LesJar

I see now where you are aiming at , sounds like the database would need something like a Navigraph/Navdata upload each month and a process like PFPX where you can re-check all your route information each month. Of course if one wanted to share the routes with other Virtual airlines then a hosted PHVVMS library of the routes could be done as well. [1] Virtual airline maintain their own routes [2] Virtual airlines can deposit routes or take out routes from a 'global' shared database if they want to do so . I see it that way where everyone if they want can share their knowledge through the routes they build and maintain . Having good routes helps everyone running a Virtual Airline as well as those pilots who connect with Vatsim etc. I do not work in Aviation despatching but I can see similarities to freight logistics which I have worked on software to do with planning deliveries and schedules to meet customer needs and driver legal hours driving regulations.

Since I now have the database of FS-TRAFFIC and Aig schedules as well as World Traffic schedules the system should be starting up again very soon and of course it can now take advantage of the most recent upgrades to PHPVMS V7 . I used a newer method to build my own virtual airline so as to align the code within the project which is not dead but has been sleeping for a while

I did a simple test of what various products could give you back using Airbus A320 I used Simbrief Flightplan Database, LittleNavMap and Navigraph Charts the route was from Lisbon LPPT to Vagar EKVG and to no surprise for me there appeared to be 4 different routes . Simbrief , LittleNavMap and Navigraph Charts all have an AUTO-ROUTE or Calculation so which one is the best to use and which one would you send to PHPVMS Route Database I have PFPX somewhere I think and that could throw up another route as well.

I also forgot that Simbrief always gives you a runway and a Sid and star where possible between the departure and arrival airports. This may seem good to start with but with airports like Heathrow where they have noise abatement runway alternation many simbrief plans become useless after they swap the runways around. Therefore it would make sense for a route database to show the waypoint at the end of a SID and only the waypoint at the start of the STAR on arrival. That way when you get the runway in use then you just use the Sid for that runway and likewise for the STAR arrival. The database should never have routes that include runway based sids and stars as winds and wx can cause the runway in use to be changed and so on

Also in the UK there is a standard document of entry and exit points from UK airspace so to conform to this and many other countries needs some good logic to get acceptable routes. Generally speaking there are many Virtual Airlines dotted around the world and each is likely to have more flights in a region than other regions . My new virtual airline covers the North Sea and northeast Atlantic over 5 countries , Scotland , Ireland ,Iceland , Norway and Faroe Islands so in theory I could cover that area with the 3000 routes I have that arrive or depart these five countries. Likewise Disposable Hero I think has many flights around the area of Turkey and of course there will be airlines that cover areas of the United States and so on. If we all teamed up I guess we could get a pretty good database going that is in compliance with local ATC and Aviation Authorities regulations and controls. That way we can have a database that the likes of VATSIM and IVAO and others will have flight plans that they are more likely to be happy with.

Yes I know that from simbrief in that on one tour leg in my Airline I used the simbrief option and it sent me a route for a 53 mile trip that was 250 miles and what I saw on the map was the flight spelt the words "VULCAN 2 " which may look pretty and Yes I did not fly it anyway. I agree with the idea of a routes database in PHPVMS that you could subscribe to and use for your airline , it sounds like a great idea but the problem I see is that who is going to be the guardian of it and prevent routes being added in a similar way that bugs Simbrief from time to time. Obviously a route sharing system would be nice for PHPVMS but I suspect that this will not happen because of the time involved in setting it up the storage costs for the database and obviously changes to PHPVMS for it to be used to upload and download routes. The other factor is that the database has to be maintained using the cycle of ARINC so as to be useable for all as in a few cases each month or year certain waypoints and fixes either get removed or are re-named and so on and as such each route would need to comply with the Navdata cycle each month. The other thing to get interest in this facility is that one would need a sort of 'starter' database so that everyone can get some routes to start with rather than it gets going as an empty system. What is also needed is a priority system where the likes of my friend DISPOSIBLE-HERO has a high priority in uploading and maintaining routes because of his working knowledge from the real world airline industry. That means that somebody with a lower priority cannot overwrite his routes. The only other problem I see is that this system would be in effect yet another competitor to what is already there on the internet and as such rather than just copy what they do it would need to have features that give it an edge over other systems otherwise the take-up is not going to happen that well. The technical side of things would work in a sort of Simbrief Integration where when adding a route the details are formatted into parameters and then passed to the PHPVMS route system and then on return you have a sort of PHPVMS Approved route that is updated to your files automatically, Likewise there should be a 'maintenance' option where you can run a task or have a cron task run that updates your flights to the current routes from the database or submits your routes to be added as well if you have the permission set to upload as a virtual airline. That would need just a token key like the acars and simbrief use so it would be monitored. Obviously a 'registered' uploader if they send weird or bad routes , then they risk of course being denied access to upload in the future. All routes will be logged against who uploaded them and when and for what navdata cycle and so on. I have a vmshost account and if more space is needed to hold such a database then I am sure Nabeel would do this for me as I can spend time in development of the tables and other aspects concerning this if he feels it would be a good thing to do.

