My idea was to create a new account from scratch and fly one or two assignments to show you how easy everything is and help you get into this great community as well. Unfortunately, having 2 accounts is not permitted and, even if I explained the reason behind my request for a second account, it was denied.
How to start
No matter not being able to use a new account all the way, I can still show you how everything goes, from the start. So the first thing you need to do is head out to www.fseconomy.com and sign up. You enter the usual details (user name, name, email and password) and go from there.
The FSE website will then send you a confirmation email with a link you need to follow to finish this part of the process. Do that and you'll need to head out to the forums. There's a specific one that you'll need to visit and create a thread to ask for a game account. You'll find it under FSE Support > New FSE Game World Account Request.
Simply create a thread and, usually within a few hours, you will have a reply.
Which, in my case, was a "Nope.". Second accounts, even for the purpose of helping people how to get into FSE, are not permitted.
Your first assignment on FS Economy
Because I could not continue with my brand new account, the rest of the images will show you my personal account. Once you have the OK from the staff -- which you should, you can then download and install the client for your sim and access the game world website.
This is where you will spend your time searching for assignments, organizing your flights, renting aircraft and doing the rest of the management for your new business.
I decided to go with something simple just to get the hang of FSE and how it works. So I head out to the Airports item on the top menu and searched for airfields that had an available Bell 206 so I could use the default FSX B206. There are quite a few out there, so I got a lot of results.
I checked Newark Heath, in Newark, Ohio and found a few assignments to Knox Co. We can take 4 passengers with us on the good old B206 so I grabbed 4 assignments, added them to my flight and rent the 206 that was available there.
Time to take off
The next steps are easy. Boot up your sim (FSX in my case) and place the right aircraft at the right airport. Start up the FSE client, enter your credentials and then open the Action menu and indicate you want to start your flight.
You should see everything set just like the screenshot below. We're ready to roll.
The flight to Knox Co (4I3) was a brief one. In a bit over 30 minutes I was there. The landing was smooth and I hover-taxied near the hangars.
To consider the flight done, the FSE client awaits for the parking brakes to be activated, which can be a problem on some helicopters like the default B206 since it does not have parking brakes.
For this particular aircraft, you will have to edit the aircraft.cfg file, which can be found inside \SimObjects\Rotorcraft\Bell206B, which lies in your FSX folder. Open it with a text editor (such as notepad) and add the following lines:
[brakes]
parking_brake=1 //Parking brake available
toe_brakes_scale=0.75 //Brake scalar
auto_brakes = 0
Parking brake set and the FSE client will know you're done and open a small popup indicated everything went fine. You can then go to the FSE website and check that your last flight was, indeed, logged and the money received.
That's pretty much it for your first flight. Nice and easy, right?
What now?
Now it's time for you to do it all over again -- the assignments, that is. Keep on flying and making money and you'll soon be able to buy a fleet or maybe build your FBOs. FS Economy should give you a sense of starting and growing your own company and it's up to you to make it as small or as large as you wish.
Although not helicopter-based, there's a lot you can do to simulate helicopter operations such as VIP transport or even off-shore assignments. But that's something I may cover somewhere in the future.
Until then, make sure you give FS Economy a real shot. It's well worth it.
