ntrlsur 0 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Hello folks. I have been a member of the forum for a while but have always lurked in awe at the companies that you have built. Well I figured now is the time to give it a go and see what I could do as an owner/operator/pilot. The following is the start of DC Freight.. 07/24/13 After a crap load of soul searching and a few bottles of vodka I decided to follow my dream. I decided I was going to be a business owner and professional pilot come hell or high water. So after selling my motorcycle,car,house and what was left of my soul I caught flight SWA460 from Chicago to Portland Oregon. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA460 I was very excited about the new opportunity in my life but I also knew that it was going to be mentally and psychically demanding. I also knew that after a 1700 mile flight I still had another 230 or so to go when I touched down so I took the chance to sleep as much as possible. I got into PDX around 1340 local and headed right to the taxi stand. Before leaving for this new life journey I hit the local craigslist up and I was able to find what I thought was going to be be a somewhat reliable car. I should have known it was going to be a clunker but with all of available cash tied up in this "New" life I figured since I was already an SOB, driving a POS wouldn't be that bad. Besides since I was now broke and couldn't afford an apartment or a house then I could take turns sleeping in my ford and my airplane. I always wanted a mobile home.. When i picked it up I found that it ran fine. I was now the new owner of a 1994 Ford Explorer in blue with 213K miles on the clock with a V-6 and 4WD. It should serve my needs.After picking up my "New" mobile home I started out on the drive to Sequim ,WA. The drive was uneventful and I arrived 3 hours later at what was to be my new base of operations 2WA1 aka Diamond Point. I headed over to the field management offices and was told my first and lasts month rent check was paid and that I should wonder around the area to get my bearings.Figured I would get a few snaps of my new home. My car at the office.. A nice Cub a few guys are working on A possible place to rent if I can make money. I made it over to my assigned parking place where I found this.. My brand spanking new Cessna 206H Stationair. After it was all said and done it cost me roughly $267K, add to that the cost of the plane ticket $550 plus deposit and rental at 2WA1 $5000 and my ford $1000 subtract out the $203K I got from selling my house, car, motorcycle and soul I am left owing "The Man" about $72K give or take. I better see if I can get some business flowing or I am going to be SOL.. Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,286 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Hi ntrisur, welcome to Mutley's Hanger as a new poster. Good luck with your new venture, I admire your tenacity and derringdo. I have found the Ford Explorer to be a very comfortable sleeper, you made a good choice. Link to post Share on other sites
ntrlsur 0 Posted July 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Thanks Bret. I was able to get some jobs lined up so I am off to shrink my debt. Hopefully I don't wreck it because I can't afford insurance yet.. Link to post Share on other sites
Hero540 0 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 This is a great story, and I'm definitely looking forward to more! Can't wait. Also, outstanding pictures. Superb graphics and to me it looks like ORBX PNW scenery which is always a blast. Thanks again for sharing, --Lee Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Nice beginning. I can't help but wonder if Orbx had published New England if all you guys would be flying out of Maine? John Link to post Share on other sites
ntrlsur 0 Posted July 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 DC Freight Update... I was able to get a solid lead on a guy that needed some needed some poultry moved out to WN65 Elma, Washington. I didn't want chickens stinking up my new plane but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. While over in Elma I was able to take advantage of a breakdown of a competitors aircraft and was able to move some shrimp and some DVDs to WN55 for the owner of the airstrip. At the end of business on the 24th I was able to add 11K to my bank account and add 1.5% to my reputation. Not a bad start. I ended up spending the night at WN55 and sleeping in my plane. Great view of the stars and a great sunset. The next morning I was up early to get back into civilization and check my voice mail to see if anything new had came up. While cruising north I was finally able to get a Cell signal and a guy left me a voicemail that he had 600 kilos lbs of "boxes" that he needed moved from 65WA back to my home base. I typically would not take on cargo that was unidentifiable but rent is going to be due before I know it, he had a nice friendly voice and they were willing to pay 6K cash to move it. Cash is king so I changed flight plans and headed over to 65WA in Tenino, WA to pick up the load. When I got there I found out the guy was with the NSA and he needed to get some servers back to Diamond Point for the regular Twotter