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INDEX
I was or still am in another Virtual Airline. Do my hours and accreditations count?
Speeding up your simulation or time warping
Promotion to a higher category
Charters and other Special QVA flights
Introduction:
Hello and Welcome to Qantas Virtual Airways. The following information is provided to give new prospective members and more experienced Virtual Airline Pilots a guide to the operation of our Virtual Airline - Qantas Virtual Airways, (hereby now called QVA for brevity purposes). QVA is not your average run of the mill Virtual Airline. We are all keen fans of our real life airline counterpart Qantas and have set our goal to emulate them in our virtual sense in the Flightsim Community. We are also very aware of the copyright issues pertaining to this and have followed the rules as set by the current Qantas website and do so in the full knowledge that Qantas can legally request otherwise at anytime with due regard to their intellectual copyrights. We do not represent Qantas legally in any way, shape or form, nor are we funded by them in any way. We do this totally voluntarily and free of charge as "virtual fans" of Qantas to put forward the best possible, most professional light we can, for our own Australian airline, "Qantas Airways Limited", to promote them within the flightsim community. Please see our Legal disclaimer for clarification. Being a virtual aviation site, we cater for all flightsim simulations (FLY, PS1 Aerowinx), but our download section address's mainly FS98, FS2000, FS2002 and FS2004 platforms.
What is a Virtual Airline?
A virtual airline is a "group of people" who are keen to develop a sense of belonging and a sense of direction within their hobby of Flight simulation. Without some sort of direction or purpose in your hobby you would soon become bored with your own mundane made up flight schedules, and your imagination will start allowing you to land a 747 in Swan Hill for example. You will soon become bored and look for something more lifelike with set goals and responsibilities. We think QVA has achieved that. We have a set goal orientated structure that our VA pilots strive to complete. We have set our rank structure and testing components that are not out of reach, but easily gained within set boundaries. Our flight system is lifelike and aircraft categories are easily reached by all virtual pilots - young or old.
There are many virtual airlines - why should I pick QVA?
Good question. There are indeed quite a lot of Virtual Airlines that say and promise that they are the best, the most lifelike. Most VA's also come and go at a whims notice which you may have noticed also. We at QVA have seen several other Qantas VA's come and go, but remain Rock Solid, and have so for more than 9 years - an eternity in the Virtual Airline Community. We are not the prettiest looking Virtual Airline by a long shot, but what we lack in eye candy we make up in actual real content, but if you are looking for an answer with some substance, apart from the fact that we are the only VA to fly historic Qantas flights (yes you can now fly the Constellation/DC3 and many other historic Qantas aircraft if you wish including TAA, Australian Airlines mk1, Impulse, Australia Asia and Qantas New Zealand), freight using the combined weight of Australia Post and Qantas with "Australian Air Express", or the new Australian Airlines International Airline and domestic low fare Jetstar and future Qantas aircraft acquisitions like the A380, or any charter or international event in the world that Qantas will be or has been a part of. We have something only 1 other VA can offer ( which they bought from us right here at QVA anyway!!), and that is APDLS. APDLS was designed by our own Ivan Ngeow. A Medical Doctor in real life, Ivan, also a known web designer of flight sim software for PS1 simulation platforms, is probably the most important member of QVA, as without him, QVA would be just like every other VA - manually updated. Most VA's have some sort of bid and reporting system and calculate hours in accordance with a Pirep system (or Pilot report). Those tables are manually updated whenever their owner can get around to doing it. Here at QVA, everything is automatically updated and available instantaneously as soon as you request it. If you bid for a flight legally, the flight details are available instantly, and when you report your flight, that flight report "components" are instantly updated into a pilot logging system, your report is displayed for all to see and your flying hours are undated straight away - automatically - no intervention by any manual process. Promotions within a category structure are automatically given and updated on our Roster as you achieve them - no waiting - no requesting. Because of our advanced APDLS system we have no need for hubs like other VA's tend to have, as APDLS is programmed to accept as many pilots as we see fit, but we limit our active numbers to around the 150 pilot mark, making our VA, a much more personal, informal, intimate, informative and friendly Virtual Airline. So don't be too disappointed if we have a full list as you name will be kept added to our list at the next available opportunity. See what the entire QVA site has to offer right here at our site map. This will show you our available downloads and "what's in it for you!"
