Wishing I had more chances at landing

[TNguitar 2]

It's my one huge gripe with AH.  I feel like the makers are basically calling me stupid or too dishonest to accept bad landings WHEN I FEEL READY TO!!!   I am not an experienced simmer and am still learning to land.  Plus, I use different planes, have no crew tohelp with all the tasks during landing setup, sometimes the planes aren't modled well either, and so I crash or make a bad landing and ruin my company until it makes me simply want to just use AI pilots or stop playing all together.

 

Crashed my DC3 in the mountains on a horrible Canada runway.  Lost the leased plane, all my money, andd to top it off, AH gave damage to all my other planes and knocked them down to 40 percent from 100 percent.  It cost me over a million all together and I am now just about broke, so I feel like just quitting paying because I don't want to have to start another company. 

 

I hope in AH2 that the maker can give us a cuple extra chances at landing, or just give a option to drop the flight and have to refly it without penalty.

 

Look, if I'm buying the game, is there really such a thing as cheating my own game that I play for myself?  Every shooter game I have ever played let you save your progress so you could go back very near where yo got killed.  I would have not finished or played a game very long if it made you start back all the way at the beginning of the level you were killed on. 

 

I am a grown man, I don't have a lot of time to play Flight sim, I am honest enough with myself to NOT USE extra landings when I get good enough not to have to.  How can it hurtbto give the buyers of the software MORE OPTIONS?   They need to give people who aren't great at landings and who don't have an hour to setup a flight plan detailing the approach, weather, mountains and all that.  By giving only one landing they are DISCOURAGING me from flying myself and driving me away from the game.

 

There really is no defense for this strategy when it simply boils down to "We don't think you are honest enough with yourself to decide for yourself when you want to play it with more reality".  That's really the bottom line and I don't see any way for the makers to escape backing in to that final statement. They don't trust me to have fun with the game while learning and eventually getting better equiped to not use extra attempts at landing.  I hope they look hard in to this for AH2.

[Quickmarch 488]

@Jeff,

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time of it.

Can I make a few suggestions?

Flight Simulation is a "simulation" (an electronic copy of the real world). It really is not a "game" in the true sense of the word. In the Real World (RW) it is necessary to learn to fly the aircraft. This includes takeoffs, enroute pilotage, and landings. If you're really into self-flagellation, you might even buy one and learn all about maintenance, AD's, insurance and fuel prices.

The really good thing about the simulator is that you don't really die when you make a serious mistake - this makes it a little closer to a game. However, you do pay a small price. In the case of Air Hauler, you pay simulated dollars (or euros, whatever) for your mistakes. If you simply fly, without getting involved in AH, you get to do things the same way as a game - you crash, you reload, and you get another life.

There are lots of people out here in the simulation world who will be happy to answer your questions and help you to learn to fly. I believe you would be a lot happier if you parked the Air Hauler aircraft and learned some of the basics before picking it up again.

In the RW it is very, very rare to find a pilot who flies a multitude of different aircraft on any given day. Most spend hundreds of hours becoming proficient on a single type. If you pick one aircraft, learn to handle it, then start your Air Hauler career with that aircraft, you will likely get much more enjoyment out of your simulation experience.

Just my 2 cents.

Welcome to Mutley's Hangar.

[TNguitar 2]

Thoughtful post, thatnk you.  You are right, but that's just the problem.  I am NOT playing (or simming) AH right now, not because I don't want to, but because I am at my base with no plane.  I am looking at days maybe until I can buy one, I can't lease below 50 percent rep, and I am at 45 with no way to fly myself.  So I have to wait until my AI pilots can make enough money.  Do the makers of the game really WANT me to stop playing their game and move on to one of my others, like the discover Europe flights, or pole to pole?  I have both, and havent tried the Europe yet, so now I am off to do that and will close AH, and maybe not bother opening it again, do they really want that rather than give me a simple option to say, have two extra attempts at landing, or maybe give one redo with an fscuip save, and then an option to simply cancel the flight and go back to base and have to fly it again or give the job to an AI.  In other words, goodness, give me a get out of jail free card for my flights.  I promise, I'm adult enough and honest enough to not use the get out of jail free card when I feel I can handle it.  I could then even start two companies, ne using the get out of jail free cards and the othr strictly realism. 

