AIRSOURCE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS 2009

[AS37 Norm Edwards]

It is with a great deal of honour that I am able to initiate the inaugural ASVPU State of the Union Address. This will be an annual report to all members of AS to be promulgated on or around 1 June of each year. The purpose of the Address is to set down in the records the achievements over the last year, the condition of AS now, and an outline of what may come in the future. I am indebted to the members of the Executive Management Team (EMT) for their advice and assistance in drafting this document.

AirSource is unique in the flight simulator world in that it does not restrict itself to a particular mode of operations, nor affiliate itself to replicate any specific one real-world airline. As a result, the VPU has grown to have on its pilot roster over 500 members. That is an indictment of how successful the VPU has become in the flight simulator community. Many, like myself, are drawn to particular Divisions in AS, for example in my case it began in October 2003, with the ASHA Division, and I would be remiss not to mention the previous ASHA Division Commanders Ron Reed and Jeff Summers who provided a great deal of encouragement and advice at that time and put a great deal of effort into what we see in the ASHA Division now. It is with members of that nature I have seen the Division, and AS as a whole grow since I joined.

AirSource depends wholly on its members volunteering to dedicate time and effort to ensure we continue to be a success. Over the last year there have been a number of changes occur, mostly behind the scenes, to enhance the operation of the VPU. But more and more we continue to source out volunteers to contribute when those that have previously contributed have ???retired??? from the day-to-day running of our organisation in terms of their responsibilities.

It cannot be stressed enough the need for volunteers to continue to come forward. Without that, there is the risk that some elements of the VPU may fall into disuse. Reading between the lines, this means that if we don???t have enough active involvement, and pilots coming forward to put in a helping hand, the VPU could fade away to nothing. Therefore, it is up to you, the members, to decide if you will allow that to happen. The EMT, like many members I???m sure, will not permit that to happen. The EMT can only provide so much time and effort to ensure the VPU ticks over on a day-to-day basis, but it does require the help of its members, when time does permit, to contribute.

A number of changes have occurred at the senior levels of the VPU. I am grateful to those members who have indeed dedicated a great deal of time to our organisation and put many many hours of their own time into the VPU. Moreover, I congratulate those that have come forward and taken on some heavy responsibilities.

The VPU is in a good ???virtual??? financial position. Some members may not be aware that we do have a virtual bank account. Every flight, no matter what Division it is from, generates $V and we use that account to pay pilots for their flights as well as for individual administration of the Divisions.

As at 31 May 09, the Virtual Financial Account reads as follows:

ASHA Division: V$2,451,893,808.00
Bid Division: V$104,444,665.83
Scheduled Division: V$79,798,548.29
Personal Flight Division: V$749,610.02

In terms of the real financial position, we continue to ask for voluntary donations (without recourse to any pilot preference thereafter) to pay for the costs of running the server that contains all the things you need to be able to be part of the Division. The annual real costs to keep the VPU alive online amount to approximately USD195 each two years to run the server, and currently that is due for renewal in October 2010. In addition, the cost of using the domain amounts to USD29.95 on annual basis and that is due for renewal in August of this year. Accordingly, the AS Chief will make announcements calling for donations when the time is near for the expiration of the above costs. As is usually the case, our members respond with their generosity in that regard.

A feature of this Union Address is for our pilots to read what the other members of the EMT have to say about their respective areas and I have pleasure in promulgating those views as follows:


From the AirSource Chief: Tom Little

Quote
AirSource was "born" from a simple idea I had back on or around the Summer of 1999. At the time I was running a "true" Virtual Airline called Coral Airways. Coral had quite a bit to do with the advent of AirSource, so let me explain a bit more. Coral Airways had a schedule, hubs, and aircraft painted up in its own livery much like any other VA you see out there. It was about the first anniversary of the operation of this Airline and we were going through the pains of having to update our fleet (first finding freeware aircraft, getting permission to paint them and redistribute, and the actual painting of each aircraft). Not to mention Flight Simulator upgrade issues, etc. I found myself spending more time painting/maintaining/testing aircraft than I could just flying and having fun or working on the website. So I sat down one night and tried to think of a way to enjoy the VA, yet still have time to fly and participate. I thought "it's time to move on and create a new VA."

