DVA8359
Captain, DC-8-61
Joined on March 02 2010
Everett Century Club
Tin Dispatcher
Triple Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Western United States
226 legs dispatched, 275.9
hours
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Posted onPost created on
April 11 2017 20:33 ET by Adam Marion
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This information is designed to answer some questions about the Delta Virtual Flight Academy, those who work in the academy and some general information regarding the flight academy.
As a former student in the academy and now a staff instructor, I have experienced some confusion when taking the flight academy courses. I will be one of the first to admit that because I had received my VATSIM P1 and VATSIM P2 ratings through other ATO organizations, I thought that I was exempt from having to take the courses in our Flight Academy. I was under the impression that I could bypass the courses and automatically receive the VATSIM ratings. Well, that's not the case. The goal of this post is to help clarify the process, roles and procedures of the DVA flight academy.
What is the Flight Academy?
The Flight Academy is an educational/training part of Delta Virtual. The primary goal of the flight academy, along with the instruction staff, is to promote knowledge and training. We strive to help pilots become better virtual pilots. We are focused on helping you start your virtual career or improving your already established skills with specific training courses and checkrides based on current aviation standards.
What can the Flight Academy offer me?
The Flight Academy can offer many things to each pilot looking to start their virtual skills or to advance in their chosen aircraft. At this time, the Flight Academy offers the Online Pilot course (qualifies for the VATSIM P1), VFR Online Pilot (qualifies for the VATSIM P2) and a brand new Boeing 737 Airman ATP course. Past courses like the PPL and COMM courses were based on a shared cockpit, a feature whose practically free software abandoned support for. We hope to re-implement these courses in some form in the future.
In the future, the Flight Academy will be offering more courses that qualify you for the VATISM pilot ratings. Additional specific aircraft program courses that focus specifically on the historical aircraft and steam gauge navigation before computer glass cockpits are in the works.
I already have a certain VATSIM Pilot Rating. Can I bypass the Flight Academy course?
The answer is no, you cannot bypass our Flight Academy's rating course if you already have the VATSIM rating(s) through another organization and want the flight academy certifications.
The Flight Academy is a VATSIM approved ATO (Aviation Training Organization). Our courses are built around the current FAA pilot requirements, limited only by our virtual platform. When you pass our courses, you also qualify for the VATSIM ratings if you do not already have them.
Who are the Instructors and what do they do?
The current staff instructors for the Flight Academy are Art Forsha, Jim Daigneau, Adam Marion, Jim Warner and Scott Clarke. The academy staff are responsible for developing new courses, managing the existing courses, instruction staff, ATO requirements and issuing VATSIM ratings.
Our Flight Instructors are responsible for assisting the pilots with the course materials, developing examinations, new courses and grading checkrides. Most of them have real world aviation experience and some are real world pilots. The instruction staff for our Flight Academy is extremely dedicated to the program and to helping our members succeed.
I need help! Help!
If you need help there are two ways to get in contact with the Flight Academy staff.
1). If you are enrolled in a course, go into that course, and enter comments in the bottom of the course comments section. Make sure you click "Save Comments". Once you enter a comment, an email is dispatched to all the staff in the Flight Academy and one of them will respond as soon as they have the opportunity.
2). If you are not enrolled in a course, you can open a new Help Desk issue.
We hope this gives you a little information about our Flight Academy. We look forward to your participation in our programs.
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