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Air Hauler questions

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I'm thinking about a program like Air Hauler because it adds purpose to your flying and what you do counts. I have used FSpassenger for FS9 before which I understand is similar program.That program didn't quite satisfied me since1) Much work to do inside FS9 2) The evaluations often didn't make sense. Incorrect penalties and approved flight in spite of serious mistakes3) Meaningless features like giving passenger sandwiches and showing moviesI think the thing I liked most of it was that my performence was evaluated and I hope that might air hauler do this in a better way. I have read the avsim review. I have heard that you can useyour addon planes in it. From the review I get the impression that you start a scenario with a given plane (Learjet Grand Caravan or C172). Are you stuck to have these default planes in your fleet?So is Air Hauler better than FSPAssenger for FS9 (note I have only used the FS9 version of FSPassenger) at adding purpose and realistic flightplanning and detecting and scoring incorrect procedures and mistakes?

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I have been using Air Hauler for awhile and I really enjoy it. To answer your question, no, you are not "stuck" having any planes in your fleet. You are free to sell any plane you own at any time. Then you can use that money to help finance the purchace of any other plane you want. I dont have FSP so I cant compare it to AH. I suggest you post any questions you have about AH in thier dedicated forum:http://forum.justflight.com/forum_topics.asp?FID=33. Gary


Gary M.

| PPL ASEL |

System Specs: W11 Pro, Corsair 4000X Mid Tower, Z790 Aorus Master Motherboard, i9-13900KF, 64 GB DDR5 SRAM, RTX 4090, Dell AW3821DW Monitor, Honeycomb Alpha & Bravo, MFG Crosswind Pedals,TrackIR

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I own all threeI use FSP on all of my "real" flights - unless I'm quickly testing something out..I don't bother with the finances or any of that, I like it because it has built in failures, etc... You can't just set up the auto pilot and walk away. ... well you can, but you take a huge risk if something goes wrong..FSCaptain, - doesn't worry about the financial end of things and provides failures like FSP - but concentrates on the performance as you the pilot, fighting a timed schedule, etc...there is a panel addon that you have to install, very simple to do... but it makes me a bit nervous since I'm not sure how it will act with the new pmdg 737ngx... we will seeFS Hauler - don't care for much, since all it does is cargo hauling, and it doesn't have failures, - that to me is the most important part, - knowing that something might go wrong... and be able to prevent it. Besides I can haul cargo with either of the above..I find that for me fspassengers is the easiest to set up, easy and quick to start and use.. and you can d/l a free demo... you can also turn off a lot of the penalties, etc... to me its about flying out in the bush and keeping an eye on your oil temp, etc, etc..it takes away the set it and forget it mentality..


Ciao!

 

 

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I have FSCaptain and FSPassengers.The difference between the two is the support. With FSPax, there is little or no support. What support there is, is from other people and not the programmer. I have had no major issues with FSPax. It is a good program. I use it mainly for the feature that allows you to change headings, nav and comm radios, and other autopilot settings with just a few keystrokes.FSCaptain's support, on the other hand, is live and gets results. The programmer is active and is working with a number of people in the forums on the next version. If you haven't checked out FSCap since its inception, you should take another look at it. version 1.2 beta (current version is 1.1.6, i think) will have more features than 1.0. I like FSCap's ability for you to create a schedule, whether it is a cargo, passenger, or charter run. You can have differing settings for your airline but that is where the airlines simulation ends. It is like how briansommers said, a pilot simulator and doesn't deal with maintenance and such, or having to buy a/c. It does provide aircraft component failures if you turn down the reliability on the a/c you have. I accidentally set my a/c at 9% and it made for a fun couple of flights until I figured out what was wrong.

