Air Hauler 2 for MSFS

[Chock 17,769]

In case you hadn't noticed, the product page for the MSFS version of Air Hauler 2 is up and running at Just Flight and can be viewed here. It's not on sale yet (should be on sale in less than two weeks). Functionality and features-wise it is essentially the same as other versions of AH2 for P3D etc although it has the newer interface which shares a bit of a look with MSFS. There'll be a fairly decent discount available via a discount code on an email from Just Flight to owners of other versions of Air Hauler which knocks about a third off the price, making it about 21 quid to buy.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Chock

[Turpentine 375]

Thanks! I'm not familiar with Air Hauler, what are the main differences with OnAir?

[Chock 17,769]

1 minute ago, Turpentine said:

Thanks! I'm not familiar with Air Hauler, what are the main differences with OnAir?

Air Hauler offers a lot more options and more 'game' (if you want it to dive into all that) than all the other programs of its type although you can use it in a very simple way if you like, plus it doesn't require a subscription. I did a sort of 'quick and dirty' review of it a while back on my channel which covers most of what it does:

 

[slashed2 53]

I personally like the AI routing/scheduling option in this compared to the OnAir work orders.  Seems one can schedule set flights and set ticket prices etc....  Will have to give this a go when released, thanks for posting.

 

[Phantoms 800]

2 hours ago, Chock said:

Air Hauler offers a lot more options and more 'game' (if you want it to dive into all that) than all the other programs of its type although you can use it in a very simple way if you like, plus it doesn't require a subscription. I did a sort of 'quick and dirty' review of it a while back on my channel which covers most of what it does:

Thorough video, thank you.

[leprechaunlive 1,852]

Does that basically turn MSFS into Euro Truck Simulator ? Looks pretty amazing, but for tube guys mainly.  

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

6 hours ago, Turpentine said:

Thanks! I'm not familiar with Air Hauler, what are the main differences with OnAir?

Used to fly exclusively with Air Hauler. However I think OnAir is vastly superior and since I got it I haven't touched Air Hauler. One of the best things with OnAir for me is the fact that I can fly for "my company" in MSFS, Xplane and P3D as the OnAir app is sim agnostic. I like the skill tree. Missions, to me, feel a lot better. They update weekly with enhancements and new stuff making the world feel more alive.

I do not at all think that Air Hauler offers more options it is definitely the other way around. Granted, as I haven't used AH in several months they might have updated it without me knowing.

EDIT: One advantage with Air Hauler however is when you want to use your new shiny aircraft. This can sometimes be a pain in the rear end in OnAir (as it is online with leaderboards and such in some of the worlds; they've had issues with people cheating). In AirHauler it was just a matter of importing it, checking the values and then you'd be good to go. I've been trying to get the JF 146 Professional to work in OnAir but I guess it's pending moderation or something..

Edited December 9, 2020 by Swe_Richard

[Mark1616 47]

5 hours ago, leprechaunlive said:

Does that basically turn MSFS into Euro Truck Simulator ? Looks pretty amazing, but for tube guys mainly.  

Not at all. You can start in a career mode with a C172 and 10k money and work your way up to a company with 100 AI pilots flying 748's from there.

[leprechaunlive 1,852]

Just now, Mark1616 said:

Not at all. You can start in a career mode with a C172 and 10k money and work your way up to a company with 100 AI pilots flying 748's from there.

Ok, but the goal is basically to get to airliners i suppose. Looks good nonetheless. 

[Mark1616 47]

1 minute ago, leprechaunlive said:

Ok, but the goal is basically to get to airliners i suppose. Looks good nonetheless. 

Only if you want to become rich. Then you have the AI pilots making more money and you still have fun with a C172 🙂

[Maniac 10]

9 minutes ago, Mark1616 said:

Only if you want to become rich. Then you have the AI pilots making more money and you still have fun with a C172 🙂

So what is the big difference when compared to Neofly, that is free.

[Mark1616 47]

4 minutes ago, Maniac said:

So what is the big difference when compared to Neofly, that is free.

Good point! Obviously NeoFly is a serious contender for the "Fun" part, while AH is more on the side of a "Tycoon" kind of games with a self-flying component.

[MarkSC 122]

I’ve tried them all, and they all have merits.  However, I am currently having fun with OnAir because it allows one to hop into any plane for an hourly rental as a pilot for hire. This allows for game play similar to FSEconomy. I am also using a random flight generator program, so I am forced to fly in unique locations (Albania was my last flight). Unlike FSEconomy, most airports have planes available for rent (I force myself to fly whatever is at the airport that the random flight generated) and all airports have profitable jobs.
 

This way of playing is possible in OnAir because one can change the settings to allow instant player transport at no cost. Last I saw, that was not possible in NeoFly and certainly not in Air Hauler, whose focus is on long term ownership or leasing of your own plane. While those two may be more realistic, my way of playing OnAir is a lot more fun in my opinion. 

[Chock 17,769]

1 hour ago, Maniac said:

So what is the big difference when compared to Neofly, that is free.

NeoFly does have the advantage of being free and I've found that it does have one thing which is quite entertaining that the other offerings do not have, and that is jobs where you fly to dangerous places and have to watch out for MANPADs, triple A and such, which is kind of entertaining. All of the choices you have for these kind of enhancements to your flight sim have various merits though.

One of the things I do like about Air Hauler is that it doesn't require you to micromanage it all the time. If life gets in the way and you don't crank it up for a month or two, your company keeps ticking along and it updates everything when you do get around to cranking it up, so you can easily buy or lease a few aeroplanes and hire some AI pilots, set up a few regularly scheduled flights on a weekly rota, and it will keep ticking along earning money so you can cheerfully leave it alone and still know that you will be able pay the bills for hangarage, maintenance, fleet leasing, pilots, aircraft insurance etc.

But having said that, if you just want to have a 'man with a van' one-plane-airline, where you fly all the flights yourself, it is good for that too. So really, it offers all points in between these two 'play styles', wherein you can if you like just use it as an airline company manager where you never drive the things yourself and concentrate instead on building up your vast empire, or you can use it as a simple 'interesting flight with a purpose' generator.

Beyond all that, the developer of AH (Slopey) is a very accessible guy who is quick to fix any issues and can easily be contacted for help if you need it via the JF Forums or via his Discord chat. And on the subject of that and some of the other offerings similar, here's an interesting comment from AH developer Slopey:

'I don't want to move AH2 to an online service like OnAir. Reasons are a) it's a lot of work to maintain, b) requires a subscription model, which I personally think is a bit of a cheek, c) makes adding aircraft/airports difficult as it's then a global database (And I believe that cause issues with OA just now). One of the requests of the AH player base was that it could be used offline, and any online stuff was purely opt in, hence VAs. The world has changed a bit since then, but there are differences between hosting online "features" compared with an online "service" - I'm way more comfortable with the former.'

Edited December 9, 2020 by Chock

[espent 1,390]

It is released now.

https://www.justflight.com/product/air-hauler-2-microsoft-flight-simulator