I have often wondered how Virtual Airlines and the flightsim community got so big. I can remember the days of running FS on my Commodore 64 and thinking it doesn't get much better than this. Today, I can feel as though I am actually in the cockpit and real strangers tell me where to fly if I would like. The flightsim industry has grown from a small tight knit group of guys who just want to fly to fully supportive industry. I remember the first time I flew online was using FS 98. I called a friend in another state and told him he had to get it. He was a student pilot and jumped on FS 98 faster than I thought he would. We both connected up and flew the Cessna around Chicago all the while racking up some serious Internet charges. Those were the days!

Today, Virtual Airlines are the places people go to fly with others. While most people use an online network, its the VA's that make the online flying fun. The fun with VA's lies not ...

The question has been asked a few time about how are we going to keep the VA Directory clean. This is not only a good question but a valid one. The Virtual Airline community is not so much different than the real commercial Airline industry. There are so many pilots available and each pilot wants the best benefits and they also want to feel comfortable and secure in the airline they choose. A good guess would put the average VA life span around 6 months. Why they only last 6 month is another discussion entirely but a short version boils down to time, money, and resources.

So, how do we keep the directory clean?  As new VA's are listed, they are not only added to the directory but to monitoring software that allows us to monitor each VA's website for changes. We look at each VA's VAhangar.com page to make sure it has been changed from the default page when they were listed. At the first of each month, we will scan all listed VA's to ...

Our first week has been a success. We have had over 60 members join and currently have 40 VA's listed in the VA Directory. This is well above expectations. We are glad people are signing up and listing their VA's. Our hopes are that this site will become a one stop shop for all things VA related. We are still the new guy on the block but I thank all of you for joining and hope our ads bring you some new pilots.

Our site has been met with some skepticism though. We have had a lot "Why are you doing this?" and "What’s in it for us?" type questions. Let’s see if we can clarify some of these questions. The whole point of this site is to give VA's a place of their own on the Internet. VA's tend to have spaces on other sites but nothing dedicated to them. Don't get me wrong, the spaces available on other sites are great and highly appreciated, but I just think a place that conce ...