Also worthy of a mention now is our QVA Fleet Hangar. We have probably the most complete collection of Qantas livery aircraft - current fleet, confirmed future Qantas acquisitions, and, historic Qantas aircraft, available on the internet. We have our own aircraft designers and painter, James Kaminski, and he provides us with the most up to date and best Qantas livery aircraft that are available anywhere on the internet. You will not find any aircraft that has not worn the Qantas livery. Want a Qantas Concorde? You wont find one at QVA - unless Qantas buy one of course - unfortunately highly unlikely. We are proud of our hangar as it is our most tangible asset that we can give the flightsim community to promote Qantas - our real life ambition, as that's our intention - internet promotion of the best airline in the world - QANTAS. You can of course download our fleet at your discretion and we encourage you to do so. The more Qantas aircraft we can put on peoples PC's, the more people will think about using Qantas's services next time they fly within Australia, New Zealand and all points International.
QVA also has links on our pages to sites that give you, as a serious flight simmer, all the tools you need to elevate your hobby to the next level of realism. Real life approach plates, SIDs and STARs information, fuel usage information, navigation and weather planning. We encourage our roster members to fully utilize online ATC resources on the VATSIM network and go to the next level of realism with real time online air traffic control. Our online page entitled ONLINE FLYING will give you all the information and links you need to start. If you have any questions, we have a member only Crew Lounge that you can post any questions on - be it flightsim related, QVA, or even real aviation issues are hot-ley and keenly debated by all active members. We have a NOTAMs (notice to air mariners) that is regularly updated with the latest what's new at QVA, with news and information pertinent to all members.
Ok you convinced me - what's next?
Fill in the details and press this JOIN QVA link. In a couple of minutes you should receive an email from the QVA APDLS system. That's it!! Welcome to QVA!!
I was in another Virtual Airline! Does that count?
YES!! If you have any hours already flown from another VA, these will be taken into account, and also the type of aircraft you were allowed to fly in your previous VA. This information will be requested by our Personnel Officer (Darrold Vessels) who will ascertain and request proof of any hours/aircraft types if pertinent. Please note though, if you have had prior experience with another VA, and you want those hours carried over, but you cannot provide actual proof of that experience to the satisfaction of the management committee, regardless of hours you may "say" you have, you will start your new QVA career as a CAT1 pilot. Pilots with 747 experience at their previous VA (cat 5 equivalent at QVA) will be given status as cat 4 Captain. This will enable our CFI to judge your performance flying the 747 and promotion to cat 5 (747's) will only be after successful pass of the CR4 checkride. Pilots with 767 experience (Cat 4 QVA equivalent) will be given status as Cat 3 Captain and will enable you to take the CR3 checkride for qualification into the 767. Those with 737/717 experience (Cat 3 at QVA) will be given cat 2 Captain status and will enable you to immediately take the CR2 checkride. All other CATs start off at CAT1. This has been decided as many other VA's promote just on an hours flown basis and as we can't be sure of your flying ability, but more importantly, to be fair to our pilots that joined QVA from Cat 1. At QVA you are promoted (as in real aviation circles) via aircraft check rides to a higher category aircraft. So the higher you go in CAT level, the further you can fly, the bigger aircraft you get to command. And just like real life, time in a category also counts towards internal category promotions, but as you can see, a higher category pilot (but lower in rank) still outranks you. i.e: a 747 (cat 5) Third Officer is of higher status than a dash 8 (cat 1) Captain. Those pilots who fail the CR will be reverted back to a category at the discretion of the CFI. What this means is that if you fail badly, the CFI can at his discretion revert you to any category. Any reversion is also back to Third Officer/Training status. Please do not take this as an insult, but this is a direct result of bad training at your old VA. We have had occurrences of pilots who transfer to QVA, take a CR examination and cannot line up with a runway correctly, fail to slow down under 10,000 feet, extend flaps at speeds that would in actuality - physically rip them from the airframe. We take our simulation quite seriously at QVA, but are also aware that it is "just a sim", but there are limitations even for a sim. So big "flown" hours from another VA really equate to nothing. Its quality - not quantity at QVA. So don't despair if you are reverted back down to 737's from your beloved 747. You will soon realise you are in good company and take the opportunity to take your simulation to a higher level with QVA.
