“Project Flagship” Cleared to Land!
What a better way to celebrate another birthday than with a major announcement? We are finally nearing the end of a very large project that has been underway for well over a year nicknamed “Project Flagship”. Now that we are on “short final” and have set the date for release, we wanted to take an opportunity to talk about some of the key changes that you will see when we roll out this new web platform for the airline. There have been so many people involved in working out the kinks of this new system who have dedicated so much of their personal time and effort, and we are so proud to finally be able to deliver a fresh experience that will truly make your time with us even more immersive and enjoyable. Before we jump into the highlights of this new system, there is something that is needed of every pilot here to help minimize our downtime during release weekend. Please take a moment to fill out this quick questionnaire and provide us with some information about your current pilot profile.
Utilize this link: Click Here (https://forms.gle/ZQs3BXMEV1PuNvv99) – Please Note – This form closes June 20, 2024 at 2359 Central Time!
Release Date & Time
We have set the initial release date and scheduled downtime to begin June 21, 2024 at 2000 Central Time (June 22, 2024 at 0100 Zulu). The downtime for the release window is currently set at 48 hours but can be shifted as needed to ensure all aspects of the new website have been successfully updated and all data transferred correctly. An announcement will be made 1 hour before the downtime begins via email, on our Discord, and on all social media accounts to remind you of the downtime and to ensure all of your flights have been concluded. During the downtime there will be various levels of access to the current website, but flights should not be conducted via ACARS during this time. If you would still like to fly and receive credit for your flight, you may do so during the downtime on VATSIM and/or Volanta. The ACARS will not remain online long so please make note of any flights you would like to complete during the weekend (Flight number, departure, arrival, and aircraft) before the scheduled downtime. An announcement will be made once we have fully migrated and updated the web servers on Discord and all of our social media outlets giving the “all clear” and welcoming you to the new website! Now that the administrative items have been handled, let us dig into the highlights.
Welcome to Project Flagship!
Welcome to a whole new experience that is totally tailored to you and created to make your life easy. The new dashboard features important links to get you flying, check your information, further your virtual career, and see who else is flying right in the middle of your screen. We wanted to give you a true homepage that provides you quick and easy access to all things related to the day-to-day operations in an intuitive and well thought out scheme.
Your logbook has gotten a complete overhaul and now provides you with a clean way of seeing all of the pertinent information while also linking you to other important areas of the website. We call this a “connected logbook” as you are quickly able to see a FlightAware style flight information page, airport information, and aircraft specific information all with a simple click!
Part of this new system now includes the ability to see each individual aircraft in the fleet by specific tail number to track stats and see basic maintenance information. This new system also keeps track of the location of each aircraft and the fuel load that remained on board the last time it arrived there. While that fuel load won’t automatically be loaded into your simulator, when you finish your flight the system will look at how much fuel was left on board and figure out how much was added to complete your flight for cost purposes. You can fly your favorite tail number over and over again, or explore any of the tail numbers in the system.
Your profile has also been given a facelift and now provides you a centralized place to see all of your personal data, information, and statistics. You can see the links here for your Recent Flights, Awards, Type Ratings, Expanded Stats, and Rank Progression.
Now it is even easier to see your progress with us and what is needed to take the next step. The “Options Table” changes based on your current rank and provides you pathways to get to where you want to be! You can simply click “Begin Course” to go directly to the selected FlightAcademy course and get started. The new and improved FlightAcademy will utilize your same email and password from the main pilot portal.
Our “Build A Line” feature is slightly changing to a more automated system. Instead of putting in various values and having the system create flights for you, we’ve put the workload on the system to create “bid results” for you. Every month the system will take a look at your most flown aircraft and build you a “line” for the month. These flights are arranged in order but can be flown in any order, and the entire thing is completely optional. As stated, the system will learn from you and tailor this to your favorite fleet types the more that you fly. We do hope to once again allow another version of the “Build A Line” feature as well that will give you full control over an entire trip search.
Your bids also follow the same core logic as the logbook allowing you to see a FlightAware styled flight information page, airport information, and then also give you options for completing your flight. With one click you can load the flight in the new ACARS or continue on to complete a SimBrief full flight plan. Our new SimBrief integration allows you to select any tail number for the fleet type associated with the flight, have a “dispatcher” fill out all of the planning for the flight, or allow you to customize it yourself to fit your needs before proceeding to the Briefing Packet and Flight Release page for your flight.
Ready to take flight? The new Briefing Packet and Release page gives you everything you need to complete your flight successfully with full SimBrief integration. Here you can see your route, remarks from the dispatcher, weather information, and of course, the entire release which now models the new “FlightKeys” layout option for American Airlines. As you can also see, there are new options available to quickly file your flight on VATSIM, view the route on SkyVector, or download the flight plan for various import options based on the simulator or aircraft that you are using! Don’t like something in the release? You can edit a specific value right from this page or completely generate a new one by utilizing the correct buttons. Ready to go? The “Load in JetNet” button will automatically open our new ACARS program, load all of your aircraft data, as well as all of your flight planning from this page. All that is left for you to do on the program itself is click “Start Flight” and you are all set to go. If you are using this page as well as an aircraft in the simulator that integrates with SimBrief, you can load all of the information created on the website directly into your sim!
New SOPPHB – Web Based!
With so many changes to our website, we also had the ability to remove some of the major limitations to our operation. We have completely overhauled the SOPPHB and reworked the contents into a live website for you that requires no downloads, no Adobe Reader, and will now let you quickly and efficiently glide through the contents of the live SOPPHB. Need help? We now have a searchable FAQs section that should be able to help you answer most questions about the operation with just a few keystrokes. Some of the other change highlights include new type rating system allowing you to earn type ratings in any of our new fleet programs, removing the restriction of historic aircraft not counting towards promotion, new staff positions for specific fleet programs, and so much more! Take a few minutes to read through the changelogs to make sure you are up to speed on the new operation.
The new SOPPHB is now available for you to begin reviewing and will become effective when the new website is released! Please note that any changes highlighted in this web based release will not go into effect until the new website is released. Click Here (https://sop.aalva.org) to visit the new SOPPHB.
Final Thoughts
There is so much more to explore with this new website and we can not wait to bring it to you. I would like to thank the efforts of our Staff Team COO Alex B., VP/HR Taikwan B., VP/SG EJ D., VP/T Eric T., Director of Marketing Jose P., and A320 Chief Pilot Nathanael S., and our Beta Testing Team Curt B., Jonathan K., Marc B., Vincenzo M., Enrique G., and Andrew V., for all of their help during this long project with making sure that we really pushed the envelope on items to allow for the best possible experience for you on day 1!
There will be more information being sent out throughout the week on our Discord so stay tuned for that. Please remember that all flights need to be concluded by 1 hour prior to the scheduled downtime (downtime begins June 21, 2024 @ 2000 Central Time – June 22, 2024 @ 0100 Zulu Time). We could not be more excited to finally bring you this project and can not wait to see how it propels us into the next few years, and beyond!