 

So this will play a huge factor in whether I buy AH2 or not.  I hope they realize that options they give me are never a BAD thing.  I want to assure them I am adult enough to know how to manage my flight sim fun, and how to start a company with complete realism where I won't use the get out f jail free card.  But I will have that option when I WANT it so that my company wont be ruined because I don't have enough time in the RW to take an hour detailing my flight plan around mountains and such.  Had I had the chance to just stop the flight and reset the job I would have then waited until tomorrow and planned out the flight better and enjoyed knowing I learned something without ruining al the progress I had made in the game building up my fleet. 

 

As you said, it is a sim, but no matter what, as you said, we don't die, which means n matter how real we try to make it, it will always truly be a game.  So give me the options I want so that I can enjoy it, the same as being able to save my game in doom before I walk around a corner and get mauled by one of those pink gorillas lol.

 

As I am typing, I just heard the cheer for a job finished, my DC4 Buffalo livery plane just made me 100,000, but hes at a different base, and I am a long way from rebuilding what I had done, all because of one poor landng in a mountain pass because I only had an hour to play before my family demands my time again, maybe an hour and a half if I am lucky.  I'm up late now wanting to fly a little, even though I'll be dead tired tomorrow, so I am off to try the Europe first flight, wish I could fly (Sim) in AH, but I can't.  

 

Please, in AH2, give us a get out of jail free card, I'll be in line to buy it.  

 

Again, thanks for the thoughtful post, you were right on with your comments.  Now I'm off to discover Europe.

 

 

 

 

@Jeff,

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time of it.

Can I make a few suggestions?

Flight Simulation is a "simulation" (an electronic copy of the real world). It really is not a "game" in the true sense of the word. In the Real World (RW) it is necessary to learn to fly the aircraft. This includes takeoffs, enroute pilotage, and landings. If you're really into self-flagellation, you might even buy one and learn all about maintenance, AD's, insurance and fuel prices.

The really good thing about the simulator is that you don't really die when you make a serious mistake - this makes it a little closer to a game. However, you do pay a small price. In the case of Air Hauler, you pay simulated dollars (or euros, whatever) for your mistakes. If you simply fly, without getting involved in AH, you get to do things the same way as a game - you crash, you reload, and you get another life.

There are lots of people out here in the simulation world who will be happy to answer your questions and help you to learn to fly. I believe you would be a lot happier if you parked the Air Hauler aircraft and learned some of the basics before picking it up again.

In the RW it is very, very rare to find a pilot who flies a multitude of different aircraft on any given day. Most spend hundreds of hours becoming proficient on a single type. If you pick one aircraft, learn to handle it, then start your Air Hauler career with that aircraft, you will likely get much more enjoyment out of your simulation experience.

Just my 2 cents.

Welcome to Mutley's Hangar.

 

[wain 879]

Have to agree with Quickmarch, forget AH for the moment, pick a plane you really like, pick 1 or 2 airfields that are not far apart and learn how to takeoff and land the aircraft, start with something small and build up. FS is not like Call of Duty or Need for Speed its a Simulation which means it is trying to replicate the RW. Once you have learned the basics go back to AH and you will get more from it....

Wayne

[allardjd 1,853]

Welcome to MH and AH.

