Hi Guys,
I have a quick question on a change we could implement... We do have the ability to activate a "Charter option" within Bluesky, this means you can enter your departure and destination and fly that route, this removes the limitation of being confined to the existing schedules.

I'm happy to go with the majority on this so I will open to a poll.

Some of you may not know but Andy has stepped back from his role with the VA, he has been tirelessly updating schedules and aircraft in the background for many years to maintain an accurate reflection in the real world for which I am personally very grateful for his time and dedication.

So the question is, do we enable the charter function in Bluesky or leave things as they are?

Hi Mark

I think my initial answer would be no leave it as it is.  

However, if we no longer have the ability to keep the schedules updated (and I was affected by this earlier in May as shown in previous post in this forum) then I would prefer that we have a charter option so that we can then emulate the true schedule if we want to even if it's not fully up to date.

I have voted "no" but caveat as seen here!

Jerry

Thanks, Jeremy, I fully understand. I have a couple of jobs that keep me way too busy to keep schedules up to date so think this may be a plausible compromise. I'm happy to go with the majority. 

Thanks,

Mark. 

Mark

It's a tough one as I usually prefer realism and, as far as I know, EJ do not do charters.  However, as Jeremy says if we can no longer keep the schedules updated then it is a way to fly new routes which are not in the schedules.  So I am in favour.

Regards

Rob

Mark I fully understand that it's a big time issue.  I voted "no" as per my post, but if there is no realistic way of keeping the sceds up to date, please reverse the vote.  As it stands, that makes it 3 to 1 in favour, not 2/2!

Cheers

Jerry

Maybe we could call it something other than "charter" to make it feel better!?!

Hi all I am a newbie here, but I like the idea and would support it. I agree with the realism point but I allways go to official sources to check real schedules and flights. The option would be helpful because as you know the current real world aviation scheduling dynamics is ever changing. There would need to be some control/rules added to avoid people starting flying to Australia or US! We could also fly the real EJ recently added routes without needing to wait for the system to be updated or bothering Mark. The final point would be the flexibility to fly Vatsim/IVAO events but here perhaps trade some degree of scheduling realism with ATC/traffic realism. Regarding the name "charter" it sounds very Tour Operator/ Private Charter Aviation so perhaps call it "Dynamic/Flexible Scheduler", "Manual Scheduler" or just "Scheduler".

I agree, it's only a name that we refer to it as charter in the back end systems.

How about if we do enable this and then limit the manual entries for pireps to existing real world flights only?

We can see how things go and always reverse the option if we find it's not working. 

Personally speaking, I think this is a good compromise regarding missing schedules and give you the pilots the option to fly any missing routes, god knows how Andy managed to keep things up to date with all the changes, it's a full time job

Good idea.  I think that's a good solution and it will enable people to keep active and engaged without unrealistically prejudicing the realistic feeling of the VA.

How soon do you think you'd be able to start it?

Good compromise Mark.

Jeremy

Good idea.  I think that's a good solution and it will enable people to keep active and engaged without unrealistically prejudicing the realistic feeling of the VA.

How soon do you think you'd be able to start it?

Hi Jeremy,

I have just enabled this function now.

Hi Mark Im also a member of TUI and I think if your going to open it up like at TUI then we need clear rules just like they have for PIREP acceptance.

Certainly it needs confining to European ICAO code pairs otherwise it's open to unrealistic use.

Hi Mark I just used it for the EDDB/LIML route which wasn't in the sched - it seems it worked fine.

Cheers

Jerry

Hello Mark

I agree with your proposal, albeit not having the time to fly as often as I have done in the past & certaintly not able to keep with up all the time & hard work you all do, so Im in agreement.

cheers

Bal

My apologies for late reply.