Newsky.app VA & Flight tracking platform

[DAD 2,420]

Since some including me started to hijack the APL2 and Fenix thread I thought it may make sense to start an own topic on Newsky. I am no VA pilot (yet) but only learned about and tried Newsky just for assigning/booking flights and then track them to get my rating. nothing special but gives me a bit more "meaning" when zipping around, primarily in one of the many A320. Tried Volanta before which kept track of my flights but gave no rating, at least not in the free version. APL2 seems "too much" for me and my needs, tracking flights, not allowing too many errors. Newsky better fits my casual needs, not tracking if and when I started the APU, served meals or turned the seatbelt sign on. Just basic flying and rating. Again, considering Newsky comes for free I like what it offers. @Bobsk8 (sorry for pulling you here), I even created a Simbrief OFP and that one worked actually great. Clicked the icon, made the plan, imported into my FBW320 and off I went. No issues here. Wonder what created the problems on your side

Your thoughts?

Edited November 21 by DAD
typos but there are for sure more

[DAD 2,420]

Now trying the Fenix. Did use the Simbrief planning feature again and have to say it works nice here...

[Lucky38i 837]

I'm going to check this out. I normally fly Walker to have some sense of freedom with my flight schedule, how often I fly, what I want to fly etc. However I always wanted to be flying different airlines and liveries, just to make things a little more interesting. This may be it.

*Edit

Disregard, this is a cool app but not really what im looking for. Basically looking for something like Virtual Cargo International, but for passenger airliners

Edited November 21 by Lucky38i

[pete_auau 1,058]

yep been  using  newsky   for  4  months, good  thing  about  it  you  can  fly  to any airport  using  pax or  cargo or  you  can  use  the  schedule  routes,  like  the  idea   that  you have  to  taxi out  from the  gate  on  time

[qqwertz 732]

In addition to the excellent rating system, I also like the financial aspects. Revenues seem to be more realistic than in most other economic simulations I have tested. It gives you a sense of expenses and opportunities. The only somewhat negative aspect about the financials is that there are a lot of daily fees (for hubs, airports, fleet, schedules, ...). That may be realistic but heavily favours busier airlines. If you try to simulate part 135 and don't have the time to fly each day, it is hard to keep your airline out of the red. Still, overall it is a really good app IMHO, including the financial model.

Peter

[Bobsk8 11,876]

 

I am going to try the Genrate OFP button again today. When I did it yesterday, something screwed up in the Newsky app and I lost control of everything, and it was stuck on the flight plan page. I actually had to uninstall the app and reinstall it , to get it to work. 

[DAD 2,420]

1 hour ago, Lucky38i said:

However I always wanted to be flying different airlines and liveries, just to make things a little more interesting.

you can pick anything you want, airframe, route, pax or cargo in the free flight mode. you are just stuck in the default "Newsky VA" or whatever it is called. if that is what bothers you then I agree and see your point. but even under that VA I can still fly my liveries and individual routes. better than joining one specific/dedicated VA and being stuck there. YMMV

[Bobsk8 11,876]

14 minutes ago, DAD said:

you can pick anything you want, airframe, route, pax or cargo in the free flight mode. you are just stuck in the default "Newsky VA" or whatever it is called. if that is what bothers you then I agree and see your point. but even under that VA I can still fly my liveries and individual routes. better than joining one specific/dedicated VA and being stuck there. YMMV

I picked to VAs on their list, and it just says pending. How does that work?

[BrammyH 334]

Just now, Bobsk8 said:

I picked to VAs on their list, and it just says pending. How does that work?

If you've chosen an actual VA, and not the default Newsky Academy, an admin on the VA side needs to manually approve your request.

If you just want to track flight stats, use the Newsky Academy.

[Bobsk8 11,876]

I did Four flights today with Newsky and the last flight I got a 9.9 ( perfect is 10.0) .  I think I like this better than A Pilots Life, especially for flying the DC6, where I was getting docked on every flight for spoilers and taxi lights, which the DC6 doesn't have. 

Edited November 21 by Bobsk8

[DAD 2,420]

7 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

did Four flights today

Good to hear Bob. Did you also try the simbrief generation again? Yesterday it once did not work for me but that was at the time simbrief had some issues, throwing out some fancy parsing errors. 
besides that what you say is exactly what I like about Newsky, being able to get a solid rating without being penalized excessively and even generate some income though I have no idea what to do with that. A career mode would be nice but on the other hand I like that I can fly what I want without earning money on a Cessna first before I can afford a TBM and then a Citation and then …

19 hours ago, Lucky38i said:

Basically looking for something like Virtual Cargo International, but for passenger airliners

Don’t know virtual cargo but did you try the charter flight option in Newsky?

[qqwertz 732]

2 hours ago, DAD said:

 simbrief generation

I never use that because my workflow is different. Before I book a flight, I want to know if the weather is good enough. I use Simbrief before clicking on "book flight" and import the into Navigraph Charts before making the decision.

[DAD 2,420]

56 minutes ago, qqwertz said:

want to know if the weather is good enough

I know what you mean. I usually look for an airport where the weather is bad enough though as I like low visibility when greasing  the A320 on the rwy. And flightplan via simbrief offers more options incl. selecting anything from rwy, Star etc. whereas the hit and miss button in Newsky does all the work for you. Short version, I will probably also continue to plan my flight outside Newsky but just wanted to try the in-app solution because Bob mentioned he ran into issues

Edited November 22 by DAD

[Bobsk8 11,876]

4 hours ago, DAD said:

Good to hear Bob. Did you also try the simbrief generation again? Yesterday it once did not work for me but that was at the time simbrief had some issues, throwing out some fancy parsing errors.  and then a Citation and then …

Don’t know virtual cargo but did you try the     charter flight option in Newsky?

I don't care for the simbrief generation in Newsky. I like to just pull up simbrief, and pick the exact flight plan I want, and sometimes change one or two waypoints before I fly, as well as specify altitudes. I know there is an edit feature in Newsky, but to me that is allot of unnecessary work.  I only fly the free passenger flights because I have been flying only the DC6 lately and like to keep my flights around 200 miles or so. 

[MarcG 2,471]

What makes Newsky any different/better than other VAs? (specifically Walker Air)

Having gone down the path of looking into VAs these past few days I feel like I'm stuck down the bottom of a rabbit hole not knowing which one to choose, I joined FlyUK but have since realised they have very few GA so that's turned me off, Walker Air & Newsky have more GA so that's a turn on (ooeerr) but I'm still perplexed by the whole thing.....I don't even know what I'm after any more 🤦‍♂️😄perhaps I need to do more reading on what these things are really about!