Aircraft Basics

Renting

Before you can fly a flight in the FSEconomy world, you need to rent an aircraft (even if it is your own). Aircraft can be rented from the "Airports" page and it is as simple as clicking the "rent dry" or "rent wet" link. When you rent an aircraft, the aircraft is reserved for you, but you are not billed right away. All financial transactions take place after you land. If you crash (and have crash detection turned on) or cancel your flight, the aircraft is returned to its original airport and you are not charged.

A pilot may only rent one aircraft at a time. Likewise, an aircraft can only be rented by a single pilot at a time. Once a pilot has rented an aircraft, he/she is free to use it within the time limit that has been specified for the aircraft. The pilot is required to land and park the aircraft before this rental time expires, otherwise the flight is cancelled and the aircraft is returned to the original airport.  You can continue to rent, fly, land, fly, land, etc. for as long as you want, provided that the rental timer does not expire in between takeoff-and-landing, or in between landing-and-next takeoff events. (See the Rental Timer section in the Renting an Aircraft page of the Getting Started section for more information on the rental timer)

Some aircraft are not available for rent (neither the "rent wet" nor "rent dry" links are available). This is because it is a privately-owned aircraft and the owner has chosen not to make it available to the public. These aircraft are still located at the airport, so when you view the airport page you will see them. 

Many airports are full of aircraft that are unavailable to the public. If you find an aircraft make/model that you want to fly, but it is not available for rent, you will need to either rent a different make/model or look elsewhere.

FSE Weight Values

FSE uses the following weight value terms:

• Empty Weight. This is the weight of the aircraft without any payload. This includes the aircraft body, the engine(s), as well as any and all fluids except fuel. (FSE does not simulate "unusable fuel" amounts - however, this may be a factor in your specific simulator model)

• Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW). This is the maximum amount of total weight that the aircraft can possibly carry, which is the empty weight plus all payload weights.

FSE Payload Types and Values

The term "Payload" in FSE refers to all four specific components of weight you can put onboard the aircraft:

• Crew.  This is a mandatory weight that cannot be added to, or taken away from, any FSE aircraft.  Every aircraft requires at least 1 crew member: you, the pilot. Some FSE Aircraft require "Additional Crew Members", all of which must be onboard for every flight.  Each crew member weighs 77kg.

• Fuel.  Although some fuel is mandatory (you cannot fly with empty tanks), the weight of fuel can be adjusted up and down as needed.  All fuel in FSE weighs 2.68736kg per gallon

• Passengers. All passengers weigh exactly 77kg in FSE.  They do not carry any additional weight, including baggage.  The total number of passengers you can carry is either "total number of seats minus one" (no Additional Crew members required), or "total number of seats minus two" (Additional Crew members required).  If there are no Additional Crew members required, a passenger may occupy the co-pilot seat.  The first Additional Crew member will always be the First Officer and occupy the co-pilot seat (thus reducing the total number of passengers by one); however, any Additional Crew members beyond the First Officer will use jump seats and will not further reduce the number of passenger seats available.

• Cargo. Cargo assignments each weigh various amounts with the exact weight of each assignment specified in the assignment name. 

FSE Payload Capacities and Restrictions

For the most part, every FSE Aircraft has a total "Payload Capacity" that is equal to its MTOW minus Empty Weight.  You can mix and match the various four payload components until you reach the aircraft's Payload Capacity.   Adding weight to any one component will usually reduce the capacity of another component. An example is if you completely fill up your cargo capacity, you may not be able to take on any passengers - or possibly even any fuel - unless you reduce some of the cargo weight.  Likewise, completely filling the fuel tanks may prevent you from filling all of your passenger seats. 

There are two possible restrictions to your Payload Capacity:

• Passenger Seats. Obviously, you cannot continue adding passenger weight beyond the number of passenger seats available.

• Maximum Cargo Cap.  Some aircraft models have a "Maximum Cargo" setting that intentionally limits the total amount of cargo that can be carried, even if there is total Payload Capacity room remaining.  The following section describes the Maximum Cargo Cap in more detail.

Maximum Cargo Cap

These caps are placed on aircraft that would not realistically be able to carry as much cargo as the aircraft's total Payload Capacity would otherwise allow.  One example is a long-range business jet.  These aircraft can usually carry several tons of fuel, allowing them to travel thousands of miles.  However, only filling up a small percentage of the fuel tank would normally leave a huge amount of total Payload Capacity room remaining. Loading several tons of cargo onto a business jet, which typically has no cargo hold other than for standard passenger luggage, is not allowed in FSE.  Likewise, some small aircraft in FSE such as fighter jets are similarly capped on their cargo capacity simply due to no actual cargo holding space except possibly the floor behind the seat area.  