MANAGEMENT Positions
It has also been decided that if you volunteer and are accepted into the inner sanctum at QVA (management or another active QVA role) that you cannot be part of another VA in any role (pilot or management). This circumstance is deemed to be a "conflict of interest" as QVA has been used as a training ground for other fledgling VA's before, so if you are a part of another VA, please do not volunteer for an active management role at QVA in Operations or Fleet management (including aircraft painting), as if found to be a member of another VA, you will be deleted off the roster without recourse. Any work that you do for QVA becomes QVA property (banners, pictures, web pages, repaints etc) and we will use it as we see fit at any time. If you are not happy with that then do not volunteer for a Management position if offered. As a normal entry QVA pilot, you are free to be a part of as many other VA's as you want to, but we think you will remain with us and forget the rest once you realise that most VA's in cyberspace are not of the same equivalency or standard of excellence that QVA has.
Now in a short while you will receive notification of your QVA pilot identification. Go to the APDLS page, change your password so only you know what it is and you are ready to bid. Assuming that you are starting out as a CAT1 pilot, what now? Go to the fleet page and download the Dash 8 and/or the Metro 3. Notice how the aircraft are categorised whilst you are there. As a cat 1 pilot you can fly the Dash8 or Metro 3 but in no time you will be flying the 717 or the 737 and beyond. Now, with the knowledge you have a correctly installed aircraft in you hangar in your pc, go to the routes page. All the routes you see in the CAT 1 level are the routes you can legally input and fly on your simulation and for the moment they are the only ones you can bid for. When you increase your category, you can choose your current category flights, plus any lower category flights too, so when you get to cat 5, you can "virtually fly" to all destinations in the QVA routes listings. But, if you bid for any route not within your category range or in a higher category, it will not be accepted by APDLS. PS1 pilots can fly any cat 4 or 5 flight, by virtue that their simulation is of the 747 only, and much more difficult simulation to tame than the Microsoft products.
So pick your route. for example I will pick the Brisbane - Roma passenger route. Now, we have to request it using APDLS. On a piece of paper, write down the departure and destination airports. APDLS uses actual airport codes to perform its processing, so we have to convert your plain language airport - ie: Brisbane and Roma into this code that APDLS will recognise. That can take 2 forms - IATA or ICAO. Go to the destinations page. Scroll down until you see Brisbane, and you should see this:
BNE YBBN +10 Brisbane
keep scrolling until you see Roma. You should find this:
RMA YROM +10 Roma QLD
Keep this information separate. What it means is fairly simple though. BNE and RMA are the IATA codes for Brisbane and Roma and YBBN and YROM are the ICAO codes for them. You can use either code. The "+10" is the timezone, or, how many hours Brisbane is in front of "Zulu" or "GMT" or "UTC" which is the standard timezone used by all pilots and aircrew as it is generic and worldwide, whereas timezones can get confusing. For example when its 12am in Sydney, its 9am in Perth, so a 4 hour flight would leave at 12am, it should get to perth at 4pm, but in fact gets there at 1pm. Therefore the Zulu or UTC equivalent is used. This is readily available as an option in your simulation if you haven't noticed before.
Go to the Bids page. This page also contains complete instructions on how to bid, but in a nut shell, put in your QVA pilot number and password in the proper boxes and type your bid like this:
BNE-RMA or YBBN-YROM
Please note there is no spaces between either the IATA or ICAO code and the hyphen.
If you prefer, you can bid for multiple flights within the same bid process. I can bid for Brisbane to Roma, and back to Brisbane, then a flight from Cairns (CNS/YBCS) to Townsville (TSV/YBTL) if you prefer. This is easily achieved by using the following process.
BNE-RMA-BNE CNS-TSV
Please note the use of a 'space' between BNE and CNS. You can bid for any number of flights in a multiple bids but you are limited to a total of 36 hours in any given week.
