2018 Flightpath for Fly UK
Posted 05 Jan 2018
Community - Our Fly UK community has continued to grow and thrive and we are ever grateful to our members who continue to support us and each other. Whilst there has been the occasional "interesting" debate, the forums which are heart of the community are highly active with members passionate about their hobby showing off their sims or giving support and advice of all natures. We have even seen heart-warming stories where this community has helped members pull through dark times and given them support which is very unique anywhere online these days.
Staff - It really doesn't feel like just over 12 months when Derek and myself stepped forward to the Exec team at some unclear times over our direction. We are grateful for the continued support of Chris Sutcliffe and Adam Hillier who continue to support in the background and to the whole staff team who served in 2017, without whom this VA would not be possible. Success stories such as Nordic, Topa Sky, FSD server and ATC team, Flying club, Training academy are examples at the tip of the iceberg that the staff enable to happen so thank you to all.
Sim platform support policy - We will continue to review and expand our support of new 64 bit sim platforms in 2018. Our members feedback indicates P3Dv4 as the primary route most of you are taking followed by XP11. Regarding FS9, we do hear and understand the frustrations from those that still run the title however with less than 5% of members using this platform we simply cannot support it in official capacity as previously announced. Existing FS9 downloads will remain available and users can still fly with us on the platform. We will continue to monitor development of Flight Sim World.
Fleet - After a busy 2017 we have no major changes planned for our fleet for 2018 but there will be some expansion and evolution as our operations team members plan to the future. This also gives us a much-needed period of stability at a time that developers plan for future products. Most known payware aircraft coming to market this year are already featured on our fleet so will slot straight in. We also plan to continue to update our livery downloads for changes and payware products not yet covered.
Online Flying- Fly UK will continue to develop its FSD servers introduced in 2017 with the server being available 24/7. Our own ATC team will also continue to develop as we strive to promote and develop the facility further.
Many of you have also noted some issues with IVAO with Fly UK no longer being listed with them as a partner. IVAO main body has chosen to review and enforce aged rules resulting in the loss all of their UK partner VA's. Chris Sutcliffe is in contact with IVAO UK as who are seeking for the rules to be updated. Currently the stipulated requirements are unattainable even for a successful VA such as Fly UK, including items such as a public pilot roster which Fly UK is not willing to accommodate for member privacy and data protection reasons. Until this is resolved Fly UK is unable to support IVAO although our members remain free to fly on the network during their flights and log via Skytrack.
2018 Survey -In late 2017 we asked all our members for their views on Fly UK. Some of the results from that survey have been acted on, some are still in progress. We take the view and opinions of our members very seriously so it’s time for a refresh with some old and some new questions. We would appreciate it if members take the time to compete the 2018 survey via the following link which will be open until January 21st. https://goo.gl/forms/lwavsEXBKpqnsSRt1
To come in 2018 -We perhaps achieved far more than we set out to do in 2017 so its perhaps difficult to predict everything that will come to Fly UK in 2018 however we can give you the following highlights and planned projects we are working on
- New Operations staff structure to give added responsibility to Fly UK divisions which have proved a success in our Franchise manager positions.
- Front and back end web/systems overhaul
- Review of pilot reward and recognition system
- Continued support and development for Fly UK's use of 64bit sim platforms
- Updated AI models and Vmr files to add our full fleet and current timetable flying online on VATSIM, FSD server and offline AI. Supports p3dv4 as well as FS9, FSX & P3d v1-3
Final note
As we said before, thank you so much for your continued support! We are very excited about 2018, with new features and content coming. Please take the time to take part in the survey and have your say to help the future of Fly UK
---ENDS---
For further information, please don't hesitate to contact us
Matthew Lewis - Operations Director
E-Mail: Matthew.lewis[at]flyuk.aero
Derek Butterworth - Business Support Director
E-Mail: Derek.Butterworth[at]flyuk.aero
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