Happy Holidays

Administrative offices will be closed until January 4th. Wishing all of you a very happy holiday season - please drive and fly safe.

Tour the North Atlantic This Winter

Our Alaska tour was such a hit this year that we've decided to extend our visit to the north with a tour of the North Atlantic Ocean. Visiting eleven different countries, this tour visits Greenland and Iceland as you make your way to the Faroes and then it's a visit to coastal towns in England, France, Spain and Portugal. You get to cross the Atlantic again on your way back to the states, with stops on the Azores.

Begin your North Atlantic Tour by clicking here

Annual Flight Review - Written Option

There is now an option available for members who do not have a VATSIM account (or simply do not want to fly on VATSIM) to complete the 2009 Annual Flight Review.

The second option is to complete an online "open-book" exam. The exam includes 25 multiple-choice questions mostly about web content at AeroTexas and information from the handbook. The exam will also test your knowledge about a selected non-precision approach, and you'll even get to decode a few METARS along the way - fun, actually!

2009 Annual Flight Review

(You must be logged in to take the exam)

2009 Check Ride Requirements

The annual checkride this year has two options:

1. Select any flight from the regional or continental schedules at AeroTexas, and complete that flight on the VATSIM network using your AeroTexas ID as the callsign. Then, report your flight as usual and note in the comments section that the flight was a checkride, and that it was flown on VATSIM. Note that VATSIM controllers do not have to actually be online for this to be a valid checkride flight.

2. Use a variant of ATAVS to fly a prescribed 2-hour route using VOR and ADF navigation and without an autopilot. More details later - this option will be available sometime on or before 15 November.

To check the status of your check ride click here.

2009 Check Ride - Starts November 1st

The checkride period this year will be from November 1st to November 30th. As in previous years, this is a mandatory checkride for all members of AeroTexas. The difference this year is there are two options:

The first option is the easiest - simply pick any flight from the regional or continental schedules at AeroTexas, and complete that flight on the VATSIM network using your AeroTexas ID as the callsign. Then, report your flight as usual and note in the comments section that the flight was a checkride, and that it was flown on VATSIM.

The second option is similar to what you've seen in the past - completing a flight using a variant of ATAVS; this option may not be available until mid-November, which might leave only a two-week window (more details will be released here when it's ready).

I would really prefer if everyone chose the first option, as we could use the exposure on the VATSIM network. And as further motivation, the second option will be particularly challenging (i.e., about a two-hour flight with no autopilot and lots of VOR work).

The check ride period starts tomorrow - Happy Halloween!

FuelJabber is now FUEL²

FuelJabber is now FUEL² and has moved! FUEL² is an advanced fuel planner for Flight Simulator. Features include options for more than 20 different aircraft, time-based and distance-based flight dispatch models, FAR domestic, international, and JAR rulesets; and a complete loadsheet, complete with weight and balance information. Check it out here

Boeing 747 Preview

Runway and Weather Data

Here is a sneak peek at ATAVS version 7.4 - as you can tell, this will be a version update, not just a new release. The newest feature is an airport information window that displays runway and elevation, including ILS frequencies and approach headings. And you also get the current weather through the METAR displayed in the same window. A new statusbar in the main window displays the estimated time of arrival for the flight in progress. I'm hoping to release ATAVS 7.4 this weekend so stay tuned!

FuelJabber Updated

The AeroTexas FuelJabber, our unique flight simulation online fuel planner now includes a weight analysis so you can verify that the fuel requirements do not exceed maximum fuel weight. FuelJabber also adds a payload estimate based on actual load factors, so you can plan weight and balance more realistically, and actually have a reason to kick off passengers if the the weight exceed maximums.

Click here to go to the FuelJabber

When One Menu Isn't Enough

Today we added a simple menu at the bottom of the home page. We're calling this the Easy Access Bar because it puts common public features of the website at your fingertips, without having to go through the Members Only area to get there. Today it has links to the roster, the VOR RouteFinder, the fuel planner, our vatsim status page, the our flight tracking display, and finally a link to the onloine optimized descent planner. Hope you enjoy the toys!

ATAVS 7.3 Released

ATAVS is a Microsoft Flight Simulator add-on that provides enroute flight validation and simplifies flight reporting. ATAVS is pre-registered for use with FSUIPC so it can be used with both registered and unregistered versions of FSUIPC.

ATAVS Version 7.3 was released today. All members should download the update before your next flight. This version supports MSFS FS2002, FS2004 (FS9/COF), and FSX.

CAT II/III Endorsements

Starting this year, pilots with at least a Regional Jet Captain rating (40+ hours) can work on special low IFR endorsements: CAT II, CAT IIIa, CAT IIIb, and CAT IIIc. These endorsements show up on the roster next to your rating and sleeve stripes, but the best thing about these endorsements is they no longer require a checkride!



