Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Updated Requirements for Event Credit

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Airline Operations | Updated Requirements for Event Credit

DVA8920
Senior Captain, B737-800
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"Any landing you can walk away from..."
Smyrna, GA

2,135 legs, 5,362.8 hours
1,073 legs, 2,508.7 hours online
2,044 legs, 5,156.3 hours ACARS
89 legs, 220.5 hours event
0 legs dispatched, 3.4 hours

Posted onPost created on March 29 2021 22:07 ET by Daniel Wilbanks

Pilots - We've made some changes to the requirements that must be met in order for a PIREP to receive credit for flying in an event. The idea behind the changes is to simplify the requirements while also ensuring that all of our members receive credit uniformly for event participation.

These changes are effective immediately. The requirements for event credit are as follows:

1. The flight must be flown online using VATSIM for 100% of the flight. Select long-haul events will have special exceptions and those will be outlined in the pilot briefing for the event.
2. The flight must be flown using ACARS.
3. The route flown (city pair only) must match one of the routes published with the event. For example, if your flight was flown from ATL-JFK and ATL-JFK was not one of the posted event routes, then no credit will be given. Your routing for navigation is your discretion.
4. The entire flight, measured from takeoff to touchdown, much be completed within the published event time window. If the event is scheduled between 5pm and 8pm, then both takeoff and landing must be between those times. We will give limited exceptions to pilots who arrive after the event end time. If you land after the event has ended, please include a remark in your PIREP with a reason why (ATC delay, weather, simulator crashes, etc) and the PIREP reviewer will take that into consideration.

We hope this helps clarify the process for receiving online event credit. If you have any questions or comments, please email me directly at Daniel_Wilbanks@DeltaVA.org.

Daniel Wilbanks (DVA8920)

DVA9080
Senior Captain, DC-6
OLP
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Joined on September 30 2010
B757 100 Club
Everett 250 Club
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Elizabethtown, KY

865 legs, 2,390.3 hours
778 legs, 2,126.8 hours online
821 legs, 2,255.0 hours ACARS
107 legs, 261.1 hours event
70 legs dispatched, 109.8 hours

Posted onPost created on March 30 2021 16:56 ET by Nathan Cox

I'm not sure I like criteria number four. Let's say for instance there's an event at ATL and LGA-ATL is one of the routes. That's approximately a 2.5 hour flight. That means for a typical event length of four hours, you won't be able to arrive until the back half of the event. When only one of the fields on the route is actually featured in the event, often times I like to arrive in the first hour or two of the event to avoid delays and help balance out demand away from the typical peak in the middle of the event. This rule also makes it more difficult to do a flight departing the featured field. Say for the same event featuring ATL, ATL-LGA was the route I chose, I wouldn't be able to depart any later than 1.5 hours into the 4 hour event and still get credit because of the duration of the flight.

I think the rule makes sense for situations where routes are between two fields featured during the event, but makes much less sense for routes in which only one of the airports paired is a featured field for the event. Arriving at or departing from a non-featured field outside of the advertised event window doesn't mean you weren't participating because the airport wasn't part of the event anyway.

Nathan Cox (DVA9080)

DVA3438
Senior Captain, B717-200
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Joined on August 12 2006
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Honolulu, HI

3,901 legs, 8,778.3 hours
1,366 legs, 2,824.5 hours online
3,760 legs, 8,263.1 hours ACARS
130 legs, 355.9 hours event
106 legs dispatched, 98.6 hours

Posted onPost created on March 30 2021 19:37 ET by Kyle Catlin

Just curious, what brought on these new rules? Were people somehow abusing the event system?

Kyle Catlin (DVA3438)

DVA4176
Senior Captain, L-1011-100
OLP

Joined on March 11 2007
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"In the cold Kentucky rain"
Horn Lake, MS USA

7,084 legs, 11,498.8 hours
4,673 legs, 6,709.8 hours online
5,630 legs, 8,974.5 hours ACARS
371 legs, 587.0 hours event

Posted onPost created on March 30 2021 19:51 ET by Scott D Williams

I found out the hard way. No credit for my flight due to a late departure and I had to put up with a smart alec regional controller to boot. Not my best night of flying.

Scott D Williams

Senior Captain, L-1011-100

DVA1379
Senior Captain, B747-400
OLP

Joined on November 07 2003
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Western United States

2,754 legs, 8,067.8 hours
1,835 legs, 4,361.2 hours online
2,219 legs, 6,568.4 hours ACARS
58 legs, 136.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on March 30 2021 21:02 ET by Kyle Weber

Don't really agree with #4 either myself.

Kyle Weber (DVA1379)

DVA10323
Chief Pilot, B727-200
OLP

Joined on November 26 2011
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"GPS, we don't need no GPS"
Gulfport, MS

1,585 legs, 1,452.3 hours
737 legs, 681.1 hours online
1,577 legs, 1,444.8 hours ACARS
41 legs, 58.7 hours event
327 legs dispatched, 343.5 hours

Posted onPost created on March 30 2021 21:43 ET by Kevin Lundy

First, I want to thank you all for your feedback. I also want to thank the Event Staff for all of their hard work. Daniel has put in countless hours improving our Events Department. Daniel and the Event's Staff have been working over the last 4-5 months producing a manual and improving our event experience. You will see a new and exciting feature coming out of the Events Department soon.

The new rules for Event credit came from Senior Staff. The Events Department worked within the guidelines set forth by DVA Senior Staff. When DVA launched the Events Program, the objective was to promote DVA group flights and build community. We looked at the flight statistics and noticed several pilots gaining event credit for only participating in 5-10 minutes of the DVA published online event. This was not the intent of DVA Event Credit. The objective of event credit is to get DVA pilots to fly together. Keep in mind; we give DVA credit for flying in our published events, not just for participating in VATSIM events. We are looking at expanding our events using other online services such as Pilot's Edge and IVAO. This is still in the infancy stage but, we are planning for the future. Who knows what type of online services will be offered with the advancement of flight simulation.

Our DVA Event Staff works hard to schedule our group events during published VATSIM events so our pilots can have the whole ATC/flight experience while flying as a group. We have challenged them to look at other online services to expand our events and give credit for flying in online events that will provide you DVA event credit.

The Events Department can and will expand the hours we will give event credit based on the Event details.

I do apologize for the last-minute notification. We wanted to give at least a week's notice before the policy went into effect, but the last website update contained the new policy, and it caught us off guard.

Please feel free to give us feedback for improvements. DVA is trying to adapt to all of the changes we see with MSFS, P3D, Xplane, and FSX. Each simulator is different, from different airports in different locations depending on the simulator's updated world mapping, and the services they offer.

Submit your feedback/suggestions via the help desk. This will help us keep track of the feedback and suggestions.

Kevin Lundy

Chief Pilot, B727-200

DVA2996
Senior Captain, L-1011-100
OLP

Joined on January 06 2006
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Montréal, QC Canada

3,252 legs, 7,983.3 hours
496 legs, 1,363.6 hours online
3,153 legs, 7,595.4 hours ACARS
55 legs, 151.2 hours event
39 legs dispatched, 92.9 hours

Posted onPost created on April 02 2021 14:03 ET by Matthew Gervais

Scott D Williams wrote:

I found out the hard way. No credit for my flight due to a late departure and I had to put up with a smart alec regional controller to boot. Not my best night of flying.

I had the SAME

Matthew Gervais (DVA2996)

DVA3794
Senior Captain, A320
OLP, 737-ATP

Joined on December 03 2006
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"volando libero......."
Antarctica

3,459 legs, 8,141.9 hours
3,131 legs, 7,039.5 hours online
3,251 legs, 7,332.7 hours ACARS
478 legs, 964.8 hours event
65 legs dispatched, 72.4 hours

Posted onPost created on April 03 2021 17:08 ET by Vincenzo Musumeci

I was trying to understand why the events weren't so populated anymore.......now the whole thing is much clearer!

Vincenzo Musumeci (DVA3794)

Posted onPost created on April 03 2021 23:37 ET by Daniel Wilbanks

To be clear everyone, this change wasn't implemented until Monday 3/29. It did not affect any events prior to that date.

Vincenzo Musumeci wrote:

I was trying to understand why the events weren't so populated anymore.......now the whole thing is much clearer!

There was an issue with the system giving event credit to flights conducted up to 48 hours after an event that happened to match an event route. That was corrected last summer and the numbers started settling into a realistic picture, which was important for us to move forward.

Daniel Wilbanks (DVA8920)

Posted onPost created on April 04 2021 09:13 ET by Vincenzo Musumeci

I don’t want to upset anybody....but I truly believe that we need a big reset overall, in a community of thousands of active pilots, it is unthinkable that the same 10/20 pilots attending the events.....there is an obvious locking of interest ....it’s like the whole thing is getting stale....just my .2 cents from a long time member!

Vincenzo Musumeci (DVA3794)

DVA9545
Senior Captain, B777-200
OLP, 737-ATP

Joined on March 03 2011
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"YUPIIIII"
Goiás Brazil

2,492 legs, 5,039.3 hours
2,321 legs, 4,760.9 hours online
2,484 legs, 5,009.7 hours ACARS
271 legs, 683.8 hours event

Posted onPost created on April 05 2021 15:05 ET by Thiago Braga

Vincenzo Musumeci wrote:

I don’t want to upset anybody....but I truly believe that we need a big reset overall, in a community of thousands of active pilots, it is unthinkable that the same 10/20 pilots attending the events.....there is an obvious locking of interest ....it’s like the whole thing is getting stale....just my .2 cents from a long time member!

I have to agree with Vincenzo.

