Virtual Airlines Pros and Cons

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Can someone tell me the pros and cons of joining a Virtual Airline?

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Not heavily involved in any VAs but:

Pros:
-Add to the realism
-Make closer friends within the community

Cons:
-Need discord :sob:
-Strict schedules for some VAs

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Thank you.

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Pros:

  • adds a purpose to your flying. Instead of random flights, you are often controlled by your departure/destination, aircraft, route, etc.
  • give you a smaller community within the IFC to be a part of and share with
  • sense of accomplishment as you level up
  • sense of belonging. You’ll see other pilots with the VA callsign format or that you know, you’ll get familiar with the airports you regularly fly out of.

Cons:

  • can be restrictive with respect to routes and liveries, although this can be countered with robust codeshares
  • can be very restrictive with aircraft types, especially as you start your career there
  • if you’re not consistently active, activity requirements can sometimes be tough to meet. But a flight at least once a month shouldn’t be too hard to work with for most people

Couple things to remember though:

  • you can leave at any time
  • there are no restrictions on how many you’re in, so if you can balance the time, you can try as many as you’d like
  • while some users like to be in as many as possible, I’d recommend finding one or two you really like and really settle into those. Personally, I fly for SWVA and GAF. I’ve been with both for a while, love them both, and I’m even a staff member for Southwest, which is super fun
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Alright. Thank you for the information.

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What is better? SWVA or GAF?

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To be honest, since I’m a staff member at SWVA I am not really allowed to advertise except through official threads and avenues.

But, I can answer your question in this way: they are both very different VAs. In fact, GAF is technically a VO, since it’s not an airline. But here’s my breakdown of the differences.

SWVA is a very chill VA with lower commitment than normal, very few rank restrictions, but plenty of routes, codeshares, and quite a few pilots who fly daily. It’s a good community and we all love to be there. Also, we fly the most beautiful liveries in the sky (my own personal opinion, some call me biased :joy:)

GAF is all military focused, you choose your aircraft type upon getting accepted, and you have to stick to that type for the most part, although ranking up can grant you access to other aircraft. There are two main divisions, European Air Force and North American Air Force. Inside of each are squadrons based off of aircraft types. There are almost always pilots up, and we have several deployments each year that keep us quite busy. The scheduling, planning, and training are all incredibly robust, thanks to having many real world military pilots in our command staff. Everyone in the VO is active and most fly regularly.

That’s my breakdown of the two, but like I said, I can’t really recommend either over the other. And that’s also not to say that other VA/Os are also great. I personally like the rigorous military flying of my GAF C-17 squadron, combined with the chill flying and relaxed community of SW. I’d encourage you to find an airline that you think you’d enjoy, and take a look at their handbook/website. That should give you a good idea of how their organization runs.

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Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to me.

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I have no current experience with a VA, but it can help, I guess, when you want to be part of something and not fly randomly.

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