FS Economy (freeware) released

[Guest metamarty]

After many months of development the first version of the system is online now at www.fseconomy.com. It's basically a freeware system for GA pilots to fly assignments and rent planes. There's also support to form virtual airlines and fly together. It works together with most addons (weather/aircraft).A lot of neat stuff has been added like a fully automatic trip finder that will calculate trips for you based on your flying preferences and produces interactive relief maps.So if you're a GA pilot and you often find yourself wondering where to fly next, this will definitely help you. This addon will bring you to many small fields you've never visited before!Hope to see you all, and don't forget to give any feedback so I can improve it further!

[Guest gasebah]

That looks great. Finally kind of a VA fr us GA guys. Just a brief question. I connect to the internet on a 2nd computer which is connected to the FS machine via WideFS. Will this work with the little proggie, or does it hve to run on the FS machine?Alex

[Guest metamarty]

Your FS computer will need to have internet access, because the program needs to connect to FSUIPC and to the server. Maybe you can share the internet connection on your internet PC? The program only needs a HTTP connection, so you could also set up a http proxy. Hope to see you there!

[Guest gasebah]

Well it can connect to FSUIPC via WideFS. I will just try it out and we will see. I cannot share my internet connection as the damed firewall won't let me. I tried to figure that out for days with no success. And to connect the FS machine directly to the net is ruled out as it will bring all that virus scan and firewall stuff to it.Anyway, I will find a way.Alex

[Guest metamarty]

Ah, that will be interesting to see. As long as it can connect to FSUIPC it should be fine.

[Guest Persephone]

Really cool addon. Tried it out and loved it. It's perfect for the GA enthusiast.

[Guest secks]

It'll be even cooler once the gates.to pilot/co-pilot/passenger addon emerges from private beta (http://www.gates.to/LoadPage.php?page=Fsnet@Images&rmenu=N) .. imagine being able to fly with a co-pilot and passengers, all sharing the same virtual cockpit.

[Dondo 0]

Wow, this is prefect. Almost exactly what I have been looking for. I've been with a couple of GA VA's, but never really cared for the way that you "bought" planes and generated charters. This look to be just want I've wanted. Thanks!Cap'n Dondo

[Guest metamarty]

I try to give the pilot the freedom to do what he wants, instead of presenting schedules. I see it as a platform for people to fly together, like in a VA, but without the restrictions and rules of a VA. If you've gathered some money, you can start your own flight group, buy a couple of aircraft and let others join you.

[Guest MarkM]

Great system, thank you! I've tested it and can approve it is good.

[Guest metamarty]

Thank you!If you have any recommendations or requests, I'd love to hear about them.

[Guest Persephone]

I have some suggestions. First off let me say that as it is, it's the coolest GA add on I've seen so far. How many times I thought how great it would be to have something like this. I never had the programming skills to do it myself. I really like the attention to details, like adjusting the instrumentation in some aircraft to be VFR with no AP and such, not to mention the landing fees. Great job!The one thing I would suggest is the realism with private airports and unpaved airstrips. In FS Economy, you can rent aircraft from private airstips. Since, MSFS doesn't differentiate between public and private, it might be too difficult to eliminate rentals at private airstrips.But, you can also rent aircraft from airstrips like Cabin Creek (I08). Cabin Creek is just a dirt airstrip in the middle of a bunch of mountains. It's as back country as you can get in the lower 48. Not only that, but you can rent a Seneca, which would have a lot of trouble getting in and out of I08, especially with any passengers.I would suggest -- and this is just a suggestion -- making the home base for all aircraft be paved airports. This would make it more realistic that one could rent a plane at such an airport. And then, charters could fly to the dirt airstrips. The pilot could then return it to the home base for the bonus or leave it there for another pilot to fly closer to home and get the bonus. Having no programming skills, for all I know, this is not at all feasible.Having charters originate at unpaved airports also has the effect of creating an abundance of charters from one dirt strip to another. It's difficult to find a flight between two paved airports (KDRO to KSKX, for example). One way to alleviate this, besides having charters originate from paved airports, would be to allow for searches to airports rather than just the assignment's origin.Again, this addon is superb as it is. Hope the feedback helps.Persephone

[Guest metamarty]

Thank you, this is really helpfull! Currently I can set a lower limit to the size of an airport per aircraft model (some models won't appear at airstrips too small), but it has not been set for all planes because I don't know realistic values for these. Since I got Bill Lyon's piper Apache, which is a twin engine aircraft coming with a custom scenery of a dirt strip (with a fence along the side!), I figured people actually fly twin engined aircraft to dirtstrips. That's why I didn't set the limit on all aircraft. If you have a suggestion like "this aircraft definitely won't fly into airports smaller than this strip" I would be glad to refine the limits of that model.I like the suggestion about not having dirt strips as home airports for rental planes. I think I will implement that, but I believe nonpaved airports above a certain size sometimes do have rental planes. I live in the Netherlands, and we have a few popular airports here (EHHV, EHTX) that are unpaved and carry lots of rental planes. I'll have to find a reasonable limit, but removing rental planes from dirtstrips too small in size seems like a sound idea.Thanks for the input so far, and what do you think about having an air race where the objective of a team would be to bring a spitfire from the east to the west coast without going bankrupt? :7

[Guest Persephone]

I'm sure there are many dirt airstrips all over the world where you can rent planes. So, that's not unrealistic. But the large numbers of rentals at so many dirt strips is where things seem a bit unplausible. At least in the US, anyway. I'm not sure about Europe. Maybe it's common there.And you can definitely land a Seneca or Apache at a dirt airstrip, as long as you have enough runway length. But there are limits. I have no real world flight training, so it would be great to get some input for real pilots on this. What I know is from the Internet. Like according to FSD International, a Seneca needs 2180ft/664m for a landing roll over a 50 ft obstacle. http://www.fsd-international.com/projects/...eneca_specs.htm So, such a length would certainly be needed at Cabin Creek, which has only 1700 ft. No chance of getting a Seneca in there. With no obstacles, the Seneca can land on a 1400 ft strip. But I don't know how you would determine which airports have such obstacles, which the autogen in MSFS represents. So, I would suggest a conservative estimate for the Seneca would be 2200 ft minimum strip for that aircraft, since it's the longest possible length you'd need. If you want, I would be willing to compile a list of minimum required runway length from Internet and MSFS help file info for the supported planes. Though, a real world pilot would be good to consult with on this if you're going for realism.

[Guest Persephone]

Oh, and I like the idea of the cross country race, based on the economics of flight. Though, the spitfire wouldn't be my first choice of aircraft. I'm much more proficient with the Skylane or Baron. How would you do this? Would the pilot have so much money to spend to get from one point to the other? Or would it be based on the one who spends the least wins? Since weather affects fuel economy so much, you'd probably want to determine what the rules would be on what weather the pilot has to use.It's a great idea however you want to work it out.