reachva

Hey all, This was my second attempt at making a HD video in flight simulator this time as a short promo for Reach Airways. I experimented a little with EzDok to see what I could achieve. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the final shot took the longest to set up, all four of those jets are different textures (different regos from the fleet) and lined up using FS Recorder, with a fifth aircraft (ultralight) hidden behind the terminal building to serve as my starting point to set up the camera for the shot. Let me know what you think.

G'day all, Reach Airways is currently holding a livery competition for special schemes to be applied to our future fleet including the longhaul division. The winning design(s) as voted will be made by myself into skins usable in flight simulator named after the liveries creator! All resources required will be provided and we accept all entries, even from non-Reach Airways pilots. For more information, see the relevant thread HERE. Also remember to visit our website at http://www.reachva.com

G'day all, This month sees Reach Airways continuing to expand with new pilots and aircraft to our existing destinations. It is currently planned to launch some west coast and central Australian destinations by December pending approval and aircraft availability. Currently the aircraft fleet consists of 4 737s (two each of both -700 and -800 model), an ATR 72-500 for regional operations and an Airbus A320-200 (being used for evaluation flights currently). This month also sees a revised website skin and a new header image. Improvements are continuously being made to the website and forums to improve the user experience. Now is the best time to join us as we settle in for summer. Remember to join our forums as well to join the discussion and have access to many useful tools for FSX. now go out there and enjoy the Australian Skies! Website: http://www.reachva.com

REX Essentials is great, I've found myself marveling at the sunsets and sunrises whilst flying around. The lighting also makes the Reach livery appear golden from certain angles which is giving my ideas for future special liveries... I'll have to add some routes to/from Perth sooner or later, will need to get another aircraft for that probably as I'm not too sure how many routes could be served beyond connections to the East Coast (apart from Skywests network that is). Australia is indeed a large country but there are plenty of places to fly up and down the East coast that are not too long to fly. I also don't like long flights as I find short hops more interesting (and challenging too). At the moment I think the average flight time for most of the flights is 1-1.5 hours though that will/can change once a decision is made for a training/regional turboprop to fly the thin feeder style routes. The limitations in that regard are primarily the availability of detailed models available as freeware and payware where available. the ATR for example would be perfect however there aren't many decent models of it around other than the now aging Flight1 product which is still nice but has some issues in FSX. The hub aspect is understandable as it is often a means of organising pilots by grouping (such as those flying West/East coast flights). The system Reach is currently using only uses the hub feature for organising, your flights do not have to start and/or end at that airport. It's only there to make things easier for us admins. As for the exams, they can be good for testing a pilots knowledge on the type so that they know how to fly it, however the issue is that for many of us (including myself) I don't fly one aircraft type all the time so I don't often learn all the finer points for each aircraft. Reach will not be adopting exams or type rating tests though training will be offered through the forums should you ask about it.

Ah nice. I've only done a limited course on web development for a semester at university which covered basic HTML, CSS and Javascript techniques. I still mostly rely on existing stuff for my designs.

Thanks for the advice on the CSS, I'll have to give that a shot tonight when I get home on the pc.

I have now set up the forums which are available to join from here; http://reachva.com/smf/index.php Currently accounts for the website are not linked with the forums so remember to register on both. Guests are only able to view a limited amount of the forums with the majority of it reserved for members only.

Yeah I've noticed that issue and been trying to correct it. At the moment I'm having to use absolute positioning on the menu bar which causes the issue on other sized monitors. What I need to do is use relative positioning but for some reason when I do that the menu bugs up and it all goes off screen. I'd be more than happy with help setting up the routes. I'm trying to build a database of holiday destinations by which to serve and trying to fit them together into a realistic timetabled schedule but so far I'm not having much luck (using flight aware for flight endurance averages). Also trying to keep aircraft equipment on the routes reasonably flexible (be it -700 which is my favorite to fly or the larger -800). Hard to find this information however as only virgin Australia uses both types and not much info can be found as to where they send what.

Alright it's been a month since my last post. I've been busy with my University studies and as such haven't had terribly that much time to post updates. That said, there has been progress. Most notable of all is that the VA now has a website; http://www.reachva.com I'm still working on the website layout and design so it is very much a WIP at this stage. Many of the pages still need filling out but technically the airline is operational to a degree now. I've also finalised my two PMDG skins for the 737-700 and 737-800 models and have now completed a repaint and extensive modification of the POSKY 738 model (including Alrots upgraded default 737 VC, better FDE, FMC, etc). Working on the -700 series before I'll be uploading these models and liveries to the site. Here is a screen of the POSKY 738; And just for fun, here is the PMDG 737-700 which I did in a special inverted colours/all green livery;

Alright I've been busy so haven't done all that much visible progress. Been working on a rough website template to match the livery based upon one of the freely available phpVMS linked templates. I haven't got anything of that to show yet as I'm still trying to sort out the drop down menus and colour palette. I don't have a web hosting or domain name yet for Reach Airways either so progress in that side will be slow. I have however done another aircraft in the Reach livery, this time it is Digital Aviations beautiful Fokker F-100; I rather like how the livery looks on this already nice looking bird. These would be a part of the optional fleet used for FIFO (Fly-in, Fly-out) operations to places like Mount Isa as well as for charter and commercial flights to locations where a 737 either cannot get in or is too big for the route.

I've been considering putting the logo or at least the name of the airline on the inside of the winglets to liven them up a little. Not sure about putting anything on the engines as I don't want the livery to become too crowded.

Alright it's been almost a month since my last update here but now I have something to show; the livery on the PMDG NGX 737-800WL now with 'reach' titles, aircraft type and registration decals. This repaint is pretty much finished now in my opinion other than a few possible slight adjustments. It's a simple but clean livery which is what I was after to reflect an LCC correctly. Whilst doing this I also had the idea of a special livery with whole fuselage green and white titles which I may or may not do. Feedback is most welcome.

Thanks. I'm still working on it and experimenting with different things to see how it looks. Also due to popular request (on another website) here's a PMDG 737-800NGX Winglet version of the WIP livery. There's been some interesting name suggestions so far but I'm still open to them. The NGX required a slightly altered livery to the Airbus X to better suit the airframe and also slightly adjusted the aspect ratio of the tail logo. The airline probably will end up having both 737s and A320s so pilots can fly that which they prefer.

Well with exams now over, Semester 1 of University is complete so I have time to return to (one of) my hobbies. With the logo completed more or less I decided to try and match it to a paint scheme. Still no name for the airline yet and as such the livery is very much a WIP but here's some shots of what I have so far; In trying to keep with the low-cost theme, I have a maximum of three colours that I can use. So far I've used two (the lime and the off-white) so that leaves a single final colour available to use either for text, trim decoration or other. Probably going to go for billboard-style titles (but more stylish) with the web address on the rear fuselage and a phone number somewhere (maybe). Let me know what you think, I'm still open for names!

Whilst I don't have a name here's a logo of sorts that I've come up with for it. Obviously it's not a final stage as that wouldn't have solids but nice gradient shades and such. CONCEPT LOGO CLICK HERE It's supposed to be primarily a stylised sea shell but also could be interpreted as a leaf, a breaking wave, sails or even the design of the Sydney Opera House.