What is FSEconomy?
Its a free 3rd party “world” where you buy and rent planes and airport FBOS, pick up jobs and make money. @Sine_Nomine Basically explained what FSEconomy is better than I ever could, so read through his excellent write up for a glimpse of it. I’ll leave his post in the FAQ and update it as best I can.
Here is the users guide which will also walk you through setting up the plugin and creating accounts.
In shorter terms:
- Create an account at CB Login
- Post a Request New Game World Account in the forum https://www.fseconomy.net/forum/new-account
- Download the plugin for your flight sim of choice (FSEconomy will let you use FSX, P3D, and Xplane)
- Send me a PM and I’ll add you to our group
FSEconomy in action
I’ve had X-Plane 11 since it was released. Like many, I’ve wondered why there was no AH2 being developed for it. Then, a month or two ago, several guys on my home DCS VS also got it, and soon had the same question. A couple of them, who are more diligent/competent internet searchers than I, found FSEconomy, and invited me to join the group they had made. Granted, with a rather complicated set up, FSE nearly gave me a headache, to start with. However, I managed to get a successful flight or two in, and it proved quite a rewarding experience thereafter. As I have mentioned in another thread, I enjoy the challenge of finding my aircraft at some random base, anywhere in the world, and having to use it from there.
At present we are also contemplating the possibilities of using it in combination with Xsquawkbox and SmartCopilot, to really make our lives complicated, LOL! But for the moment, here’s a flight I did today.
Item number one on the agenda; find your aircraft. I wanted to fly the DC-6, so I did a search for one for rent…
…as simple as that. No other specification except a rentable DC-6, anywhere. And I got this…
The last one caught my eye. Not only is India where my mother was born, but Chabua is one of the bases where the WWII China Airlift (or “The Hump”) was flown from. I’ve been intending to fly The Hump on a sim, sometime, but I’m waiting for the JustFlight C-46 (which incidentally seems to be released, now that I check) to do it properly in P3D 
For now, I will just see what is available from VECA in FSE. I sorted the jobs from Chabua by “Pay” and saw that little earner at the top, and found the rentable DC-6 there, too, with no maintenance issues…
The aircraft logbook, heh…
Seemed OK. I won’t be using the GPS, so that much is superfluous to requirements. The rest looks acceptable. Alrighty, let’s see what the route might look like.
Nice! A cruise west along the Brahmaputra River, south of the Himalayan foothills. OK, it is going the other way to The Hump route, but looks right up my street, just the same. Let’s get some information on those airfields…
After some W&B, flight planning and a browse of the DC-6 POH ( kindly supplied in the add on docs by PMDG) for Performance, I concluded it was a most feasible flight for the old bird.
(Yes, I love this stuff…)
With all contingencies and most distant alternate considered, for a High Blower 20,000 ft cruise and a 69,990 lb TOW, 1,350 gallons of 100LL seemed more than fair enough…
So, time to get the show on the road. But wait! Let’s see if there is another job from VEBD (Baghdogra), for when I get there, so that I can hang onto the DC-6 for another leg…
Well, how about that? Another earner all the way back the way I came, to Sookerating. In FSE, Sookerating is VE0F, but in X-Plane it is VE24. I wondered if this would cause an issue, but on the FSE forums they tell me it won’t, as FSE detects the destination base by coordinates, not by name. So, I’ll have that job, too, and put it in Hold until I get to VEBD.
Finally, I’ll commit the flight for the group “Touchdown Logistics”, instead of flying it for myself…
A quick glance at the enroute weather… ( )
Phew! I think that’s it, for planning. Let’s stroll across to the waiting DC-6, and sign into the FSE plugin in the sim. My first task loads up…
Off we go! Some gratuitous DC-6 screenies coming up!
A bit of a dismal day…
Checking fuel and pressurization and ambient settings, flaps 20º, main tank boost pumps on, lights, mixture and control locks, and what have you…
…lining up and applying take off power…
…and it’s on!
Climbing out and breaking out of tops, it was a little disheartening that I wasn’t going to get to see much of the Brahmaputra or Assam. But a job is a job, not a sightseeing excursion (right?) 
During the climb I kept busy monitoring and adjusting the climb power setting, going to high blower through 16,000 ft.
I hand flew the whole climb to 20,000 ft, tracking Dibrugarh VOR outbound, for some much needed practice of not engaging silly old autopilots and letting them follow silly old FMS route plans. It was grand! I switched it on once level and set it to track radial 045 inbound on Jorhat VOR, and soon after outbound 255 of Jorhat. There were some cruise tasks to manage.
Mixture lean and hydraulics off…
Spark advance for level cruise (gotta look after those engines or Maintenance will never lend me the AMM again!)…
Scan 'them gauges at regular intervals. It is doing almost exactly what the book says, taking into account the ISA deviation…
Finally, getting the fuel distribution right. I wanted to keep 45 minutes in the Alternate tanks, so I could use them as known quantity reserves, if I needed them, and equalize the mains. After some tank setting changes, I got from this…
…to this, and was happy then. All boost pumps off, as everything was stable on the engine driven pumps.
A quick descent calculation to 3,500 feet, at a desired 750 ft/m, meant I’d have to start the descent 22 minutes before ETA, which translated in 98 nm. That would be from Baghdogra VOR, inbound on radial 281. Hydraulic system on, again, signs on, boost pumps on, and descent power set. Spark advance set, and while I was looking in that direction, get the approach speed off the table…
As usual, I’m not letting the AFE do anything. Occasionally, he’d wake up and this was his view (such a marvelous cockpit!)
Evening was setting in…
There were now some breaks in the solid overcast, but I was way beyond the river by now. Interesting oxbow lake there, though…
Under the cloud-base, though, and with the sun’s low angle through the haze, the visibility became poor…
Well, I wasn’t going to see VEBD all that easily, and as I was almost perpendicular to the runway track on the inbound radial, it was time to pull out of the box of tricks the 60:1 rule again. To get a 10 mile final, if at 60 nm, 10º is 10 miles, then at 30 miles, 20º would be 10 miles (Heh! Heh! You know what I mean). Establishing heading 261º, then, I set the OBI to 360 (runway track) so it would line me up, more or less…
Intercepted radial 360 and started the descent. Finished configuring…
And presently saw the runway (yeah, not all that centered, what can you expect from an on the fly made up VOR approach procedure?!)
Down in one piece!
Cleared the active and packed up shop, including finishing the flight on the FSE plugin…
Checked results…
So. I can understand why it causes some players a bit of stage fright, and why some others abhor it. But if you approach it with an open mind, ready for anything, anywhere, it can be some fun.
FSEconomy is OK!
