To keep things fresh and varied, I decided to join the Bush Divers VA. The reasons I chose these guys are: They do have a very nice crew platform with progression, basic financial system and missions/jobs I find interesting and motivating. And they fly over PNG and Alaska, some of my favorite regions.
The Pirep software the Bush Divers are using is custom built and can be downloaded here. It works with FS2024, although it doesn’t seem to have been officially released for 24 yet.
The rules aren’t very strict overall. The flight tracker essentially works after the fashion “as long as you don’t crash your plane, it’s all good”. But you will have to make fuel calculations which will be synched and enforced by the dispatch system, and the better you fly, the faster you’ll progress. For example, smooth landings are rewarded with extra points which in turn are necessary to ascend through the ranks.
Also, you can earn money, rent and buy aircraft, basically building your own little enterprise within the BD ecosystem. The fleet is big and contains many popular types.
The community is quite large and group events seem to be plentiful. So far I’ve done a handful of flights and I very much enjoyed the experience.
Here’s a Youtube playlist which will be filled with recordings of some of my Bush Divers adventures: