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IVAO Virtual Sky magazine - 10th issue - JUL2011

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Page 1: Virtual Sky - 10th issue
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From the most detailed instrument-only simulator to fast-paced combat sims and everything

in between, PC Pilot is your one-stop shop for fl ight simulation!

Each issue includes a FREE CD, exclusive news stories, in-depth

features, tutorials and reviews.

2WAYS TO ORDER...

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY!

For a FREE DIGITAL ISSUE of magazine visit www.pcpilot.net/freeissue

Visit www.keypublishing.com/shop enter the code IVAOMB in the coupon code box, on the checkout page to

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099/11

Offer closes: 31 December 2011

099 PC Pilot IVAO 31 Dec.indd 1 13/07/2011 09:42

Page 3: Virtual Sky - 10th issue

Subscribe to SAVE

with

£5 DISCOUNTFOR ALL IVAO MEMBERS ON PC PILOT

MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS

FREE SIM WITH

EVERY 2 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION

WHAT YOU CAN SAVE

Europe & ROW UK & USA

2 Year Subscription £65.00 £49.00

IVAO MEMBERS PAY Just £60! Just £44!1 Year Subscription £35.00 £24.95

IVAO MEMBERS PAY Just £30! Just £19.95!

EVERY 2 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION

Europe & ROW UK & USA

From the most detailed instrument-only simulator to fast-paced combat sims and everything

in between, PC Pilot is your one-stop shop for fl ight simulation!

Each issue includes a FREE CD, exclusive news stories, in-depth

features, tutorials and reviews.

2WAYS TO ORDER...

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY!

For a FREE DIGITAL ISSUE of magazine visit www.pcpilot.net/freeissue

Visit www.keypublishing.com/shop enter the code IVAOMB in the coupon code box, on the checkout page to

receive the discount!

UK: 01780 480404, ROW: +44 1780 480404 and quote the code IVAOMB to the operator.

2222222222WAYS TO ORDER...22222222222222222222222

FREE SIM WITH EVERY

099/11

Offer closes: 31 December 2011

099 PC Pilot IVAO 31 Dec.indd 1 13/07/2011 09:42

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Virtual sky - July 2011 Page 5

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Virtual sky - July 2011 Virtual sky - July 2011Page 5

Facebook and Twitter

IVAO is now live and active on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/ivaoaero) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/IVAO/60553703688). You can follow us on these links (Twitter and Facebook) and be in touch with us at all times.You can now get the latest news on IVAO on your favourite Facebook or Twitter.

IVAO Dominican Republic Division

IVAO Community is proud to announce opening of Dominican Republic Division (DO). The presence of this edition on IVAO’s map was initially as an OIF (Official IVAO FIR). After a lot of hard work and increased activity in the area, today it is an official a new division and part of ever growing network of IVAO. Congratulations to Raphael Martinez, former MDCF-OIF manager, who is now the Director of the division and for his excellent during the last few months. More information on this new division visit: http://do.ivao.aero.

“The Eye” - iPhone Application

Many times we have been requested by people about Apple application for IVAO. Apple released “IVAO - Into the Sky” App in itunes store (it’s free, so check it out). One would need to thank Mike Bretz for this contribution.The app is his tribute to all who have made IVAO to what it is now. This application will display online pilots and atc and have a map with current traffic (not moving). Soon some features like scheduling, profiles, friends are being considered.Check it out and leave your comments here, on facebook or in the app itself.http://www.facebook.com/pages/IVAO-Into-the-Sky/195428170506171http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ivao-into-the-sky/id437124246

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Like in the past 2 years, IVAO Italy was present at the Model Expo Italy, a huge fair held every year in Verona which is dedicated to static and dynamic modelling and electronics and everything related to it.

The organisation of the fair provides all non-profit organisations a free stand and the necessary infrastructures, including advertisement and listing among the exhibitors, free passes etc, so we lused this as a good opportunity to promote IVAO and flight

and flight simulation on a large scale, considering the large number of people attending the fair.

We were present to present to the visitors on IVAO and about us. We set up, a 2-days live ATC coverage for Verona (LIPX) and Venezia (LIPZ) airport: all the ATC positions were opened at our stand, manned by the staff-members and daysother volunteers. One position at a time was visible on a big screen, allowing people to see a radar screen or a tower view with the help of IvAi. In addition we also had a computer with flight simulator installed to let people fly with ATC control and experience the interactive flight simulation over our network. This year, we also had a live streaming from action on IVAO Italy website homepage (www.it.ivao.aero).

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Setting up and participating in such events requires some work, which that starts as early as beginning of January, when we have to send the form to confirm our participation, and continues with all the other logis-tic aspects like create the list of people attending, book the hotel room for everybody, the retrieval of the all necessary equipment needed for the event, notebooks, desktop com-puters, monitors, network switches, webcam, etc. Finally, some of us nee-ded to be there from Friday morning, to prepare the stand, connecting

Besides all the work behind and the main purpose was to promote our network, and these events are perfect opportunity to meet and spend some time together with people you usually have to deal with “virtually”; IVAO is a big network with thousands of users, but only a few of them know each other. Whatever the outcome of the event is, the success lies in getting people together, to discuss, exchange ideas and evaluate proposals about our common passion.

We had a chance to meet a lot of people, staff members and users we never meet, see again people whom we met in the previous editions and also people who didn’t even know IVAO and today are part of it.

We really hope to be able to repeat this wonderful experience next year, with new ideas and improvements from the mistakes of the past editions.

Massimo TotaroIVAO Italy Division Director

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For the ninth consecutive year, Aerosoft hosted this years’ FS conference. As the renowned publisher of flight simulation add-ons is based at Paderborn Lippstadts airport (EDLP), we were lucky to be right at the foot of the actual runway whilst enjoying the meeting.

The FS conference is one of the two major events in the German flight sim community, the other being “PC-Flugtag”. Being the only flight simulation trade fair in the German speaking part of the community, the list of exhibitors reads like a “who is who”. Beside the host Aerosoft, Saitek, Flight 1 Software or Halycon media were presenting and selling their products. A real highlight was the presentation of the newly published iFly 737NG, which could be thoroughly tested at Flight 1s stand. Other highlights from the non-profit sector were a presentation of a homebuilt A330 cockpit, several virtual airlines and with FLIGHT! Magazine and FS Magazin even two representatives of the professional flight swimming press.

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And of course, IVAO was invited to present the online community at the conference. Right beside the entrance, we set up our camp to staff the wes-tern part of Germany, and to host a fly in at Paderborn Lippstadt airport. During the whole Saturday, all sectors were staffed and offering service for incoming and outgoing flights. And as the German division has great pilots, the apron was never empty, and the controllers were quite busy to handle all the movements. As we could easily compare our radar screens and our tower view to the real thing outside the window, the word quickly started circulating, that we outranked the real world with our traffic volume.

As the visitors of the conference are at their most already members of one of the simulation networks, the German division held a “meet and greet” event on their stand. Every member of the division was invited to come and enjoy the company of one another.

And quite a few came, during the peak hours some twenty or so members were on location, and many of the familiar names and voices got connected to faces. Most conversations were on new development in the community or the new products, or about IVAO. But not everything was mere prose; some members also posed questions about software or specifics of flying or controlling. In this relaxed and inspiring atmosphere, the day went by quite quickly.After un-decorating the stand, the IVAO-DE officials left the site to continue the evening in a more casual surrounding. As usual after the Paderborn event, the restaurant “Deutsches Haus” was hosting the after-show party, which didn’t end there: it would not be the event of a german division, if not at least a little beer is involved. For me personally, this part of the weekend was the best, as it adds a very personal dimension to the whole hobby.

IVAO Germany

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Before Charles de Gaulle Airport was opened in 1974, Orly was the main airport of Paris. This airport was opened more than 40 years prior ago.

Orly is an airport with a very rich history. At that time, it was planned as a secondary airport to the airport Le Bourget while, today it is a secondary airport to de Gaulle. The German air force, Luftwaffe, occupied Orly as a combat airfield with a mixed fleet of fighter and bomber planes. Much of the buildings and other important infrastructures were destroyed by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Army Air Force (USAAF) when they together attacked Orly in their battle against Germany. However, the broken runways, were later repaired by engineers from the USAAF and this airport was used as a base. The Americans stayed there until 1967 when they were asked to leave subsequent to Frances withdrawal from the integrated military command of NATO.