You now have to choose what sort of assignment you have. You will see a drop down menu box. For this bid, leave it as "Regular Passenger flights" as that was my choice of route. The other choices are described later. Press the Post bids button. All being well, you will receive a note from APDLS immediately of your flight details. Write down the details, start your simulation and fly your route. At the moment just fly from one airport to the other. We will worry about the actual route taken later on. Take a good note of the time when you actually start from the terminal (pushback), and when you actually pull up and stop at your destination terminal. Also before you start, fill up your plane with fuel to 100%. This will make it easier for the reporting process later. Again, we will worry about fuel usage later on in your career with QVA. When you power down your aircraft at your destination, make a note of how much fuel you used. Because we started with 100 percent , it's a fairly simple mathematical process to figure out how much fuel you used. Note down what that figure is and whether the amount was calculated in Kilograms or Imperial pounds (shown in your simulation). So you need 5 details to make a successful Pilot report - ADPLS flight number, time of departure, aircraft type flown (which must be the same as the aircraft code given by APDLS), fuel usage, time of arrival.
Different Bid and choice selections. If you wish to select a freight route, you would choose "AaE Freight assignment" drop down box option. If you wished to fly a Historic route, choose "historic aircraft flights". If you are in the right category and you only want to fly for Jetstar, choose "Jestar flights", or similarly if you only want to bid and fly CAT 4 Australian Airlines routes - choose Australian Airlines flights. If you are feeling lucky and want to leave it to APDLS to randomly choose for you (QAL/Jetstar/AA routes only), just pick "regular passenger flights". This makes it simple to choose exactly who you want to fly for - AaE, Jetstar, Qantas or Australian Airlines. As you can see, the higher CAT you are, the more choices you have to fly!!. Worthy of note is that your bids may be overwritten just by making another bid. So if you bid for just 1 too many Sydney to Melbourne flights, you can just rebid for what you want. All your bids are then overwritten and you can start to fly your newly chosen assignments. Please note though, that in doing so, APDLS will not allow you to report one of those overwritten bids, so make sure you have reported what you have flown first before re-bidding as a failed report will result if you try to report an overwritten bid.
To avoid being removed from the roster due to inactivity you
may type the following bid to take leave or holidays:
LEAVE If typed alone APDLS will
automatically assume a period of 14 days. If you required a longer
period, type the required number of days with a MAXIMUM of 30 days
after the word leave. The following bid will give you 4 weeks off without
worry of roster removal. Please note there is a space between LEAVE and 28:
LEAVE 28
Leave is not a tool for keeping inactive pilots on the roster. Pilots
approaching 60 days of inactivity will still be removed when they reach 60
days of inactivity unless prior approval has been granted by QVA Management.
There are differing points of view with regard to speeding up your simulation time. Serious Flightsimmers refute the opinions of others in speeding up their simulation activity and that's their right not to do so and fly at 1x speed all the way. Other Simmers don't mind speeding up their simulation once in cruise mode. Therefore, because of differing opinions on both sides of this argument, we have no official QVA policy on this subject, but if you need clarification, use of the simulation in this fast mode should we think, be limited to the cruise component of your flight only. When on descent, ascent, changing course/altitudes/speeds, 1x speed should be used. PS1 pilots have the option of jumping to the next waypoint, which is another type of time warping, just like 4x speed on MS products. Its entirely up to you which you look at it. But for the interim, flight hours remain as flown, regardless of speed multiplications. As in real life, on long haul flights, if flight crews can count their hours flown if those hours have an actual "sleep component" in them and those hours are actually counted toward their flown hours, then this equates to our "time speed" components available in our simulation packages. But having said that, I expect any flight that is under 3 hours duration will be flown at 1x speed. Only the long haul flights with a long time at cruise should this be taken into account.
