VIRTUAL AIRLINE CEO ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM (VCAS)

User Manual v1.0

INDEX

  1 - Introduction to VCAS
  2 - Installation of the VCAS client
  3 - New virtual airline signup
  4 - New virtual airline first use procedures
  5 - Adding, Editing, and Deleting Hubs
  6 - Adding, Editing, and Deleting Pilot Ranks
  7 - Adding, Editing, and Deleting Pilots
  8 - Adding, Editing, and Deleting Aircraft (Fleet)
  9 - Adding, Editing, and Deleting Routes (Schedule)
10 - Virtual airline flight data
11 - Virtual airline options

1.0 Introduction to VCAS

The virtual airline CEO administration system (VCAS) is an application to give the CEO of a virtual airline the ability to administer his or her virtual airline.  VCAS is to be used with the VAFS pilot client. With VCAS you can edit, add, and remove any item of your virtual airline you would like. You have the ability to add pilots, flights, aircraft, and routes.

2.0 Installation of the VCAS Client Download and run the VCAS_setup.exe file. You will be prompted to accept the user agreement. If you have not used any VAFS products before you will have to check the box to install the MySQL connector. When you run VCAS it will check for current updates. If there is an update, you will be prompted to download and install the update. The update is another install .exe which will run after it is downloaded. Manual links will be provided for those that have a problem using the VCAS auto updater. VISTA USERS!!! Vista users you must install this application AS AN ADMIN! If it still will not install or run properly then you can try turning off your UAC then install this application. All anti-virus or Norton products can mess with VCAS. If you have problems connecting to or using VCAS please turn these off first and try to run it again.	VCAS Splash Screen
3.0 New Virtual Airline Signup The first time you run VCAS you will have to signup your virtual airline with VAFS. The button for new virtual airline signups is at the bottom right of the login screen. Unlike VAFS2 your virtual airline prefix is now limited to a 3 character ICAO. VAFS will no longer accept anything over a 3 character VA ICAO. When you signup with the VCAS client you will be asked for your main hub ICAO. This will be your main hub for your virtual airline, your main hub for all operations. More hubs can be added at anytime but this will be your main hub. You must use a valid email address and website address. Virtual airlines will be looked at and emails and website URLs will be tested to make sure that your virtual airline is legitimate. All broken links will result in a virtual airline being removed from the system.	New Virtual Airline Signup Window
4.0 New Virtual Airline VCAS Procedures After your virtual airline signup is complete you can now login to VCAS. The main screen looks like the image on the right. Click the image for detailed layout of the main window. A suggestion for new virtual airlines. It is best to use VCAS is the following way when adding new information to a fresh virtual airline. 1 - Add all of your hubs to the system (more can be added later) 2 - Add your pilot ranks into the system (more information on ranks in section 6.0) 3 - Add your pilots into the system 4 - Add an aircraft and then add routes for that aircraft These steps seem to work best for new virtual airlines using VCAS. For more detailed information for each of these steps please refer to the appropriate section of this manual for that step.	VCAS Main Window (after login)
5.0 Hub Information Window This window will show you what hubs you have in your virtual airline, how many hours, flights, and hub gross for each hub. You can also add new hubs and remove current hubs. Main hubs can not be removed. 5.1 Adding a new hub Click on the Add New Hub button on top of the hub information window to open the add new hub window STEP ONE: Enter the airport ICAO into the text field STEP TWO: Click the search button to have VCAS search for that airport STEP THREE: If the airport is found then the airport information will be shown in the window STEP FOUR: If this is the airport you want as a hub click on the Add This Hub button. 5.2 Removing a hub On the main hub window select the appropriate hub on the table. Click on the Remove This Hub button and confirm that you want to remove that hub.	Hub Information Window Add New Hub Window
