neither feature multiplayer interactions nor a supply-and-demand based economy and is more flexible regarding the aircraft it is used in.

And thus does away with three of the biggest grievances I've had with FSE. Fly where you want, fly what you want, fly as much as you can haul.

[JimmyRFR]

Great work Bjoern, I'll have to give it a try once I install FSX again.

[SeanTK]

Missed this originally...downloading now to try out this weekend. Looks like something I may get a lot of use out of!
I'll let you know about my experience with it. Thanks for the work!

[Bjoern]

Thanks, Sean!

It *could* be that the failure consequences might interfere with more complex models like a lot of the russian stuff. For going from A to B, however, it will be just fine.

[SeanTK]

Tried it - like it - going to use it quite a bit!

Installed nearly without problems into one of my favorites, the Carenado Beech A36 Bonanza. Performed a quick flight from Discovery Bay (Olympic Field) to Orcas Island, Washington and everything performed as expected. Lost a lot of money on the flight though, and I need to tweak a few settings too, but overall it looks good.

One thing I did notice (and I still need to test my resized parameters) is that the default size of the pop-up panel was way too large, and caused much of it to be off of the screen - resulting in my needing to click and drag the window to re-proportion it so I could see everything.

May see if it works with helicopters in the near future as well, and will likely try it out on my Carenado Cessna 172 float plane too. Also, I'm wondering just how much money I would lose on a flight if I installed it on my fuel guzzlers such as the Tupolevs, my CS B-52, etc.


Easy to install and configure, yet powerful and versatile. This will be quite enjoyable, thanks!

[Bjoern]

Great to hear!

You could decrease the cost for fuel for a start. It's scaled to JET-A, but AVGAS is cheaper (I think).

I've added a sectrion to the documentation dealing with the equations used for revenue calculation. You can use these with a bit of pen&paper&calculator (or Excel) work to tweak the revenue and cost generation.



One thing I did notice (and I still need to test my resized parameters) is that the default size of the pop-up panel was way too large, and caused much of it to be off of the screen - resulting in my needing to click and drag the window to re-proportion it so I could see everything.

The panel.cfg parameters relating to window size will always be a mystery to me, so I just fixed the size for sake of sanity.


- Edit: HA!


[WindowXX]
background_color=0,0,0
position=8
size_mm=200,600
window_size=0.125,0.5
window_size_ratio=1.0
alpha_blend=0.8
visible=0

gauge00=MI_Tool!MI_Tool, 0,0,200,600

Try this!

[Bjoern]

The section dealing with revenue calculation in the documentation is now called "Tweaking Revenue". It also includes a walkthrough to adjust "(L:MIT Payload Yield Factor,number)" for a hypothetical GA aircraft on its first flight. Adjusting this parameter is the quickest and easiest way to tailor MIT to a specific aircraft.

I've also made a spreadsheet to make tinkering with projected revenue generation easier.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16eTWv_eJObEakM_DqyqRbxJj16_15gI5TBb7nrWCca4/edit?pli=1#gid=0
(Click "File -> Download As", then select the format for the spreadsheet tool you're using.)

[stansdds]

Great to hear!

You could decrease the cost for fuel for a start. It's scaled to JET-A, but AVGAS is cheaper (I think).



AvGas is more expensive than JetA in the U.S. At my local airport (KFCI) AvGas is currently $5.75/gal., Jet A is $4.79/gal.

[Bjoern]

AvGas is more expensive than JetA in the U.S. At my local airport (KFCI) AvGas is currently $5.75/gal., Jet A is $4.79/gal.

0.23 Funds per pound. Use MIT - save money.

One doesn't need to alter fuel prices. The revenue modifier will do.

[Bjoern]

Heads up!
Make sure that the last leg of your flight plan (the one to your destination) is activated before or after you've landed!
Otherwise, the GPS and thus MIT will never set your status to "arrived" and you won't be able to record the flight.

In case you refuse to fly with a GPS, you'll have to make sure that you've hit all the waypoints on your flight plan (check the nav log).
Or create your flight plan as "Direct To".