flight back to Seattle. I grabbed his stuff as well as him loaded up and headed home. The rest of the day was a blurr. I ended up making 3 more runs the rest of the day and was able to bring the days total to $9300. If I can keep this up I might be able to sleep in a bed by Aug 1st. After the 25th I had a few bucks in my pocket so I figured I would head out and find the local watering hole. Needless to say I needed a few days to recover from what had to have been a "poisoned" dinner. I couldn't even look at the plane until this morning. When I finally got around to checking my messages I found that I had a couple of long range jobs on the board that I was not very excited about. But I when I got more information about the load weights and destinations I was able to come up with a great plan. After making sure all my ducks were in a row I head out into the PNW on what turned out to be a great day of flying. I was able to add another 16K to my savings. After a couple of OK landings on some really bad grass strips I decided to put insurance on the C206. If I didn't then i had a feeling this would be another failed small business. Net-worth 97,874 Current Cash -37,679 Monthly Overhead 799.07 Reputation %44.00 Jobs Taken 13 Jobs Completed 13 Hours logged 8.82 Difficulty Hard Link to post Share on other sites
ntrlsur 0 Posted July 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Nice beginning. I can't help but wonder if Orbx had published New England if all you guys would be flying out of Maine? John Thanks John.. Well its hard to say. If you are going to be low and slow you might as well be low and slow over some good looking terrain. I tried to start up in Alaska and it was o.k. but it was all blah once you got outside of the big towns alot more smaller strips to go into but it was hard to find half of them. Link to post Share on other sites
ntrlsur 0 Posted July 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 This is a great story, and I'm definitely looking forward to more! Can't wait. Also, outstanding pictures. Superb graphics and to me it looks like ORBX PNW scenery which is always a blast. Thanks again for sharing, --Lee Thanks Lee. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 I decided to put insurance on the C206. If I didn't then i had a feeling this would be another failed small business. Good move... John Link to post Share on other sites
Mistwalker 3 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 What? You're flying uninsured?? Shameful! Welcome aboard, ntrisur. Great first post and nice pics. Looking forward to seeing how you progress. Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,286 Posted July 29, 2013 Report Share Posted July 29, 2013 Nice beginning. I can't help but wonder if Orbx had published New England if all you guys would be flying out of Maine? John That would be a very distinct possibility because it is also a very pretty area but the main reason for flying in the PNW is the views and ORBX spent a lot of time creating this area(it shows) compared to the other post PNW areas. @ntrlsur- Good thinking on getting insurance, it is a must in this tough business. Glad to see your earning some pocket change, with some hard work you will be rolling in the dough. Don't forget to buy a case of baking soda to help alleviate some of those less that pleasant smelling loads. Link to post Share on other sites
ntrlsur 0 Posted July 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Question for all of you airhauler longer timers. I run AH on a networked computer via WideFS I can't get the simconnect piece to inject traffic into FSX. Is there a special simconnect version needed? the traffic generator just sits at waiting to connect. I didn't see anything on the justflight forums about it so figured i would ask over here. Link to post Share on other sites
Bobby 0 Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Very nice screen shots !!!!! I live in the PNW now and enjoy reading your adventures. Thank you for posting Bobby Link to post Share on other sites
Hero540 0 Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 Question for all of you airhauler longer timers. I run AH on a networked computer via WideFS I can't get the simconnect piece to inject traffic into FSX. Is there a special simconnect version needed? the traffic generator just sits at waiting to connect. I didn't see anything on the justflight forums about it so figured i would ask over here. Unfortunately I do not know, as I run Air Hauler on the same machine I use to fly, and so my AI pilots, (when I have them) traffic is injected no problems. I didn't have to do anything special with simconnect. This is probably going to be an assinine question, but in your Air Hauler options have you made sure to check the box to tell it to show AI traffic for FSX and that you have some AI pilots first? That is the only thing Air Hauler's traffic generator is injecting to the sim, your AI pilots flying your planes. If you don't have any AI pilots and you don't have them set up for a job at the same time you're flying you won't see or hear them on the comms, but the traffic generator still starts up and waits, in case it is needed. Like I said, I think my suggestions were probably already known and tried by you, so you'll have to forgive me if that doesn't work. Hopefully a more experienced user of the WideFS option can come and give some real help. Good luck! Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted July 31, 2013 Report Share Posted July 31, 2013 Don't use WideFS so can't add much to this.... John Link to post Share on other sites
