After watching preview footage from MSFS2024 we can see that Private Pilot Licence is needed to progress in the Career mode, regardless whenever we are interested in flying fixed wing aircraft in the first place.
Please let us choose between Cesna and CabriG2, so those of us who are interested in flying helicopters can pass Private Pilot Licence in a helicopter.
It can be achieved by either choosing between Cesna and Cabri upon entering PPL sub menu (doesn’t require any changes to the Career menu “tree” UI unless you want to differenciate between PPL and Helicopter PPL) or by separating the tree into fixed wing and helicopters. We can see that CPL is the next step and it uses Cabri, so assuming those are different tasks (and not the same task but with different aircraft type) it would make sense to have separate challenge for PPL and CPL in Cabri if you are interested in a helicopter pilot career.
It might seem like a useless feature for some, but for helicopter nerds who are not that interested in flying Cessna that’s a big deal, also some helicopter addons cause problems when you assign rudder axis instead of anti-torque axis, so effectively that means we would have to setup our controllers just to do that PPL in Cessna.
It’s worse than that. Even once you’ve taken your PPL you can’t take your CPL-Rotorcraft: you won’t have the funds because it costs 3500, and you’ll only have 3000. The only way to earn the extra 500 is to spend 2500 on your CPL-Airplane and grind back enough money in a Cessna to repay the 2500 for the CPL-Airplane test .. and the 500 you were short for the CPL-Rotorcraft. Super frustrating as a pure helicopter pilot. Also unrealistic: IRL there is no need to take any fixed-wing qualifications before learning to fly a helicopter.
In short, divide the career in two available “routes”. Let the user choose either the fixed or rotary route and make the various endorsements equally achievable in either. Also, make sure to generate appropriate missions for the chosen route.
It should also be possible to move between fixed and rotary, of course with the same requirements. If you take the rotary route beginning with a PPL-H and then want to fly some fixed wing missions you’d have to take a fixed wing PPL as well etc.
in reality thats kinda how it is, you cant skip basic flight instruction in a simple fixed wing irl
Flight Time Requirements: You must accumulate a minimum amount of flight time, including:
At least 40 hours of flight time, which must include:
20 hours of flight training with an instructor.
3 hours of dual cross-country flight training
3 hours dual instruction at night
10 hours of solo flight time, which must include at least:
3 hours of cross-country flight training.
One solo cross-country flight of at least 100 nautical miles with landings at a minimum of three points and one segment of the flight consisting of a straight-line distance of at least 25 nautical miles between takeoff and landing locations.
though i do kinda agree they should adjust the money so you can go commercial there only if you want
That is not correct. You are not required to log any fixed wing time to earn your certificates for rotary wing. I hold a Private Pilot Certificate - Rotary Wing and I did not log any time in fixed to achieve it.
Here are some excerpts directly from Part 61 of the FAR/AIM