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I have both Air Hauler and FS Captain and can echo most of what's been written here.I've pretty much given up my Air Hauler career for multiple FS Captain careers, but that's because FS Captain suits what I want out of a career simulator moreso than Air Hauler. AFAICR Air Hauler does have failures - even in-flight, but they are more of a system's failure than omgihitabirdandtheenginesonfireandwhatsthatsmell.AH has easy-medium-difficult startup levels. In each you start out with a given a/c (the ones you mentioned) and a set amount of seed money for your company. You can lease bases, and buy or sell aircraft and eventually take out loans to buy bigger and better aircraft and more bases. If you run into too many accidents and don't take out insurance on your fleet you can find yourself in the red.The one thing I admire most about AH is that it forces you literally to fly from the last position where you parked - it's that detailed. But I never bothered much with playing the stock market and investing in AI pilots, although those aspects are done nicely. Support is very keen, and there's even a vatspy-like "online radar" where you can follow fellow pilots on a world map and chat with them. The one thing that helped to turn me away from AH is that if you don't fly a company flight for a certain time - once a week or so - your reputation will slowly suffer. The rent you pay to keep your base(s) open continues to accrue, so if you take a few months off you will eventually pay for the time that you weren't flying.By contrast FS Captain is a pilot career simulator that lets you fly where you want when you want, hauling what you want while grading you on your performance. You can build your airlines' schedules or pick up a charter or ferry flight on the fly. You can fly heavies or Skyhawks at any time - with an FO and/or crew or without. The amount of in-flight and on-ground breakdowns and emergencies can be customized so you can asssure yourself of a smooth flight or take your chances - and perhaps get a "hero's accolade" if you land a plane full of passengers smoothly during a crisis. FS Captain is very broad in its options so its easy to try something on for size and keep or ditch it. For instance if you want to fly a 172 this morning and a never-touched-it-before 380 this afternoon you can... or you can have FS Captain force you to make "type checkrides" to give you your 380 rating first.FS Captain can be demoed for an unlimited time by restricting flights from three airports in the US Pacific Northwest - KSEA, KOLM and KPDX.FSC support is excellent and the developer actively encourages and accepts feature requests so if it doesn't do something that you want, mention it in the forum and it might well be considered. Some recent significant features being worked on right now include assigned parking, not being penalized for being late if it recognizes that you were flying a holding pattern, and deeper weather reporting.And yes you can fly with both together - you'd use AH to control your offered flights, and set up FS Captain to track each flight as a "ferry flight" while turning off FS Captain's failures.

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yeah, I should jump back in and say, it really is what type or what are you looking for it to do kind of a thingfor me it is about failures, so fspax serves it up real nicebut I will say fscaptain is very very good, don't overlook it.


Ciao!

 

 

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yeah, I should jump back in and say, it really is what type or what are you looking for it to do kind of a thingfor me it is about failures, so fspax serves it up real nicebut I will say fscaptain is very very good, don't overlook it.
I would say that buying shares and aircraft doesn't interest me. I wan't my flight to be counting and evaluated in correct and realistic way.Also a clear advantage would be if the program is easy to use and learn. My spontaneous impression is that Air Hauler is better in that aspect.But I think it would be stupid not to try FSCaptain since you can do it first before you buy. I hope I can learn to use it quickly and don't need time to solve all kind of problemsI might point out that I intend to use it in FSX for smaller planes and in FS9 for airliners since my system isn't that greatAMD X2 6000GTS 250 1 Gb4 Gb RAMWin 7 x64

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I've had Air Hauler almost since it launched, and I REALLY want to like it.I've wanted something that added some deeper 'context' or 'goal structure',or maybe even 'game structure' to the sim. But the problem is that AH's motion is so 'realistic' that its too slow, at least its too slow given thetime I'm willing to invest in to it. How to speed it up? I don't know, I justknow as it is now it sits unused, something for the game designer to think about.Oh,and then, to make matters worse, if I get bored (and I do, OFTEN :( ),there is no 'freeze' ability, so of course the next time I get the urge to playit again all my previous efforts have gone to crap... :( I would also like a way to control where I fly, this random generation of jobs inrandom spots just doesn't interest me. There must be a way to design routes intothe notion of the game, and not eventually, I mean from the start.


Jack F. Vogel, Delta Virtual Airlines

 

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hi gys, i'm new to this forum and don't know how to start a new subject or which atagory to take my problem to, any help there? thanks in advance. how is it possible to increase my reputation and can this be done through the ai crew or do i have to be flying?

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Air Hauler is by far the best of the bunch of all the 'make FS into a career' type add-ons, it is streets ahead of all the other ones with a vast array of features which includes... built in maintenance and TBOs, wear and tear, in-flight failures that are persistent in the sim if you don't repair them that you can defer as MELs if you wish, owning or leasing fleets (which you can see in game on the ramp as AI aircraft and hear on ATC), hiring and firing pilots, pilot type ratings based on MTOW, opening bases and maintenance centres, flying jobs (with lots of custom options on how they are generated), getting AI pilots to fly jobs, positioning flights (both AI and flown by you), deadheading pilots and yourself to new locations, repainting in your livery, paying for paint jobs on aircraft, index-linked fuel pricing, stocks and shares trading that is linked to the real world. It handles all kinds of aircraft from choppers to 747s, has built in chat to other pilots and a world map with a radar where you can see what others are flying and where to and from, it works in FSX and FS9, has differing levels of difficulty which rate your flying and landings, and best of all it has great support from the developer who you can contact easily. I have a few of these types of programs and whilst many of them are pretty good, Air Hauler is by far the best and most professionally made, with perhaps African Airstrip Adventures being the next best one, although AAA is more of a 'jobbing pilot' sim that keeps you in the cockpit and leaves all the business stuff out of it, which you might actually prefer.