Orly has three different runways which makes it possible to take-off and land in all four directions; north, south, west and east. Runway 02/20 is the shortest one, with its 2400 meters (7874ft) but it is closed most of the time. Runway 06/24 is a little more than 1200 meters longer with its 3650 meters (11 975ft), and runway 08/26 is in the middle with 3320 meters (10 892 ft). It is located 13 kilometers south of Paris. Similar to De Gaulle it connects to destinations all over the world. When it comes to this scenery, it first has to be purchase and downloaded from Aerosoft’s webpage. Just above 20 euros is a fair price for this piece of software that matches to quality which you come to expect with Aerosoft and probably this one is as good as the Mega Airport sceneries series. The installation is very quick and you should not encounter any obstacles in this process.

For those who are familiar with Aerosoft’s other Mega Airport sceneries, this information may seem to be similar, since the overall design and look in those sceneries are about the same. The quality is very good, especially the airport itself and the surrounding area. There are often a lot of ground movements, with inbuilt airport security cars, baggage trucks, etc.

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It is also possible to buy the scenery-addon, Airport Enhancement Services (AES). With AES, the airport and your flight gets even more interesting since it adds moving jetways, the possibility to de-ice the aircraft, having a start-up and pushback leader, follow me vehicle that drives in front of you after landing to your assigned gate, and so on. AES is available to Paris Orly as well, and it is definitely something that you shall have a look on if you decide to purchase Aerosoft Orly. I have tried to make some movements on and around the airport, first with a PMDG 747-400 and thereafter a default Cessna 172. There were no surprises, speaking about performances; the 747 had around 25-30 FPS and the Cessna an addition 20 FPS. However, I do not have much of graphical add-ons to speak about, so if you have that (for instance REX - Real Environment Xtreme) you would probably have to reduce the theoretical number of FPS that you can achieve on your system a bit.

The modeling of the airport is very nice, especially the part that is outside the so called “air-side”, which means the parking lot, the roads and so on. I like viewing those when FS is set to nighttime, when all road lights and such comes up and gives a very nice addition to the airport. The “off-side” or whatever one would like to call it is mostly built up by satellite images which gives an extra realistic look.One feature that I really like is that Aerosoft has included a quite comprehensive manual with all there is to know about the airport; everything from the history to the runway measures, IRL traffic statistics and the ATC frequencies. The “AESlite LFPO X Traffic Configuration” let you change where moving traffic shall be visible, both on and off airside. The link to the French AIP with all available and updated airport charts is also something that makes me feel that Aerosoft has worked with the user in mind.

Overall, the Paris Orly scenery is very well made, you would say just as we come to expect from Aerosoft. The quality of the airport and the environment around it makes it worth having in your scenery collection. From an IVAO perspective, it is worth mentioning that this airport is staffed quite. Purchase, install and use Aerosoft Mega Airport Orly if you want to be sure that you get an airport that is nicely made, with good performance, real-world look and user friendliness as the first priority.

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What is an Official IVAO FIR (OIF)?In the last few years, many of them hit a road block when they thought an idea to develop an airport by providing facilities to pilots and ATC on IVAO network, since it mean having or creating a division. This was not possible always since the requirements for a division was stringent The main objective of OIF is to promote activity areas where a Division do not exist and hopefully subsequently, the active participation will enable creation of a divisions in that region.

Among many OIF, we would like to introduce one such OIF viz., “HSSS” located in Sudan. With thirty one active mem-bers this OIF was opened on February 26th. Its manager Zafir Fread and team welcome members to their area as pilots or controllers. This country may surprise you with airports scattered over all the territory.

Republic of Sudan is an African East country; it is surrounded by nine countries like Egypt and Democratic Republic of Congo and by the red sea. Sudan comes from the Arabic words “balad as-sūdaan”, which literally means, “Land of the blacks”. The two official languages are Arabic and English, and some other languages, the most important are the Dinka, Nuer and Peul. Soudan’s capital is Khartoum, however, the largest city in the country is Omdurman. Republic of Sudan is a large country because it is ranked 10th with 2.5 million km². Sudan is a vast plain surrounded to the east and west by mountains. The climate is tropical in the south and desert in the north. Agriculture is the economic main-stay of the country where only 18% of the land is currently being exploited. The main agricultural products are cotton, sesame, groundnuts, gum arabic and sugar. Sudan is a country with a great culture and very interesting to discover.

This large country has several international airports and one such airport is :

Khartoum International Airport (HSSS) Aerodrome elevation: 1260 ftTypes of traffic permitted: IFR/VFRRunway: 18/36 - 2980x45 (asphalt) Information: Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia.

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Other active OIF includes:

* EYVL - Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania. Vilnius International Airport serves most Lithuanian interna-tional flights to many major European destinations. More information visit: http://eyvl.oif.ivao.aero/

* OLBB - Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. The city is located on a peninsula at the mid-point of Lebanon’s coastline with the Mediterranean. More information visit: http://olbb.oif.ivao.aero/

* LLLL - Tel Aviv is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400. The city is situ-ated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, in central Israel. More information visit: http://llll.oif.ivao.aero/

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FABv began in 2002 with the support of IVAO’s Brazilian divisionand founder Andre Becklas, who was also a founding member of IVAO International. In its initial days served as a representative of IVAO’s Brazilian Air Force. Today it is managed by group of officers in FABv, such as the Lieutenants Brigadier General: Leonardo Uzeda, Alexander Gomes, Daniel River, and the Brigadier Generals: Gabriel Borba, Leonardo Santa-na and Hígor Fonseca, being commanded by the Lieutenant Brigadier General Chuck Amaral.

The mission of the FABv over the last decade is to provide its pilots an en-vironment similar to what can be found inside of the Brazilian Air Force, right from the admission of a Cadet, to their Graduation, followed by the virtual military career by giving support and knowledge related to special operations relevant to the Brazilian territory. Our main goal is to generate a consistent database on special operations in general as well as providing a learning process to our virtual pilots. Gradually carry on special operation procedures in the IVAO environment which is also close to reality.

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We have an army made up of 43 members currently deployed in 17 active squadrons and distributed throughout the Brazil. Fulfilling functions that include transpor-tation and logistical troops, air defence, border patrols, humani-tarian and search and rescue in times of peace or combat. Aircraft operate the following aircraft: Northrop F5-EM, Dassault Mirage 2000, AMX A-1, C-130 Hercules Lockheed, Boeing KC-137,

H-60 Blackhawk, AH-35 Mi-2, H-50 Squirrel, ERJ145, Caravan C-98, in addition to the Embraer 110, Neiva T-25 and Embraer T-25, among others. Initially Integra-ting instructional air squadrons and aircraft operating Neiva T-25 and Embraer T-27, the pilot receives Instructions from experienced officers and learn and can subsequently according to their performance and grades are plotted into one of the three existing specialized squads in FABv: Rotary Wing Aviation, Fighter and Transport Aviation. The aspirant then get in touch with what will be their daily operations, allocated to their bases which is the same as in the real-world, performing a series of exercises and instructions specific to the chosen type of aviation. Finally, after completing his course of specialization, they officially become part of a squad of FABv and participate effectively in forces operations. Our main focus is on activities conducted by the Brazilian Air Force, when pos-sible, simulating activities in real time, as the newly-realized Operation Serrana, in support of the homeless by the rains of the summer of 2011 in Rio de Janeiro and the operations of search and rescue as in the case of the crashed aircraft of Air France and Gol.

FABv is constantly adapting to the needs of the network activity accepting the new challenges. Their future projects includethe consolidation of ITS Opera-tional capacity within and outside the IVAO’s network in Brazil by increasing visibility nationally and Internationally, expanding the operational capability of the force through the development of flight management systems aimed at the military, continue the dissemination of activities as in the real-FAB, in a coherent and respectful way in our simulation environment, as well as responsible and serious fun, with pride and honor to represent the Brazilian Air Force.

http://www.fabvirtual.org

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Have you ever heard about Northern California? Maybe not. How about San Francisco, Sacramento or San Jose? Now I think you may have discovered what we are talking about, if not,

try to recollect about the “Golden Gate Bridge” “Sierra Nevada” or “Yosemite Valley”.

This area is located in the northern part of the California. It is a very important area in the tourist map of USA and also an economy sector hub which is home to many companies like Apple, Google, Yahoo and many more. Also this region has many beautiful places to visit, such as rivers, valleys, canyons, etc. In the Northern California we can find one of the 11 mega regions of the USA, starting in the San Francisco Bay Area East to the Lake Tahoe-Reno, you may have guessed that this region is important

part of USA, the population in this area according to the last census was around 14,573,946. This region is home to San Francisco International Airport, Oakland International Airport, San Jose In-ternational Airport. Now try and imagine a photo realistic scenery cove-ring this entire area. Seems a dream? Not an ymore, we bring to you VERO Scenery Northern California, a scenery which has been developed with 30cm/pixel ortho-imagery, which means you will experience greater resolution and making it more realistic.

