WELCOME TO THE NEWSROOM - Full update monthly,

Important News as and when it occurs.

This Full Update 03/06/01.

UK Direct has a couple of vacancies for F-16 pilots. (sorry private joke !)

Jersey ops.

( A scene to be assigned to the history pages as our 1-11's finally move on)

Editorial

One of the few priviligies you get for running a department is you can put what you want in print. OK so you leave yourself open to a few rotten virtual tomatoes or cyber eggs and flour being thrown but what the heck.You only get sacked once and sometimes I wonder if anyone reads my ramblings anyway !

So here we go for another edition of the monthly News update and I can tell you now that this month seems to have been a 'slow news month' like when the main story on your regional news program announces that Daisy the cow resident at a local farm holiday attraction is pregnant and that petrol prices seem to be on the increase again ! Rivetting stuff eh ?

Well here's a scorcher to get your taste buds going (no news here, I hear you say)

Duff PIREPS Wreak Havoc Again !

Hard to believe ? Am I just trying to create sensationalism ? No, afraid not. Despite cheeky pictures of monkeys shaking their heads in disbelief and gentle ridicule it seems that some pilots who have just carefully flown a UK Direct flight and prided themselves with achieving a great adventure program score and even greased onto the runway without spilling a drop of in-flight refreshment find difficulty in filling out the PIREP form and consequently cause the automated system that processes these to crash. This creates a huge amount of extra work for Mark who has to patiently and painstakingly attempt to repair the damage just so that we can all take pride in our achievements and our sense of belonging to our v.a. The roster and history pages are a core component of who we are and what we do. Personally I don't think that I could do it week after week and I'm sure there must be times when Mark wonders is it all worth it ?

Lets see if we can all be a bit more careful out there because one day we may not be lucky enough to have anyone willing to clear up the mess anymore !

Weather !

Summer mist and cloud rolls across Plymouth airport.

In the days when the FS 98 adventure program use just gave you random conditions 'life was like a box of chocolates' (as Forrest Gump said) You never knew what you were gonna get ! All seemed to work very well most of the time. Now with super dooper all singing and dancing FS2K real world weather you can look out of your window and get the same area as where you are sat ! Amazing ! Yes it would be if it worked a little better. My personal experience is of strange things happening and general disappointment. Constantly shifting winds, sudden air pressure changes sending the altimeter into freefall and turbulence. I put this down to a conflict between FS2k, FSNav, UKD Adv.prog, FS Traffic and who knows what else ! This was making some of my flights a misery and very 'unreal as it gets'.

So I started to look for an alternative to FS Real Weather and have been evaluating a shareware utility called FS Meteo by a Marc Philibert. I know this is not a new program. My first impressions are very encouraging, although I have not started to go into it in any detail yet. It certainly created very real conditions at Plymouth airport the other day and as I climbed out past 900' I started to break out into clear blue sky and sunshine with the cloud blanket thining and breaking up out towards Exeter. There were no sudden wind shifts and it ran alongside the adventure program and FS Traffic just fine.

Has anyone else tried this program ? Have you discovered a better alternative? or made any changes to the real world weather system to make it run ok ? Write to me using the mailbox below please.

Ferry crew places still available.

At the time of writing there are still a couple of pilots required for the ferry flights to and from the Caribbean. See the Information page for the latest on these and get in touch with Mark soonest.

VASM shares soar !

Those who like the thrill of the stock market must be having the ride of a lifetime as, unless its a tryping errot, shares have reached 199.64. As I still think of the stock market as a place to buy OXO cubes I'm not going to show my ignorance by writing a load of old bull, or is it it bear ? Those of you that are involved in this piece of virtual business are the best people to write about it ! Or if you are so rich now ask your personal assistant to drop me a line.

Virtual Lockers have Locks changed

Following a rumour that a very large virtual airline has recently ceased to be pilots are requested to keep an eye open for ex-UKDirect employees sneeking back into HQ to put on their old uniforms and clock-in again. Well we've had the locks changed so BLAH!

The personnel selection officer will however re-consider any applications for employment on a fair and unbiased way. (unless of course the applicant was a known pain-in-the-backside and we were glad to see them go !)

FS2K Fleet Continues to grow.

767-300 G-UKIC

737-300 G-UKSE

737-200 G-UKDI

Dave and James are to be congratulated on their continuing efforts to bring our fleet up to FS2K date ! As a confirmed FS2K convert I naturally welcome each new addition and wish I was that clever ! Thank you chaps. Just take time to visit other v.a's and see how fortunate we are to have our very skilled and dedicated staff working for us..

Visitors to the UK Sun site will have read Dave's comments on a review of the popularity of UK Sun routes. The UKS stats make an interesting read as too does the revelation that as yet there are still some UKS routes that have remained unflown ! He also states that repainting and equiping the fleet for FS2K will be the main priority for the time being.

I made a little discovery the other day whilst browsing - like you do! and have found news of a FS2K panel for the ERJ-145 by Bill Grabowski. I took a screenshot and here it is :

Release date - Estimated July - can't wait as the list of features is very impressive !

UK2000 - Part 4

Gary is hard at work creating new scenery and I have been privilaged to see for myself just what lies in store for the flightsimming community soon. I am not at liberty to divulge any details or show any pictures but you will be delighted as he takes his already innovative work to new levels of detail yet still retain a sensible frame rate. Watch out for News and pictures soon !

Private Joke

Mark receives all manner of enquiries from flightsimmers and prospective pilots. Occasionally a seemingly innocent and genuine enquiry can raise a smile and I hope that the un-named person has since joined our happy bunch and will see the funny side that is English humour !

The pilot was making an application to join our cargo division and in his brief application remarked that he enjoyed flying F-16's and 747's ! I would like to clarify that at this time there are no plans to introduce F-16 flights although a UKD online event using SATUK from EGLL- EGKK is a possibility.

"Ghost rider, I mean Unicorn178, please slow to 1500kn and report when established on the glide-slope"

" Tower, Request fly-by?"

" Negative Ghost Rider there are aircraft in the pattern"

(Goose alias Dave Finney ) "This is a bad idea Maverick, I mean Mark,"

Whoooooooshhhhh........

(SATUK controller spills coffee down his clean pressed shirt)

"SHIT !

Well that's about it for now, until next time Watch Your Coffee and or Six !

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