EDITORIAL Meet the
Editorial Team Magazine Team Manager
Fares Belkhiria 384422
@FaresBelkhiria Magazine Team Advisor
Robert Pepio 404098
@_rpm25 Public Relations Director
Stephen Howarth 301511
@Captain5quirrel
Magazine Team Advisor
Henk Wolsink 164835
#HenkWolsink Public Relations A. Director
John Swaney 449737
@JohnSwaney
Publisher: International Virtual Aviation Organization (IVAO) VZW Layout and Design: Fares Belkhiria (384422) Front Cover Design: Robert Pepio (404098) Front Cover Picture: Stanislas Chareyre (450012) Contact: pr@ivao.aero
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Disclaimer: Any information or illustrations published in this Magazine are exclusively for use with flight simulator. The views or opinions expressed in this Magazine do not necessarily reflect views of the IVAO or copyright owners. Copyright: Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in any form without prior permission from the publisher.
Editor’s Note
This would be the second and last editorial I write for the Virtual Sky magazine. It is with great sadness that I have finally decided that the time has come for me to bid farewell, and consider my missions complete in this wonderful project. Along with Robert, John, Stephen and Henk, I reckon we have succeeded in taking the Magazine to a new level, and put it on a track that makes it able to be promoted not only internally, but why not, outside the IVAO Community. It was an honour and an absolute joy to be in the Team for a whole year, and deliver an online Magazine whose pages are flipped through by readers from a 25,000-member worldwide Network. In the end, I would like to thank John and Stephen for every single drop of trust they put in me, thank Robert and Henk for having been with me throughout this fantastic journey, and as always, thank you, our reader, for supporting the Magazine, in its 19th issue. The best is yet to come. Happy Flying!
Fares Belkhiria
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CONTENTS VIRTUAL SKY MAGAZINE 4 AVIATION PROFESSIONALS We have reached out to real-life pilots and student pilots who happily accepted to write about their experiences as pilots, as students, and as IVAO members.
20 Greece ANNUAL Meetings
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As a yearly tradition, IVAO Greece Divison members organise real-life meetings at a local airport, and have shared the best of their pictures with us. Thanks to Antony Manalis for taking the photos and writing the article for us.
34 Algeria lan-party IVAO Algeria staff members has also shown a perfect exemple of possible cooperation between IVAO and educational instituions. Read the full story on our 34th page, brought to you by Nassim.
27 Yes! You will need pop-corn
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Fan of aviation and wondering what movies to watch? Our loyal readers on the Forum, along with the editorial team has prepared for you a list of 8 not-to-miss aviation movies.
22 Demistifying ivao special ops Our colomnist Fabian De Jong, IVAO’s Special Operations A. Director will guide you through an exciting military journey onboard IVAO’s ARAIG slogan.
28 review: aerosoft kilimanjaro scenery 2015 SPONSORED BY
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IVAO is the unique network which provides highly realistic aviation environment with well trained friendly users. Also, it is an indispensable opportunity for aviation enthusiasts.
-Berk Bingol, Turkish Boeing 777 Pilot.
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Designed by Freepik.com
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I joined IVAO very young, at the age of 14. I always knew I wanted to be a pilot, and I started to do things “as real as it gets” right from the beginning… -Giorgio La Pira Ros
Emirates A380 Pilot
The Interview In an attempt to compare the IVAO Network environment with real-life aviation, we have contacted people who, next to enjoying aviation as a hobby as active IVAO members, they do it for living. They have happily agreed to answer some of our questions. First, a brief introduction about myself; My name is Giorgio La Pira, I currently am the Director of the UAE Division, also a GA and BoG member. In real life, I’m flying the A380 in the Middle East, and I previously worked for another two airlines, easyJet and WindJet (both operating the A320). I currently have close to 7000h of flight time, and I still am a Type Rating Instructor and Examiner on the A320 series. Q. Why did you join IVAO ? Did you find anything in the network that you couldn’t find in real aviation ?
