20,000 Flight Hours since August 2004

[Guest Flying Tigress]

20,000 flight hours, 7,732 flights including 3,257 general aviation flights and now 130 pilots. Virtual Pilots Association is the place to be for active, committed, virtual pilots having fun!

[Guest MightyMatt76]

jennifer,the site and the possibilities look very good i must admit. but what about future plans for VPA? an own ACARS system? possiblity to use FS Flight Keeper etc... i think you guys got a great 'product' but some future plans woud be great to read about.

[Guest Flying Tigress]

>jennifer,>the site and the possibilities look very good i must admit.>but what about future plans for VPA? an own ACARS system?>possiblity to use FS Flight Keeper etc... i think you guys got>a great 'product' but some future plans woud be great to read>about.>Thanks Matt - When we started this group, we had in mind an association of people who love virtual aviation; no particular goals for number of pilots or growth rate. (Frankly I was surprised when we grew past 100 pilots a while back.) In fact, our entrance exam is fairly difficult and the majority of applicants don't pass; although we do have a 'student' system for those who are new to FlightSim but evince a genuine desire to become serious hobbyists.Our intention was to avoid all the hoopla and hyperbole that is often associated with virtual airlines and simply provide a good place to be with lots of resources and a good, solid community. All three managers had been CEOs of virtual airlines at one time or another and were all too familiar with the frantic scramble to gain members that many VAs engage in. We decided that didn't fit with our philosophy and said, "to heck with it - if we only end up with 50 members, that's fine."Which leads back to your suggestion that we talk about our future plans. Well, one of the things we decided in the beginning is that we would only announce features after they'd been implemented. We felt that announcing something like "we'll have type certification... some day" and stuff like that might be a good way to get people to join, but it's not the way we want to do business. We want to be judged by what we are, not what we might become.So I hope you don't mind or think I'm just blowing you off - but while we will continue to strive to improve our services and resources, you won't be able to read about what they are until we actually offer them.There's a fairly good description of what we do offer now in a thread I posted here on 19 April "What do You Want From a Virtual Airline" - it gives a good sense of what we have to offer at this moment.