Virtual Sky - 14th issue

H A P P Y N E W Y E A R F R O M I V A O S T A F F !

From IVAO Executive

Happy new year! On behalf of the IVAO Executive (Achmad, Erwin and Max) and all of the organisation

staff, we want to thank you for your endless support. We have had a busy and productive year, and

are looking forward to building on this year’s progress in 2014. We are excited to have you on board

with us.

Moments like these spontaneous and heartfelt remind us of why IVAO exists. As an organisation, our

purpose is to connect people who have a same hobby related with the Flight Simulation community

around the world.

This past year has been one of a busy period for our organization in many ways. We have achieved

several key milestones in terms of organisation growth and maturity as well, We have also made great

strides in growing our global usership community. To name just a few of the accomplishments of our

organisation in 2013, IVAO has maintained its existence for 15 long years!

You, the IVAO users, make all of this possible, and by working together we can accomplish more great

things in 2014. From all of us at IVAO Executive department, we thank you for helping us make the

progress we did this year, and in laying the course for continued success in the future. We wish you a

clear skies and outstanding experience in 2014.

From Eric Olson, IVAO BoG member

On behalf of the Board of Governors, we wish you a prosperous 2014 filled with clear skies and many safe landings.

From Rafael Korn, IVAO Membership

Advisor

I wish you all a happy, prosperous and

peaceful 2014, with many realizations

and much time to simulate on the vir-

tual skies of IVAO.Best regards from

the IVAO Membership Team and from

Brasil.

From Chris Döhring, IVAO Webmaster

I wish all users a healthy and happy new year 2014, and all the best for you and your families!

From Ken Andries, IVAO Belgium Director

Belgium Division wishes you all a happy new year. We hope you all make hundreds of

happy landings and/or many hours of happy controlling.

We hope that 2014 is another great year where we continue to spread the IVAO spirit.

From Thomas Hodemon, IVAO French Staff

The French Division wish you a happy new year 2014. We hope that

IVAO network will continue their works for the members in this year.

Juan Sebastian Rivera, IVAO Colombia StaffHappy new year to all IVAO members and I expect that all your dreams for this 2014 come true.

Denton Young, IVAO South Africa Director

Wishing you all at IVAO, a happy and successful

2014. Live the IVAO spirit for yet another year.

From Matt Torti, IVAO Switzerland StaffOn behalf of myself and IVAO Switzerland Division, I would like to wish the happiest new year to all our members. May it be another year full of health and happiness for you all! Keep the spirit

From Andrey Pysarenko, IVAO Ukraine DirectorHappy New Year, dear colleagues, dear friends! I wish you happiness and prosperity, tireless energy in work and self-confidence! And since we are united and virtual aviation network IVAO-wish her all together high-flying, rapid development, the successful implementation of the plans and new victories in competitive battles! I am confident that our team will make all of these wishes a reality! Sincerely.

From Max Schmidt, IVAO German Director

Happy New Year to our IVAO users from around the world; we would not exist without

you! Please keep that unique spirit sharing our hobby with countless people around

the globe regardless of real-world international conflict. ENJOY IVAO!

T H E I V A O B R A N D I N G P R O J E C TOne of the many exciting and amazing features that IVAO offers is the ability to fly anywhere in the world and receive exceptional air traffic control wherever you wish to venture. This huge global community started life based mainly around central Europe where several divisions were established, each specialising in their own unique local airspace knowledge.

Over the last 15 years the organisation has grown to include members from over 50 countries and has seen numerous metamorphoses of organisation and divisional logos, colour schemes, font use, email and forum signature that all celebrate the individuality of its members.

The IVAO branding project aims to bring together many of the visual and style elements that exist within the organisation and consolidate them into a common and more easily recognisable global brand.

The first thing to address was the plethora of different, IVAO logos that had emerged over the years. With each logo having been lovingly crafted for the organisation by its members it is difficult to reject them without projecting the sentiment that we do not care or that the members input is not important. This could not be further from the truth as since its inception IVAO has always been by the members,

for the members.

There is however the issue of trademarks which IVAO protect at great cost and even as this article goes to press IVAO are actively involved in updating our trademark documents to reflect the new official logos.

So, enough of the history lesson, what is being addressed and why?

We have already released the new official IVAO logos and the observant amongst you may have also noticed the 3 specific colours used. These colours will form part of the new branding profile which the web development team will code into a new CSS file for use with all new website content.

We have standardised the use of a common font (OpenSans), language, styles, numbering and much more. We have created a template for divisional logos so they may become compliant with the new branding and we are currently looking at forum and email signatures for staff members.

The web development team have been hard at work coding and testing what will become a new landing page for the main IVAO website. This new website has been designed with the members in mind rather than the existing system that favours the departmental structure of the organisation. The new menu structure should make it much easier for new and existing members to navigate and find information more quickly. We have been discussing this menu with all the departments to make sure all the information is retained but presented in a more logical manner.

