Virtual Airline Revival Breath of Fresh Air

By Jim Lambert (22 May 2006)

FlightSim.Com is my second home, not to mention Flight1 and the Pilot Shop and all the wonderful freeware found here at FSC. I enjoy all the articles presented particularly the Op-Ed's. Recently I starting following Op-Ed's by David Zaleski who operates a small virtual airline and most recently an article by John Murcutt, which is still running here at FSC. David's two Op-Ed's never provided a link to his web site so I contacted him for it.

I have been around for more years then I wish to mention and I have shared in this hobby from its conception. Having seen the hobby as it struggled in the late 1990's. I remember all those sites dedicated to the virtual airline, providing features such as talk radio all forms of magical programs that brought people together and I remember the bickering and pettiness hackers and a host of issues that propagated the concept of a virtual airline one world government, that is to say regulation and discrimination policies to drive away the riff raff, politics.

Over time many of the real good virtual airlines become like to exclusive clubs, unfortunately mine fell into this exclusivity. The only people that can actually join a real good virtual airline must have a resume not unlike a real world interview, the training programs, the documentation and the rules and regulation can be intimidating.

One fellow wrote his hub manager who passed it on to me, explained all he wanted to do is fly his $46.00 aircraft with a VA which included this model and livery. He told me he spent endless hours pouring through paperwork, procedures pre and post training documents and finally concluded if he had the inclination to spend months in training to fly a PC aircraft, he would spend the time to get a real PPL. This brings me to the crux of the article.

Having indicated I have been following the progress of this virtual airline founded by David Zaleski since late March when he submitted his initial article I remember he had approximately a half a dozen pilots. As of this writing there are 24 and they seem to be pretty active. About two weeks back I contacted David and we chatted. I asked him what he thought the attraction to his site was. In response he indicated that it was about attitude and presentation. He explained, just because you say you own and run a VA doesn't make it a reality. What you have is a web site. A virtual airline is about people. People from all over the world and people of all ages. I noticed that on David's roster there are faces to some of the names. The roster is unique in that it is not automated but provides a lot of information about the pilot. In fact the whole site is manually updated daily. I asked how it was possible to do this daily. He said simple, not everyone is flying at the same time. It is easer to update a couple flights daily than once every couple of weeks as many virtual airlines do. It is also about communications and being personable. Everyone is in the loop at all times. I have never been involved with a virtual airline that had a restrictive chain of command that was worth its weight in salt. Pompous people bore me. I asked David, you must get a lot of mail. This is part of the adventure of virtual airline management to hear from those who chose your game. What is the point of the virtual airline if you chose to shut people out? Attitude, I remember once getting reamed by a virtual hub manager for filing a report wrong. It's a game, that's all it is.

The first time I contacted him my email address was auto installed in his airline group. If you have been in the cockpit you then know what radio chatter is like. There are daily briefings responses, exchange of ideas, chat between members; there is so much chatter that it hard to keep up with it. I think what strikes me the most about David's virtual airline philosophy is his attentiveness to members. I noticed that no matter how mundane an email question or concern seems, he responds right away and with the demeanor of a diplomat.

I have to say I find his approach refreshing, after all it is just a game as he eloquently puts it. If I didn't have to deal with my own creation I would love to be a part of his. I'm so busy playing my role that I don't even fly my sim anymore. It's just a game and nothing more. Yes there are countless people that like that stressful environment, to pretend to be someone they're not, a PC version of a movie actor, the thrill of lording your role over some poor sap that trembles when you email them about how badly they screwed up their flight or reporting a flight. My hat is off to David and his creation. I do have to be removed from the list, not used to all that chit chat.

Jim Lambert
jmlambert06@aol.com

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