There’s no join button. Is it invite only? My FSE username is Matt_W.
Sorry about that. I actually have no idea how to invite, you should be able to request join now though.
How far are you from your money for a plane? Let’s get you going.
Tonight we begin, Project @Matt_W It’s time to get him his own wings. Like Icarus, Matt needs to fly too close, all on his own.
And so, fledgling group Quarter To Three was born. With a small initial deposit, we’re off to the races.
Full admission: I got about 25 hours into real flying, many years ago. One requirement for a private pilot license includes hours flying at night. Another full admission: it’s terrifying. Three dimensional travel in the dark requires full trust in the systems that are included to help you determine where you are. Imagine driving your car at over 100 mph without lights, also, without lights on the exit and road signs. You put full trust in the navigational aids of the aircraft. It’s also the beginning of a journey when flying into IFR (instrument flight rating) and using the aircraft systems to the advantage of not being able to see (at all, including in bad weather.)
So it was I began this journey for Matt.
It’s a little stark seeing all the light in the cockpit without seeing hardly anything outside. THIS is where glass cockpit shines. I can see a representation of our level, and the airstrip(!) on screen.
After barreling down a runway in the dark with a few lights on the side of the strip, liftoff feels … calming. Force feedback on the joystick adds to that tension so taking off feels free. Not messing around here, autopilot goes on pretty quickly to keep our wings level and pitch set. Autopilot in a plane isn’t just one thing, it’s multiple pieces, this is the first of them: “keep my wings set the way I have them, keep me headed on the same up/down angle.”
And this is another part of autopilot, reaching a certain altitude and setting that to hold:
The final part is to set a course, or NAV. I did that and set my 160nm journey on it’s way. For me it’s AP after lifting off, NAV once clear of the runway/airport, then later, ALT to when I reach my climb out altitude.
I’m not flying full instrument here so this doesn’t include VOR waypoints and the like. This also means a VFR landing, not an APR (approach) automated landing. Fortunately, airports are easy to spot from the air on a clear night.
Money in the bank for Matt …
@Skipper I’d be very interested to hear more about your experience with real-world flying. I have a friend who is a pilot, and he almost talked me into taking lessons, but I chickened out. GA aircraft are so…small, heh. Beautiful to ride in as a passenger, though.
Anyway, I’m surprised they made you do night flying after just 25 hours. I would’ve thought that would be much later in the process, even if a VFR rating does require night training.
I’m Jack_Aubrey in FSE, and I’d be happy to join, so long as it doesn’t commit me to any particular geographic hub or area. But I don’t know how active I’ll be. I tend to play in fits and starts.
Also, has anyone tried OnAir? It’s a subscription-service competitor to FSE. I’ve watched several videos of people playing it. It’s certainly got a more up-to-date interface, and it tracks flights more critically, which I like – did you start cold and dark, did you take off with flaps, did you turn off the lights before the engine, etc. On the other hand, the “easy” modes seem too easy, and hard (“Thunder”) mode may be too grindy. And it’s not free. But you can find some YouTube videos about it if you’re curious.
Outside of all this flight sim stuff, it’s a very fun hobby and more. Understand I tried it prior to glass cockpit generation. I’ve flown in a Cessna 150 and 172 and been a passenger on short hop on a Cessna 182. I soloed in a 150, that’s very common. I would strongly suggest to anyone in this thread, at least one “intro” flight which you can find in almost any area. It’s akin to a, “is this hobby a good fit for me?”
The intro to the hobby is pursuing a private pilot license. It requires a total of 40 hours of flying, some by yourself, some with an instructor. It isn’t hard, there are some things you learn along the way, including a bit of ground school coursework. Most of it is practical time and a lot of that is with an instructor and those folks are very good and very trained at what they do.
The small aircraft thing is actually a benefit. It’s like driving a Honda Civic versus a bus. I think anyone who can drive could probably do so in a civic and do well with it. The same is true with aircraft. A Cessna or Piper is a very, very gentle and easy thing to control. Cessnas specifically also allow great vision out the window and situational understanding of things, but they aren’t the only planes like that.
The skill of flying is very like driving a car or boat, it’s a good thing to learn. The things to understand for moving through the hobby though are that like anything else, you commit to it at some point. Flight aircraft rentals are a cost, so is instructor time. But you should know this going into it: aircraft themselves are very regulated and for the most part, maintained. A jalopy has no place in the sky. But the flip side of that means aircraft themselves are expensive in real life. Renting/leasing is very much an option, but even more common is split ownership. Something akin to you and your flying buddies owning an aircraft together is much more of a thing than owning one yourself.
If you like flight sims at all, an intro flight is money well spent. Like doing the real thing as a thrill day. If you look around you can even ask to do it in an aircraft you get familiar with in game.
Also a note about it not being overly hard, I soloed in a plane at 17. I knew nothing about anything, gaming and sim time included. It’s fun to actually learn this stuff and it really is not hard. I was in high school though and I had zero money for actually sticking with it. I wish I had, and to be frank, still wish I could make time to go back and do it.
For you and Matt both, I honestly have no idea what I’m doing but I think you can find the group here:
Then a search:
And I think for you both you can “Join”
Apparently you can be a member of multiple groups. This should help us share money to get going though.
I’ve not heard of OnAir but I’m aware there are several other sim add-ons. Matt was the one who mentioned FSE, it seems to be the longest tenured of all of them.
Wait until they knock on your door looking to repossess your furniture.
