SimAirline.net - Viewpoint

Six months ago, we announced a partnership with FS Pilot Shop through which our pilots could get discounted flightsim add-ons and support SimAirline.net at the same time. After not following its progress through the first few months, I was surprised to receive an email informing me of our first commission payment from the program in the amount of $18.97.

Here are the latest statistics:
-20 purchases made
-$737.82 in software sold
-$22.15 in commission received

Thank you to all the pilots that have made purchases to date. If you haven't already, you can learn more about our partnership and participate yourself here.

The first route map for Delta Virtual, which includes Northwest operations, is now online. It's the northeast quarter of the U.S. (more than the traditional Northeast). Next up will be the southeast quarter, then North America, and finally a longhaul map. As you can see from this one, it's gotten quite complex with Northwest in the mix!

Today Ali Abou-Zeid, our Roster System Developer, released the latest version of our roster system, which fixes several bugs. No new features are being added at this time, although we do have a list of several things we plan on adding in the future. If you're interested in learning more about how the roster system was developed, take a look at this Latitude article Ali wrote in 2007.

Our 2008 Annual Survey is now complete. Thank you to all of the 350+ pilots who participated and provided important feedback on SimAirline.net. The Survey's results can be seen here. Very few of the results were surprising, but it's still important to measure opinions and change over time.

From the Annual Survey, we developed our 2009 Development Program. It's very similar to 2008's, as most of it is about completing the initiatives we began last year. I hope you'll provide some feedback or questions on both the 2008 Annual Survey and the 2009 Development Program in this Message Boards topic.

I've also made some updates to the website. First, the menus have been updated to include the recently added FS Pilot Shop and Timetable pages. Another long-requested addition was to have the tails on the main SimAirline.net website function as links to each VA. I'm pleased to report that this is now available. They won't work yet in the Pilot Roster System though.

There may be some broken links on the website due to some pages being moved or renamed. If there are, please let me know.

Here's to another successful year at SimAirline.net! Thank you for everything you do to help make that possible.

What a year this was for SimAirline.net! Like so many media outlets have done over the past few days, here's a look back at the highlights (and lowlights) of the year for us.

January
-Viewpoint is released as our replacement for Latitude.
-A British Airways 777-200ER crash-lands at Heathrow due to icing in the fuel system.
-After suffering a computer crash the prior month, a broken computer screen brings SimAirline.net management to a crawl.
-A new version of the Message Boards is released, ending spam posts.

February
-Virgin Atlantic announces that it will again be in the latest James Bond film.
-Alaska Airlines releases the industry's first (and most beautiful) 'virtual assistant.'
-Virgin Atlantic becomes the first airline to test biofuels.
-SimAirline.net overhauls its main website design for the first time in three years.

March
-Big Sky Airlines, a former Delta and Northwest regional affiliate, closes after three decades.
-The latest Pan Am incarnation thankfully ceases operations, although Pan Am Railways continues.
-Copa Virtual expands to include the operations of Aero República.
-British Airways opens the new Terminal 5 at London Heathrow in disastrous fashion.
-ANA becomes the first airline to order the Mitsubishi Regional Jet.
-The EU-U.S. Open Skies agreement goes into effect, giving Delta Virtual 400 destinations.

April
-Hawaiian Airlines' arch-rival Aloha Airlines goes out of business after 61 years.
-Aaron Robinson appears in Northwest's in-flight magazine, but only two pilots notice the entire year.
-Alitalia's troubled history continues, with Air France-KLM calling off its takeover.
-Our Virgin Sun operations expand with the addition of two U.K. bases.
-Frontier Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but continues to fly.
-Varig announces that it will cease all longhaul flying.
-Delta and Northwest announce that they will merge to form the world's largest airline.
-SimAirline.net makes it easier than ever to make ongoing financial contributions.

May
-VAs receive a refreshed website look with improved banners and main pages.
-SimAirline.net now serves 1200 destinations.
-Continental sells the last of its ownership stake in Copa, but maintains close ties.
-Midway Virtual expands with five new destinations.

June
-Virgin International Airways is rebranded as Virgin Virtual after over eight years with its original name, one of the longest operating VAs ever.
-Never before seen photos of Korean Air Lines 902 are released.
-British Airways' OpenSkies begins flying between the Continent and the U.S.
-Continental announces plans for an extensive alliance with United.

July
-British Airways buys L'Avion to bolster OpenSkies, ending the independent all-premium experiment.
-The Tupolev Tu-144 is added to Concorde Virtual.
-Emirates orders 30 A330s and an additional 30 A350s.
-British Airways and Iberia begin official merger talks.

August
-Emirates begins flying the A380, the first SimAirline.net airline to do so.
-SimAirline.net's Destination of the Week advertisements debut.
-A new and extremely detailed FAQ is released.
-Alitalia files for bankruptcy after struggling for decades.
-SimAirline.net sets several new operational records.

September
-Boeing machinists go on strike, eventually causing further 787 delays and the delay of V Australia's debut.

October
-SimAirline.net offers pilots discounts on payware, while supporting SimAirline.net at the same time.
-SimAirline.net releases its new Timetable application.
-Thirty years of airline deregulation.
-More exciting than the above, fifty years since the Jet Age began.

November
-Berlin Tempelhof closes after eighty-five years.
-Indianapolis opens a new terminal facility.

December
-British Airways and Qantas discuss merging, then call it off.
-SimAirline.net details plans for Northwest Virtual to revert to a historical form.
-A Continental 737-500W crashes in Denver while taking off.
-Twenty years since the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie.