Ok Jeff and Scott, the question is why?  What is the point? (and I'm not being smart, just trying to see why I would).  Is the idea to meet more VP's (virtual pilots), or to add structure to your flight time?

I guess here's my example, my kids purchased me FS2004 for x-mas and I've managed to rack up just under a 100 hours of flight time... and what does it get me?  What does flying on your servers provide?  How would you start your own VA if you wanted to?  What if I wanted to be flying flights out of my own home town (Phx, AZ)?

Thanks

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It's hard to answer for everyone, obviously.  For me, I just grew tired of flying around aimlessly.  I mean, I'd flown to all of my local airports about a hundred times, and I'd run out of new places that I wanted to see.

Think about it.  How many times can you fly a 747 under the St. Louis arch before it gets boring?  (Trust me, it can happen!)

I wanted to do something more.  To me, "more" meant have a purpose in flying.  I wanted to earn my wings on each individual airplane.  I wanted to start on something small and then progress through to the big birds.

Ironically, along the way I DID meet more of my fellow pilots, and they've shared some great tips along the way, as I have with them.

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Our pilots not only talk to each other via a great little program called TeamSpeak, they also talk to AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL!

No more ugly text on my screen!  That was a GODSEND for me, as I too hated the constant need to stop flying and read!

As an additional bonus, we've recently started flying our online flights in such a way that our pilots earn a virtual salary which they can use to purchase real world items such as aircraft models, clothing, add-on airplanes and scenery and all kinds of great things.

So really, it's all about what YOU like to do.  Most people are interested in virtual airlines, I think.  Many, sadly, don't know what it's about or what makes it so special.  Many more are familiar with the VAs that open and close inside of a week.  That's probably the biggest deterrent in our entire hobby.

Every VA is different, though there are some common threads running through most of them.  I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

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MOST VAs do have a minimum time requirement.  This is because a lot of work is put into the creation of the airline, and they don't want to do all the work to have an inactive roster.  This time can vary from very little to quite a lot.  With that said, at Hyperion Airways our minimum flight requirement is only 1 flight per month.  With our shortest flights being about half an hour, you could fly 30 minutes a month and stay active.  You could even save your flight and fly one minute a day for the entire month! 
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We do use microphones to communicate with ATC, and I personally use a headset that I got at Wal Mart years ago for about $15 USD.  Very cheap, and very reliable.  Great sound too!
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The flights are flown at 1X sim rate, so you're not going to be zipping through the sky at 16X.  The great thing is though, if the flight is scheduled to depart at 5 AM, you don't have to wake up early.  You fly it whenever you'd like, but you set your sim time  (time and season settings on start up) to represent a few minutes prior to departure, that way you can get everything set up and ready to go for an on time departure.
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Most controllers are great, as long as you tell them you're a newbie.  We were all there once.  It was only a few months ago that I flew my first live atc flight, and I remember actually being nervous!  But the controllers were really helpful.  In fact, one controller at Newark actually guided me to the terminal!   It's very, very rare to deal with a controller who isn't newbie friendly, and honestly, I don't think I've ever really had one.  I've been told of a few, but when you consider how many flights our pilots are flying, to only hear of one or two is impressive.  Like anything in the real world, you're going to have a few bad apples scattered about.  But for the most part, if they know you're new, they'll go out of their way to help as much as possible.

Hope this helped!

No problem!

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They're different, but both provide air traffic control services.  There are actually about four that I can think of that do this.  What makes WestCoastATC different than eSky is that the "salary" you earn from flying can be used to buy REAL things at WestCoast.  This isn't possible at eSky.

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Simply put, while you're flying online, you'll be paid in virtual dollars for each minute you fly.  The more you fly, the more you earn.  This concept is unique to eSky and WestCoastATC, however WestCoastATC lets you spend this money on real things, not just the gates and hubs that you can get at eSky.

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Well, before anyone tried to run a VA, I'd definitely tell them to fly for one first.  This was my mistake.  lol  To compensate for this lack, I posted an ad here at SimV looking for a few people with VA experience to compliment my real world airline experience.  Within a few days, four of us had begun creating Hyperion Airways.  It can be done either way, but I'd definitely recommend flying with someone first to get a good handle on how they work.

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Hubs and gates at eSky are basically there to add to the level of realism of "the game".  However, there are many things which are not representative of the real world airline industry.  For example, at eSky if you already have a gate or hub at an airport, you can't buy a second one.  (We all know this isn't true!)  There are other minor things, but all in all, eSky is a great option for many VAs.  We just feel that WestCoast is more of what our airline is looking for.

Scott, I think you need your own forum! 

Dave

Dave - Sorry about consuming the space... just so many questions on something that sounds so cool.  I put in at least one flight a night on my own time, so it would be cool if I was putting in some of that time in a structured environment.

Thanks for all the help Hyperion

Well, I listened to a short clip of what ATC traffic sounds like.  OMG - How do you know what their talking about and how do you remember all that... I don't want to cream someone.