A good VA in USA to fly online

[Marenostrum 4]

Hello to all pilots,

I'm flying 100% online on VATSIM/Pilotedge for 2 different VAs based in Europe (FlyUK and KLM).

I'm looking for a good VA in USA to fly online: in my idea this means a stable VA since some years, that allows to fly any route (so that I can join the vatsim events and/or fly the assignments in FSeconomy).

This is done by KLM in Europe: online flying only but FROM/TO that you prefer .

Many thanks in advance for your suggestions,

Stefano

 

 

[jbcallender 53]

I have flown for American Virtual Airlines for many years and I think they do a good job.  Visit them at www.joinava.org.

[qqwertz 781]

Check out https://vasops.vatsim.net/ for a list of VAs that are partnering with Vatsim in some way, searchable by region.

I have not been a member, but I have heard that Delta is very good and one of the largest VAs out there.

Peter

[Marenostrum 4]

Thank you ... I'll give a look and report back 🙂

 

[Marenostrum 4]

first report:

American Airline: 2 VAs.

VA1 stable since a long time...great...but they fly only the AAL routes...that's great for the VA simulation but not for those that like to fly online looking for ATC coverage (in my desire)

VA2 quite new...unable to read the SOP so I am unable to evaulate it.

 

DELTA: many VAs

 2 of them seems to meet my desire "any flight, any place", online.

 

Many thanks...I'll continue my investigation 🙂

[HondaJet 5]

Stefano, check out our Mirage Executive Charters VA  https://flymirageva.org

We have been around since early 2012 and have a great group of guys here.   You can fly any aircraft, any airline or GA from any location at any time.  We have schedule routes but also have a charter module that allows you to fly routes created by other VA pilots or create your own routes.  Our only requirements are the aircraft must have the range and can manage the landing when you arrive and you put in at least one flight every 90 days to stay active.

Give us a try; I think we are just what you are looking for.

Jerry

[threexgreen 3,139]

I'll recommend deltava.org and united-virtual.com. Both have code share and joint venture routes if you don't want to fly Delta or United exclusively and operate closely with Vatsim as well.

[Marenostrum 4]

23 hours ago, threegreen said:

I'll recommend deltava.org and united-virtual.com. Both have code share and joint venture routes if you don't want to fly Delta or United exclusively and operate closely with Vatsim as well.

United seems to require to fly the UA routes..I did not find the any aircraft /any route possibility.

deltava.org if I remember does not show the SOP.

there are two other Delta virtual that seem to meet what I am looking for...

Thank you...I am still exploring.

 

[MarkW 1,492]

What’s the point of joining a VA that allows flying any route. The whole point is to replicate the real world airline and fly their routes. Now some accommodation is usually made for aircraft selection. (Ie PMDG 737-800 instead of a 737-500 or -8). And in many cases they allow historic routes to use older retired aircraft, etc. 

[Luke 782]

Agree with MarkW. If you want "any aircraft/any route", you don't want a VA - you want a logbook or a flying club.

Cheers!

Luke

[HondaJet 5]

MarkW & Luke you are both wrong.

[Marenostrum 4]

4 hours ago, Luke said:

Agree with MarkW. If you want "any aircraft/any route", you don't want a VA - you want a logbook or a flying club.

Cheers!

Luke

I only partially agree,

You describe only one way (your way probably) to fly in a VA. That's fine...but after 4000+ hours I can definitively say that it's not the only one.

I've been in 3 VAs since I fly in the sim...all the 3 are good VAs...all different. In particular I have been the Event Manager in one of the 3 (a big and great VA, probably one of the the best all over the world for the Community) and there are 3 ways to fly: to fly scheduled routes (commercial, freights, charter) ,  to fly GA, to fly events online: three different things.

In particular, if you are focused in flying online and your goal is  to have the ATC at the departure and destination airports like, for example  an airbridge event or just looking at the map and seeing two well ATC covered airports, many times it is difficult to match the scheduled flights with the specific event/route. 

For this reason, in order to allow pilots to book the flight and use the acars to track it, we had to set up a lot of specific events flights matching the events on Vatsim/IVAO (a lot of work).

The third VA I joined is absolutely focues in flying online: you can fly any route/any aircraft but ONLY online: the tracking system is taken from IVAO/Vatsim directly and you do not need any acars for your logbook (and to forget to start 🙂 ). This VA (by the way is KLM, so not fictional) allows all the pilots to choose the airports/aircraft looking at the specific events and/or ATC covered airports.

Moreover, I love the FSeconomy world and I like to fly the assignments that I choose where I see a an ATC  covered area. 

So the question is: is more realistic to fly a scheduled route or to fly not a scheduled route but having to deal with a lot of controllers? I have no doubts, but this is only my way. One among the others.

So, yes, I am looking for another  VA based in USA. The one based in Europe is KLM and FlyUK (that I use it mainly for GA now) and they are perfect for my needs.

And,  by the way, there are many VAs with the "any route/any aircraft" rule  ...it's a matter to browse the web, ask to other pilots, read the SOP and decide.
 

Stefano

[ponchovilla 7]

I fly with virtualunitedairlines.org. You can fly online or offline, current or vintage aircraft, and any Star Alliance member airline. You only need to fly one flight during a calendar month to stay current on the roster and can transfer up to a certain number (I forget how many at the moment) of VATSIM hours. Just another suggestion to investigate.

[Marenostrum 4]

18 minutes ago, ponchovilla said:

I fly with virtualunitedairlines.org. You can fly online or offline, current or vintage aircraft, and any Star Alliance member airline. You only need to fly one flight during a calendar month to stay current on the roster and can transfer up to a certain number (I forget how many at the moment) of VATSIM hours. Just another suggestion to investigate.

That's OK...the only complication is that if you fly not a scheduled flight you need to submit manually the pirep with something that demonstrates that your did the flight. In this sens the KLM style (as described in my post) is automatic...very easy. 

[ponchovilla 7]

The VA actually has two different ACARS utilities that you can use. I use the vUAL ACARS utility. To fly a flight on the actual United schedule, I input the appropriate info (gleaned from FlightAware and other sites) and check the charter box before starting the flight, and when parked at the arrival gate, I make sure the proper VATSIM info is entered in the comment box, hit the stop flight button and then the file pirep button right after that, and the flight is automatically approved.