Fly UK- Members Handbook
1.0 - Member Handbook
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Welcome to the Fly UK Members Handbook.
This handbook has been created for the use of members, to find all essential information about their membership in one location and contains information on Fly UK and membership policies, HR information and managing your account issues.
We encourage all pilots to check this document and other Pilot resource guides and Standard Operating Procedures before contacting us, as it is likely that you will be able to find the answer to your question in these online guides. Our Resource and Development centre contains a wealth of online information for your reference and learning. - https://flyuk.aero/resources-development
Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) and information relating to Fly UK operating and fleet policies can be found here.
If you are new to Fly UK, our new members guide supplements this handbook with basic start info and can be found here.
Last Updated: Sat, 18 Jun 2022
1.1 - The Organisation
Welcome to the Fly UK Pilot Handbook.
This document has been created for the use of members, to find all essential information about their membership in one location.
This handbook contains information on membership issues alongside operational procedures and information.
All pilots should check the Pilot Handbook and Standard Operating Procedures before contacting us, as it is likely that you will be able to find the answer to your question in this handbook. If you are new to Fly UK, our new members guide supplements this handbook with basic start info and can be found here.
The domain www.flyuk.aero and all website content, including images, text, audio, designs, downloads, and scripts, unless otherwise stated, are the legal property of Chris Sutcliffe.
Fly UK Virtual Airways is a non-profit organisation and does not charge any fees to apply for, or to retain membership in the organisation. No member of Fly UK may request money or charge fees as a prerequisite to offering any assistance or product. In addition, no member is permitted to resell or make any commercial or non-commercial use of the Fly UK website or forums. The prohibitions set forth in this paragraph expressly include any and all sales and/or solicitations of money, goods and services no matter for what purpose, person, group or cause, without limitation. Members violating these rules will be suspended immediately.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide a high-quality, realistic, virtual aviation experience to all flight sim enthusiasts. We will help pilots of all skills, ages, races and sex to achieve their full potential as virtual airline pilots.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
1.2 - Staff Team
The team is comprised of the following departments with their respective department roles:
Human Resources
The Human Resources department assists with any general member queries or escalations. They can also assist with member requests for extended leave, should the 90 days of personal leave be insufficient. The department also arbitrates any potential member disputes regarding breaches of Fly UK policy and PIREPs submitted to Fly UK.
Operations
The Operations department is responsible for our fleet, flight schedules and tours. They are also responsible for ensuring that the data we hold on airports, aircraft and flights is up to date.
Online Operations & Events
The Online Operations department liaises between the two online networks we are affiliated with; IVAO and VATSIM. They monitor all Fly UK activity on the networks as well. The department is also responsible for ensuring that all online events are properly organised and promoted as well as liaising with the relevant online networks to arrange air traffic control. We also organise weekly events on Saturdays, hosted on our own FSD server. These events are ideal for pilots who wish to practice flying in an ‘online’ environment, but within the confines of our own server and controlled by our own Air Traffic Controllers.
VA Support
The VA Support Team is a multi-faceted team encompassing member technical support, Marketing and Fleet Painting. The Community Manager and Head of VA Support's functions are to ensure that any issues arising with onboarding members into Fly UK are resolved, and work closely with the Human Resources department to ensure that your member experience is positive and enjoyable.
The Marketing & Communications department is responsible for releasing in-house press releases to Fly UK members, maintaining our social media presence and managing Fly UK's relationship with the wider Flight Sim community.
The Fleet Painters aim to deliver quality Fly UK liveries for your enjoyment across all of our supported simulators, encompassing the most widely adopted freeware and payware available to the community.
Pilot Resource and Development
The Pilot Resource and Development (PRD) is responsible for all the training content available on Fly UK. This includes the documentation that we supply and the 1-2-1 training available.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
1.3 - Donations
Should you wish to make a donation, please visit our donations page.
Donation Award
All members that donate will receive the Donation Award, which will be displayed on their public pilot profile as a show of gratitude for their contribution to Fly UK. If you prefer not to have this award added to your public pilot profile, please email donations@flyuk.aero after you have donated. The donation award is issued manually by staff so it may take a day or two for your award to be added to your public pilot profile.
