Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
The hardest part of FSEconomy (FSE) is actually using the website. What is FSE? FSE adds an economy system to X-Plane, one where you (initially) rent a plane, do a job flying from A to B, and reap the rewards. Ultimately, you gain enough money to buy your own plane and make even more money. Obviously, you need to weigh up the pros and cons of each job. Is the plane rental so high that it will use up most of the fee? Yes – with a few careless jobs, you can end up owing more money than you actually have.
Prerequisites
Before installing FSE, you need to have already installed the Python plugin. We did this several issues ago. So, if you haven’t done that, now’s the time. You also need to have Python installed on your computer. Assuming you’ve got X-Plane plugins working, then it’s safe to assume you have Python installed.
Installation
Since you already know how to install Python plugins for X-Plane, here’s the URL for the plugin: https://github.com/ksgy/x-economy
Obviously, you really need only the .PY file which, as you now know, goes into your …/plugins/PythonScripts folder.
To check that it’s installed, fire up X-Plane and check the plugins menu. You should have an entry for X-economy. That’s FSE. Click it. Keep the window open as we’ll need to register with FSE first.
Registering
This is where it gets a bit weird. First, you need to register with the site: http://www.fseconomy.net/. This grants you access to the site. You now need to register with the forum (http://www.fseconomy.net/forum/index) and leave a post in the Game World Account Request section (http://www.fseconomy.net/forum/new-account). A moderator will then create an account for you and leave a reply saying so. You’ll also get an email with your username and a password, which you should obviously change.
We’re almost there!
Sign In
Back to X-Plane; in the X-economy window, you enter your FSE username and password. Again, it’s a bit confusing as a lot of things from the FSE site don’t actually show up in the plugin window until you’ve either taken off, or are half way through the job. In short, as long as it shows on the site that you’re enroute, and the plugin is signed in, everything should be fine.
Finding a job
Finally! We’re at the point where we can take a job!
On the FSE site, go to the site menu and choose FSE Game World > New Browser Page. This will take you to the FSE jobs page (http://www.fseconomy.net:81/).
So, let’s find an example job. Click the Airport link at the top of the page.
Here you can search for jobs by airport, plane, etc. I usually search for jobs using my favourite plane, the Eclipse 550. The drop-down menu for choosing a plane is called ‘Airports that have this craft’. I click this and choose the Eclipse 500 (next best thing).
Now check the box beside that drop-down menu (see image, next page, top left). This is to show airports with that plane for rent. We don’t own a plane yet, in FSE, so we need to rent one.
Finally, click GO to see the results. You can sort the results by airport name, country, etc.
Let’s see. There’s one in Benbecula (EGPL). Let’s click that and see what we get.
Before looking at those jobs, scroll down a bit to see how much the rental is going to be (see image below).
Ouch! That’ll be $751 per hour wet. Wet means it’s filled up and ready to take off. So, we need to look at the jobs and try to get one that’s worthwhile.
I like to sort the jobs by NM (Nautical Miles) as I don’t want one that’s too long.
Let’s say we want the ‘3 Benbecula Nurse’ job (shown above right). Which pays $1,132. Remember that if it takes you one hour to do the job (and it shouldn’t, not for 27 NM), then you’d be left with about $400. If it takes only 30 minutes, then you’d only use about $350 for rental and the rest is yours.
To take the job, click the checkbox beside the job and click the button (below the jobs) which says ‘Add Selected Assignments To →’ and the drop-down menu beside it should say ‘My Flight’. The page will reload and the job you chose is now not listed – as you’ve taken it.
Scroll down to the aircraft and click the ‘Rent Wet’ beside the plane you want. The Eclipse 500 in my case. OK. You’ve got a job and a plane. Click ‘My Flight’ at the top of the page.
This page shows you the job details. That you’re departing from EGPL to EGPR, it’s 27 NM, and that you have a plane with 33% fuel (enough for the job) and that the job is ready to depart.
Jump back to X-Plane and make sure you’re signed in to the X-economy plugin and click the Start Flying button. It may show the job details right away, or it might show them only once you take off. The plugin is a bit weird like that. Reload the FSE site and it should say that you’re enroute.
Anyway, complete the job. Put the brakes on and switch your engines off. If all has gone well X-Plane should pop up with a message saying that the job is complete. I found that this can sometimes need only the brakes on to complete the job. Sometimes you need to have the plane cold and dark (everything off). Sometimes I have to press ‘V’ for parking brakes.
Head back to the FSE jobs page and look at the top right of the page. Up there it should show your current balance. Fly safe!
Credit must go to Dick Thomas for showing me how to use the highly unintuitive FSE site.