This is a MSFS limitatation that I can't work around.

[Don Quixote]

Hi,

I've finally had some time to test this tool today. First impressions: Excellent!!
Seriously, well done. I've used a couple of tools in the past which do something similar (monitoring a flight, create failures, and such). The problem with most of them - I've tried FSCaptain, Perfect flight, and a couple of others - is that they're overblown and require a lot of user input on every flight, which gets tiresome real fast. The MIT focuses on the basics and is very "lean" in its operation, which is great! :applause:

I've only made a few flights in the RV7 so far, and the MIT worked very well. I already have a question though - and two feature requests:

1) When used alongside another tool (FSEconomy in particular), which manipulates fuel and payload of the aircraft, would this interfere with MIT in any way (in non-revenue mode, that is)?

2) Would it be possible to have an option to auto-save the flight upon completion, instead of having to click the option in the menu? I know exactly that I'm going to forget clicking it all the time...

3) Could the actual landing vspeed (in fpm) be displayed alongside the rating?

Again, thank you very much for your work Bjoern! :jump:

Cheers,
Steve

[Bjoern]

Thanks for the praise, Steve!



1) When used alongside another tool (FSEconomy in particular), which manipulates fuel and payload of the aircraft, would this interfere with MIT in any way (in non-revenue mode, that is)?

As long as your FSE payload does not exceed your MIT payload, you can even use revenue mode. MIT does not care where the payload and fuel comes from or where it is located.

Does FSE do failures? If so, there's the only source of conflict with MIT.


2) Would it be possible to have an option to auto-save the flight upon completion, instead of having to click the option in the menu? I know exactly that I'm going to forget clicking it all the time...

It would have one or two benefits, but I want people to review everything before comitting (including landing VS). I'll give this a pass. You might just have to brush up your grey matter or stick a note to your monitor. Or fly so often as to make reviewing and clicking a habit. :)


3) Could the actual landing vspeed (in fpm) be displayed alongside the rating?

I knew I've missed something. Thanks for the reminder!

[Bjoern]

New revision online.

- Payload calculation is frozen after takeoff. You're welcome, TacPack users, firefighters and parachute carriers.
- The vertical speed of the last landing is now displayed in the message window.
- The message window will show a reminder to leave the landing lights on when you are below the minimum height for lights + 500 ft.
- To facilitate flight plan monitoring, the message window now shows the next waypoint.


Also, I finally managed to get my reputation up on my second flight by a whopping 9 points. More payload, here I come!


Hint for "round trip" flights: Define any airport as the departure airport and create a "direct to" flightplan to your departure/arrival airport or put as many waypoints as you need in between. MIT will only consider you "arrived" at your destination after you've actually flown.

[Don Quixote]

Awesome, thanks for the update Bjoern. Will give it a try tomorrow. Cheers! :encouragement:
Steve

[Bjoern]

New revision.

Highlights:
- Changed file handling, now with a base module in FSX\Gauges and an aircraft-specific gauge in the "panel" folder
- Automatic installation script for the panel.cfg
- The MIT window will now automatically pop up and sound the "no smoking" chime when a failure occurs. Popup without any sound will occur when a flight is finished. Can be switched off.
- Custom hotkey (default: CTRL+Shift+m) for the MIT window, configurable on a per-aircraft basis.

Read the "Installation" and "Configuration" parts of the documentation, especially if you're lready running MIT!


Upgrade:
- Uninstall the previous version. Keep the save files!
- Install the current version
- Change the save file names in MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml to the ones of your present save files
OR
- Generate new save files with new names by purchasing the aircraft in FSX, then transfer the file names of the new save files to your old ones and reload the aircraft

[Firekitten]

And thus does away with three of the biggest grievances I've had with FSE. Fly where you want, fly what you want, fly as much as you can haul.

So it's FSE with hax on...


Nice idea, but as a long time user of FSE, it feels a bit lonely to have the same thing with nobody else around...

And you can fly where you want with what you want in FSE :P



I respect the work you put in, and the project is pretty cool, but doing it all alone seems a little bit like why I left airhauler and joined FSE... for the community.

[Bjoern]

So it's FSE with hax on...


Nice idea, but as a long time user of FSE, it feels a bit lonely to have the same thing with nobody else around...

And you can fly where you want with what you want in FSE :P

Not really. Never found much of a good haul for a Metro 3 or Fokker 27 because those that were not used regularly were parked at some godforsaken airfield with awfully unprofitable flights to slightly less awful airfields. Once you've arrived at a bigger airport where the grass is green, the girls are pretty and there's $$$ to be made and logged off for a few days, some eejit would steal the plane and you'd have to start over. I'm pretty sure that my last recorded FSE state has me perilously close to bankruptcy and I frankly don't see any reason to go back to a Cessna 172 to farm enough money for bigger aircraft.

Group shared aircraft require a certain amount of time to invest and coordination with other members and purchasing an aircraft for yourself...yeah, have fun flying for the next few years.

Aircraft repaints(!!!) need admin approval and will delay your flight by a few hours until it's added to the database. I'm not too inclined to mess with [fltsim.x] titles for a single flight or fly with a paint that I don't fly with.
Adding other aircraft takes months because the admins are (understandably) very concerned with getting the right performance data in. I've tried to get the Hs125 into the database and even did most, if not all performance data research work for them, but it never came to anything.


I respect the work you put in, and the project is pretty cool, but doing it all alone seems a little bit like why I left airhauler and joined FSE... for the community.

The community is another drawback. I'm pretty sure that FSE is long-term fun if you're willing to invest the time, but if you only pop in irregularly you simply don't catch as much of what's going on.
Also, the membership seemed, to a considerable extent, not really on the skill level regarding FSX that I'd feel comfortable around.


MIT was created to do away with the limitations of FSE as I've perceived them. With a bit of pen-and-papering or a tool that syncs aircraft and company status over the internet, you can even have it as a basis for VA or other community stuff.


For what it's worth, you can use both tools alongside of each other. Either keep your FSE payload below MIT's payload limit or don't fly in revenue mode.

[mjahn]

Bjoern:

Try "pixel_size" for constant panel dimensions across all types of display screens.

Thus:


[WindowXX]
background_color=0,0,0
position=8
size_mm=200,600
pixel_size=200,600
alpha_blend=0.8
visible=0

gauge00=MI_Tool!MI_Tool, 0,0,200,600

[Bjoern]

The most current revision should already have that in its .cfg. Or at least it already scales well with the parent panel.


- Edit:
Oooooh, I see what you mean! Well, I'll keep it in mind and change it later.

[Bjoern]

People who only got their MIT news fix through SOH should check the document linked in the first post here as it will reveal whole bunch of fixes and some additions made to the tool in the past year.

Today's update only deals with a small bug regarding failures and reputation penalties.

[Bjoern]

New release.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed the unit of the purchase requirement variable
- Fixed display unit of best landing vertical speed
- Landing light reputation penalties should now clear correctly
- Fixed a fuel usage bug

Additions:
- Added MIT configuration overview page
- Added optional structural payload limit for aircraft
- Added gradual loss of power with increasing engine wear by limiting throttle

Changes:
- Best landing vertical speed now tracked per aircraft
- Purged some unused variables from the save files
- Overhauled failure generation system with realistic base probabilities


This update affects MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml, so keep in mind to carry over and review your settings.
Since there were changes to the save files, edit them as per the instructions below or start over!

Save file editing before running the updated MIT for the first time:
1.) Delete lines #38 to (and including) #44 from the aircraft save file. The resulting file should have 61 lines with numbers in it.
2.) CUT line #3 from company save file and PASTE to end of aircraft save file.

Documentation and download:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HUCYi9oLjpQQGUMv29CzjDirvzOlXjep6YluTYIPMk/edit

[Bjoern]

It's done. This may be the most comprehensive update to MIT in ages. I've also overhauled the documentation a bit to reflect the changes.


Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug/exploit that made earning money by idling on the ground possible
- Landing vertical speed is now correctly treated as a negative value
- Aircraft value calculation now working as it should
- Reputation can not go above 100 anymore
- Flight comfort grading uses negative vertical speed instead of positive

Additions:
- Added a help overlay to every page that will highlight all available clickspots
- A basic contract system generates random payload demand and payload rates every flight based on company reputation. Contracts can be renegotiated at the cost of reputation
- Calculation of payload demand uses maximum structural payload as a baseline when a value for such a limit is defined in the aircraft settings file

Changes:
- Landing light altitude restrictions now depend on the departure and destination airport altitudes
- Rewrote the user interface gauge, cutting the lines of code by more than 50% and reducing file size almost by half
- Polished the UI gauge here and there, changing orders and terms in some places
- Proper double-headed arrow bitmap
- A/B/C-Check and repair cost now scales with aircraft empty weight
- Total aircraft time decreases aircraft value
- Flight time is only tracked when airborne
- Overhauled the entire documentation


This update affects MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml, so keep in mind to carry over and review your settings.


Documentation and download:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HUCYi9oLjpQQGUMv29CzjDirvzOlXjep6YluTYIPMk/edit

[Bjoern]

Quick and small update:

Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug that prevented tracking of the landing vertical speed
- Engine power limitation due to engine wear works correctly now


Only MI_Tool_System.xml is affected, so no need for aircraft and save file config mumbo jumbo.


Documentation and download:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HUCYi9oLjpQQGUMv29CzjDirvzOlXjep6YluTYIPMk/edit

[AusWilko]

I'm taking my yearly break from fsx, been about 9 weeks since I last bothered firing it up but thanks for this, when I get back again this will come in handy to getme going, can see me setting up a buisness in my corner of West Aussie and seehow I go

[Bjoern]

I haven't used MIT on a small scale yet, but since you can tweak it, it might just work for a "rags to riches" scenario. If not, it's at east very easy to cheat (in between flights). :)

[AusWilko]

Way I see it, got a lot of rich folk who have fancy holiday houses down here and show up couple of times a year so I can be ferrying them and the stuff they need around, in the mean time with all the different projects on the go I can use it to be bringing in and out all the managers plus a DC3 would be cool to haul different goods that are needed urgent, and yeah I can always pad the figures as needed

[Astoroth]

Can you have more than 1 aircraft in the same company, or is it a per aircraft type of thing? Just wondering since you set the company name in the MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml for each aircraft?

[Bjoern]

Can you have more than 1 aircraft in the same company, or is it a per aircraft type of thing? Just wondering since you set the company name in the MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml for each aircraft?

You can have 1, 20 or 3428932534589345425 aircraft per company. Same company save file name = same company.

[Bjoern]

Another small update:

Bug fixes:
- Landing vertical speed should finally be displayed and treated correctly
- Landing gear wear is only calculated when the aircraft is actually moving

Changes:
- Flight quality ratings are only computed when airborne
- Flight comfort now tracks g force instead of vertical speed

Additions:
- An offset parameter to adjust both min and max allowable flight g force in MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml


This update affects MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml, so keep in mind to carry over and review your settings!


Documentation and download:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HUCYi9oLjpQQGUMv29CzjDirvzOlXjep6YluTYIPMk/edit

[Bjoern]

This update is of particular interest for Majestic Dash 8 users and bookworms keeping track of their exploits in spreadsheets.


Bug fixes:
- Fixed missing indication for total landing gear failure in message window


Changes:



Additions:
- An optional "force engine running" function for users of Majestic's Dash 8 (see debug settings in MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml).
- The flight result may optionally be exported in .csv formatting as "ZZZ_MIT_LastFlight.txt", located in the FSX main folder. The feature is off by default and has to be enabled in MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml.



This update affects MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml, so keep in mind to carry over and review your settings.



