June 24, 2024 / admin / 1 Comment
I became first acquainted with a virtual airline or VA for short in the 1999 or early 2000 timeframe. During these past 24-25 years, with exception for a year to two when life was so busy that I didn’t spend much time at all with flight sim, I’ve belonged to one or more VA’s. Today I fly exclusively for a popular VA that mirrors the day-to-day operations of American Airlines. More about this in a minute.
The Competition
But the question at hand is are VA’s still relevant today? Without any hesitation I say, absolutely YES! But in recent years the virtual airline concept has been met with some strong competition from various 3rd party add-on products which simulate your own airline career. One of the more popular of these add-ons is called “A Pilot’s Life” by SimBitWorld. I actually wrote a review back in 2019 which you can read here. Since that time, Simbitworld has released an even more popular “A Pilot’s Life – Chapter 2” which I’ve also used from time to time. There are a few others that have come onto the scene since MSFS2020 was released. I’ve used a few and in time I’ll probably write up a review of these standalone applications for your consideration.
It’s Fun until the loneliness sets in
A Pilot’s Life and other standalone products are great until the loneliness sets in and what I mean by this is a good virtual airline will also have a vibrant community of virtual pilots to interact with within their forums or Discord channels. They may also regularly schedule VA group flights, but generally there’s almost always someone willing to fly with you if that is what you like.
Like I stated previously, over the past 24+ years I’ve been involved with virtual airlines in the capacity of just a pilot all the way to operating my own fictional virtual airline for a number of years. For the past three years I’ve belonged to American Virtual Airline. At this VA I’ve served as pilot, Hub Manager, VP of Operations and Chief Operating Officer (COO). Today, I serve as the Chief Training Development Officer. I oversee our new hire training academy where new applicants will spend their first 15 days or so. Our training academy is brand new and allows new hire candidates to receive training on not only our VA systems/tools including our website, ACARs system and an all important overview of our policies and procedures followed by an overview of the Boeing 737. Additionally, all new pilot candidates will submit a Boeing 737 check-ride flight before graduating into the mainline airline operations.
In Summary
Yes, I still believe all these years later that joining a good virtual airline is a great way to enhance your virtual aviation experience. Keep in mind that most VA’s will require a minimum level of participation. This is generally 1-2 flights per month to remain active. At American Virtual Airlines we require just one flight every 30 days to remain in active status. Many of our pilots fly daily as we’re a very airline. If you’re interested in joining American Virtual Airlines, just go here and submit an application. Upon submitting your application, it will be reviewed and approved in a timely manner.
If you have never experienced a virtual airline, I encourage you to join one. Regardless if it’s American Virtual (which I mentioned above) or any which represent your prefer airline…try it. I think you’ll like it.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
December 29, 2010 / admin / 0 Comments
If you’ve followed some of my blog posts in the past 4-6 weeks, you know that I started flying on VATSIM again and also re-joined American Virtual Airlines. AvA was founded in the summer of 2001 and was the very first VA to be affiliated with VATSIM. While I wasn’t one of the “Founding Fathers”, I did join in August 2001 and within a few weeks had been offered the role of VP of Operations and managed several of the hubs. AvA was my virtual employer from 2001 until 2004 timeframe.
I started flying again with AvA just over a month ago. I joined the DFW hub and for the month of December have accumulated over 52 hours and I still have one more day to go. Anyway, after a few weeks I contacted the CEO of AvA and offered my assistance in whatever capacity he could use me. Initially his response was that he would keep me in mind for future openings (as there were none at the time). About a week later he contacted me again and told me about an open position for the AvA Training Hub. The position would be to manage the training hub.
So as you can tell from the subject of this blog post, I was officially offered and I accepted this position. I officially got started in the position yesterday and am learning about the automated PIREP system and trying to figure out what pilots are active and which ones need to be showed the door. Don’t worry…I’m not issuing any pink slips just yet. I granted everyone a 2 week amnesty to either start flying and file their required two PIREPS per month or just simply contact me and let me know what is going on.