Aircraft Log

Each aircraft has an aircraft log associated with it. The log documents each flight that any and all players have performed with that airframe, as well as any maintenance activities associated with the aircraft. FSEconomy is a "persistent world", so wherever you, or someone else, lands an aircraft, that's where the aircraft remains until someone moves it again.

Aircraft Maintenance

FSE aircraft are occasionally due for maintenance. Planes due for maintenance cannot be flown with assignments on board; however they can still be flown on a non-revenue flight, allowing them to be ferried to an airport with maintenance facilities. There are three types of maintenance in the FSE World: Random Maintenance, 100 Hour Inspections, and Engine Replacement/Overhaul (TBO).

Random Maintenance.  This type of maintenance is associated with non-flying related activities, such as wind damage or hangar rash. Random maintenance can happen to any aircraft at any time. Renters of aircraft with some sort of random damage are sometimes allowed to have the aircraft repaired at a maintenance facility. If so, the cost of repairs will be billed to the aircraft owner. If the owner of the aircraft has decided to not allow renters to authorize repairs, you will need to either attempt to contact the owner or find a different aircraft to rent. 

100 Hour Inspections.  Aircraft must be inspected every 100 flight hours. Only aircraft owners are allowed to authorize this inspection. If you find an aircraft for rent that requires a 100hr inspection, you will need to either contact the owner or find a different aircraft to rent. 

Engine Replacement/Overhaul (TBO).  Depending on the type of engine, the Time Before Overhaul (TBO) is either 1500 or 2000 hours.  If you find an aircraft for rent with an engine time exceeding its TBO limit, you will need to either contact the owner or find a different aircraft to rent.

NOTE: If the aircraft is nearing, or has already exceeded, it's time for 100hr or TBO, there is no indication that the aircraft may not be usable until after you rent the aircraft and inspect its paperwork. Within the FSE Game World, this indication appears on your My Flight page after renting the aircraft, and looks like this at the top of the screen:

Note: In FSEconomy, once an aircraft is purchased, it is owned by that player - even if that player leaves the game for several years. Many aircraft have been sitting dormant in FSE for years because the aircraft is listed for rent but requires maintenance. Just like in the real world, there are "broken down aircraft hulks" sitting at many airports. Please do not ask the FSE BoD to "recover this plane for use".

Aircraft Models and Mapping (Alias)

In FSE, the type of aircraft you are using in your simulator is determined by the "alias name" of the livery title from the aircraft's configuration files.  The alias name of every livery for every aircraft needs to be loaded into FSE and matched up to the FSE Aircraft Make and Model.  

For example, the FSE Aircraft, "Cessna 172" has several thousand different liveries between all of the various simulators and all of the various 3rd party aircraft developers.  In order to use the "Blue Cessna 172 on Floats" livery from the 3rd party developer John Smith, that livery's alias name must be added to the FSE Aircraft Database and matched up to (or "mapped" to) the FSE Aircraft called the Cessna 172.

You can view the list of all alias names that FSE recognizes by clicking the HOME > AIRCRAFT MODELS menu item, and then searching for a particular aircraft make and model, and then clicking on the "Request Alias" button. 

If your particular alias title is not listed, you can submit it for the FSE Aircraft Moderator Team to map it against the correct FSE Aircraft Model. OR, alternatively, you can edit your aircraft's aircraft.cfg file and change the "Title" to match one of the already-approved alias names. 

Tip: Generally, FSE will map all available versions of a specific aircraft if that aircraft is a default to the flight sim (i.e. we will map all submitted versions of the FSX default Cessna 172). It is mainly when you add repaints, or a developer adds a new model that the versions may be different and require mapping.

How to map aircraft models

The below methods demonstrate how to compare and map your simulator's aircraft version to the approved versions within FSE.

MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATORS

In MSFS (versions 8, 9, and 10/FSX/P3D), each aircraft has an aircraft.cfg file to specify several parameters of that aircraft. One of those parameters is the "Title". Each paint job, or livery, has it's own "Title" line in the config file. The FSE client compares this "Title" against the list of approved alias names within FSE. If the "Title" matches, you can go fly. If it does not, you will get an error message stating "XXXX is not compatible with your active YYYY" where XXX is the "Title" line in your aircraft.cfg file and YYYY is the FSE make/model.

