Questions I ask myselft before the launch of my new VA.

[aarbee]

Hello,

I am on the brink of putting my new va to the public.

Link: www.citylink-va.com.

The purpose of this VA, is not to connect the the larger airports. So some kind of Bushpiloting in Western Europe, as far as you can find a bush ;-) And it is not even my idea to use the more standard planes that are being used by the most VA's.

There for I am thinking small, like the Cessna Caravan, Beech 1900 Maybe an ATR.

Even though this is my idea, I am also planning to have flights, done with B737 or A320, to more well known airports.

Considering the home base (ehbk/mst/maastricht Aachen airport) with a 8000 feet runway, the maximum plane I could use there would be a B752. Maybe a narrowbody jet is the max for here.

I guess you get the idea what I have in mind.

And then I have questions.

• What do others think about the website?
  
• The routes are limited at this moment. But more Cat 1 routes are on the way (Belgium, north of France, Western and South Germany,South England).
  
• What kind of planes to use.
  

Starting with the last dot.

What kind of planes to use.

In to my opinion it is not done, to tell the "new" pilot that he has to have or buy the Caravan from Carenado.

So I am looking first for: Is there a freeware plane I intend to have in the VA, or is that one build in to FSX or FS2004?

And then add, but if you have the better version of the carevan from Carenado, you are invited to fly that one.

I wonder how the majority of the VA owners go about this issue.

10 years ago, with my old VA, we used planes from Posky, FFG, Premieracraft. And that because there where not that many payware planes. And we had the opinion, you cannot force people to buy our preferred planes.

I want to keep my old ideas, of an easy going VA. In the way of, at least one flight per month, or you tell us that you are not available due to....

You can pick any route you want to fly. We tend to try a kind of legacy va, but you can choose between 2 planes, for every cat. For instance, you can take the caravan, or a pc12, for all cat 1 routes. It is up to you.

Greetings,

RobB

[freshJet]

More important questions are

1. Is this really worth it?

2. Can I honestly see my VA making a difference?

3. Am I prepared and do I have the free time required to run this VA successfully?

[aarbee]

Well Rob,

These things are answered by my self, allready.

1. Only time can tell that
   
2. I see a gap, and I am going to fill it in. I know there are a lot of people who do not want to fly jets.
   
3. I know what I am doing. I know how much time it consumes.
   

Greetings,

RobB

[freshJet]

Well it's good to see that you can answer it.

And my name isn't Rob despite the understandable assumption. Read my sig, not my username

[joeri]

one more thing rob you might want to re-check what planes are common on maastricht airport its capable of housing a 747 so it can handle larger planes

[aarbee]

@ItRobb.... Iian? ;-) I know. Sorry.

@Joeri. I know they land at Maastricht and also take off.

I have an image here from evergreen, made by me.

But I am very sure they do not take off complete filled up. 2500 meters is to short for that. I even doubt about a fully loaded B752.

Most B744 fly from New York to Maastricht, offload some stuff, put fuel in and leave for Luxemburg (Cargolux).

I also have some information from a traffic controler at Maastricht.

[Strider]

a fully loaded 752 can take off from a 2500metre runway. A fully loaded 747 technically can, but will have no room to reject a take off if something goes wrong. A 752 is not as heavy as a 747. A 744 is heavier then a 741/2/3. I think the web site is ok, the footer seems to be out of line with the rest of the web page, and seems to be above a lot of the text. In terms of planes, there really isn't any hugely great freeware options for the cessna caravan, other then using the default one that comes with FS. Most model designers have stuck with the bigger jets, like the 737,727,747 and so on. There is a good freeware version of the ATR. What Iain said about "is it worth it" is more is it worth your time going with this project, is it going to work out, do you see it working out, or is it going to take too much of your time up?

[aarbee]

Maybe I should pick freeware planes first, and see, what paid replacements I can get.

Considering my time. I do not have plenty of time. But I realize that I can only put time in the VA, or in flying myself.

There will be a point where I need more stafing then me, myself and I.

But for the time being is it enough.

[Strider]

Actually just you is not enough, not even now. You need staff to start a VA. I know, I have tried the solo game before, and it was too overwhelming, and ended up failing, because I could not keep up.

[aarbee]

I know what you mean.

But there is one thing, I learned in my long life... I need to trust people before I get them on board, as staff.

There are so many good people around, but one or two only want to screw up things. And I want to filter these out before.

That is why I am a bit hessitant.

[mischka]

Actually just you is not enough, not even now. You need staff to start a VA. I know, I have tried the solo game before, and it was too overwhelming, and ended up failing, because I could not keep up.

Depends on your abilities, really.. if you're a s/w developer by trade you'll spend 1/4 of the time from those who haven't got these skills. Also any technical issues you run into are easier to solve, so you can concentrate on other things - like automating some things in the va, which saves more time.

Personally, If I'd have to do it all over again, I'd ask myself this question: what does my airline offer that no other airline offers, what makes mine different that people might want to join my VA?

[gigemaggs99]

Like the others have said, it's nice to offer something other VA's don't have. In the end if you have the same routes and same aircraft it's just different liveries.

Flying into smaller airports sounds like a good start. I like the idea of the Caravan. You can always use both, freeware and payware, if you have repaints for them just link them in your site. If you don't require VA specific repaints then they should be able to use the freeware or payware just fine. Then you won't be requiring/forcing people to purchase the payware.

I also like the of semi bush flying. This is just an idea, but it would be cool to see a VA in Orbx NZ North Island areas. Again, you wouldn't have to require the scenery as they could use the default but it would be cool to do some bush flying in the Carenado Caravan down there, it does look nice.

Like others have said, if you don't have the know how to do it all make sure you have a good staff, good web-person and understand being in charge of the VA means less flying at times. I have my own VA, I have excellent help, I'm smaller so I don't have the issues the larger 100+ pilot rosters do.

Main thing is have fun, it's a great hobby.

Good luck and happy flying!