But they're not easy to get and they do require currency to keep, because these low weather endorsements require a good bit of regular flying in the low stuff, and they automatically expire after a period of time unless you remain current. Here's how it works:

Qualified pilots (Regional Jet Captain or higher) who have logged at least one IFR flight in the past 45 days are automatically granted a provisional CAT II certification. On the roster page this shows up as a star (*). To convert this to a full blown CAT II endorsement you'll need to log one or more LIFR, CAT II, or CAT III flights (the so-called GROUP ALPHA flights). GROUP BRAVO flights are designated for any flight that terminates with CAT II or CAT III weather.

CAT IIIa: Qualified pilots who have logged at least two (2) GROUP ALPHA flights, of which one (or more) was a flight from GROUP BRAVO in the past 45 days will receive a CAT IIIa endorsement. The CAT IIIa endorsement authorizes approaches down to RA75.

CAT IIIb: Qualified pilots who have logged at least three (3) GROUP ALPHA flights, of which one (or more) was a CAT III flight, will receive a CAT IIIb endorsement. The CAT IIIb endorsement authorizes you to fly approaches down to RA50.

CAT IIIc: Qualified pilots who have logged at least five (5) GROUP ALPHA flights, of which three (3) or more were CAT III flights, will receive a CAT IIIc endorsement. The CAT IIIc endorsement is the pinnacle of low IFR – this endorsement authorizes you to fly zero-visibility approaches.

You'll also be pleased to know that all the endorsements mentioned here come with their own ribbons, and are visible on your awards page after a performance audit. To see these and other awards go to Awards at AeroTexas

Preparing for VATSIM

I recently came across an informative and very fun flightsim podcast. It's called FSBreak. Hosted by Eric McClintock and friends, each podcast includes lots of interviews, reviews of flightsim products, and entertaining humor. If you love flightsim, you'll enjoy this podcast.

Podcast #34 on Sept 16th included an interview with Ian Elchitz, VATSIM Supervisor and Air Traffic Manager for the Los Angeles ARTCC. Ian talks about an event called LA Swarm, which was last weekend, but his insight into flying on VATSIM is especially helpful for simmers who have never flown online. Starting about 12 minutes into the podcast, Ian explains step-by-step what you can expect when flying online, and offer some great advice about realism settings and tips for communication with air traffic controllers. After listening to this podcast I wanted to logon to VATSIM and fly to LAX.

Yes - a big thumbs up to Ian Elchitz and all the dedicated folks at VATSIM!

Click here to listen to FSBreak Episode 34

RouteFinder Updated

The AeroTexas RouteFinder now supports trans-Atlantic routes using North Atlantic Tracks (NATs). This route network stretches across the Atlantic Ocean from northeast North America and Canada to western Europe.

Also new - Two additional options have been added (really just made operational, finally) to help with flight planning:

1. Preferred Routes from the National Flight Data Center

and

2. Coded Departure Routes from the FAA's Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) program.

This flight planner can be accessed from the Members Only area (don't confuse it with the VOR-only routefinder that is available to the public).

Fokker 70 Takeoff and Landing Speeds

Lately I've logged a few hours in the Fokker 70 by Project Fokker Jetline. It's an excellent model - much more stable and easier handling I think than either of the regional jets we currently have in primary service. I developed some basic textures to go with our fleet. This chart shows the takeoff and landing speed for the Fokker jets. It can be pretty handy, but do know that it is in kilograms not pounds.

Using the data from this chart I developed some very simple formulas you can use to determine takeoff and landing speed for typical configurations. The first one is for takeoff, flaps 15, all speeds in knots. V1 is equal to Vr and TOW is takeoff weight in pounds; for midscale-weights just add 5 knots to get V2:

V1 = Vr = 47 + TOW / 1100; TOW= takeoff weight in pounds

V2 = Vr + 5


For landing, Vref with flaps 42:

Vref(flaps 42) = 0.77 * LWT + 61.6; LWT= landing weight in thousands of pounds

Here's an example for a very typical configuration. The Fokker 70 has an empty weight of 61000 lbs, and a maximum takeoff weight of 83820 lbs. KLM uses these aircraft heavily in their CityHopper services in Europe and the F70 is fitted with 80 seats. Let's be generous and assume a 75% load factor, so on average 60 of the seats are filled, and passengers bring luggage (to simplfy things we won't worry about the difference between Summer and Winter weights) so the total passenger payload is say 12000 lbs. A one hour flight will burn an estimated 4100 lbs of fuel, but the rules require an additional 5400 lbs for reserves (holding, diversion, and contingency) so that's 9500 lbs of fuel. The takeoff weight then is 82500 lbs.

V1=Vr = 47 + 82500/1100 = 122 knots
V2 = 127 knots

On arrival the weight will be about 78400 lbs, so the calculated Vref speed for flaps 45 is:

Vref45 = 78.400 * 0.77 + 61.6 = 122 knots.

In my experience the takeoff values are a tad low for the Project Fokker 70, but they come close and I think are pretty useful as a basic reference.

