Airline Operating Procedures

 Last Updated 30/01/2010 11:34  

The Aim of Britannic Virtual Airline is to be an Educational Virtual Airline. This is so ordinary people can appreciate the world of Airline Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers. It is also to give people a brief understanding of Airline Operations. Our aim is also to give tips and guidance to the many Computer Flight Simulation Enthusiasts around the world that would like to fly and learn about Airline Flying.

We achieve this at this Virtual Airline by simulating flying Holiday Charter Airline Flights from Regional Airports in the United Kingdom ,Eire ,Germany and Sweden and Holland  to Holiday Resort Airports mainly in Europe . Bordering Rovaneimi in Lapland (December only)  through  Moscow, Bulgaria ,Turkey Cyprus Egypt, Tunisia , Morocco and the Canary Islands, Madeira, Ireland  and Norway.  This is a similar operation to  what  the real world airlines such as TUI , Thomas Cook ,Monarch and Thomsonfly operate. In addition some long haul destinations are chosen such as Indian Ocean , Bermuda, Jamaica ,Cuba , Mexico, USA and Canada. Also the Caribbean has a nice selection with Grand Cayman St Maartin Dominican Republic for you to attempt.

A destination guide to operating to these destinations can be found elsewhere on the website. 

You may choose you own  Holiday Resort  Airport as our guide is not set in stone.

You can choose which of the Regional Airports in the  United Kingdom ,Eire ,Germany, The Netherlands or Sweden  you want to start from. 

All Airports must have adequate runway lengths for the aircraft you operate plus emergency services fueling and customs facilities if operating to countries not in the EU and of course the airport must be able to handle this type of aircraft.  Regional Airports in the  United Kingdom ,Eire ,Germany and Sweden are also known as Homebase Airports 

Please note that most of the Mediterranean resorts close from 1st Nov to 1st May in this case flights cease but ski flights start on the 1st December until 30 March each year. (So do look out for the ski resorts they are quite a challenge often in mountain valleys with fog and snow.)

Aircraft Types

You can choose which type of aircraft you wish to use. Most charter airlines use Airbus A320,A330s or Boeing 737,757.767s.  In Microsoft Flight simulator versions  there are many good add on aircraft you can purchase. Our pilots have voted the  the Level D Boeing 767 as the best add on aircraft.  Indeed our flight school has a course on this to help you get more professional with it. You can use the Microsoft default aircraft. Our airline liveries are on the Avsim website linked from our Aircraft Page on this website. 

Departure Times

Having chosen your departure and destination airports and type of aircraft you now choose a departure time. On long flights over 3 hours you may like to make an intermediate stop on route around the halfway mark. For example Gatwick to Tenerife you could stop at Faro in Portugal. See the intermediate stops page for more details. Charter Airlines do not fly to the same resort every day like scheduled airlines do. However the departure times will be more or less the same time at homebase airports each day only the destination changes each day.

Our Departure Off Block Times from our Homebase Regional Airports to the Europe resorts are in  Local  time below just choose one for each flight 

It is suggested you do a three shift system so pick a morning departure then on return back at your home base next pick an afternoon departure on the next flight then on return back the next homebase departure should be a night flight. This will keep you competent at flying at all different light effects. The exception being long haul which have to depart to comply with the Atlantic crossing times shown below in the Flying the Atlantic Section.

Intermediate Stops and Departure Times

Depart 1 hour after parking at the arrial gate.

On arrival at the resort or intermediate stop you can either save the flight and fly the return leg another day or depart back one hour later. 

 Flying Over the Atlantic  

For flying the Atlantic Westbound from Europe  flights in the Oceanic Airspace are normally entering the airspace  between 1130 and 1930 UTC at the Entry points just West of Ireland.  Eastbound flights from USA and Canada to Europe enter the Oceanic Airspace  from 0100 - 0800 UTC time Eastbound at the entry points East of USA and Canada. 

So in other words you have to work out your flight time to arrive at the entry points no earlier or no later of the times stated above. More on the Atlantic operating procedures can be found elsewhere on the website as this airspace is unique.