One of the projects of VERO scenery is to cover entire United States of America with its own photo realistic scenery and improve the quality of flying including VFR flights. Scenery containing good sensation during your VFR flight. Now moving to the scenery, it seems to be a realistic reproduction of entire area of Northern of California State, including San Francisco Bay, Sacramento , San Jose and some others surrounding areas.

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A scenery usally revolves around an airfields or terrain but VERO brings you a reproduction of all these parts, terrains with photo realistic parts, autogens and 3D’s objects in the airfields. When we talk about 100GB (silver version) or 300GB (gold version) of scenery, you may won-der you need a super-computer to make this scenery work, but believe it or not VERO has managed to bring to you a very light scenery, which does not increase your frame rate permits simulation with good frame rates.

Now about flying this beautiful scenery, I can say VERO has brought together a perfect photo realistic scenery of the Northern California and not demanding heavy frame rates but with a perfect quality, usually a difficult balance to achieve. We can now expect a lot more from sub-sequent projects of VERO, we hope in subsequent editions we will be able to review the other sceneries of VERO.

This scenery has great quality and perfect for VFR pilots with good resolution, the AUTOGEN and those AFCAD’s has been designed and implemented well , do not expect airfields with details but you expect a perfect photo realistic scenery of Northern California, also expect the terrain to change according to the seasons / time you are flying.

VERO only offers download version of this scenery and a very simple download/ install. We recommend this scenery to you and you can expect .

Some special prices in the VERO website: http://vero-fs.com

Other remarks:

- We did not find information on recommended PC configuration for this scenery.- This scenery has been just developed for FSX and we have not tested for FS2004- The objective is to cover entire USA with photo realistic scenery but you can buy them in or full.

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Why did you become an Air Traffic Controller? Was it your childhood dream, or it just happened?

For me it started with my inter-est in aviation. I got my parents to take me to airshows, and I was always fascinated by the technology of how it all worked together. But my class at the aca-demy was a very mixed group, with people from both ends; some with ATCO’s in the family, and some who were completely new to it. That really did not matter and I found it valuable to have such a varied group of people.

What are your tasks at work?I work as an approach contro-ller, handling air traffic between 1600ft and FL95. With the help of my radar screen and my flight progress board I sequence arri-vals to different airports, handle departures, and try to get a few crossing flights through all of it.

There is really not much more to it, in fancier terms we provide a safe, efficient and orderly flow of air traffic.

Can you use your educa-tion to work in another country besides Sweden ? The first part of the education is based on ICAO and Eurocontrol standards, and is viable all over the world (almost). But it has to be complemented with a national education, before you can get a rating.

What are the advantages and disadvantages your profession?

It may seem like a repetitive job, but you never know how the si-tuations will play out, and you get a new situation every time you get into position. I find this a really challenging, like a big jigsaw puzzle. The down side can be that you do not have an ordinary 9-to-5 job, and it can be tricky to make the hours work

with your family.

Are there any interesting things that you have been through?

I am relatively new to this, so I do not have any good stories to share yet. But I can say that the first time I sat in position was a very special – and scary – ex-perience. Much like a first solo flight.

How often do emergencies oc-cur? Have you been handling one?

Minor problems, like one of the radios are malfunctioning, is not that unusual. But thankfully the real emergencies are very rare, and I have not experienced one yet. But we - just like the flight-crews - train on these situations both regularly to stay up to date.

What do you think about IVAOs way of simulate the ATC sys-tem?

It is a very good simulation when

‘Real World ATC Interview’

OSCAR CODAN | INTERVIEW | By Mikael Gerner

One of the main aspects of the IVAO is providing infrastructure to simulate Air Traffic Control at luxury of your computer. You may have seen various articles about this in previous editions of Virtual Sky, but in this edition we bring to you an interview with a real world Air Traffic

Controller. Oscar Codan (VID: 186266) has been an IVAO member for over six years and is an Air traffic Controller with the Swedish civil aviation authorities. His real life job is to manager today’s very intense and dense flow of air traffic above Europe. As you can imagine he works from his desk behind the radar screen at Kungsängen Airport, located just outside Norrköping in Sweden.