A. I joined IVAO very young, at the age of 14. I always knew I wanted to be a pilot, and I started to do things “as real as it gets” right from the beginning… I though that being able to interact with other people and practice my phraseology, as well as using a real life weather simulation model would be of benefit for my future career, and help me as a practice and a starting ground. It actually did… and thanks to what I learnt in IVAO, and what I was taught by some of our colleagues in the network, I literally sailed thought the ATPL course, and finished all my licences by the time I was 19. I now feel like I have to give something back to the community, after all I took form it when I was a teenager with a dream, and this is one of the reasons why I still am so active in the network. Virtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2
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Q. How do you manage to divide your time between A380 LH Flying, A320 Instructing, Staff duties, and Q. How close is the network to the simulation activities on IVAO? real life? If an ATCo has high ratings in IVAO, does that mean s/he A. Let’s say that flying the LongHaul will be able to actually do real ATC gives me a fair amount of free time, work? if not (which is surely the both at home and on a layover, escase), what do you think are the pecially when Jet-Lag kicks in and you challenges s/he’ll be facing? find yourself awake at 3am in the morning. A. Well there are no doubts that you Having said that, it’s not easy, as you learn a lot in IVAO, and having high have to be careful not to cross the ratings mean that you actually have a thin line that saturates you and then fair amount of knowledge. The main doesn’t allow you to enjoy aviation issue, is that modern aviation is in as a “hobby” and not only as a progood part based on what we call CRM fession. I have reduced significantly (Crew Resources Management), or in the amount of Training I do for now, a nutshell, the “how to work with othand I am concentrating in real life flyers as a team”; ing, career progression in my current In Flight Simulation (wether it is ATC company as well as in the many exor Pilots), and due to the current tech- citing projects that we have started in nical software limitations, we tend to the Middle East region in IVAO, spedo everything on our own… in real cifically in my division, the U.A.E. life a good part of the work is actually Having said that, the excitement of coordinating with your colleagues. I completing this projects and brining think that IVAO gives any user a very the division to a new level make me solid base, and I am pretty sure that want to get more and more involved a virtual Pilot or ATC would be able to with our community… and keeps me do a pretty good job on a real life en- going despite having being around vironment, provided that everything here for almost 15 years, 10 of which is normal and nothing goes wrong. as an active staff member.
The Interview
When things go wrong is when your experience and soft skills come up, and drive you towards a positive and safe outcome.
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The BOG and the GA work is also extremely motivating, and I love being part of the decision making process that will determine the future of our community.
The Interview
Q. What are your efforts, as an NPO Governor and a Staff member, to shorten the gap between real and virtual? enthusiasts a lot of things are “nice to know” but not “need to know”… everyA. IVAO welcomes all kind of users one enjoys this hobby differently… that share our common passion, aviation. We have to be very careful and Q. What are your suggestions to offer our most advanced members IVAO to make it closer to reality? the possibility of simulating an ATC session or a flight in the most realistic A. I think we should all work towards way… but we also need to understand a more collaborative environment, that some people aren’t as keen or where we learn to interact with coldon’t yet have the knowledge to do leagues and share the workload. things “as real as it gets”. We, as real From a pilots perspective, there are life aviation industry professionals, more and more options to do that but as also enthusiast of Flight Simu- with the “shared cockpit” technololation, try to give some of our mem- gies that are already available with bers access to the experiences and/or some add-ons. I have also had the the knowledge that we have, so they opportunity to attend a few Division can apply it in their simulation ses- Meetings, and I was very impressed sions. For example, I answer a lot of to see how well organised all the ATC questions from people regarding how Sectors were, just like in real life, talkto operate certain things on the air- ing to each other from one desk to craft, or things about RT, flying tech- the other. More of these events can niques, etc. only be beneficial, besides the fact that they are a lot of fun! So I think I have also collaborated in several that this is a good starting point, and training projects at a divisional level, we are all very well aware of it from a that have helped people to see how BOG/GA/PR point of view. we do things in real life for simulator
Having said that, the only advice that I am in a position to give is, to keep enjoying our great community in the way that actually suits you, wether is just as a hobby, or wether you are using it as a place to start learning with the goal of eventually making of aviation your way of living. I am probably one of the many proofs that IVAO is a great tool for that. Keep the IVAO Spirit up!
Berk Bingol
Turkish Airways Boeing 777 Pilot
Q. Berk, why did you join IVAO ? I joined IVAO many years ago to discover secrets behind the cockpit door. Usually, people don’t know the things happening in the flight deck. It is absolutely attractive and looks like mysterious. IVAO is the unique network which provides highly realistic aviation environment with well trained friendly users. Also, it is an indispensable opportunity for aviation enthusiasts. 12
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Q. Did you find anything in the network that you couldn’t find in real aviation? Definitely: “friendship, passion and
excitement”.
Q. How close is the network to the real life? Actually, it depends on how you simulate procedures. If you are really serious while flying, it is most same except feeling the air around you. And of course, you have more than a chance.
