Apparently I need to pay FS pilot shop $4.95 to reactivate link after one year to re-download.
No, you don't. All our downloads are always freely available on our site, forever.
tried to reinstall program, surprisingly it did not request verification serial number.
Not surprisingly, of course. Our installers are Trial version so, they should be installable by everyone, not just those with a Serial Number. That's why the installer will never ask for it.
The Serial Number is used inside the simulator, from the Addon Manager menu.
For a second it appeared looked great, then I put my head down for a sec look backed up, ALL airport buildings gone, runways gone, big square ditches all around. I figure I needed to activate it somehow.
The Trial version is supposed to last 5 minutes so, unless you created a flight on that airport and the simulator took almost 5 minutes to start, that's not normal.
Did not recognize my email
That's because you bought from FS Pilotshop. Your email will be recognized only if you buy from FSDT. Which is not a problem, since the whole point of recognizing your email is to tell your Serial Number, which you already have and, in case you lose it, you can retrieve it from FSPS which *does* have your email.
serial number. All I got from FS pilot shop was the install software and I had the serial number from before. So how do I get an activation key ?
Activation keys are Serial Number are the same thing, it's just the Esellerate calls it "Serial Number" and QLM calls it "Activation key". However, if your Serial Number starts with "FSDT" (I'm sure it does), it means your Serial Number is from Esellerate.
Normally, when everything works correctly, and your firewall/antivirus are not interfering, you can activate an Esellerate Serial Number both on Esellerate servers ( which will be still up, until Sept. 30th ) and on the new Soraco/QLM servers, which knows about your Esellerate Serial Numbers.
However, when your firewall is blocking the connection to BOTH servers, the QLM License Wizard will come up, thinking your internet connection is not working, and THAT one cannot possibly know about Esellerate numbers, since it can only accept QLM Serial Numbers.
So, what you should do, is turn off any firewall, so your Serial Number can be activated normally, either on Esellerate or Soraco, since both will accept it.