The title of this question at first glance might seem a little odd, but let me explain In PHPVMS V7 there is a large scale and very useful integration with SIMBRIEF and as such the Route for a flight is often passed for example to the Acars from the simbrief OFP. Likewise when you look at the briefing for your flight level for FMC MCDU input it is there in the detail of each flight leg. So to set the question is to what value in PHPVMS V7 is having anything in the route field of a flight have with the rest of the system . Yes it gets sent to Simbrief and is used to generate the OPF but Simbrief will give you a flight plan route if there is nothing to start with been trying to work through the code for that. Likewise the same for flight level. Or are these fields just there as to be compatible with migration from V5 or just in case you do not use Simbrief at all.

Given that you are looking at using the PHPVMS V7 as a starting point I would recommend the use of the Disposable Hero theme and Basic Tool add-on to build after creating your PHPVMS V7 Airline . Although there is a conversion process in PHPVMS V7 to upgrade from legacy version I have not used it that way myself. I have build the CSV files for import to PHPVMS V7 from scratch and thus can utilise many of the features of V7 tat are not in V5. The other issue which is important to understand is that many people took on various add-on modules in V5 and sometimes these added fields to the standard tables and so on. You are ok if your site is not so heavily customised with lots of reworked pages and themes etc. With the demise of PHP versions that are old that were around when V5 was built it is a safe bet that upgrading to V7 will ensure that you can have a system as many host companies are dropping older versions of PHP from being used. Where I can help is with taking the existing csv files or data files from V5 and making them into the V7 csv files as I use PHP and MYSQL to build the results from

I just set up a new virtual airline using PHPVMS V7 and I have taken the timetables from FS TRAFFIC , Plane WORLD TRAFFIC and AiG schedules and used them in a series of coding modules converted and selected the data so tat I created the csv files to upload into PHPVMS so that every flight and every subfleet and aircraft have a match and thus in one upload I hade some 3500 schedules with a fleet of 169 aircraft over 5 subsidiary airlines . take a look at https://virtualairhygge.com to see how a PHPVMS airline can look. By the way I can offer to build some csv files for you for free and help with installation again for free as I do not wish to charge for helping others with the same hobby

although this is an old topic it is an interesting add-on that could be enhanced further. I was thinking to help virtual pilots who say wanted to fly to KSAN from LEPA for example and just like you goto a travel agent they come up with a number flights that you have to make to complete the journey, So since this module does a 'RAMDOM" set of connections I am thinking that it would be nice to have a destination airport as an item for the search and then the module searches the schedules to come up with a set or sets of flights so that you can have say a non-stop flight from your schedules or a flight with 10 stops or connections as they are know, then the limiting factor of 5 , 10 ,15 comes into play that you see if you can complete the journey in less than or equal to the desired number.

Brining the topic of website developers up-to date for 2023, I would like to point out that I have time and resources to help any virtual airline using PHPVMS especially version 5 get more services and visuals for the website. I have recently re-designed a menu system that uses images like the menus you find on MSFS 2020 and indeed x-plane 11/12. Another feature I have developed is a process where for booking a flight you get to see a list of flights to airports in the schedules that you have not flown to before. Where you have lists of items that are often 100's long such as looking at all your pireps is a challenge to try and improve the look of a page and to avoid the scrolling off of the page , again I have overcome this by using a boxed table that I call search, sort and page where you limit the number of items on view at a time by the number of items on a page and then like forums etc you have pages to go to, however this has been taken to another level where you can type in a search text and it will find the items that match and just display them , so if you had a list of flights in a pirep listing and you wanted to see just those flights say made in the UK then you would type the first part of the icao code EG and that would list the Uk flights then for say Manchester you type EGCC. and so on also you have the ability to sort the columns say perhaps on the longest duration. It should be noted that this software is not copyrighted by any of the normal 3rd party add-ons but it could be used to improve them or add to them in a better way. The software and methods belong to me and all work is done by myself with no other parties involved. I am a retired software developer and as syuch do have more time to do these things than others who are at work and can only work in spare time. So if you are interested in making more modern look to your PHPVMS web-site here is the important news : I DO NOT CHARGE ANYTHING FOR THE WORK I DO !!!! Of course if you want to donate something it is upto you and I do not make a fuss if there is nothing, my work is my enjoyment.

First Part of this Project in Github is to define the Mysql Tables and to use a PDO library to make use of Pdo in PHP as it is supported better in more upto date versions of PHP. The files this will create in a Mysql Database will be as follows-: [1] The master subfleet header table , based on what schedules are used in this project. [2] The master schedule table that is build from the FS-Traffic Tables. What you need to do is create a CSV of all your Airline Airports that you need for your project as the base airports for PHPVMS. Any flights in the same country with the same airport codes like EDDF EDDM or ED for Germany will be classed as Domestic Flights Any flights to other airports in your CSV file of airports in your group will be classed as Group Flights. Likewise you need a csv of the ICAO designators to include specific other countries. like E for northern Europe or L for Southern Europe etc. These will form the basis of regional/international flights. All flights will either arrive or depart from one of your airports in your CSV file as you do not want 100's of thousands of flights. You will need a csv file to hold the basic flight numbers for each category Domestic , Group and Reginal/International. suggest 1 to 2999 for domestic flights 3000 to 5999 for group flights and 6000 to 8999 for regional/international flights. The process will also use names of towns from geo-names to give each of your aircraft that is built a local name maybe Hamburg if it is a based in ED i.e Germany or Glasgow if based in EG and so on. The build csv file as I call it is a config file which will have all the values in it for you to edit and use , several factors apply such as number of aircraft given the count of flights using that specific subfleet. NOTE THIS PROCESS WILL NOT BE PERFECT FOR EVERYONE AS EACH HAS THEIR OWN IDEAS BUT IT IS EASY TO EDIT CSV FILES BEFORE UPLOADING TO PHPVMS IF YOU NEED TO DO SO OR JUST RUN THE SOFTWARE AGAIN.

Actually you do get the departure time by matching the flight numbers in FS-TRAFFIC 0=DT:1015,ICAO:FIMP,CA:MAU,AC:AT7,FLTNO121,CS:AIR MAURITIUS,DAYS:1234567* 7=AT:1155,ICAO:FIMR,CA:MAU,AC:AT7,FLTNO121,CS:AIR MAURITIUS,DAYS:1234567* This is from the departures at FIMR the sister island of Rodrigues to my home airport FIMP DT:1015 is the departure time from Rodrigues and the arrival time in Mauritius is AT:1155 so the flight time is 1 hour and 40 minutes in an ATR 72 aircraft

