Howdy all,I'm not new to Avsim, VATSIM, or the Virtual Airline world, and after many years of flying for other people, I decided to look into starting a VA. I have some real world airline experience, as well as being a real world private pilot. I've been management at several VA's so this isn't new either.I know it's tough and most new VA's fail, but in the research I've done I think I've found why most of them do. To start with, I'm already in better shape because I've got the webspace, design know-how, and some spare cash to get things running. I think that alone puts me in the top 10% of VA startups...Anyway, I'm only one person and I think VA's need to begin as a sort of group of like-minded enthusiasts. So I thought I'd put this out as "feeler" and see if there are any other flight sim professionals out there who have been toying around with the same idea and just need to group together to get it launched.Thanks!

interesting, I'm kind of in the same boat as you minus all the experience :( but I have been simming since the mid 80's and am still stuck on FS9 with all the glorious addons I have..I am thinking about starting my own but payware all the way.. I've accumulated great payware a/c and scenery and would like a realistic environment to use them 100% of the time, not just sometimes.I'm not into fly anything anywhere at anytime, those va's to me just become an electronic group logbook.. a va def. needs structure. to me it has to feel like I'm flying for a company and not just a free for all.the BIGGEST thing for me that I want to do, and I'm sure I'll loose you on this, is pilots will get fired for doing/flying poorly.. I think how you fly needs to have meaning of some sort..I'm planning on using VAFSso, what style are you planning?

Are you reading my mind? :)I already have a paid account with VAFS...been using it for about two weeks to get the feel and test a few options. I agree 100% with your VA experience...I prefer "realistic" over "do anything". I also own almost every commercial jet add-on and quite a bit of scenery, but I think limiting pilots to only using payware would severly restrict membership. So to balance some pilots desire for realism and others who prefer free flight, I was testing a two membership options- a "Virtual Crew" where operations are as close to a real airline as possible, and a "Jump-In" option similiar to 90% of the free flight VA's out there.Just brainstorm ideas at the moment, besides some web design work to see how it would look.

interesting, I'm kind of in the same boat as you minus all the experience :( but I have been simming since the mid 80's and am still stuck on FS9 with all the glorious addons I have..I am thinking about starting my own but payware all the way.. I've accumulated great payware a/c and scenery and would like a realistic environment to use them 100% of the time, not just sometimes.I'm not into fly anything anywhere at anytime, those va's to me just become an electronic group logbook.. a va def. needs structure. to me it has to feel like I'm flying for a company and not just a free for all.the BIGGEST thing for me that I want to do, and I'm sure I'll loose you on this, is pilots will get fired for doing/flying poorly.. I think how you fly needs to have meaning of some sort..I'm planning on using VAFSso, what style are you planning?