Hello simmers,

 

I am planning to invest some money on the add-on FS Passengers

http://www.fspassengers.com/

 

any comments about it? does it really makes the flying experience nicer?

 

Thanks for your comments!

It's a good piece of software but it is not being actively developed.  Try the demo before you buy and be aware that there will be no future updates and support will be sketchy.

 

You could also look at FSCaptain, it's basically the same without the economic aspects; i am a little unsure about the development state, it has been very quite for some time and it could also be in permanent development hold.  It also has a fully featured demo.

 

FSEconomy is free and has features similar to the above.

 

XPAX is another potential choice, i know very little about this, but someone should be able to help you.

It gives you ...

 

- a career mode

- copilot/flight crew immersion

- a failure mode

 

To each of these benefits there are alternatives - but it's a winning combination as far as FSP is concerned.

 

What is your main goal and what's your kind of flying/which airplanes do you usually fly?

thanks for the comments so far..

 

I am flying all of the time airliners, that is PMDG 737 / 747 products...

You should set the FSP options in a way that FSP does NOT change your PMDG fuel/weight/balance stuff.

 

And you have to be aware that a lot of PMDG systems are coded externally so the FSP failure mode cannot affect so and so many PMDG systems (fuel leaks, engine flameouts?).

 

If it's more about flight crew experience and more immersion you could also consider FS2Crew as an alternative.

I have FS passengers and use it for:

1- the announcements (you can customize your own if you want) + i found some interesting packages on FSP website

2- i like the post flight reports which analyses the take off and landings

 

 

but try the demo first to see if it works well for you. I did bought Xpax but did not work for me.

Oli do you have FS2Crew? I was considering that as a potential add-on however, I stopped doing research as I found out that I was rather complicated it to use it... is that true for you?

Yep: It seems rather complex to me, too. You have to set a number of things in the interface to make it do what you want it to do. And it's rigid - you have to follow exactly the procedures incorporated.

 

Alternatives to FS2Crew are Multi Crew Experience (I don't own that) and Flight Deck Companion (I still use that legacy product ...).

I believe that FS2Crew can cause issue when run with FSPassengers, though i may be wrong on this.

 

FS2Crew is not really complicated if you go for the button version, it simply installs itself into the Aircraft and that's it really for the setup.  The voice version is more complicated but there is a decent setup guide and Bryan York is very helpful.

 

Of course it's rigid, that's how you fly a passenger liner, checklists and procedures.  If you don't want to fly with it, just don't start it for that flight.

To do some more justice to Bryan:

 

You can skip certain flight phases in FS2Crew, to start with the takeoff phase immediately, for example, right?

I think you should get Fscaptain instead, unlike FSpassengers it's still actively developed with latest version released some months ago while Fspassenger developer has completely left the project and doesn't really seem to offer any support either.

 

Only thing it lacks is the economic model which is very basic with Fspax, not any realistic. Other than that Fscaptain has way more features, is way better compatible with PMDG stuff and has active support.

 

Fspassengers isn't a bad program either, I had a lot of good time with it before I bought Fscaptain, it's just kind of old and if you run into problems you can't really expect to get any support, usually their forums moderator tells anybody with a problem to use search function. (not that there really would be any new solutions to fix problems anyway).

I did have FSP. Today environment I am utilizing. Fs2Crew (Perfect) and dispatcher FS Captain. Both combination makes my flights more enjoyable.

I think you should get Fscaptain instead, unlike FSpassengers it's still actively developed with latest version released some months ago while Fspassenger developer has completely left the project and doesn't really seem to offer any support either.

 

Only thing it lacks is the economic model which is very basic with Fspax, not any realistic. Other than that Fscaptain has way more features, is way better compatible with PMDG stuff and has active support.

 

Fspassengers isn't a bad program either, I had a lot of good time with it before I bought Fscaptain, it's just kind of old and if you run into problems you can't really expect to get any support, usually their forums moderator tells anybody with a problem to use search function. (not that there really would be any new solutions to fix problems anyway).

 

I'm not sure that you are correct anymore regarding FSCaptain.  Dutch does periodically check in.  Travis hasn't been on since March.  No news regarding the next update.  I could very well be wrong but i'm getting the FSPassenger vibe from the FSCaptain forum.

 

I would however suggest you give it a try in my opinion, even as it stands, it is better than FSP.

Try FSCapatain.  I really enjoy it.  It adds a purpose to my flights and keeps me on a time schedule.  It's also actively developed.  I highly recommend it.

Never tried it, but for what it's worth, every other sim-pilot I fly with online who had it quickly grew tired of it and stopped using it.