I tried them but found them to restrictive.

Prefer to use a Virtual Airline.

Easily find one or 2 that suite your needs.

For those of you with Sayintentions.ai I find the SkyOps missions very satisfying. Gives a great reason to fly, gives a little synopsis of your mission, generates realistic missions for the area and plane you are using. Sayintentions keeps track of your flight hours and moves you up their ranks and reward badges, but most importantly it's not a grinding system. You can fly whatever plane you want wherever you want and choose from different mission types. So it has a lot of freedom and variety. Really liking it so far and I have tried a lot of the career options out there. I think i like this one the best.

4 hours ago, decker89 said:

For those of you with Sayintentions.ai I find the SkyOps missions very satisfying. Gives a great reason to fly, gives a little synopsis of your mission, generates realistic missions for the area and plane you are using. Sayintentions keeps track of your flight hours and moves you up their ranks and reward badges, but most importantly it's not a grinding system. You can fly whatever plane you want wherever you want and choose from different mission types. So it has a lot of freedom and variety. Really liking it so far and I have tried a lot of the career options out there. I think i like this one the best.

that's more like a dispatch / route generation than a career I guess. 

I initially used AirHauler 2 but it was way too much about airline management.  Then moved on to A Pilot's Life Chapter 2 and used it primarily for its value for having RW routes to use as part of the product, more importantly for me used it for its flight scoring routine.  Flying sims have no real consequences as does RW flying so using a scoring routine to keep your head in the game from departure to arrival creates some artificial consequences which I enjoy having.  I got tired of APL2's penalizing me to needing to pause the sim because of household demands and really did not like the lack of user control over automated route options when flying for a specific airlines.  They overcame that with a Tool option, but then I learned about Self Loading Cargo which is a masterpiece of creative design, has a better scoring routine and offers both flight and crew management, in differnt languages.  It's a WIP and it needs more voice content options but the dev is doing everything I think currently possible to address these things and add new ones.  Highly recommend this product.

I don't use them either.  I also don't use career mode in 2024.  I tried a few flights but it seemed super corny.

 

22 minutes ago, Noel said:

I initially used AirHauler 2 but it was way too much about airline management.  Then moved on to A Pilot's Life Chapter 2 and used it primarily for its value for having RW routes to use as part of the product, more importantly for me used it for its flight scoring routine.  Flying sims have no real consequences as does RW flying so using a scoring routine to keep your head in the game from departure to arrival creates some artificial consequences which I enjoy having.  I got tired of APL2's penalizing me to needing to pause the sim because of household demands and really did not like the lack of user control over automated route options when flying for a specific airlines.  They overcame that with a Tool option, but then I learned about Self Loading Cargo which is a masterpiece of creative design, has a better scoring routine and offers both flight and crew management, in differnt languages.  It's a WIP and it needs more voice content options but the dev is doing everything I think currently possible to address these things and add new ones.  Highly recommend this product.

Oh…Air Hauler 2…That rings a loud bell from my FSX days, thanks to Just Flight, I think…

I was getting promoted quite regularly up the ranks (even sharing my achievements with a certain family member only to a lukewarm response…🙂…), to be able to even handle airliners in my operations. I was hiring AI pilots to do my job, when I had to be away on my daily chores e.g., to pick up life-sustaining groceries and such…🙂…It was neat.

Of course, AI, as we know it today, was practically non-existent those days.

Like Ryan, I dabbled in it a bit in MSFS2024, but, TBH, did not find it very appealing to my taste.

YMMV.

I do not need career addons, or career mode in the simulator itself. Free flight lets me do what I want, when I want, and at my own pace. Challenges have never been of interest to me. My enjoyment in flight simulation comes from immersion, experience, and atmosphere.

Edited February 16Feb 16 by Christopher Low

I really enjoy having purpose to my flights, so I'm all about career addons. I can't fly without OnAir for example.