This new VA had to be something different. Something that would entice a pilot to want to come back for more. I always thought that 2 things are required for an interesting website/community: VARIETY and DYNAMICS. Those two words can be interpreted in many ways - but in the case of this new idea I had to lock in variety by offering not just CoralAirways, but almost EVERY airline out there. Obviously offering a whole bunch of VA's would not be possible since I couldn't even keep up with painting one set of aircraft let alone 2 or more. And I was just getting into the nuts & bolts of programming a dynamic website environment using the asp programming language.

So when it came to painting aircraft or maintaining a fleet, I thought to myself "why not let someone else do the work for us"? I formed an outline of AirSource and began to write a website that utilized a system whereby pilots could join, fly any real-world flight for any real world airline that we listed. The pilots at the time used schedules from the real world airline schedule found on-line OR from a real (printed) timetable. But the most beautiful part of the whole idea was that we could simply download the aircraft / livery from popular websites like AVSIM or FlightSim.com.

Once I opened a link for members to join, I immediately picked up the phone and called [yes-CALLED, this was before the days of a popular on-line chat program like MSN messenger, etc.) Richard Light. Richard is a former Coral Airways hub manager and ex AirSource President. We considered some other ideas and got a couple members into key management-type roles.

AirSource has certainly evolved into a really great community. This is exactly what I envisioned back in 1999. Even though we could be a much larger community, I strive for quality over quantity. We set out for this since day one - and to control quality is to insist on certain rules and never deviate.

There have been some very important developments through the years. First of which came when we had a member very early-on from the England area (Vince Horan) who offered to link up with us his popular VA "Gatwick Virtual Air Taxi". This was a very important move in which not only allowed exposure to our fine Europe based pilots, but allowed even greater variety in flights for our members (as if we didn't already have enough!?). Eventually Vince created "Air Taxi International" which allowed "feeder" flights so that we could connect to an even larger airport base.

The next very significant release was the Active AirSource program. The AAS program was developed by John McCormack, and we worked in conjunction to create an environment whereby it rewarded our most cherished members, those who enjoy realism, and are here for the long run. Again, quality over quantity. AAS seemingly closed almost every gap that AirSource may have had before. Even though we always strive for integrity, there are always a few that ruin the experience for most or all. Those members who filed flights that weren't really being flown were quickly "weeded" out. Then there was a miraculous transition where pilots could see not only there own flight on-line, but every other AS member. This further enhanced the "UNITY" of our community. Thanks to AAS, our community seemed to "come alive" on the radar.

There have been so many other significant member contributions that I could go on for quite a while (Ian S. I know you're out there SOMEWHERE!) I will always proclaim that if it wasn't for our members old and new, this community simply wouldn't be what it is today, if at all. The management members you have seen since the beginning and to this day all have one big thing in common, PASSION for what they do. And this speaks volumes for all of our non-management members as well because guess where the whole management team came from?Unquote


From the Vice-President Scheduled Flight Division: Roy Loucks

Quote
As many of you have probably noticed in the last few months, almost everyday there???s a new headline announcing another airline schedule, updated by one of our many hardworking and dedicated Airline Flight Managers. One big reason for this increase has been the new Schedule Division Batch Upload program Tom created for us, allowing our Flight Managers to quickly update an upload an entire schedule. What used to take weeks now takes only days to complete. In the past six months over 133 airline schedules have been updated with over 61,344 flights. Our main emphasis has been to give priority to the airlines used most by our pilots, but there are still many more which need updating.

Many factors in today???s society have affected the commercial airline industry, which have caused many airlines to merge, or forced to cease operations due to today???s tough economic conditions, but our Flight Managers have done a good job in keeping up with these changes. On the opposite side of the coin are the new startup airlines, which we continue to add to the available airlines to fly list. In addition, many of the aircraft we enjoy flying are no longer being used by the mainstream airline companies today, so we continually search for and add those airlines which still utilize these aircraft. Another unique part of the Schedule Division is the Classic Airline schedules, which allow our pilots to fly these and other vintage aircraft of years gone by.