With all your relevant flight details handy, go to the Pilots reports page. Again the whole process instructions are found here again, but again, in a nutshell, type in your QVA pilot id, your password, click the relevant weight measure used in your fuel calculation above, then type in your report like this (Please note that the times are from pushback at departure terminal to terminal stop at destination, or if no terminal is in your current loaded scenery, from runway start to runway stop)
QVA1234 DH8 1.1 12:30z-13:30z
enter each flight individually by pressing enter and
entering each flight details separately on another line. i.e:
QVA1234 DH8 1.1 12:30z-13:30z
QVA7889 DH8 0.7 01:05z-03:17z
Please note. Use of capitals, the space between each component, and the use of the full colon hyphen and use of the lower case 'z' in the time component. All flights are to be reported in the zulu zone as described previously. If you have a fuel usage below 1000 kg or 1000lbs, precede your figure with a '0' as shown above. In other words if you have a total fuel usage of (for example) 650kg, you would first check the x1000kg tick box, then in your typed portion of the report type 0.65 - i.e
QVA1899 DH8 0.65 05:00z-05:45z
If your flight was flown using online resources, check the 'ATC was provided online by 'Vatsim' option but this field is not a mandatory requirement. In the remarks section, you can add flight level flown, any problems experienced, any details that you want to share with your fellow QVA pilots. On completion, press the "POST REPORT" button. All being well you will receive notification of your flight being accepted and updated. Automatically your hours will be added to your category and total hours total on the roster, your flight report will be available for all pilots to view on the pilot log page and the details of your flight will be added to your total statistical amount flown for QVA on the Pilot statistics page at the end of the month. All automatic, updated, and ready for you to bid and fly again at your discretion. If your bid failed for some reason, do not despair, as all bids and reports are copied to QVA Operations and we will amend you and tell you where you went wrong. So only press submit once after double checking your entry. Common mistakes are, reporting a flight that was not actually previously bid, wrong Aircraft type, the use of the colon, and putting an uppercase "Z" instead of the required lowercase "z".
How do I graduate to the next higher CAT level?
Apart from the automatic promotions you get within your own category level, you are allowed to send in a check ride to the CFI when you get to the 60 hour mark as a CAT 1/2/3 pilot, and on reaching 120 hours in cat 4/5. Go to the CFI page where all the rules and instructions are detailed for this, download the check ride pertinent to your current CAT level, send it in to QVA Operations, your CR is graded, assessed and reviewed the CFI, a real life flying instructor Max Harvey. Also on the CFI list in Dean May, who is a real world Instrument rated Pilot waiting to join an airline, and is an invaluable resource to the CFI department. This process can take a little bit of time, as our examiners, "fly" with you. assessing your flight attitudes, speeds, flap deployments, all aspects of your flying. In general it takes our CFI's about 2.5 hours to review, grade and completely assess each Check ride they receive. If you pass, you will receive notification, your CAT level will be upgraded, and you will start as a third officer, but in the next higher CAT level. Again, you will progress through the ranks within your upgraded category level, and, on attaining the prerequisite hour level, go through the process again, but with the next category CR. Don't forget when you increase your CAT level, your destinations and aircraft choices increase accordingly! Promotion to Senior Captain and above is at the discretion of the CEO, and only after all current APDLS promotions have been exhausted. This promotion is on an "as required basis' and takes due regard to pilot status within QVA and any ancillary duties involved. So getting to CAT5 captain will not necessarily give automatic promotion to Senior Captain without the CEO's and committee's direct approval . Any Promotion to the training level is on advice of the CEO and CFI, so promotion to Check Captain, Senior Check Captain, Training Captain and Base Training Captain is dependant upon that level of recommendation and without that level of training and flight capability is highly unlikely within the standard pilot promotion process.
In actuality, Qantas and Australia Post are owners of Australian Air Express (AaE). This freight company has full utilisation of the Qantas flying network, and this coupled with the vast resources of Australia Post makes it a most formidable combination to send freight around Australia, and in fact, around the entire world. As well as having access to spare space on all QAL flights, AaE have their own aircraft - 727, bae146 and Metro 3 aircrafts. Here at QVA you can utilise that aspect of Qantas' business interests in your virtual career. On the Special flights page you will see we have those aircraft available for download. Just follow the directions on that page and you can further your career in QVA with freight assignments, within Australia, around the world, using the options available on that page.
