Whew. 

I thought this was going to be another hate thread. Glad I was wrong.

Good to hear you're enjoying the new sim.

Me? I haven't flown 2020 once since the release of 2024. To each his own and all, but I've been getting my VFR on and am glad to be taking a break from heavy metal flights.

...

So, you guys have copied the dukes over and they worked? Going to try that.

1 hour ago, JonathanC said:

Maybe off topic but would love to learn more about this works in real life. Military aside (assume you don’t really have much choice there), in cargo and vip ops in real life, do you have to find your own flights - as in, I assume you aren’t a solo pilot, you work for a company or something. And then the company assigns you to flights?

 

or are you like a pilot on call that VIPs (their assistants rather) call to take them from A-B?

That's a great question. Cargo ops are very similar to airline ops. They have scheduled legs/routes, get your assigned routes, package, dispatch and off you go. In VIP/charter ops, you can fall into three areas. One, you work for a private or corporate owner. Private, you are in a small group of pilots and you fly to where ever the owner needs to go. You may have a chief pilot and everyone follows a rotation. You may have internal or external dispatching. You may also do it yourself or the off rotation peeps may plan things for ya. A very rich person or corporation may have an actual flight department that's manned to do that stuff as well. Once out the door, you tend to handle the most of it. If you are doing it yourself, you will manage services, parking, fuel, hotels, transportation and hangers yourself. An A&P may make you more desirable. You will also do all of the planning and review everything for each leg, which is very similar to military ops. This life might require you to live in certain locations and a certain distance from the home base. 

Two, you might be in a VIP operation like Net Jets, Clay Lacy, etc. They tend to operate like an airline where you have internal support and you are scheduled to fly. Again, live in a certain location and distance from home base.

Three, you may be with a jet management company like EJM. They will have internal support like the airlines and you will be scheduled to fly for certain jet owners or do charter work.

Also, maybe you found a way to maintain your qualifications and you do the good old contract work. You post your availability and they schedule you based on it. I look at this as the sweet spot. You might fly with a jet management company or a private owner. The neat part is that you control your schedule. When you are with a private owner or corporate, you go when they say. Contract kind of gives you an opportunity to get to know certain operators and they get to know you. Get a good reputation, you could fall into the thousand a day contracts. Once you get to know peeps, they may call you from time to time to fly for what ever reason. Sometimes, their pilots may be on vacation and they need a captain or co for a trip or two. This one guy I knew went to Hong Kong to fly for an outfit. They paid for his type, put him up and he loves it. But, he is a long way from home. I also met an Austrian lady at refresher and she said she was swooped up by a private owner in the Middle East. They fly her in, she flys their flights and then they fly her home. Interesting flying out there in the biz jet world. You may do little flying or fly your tail off. You might make serious loot, but never have time off. There are some peeps who like to work at schools like Flight Safety or CAE. They like it because it's stable and they are home. But, they will meet a lot of peeps who will offer trips here and there that they can take time off to fly. These peeps may do contract also.    

7 minutes ago, RichieFly said:

So, you guys have copied the dukes over and they worked? Going to try that.

Just did that myself

2 hours ago, lwt1971 said:

how do you find the turbulence in dangerous clouds/weather?

Well, I only flew near a storm once. It was one of the career mode mission where you fly around to record a tornado. Was one of my hardest flights because I was all over the place. It was in the 208 and it was a work out. Going into clouds in general seems realistic, but I haven't flown in a storm since the tornado.

51 minutes ago, a48901 said:

Might have to wait until the the set of updates are released for it before I waste to much time on it.

Again, this was one cent from my experience and I pointed out the areas that kept "me" flying it. Cheers

7 hours ago, G550flyer said:

Yep, I know, plenty have given their opinions and I decided to wait til now. No one cares, but here is my one cent🤣.

From the beginning I pressed against the wall and couldn't get in, but eventually was able to log on. Next, I had the weird airport issue where frames took a break until the last patch that was applied. In this time since release, I flew 2020 once. That was after the FPS airport issues and I wanted to fly the 777F since I hadn't touched it after purchase. But, I have mainly flown in 2024. What made me stay in 2024? Let's have a look. 