hi gys, i'm new to this forum and don't know how to start a new subject or which atagory to take my problem to, any help there? thanks in advance. how is it possible to increase my reputation and can this be done through the ai crew or do i have to be flying?
In Air Hauler, what you can do is hire a pilot, get him to fly the job, but then when he arrives at the destination, take him off the job and supervise unloading the cargo yourself. If you do that, you'll get the credit and reputation increase, but you do need a certain reputation level before you can hire pilots, so you will have to fly some stuff yourself. Al

Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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Air Hauler is by far the best of the bunch of all the 'make FS into a career' type add-ons, it is streets ahead of all the other ones with a vast array of features which includes...Al
Respectfully Al, I disagree. I was for many years a happy FSPax user, but lack of support and new features drove me to FSCaptain. I thought i would miss the business side of things, but after using FSCaptain I have to say i don't think i would move to FSPax again. I cannot speak intelligently on Air Hauler, but if you want a pure pilot career then i would try FSCaptain, you have nothing to loose really, try the free demo see what you think. Does it work for Passengers or only Cargo?

Ian R Tyldesley

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From the review I get the impression that you start a scenario with a given plane (Learjet Grand Caravan or C172). Are you stuck to have these default planes in your fleet?So is Air Hauler better than FSPAssenger for FS9 (note I have only used the FS9 version of FSPassenger) at adding purpose and realistic flightplanning and detecting and scoring incorrect procedures and mistakes?
To answer these questions: There are a few different skill levels you can play Air Hauler at, from a 'hardcore' setting to a much more forgiving one, with some in-between options too. This affects things in the long term as well as the short term, i.e. you start with less restrictions and more money on the easy setting and it'll let you get away with crappier landings and such, whereas on the tougher settings you start out with a C172 and not much else, and the landing criteria and possibility of failures on your aircraft are higher etc. Since the object is to make money, you need money to 'buy' or 'lease' a new aircraft, although there is the facility to take out loans in order to do this once your credit rating is good, so as with many other aspects of it, reputation is a big deal, which you gain (and lose) based on jobs you complete (or fail to complete) fully or partially, i.e. you can damage the cargo with steep turns and that sort of thing, and if you damage it too much, it's a fail or partial fail and your reputation will drop, and it will drop if one of your AI pilots cocks up as well, so hiring and firing has a point in the game and it is worth insuring your fleet because some pilots you hire can turn out to be a real liability. But once you have the cash, any FS aircraft you have in your hangar can be 'bought' in the game and added to your fleet regardless of whether it is a sensible choice or not, so everything from a Piper Cub to an SR-71 Blackbird can be in your fleet, there is no restriction on types. Nevertheless, your experience level will restrict you from flying aircraft above a certain MTOW until you progress, thus you might not be able to fly your PMDG 747 straight away, since you, A, have to be able to afford to buy or lease it, and B, have to be qualified to fly it, although you could hire a more qualified pilot than yourself to fly it for you whilst you work your way up to the qualification necessary to pilot it yourself. This is actually one of the cool things about Air Hauler to be honest, because you will find yourself scouring the lists of used aircraft it makes available from your hangar every once in a while that may be in poor condition but can be repaired, and you will also find yourself trying out some aircraft that you can just about afford based on what they can haul, making for some interesting and tough choices, for example, I found that the Sky Simulations DC-9 was a good one to use since the smaller variants of the DC-9 have a fairly low MTOW in spite of being not bad for cargo capacity, with a reasonably decent range, so you can get into them fairly swiftly when not highly qualified to fly much else, likewise the Xtreme Prototypes LearJet 23 is a good one too, because it is fast and means you can take on small urgent jobs that pay highly and race against the clock to make that delivery deadline. Big prop planes such as the DC-3, C-123 and C-130 are also very good ones to use, so if you were looking for an excuse to use the MAAM DC-3 or the CS Hercules, then look no further. As far as rating, scoring and planning flights is concerned, you are rated on some flight parameters, mostly bank angles and how gently you land, as well as delivering the cargo on time, which can be tricky on occasion since some cargo jobs will require several aircraft trips to deliver them, although you can use AI pilots to carry all or some whilst you carry the rest of it, and that kind of thing. Where flight planning is concerned, runway length and other such things come into play. Air Hauler will set up a basic flight plan for you for any job you commit to, but you are free to discard its basic flight plan and use your own, since it is getting the cargo from A to B on time that is the important thing, and as long as you do that, Air Hauler does not care if you stop to refuel, do it in several flights, use SIDs and STARS or fly direct, or whatever, so long as it gets there within the required time limit in one piece, that's good enough. Thus it does not 'watch your every move', but it does watch how you fly and how you land, i.e. lower your flaps above Vfe and they'll jam and what is more they will stay jammed in the game until you pay to have them fixed although you can still fly damaged aircraft if you want to chance it, which means ferry flights with damaged aircraft to get repair facilities are sometimes necessary. Because Air Hauler keeps track of where all your fleet is at any time, you do also need to make positioning flights on occasion in order to pick up cargo which can impact on how profitable a job might be, since you have to pay for fuel, and 'tankering' fuel is not always a viable option because that affects your MTOW and how much cargo you can load. Thus where your aircraft are located also matters in terms of cumulative costs, since you have fixed bases of operations where servicing and maintenance is cheaper to carry out. How much you choose to get into that level of detail is up to you, but that's the gist of it. One word of warning though, it is very addictive, and you will not be the first person to get up in the middle of the night to unload an AI flight cargo to make a deadline if you find yourself doing that, because that's the kind of thing it does that pulls you into playing it a lot, so if you want something to make FS fun, it certainly will achieve that. Al

Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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it, and B, have to be qualified to fly it, although you could hire a more qualified pilot than yourself to fly it for you whilst you work your way up to the qualification necessary to pilot it yourself. This is actually one of the cool things about
Can I in FSX fly the flight as that hired qualified pilot? Or am I a unique person in Air Hauler different from other hired pilots?I might mention that since I first started this thread I have tried out FSCaptain and have now removed it since I got problems using my add on planes. For now I'm trying out FSEconomy. From what I understand Air Hauler keeps track of a lot more things than FSEconomy. I think the greatest problem for me with Air Hauler is the real time aspect of the simulation.

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Okay, let's say there is a cargo in Paris CDG that needs delivering to London Heathrow by 10pm tomorrow evening which weighs 12,000lbs for which you'd earn 25,000 quid. You take the job. Your cargo airline has you, and one other pilot. You have a Cessna Caravan and a B707 in your fleet, you cannot fly the B707 as it is above your current MTOW limit based on your present reputation, but your hired pilot can fly the 707, so you are currently flying smaller cargo jobs to gain reputation whilst your hired pilot takes on bigger jobs to bring more cash in for you until you can drive some bigger aircraft yourself. Your 707 and its hired pilot are currently parked in Madrid. Here's what you'd do... You would assign the Paris to London job to your hired pilot and tell him to use the 707, he would then fly the 707 to Paris after some real-time pre-flighting in Madrid. If at the time Air Hauler reported he was departing, you went to Madrid in FS, you would see him departing as an AI aircraft. You would have to let him fly the flight, you cannot 'jump in' and fly it yourself as you are not yet qualified to fly the 707 (if you were, you could take over). so let's say that you go to bed and then fire up Air Hauler in the morning. When Air Hauler loads, you would see it update fleet and pilot dispositions on the map and you'd see that he'd completed the job and was now parked up there (i.e. as though he had been flying the flight whilst you were sleeping and you'd have made 25 grand, minus the cost of fuel the AI pilot had used), unless you had assigned another job to him and queued it up, in which case he'd be off doing that one. But, if instead of going to bed, you'd waited until he'd positioned to Paris, then let him load the aircraft and then fly the cargo to London, you could have unassigned the job from him before he completed the unloading of the cargo at Heathrow and unloaded it yourself, which would have then meant that you got the credit for the job even though he actually flew it. In this way you can cheat a bit and get your reputation up by having an AI pilot fly flights for you so long as you unassign the pilot before he completes unloading and do that bit yourself (which happens instantly when you do it, whereas when an AI pilot unloads a cargo, it happens in real time, i.e. it takes a while for it to get done). With enough of these credits, you'd eventually gain promotion and your allowable MTOW would go up, and if you did that enough, you'd eventually be able to drive that 707 even though you'd only been doing the odd flight or two in the Cessna Caravan. That'd take a while to accomplish, but it is possible to work it that way. On the other hand, you could simply fly your &@($* off in the Cessna for a few days doing a ton of jobs and that'd get you the hours and credits to get your promotion up and MTOW limit raised, although it would probably make more sense to graduate to a twin, then a small jet in the meantime, which you could do, as you MTOW limit would be going up. How easy it is to make it up in terms of reputation is based on what difficulty setting you chose when you created your Air Hauler company. Al


Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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