Updated roster

I've added current month stats to the roster. Note that the roster is currently being updated several times throughout the day. While it is essentially an automatic process, I have not started a schedule for it yet so I'll be "pressing the button" from HQ until I'm satisfied that it is stable. Still I do plan to update the roster at least 4-6 times per day.

View Roster

Also - don't forget about the VA Meeting on Saturday. I scheduled two flights for myself - one an arrival and another a departure slot, but before and after I plan to shuttle between Friedrichshafen (EDNY) and Frankfurt (EDDH) - so drop in anytime and say hi. See my previous post for instructions about signing up.

vACC Online Event + VA-Meeting 2009

A few years back we had international service to Switzerland, and it was a lot of fun. This year we return to the land of Helvetica as we join with other virtual airlines online with VA-Meeting 2009. This event, presented by vACC Switzerland, is one of the biggest VA-events on VATSIM and will be held on Saturday, September 12, 2009 starting at 1800Z (1:PM CDT) to 2200Z (5:PM CDT). The event was made especially for VAs, and AeroTexas was invited to participate. It doesn't matter if you fly VFR or IFR, and it doesn't matter what your current rating is at AeroTexas - everyone is welcome to participate, especially our new members!

Though any arrival or departure from Zurich (LSZH) is acceptable, here are a few suggested places:

About 1 hour:
Frankfurt (EDDF)
Munich (EDDM)
Luxembourg (ELLX)
Lyon (LFLL)

About 1.5 hours:
London (EGKK)

About 2 hours:
Madrid (LEMD)

Most slots are filled , but I understand that they are planning to open more slots this afternoon. Please use the following code to book flights: 4a92c061cd816

Event Website
http://vameeting.vacc.ch

Charts
http://www.vacc.ch/en/documents/airports_and_charts/LSZH

See you in Zurich!

New Roster Page

The roster of pilots at AeroTexas is presented online quite differently from almost all other virtual airlines (VAs). Most VAs simply present the names and/or member-ids of their members by sequential number. Essentially this sorts the list from top to bottom by tenure; the longer you've been a member, the lower your id number, and the higher your place on the roster. This seems unfair to newer members who may be (and in my experience usually are) more active than the existing membership. And it seems very unfair for members of larger VAs because the newer members may never appear on the first, or the second pages, or maybe not until very deep into the roster.

At AeroTexas the roster is presented as a list of members sorted by recent activity. It doesn't matter how long you've been a member, only how active you are. The more you fly, the higher your level of activity, and as a result the higher your place on the roster - where you can compare your statistics with other members who are likewise active members.

The roster at AeroTexas has been further redesigned to display the number of flights made in the current month, the date of last flight, the most recent equipment used, and the current location - the place to which they most recently landed. So go out there and fly one for AeroTexas - you'll be at the top of the list!

Check out the AeroTexas roster here

FuelJabber Updated

Our fuel planning solution has been updated to support the Fokker 70 regional jet as designed by Project FOKKER Jetline.

AeroTexas Expands All-Weather Cargo Operations - Partners with FourFlights

AeroTexas Aviation has expanded operations with a new cargo service. Through an exclusive partnership with Fourflights.com, we have expanded cargo operations with flight assignments to Part 139 airports with prevailing IFR conditions. It is suggested that pilots who fly these routes have experience with low IFR (< 500 feet ceiling and/or < 1 SM visibility), and preferably a CAT II/III certification. Flight assignments are updated hourly and posted to the AeroTexas website.

ATAVS Update

A new version of ATAVS was released today: Version 7.2 Release 22. This release contains updates that have been under way since last February, including:

Reduced verbosity in logging.

Updated equipment list to support future air taxi service.

Full support for the new website, including landing performance, user name authentication, and arrival weather flight conditions.

Added sound signal for crash/slew detection.

Added display of aircraft type in statusbar on Refresh or Start.

Updated equipment file.

Updated stationref file.

All members should download this new version before your next flight.

Houson LIVE! Event Recap

The Houston Live! event was well staffed in the Houston terminal area, and there were two Center controllers online too. I only managed one flight - from Monterrey to Austin. The weather at MMMY was marginal VFR and there were no controllers there - so that it made it easier to get in the air. Flight plan was LRD-SAT-CWK. Crossing the border near Laredo I was contacted by Houston Center, and shortly afterward directed to cross pilot's discretion one zero thousand, and to expect ILS Runway 17R. Received the full treatment, though conditions were very good and could have just canceled IFR and landed visual. I think there is an event in Fort Worth pretty soon - I'll keep you posted about this - hope to see more ATXans on VATSIM - it was fun.

Plans for Houston Live!

AeroTexas plans to participate in the 2009 Houston Live event. The event is pretty much free-form - so there's no specific departure or destinations, but the goal is to spend some time in Houston ARTCC airspace, or ZHU (see map).