If I could make a suggestion, start a "learning" company, in easy mode, and sell the Lear right away. Hire one AI. Buy a 172 for you and something like a Caravan for him. Set the job distance slider low and only accept short jobs for you. Choose a base with a long, wide runway and try to pick destinations that have pretty sizable runways at first. Stick with the 172 and use it as a learning tool. Short jobs will assure lots of landing practice. Don't jump from type to type until you get to be pretty proficient in the first one. Let the AI generate the money to replace or repair your 172 if you damage or wreck it. Don't worry about high-paying jobs for your own flights, just concentrate on being able to navigate to your destination and land safely. If the fuel costs more than you make for the job, don't sweat it. Let the AI cover the cost of your learning experiences.

Get some quality instruction, from YouTube or even the in-flight lessons in FSX, which aren't half-bad, particularly at the level you're at. You're going to find all this a thousand percent more satisfying as you begin to climb the learning curve.

If I can pass on a pearl of aviation wisdom particularly applicable to GA type aircraft in the landing phase.... Attitude is Airspeed, Power is Altitude. Learn to control your airspeed on final with the trim, not the throttle. Use the throttle to control the sink rate, i.e. to control if you're long or short. It's not intuitive at first but pretty soon it makes sense and becomes second nature. If you're fast, raise the nose; if you're slow, lower the nose; if you're long, pull the power back; if you're short, add power. Approach in a Skyhawk should be flown at about 70 knots, 65 is OK with full flaps, maybe as low as 60 if you need a short-field landing and feel lucky. Use trim, don't try to fly down the glide slope pushing and yanking on the yoke. A stabilized approach is the key to it all.

As the guys above point out, AH and FS are simulations, not games. Most of us still bristle a little that Microsoft installs FS to a folder called "Microsoft Games". That's just not right.

Anyway, good luck with this. I think if you stick with it you're going to look back in a year and laugh about it.

John

[TNguitar 2]

That would work, but wouldn't it be better if they just gave me the option I want?  I want to play AH, that's the painful thing.  I just found out that I can fly any of my planes at any of my bases.  That's great, but isn't that unrealistic, tat I don't have to travel, spend money and use time traveling fom one base to another?  

 

What I am saying in a nut shell is that there must be a ton of people who are like me and don't have the time in the RW to plan out detailed flight plans.  I love the Ice Pilots show, and Flying Wild Alaska.  I can assure you, if my life depended on it I would be doing the detailed flight plans like they do.  I have seen the Buffalo pilots checking weather ever ten minutes at the destination, bent over a table with charts all over it taking an hour or two to get everything planned perfectly.  No matter how many landings i practice (and I do land many times quite well), I will never have the time to treat sim flying like it was a RW job, it will simply never be that way.

 

I know AH1 is no longer being developed, but AH2 is coming and I am simly hoping they will help us fans out here who would like a simple option to just go back to base and start over, or let us have an extra shot or two at nailing the landing.

I am a member of the Buffalo Virtual air site and I have all the charts for the Canada airlorts, I could have spent my entire free time pouring over every mountin pass to the rnwy, and I could have made a good landing had I done that.  Had I known it would be as tough an airport (covered in snow, rnwy as white as the country side, between two mountains) I would have spent my free time planning better, but I would have had very little to no flying time.  I am the buyer of the product, and I WISH the maker would have given me the option to back out of the flight and not ruin days of progress.

 

Anyway, I'll have my fingers crossed for AH2.

 

On the Discover Europe front, I did the first flight.  A very nice litte plane comes included, a tail dragger, so it was a hard time during the taxi, but it flew well and was enjoyable, great orbx scenery, I have the Europe pack, so that should be a hoot.  One thing blew me away,  for the first time ever, the fsx flight planner map did not agree with the orbx airport layout.  fsx map said I was lined up wit the rnwy, gps Iine led right to the rnwy, yet when I got there, tere was no rnwy directly in front, it ran left to right.  That's a first for me and must be a conflict orbx has with fsx.  It was a saved flight, so that's strange.   They give you the option to just use a saved flight that's at the airport and already to go, fight plan loaded and all, so it's strange that the sx planner mapshowed the route leading directly in to the rny yet there was no rnwy in that heading at all at the airport.  I am thinking that the computer they saved it on had some different scenery on it or something, not sure how that would work.

 

It's late, got to go to bed.   Sorry for rambling on. 

 

Thanks for your help.

Have to agree with Quickmarch, forget AH for the moment, pick a plane you really like, pick 1 or 2 airfields that are not far apart and learn how to takeoff and land the aircraft, start with something small and build up. FS is not like Call of Duty or Need for Speed its a Simulation which means it is trying to replicate the RW. Once you have learned the basics go back to AH and you will get more from it....

Wayne

 

 

 

 

[donnybalonny 46]

Isnt it possible to uninstall AH and start from scratch. (a fresh start in life )

 

And then do what has been suggested in this thread. These are very good advices and something you have to learn to enjoy flightsimming. And its not that difficult if you accept to start from the bottom.

I will only add one little thing: Start with no wind. Land the C172, using trim and some 70kn approach speed. You should be trimmed so that you hardly touch the controllers. Just a little pull back for the flare. Make touch and goes

After that, start putting a bit of cross wind. No more than 8knots and touch and goes. Learn to use you rudder controls. After that a bit of turbulense, stronger wind etc. And after that, a more complicated AC

Making great landings is the best part of Flight simming.

 

Another little trick is to adjust your controller settings in the sim. I fly with a very low deadzone and the sensitivity slider almost to the left. for all axis. But others may prefer it different.

[Corsaire31 419]

I am another Air Hauler pilot and I agree with Quickmarch as well. FSX and Air Hauler are simulations and not "games" ( nothing wrong here, I also play "games" ) and therefore need some learning and practice. They also require flight planning. I started my Canada/Alaska company in Nov. 2013 with a single Cessna 172 ( standard FSX plane ) and flew short missions with it for two or three months almost daily until I could lease something else ( next step was Cessna 185 amphibian ). I never crashed anything yet (although I had a few hot situations) and have now 7 bases from Port Hardy in BC to Soldotna in Alaska,  with 7 AI pilots.

 

I can say it takes time to assign jobs every day to AI pilots, plan your own flight and fly it ( I don't fly myself daily, but two to three flights a week ), although I always pick for myself short ones ( max 150 nm ). A good part of the adrenalin when I fly myself ( real time and real weather ) is to know you can crash and ruin your day if you're not careful.

 

You have the possibility if things start to look real ugly to cancel your flight in FSX anytime and nothing is recorded by AH.  You can also deactivate damage in FSX.

 

 

[wain 879]

'I just found out that I can fly any of my planes at any of my bases.  That's great, but isn't that unrealistic, tat I don't have to travel, spend money and use time traveling fom one base to another? '

 

If you need to get to another base to collect a plane you get a prompt asking if you want to go and charged a fee for the airline travel, it is immediate but you do get a charge.

 

Some good advise from everyone though, learn your pilot skills and you will get more from it....I imagine we have all had a rough where when you let go of the yoke after landing you have sweaty palms and the ticker is beating a bit quicker......

 

Wayne

[Corsaire31 419]

That's in fact unrealistic and this is why I never do it. I only fly the planes available at the base where I am, and I use a C 337 to go from one base to another.

[allardjd 1,853]

AH enforces the locations of cargoes, aircraft and pilots, both AI and the owner/pilot. If AI need to travel by "commecial travel" it takes a realistic amount of time for them to get there. For the owner/pilot, the developer has allowed it to be instantaneous to improve "playability". Both are charged for the travel and you'll see the transactions in the cashbook.

Corsaire's method is more realistic, but you could also just voluntarily wait out the required time if the "Beam me over there, Scotty." method offends you.

John

[allardjd 1,853]

Testing is ongoing in AH2 now. I'm not at liberty to discuss details, of course, and can't comment on your suggestion. AH2 is quite different from AH1, but that mostly consists of more, More, MORE, of lots of things. It can be used exactly as we use AH1 if the user opts to do so, but there are options to do other things and to do things differently as well.