To me it makes sense – commercial aviation is about solving some sort of a challenge, and that gives an extra dimension of immersion beyond just operating the aircraft. I also like the idea that every flight has a reward at the end. Going A to B without any sort of progression just makes me feel like I wasted time. At the same time, I also can't stand the idea of flying for an established airline and set routes. Give me the mercenary world of charters – that's where the fun is. All of this is subjective of course, it's just how my brain is wired.

I also like variety, so I'll often do mini-campaigns within larger ones just to shake things up.

For example, I ran a very small charter airline based out of Tatry in Slovakia, operating into various destinations within Europe. A couple of E170s and an A320. At some point I got a contract to help run a few domestic charters within Iran, operating out of Mehrabad International. At about that time PIA was having issues once again, and pilgrims were allowed to travel for Mecca again, so it made sense there would be some sort of opportunity. Took a lot of planning to set it up – figure out where we would be based, where we would get fuel, what facilities are available, what schedules would look like, what staff we'll need, and even just how to relocate our A320 there to begin with. Can't fly over Russia, and the more countries you cross the bigger the headache is with clearances – so finding the right flight plan that minimises the number of airspaces to cross was an interesting challenge.

So then actually performing the relocation flight over there, after all that prep, was one of the most memorable ones I've done in ages. About 40 staff boarded the plane in Tatry – several crews to cover shifts, flight attendants, mechanics, and a whole bunch of spare parts. There was just such a sense of adventure, not just an A to B flight, but the start of something cool. Departing into the early sunrise, hearing callsigns and voices change as you cross various airspaces, and the scenery of course was stunning. Arriving in Mehrabad was like a completely different world. 

Having that purpose made it really exciting and I like that every single person on that flight had an actual job to do in keeping things going. And of course it was only the start of the job – getting familiar with local procedures, staying on top of maintenance, keeping it all profitable etc was quite a challenge. Sadly a couple of months later tensions flared up and was only getting worse. That was the end of the contract and had to return right as Iran was about to close its airspace.

And not soon afterwards my little airline went bankrupt, but that was another story.

 

Edited February 16Feb 16 by Georgleboui

@Georgleboui
I totally see where you’re coming from. There was period of several months (in my FSX days) I was intensely into it, enjoying the challenges; meeting delivery deadlines, and focussed on qualifying for bigger airplanes (those smaller Cessnas and Bush airplanes didn’t make me enough money…🙂…).

However, I could not sustain my interest in it. The novelty wore off after sometime. I already had a job, and didn’t need another job in my spare time meant for relaxation.

Plus, as @Christopher Low said above, I wished to fly what I wanted and when I wanted, at my own pace. I recall flying Rick Piper’s Chipmunk for a bit, and then switching to the PMDG MD-11 in the same day…🙂…for my (limited) sim hours.

The variety of being a freelancer simmer is what I’ve always enjoyed most, and do to this day.

But, I respect those who wish to add purpose and challenge to their sim activities in our virtual world of aviation, which surely has its own rewards and a genuine sense of achievement.

I use Ifly Schedules's Career mode, helps give purpose to the flights and adds in some extra challenge with the landing limits, exhaustion and ascent/descent limits. It also helps go to new regions of the world and visit a lot more smaller airports especially. And the biggest pro for me is how much the developer listens to feedback and suggestions and how willing he is to implement almost any requested feature. It is currently in alpha but looks really promising and fun. I usually alternate career and free flight days so it ensures I never get bored of either and being able to do both on the same website is a really helpeful thing.

I used many over the years. FSCargo, FSPassengers, FSEconomy, OnAir, AirHauler, NeoFly as well as been part of some VAs. While no longer supported, FSPassengers was a great one. FSEconomy used to be a great community in the forums (and still could be as I have drifted away a few years ago) as well as a free and Pilot For Hire setup.

I like that NeoFly offers banner towing which is unique. However, I've settled with OnAir for about three or four years now. It has the right amount of balance and big enough sandbox where you can take on the role of strictly a pilot showing up and just flying to being a owner/operator from mom and pop to a major airline. It offers various types of jobs, need for maintenance and repairs, plays friendly with all kinds of airport and plane addons.