Thiago Braga (DVA9545)

Posted onPost created on April 05 2021 21:43 ET by Daniel Wilbanks

Thiago Braga wrote:

Vincenzo Musumeci wrote:

I don’t want to upset anybody....but I truly believe that we need a big reset overall, in a community of thousands of active pilots, it is unthinkable that the same 10/20 pilots attending the events.....there is an obvious locking of interest ....it’s like the whole thing is getting stale....just my .2 cents from a long time member!

I have to agree with Vincenzo.

We are actively working on some things for that. However, if anyone has any suggestions for how we can improve, please send them to us. We welcome all pilot feedback. Send an email to events@deltava.org with your thoughts!

Daniel Wilbanks (DVA8920)

DVA3672
Senior Captain, A320
OLP
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Joined on October 29 2006
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"Chris, NOT in Seattle"
Northeastern United States

2,534 legs, 6,223.1 hours
1,537 legs, 3,252.2 hours online
2,243 legs, 5,407.0 hours ACARS
4 legs, 6.0 hours event
2 legs dispatched, 19.5 hours

Posted onPost created on May 17 2021 09:52 ET by Chris Frasure

Disregard this post...

DVA1989
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on November 01 2004
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"What doesnt kill you only makes you stronger"
Spring Hill, FL

1,482 legs, 4,538.3 hours
1,074 legs, 3,017.3 hours online
1,431 legs, 4,356.3 hours ACARS
9 legs, 22.6 hours event
380 legs dispatched, 590.0 hours

Posted onPost created on May 18 2021 19:38 ET by William Bradshaw

My concern is this, I did numerous flights completely 100% on vatsim no disconnects or anything but acars says im online for 99% of the flight most of the time how can we be sure it is pulling the correct info. As to lets say the event is from 5-8 and you took off at exactly 5pm and were due to arrive at lets say 745 but due to traffic your in a hold for lets say an hour does that get you disqualified for an event?

William Bradshaw

Senior Captain, MD-11

Posted onPost created on May 21 2021 01:13 ET by Daniel Wilbanks

William Bradshaw wrote:

My concern is this, I did numerous flights completely 100% on vatsim no disconnects or anything but acars says im online for 99% of the flight most of the time how can we be sure it is pulling the correct info. As to lets say the event is from 5-8 and you took off at exactly 5pm and were due to arrive at lets say 745 but due to traffic your in a hold for lets say an hour does that get you disqualified for an event?

As to the online flight time requirement, if your flight doesn't meet the event credit requirements perfectly the system flags it for manual review by the PIREP reviewer. He/she will be able to look at your 98% online time and conclude that you were likely online the whole time. We aren't looking for reasons to deny event credit for every little thing, we just want fairness and fairness isn't what we were getting before.

As to the ATC delays, I addressed that in the original post:

"If you land after the event has ended, please include a remark in your PIREP with a reason why (ATC delay, weather, simulator crashes, etc) and the PIREP reviewer will take that into consideration."

We're not looking to deny event credit because something happened outside of your control. Include a remark explaining the delay and we'll look into it. If you're late because of an ATC hold, weather diversion, or something else along those lines that's one thing. If you're late because you waited until the last possible minute to depart and didn't manage your speed or ran out of fuel and had to start over, then that's another thing. It's all about giving participation credit only to people who make an effort to participate in the event rather than skirting by avoiding the event itself and expecting credit on a technicality. That's not fair to the pilots who did participate.

This should not be a frequent issue. You won't experience ATC delays at every event. With a little pre-planning, most of our pilots should have no issues participating within the guidelines.

Daniel Wilbanks (DVA8920)

DVA13778
Captain, B777-200

Joined on February 07 2020
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Oslo Norway

759 legs, 1,372.4 hours
619 legs, 1,144.7 hours online
750 legs, 1,363.3 hours ACARS
11 legs, 18.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on June 01 2021 04:09 ET by Colden Haulfield

I'm a bit late to this show. I also have some concerns about the rule number four. For those of us living in other continents (realize that we're not necessarily the primary target group) it is nice to get an early start not to become nocturnal species. Alternatively, it would be nice with some more events in Europe and Asia.

Colden Haulfield

Captain, B777-200

DVA13617
Captain, B767-300
OLP

Joined on February 08 2019
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"If you find a kettle of crazy it is best not to stir it"
Horton, MI

376 legs, 987.6 hours
374 legs, 984.1 hours online
375 legs, 985.8 hours ACARS
22 legs, 47.2 hours event

Posted onPost created on June 02 2021 17:24 ET by Del Herwat

I have been scheduling midweek events quite a bit in Europe and they have been very lightly attended. I’ll continue putting them up at least once a per month to provide quality opportunities for those not in North/South American time zones.

The European events are well staffed and get quite a bit of traffic which is why I have been scheduling them. I’ll try to look at some Asia and Middle East region events if I can find some good options.

Del Herwat

Captain, B767-300

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