Since this is my blog, I’m going to insert a little “Help Wanted” notice here. Are you looking to join a virtual airline? Would you like to fly for one of the oldest and best VA’s? Want to fly for the best American Airlines group? At American Virtual Airlines we offer a fully automated PIREP system complete with FSACARS/FSPassengers/FS Flight Keeper/XAcars integration. We offer a low commitment of only filing two PIREPs per month to remain fully active and while all flights must be flown on the VATSIM network, this really only enhances your overall FlightSim experiences.
I would love if you would stop by American Virtual Airlines and submit an application. If you have less than 100 verifiable VATSIM hours you’ll be assigned to the training hub. We offer complete training (soon to be fully automated) to help get you started flying on the VATSIM network.
As Frank Sinatra would sing…..Come Fly With Me, Let’s Fly, Let’s Fly Away.
Happy New Year!
Jerry
November 29, 2010 / admin / 0 Comments
Before my long multi-year hiatus from the hobby I was a regular on the VATSIM network. In the short period of time from first joining VATSIM to my break from the hobby I had accumulated over 420 hours. Keep in mind this was over a period of time from 2002 through 2004 and another brief stint around 2006. Not bad for just a little over 2 years. Of course I know other pilots could accumulate more hours, but during much of this time (2002 – 2004) I served in the capacity of either hub manager or VP of Operations at American Virtual Airlines (AvA).
In those early days nothing was automated like it is today. Pilots expected to see their flight hours updated on the roster every couple of days or even daily. I managed the DFW hub and it was one of the most active hubs in the VA and I found it easier to take 15-20 minutes daily to tally up the hours, then spend an hour or more once or twice a week. My philosophy back then was I would do all the admin duties BEFORE flying.
When I started clawing my way back into the hobby a few months ago, the world of VATSIM and Virtual Airlines was NOT at the top of my list. Due to PC issues in the past, I did find it sometimes to be a struggle to complete an online flight. Either I would find no ATC online or the hit to the frame rates would cause the sim to run so sluggish or crash….it sort of took the fun out of flying online.
While I was on my Around the World – 2010 Journey, I began thinking about how cool it might be to do an around the world flight and do it online. While I hope to do another around the world flight in 2011, I’m not sure it will be online. But I will admit that just the thought of it did peak my interest in VATSIM again.
I did kick around the idea of returning to VATSIM online flying as an independent. I would fly for whatever carrier I wanted to fly for and the rules would be my rules. But I didn’t think that would be much fun. Part of what I find so awesome about this hobby is the people you meet along the way. By the way, two friends of mine that I’ve met since returning to the hobby both have Flight Sim Blogs. Please check out Al’s Clear Left, and Onur’s Clear Right Flight Sim Blogs.
Now what I’m going to say next is NOT a paid message. But the very best virtual airline in existence really is American Virtual Airlines. Perhaps I feel what I feel about AvA because I put so much effort into it. Perhaps it was the way things ended when I left (yes there is a bit of a story here). In a nutshell I had spent much of my free time helping to keep AvA going strong. Both my life as well as the life of the CEO became very busy. We agreed we had nothing else to give and would close the doors. Thankfully….Thankfully……the other hub members gained control of AvA and kept the doors open and it is still going strong today.
If I could go back in time I would not have walked away like I did. My problem was I didn’t know how to ask for help. I felt the CEO slipping away and he had founded the VA a few years prior to me joining. The right thing to do would have been for me to ask for help from the rest of the management team and not walked away like I did. But…..you can’t undo something that has already been done. Like I said, the VA was taken over very quickly and has been in great hands ever since.
Anyway….when I realized I wanted to fly on-line again on the VATSIM network with my super fast and super reliable new PC, I knew I wanted to fly mostly with my real-world favorite airline (American Airlines) and didn’t bother looking if other VA’s were out there. I knew I needed to return home to AvA…and I did.
I joined AvA and am currently a Sr. Captain with a CAT IV rating and assigned to the best hub in their system, KDFW. I am as happy as can be. My first online VATSIM flight was held early this morning (couldn’t sleep) from KDEN to KDFW. I feel I have a few tweaks to make with theSquawkbox client as it crashed my very fast and very reliable system once I landed in Dallas. All had worked fine and once I switched it to squawk standby, it all crashed. I think I’m going to fly a few more trips and see if I can reproduce the issue. If it happens again, I’ll move SB over to another machine and run it in network mode.
Until next time,
Jerry