Last Updated: Mon, 17 Jan 2022
1.4 - Contacting Us
Contact Us Page
Use this page for any general enquiries you have regarding Fly UK. This inbox gets checked regularly (at least daily) by staff members and a response will be made to all enquiries as soon as practicable.
Forums
The forum (accessible via the community drop-down menu) contains a wealth of information about Fly UK. Staff will also answer any questions posted there, as will other members of the Fly UK community. If your problem is not specific to Fly UK staff, e.g. flight sim-related problems, posting in the forum will give you the best response, as it combines the power of our large membership base at Fly UK.
Staff can be contacted directly via the "Staff Team" page on the website. Use this only if you wish to speak with a specific staff member. Although staff are required to check their email daily, if the member of staff is on leave, your message will not be seen until the staff member returns. Please consider using another communication method, especially if you have a generic question as this will often result in a faster response.
Website Feedback
Is there a particular feature that you like, one that isn't working correctly, or if you have any suggestions on how to improve? On any page of the main website, there will be a red "question mark" button. Clicking on this will enable you to provide any necessary feedback that you may have.
Bug Tracker
Located on the forums, one can use this page to report any problems you may be having with Fly UK that do not concern only yourself e.g. wrong information on pages, broken website pages, functions which are supposed to work but don’t, etc. This section should also be used to report issues with Fly UK Operations and also any issues with SkyTrack, our flight tracking software.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
2.1 - Joining Requirements
In order to join Fly UK you must:
• be 16 years old or over on the date of application.
• be able to communicate in the English language.
• own a legal, working copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator, FSX/FSX-SE, Prepar3D, or XPlane operating on MS Windows.
• have an internet connection and a valid email address.
• have read and agree to all terms and conditions highlighted in the members and pilot operations handbooks.
• be prepared to file a PIREP within the first 14 days of joining (training sessions will count as a PIREP).
Aged under 16?
As an international community and to comply with safeguarding requirements in line with GDPR regulations, Fly UK, unfortunately, cannot accept pilots aged below 16. Parental consent for those under 16 is no longer accepted and as a volunteer organisation, we are unable to support it.
We encourage any under 16's to wait until the correct age and we will look forward to welcoming these members at the correct time.
Fly UK reserves the right to request proof of age as part of the application process and challenge if there is reason to believe false information has been given. Providing false application information will result in membership being deleted with a permanent ban being applied.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
2.2 - Pilot Recruitment Process
Unlike other virtual airlines, you are not required to pass and complete a skills test or quiz in order to join us.
To join Fly UK you must fill in our online application form found on the Join Us page, which is accessible from the link on the Home page. The application form requests some personal data amongst other information. To see how your data is handled, please see our Privacy Policy.
We ask that you supply accurate information about yourself.
After you have completed all stages of the application form, please press the 'submit application' button once (to avoid duplicate accounts being created) and you will be sent a verification email. Please check any "spam" folders, and consider whitelisting the flyuk.aero domain so that you don't miss out on any future important communications from us. After verification, you will then be directed to a confirmation page which will contain your unique Fly UK pilot ID and information on how to get started flying with us. You can log in to the Crew Centre using your pilot ID and password.
The system automatically sends an email to the email address supplied in the application to confirm your username and password. If you experience any problems joining Fly UK, please contact our Human Resources department - at human.resources@flyuk.aero.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
3.1 - Membership Policy
You may register for and hold only one Fly UK account at any one time.
It is your responsibility to keep the information we hold about you up to date and correct. You can modify your details via the My Controls page under Crew Centre. If you feel that you have difficulty ensuring that the information we hold on you is correct, please contact Human Resources or a member of the Executive Team.
Fly UK may, from time to time, send news and updates to the email address you provide us with on your My Controls page.
Fly UK reserves the right to temporarily suspend or terminate an individual's pilot account without notice or reason.
Last Updated: Mon, 17 Jan 2022
3.2 - General Conduct
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism
Members should respect all other members and staff to maintain a friendly community environment. In particular, members should never act in a way that may cause offence, or harm the feelings of anyone else.
