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AH2 VA Features discussion

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Slopey View Drop Down
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    Posted: 31 Aug 2015 at 11:45am
This post is reserved for VA Feature discussion as pointed out on the AH Facebook page...

From there:

A big shout out to all Virtual Airline type people - what features would you like to see in AH2 for VAs? I'm doing another pass on the VA functionality at the moment and I'd appreciate your thoughts - things like: Would you like to recruit from an in-AH2 BBS, or would you rather do that on forums and send an invite to another AH2 user? And for Pax flights - do you want to just specify two locations and let your VA members fly between them and get paid for doing so, or do you want to schedule sectors on a weekly calendar with members picking up particular flights?

Comments and discussions below please :)
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tmachado View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tmachado Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Aug 2015 at 7:07pm
Here it goes my opinion:       

Regarding the VA thing I think an in-built system for recruitment should be the best however all the VA I've been had a forum or something like it to introduce ourselves or to clarify any douts about aviation etc. So, if you allow me, in my opinion a system where we could do everythin from the app would be awesome, dunno if it is easy or not to add a forum or smt like that to the program but would make it super convenient for the users I guess.

About the PAX flights, I'd like to have the freedom to choose what flights I want to fly however there could be an option to "bonify" the pilots who pick the flights promoted by the VA or something like that.

And this is my opinion. 

Patiently awaiting,
AH1 user.

hehe Smile
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ChazC View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ChazC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Oct 2015 at 12:39am
Personally, I'd love to see everything for recruitment etc. done in the AH framework - keep everything organised & together, that way you also ensure new pilots you do recruit actually have AH2... Wink

As for pax flights, I agree some sort of 'bonus' for flying to a set VA schedule as tmachado suggests seems like a great way to go, but also allow a A-to-B charter option if programming allows. I know in my old VA some of the pilots would have taken a pink fit if we'd said they HAD to fly to the schedules alone. 
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August78 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote August78 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Oct 2015 at 4:57pm
Since this VA feature is a part of AH2, I think it would be more tidy and stringent if VA's recruited and members applied in the AH2 client. I dont run a VA, and I dont plan to do so in the future, so I wouldn't know if any VA leaders would feel that this would be too limited.  I guess that as long as a VA can define multiple roles for members and thereby could delegate authority to accept new members to several staff members it wouldn't be a problem.

For me it is important that the flights I do feel meaningfull. I should be able to do both scheduled flights and charter flights with passengers and/or cargo from A to B. Perhaps something like FS Economy where airlines build FBO's and you make money by making smart business decisions on where and what to fly concidering the various costs.

I also feel it is important that big jobs are able to be split up and shared among VA members. Like 100.000 kg of industry material are to be moved from A to B, but the available aircraft can only take 10 tons at a time. Instead of not being allowed to do it at all unless your aircraft can carry it all at once, you should be able to split it up between members or fly 10 trips yourself. This underlines the social aspect of a VA and interaction which I like.

There should be a member chat area/lounge within the client that further underlines the social aspect and interaction, strenghtening VA. Could also act as a bullitin board.

Is it possible to setup a "job market" where VA's post needs for ferrying goods etc, and pilots could bid on it? Pilots owning the right equipment for the job would be decisive for getting the job, and also a good incentive to "climb the ladder".

An inflight pilot chat for pilots of a VA, or a global or area chat would also be nice. On second thought I think having more of a global chat would be really nice.

That was just some of my thoughts on the subject after a long day at work. I hope I wasn't rambling too much. I might add a few thoughts later. I'm really looking forward to your product, and hope everything is coming along nicely.
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Slopey View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Slopey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Oct 2015 at 6:32pm
Quote There should be a member chat area/lounge within the client that further underlines the social aspect and interaction, strenghtening VA. Could also act as a bullitin board. 

There will likely be some basic BBS functionality, but no chat - that's far too much complexity to have private rooms for every VA when there are external options widely available.  There may be a global chat (although see later).

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Is it possible to setup a "job market" where VA's post needs for ferrying goods etc, and pilots could bid on it? Pilots owning the right equipment for the job would be decisive for getting the job, and also a good incentive to "climb the ladder". 

Yes, and no.  There are community jobs planned whereby different VAs appear on leaderboards for those jobs, however if there's a job market you run the risk of someone creating a throw away VA, winning the job and then not doing it - any penalties are then pointless as they close the VA down again.

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An inflight pilot chat for pilots of a VA, or a global or area chat would also be nice. On second thought I think having more of a global chat would be really nice.

There's likely to be a chat room, hosted from an external service - there's one in AH1, but hardly anyone used it.
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ChazC View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ChazC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2015 at 12:05am
I used to run a VA & I did flirt with a system for our cargo division which used AH1 and the Excel export functions and an AI fleet to replicate flights flown by our 'real' pilots. The real drawback was the length of time the jobs stayed active in AH & obviously the huge workload of keeping everything up to date. Still, I enjoyed it & am really looking forward to AH2.

I would consider an integrated BBS a must (& if possible facilities to 'tag' jobs in posts to link directly to them on the job board). I see no reason for a dedicated chat facility - most VA's with several pilots should have TS capability already set up & running so having it in AH2 would seem superfluous.