Real-time weather, ATCs, local rules The Interview and regulations, other traffic, procedures, communication, etc. all you have what we have in real life. Realism may be improved by adopting new softwares with latest funcQ. If a Pilot has high ratings in tions, developing data monitoring IVAO, does that mean s/he will systems such as used by Safety be able to actually do real ATC Management System, creating efwork? fective and interactive training maUnfortunately, it does not mean terials other than documents such that you can do real work but the as computer based training (CBT), experience in IVAO definitely im- videos and presentations. On the proves your situational awareness other hand, we know that it is not and familiarity to real life opera- easy and takes a long time and retions. Probably, such people who quires efforts. had this experience would be one In my opinion, the most important step forward. thing about realism is non-stop serIn real life operations, you will have vice. I am looking for full ATC service more responsibilities and of course while flying. As a IVAO family, all we there will be facts, your time will should focus on this issue and try be limited. You need to take cor- to do our best. rect decisions and share with your colleagues. You should think about risks and threats and act in a safe manner. You will stay under pressure and have more stress while flying around thun-
derstorms, making a low visibility approach and landing. You must manage every input and be aware what’s happening around you. All Finally, I would like to thank you you need is experience. IVAO Magazine Team for giving this opportunity to me. I wish you a safe Q. What are your suggestion to flight to all and see you in the skies make IVAO closer to reality? of IVAO... Virtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2 13
FEBRUARY 2016 EDITED SCREENSHOT CONTEST WINNER
DECEMBER SCREENSHOT CONTEST - NON-EDIT PICTURE
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Sky
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VOLUME 8 - ISSUE 1
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The Interview
Hi! My name is
Sonny Alblas, I am 19 years old and currently studying for my CPL/(f) ATPL license at CTC Aviation.
At the moment I finished my ATPL ground school and will soon be starting with my flight training in Phoenix, Arizona. Before I started my training as a commercial pilot I was in high school doing the Dutch variant of A-levels. All in all I spent six years in high school, this was also a period I became a more active member on IVAO. Having joined IVAO back in 2009, I was probably one of the youngest members around. The reason I joined was because I became more and more fascinated about the world of Aviation, and I wanted to know more about how everything works in a more operational perspective. Which I did over the course of the years. 16
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When I eventually started my flight training six months ago, I found that there are a lot of similarities, but also a lot of differences between IVAO and real-life. On an integrated course, ground school can be very though because all the knowledge of the 14 ATPL subjects needs to be in your head in 6 month’s time. This means a lot of revision. In a way, thanks to IVAO I found out I knew a little bit of everything, which really helped me save time and enabled me to focus on the stuff I hadn’t seen before.
The Interview In regards to the realism of IVAO as opposed to real life, on IVAO, you can decide how in-depth you want to go. In real-life, you just have to. Another difference is that on IVAO, big mistakes or the general handling of a certain failure, isn’t necessarily that big an issue. In real-life however, you are trained to cope with these situations and are expected to react accordingly. If not, there always is a chance of putting your career on the line. As to the training itself, the theory is mostly done in classes, this means that you come in at 9 in the morning and leave at about 5 in the afternoon, when you get home, you make dinner and the rest of the evening is spent revising what you have covered that day.
This is a huge difference to IVAO, where you can entirely decide on your own what you want to learn or revise. You also have your own tempo in terms of training and doing exams. This is something you don’t have during ground school. All in all, I’m having a great time, these past six months have been though, but thanks to the knowledge I got from IVAO I had already covered a lot before which made ground school just that bit easier. I’m looking forward to starting my flight training next month and seeing what’s going to be different from flying on IVAO.
DECEMBER 2015
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ADAM JAMES - 152218 18 Virtual Sky DECEMBER 2015
FEBRUARY 2016 NON-EDITED SCREENSHOT CONTEST WINNER
DECEMBER 2015
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Annual meeting at Thessaloniki It was back in 2010 when the GR Director at that time Christos Arkouzis proposed that we should also do the same and that was when we organized our first official live meeting. In the end it came out to be a great idea. For the first time we had the opportunity to meet all together in the same place at the same time. The feeling of meeting each other was something that could not be easily described.
