Where's Ben?

[dpergau 137]

I’d be happy getting the material I bought. 

[harrry 322]

53 minutes ago, dpergau said:

I’d be happy getting the material I bought. 

good thing this did not happen in Bahrein.

 Bahrain has the death penalty for murder and drug offences and corporal punishment for some offences such as stealing.

[IFR7700 228]

After stepping away from flight sim for more than a few years, I recently got the itch again and began re-loading my computer with all my old FSX files.  Of course, I wanted all the latest iterations of the software I purchased, so I began visiting all the old stomping grounds to update my files.  What a revelation   I should have known there would be big changes in the flight sim community.  PMDG left AVSIM for their own forum, (I saw that coming), some market vendors simply disappeared, A few companies just gave up (sniff for Real Air Simulations and Flight Sim Commander). Some companies have really stepped up their game.  PMDG's Operation Center is top notch, as is ORBX's ORBX Central.  Flight1 used to be clunky to re-install, but they've got everything nicely organized now.   In years past, I kept a database with all my flightsim purchases, with passwords, activation numbers, dates, etc.  What a blessing that turned out to be.  I had 338 different pieces of software that I have purchased over the years, and I'm happy to say that every piece of software that I wanted to re-install on my computer was successfully updated, with no hassle from any vendors. I did have to send out a couple of emails, and support tickets, but the response was quick and positive.

 

Then I came to Airline2Sim.  I see they had a brand-new website and didn't have the technical expertise to port over passwords.  So I went through that hassle and opened my new account with them.  It wasn't very difficult.  But when I went to my dashboard, or library, or account page (whatever they call it), I noticed I only had one purchase listed in my history.  It was for the Q400 First Officer's Training Program.  I knew I had purchased both the cadet and FO program, so I did some digging and sure enough, on April 11, 2014, I purchased the Cadet Q400 program for $29.99.  I did some more digging and found the videos for both programs tucked away safely on my hard drive, as well as backed up on separate storage.  I also distinctly remember the Airline2Sim promise that a "Captain's Program" for the Q400 was in the immediate works.  I'm glad there was no option to pre-pay for it because I was very happy with the quality and the content of the products I had already purchased and may have found myself in the same predicament some of you are in now.  I would have purchased every Boeing product they released. They really haven't produced much in the last 8 years.  Caveat Emptor I hope you guys get your money or your product. 

 

Well, I'm off to fly my beloved FSX, and maybe I'll dabble in the stunningly beautiful MSFS 2020 I just bought.

[MZwillus 2]

Would somebody be so kind and write a little instruction on how to download the videos from the web app?

I have bought the videos a while ago and as much as everyone else, I am concerned these will not be available in the future. 

[anden145 2,284]

1 hour ago, MZwillus said:

Would somebody be so kind and write a little instruction on how to download the videos from the web app?

I have bought the videos a while ago and as much as everyone else, I am concerned these will not be available in the future. 

The easiest way (and the way I ususally download them) is to use Internet Download Manager. 

[BrianT 54]

22 hours ago, anden145 said:

The easiest way (and the way I ususally download them) is to use Internet Download Manager. 

unless I'm very much mistaken there is no way to download any of the material from the new website. fortunately I had downloaded all but the new A320 stuff before Ben disappeared......again!

[Julian Roschlau 15]

Yeah the “official” download function has been disabled for a while. 
But you can still download them using a 3rd party addon. Easiest is “Internet Download Manager”. 
I ended up buying it because it’s a great tool. You can try it for free to download all the A2S stuff though. 

[roger33 1]

Vimeo Downloader works 100%

[John Alexander 6]

Sad to hear he isn't providing new content. It is actually a great video series and although it is made for the FSLabs A320 you can perfectly use it for the FBW and now the Fenix A320. Maybe the latter could motivate him to come back?

[frostycab 0]

Truthfully, I love the content that has actually been produced, but everything about Ben's disappearance and the associated radio silence has left me angry. As demonstrated by the Sherlock Holmes quality of sleuthing done by people on here, nothing bad happened. He wasn't lost to Covid or anything like that. He left, nothing more. He turned his back on a community that supported his business, without so much as footnote to say "I'm ending the project early." 

There are 6 training programs available for purchase on the site, The A320 product page makes no mention of the fact that the last videos aren't available, and likely will never be available. You only find that out after purchase. There's nothing to say that this isn't true of any of the other 5 programs, yet they are all there available for purchase but with no support whatsoever should you have any problems accessing them. All that's happening now is Ben is enjoying a new life in Bahrain, occasionally enjoying a free meal at a restaurant thanks to another poor person buying a program that they think is complete but isn't. 

Ben, you seemed to have a real passion for flight simming when A2S started out. We liked the content and we liked you. Sadly, your refusal to acknowledge your loyal customers and still take money for incomplete products from new ones leaves you sitting down there next to FSXGenius (for those who remember him) in my books. 

[NZ255 309]

He’s still interested in flight sim and can be seen commenting on this video: 

 

[dpergau 137]

On 3/4/2022 at 5:05 PM, roger33 said:

Vimeo Downloader works 100%

Thank you!  That worked perfectly.

[SYamazaki 6]

This seems like an old topic, but I really want to chime in seeing all the comments above. I just bought the A320 cadet program last week out of curiosity, it is still 25/28 videos completed but accessing them on Airline2Sim.com has had no problems. The program itself is top quality, despite it being unfinished. The available videos cover in-depth cockpit introduction, ILS/LOC/VOR DME/Visual Approach. They include a couple of full flights, both short and medium length. In my opinion, more than worth ~$49. I bought it with the full intention to call PayPal for a refund but I've since decided not to.

Some comments above suggest that Airline2Sim may be gone for good, some are hopeful that this may be one of Ben's "hiatuses", some called him out harshly and said some pretty "graphic" comments. For me, it's just bittersweet. I am sad that we may not hear from him again, and I only signed on after it's gone. But I am so glad I did before it goes away for good. Other than that, I don't want to jump into criticisms, and I prefer to keep this a welcoming community. Most of us probably have a full-time life out there away from our sim cockpit, like Ben apparently. Thanks to others above who found out that it seems he's physically well, but I am talking about psychologically, maybe he's just way too burnt out and life caught up. Being an engineering team-lead at a company, I've seen people just shut down completely because of psychological overload, they don't want to talk to anyone and walked away from familiar things, hobby, etc.

@Airline2Sim Ben, you still have fans (at least me) here even in Mar. 2023. I hope you are doing well, physically and psychologically, wherever you are. It would be nice to hear what's your plan on Airline2Sim going forward, maybe PMDG737 tutorial in MSFS? or give us an update on what's happening, or even a formal goodbye. If this is the end, then let's make it a good ending.