Charter system is back ONLINE !!!
Posted by
Don Flint on October 21, 2008 at 4:00 PM MDT
21 October 2008: The online charter system is back online!
The AFA online charter system went down almost a year ago due to malicious hackers. Additionally our software expert left about the same time with all the coding.
For the pilots who have joined in the last 12 months, the online charter system allows you to easily signup for a charter and to acknowledge it when finished.
You can generally fly any hub\'s charter though you will need to fly AFA air routes to get to the other hub first.
It may take a few days while our chief pilots and I get the charters uploaded so until then (and beyond)we would welcome any suggestions for specific destinations, adventures or routes that you think would make a good charter.
Don Flint
AFA Australia Hub Director
Hub Newsletter for August 2008
Posted by
Don Flint on September 14, 2008 at 10:27 PM MDT
It’s September and spring has sprung (in the Southern Hemisphere)!
Welcome to this month’s update of the AFA Australia Hub.
NEW PILOTS:
Welcome to AFA Australia,
• Dylan Wragge AFA8385
• Jack Henderson AFA8386
• Jeff Thomson AFA8387
If any of you are unsure of procedures or anything feel free to send Don, Hans or Vincent a message with your questions. We’re here to help! Alternatively check the forums for similar questions that others have asked.
PILOT STATS:
At the end of August, Australia had 26 active pilots.
Inactives stand at 2.
Pilots on leave (LOA) at 2.
PILOT PROMOTIONS:
- Jack Henderson was promoted to Captain.
Congratulations Jack!
CHARTERS:
There has been a fair bit of severe weather over in Florida and Louisana as well as India and China again. I haven’t had a chance to post charters relevant to these areas yet but if you want to do an internet search on “severe weather” you will sure to find some areas needing assistance.
Let me know your intended flight plan and aircraft and I can add it to the charter roster.
Remember, our charter page is located in the Australian hub forum page at http://forums.flyafa.com/index.php?topic=20984.0
Don’t forget that if you have somewhere you want to fly using either AFA or Pacific Airways aircraft then let me know and away you go. It’s that easy! Pacific have a Cessna Caravan, Helicopter Agusta A109, Amphibious Twin Otter and Beaver, BAE 146-300, Fokker F50 as well as a Dash 8-400. So there’s a lot of opportunity out there!
ACTIVITY:
Vatsim 185 for only 9 pilots.
Online and Offline activity was 285 hrs for 24 pilots.
Our online activity was really low! I really must encourage everyone to try to fly at least once a month online. Most likely you all have valid reasons and it is just coincidence to occur the same time. Still, lets try harder during September.
PILOT OF THE MONTH:
For his eagerness to fly online within days of joining we’re awarding Jared Smith the Pilot of the Month.
Flight Instruction:
I don’t have any flight training articles for you this month but have added some Tips further down.
If you’re looking for some flight instruction reading then the following pages have a wealth of training information.
http://apg.flyafa.com/training/manuals.php .
http://www.vatsim.net/prc/
The following page also offers certificates in flying certain procedures on Vatsim.
http://pilotcerts.laartcc.org/page/Home.html
Australian charts are available free to download from
http://www.airservices.gov.au/publications/current/dap/AeroProcChartsTOC.htm
ADDITIONAL FLYING:
If you are looking for some new flight experiences why not try the routes available from the other AFA hubs and Pacific Airways hubs. If you don’t have the qualification to fly the cat.4 aircraft to get there or if you cannot spend that long on a flight over the ocean then you can perform what is called a “jumpseat”.
This is not an actual flight but all you do is first fly to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Auckland (NZ), or Mumbai (India) and then start flying from the chief airport of the Hub in the country where you want to start flying. At the end of your first flight put in the comments where you jumpseated from. When you log the flight (pirep) you need to click in the box that it was a codeshare flight.
If you register and look in the APG forums http://forums.flyafa.com you will also find notices of organised flyins. There is something going on every week. This may mean you have to work out the right time conversion for where you live. The USA Friday Night Flyins are good for Australia as it is a Saturday morning experience.
If you want to experience a bit more reality and maybe some sweaty palms, try flying online with http://www.vatsim.net/. Their website has all the information you need to get the program running as well as all the documentation to ensure you know how to use the radio correctly and to notify air traffic control and fly the correct routes and approaches.
FS2004 Tips:
I found this really cool thing about FS2004 which I never knew before.
If you park in front of the fuel pump at an airfield your fuel is replenished automatically!
David “Opa” Marshall has a series of “tips and tricks for FS2004” available on avsim and he mentions how to make these hot zones visible. Works for thermals as well.
The hot zones show up as green boxes when you add the following line to the [SCENERY] label of your FS9.cfg file. This file is usually a hidden file and is found at
C:\\Documents and Settings\\\\Application Data\\Microsoft\\FS9\\FS9.CFG
ShowTriggers=1
I don’t know if this works with FSX? Maybe someone can comment.
One downside of this is that if you have already calculated your fuel for the cargo you have loaded and you just happen to pass by the fuel pump then it will top up your fuel to 100% and possibly make you overloaded. Also if you are running Cargo Pilot (or perhaps Airliner Pilot) then you will get a penalty for fuelling after starting the mission.
That wraps up this month’s news.
Enjoy your flying - and take care.
Don Flint
AFA-Aust Hub Director
AFA8192
Hub Newsletter for April 2008
Posted by
Don Flint on May 19, 2008 at 4:11 AM MDT
April Report
Hello everyone,
It seems as a few of our pilots have been busy with other things this past month due to increased number of inactivity emails that have been sent out. I realise that from time to time we all have activities/distractions that prevent us from satisfying the minimum one flight per month however please do try to do at least this. Otherwise if you can estimate what the absence will be, put in a leave request to cover the period.
NEW PILOTS:
Welcome to AFA Australia,
• Daniel Gangemi AFA8374
• Ed Fox AFA8373
• Matthew Oulton AFA8372
• Ben Richardsona AFA8371
• Jason Reeves AFA8370
If any of you are unsure of procedures or anything feel free to send Don, Hans or Vincent a message with your questions. We’re here to help! Alternatively check the forums for similar questions that others have asked.
PILOT STATS:
At the end of March, AFA Australia had active pilots!
Inactives stand at ?. Well we had some but I’m not going to harp on it anymore.
LOA's at 3.
PILOT PROMOTIONS:
- Saleh Abdulatif was promoted to ATP Senior Captain. Congratulations Saleh.
- Karan Singh was promoted to ATP First Officer. Congratulations Karan.
CHARTERS:
You can access our charters at
http://forums.flyafa.com/index.php?topic=20984.0
The charters try to make your flying a bit more interesting or to add special flights according to topical news stories.
At the moment we've got a charter to Burma and also to China. If you've never been to these places now is a good time to go. The charters are open to all pilots without restriction on flight experience.
We’ve had a few pilots request their own charters.
Don’t forget that if you have somewhere you want to fly using either AFA or Pacific Airways aircraft then let me know and away you go. It’s that easy! Pacific have a Cessna Caravan, Helicopter Agusta A109, Amphibious Twin Otter and Beaver, BAE 146-300, Fokker F50 as well as a Dash 8-400. So there’s a lot of opportunity out there!
ACTIVITY:
Around 207 hours of online activity for 17 AFA Australia pilots according to the
Vatsim Stats site.
Online and Offline activity was 307 hrs for 22 pilots.
Well there we go. Another month.
Enjoy your flying - and take care.
Don Flint
AFA-Australia Hub Director
