Jump to content

The Future of Virtual Airlines?


14CFR91

Recommended Posts

I have been in the flight sim/virtual airline community for about 10 years now and a lot has changed. I have noticed a gradual decline in overall activity and interest within the VA community and it has me wondering how much overall interest is left for virtual airlines? The reason I have left for the majority of the past 5 years is they are boring. VA's are essentially glorified logbooks where you sign up, "bid" on flights, fly them, and rack up hours. There is really very little about VA's that is actually "airline like". I would be interested in returning to the community if a VA started, that changed the entire premise of what a VA is. What I mean by this is simulating every aspect of a real airline that can be reasonably simulated such as crew scheduling, aircraft routing, payroll, maintenance, etc. I put together a brief survey to measure the interest of the community. I would really appreciate 30 seconds of your time if you are interested in contributing your feedback. The survey is 100% anonymous.

 

Survey Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdIr-i2WNPqjpSGWsZlRiM99cSBfODRXMW5hz9eLR4w0ry0wg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry for the confusion. I just took your survey to check it out, and was not asked for an email address. According to Google, an address is required should someone need to leave the survey and return later.

 

Your post will remain as posted.

Thanks!

Darrell

Edited by drobson
Clear up some confusion.
[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just did the survey and it can now be completed without any email submission. The login option is to "track your progress", I guess if you wanted to leave before done and then return to finish. No fishy I could see, looked OK.

 

But the survey is somewhat flawed, overlooks freight-only and military VAs (like MAX Freight and AMC Virtual-Air Mobility Command, my all-time favorite VAs). Virtual airlines are not only imaginary passenger airline simulations. Sure, "trash haulers" and virtual air force, navy aviation, etc., are niche segments of the flightsim VA hobby, but actually are of great interest to veterans (and geezers) like myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your feedback Dave. I understand what you are saying, but the survey is designed to provide me feedback from people that have an interest in a true virtual airline. I think the term as been used so loosely for so many years that VA is being used interchangeably with flying club and multiplayer group. I am specifically wanting to solicit information from people interested in structure airline operations.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

people that have an interest in a true virtual airline. I think the term as been used so loosely for so many years that VA is being used interchangeably with flying club and multiplayer group.

 

This is getting close to the "no true Scotsman" fallacy. I don't think there's any reason a virtual airline needs to have payroll, maintenance, aircraft routing, etc. like you say. If anything, plenty of virtual airlines tried this 20 or so years ago and it was not successful for a variety of reasons we can discuss.

 

At the end of the day, a VA is what a VA is. I agree that there can be some overlap between flying clubs at VAs especially at the "fly whatever, whenever" places, but who am I to judge whether they are a "true" virtual airline?

 

Cheers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I mean by this is simulating every aspect of a real airline that can be reasonably simulated such as crew scheduling, aircraft routing, payroll, maintenance, etc. I put together a brief survey to measure the interest of the community.

 

I have been involved in VAs for several years, I got started on CompuServe when tracking was done on Lotus 123 spreadsheets and have been a member of staff for a few large VAs, and currently own my own medium-sized VA.

 

Adding features to a VA is complex. You have to understand that many of us are not software engineers. So people like me, I am a real-world pilot and CFI, depend on the software created by others to run a VA. As such my ideas of how things should run are hampered by the developer of the management software. Things like a PIREP is a weather report made by pilots, not a post-flight report are baked into the software. SMS is unknown in the VA software, but would be a powerful tool for providing feedback to members.

 

Even MSFS fails at modern advanced such as ADS-B, ADS-C, FANS-1A, PBN, etc. You can have two different members of a VA fly the same type of airplane, such as the A320, and have two vastly different experiences. One could fly a highly detailed third-party aircraft and the other a very simple default airplane. One person can take off and land at highly accurate airports and fly with online ATC whereas the other is using default scenery and built-in ATC.

 

With a VA I find it is less about how detailed you can make the experience and more about how to accommodate a multitude of members each with a different definition of FUN. It is a hobby after all and not a job. Having spent many hours in real life sitting at FL300 and on autopilot, I can confirm that even real-world aviation can be quite boring.

 

I do have financing and maintenance procedures baked in thanks to some third-party software that helps run the VA. But, for the most part, members hardly notice that until their favorite airplane is not available due to maintenance or I cannot afford to buy the latest airplane just released by a third-party developer.

 

The other thing is a VA is a slice of a real-world operation. I have a few hundred members flying for my VA, but the type of flying we simulate the real-world counterpart has many thousands of pilots hired. Whereas my VA might fly three or four dozen flights during a weekday the real-world counterpart is fling over a thousand. Our operations department is one deep compared to the 50+ dispatchers at a real-world counterpart. Because I depend on volunteer staff I have to try and automate as much as possible. Automation reduces realism.

 

I learned many years ago that surveys are a great tool, but the real trick is getting the right people to answer the right questions. Public volunteer surveys are unfortunately the least accurate way to achieve usable feedback. Having looked at your survey I assure you will get an answer, but do those answers represent the majority of active members at a VA is highly questionable. Realism is not a single point but a spectrum of possibilities depending on who you ask. There are a number of satirical posts by real-world pilots on realistic flying for an airline.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...