Hi,Me and a friend of mine are thinking of Making First Choice Virtual for Vatsim as i know that First Choice was a popular airline. I was wondering would anyone join as a pilot or even our staff team? It doesn't have to be First Choice Virtual, We were also thinking about BMI or Thomas cook.Please let me know what you thinkDaleP.S This is not only for fs9

There is a forum for such news: http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showforum=112And change the tiltle of your post - it says nothing.

Yeah, i could be up for that, what about Monarch, Easyjet

Monarch is an opition i think but easyjet take legal action against va'sEDIT: I think monarch Virtual is already running

And change the tiltle of your post - it says nothing.

Excellent point, and more people should follow that advice. It doesn't take much to indicate what you are asking in the subject of the post.

Thomas Cook, First Choice, and My Travel as it was (often effectively the same airline conglomerate in former as well as current guises with regard to code sharing, contradeals and such), made a lot of use of the Airbus range, notably the A320/A321 and A330. They used the 757 and 767 as well of course, but they were nonetheless big Airbus buyers and that remains the case, certainly for Thomas Cook, who are based just up the road from me at EGCC. That in itself is a plus though, since the UK2000 scenery for EGCC is one of the best airport sceneries you can get, which means your hub airport would well served as far as realistic scenery goes.However, you might find the choice slightly problematic for some hardcore types, as you've either got the default FSX A321, which as we know is not great, or a series of payware Airbus aircraft and some freeware ones, of which, the Wilco Airbus Volume 1 is about the most viable choice unless using freebie aircraft with some tweeks. Other than that, you have the CLS series of Airbuses, which are fairly simple as far as features go, which potentially may not be right up the street of many VA types, although by the same token, that might make your VA more accessible for less hardcore types. There is the PSS 'Bus too of course for FS9 users, but it's getting on a bit. These are some things you'll have to think about. Of course they also used the Boeing 757 and 767 too, which brings Level D, Captain Sim and CLS again to the table in terms of what aircraft to support, since all of them offer either a 757, 767, or both. Potentially that could mean a lot of repaints to make.There is nothing wrong with using freebie tweeked up aircraft in a VA, even WestWind - the grandaddy of all VAs - supports a few freeware aircraft with repaints. But if you go that route, you had better be sure that you are prepared to offer support to people who potentially want to join your airline and use such freebies, as not everyone is that clued up on adding panels and such, and that means you'd probably need a website with some download capability and instructions, that is unless you wanted to be answering a lot of queries (more repaint issues too of course). So you might want to specify the need for members to have specific aircraft, which might not be a bad thing, since one assumes that anyone who has bought a payware bird will be fairly serious about flying it properly if they are also contemplating joining a VA. This means you need to think about how hardcore you want to go, which in itself attracts different potential members to a VA. On the plus side however, you'd be looking at fairly short and medium range European flights for the most part, which means interesting weather and destinations, and manageable flight times too, both of which are a big draw for potential VA members.There is the neophyte Airsimmer FS9 A320 (currently somewhat problematic for some users), or potentially the PMDG and Airliner XP A320s if they ever show up in the future. That's good for future prospects potentially, but it means that for FSX users right now, the Wilco A320/321/330 is about the only truly viable choice (also works in FS9 of course). So the heavy focus on Airbus for your choice of VA theme may limit your options, thus you are limiting your potential members to those who've got whatever craft you decide to support. And you will have to pick one or two, since you need to get the repaints available, unless you rely on pre-existing pant jobs, which might be limited in terms of what you are allowed to do with them.None of this is intended to put you off; I think it's a great idea, but I thought it was worth pointing some of this stuff out just in case you had not considered it. You might have to think hard about what fleet and add-ons you want to support, and attracting a repaint artist if neither you or your friend are up for the job would be a priority recruitment task if I were you, although to be fair, there are a lot of people out there who'd probably like that as a a prime job at a VA.On the up side, what makes it an interesting choice operationally, aside from the destination variety, is that you would have pilots who had to follow different rules depending on which airline under the global overall group they were flying for, since Thomas Cook and First Choice were effectively partner airlines, but had different rules for their aircrews. For example, the old My Travel A320s were not allowed to use Expedite on climbs, as it added wear and tear to the engines, whereas Thomas Cook pilots could do so if they desired if I recall correctly (I could check if you like, I have those manuals), which made the Standard Operating Procedure cockpit manuals the airlines shared an interesting read (I know, because my wife and I produced the real manuals for them). They were full of caveats about whether you were or were not allowed to do certain things, depending on what logo was painted on your tail! But for VA pilots who seek some procedural variety if they had the option to fly for both airlines, that might make things quite a lot of fun. What also makes that potentially fun for you, is that since two of you are thinking of forming the VA, one of you could run TC and the other FC, or MT, as a partnership, which is of course a lot like the real airlines operated.I say go for it, but keep in mind that there may be more to it than you think in terms of work to do and planning.Al

You'll struggle with First Choice as they are part of one of the biggest and best VA's around; Thomson (http://www.thomsonvirtual.com/). You'll have about as much success as if you started a real airline and tried to compete with Easyjet and Ryanair!

Hi,my friend has pulled out now so it is just me, would anyone being willing to help me with the virtual airline. I think it will be Thomas cook and maybe first choice in the future.Dale

Hi,my friend has pulled out now so it is just me, would anyone being willing to help me with the virtual airline. I think it will be Thomas cook and maybe first choice in the future.Dale

You're killing me ........... :(

How am i killing you?

You're killing me ........... :(

:( :(

Ok. Red1, why you also horrible to me??????????

Ok. Red1, why you also horrible to me??????????

Dale, I don't think Red was being horrible. I admire you for having the ambition to Start a VA but do you realise how difficult it is to start a successful VA?You need to do a lot of research and have some good people behind you to get it working. One last thing, you need to get permission from the real airline or you will be shut down.Good luck to you mate :)

Thanks

Ok. Red1, why you also horrible to me??????????

I have not even addressed you...I was commenting on delta.