As I plan for this event I think there are several options for AeroTexas members. The most basic is simply a one leg flight inside Houston airspace. I'm thinking the best plan for this option is to fly from San Antonio to Houston (either KIAH or KHOU will probably guarantee coverage all the way to ground). A second option is to either depart ZHU and land in another airspace, such as KAUS-KDFW, or depart from outside and return to ZHU, such as Memphis to Austin or Houston.

If you really want to mix things up, I would recommend a triangle. Flight triangles are a lot of fun and allow for different experiences in different centers. One possibility is Corpus - Lake Charles - Alliance (KAFW) - Corpus. All of the airports are relatively small, but have long enough runways for large jets. This means you usually won't have to deal with ground and tower comms - just pick up your clearance from Center before departing. Smaller airports I think are just easier to deal with all the way around - and it gives you the opportunity to consider a non-precision approach should conditions prevail upon your instrument skills. And if not - then you'll likely get a visual approach from a harried Center controller. If it gets too crazyn then you can just cancel IFR below 18000 and make your way in however you want!

Still another option would be to fly Bravo local - you could do KHOU-KGLS-KBPT-KIAH, for instance. All of these routes are valid and acceptable for the fly-in and any curve balls you can throw to ATC will keep things interesting for you and controllers.

Don't forget - this Saturday, August 22nd Houston ARTCC controllers will gather in Houston and they will be plugged into the scopes for 3 hours of LIVE controlling. Staffed from Delivery to Center, pilots will enjoy professional and courteous Lone Star hospitality as Houston controllers guide them safely home. No sign ups, no timetables, no worries, just come fly the friendly skies of Houston ARTCC (ZHU). The event will be in effect from 2200Z to 0100Z (5:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.)

Houston LIVE!

On Saturday, August 22nd Houston ARTCC controllers will gather in Houston and they will be plugged into the scopes for 3 hours of LIVE controlling. Staffed from Delivery to Center, pilots will enjoy professional and courteous Lone Star hospitality as Houston controllers guide them safely home. No sign ups, no timetables, no worries, just come fly the friendly skies of Houston. The event will be in effect from 2200Z to 0100Z (5:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.)

Houston Overload - July 12 Fly-In on VATSIM

Flight Date: 07/12/2009
Origin: KMSY
Destination: KIAH
Distance: 264 nm
Flight Time: 1.5 HRS
Flight Route: TBDDP JEPEG WOLDE WOLDE2

2000Z - 2300Z (3PM - 6PM CDT)
Planned Altitude: your choice, but see instructions below.

SPECIAL Instructions:

Have ALL CHARTS for both the departure and arrival airports handy in case of wind changes!!! Please make sure you have the current departure chart with you. Some ATC request 1st waypoint information on RNAV Departures! Make sure flight simulator is displaying “Indicated Airspeed”. Please be very patient with the controllers, they may have their hands full with us!

Please make sure you sign online with ATX in your call-sign. Your call-sign should include your AeroTexas ID (eg., ATX01).

FLIGHT LEVELS:
Eastbound RVSM (FL290, FL310, FL330, FL350, FL370, FL390, FL410)
Westbound RVSM (FL300, FL320, FL340, FL360, FL380, FL400)

For more informaiton visit VATSIM ZHU

Pingo's Cabin

The bonus flight in the Alaska International series this Summer is to a cabin which can be located on the Fairbanks sectional chart about halfway between Minto (51Z) and the small community of Tolvana to the magnetic south. It lies on a branch of the Tolvana River, a few miles north of a small lake.

Using FSSC and AFCAD I developed scenery for this cabin, which I've interpreted as a pretty nice Forest Ranger's station, complete with radio tower and front porch. I added some improvements too: a fictional 2000 foot gravel runway running north and south, and a post office across the way from the cabin.

You can download the scenery here.

The easiest way to find the cabin is to depart Fairbanks, Alaska and intercept the FAI VOR 262 radial outbound for 46 NM. There are several forest service lookout towers in the area, and a 200 foot antenna tower just west of the cabin (but not on
the sectional), which you should be able to see as you approach from the east. The elevation is 530 feet MSL.

Though the area is not particularly mountainous, it is certainly rugged and hilly. A few STOL practice landings in Fairbanks would definitely be worth the effort. Trees all around the runway, and near both ends increase the pucker factor in a considerable way.

Alaska

This Summer AeroTexas journeys away from the heat of the Lone Star State to another great state - America's Last Frontier. International service resumes with flights to Anchorage and Bethel, across the Bering Sea to St. Lawrence Island, into the Arctic Circle, and across the Alaskan Range. Included is a bonus flight to a new AeroTexas resort (ermm...well just a cabin really) and a challenge flight on the final regional leg.

Check it out here

Embraer Legacy 600 Textures

One of our primary aircraft is the Embraer ERj-135. AeroTexas has expanded this offering to members with textures for the Embraer Legacy 600. This aircraft is based on the Embraer E145, but includes added range with extra fuel tanks in the tail and forward of the wing, as well as winglets. There are two seating configurations. For regional passenger and air-taxi service, the cabin seats 24 passengers with first-class comfort in three partitions. The international executive charter configuration has seating for up to 16 passengers.