It’s a tradition in Greece, the first month of the New Year, organizations, groups, clubs, etc, to arrange live meetings for their members in order to gather all together and exchange thoughts, opinions and ideas about various things. During these meetings, it is also a tradition to “cut” the New Year’s Cake, share a piece with all participants and wish each other a Happy and Prosperous Year to come. 20
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We spent more than six hours together and when the time came to finish this wonderful meeting, everybody felt so sorry for this and we were all trying to find excuses to stay a bit longer. These meetings continued for the next years, till now, with real success and in fact this was the beginning for other live meetings, not only every first month of the year but at least one every two – three months. This year we decided to organize this meeting at Thessaloniki. It finally turned out to be a real success as 30 members came from al
Greece Division
Brought to you by:
Antony Manalis
Greece Training Coordinator VID: 281761
most all over Greece and not only. Chania (Crete), Athens, Kavala, Serres, Germany, the Netherlands and of course Thessaloniki. The meeting took place at a very nice restaurant where the members tasted classical – traditional Greek cuisine and wine. As eating was not the major reason the basic discussion was about what else but Aviation. Members
had the opportunity to talk and be informed about several topics regarding the Organization, the Division and generally about our hobby. It was really a great atmosphere, how couldn’t it be when it has to do with our common love! AVIATION We are all looking forward for our next annual meeting in 2017. Till then keep the community’s spirit. “The Spirit of IVAO” Virtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2
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HQ DEPARTMENTS
An F-35 with TacPack has identifying a civilian aircra
Demistifying Spe ‘As real as it gets’ a much debated sentence within out great network. We strive to simulate aviation as close to reality as technologically and organisationally possible. Where does that end? This heavily depends on everyone’s own interpretation of the above 2 sentences, hence it being a much debated topic. Currently, there’s only one clearly defined source of the limitations to ARAIG: the rules and regula22
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tions. The rest is very much up to people’s imagination. The Special Operations Department does also ask themselves this very question. What does ARAIG mean for Special Operations on the IVAO network? What is technlogically possible? Can this be done within the R&R? Would it be practical? Could it be applied worldwide, or would it only work in certain divisions? These are just few of the huge number of questions we ask ourselves before anything is being implemented/ worked on.
HQ DEPARTMENTS
aft using a combination of TV and Infrared imaging.
ecial Operations By Fabian De Jong - IVAO Special Operations A. Director For years, Special Operations on IVAO consisted of people just flying their non-civilian aircraft from point
execute, allowing people to enjoy the capabilities of their aircraft a lot more than before.
A to point B. The only difference with civilian aviation would be the aircraft itself. Slowly, people started organising Special Operations events, which consisted of doing more than flying from one point to the other. Firefighting missions were being organised, search and rescue missions, intercept or escort missions etc. Just basic events that are very fun and not too difficult to
Firefighting aircraft could finally drop their water onto fires created in the scenery, helicopters could use their winch to save someone from a sinking ship. With the coming of these types of events, people started to catch on to how fun it could be to be able to fly an aircraft to its very limits and the added effect of having to work with other people to achieve a common goal, was also Virtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2 23
HQ DEPARTMENTS also something that is being perceived as a very fun element unique to Special Operations. By far the most favourite type of aircraft for Special Operations would be the fighter jet. Whilst escort and intercept events were quite fun and challenging for a while, eventually these types of events became a routine and with it, the challenge dissappeared. Fighter jets are built for so much more than taking off, intercepting an aircraft and landing. At the same time the Special Operations community grew even bigger. The combination of these two factors meant the call for more advanced and more challenging events became louder and louder. This call was answered by introducing ‘Category B exercises’. These types of events consist of exercises that are more focussed on ‘combative operations. That’s where the real challenge lies. Combative operations do not entail engaging in a war on the network or being agressive towards others. Though employing weaponry might be part of such operations, this will never be the end goal of such an exercise, nor will it be done or tolerated in an 24
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agressive manor. ‘Combative operations’ entail maneuvring your aircraft in a high threat environment, demanding precision navigation, difficult maneuvring, testing your skills against others, learning to explore the limitations of your aircraft, maneuvring your aircraft in the right position, following difficult procedures etc. At the same time, you heavily depend on your wingmen, you need to work together closely with other people to succesfully complete the mission, you require specialised ATC who will not only guide you through an airspace, but also provide you with the tools and necessary information to complete your mission etc. The main goal of such missions is to closely work with other people to complete the mission, to challenge yourself to continue learning new things and to be a better pilot/ATC. These types of missions are executed in a friendly atmosphere with a great team spirit. Any agression towards others won’t ever be part of this, nor will it ever be tolerated. Agression is something defined by people’s attitude and intentions, not by engaging in more complicat-
