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Air Hauler - be careful if you dont have tons of time!


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Air Hauler has incredible detail and is a really fine program that allows you to do so many things in a realistic environment including management functions.

BUT IF YOU HAVE A REAL LIFE AND WORK HARD, IT IS NOT THE PROGRAM FOR YOU.

You are forced to play this thing in real time. As a starting pilot, you must fly everything yourself (later you can hire pilots). So, you must start and stop each mission completely in one go to get credit and build reputation. If you don't do this, you really get slammed and will never be successful and will loose money. Then you cannot hire extra pilots to do other missions, which is the only way to make this thing really work if you cant be in your plane flying around every day for long time periods.

Even when you are off line, the game clock is still ticking. If you don´t do enough, your reputation, again, will suffer, and the above negative things will occur.

If you really want more customers, offer us the possibility of turning off the real time and letting us control the clock!

FOR THE TIME BEING, IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO FLY CLOSE TO EVERY DAY, DO NOT GET THIS OTHERWISE FINE PROGRAM UNLESS THEY CHANGE THESE FACTS.

And since the program has been around since 2009 and the developers have not adequately answered my questions, I guess that the motivation to change things at this point is not too high.

What a shame.

JonnieB

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NOTE: 2 PART POST DUE TO QUOTE LIMITS.

PART 1:

 

Respectfully, sir, you are misinformed about AirHauler.

 

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You are forced to play this thing in real time.

 

No, you are not. In any of the four game modes you may use Accelerated Time within FS while flying AH flights.

 

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As a starting pilot, you must fly everything yourself (later you can hire pilots).

 

With an Easy Mode start, you begin with 60% reputation and that allows you to hire AI pilots immediately if that's what you choose to do.

 

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So, you must start and stop each mission completely in one go to get credit and build reputation.

 

You may use the in-game, in-flight save at any time. It is also possible to land at any airport while on your way to your destination and shut down and exit AH. In either case, when you return you can resume from exactly where you were.

 

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If you don't do this, you really get slammed and will never be successful and will loose money.

 

No penalties of any kind accrue if you do not "..play in real time...", "...fly everything yourself...", don't "...hire pilots..." or "start and stop each mission in one go." It is quite possible to do very well in AH with an easy mode start and never fly a single job yourself, using AI pilots and borrowed money.

 

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Then you cannot hire extra pilots to do other missions...

 

Incorrect - see above.

 

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...which is the only way to make this thing really work if you cant be in your plane flying around every day for long time periods.

 

You may use AirHauler in Easy mode without making a single flight, doing everything with AI Pilots by choosing an Easy Mode start. You can become quite successful and amass a significant amount of cash fairly quickly. Bank loans and leased aircraft make it relatively easy to expand quickly. As an early alpha and beta tester for AH I am keenly aware that it was a design criteria from the beginning for that to be possible. That was done not so much to permit users to not fly themselves, though that is possible, but to permit those who wanted to fly large AC to be able to progress into them relatively quickly without paying $10,000 to fly 200# of cabbages 40 NM in a Skyhawk. The capability to operate an AH company successfully without flying at all was NOT amongst the design criteria, but as it happens, that CAN be done quite successfully.

 

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Even when you are off line, the game clock is still ticking.

 

...and your AI piiots, if you choose to use them, are still flying, generating revenue for you.

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PART 2 OF 2 PART POST, DUE TO QUOTE LIMITS

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If you don´t do enough, your reputation, again, will suffer, and the above negative things will occur.

 

Reputation is not reduced by "...not doing enough...", except the inactivity penalty. For that, after three weeks of inactivity you lose 1% of reputation per WEEK of inactivity with a hard floor of 70%. If your reputation is at or below 70% (you start at 60% in Easy Mode) there is no reputation penalty for inactivity.

 

Reputation loss can also occur in several other ways, primarily by accepting, then "failing" a job by delivering it late, damaged or to the wrong destination. It can also occur if you sell a base without first establishing one within a certain distance, abandoning local customers.

 

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If you really want more customers, offer us the possibility of turning off the real time and letting us control the clock!

 

If you really are so upset with AirHauler, Just Flight offers a no-questions-asked 100% refund within 30 days of purchase.

 

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IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO FLY CLOSE TO EVERY DAY...

 

If you do not have the time to fly close to every day - - - start an AH company in Easy Mode, hire an AI pilot or two and spend 10 minutes per day or every other day or whenever you can, accepting and assigning a few jobs for them to fly. Apply their revenue to cover company costs, invest in more aircraft and grow your company fairly quickly to whatever number of AI pilots your available time permits you to manage.

 

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And since the program has been around since 2009 and the developers have not adequately answered my questions...

 

Since the "developers" is one person who holds down a full-time job requiring him to travel extensively, has two small children and frequently provides individualized, detailed user help in the JF AH user forum and here, I'm attempting to adequately answer your questions in his stead. I hope I've succeeded to some extent.

 

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I guess that the motivation to change things at this point is not too high.

 

Admittedly, the motivation to change the things you suggest is low since it is unnecessary. The means to use AH successfully, even with limited personal time available to devote to it, already exists within AirHauler.