Having come from FSEconomy where I learned about burnout, I took my company building in OnAir at a slow and enjoyable pace. Having spent a year or so just being a solo act, I started using AI pilots and growing my ops. I fly only small GAs so I was doing cargo jobs and enjoy occasionally doing air tours or sightseeing tours. Theres just the right amount of blend or realism and ladder building to have a challenge but not so much that its a business simulator. Additionally they offer 4 different categories or worlds which offer more or less realism.

I've "retired" as a flight line pilot in OnAir and just use it as place holders for myself and a few planes. instead, I've taken on a more enjoyable role as a Flight Dispatcher and Fleet Manager of a few C402s for route flying and TBMs for VIP charters. I found it so enjoyable that I created a light board wall of the airports my company services since AI pilots will divert to the alternative is the weather is below mins and a few map boards for the coverage area my VIP pilots service.

I love how the lights are always different and can show the TAFs as well as why fields are MVFR. IFR or LIFR. Heres a look at my setup where I use the laptop as my dispatch computer. Some pics are with the hangars lights off to better see the boards.

 

 

 

 

So yeah, there are many options and I recommend using one or more if you are looking for reason to fly since at its core, P3D, XPlane and MSFS are all just simulators (with MSFS now offering a career mode, although still buggy as I read it).

Edited February 17Feb 17 by Ident

I’ve been really impressed with the new iFlySchedules career app. It takes the structure of classic “career mode” add‑ons and wraps it in a clean, modern interface that makes planning and tracking flights feel purposeful instead of random hops. The built‑in multiplayer support is a huge plus, letting friends fly the same schedules and compare progress, which really brings a virtual airline or small group of pilots to life.

What stands out most, though, is how responsive the developer is. Feedback and feature requests are acknowledged quickly, and I’ve already seen several changes and quality‑of‑life improvements pushed out in short order based on community input. That kind of fast iteration makes the app feel like a living project that’s actively tuned to how we actually fly, and it gives me a lot of confidence investing my time and career progress into it.

https://iflyschedules.com/

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I'm still getting my feet wet with Neofly and have been greatly enjoying that with MSFS2020 - default 2020 has no career mode, so after several free flights to landmarks and exploring the world update content, plus the landing challenges, you run out of structured activities and the experience seemed to get repetitive. I really like that Neofly gets you going to places you normally wouldn't, landing at fields and smaller strips while starting out as a GA pilot, all hand-flying, no AP in any of the starter planes, you have to earn that luxury lol. Getting a lot of landing practice and VFR hours, the Illicit Cargo missions are a fun challenge, though I agree with the previous poster who mentioned the time-sensitive missions are a bit difficult to do without rushing/skipping pre-flight routines etc. I really like that once you progress to a larger GA craft than the starter ones, you can start taking multiple missions, and also fill extra weight up with marketplace goods for a little extra profit. I find the risk-reward payoff is greater when using Neofly, as crashing is a massive setback and to be avoided at all costs; really ups the stakes and forces me to fly safely and appropriately, do go-arounds and fly-overs vs GPS straight ins. That rush you get when you make a grass runway landing with two cargo missions and goods on board is very satisfying 🙂 They also have rented planes and insurance for owned planes, making the 'crashed plane due to Sim Bug' less annoying that it would be otherwise (there also a backup save feature I found way too late after I restarted my profile following one too many crashed planes due to glitches).

I would say that's actually my only issue with Neofly, when the Sim/Game bugs out and causes a stall warning or crash, you lose points, money and/or EXP for something out of your control, that always feels bad. One time I was cold and dark setting up my weights for the mission in an NXCub - only to overload my cargo by about 10%, and before I could drop my fuel down to compensate, the plane rocked back onto its tail and "Crashed" deleting my rental plane and forcing me to lose my deposit. Now I just backup my save before every session (and always take insurance on your starter plane!)