One, the flight model has been great. Even some of the free premium deluxe aircraft handle nicely. Compared to real flight, the aircraft have that natural realistic feel to them now. The turbulence has been realistic as well. The planes behave in a manner that I am used to in reality. We are getting better in this aspect. When you are in bumpy weather on short approach and you have to work to keep the wings level, it makes you smile. I was flying the A330 into KMIA one evening and noticed the response to turbulence while hand flying. The ground control is very good now. In 2020, I find myself dancing on the rudder during takeoff and landing. All the tweaking I had to do to get something acceptable. But, in 2024, I don't need FSUIPC anymore and the rudder behaves well during crosswind takeoffs and landings. I can set that rudder and track centerline smoothly. If there is a twitchy aircraft, I can easily adjust the rudder curve making it smoother. This is key when dealing with crosswinds with gusts. You can actually notice the change in required rudder as speed changes on the runway.

Two, career mode. Yeah, right now it isn't perfect, but boy, doesn't it hit home😁. I have military, airline, VIP and cargo real world experience. When you are doing military, cargo and VIP ops, it's all on you. Those flights you find in career mode are random just like the real world. Because of this, you have to review where you are departing from and where you are going. Some of my career mode flights had me going into some sketchy places, making the approach and landing sporty. The voices are not as smooth as the early scripted flightsim flights, but they work. One thing I would like is a setting to get short flights. I tend to fly an hour or less when I have time. Once all the bugs are fixed, I'm sure some third parties may come up with ways to make it better.

Three, the clouds and weather looks great. Yeah, the weather being tied to the clock is a bummer, active sky gets a round this.

Welp, that's all for now. As more third party aircraft gets into the sim, it will blossom just as 2020 did. That's all for now, see ya!

Glad MSFS 2024 is working for you. Great plane you fly! 

49 minutes ago, Claudius_ said:

In my opinion this guy is flying winged flying sheeps (deluxe aircraft handle nicely 🙄).

There's always one. Funny how you took my statement from "Even some of the free premium deluxe aircraft handle nicely" to this "deluxe aircraft handle nicely"🤔 . By the way, sheep is plural in itself, you didn't have to add the s. Good day.

Edited December 27, 20241 yr by G550flyer
edit

6 minutes ago, RobJC said:

Glad MSFS 2024 is working for you. Great plane you fly! 

Thanks, the G550 and classic GV are my favorites outside of the DC10. The sim isn't great, but it has potential. Way better than that MS Flight😬

Thanks @G550flyer, that was a fascinating read. Appreciate your posting it

9 hours ago, G550flyer said:

One thing I would like is a setting to get short flights. I tend to fly an hour or less when I have time.

Check out the Simrate Bandit tool on flightsim.to if you're up for increasing the sim rate to speed up the longer flights. It's not required to set the sim rate for career missions (Alt-R and the + or - keys by default), but it does add an audible indication of what the sim rate is set to ("sim rate 1", "sim rate 2", etc as you press the + or - keys or whatever your default sim rate keys are if you've changed them). Other sim rate addons don't seem to work in career mode, but Simrate Bandit connects outside of the sim via API. I've used it on a handful of flights with no issue, but just be prepared to smash the - key a few times when ATC or passengers talk so you have time to respond.

Some planes are buggy when you mess with the sim rate (inaccurate fuel burn or flakey autopilot for instance), but I've had good luck with the Corvalis and Grand Caravan so far. Also, your logbook will reflect the lightning-fast flights, so if you're a purist you may want to avoid what some people consider a "cheat", but for me it has opened up a lot of longer flights that I had been avoiding due to time constraints.

3 hours ago, G550flyer said:

There's always one. Funny how you took my statement from "Even some of the free premium deluxe aircraft handle nicely" to this "deluxe aircraft handle nicely"🤔 . By the way, sheep is plural in itself, you didn't have to add the s. Good day.

Sorry, my english is like your competence in flight sims.

8 hours ago, G550flyer said:

By the way, sheep is plural in itself, you didn't have to add the s.

Come off it. Next thing you'll be telling me "aircrafts" isn't a real word!