Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations |
Ever Thought About Making DVA an "Online Only" VA? |
DVA5885
Captain, B747-400
Joined on May 03 2008
Online Double Century Club
Triple Century Club
Grand Forks, ND USA
310 legs, 1,177.5 hours
292 legs,
1,142.6 hours online 304 legs,
1,150.4 hours ACARS 7 legs,
25.3 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 17:40 ET by Steve Jensen
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Just wondering what everyones opinions are about online only VA's, and if you think DVA should consider making the switch to being one. Also only allowing 1X travel. It just doesn't seem fair when people use 4X and get credit for the full flight. Is there anyway this could ever be changed? Or say if you do infact use 4X, you only get credit for the amount of time actually flown....? Just a thought
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DVA1038
Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on January 12 2003
Century Club
"Celer, Silens, Mortalis" Summerville, SC USA
169 legs, 1,008.2 hours
56 legs,
288.5 hours online 25 legs,
221.2 hours ACARS 1 legs,
5.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 18:04 ET by Kevin Cornish
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I think that's come up before, and was pretty rapidly shot down. Not everyone here has the ability to fly online and since the promotions aren't dependent on the number of hours, it doesn't really matter if you use acceleration or not. I know for myself, I perfer using realtime and flying online, but right now I can't fly online b/c my system can't handle the workload of running SB, FSX and the LDS 767 at the same time.
Kevin CornishCaptain, B737-800
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DVA3787
Senior Captain, CRJ-200
OLP
Joined on December 01 2006
Double Century Club
50 State Club
Online Double Century Club
"Small planes don't make small brains" Western Europe
277 legs, 515.9 hours
204 legs,
397.0 hours online 244 legs,
456.2 hours ACARS 39 legs,
80.6 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 18:09 ET by Mark Salter
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If you're using ACARS and 4X, it will only record the amount of time you actually flew. However ACARS is not required to be used. But I do agree with you on this point.
Since around 50% or so of our pilots choose not to fly online, this is too large of a number to make such a change. Any negatives that come from a change to the VA should impact the least amount of people. While flying online makes the VA more of an actual "group" or "airline" it is also a place where anyone can come and learn aviation and have fun.
If you mandate online flying, then people who are actually not ready to do so will try to connect, and then we look bad altogether. We want to look professional online.
Last, some people cannot fly online. Maybe they have an older machine and can't run the extra procceses needed to fly online. Some people choose not to because they don't like the environment at all, etc, etc. To keep our repuation as a "flexible" airline as far as operations, this would also be a bad idea. It's nice to see that you're bringing ideas to the front though.
Mark SalterSenior Captain, CRJ-200
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DVA5270
Senior Captain, B737-800
Joined on September 27 2007
50 State Club
Everett 500 Club
Online Quintuple Century Club
Nine Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"p=np" Charleston, SC USA
977 legs, 1,725.8 hours
578 legs,
894.1 hours online 931 legs,
1,647.1 hours ACARS 43 legs,
67.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 18:24 ET by Don Thomas
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Steve,
I, like Mark, enjoy when people bring ideas to the floor.
Steve the great thing about DeltaVA is that if you want it to be an 100% on-line airline it can be.... for you.
You fly, it looks liike, almost all your flights on-line anyway. I, on the other hand, really only fly on-line when I get good coverage. If I look on-line and I have only one controller on between the city pairs I fly using Radar Contact. That's just me.....
You keep bringing up ideas, that is the most important thing.
Don ThomasSenior Captain, B737-800
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DVA6920
Senior Captain, MD-11
E-MAIL
Joined on January 24 2009
Century Club
"Another day in the office..." Parker, CO USA
163 legs, 828.1 hours
28 legs,
44.1 hours online 162 legs,
816.9 hours ACARS 5 legs,
9.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 18:41 ET by Tom Sanders
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I do enjoy the online realm when there are controllers online for the entire route also. I have not done online as much since joining DVA mainly because even though I have done it several times, I still feel new to it and just haven't given it as much effort as maybe I should. I do admit to using time acceleration, but I only use it for the cruise portion of my flight, mainly because I am not interested in the cruise portion because on a good flight, nothing should happen. I want to get across the world and go try a new approach, and have fun, not sit there and stare waiting for 10 hours to pass to then get to shoot that cool approach down to mins. And that is one think I like about DVA, is that they are concentrated on the number of legs for promotion, not the number of hours.