HQ DEPARTMENTS ed, more combative based events. With the introduction of Category B exercises, IVAO offers something that’s unique in the flight simulation industry. There are more flightsim communities out there that are primarily focussed on combative operations or that have combative operations as a possibility for their network. Flightsims like DCS or Falcon BMS, but also communities like i.e. VATSIM spring to mind. None of those communities can offer what IVAO offers: performing (amongst others) combative operations on a global scale, under full guidance of ATC and the possibility of using Control and Reporting Centres (CRC) or AWACS to provide control during those operations. Another thing that enables us to perform more realistic exercises, was the introduction of more advanced addons. VRS came up with their TacPack and F-18 Superbug. The Superbug is a highly advanced aircraft, which is of comparable quality to PMDG’s aircraft. The TacPack is an addon that is compatible with numerous aircraft and it will provide those aircraft with far more advanced avionics, night vi-
sion and the ability to employ ordnance. The introduction of both those VRS products has spiked other developers to develop more aircraft with the same level of quality, all with TacPack compatibilty, i.e. Aerosoft’s F-14, Dino Cattaneo’s F-35, M2M’s Mirage and F-15 etc. All payware, yet aircraft that will help bring a more realistic experience to the Special Operations community as a whole. The Special Operations Department has also been developing a Multifunctional Radar (MRC) gauge. This will be a freeware radar gauge, available to all IVAO members. It will provide every aircraft out there with a realistic Air-to-Air radar. The MRC will have multiple radar modes like Range While Scan (RWS), datalink, identification friend or foe (IFF), Radar Warning Receiver and many more features. It will also include a control screen for the organiser of an event to monitor everything on the MRCs and to add an environment of simulated threats to stay clear from etc. It will provide every user on the network with a sophisticated addon with highly advanced Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground feaVirtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2
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HQ DEPARTMENTS features to further enhance the experience of the Special Operations community during events and in general. This all leads to one of the biggest and most important projects of the Special Operations Department today: the training project. Sufficient training for people who want to fly Special Operations is currently lacking on the IVAO network. Every country/division has its own Special Operations procedures. The civilian community has the training department doing a great job of providing both training/exams and of creating a centralised knowledgebase based on ICAO. We would like to do the same thing for Special Operations. In real life there are multiple treaty organisations creating standard operating procedures for their participating countries. We’d like to do the same on a global scale with the Special Operations Department. We’d like to create a knowledgebase and standardize procedures, so everyone participating in an event knows what it expected of them, or what to expect from others. 26
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To enable the Special Operations community to grow even bigger, we’d also like to start offering training and exams for Special Operations procedures. After completing an exam, the trainee will be awarded with a Special Operations rank, much like with our civilian counterparts. These trainings and exams will be given and organised by the Special Operations Department and will help people to develop their skills, so they can participate in Special Operations event: from the very basic events to the more advanced, complicated ones. This is still very much in development at present and we will provide everyone with a more detailed glance into the project as soon as we have something to present.
The first steps have already been taken, all with one goal in mind: to provide the users on this great network with a fun, challenging and more realistic experience whilst performing Special Operations.
As Real as it Gets!
Edition Inquiry
AVIATION MOVIES Chosen for you by our loyal readers and the editorial team
Top Gun (1986)
IMDb: 6.9/10
Pushing Tin (1999) Pearl Harbour (2001)
R.T: 83%
IMDb: 6/10
IMDb: 6/10
The Aviator (2004)
R.T: 42%
R.T: 67%
IMDb: 7.5/10
R.T:79%
Chevaliers du Ciel (2005) IMDb: 5.7/10 R.T: 59% FlyBoys (2006) Red Tails (2012)
IMDb: 6.6/10
IMDb: 5.9/10
Flight (2012) IMDb: www.imdb.com R.T: www.rottentomatoes.com
R.T: 67%
R.T: 58%
IMDb: 7.3/10
R.T: 75%
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THE REVIEW
AEROSOFT PRODUCT REVIEW:
Kilimanjaro Airport Scenery 2015 Kilimanjaro airport is really a beauty also in flight simulation now: thanks to Aerosoft, we now have a fantastic scenery for this African airport. The scenery is perfectly detailed with awesome textures for the terminal, runway and close areas. The frame rate is really good considering the quantity of objects and their quality. The things that I like most in this scenery are the plants and flowers outside the terminal that are really well designed and textured. Congratulations Aerosoft for this little African gem! Marco Frosio IVAO Events Director VID: 302997 28
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Today I will be taking a look at Kilimanjaro Airport (HTKJ) 2015 scenery from Aerosoft Situated in Northern Tanzania, about 25nm from the mountain which gives it its name, this small airport services not only the tens of thousands of visitors to the regions national parks each year, but provides a convenient stop for many international flights. Although a physically small airport it has the feel of a bustling busy little place that can cater for some surprisingly large aircraft such as the Boeing 747. What is pleasing to see with the scenery is the thought that has been put into creating more than simply terminal buildings and a tower. The added detail of fuel tanks, car parks, the fire station and hangers all add to the feeling that what has been created here is a reflection of the environment of the airport.
Comparing this scenery with the stock FSX scenery is simple. My default HTKJ airport is literally three woefully inadequate blocks, sorry I mean buildings, and a few oil stains. It also bears no resemblance to the actual airport or portrays anything other than a random airstrip situated in a barren wasteland. Not so with Aerosoft’s offering! Although the default land classes in FSX remain dominant in this area, leading to the airport resembling a small oasis in a large savannah, the supplied mountain models and detailed buildings invite you to explore and enjoy the area.
