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!
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