Operations Manual

Firstly, welcome to NZ Virtual Aviation. We are a virtual airline which provides a platform to fly New Zealand based aircraft routes, schedules and aircraft using Microsoft Flight Simulator. We welcome virtual pilots from all around the world and offer a range of aircraft from the Beechcraft Dash8/Q300 to the Boeing 777-300er. We fly over 4000 flight legs every week all over New Zealand, Australia, the South Pacific, Asia, North America and United Kingdom.

As a Virtual Airline we require you to fly Virtual Planes and for this utilise Microsoft Flight Simulator. We currently support the following versions of Flight Simulator:

• Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight - Also Known as Flight Simulator 2004 or 9
• Microsoft Flight Simulator X
• Lockheed Martin Prepar3D

At present we do not offer support for the following versions due to compatibility with our current ACARS system:

• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 - Professional & Standard Editions
• X-Plane

Please remember to have fun and enjoy this hobby. We're more like a community than a company and encourage you not to belong but participate.

1. Disclaimer

We are a Virtual Airline. We are not aligned with any real world airline or any subsidiary, aligned, contracted or associated companies. No comments, opinions, representations or discussions made on this website or members of NZ Virtual Aviation in public arena are on behalf of or with the consent of any such 3rd party.

2. Joining

a. Valid Name

All applications must be made using your full name or name that you go by for the purposes of Legal correspondence.

The use of nom de plumes, aliases, nicknames and false names are strictly forbidden.

b. Valid e-mail address

A valid email address is required for registration and all email addresses are validated during the registration processes.

Due to historic abuses of the registration system the following domains are not permitted for registration purposes:

• yahoo.com (& regional variances including yahoo.co.nz)
• gmail.com (& regional variances including gmail.co.nz)
• hotmail.com (& regional variances including hotmail.co.nz)
• msn.com (& regional variances including msn.co.nz)

Other "free domain" email addresses may be blocked on sole discretion of the management team.

c. Transfer of Hours

Application to the Human Resources Manager may be made to transfer hours from previous Virtual Airlines upon the following conditions:

• A maximum of 130hrs is transferable allowing the advancement to First Officer/A320 Rank
• Hours may only be transferred from ONE virtual airline or VATSIM not both.
• Hours must be able to be verified by the Human Resources Manager without them having to log in to any website or undertake contact with the previous Virtual Airline.
• Hours Transfers will only be authorised upon completion of 10 hours flight time as Trainee.
• Transfer of hours will be reversed if an Assessment of Flight or Knowledge identifies deficiencies in required competencies for a First Officer.
• Once Transferred to First Officer the A320 Type Rating must be completed before advancing to the A320.

d. Forum Registration

At this stage the Airline and Forum registrations are not linked.

Pilots are required to register on the forums to enable receipt of operational notices and changes to procedures.

Failure to register on the forums may result in suspension of your Airline Registration.

e. First Flight

You will have Two Weeks from the registration of your account to log your first flight. If you have not logged your first flight within 2 weeks you will receive a warning. If you still have not logged your first flight within one week of receiving your warning your account will be deleted.

f. Non-Competition and Conflict of Interest.

We reserve the right to hold an application for board approval where it feels there could be a possible breach in the non competition and security clause. After a Board discussion, an email will be sent letting you know the Boards decision. Where an applicant has failed to make the Board of Directors or Admin Staff aware of their management position at another airline, they will be suspended without notice whilst an investigation is made.

3. Ranks and Clearances

a. Rank Structure & Aircraft Clearances

Where a new rank is achieved all preceding aircraft types remain available.

Rank	Minimum Required Hours	Cleared Aircraft
Trainee	0 Hours	Dash8-Q300
Second Officer	50 Hours	Dash8-Q300
Senior Second Officer	80 Hours	ATR 72-500/600
First Officer	130 Hours	Airbus 320-200
Senior First Officer	205 Hours	Airbus 320-200
Captain	400 Hours	Boeing 767-300ER, 787-900
Senior Captain	600 Hours	Boeing 777-200/300ER
Fleet Commander	900 Hours	All Aircraft

Rank and Minimum Required Hours may change upon authorisation of the Board of Managers. Notice will be posted in the appropriate forum and as a NOTAM.

Aircraft Clearances may change upon authorisation of the Board of Managers. Notice will be posted in the appropriate forum and as a NOTAM. This will typically occur where codeshare partners are changed or permanent aircraft changes are recorded.

b. Promotions and Training Program

Promotions do not occur as an automated process.

Applications for promotions must be made using the appropriate form in the Crew Centre.

Promotions may be applied for upon reaching the Minimum Required Hours.

