September 2023 VA Update
Hello Pilots,
This month's news update will highlight some airline updates, as well as some VA update news.
Development Updates
All fleets now have individual cabin configurations. If you find any anomalies or missing data please let us know. Moreover, all airlines have been assigned either imperial or metric units for use in on the flight briefing page. You can also change this setting so it always shows imperial or metric units on your preferences page. Further work is progressing on updating the generated payload to increase realism and accuracy.
Tour updates
We have introduced a number of new themed tours, and are working on further expanding our tour selection based on your suggestions on Discord.
The monthly tour takes you across the western United States. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.
Closed airspaces
Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. Recent developments have included the closures of Sudanese airspace and Niger airspace for all traffic, please take these into account when planning your flight. Exceeding the listed scheduled flight time for this reason is expected and not an issue. If your flight is given a remark incorrectly please let us know via support ticket.
Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA.
Airline News
China Postal Airline and Chongqing Airlines, both part of the China Southern group has been added to the VA. This airline provides more cargo routes throughout Asia. Further minority owned Sichuan Airlines has also been added.
Unfortunately with the cessation of the North-East Alliance, JetBlue no longer maintains strong ties with any oneworld member airline. Therefore JetBlue will be removed from the VA by mid-October to allow for outstanding tours to be completed. Any existing tours reliant on JetBlue routes can be completed until then after which a new reworked tour will take its place.
Event Updates
We are working with the vACEPG initiative to co-host more VATSIM events. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there! Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server.
Closing words
As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.
We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/PU5gMJ7.