Discussing future VA improvements

Martin Laengle · Dec 27, 2014

Hi all,

I just want to create a new item to discuss about the future of AirChild and the futher enhancements or developement ...

During X-mas days I checked some other virtual airlines about their work, job, how to fly etc etc....
I think AirChild is a very good VA and we have many good pilots here .... but like in real life, no improvement is a step back. We have to avoid to become old fashioned and conservative, not modern and going with the time...
Just some questions or hints or whatever it may be:
Why don't we have some GA planes like C182 or PA28? Sometimes I want to make a VFR flight....
Why don't we have an event chartering? Makes it a little bit more interesting and there are a lot of events or VIPs to fly.... :lol:
Isn't there good skilled pilot to update our liveries to special seasons and events? advertisment?
In the Flight magazin they sometimes publish articles about VAs, why not about AirChild?
......
Thanks Martin

ACH1516 · Dec 27, 2014

Re: a topic to discuss ....

+1 for the articles magazin and for the C182!

Barthe Hogenboom · Dec 27, 2014

Re: a topic to discuss ....

Hi, it's good that every ACH pilot thinks about the future once in a while. But I think there are reasons for some of the "problems' you mention. The main reason might be we're a very flexible VA where everybody can join and participate without many obstacles.

but like in real life, no improvement is a step back

As long as most members find them improvements, then yes. On the other hand; many good initiatives were killed by so called progress.

We have to avoid to become old fashioned and conservative, not modern and going with the time...

I admit, I like my organizations old-fashioned and conservative(as long as it's not politics). Many real-life airlines and other companies are also a bit conservative because most of their customers are too.

Why don't we have some GA planes like C182 or PA28? Sometimes I want to make a VFR flight

GA is not airline. We're also not a specific bush flying VA. But I think adding one light single-engined air plane might make some of us happy. It might also be good for practice flights. Did you already request it in the topic hangar->airplane requests?

In the Flight magazin they sometimes publish articles about VAs, why not about AirChild?

Well, someone has to write an article then. Why don't you write one? Start a forum posting about it and we could all help a bit. It could be fun. I'm sure our CEOs will approve after some drafts.

And there was an article about Ricardo on FS.com this year in which ACH was mentioned.

Isn't there good skilled pilot to update our liveries to special seasons and events? advertisment?

I made some special repaints in the past but the room in the hangar is tightly guarded. :lol: It might be good to hear from our CEO(s) where we're allowed to upload custom repaints that carry the ACH logo. Maybe ACH should have a place to upload unofficial repaints to share with other members. It might be as simple as a sticky post with links to files on the repainter's personal website. And then make a link to this sticky post in the hangar.

My own thoughts for our future: please focus on implementing an economics system, independent of other websites. I mean, you can use other websites to have flightsim economics but this means you also have to agree with their policies and often have to have yet another application running along FSX.

A happy new year to all readers.

Ps. maybe this topic's title is a bit vague, this way it might get forgotten as soon as it disappears from the recent posts list. I suggest "Discussing future VA improvements" or something.

Martin Laengle · Dec 27, 2014

Hi Barthe,

thanks for your input, I modified the subject, you're right :lol:

Repaints: for example during the X-mas days it would be funny to have some X-mas or winter liveries;

GA: Sometimes I have only one hour time to make a short trip, not possible with the B737, but jumping into a for example PA28 and making two or three touch and goes .... keep the feeling to fly up-to-date :rofl:

Please, don't misunderstand my topic here, AirChild is very good, not too much regulations and laws, but maybe we can have a kind of roadmap where all of us can help and work a little bit.

Thanks and have a nice weekend.
Martin

Tom Weber · Dec 27, 2014

Let us wait at least till the server is moved to a new destination. Peter has a lot to with moving the server. He told me that this will happen very soon. But as VA ACH is not his real life job...sometimes it will last a bit longer. Of course you cannot know this but I am sure we have to wait till the server has moved safely. Do not get me wrong, discussions are very much appreciated - this is Air-Child - from pilots for pilots.

Tom

Martin Laengle · Dec 29, 2014

Mhhh, okay we can wait for the server move, but discussing a road map, which issues to work on, a library for liveries for example, this all can be done in advance.....

If someone has some nice liveries for the iFly B737-800, I will appreciate it ......

Thanks Martin

Peter Mueller · Dec 30, 2014

Hello fellow airmen/airwomen,

I very much like the ideas I have read so far! I too think ACH is a great VA, because it lets me fly how I roll, if you catch my drift. I am absolutly pro improvement regarding some minor issues... like the charter flight hangar. I think it should depict the current market of high-end add-on aircraft for our simulators in full... I'd really like to stop using "substitutes".

Also I'd like to see more statistiks at work. I mean... we're collecting TONS of data for each flight... let's play with that data... fuel, distance, safety and what not. I exported my logs from ACH to Excel and got some pretty neat data... and also some useless info that was fun... like how many nm I have left to fly to the moon.