IVAO documentation and copy text has not escaped the branding with influence being taken from The Associated Press Stylebook although we have made a few changes, for example, in acknowledgement that English is not every member’s first language we discourage the use of contractions (they’ll, he’s, it’s, it’ll, etc.) to make text easier to understand. We also accept dates in a different format from the stylebook such as not requiring months to be abbreviated when used with a date such as December 25, 2013 although the stylebook format of Dec 25, 2013 is also fine.

For those staff members who may find themselves public facing we will be looking at standard designs and formats for business cards whilst making provisions for different countries standard paper sizes.

As you can imagine this project is very large, involves a great number of people and will consequently take time to implement. There are regular meetings with many changes proposed, many of which need approval from the Board of Governors. However we will keep members updated as much as possible through use of the social networks and forum.

We hope this article has shed some light on how, why and what the IVAO branding project is all about and highlights our commitment to taking IVAO forward by embracing all members together as one community under a common identity.

I V A O T R A I N I N G D E P A R T M E N T ( H Q P I L O T )b y Z o l t a n G y e n g e

Because Quality matters

First of all, on behalf of the HQ Training Department, I would like to say thank you for the opportunity to be featured in the IVAO magazine with an article about the HQ Pilot Group.

What is the HQ Pilot Group?

Developed in 2010, the group is comprised of highly qualified pilots from IVAO with the mission of supporting exams by executing special or abnormal procedures on request of the examiner. Within four months, we had 20 members. We have started an “advertising” campaign for our service, and over time the demand for our service to participate in exams has grown. Our members are reputable pilots who can execute any unexpected or abnormal procedure during an exam. We are very proud of our members, and we considered it a milestone when we were able to recruit real life pilots to our team.

Some statistics:

In 2010 we have participated 38 exams with just 20 members, however, our main goal starting out was to ensure that we had the trust of the membership. Our exam workload increased in 2011 to 92 exams, and in 2012 we were invited to participate in 157 exams. At this rate, our group, on average, participates in an exam every other day.Today we have 39 active pilots in our team with members from several countries representing every continent of the world. We have a global focus with membership representation spanning multiple time zones allowing us to participate in exams across Europe, the Americas and the Far East.

Management:

The HQ Pilot group is managed by the HQ Training department, and coordinated by Mr. Zoltan Gyenge and Mr. Dionysis Moustakis with assistance from Mr. Gianluca Raberger. Of course, the team wouldn’t exist without the support of Mr. Michael Hansohm (IVAO-TD) and Mr. Herve Sors (IVAO-TAD).

Our future:

Even if we aren’t a classic Virtual Airline of IVAO, we often work like that with a more difficult application process. All of our members have shown their theoretical and practical skills through an entry exam. Why? As mentioned before, we are here to support the exams and to execute abnormal procedures for exams requiring a higher level of knowledge from our pilots.

Looking to the future, the number of exams we participate in will increase requiring more experienced IVAO (and probably real life) pilots to our team. If you would like to join us, please send your application to: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Please include your VID, Division, Pilot rating, ATC rating, and a short summary of why you think you would be a good HQ Pilot. If you are examiner and wish to request our assistance, it’s our pleasure to help for you. You can ask for the HQ Pilots here.

I V A O A T C O P E R A T I O N D E P A R T M E N T b y E l i a s H e r r e r o

General point of view

ATC Operations Department (AOD) is one of the Head Quarters departments in charge of the operative tasks related with all concerned about the air traffic control in IVAO. As the rest of departments, each Division has his own AOD coordinators (AOCs), who depend jointly on both the Divisional and AOD directors.Our main and daily tasks are focused on the maintenance of the operational database (DB) of IVAO, and the management of the Facility Rating Assignment (FRAs) system.The DB management is very important in the ATC operational issues because this tool establishes which ATC positions are available in the network. Usually, the process to include a new ATC position starts at the division level, and the corresponding AOC raises the request to the AOD through a specific forum only available for AOD staff members. Nevertheless, if the position is not located in an existing division, members can propose its creation directly to the AOD through the general and institutional mail account of the department.The FRA system is a vital piece of IVAO in order to guarantee the minimum required quality for each type of ATC positions. It is just a filter which allows the access and login as controller in a certain position to specific controller ratings (or greater). This protects us from the possibility that an unskilled controller can login in an important position. The management is usually carried out by the AOCs in each division, but the AOD is in charge of its management in geographical areas where divisions don’t exist.

Projects in course (prototype phase)

There are a couple of projects, which are being developed with the assistance of some divisions. These projects are still in beta, which means these are not still official.The first one is related with the promotion of the air traffic control in active divisions, and the title proposed is “Groups of Controllers” (GCs). The main idea is to join virtual ATCOs in a common place where learning and living together the ATC experience. It is inspired by the same idea of the virtual airline concept, but in this case, with essential characteristics: there is a limited number of GCs for each division, usually defined by using the geographical border of each FIR, and each one is managed by the corresponding FIR Chief; the inner management is carried out by the divisional staff; and all the infrastructure is allocated inside the webpage of the division.The second one tries to promote the engagement by increasing the ATCO presence in the active divisions. The title proposed is “ATC Competition”.

