I’m here once again with more information on how to manage your own virtual airline (VA). With the release of Flight Simulator 2000, more and more people are turning to the VA hobby for more flight simulation excitement.

In this article, I’ll show you how to further manage for your growing VA. Before continuing, it is suggested that you read How to Create Your Own Virtual Airline, which will give you tips on how to get started. Read it at FlightSim.Com.

So what’s different in this version you ask? Well, I’m going to teach you how to attract new pilots, get paint schemes for your planes, copyright laws, and how to manage your website. Basically, all the things past readers have e-mailed me about. Please note now, this article will not teach you how to create your site-using HTML. That’s up to you.

I thank you now for reading this, feel free to e-mail me any questions you may have. I’ll try to get back to you.

--Eric Oderman

11/5/1999

In this article, I’ll teach you how to use advanced tactics to get business for your VA. To find out how to get started, be sure you read How to Create Your Own Virtual Airline. This follow-up is basically a FAQ on what you e-mailed me. So, without further a do, How to Manage Your Own Virtual Airline.

The most important aspect of a VA is its website. It is impossible to create a VA without a website. How you create it is up to you. Besides the homepage, you’ll want six sections. Pilot Registration—should show future pilots requirements (flight hours, FS Version, etc.) and a form for pilots to register. Aircraft Fleet—where pilots may download planes with the correct paint scheme of your airline. News—this is where pilots can find quick info on the VA, such as expansion, virtual stocks, etc. Roster—this is another required page for your website, it should be updated frequently and will show pilots how many total hours they have shown and what flight level they are. HUB—there usually are more than one HUB pages depending on the number of HUBS you have in your airline. (We’ll talk about that later). Schedule/Assignments-should show the different flights and assignments for pilots. The assignment page may also go in individual HUB pages.

The website should be easy to navigate and be pleasant looking. Many times newcomer pilots will judge you on your webpage. The main page should show the pilots your base of operation, what kind of airline you are (charter, commuter, domestic, international) and your aircraft fleet. Pilots want to try out new planes and new paint schemes.

You could create a "welcoming" page, which will give new pilots a summary of your airline, and then a link to the actual site itself. This is a very affective method, and one way to jazz it up is to create an airline logo, using a .GIF animator or simply using a word processor (explained in How to Create Your Own Virtual Airline.) You may also take pictures of your airline’s fleet in action, which really attracts pilots. Simply use the photo option in the flight simulator menu.

The easiest way to get to the five major sections of the site is using a frame. However, if you make a frameset, you should also make a version of your site without frames, as some pilot’s browser will not be able to read the HTML code.

Now let’s talk about when you get a lot of pilots. The more pilots you get, the more chances you may have pilots from different countries who speak different languages, this means, you’ll have to hire a HUB Captain (explained later) who can also speak different languages to make different versions of the site. Check out EuroDirect VA at http://www.virtualairlines.com to see some examples of frames and different versions of the sites.

This may be the hardest part. Hundreds of new CEO’s have given up with their VA because they couldn’t attract any pilots. Take Great Lakes Express VA for example, at VirtualAirlines.Com, they started out very little, and now have over 300 members. That’s a lot for a VA.

If things start out slow don’t get let down. You may want to ask a site to host you on their server like VirtualAirlines.Com, who will get you advertisement and attract more pilots, for simply making pilots log on to their page first and then selecting the airline. Many new pilots go to sites like these to look for new airlines (including myself). Simply type in ‘Virtual Airlines’ in any search browser and something should come up.

You may also want to create banners with a banner exchange program (type in ‘free advertising’ or ‘banners’ in any search browser). You can usually make custom banners easily and then they will be advertised for free.

Yet another way is to register yourself with a search engine. Go to a browser’s site like Lycos, and look for hypertext that says, "register your site." Usually, the more sites search drivers have listed the better, so they’ll be glad to list yours. However, this means that sometimes you will either have to pay, or put up their ads on your site.

But probably the best way to go is simply trying to get your site on a virtual airline server.

Remember never to give up, if it’s one thing the VA community doesn’t like it’s virtual airlines that pop up for a few weeks, and when the CEO notices they’re not attracting pilots, they give up.

After the release of How to Create Your Own Virtual Airline, the majority of the responses I received were readers asking: how do I find a paint studio or painting software? This is another major problem, but can be dealt with.

Usually, you can try going to VirtualAirlines.com and visit their ‘Organization’ page. Most of the time there will be a link to a professional painting studio. Or, you can use a search driver to find one. It usually takes a while (up to a few months) for the studio to fully process your planes, but don’t worry, it’s worth it!

Be sure to instruct the painter on what your airline’s logo and colors are too, otherwise you might end up with an orange and green plane when your colors are black and white.

This is another group of people that make a VA a VA. They make sure everything is in order, pilots are flying, planes or being painted, and making the VA a little more realistic. What do I mean?

It is your management who decides what the hubs will be, or whether or not the VA will merge with another (explained later). All these aspects, which the management team is in watch of, make your VA seem more realistic. Remember, management isn’t a one-man job, so here is a list of those you will need. Note: all titles with the *, are optional members of the management.

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO)- Unless you appoint someone else in the VA CEO, this is what you are. The CEO makes sure the management team is doing their job and that the pilots are flying. There’s really not much to say about the CEO, except don’t get too bossy, or you’ll be left with a one-man VA.
• Vice President*- The Vice President is the CEO’s right-hand man. If you choose to have a Vice President, he should be instructed to do a monthly inspection on how the other members of the management are doing, such as how many flight hours each hub captain has recorded, etc. Then he reports directly to the CEO.
• HUB Captain(s)- One of the most important members of the team. Each HUB should have one Hub Captain who is in charge of the pilots and flights in that HUB. Most HUB Captains know HTML and are in control of the design of their HUB webpage.
• President Of Events And Operations*- This job may be called many different things depending on the VA. However, I find this title pretty self-explanatory. The POEAO is in charge of external relationships with other VA’s and organizations and events (such as fly-ins, etc.)

The flights of your airline may ultimately choose your name (If you are a fantasy VA.) If you are a domestic airline and all your flights are in the Florida, southeast US area, you may want to name your airline Sunny Airways.

First of all, choose where you want your airline to operate. When you first start out, you’re going to want to just have a few HUBs in case you can’t find management. Flights should cover major airports in the HUB’s area and the flight should originate or go to where the HUB is based. (i.e. London Heathrow, HUB’s base, to Birmingham Airport.)

You also want different flights for different pilot levels. For example don’t have a First Officer with less than 10 hours fly a transatlantic crossing, or a Senior Captain with 400+ hours fly a commuter flight.

The way you plan flights may decide how long pilots stick with your virtual airline.

You may also choose to have an assignment page too. This means you specifically tell what pilots to fly what flights.

Many of you are probably staring at your monitor right now in disbelief. I know I didn’t cover a lot, but this is merely an update of How to Create Your Own Virtual Airline, which you may want to take a look at if you haven’t already. If you’d like a copy for yourself be sure to visit the Sim WB Inc site at the address listed above. Now, get out there and start you own airline. Oh ya, and be sure that no real world pilots sign up to be part of your airline!