You start as a cadet at a small coastal base with an empty logbook, and you work towards the left seat. Everything in between — the roster you are issued, the sectors you fly, what you are paid and what it costs to be promoted — is run by an airline that does not care how badly you want it.
The month is the only deadline you get. Twenty duties and fifty-two sectors, issued and locked. Seniority decides how much of the good flying lands on your sheet. Fly them in whatever order suits you; the month is what you answer for.
Your flight plan comes with the job. Routing, winds aloft, fuel and weights, a full navigation log and the ATC strip — built for the sector you picked. No subscription, and no AIRAC cycle to keep current.
A recorder in the back watches all of it. SkyHub ACARS is a desktop client that sits beside your simulator and records the sector as you fly it — the track, the handling, the touchdown. It files the report itself at shutdown, and the server grades what the recorder saw rather than what anybody claims. That is why the leaderboards mean something.
Technique is scored, and the entry is final. Rotation rate, bank, the descent, the touchdown. Every sector is graded by flight data monitoring and paid at your rank. Logbook entries cannot be amended — these are the only hours that count towards command.
You run the cabin as well as the aeroplane. Boarding to disembarkation: the announcements, the service, and a hundred and seventy-odd people forming an opinion about how it is going. When something happens at altitude — a cardiac arrest, a fire, an engine failure — the call is yours, and the flight is judged on what you decided.
Two currencies, and neither is for sale. Hours decide when you can be promoted; cash decides whether you can afford it. Hours come from flying. Cash is earned, lent or won — lock it away and it earns every day until you take it back, or borrow, and a quarter of every sector’s pay goes against the loan until it is clear.
Twenty aircraft, twelve ratings, eight bases. From the ATR 72 and the Dash 8 through the A320 and 737 families to the 777, the 787 and the 747-8. Pick the type you are rated on — or the one you have always wanted to fly. Three thousand kilometres of Vietnamese coastline to learn the hard way: the summer monsoon over the delta, the crosswinds down the central coast, Hanoi under low cloud in January.
Leaderboards worth reading. Pilot Ranking, Top Gun, Green Aviator, Iron Man, Steady Hands, Rookie of the Month. There is also a Hall of Shame, and it is very well read.
What you get. One key, one career. It opens Career Mode in full — the monthly roster, the flight planning, the logbook, the pay ledger and the ACARS recorder — on your SkyHub account, permanently. No subscription. Every future update included. Nothing else in the game is ever sold for real money.
Not for you? Say so within 14 days and we refund in full.
Simulator
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 or Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
System
Windows 10 or 11. The SkyHub ACARS client reads the simulator through SimConnect and runs alongside it. An internet connection is required while flying, so the sector can be filed.
Account
A SkyHub crew account, which is free to create at skyhubairways.com.
Please note — this is a licence, not an add-on you install. Nothing is copied into your simulator’s Community folder. You receive a single-use licence key. Create your crew account at skyhubairways.com, enter the key once on the activation page, and it binds to that account permanently. The SkyHub ACARS client is then a free download from your crew portal.