FSX-MS FS Economy like program

[LordDakson 0]

Hey guys, i was wondering if you could help me out with something

I've been looking for a program that will let me run a little business on fsx using my Twin Otter Extended, A2A C172 and Airbus.

I have looked around all over the net and have come across quite a few suggestions but none of them seem right.

FS Passangers is nice, but i don't only want to deliver passangers, Also it seems to interupt my Airbus X Extendeds checklists, leaving me stuck. Its a nice addon (though the failures do seem to happen too often from what i've heard)

FS Economy looks fun, but i don't want to be onliine competing, and the rental-purchase system has me a little apprenhensive. What if i go to rent the addon planes i have in my hanger and can't find them, do i use the default FSX planes and fly a plane i don't really want to? Also i like to use the Fuel and Load Managers that came with my aircraft, and FS economy doesn't seem to allow me to do that.

Cargo Pilot and Air Hauler, both look nice but i want to transport people as well as cargo to and from different airports, and they seem to share some of the problems with fs economy i mentioned above.

FS Captain is the one i've heard the least about, but it seems geared more towards large commercial airliners, such as the A320 and 777, 737 etc. I don't always want to fly those aircraft.

I guess i'm looking for a program that will generate random cargo/passenger numbers and select a random airport to fly to from an airport i put in, within a certain range. Something that works on a "You earned x amount of dollars" Would be nice, but not really necessary as i'm able to role play pretty well haha.

I had a look at Ideal flight, and it looks nice, although it isn't exactly what im looking for, as its almost too random (from starting airport etc, though the kneeboard features seem cool, it again autoloads the plane with fuel and weight, and i use an external weather program for real world weather, atm fsrealwx but i plan on trying out fs global real weather next week))

Freeware would be a huge bonus, but if i have to pay a few bucks for it, that'd be okay. I don't mind doing all the flight planning etc manually, i actually enjoy that part of my flying haha. I use Plan G for VFR and various online sources for the Aurbus.

Thanks in advance guys, and sorry for the wall of text, all thoughts and opinions are welcome.

- LordDakson
 

[snowingairlines 20]

 

 

Cargo Pilot and Air Hauler, both look nice but i want to transport people as well as cargo to and from different airports, and they seem to share some of the problems with fs economy i mentioned above.

Air Hauler looks like what you want. There is a free demo so that you can try it, but you are stuck with the default aircraft. Air Hauler will let you use any or all of your addon aircraft, and their are ways to make you fly an airbus right from the start, or you can fly in the 172. You do not have to compete online, and you can always buy your addon aircraft.

[LordDakson 0]

Air Hauler looks like what you want. There is a free demo so that you can try it, but you are stuck with the default aircraft. Air Hauler will let you use any or all of your addon aircraft, and their are ways to make you fly an airbus right from the start, or you can fly in the 172. You do not have to compete online, and you can always buy your addon aircraft.

 

Don't you have to load fuel and cargo through Air Hauler though? I like to use the Fuel and Payload managers that come with the aircraft, the one they recommend using in their pdfs.

 

Also, its nice for cargo, but what about passengers?

[snowingairlines 20]

 

 

Don't you have to load fuel and cargo through Air Hauler though? I like to use the Fuel and Payload managers that come with the aircraft, the one they recommend using in their pdfs.

Also, its nice for cargo, but what about passengers?

 

You can choose to either use the air hauler payload manager, or you can use a different one. Also, who says that a plane full of chicken, cannot be the inflight catering. 

[MarkSC 122]

I agree, Air Hauler is your best bet. I too wish it allowed passengers, but it is otherwise a great program. FS Captain is nice too if you don't want to manage the economics of owning a company. The user interface in Air Hauler, though, can't be beat. I'm currently flying in the South Island of New Zealand in career mode. I sold the default C172 and bought the a2a 172. It will take a month or more of flying to progress to a heavier plane. If you like that kind of realism, then Air Hauler is for you (although you are allowed to play in easier modes and progress faster to the heavies if you want). If you want to jump around and fly anything you want from any location you want, then FS Captain is probably a better bet. I've never tried FS Passengers, as it is not supported any more and does not seem to run on Win 8.

[japascoe 98]

If what you mainly want is a random payload and flight suggestions, have you looked at maybe joining a VA? My VA will randomly generate a payload for each flight and there's an option to suggest random itineraries from your current location. It also calculates your revenue and profit after each flight. You can use all the load managers and payware a/c you want. The plane does have to match the schedule, but we have a very large selection of schedules (over 700 real world airlines modelled) so you can always find flights for your favourite aircraft. At my VA you do have to reach a certain number of hours before you can fly certain classes of aircraft (for the VA, obviously you can do whatever you like 'off the clock' so to speak), but AFAIK there are other VAs out there that don't have that restriction.

[LordDakson 0]

A VA Does sound interesting, but there does seem to be a lot of regulations, haha but maybe thats what im lacking.

Its mostly for my own personal roleplay, you know, internal dialogue saying "Well, i have to get these 11 passangers to x airport from here, lets plan the flight, fuel required etc"

Air Hauler might be a start, when i get home i will download and give the demo a trial. I suppose i could just make my own random number generator for each plane, use destination finder to randomly select a nearby airport, and fly it.

Thanks for the input guys, i might check out an easy going virtual airline sometime soon.

[VeryBumpy 272]

A VA Does sound interesting, but there does seem to be a lot of regulations, haha but maybe thats what im lacking.

 

Its mostly for my own personal roleplay, you know, internal dialogue saying "Well, i have to get these 11 passangers to x airport from here, lets plan the flight, fuel required etc"

 

Air Hauler might be a start, when i get home i will download and give the demo a trial. I suppose i could just make my own random number generator for each plane, use destination finder to randomly select a nearby airport, and fly it.

 

Thanks for the input guys, i might check out an easy going virtual airline sometime soon.

 

You might consider Ideal Flight 10 also. It will randomly select and make a flight for you with all the parameters you choose. And it will grade how well you managed the flight and aircraft. There is a weak mission system in the program also but that's not it's main forte.

 

The current demo of IF10 is an older but solid build. The current build that I'm fortunate to beta test is leaps and bounds better and is definitely something to look forward to. Just search in here for info.

[LordDakson 0]

Does it allow me to manually select a departing airport? And manually load fuel and such? From what i saw to get the full functionality from IF 10, i had to use it to launch FSX and i'd just be put in the plane with the fuel and payload already loaded.

The kneeboard feature does look nice, but i plan my flights using Plan-G and other programs, so i don't see how i could use it.

More info on IF would be appreciated, if im wrong, let me know

Edit: I reread the front page again, it seems it can generate my flight, allow me to upload the flight plan i plan out in plan-g or others, and then it will upload it into my fsx as a kneeboard, and it appears i can manually launch fsx and use my external weather program.

Please correct me if im wrong, more info would be greatly appreciated.

[MarkSC 122]

You can actually drag and drop an fsx flight plan into Ideal Flight. It's a pretty cool feature.

[VeryBumpy 272]

Does it allow me to manually select a departing airport?

Yes, and sooooooooooo much more.

 

And manually load fuel and such?

Yes, however IF10 is designed to plan this for you and it works awesome 90% of the time. You can always change it within FSX also if you'd like.

 

From what i saw to get the full functionality from IF 10, i had to use it to launch FSX and i'd just be put in the plane with the fuel and payload already loaded.

Correct. IF10 is outstanding for this. I never use FSX without IF10, it saves time, can make or load any route I choose, gives me all the info I could want and is fun to use.

The kneeboard feature does look nice, but i plan my flights using Plan-G and other programs, so i don't see how i could use it.

Edit: I reread the front page again, it seems it can generate my flight, allow me to upload the flight plan i plan out in plan-g or others, and then it will upload it into my fsx as a kneeboard, and it appears i can manually launch fsx and use my external weather program.

Yup, you can load and use most all other flight plans into IF10.

 

 

As I mentioned, I'm using the beta 'enhanced' 11SF7 version and it is definitely WAY advanced in tons of areas over the current 11SE3. Just need to convince Steve to stop tweaking or adding to IF and ship SF8 in its current state, even if it does have a few bugs.

 

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[WotanUK 289]

+1 for FSCaptain, it works well enough with smaller aircraft and will also allow for Cargo flights.  I am currently using it for hopping around the Scottish islands in my Twin Otter.

 

A fully featured demo is available, only limiting your departure airport.  I would encourage you to give it a try.  The support is also excellent.

 

As mentioned previously it doesn't have the economic features of Air Hauler or FSPassengers.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

I've been looking for something like this for a long time.  Ideal Flight looks like it could fit the bill but I don't want anything messing with the weather.  I noticed that it can be made to work with P3D which is good.  Lots of things are going to be in flux as people try to figure out how P3D is going to affect the market over the coming months.

[zmak 331]

http://www.pcaviator.com/store/product.php?productid=19830

 

fs captain 50% sale

[VeryBumpy 272]

Yeah, I see Ideal Flight 10 is on sale too at Flight1.