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it comes to separating and se-quencing air traffic. The real ru-les and procedures are followed to a great extent and from the pilots’ side it can be very close to the real thing. What it is lac-king is a lot of the work going on behind the scenes. An Air Traffic Controller can spend as much time calling and coordinating with adjacent sectors and towers as much as he is on the frequen-cy talking to aircrafts. On IVAO this part is very hard to simulate.

Do you recommend your pro-fession to others?

Without a doubt. I have not met one single air traffic controller that was unhappy about his/her career choice.

Have you been doing any flying?Not yet, but I will get up there some day. It is also a great way to experience it from the other way around. The pilots are our customers and we are here for them, after all.

You work at an airport that handles a lot of military traffic. What are the differences bet-ween the civil and military avia-tion, in terms of ATC handling?

Speed! The pure performance difference sets up for a great challenge to try to mix these two types together in the same area. Sometimes we find ourselves sequencing in a Piper between two military fighters, going ten times the speed. You also handle the traffic a bit differently, using different instrument approaches, and different phraseology to some extent. An extra bonus for us in Sweden is that we mix air-crafts flying on feet and meters.

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Can you give us an update - what has changed since last time we talked to you when you were at Viking?

Well, I am now employed as a Boeing 747-400 captain, based in Baghdad, Iraq. Less snow, more sun!

What kind of flights do you do at this time?

We do a lot of flights transporting hajj and umrah pilgrims between Jeddah and various Iraqis’ Airports as well as regular passenger flights between Tehran and Bahrain. I also recently did a humanitarian flight to Tripoli, where we evacuated Iraqi citizens.

How is living in Baghdad? How is the safety down there?

We live in a secure area known as “The Biaph”, at the Baghdad International Airport. Normally, we stay in a converted hospital now known as The Biaph Hotel, or we stay in a a security company’s complex. Both are protected by armed guards. We do have the occasional ‘incoming’ of local groups trying to get a lucky shot! It is either mortars or rockets. I am quite used to the sound of explosions and gunfire now, but nothing too dramatic.

Would you like to go back to the UK and fly or would you rather to stay

in the middle-east? I will return to the UK or Europe, not sure when though. My wife will probably decide on that one!

How is your work schedule? How many days do you have off?

My rotation and schedule is pretty good. We are three weeks on duty followed by two weeks off, which I spend at home in the UK.

Anything else to add that might be interesting for the readers?

At the moment I am training Iraqi captains and co-pilots to fly the 747-400, at the same time as, being the fleet manager, which keeps me very busy. This current job is more like an adventure to me; it defini-tely is not a career relatively than a permanent position . It is such as much fun, demanding, and tiring at the same time. It is simply a step to my next adventure. By the way, I will also be taking a Boeing 737-400 from Baghdad to London in a couple of days; it is going to be a change from the Boeing 747. I have even managed to persuade one of my Viking buddies to come and to be my co-pilot in this! It will be a happy day…!

Thanks Alan for the exciting news! Continue having fun down there in the Middle East and be safe!

Do you remember Alan Carter? He is a real world Boeing 747-400 “captain” who featured on the Virgin Atlantic DVD from ITVV. He was also interviewed in the October 2010 edition of Virtual

Sky. As you also may know, the flying business has been under dynamic change and therefore we called on Alan to catch up. By Mikael Gerner

ALAN

CAR

TER

INTERVIEW

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DIVISIONINSIGHT

South AfricaBY Maxime Esnau

Virtual Sky, bring you a new section “Division insight”. In this section, we bring you closer to a division of IVAO and gives you more information on the division and an opportunity to our

IVAO members to experience that Division.

This edition, we bring to you division of South Africa. This country is located at the southern tip of the African continent. Its borders are the countries of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambi-que and Swaziland. South Africa is surrounded by the ocean on three sides’ to the west, south and east and has a coastline of about 3 000 km. The coastline is swept by two major ocean currents the warm south-flowing Mozambique- Agulhas and the cold Benguela. This division has approximately one hundred active members and most are exclusively pilots. Denton Young is the director of South African Division, accepted our request to interview him.

Maxime: You are the only active division in Southern Africa. Do you think that some divisions will open its doors in the coming months?

Denton: No, this is certainly a concept that would benefit our division tremendously, especially re-garding events. There is potential in those selected countries in Africa, but unfortunately, the IVAO requirements for creating a new division, are not realistic for African countries. It should be noted that, in contrast with European countries, the population in most African countries have very limited access to computers, as well as DSL lines. The available DSL lines are relatively expensive, as well as being slow. 384k and 512k lines are the normal with 1g caps. This is due to vast distances, lack of in-frastructure and great numbers of people living in absolute poverty. Cellular phones (Mobile phones) have taken Africa by storm, but the data services are very expensive. We will welcome any member from an African country to join our division and participate in our events and tours.