Fly UK is a multinational community and organisation, there is no place for racism, sexism, ageism or any other prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial, ethnic group or beliefs at Fly UK and it will not be tolerated. Anyone displaying these traits will be banned from Fly UK permanently and have their pilot account deleted. There are absolutely no exceptions whatsoever.
Fly UK is a platform for all our members to enjoy regardless of their views and beliefs and when engaging in our social platforms this must be at the forefront of your mind. Fly UK seeks and maintains a position of neutrality on political and social views and asks our members to respect others and refrain from engaging in such conversations. Our community is intended to be a safe haven for all our members regardless of their individual beliefs based on our common passion for flight simulation.
Disruptive Behaviour
General disruptive behaviour will not be tolerated across all our community channels. We operate on a 'three strikes and out' policy - You will get two chances to stop the disruptive behaviour. Failure to do so will result in being banned from the VA.
Examples of disruptive behaviour include but are not limited to:
- Abusive language either spoken or typed.
- Any offensive statements, but especially if directed at / or about other members.
- Engaging in opinion and strong views that contravene our neutral stance policy, for example, political debate.
- Extreme or repetitive swearing. We are over 16 year old only VA, so mild bad language may be tolerated but advised against.
- Purposely talking over the top of other people.
- Spamming members with direct messages they do not wish to receive.
- Entering or attempting to enter rooms you are not authorised to do so.
- Failure to comply with general conduct or community platform policies.
- Or anything else which an SA (Server Admin / Staff Team Member) deems inappropriate.
In addition, the below types of content may result in an instant ban from the community and the VA
- Sharing pornographic links or sexually-orientated material.
- Making remarks which may offend members including (but not limited to) religious or political views, sexual orientation and/or local customs.
- References to links for illegal software, or posts which may breach the EULAs of other companies.
- Any posts that are considered non-contributory to the general well-being and morale of the Virtual Airline.
- Advertising of other Virtual Airlines and businesses. This includes the pilot's forum signatures and links.
- Any attempts at hacking into the servers.
- Posts which contain spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations.
Fly UK member reputation
As a Fly UK member, you are representing Fly UK Virtual Airways; any inappropriate behaviour, therefore, affects people’s opinions of and damages the reputation of Fly UK. Any pilot found acting inappropriately within Fly UK or to members of any other affiliate organisations will be suspended immediately.
This includes activities such as streaming, operating on online networks or representing the VA in any other online communication or real-world setting.
Fly UK Staff moderation
Fly UK strives to moderate our communication platform as best as able but it is impossible for the staff team to actively monitor all posted messages and the voice channels, and as such, are not responsible for the content contained within. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented by members. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of Fly UK Virtual Airways, its staff or its subsidiaries. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify a member of the staff team immediately.
The staff team reserves the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame if they determine that removal is necessary. You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of the forum or social channels, and any related websites to these platforms, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of these community platform services.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
3.3 - Community Platforms
Acceptable Use Policy
- Any offensive statements, but especially if directed at / or about other pilots.
- Pornographic links or sexually-orientated material.
- Any debates or remarks which may offend members including (but not limited to) religious or political views, sexual orientation and/or local customs, and any material that may offend younger pilots.
- References to links for illegal software, or posts which may breach the EULAs of other companies.
- Posts that are considered non-contributory to the general well-being and morale of the Virtual Airline.
- Advertising of other Virtual Airlines and businesses. This includes the pilot's forum signatures and links.
- Posts which contain spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations.
Note that it is impossible for the staff team to confirm the validity of posts. Fly UK cannot confirm the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of Fly UK Virtual Airways, its staff or its subsidiaries and are therefore not responsible for any of the content contained therein. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify a member of the staff team immediately.
The staff team reserves the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary. You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners of this forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum.
Forums
- One image in their forum signature - no larger than 500 x 150 pixels
- Fly UK award images can be added to one's forum signature however members wishing to display all of their awards may have to resize the original images to keep within the two-line limit, or selectively choose which awards they wish to display.
- Whilst the use of the Fly UK "Dynamic Pilot Signature" (located in Crew Centre -> Crew Page on the main website) is preferred, it is not mandatory, and other dynamic images such as your VATSIM "indicator" signature that denotes "flight/resting status" are also permitted.