All Promotions must be approved by the Aircraft Training Officer, CFI and Training Manager.

Applications for promotion will be assessed by the relevant Aircraft Training Officers on the basis of the following items:

• Minimum Hours Flown
• Demonstration of Aviation
• Knowledge appropriate for Rank by way of any relevant Training Course in Moodle
• Assessment of logged PIREP
• Flies with particular reference to:
  • Aircraft & Fuel Weights
  • Aircraft V1/VR Speeds
  • Landing Speeds & Rates
  • Flight Levels
  • Routes & Flight Plans
  • Filed
• For senior rank advancement active involvement and participation in the forums & online flying.

Pilots that fail to qualify for a promotion will be required to undertake and additional amount of flight experience as specified in the Training Manager and CFI�s report. The amount of additional hours required will typically be between 10 and 20 hours.

Pilots that continuously fail promotions due to poor flight quality may be demoted or be subject to other discipline.

4. Schedules & Timetables

a. Summer/Winter Schedules

We operate summer and winter timetables that are scheduled to change at the commencement and conclusion of New Zealand Daylight Savings Time. Permanent amendments to the schedules will be incorporated at these times.

b. Online Timetable

The flight schedules are maintained online in the Crew Centre area of our site. Alternative sources of timetables are not approved and may result in an inability to log flights.

c. Changes to Schedules

Our schedules change regularly. These include the addition and cancellation of services due to a variety of reasons, changes of aircraft types for maintenance, weather related closures and a number of additional schedule changes.

NZ Virtual Aviation will not reflect all changes to real life timetables due to the logistics required to maintain this level of amendments.

5. Minimum Flight Requirements

ALL pilots are required to fly a minimum of ONE FLIGHT PER MONTH. There are no exceptions to this rule.

If you fail to log a flight each month you will receive an automated warning email from the Website.

If you fail to log a flight within two weeks of receiving your warning your account will be deleted without further warning.

If you know that you will be unable to complete a flight in any given month please contact the Human Resources Manager to apply for leave.

Please be aware that the Minimum Flight Requirements system is an automated process and that it is the pilots responsibility to ensure that the minimum flight times are met.

6. Flight Operations

a. Real World Procedures

While it is not completely possible to emulate real world aviation procedures we do encourage you to learn real world procedures and attempt to emulate them as much as you can in the simulator environment.

b. Selecting Flights

Flights are to be selected from the NZ Virtual Aviation Online Timetables or the NZ Virtual Aviation Offline timetable. No other source is permitted and may result in failed flight uploads.

Flights may only be flown on the day of the week that they are scheduled to be flown.

For full details on selecting flights please check the help available on forums or in the Crew Centre.

c. Flight Time

Flight Time is recorded as "Block to Block". This from when the park brakes are released at the gates to when they are set again after landing.

If consecutive flights are flown the Flight time does not include turnaround or refuelling time.

d. Flight Turnaround

Minimum turnaround between flights is 1 hour unless the flight schedules indicate a return flight leg in the same airframe. Changes in aircraft require a 1 hour minimum difference in flight time.

e. Accelerated Time

The use of accelerated time is discouraged however it is realised that to be able to fly some international routes pilots may use accelerated time.

Accelerated time is not-permitted to be used in the following circumstances:

• On any domestic flight.
• On any international flight with a total scheduled flight time of less than 4 Hours.
• While flying in an online environment (VATSIM/IVAO/Multiplayer Server).

Where accelerated time is permitted (international flights with a scheduled flight time of greater than 4 hours) the following rules shall be adhered to:

• The first 2 hours or 1000NM shall be flown at 1x acceleration.
• The accelerated portion of the flight shall not be flown at greater than 4x acceleration.
• The final 2 hours or 1000NM shall be flown at 1x acceleration.

f. Maximum Flight Hours

The primary objective of flying commercial airlines is to deliver customers on time. To meet this objective Virtual New Zealand has implemented a maximum hours policy. For flights up to 5 hours in scheduled duration an excess flight time of up to 20% is permitted. For flights in excess of a scheduled duration of 5 hours an excess flight time of 1 hour is permitted.

For a flight with a scheduled duration of 1:00 the maximum allowed flight time is 1:12
For a flight with a scheduled duration of 6:00 the maximum allowed flight time is 7:00

This policy is implemented automatically by all NZ Virtual Aviation flight logging software.

7. Flight Logging Software

a. ACARS

NZ Virtual Aviation utilises our own custom ACARS system for recording ALL flights. This software must be used exactly as specified in the NZ Virtual Aviation ACARS Manual or errors and frustration will occur.

