Revisiting MyAir Virtual - a hidden gem of the Flight Simulator community
While talking to one of the founders of MyAir Virtual after a group flight last night, I admitted that without them I wouldn’t have fallen down the flight simulation rabbit hole, and my YouTube channel might not exist.
I might have used words to the effect of “it’s all your fault”.
If you don’t know the story of their involvement in me being here pretending to fly inumerable aircraft in a questionably correct manner, perhaps it’s time for me to re-tell the story.
Back in 2021 my Dad upgraded his computer, and I inherited his old one. We were just coming out of the other side of bringing up children, so had spent years sinking everything we earned into endless after-school clubs, trips, fund-raisers, and whatever else. Armed with the new (to me) computer, I did what any sensible person might - I bought FSX, X-Plane, Prepar3D, and DCS.
While tooling around in the ZiboMod 737-800x on my own in X-Plane was fun for a few weeks, it got rather boring with no purpose to the flying beyond “figuring out how the aircraft worked”. I recorded a few videos about the ZiboMod 737 and put them on YouTube. We all know what happened there.
Anyway.
While the children were young we would visit my parents in the summer and see my Dad retreat to his computer on Tuesday and Thursday nights to take part in some sort of group activity on the internet. It was all tremendously serious - with written flight plans on paper, communications with air traffic control on a headset, and so on.
We might have even bought him a fancy-dress flying hat.
I later discovered he was flying on the internet with a group of friends running a virtual airline called “MyAir Virtual”. Perhaps not as grand, or as high-fidelity as some of the other virtual airlines, but offering a friendly atmosphere, a wealth of real-world and simulated aviation experience, and a less stressful on-ramp to the world of air traffic control.
I initially joined one of their flights - on Teamspeak back then - with the intention of “listening in” - to find out what it was all about. “Listening in” lasted all of five minutes - despatch called my callsign and asked for the flight level I would be flying at. Like a fool, I replied.
I spent the next two hours flying at the back of the group, cribbing from their conversations and making it up as I went along. Questionably successfully.
MyAir Virtual typically operate a wonderfully simple system - with everybody flying the same route a given night, with controller(s) handing off the aicraft between each other. Once everybody reaches cruise the controllers call “channel is open”, and everybody gets the chance to have a chat - usually all manner of stories about aviation, aircraft, and past flight adventures.
I spent the next few years joining them when I could, and wrote the program “Transmitter” to help them out after Flight Simulator 2020 arrived.
And that’s the experience I want everybody else to have. I want to share the opportunities to learn, make friends, and have fun that I’ve had since being a member of MyAir.
If you’ve learned your way around flying the big jets from A to B, can program a flight plan, operate the autopilot, but have always backed away from “talking to the tower” - seeing the likes of VATSIM, Pilot Edge, or IVAO as too intimidating - I can’t recommend MyAir enough.
What typically happens on a flight night?
Flights typically start at 8pm in the UK (local time), so 1900UTC during the summer months, and 2000UTC in the winter months.
The team start to assemble at the departure airfield twenty minutes or so before the scheduled “start time”.
The nominated controller(s) on a given night will give a short briefing, and request everybody’s flight levels.
During preflight, push-back, engine start, take-off, and departure, voice communication is restricted to communication between pilots and air traffic services.
Once everybody reaches cruise altitude, “open channel” is announced, and everybody is free to talk.
Once aircraft begin to descend towards the destination, communication is restricted once more.
It’s really that simple. Once you’ve done a couple of flights you’ll suddenly see ATC in a different light - as the helpful service they are intended to be, rather than the officious examiners many tend to see them as.
You’ll also make new friends.
Paying it forward
I’ve flown hundreds of flights with MyAir over the years, and feel privileged to call them friends. They set a great example in terms of their knowledge and enthusiasm, and will be only too pleased to show you the ropes.
I’ve been helping them build a newsletter and website recently - to lower the on-ramp for newcomers - providing guidance for everything you might need to know to take part.
Visit the MyAir Virtual website
The new MyAir Virtual website contains everything you’ll need to know about how to take part in their flights - including:
A Getting Started guide
A guide to Group Flights
A guide to their Virtual Airline (still a work in progress)
Links to their Liveries
A guide to using Transmitter
Subscribe to the free MyAir Virtual newsletter
The MyAir Virtual newsletter contains news about upcoming flights. You can subscribe for free (and read existing posts) via the link below:
Once subscribed, you’ll get emails the moment new flights are announced.
Join their Discord Server
Group flights with MyAir Virtual happen on their Discord Server. If you’ve not used Discord before, worry not - we’ve written up a guide to that too on the website.
What are you waiting for? :)
Thank you, Jonathan reminds me of my start. It was with FS1. Long time but it's still my passion. I'm now with AMC Virtual, really enjoy military assignments. Love to fly the C-17. 1982-2025. 43 years WOW!