Fly UK reserves the right to remove forum signatures which breach the above policy.
TeamSpeak
- TeamSpeak enhances the Fly UK community spirit and allows members to chat freely with each other to discuss topics of interest, current issues or just to be sociable!
- TeamSpeak is used for all Fly UK training sessions.
- Staff members are often on the server to assist with problems Fly UK members may face.
- TeamSpeak is now also used to provide an in-house ATC service for training and selected events. An optional download (under the Misc. Downloads tab) - ATC Switcher - provides the facility to automatically switch TeamSpeak rooms, based on the COM frequency of the aircraft.
Discord
Discord is a free, real-time voice and text application that works on both desktop devices and smartphones/tablets. Fly UK has a Discord server for the general use of pilots. The use of Discord is entirely optional and is seen as an additional feature for our community. The following points should be clarified:
- Discord is intended for real-time community social interaction, Fly UK forums remain the primary platform for members' support and detailed discussion.
- TeamSpeak remains the official platform for voice communication for events and training, Discord voice channels are also available however for members to use and live stream.
- Users of Discord are not only bound by Fly UK's AUP, but also Discord's own terms of service which can be found here.
- Users of Discord can view their GDPR and privacy policies, here
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
3.4 - Suspension & Ban Policy
Inappropriate behaviour or actions will not be tolerated at Fly UK as mentioned in the above sections.
Any members found to be violating any policies, rules or regulations contained in our Pilot Handbook, or who have acted in a way that Fly UK staff feel is inappropriate, may be suspended from Fly UK without notice.
Suspensions are issued by HR and Senior staff members on a case-by-case basis. The duration of the suspension will take into consideration the severity and nature of the misconduct and this will be communicated with the member.
In extreme cases, Fly UK reserves the right to ban any members without notice. In these cases, no interaction or notice will be given. Senior staff will consult and reach an agreement before any such extreme case is decided.
Banned members from Fly UK are removed permanently, no second chances are given nor is a return to the VA permitted.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
3.5 - Activity / Inactivity
New members must file at least 1 PIREP (Pilot Report) within the first 2 weeks of joining or their account will be automatically deleted by our system.
Members must file at least 1 PIREP per month in order to remain active. Members who do not file 1 PIREP per month will have their account status set to inactive. When their account status is set to inactive, an email will be sent to the email address provided on the My Controls page. A message will also appear at the top of the Crew Page.
You may not record Fly UK PIREPs whilst also logging hours for another Virtual Airline, see Ops handbook section 4.2.
If your account is inactive, you simply need to file a qualifying PIREP as detailed below:
- Any Fly UK Group Airline flight which is filed through SkyTrack or exported to the website.
- Any Tour flight (not Flying Club tours) which is filed through SkyTrack or exported to the website.
- Any Flying Club PIREP of 1 hour or greater (including Flying Club tour flights) filed through SkyTrack or exported to the website.
- Successfully completing a training session with our Training Academy.
Any account which is inactive for a further period of 1 month will be automatically deleted by our system. A warning message will be sent to your specified email address. Upon deletion you will be sent a copy of your logbook should you wish to rejoin.
Please note that once an account is deleted all data is lost and unrecoverable by Fly UK. We are not able to reinstate deleted accounts unless you supply a backup of your logbook.
Last Updated: Mon, 02 Jan 2023
3.6 - Transferred or restored hours
Fly UK does not accept transferred hours from other virtual airlines or pilot recording software. All members follow the same path here at Fly UK, including staff and we encourage all new members to explore and enjoy everything Fly UK has to offer within its operations from Class E up.
For returning members, we accept restoring Fly UK logbooks in the correct format via our "Download logbook backup" function via the Logbook tab of your "My Crew page". This logbook backup is also emailed to you should your account be removed through inactivity. Fly UK cannot restore your account via any other means.
Logbook restoration is done by contacting our Human Resources department via email - human.resources@flyuk.aero
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
3.7 - Leave Policy
Members are entitled to Holiday/leave from the VA and are responsible for setting their account to/from leave status. Members may set to/from leave dates via the My Controls page.
