Any recent experience with Skypark? I only fly GA. Usually, the DA62, TBM900, Hondajet, and CJ4. Would it allow me to fly those planes very early in my career?

I tried it a few months ago. Looks nice, but has very basic functionality. I would recommend alternatives like Neofly or OnAir.

4 hours ago, tjrush said:

  Any recent experience with Skypark? I only fly GA. Usually, the DA62, TBM900, Hondajet, and CJ4. Would it allow me to fly those planes very early in my career?

You can fly anything you want all the time

They abandoned it. They teased a new version for months and then went dead silent for a year now. I once went to twitch and asked that guy what’s going on and received the most childish and arrogant answer ever. Instant block and blacklist on my side to them. 

2 hours ago, qqwertzde said:

I would recommend alternatives like Neofly

Seconded. I've been messing with the beta of v4 and it is good.

 

7 hours ago, tjrush said:

  Any recent experience with Skypark? I only fly GA. Usually, the DA62, TBM900, Hondajet, and CJ4. Would it allow me to fly those planes very early in my career?

There is no "career" as such.  It's nothing more than a glorified bunch of random flights wrapped up in a shiny interface.  It has as much depth as a teaspoon of water.  Quite frankly it's a rip off.

Thank you all.  I think I'll wait for Neofly 4.

I still use Skypark every now and then as it does offer some neat flights and tours like the Rum tasting tour, there is new Greek one and there was an African one. I find those to be a fun change of pace from a strict career mode add on like Neo or A Pilots Life which I really like. Skypark can be fun for random flights in parts of the world that you may not visit in your career add-on.

I have been using the Neofly 4 beta.

it is definitely still a WIP but actually quite good.

Skypark can be really neat and add some purpose to flying. It is between a random flight generator and a full blown career/airline sim and allows you to feel like a contract pilot.

It did go very quiet for a long while and I was one of the worried users that thought it was abandoned. 
 

The developer in all fairness has started showing off a new version that will add some nice functionality but there is no timelines. I would adopt a wait and see, if you aren’t in a hurry. 
 

 

9 hours ago, tjrush said:

Thank you all.  I think I'll wait for Neofly 4.

If you make a small donation (as low as $5) you can get access to it now. Its easily worth $20+ in my opinion given how good it is. Absolute steal at that price. I've been using it and its very good. Absolutely seamless in terms of how it integrates into the sim too.

I was looking at Skypark when it just came out and figured it needed some time to mature. It is a pity that it seems to be abandoned.
Neofly is pretty good. I am using both version 3 and 4 at the moment. It is not perfect though but it is close enough and free.

Onair is an interesting alternative. It has some features that Neofly is missing like a live economy and the ability to get jobs between 2 specific airports. It doesn't have the immersion that Neofly has though. A merge of the two might be the ideal choice.

"A Pilot Life v2" also has interesting features but it focusses on being an Airline pilot instead of a private or freelance aviator.

What is currently missing is a career addon that allows multiple roles. You could start out as a freelance pilot doing odd jobs in small aircraft and built experience and reputation to get better choices in aircraft and career advancement. Through hard work or challenging missions you can advance to flying cargo aircraft if your safety record is not quite good, or flying passenger airliners or even business jets depending on your status and choice. Or you can keep on flying bush missions in Alaska or South America, ferry aircraft over the Atlantic or reposses aircraft in Florida.

And there is another type of career addons like Air Hauler but these seems more to be about airline management and less about flying.

In my experience is a great addon for casual flyers. I used it for a year but then I got some error and my career was gone and support didn't take time to go beyond suggesting reinstall, which left a bitter taste in my mouth and no reassurance something like that won't happen again. So, if you don't expect good support, it's a good addon.

3 hours ago, orchestra_nl said:

It doesn't have the immersion that Neofly has

I'm new to the idea of trying out one of these career type addons and I am mostly about GA flying these days and noticed your comment about immersion (which is why we're all here any way right?)...can you elaborate a bit on what makes it immersive for you?

46 minutes ago, hangar said:

I'm new to the idea of trying out one of these career type addons and I am mostly about GA flying these days and noticed your comment about immersion (which is why we're all here any way right?)...can you elaborate a bit on what makes it immersive for you?

When you start a flight the dispatch office tells you the cargo is loading or passenges are boarding. There are a couple of different messages, telling you something about the trip (passengers going to concert, businessman who are in a hurry etc.). You will also hear passengers or cargo being loaded.
O, and the cute girl from dispatch tells you frequently you are her favourite pilot😊

After takeoff she wishes you a good trip. If you have events or failures ticked, you can have these during the flight. These are random and you can set how much chance there is. Sometimes you need to divert because a passenger gets sick, or one of the passengers is wanted by the police, or something breaks down and you will need to land.

If you land hard and you have delicate cargo you will hear the sound of breaking glass and lose (part of ) the cargo. If you crash the aircraft the emergency services are called. You will always survive but can lose the aircraft if you had no insurance. If you are flying VIP's they will complain more easily if you are flying or landing rough, regular passengers will usually start to complain if you are doing loopings'n'stuff.

After landing the lady from dispatch congratulates if you greased it or tells you that the landing was too hard.

After some time some of the commentary gets old but its always nice to get feedback on your landing and hearing you are the favourite pilot (there are a couple of variations on this) never gets old.
Knowing that landing hard can cost you money (and maintenance) really helps to do your best when landing.