The airport buildings are nicely detailed, especially the tower, and the use of trees, plants and grasses are put to great effect throughout. Thick grasses out on the apron sides and colourful plants adorn the terminal building. Lush greenery and thick grasses are heavily featured here and the inclusion of models for Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro really help to place the airport within its suitably impressive surroundings.
The textures are also very good with some nice details on the runway and aprons where small cracks and worn paint markings add to the realism of a small aerodrome.
Aerosoft have gone to great length to make this airport feel alive and the many moving trucks and animated guys tending to their GA aircraft work well, however as I always fly online with IVAO I would have liked the option to remove these GA aircraft to make way for other online traffic. Performance was excellent but I would have expected that from a small airport. No noticeable frame rate drop during daylight hours and the night time textures and lighting made for a welcome experience at any time of the day. In summary then, FSX lets us down in many ways with poor default land classes and flat runways, but Aerosoft has done a fine job of creating something special here. This feels like an airport that has been lovingly crafted to portray a small tourist destination. Whether you visit this airport regularly enough to purchase the scenery is for you to decide, but if Kilimanjaro Airport is a destination on a tour or a base of operation then this scenery will delight and entertain. Stephen Howarth (305511)
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THE REVIEW
Though I’m mostly someone who
likes to fly Special Operations, I do enjoy the occasional scenic flight to just enjoy some great scenery. Usually this means flying to/from some greatly details addons from developers like Aerosoft, Flytampa and Orbx. Aerosoft Kilimanjaro Airport 2015 can certainly be added to the list of beautiful realistic and detailed addons. Definitely one to recommend if you’d like to pick a destination to enjoy a really great scenery.
When jumping into my aircraft to take off from Kilimanjaro Airport, the first thing to attract my attention are the very detailed and razorsharp ground textures. The gravel on the ground looks amazing and you can literally count the tiny stones in the gravel. The edges of the runway are also a bit crumbled and it contains a bunch of cracks. This definitely gives me the impression of being very realistic. It is as if I’m standing on the tarmac itself. The buildings on the airport and all the airport’s vehicles are also high-
ly detailed and realistic. The square buildings and square vehicles with all the sharp corners and edges are something of a distant past. No more square wheels or square tanker trucks. Everything is nice and smooth, all giving you the impression you’re on the actual airports instead of sitting behind your computer. The addon also includes detailed models of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, with custom textures and mesh. This makes for a very realistic scene of Mount Kilimanjaro. Unfortunately I have never had the pleasure in real life to visit Mount Kilimanjaro, but the pictures on google offer a breathtaking sight and beautifully mysterious atmosphere. Aerosoft’s Kilimanjaro Airport offers that same breathtaking sight and msyterious atmosphere. With my time of day set to dawn, a bit of a thunderstorm courtesy of Active Sky Next, Mount Kilimanjaro looks breathtaking.
THE REVIEW Compare any real life picture of the mountain with your FSX or P3D and you can hardly tell the difference.
flattened. I believe a little bit more detailed mesh of the peak might have made it absolutely perfect.
Apart from this beautifully made scenery, is there something left to improve? Yes, I do believe there is!
All in all I think this is a beatifully made scenery.
Fabian de Jong
Special Operations A. Director
VID: 406776
Though it’s having to be knitpicky to find something to complain about, there are some very minor things that I believe could use a bit of improvement. The runway lighting is not very visible until about 1,5 nm from the runway. I’m not sure if this is an exact representation of real life (which could very well be), but I would expect the lighting to be more clearly visible and a bit bigger. The top mesh of Mount Kilimanjaro looks a little bit
Definitely on par with any of the other top level sceneries out there. With ~€18 it doesn’t come cheap, but it is definitely worth every penny! The price is comparable to any other top level scenery available today. This scenery is definitely one to buy if you enjoy a beautiful scenic flight with a greatly detailed departure/arrival airport! Virtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2
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JAVIER GARCIA- 464162
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JANUARY 2016 EDITED SCREENSHOT CONTEST WINNER
DECEMBER 2015
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ALGERIA LAN PARTY
Written by : Nassim Redha Benkritly Algeria PR Coordinator VID: 408736
Algeria is the largest country in Africa with its amazing coasts, mountains and Sahara, gathers more than 980members between ATC and pilots in its IVAO active division. On the 05th of March 2016, IVAO Algeria in collaboration with the ETIC club organized the 8th edition of their LAN Party at the Computer Science National High School (Ecole nationale supérieure d’informatique ESI). 34 Virtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2
The LAN party was a great opportunity for IVAO Algeria members to meet each other.
“This event was highlighted by the attendance of aviation professionals (real pilots and real ATC)”
This was followed by demonstrations of ATC and Flight simulators that attracted the curiosity ofto the attending public and students. Thereafter, ATC and simulation in real-time flights were made to show the aim of IVAO.
