New Website Features Planned

[nwadc10]

"It's been a while since updating everyone with new website information so I've got several items this time. These features are planned to be completed when the new website opens for business and our operation is moved. New Features: 1. Fleet tracking. Aircraft will be assigned to each flight, Polar and Atlas. Only real world PAC/GTI aircraft will be used and kept up to date. We are also exploring the idea of providing a livery to closely match the real world counterpart of each aircraft. 2. Aircraft Maintenance. The Master Minimum Equipment List for both fleets has already been uploaded to the new website. Your aircraft may be dispatched with some items inoperative. Routine maintenance will be tracked such as C and D checks and the aircraft will be removed from service during that time. Statistics will be monitored on each aircraft such as last maintenance, time before next maintenance, fuel used, cargo hauled, present location, flight hours, cycles, etc. 3. Elimination of the region system. EME, NSA, and AA regions will no longer exist. The real airline has only one domicile which is JFK. All pilots will be bidding from the same schedule. To put the pilots into manageable groups, all of the current administrator will remain in place and each pilot will be assigned to an administrator and his assistant just like it is today but with no reference to regions. 4. Schedule. The real airline operates scheduled flights for Emirates and Qantas. These flights will be available to bid on during the Polar (scheduled) bid cycle. The route schedule will contain 100% real flights with no extra or "fake" flights to make enough for everyone to bid on. The schedule will also be updated on a more regular schedule. The schedule will be undergoing an intermediate change prior to the next bid period on our current website. The first bid on the new website will be more accurate. 5. Bidding. There will essentially be 2 separate bid processes. One process will be for captains and the other for first officers. Both processes will be exactly the same and contain the same flights for bidding. The end result is that there may be 2 pilots on the same flight, 1 captain and 1 first officer, creating a virtual crew. Each pilot will fly their own flight which means the virtual crew is on paper only. Some of these features are changes from current products/features while others such as maintenance and fleet tracking are completely new features. This is just a small portion of what will change or be a new addition to the airline. In light of the many FSACARS issues changing to an FSFK only VA has become more appealing. However, because FSFK is payware we won't make it required without getting the opinions of the pilots. At this point, this is nothing more than seeing if there's interest in using only FSFK for pireps. The advantages to FSFK are numerous including much better stability and easier setup along with continued and active support. The disadvantage is that it's payware though pilots are provided with a discount that roughly cuts the price in half. Please share your opinion by answering the poll question above. If anyone has questions feel free to email me or post in the forum. Justin [Edit: Moved to General forum so that everyone can vote - TH 20060912]"

[cyoo eddie]

":D wow, I am really impressed with the new things coming out in this airline. Looking good ... ed mosier 1287"

[Greg Goodavish]

"Actually, since I removed the mail info on my .ini file for FSAcars, I have not had any problems with it at all. Very stable. "

[Marcano]

What about the FSlog? From the creator of FSacars. It's a freeware aswell.

[hawkeyeted]

"

What about the FSlog? From the creator of FSacars. It's a freeware aswell.

Jose, There was discussion on this already. FSLOG uses a Windows server and the GCI server is UNIX (Tom, correct me if I'm wrong with this). We can't use FSLOG because of this."

[nwadc10]

"

What about the FSlog? From the creator of FSacars. It's a freeware aswell.

Jose, There was discussion on this already. FSLOG uses a Windows server and the GCI server is UNIX (Tom, correct me if I'm wrong with this). We can't use FSLOG because of this.

That is exactly correct. We were really hoping to use FSLog but because of the server issue it is not possible. Justin"

[yoni63]

"The thing I like about FSFK is that it has sooooo many more features. I don't really remember FSACARS too much since I quickly changed to FSFK after many problems. I do like FSFK and its ability to zoom in on your destination and pick out your parking slot to enter into the plan prior to launching. Just so many features it is well worth paying a few bucks for. I am a penny pincher and would spend it again just for the relief of many headaches I encountered with FSACARS. But then again, many guys may be having no problems with FSACARS, if so more power to them, whatever works!"

[Marcano]

"

What about the FSlog? From the creator of FSacars. It's a freeware aswell.

Jose, There was discussion on this already. FSLOG uses a Windows server and the GCI server is UNIX (Tom, correct me if I'm wrong with this). We can't use FSLOG because of this.

That is exactly correct. We were really hoping to use FSLog but because of the server issue it is not possible. Justin

I understand..."

