In the coming months I will start to lay the foundation for a new kind of Virtual Airline. I have chosen to base it on the small New England based airline Cape Air. This airline also services Florida and the Caribbean. One of the main reasons for choosing this airline is because I am also an employee for Cape Air. I stated earlier that this is a new kind of VA and it will be. There are two main features that I will be working on that will allow this VA to be unique. One will be support from the actual airline itself. The other will be the use of FSMaintenance. As far as the involvement of the real Cape Air, well, that will be announced once I have a presentation to provide to the proper departments. As for the FSMaintenance portion, it will work something like this. By using FSMaintenance our fleet will age and be serviced like a real fleet would. Also pilots will use our planes and return them to the hanger and be assigned different a/c that has been flown by their fellow pilots. By FSMaintenance Cape Air VA will also be able to become a profitable VA or one that finds itself in debt. It is for this reason that choosing the right pilots will make a big difference. A quick run down on how it will work is this. Like all pilots, prior to becoming an employee you need to go thru some checks. Background, credentials, and flights are just some of the things. Once the Chief Pilot feels that a pilot is ready and able to fly for the VA then he/she will become part of the family. Next the pilot will bid on his/her routes. Routes will consist of locations and not times or days. Cape Air runs hourly service to most of there locations on a daily basis so when I pilot will bid on a VA route, that pilot will basically be stating where they want to fly to and from and leave it to the pilot to fly when they can (with the understanding that they should fly the same schedule times as the real airline). The pilot will be restricted to how many legs they can fly on a certain airframe until the a/c needs to be returned to the hanger and a new a/c will be assigned. This will ensure that all our a/c are inspected and are reliable. The a/c will then be put into maintenance and the chief mechanic will determine what repairs need to be done if any. All flights will be logged using the FSMaintenance feature and the .cvs file will be emailed to the Chief Pilot which will state the performance of the pilot. All fuel used will be logged as well and will be an expense drawn against the companies income. Virtual Dollars (V$) will also be used as an expense to pay our pilots. We will have an accountant to take care of our V$. For those who have used FSMaintenance you might have a good idea of how this might work. After every logged flight FSMaintenance provides you with a window stating how much is made in income, how much is set aside for repairs, and how much fuel is used. This info is stored in a file and that file will be emailed back to Operations (Ops) to where each department will get the info the need and update the companies standing. Basically we will just be using the Balance amount in V$. If a pilot does his/her job of flying right the company will make money. If the pilot has a bad flight then we will loose money. One thing about the real Cape Air is that many flights get repositioned or

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It sounds very interesting. I think the most appealing is your choice to use a smaller aircraft that someone of my moderate skills could manage. The FSMaintenace aspect seems very creative, and probably a very accurate method of tracking the fleet. I also like your choice of New England as a base of operations. Being a Connecticut resident, the commute wouldn't be unreasonable. ;)However, I don't currently have either FSMaintenace or the 421 Golden Eagle, and my current financial situation prevents me from investing the required capital at the moment. While I find the idea very appealing, you won't be seeing my resume on your desk in the immediate future. :)

Hi there,sounds interesting! I haven't been flying for a VA in a while for several reasons and I think you idea sounds really good if it can be implemented the way you intend to.I'd be interested when you guys get it started although I may not have to much time to fly at first (maybe a flight a week) since I'm starting with Comair Aviation Academy in September......who knows, maybe we'll fly cross country to Ft. Lauderdale......Anyways, looking forward to this great Idea.Cheers,Petehttp://home.neo.rr.com/zaehringer/pipersignature.jpgPIII600,512MB,Win98SE,DirectX8.1,Geforce32DDR(Det.22.80),SBlive(4.06.703)

Hello, I've flown for many VA's in the past and your idea seems to be a great one. I think this would really keep me involved in flying for a VA if the FSMaintenance program was used. With the short routes within the New England area, as well as up and down the coast, I'd definitely be willing to pickup the payware for your VA. Let me know when it gets going!Maul

This sounds quite interesting to me -- I have lately been looking at a lot of VAs - and they seem to be mostly based around Commercial jets.I know that there are also bush flying VAs -- but once again , for me at least, they aren't very realistic.Realism for me would be to fly and maintain an small aircraft - then slowly progress in to bigger aircraft and have to find the dollars to keep it in the air.Good idea-- let us know more.

Thank you for your replies so far. It

That's a great idea! I live in downtown Boston right now while I attend law school, and have spoken with Cape Air's General Counsel on a number of occasions, Lisa Price. In fact I was supposed to work for them this summer as a legal clerk, but opted for clerking for the New England Counsel's Office of the FAA. Cape Air is a great company! Their planes are awesome as well. The addition of the Cape Air livery for the 421 is maybe the best addition to the 2k2 fleet so far. Unfortunately, I am flying almost every day this summer after work to get the instrument multi rating. I say unfortunately because I would love to fly for the VA b/c the routes are awesome around the Cape, and there are a lot of IFR days due to fronts or haze, but time restraints may keep me away from the computer. The weather makes for challenging flying, particularly with the busy Class Bravo airspace at KBOS. Anyone who has the time or interest in the 421 should fly at least one route a week with this VA, and always file IFR, as they do even in VFR conditions! It should be a great time and build your instrument proficiency!One final tip....as I learned the other day in the plane........if you want to become a smooth pilot... and I mean smooth in turns, altitude and heading holds, etc., cover the up the attitude indicator for an entire 1-2 hour flight. I had one fail (simulated) on an IFR flight plan from KBOS from KBAF. Then you are only looking at the DG, VSI, and turn coordinator as your primary instruments. It makes a world of difference, because the you no longer "bracket", or make a correcting turn that is too large, and you only have the altimeter and VSI for pitch info. Trust me, after 1-2 hours, you will feel like a different pilot. Ciao,Christopher Michael BraunP4 1.8768 ram 80 gig hardriveVisiontek Ti4 4600CH yoke/pedals19" inch monitor-Soundblaster PCI 512Win XPPrivate PilotAOPALawyerPilots Bar Association"Men without dreams are never free, twas thus this way and thus will ever be."

Maul,Thanks for your reply. I haven

I REALLY like your idea Kilstorm. I love DC-Airways but if I could change one thing, I would love to see them implement FSMaintenance. I tried it for the 6-hour trial period and loved the immersion factor of the realism, not only in financial income, but wear and tear on the plane as well. Now I just need to come up with the money to buy it. Hmmm, I could go without my heart medication for a month, there's a hundred bucks plus right there! Naw! Never mind, I hate hospitals!As far as internal airline communication between the pilots, you might consider an internal forum with your VA.Cheers!Heather

G'Day Barry!Did you look into DC-Airways? No jets there!Cheers!Heather

Just an Update. I have just purchased the domain name for the VA. I have also started working on design the page and have sent an email to Jeff Miller for additional textures.Kil~

If its VFR conditions our pilots will file IFR to get out of Boston and cancel and keep the code for advisories. Flying into Boston they can come in VFR. Some pilots like to fly "I" just so they dont have to look for traffic and let the controller fly the plane.Kil~

I was just browsing this forum, looking to see if anyone had started a VA based on Cape Air, and here we are. I am VERY intersted int his idea (especially the use of FSMaintenance). Please e-mail any and all details and let me know how I can help get this VA off the ground (pun intended)Michael [email protected]http://pages.prodigy.net/mccullough

Hello,Just saw this post and it reminded me about the Cape Air VA with FSMaintenance. Just wondering if this is still in the works. I'm still very interested in it. Let me know. [email protected]