Once the leave dates are set, they cannot be amended via the "My Crew Page" > "My Account Controls". To amend leave dates after they have already been set, members should send an email to the Human Resources department - human.resources@flyuk.aero.
Members are allowed a total of 90 days of leave per year. For periods longer than 90 days, please contact HR. Allowances are given in some circumstances such as for deployed forces personnel or those with medical issues. For any other reason, we recommend a logbook download which can be reinstated on the member return and re-application.
Members will receive an email on the day their account changes to on-leave status to confirm it. Members will also receive an email on the day their account changes from "on leave" to active status as confirmation.
To return from leave early, members can simply file a PIREP and their account status will change from "on leave" to active. After returning from leave, members cannot set themselves on leave via the My Controls page until 30 days have elapsed.
The following limitations on leave exist,
- New members cannot go on leave within the first 2 weeks of joining.
- 90 days maximum permitted per year.
- Only 30 days of leave may be booked at a time. If you need to book more than 30 consecutive days of leave, please contact our Human Resources department.
- Members must not book any more than two consecutive periods of leave without a flight being logged.
If you experience any problems, please contact our Human Resources department at human.resources@flyuk.aero.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
4.0 - Terms & Conditions
Fly UK membership terms and conditions.
Last Updated: Mon, 06 Jun 2022
4.1 - Website Terms & Conditions
Our website, https://flyuk.aero, is operated and maintained by Fly UK Virtual Airways ("we", "us" or "our''). The following terms and conditions apply to all visitors to, or users of our website. By using the website you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. If you do not accept these terms, you may not use our website.
Licence to use website
Unless otherwise stated, we or our licensors own the intellectual property rights in the website and material on the website. Subject to the licence below, all of these intellectual property rights are reserved.
You may view, download for caching purposes only, and print pages or PDF downloads from the website for your own personal use, subject to the restrictions set out below and elsewhere in these terms and conditions.
You must not:
Republish material from this website (including republication on another website).
Sell, rent or sub-license material from the website.
Show any material from the website in public.
Reproduce, duplicate, copy or otherwise exploit material on our website for a commercial purpose.
Edit or otherwise modify any material on the website.
Redistribute material from this website (except for content specifically and expressly made available for redistribution such as our blogs, images or email updates).
Acceptable use
You must not use our website in any way that causes, or may cause, damage to the website or impairment of the availability or accessibility of the website; or in any way which is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity.
You must not use our website to copy, store, host, transmit, send, use, publish or distribute any material which consists of (or is linked to) any spyware, computer virus, Trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit or other malicious computer software. This includes forums, TeamSpeak, Discord or any other Fly UK channels of communication.
You must not conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including without limitation scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to our website without our express written consent.
Restricted access
Access to certain areas of our website is restricted. We reserve the right to restrict access to other areas of our website, or indeed our whole website, at our discretion. If we provide you with a user ID and password to enable you to access restricted areas of our website or other content or services, you must ensure that that user ID and password are kept confidential. We may disable your user ID and password at our sole discretion without notice or explanation.
User-generated content
In these terms and conditions, “your user content” means material (including without limitation text, images, audio material, video material and audio-visual material) that you submit to our website, for whatever purpose. You grant to us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate and distribute your user content in any existing or future media. You also grant us the right to sub-license these rights, and the right to bring an action for infringement of these rights.
Your user content must not be illegal or unlawful, must not infringe any third party's legal rights, and must not be capable of giving rise to legal action whether against you or us or a third party (in each case under any applicable law).
You must not submit any user content to the website that is or has ever been the subject of any threatened or actual legal proceedings or other similar complaints.
We reserve the right to edit or remove any material submitted to our website, or stored on our servers, or hosted or published on our website.
Limited warranties
Whilst we endeavour to ensure that the information on this website (excluding user content) is correct, we do not warrant its completeness or accuracy; nor do we commit to ensuring that the website remains available or that the material on the website is kept up-to-date.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law we exclude all representations, warranties and conditions relating to this website and the use of this website (including, without limitation, any warranties implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and/or the use of reasonable care and skill).
