ehunyadi 0 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 After my hiatus, I jumped right into sim flying by firing up FSX with Air Hauler and FSPassengers. The startup with FSPassengers was pretty easy: start with $70 million dollars and some CRJ's and we're off to the big leagues making major money (and having the flight attendant flirt with us mercilessly every 2nd or 3rd flight!). AH? Much different story. I decided to go with Career mode (I always do). That put me into a Cessna 172 flying out of KCRQ (Palomar) and about $95k in debt! I loaded up the available jobs and... WOW! It's going to take some serious time to get money up past break-even let along hiring more pilots and leasing or buying new aircraft. So, tonight, I flew (well, I'm still flying; my main PC is flying while I type this out on my laptop as we're flying 6500 feet over French Valley, CA) a few more hauls to try to put some more money towards my debt. The two revenue flights I found were decent; I only had to make two short (under 20 miles) repositioning trips to get to the money trips. This would be no big deal were it not for the huge mountains I had to fly through with a plan near MTOW. The mountains were at around 11.5k feet and my little 172 had a VERY hard time getting up there (with me nursing the mixture to get every bit out of the ol' engine). Eventually, the plane got to around 11,500' when it just couldn't go any higher, so I had to fly around and through some valleys IN THE DARK to make it past this particular mountain ridge. Once through, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief, but it made me really miss flying my B1900C's and CRJ-700's. So, I will keep flying the old tub until I can get enough money to get a decent plane and to get rid of this one. It won't be soon enough, either!!! Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 EJ, There's a way around the starting AC in AH. If you go cheap on the first base, sell the 172 and go in hock, you can start in something a little higher up the ladder in career mode. My personal choice for a starter AC is the Carenado C-182 RG, which is a heap better than the default Cessna. I think you can swing one of the default Mooneys too. John Link to post Share on other sites
rob16584 42 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 After using both FSP and AH, I will never use FSP again, it's just far too easy! AH is fantastic and continuously throws up new challenges - you'll love it Link to post Share on other sites
ehunyadi 0 Posted January 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 After using both FSP and AH, I will never use FSP again, it's just far too easy! AH is fantastic and continuously throws up new challenges - you'll love it I am very quickly beginning to agree with you. The challenges are greater as are the rewards. Currently, I'm flying some herbal remedies from Palomar to Santa Paula over the Pacific at 7000' and it's socked-in and raining, throwing my little 172 all over the place. Landing will be a challenge, but making up the rest of the $94k I'm currently in debt for will be even more of a challenge. I think I bought a base instead of renting one when I started this career, and now I'm too far in to want to turn back and start over. lol. Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,498 Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Keep us up to date with your challenges EJ, we are rooting for you :icon_thumbup: Cheers joe Link to post Share on other sites
Tim_A 997 Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 Is that herbal remedies, or "Herbal Remedies"...? :th_smiles73: Link to post Share on other sites
ehunyadi 0 Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Is that herbal remedies, or "Herbal Remedies"...? :th_smiles73: LOL! I am hoping just the legal stuff. The flight didn't originate South of the border, so I think it was legit. Now that you mention it, it did kind of smell funny... Link to post Share on other sites
David TRIGGS 0 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Bonjour hunyadi, Great story-telling ...... keep it up! You are almost getting me interested in this "Air Hauler thing" ... except it sounds like some serious flying time is involved!! David Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Quote ... except it sounds like some serious flying time is involved!! There is, but AH does not penalize for use of accelerated time. You can also have a good time (or a bad time) with hired AI pilots, letting them do most of the heavy lifting. John Link to post Share on other sites
ehunyadi 0 Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 ... except it sounds like some serious flying time is involved!! There is, but AH does not penalize for use of accelerated time. You can also have a good time (or a bad time) with hired AI pilots, letting them do most of the heavy lifting. John I officially hate FSX ATC now. I specifically made a flightplan to go AROUND the Angeles National Forest to avoid the twin peaks and guess what they had me do? Try to fly over them AGAIN. This time, I almost made it. ALMOST. Just as we passed the peak, the plane stalled. Since we had less than 500' clearance to the mountain, and the plane was VERY heave (took off at MTOW), I was unable to recover the aircraft. We impacted the mountain at a whopping -6500 FPM rate of descent. We are sad to inform the public that SlikAir Cargo, operating out of McClellan-Palomar, has ceased operations due to the loss of its sole aircraft and CEO/Chief Pilot. I am getting Radar Contact TODAY. This is just ridiculous. Of course, I could have ignored ATC, gone VFR, and just flown my route as I wanted to, but the Marine in me says, "Follow orders." I know, as PIC, I get the final say, but I thought I could pull it off this time. I guess my first inclination was correct; don't do it if it doesn't feel safe. My next AH company will have a smarter CEO/Chief Pilot. I guarantee it (even if he has the same name... it's a coincidence; I promise!). Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Quote I officially hate FSX ATC now. Welcome to the large and not-very-exclusive club. AH will allow you to modify the "GPS Direct" flight plan that AH creates. After reaching the cockpit, open the MS Flight Planner, edit the flight plan, changing the type, adding waypoints or whatever you want, then save it. That will be the plan loaded in your GPS and is the one that ATC will expect you to fly. I do it slightly differently, creating and saving my flight plan in a third-party flight planning package and exporting that plan to FS before ever kicking off the flight from AH. Then when I launch FS from AH and get to the cockpit, I only have open the FS planner and Load the already-saved flight plan. RC requires you to load a previously saved FS Flight Plan when activating it, so in any case, you must make and save a plan. It doesn't have to be direct GPS. John Link to post Share on other sites
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