gonzo22

I'm interested in doing some dispatching for VA's and was interested to know if there are any VA's currently that make use of live dispatchers (I know delta VA uses them but they only accept new ones once in a while despite being brutally understaffed and you have to be a pilot first :( ) Thanks!

Thanks for the input you guys; tutmeister you have a good point that I did not consider. I was really looking for the biggest VA in terms of active pilots. A lot of VA's are good with keeping their rosters full of active pilots. I believe BA virtual has around 1000 active pilots

Hey, Does anyone know where I could find what the largest VA's are currently (in terms of membership/active pilots)? I know a few that are very big (BAW, globe cargo etc) but I'd like to see which are the biggest.Thanks!

I would love to fly for a winair VA, but giving a Caribbean island hopping VA a 737 (with a horrible paintjob) and inventing totally unrealistic routes for it too is completely unrealistic. Sorry.

Just curious, what software do you use to do the checkride for the type rating that the pilots must do?

There is a real world airline called Keystone...

I agree with everything you say. Except for the fact that any VA can be summed up like that. People crave realism in terms of name, fleet, routes, destinations etc. Hence most VAs existence. The VA that you speak of, with no pre-determined fleet however does raise the question of "why join a VA if I can fly any plane I want in FS anyway?" A virtual airline is just that. A simulation of an air operator. Obviously due to limiting factors, not everything can be accurate. But when you pull out all the stops with a VA and say "hey just fly just about any plane you like, as long as it meets these general requirements" its doomed to fail as you're no longer flying for the sake of simulating an airline and the pilots couldn't be bothered to do it over just firing up FS and flying for no one but themselves. No air operator would ever be granted an Operating certificate if their SOP's allowed people to just bring their own plane and use it on revenue generating flights. lol.

VA's where anyone can fly any aircraft they like has been done before, most of them fail after a short period. I don't think its a good idea, not realistic at all. Besides, why not just fire up FS and fly any plane you like without committing to some va? Seems like it would attract a few extremely inexperienced simmers and no one else. I also dont mean to be negative but helicopters in the fleet would just gather dust, the number flight sim users who can properly fly a helicopter is very very low. Helis are challenging machines that don't allow error. Even real world students take around 18-20 hours of flight to get the basics (turning, hovering etc.) down. Plus there's already an established, incredibly realistic, prominent helicopter VA (http://www.metrohelo.org/)These days the VA's that don't succeed (the majority of VA's) are the ones that don't focus on realism. The beauty of simulating a small charter/cargo operator like airpac is that being realistic doesn't require being complex. Also, the aircraft aren't too big, fast or challenging in general, so they would be a great learning experience for inexperienced guys, and for the more advanced guys, a lot of fun doing challenging approaches in IMC. Theres absolutely nothing wrong with the unusual flights Brian was talking about, and I'm sure they would be lots of fun AND they can be done realistically. But we need to have some solid parameters, like fleet, rules, operating procedures etc.

Yeah, there are definitely a wide variety of great freeware out there. Although I think the ATR is getting a little on the big side for a small cargo/charter company. Im sure it wouldnt be too hard to allow members to fly their own payware counterparts of our fleet (assuming they exist). However I think at this time, we aren't accomplishing much, we need someone with the know how and resources and time to set this all in motion. Unfortunately I dont have much of those at this point, but Im certainly willing to help out where at all possible. Let me know!

I guess what I was doing there was basically listing my favorite aircraft to fly, lol. The point is that there are tons of freeware that are of amazing quality that could be used in a small charter/cargo va. Way better than that C99 packed with default everything.

To be successful, we should start simple but realistic until we at least get the pilot base we need. Have 1 maybe 2 types of aircraft in the fleet to start. That beech 99 is alright I guess but it is very simple and full of default gauges. Lots off good options exist. (aeroworx king air 200, flight 1 pc12, mike stone LJ35, flight 1 cessna 441) to name a few. Have a realistic bidding system. PHPvms or whatever should be fine. A small, realistic route map, charts provided, and flightplanning utilities for each aircraft.In my opinion, that leaves tons of room for positive improvement based on the pilot groups input, things like vatsim approval etc. I`m also guilty of not wanting to be the guy "ìn charge", but am definitely willing to lend a hand where possible.

Please send me a PM if anything ends up happening. There is a lot of potential in this.

PM Sent

pm sent!

Hey all, I'm looking for a VA; Preferably in the Caribbean but I would certainly consider any region. I'm not looking for another heavy metal pushing VA. I'm looking for a realistic fleet consisting of smaller turboprop aircraft, for example the Twin otter, Britten Norman Islander, Cessna caravan etc. But certainly not limited to those aircraft. I'm not looking for one of those VA's with everything from a c172 to a b747 because it is not realistic at all. I am already aware of Oasis and Flycay so please don't suggest them. Thanks!