Hi, welcome to SimV.

To answer your question, no you cannot fly set flightplans but you can make your own.  So you'll have to pretend that passengers are getting on your plane.  That's why it wasn't on the site.

Happy simming.

Sorry, I forgot about the historic flights.

The short answer to your question is "no". There aren't any missions. FS 2004 is a simulator not a game so there aren't any prepackaged missions except for a few "Flight Adventures" like the ones mentioned above.

That's the bad news. The good news is that being a simulator FS 2004 is far more open ended than a game with prepackaged missions. You fly where, when and in whatever aircraft you want. No limits (OK very few, you can't fly to the North and South Poles but everything else is fair game).

You can however pick up flight adventures online either here at SimV or other places like AVSIM if that's what you like. Not sure how many there are but I've seen them. Don't usually like that sort of thing myself.

Something you can do alternatively is earn ratings just like in real life. You start as  student pilot and train for your PPL (Private Pilot License). FS 2004 has lessons where you fly with an instructor and practice the skills and later fly with an examiner to earn your license. The lessons go from PPL in the small planes like the Cessna to ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) in the heavies and the check rides are very difficult to pass.

Back to your original question. If you want to fly passengers the best option is to join a virtual airline. There are all types from flying heavies with hundreds of passengers to ferrying tour groups in helos. Different airlines have different requirements to fly with. Some require you to earn all your ratings before joining and others are open to anyone who has the sim.

For myself I happen to be the backwoods outdoorsy type so I've hooked up with an outfit called BFU (Bush Flying Unlimited) http://bfu.avsim.net/we operate in the remote regions of the world flying old beat up vintage airplanes as well as modern short field capable craft in some of the damndest weather conditions you can find, hauling everything from passengers to dog food. It isn't anything packaged with the sim but it provides something to do with it and I think it's much better this way since the virtual airline is whatever you make of it which is something that Microsoft could never do.

[quote author=Graycat8524  link=1090636257/0#6 date=1090647368]

Another idea is to get some neutral person to fix up a *.Bgl terrain file with a macro of an aircraft inserted on the ground somewhere (you're given only a vague idea of its location) and send it to you via E-Mail.

Your mission (should you decide to accept it) is to locate this "downed" aircraft and either "fly cover" so as to vector in rescue personnel or fly a chopper in and land close by to take on survivors.  Using Multiplayer Support you and others can compete to see who can locate the aircraft and perform the rescue first.  If the "downed" aircraft is in a remote or dangerous location, (i.e. in a valley or beside a mountain) or if you add a few inclement weather conditions then the rescue gets real challenging real fast.

With FS 2004 you're only limited by your imagination.

[/quote]


Glad you mentioned that. I flew a job for BFU like that a while back. I was looking for a downed twin engined airliner (Martin 404 that was on it's way for some refitting so only the crew were onboard). I was using real weather and this was late fall in the Alaskan Panhandle. The downed airplane had an emergency beacon but it was down in mountainous terrain and the beacon was short range (6 mi).

I started out in a Cessna 172 and immediately flew into rain, snow, sleet and gusting 30 kt winds with mountains hidden in the clouds. It got so bad that I finally had to turn around and give up in hopes of better weather.

Weather never got any better. It actually got worse. I tried for three days and only once got a short fix on the beacon by flying above the clouds. I finally loaded up the 1934 Garwood boat (Comes with the Ryan STA) and drove that up the coast near the place I got a hit on the beacon and found the downed plane up a small inlet Just north of Bartlett Cove seaplane base. On the way out I drove the injured pilots by boat back to Bartlett cove (BQV) where I took them on in to PAJN in a Maule. Had to use the ILS for landing since visibility was nil. Nobody could create a package adventure like that. Had me actually sweating.

Just took a look through my old screen shots. Here's the ones I used for my PIREP.

[img]http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Martin404.JPG
[/img]


[img]http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Martin404_2.JPG[/img]


[img]http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/Martin404_3.JPG[/img]