QuikAire off and running

[Quickmarch 488]

Red letter day, today: QuikAire finally dragged itself past the magical 55% Rep mark and went hiring. I gotta tell you, it's been rough trying to get there, flying all these jobs myself in an aircraft (C172) that will only haul 585 pounds of stuff.

 

Being the first day, I wasn't expecting much. Sure enough - the job applications weren't exactly pouring through the mailbox slot (we're in the PNW - they still use snail-mail here). There was a full Captain with a 10M MTOW rating - perfect for my non-existent Antonov, and a FO with a 49% reputation. Ah well! Keep on flying until something better comes along. 

 

Lo and behold! Later in the day this letter arrives with a CV from one Lauren Pethard. MTOW of 10K, perfect for the C172 . Look at her rating - 93% and she only wants $1,124/month! Wow!

 

I met her in the airport snack bar (QuikAire doesn't have an office, per se) and hired her on the spot. She looks a real responsible type and I hope she'll take care of my airplane.

 

I put her to work right away. She's real happy with her new airplane. I gave it to her in 99% condition (I have to admit to a slightly crossed-up "arrival" a few days back that bent something). Too bad AH won't let me mod the capacities of the plane to reflect the pilot flying it. This little girl can't weigh 100 lbs sopping wet. All that extra load capacity going to waste. I had to "borrow" the phone book from the snack bar so Lauren could see over the dash. This is just temporary. I'll get her a copy of "War and Peace" that should gain an extra couple inches.

 

She's out there flying right now, hopefully on her way back from upstate WA with a load of soft drinks.

 

The other significant event was precipitated by Lauren's hiring. I leased a brand new zero-hour Skylane 182RG. There's a picture of it on it's first revenue flight in "Screenshots" on MH. This baby is modded out with the rear seats removed (picked up 40lb of capacity, thanks JA). 

 

With all this extra cash coming in, it's time for repaints to both aircraft so I'll have a "Fleet" presence.

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

All looking rosy, March.  Sounds like a good hire, but don't take the "I" in AI too literally.  Some of them can break an anvil with a rubber hammer.

 

John

[snowingairlines 0]

All looking rosy, March.  Sounds like a good hire, but don't take the "I" in AI too literally.  Some of them can break an anvil with a rubber hammer.

 

John

Well put. I would watch any ai pilot like a hawk.

[brett 2,284]

Looking forward to seeing the repaints(parked in front of their new hangers  ) Enjoy the new aircraft.

[Quickmarch 488]

Hmmm,

 

@Brett,

 

I switched over to Orbx PNW and all the hangars (2 of them) are now in the wrong place. There's obviously quite a difference of opinion between FSX and Orbx as to the datum. I'm not talking feet either, CYCD moved about 100 ft south and 50 or 60 ft east. This is not a simple Variation problem.

 

Something for the AH guys to watch out for as well. Seeing the hangar in the middle of the taxiway convinced me to re-study the AH manual and, sure enough, there was reference to a sub-routine to adjust offsets for just such an issue.

 

The jury is still very much out on using the Orbx stuff for AH, anyway. I'm almost convinced I need the eye candy scenery if I go flying and need the FSX scenery for AH. I think it's relatively easy to switch back and forth, as long as I'm not trying to use Orbx for Air Hauler.

 

However, the repaints are on their way. The C-GJKM is not original in the screenshot referred to, above. Those are my initials.

[brett 2,284]

Sometimes I'll start AH and forget that I turned off PNW and end up in the woods a hundred yards away from the airport(3W5).

I never thought about it but I would think you could put a different set of the hanger scenery files in with the ORBX scenery folder and enjoy them in both sim worlds. Once you switch off the ORBX scenery in Central they would also disappear.

[Quickmarch 488]

I'm sure that is possible and I'll have to queue the job of trying.

 

Trouble is that PNW has caused me so much aggravation that it's doubtful it will get used for AH. It took me half an hour to extricate the Skylane from the bush to the north of where I left it parked. I did learn something valuable (possibly) about AH in the process:

 

When I changed scenery, I ran the AH subroutine for changing scenery and fully expected to load with no worries. I was a bit frosted when AH loaded the Skylane with a great big pine tree through the left wing and "Crash!" in red letters at the top of the screen. I figured this was going to cost bigtime. It is impossible to extricate yourself while in AH. I had to exit FSX, exit AH, then reload FSX and "slew" the aircraft out of the trees. Fortunately, FSX had a better opinion as to positioning than AH (no tree through the wing, but still in the woods behind the terminal building). I slewed it straight up, over to the grass beside the main runway, then down again. I saved this flight and reloaded AH, expecting a huge repair bill. I was surprised that AH didn't make any reference to the "crash". It went back to business as usual. Seems that AH doesn't recognise a crash if the aircraft isn't moving, or started (or in the air). Bonus! Dodged that bullet.

 

So much for my thoughts that the AH subroutine would correct out the error between the sceneries. I was too upset to think that I should have taken screenshots, including the co-ordinates and sit down and find out what actually did go wrong. I don't want to repeat the exercise unless I do it with lots of time on my hands and a throw-away company.

 

I was also worried about my new-hire (more on her, later), she was on the ground at a little airstrip in Northern Washington State when I did the scenery change. However, AH seems to be happy with sending her elsewhere without any notifications about crashes.

 

For the time being: if you change sceneries, first, park the plane in the middle of a big open field.

[brett 2,284]

It alway's comes down to where you last parked the aircraft so I always make sure I use the same scenery. I always fly with PNW on because I like to stay low and enoy the scenery. Lucky for me if I decide to use the default scenery I end up with the aircraft loaded in a cleared area with easy acces back to the airport.

[Quickmarch 488]

 

@ Brett, see: Orbx PNW vs FSX position discrepancies in AH. I got curious and did a little work on this one.

No question that all is well in AH if you are consistent in your scenery usage. The problem arises when you change from one to the other. I think all is well as long as you leave your default flight alone, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

 

My problems showed up when I:

 

1. Exited AH with the plane parked in front of the CYCD terminal building.

2. Used FTXCentral the next day to switch back to FSX scenery

3. Loaded AH and ran the scenery sub-routine in "options"

4. I selected a load to haul, did the flight planning, loading, and fueling then hit "Fly the Job (or whatever)"

5. FSX opened in the FSX scenery with the plane about 100 feet north of where I left it. In FSX that's wooded country. In PNW it's the carpark.

 

I seem to have it corrected now. The 182 is safely kept out on the lawn between the terminal and the runway. I have no idea where Lauren parks the 172, I haven't seen hide nor hair of the lass in days - she's out working and keeping a low profile after her rough landing the other day.