@Matt_W You’re in and set as a staff member, @Spock I did figure out how to send invites so join up once you get it and I’ll make you staff as well.
Staff just means we can each put in/take out cash from the slush fund. We don’t have any FBO assignments but a group also allows that, etc.
Again, you can be in multiple groups. At least this way we can share some wealth over the QT3 forum folks.
I did an intro flight and although I had an, uh, interesting experience, as a lifelong lover of aviation it was truly amazing. I did not opt to pursue my license at that time for a couple of reasons, but who knows, I may go back to it. It was a lot like simming except of course I had to use waaaaay more input power than I was used to to get the controls to respond, particularly the brakes!
Sweet, I’ll start dumping some funds into petty cash. I think I might actually buy a C172, not for me to fly, but to generate some rental income. I almost have enough now to pay cash for one.
I’m also kind of intrigued by this OnAir thing. Might look into it more.
The cash in the QT3 slush is for you to blow towards a plane, senor. I don’t remember how far Spock said he was short for one as well. Once we all have one, it would be nice to have some rentals in areas we might want to hop to.
I also saw OnAir mentioned over on MSFS forums so I’ll look into it too.
I financed about 150K on my Baron and have already paid back 50K. Money seems a lot easier to come by with a steady plane versus rentals.
I’ve noticed North America is waaaaay overused on FBOs. I’m kind of wondering if there is a nice hub somewhere geographically different to set up a bigger operation in.
I asked around. No vipers nor hogs were available. So I settled for a little Cessna. That yoke is the dinkiest controller I ever held. It was a thrill.
Wait, are glass windows in cockpits a new aviation innovation? When you guys were talking about planes with glass cockpits upthread, I thought it was to simulate light coming in through the window as opposed to no special visual effects. Or are you talking about something else?
It’s about having your flight instruments on digital displays rather than physical analog gauges.
Yes, it means your cockpit displays the bulk of its information to the pilot on a screen, which is fronted with glass, and not steam gauges, which are also fronted with glass and are not in fact powered by steam.
Sweet. Thanks! I’ve got my eye on a C172, but all of the base price models have been snapped up by investors and they are selling for a ridiculous premium right now. (I’m not going to pay $110k for a bare-bones Cessna out in the middle of the Brazilian jungle.) When a bank-owned model shows up on the market, I’ll try to grab it, no matter where it is. Might be a fun challenge to try to fly it back to the U.S.
I also find it somewhat hilarious that the aforementioned barebones Cessna is parked at an airport with an FBO that charges 50% for avionics work, while there’s another airport 30 miles away that charges 5%.
I can only recommend not doing what I did wrong:
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Keep holding out for a good price on a low time plane, but jump on it when you see it. I didn’t and paid a slight premium, but still an okay deal. Mine has low time (less than 200 hours) and was very recently given it’s first 100 hour maintenance already. Those run for my airframe, around 2-3K. I did check costs on engine replacements for later on, it’s nearly half the cost of the plane. So that mark is a much bigger deal to be near.
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Don’t do what I did: check to see if your plane has fuel. I bought one that had been sitting for 2 years at an airport because it was bone dry and no 100LL fuel available. I had to learn how to ferry in fuel drums to even gas up and leave. Then I had to fly about 550nm home.
Still, worth it to have a plane. Once you do, you “rent” it to yourself after setting zeros for rental (unless you want to make money for other people using it.) And under your “flight,” you can set it to “Hold” vs “Release” on the aircraft, meaning you’ll always have it as your rental and don’t have to keep doing that.
Almost two weeks later and FSEconomy still isn’t taking registrations. :( I really want to join the fun!
6 weeks (or so) until G2. Are we there yet?
I logged out and saw what you’re talking about. That’s kind of messed up. Really that’s the only hold up too because there are actually 3 different access things to do:
- Get an account to log in to their forums (down.)
- Request a game account on their forums here: (up, do this ASAP once you get step 1)
CB Login - If wanted, log in to their Discord and request to be allowed by their mods following the procedure they list out.
Seems they are all about slowing everything down, eh?
Not soon enough. No clue when support will be in-game though.
OK, I joined the Qt3 FSE group! Cool! I don’t remember groups at all. Maybe they’re a new thing?
Gah, sorry to hear it. FSE is a bit clunky, but it works, it’s fun, and it’s free. I hope you get in soon.
@Skipper Thanks for your thoughts on learning to fly. Really interesting stuff. I’ll think on it more. I have flown in GA planes on a number of occasions and always enjoyed the ride. I think I’ve been in a Bonanza and a couple other models, but I’m not sure what they are – I was too clueless to ask at the time.
And yes, plane ownership is good in FSE. I owned three planes for a while, until I stopped playing and lost them all to the bank! Gah. Gotta make those payments on them. But yes, it’s annoying now to have to scrounge around for rentable aircraft. I used to just hop in one of my planes and pick the best job that was at that airport.
I did see a Skyhawk for sale for $95,000 a couple days ago and almost jumped on it, but I hesitated. Next thing I knew, someone bought it and is now selling it for $115,000. Grrr.
OnAir does look interesting. Their Discord is very active. Discord
I’ve been watching Youtube videos too. The only hitch for a Qt3 presence is that we’d have to decide on a server, as there’s an easy mode one (Cumulus, where you get a free plane and lotsa cash), an intermediate one (Stratus, with AI pilots that will fly routes for you), and the most “realistic” one, Thunder. Well, the other hitch is that it’s not free. :(