ntrlsur 0 Posted August 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 I do have show AI traffic for FSX selected. no big deal just thought I would ask. Thanks for the input guys.. Hopefully I can get another chapter added to this story for the weekend. Link to post Share on other sites
ntrlsur 0 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 **DC Freight Update** Its been a long road, its been a hard road. After a lot of flying, hustling, cutting safety margins and down right lying to the FAA about total flight hours, as of 08/04 I am in the black. I have enough cash saved and jobs lined up that I can actually afford to take a few days off. This did not come without some hard times. The day after I broke even a took a gig delivering some Computer supplies from Redmon into Portland. Great views all the way up to Redmond to pickup the load. Well wouldn't you know it while in the local FOB to check on weather and pay for the AVGAS I took on I met a young lady. Well it turns out she had a friend and well one thing lead to another and well... As it stands that load got delivered late and I took the hit in reputation but it was well worth it. I was able to grab a picture of them before I left. On 08/07 I flew the airplane without a working flap motor. It seized up on final into CBR2. The runway was 3700 feet long according to my charts I was lightly loaded flying in to pickup cargo. The low fuel light had just come on so there was no way I was going to be able to divert. It was getting dark so I had to put it down. I made my piece with the Chief Air Hauler pilot and started my approach. I was able to hold an approach speed of about 89 knots with the stall warning chirping at me every 5 seconds or so but not completely buzzing. I landed long trying to bleed off as much speed as possible before touchdown and rode the brakes hard. When I came to a complete stop i had another 400 feet of runway. Just when I touched down it had started to rain. I finally figured out what it people meant when they say it was "Rode hard and put away wet". If my plane was a women I would have went to jail for what I just did to her. But any landing you can walk away from is a good one right? I slept in my bird and in the morning I was able to trade 3 packs of cigarettes for a used electric motor that I figured I could rig up to get me out of here. There are no facilities so I was going to be stuck if I couldn't come up with something. I also traded a local my backup GPS unit for 20 gallons of 91/96UL. It wasn't 100LL but my airplane burned it just fine and I was able to take my load of Beauty Supplies on to CYGE in Golden British Colombia. There I was able to buy real AVGAS and get my flap motor replaced. It worked out alright because I sold the make shift flap motor to a guy who had an corvette and wanted to upgrade the motor from a vacuum powered system to an electric one. The repair set me back close to 4K. I shall leave you with some pictures that I have taken over the last few weeks. No real order to them just random ones for any one of the flights.. Ohh one last thing. I was able to rent that trailer I have always wanted.. Now I actually have a place to crash.. DC Freight Totals as of today.. Current Cash 30,799 Net Worth 167,314 Monthly Overhead 3017 Reputation 51.50 Hours of sleep since the start of this adventure less the 6 a night. Link to post Share on other sites
Bobby 0 Posted August 12, 2013 Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Very nice screen shots and love reading your adventures. What do you have for airport scenery? (especially the ones with a pool ) I just installed some good photoreal scenery for the PNW and the airportss you have look inviting. Bobby Link to post Share on other sites
Hero540 0 Posted August 12, 2013 Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Amazing stuff man! Great job, please keep posting these. Link to post Share on other sites
ntrlsur 0 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Very nice screen shots and love reading your adventures. What do you have for airport scenery? (especially the ones with a pool ) I just installed some good photoreal scenery for the PNW and the airportss you have look inviting. Bobby I am using ORBX PNW along with most of their airports in the region. The chicks came from W16 Monroe. The peopleflow technology they came up with is outstanding. If you get the chance I suggesting downloading their BOB. Its basically a "person" that can move around in any FSX area. Load it up at an airport and you can use your AC controls to move around the field and surrounding areas. Its pretty nice.. Link to post Share on other sites
ntrlsur 0 Posted August 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2013 Amazing stuff man! Great job, please keep posting these. Thanks.. Link to post Share on other sites
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