To download these textures visit the Fleet Library in the Members Only area.

June Update

I hope you've had a chance to visit the website this year. If not, then you're in for quite a surprise. http://aerotexas.com was revamped with a fully CSS compliant new web design written in XHTML. As in the past the site is divided into two areas: public and private (i.e., Members Only). One goal of this design was to improve the experience for members. The private area is accessed though a login system as before, but now the login id and password is specific to each user. The result is each member has their own personal page. From there members can edit their user profile to update their e-mail address, location, and password. Members can also access fleet downloads and the latest version of ATAVS. Each member is highlighted on this page, and has private links to their logbook, flight statistics and endorsements, and even a map of the last 100 flights. There are still a few places that need some work, but it's coming together.

Fleet Changes: The AeroTexas fleet has changed incrementally over the years. In the past, space and bandwidth limitations forced us to focus on just a few aircraft. We now have access to more drive space and a higher bandwidth limit. What this means is that you are likely to see more aircraft packages added to the fleets pages. For support we will still focus on two official aircraft per service class (i.e., two turbocraft, two regional jets, two large jets, two heavy jets, etc.), yet I hope we can extend the number of available aircraft in every service. That's good news for you, because Tommie Wood continues to oversee aircraft acquisition, paints like crazy, and packages everything up in fantastic tidy packages for members. And those packages are so tidy that they really require very little actual support. Tommie recently completed some ATX textures for proprietary aircraft, and is working on a replacement for the Beech 1900 (it's an AT72), and a 747SP for international and cargo service. As a side note, I have created a set of textures for the POSKY Embraer 135 Legacy, and that will be available on the website by this weekend.

Partnership with FourFlights: Members can now log flights to destinations on the fourflights.com website, where one destination for each of the four flight rules are displayed: VFR, MVFR, IFR, and LIFR. Additionally, the 20 closest airports to each of the destinations are also displayed. Members can choose any route pair and log time flown on routes. Technically these will be denoted as charter flights, and can be flown as passenger or cargo type.

AeroTexas Forum: The forum can be accessed from your Members page. This is a new forum so you'll have to register to use it, but the upside is it now has the capability for you to upload and share screenshots from your flights, we well as chat with others about airline operations, online flying, and other topics.

Branding: A few months ago our newest partner, Ben Holzer, showed me some design work he had finished for a class project. I thought it was about the neatest thing I had ever seen - an AeroTexas vintage logo, based on an early TTA design. Tommie has added this logo to some of our newer aircraft and I think it looks great. Should we change our official logo? Maybe it's time to rebrand AeroTexas. What do you think?

RouteFinder: actually we have two of these now. One can be accessed by the public, has advertisements, and is limited to VOR navigation. The other dynamically finds routes along Victor and Jet airways, has no advertising, and is for Members Only.

VATSIM: We plan to have a multi-day fly-in sometime before the end of this Summer. I'd like to see some discussion about this on the forum, because I'd like as many folks from AeroTexas participating as possible. I know online flying is not everybody's thing, but if you're not doing it just because you don't know how, then that's silly - it's not that difficult, really. If you're wondering who is online, just check our VATSIM status page (http://aerotexas.com/vatsim.php).

Social Links: We are so connected - AeroTexas has an active RSS feed so you can keep up with NOTAMS without visiting the NOTAMS page every day. Also, we're on Twitter! Follow us at http://twitter.com/AeroTexas where you'll see tweets from every flight, cargo assignments, and daily charters.

International Schedule: This Summer we travel North - way up there - to Alaska. The new Summer schedule will be released in just a few days, so get ready to explore America's Last Frontier.

ATAVS is at version 7 - please download the full install, or if you have an early release then get the update. It helps with the new performance logging system - we now track descent rate at touchdown, and the weather.

Service Changes: The Explorer flight program is officially ended. It was a good program, but there was no pattern of flights that suggested additions or changes to the regular schedule. The addition of our partnership with Fourflights, along with existing daily charters and cargo assignments means lots of new places to fly. Also, there are plans for an Air Taxi service, and I hope we can roll that out before Fall. Policy changes outlined below open up even more flight options.

Policy Changes: Many of our members belong to more than one virtual airline. In the past we frowned upon logging time with one airline while flying for another. All that changes now, and we even encourage you to log time with AeroTexas (using ATAVS of course) while pursuing active status for other virtual airlines and clubs. A brief notation when you file your flight pirep is recommended - for example, "Codeshare Delta Virtual".