With all the continuous changes, along with the large number of airlines which need to be updated and maintained, the task can seem overwhelming at times. Although we will probably never see the light at the end of the tunnel, the future looks bright for the Schedule Division, thanks to our great team of volunteer Flight Managers, which will continue to provide the Air Source community with fresh flights to fly. I would like to personally thank all the past and present Flight Managers, especially those Flight Managers who have updated multiple airlines, for all their hard work and giving something back to this great hobby. If you would like to help out and meet the qualifications to become a Flight Manager, just drop me a note.Unquote


From the Vice-President Bid Flight Division: Mark Richards

Quote
The Bid Division has been undergoing change! The former VP Bid Division, Neil Cook retired from the role in April. My thanks to Neil for an excellent job over so many years. As they say, a new broom sweeps clean, so I've been undertaking a review of where Bid Division is at and where we want to be. As a result the next few months will see a number of significant changes which will hopefully see a rise of bid flights posted. The hard working Contract Development Officers are being assigned their own specialty bid categories to research and produce bids for you. This might see some new and exciting categories as well as increased Bids in our current categories.

Events are in the forefront of our mind and there are changes afoot here as well. In the past, events have tended to last a long time with many pilots dropping by the wayside on the way or events taking pilots from enjoying all the divisions that AirSource has to offer. Events will be short and sharp, lasting anywhere from a few days to a maximum of 6-8 weeks only. I hope to have some events run that will see our skilled pilots having to do some of their own flight planning and organizing and then having bids entered. More on events as news comes to hand.

I'm keen to make better use of the BID REQUEST FORUM so if you have an idea for a Bid Flight that you would like to see, this is the place for you to post the ideas.

ATI will continue to operate but we're currently undertaking a review of the aircraft that pilots can fly for ATI, moving it more to a Charter Airline concentrating GA and Executive Jet type operations as these are not catered for generally by other AirSource divisions, other than Personal Division. By providing GA and Exec Jets in ATI, users would be able to earn v$ for their flights.

As they say, change is the only constant, so expect LOTS of change in Bid Division in the coming months! Unquote



From the Vice-President AirSource Humanitarian Airlift Division: Norm Edwards

The Division is in good shape with a vast array of senior well-seasoned individuals that work hard to create disaster and humanitarian-related schedules that cover the entire global domain. Various initiatives instigated in 2006, owing much to the innovative ideas from the previous Division Commander, Jeff Summers, are still in place today. Such systems like the ASHA Ribbon System, Logbook Wings System and a rigorous promotion system continue to work well. A draft ASHA career discussion paper is under wraps at this time and being discussed by the EMT and in the fullness of time will be released to AS pilots for input.

It is disappointing, however, to report that despite advertising for volunteers to take on three SDO vacancies, no-one has come forward at the time of writing this. I appeal to cause and effect arguments in cases like this. Cause: lack of SDOs, Effect: less schedules covering disasters. I will point out however, SDOs that do join must be prepared to spend time doing the job they did volunteer for.

The bi-annual fleet review will take place over the next couple of months to see what aircraft are sitting gathering moths and which ones are putting in the hard yards. Results of that review will be promulgated once it is completed. The Division is a niche one and attracts those that want to fly missions that are specific to real-world events and I must thank those that contribute in that regard.

It is my intention to relinquish my command of the ASHA Division at some stage within the next two months. There are two reasons for this. Having taken on the Presidents post has required extra time and more overall responsibility. Secondly, having been involved with the ASHA Division for almost five years, it is timely that a new Division Commander be appointed to pick up the reins. More will be announced on this in due course.


Vice-President Training and Development: Andre Vermeulen

Andre has been heavily tied up with sitting exams for his CPL, so on his behalf, the following is provided. This position is a newly created one which has been setup to focus on training within the VPU. Andre, being the ASHA Training Wing Commander has gone to a great deal of effort to create training flights within the Division that have a high amount of reality attached to them. Although many of us might have a fair deal of knowledge regarding flying, whether virtual or real, the opportunity to add a training angle to AS is a feature we wish to pursue in the long term.

This position was also created to allow a focal point to be in place for any project or system that is seen as developmental in terms of the progress of the VPU. Having a VP T&D in place will allow other VP???s to focus on their own Divisions and put forth suggestions which the VP T&D can follow-up to see the AS wide impact how those suggestions or ideas can be applied. We hope that the members can get behind Andre and support him in terms of this new role. Finally, on behalf of the EMT members and AS pilots, I wish you great success in reaching your goals Andre, you certainly deserve it!



