The Future of ACH and FSE

Jesco Freund

Jesco Freund

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Beta Team
Users Local time
Today 10:20 AM
Dear fellow pilots,

With Anders stepping out, I'm the only active pilot remaining in the group. To be transparent about the status of the group itself:
  • 95 flights performed since foundation of the group (back in Nov 2016), thereof 44 by Anders, 49 by me and two by others
  • Our bank & cash balance sum up to $55,000 (for comparison: purchasing a Cessna 172 costs around $130,000)
  • The group has 6 members (including Anders and me)
  • The group does not own any aircrafts or FBO assets.
  • Trend: Our peak month was Jan 17 with 52 flights performed. Feb saw 10 flights, Mar 6 and April 17. In May we saw 2 flights so far.

With those figures and trends in mind, I see need to heavily question whether to carry on with FSE, or give up our engagement there. Not having seen a single response (at least no public one) from anyone to Anders' question about succeeding him as group leader, I give this question back to you as a community:

Is FSE still relevant for Air-Child, or should we dump it?

Since I can't create a survey in this board, please take a second and reply. Next weekend I will evaluate the answers, and a decision will be taken.

Blue skies,
Jesco
 
The first question that sprang to my mind: what's the downside of just keeping the group? Does it get deleted after some time? Does FSE delete a group that doesn't produce the news Anders was talking about? Sorry, I studied a bit on the FSE Wiki and I'm still interested in it but I move slowly and I skipped the group management part. (So many things to do, you know :cool: )

Do they only need a name for the group leader or is there more to it? If I understand it correctly, Christopher wants to keep our VA alive on the most common networks.

(I was intending to answer Anders but still thinking about a good answer).
 
Well. The group can remain there but it's not so attractive to fly in a inactive group.
But group is not being deleted so in case we decide to close it I can have the group name there for future if we want to keep it there then.
 
I see it's activity in the group.

Will await and see (maybe i do some flights myself as well) bonus will be paid to the activest pilots ;-)
 
Hi2all,

i wanted to register at FSE for the Air-Child group, but the join button was missing.
So, my question is, if FSE is still alive for Air-Child?

Greetings, Erv
 
Hi Erv,

I'm still active on FSE, but I deactivated the join button, as the group has been inactive for a while. The group neither has a fleet, nor does it have any FBOs or rented gates. I just kept the group to not lose the name, in case we decide to re-launch it.

My quick analysis why integrating FSE and ACH has failed twice already:
  • FSE only works as long as one person takes the lead of the group. If that person stops flying for ACH or otherwise loses interest, there's no way for ACH staff to recover the group account. It's lost, including all assets earned by the group.
  • FSE is about charter flights with small and medium sized aircraft - the biggest airframe I ever owned was a Saab 340, and this turned out to be more work than fun. The sweet spot on FSE is met by turboprop aircraft seating around 10-20 pax (King Air, PC-12, Grand Caravan and the like). Most people here on ACH chose to fly tube liners. Even if we could own aircraft like a CRJ 700, BAE 146, ATR 72 or Dash 8 Q400 on FSE and fly ACH missions on both, FSE and ACH ACARS, we would need at least 15-20 active pilots to be able to pay for these birds.
  • Some type of operation closer to what ACH does are impossible to run for a group (all-in flights - your only access to tube liners in FSE), or at least hard and difficult to run for a group (VIP assignments).

And the last point may be hard to digest for some, but to me it's a fact that FSE and ACH are incompatible when it comes to pilots' mindset. My experience from the past: ACH pilots want to be left alone, don't like interaction on forums and just fly. In fact, look at the number of active pilots in the roster, and look at the number of posts here on the forum. I guess the ratio for most pilots is 100% on flight side, 0% on forum post side. FSE is the opposite: it's a very animated community, and many members over there have more forum posts than flights registered. Hanging out at the forums (and various discord group servers) is what fuels the FSE experience, something probably the average ACH pilot is not actively seeking.
 
My experience from the past: ACH pilots want to be left alone, don't like interaction on forums and just fly.
Click to expand...
Indeed. And it has become more so the last few months. Not necessarily bad, we offer people a way to be part of a virtual airline without all the hassle and social pressure.

The problem with FSE is like you describe; their simulation is a bit to close to reality. People expect something like Air Hauler or FsPassengers but it's really almost a job.

I'm enjoying ETS2 quite a bit at this moment and they really designed it's economy around the limited amount of spare time people have. Routes are shortened, a lot of costs are left out etc.

PS. still painting from time to time, I've not forgotten ACH.
 
Well, I’m very happy to be back.

My X-Plane 11 configuration is almost complete. Anyway, it’s good enough to fly for ACH and at FSE.
At the moment I am only using the DHC-6 300 (Twin Otter from X-Hangar), because that’s the one I could buy at FSE.

In short time I am ready to make simultaneous flights for ACH (X-Acars) and FSE (X-Plane client), eventually online with IVAO, VATSIM or X-FlightServer. Actually I don’t like to fly online (IVAO or VATSIM)…, too many rules for a simple game… I mean, it’s a flight simulation, a game, not a virtual life… X-FlightServer is more in my line, specially when we fly together with friends.

