What is a "Virtual Airline?"
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A virtual airline
(or VA for short) is a virtual organization that exists and operates as a real world
airline. Some are based on real-world airlines (such as Northwest, PanAm, Delta, etc.),
and some are created from the ground up. Pilots are given assignments to fly x number of
passengers, or x amount of cargo, from point A to point B using Microsoft Flight Simulator
or any number of other sims. There are many add-on gadgets to incorporate weather, GPS, and air traffic control (ATC) into the experience. Flying online allows you to have the local weather emulated by downloading current METAR data and reproducing it within FS. If it was foggy at Memphis in the real world then it would be foggy at Memphis in FS as well. There are online air traffic controllers to guide you through the virtual airspace which is divided and represented exactly the same as the real world airspace. The same rules apply. There is a virtual airline stock exchange available that trades in stocks of certain VAs. There is a banking system to "buy" virtual aircraft with. There are several pilot training organizations. There is a virtual air traffic controllers organization. How about a flight sim racing pilots association? There is even a virtual transportation safety board that investigates accidents. It just depends on how in-depth you wish to get, and how much the world wide waste of time means to you. |