Maxime: I noticed that you are very attentive to help new members of the division. Do you consider that is an asset for your division?

Denton: Yes we are a very small division, so therefore our membership base is small. We are always striving to increase our membership base, so therefore we have to take the opportunity to assist all new members. There is a good camaraderie that exists amongst our membership.

Maxime: From the data we have collected, we see that there is a minimal amount of ATC controllers in your division. Is there a reason? What can be changed to achieve a higher amount of controllers in your Division?

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So members experience the hospitality of our South African Division on IVAO skies. You can know more about them from http://za.ivao.aero

DIVISIONINSIGHT

South Africa

Denton: Correct, there is certainly a shortage of ATCs in our division. We do however, focus on provi-ding a quality ATC service. The majority of the ATC in our division is handled by Jan Scheepers(ZA-ADIR), Robert Smith(ZA-MC) and myself(Denton Young).We have spent years building the foundation to assist in the career of a virtual ATC controller.Martin Smit(ZA-AOC) has over the years, provided us real life South African ATC operations proce-dural documentation, that continues to ensure the necessary realism and quality. Jannie Roelofse(ZA-AWM) and I(Denton Young), have developed our http://za.ivao.aero website 3(three) times over in the past 4(four) years, in order to provide centralized self-help portal facilities to the membership. The IVAO academy has also progressed very nicely over the years. Therefore, the infrastructure and documentation is sufficient.As mentioned in my previous answer, we are a small division, so we do not have many members at our disposal. From our experience, the majorities of our members are only interested in flying, or are perhaps intimidated by the prospect of ATCing. We continue to promote ATC and the required men-toring on a continuous basis.

Maxime: Some past events were a success like the “Football in South Africa Flyout” on 17 July 2010. Can you share with us the future events planned in your division?

Denton: No, not at this stage. An official event is due, but we have not yet confirmed any details. We would require good ATC support in order to ensure success. We continue to host our weekly IFR (Thursdays) and VFR (Mondays) Online Evenings in South Africa.

Maxime: What are your future projects for the division?

Denton: We continue to strive to increase the number of ATCs in our division.We are looking into additional variety, with regards to member activity, in addition to our IFR and VFR Online Evenings. We are looking into expanding our regular IFR flights into the rest of the Sou-thern parts of Africa. While basic scenery does exist, limited data is available to compile proper sector files for ATC purposes. We will also look into releasing a division tour that is unique from the rest of our division tours.

Maxime: Thank you for the time you spent for this interview, see you soon.

BY Maxime Esnau

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Yellowknife is a city in Canada and also the capital of Northwest Territories. The town is located in the northern shore of Great Slave Lake at approximately 400 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle and on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of the Yellowknife River. The Yellowknife Airport is the busiest airport in northern Canada, with more than 70,000 aircraft movements each year and handling over 500,000 passengers and 30,000 tonnes of cargo. The airport has two asphalt runways, runway 15/33 with 2,286 meters of length and the 09/27 with its 1,524 meters.

The airport was first built in the summer of 1944 by Canadian Pacific Airlines (CPAL). When the airport became operational, there was no road joining Yellowknife town and the airport. The city is about five kilometers away from the airfield and to reach the airport, passengers used a float plane until road was constructed. In 1946, two airlines started service in the Yellowknife area. Northern Flights Ltd. began operations in June 1946 to Edmonton, Peace River and Fort St. John. Pacific Airlines began service to Edmonton via Fort Smith and Fort McMurray. The Canadian Department of Transport began major improvements to the airport in 1954. In 1955, the Yellowknife airport was used by the Canadian Army and the RCAF mobile striking force in an exercise called “Bull Dog Three”. In May 1957, Yellowknife airport achieved international status which served like an alternate airport. A modern terminal building was constructed in 1963, and, due to increasing air traffic, a new control tower was added in 1972. The terminal was enlarged in 1973, 1989 and again in 2005 to accommodate increased traffic in the area. A major renovation of the existing terminal was completed in 2006. Today Yellowknife airport has six scheduled carriers: First Air, Canadian North, Air Canada Jazz, Buffalo Airways, Air Tindi and Northwestern Air Lease. There are also several charter companies operating out of the airport. CYZF is also a major hub for Buffalo Airways, which operates the only remaining scheduled DC-3 passenger flights. Other classic prop liners in the Buffalo Airways fleet include the Curtiss C-46 Commando and the Lockheed L-188 Electra.

