Orbx skypark or air hauler 2? Looking for purpose

[flyinpilot212121 724]

Good day simmers,

looking to see what people’s thoughts are on orbx skypark or air hauler 2. There are so many interesting and small tucked away places to fly in msfs that I’m looking for a tool that will provide airports that I would not typically choose in msfs, as well as looking for purpose within the sim.

anyone use any of these products? Would really appreciate some opinions before buying. 
 

thanks

[Dominique_K 10,133]

This may help

 

[CaptainNick 575]

Long time FSE user here. I enjoy it immensely. But what I enjoy the most isn’t the game world, it’s the community. Specifically the flying group I’m a member of. Even if I stopped FSE I would still be active there.

[NismoRR 191]

I’ve used them all in the past, FSE for over a decade, and now I only use the Skypark. Currently on a 22 hop tour of Norway. Still being developed but the devs are very attentive and looking to bring its customers a great platform. 

[flyinpilot212121 724]

4 minutes ago, CaptainNick said:

Long time FSE user here. I enjoy it immensely. But what I enjoy the most isn’t the game world, it’s the community. Specifically the flying group I’m a member of. Even if I stopped FSE I would still be active there.

I’ve used FSE in the past, while a good program and appreciate the freeware aspect of it as well as the work that goes into this by the programmers etc, but for one reason or another, I just never seem to stick with it and not sure why.

[Turpentine 375]

Personally my favorite is Neofly. I had tried it last Fall but was underwhelmed, then downloaded the update about a month ago and have been loving it. The newest version from last week has introduced an eight-mission campaign.

[ricka47 611]

I've used them all except for Neofly and am having fun with The SkyPark. It gives a good reason to fly and they have a lot of new stuff coming in the future.

[Tomaz Drnovsek 440]

I used both a lot. They are both excellent products but totally different in my opinion. My experience is that with AH2 it's all about the money and managing the company and with Skypark it's all about the flying and exploring the Earth. When I was using AH2 I was mostly flying in the same areas all the time, now I'm using Skypark exclusively and I almost always land at the different airport and I explored places I never even knew existed. It all depends what you're looking for - do you primarily want to manage the airline company or do you mostly want to fly?

[decker89 110]

If you just want to fly and explore and not be tied down to running a simulated company with the limitations that brings, then Skypark is great. Especially when you are on their discord channel there is a lot of great missions and interaction. Since you're not running a company you have the freedom to fly whatever planned you want for the mission. It gives purpose for flight and is probably the best for exploring the world.

Air hauler, or onair, they simulate running a company which brings other aspects into the game, but also brings some limitations as to which aircraft you can fly from any given location. So it depends on what your into.

[The Moose 1,177]

I should fire up Skypark again some time...  bought it months ago and used it a little bit but it completely lacked any depth at all. There was nothing to spend your earnings on and there was seemingly no structure whatsoever.  It was basically a £30 random mission generator with a great interface.  Has it improved?

Air Hauler i used in previous sims and enjoyed. Last time I used it previous to MSFS was a good 6 years ago though.   Bought it for MSFS and realised within 10 mins it wasn't for me any longer. It's a spreadsheet simulator.  If you like ancient interfaces and spending more time managing stuff than flying then it could be for you.

Then I found NeoFly.   For me, easily the best of these type of programs.  Before you spend money on something like Skypark give NeoFly go. at least if it's not for you it's cost you nothing to try.   I wasted £60 before I found it.. don't make the same mistake!

[rwalls 25]

I have them both but I only use AH2 now. Skypark focuses on the flying but there is not much depth in flying from one airport to another. I can do that on my own or with my VAs.

AH2 gives me the same flying opportunities but now I have to manage the airline as well. I have several small airlines (two planes each) so I can fly in different parts of the country or world. Unless you are in it for the airline management experience it can become overwhelming with too many planes. There is a cargo aspect where you select cargo jobs but you need to make sure you can deliver on time and make a profit. In addition to setting up routes can can be flown by me or AI pilots I can also have ad hoc flights. These ad hoc flights are essentially charter flights. I love flying these with the CJ4 or sometimes the G36.

Hope this helps.

Richard

[Simple B 141]

24 minutes ago, The Moose said:

I should fire up Skypark again some time...  bought it months ago and used it a little bit but it completely lacked any depth at all. There was nothing to spend your earnings on and there was seemingly no structure whatsoever.  It was basically a £30 random mission generator with a great interface.  Has it improved?

 

Not sure if ior how it has improved, having only recently purchased, however it is not all random, they do create specific types of missions or multi point tours that focus on specific areas, often these relate to the Sim update countries to help discover these refreshed areas.

For me it is fine, still nothing to do with the imaginary cash and that suits me well, I don't want to manage my planes/pilots and some dodgy lending facilities. I just fire it up every once on a while and can select something that takes me anywhere different while selecting exactly what I want to fly, whether that be a new addition to my hangar or old.

[kerosene31 349]

1 hour ago, flyinpilot212121 said:

I’ve used FSE in the past, while a good program and appreciate the freeware aspect of it as well as the work that goes into this by the programmers etc, but for one reason or another, I just never seem to stick with it and not sure why.

Yeah, I've used FSE for a long time now and put tons of hours in, but I think the big issue is ultimately to make money you need to find a good FBO with regular assignments, and just loop back and forth. 

The default jobs aren't really worth doing.  You can make a ton of money finding a loop between 2 airports that are close together and ferrying passengers, but flying the same route gets old.  I find myself flying where the FBOs are instead of where I really want to. 

[CaptainNick 575]

10 minutes ago, kerosene31 said:

Yeah, I've used FSE for a long time now and put tons of hours in, but I think the big issue is ultimately to make money you need to find a good FBO with regular assignments, and just loop back and forth. 

The default jobs aren't really worth doing.  You can make a ton of money finding a loop between 2 airports that are close together and ferrying passengers, but flying the same route gets old.  I find myself flying where the FBOs are instead of where I really want to. 

What I like about it, is that there are several ways to make a living. You can do the boring thing and just run green jobs in a network. You can make money doing this. My group has a few of these setup with hundreds of jobs at the hub's going out to the spokes. You can also hunt down the VIP jobs in faster biz jets or turbo props which you can easily make a killing with, or get something bigger and haul all the cargo jobs atm. Its a matter of how much effort you want to put into it. Greenies back and forth are easy mindless money. VIP and Cargo take the right planes in the right areas and you have to do some legwork to find and string them together.

[Chock 17,769]

This review i did is for Air Hauler 2 for P3D/FSX, but the MSFS version is functionally identical. It covers literally every feature in it, so you can get an idea of whether or not it will float your boat:

 

Edited July 16, 2021 by Chock