Whether you have 10 pilots or 100 pilots, it’s the love of aviation that brings everyone together.
Answers are published as the CEO wrote them, spelling included.
About the CEO
Can you tell us a bit about yourself? For example; how old you are, what your background with flying in general is and what brought you to creating your own Virtual Airline.
I’m Karl, a 29 year old senior First Officer on the 73NG family with TUI. I also enjoy flying the Diamond DA42 in my spare time. ZipVirtual was started by a close friend and we worked to get it to where it is. He has moved on to other projects and left me in charge.
How it started
When did you start your Virtual Airline?
ZipVirtual was started in May 2020 under the name ZipAir by Alex Letch. We initially opened with a base of 737’s in Edinburgh, which was shortly followed by an Airbus base at Gatwick.
Success
Do you consider your Virtual Airline successful?
I think it’s fair to say that every virtual airline is successful? Whether you have 10 pilots or 100 pilots, it’s the love of aviation that brings everyone together. We have a very small roster now (around 20 pilots) and naturally we want that to grow but we’re extremely grateful for the roster we have now.
Best moment
What is your most interesting experience with your Virtual Airline, what has happened that makes you think so?
Two things really stand out for me;
- We’re fictional – this means every single aspect of our airline down to the ops manuals is homegrown
- We have schedules, but also have an ad-hoc feature that allows pilots to fly any route/aircraft they choose, whilst still claiming hours and ACARS tracking.
Hard times
Did you have any bad experiences with your Virtual Airline?
My only complaint is that as we’re flexible and take member suggestions on board, it can be incredibly frustrating when features are requested, implemented and then not used!
Pilots coming and going
What do you think of your Virtual Airline’s flow of new and leaving VA pilots? Is there something you do to attract more pilots? And why do you think some pilots leave your Virtual Airline?
We always have new pilots join which is great but it is clear from social media that they mostly join to poach liveries. I’ve never understood why this happens but surely it makes sense to fly for us if you’re going to sign up to download our fleet?
Fleet and liveries
What types of planes does your Virtual Airline use and do you have all the custom liveries available for your VA?
Our core fleet is made up of the Bombardier Q400, Boeing 737, 757 and 777. We also offer liveries for the Aerosoft and FSLabs Airbus aircraft, the QW BAE146, The TFDi 717, The Maddog MD82, the PMDG 747-400/8i, the QW 787 and the CaptainSim 767.
Online networks
Does your VA fly on a network? If so, what do you think about it? Do you feel it supplements the general flying experience, what do you think of the network in general and is it required for your pilots to fly on this network?
We are completely flexible with how pilots choose to fly and offer full use of our callsigns on networks. We even have AI traffic packages with model matching so you’ll see company traffic when you fly.
Flight tracking
Do you use any flight tracking software? If so, which one, and are you happy about the service it provides? Would you like to improve it for example?
Yes, we use Live ACARS by vaBase. It has SimBrief integration for ad-hoc flights but it hooks directly into our website so when you book a flight, all you need to do is run and start the tracker.
Developer offers
Do you make use of the offers some developers / distributors have for Virtual Airlines? Do you think these developers / distributors have good offers? And does it fit your Virtual Airline policy?
The only partners we work with are VATSIM, FS2Crew and SimBrief. We’re not here to monetize our hobby and whilst it’s a great advertisement piece, it’s not what we’re about.
Website
Does your Virtual Airline have a custom made internet web page or do you use, for example, PHPVMS and equivalents? Are you happy about your VA’s web page?
We use vaBase’s core features, but have greatly expanded on this through the use of PHP!
The year ahead
And lastly, what are your expectations for your Virtual Airline in the coming twelve months?
We’d like to see more active members but for the time being I’d like to see current members enjoying what we have. We have a discord server with dedicated categories for sims, conversations, screenshots and even a bot that will provide you with METAR’s., current VATSIM/IVAO control coverage and much more.
We’re also starting the Zip Aviation Club. This will be a small operation with a few GA aircraft and we’ll implement tours and events.
The original questionnaire
This is the questionnaire as Karl sent it to us, in PDF.
