Standard Operating Procedures

Flight Selection & Events

Flight Selection

Southwest Virtual is designed for pilots to primarily fly regularly scheduled flight legs and trips.

Scheduled Flights and Trips

1. Flights may be reserved using SWVA’s schedules in the flight dispatch section
2. For maximum realism, the simulator environment should be set to the same time as the selected flight to reflect the flight conditions
3. All flights must be simulated at a rate of 1x

Charters

Charters may be periodically available offering opportunities to fly to unique destinations and join airline and VATSIM events. Available charters can be found in the company NOTAMs and searching the schedules.

Maintenance Flights

Any airline fleet must be kept in tip-top shape, and the fleet of 737's at Southwest Virtual is no different. Currently, fleet tracking and maintenance is not yet implemented. As a result, flights to and from maintenance bases are not currently offered.

Flying on VATSIM

We recommend conducting as many flights as possible on the VATSIM network for maximum realism. If SWVACARS is not used for a flight, the flight must be conducted on the VATSIM network.

Here are some guidelines to successfully flying on the VATSIM network:

1. Pilots should adhere to all VATSIM policies and the Code of Conduct
2. Avoid flying online with an unfamiliar add-on
3. Review charts and procedures in advance
4. Pilots should use their Southwest Virtual pilot number as their callsign
5. If the pilot number is in use by another online flight, using the flight number as the callsign is an acceptable substitution
6. Flight plan comments should contain virtualswa.com (e.g. OPR/virtualswa.com)
7. Use UNICOM to announce intentions
8. Avoid over-communicating on UNICOM (chatting with other pilots, announcing intentions that are essentially useless to others e.g. announcing top of descent)
9. On ATC frequency, use voice where possible and keep all communications clear and concise with as little delay as possible
10. All flights on VATSIM should be conducted with precision and professionalism

Pilot Reports

Pilot reports are the backbone of the pilot logbook. Your career at Southwest Virtual should be centered around learning how to fly and simulating the daily life of a line pilot rather than accruing hours as quickly as possible.

• SWVACARS is the primary method of filing a pilot report at the conclusion of a flight. If the flight adhered to standard operations, most flights will be auto-approved
• Flight reports may also be filed at the conclusion of a flight through the dispatch page using the blue icon that becomes available after completing the dispatch and planning process
• Pilot reports be completely accurate to be approved