And I would love to see a live-chat (text-based, not voice - we have that) in the pilots lounge giving us more "community" and the possibility to get in contact via synchronous communication. That would enable us pilots to exchange info on weather (most of us do use real-world weather) or just a chance to get connected over our common hobby.

Happy landings!

Szymon Kurzacz · Jan 1, 2015

I probably could host some liveries, but on my free host i have limited file size, and on paid it could quite fast deploy my transfer limits - neither of that servers are designed for higher traffic... But with some help in form of paypal donations or something simmilar it could work...
I have also few ACH liveries for X-plane offline...

Tom Weber · Jan 2, 2015

Szymon Kurzacz said:
I probably could host some liveries, but on my free host i have limited file size, and on paid it could quite fast deploy my transfer limits - neither of that servers are designed for higher traffic... But with some help in form of paypal donations or something simmilar it could work...
I have also few ACH liveries for X-plane offline...

Hi Szymon,
I am sure that it is possible to host liveries on he ACH server. So if you want to share liveries please come back via pm.
Happy New Year
Tom

Barthe Hogenboom · Jan 3, 2015

I am sure that it is possible to host liveries on he ACH server. So if you want to share liveries please come back via pm.

I always had the impression the hangar was kept to the absolute minimum. It would be great if there was a space to upload "un-official" repaints. Why not keep the official hangar neat and tidy like it is now and add a special hangar space where all members above rank X can upload. If someone keeps an eye on it now and then, I'm sure no-one is going to upload anything distasteful.

And I would love to see a live-chat (text-based, not voice - we have that) in the pilots lounge giving us more "community" and the possibility to get in contact via synchronous communication. That would enable us pilots to exchange info on weather (most of us do use real-world weather) or just a chance to get connected over our common hobby.

OK, I don't really need that but some might want to use it. It might however make the site heavier to load etc. But in any case, please make something that's not based on Facebook/Twitter or Google API's. These networks introduce all sort of privacy and security issues. I know there are some good chat systems for forums around that work good.

Szymon Kurzacz · Jan 3, 2015

Livery is very fluid term.
Minimal weight for x-plane could be under 1mb uncompressed, but hd-ready payware repaint with hi quality custom sounds can be over 100mb.

Transfer and host disk space can be problematic, or not - depends on host plan.

We have quite few airplane types, lets say around 30 types. Then we should multiply that number by 4 or 5, witch include repaints for only one model per simulator: fs9, fsx, (xpl8), xpl9, xpl10 (and others if we get option to file pireps from them) - its then 120 files just to make single arplane available for each sim. Then we have for example default 747 in MSFS, and PMDG, each with pax and cargo and with at least 3 variants (normal, easter, xmas) it makes 2*2*3=12 liveries just for FS9, another 12 for FSX, another for xpl9 and xpl10 === 48 liveries just for 747, and with 30 types of planes, each with those "default/payware" scheme we get over 1000 (1 tousand) liveries...

Pierre Chassang · Jan 3, 2015

Agree with Kai Uwe Pel.

Happy new year Captains.
Pierre

Barthe Hogenboom · Jan 3, 2015

The Pilot in Command, who is flying the aircraft, cant see any liveries, while he sits in his cockpit.

What I am saying is only, if you really like to fly like a real pilot, you should never leave the cockpit

All pilots have check-list and they all have the item "

You do not have permission to view link please Log in or Register

"

I can understand some virtual pilots only care about the knobs and buttons but I think most are also interested in the exterior. Especially when you're also a spotter. I have to admit I'm even a virtual spotter; it can be real fun to watch the various liveries come in and out of a big FSX airport.

We have quite few airplane types, lets say around 30 types. Then we should multiply that number by 4 or 5, witch include repaints for only one model per simulator: fs9, fsx, (xpl8), xpl9, xpl10 (and others if we get option to file pireps from them) - its then 120 files just to make single arplane available for each sim. Then we have for example default 747 in MSFS, and PMDG, each with pax and cargo and with at least 3 variants (normal, easter, xmas) it makes 2*2*3=12 liveries just for FS9, another 12 for FSX, another for xpl9 and xpl10 === 48 liveries just for 747, and with 30 types of planes, each with those "default/payware" scheme we get over 1000 (1 tousand) liveries...

These extra liveries are only optional; who's going to make thousands of repaints for every possible plane? People just make paints for planes that are popular at the moment. Nobody's going to make the same livery for all simulators; simply because most repainters only have one simulator version in the first place. We could state that you shouldn't upload the complete plane, even if it's free-ware. You can also limit the amount of upload space each member has to keep it under control.

The idea is just to have a way to share an ACH repaint with others without having to make it publicly available on a site like flightsim.com.