Luggage: Last year I worked out a deal with LuggageWorks to offer discounts to our members for their most durable, functional luggage. I'm not getting paid to say this (actually I paid LW setup fees for the AeroTexas logo). I purchased one of their Stealth rolling luggage. It's the same one used by pilots - just see what they're pulling around next time you're at the airport. Expensive, yes - slightly less with your AeroTexas discount. Worth it absolutely. http://www.luggageworksonline.com

We're not sponsored by LW or anyone else, but we are using some advertising on the site. Hopefully you'll find something to like and every click is worth a nickel or two - it all adds up. The ads will not appear on Members pages - just the public ones and no I'm not accepting donations - the ads aren't that bad.

Finally, your ideas and suggestions, comments and queries are always welcome. Without them we wouldn't be where we are - almost a decade of bringing Lone Star Service to the World!

Four Flights

Effective today, members can now log flights to destinations on the fourflights.com website. The way that site is set up one destination for each of the four flight rules are displayed: VFR, MVFR, IFR, and LIFR. Additionally, the 20 closest airports to each of the destinations are also displayed. Members can choose any route pair and log time flown on that route.

For example, currently the following four destinations have been identified by fourflights.com:

KMCN - Middle Georgia Regional Airport LIFR
KAEX - Alexandria International Airport IFR
KMTO - Coles County Memorial Airport MVFR
KPMD - Palmdale Flight-Test Airport VFR

Each of these has 20 nearest airports identified as well. So if you wanted to fly to Middle Georgia Regional Airport, which has a 2200 foot broken ceiling, visibility 3/4 miles in thunderstorms and rain, you could start your flight from Columbus Metropolitan Airport at 66 NM away, Birmingham International Airport at 166 NM away, or any of the other 18 airports listed there.

Please note that some of the fourflights.com airports may be regional airports and small municipal fields - please choose your aircraft wisely.

747SP

Our illustrious fleet director has a new love - the 747SP. Tommie painted up this one in vintage AeroTexas colors. According to Wikipedia, the idea for the 747SP came from a request by Pan Am for a 747 variant capable of carrying a full payload non-stop on its longest route between New York and Tokyo. It set a world record in 1976 as the "Liberty Bell Express", when it was flown around the world in 46.43 hours, starting at JFK on May 1st with two stopovers (Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and Tokyo-Haneda Airport).

For Members Only

One feature available to all members is a map view for each member's last 100 flights. Click on the link, "View a map of last 100 legs" to view the routes you have flown.

Charter flights have returned!

Today I'm happy to announce that AeroTexas's "Daily Flight" series has returned. Currently the plan is to update this several times throughout the day, but for now the daily flight will be just that - one flight per day. The daily flight assignments will include private and corporate charter flights, as well as temporary codeshares with select commercial airlines. This is a roundtrip flight too, with the first leg departing from a Part 139 airport. The destination however may be anything from a major airport in a metropolitan area, to a small municipal strip in the middle of little podunk! Pick your plane wisely. For now you can at least be comforted by the fact that destination charters are required to have at least a 3000 foot runway. The daily flight assignment will also be tweeted!

Click here to view The Daily Flight

FuelJabber Updated

FuelJabber is AeroTexas' own fuel planner that estimates fuel usage and requirements based on enroute times and fuelage values for selected flight simulator aircraft. Recently updated, FuelJabber uses the latest fuelage statistics to estimate fuel, and has been expanded to allow for time-based as well as distance-based fuel planning.

Check it out here.

Aircraft Popularity Ratings + Fuel Usage Patterns

Data from the AeroTexas logbook indicates that the top three most-used aircraft since January 2007 were:

Boeing 737-700 (563 flights)
Convair 240 (543 flights)
Canadair Regional Jet 200 (479 flights)

Listed in the table below are the top 30 aircraft, listed from high to low, along with fuel usage averages (click on the table to enlarged):


EQPT = aircraft ICAO code, N = number of flights, PPH = pounds per hour, PPNM = pounds per nautical mile, GPH = gallons per hour

VATSIM Status

We have a prototype of a new tool for checking the online status of VATSIM controllers. This tool displays Center controllers only - no Tower, Approach, or ATIS. It also displays route info for any AeroTexas members who happen to be on VATSIM. Check it out here

Website Update

The Squawks page is now operational again. It has not been collecting squawks except for pilot personal logs since April 13, so it seems a bit dated, but that will change as members post comments along with their flight report.

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The cargo page is now being fed with a new dispatcher.

ATR42-30 "Alamo Design"

A sneak peek into something Tommie has been working on over at the hangar...

VATMEX Fly-In

At the fly-in yesterday I heard ATX31 on Houston Center frequency and we set up a chat for most of the flight to Mexico City. He was dogedly trying to get ZHU's attention for liftoff from Laredo, and I had been airborne for a while, departing earlier from Austin. Actually ZHU was so busy, and I must have been just ahead of the horde lining up in Houston so my first contact with any ATC was entering MMTY airspace. They had two controllers on frequency - one speaking English and the other Spanish, so it was sort of a DI-lingual staffing. I flew the Vista Liners Boeing 727-100 Beta with a panel of my own mashed-up design. ATX31 was flying the CRJ-200. The airwaves were busy, but we got good attention from all the VATMEX staffed throughout Mexico. Closer to Mexico City, the terrain rose to the South and West and we got instructions to fly the TAMAL1A. In Mexico, there is a different terminal arrival procedure for each approach. We were cleared for the approach to Runway 5R, and this was my view from the flight deck.