The above error message indicates that the "Title" line in your aircraft.cfg reads: "Unknown C123". Since the version "Unknown C123" is not listed in the LIST OF AIRCRAFT, you get the "not compatible" error message. The image on the right shows this discrepancy where your aircraft.cfg file does not match any versions already in FSE.

In order to use your Fairchild C123, you must do one of two things: you can either edit your aircraft.cfg file to make the "Title" match one of the already-approved versions, or you can submit your version to FSE for the staff to approve and associate with the FSE make and model, Fairchild 123. This second option can take up to 24 hours to be complete, but is usually acted upon within an hour or two.

OPTION 1

Edit your aircraft.cfg file's "Title" line to match an already-approved alias name.  You can find a list of already-approved alias names on the FSE Game World website Aircraft Models page (Menu item: HOME > AIRCRAFT  MODELS).

FS9 / FSX / P3D simulators:  Each aircraft has its own configuration file located in its container folder on your hard drive (aircraft folder). Find this file and edit one of the "Title=" lines, matching an alias name from the FSE website.

MSFS (FS2020) Simulator:

Some planes have encrypted cfg files and cannot be edited, so the only way to alias them is by creating a livery. This is a good idea anyway, as future simulator updates can overwrite any changes you make in the official config files. You can easily create a livery with no textures for this purpose. You can also add custom textures if you want, but that is beyond the scope of this manual. Follow the steps below to create an empty livery.

1. Identify the base plane you want to use, it can be in either the Official or the Community folder. Note that some airplane definitions may include multiple different models and also liveries. You can only attach your livery to a base model, not a livery.

2. Create a folder hierarchy for your new livery. The base folder must be unique, I recommend using the template [yourname]-liveries-[base_model-fse_model]. The airplane (lowest) folder must also be unique, I recommend using the template [base_folder]_[FSE_model]. See diagram for examples.

3. Create a file aircraft.cfg in your new airplane folder. It's contents should be:
   [VERSION]
   major = 1
   minor = 0
   
   [VARIATION]
   base_container = "..\Microsoft_Fokker_FVIIb_Old"
   
   [FLTSIM.0]
   title = "Ford Tri-Motor"
   ui_type = "Ford Type"
   ui_variation = "Ford Var"

   • The version numbers don't really matter, but need to be present.

   • The base container should be the airplane folder of the base plane, with ..\ prepended.

   • The title needs to be a valid FSE already-approved alias name for to the FSE plane you want to use. (see the list of approved alias names on the FSE Game World)
       NOTE: IT MUST ALSO BE UNIQUE TO YOUR MSFS INSTALLATION OR YOUR LIVERY WILL NOT APPEAR.

   • The ui_type & ui_variation are displayed on the in-sim aircraft selection screen, and should describe the FSE plane so you can find the livery easily.

4. Copy the 2 files layout.json & manifest.json from the base folder to your new base folder. These contain meta-data for the Content Manager and object loader. Edit manifest.json to look like the example in the picture, the title & creator are displayed in the Content Manager, the sim version is found in the MSFS title bar.

5. Download the MSFS Layout Generator from https://github.com/HughesMDflyer4/MSFSLayoutGenerator and drag your layout.json file onto it. The file will be updated with all the required information.

6. Copy the entire new folder structure into your community folder & re-start the sim, and try it out!

OPTION 2

Submit your version for approval.  If the alias name for your aircraft model is not yet listed on the FSE Game World website, you can submit the title of your currently-loaded simulator aircraft to the FSE Aircraft Moderator team for inclusion.  If a 3rd party aircraft developer has released a new variant of an aircraft, it is very common that none of the aircraft's TITLE options (one for each paint scheme) will have been added.  Each of these title names will need to be requested one by one.

Tip: When you click the "Test aircraft" or the "Request aircraft" option, your aircraft.cfg "Title" line is sent to the FSE Aircraft Administration Staff. If your "Title" entry is not descriptive, i.e. "Joe's Red Aircraft Paint Job", the staff will delete your submission. Please ensure that your "Title" is descriptive enough for staff members to know which make/model your version should be mapped against.

X-PLANE FLIGHT SIMULATORS

X-Plane users will need to edit the aircraft's alias within XPlane to match one of the known versions for the FSE model that you want to fly. If you want to fly the Fairchild C123, for example, you will use the FSE Website menu > HOME > LIST OF AIRCRAFT and find the portion of the list with Fairchild C123 entries.

In the snippet of that part of the list shown above, an X-Plane user would choose any available version; for example: C123T Provider Aircraft Services. 

Open X-Economy menu from Plugins and select "Set aircraft alias". Enter the aircraft version name you selected from the list- in this case, C123T Provider Aircraft Services - and press "Set"