Full details about the ACARS software can be found with the installer in our staff only downloads area which you will have access to once your application has been processed.

b. Other Flight Logging Software

We are aware of other products that provide very similar ACARS functionality but at this stage no others are approved or able to be used.

8. Online Flying

Online Flying increases the realism of the Flight Simulator experience by allowing you to fly in the Virtual World with other pilots, accurate air traffic controllers and real world weather.

a. VATSIM

NZ Virtual Aviation is a Virtual Airline Partner with VATNZ, the New Zealand Division of the VATSIM. In support of this partnership we encourage all members to join the VATSIM ( http://vatsim.net ) network and set your home division to New Zealand. This should be followed by joining the New Zealand Division at http://vatnz.net

b. IVAO & Other Networks

NZ Virtual Aviation allows pilots to fly on other networks but will not officially initiate, sanction or support events held on networks other than VATSIM.

c. Getting Online

Full information for getting online can be found on our website in our staff only downloads area which you will have access to once your application has been processed.

9. Conduct & Discipline

NZ Virtual Aviation will not tolerate inflammatory comments, obscene or vulgar language, personal political or religious intolerance, promotion of illegal or immoral activity, falsification of pilot flight reports or activities to bring the airline in to disrepute. It will be at the discretion of the Board the level of punishment meted against any breach of acceptable protocol. Current levels of punishment include:

• Formal Warning
• Docking of Flight Hours
• Rank Demotion
• Suspension
• Dismissal

All pilots subject to disciplinary proceedings will be offered a right of reply to the board.

Any complaints of mis-conduct must be made to the Human Resources Manager or CEO as soon as possible. The CEO will provide notice of any disciplinary action upon recommendation of the board.

"Double Dipping" flight times between two virtual airlines (claiming the same flight for multiple airlines) will not be tolerated and any infringing pilot will be recommended for dismissal to the Board.

10. Pilot Leave

Pilots may request Leave for periods where they may be unable to meet the minimum flight time requirements. Leave applications shall be made to the Human Resources Manager requests should include duration of leave and reason for leave.

Pilots with less than 25 hours of flight time, excluding transferred hours, will generally not be eligible for Leave.

Leave records are maintained by the Human Resources Manager. Additional Leave may be applied for but will be at the discretion of the Board of

A Pilot returning from leave will be automatically returned to the active roster upon the acceptance of their first Flight log. This is an automated process.

11. Privacy Statement

The collection, use, storage, disclosure and correction of personal information by the Airline is governed by The Privacy Act 1994. Personal information means information about an identifiable individual. The Airline complies with the obligations of this Act.

It collects, stores, uses and discloses personal information about individuals in the following circumstances:

• Automatically logged information
• The following information may be recorded and logged by the server when you visit this website:
  • your browser's Internet address
  • your server's address
  • your domain name
  • your IP address
  • the date and time of your visit to the site
  • the pages you accessed and documents downloaded
  • the type of browser you are using
  • the username entered if accessing a restricted site.

The airline uses this information for statistical purposes and for system administration tasks to maintain this service. The airline does not attempt to identify individuals as part of regular business practice. However, in the event of an investigation, the airline, a law enforcement agency or other government agency may exercise its legal authority to inspect relevant server logs.

Confidential and Personal Information

The airline takes all reasonable precautions to guard against unauthorised access to confidential and personal information including the loss, misuse and alteration of the information held by the airline. When personal information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected it may be deleted.

Cookies

A cookie is a very small text file that is sent to your browser from our web server and stored on your computer hard drive. The text file is sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. Cookies help us to provide the user with a customised experience without having to remind us of his/her preferences each time he/she returns to our web pages. Cookies cannot damage files, nor can they read information from the hard drive of a computer. It is possible to disable the acceptance of cookies by your web browser. However, doing so may restrict your ability to access some web pages.

Use of Personal Information

Personal information you supply to us through the use of online forms, email, online surveys and feedback will be used for the purposes of the airline including administration matters, provision of services and the dissemination of information to staff, statistical information, and ongoing contact and communication with pilots.

Disclosure of Personal Information

Personal information held by the airline WILL NOT be disclosed to third parties unless the airline is obliged to disclose information in certain circumstances set out in any Act or by order of any Court or Tribunal of competent jurisdiction.

If at any stage you provide us with your email address either as part of a message or by completing a web form, we will only use your email address for the purposes for which it was provided. We will not subscribe your email address to any external mailing list.

If you choose to disclose your personal information on the publicly accessible parts of the website or forums the airline has no ability to restrict the dissemination of that personal information to third parties.