OnAir: manage your own MSFS airline company

[MarkSC 122]

I’m playing in Papua, NG with a G36. It’s an amazing experience, both in regard to OnAir and the sim. For those who haven’t tried bush flying in NG, it has to be seen to be believed. Turn on real weather and it is HARD. I spent an hour yesterday on a 20 mile flight just trying to find the gravel strip in the awful weather (winds of 10 to 20 and no visibility). MSFS really shines in the bush, particularly in NG where the real weather has consistently worked for me. 
 

As to OnAir, it is a winner. Perfect for bush flying and much better than FSE. 

[FPStewy 538]

10 hours ago, styckx said:

Monthly subscription add-ons? LOL. I'm good thanks

unlike navigraph, pilotedge, easyVFR, Foreflight ect...

[captain420 3,099]

It seems like quite a nice add-on, but they lost me at subscription. I wouldn't mind paying a one time fee for it. I really don't like that business model.

[Chock 17,769]

Yup, the subscription fee lost me too. £57 quid a year is excessive for a glorified spreadsheet; I'll wait for Air Hauler to make the jump to MSFS, I've been very happy to buy V1 and V2 of Air Hauler on the day they went into early access, likewise Cargo Pilot and African Airstrip Adventures.

If they made it less pricey, I might be tempted, but I suspect there'll be enough 'nickle and diming' going on in MSFS without this one doing it under the radar with a subscription you forgot you signed up for.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Chock

[Moria15 950]

3 hours ago, spacedyemeerkat said:

Graham, I'm assuming you're here in the UK given your "nice little company" (😁) based in Bristol, do you know what time the server maintenance appears to be for us?

Normally about 8 or 9 am weekdays when it is done.. they try to stay away from weekends where possible unless it's just a server restart or similar when the servers are under duress 🙂

 

Graham

 

[spacedyemeerkat 421]

1 hour ago, FPStewy said:

unlike navigraph, pilotedge, easyVFR, Foreflight ect...

Agreed. Pay if you want, don't if you don't. I don't really see what's "LOL" about it.

[Chock 17,769]

Worth noting that you can actually do all this yourself with not much effort.

Search for a random geographical point generator online, then pick the nearest airport to it and that's your destination. Next use a similar random number generator to determine cargo weight/volume and Bob's Yer Uncle, there's your next job. Work out a schedule of prices for what you'd charge for distance and weight carried, there's your pay. Minus your overheads for pay, fuel, maintenance and LD/pallet/ULD rental etc, and there's your profit, loss and running costs. Stick it all in a notebook, or use an excel a spreadsheet, and there's your freight company game.

You could even pick twenty hub destinations and a list of cargo types, then do it all with a dice roll and a bit of paper if you wanted to. Add/subtract twenty minutes either end for offload and onload if you like. Print off your own zig zag for the loadsheet if you wanna go really nerdy. That way you can make the exact game you want.

[FrankR409 514]

6 minutes ago, Chock said:

Worth noting that you can actually do all this yourself with not much effort.

Search for a random geographical point generator online, then pick the nearest airport to it and that's your destination. Next use a similar random number generator to determine cargo weight/volume and Bob's Yer Uncle, there's your next job. Work out a schedule of prices for what you'd charge for distance and weight carried, there's your pay. Minus your overheads for pay, fuel, maintenance and LD/pallet/ULD rental etc, and there's your profit, loss and running costs. Stick it all in a notebook, or use an excel a spreadsheet, and there's your freight company game.

You could even pick twenty hub destinations and a list of cargo types, then do it all with a dice roll and a bit of paper if you wanted to. Add/subtract twenty minutes either end for offload and onload if you like. Print off your own zig zag for the loadsheet if you wanna go really nerdy. That way you can make the exact game you want.

And don’t forget to give 19% of the corporate profit to the Government!

[Paul_Yorks 97]

A little +1 for FSE here.  It's given my flying a purpose although a little imagination helps.

And it's 100% free with a friendly and helpful community.

Setup for FSX is easy (XP is a bit trickier) but there's a definite learning curve.

I'd recommend it.

[Mengy 814]

It looks nice but I've been flying with FSE for 13 years now and I absolutely love it.  Best of all it's free to use, so the value FSE provides is FAR better IMHO.

[MarkSC 122]

OnAir is a persistent online game and has about 300% more features than FSE, thus the need for servers to run it and a subscription model to pay for those servers. Also, it is constantly being updated with new features. It's really not a high price to pay imo to combine the best of AirHauler and FSE. 

[188AHC 2,138]

You don't necessarily have to go the monthly route. For 57 euros you get 24 months. You would pay this every 2 years.

[Moria15 950]

1 hour ago, Chock said:

Worth noting that you can actually do all this yourself with not much effort.

Search for a random geographical point generator online, then pick the nearest airport to it and that's your destination. Next use a similar random number generator to determine cargo weight/volume and Bob's Yer Uncle, there's your next job. Work out a schedule of prices for what you'd charge for distance and weight carried, there's your pay. Minus your overheads for pay, fuel, maintenance and LD/pallet/ULD rental etc, and there's your profit, loss and running costs. Stick it all in a notebook, or use an excel a spreadsheet, and there's your freight company game.

You could even pick twenty hub destinations and a list of cargo types, then do it all with a dice roll and a bit of paper if you wanted to. Add/subtract twenty minutes either end for offload and onload if you like. Print off your own zig zag for the loadsheet if you wanna go really nerdy. That way you can make the exact game you want.

Not disputing any of this..  however..  to fully match it, I would have to have random roles for fuel purchase and repairs to my planes..  I would have to build a routine that monitors my flying takeoff and landings to determine stress on the airframe which leads to a servicing requirement, I would have to set-up random other airlines or players that could buy  fuel at airports that i have an FBO at, I would have to setup an experience generator that allowed me to progress in the world and be able to do more things..  I would have to setup a random generator that allowed me to buy/sell/rent aircraft if i wanted to use them...  Setting up work orders could be tricky.. etc etc etc...

No-one NEEDS to do any of this, but for those that want to, this is actually a very cheap way of doing it with everything there, ready to use and add's another layer (to me) of realism that gives my flying meaning and allows for the results of that flying ( quality of flight/technical competence/quality of landing  etc) to actually have an impact 🙂

Graham

[FPStewy 538]

40 minutes ago, Moria15 said:

I would have to set-up random other airlines or players that could buy  fuel at airports that i have an FBO

But that's also the thing, I can set up my own FBO and sell fuel, rent parking, rent and sell planes for profit to an actual online community in real time and if you play survival forget about AI doing all the work.

[bahnzo 47]

1 hour ago, MarkSC said:

OnAir is a persistent online game and has about 300% more features than FSE, thus the need for servers to run it and a subscription model to pay for those servers. Also, it is constantly being updated with new features. It's really not a high price to pay imo to combine the best of AirHauler and FSE. 

I'll have to give this a go. I really enjoy FSE, but the unwillingness to even consider updating their database is a strange one. I'm ready to try something new.