 Departures to the Far East 

Flights to  the Middle East , India or Indian Ocean and Thailand will leave European Homebase Airports between 1800 and 2330 hours. These will operate from London Heathrow Amsterdam Frankfurt or Stockholm Arlanda Only 

Recording Flight Time

Your flight time starts when you release the brakes to push back at the departure airfield until you park on the gate at the destination. Use your watch not the flight simulator time for this flight then send your flight times in using the form on the website. Accelerated time does not count.

 For example You fly Gatwick to Miami using accelerated time the computer flight time would be about 8 hours but you took off on your watch at 1130 and arrived at 1530. You can only claim 4 hours.. We work in blocks of 15 minutes so if your flight was 2 hours 35 mins you would claim 2.75 hours when you sent the flight report in. see the table below for how to work the hours and decimal part out. Please do not send flight reports in in hours and minutes as this confuses our system. use decimal for parts of the hour as below.

To remain a member of this Virtual Airline you must submit one flight report per month or ask for leave otherwise your membership will be terminated.

If your Rostered Flight Hours are wrong please contact Fred and advise what they should be

Flights on VATSIM

Many of our pilots fly on VATSIM. You do not need our permission to join fly ins outside of our area of operations they can be classed as a special event. Please use your pilot number on these flights using the code BCA. Your hours will count just place VATSIM  Event in the remarks column of  your flight report.

  It is not compulsory that you have to fly on VATSIM to be a member of this Virtual Airline

Multiplayer Flights

Normally we operate multiplayer flights on the last Sunday of the month. This is where we all get together and fly around Europe. Please watch the multiplayer news page for details. Use your BVA pilot number and first name when connecting. The Teamspeak program is also used for speaking please learn  how to use this. The forum gives details how to connect.

  It is not compulsory that you have to fly multiplayer flights to be a member of this Virtual Airline. 

Beginners are welcome its more a fun thing. There are no strict procedures except when we are taking off or landing and proper ATC  is needed.

Forum

We have a help and chat forum please register with your pilot number and first name new pilots have PUT and number until they complete 20 hours 

register as either PUT** Geoff  or BVA** Geoff   no other format is  permitted

You must sign in once a month even if you do not post a message or your forum membership may be terminated.

Leave of Absence

You must contact us by sending a flight report in at least once a month normally or your membership will be terminated. We accept that from time to time people cannot fly. Please drop the Chief Pilot an email if you need leave and give an indication when you are going to return. Persons failing to comply with this courtesy request will have membership terminated and all hours are lost. We can only allow up to six months leave at a time after that your pilot number maybe reissued. This is done to prevent vast gaps in numbers on the rosters which makes the roster look untidy. You may still be able to rejoin but you will be given a new pilot number if your number has been reallocated. You will keep these hours you have flown in this case.

Real World Procedures and our Flight School

We try and fly as close as possible to real world procedures. Our flight school will teach these to you. This applies to flight planning using correct routes which we accept a beginner may not know and gradually they can learn. Air Traffic Control Radio and other procedures. Bad weather procedures, ETOPS procedure and North Atlantic Procedures. Altimeter setting procedures, and the law that pilots need to know. Most modern aircraft now are glass cockpits with many gadgets to help the pilot we give a few tips on how to become a professional.

Our Website and Grievance Procedures and how our Management works

Basically Fred is the webmaster and sorts out the operating procedures, flight reports and day to day running  Alf assists  and runs the VA in Freds absence,  Alf is the Multiplayer Training Officer and sets up all the fly in equipment and can give new pilots individual training .and Simon Roberts is our Fleet Manager that paints our aircraft.

Occasionally we have to take emergency action and change policy or cover events without consulting our pilots sometimes our pilots can get upset about something and if this is the case please contact Fred or Alf and let them know and we will try and explain it to you and if we can put it right. We do not want any ill feeling here. We do try to consult pilots before hand if this is possible. Sometimes we do not see all the picture and your feedback is always welcome. We are all a team here of which all of you are members.

Newsletters

Do please read our newsletters we try to do them weekly published on Fridays  they are linked from the Crew Centre.