Beside that, I guess PMDG beta testers are volunteers. Why would anyone want to do something for free

 

Its called volunteering, people do that to help out with something they like. I don't get paid to help clean the Chicago river but I do that in my spare time because I enjoy the outdoors and keeping my neighborhood clean. 

Dad likes FS and tought me the 744/ Helped me with the NGX but isn't a computer guy thats me hmm maybe they'd need a beta team lol he flys I fix the stuff. I'd rather be flying the real thing vs FS but 100LL is over $6 a gallon now and it takes alot of the fun out of it as with every inch of manifold your bank account drains that much more so now I have 3 planes that I can fly for free besides the cost of fuel that sit in their hangers and I behind a computer screen..... GRRRRRRRR Im so ready to be done with college and get another flying job!!!!!!

 

but 100LL is over $6 a gallon now and it takes alot of the fun out of it as with every inch of manifold your bank account drains that much more

 

You should be really happy with that low price of fuel.

 

so now I have 3 planes that I can fly for free besides the cost of fuel that sit in their hangers and I behind a computer screen.....

 

For what it's worth, I'd kill for that, but I'm also not in college anymore and it's cheaper than what I have available now.

You should be really happy with that low price of fuel.

 

Yeah, it's [darn] near $8/gal where I'm going on Saturday, and I'm sure that's cheaper than around your area, too.

g_precentralis, on 01 Apr 2013 - 18:37, said:

Beside that, I guess PMDG beta testers are volunteers. Why would anyone want to do something for free,

Are you a Banker?

 

Yeah, it's [darn] near $8/gal where I'm going on Saturday, and I'm sure that's cheaper than around your area, too.

 

10.5$ per US Gallon here.

Are you a Banker?

 

No, that's consequence of capitalistic age we live in. If I'm part of commercial project, I demand money. Simple as that.

10.5$ per US Gallon here.

Ouch I take it your located in the EU?

Ouch I take it your located in the EU?

In Europe, not in EU.

 

Yeah, it's [darn] near $8/gal where I'm going on Saturday, and I'm sure that's cheaper than around your area, too.

10.5$ per US Gallon here.

At the risk of sounding like one of the Monty Python Yorkshiremen, You don't know you are born! Ha! I'd kill for $10.5 a gallon. At my local airfield 100LL is £2.08 per litre, which with a bit of conversion works out to damn near $16 a gallon, give or take a Quarter. That is the entire reason my training has had to go on hold. I just can't afford to learn to fly at £150 per hour :( I could stretch to an hour a month if I was lucky, which seems almost pointless.

 

Anyway, back on topic; I guess it might be that PMDG approach you to Beta test if it seems you have the 'right stuff', as well as recruiting from Posts as previous.

 

I really don't think it would be fun though; imagine having to spend hours every night on Flightsim with an incomplete product that probably causes endless CTD's, has incomplete systems and probably not being able to complete a flight while writing down all the issues for constant reporting while nobody on Avsim can help.

 

Actually, sounds like purchasing a CaptainSim product. :lol:

 

(That's only tongue in cheek, don't kill me please)

 

 

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What's the cause of the high price?

At the risk of sounding like one of the Monty Python Yorkshiremen, You don't know you are born! Ha! I'd kill for $10.5 a gallon. At my local airfield 100LL is £2.08 per litre, which with a bit of conversion works out to damn near $16 a gallon, give or take a Quarter. That is the entire reason my training has had to go on hold. I just can't afford to learn to fly at £150 per hour I could stretch to an hour a month if I was lucky, which seems almost pointless.

 

That's not 16$/USGal, more like 12$. Actually, do we talk about same gallon, it should be 3.78 liters in one USGal. Anyway, you are correct, we can always find a place where fuel is even more expensive.

 

What's the cause of the high price?

Taxes mostly

Tax mainly. In the UK around 60% of the selling price of fuel is VAT and Excise duty, but the cost of insurance, maintenance and parking makes it difficult for flight schools to charge much less for EASA approved training.

 

 

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At the risk of sounding like one of the Monty Python Yorkshiremen, You don't know you are born! Ha! I'd kill for $10.5 a gallon. At my local airfield 100LL is £2.08 per litre, which with a bit of conversion works out to damn near $16 a gallon, give or take a Quarter. That is the entire reason my training has had to go on hold. I just can't afford to learn to fly at £150 per hour I could stretch to an hour a month if I was lucky, which seems almost pointless.

That's not 16$/USGal, more like 12$. Actually, do we talk about same gallon, it should be 3.78 liters in one USGal. Anyway, you are correct, we can always find a place where fuel is even more expensive.

 

What's the cause of the high price?

Taxes mostly

Doh. I was thinking imperial gallon, not US.

 

EDIT: and I noticed, I meant to type $14 not 16. Stupid iPhone but still astronomical.

 

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Tax mainly. In the UK around 60% of the selling price of fuel is VAT and Excise duty, but the cost of insurance, maintenance and parking makes it difficult for flight schools to charge much less for EASA approved training.

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Taxes mostly

Doh. I was thinking imperial gallon, not US.

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Ouch those taxes are crazy high how we'd revolt here if the taxes were that high.

Ok, my bad, I assumed you use US Gallon as in my Cessna 172 POH fuel figures in US Gallons. Anyway I pay 2.0-2.2 euros per liter of 100ll

To be honest I can't remember how I became a beta tester for Microsoft's Flight Simulator.  But it was far easier than becoming one for PMDG.  For MS you had to show an ability to show you could identify problems with installs or how FS worked.  I meet one of the program managers who had the sense to leave Aces before the crash, I think he may have even left Microsoft; it has been a while.  I think my discussion impressed him and he added me on for FS98.

 

To be quite honest, being a beta tester is NOT what it might think it is cracked up to be.  You often are handed your first version with major flaws that will annoy the most patient.  You may be asked to do something very tedious and boring that might not be flying.  Like trying to find polygons that are sticking through something it shouldn't or finding typos.  There are no pretty paint jobs of your favorite airline available to add, there may only be the airplanes that shipped or the default scenery.  Heck the aircraft may have partial paints to them anyway.  By the time a product hits the street, other than that POS FS2000, it has gone through thousands of hours of testing.  FS2k was rushed, it was not performance tweaked and we only had two weeks with her before shipping.  Actually it had gone GOLD by the time we started testing.  FS2k was horrible, had many issues.  So for FS2K2 they started as it entered Alpha, it had a extraordinary long beta and it showed.  FS2K4 did the same and FSX they learned to listen and took in valuable advice.  I spoke to an actual programmer several times.

 

My advice to become a PMDG beta tester (or for anyone else for that fact)...  Learn an aircraft, learn it well by either flying it for 1000s of hours or become and engineer and know systems.  Help on the boards, help people fix problems, all while being professional.  EVERY FS addon company out there gets hundreds of requests, you need to show you are not just an eager fan.  You have to be trusted, an NDA ensures you can by legal means, but you need to show you won't go and blab about a product that you are working on.  You can't even go to THIS board and say, "Hey the PMDG Paper Airplane* is AWSOME, it has soooo many cool features, here is a picture".  Beta's feel a sense of pride they are part of it, but they also know it is an extreme privilege and you can be removed as quickly as they added you.  * Note: PMDG is NOT making a product called the PMDG Paper Airplane to my knowledge; unless maybe for MS Flight.   One last piece of advice for the professional Beta wannabe, I would say learn to take No for an answer.  I guarantee you will hear NO from 999 out of 1000 requests, hopefully you did not just send 1000 to the SAME company either.  In the mean time, just enjoy a product that comes out relatively bug free... I Do.