AirSource and the future

Turning to the future there are couple of items with high priority at AirSource as of today. Firstly Active AirSource needs an overhaul. This may mean MyAAS taking over as the program we all use for our flights. Can this happen? Absolutely. Since day one for AirSource even the AS Chief had to ask himself "Can we even do that"? And some how, some way we managed to do it, no matter what it was. Tom coded the myAAS program so he has everything he needs as far as getting into it and changing things. Then there is the main question - "could it be used like AAS where the pilots are "seen" on line?" Absolutely. Tom can program the thing so it does both. Tom has mentioned that now he is much better versed in MySQL, we would have a better system, as AAS uses another method - let's just say "a bit more antiquated".

Tom has mentioned that he wants to make it clear that he doesn???t want to take ANYTHING away from AAS or John McCormack as he did some unbelievable things with that program!! One of the ingredients which we cannot control is time. Tom intends to use the time he has available for this GOAL of an AAS type of programme, and try to make it REALITY in the upcoming year. Perhaps we have a member who knows VB/.net pretty well and knows how to program utilizing FSUIPC and SIMCONNECT, who wishes to help out?

The only other "major" item that has come up recently is our forums needing a face lift. Tom knows that he can tap into the experience of Mark Richards for support and help and both will be discussing this in the "near future" if not sooner. The "new" website is on indefinite hold for now as other higher priority items must be addressed as stated above. And with the same (indefinite hold on production) happening to the next version of MS Flight Simulator, at least it gives us more time to "adjust".

Taking into account the amount of work done in the past, happening now, and continuing into the future I must pay tribute to Tom, being the Founder of AirSource. An immense amount of time and energy has come from Tom since he created the VPU. AirSource is long lasting, and indeed enduring, and the fact that it continues right up to this day is a true indictment on his devotion to the AS community as a whole, and it is in that vein that I am proud to announce the awarding of the AirSource Honour Medal to Tom (well overdue!). The awarding of this Medal is traditionally left solely for the Chief to award as he sees fit, however, I am breaking with that tradition, on this one occasion, to award it to Tom.

The EMT recently met online where we discussed quite a few areas and in the hope that we can draw comments from our membership regarding our discussions. A recording of that meeting has been posted to the forum at http://air-source.us/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3646 and all members of the EMT encourage you to have a listen to it. We fully endorse a style of membership that is open and transparent. I do ask that if there is something that you don???t like, feel free to mention it, but accompany it with you ideas, or solutions. Problems without solutions just continue to be problems! Conversely any idea that you think is worthy of consideration and input by other members, post it in the forums ??? this is your community, so contribute as you see fit.

The EMT Standard Operating Procedures have been posted into the Job Descriptions sub-forum here, http://air-source.us/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3647 so members are welcome to view the guidelines that the EMT have. I also encourage members to ensure they make themselves familiar with the Employee Handbook which can be viewed at this link http://air-source.us/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3501 This Handbook is currently under EMT review and should there be any amendments made, members will be advised.

On a final note, I wish to pay tribute to all those on the pilot roster, past and present who have contributed to the successful operation of our VPU over the years. I am strongly of the view that the mutual respect that is paid towards each other must continue to be a pillar of this community. That our members continue to make this Union work means we are all in good hands for the future.



Norm Edwards
AirSource President
Executive Management Team

[Lochnivar-AS430]

Great job Norm.

I'd like to offer my assistance an any capacity needed. I am proficent in a few programming languages as well, if that's desired.

Air source has done good things for my flight time, I'd like to repay her.

[AS 2 Tom Little]

AirSource is long lasting, and indeed enduring, and the fact that it continues right up to this day is a true indictment on his devotion to the AS community as a whole, and it is in that vein that I am proud to announce the awarding of the AirSource Honour Medal to Tom (well overdue!). The awarding of this Medal is traditionally left solely for the Chief to award as he sees fit, however, I am breaking with that tradition, on this one occasion, to award it to Tom.

Excellent job on the address Norm.

And thank you very much for the honour Medal!

[ROGERP]

Hello there
I have just read through the first "State of the Union" and am very pleased with it.
It was good to see how AirSource was conceived and developed initially and to see what may be in the pipeline for the future.
Excellent job well done Norm.
Roger

[meeberg]

This is impressive and indeed it???s good to read how things started and how the developing goes on.
Well done.

[AS283 Roger Dean]

Wow. Very interesting.

Congrats Tom.