Incoming projects

At present, the AOD is working to improve the presence of IVAO in geographical areas where there are not active divisions. Our proposal is to build several tools to get it, like: an aeronautical document repository (just like an ATCwiki), in which all the important data for pilots and ATCOs will be accessible; and, a new webpage where ATCOs will be able to book ATC positions in events or non-official activities in this kind of regions.

Are you ready…?

The ATC Operations department wishes to increase the number of AOAs (ATC Operations Advisors). Further information will appear in the forum. Be careful…

I V A O C O N T E S T Sb y I V A O P u b l i c R e l a t i o n s D e p a r t m e n t

IVAO has a rich history of involving our members in contributing to the community with their seemingly limitless creative talents. Regular screenshot contests run for entries towards the IVAO calendar which gets published each year and many of the events run by the divisions or world tours generate beautiful videos that get shared for all to enjoy.

In some special cases IVAO may request the help of the members to create specific images or promotional material and these may well have the coveted ‘Creativity Award’ associated with them. However all the pictures, videos, banners and media we receive from the members is greatly appreciated and it is a joy to see such a wealth of talent and community spirit being shared.

I V A O M E M B E R S H I P D E P A R T M E N Tb y J o h n S o u s a & S a n d o r F r a i k o

The IVAO membership department is one of the busiest departments of IVAO handling more than 400,000 accounts. On a good day we reply to 30-50 e-mail but sometimes we get over 100 e-mails a day.

We would like to mention that our department is no longer handling World Tours, this was one of the biggest and most time consuming responsibilities we had. The WTs are now handled by the IVAO World Tour department. Currently, the Board of Governors is working on transferring some new responsibilities to the Membership department.

What are the duties and responsibilities of Membership department? We process the database of all members of IVAO

Duties include:- Profile updates name and email changes. - And everything related to the registration of new members.- Management of division transfers once approved by the target Division.- We work with close relations with Membership coordinators and assistant of all divisions to keep database clean as much as by checking for double accounts (name, IP, email address etc).- The Membership department is also responsible for issuing awards which must meet the requirements set forth by IVAO these are: * Kings of Skies / Radios users * Golden Wings * Super controller / Aviator users * Jet Fighter / Special Operations Controller

Looking into the future, we have many new ideas and improvements that we would like to accomplish but first we have to wait for the new website before we do anything.

I V A C 2 - I V A O S O F T W A R E D E P A R T M E N T b y S p l e n d o r B o u m a n

IvAc 2 has been a hot topic for discussion over the last few years. A secret project shrouded in mystery … Just like all mysterious projects this has caused a whirlwind of speculation, most of it hopelessly misguided. Today, however, we are prepared to publicly reveal the first details about IvAc 2.

Before going into the juicy details of what IvAc 2 will do, or look like, it is important to start by setting some basic facts straight. Many members are under the impression that IvAc 2 has been in develop-ment for a decade, or more.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Although ideas for features in “future versions of IvAc” have been talked about since IvAc 1.0.0, which was nothing more than a quick-fix replacement for ProController, was launched. Actual brainstorming about what we want in an “all new” controller client only began in late 2005. We starting thinking about how we could make the program multiplatform and easy to update for everyone. After a few (well, many) false starts with kilometers of code being thrown in the bin we finally started work on IvAc 2 in 2009, initially

concentrating on the windows build. Many hours were spent developing the framework - something completely invisible to users but essential to development. As code progressed we started facing issues with cross platform compilation, OpenGL and Java. We obviously have no control over either so we had to sit and wait while those issues were dealt with by their respective development teams. In 2010 we started facing severe problems with the combination of Swing (Java standard GUI toolkit) and OpenGL rendering so we decided to change the GUI toolkit to Qt Jambi, which meant that we had to rewrite all the UI code from scratch…

Which took over a year.

In 2012 Filip decided to buy a MacBook Pro specifically for IvAc 2 development. Coincidentally updates to Mac OS, and OpenGL libraries addressed some of the graphics issues we were having and allowed us to finally compile a stable “offline” build. Having overcome the majority of the technical coding difficulties and having completed a major FSD update which was essential to support some of the new IvAc features, we are now able to concentrate on adding features again.

Now all this time hasn’t been lost completely. The mapping protocol (new sector file system) was frozen in 2009

and the Belgian, French, German and British divisions have been working on new map data since then.

For more information about IvAc 2 and to keep up to date with all our development projects follow us at: http://blog.sd.ivao.aero.

U P C O M I N G I V A O E V E N T S I N J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4b y I V A O P u b l i c R e l a t i o n s D e p a r t m e n t

Three Wise men in Tenerife. (GCTS/GCXO)

@ GCTS & GCXO airportsJanuary 6th, 2014 from 18:00UTC

http://forum.ivao.aero/index.php?topic=235403.0

Manchester Overload

@ Manchester AirportJanuary 7th, 2014 from 17:00UTC


International Boeing meeting (LKMT) @ Ostrava Airport January 11th, 2014 from 19:00UTC


Real Flight Event Innsbruck

@ Innsbruck aiportJanuary 18th, 2014 from 06:30UTC


RFE Dallas/Fort Worth @ Dallas aiportJanuary 25th, 2014 from 16:00UTC


Virtual Sky - 14th issue

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