Given that one of the hardest jobs in setting up a virtual airline is sorting out schedules that work well , alongside the subfleet and aircraft to fly the routes. Now if you have MSFS 2020 and the FS_TRAFFIC add-on it comes with a good set of schedules that you can copy and use with some coding to make all the data for your airline. The Departures folder can be found in the following place Community\justflight-fstraffic-module\Data\Schedules. The Arrivals folder can be found in the following placeCommunity\justflight-fstraffic-module\Data\Schedules folder\Arrivals folder An example of the schedule for EINN is attached and you can see from the data that all the information is there for example -: 0=DT:0605,ICAO:EYKA,CA:RYR,AC:73H,FLTNO8822,CS:RYANAIR,DAYS:7*. this is a flight departing from EINN 0605 on a Sunday using an aircraft type 73H to goto EYKA. The 0= is just a sequence number DT:0605 is the departure time ICAO:EYKA is where the flight is going to CA:RYR. is the carrier RYR or Ryanair to be precise AC:73H is the aircraft type 73H being the Boeing 737-800 aircraft FLTNO8822 is the Fs-traffic internal Flight Number which can be matched to arrivals CS:RYANAIR id the Ryanair callsign DAYS:7* is the days of the week for this flight 7 being Sunday and probably need to be converted for PHPvms data of the week. Yes it is missing the departure time but things like that can be worked out using calculations. The good thing is also that if you want to model a real world airline then you can get all the schedules that you need for that airline as at I think summer 2020 but FS-TRAFFic is said to have a schedule update soon as well. I already built my airline on something similar using the AIG text files and the schedules from World Traffic in X-plane 11 as these again were text files , but looking at these they are the simplest to decode but missing a departure time which may not be good but can be worked upon. This is just an insight of where to find schedule information to build your own airline from scratch and input csv files rather than input every single flight. Because I have not yet done the schedules using these text files there is no code that I can post on here to help you yet. The code I used was PHP and MYSQL but I think it could be done with Visual Studio and other databases as you are reading in text files storing the information, processing the information and then creating the output csv files to input to PHPVMS. I might open up a community GITHUB for this so that everyone can get the code to do this , but it will be PHP and MYSQL so that it can work alongside PHPVMS any comments and suggestions are always welcome

Following a successful build and launch of my new PHPVMS V7 Virtual Airline Virtualairhygge. (http://virtualairhygge.com) I would personally like to thank Nabeel for creating the software in the first place and to all those who have been busy sorting out the bugs and adding value to the base package. One name however stands out from all the extra bits and pieces and we all know him as the 'DISPOSABLE HERO' . I have his theme and the basic and advanced modules and if you think that what you get in the advanced module is not worth the 50 Euros donation then you are completely wrong. Firstly he is not making the money for himself it is for helping others and secondly you do get many add on features that perhaps you we're thinking of using but did not know they existed. Also you get a tours module as part of that 50 euros package as well. We all know the price of some of the old PHPVMS V5 modules and often the lack of support for these, however this guy is often on discord and is always open to give sensible advice and help on his modules and themes. He has many years experience in the airline industry in the support side of things and has built these modules to include the factors about a flight that pilots do not actually see. The addition of such things as catering and duty free sales only add further to the realism that PHPVMS V7 tries to bring to this hobby. The acars that Nabeel has built which again comes at a cost is very detailed and works very well in con-junction with PHPVMS V7 and is definitely a front rennin up against Smartcars that will be out shortly that works with PHPVMS V7. The details that you can add and control within the Phpvms Module means that it has the ability to be tailored to you r needs rather than some acars programs that you have alter what you do to fit in with it. I think that many people have jumped into other Virtual Airline packages instead of looking deeper into using PHPVMS V7 as it has a great opportunity to rival and better all these other products. The ability to create and integrate modules yourself and share them with others like what 'Disposable Hero' has done is a catalyst to make the package even better as what happened with Version 5 until the likes of Crazy Creatives and Mods.eu decided that they were going to make money from these types of modules. Really I thought that it would be hard to create a virtual airline from scratch but I managed to do it in just over a week. The beauty is that if you understand how the uploading of csv files works in Version 7 then most of the tedious and time consuming work inputting data can be taken away by just creating a csv file and uploading it. Because I was a software developer for 40 years the task of creating the csv files was simple to do using just some text files , mysql and php.