John

[wain 879]

Personally I tend to use 1 aircraft and fly from one place to another to get the work... after all I just want to fly and AH gives me a reason and variation... puts some structure in to it...

Wayne

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

There are certainly ways to make AH play more like a game. You can adjust aircraft.cfg files to modify weight/cargo capacities, you can modify top speeds to eliminate overspeed warnings, you could even load up a 747 with cargo, and once in FSX you can swap to a Piper cub to make the flight...AH won't care so long as you land safely at the destination.

 

That said..."playing" more Real Life has it's "pat on the back" rewards, and will make you a better pilot. It is definitely worthwhile, if your flight skills need work yet, to start company with an ultralight. Import the Stock ultralight, or get yourself a nice freeware, there are even STOL kit planes like the Zenith available that are extremely easy to take off and land (I'd set the aircraft range to 20 miles, and start the company in an area with lots of airfields nearby...Seattle area is great for that...easy peasy to fly and land). You won't make much cash that way, but after you get some rep up, hire an AI to fly something larger to make the cash, fire and replace any AI that bangs up your plane more than 20% per crash...and fly your easy plane to gain Rep  till you are confident  to move  up to something larger.

Even if you total an Ultralight, you are looking at 4,000 dollars or so to fix it.

 

Trying to learn to fly in a DC 3 is very ambitious. Hats off to you, but I won't be a passenger .

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

OH...almost forgot. You can actually save your game in AH. It will close Airhauler when you do so and you can restart the flight from where you left it the next time you restart AH. But, there is no reason you can't open up FSX and load  that saved flight and practice the landing as much as you want before reopening AH and flying it "for real".

 

The option to save the flight is via the Options button on the flight monitoring window....I think it is there intended for an "Ooops, here comes the boss" scenario.

 

 

 

 

and this...had to comment:

"I feel like the makers are basically calling me stupid or too dishonest to accept bad landings WHEN I FEEL READY TO!!!"

 

I would suggest that the maker, Slopey, assumed We are Awesome, and can land what we decide to fly.

[allardjd 1,853]

He's been heard to say he didn't make the game for others - he made the game he wanted to use, the way he wanted it to be. Having said that, there is a huge amount of user input from AH1 that has been built into AH2 - not everything they asked for, but much of it.

John

[TNguitar 2]

I gave somewhat of the wrong impression.  I am not a complete rookie in fsx.  I can nail landings far more than I can't.  I am nailing greasers more than half the time.  I am not just learning.  The problems are not because I don't have the ability to land, they are because I don't have the TIME to be patient and do a go-around, or spend a half hour of my hour to play making a detailed flight plan, while also spending 15 minutes getting my 3 other AI pilots doing their flights.

 

So, today I took out my Carenado cargo master c208B to the same strip in Canada from Paya in alaska.  This time I did a detailed flight plan, took me about 15 to 29 minutes, mapped it out through the mountains, flew it beautifuly, had my gps on my laptop screen and my VC on the 42 inch hdtv.  Actually first flew the setup trip from PACE (I think, bout 100 miles down the coast from Paya), and greased the landing at Paya.   Anyway, came through the pass leading to the airport (CHYH? Cant remember, but it's 100nm from Paya in to the mountains of Canada)  Got too close to the airport before descending because I was paying so much attention to the GPS and the path I had made through the mountains.   So I GOT IMPATIENT BECAUSE I WAS PRESSED FOR TIME, And that's the problem.  Took it down too fast, hit the rnwy half way down, went sliding past and hit a tree, and ruined the plane (this time I had insuranse, but it still costs me $45,000.  BUT, BUT, I loaded my fcsuip save, which was about 30 sec before I got too close, kicked in the power and flew around, went out over the lake, turned arund, AND GREASED the landing. 

 

So the problem is not that I don't know how to land, I know about using the elevator for airspeed, and power for altitude and all that.  OF COURSE if this were real I would have went around, no way would I have tried that landing, but because in the RW I have a limited amount of time and patience, I wanted to try the dangerous one to hopefully get it done, get my money and move on to other AH things.  So whether we call it a game or a sim, is neither here nor there, what it is not is REAL LIFE.    So therein lies my desire for the developers to LET ME HAVE the option to just quickly try the landing again if I want to, I am their customer and I simply want a way to either back out of the flight or preferably have a couple extra shots at it again (then again, you might say the extra attempts would take as long as just doing a proper go-around the first time, but MORE landings are MORE fun, and that's why I want them to let me decide how real I want it to be.  When I have more time and more patience, like on a weekend or a sick day or vacation, I have every bit of integrity and honesty needed to take my time and do a proper flight plan and go around and grease the landing as if it were my RW job and life depending on it.  But much of the time I don't have that patience and I don't feel that this should PUSH me away from enjoying AH.

 

So yeah, in my OP, I should have said I am NOT experienced enough to nail landings every time even when impatient and pressed for time.  

 

I saw some of te possibe ways to get around the limitations above and I'll go back up a read those again, sounds like i have some options I didn't know about.  I have four planes, I have two Carenado C208B cargo masters, cnfg files altered to hau more cargo, over 3000 pounds even by the AI.  I own both of those and they are insured, and I am leasing a DC4 Skymaster (my Buffalo livery freeware and also cnfg altered).  It is an awesomely smooth flying plane, I just adore it and can haul over 19,000 pounds with it, I have made over a quarter million with it in just a couple hours.   And I have the Buffalo C46 also altered to carry over 11,000 pounds.  I have now built back up to almost 1 million in cash, but my rep is fricking down to 45.2 or something, so I can't lease for a long time because I don't have a ot of time to fly myself. 

 

Anyway, I do love AH, no doubt, I just hope AH 2 will let me have a play at a couple attempts of a RUSHED, impatient landing because they have faith in me, the customer, that when I have time to really spend and desire to be more real that I WON'T use that option and I will take the extra time to do my detailed flight plans and do a go around to check out the rnwy and get my plane ready for a proper landing.  I had the option to use the time simulation today, but I decided NOT to.  I do most of the time, but didn't today because I wanted a more realistic fly in.  I now wish I had used that time sim and got there faster so that I could have taken the time to land properly.  They obviously give us time sim because the know that many times in the RW we just don't have the patience to sit looking at the computer screen scrol by terrain for two hours on a flight, but sometimes we do.  Same goes for taking the time to do proper landings, for some like me, anyhow.  I just want them to give me another trick like the time sim when it comes to landings, so I can hurry those too if I want and when I crash it would be great to get a couple more chances without penalty because darn guys, landings are the most fun many of us have in the fsx world.

 

Anyway, it sounds like AH2 will maybe give us impatient guys some more chances maybe, and that would be great.  And for guys that don't want to use that option, they don't have to just like they might not want to use the time sim either, or to instantly appear at another base.  So game, sim? it really doesn't matter what we call it, I just think that more options to the customers can never be a bad thing.  If we do get that option, I would probably start two companies, one for the impatient self, lots of hurried landings and fun, and one strictly for reality, no time sim, no nothing.

 

Thanks for all the great tips guys, I will now go back and read over them again and of course I will keep reading the two AH forums.

 

My next thread will be asking about bases and why you should want more than one.  I have three, Bethel, Deadhorse, and PAYA.  I now have all my planes at PAYA because that's where all the big money is on the DC4 and C46, and the 208's are there because the scenery is better with the ocean and mountains and such, and the other two bases are just endless miles of barren, white wasteland and I just don't have a reason to have any planes there, yet I am hesitant to close them in fear of penalty or I may find some reason they will come in to use that I don't know about yet.

