Hello, thanks, and a question about VAs

[brownshoe]

Hi Everybody!

I've known about this site for a few years, and I've been lurking quite a bit lately since I've been in the mood for simulating propliners the last couple months.

My name is Dave. I fly helicopters for the US Navy. I've been an airplane junkie all my life, and have owned/flown FS4, FS2000, and FS9.

Many thanks to Mr. Gibson and everybody here for the overwhelming resource of knowledge and frankly awesome addons. I've really enjoyed learning the many, many nuances of these complex aircraft!

I've been a member of DC-3 Airways for the last four or five years and I love it over there. But I do wonder (and I hope it's appropriate to ask here) why there aren't more propliner VAs out there.

I've been looking pretty hard the last few weeks, and I haven't found a comprehensive VA that focuses on piston-powered airliners of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. My theories are 1) Nobody has made one 2) There's not enough interest and 3) There's a lot of interest in propliners (as evidenced here) but the people who are interested in these aircraft aren't interested in flying for VAs.

Thanks again for the great addons and community.

[coenraad]

I have the same problem, as i tried to find a "vintage/hystorical" VA, the VA i am a member of is a good as dead.
I think it is mainly becourse it is a rather smalll group flying the propliners compared to the jetboys. It is a bit of a shame though. A nice VA with propliners would be really great.

[Tom/CalClassic]

There have been several VA's started with propliners in mind. It turns out there are only a handful of people interested, and it turns out not to be worth the significant effort (for all who've tried so far).

There are modern VA's with a significant propliner component - one is the Pan Am VA:

www.panamva.com/fleet.php

but there are many others.

Hope this helps,

[coenraad]

Seems like they only use the L049, not the L749 nor L1049
I gues i will just stick to my FsPax haha.

[brownshoe]

Looks like a pretty good VA, but definitely not very serious about propliner ops. Their fleet pages don't work for anything older than a 737, and they have only 52 propliner routes in their system, only for Connies and DC-4s although they also list DC-2s, 6s, and 7s as part of their fleet.

I was part of a failed startup attempt for a Capital Airlines VA a couple of years ago. It was pretty promising, but for some reason the guy running it gave up before we really could get off the ground.

I have my own ideas about how it could work, as well as enough basic php/MySQL know-how to make a database-driven website. Just testing the water a little here... if anybody's interested, I'll be happy to talk about it more.

[Ricardo Miranda]

Hi!

There are actually quite a few Classic VAs. You'll need to look further afield though!

The PANAM you posted Tom is affiliated with Vatsim. There is another one: www.panam-airways.com/index2.php?clipper=bookaflight

There's also a BOAC virtual, a BEA and even a DAN-AIR virtual! I'm a member of both BOAC and BEA!
www.jgaeurope.co.uk/BEA/
www.boac-va.co.uk/
www.jgaeurope.co.uk/DanAir2/

If you don't mind to live side by side with modern fleets, there's the Virtual Pilots Association, which I belong too!
There you can fly whatever you fancy, provided you fly by the modern VFR or IFR rules! Pretty easy to adapt to modern airways and regulations! And the old ladies fly them effortlessly! ;D
Just have a look at my signature! Most days you'll see a CONI (that means anything from the L-049A up to L-1649A) there!

Soft Landings!

[johnl]

Dave,
try www.bluegrassairlines.com. BGA is (in theory) mostly 1930s-50s propliners, plus airmail and bushpilot divisions, although in practice there is also quite a bit of GA activity. There is also (at least in theory, though I don't think it's ever had any of it's own pilots or routes) a turbo division. Most months, there is a "feature" - last month's was Cabo Verde Airlines routes flying DH Dragon Rapides, DH Doves, and Grumman Widgeons. Additionally, the Australian division hosts the annual Great Australian Air Rally.

[Randy_Cain]

Hi,

Brownshoe, there is another Pan Am VA. It doesn't get a lot of attention.. but it's certainly active... even if it's just a few of us.

We target everything from the 1920's timetables up to the early 707 routes. You'll find some of the links to copies of a collection of realworld timetables to pick from. There are no "assigned" flights. Kenny does ask that you fly the first "x" hours out of the San Francisco hub, though. ..I guess instead of just typing it all over again, here:

fsvintageair.com/PanAm/p_index.html

We also try to do our flights in a multiplayer session to take advantage of weather from the server *Session Server* or no weather/set your own on the *24 Hour Server*.

The only "dues" are a painless free registration.

fsvintageair.com



Yours,

[capflyer]

It was mentioned about use of CalClassic aircraft on FSAirlines.net.

I'm not 100% certain on their fleets besides Venture Hawaii (which is who I fly for), but there are also -

Venture Hawaii
Pan Am (dunno if it's any of the ones mentioned above)
PSA
Eastern
Classic British Flight Services

I'm sure there's others I'm not aware of.

One note - VHA and CBFS cover large swaths of time and multiple airlines. CBFSVA covers all British airlines from about 1930 onwards until the 1970's and VHA covers non-specific airlines from the mid-50's through the late-70's, mainly concentrating on shorter flight of less than 2 hours in length and on routes and aircraft as if we were a second-tier operator.

Oh, VHA also flies the L-049A, L-749, L-1049G, and L-1049H. We're still integrating the last 3, but the first three will (when the system's complete) replicate the TWA 1958 Connie schedule. The L-1409H will be used on our logistics routes where it's convertible status can be used the best.