This was an opportunity to give an introduction and a mini conference on aviation simulation and the role that it plays for our future pilots and ATC, but also a real show for the enrollment of new members.
Algeria Division In addition, the LAN party was not only an IVAO event, it was also a great opportunity for the hundreds of participants, active members, observers and students to meet each other and share their knowledge. The youthful members in IVAO Algeria division were accompanied by their parents who were surprised by the exceptional professionalism and work made by the event staff in matters of welcoming and communication as it was an opportunity for meeting but also for fun. At the end of the show, a thank you and encouragement message were made to the attendance, and a remembrance photo was taken with IVAO Algeria members, the members of the ETIC Club, the students of the ESI and the public visitors present at that time.
Virtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2
DECEMBER SCREENSHOT CONTEST - EDIT PICTURE
Sky DECEMBER VOLUME 82015 - ISSUE 1 ADAM PATUS - 341199 36 Virtual
MARCH 2016 EDITED SCREENSHOT CONTEST WINNER
David Herrera Lopez 341225
Virtual Sky 37
VA HANGAR
Virtual Pilots Association (VPA) is exactly what the name suggests. It is an association of virtual pilots. However as an association it is not virtual one, it is very real. The First Experience: Most people were attracted to Virtual Pilots Association at one or another stage of their virtual careers because they felt dissatisfied with their virtual airline they belonged to at the moment. Or, at the very least, they were searching for something new and fresh that 38
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would reboot their interest in simulated flight. They were looking for company that would offer support, challenge, goals and all the preliminaries of virtual airlines yet offering more relaxed atmosphere and considerable freedom of choice regarding the type of flight and the aircraft in use. In fact, it was from this dissatisfaction that VPA was born over 10 years ago. The young web site developer and dedicated flight simmer, Yann Gascard, was already a member of a VA and of Flying Ti-
VA HANGAR Tigers Group. He contributed greatly to both organisations, but he had much more ideas in his head that he was able to bring into being within the strict borders of virtual airline. Thus he had to move forward. Virtual Pilots Association is not a virtual airline. It is a gathering of simmers who can fly whatever they want on any route they fancy and get full credit for that flight. Thus our motto – ‘Free Your Wings’ – although may seem to be just an advert punch line, is nevertheless perfectly true. Except for initial theoretical exam no other exam is mandatory and there are no checkrides of any kind whatsoever. Thus, you may fly A380 from Day1 if you like. Or C152 for that matter. Or any helicopter, glider, hang-glider, jet fighter... The freedom of selection was wittingly put thus by one of our Managers: You can jump out of the roof waving your hands and still file the report for flying from ZZZZ to ZZZZ with ZZZZ as an aircraft. True. It is up to you if you find that flight worthy your precious logbook. Because your logbook belongs to you and to no other. This freedom, however, attracts not newbie but rather seasoned hardcore flight simmers. The Pilots, who know how to fly online and offline,
how to handle aircraft they fly and just want greater control of their virtual careers. Thus, we decided to give them full rule over the realism level they strive for. Not at all a VA There are consequences of VPA not being a VA. First, we do not have schedules, nor we dispatch any flights. All decisions, from route and aircraft selection to the flight planning, are made by our Pilots. However, we offer a lot of help and tools to assist with the process. There are links to route finders, and there is built-in flight briefing system that gathers in one place the information of routes flown by other VPA Pilots, flight levels, weather, airport information and so on. We welcome every Pilot and will not require to drop his or her membership in any other virtual aviation organisation. But we offer more than a typical VA. A Virtual Airline by definition simulates operations of single, be it fictional or real, airline. VPA offers you the opportunity to fly scheduled flights for any real airline and get credit for them. The system will then award you our experience points. Worth noting is our Training Centre Virtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2
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VA HANGAR with many real aviation documents to read and learn from. Did you say ‘System’? VPA has very clever way of tracking every flight you decide to register (no ACARS, just PIREPs that are sent into the system). Every flight is evaluated according to time flown, being online or offline or being airline scheduled flight or GA flight. For every flight you get Wings – the points that reflect your experience. Thus within the same organisation Alaskan bush pilot and airline pilot can climb the ladder and achieve higher ranks (again, this is purely optional!). But there is much more; We have extensive Awards System that reflect various activities and consistency in them. We have Commercial Pilot Awards (separate ones for Short, Medium and Long Haul, as well as Collective bonus for achieving all of them). And we have Regional Awards for flying to a certain number of airports in a particular area of the world. Also we have some special Awards for completing World Tours, for staying in Roster for a long time, for 40
