Ah…stumbled on something today that I had forgotten about. Lionheart made available higher resolution panel textures (DXT5 at 2048 pixels) as an option. I installed those this afternoon and it cleans up the panel nicely for no noticeable penalty…
Before (click on images) (note the lettering over the switches and on the subpanel):
And after…(see how the lettering sharpens up):
I used his mod to replace the MFD with the GTN750 in the Embraer Phenom 300. Works pretty well.
$24,852 worth of flying today (so far)…
Weather in eastern OR and western ID is holding out…7 to 10K broken and no real problems. All flying was pretty much VFR on the past ten legs or so…
Another game of - find the dirt/grass strip! They can sometimes be impossible to spot until you are on top of them…
Brrrrrrr…reverse works great…
This plane has no problems with heavy loads and short strips. As a matter of fact, I’m probably going to bump my Air Hauler 2 settings down to smaller strips again like I had it for the Cessna 185F. I had bumped it UP when I bought the Twin Otter, but now I think the Kodiak Quest is just as capable as the 185F…
At some point I’m going to need to smack a Mudspike logo on the side of that fuselage too…
Mmmm…K…
So, there goes $65…splurged on the Flight1 GTN complete. This is actually a good purchase (rationalization, rationalization, rationalization) because it will work in sooo many of my P3D airplanes that it should offset the aneurysm inducing cost.
The fine folks over at Jackson Hole Aviation did the install for my newly acquired Quest Kodiak (I think they are hanging on to a DC-10 for me if my memory serves me correctly…)…
Mmmm…the Flight1 GTN 750 is the exact replica of the unit we have in our Citation Ultra. I’ve also purchased the RealityXP version for X-Plane…so now I’m outfitted in both sims. With TAWS, flight plan manipulation, SIDs, STARs, airways, and approach charts for all of the United States, it is a hard package to beat.
Many thanks to Bert Pieke for sending me a little bit of knowledge on how to jam that thing into the Kodiak - it looks fantastic!
The Kodiak has awesome 2D pop-up panels to supplement the VC. I still think there is a place in sims for 2D panels…at least until VR totally destroys 2D once and for all I suppose. In the real airplane I fly…the whole Safe Taxi diagram is worth every penny because of the situational awareness it gives you on strange airports in the dark of night. I absolutely love it.
Full charts for the U.S…
I feel like this should deduct 15 to 20K from my Air Hauler account for this bit of kit…but hey, it hit me in the real wallet, so we’ll call it even…
I just realized that my Just Flight Traffic 360 came with a spotter guy. You can use him as an aircraft, slew him to wherever to watch airplanes takeoff and land…
Alrighty…so did $38,000 worth of hauling tonight with two contracts, and ran into some interesting problems with my GTN 750.
The first run was from M94 up to S52 (Methow Valley State) - pretty far north in our area…
Firing up at M94…
The route up is pretty rugged…with snow over much of the area…
The GTN is fantastic for being able to just use the touchscreen to scroll up to your route and zoom in and move around. This made it really easy to see that S52 is parallel to the river valley - important visual cues to help line up…
That was only an $8,000 or so contract, but I was lucky and a nearly $30,000 contract OUT of S52 was on offer. Only problem - the weight (3,137 lbs.) meant I had to empty my tanks, and then put on fuel to max gross which only barely gave me the range to make the flight to 2WA4 down near Pierce County…
On the way out the terrain is all over…setting off the TAWS on the GTN during the climbout - a really cool feature…
During the climbout, I consult the Garmin Fuel Planning page and it isn’t looking good. If the weather were anything less than clear, I’d stop halfway for fuel…but right now I’m looking at an 8.2 gallon deficit, but I’m hoping once we get higher, get lower fuel flows, and pick up to cruising speed, I might find myself on the right side of the numbers.
I settled in at 16,000, then eventually went up to FL200 trying to make the numbers work…but they were still showing me a -1.3 GAL deficit…
Rainier out on the distant horizon…
I haven’t much messed with the weather radar data…
About five minutes out, I started a steep descent at around 2,000’ per minute, resulting in near idle and of course that increases the fuel calculations. As you can see on the GTN, the yellow ring is a dynamic fuel range predictor, so it moves as your speed changes, throttle, or headwinds…a great little tool…
Destination in sight!
Except - it isn’t the right airport! You see, the GTN is an updated database, and the airport names and IDs have changed over the 10+ years since the original P3D/FSX database was created. So there are mismatches. As well, I think super small airports aren’t included in the GTN database. Air Hauler offers me to truck the freight the remaining six miles to the actual destination, but I’m cheap and don’t want to lose that money…
So using the touch screen, you can set a manual/user waypoint, so I consult the P3D map (which does show all the old airports) and sort of WAG a waypoint where the actually airport is…
Off we go for the six miles over to the actual airport - a tight little strip that does require all the reverse and braking I can muster…
I unload the freight and receive the full $28,000. Yay. In the future, for airports that are NOT in the GTN database, or airports that are different from the GTN database, I’ll simply create manual user waypoints using the actual LAT/LON from Air Hauler so I’ll be sure to be able to go to the correct airport.
So currently sitting on $259,795 of company cash…
We actually earned exactly $38,340 in revenue over $875.85 in expenses (fuel, landing fees)…
Apologies for typos and nonsense sentences. Malbec.
Hey- I know nothing about General Aviation, but from what I read here it really looks like you’d be good to make a career out of that in Real Life! 
Well, you know the saying - “You know how to make a million dollars in aviation? Start with two.”
I’m also going to go ahead and close the 1U2 (Mud Lake) base over in Idaho just because it is costing a bit to keep it open each month and we aren’t flying out of it at all the past few months.
I always heard it was start with ten… 
Wheels
Oh dear…where DOES the time go. Last cargo transport was on March 15, 2018. Summer and Spring fun got in the way…plus some other projects. I did go ahead and update AH2 this evening, put my fingers over my eyes, and opened it to see what the damage was…
Basically, over the six month idle period I have fixed base and aircraft lease costs of around $10,000 a month. Fortunately, I had a pretty good cash balance. I had many months of aircraft loan repayments due, and base maintenance…
Net loss was about $41,000 or so. Not a huge deal if I get cracking and knock out about five or six flights…
Is there a way to make your account “go idle” for extended periods so you won’t bleed cash if other things take priority?
Wheels
Good question. I suppose you could shut down your base and you wouldn’t be paying lease payments…but I’m not actually sure you can have a company and NOT have a base. And the aircraft lease is what it is…but again, I’m not sure if you couldn’t just NOT lease the plane…I don’t know if Air Hauler 2 will let you have a company without a plane and base. Good question!
My question goes in the other direction - Is there a way to hire a pilot and have them haul preset routes and keep cash flow coming in during those times you are unable to play / on a break etc?
Definitely you can hire AI pilots. I think you do have to manage them with regards to at least assigning them trips and maintenance on their plane and stuff. I’m trying to play it as a single pilot though without building my company into a big organization. Others have built up huge fleets that take in millions of dollars a day.
I wish I had the time and the patience for this mod, it seems like a great concept. Every time you post I get drawn in a little more.
Same here but imo the inability to put your career on hold is a pretty big drawback. We all have other things that can and do take priority over our gaming time.
Wheels
I’m kind of new to this forum and not well versed in X-plane could someone point me in the right direction to be able to download this Dash 8 -100 package. Thank you.