As a special option, you can turn back the hands of time and fly any aircraft you see on the historic aircraft page. Go back in time and fly the Constellation, the DC3, DC4, a Catalina, whatever aircraft is available for download you can fly at QVA. At present we are not aware of any other VA that allows their pilots to fly historic flights and allow those hours to be counted accordingly. So what ever era or Aviation stream you want to base your Virtual Aviation Career on, you can do it at QVA!!
And now that freight and historic assignments are automatically assigned via APDLS, CAT 1 pilots resources are now effectively doubled, for as well as the Dash 8 and the Metro3, you now have the Avro, J31 and Twin Otter, Shorts 360 and the DHA3 at your disposal as all graded as a "CAT1" aircraft. We also have charter flights that allow use to specifically target individuals requests. For instance, the delivery flight in 2002 of the new Boeing 737-800 aircraft can be requested using a charter! 747 "City of Melbourne" (the F1 livery) is a popular historic request to Grand Prix locations world wide! Since these requests are emailed to QVA Operations, it takes a day or two to receive and process your charter request, and reports on these charters are manually updated, so you don't have to report them via APDLS - you email your report.
Charters will not be assigned to you though until you have at least 30 hours flying time of assigned APDLS bid/reports so we know you are not using them because you don't understand how to bid normally.
Do my hours count in a charter flight
Yes, and no. Simply put, if you are a CAT2 pilot, you can bid for and have counted toward your CAT hours any CAT 1 and 2 aircraft flight. A CAT3 pilot can fly any CAT 1,2,or 3 aircraft and have his/her hours counted toward both CAT and total hours. If you are a CAT1 pilot, if you bid for a flight using a higher grade of aircraft (CAT2 or above), your hours will only be counted toward your total hours only - not your CAT hours. Any flight in a future acquisitions aircraft is counted toward total hours only - regardless of your current category level. So if you get bored and want to fly a 747 or the A380 for a while, those hours will not be wasted. You can keep adding to your total hours column as you see fit, but your CAT totals will only be increased within your current category of aircraft. You are not stuck with 1 type of aircraft at QVA.
How do I bid for a charter?
Place a request on the QVA charter forum with your request. Please state what you would like to fly, from where to where, your current CAT level, name and QVA pilot id number. You will receive an assignment approval in the forum a.s.a.p. all you do then is fly your flight and place your report in the forum in your thread. Your hours will be updated as above when completed.
I'm no longer on the roster - how come?
If you have joined QVA, and not made a bid on APDLS within
30 days, the system will warn you of this. All it takes to remain on
the roster is emailed advice to QVA Operations. If you do not heed
this friendly warning automatically sent by the APDLS, you will be
removed from the roster for inactivity. At many other VA's pilots are
herded like sheep and forever listed on their roster. In fact, most
will be inactive members. At QVA, inactive pilots are deleted, 30 days
for new members who have not bid or flown, 60 days for other members. Taking leave in APDLS is not to be used as a tool for keeping inactive
pilots active on the roster. Pilots approaching 60 days of inactivity
will be removed when they reach 60 days of inactivity unless prior approval
has been granted by QVA.
As I have said, all it takes is advice or make notation on the QVA
Crew Forum. or bid for Leave as explained above or on the bids
page. QVA committee members also regularly scan the forum for just
such requests and advice our Personnel Officer accordingly.
Also, any remark found on the crew forum which is distasteful in any way, is slanderous, uses bad language, or degrading to anyone at all will result in instant dismissal from QVA. No recourse. That is not negotiable. To end, if you are a member of another VA and use our forums to advertise another VA, or ask our members to join another VA, you will be instantly deleted and the offending post on the forum removed. Qantas doesn't advertise Virgin Blue on their web site do they?
Thank you for reading this online manual and I trust your time with us will be long, but most of all, enjoyable. Just have fun!! There is no way any computer simulation can even go close to the real McCoy, but as a hobby - its fantastic. So have fun - here at QVA, that's our main aim - to broaden your flight simulation experience, and advertise Qantas and all their subsidiaries to the flight simulation community :-)
If you have any suggestions, or complaints, please direct your queries to QVA Operations via the operations forum in the first instance. If you feel the situation warrants it, just ask for me to contact you via email via this forum for a more personal exchange.
Dave Thomas
QVA02
Operations Manager
Qantas Virtual Airways