6.0 Pilot Rank Information Window Rank information for your pilots is crucial to your pilots enjoyment with VAFS. You can choose to auto rank your pilots when they hit a certain number of hours. Ranks are now paid per hour flown. For information on how to pay your pilots here is a link that shows what real airlines pay the pilots that fly for them. http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines.html 6.1 Adding a new rank In order to add a new rank you need to fill in the following data fields. RANK NAME: Name of the rank you are adding (e.g. Captain) LOWEST AMOUNT OF HOURS: The low hours for this rank you MUST include the tenth of the hour for this to work. (e.g. 10.1) HIGHEST AMOUNT OF HOURS: The highest amount of hours for this rank. You must include the tenths of the hour for this to work. (e.g. 20.1) HOURLY SALARY: The amount the pilot will be paid per hour (look at link at the top of this section on ideas of how much to pay each rank). OVERTIME HOURS: This field is for those airlines that want to pay their pilots more if they fly over this amount of hours in a month. Overtime pay is 150% of regular pay. (e.g. If this is set at 20 and a pilot is paid 100.00 per hour, when that pilot has flown over 20 hours in a month that pilot would start to be paid 150.00 per hour. This is reset every month automatically). RANK TYPE: Regular Pilot Rank: For non-executive ranks, mainly for normal pilots Special Executive Rank: For executive positions within your virtual airline. These ranks are skipped when auto ranking a pilot. (they will not change) SELECT AIRCRAFT CERTIFICATION: Here you can select all aircraft by clicking on the square with the check in it or you can designate aircraft only allowed for this rank to fly. SELECT RANK IMAGE: Select one of the images provided by VAFS or you can select to use your own image and then entering the FULL URL of the image that you want to use*. * in order for images to look correct on the website add ons we advise that your rank images be 25px in width and 10px in height. Now you can click on Add This Rank to add the new rank to your virtual airline. 6.2 Editing a rank When editing a rank you will see the same window as adding a new rank. The only difference is that the data will be filled in with the selected rank you want to edit. 6.3 Removing (deleting) a rank To remove a rank from your virtual airline, highlight that rank on the ranks table and click on remove. The system will not allow you to remove a rank if you only have one rank available.	Pilot Ranks Window Add New Rank
7.0 Pilot Information The pilot information window will show you information about your pilots from your virtual airline. When a pilot is selected from the table, the information will fill out on the bottom of this window with details about that selected pilot. You can also edit pilots, search for pilots, give pilots admin authority over specific areas of your virtual airline, remove a pilot, and of course add a new pilot. 7.1 Pilot Admin Permissions You can use this window to give the selected pilot permission to administer part or all of your virtual airline operations. Selections include the following. FLEET SCHEDULE PILOTS RANKS You can give any pilot one area of administration or all. These admin permissions will NOT allow anyone except the CEO to change virtual airline information, options, or other data that would directly effect the main part of your virtual airline. 7.2 Add New Pilot Adding a new pilot to VCAS is easy. You have to enter the following fields and then click the add new pilot to roster button. PILOT FIRST NAME PILOT LAST NAME PILOT CALLSIGN (should use your 3 character ICAO as a prefix e.g. EXP-100) PILOT EMAIL ADDRESS (pilots should not use a yahoo, hotmail, or gmail address) CONFIRM EMAIL ADDRESS COUNTRY OF ORIGIN PILOT'S HUB WHERE HE WILL BE STATIONED TOTAL AMOUNT OF HOURS TO DATE THIS PILOT HAS FLOWN FOR YOUR VA After you add this pilot an email will be sent to that pilot which will have a link to where he must activate his account. When the pilot activates his account he will then enter a username and password for his account. A link to the VAFS client will be on the welcome website after activation. It is imperative that a good known email address is used. VAFS will not be responsible for those pilots that can not receive emails from VAFS due to spam filters. 7.3 Pilot Bonuses At anytime you can give a pilot a bonus using VCAS.	Pilot Information Window Add Pilot Window