[Avwriter]

"The new changes sound very exciting. I do have a couple of questions. 1. Approximatley when is the new website expected to come into effect? Are we talking days, weeks , or months? No pressure, I'm just trying to get an idea when this might come together? 2. If there will no longer be any "fake flights" to insure that there are enough flights to go around, how will this affect the rules for bidding. I.e. what happens to the pilots who get the short end of the stick in a given month? Will they be penalized, or just end up with out a flight? How in general will this be handled. 3. Will there be any changes to the way Atlas Charters work in relation to Polar flights? Or will this stay the same? For instance, perhpas pilots might be able to choose one airline or the other as their primary employer, with the other as secondary. Thus, Atlas piltos would have to fly a certain amount of charters per month, but have the option of flying Polar open board flights, while Polar pilots would have the opposite arrangement. Just a thought. This could perhaps replace the old region system that is being eliminated. 4. This is just a comment. I absolutely love the idea of fleet tracking, and individual liveries for each aircraft! It sound complicated to implement, but it would be a fantastic feature for our members. The Cargolux V.A. has a system a little like that, but it is crude. Sounds like our system s will have a lot more meat on the bone."

[nwadc10]

"

The new changes sound very exciting. I do have a couple of questions. 1. Approximatley when is the new website expected to come into effect? Are we talking days, weeks , or months? No pressure, I'm just trying to get an idea when this might come together? 2. If there will no longer be any "fake flights" to insure that there are enough flights to go around, how will this affect the rules for bidding. I.e. what happens to the pilots who get the short end of the stick in a given month? Will they be penalized, or just end up with out a flight? How in general will this be handled. 3. Will there be any changes to the way Atlas Charters work in relation to Polar flights? Or will this stay the same? For instance, perhpas pilots might be able to choose one airline or the other as their primary employer, with the other as secondary. Thus, Atlas piltos would have to fly a certain amount of charters per month, but have the option of flying Polar open board flights, while Polar pilots would have the opposite arrangement. Just a thought. This could perhaps replace the old region system that is being eliminated. 4. This is just a comment. I absolutely love the idea of fleet tracking, and individual liveries for each aircraft! It sound complicated to implement, but it would be a fantastic feature for our members. The Cargolux V.A. has a system a little like that, but it is crude. Sounds like our system s will have a lot more meat on the bone.

You have some good questions Andrew. 1. I'm not going to be one of those who says it will be ready when it's ready. We are talking about months especially with the new features than need to be programmed. I increased the completion status to 8% but I warn you that the number will always be a guestimate. Right now we are working on all of the fleet related products and we are also begining to update and revamp the Dispatch/Flight Plan generator. Nathan has developed a product that calculates 744F fuel burn perfectly and that will be put into the generator as well as a version for the 742. We hope to also add DP/STAR support and will be adding more dynamic and useful runway related information...you'll see 2. The reason we needed "fake flights" was to make sure there were enough flights for everyone. The flight schedule has changed since then and Atlas has started flying scheduled flights. Those Atlas flights will be in the bidding portion of the VA, in other words treated at a Polar flight. On top of that, Atlas operates scheduled flights for Emirates and Qantas which gives us even more flights to put into the database to be bid on. We have more than enough flights for everyone to bid on with plenty left over. For now, the scheduled Atlas, Emirates, and Qantas flights will be issued as/with a Polar flight number. The reason is that to allow us to enter Atlas, Emirates, and Qantas flight numbers in the entire flight system (bid schedule, pireps, FSFK, FSACARS, etc) requires that we dig into the code. We want to limit the amount of time we spend "upgrading" the current website so that we may focus on the new website. When it comes time to move the bidding files to the new site, Tomas will be able to go through all the code and make the necessary changes. When the new site opens, you will be able to bid on the scheduled Atlas, Emirates, and Qantas flights with their respective flight number beside the scheduled Polar flights (which are few). 3. There will be no change to how you operate an Atlas charter. The only difference is that you will be assigned a tail number to fly it with. 4. We are very excited about the fleet tracking as well. I don't know anything about how Cargolux operates their fleet tracking but we will be focusing on how it's done in the real world as best that we can. Fleet tracking will include maintenance. I hope to have MEL items published in the dispatch release/flight plan when a pilot has it generated. I know that's more information than you asked for Justin"

[Avwriter]

"Thanks Justin, for taking the time to answer my questions (and no it wasn't too much information). Its really exciting to see how this litte society of ours is evolving. Iv'e only been here a few months, but I seem to have arrived at an exciting time. I look forward to seeing what comes next."

[James1979]

"For you guys flying QANTAS flights, this is just a reminder. There is no "U" in QANTAS. Please make a note of it QANTAS stands for Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services, Ltd. You do pronounce the "U" from "Queensland" when you say QANTAS, but you don't print it when you write it."

[Covert53]

"As a relative newcomer to Globe I don't have any historical context to make judgements but these improvements sound good...especially if they mirror the real world Polar/Atlas ops. I had to chuckle at the wordage of one of Justin's points:

Each pilot will fly their own flight which means the virtual crew is on paper only.

That begs the question: Do paper crews use virtual paper? (Bad joke, I know...)"