At the moment I can make flights registering simultaneously for ACH and FSE. I do not use big birds, only the DCH-6 300. I mean “charter flights”, like the most people at ACH…
[imgpop]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WtiF-6hzhbxS7uyNarWaJlod5KaS0tf1[/imgpop]
[imgpop]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wI-w4SKiX35GSREM9bDaR08AmMErmVyX[/imgpop]

I miss our old beautiful ACH-liveries, for DHC-6 300 (X-Hangar), Cessna 337 Skymaster (Carenado), Baron B58 (Laminar or Carenado), Cessna 172SP (Laminar or Carenado), Cirrus SF-50 (Laminar) and the ATR72-500 (Aerosoft).
Anyway, any artist with time to try them? I’ll try to investigate the new structure of the liveries under X-Plane 11…

Finally, I see no activity in the Air Child groups at FSE (Air Child and Air Child VA). I am the “owner” of the group “Air Child”. I am thinking about to delete it (no FBO’s, no aircrafts, no flights). Please, tell me what you think about it. Anyway, I fly alone in both (ACH and FSE).
 
Hi Remen,

Funnily enough, Kaida asked about ACH a couple of days ago - have a look over here: https://www.fseconomy.net/forum/general-discussion/88795-any-members-of-air-child-group
I don't know how she was involved in ACH, as that was before my time probably.

In case you want to revive the old group, let me know - I still have some funds parked from that one attempt, which I would gladly pass on to you. I will however not engage in an ACH group on FSE (just to clarify that point upfront :cool: ). I'm involved in a group (Crooked Charters, the successor of Sweet Shells), or I fly low and slow, all alone :?
 
Let’s wait some days, waiting for reactions…
I think it’s posible to revive the group “Air Child” at FSE, but only if some ACH-members want to participate.
Anyone? Just let it know here. And share your ideas with us.

Remen
 
[imgpop]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xx6Etj7R8S8UH3PZQ-hpW2hZjyjWdKK-[/imgpop]

Well, I'm almost ready with a new ACH-livery for my DHC-6 300 (Twin Otter). Actually, to be used at FSE...
 
This ACH-livery is ready, for the DHC-6 300 (Twin Otter) from X-Hangar (https://www.x-hangar.com/store/general-aviation/dehavilland-twin-otter.html).

Two fotos:
[imgpop]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HUvdWsVUSda9LidPca2FY4KlYBh0riiw[/imgpop]
[imgpop]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rdQ4Oh6nBkEo76Q9Iup7rJkp7RF57iuQ[/imgpop]


A little video:
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The livery for X-Plane 11:
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No idea how to share this. Anyway, like everything I make, it's free.

Enjoy it!
 
Just a question...
Who's flying with FSE? It looks like I am the only one...
ACH-FSE pilots, please, share your FSE-information: location FBO's, aircrafts, prefered area, etc.
Thanks
 
It's quiet here... Today something different... I report a nice experience I had today with a virtual flight... It's a PDF-file

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Saludos,
 
It's really quiet here...
Some news...
[imgpop]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jmRa1PIUUQaR8YhuX_QvkTEYkugKGxOs[/imgpop]

There are two pilots from ACH in FSE, ACH1793 Marcelo Castellano from Argentina and my self. Marcelo is busy with a FBO's network in Chiloé and I am building my network in the Araucanía. We have some aircrafts, 2 C-172 Skyhawk's, 2 DCH6-300 Twin Otter's and a Beechcraft Baron 58. They can be used gratis by the ACH-pilots.
For the second Twin Otter I must make a new livery, because of the registration number.
Here it is: [imgpop]https://drive.google.com/open?id=18M6TvYjCYG2LgTFNu7wwvdgzfAOYvBSP[/imgpop]
I know the most of the ACH-pilots prefer to fly with big tubes and long flights.
But if you like just fly, wonder the landscapes, fly between the mountains, over lakes and rivers... well... join us...
 
I am flying much more with FSE than with ACH.
I see no other ACH-pilots flying there.
No reactions or comments about ACH-FSE here.

The conclusion is simple: Who wants to take the job over as "owner" of the Air-Child group at FSE?
If nobody wants to do it, I'll close/delete the group at FSE at 15 october 2019.

I've created another group at FSE, "Cono Sur", open for everyone.
[imgpop]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1I0yGo3x8g-L7Ly1kfcWpWh3ZvSCYfYUu[/imgpop]

[imgpop]https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XIPYwl2sOzP_UlSNbfcKFa5Rw3tAn-5v[/imgpop]

See you there..., maybe...
 
Some precisions about the aircrafts used in FSE (at this moment). The most aircrafts are GA's, but... the pilots can also use some airliners.

As example I share the specs of some no-GA-birds used in FSE:
Boeing 737-800:
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Boeing 747-400:
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Boeing 727/100-200:
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Airbus A320:
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Airbus A321:
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I love to kill prejudices...
 
I finally managed to set up a jet-friendly route in FSEconomy. I could seize the FBOs at Aalborg (EKYT) and Svalbard (ENSB). Both are at a distance of approx. 1,300 NM, so it's a great 4 hours flight in a E135 or similar (in FSE I only own a Legacy 600, the ERJs are too expensive).

If you want to give it a try, let me know (you can also contact me over at FSE, my handle there is "daemotron").
 
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