Limitations of liability
Nothing in these terms and conditions (or elsewhere on our website) will exclude or limit our liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
Subject to this, our liability to you in relation to the use of our website or under or in connection with these terms and conditions, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, will be limited as follows:
To the extent that the website and the information and services on the website are provided free of charge, we will not be liable for any loss or damage of any nature.
We will not be liable for any consequential, indirect or special loss or damage.
We will not be liable for any loss of profit, income, revenue, anticipated savings, contracts, business, goodwill, reputation, data, or information.
We will not be liable for any loss or damage arising out of any event or events beyond our reasonable control.
Indemnity
You hereby indemnify us and undertake to keep us indemnified against any losses, damages, costs, liabilities and expenses (including without limitation legal expenses and any amounts paid by us to a third party in settlement of a claim or dispute on the advice of our legal advisers) incurred or suffered by us arising out of any breach by you of any provision of these terms and conditions, or arising out of any claim that you have breached any provision of these terms and conditions.
Breaches of these terms and conditions
Without prejudice to our other rights under these terms and conditions, if you breach these terms and conditions in any way, we may take such action as we deem appropriate to deal with the breach, including suspending your access to the website, prohibiting you from accessing the website, blocking computers using your IP address from accessing the website, contacting your internet service provider to request that they block your access to the website and/or bringing court proceedings against you.
Variation
We may revise these terms and conditions from time to time. Revised terms and conditions will apply to the use of our website from the date of the publication of the revised terms and conditions on our website. Please check this page regularly to ensure you are familiar with the current version.
Assignment
We may transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with our rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions without notifying you or obtaining your consent. You may not transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with your rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions.
Severability
If a provision of these terms and conditions is determined by any court or other competent authority to be unlawful and/or unenforceable, the other provisions will continue in effect. If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect. Exclusion of third-party rights
These terms and conditions are for the benefit of you and us and are not intended to benefit any third party or be enforceable by any third party. The exercise of our and your rights in relation to these terms and conditions is not subject to the consent of any third party.
Entire agreement
These terms and conditions, together with our privacy policy and pilot handbook, constitute the entire agreement between you and us in relation to your use of our website and supersede all previous agreements in respect of your use of this website.
Law and jurisdiction
These terms and conditions will be governed by and construed in accordance with English law, and any disputes relating to these terms and conditions will be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
4.2 - Privacy Notice
We are committed to keeping the personal information you provide safe and secure. This Privacy Notice contains types of information that is collected and recorded by Fly UK VA Group and how we use it.
If you have additional questions or require more information about our Privacy Notice, do not hesitate to contact us at privacy@flyuk.aero.
In this Privacy Notice, references to Digital Services mean our website and any software and web-based applications that we make available for your use (for example our website, forum and SkyTrack software).
Our contact details
Name: Fly UK VA Group
E-mail: privacy@flyuk.aero
The type of personal information we collect
We currently collect and process the following information:
(a) Information we collect when you join as a member:
- Your name
- Your email address
- Your date of birth
- Your country of residence
- Your region (optional)
- Your IVAO/VATSIM IDs (optional)
- A password - please keep this safe
(b) Information we may collect when you use our digital services:
- details relating to your flights (from our SkyTrack software)
- information about any devices you have used (including the manufacturer, model and operating system, IP address, browser type, and mobile device identifiers).