Documentation and download:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HUCYi9oLjpQQGUMv29CzjDirvzOlXjep6YluTYIPMk/edit

[Bjoern]

Another week, another update

Changes:
- Contract revenue is calulated before takeoff based on estimated instead of actual flight time now
- Actual flight time is tracked from engine startup to shutdown again, as it was a few revisions before
- Rearranged some parameters in MI_Tool_Aircraft into a "Basic Settings" category
- The net result will only be displayed at the end of a flight


Additions:
- Flight plan analysis to estimate flight duration based on true cruise speed in aircraft.cfg or indicated cruise speed and flight plan cruise altitude in MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml
- Broadened the range for payload scale values a bit to make things more interesting
- Estimated flight time is exported to the flight log file
- Last flight's net result will be exported to the flight log file

This update affects MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml, so keep in mind to carry over and review your settings.

Documentation and download:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HUCYi9oLjpQQGUMv29CzjDirvzOlXjep6YluTYIPMk/edit

[Bjoern]

Small update.


Bug fixes:
- Landing light reputation penalties are now properly reset


Changes:
- The absolute minimal payload rate is 0.1 Funds/lbs/hr (regardless of reputation and randomness)


This update DOES NOT affect MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml.


Documentation and download:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HUCYi9oLjpQQGUMv29CzjDirvzOlXjep6YluTYIPMk/edit

[simtech]

I've used MIT in FSX for about two weeks and really enjoy it. (Small time, two a/c, C-45 and AN-2) I have some config. questions.
Where and how is best way to address these. I've been to FSDS, but unable to post. Yes, I've RTM several times. Thank you for any assistance.

[Bjoern]

Well, you're in the right place for support. What's up?

[simtech]

Bjoern, thank you very much. I really admire all of your contributions to the community. We have been blessed to be able to benefit from your talents. Regarding MIT; I think I've finally figured how to edit the .xml as I'm now flying with one crew member in the AN-2. Question: I never see the "Contract Payload" ever change. what am I doing wrong? It's always zero. Also, is there a quicker way to set up max payload to be carried without having to resort to trial and error to get the numbers from "Red" to "Green". I also learned that as one's reputation increases, so does the allowable payload capacity, but is there a quicker way to determine what that capacity is?

Thank you again for a very fine product. I'm just beginning, (have about ten hours in it) but having a blast. Thank you very much.

[Bjoern]

To fly contract payloads, you'll need to have a flight plan loaded in FSX. The type of flight plan (direct, high, low, VOR to VOR) or altitude doesn't matter, you only need a destination and arrive there whenever you like. Otherwise, you'll only burn money.

I can't make MIT smart enough to know the payload station setup (every aircraft add-on is different), so loading your plane is entirely up to you, even if it involves some degree of trial & error. Unintended realism, I guess.

Payload contracts do involve a bit of randomness, so you can't predict how heavy your next payload will be. The color coding, however, should tell you about the quality of the deal. If you don't like it, you can renegotiate (and peeve off your client in the process).
You can increase or decrease your general revenue and the "Tweaking Revenue" chapter of the manual shows how. It also links to a spreadsheet at the end, which, when downloaded and opened in Excel, automates the calculations for you. You still need to make assumptions regarding your input parameters.

Hope this helps.

[simtech]

Bjoern, thank you for the clarification. I was afraid the payload loading exercise was going to be T&E. As far as a "Contract load", I have a flight plan loaded in the flight planner before I start. It gives me an estimate on what the "payout" might be while the expense counter is still running. It just never changes unless it's yellow and then it states "non-revenue flight". I was just wondering if I had missed loading something or not. Looking forward to "tweaking" the income portion.

Thanks again, for your help and a nifty tool that is sure to become a huge time sink.

[Bjoern]

Bjoern, thank you for the clarification. I was afraid the payload loading exercise was going to be T&E. As far as a "Contract load", I have a flight plan loaded in the flight planner before I start. It gives me an estimate on what the "payout" might be while the expense counter is still running. It just never changes unless it's yellow and then it states "non-revenue flight". I was just wondering if I had missed loading something or not. Looking forward to "tweaking" the income portion.

Thanks again, for your help and a nifty tool that is sure to become a huge time sink.

Ah, so the expenses thing is a bug after all. Was wondering since it happened to me, too. Will look into it.

Have you tried resetting MIT's current state (see help overlay and manual for the clickspot location) with a flight plan loaded?

Revenue mode will only initialize when your engines are running, there's a flight plan loaded, payload is lower than the payload limit and you're stationary. So check that as well.

[simtech]

I'll jump on it and get back to you. Off hand, I can't say that I, in fact, did reset it. give me 12 hours and I'll be back. Thank you for your reply.

[Bjoern]

I think I know where in the code things may go south, but I have yet to figure out how to fix it without breaking anything else.

[simtech]

Ok, I tried it again. I normally load up with engine off, (minimize fuel expense), once I get a green payload, I start the engine with a flight plan loaded. Contract income is green, but Contract Payload never changes. When I reset and reload, suddenly the default payload is loaded into MIT, even though the a/c payload in the a/c drop down remains unchanged. I have to zero out a/c payload from drop down and reconfigure the a/c payload, then MIT recognizes the new load. A/c payload in MIT changes numerically, but contract payload only changes color, never numerically..remains zero. Contract income seems to work ok. I can live with it, was just wondering if I had missed something in the setup process. Again, thank you for all that you do for the community and I appreciate your attention. I'm quite sure you have bigger fish to fry than this. I can live with this as it is. Thank you. /Terry

[Bjoern]

That's really not supposed to happen and you're the second user to report this (the other one was on Avsim) and the tool's operation didn't feel very solid to me lately as well, so basically I HAVE to look into it.

[Bjoern]

I just initialized a flight based on your description and I think I see your problem.
Changing payload with the engines running and a flight plan loaded has no effect by design since MIT locks the calculated actual payload the second all its initialization conditions for revenue-based flying are fullfilled, i.e. stationary on the ground, engines running, flight plan loaded, payload less than or equal to contract (hence the zero after you zeroed out your payload).
So to avoid this pitfall, do as a real pilot would: Plan first, load (according to contract) second, fly third.

Let me brainstorm how I could make the initialization routine, or at least its payload part, more explicit to avoid this bug.

[Bjoern]

Well, there would have been a quick fix for Simtech's problem, but I grabbed the opportunity and modified much of the flight initialization routine. It should be (hopefully) pretty foolproof now.

Still need to update the help overlay and manual before I'll release this one.

[simtech]

Bjoern, Are you saying we can go to your download site for the update? When I was loading the a/c, I always did so before starting engines. I'm looking forward to trying out your mods. Thank you...

[Bjoern]

Bjoern, Are you saying we can go to your download site for the update?

"...before I'll release this one."

Future tense and no standard "New revision" posting. No way in hell does this imply a release.

[Bjoern]

This is what a proper release announcement looks like. And yes, this is real...





New release, just kind of a "spit and polish" update.


https://sites.google.com/site/fsxstuffbybk/_/rsrc/1492922565240/gauges/maintenance-income-tool/MIT_rev.jpg




Changes:
- Revenue mode now requires generating a and committing to a contract
- Revenue mode requires a loaded flightplan
- Removed debug mode to save some lines of code
- Replaced "MIT Force Non Rev" variable in save files with "MIT Contract Commit" (line 18)
- Changed some status messages and the contract-related parts of the UI
- Updated list of aircraft save variables
- Reworked the tutorial in the documentation for a better introduction to basic tool usage
- Adapted UI description and description of gauge functionality to the latest changes


Additions:
- "Commit to contract" button
- "X" icon next to "Status" when the flight reset clickspot is activated




Finish any MI Tool related flights in progress that you may have saved before updating!
In your aircraft save files, change the values in lines 63 and 64 to 0 (zero). Or try resetting MI Tool in FSX.


Updating MI_Tool_Aircraft.xml is optional. If you feel bold enough, delete lines 168-170 by hand instead of doing the "reconfiguration dance".


Re-read the tutorial chapter in the manual, especially the section about contracts, weights and starting a flight.




Documentation and download:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-HUCYi9oLjpQQGUMv29CzjDirvzOlXjep6YluTYIPMk/edit

[simtech]

Bjoern, I apologize. In my fit of excitement I skipped the "before I release this one." Looking forward to checking out your update. Thank you, I'm sorry.. I jumped the starter pistol on this one.