Meet the VATSIM Virtual Airlines Department Team

[Jack Gravez]

Greetings all VA Partners and Associates.

As you are most likely aware, the Virtual Airlines Department has recently undergone a structural change and I would like to use this post to explain the roles of the department, what duties these roles carry out, allow members of the department to introduce themselves, as well as to field any general questions you may have.

 

Vice President of Virtual Airlines and Special Operations (VPVASO, VATGOV12)
Currently staffed by: 
Roger C.
VPVASO oversees the entire VA department, as well as acting as our representative to the Board Of Governors as well as being our interface with the CERT server. 

A message from Roger;

‘My name is Roger Curtiss and I am the VATSIM Vice-President in charge of the Virtual Airline and Special Operations Department (VATGOV12), a position I have held for over 10 years.

From its inception, VATSIM has recognized the existence and popularity of virtual airlines (VA) and has strived to encourage them to participate on the network while also providing some structure to their presence.  The Virtual Airline Partner (VAP) program was created as a resource for members interested in VAs to view ones that are solid, enduring, well-managed and reasonably popular.

In recent years this pool of “VATSIM-approved” VAs has been augmented by the Virtual Airline Associate program (VAA) for VAs seeking to join VAP, but not yet meeting all of the requirements to do so.

One goal of this department is to be as inclusive as possible while also maintaining reasonable standards so as to recognize VAP and VAA entities as being “a cut-above”.  We also strive to offer a substantive value to our Partners for their collaboration with us and VATSIM.

To that end, following what has become a few years of very slow and at times unsteady efforts,  the department is undertaking a concerted effort to streamline, improve, and enhance our offerings and interaction with said Partners:

• Increasing our staffing levels
• In-house technology upgrades
• Creating a dedicated Public Relations position

I hope you will find these features to be useful to you. The VATSIM network is a wonderful offering and your comments and suggestions on how to improve and better serve your VA needs are always welcomed and appreciated.'

Director of Virtual Airlines (DVA)
Currently staffed by: 
Antonio D.
The DVA manages day-to-day operations of the department, whilst directly reporting to VATGOV12. The DVA takes special interest in ensuring that VAs meet our requirements for our Partners/Associate program, as well as managing the Virtual Airlines Department teams.

A message from Antonio;

‘My name is Antonio Dujmovic, and I am the VATSIM Virtual Airlines Director, a position I have been recently appointed to. I have been in this community for about 7 years now as a pilot, and just recently a controller. I am happy to have the opportunity to contribute to this lovely community and implement my visions into this department.

My goals are to bring more and better benefits to our dear Partners and Associates, to allow them better usage of the network, overhaul our internal operations together with our VP and Developers, and establish proper standards for Virtual Airlines we approve of, so our users can have the optimal experience when they fly for one.

I’m excited for the journey ahead, and am looking forward to improving everybody’s experience!’

Virtual Airlines Public Relations Officer (VA-PR)
Currently staffed by:
Jack G.
Responsible for maintaining the VA Department’s public image, the VA-PR contacts and collaborates with Virtual Airline Partners and Associates. 

A message from Jack;

‘Hi all, I’m Jack Gravez, a student living in the UK. I have been interested in aviation for nearly as long as I can remember, frequently visiting museums wherever I was in the world, and it was always a great joy to be able to see such a wide range of aircraft in one consolidated location, whether it be military or civilian. I’m especially a big fan of the Concorde, along with the Saunders Roe Princess and basically every aircraft involved in World War 2. 

In terms of flight-simming, I began at the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, and have since gone on to mainly fly the A320neo, usually simulating real-world EasyJet routes within the UK. 

I take the Public Relations Officer role with some experience, having already had positions as PR for gaming-related communities/groups in the past. I’m very excited to have received this role, and look forward to interacting with as many of you as possible, through discord, the forums and surveys, with the goal of making sure VA voices are heard within the Department, in order to provide a better VATSIM experience for all of us.’
 

Virtual Airlines Developer (VA-DEV)
Currently staffed by: 
Taylor B. (Senior Dev)
Gabriel Fernandez
Micah Alexander Hyman
The VA-DEV is responsible for maintaining and developing both the backend and frontend systems in collaboration with VATSIM’s Tech Department, to ensure my.vatsim.net and our tools are operational.

A message from Taylor;

‘Hey everyone, I’m Taylor Broad, and if my name sounds familiar, you’re not mistaken. I am the original developer of VAOS (Virtual Airline Operations System, now Virtual Aviation Operations System), a web solution for hosting VAs, flying clubs, etc. and SimVector, one of, if not, the first and only live maps for VATSIM that uses vector based data to draw highly detailed maps and custom data (like airspace boundaries). Yes, both projects, while appearing dead on the outside, are being worked on. 

Outside of flight sim, I work in the GIS department at an aviation engineering company, where I work on navigation data that goes into real world applications. 

I’m extremely excited to come back to the community after a multi-year hiatus to lead the development on the VA department’s systems. My largest goal, along with our new website, is to help automate the most labour intensive part of the audits, so that we can make them quicker to complete.’

 

Virtual Airlines Audit Manager (VA-AM)
Currently staffed by:
Josh S.
John M.
Leslie J.
Filippo G.
Chris G.
Kyle W.
Marceli B.
Xavier R.
Jude T.
Audit managers are the backbone of the Virtual Airlines Department, undertaking periodic audits of each Virtual Airline Partner every 90 days to verify their status and whether they continue to meet our Partner requirements.

 

We also have an active Discord server where you can communicate with our staff members as well as other Virtual Airlines. if you have any questions or comments , post them, or ask a member of our team on the Discord.

Edited September 26, 2022 at 08:11 PM by Jack Gravez

[Joe Burner]

It is excellent to get to know you all. Since becoming the new Presidnet of Delta Virtual Airlines (www.deltava.org), within literally my second or third day in that role, receiving an email from an auditor threw me off as I wasn’t aware of this and our former President forgot to mention it to me. 
 

I will say I was throughly impressed with how the process went with the audit and I look forward to many great years working with you all. 
 

Best regards,

Joe

[Lukas Jankauskas]

I think that I speak for every VA interested in VATSIM from vAMSYS (www.vamsys.co.uk) family of VAs that we are happy to see some life and engagement from Virtual Airline relations team. Long may it continue and may words turn into actions.  

Edited September 8, 2022 at 03:36 PM by Lukas Jankauskas

[George Peppard]

Does VATSIM.NET have any intention of giving a forum role to members of the team? It would make it a bit clearer who is who 🙂

[Roger Curtiss]

On 9/12/2022 at 11:44 AM, George Peppard said:

Does VATSIM.NET have any intention of giving a forum role to members of the team? It would make it a bit clearer who is who 🙂

Thank you for the suggestion. We are exploring as to whether that is possible.