Anyone used A Pilot's Life: Chapter 2?

I recently started using it, haven’t used anything like that before, and I am enjoying it immensely. Haven’t really found anything not to like yet.

One thing I really like is that it has made me do things I would not have thought of myself. My first employment ended up being with Bahamasair flying the 737-700 back and forth between Nassau and Florida (and a couple other places nearby). At first when looking at the job offers I was a bit bummed, “is this the best I can do??”, after researching other one-star and two-star airlines that would hire me I realized what an opportunity it really was, and now I truly enjoy every moment of it.

I don’t mind the real-world restrictions. I have two personae I use in the sim, the first has no such restrictions but because of how my “storyline” has worked out I have no need or motivation to make airliner flights (I bought my BBJ cash so I can fly that or anything else wherever I want, don’t have to work). The second persona just got his license and ratings in place and flies with all the restrictions of a junior (broke!) airliner pilot, so making airliner flights makes perfect sense. I use one or the other persona depending on what I feel like that day.

The ratings do require some thinking ahead. Like in real life, you can’t just up and buy a new type rating on a whim one day, it is a serious career choice. I picked up a B737 rating and a CRJ rating, will be a good long while until I can afford an A320 rating. I understand from what others wrote above you can work around it provided the airline also has a type you have a rating for.

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i have 200 hours on volume 1 and i am disgusted the vol 2 does not transfer hours. it is a whole new game. except its the same game with a new price tag, updated of course. what a joke.

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Really enjoy flying with this. However, if there were two features I could add, it would be the ability to have a second career and a historic aircraft option, so we can fly some of the older aircraft as part of a career.

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I’ve also just embarked on a new ‘career’ with this software, and enjoying it a lot. One of the challenges with flight sim, I find, is after a while, it can get a little samey and difficult to decide what to do. A Pilot’s Life addresses that and gives some purpose to your simming. Whether or not it will address the ‘samey’ issue, we’ll see, and I agree with @EmergecyNICK, that a second career option would be good, so you could moonlight for another airline perhaps in a different part of the world to add a little variety.

Yes I agree the current Chapter 2 regime is a bit too strict to be of good entertainment value. I’m still mostly on 1, flying whatever I feel like.

I got this, but to tell the truth besided keep tracking of my flights i found it a little boring and too limited with aircraft. Im not sure if its just me, i find the app slow / heavy as hell!

Almost went for the Skypark, but decided to hold.

Skypark has the benefit of an absolutely fantastic interface, which makes it a joy to use. It has been pretty light on certain features so far but I was just reading this morning that there’s a major update coming soon that brings passenger management similar to Self Loading Cargo. It doesn’t really restrict you either and provides plenty of freedom. I’d recommend it.

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I just saw their post about the update. I might jump on it.

I’ve been using it for 107 flight hours now and have requested more flexibility in this. I understand they are trying simulate “a pilot’s life”, but this is software and there is NO DOWNSIDE to giving the flexibility to those who find it boring to fly in and out of a handful of airports/routes, for weeks on end–this part is a true show stopper for me. This is MSFS and there is a massive world to use–what a waste. I would love to have multiple careers, this would help, but I guess that won’t work for its online competitive piece. For those who want the diehard version–fine, have at it. Oh yes, you can buy tickets to allow you out of your schedule but sorry, that’s just too bizarre and IMO a poor solution–and that is exactly why flight tickets are offered, to address this restricted nature. I’m using APL2 now until FSCaptain debuts for MSFS and it is in early alpha now. That program offers much of what APL2 does but w/o the god awful restricted nature of it. Once I get UAL to hire me it will improve some but unless the dev decides to offer up more flexibility I can see saying bye bye to it at some point. One nice feature which I don’t know if was by design or not–you can fly any plane you have a license for in a given flight on your schedule. For example, the schedule says I’m to fly CYUL to KMCO in the B79. I can change this to the CRJ700, and it will let you do this. The scoring is the most useful piece for me there rest of it is sheer tedium. As usual, when you make a suggest/request the locals come to the aid of the dev and try to tell you that’s what the software is and if you don’t like that piece it’s not for you. Yeah, right. NO HARM in expanding flexibility for those who want it and MANY do. OF NOTE: the dev has said he’s working on a better solution on this and hopefully he can nail that and in doing so make the software more attractive to more users.