When I have flown online, just during a couple of events so far at DVA, I don't feel a difference than with flying by myself though. When I fly by myself, yes there is no real ATC, but thats the only difference. I haven't yet seen one other person in the private DVA voice channel on vatsim, which just makes it feel like another online flight to me and not a "group" event.
I think instead of looking at modifications to online flying online or time acceleration, we should look at how to get more people on these group flights, and get the people involved on them. Get people into the DVA voice channel, and more people having fun as a group, since in my opinion, that is what the group flights are for.
Tom SandersSenior Captain, MD-11
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DVA1038
Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on January 12 2003
Century Club
"Celer, Silens, Mortalis" Summerville, SC USA
169 legs, 1,008.2 hours
56 legs,
288.5 hours online 25 legs,
221.2 hours ACARS 1 legs,
5.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 18:52 ET by Kevin Cornish
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I agree completely Tom. I remeber a few years ago when we had the "Three Musketeers" group flights, there were times that we had 40-50 people show up for them. Not often, but we almost always had at least 10-20. I think what made them great was the fact that it wasn't a planned event when they started. It was just three of us that decided to fly together from ATL-MEX and it took off from there. We had such a good time that we planned on it again, posted it in the cooler and had about 10 guys all show up for it. We definatly need to do more of that.
Kevin CornishCaptain, B737-800
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DVA4788
Chief Pilot, L-1011-100
OLP
Joined on August 02 2007
50 State Club
Everett Century Club
Online Double Century Club
Quatercentenary Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
"Fly it like a Samsonite Gorilla!!" Wichita, KS
470 legs, 881.0 hours
220 legs,
398.1 hours online 458 legs,
856.5 hours ACARS 2 legs,
5.2 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 19:14 ET by Jon Michael Prenovost
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Mark, just a case in point...myself & real world situation. I'm a long haul truck driver by trade & run irregular routes throughout the US & Canada. I'm never in one place more than about 12-18 hours maximum if everything is running right. As such 97% of my internet connections are made by either a cell based "air card" or public WiFi. While the majority of my flights are flown under ACARS, I very rarely fly VATSIM. I'm not up to total speed for full IFR operations yet, and second to mandate all online flying for me would effectively knock me off the map. Due to changes in the cell based "air card" national market this year I'm restricted to 5GB total bandwidth through the "air card" a month, for which I already have to share with my RW job. This is forcing me to rely on public WiFi connections for extend period & band width connections. Let me tell you public WiFi, especially truckstops & budget motels are a fast track to having your computer at least banged on from the outside, if not successfully hacked! The truckstops tend to only be up and running with WiFi about 70% of the time, so you can't count on them to be available when you need or want it. Having said all this, my solution, at least for the short term, is to connect, log into DVA, book my flights, then log out. I'll be flying my flights with ACARS but offline, after the flight is over, jump back up on the net and transmit my ACARS for any given flight when its convenient. This arangement conserves bandwidth for me in the long run, and allows me to make ACARS flights when my RW schedule just doesn't mesh & covers those times when internet is simply not available altogether.
My circumstances & situation are just one of dozens out there where the RW colides with my VA career. The beauty of DVA is the flexibility & depth. DVA caters to all virtual pilots while maintaining a professional environment, something for which few other VAs can even come close to matching, let alone emulating. A great hobby to begin with...but DVA takes it to new levels everyday! A relaxed, yet professional envrionment, aviation education, fun, and new friends for life!
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DVA1038
Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on January 12 2003
Century Club
"Celer, Silens, Mortalis" Summerville, SC USA
169 legs, 1,008.2 hours
56 legs,
288.5 hours online 25 legs,
221.2 hours ACARS 1 legs,
5.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 19:30 ET by Kevin Cornish
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Michael, not to hijack the thread, but before I got my job with Boeing, I drove OTR myself with FFE. If you don't mind my asking, who do you drive for? And I totally agree with you on the truckstop internet. I couldn't tell you how many times my computer popped up warnings saying it had successfuly defended against an attack.
