Caribbean Direct Airways

22nd October 2014

http://www.planecrazy.me.uk/ukd/html/cda.html

This page is a work in progress but has been made available now so that you can start flying in the Caribbean. ;)
CDA is a UKDirect franchise open to all pilots and Graham UKD140 is our man in the region. You can contact him via the message system on FSA or our va forum.

New Despatch centre

5th August 2014

After taking another look at the VA Integration pack on FSAirlines I've finally worked out how to create a page on our website to allow you to book a FSA flight directly from here. It may not be that useful for every circumstance but more choice isn't a bad thing :)

Look for the Despatch tab under Crew Resources. You need to login with the same username and password for FSA as it their servers your logging in to. While I was at it I added a map view of all the flights flown by UKD pilots on FSA in the last week.

Roster shake-up

28th July 2014

UKDirect doesn't employ a rank structure that imposes limitations on what you can fly. Flight simming is a hobby and however seriously you approach it we don't think that should restrict your enjoyment. However to provide some sort of accomplishment for logging ‘xyz’ hours and other achievements the roster is being restructured to show these awards off and allowing you to flaunt it over the other (obviously inferior!) pilots :)

Check your FSA Logbook for your own records and please tell me if you think I’ve missed something. Other awards will be added as they are created. Take a look at the Roster page and please feel free to let me know what you think good and bad!

Long Time No See!

19th March 2014

Regular readers will be used to some periods where there doesn’t appear to be much happening but I guess this one has been the longest. After writing the Christmas Directions I gave myself a short break (perks of being in the management!) and then tried to update my pc which went horrendously wrong and resulted in trashing the data on my hard drive. Since then I have spent months rewriting the website again and I’m working on creating a different menu system to make updates easier in the future.

Now you will find all the old news items have been archived by year (2012, 2013). All the Directions will be available from clicking links on a central webpage rather than the menu. All boring stuff!  Of more interest to our pilots I have updated the roster several times recently for new joiners and welcomed back James Cheetham UKD154 and Robert May UKD188.

UKDirect is also launching UK Direct Air Taxi thanks to the hard work of John UKD182 and assisted by Simon UKD239. More information will be posted on the website but for now you can find the important details on the forum.

More Heavy Metal

24th March 2014

The Fleet page has been updated with two repaints that have been sat on my hard drive for months. The Boeing 777 family is rounded off with the 300 and 300ER variants; G-UKIH ‘Coronation’ Boeing 777-300ER with General Electric 90-115B1 engines and G-UKII ‘Golden Jubilee’ a Boeing 777-300 fitted with Rolls-Royce Trent 895 turbofans. Both models are by Project Opensky with updated files to make them FSX compatible. They feature the usual ground vehicles and air stairs plus working virtual cockpits and a sound file (Rolls Royce engines).
 

Fleet Additions

20th April 2014

Two more models that had been lurking on my hard drive! Both models are by Project Opensky with updated files to make them FS2004/FSX/P3D v1 compatible. They have working virtual cockpits, 2D panels and include a sound file. I have produced some documentation to accompany the Posky notes.
Ready to download from the Fleet page.

A new edition of Directions is ready. The menu system has been changed to make future updates easier which means all the magazines are linked from a ‘home’ page which itself will be updated in time.

A new division was created recently by John UKD182 and it now has it’s own webpage to provide a one-stop place to house all the details, downloads, schedules and information. Air Taxi is under the Crew Resources menu.

AirTaxi repaint

11th May 2014

For the new AirTaxi division is a repaint of the Carenado Beechcraft Baron 58. For a UKDirect first I have created a self-install program, this points to the default location but you can change this if you have installed it somewhere else and also to any directory to manually install yourself. In any event you will still need to edit the aircraft.cfg file which is a simple cut and paste operation but I didn't want to overwrite any files.

Air Taxi is under the Crew Resources menu by John UKD103 (ex-182) and the repaint is in the FSX Fleet pages (but will work in FS2004).

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More repaints

20th May 2014

If you enjoy flying props but want something a little bigger then maybe the Britten Norman BN-2B Islander is just what you want. The model works in FS2004 and FSX and even comes with an auto-installer (FSX version only). With a working Virtual Cockpit you can take advantage of the panoramic views on our short flights between Manchester and Glasgow or the Ilse of Man, or even go Channel Island hopping. 2D panel and sounds included.

At the opposite end of the aircraft spectrum you will find the BAe/Aerospatiale Concorde. As a package it is for use with FSX only however at it’s heart it is an FS2004 model by Libardo Guzman (search flightsim.com or avsim.com) so I expect the textures can be dropped into that and used directly. In this package it is almost a full aircraft systems simulation and includes a full engineers panel, working virtual cockpit and sounds. I strongly recommend taking some time to look at the fuel balancing system as managing this is critical to a successful flight - it’s not difficult but ignore it at your peril! The accompanying documentation is exhaustive including checklists. If you don't wish to spend four hours flying to New York I can recommend a shorter trip to Iceland or Morocco. Just don't forget to be at least 30 miles out to sea before engaging those afterburners! It’s waiting for you at Heathrow now.

The DC-6B was the epitome of the radial piston engine passenger aircraft. Powerful, noisy and smoky on engine start-up, the DC-6B was flown all over the world and opened up air travel on every continent. These days there are a few still flying but as with our example they are mostly used to haul freight. To use this repaint you will need to have the Just Flight DC-6 Legends of Flight package installed. This is a nice model with some simulated systems plus ground vehicles and stairs. The plane has a great virtual cockpit which is just as well as there isn’t a 2D panel, a sign of where the flight sims are heading!

We’re running out of blue paint! Many Airbus A300B4-200’s have been converted into freighters and still have a long life ahead as has our latest repaint. The Thomas Ruth A300 has been upgraded for FSX and includes a virtual cockpit and requires at least FSX service pack one to be installed. Pictured above alongside the old livery A300 (part of our UKD AI pack). Presently G-UKFP is the only A300F4 in the fleet and it will be in Frankfurt by the time you read this. If there is sufficient interest then we can buy more. Proving quite popular at present is the Beechcraft Baron 58 and I forgot to mention as well as the Carenado payware model we also have the default FSX model sporting a similar paintscheme below, and FS2004 users have long had a default 58 to fly!

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