News
February 2018 Update
One of the most prominent changes is the Recent Activity box on the homepage, which displays when a pilot has completed their first flight, when someone has been awarded a badge and when a pilot has ranked up. We may add more events in the future.
It is now also possible for us to restart our back-end (ACARS) server without any visible downtime. You will only be disconnected from the chat, but VAS-ACARS will automatically reconnect.
We have also been working on a new flight briefing page, which will contain a complete flight plan. As preparation for that, we've added the cost index to all aircraft (at least those for which it is applicable). We are currently testing a pre-alpha in a select group of testers. The screenshot on the right is an old screenshot of the updated flight briefing page with a flight plan included.
We also recognized the website was lacking in providing some information, so we've added a lot more information to our website. For example, airport and route pages now display the route graphically in a map, flight analysis links are now visible on the homepage, there are more statistics available, tours now show the pilots who have completed the tour and there are now more icons available for us to show on the live flights page.
Of course, we've also been updating our airline fleets to represent their current state, and the routes have also been updated to match the current real-world schedules.
Regards,
SkyTeam Virtual Staff
January 2018 Update
First of all happy new year and we wish you all the best in 2018!
In the last month the final SkyTeam subsidiary airline Jin Air has been added. The fleets and routes of the other airlines have been updated to reflect their current real-world state.
VAS-ACARS has been updated with our current logo, and the flight processor has been changed to make flight scoring more realistic and fair. We have also been entered into the VATSIM Associates Program ,and we will gain full membership after we meet all of the requirments. Besides this we have started testing a new flight briefing page.
Keep an eye out for our 2018 Roadmap which will follow in the coming days and will be posted on the forum.
Regards,
Skyteam Virtual Staff
December 2017 Update
This month we welcome four new SkyTeam subsidiary airlines, HOP!, Joon, Aurora and Citilink. The fleets of all the other airlines have been updated to reflect their current real-world state. The route network has been updated continously however if you find any discrepancies, please report them to the staff.
On the 18th of November we released version 1.4.0 of VAS-ACARS which hopefully brings more stability to our flight recorder. It also has an updated chat UI which clearly shows other online users, so you always know when a staff member is online. The recording and reporting frequency of VAS-ACARS are now also remotely configurable, would we need to make changes to support future changes.
We improved the website in numerous ways by splitting up more functionality, improving future maintainibility. This means we have also updated our live flights system, which will improve the speed of the live flights and in particular it will improve the loading speed of the homepage. This new functionality has been live for over two weeks now and no major problems have been found. We will now also show the flight analysis button on the flights page if you have access to view them, such as when it is one of your own reports. Previously you would have had to visit your logbook to get access to your flight analysis. To prepare for the future, we have also started working on some livestreaming tools, such as a flight information overlay. If you like to get access to these tools, please contact one of the staff members.
In the flight processor back-end we have also made some improvements. The flight simulator version will now also be stored with a flight analysis, such that it is now also visible on the website. We now have a better algorithm for filtering out invalid points, which previously led to some errors reported by the flight processor. Lastly, flight reports will now be denied when they don't meet the minimum flight score requirement of 70%, per our flight policy.
We are also looking for tour suggestions. If you have any route or region suggestions, please post them in the forum.
Regards,
Skyteam Virtual Staff
November 2017 Update
We have released a new update for VAS-ACARS, which includes a complete range of stability fixes, as well as a new user interface showing users that are online in our Operations and Support Chat!
Additionally, we have altered some routes that had not been imported correctly. For example, Air France and Alitalia A320 family routes have been corrected to fit real-world scheduling. If you find any other discrepancies, please report it to Pascal.
Moreover, we have updated our career ladder to more accurately reflect pilot progression.
We are also looking for tour suggestions. If you have any route or region suggestions, please post them in the forum.
Regards,
SkyTeam Virtual Staff
Timetable Update
In the past week, we have updated our routes to reflect the real-world schedules of SkyTeam. In the process, we have added about 20,000 routes, bringing our total number of routes to over 48,000.
We have also changed our route booking system to show all routes when booking a route. Previously, we only showed the routes for which there were aircraft available, sometimes causing confusion to new pilots. This change has hopefully made our flight booking system more user friendly.
If you have any feedback please let us know on the forum.
Regards, Skyteam Virtual Staff
October Update
Over the last few weeks we have made some notable changes to Skyteam Virtual. Flights made in FS2004 are now properly recorded and scored. The website has a new UI to make navigation easier. Badges you have earned can be managed using the settings page on your profile. And finally we have started publishing monthly tours. Tours can be flown in any order, however we recommend the order as described on each tour page, and legs will be scored separately. After completing all legs you will receive a badge. As always feel free to leave any comments and suggestions on the forum.
Regards,
SkyTeam Virtual Staff
Platform Updates
In the last few days, we have added various new features to our platform.
First of all, bookings will now expire. There were many aircraft being occupied by bookings which had been made more than a month ago. From now on, bookings will expire 24 hours after the booking has been made. The 24 hours will start again when you are flying, so it will only expire 24 hours after you have exited VAS-ACARS.
Second, you can now request an aircraft relocation. This will make it possible to fly routes where there are no aircraft available for your route. Visit the Book Flight page to request your first aircraft relocation.
If there are any features you would like to see, post them in the forum or contact Koen Vlaswinkel.
End of summer update
Hello, As the holiday period is over and we have returned home we would like to update you on the status of Skyteam Virtual. We have improved VAS-ACARS in a number of ways, a live chat has been added, and the minimum cruise altitude has been reworked to be a more reasonable 10 000ft. We will continue to work down our roadmap over the coming weeks and months and if you have any further suggestions please let us know.
Regards Skyteam Virtual Staff
Feedback
Hello
Quite a few new pilots have joined our ranks over the past few weeks and months. If you have any suggestions or constructive criticism regarding the virtual airline please leave a comment on our forum, preferablly on this page https://skyteamvirtual.org/forum/website/12-feedback.
Thank you in advance and happy flying, Pascal Flohil
Our Discord server
We now have our own Discord server! You can join us by following this link: https://discord.gg/EAKR7Qe.