 

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What a shame.

 

Indeed.

 

John

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I think what makes AH unique is that you DO have to run it like a regular company and keep up on it. The concession that the designer made to offer different modes as explained above is more than enough to help you grow a company at a faster pace. Anything less than the constraints now placed on the user would really make it a rather boring game instead of the simulated hauling company it is. All the negative comments you mention were explained in detail by the designer as to why he did what he did on his site and forums. All these points I learned during a before purchase search which I made when I first looked at this program. Not sure why your first post here at the site would have this kind of content, there are many satisfied users here. Makes me wonder how many other sites you are posting this same stuff too. Usually I welcome new posters that show up here but in this case I will reserve that and wait and see if you have anything else to offer this fantastic site. Take the chip off your shoulder and get your money back if not satisfied and let other well informed sim users decide for themselves. JMO

Sorry Joe, he must have caught me at a bad time. :sorry:

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Guten Tag, Jon, und Willkommen! :thum:

Yes, that's the limit of my schoolboy Deutsch...

Funnily enough, you've hit the Air Hauler nail on the head - its main attribute is that you play in real time. When I first started, I found this aspect completely tantalising and AH hel me in its thrall. And I loved it. AH took me to places I never dreamed existed - some still don't, but what the h*ll. I built up a small company, crashed a few expensive leased aircraft, had bases in the U.S., India, Polynesia, etc. Met some great fellow players, who taught me a lot about simming. All in a game.

But I don't do much now. Why - 'cause there are reviews to be written, World Rallies to be completed, ATWC Legs to be posted, Missions to finish, so forth.

But I'll be back - nothing personal, you understand - AH is simply the best add-on you can have for that rainy day when nothing else will do.

Make yourself at home, Jon - we're a friendly lot and welcome new views on any aspect of flight sim.

Schuss - Dai. :cool:

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Air Hauler is as flexible as you want it to be.

I don't have masses of time to fly but my company has got 3 bases and is still going strong after a year without the help of AI pilots. If time is an issue, choose and aircraft with a shorter range and pick a base that doesn't have a very high rent. Even if I make 1 flight per month in my C182 it more than covers the rent on all 3 bases

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  • 2 weeks later...

I do have to agree with one point above. Air Hauler can take loads of time. Starting in Easy mode, Selling my Lear in favor of a Cessna 208, which I find to be much more forgiving, In less than a month, I've built my fleet up to 28 airplanes, 19 bases, and my pilots are making almost a million a day. It does take a bit of time when Flight hauler is first opened to calculate the days flights, and build the new flights, but then it's an hour just assigning new jobs. I'm not complaining, I enjoy the challenge of making sure my pilots can complete their missions on time and without damage.

For more of a challenge, my second company was started in Career Mode, and it took a couple of weeks of flying to get to the point where additional pilots could be hired, but after that, it's been pretty easy to continue to build the reputation, while letting my pilots make the money. Even with that, I've grown to 3 bases, and 6 total pilots. I own 3 airplanes outright, am leasing two, and took out a 200k loan for a glass cockpit mooney, and the opening of my 3rd base. 100k, has already been repaid, and still have enough to cover all my expenses comming up on Dec 1st. I expect by that time to actually have about 3 times the amount I need to cover my expenses.

I do have a couple of gripes with Air Hauler or perhaps not gripes but feature requests for the next version, but having said that, am enjoying the game immensly !

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If you want a real challenge...

 

Career mode start, and play the game with no loans, no leased AC and no AI pilots, even when you get to the level where they are available. Fly with random flight times, RW WX and IFR flight plans only.

 

That one seperates the groupies form rock stars.

 

John

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I think it's a great game......loadsafun! Which at the end of the day it's what it's about....right?

I'm in a busy job with limited leisure time and I manage the game just fine. All the points have been well answered, probably another Aussie whinger.

Maybe one of my AH customers, all they seem to do is grizzle about late, lost and damaged cargo!

NTBTS (Not to be taken seriously)

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NTBTS (Not to be taken seriously)

 

Good advice.

 

The original poster is from Germany. He made that identical post in two forums at Just Flight as well as here and later apologized, though I think in a PM, not publicly. Oh well, you can't please 'em all.

 

I consider AH one of the better FS add-ons ever, but am probably a bit prejudiced. It was a relatively successful commercially, which is quite something for a one-man developer's first attempt at a commercial add-on.

 

John

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I guess you've seen it all in forums far and wide. Disengage brain, write crap, push button.

I think AH has something for everybody. Keeps me out of Warcraft for starters! :D

Want a thrill...........>

Wife's screaming abuse from the kitchen........ The Caribou looks like it's coming in way too fast into Queenstown......strong mountain wind... somethings not right here, (Be right with you darling)...... hot damn.......we're x4......Too late... 187K's worth of unnecessary damage! :wacko2:

Ho Hum.

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Hehe, wives make the worst copilots :P

I disagree with you Brett. A 2.5 year old son that can only reach to move the joystick to the left and towards him makes for much worse co-pilot ;)

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