Also notice the mass of radar echos - there's a lot of aircraft in the area. This was a fun event and I hope VATMEX does it again sometime soon.

VATMEX Fly-In Today

The !VIVA MÉXICO¡ Fly In begins today at 6:PM CDT (2300Z). AeroTexas has approved a good selection of round-trip flights to Mexico City. Suggested flight plans are below (thanks Ben!). You are encouraged to check the VATMEX Website for the latest information. See you in the air this evening - check the aerotexas voice channel during the event.

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Flight Plans

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ARRIVING Mexico City:
KAUS-MMMX: AUS2.SAT.J21.TMN.VITOS1A
KHOU-MMMX: PSX3.PSX.J177.TAM.UJ14.TMN.VITOS1A
KSAT-MMMX: BOWIE3.LRD.J21.TMN.VITOS1A
KELP-MMMX: CJS.UJ47.SLP.UJ45.QET.KOBEK1A

Departing Mexico City:
MMMX-KAUS: BETER1.BETER.J177.TAM.UJ19.MAM.J25.BRO.J25.CWK
MMMX-KHOU: BETER1.BETER.J177.TAM.UJ53.AGUAS.UJ25.CRP.LISSE6
MMMX-KSAT: BETER1.BETER.J177.TAM.UJ19.MAM.J25.BRO.J25.CRP.LEMIG1
MMMX-KELP: [SID].TLC.J13.PTJ.UJ45.SLP.UJ47.TRC.J42.DEL.UJ27.OMVAV

Status Updates and NOTAMS feed

AeroTexas now has two new ways for you to keep up with your favorite airline.



1. NOTAMS, as well as general updates to content and the website, are syndicated and fed directly to your feed reader. RSS Feeds are a way for websites large and small to distribute their content well beyond just visitors using browsers. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates, delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email.

Click here to get the live feed






2. Some updates are simply digested better in small bites. Daily charter flights, hourly cargo assignments, and instant reports of PIREPS and squawks. We're also tweeting fuel jabs, and soon route plans. You don't need an account to view twitter posts, but twitter users can follow AeroTexas tweets in real time.

Follow AeroTexas on Twitter

Pilot Stats

A new feature has been to the Members Only area of the website. Members can now view an array of statistics from their flight log:

A table that lists for each equipment type used:
Total Flights by aircraft
Total Hours by aircraft
Total Miles by aircraft

A table that summarizes the pilot's landing performance:

On-time percentage: of all flights and the last 10 flights!
Landing performance: average vertical speed of all flights and the last 10 flights!

A table that tallies the flight rule in effect based on the weather when you landed, as well as categories for CAT II and CAT III approaches in Low IFR.

Weather Page at FlightAware

FlightAware offers a weather page with current conditions and prognostics for aviators.

http://flightaware.com/resources/weather_maps/

Flights to Mexico City (MMMX)

I'm just going to rehash what Ben sent me a few days ago. These will be the routes that will be available for the fly-in for AeroTexas. As far as a I know I don't think there's a reservation system, so you can just fly-in whenever you like on that day.

TO MMMX
KAUS-MMMX: AUS2.SAT.J21.TMN.VITOS1A
KHOU-MMMX: PSX3.PSX.J177.TAM.UJ14.TMN.VITOS1A
KSAT-MMMX: BOWIE3.LRD.J21.TMN.VITOS1A
KELP-MMMX: CJS.UJ47.SLP.UJ45.QET.KOBEK1A

FROM MMMX
MMMX-KAUS: BETER1.BETER.J177.TAM.UJ19.MAM.J25.BRO.J25.CWK
MMMX-KHOU: BETER1.BETER.J177.TAM.UJ53.AGUAS.UJ25.CRP.LISSE6
MMMX-KSAT: BETER1.BETER.J177.TAM.UJ19.MAM.J25.BRO.J25.CRP.LEMIG1
MMMX-KELP: [SID].TLC.J13.PTJ.UJ45.SLP.UJ47.TRC.J42.DEL.UJ27.OMVAV

The departure procedures vary in Mexico City, so there are more options than I have listed for the departure procedure out of Mexico City.

I would advise all participating pilots to have charts ready to reference for the Mexico portion of the flight; I was able to find everything at www.vatmex.com.

Thanks, Ben!

Mexico Fly-In on May 8th

! VIVA MÉXICO ¡ Fly In.
Friday May 8th begining at 1800 hrs CST (2300Z).

For more information visit http://www.vatmex.com/index1.htm

Download flyer:
http://www.vatmex.com/events/EVENTO_MAYO_2009.pdf

New Planes

Tommie has been busy with planes. Here are a few pictures to whet your appetite.

