We interviewed the CEO of American Virtual

I am 44 years old I think, lol (I stopped counting at 40). I have a major attraction to airplanes, without getting into the science of it all, it is just fascinating to me how something so big and heavy can effortlessly (as it may appear) take flight and stay up in the air. At an early age, my dream job was to be a flight attendant. I had many, many interviews but my laid-back temperament didn’t seem to be a good fit for the airlines at that time. I instead worked for United and Frontier on the ground at the ticket counters and ramp. A bucket list item is to one day take an intro flight in a GA aircraft at a flight school in the area. The ultimate dream remains to be the captain of a commercial airline, but that's not really in the cards anymore. So, flight simulation all-in it is!

I started my flight sim journey in 1983on my dad's Tandy TRS-80 computer with the first version of Flight Simulator, have been a fan ever since.

I inherited this virtual airline after been a member for over 15 years at this point. I have left, started my own fictional airline and even worked staff for a United Airlines VA but ultimately have always came back to American Virtual. This is my family and we work hard to maintain that family atmosphere to this day.

American Virtual is one of the oldest VA’s around and was founded in 2004 as USAirways Virtual Airlines by Humberto Aguin. In 2013, when the real-world acquisition of US Airways by American Airlines came through, we started the process of converting the VA to what it is today: American Virtual. As life happens, the executive staff who had been running the organization for many years had become absent and the VA activity was suffering as a result. I took over in 2019 with a mission to bring back the family atmosphere I mentioned earlier and restore the glorious activity days. I along with another hub manager, Marco Rivera got together to build a new, more modern websites and campaigned for new pilots. Long story short, we are here today more active than ever!

Absolutely! Looking at our numbers of pilots one may not think we are doing great. Some VA’s will boast that they have 300, 500 or more pilots. The question to ask is, are they all active? One thing I wanted to make sure of, was that our numbers are true. We have less than 200 pilots but 90% or more are active. We have automated systems in place and an attentive staff that handles inactive pilots daily. When you join American Virtual, you can expect to see a lot of activity from our lively community and plenty of events. I judge our success based on pilot engagement, activity and history, so yes… I can confidently say we are very successful!

Every day is an interesting experience at American Virtual. We have a very active and attentive staff (by the way come join us if you are interested in staff positions). Admittingly, I have a lot going on in my personal life. I am currently trying to start a business and I work full time on top of having a few other responsibilities. Logging in to see all of the conversation and developments that happens daily is like opening a new gift every time! We literally have new happenings every day.

You know... The hardest part of being a manager, no matter where, is having to make some hard decisions sometimes. We are a community of passionate flight simmers. At American Virtual, there are pilots that have been with us since the beginning. I wouldn’t call any of it a bad experience, just that at times is mentally quite difficult to have to reprimand, demote or remove members. However, In the end, it comes down to keeping the VA running efficiently and we cannot allow any one or a group of members to disrupt this amazing organization. It also would not be fair to the members who are doing what they should be.

We average one new pilot registration per day, sometimes more. By those numbers, we should have over 150 new pilots by the time of this interview. Unfortunately, many new pilots register and never take flight. The systems we have in place removes those registrants after a period of inactivity.

I believe the churn rate is right where it should be.

A new virtual airline pops up weekly. Flashy websites, great inspiring messages on the home page, ultra-modern crew centers, etc. It’s all very nice on the surface and attractive for prospective new members. Pilots jump from one VA to the next reaching for that perfect apple, so they leave us or don’t keep up with the flight requirements.

The reality of what typically happens is, that perfect looking apple, all shiny and perfectly round, is either rotten on the inside or not ripe. A lot of these new VA’s look good but what is really under the hood? We may not have the perfectly round apple but what we do have is ripe and juicy! We have over 15 years of experience under our belts and have outlasted many competitors VA’s.

Pilots come, pilots go, pilots come back (At some point we all did it I believe), we just don’t worry too much about it. As one goes, two more will come.

At American VA we try to mimic the real-world operations of American Airlines fairly closely. As such, we use all of the planes the real-world airline does and retrieve our flight schedules directly from FlightAware. In addition, we also represent a few of the prominent Codeshares and have an extensive heritage schedule allowing pilots to fly older, or recently retired aircraft like B717, B727, B75, MD8, and more. We also just opened Charter flights, for those that qualify, which essentially allows a pilot to fly whatever aircraft they have to any destination at any time.

The internet is a wonderful resource when used appropriately. We do not store liveries on our server but do have an area with links to the most common liveries. However, with a simple Google search, pilots will easily be able to find liveries for their aircraft manufacturer.

It is not required to fly on any online network to be a member of American Virtual, however, we encourage its use to enhance the flight simulation experience. We are currently looking for VATSIM/IVAO trainers to supply some of the Academy courses we are currently preparing.

We use a customized version of TFDi’s SmartCARS, one of the most reliable flight tracking software available. We also use Bellerophon for MAC users and CCFTracker as a backup Acars in the unlikely event that SmartCARS servers are down. We have been very pleased with our version of Smartcars and we are looking forward to the 3rd version update.

We do have ongoing partnerships with developers and are currently working to add more. We are also working with the Flight Simulation Association to reach an exclusive partnership benefitting our members. In most cases the offers and discount percentages are negotiated on a case-by-case basis. The prices of flight simulator add-ons are generally increasing and the discount percentages that developers are willing to offer to us are not always the most enticing, some companies do not even offer VA programs at all, but we are working to change that and something is always better than nothing.

We have both: A custom website serving as entry portal and a fairly advanced CrewCenter version based on PHPVMS. Obviously, everything has been heavily customized to fit our needs and identity. We have an in-house technology department who updates and builds custom features regularly and boost some exclusives offerings only for our members. One of them is our unique Miles Reward system which allows our pilots to purchase tangible, real-world items or simulation add-ons.

The planning stages at American Virtual never stop. We are working on an have an even more powerful and modern CrewCenter to be released by the end of the year. Our technology department has been already working on it for a while and I expect it to be an even greater advancement of the great interface we already have. It will also allow the hosting of even more custom modules, unique to American Virtual.

We are looking for staff to join our organization. If you are interested in any open positions, please visit our website at americanva.org, go to the Careers page, check out the positions and apply! External applicants will need to be an active member of the VA and meet all requirements.