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But if you apply for a job at the Big ones, there should be more then a handfull Airports.
I have around 60 hours in APL 2 and flew for Tunisair and easyJet. Now have applied to Lufthansa.
Have been to many different countrys and Airports so far.
Can’t see any boring aspekt

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Good for you. I began with Endeavor then got into Air Canada which helped but it’s the same thing: a handful of airports/routes, over and over ad nauseum. I fly alot, so this becomes apparent too quickly. Today I decided I’ve had enough am flying again without the tedium. I also use PACX which which is great for airliner ambience, and the only thing missing now is scoring which I really enjoyed w/ APL, but there is no way I’m going to fly in and out of a handful of terminals or another week since UAL just rejected me for the 2nd time despite a decent pilot rating. I’ve also requested a copy of FSCaptain’s early foray into support for MSFS and if they are doing some scoring as is a big part of their product I’ll be back in hog heaven. I will continue to monitor APL’s Discord channel to see what they come up with to solve this complaint and I’m far from alone on this.

Hey guys, i am also stuck with Air Nostrum as a starter airline and only two routes for the a320… Madrid - Barcelona and back.
I have started last Monday and flew this route 10 times by now… Today i should be able to see new job offers right?
But actually i dont and also cannot apply, it says it only is possible after the first 7 days have passed (which should be the case today).
Do i first need to quit my job first at Air Nostrum?

I tried hard to like this app, but got bored and the interface is really poor in my opinion.
Really thinking about trying Skypark.

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I’ve been trying to get them to expand their horizons on this but there is almost no support on their Discord channel. It’s: it’s a pilot’s life sim if you don’t like that run along and find something that meets your needs. Simulating boredom is what it does and yet in the real world, real pilots have so much more on the line boredom is the last of their concerns. Consistency, repetitiveness, especially for newer commercial pilots would be welcomed. That is almost absent in APL2 save the scoring piece. So you aim for highest score, while at the same time forgo the vast wonderful world MSFS offers. They could change this and the Dev seems to be on board somewhat. But the rank and file on their Discord is just interested in maintaining the status quo. I’m not alone I see this issue brought up repeatedly.

You know that you can fly any route, and not only the a320 ones?
Simply generate a schedule for all a320 Family planes and you will have plenty of different Destination.
Or aply for easyJet :rofl:

I own both APL2 and 1, mostly still using one as I feel its a bit more flexible.

What I learned being important for me, is flying for an airlines with multiple hubs. If you have a single/main hub, every return flight is into that airport and after a while that really gets old.

When I flew for Ryanair in Europe (APL1 though), it would generate a lot of different, random routes between those many hubs.

I also liked FlyBe a lot, doing some regional flying through W-Europe. Maybe this advice works for you too.

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Yes I’m trying–I’ve applied at UAL and been rejected x2 so will keep plugging along there. But honestly it’s refreshing to just take a flight of my own liking today just using PACX. This is the first I’ve done since installing APL2 as I was trying to make it work for me. I know FSCaptain and am looking forward their debut soonish. It will have scoring of each completed flight, full on flexibility where you ignore actual routes and just input your own anywhere anytime in any plane. You accrue earnings and progress thru several user-defined positions as you increase hours and have a good pilot rating. It is mostly all of the specifics w/o the tedium of APL2.

Thats why its called “A Pilots Life”, as a Pilot working for the company, you dont get the Flexibilty you want, fly where you want.

It does what it says on the tin…

Real airline pilots dont get this flexibility.

You work for the airline company, you sign the contract. Finish your schedule, then you have option to choose a new schedule.

However there are other products on the Market where you can have that flexibility, you like.

Yes, but as I said…real pilots have so much more on the line boredom is the last of their concerns. Consistency, repetitiveness, especially for newer commercial pilots would be welcomed. This is not the case using a flight simulator and truly–what is the downside of reducing/eliminating the tedious nature of being stuck w/ a fixed set of options. The MSFS flyable space is huge. This is the beauty of software–poetic license and those who want the drudgery they can choose this path if they so desire. For others, increasing flexibility only makes the software more attractive to a wider audience–many have vocalized this limitation w/ APL.

But you are able to choose which Routes should be generated.
For example if you click all a320 family aircraft and uncheck from / to hub i don’t get the same Route again and again.
In my active schedule i have around 6 different Airports. Can’t understand the problem.

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