The first is a Citation X - I believe this is for FSX:




And here's a preview of the new colors for the Brasilia (Embraer 120), with vintage logos as designed for AeroTexas by our newest partner, Ben Holzer:

Runway Visual Range

Real time access to RVR data at airports in the US. My favorite is the RVR Monitor. Currently Charlotte (KCLT), Memphis (BNA) and Baltimore/DC (KBWI) are indicating RVRs less than the cutoff of 6500 feet. The lowest is currently Charlotte with an RVR of 2000 feet, though the 1452Z METAR doesn't indicate this:

Charlotte reporting winds 242 at 4 knots, visibility 2.5 miles in mist. Overcast layer at 400. Temperature 55.4*F, dewpoint 53.6*F, relative humidity is 94 percent. The barometric pressure is 29.79

RVR Home
http://rvr.fly.faa.gov/rvr/index.html

RVR Monitor
http://rvr.fly.faa.gov/rvr-cgi-bin/rvr-status.pl

ATAVS 7.2 Relased

Effective March 31, 2009 ATAVS V7.2R3 will be the official reporting system in use at AeroTexas and flight reports with previous versions will not be accepted. All members should download this version from the Members Only area of the website before their next flight. This new version of ATAVS supports the new website and logs landing performance and meteorological conditions on arrival, includes a fuel loader, descent planner, and as always is stable and very easy to use.

Now you can update your profile!

Members can now update their profile. After logging in, scroll down to Tools and click on Edit User Profile. You can change your location, password, and email address, as well as enter your VATSIM ID.

New forum

A new forum has been set up in the Members Only area of the website. This is a screenshot of the forum menu.

New ACARS Map

Firefox users can now view a live ACARS map that displays a live view of the current position of AeroTexas aircraft. Flights are depicted with standard ARTCC symbology that reflects the pilot, altitude and speed. Altitude is in 100's of feet, and speed is in knots. Mouse over a target to get more information about the flight, including originating airport, destination, distance to go, and estimated time of arrival. This new feature can only be viewed with Firefox, and for Members Only.

Updates

Hi folks - 95% of the public area of the website is now complete. There is still some work to be done in the members only area, but I'd say 75% of that is complete now. As a member you can now login and see every entry in your logbook (something you couldn't do with the old website). Members are presented with a summary of their log on their home page - total flights, miles, etc. Planning to release a new version of ATAVS in a few weeks too that will more fully support the new website.

New website unveiled

AeroTexas has a new look and some new flights for 2009!

The biggest change is that members can log time with flights between just about any two airports in Texas. Some of the smaller and private airstrips are not supported, but then we don't really have STOL aircraft so you won't be flying there anyway.

Our regional service is now to adjacent states only. Our continental services include service to major airports throughout the USA, Canada and Mexico, including Toronto, Mexico City, and even Anchorage, Alaska. Charter flights are suspended for now, except for cargo. We hope to resume daily charter flights in a few weeks. Cargo flights are still issued hourly.

Stay tuned - more details soon.

ATX48 earns CATII certification

A big congratulations to Mr. Rice (ATX48), who passed the CAT II flight check. This is the first CAT II cert we've awarded since we changed the way we do these flight checks - online and in tandem. We logged into VATSIM this evening and prepared for a short, but challenging flight from Portland to Eugene. Portland Tower online, amd with us and a few others the comms traffic was pretty chatty. Departing KPDX the winds were variable with visibility at 3 miles in haze with a broken layer starting at 500 feet and extending up through about 7500 or so. On top it was clear above with a nice view of Mt. Hood off the left wing.






After departure the controller was nice enough to switch hats and became Center and helped us along our way to Eugene. He cautioned that low visibility instrument flight rules were in effect at KEUG, and I think this might have been his first CAT II as well! I was lead aircraft, flying my favorite Boeing 737-700, while Rice followed about 10 in trail. Here you can just barely see his right wing light...




As I set up for the approach I verified that the surface conditions were very low. It seemed like the runway never came into view until just above the decision height, which for CAT II is 100 feet! Winds were light but visibility was 1/4 mile in fog and even the vertical visibility was 100 feet. Here the on-board radar shows him being vectored into position - Center was giving him S turns though there was plenty of room...



Cleared for ILS RWY 16R CAT II, I landed with variable runway visual range (RVR) from 2500 to 3500 feet. My landing was not as good as I had hoped, but I taxiied around and managed a quick snapshot of Rice as he made a perfect landing.



Captain Rice makes a perfect landing and earns his CAT II flying the CRJ.

CAT II Flight Check Opportunity

If you are interested in a CAT II flight check please let me know. We're trying to schedule an evening between 6:PM and 11:PM (CST / UTC-6). The flight check will be on VATSIM - so you will need to be able to login there and should feel comfortable with communications with ATC. You will make a full approach with at least one missed approach, do a holding pattern, then do another approach with a full stop.