8.0 Virtual Airline Fleet (Aircraft) Your virtual airline needs aircraft to fly. The fleet information window will show you details on each of your aircraft. You can also from this window change the tail number registration (if you own and not lease the aircraft), change the aircraft seating, and of course add another aircraft to your fleet. 8.1 Add New Aircraft to Fleet STEP ONE: The first step to adding a new aircraft is selecting the aircraft you would like to purchase or lease. Select an aircraft from the table. The fields below will show you specific information about that aircraft including the purchase price and the lease rate per month cost. If your virtual airline does not have enough money then your only choice will be to lease the aircraft. STEP TWO: Setup aircraft seating and confirm aircraft acquisition. On this window you have to select the hub for this aircraft, then you have to enter the amount of seats for each class (if available) for the aircraft. Economy Class Seat = 1 seat Business Class Seat = 1.5 Economy seats First Class Seat = 2 Economy seats Once you have your seats adjusted you must click on the "Setup This Seating Arrangement" button. If you entered too many seats for the aircraft the client will let you know and reset your seats. When the seating arrangement is good then you will be able to click on the confirm acquisition button to finalize the lease or purchase of this aircraft. A good link to find seating arrangements is www.seatguru.com 8.2 Change hub for aircraft Selecting this will open the change hub window for the aircraft selected. Select a hub from the dropdown box and click on change hub. 8.3 Change seating On this window you can change the seating setup of the aircraft 8.4 Change aircraft tail registration number This option is only available to those aircraft that your virtual airline owns. All leased aircraft will have a registration assigned to it from VAFS.	Fleet Information Window Add New Aircraft Select Aircraft Type Aircraft Seating and Confirm Acquisition Window
9.0 Schedule and Route Information This part of VCAS is perhaps the part that has the most questions asked about the program. Aircraft scheduled hours and routes. EACH AIRCRAFT CAN HAVE UP TO 112 HOURS PER WEEK SCHEDULED. THAT IS 16 HOURS PER DAY IN A WEEK (7 DAYS). ONCE AN AIRCRAFT REACHES THAT 112 HOUR MARK IT WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE TO ADD ROUTES TO. 9.1 Adding a new route to your schedule / time table To add a new route you first need to click on the "Add New Route to Schedule" button. STEP ONE: Enter the departure and arrival airport ICAOs and click on the generate route button. If the airports are found go to step two. STEP TWO: Select hub and aircraft for this flight. Enter the local depart and arrival times. Select hub for the flight. Select an aircraft from that hub for this flight. (if no aircraft show up in the drop down list then you can at that point add a new aircraft. when no aircraft show up it usually means that no aircraft have enough scheduled hours to complete this new route) Select what type of flight this is (Cargo or Passenger) Enter a flight number for this flight. (it will let you know if that flight number is already in use). Select to allow Copilot (Not working at this time) Enter optional route and comments. If you enter a route or comments for flights, leave out any quotes or double quotes otherwise an error may occur. Click on ADD NEW ROUTE and you will see a confirmation box, that is it, you have just entered a new route.	Schedule / Routes Window Add New Route Step One Add New Route Step Two
10.0 Virtual airline flight information By clicking of VA Flights on the main window you will be able to see and search for flights flown by your virtual airline. This is also a work in progress at this point. More data will become available over time.
11.0 Virtual Airline Options Below are explanations of the options, what they mean, and what they do for your virtual airline. pilots must fly from last destination: When this option is used your pilots will only be shown routes from the current airport they are located. They will not be able to fly any routes from different airports. They will however be able to jumpseat to another location if they have the available funds to do so. lock flights when in flight (not operational at this time): When an aircraft is currently being flown by another pilot, the routes for that aircraft will be locked until that pilot lands and uploads his flight. show username on roster (not operational and will be removed soon) kick pilots when AFK over airport (not operational at this time): This option when turned on will shutdown VAFS if the pilot hovers over an airport for more than an hour. This option is to save the virtual airline costs and not let the pilot "cheat" for hours. auto rank pilots: Your pilots will be auto ranked. The client will check the rank of the pilot after each flight and promote the pilot if he reaches another rank in hours.