As for a 'global' job board - I certainly would be very wary of using it for all the reasons mentioned. It only takes one person to start messing about to upset the whole system - if I were running a VA which used AH2 with a global job board I would have to consider it's use very carefully before committing to it's use - I'd certainly stick to an 'in-house' board as a preference. I guess it depends on the complexity of integrating it but I would certainly focus on the separate VA specifics first rather than 'global' jobs. I've had too many experiences of two or three  pilots causing problems for the majority (which in the end did cause the closure of two VA's I was involved in managing). Opening that can of worms on a global scale - heh, I don't think so! Dead
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TNguitar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Nov 2015 at 10:05pm
my biggest hope for AH2 would be to beable to play as just one of the pilots.  I don't want to have to fool with jobs, I want to be out flying and get a text message from the office that I have to head here or there, asap, pick up a load and get it here or there.  I want to be saying to myself, "God, it's pouring rain, they can't be serious, it's too dangerous to fly."  I want to just make my salary, the more I fly the more I make. 
I think the developers should make a point of watching the shows "Ice Pilots" and Era Alaska show.  They are actual companies doing what AH does.  I want to nt just pay ilots as the company owner if I lay that option, I need to have a head mechanic, I may need to fly him and tools somewhere to fix one of our broken aircraft at a far away airport somewhere.  I should have to pay my staff, other than the pilots-office workers and ramo hands and mechanics, you ca just put it all under the heading of office and shop staff.  Watching Ice Pilots, it's a constand struggle, they dont ave tons of jobs shoved in their faces and only have to pay pilots.  Buffalo Joe has to scrounge for jobs, he has competition offering lower prices.  Once they had to lose a job because the air unit they were supposed to haul couldn't fit in the plane (C54) 
But for me, I love the thought of just getting up as a pilot, heading ut on a job, getting text messages for new jobs during the day, sometims my plae would break down and I would be stuck, I would be expected t fly in nad weather--I just want to be able to choose beng nly a piilot for the company, not having to worry about accepting jobs and such.  (unless I want to be the owner)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote wright Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Dec 2015 at 7:37pm
Slopey, will we be able to fly courier services in AH2? Thanks
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote briansommers Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jan 2016 at 4:42pm
I'm assuming with the VA option we won't be limited to the program picking the destinations like it does now in AH 1, correct?

We'll be able to put a whole schedule in ourselves?

Also, I want to be able to do charter flying (FAR135) vs Scheduled ops (FAR 121) - will AH2 handle that?

If I'm doing a charter flight I want to be able to set my hourly rate per aircraft. Now, I know the first thing you will say is, what is to stop someone from setting it high? You would have to put a cap on it per plane. For example a charter flight in a C172 is about $250-300 per hour. So set the range from $125-$500 or so. If I set the price lower I would get more customers but not make as much per hour of flight, if I set the price on the high end, I wouldn't have many customers but when I do, I'd make a lot more.

It would be nice to be able to advertise. the more I advertise the larger the CHANCE I'd have in gaining more customers.
Ciao!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Slopey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Feb 2016 at 11:24am
You'll be able to create pax schedules yourself, and you may well be able to create cargo "routes" yourself - i.e., I'm going to fly between A and B - does anyone have any cargo they want to go from A to B.

What you won't be able to do (at least for now) is to specify the fees for those flights - AH will provide cargoes for you to take, and you'll be paid accordingly.  Otherwise, you'd get people min/maxing the system to charge ludicrous fees.

While that might not be a problem in terms of a single VA, there is going to be a competitive aspect to VAs within AH - there's a worldwide job board for example, and there will be competition to fly those jobs between VAs.  It's also technically annoying to have to set a cap within AH itself - the ONLY reliable piece of data in an aircraft.cfg is the MTOW usually, and that's not a great yardstick for setting limits - look at STOL aircraft as an example.  I get loads of stick about those sorts of things and I won't be putting myself in a position where I'd get even more!

So you'll be able to schedule a flight from A to B, but AH would determine if there's cargo you could put on it most likely.  The same is true of pax flights where AH will determine ticket sales between two locations - those depend on the locations, the time and date of the flight itself, and ticket prices.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote JacobAlbertsma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jul 2016 at 11:14pm
I personally believe that because a lot of the virtual airlines that will be joining you guys will be already established. You will want to be able to get all of the pilots that are already on there to have access to it. I think you should have a subscription service for Virtual Airlines. Eg $5 per month. This would give access to all of the pilots in the virtual airline. Because we cant expect everyone that joins the virtual airline to pay $38.00 to get AH2. This system looks really good and could potentially be for virtual airlines an alternative acars system to ones like Smartcars. If this was implemented into a alternative acars system as well as the multiplayer mode it will be far better than applications like Smartcars.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bartul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Oct 2017 at 9:44am
Hi there and first thanks for the great addon!
I'm quite new at this and don't know if it's been suggested already, but I'd like to see my flown flight routes drawn on the map.  It'd be great to see world map all criss-crossed with my flights.
Anyway, thanks in advance

Bartul
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