[TNguitar 2]

Wow, thinking about this, am I kidding myself in thinking that I wouldn't be impatient in the real world as well?  The Alaska and Canadian mountains are littered with the wrecks of pilots who were impatient and didn't make competely sure they were taking their time and getting everything right for descent and landing.  A feeling came over me from the ghosts of these pilots, as if the were saying, "don't kid yourself, if you are impatient in general then you would be impatient doing this for real as well and the only thing that keeps you from being here with us is that you aren't doing this in the real world, how do you think many of us ended up dying in the mountains around the world?  We would have been impatient in a sim too" 

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. ~Anne Dillard.

 

^your last post reminded me of this quote. Ya, I'm not going to be your passenger in RL mate, no offense ofc.

 

I feel you bout the time spent managing AI's. There are ways to make the work load easy; Arrange the columns by Weight heaviest at the top, then select however many you want your heaviest plane to carry that day, leave those selected while rearranging the columns by Time till Due (then ofc unselect any at the top of the list that can't get done in time, then unclik/clik each of the remaining jobs in order down the list to put them in chrono order. Assign that bunch to Pilot #1, Plane #1. Lather rinse repeat for each AI pilot. Takes about 20 seconds for me to assign jobs for each pilot...cuz i dont care if the routes are efficient...just that they get them done in time.

 

For your REP grinder plane...set the range to 20 miles or so, that will give your job board a bunch of quick flights to nearby fields for lots of practice...and will grind up your rep faster.

 

Another Rep grinding trick, is to use a Cargomaster or similar for your rep grinder, set your Job Options "Cargo Size" slider to smallest setting, set Job Distance Slider to lowest setting, then lease a Piper cub or an ultralight to generate a bunch of very small cargos going Very short distances...so that you can bundle 2, 3, or more jobs per 10-20 mile trip. Messing about like this i have worked rep up in career companies to 55% in a weekend easy.

 

Multiple bases, to answer your question, gives you more jobs generated, and can offer you base to base jobs with discounted landing fees (but also lesser cargo pay)...as well as the obvious of more spots/variety/scenery to choose to fly from.

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Oh, and kudos to your for taking the time to actually plan routes and then stick to them.

 

I am VERY casual in that regard. I always fly VFR, even at night, using GPS, local knowledge, my own eyes and general caution. If there are mountains, I fly higher than them. Terrain on GPS units is very helpful , I always add a Popup GNS 530 from one of my Carenados to any plane I use in AH.

 

I autopilot alot and watch Netflix on the second monitor...and drink copious beers at the same time (and NO farking way would I drink while flying a real plane or driving a real car...but there are limits to how SIM i am willing to go if it means I can't enjoy a couple a beers after work... :D )

 

And above all, to thine own self be true...If you find yourself short of time, it "can be" just a game...just fly and enjoy when you don't have time to SIM.

 

Cheers!

[TNguitar 2]

Oh, and kudos to your for taking the time to actually plan routes and then stick to them.

 

I am VERY casual in that regard. I always fly VFR, even at night, using GPS, local knowledge, my own eyes and general caution. If there are mountains, I fly higher than them. Terrain on GPS units is very helpful , I always add a Popup GNS 530 from one of my Carenados to any plane I use in AH.

 

I autopilot alot and watch Netflix on the second monitor...and drink copious beers at the same time (and NO farking way would I drink while flying a real plane or driving a real car...but there are limits to how SIM i am willing to go if it means I can't enjoy a couple a beers after work... :D )

 

And above all, to thine own self be true...If you find yourself short of time, it "can be" just a game...just fly and enjoy when you don't have time to SIM.

 

Cheers!

 

Wow, great tips all the way around, thanks much.  I hadn't thought of grouping jobs with the columns on the job screen by weight and such, I have just been going through them as they appear.    I wil get right on learning that.  I made over 300,000 last night while I slept, those AI pilots can sure rake in the cash if you have the right planes.