Peter Mueller · Jan 4, 2015

The idea is just to have a way to share an ACH repaint with others without having to make it publicly available on a site like flightsim.com.

I absolutly agree... I am all about knobs and switches and never leaving the cockpit, but I also like to actually "represent", when virtually flying. I'd prefer a good ACH livery over every real-world airline livery, although I ususally don't "leave" the cockpit enroute (quite drafty out there heh).

That said, above all I'd wish for a hangar that actually reflects what's going on on the payware add-on market. Add a complete set of ACH liveries to that and virtual aviation life is SWEET! Just my 2 cents.

And a happy new year to y@ll!

Cheers,

Pete

Martin Laengle · Feb 7, 2015

Maybe we can use the Avsim library for the repaints??

Thanks and happy landings

Barthe Hogenboom · Feb 7, 2015

Maybe we can use the Avsim library for the repaints??

It would be a possibility and I also considered this but I also see problems. If we do that, or use any other site like FS.com, it should be behind some kind of password protection. Otherwise someone in charge from ACH should first check and approve all uploads because they are publicly available.

Some VAs just throw their repaints on some public site but I don't think they should. Some members might feel a certain repaint doesn't properly represent their VA. If it's publicly available there's no control over it any more after uploading.

If you restrict the downloading of unofficial repaints to ACH members you get a nice sandbox effect; ACH pilots can use and test repaints from other members and maybe comment on them without generating a lot of extra work.

I know the

You do not have permission to view link please Log in or Register

uses Simviation for their files.

You do not have permission to view link please Log in or Register

uses Avsim. They aren't VAs, more freeware develpers but also form a separate organized group. But as far as I know even their files are publicly available.

Kendy Schwarz · Jul 9, 2015

Hi

The issue of the use of repaint is unsolvable. Every pilot should act according to their conscience and manners. This can not compel somebody something. As in the flying of the VA. There are several pilots who cheats and only recorded their reports. Nobody here does not solve and some scams are easily demonstrable. VA staff in my opinion it does not want to see. Several times I warned staff and nothing is not addressed. From the beginning, I was impressed by the VA. After some time, my enthusiasm disappeared, because I discovered that not all pilots are fair. Even considering his departure from the VA. The whole problem in the VA's system logging and generating flight numbers. This primitive method of generating flight numbers, goes to circumvent and some pilots do it here. I think the VA is not about quantity but quality

I apologize for my poor pronunciation of English. (Google Translate)

Barthe Hogenboom · Jul 10, 2015

Hi, Kendy.

The issue of the use of repaint is unsolvable.

Well, you can't prevent ACH members from making an ugly or inappropriate repaint and placing it on fs.com(If they really wanted to do that). I only want some room for honest ACH repainters to work on repaint proposals and unofficial repaints. Like a paint for a special flight event that doesn't need to be placed in the hangar.

Every pilot should act according to their conscience and manners.

Right,most of the internet sort of works like that. Total security doesn't exist and we're not something critical like a financial institution.

There are several pilots who cheats and only recorded their reports.

Who are they then? What do they want to achieve? Some 0,0000001 extra cents for UNICEF? The enormous credit for becoming senior captain really fast?

Several times I warned staff and nothing is not addressed.

I noticed most staff members are quite busy with their real life jobs at the moment. If it's on VATSIM you could just contact the VATSIM staff. I'm not on VATSIM but I do know they have a system in place for reporting pilots who behave inappropriately.

Another thing to keep in mind is that errors in programs like FSAcars often generate incorrect reports with lots of flying hours. Some pilots doing these reports might not even have noticed this and unintentionally advance in rank quite quickly.

From the beginning, I was impressed by the VA.

I still am. People are mostly friendly here. If there are problems we work it out. I think that's the most important thing. And for the rest....it's quite relaxed and I like that. You don't get kicked out if you don't do xxx number of flights per week and you don't have to pass all kind of rituals and exams(a lot of VAs work like that).

After some time, my enthusiasm disappeared, because I discovered that not all pilots are fair. Even considering his departure from the VA.

Are you leaving us? Quite sad, actually. :'( Don't take it too hard, unfair people do exist. Just ignore them and go on. I personally don't lose sleep over some cheaters on the interwebs.

I mean, there are so many other problems in this world...

The whole problem in the VA's system logging and generating flight numbers. This primitive method of generating flight numbers, goes to circumvent and some pilots do it here.

Peter is busy improving several technical aspects of the site at the moment. For the rest I think you should see it in this way: If we would be able to make this system with flight numbers more secure then pilots would still be able to cheat in a million other ways. The problem is that most flight sims aren't designed to prevent cheating. The link between logging/ACARS and the sim itself is always weak. Flightsim isn't like modern multiplay shooters on consoles. And even there people cheat a lot. :think:

I hope this helps, don't worry too much, take a cup of coffee/tea, fly around the world and feel free :!:

Discussing future VA improvements

ACH1516

Guest