Welcome to UK Direct Airways
a British Virtual Airline for
FS98, FS2000 and FS2002
Founder: Gary Summons
General Manager: Mark Kidd
*** LIMITED PLACES LEFT ***
What is a Virtual Airline?
A Virtual Airline is an Internet based fictional company set up
for the enjoyment of FS users who wish to fly aircraft in a more realistic
way to simulate the real world of commercial flying. UK Direct`s approach
to this is to use an Adventure Program to monitor a pilots flight, so making
it challenging for the pilot. (and it's FREE!)
What sort of Operations do we fly?
UK Direct Started life in May 1998 with just 2 BAC 1-11 aircraft flying
scheduled services, and we now have branched into several new areas. UK Sun has been
setup to offer charter and IT flights to the Mediterranean and global holiday destinations.
UK WORLD CARGO has a growing fleet and a selection of scheduled and charter flights to
some interesting and challenging areas of the world. Our main Schedule division has
several hubs including the main UK internal hubs at Bournemouth, Leeds and Southend.
The 'Eurolink' hub at London Stansted is our busiest, the Scottish 'Thistle' hub at Edinburgh
also serves as the base for our Scottish Regional service, and a small hub at Jersey
Airport serves the Channel Islands and Northern France. Southampton Airport is the 'Channel
Hopper' service mainland base.
UK Direct's HQ is at Bournemouth International Airport. Its Maintenance and Storage
Airport is at Exeter and it's initial pilot training centre is at Southampton Airport.
We don't run a remote hub system as we prefer to maintain a global feel to the airline.
Last year UK Direct started transAtlantic services to the US and other long haul destinations
from a new hub at Gatwick. A pair of Franchise Divisions have been setup to offer passenger
flights between the Caribbean hub on the Island of St. Maarten and local destinations, and
cargo flights centred on Jamaica.
Visit the timetable Page
How Does it work?
Anyone who has a copy of FS98, FS2000 or FS2002 can apply for membership and become a UK Direct
pilot. You need to be able to understand how to install ZIP files and how to install
aircraft and scenery files. ALL Pilots will be expected to fly at least 1 flight a month.
When you have flown a flight you report back to us with some brief details, this is done using
the 'Pilot report program'. Any pilot who does not not contact us within a six month period
will be sacked!
Visit the 'Files' page
The most important part of a 'Pirep' (Pilot report) is the adventure
code. The code is given to you at the end of a flight after
shutdown by the UK Direct Adventure Program. This code gives encrypted details on
how well or bad your flight was and is used to allocate a score to your flight. This
score or performance rating is then put onto your records. The UK Direct web site
stores and displays these records (called Pilot History Pages) in the Roster site for
everyone to see!
Visit Pilots Roster Page
Realistic and Fun!
The UK Direct adventure program also has many other modules which
add to the realism and enjoyment of the flight. These are:
- 1) British Weather! (Optional)
- 2) GPWS (Optional)
- 3) INS (Optional)
- 4) Co-Pilot Calls
- 5) Other Cabin Sounds
- 6) AutoPilot and Navaids Shortcut Keys/functions
Visit Pilot News Page
How Difficult is it?
The UK Direct adventure program is designed to be challenging and fun.
Most pilots score between 80%-95%, some seem to score 100% every time(!),
but a similar number score under 70%. At the end of the day you don't have to try
and compete with others, it`s great fun as it is. We now use the scores and smooth
landings to produce a profit or loss figure for the airline, so there is an added
incentive to do your best, but there is no pressure put on pilots who make lots of
errors. There are also several other challenges like trying to receive the
'Smooth Landing' award and passing the 1st Officer's and Captain's 'Checkide' exams.
Visit Checkride Page
The Fleet
The UK Direct Fleet is growing all the time in line with our steady expansion plans.
All our aircraft have been flight tested and modified to ensure they fly well with FS98 or FS2000.
The Fleet can be seen by clicking here.
Visit Aircraft Center
The Pilots
We will soon reach 100 pilots flying for UK Direct, a lot of them are
real pilots, but it really doesn't matter who you are, you're always welcome to join.
A Lot of the Pilots choose to help out in the running the company, so if you have
the ability and wish to help us then please let us know. There is also a web site where
our pilots can exchange comments and pass on tips.
Visit 'The Club'
What Do I need?
To Become a Pilot for UK Direct you first need to check that you
have these Patches for FS98 (all are Free and can be downloaded here):
- FSCONV98.EXE --------- Flight Shop Converter for FS98
- FS98PAT1.EXE ---------- FS98 Patch By Microsoft
(These Patches are required for the adventure program to work correctly, I'm not positive
which of the above fixes the which faults, But I do know that you should install both of them.
FSCONV98.EXE is essential for using third party aircraft.)
FS2000 users will probably need to upgrade their version with the correct Patch, please check
at Flightsim.com or Microsoft.com for details.
FS2002 users need to install the adventure in the correct folder, see our Information Section
for details. The FS2000 BAC1-11 aircraft should work fine in this sim.
You will also need to download and install these files:
- EXAM.ZIP ------- Exam Zip file
- UKDADV.ZIP ------- UK Direct Adventure Program
- PIREP.ZIP ------- UK Directs 'Pilots report program'
- G-UKDA.ZIP ------- UK Direct BAC1-11 Aircraft (G-UKDA_2k.ZIP for FS2K & FS2K2)
(There are more files that you could download in the file, scenery and Aircraft web pages, but
these are optional and you may wish to leave them until later when you have passed the exam.)
Visit the Scenery Department
Visit the Files Department
Download the EXAM.ZIP here
How do I apply?
All you need to do is download and install all of the above files, The exam.zip
file contains the flightplan for the exam flight that we need you to fly. Before attempting
to fly the exam you should read the flightplan carefully and read the 'readme' files that
came with Adventure. A lot of confusion can arise if you fail to understand the adventure
program.
You must also ensure that you have scenery for Bournemouth and Exeter Airports as
FS98 does not contain them. If you have no commercial addon scenery for the UK, then I
recommend using freeware scenery available from both this site, and Flightsim.com. For
Bournemouth I would recommend using the EGHH98V2.zip, and for Exeter EGTE98V1.zip. Both
are excellent and also contain Dynamic aircraft movements in UK Direct colours!
For extra realism in FS2000 and FS2002, you might consider the UK2000 scenery by our
founder, Gary Summons. Use the link on our Ops page if you haven`t seen his site before.
When you have completed the flight, you will be given a report code by the adventure
program, you must then send this code to us with your name, country, and email address.
See below for the online form. When we have received and processed the details you will
be informed of your rating for the flight along with your Pilot ID number. Your flight
will also be posted on the UK Direct Roster web page at the next update. If you do not hear
from us within 7 days there is a good chance the mail did not arrive here. Updates
usually take place on the Sunday or Monday each week.
Remember before filling out this online joinup form, you must fly the
Exam.zip
ukd192@yahoo.co.uk
UK DIRECT Copyright G.Summons © 1998 - 2008