This scenery was released in 2010 with many contributors. All default buildings have been replaced and thus you will not miss that this scenery has realistic buildings like the main terminal, tower and CAF Squadron 440 hangar. Static aircrafts appear behind the different buildings of the airport like Curtiss Commando, DeHavilland DHC-6 and 7, Hawker Siddeley 748, Lockheed L.188 and C130, Consolidated Catalina and Douglas DC-3. These planes are represented with the Buffalo Airways, Canadian Forces, Air Tindi and First Air textures. Visual models of the arrestor cables are present on the main runway 15/33.Fences, ramp lights, cargo, ground vehicles and all the other details have been added in the scenery to make the scenery more real. Static aircraft are in separate files and so can be selectively deactivated to improve frame rates. The scenery requires very little resource of your computer and can be added without any problemon your frame rate. Some drawbacks are the installation is manual, but a Word file inside the RAR file, explain how you can install, the installation has only two steps and is simple. The night textures are not good for my taste, but much better than the default scenery.

This scenery has been tested only with FS2004. We can only recommend you to download this scenery so that you can explore this part of Canada that often most people do not. The scenery is FREE and can be downloaded from the Flightsim’s website.http://www.flightsim.com

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DAAG – Algeria Houari Bournedienne AirportFS2004 & FSX SceneriesFilenames: daagrealsceneryx.zip (FSX) - daagrealsce-nery1.01.zip (FS2004)Author: Riad Ghenim DZ-DIRSource: http://www.avsim.comThis is a new scenery of Algiers with parking and PAPI for runway 05. Al-giers City PhotoTerrain scenery is also required for this to function properly, you can download it on AVSIM.

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Casa C-295MFSX AircraftFilename : Casa295m_x.zipAuthor: Jean-Pierre Brisard and Bob MaySource: http://pc-game.fsdownload.comThe C-295 is in service with the armed forces of more than ten countries. And you can use it with your simulator now. Most of the instruments are active.

YBBN - Brisbane International AirportFSX SceneryFilename: antsbrisbanev101.zipAuthors: Anthony Lynch and Mark GriggsSource: http://www.flightsim.comAirport is highly detailed, all buildings are represented.

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LIRN - Naples Capodichino AirportFSX SceneryFilename: napulevola_lirn-x_v0.2.zipAuthor: Gianni MantelliniSource: http://www.avsim.comThis is a photorealistic and is fully compatible with FSX-Acceleration/SP2. Also, it fixes many bugs discovered in version v0.1.

A321 - Project AirbusFS2004 and FSX AircraftsFilename: pa321_base_pack_fsx.zip (FSX) - pa321_base_pack_fs9.zip (FS2004)Author: Project AirbusSource: http://www.avsim.comProject Airbus developed an A321 much better than the default A321 in FS. All instruments are not active but your flight will be better with this add-ons.

China AirportsFSX SceneryFilename: chinaairports4.zipAuthor: Winfried OrthmannSource: http://www.avsim.comThe Scenery pack includes twenty two airports in China. Although the airport buildings are not photorealistic but the layout of runways, taxiways and aprons are close to reality.

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Horten H-VIIFS2004 & FSX AircraftsFilename : horten_h-vii_289684.zip (FSX) - horten_h-vii.zip (FS2004)Author: Andreas BeckerSource: http://www.avsim.comDiscover this legendary aircraft. Its first flight was in May 1943. Relive this yesteryear beauty on your computer.

LEMO, LEGT, LERT, LEBZ – Spanish Air Force BasesFS2004 SceneryFilename: spanishafbversion6.zipAuthor: Tim MayhewSource: http://www.flightsim.comThe scenery pack includes four airports which are Seville (LEMO), Getafe Madrid (LEGT), Rota (LERT) and Badajoz (LEBZ). All airports are photorealistic.

LGSM – Samos CityFSX SceneryFilename: samos.zipAuthor: Angelo TassoglouSource: http://www.avsim.comAnother interesting scenery, has many objects like cars, buildings and boats . Also, all islands are represented. The scenery is highly detailed and photorealistic.

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