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winning Screenshot Competitions and for special achievements to the VPA. We also have special Awards for online activity. There are many more IVAO awards than VATSIM ones – this reflect purely the difference between both networks and is not in any case unfavourable to the latter. Simply, IVAO offers many challenges from World to Regional Tours and some special ones like Heavy Weather. Once you achieve something on IVAO, you just contact VPA HR Department and you will be awarded with special badge and healthy Wings bonus. The same goes for flying a lot of hours online: you get bonus and badge for them. Online activity is optional but helps a lot to build considerable Wings count. IVAO awards than VATSIM ones – this reflect purely the difference between both networks and is not in any case unfavourable to the latter. Simply, IVAO offers many challenges from World to Regional Tours and some special ones like Heavy Weather. Once you achieve
VA HANGAR something on IVAO, you just contact VPA HR Department and you will be awarded with special badge and healthy Wings bonus. The same goes for flying a lot of hours online: you get bonus and badge for them. Online activity is optional but helps a lot to build considerable Wings count. So You are VA Member and You are Happy With it It is worth to start with VPA even if you are happy with your current VA. Please note, however, that you will not be able to transfer any hours nor experience, no matter how well-documented, from your VA to VPA. All and every Member starts his or her VPA career with 0 hours and 0 Wings. What you will get is the possibility to register all your flights to VPA, as well as those that you fancy fly but cannot report to your native VA – you can have them in VPA logbook, so you have all your flights in order and in one place. But there is much more to it than just a logbook. First of all, every PIREP is checked manually by our Staff. It takes very little time – currently average time
to validation is 14 hours. Modification requests are issued in about 1 of 10 cases and they are for learning purpose. Usually you get more mod requests at the beginning, once you are used to the process, you will be very proficient. Then, there are several built-in statistics that will probably far exceed any statistics provided by your airline. Those are for your eyes only and for your fun. You will see how much flights and hours you have flown last year, month after month, VFR, IFR, GA, Military and Scheduled, night and day. On separate pages you will have your Airline experience, Airport experience, Aircraft experience (currency on the type) and Awards progress. My Status menu on your VPA Homepage consists of six items. Wait a moment, please. You did not yet know the most important thing What we have said above is how VPA is seen by newcomers: first as strangers then as the beginning Pilots. As you are inside the Association, you will soon discover the core of VPA: the Community. We have Virtual Sky | Vol.8 Issue 2
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VA HANGAR made several surveys in the past and the outcome was always the same: what is most important to our Members is to share the experience, to enjoy friendship, to receive support in every matter from flight simulation to real life matters. However sophisticated the VPA System is, it is the Forum that is the core and spin of Virtual Pilots Association. It is here where Virtual becomes real. The support is important feature of Forum. No question remains unanswered and usually there is very little time before your problem is solved. Not only Managers, but all Members actively participate in support in every aviation matter. We have many real pilots and flight dispatchers in our ranks, so the depth of knowledge is truly amazing. Why, the present writer came in as typical virtual airline pilot, and after reading certain topics he spent his first 9 years with VPA flying almost solely the single piston-propelled aircraft low and slow discovering the marvels of our planet. Only recently he read something about a certain add-on and he found himself back in the cockpit of heavy iron. We require very little flying activity
– just a single flight, just a pattern over your local airfield in a Cessna every 60 days. But even if we do not fly, we stay in touch on Forum. The feel of being together is so strong that many of us consider the VPA Membership the very important part of their lives. We follow each other’s joys and sorrows, we see our families grow, we support each other in vital decisions, in overcoming the obstacles that life brings to us. Sometimes the obstacles are so hard to overcome that our Members leave our Roster. It is not uncommon that when they get back on track, the first thing they do is to take entrance exam and become a Member once again. They know that they will start from 0. We are very proud that throughout 10 years of existence we were able to maintain such a strong feel of friendship in such a multicultural environment. We have members from almost every country, age and cultural background. The only obstacle is the language – English is the only one approved. So, if you like to begin your great adventure, if you like to be part of it, please do not hesitate to take entrance exam and Free Your Wings.
Krzysztof Chris Komarnicki VPA227 Communication Manager
The Wall IVAO NUMBERS Active Pilots: 26,118 (g1,239) Students: 22,381 (g1,201) PP: 2,275 (g64) SPP: 784 (g3) CP: 636 (d 4) ,;:! Higher: 61 (d 6)
(last updated 25 April 2016)
Active ATC: 16,784 (g1,043) Students: 14,564 (g1,010) ADC: 1,306 (g33) APC: 495 (d 19) ACC: 349 (d 8) Higher: 34 (d 9)
Senior Staff Vacancies Membership Director / Assistant Director
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Virtual Sky
DECEMBER 2015