- Cookies and information about your usage, location, behaviour, and history on our digital services
- Images - our digital services allow you to upload images. You should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website
How we get personal information and why do we have it
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:
- you join as a member
- information that you voluntarily provide when completing forms on our website, contacting us with queries, complaints, comments, or praise
We also receive personal information indirectly, from the following sources in the following scenarios:
- IVAO/VATSIM live flight feeds - name, pilot ID, and flight details
- Third parties (for example online networks) may contact us with feedback/information on a person using a UKV callsign
We use the information that you have given us in order to:
- provide your Fly UK membership account and related services (more specific details in the table below)
- contact you about your account and Fly UK activities
- process financial transactions, for example, donations
- improve our services and facilities to best meet your needs
- website cookies to permit informed decisions about enhancements
- To ensure the safety and security of all members when using our services, including investigating security issues or breaches
Upon registration, you are allocated a unique UKV Pilot ID for the duration of your membership. Your Pilot ID and other personal information are displayed in various areas of our digital services:
| Website page | Personal Data Displayed | Accessible To |
| Pilot Profile | Pilot ID, Name, IVAO/VATSIM ID | Members only |
| Pilot Roster | Pilot ID, Name & Country of Residence | Members only |
| SkyTrack Live Map | Pilot ID & Name | Pilot ID is accessible to all. Name Members only. |
| Who’s Online | Pilot ID & Name | Pilot ID is accessible to all. Name Members only. |
| Event pages | Pilot ID & Name | Members only |
| Screenshot Competition | Pilot ID & Name | Members only |
| Forum | Pilot ID, Name, Last Visited time | Members only |
| Press Releases | Pilot ID & Name | Visitors & members |
| Weekly Round-Up Report | Pilot ID, Name & Birthday | Members only |
| Flight Operations | Pilot ID & Name | Members only |
| Blog Post Comments | Pilot ID & Name | Visitors & members |
We may share some of your information with:
- Competition sponsors - for the purpose of allocating prizes (name and email)
- IVAO/VATSIM - to comply with the network VA partner requirements (Pilot ID and PIREP data)
- Third parties to carry out certain activities on our behalf that involve the processing of personal information. For example, we may engage third-party service providers to help with website development, data storage, process sending emails, analyse data to help us develop, provide and improve our services, provide marketing assistance, process payments and refunds and carry out surveys. These third parties have access to personal information needed to perform their functions but may not use it for other purposes
We do not currently share data with third parties for the purposes of direct marketing. If this is something we may do in the future we will ask if you will agree to this.
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:
(a) Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting privacy@flyuk.aero
(b) We have a contractual obligation.
(c) We have a legal obligation.
(d) We have a legitimate interest.
How we store your personal information
Your information is securely stored.
We keep the personal information stated above as part of your account for the duration of your Fly UK membership.
When your account is terminated, we dispose of your personal information by deleting it from our production database. A zipped backup of your logbook will be emailed to you automatically. The UKV pilot ID of your account will be recycled for future use. We anonymise and retain any forum posts and website/blog comments. Encrypted backups which contain old user data are retained for up to one year for diagnostic and disaster recovery purposes.
Your membership can be terminated in a number of ways:
- By you - using the resignation feature on your Crew Page
- By us - automatically, in line with our membership activity policy, or manually due to a breach of our policies/terms and conditions
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
Please contact us at privacy@flyuk.aero if you wish to make a request.
How to complain
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at privacy@flyuk.aero.
You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO’s address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk
Updates to this notice
We may update this notice from time to time. The latest version of this notice will be posted on our website.
Last Updated: Thu, 20 Oct 2022
4.3 - Use of Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. The table below explains the cookies we use and why.
| Cookie | Name | Purpose |
| Cookie preference | laravel_cookie_consent | This cookie is used to remember a user’s choice about cookies on flyuk.aero. Where users have previously indicated a preference, that user’s preference will be stored in this cookie. |
| Session cookie | fly_uk_va_session | A session starts when you launch our website and ends when you leave the website or close your browser window. Session cookies contain information that is stored in a temporary memory location which is deleted after the session ends. |
| Security cookie | XSRF-TOKEN | This cookie is written to help with site security in preventing Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks. |
| Universal Analytics (Google) | _ga_gali_gat_gid | These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone, including the number of visitors to the website and blog, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited.Read Google's overview of privacy and safeguarding data |
| YouTube cookies | PREF*VSC*VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE*remote_sid* | We embed videos from our official YouTube channel using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode.Read more at YouTube’s embedding videos information page.PREF - * Expires after eight monthsVSC - * expires at the end of your sessionVISITOR_INFO1_LIVE - *expires after eight monthsremote_sid - * expires at the end of your session |
How do I change my cookie settings?
You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking on the ‘Cookies’ link in the footer of our website. You can then adjust the available sliders to ‘On’ or ‘Off’, then clicking ‘Save and close’. You may need to refresh your page for your settings to take effect.
Alternatively, most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
Find out how to manage cookies on popular browsers:
To find information relating to other browsers, visit the browser developer's website.
To opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Last Updated: Mon, 26 Sep 2022
