And now for something completely different...

[Dutch]

After a year or so of programming and debugging, it's about time to start taking the wrappers off this thing. I hope I'll be able to start Beta with a limited set of volunteers in a couple of weeks now (if you are interested, mail me at ceo1944@yahoo.com).

FSCaptain is a new approach to simulating a professional career in Flight Simulator in a realistic way. You work for an airline, you don't own or manage it. Flights are assigned to you, and can be passenger or cargo, scheduled or charter, or ferries. You build your career based on flight time and scores. Unique (as far as I know in the FS world) FSCaptain provides a dispatcher and a flight operations office to manage your flight in a professional way (and, sometimes, pressure you to meet your schedule!). A copilot, flight attendants, mechanical failures, bird strikes and the like are included, all authentically simulated. The goal is greater realism.

Communications with Dispatch is through the Flight Communicator device (the FCOM), which is like a somewhat more user-friendly wrapper around the traditional ACARS.

FSCaptain works for FS9 or FSX, using any aircraft. Six airlines to choose from are provided, and you can create your own with custom schedules and policies.

Here are a few screenshots of the FCOM device in action, just 8 of the 55+ page formats in this very sophisticated system:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3538/3330261587_f0f9543412.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3343/3330261853_fc0a8b6713.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3358/3330262087_457d00c064.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3369/3330262611_b70e3876cb.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3376/3331099016_0781a5f4a8.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3663/3331099514_0743924a84.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3657/3331099840_e8aab047a3.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3576/3331100104_d298635384.jpg?v=0

Thanks for listening, more to come later.

Dutch

[n4gix]

This may sound utterly weird, but in some ways I'm kind of glad that FS11 got axed. That's because one of the new and major features was to be a "Career Mode..."

...which would have possibly diminished the impact of all your hard work, as well as that of a few other dev projects I can think of...

Here's hoping that your project will be a huge success! :D

[Dutch]

Thanks, Bill!

You hit that nail on the head...that's why I personally didn't greet the axing of FS11 with the tooth-gnashing that some might. I think while it was a disaster for ACES it was a big boost to the third-party folks...we'll be needed more than ever. Simmers aren't going to just walk away from the virtual skies because of no next version for quite a while.

I regret not the loss of FS11 so much as any hope of an FSX SP3 which would finally fix the many bugs, annoyances and shortcomings that have plagued MSFS since practically the beginning.

Not that that would have happened anyway...

If I were dictator I'd decree an open-source simulator with a solid team managing it and a vibrant 3rd party environment; I'd love to be a part of that community.

Dutch