To get involved in the civilian flight section of YSFHQ, there are six simple things to know:

    1. What is a Virtual Airline?

      It is a group of members that simulate the operations of a real-world airline in YSFlight.

    2. How to join a VA:

      When joining a Virtual Airline, you must first make an application on the VA's (Virtual Airline's) website. These can be found on the VA's recruitment post in this forum. You must first read the VA's rules and requirements, failing to meet these will result in your application being terminated, or you being thrown out of the VA later on. Most VAs will offer weekly/bi-weekly training that may be compulsory for new members in order to be ranked "First Officer". Most VAs also require you to fly once every 2-3 weeks for that VA so that you do not get marked "inactive". If inactive for a large period of time, you will likely be kicked out of the VA.

    3. How to start a VA:

      There are three main components to starting a Virtual Airline: Members, Aircraft, and Activity. All you need to start a VA is have all three of those things. Do some recruiting here on YSFHQ to build a base of members and choose some of them to be leaders within your airline. Create your own livery (you may want to visit the Modding Section for more information on this) to show off your airline to other online pilots and to create your own identity. Finally, make sure you and your pilots fly often. This will make your airline more popular and prestigious, and will ultimately result in more members. Some VA's also like to set up websites that handle flight logging, distribution of their fleet packs, etc. This is entirely optional, but we suggest using Google Docs and/or the phpVMS system for these purposes.

    4. HQ's Rules for VA's:

      Civilian pilots on YSFHQ can join as many virtual airlines and non combat groups as they like. You can use our forum for advertising and recruiting. You can't directly emulate a real airline, because unfortunately there is precedent for virtual airlines getting sued for doing this. Add virtual to the name and diversify a bit. HQ is also the perfect medium for getting all sorts of pilots together and to organize events, such as ATC events.

    5. HQ's ATC standards:

      For HQ ATC events, we use a set of standardized guidelines to make everything work smoothly. Familiarize yourself with this thread.

    6. Being a skilled pilot:

      Check out this forum to learn about how to be a good civilian pilot. There's also some handy nav guides in the general YSFlight section.

      7. What are the Benefits of a Virtual Airline?

      Most people are used to seeing Virtual Airlines for Microsoft Flight Simulator. These VA's are very professional, usually with lots of pilots and always lots of fun. At YSFHQ, we aim to bring the fun of YSFlight and the professionalism of a Virtual Airline together. There are many to choose from and each has their balance between fun and professionalism set slightly differently. Current active Virtual Airlines include Penguin Airlines, Fast Airways and Hawaiian Airways. By combining the community spirit of YSFlight through our Official YSFHQ Teamspeak Server where lots of VA pilots hang out to the professionalism of almost weekly live Air Traffic Control sessions, there's something for every civilian fan. If you have any questions there are always people you can talk to. Civilian section admin Varren along with other members of the VA community such as Jetskit, Nath and TB1 will always be on hand to help you out.