Kevin CornishCaptain, B737-800
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DVA4788
Chief Pilot, L-1011-100
OLP
Joined on August 02 2007
50 State Club
Everett Century Club
Online Double Century Club
Quatercentenary Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
"Fly it like a Samsonite Gorilla!!" Wichita, KS
470 legs, 881.0 hours
220 legs,
398.1 hours online 458 legs,
856.5 hours ACARS 2 legs,
5.2 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 19:39 ET by Jon Michael Prenovost
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Kevin, I drive for a good friend of mine, he has two trucks & drives one himself, both are leased to Landstar/Ranger out of Jacksonville, FL. I run either flatbed or stepdeck, and he pulls an RGN double drop tri-axle, running all the wild, exotic, over dimentional, heavy haul stuff. And yes I agree completely...truckstop WiFi...BAD JuJu! Makes my computer just wanna !!!
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DVA1038
Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on January 12 2003
Century Club
"Celer, Silens, Mortalis" Summerville, SC USA
169 legs, 1,008.2 hours
56 legs,
288.5 hours online 25 legs,
221.2 hours ACARS 1 legs,
5.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2009 19:50 ET by Kevin Cornish
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ROFL. I've thought about buying a trk and going with Landstar, but then I wake up, slap myself and drive to the 787 plant and go to work.
Kevin CornishCaptain, B737-800
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DVA5885
Captain, B747-400
Joined on May 03 2008
Online Double Century Club
Triple Century Club
Grand Forks, ND USA
310 legs, 1,177.5 hours
292 legs,
1,142.6 hours online 304 legs,
1,150.4 hours ACARS 7 legs,
25.3 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 14 2009 01:29 ET by Steve Jensen
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You guys have made some great points. I would also like to see more people flying the group flights...including myself! Idk what more DVA could do to promote group flights online though...I mean we already have emails sent out for every new group flight that pops up.
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DVA6626
Captain, MD-11
Joined on November 07 2008
Six Century Club
Million Mile Club
""PROFILE CLIMB"" Las Vegas, NV
753 legs, 2,288.9 hours
28 legs,
55.2 hours online 747 legs,
2,255.7 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
August 14 2009 01:47 ET by Michael Pare
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I am one of the 50% that don't fly on line, frankly I am happy with my virtual traffic and active sky.
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DVA7343
Captain, B777-200
OLP
Joined on May 16 2009
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Triple Century Club
"It's not a job but an adventure " Lugoff, SC USA
368 legs, 798.4 hours
39 legs,
73.8 hours online 358 legs,
777.7 hours ACARS 1 legs,
2.9 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 14 2009 05:50 ET by John Morris
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Michael and Kevin as both of you I drove for a period of 3+ years for a highly respected T/C. super shiney black Pete's. I used to carry my laptop on the road and found that someone was always looking over my shoulder when I was on the PC. Hated the T/S WIFI and on one trip to FL bought an aircard, which I kept up to the time I was forced to come off the road. I did have one advantage that most don't since I am in the national guard I have my military ID card that I use to log on with so Data encription, wouldn't say that it isn't hack proof but the level of security is great. Also if I was to get up and take a break I would pull the card and everything would go dead... I have flown online but I guess just cant get the hang of it.
Peace : 0 )
John MorrisCaptain, B777-200
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DVA4788
Chief Pilot, L-1011-100
OLP
Joined on August 02 2007
50 State Club
Everett Century Club
Online Double Century Club
Quatercentenary Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
"Fly it like a Samsonite Gorilla!!" Wichita, KS
470 legs, 881.0 hours
220 legs,
398.1 hours online 458 legs,
856.5 hours ACARS 2 legs,
5.2 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 14 2009 08:35 ET by Jon Michael Prenovost
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Steve, once I get fluent at IFR operations, your will see me join as many group flights as possible! I just want to have enough training & experience when I hit VATSIM as to represent DVA well. Despite my internet connection issues I'll find or make time to be apart of the group flights, I'm looking forward to that!
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