Evan Reiter

Great! Thanks for the update. Glad to see both the P3D and FSX files seem to be working well.

The WOAI files are for FSX. We looked at the originally but for whatever reason never had success with it. I haven't reviewed it recently because we haven't had the need to. We've already created the file, and (if we decide to expand it) would just need someone to add a few more rules for airlines like AFR, BAW, etc. I did some testing in FSX:SE with and without the vPilot model database (i.e., running our custom file vs. the vPilot files); admittedly, it wasn't particularly extensive. However, I found a few examples of places where BVA's VMR file helped. One was an aircraft (AFR7) filed an incorrect B772 type code. We have rules in place for this scenario. With our VMR file, he showed up as a UAL B77L, which is the livery we have used as the default aircraft. Without the VMR file, he showed up as a default, white A320. The same thing is in place for people who incorrectly use E175, E75S, etc. We've also developed model matching for helicopters (not sure if the new vPilot model matching works for that) and an extensive list for general aviation aircraft that takes things like a BE60 and turns them into a BE58, if the pilot doesn't have a BE60 in its library. Similar story for military aircraft. How does vPilot's automated model matching deal with "similar" aircraft substitutions? Having done 0 flying with vPilot 2.0, I don't really know how the model matching works outside of the very minimal testing I've done. Has it got those model matching rules in it too? If so, perhaps we need to think about shortening our VMR library or merging it with what vPilot already has. For example, I would think that the B772 logic I described above would be beneficial to the general vPilot public too. As always, I'm more than willing to share, Ross.

That should be where you'll find them. They all have a prefix like WOA_ or WOAI_ (something like that). Awesome! Let me know how the install goes and once you have it, I could get together with you for a few minutes. It's a very easy process and 30-45 minutes of copying and pasting would get us a long way.

For several months, I have been meaning to overhaul the Model Matching instructions in our Getting Started Guide. Historically, we had instructions for people to use the WOAI Downloader/Installer to get the World of AI static aircraft library. Trouble is, the WOAI Installer, though quite smart in its execution, was made several years ago and doesn't play well with FSX:SE or P3D. We have now included all of our model matching aircraft and liveries in a single installer. Configuring BVA Model Matching is now as easy as running the installer, downloading our .vmr file, and adding it to vPilot. In addition, I've updated the instructions to reflect the layout in vPilot 2.0. From what I can tell, there's no longer an option to run a model matching test in vPilot, so I can't check the model matching rules for sure. However, I did test extensively at places like EGLL and KJFK and wasn't able to find any errors. What would be very helpful is if someone who has P3D could download the new model matching aircraft for P3D (either the .exe or the .zip) and install it for testing. I did this with FSX:SE but don't have the capability to test it in P3D right now. If you have the old World of AI packages installed, please delete them before running the installer. What I'd like to see is whether there are any SimObjects errors when running P3D, or if the model matching does anything unexpected. There's a good chance that we'll have a duplicate or missing model in there somewhere, but I can't check that myself. For the .exe, click here. Note: our .vmr file currently has rules that set any "unknown" aircraft to a U.S. model. For example, an Air France B772 will show up as a United B772 because the .vmr file was written when we only had U.S. liveries. If someone wanted to volunteer to add some rules, we can resolve the issue. Otherwise, I'll have it on my list for a future update. It's not a large amount of work and it's an easy re-upload so when the next one is ready, I'll let everyone know. Anyone else who has some spare time to look through the new Getting Started Guide for something that seems to be missing: www.bvartcc.com/gettingstarted. Please let me know if you see anything that needs to be updated!

All - please note the coupon will be valid until January 16. If you are thinking about purchasing the scenery and haven't yet, act now to take advantage of the 20% discount.

Just in time for tonight's Cape Cod General Aviation Fly-In (KACK, KHYA, and KMVY from 8-11pm ET), we have a special announcement! BVA is proud to have secured a 20% discount for our members on a newly-released scenery package for Nantucket (KACK) by acclaimed scenery designer Bill Womack of iBlueYonder. As you can see from the screenshot above, the new scenery, which features the airport and surrounding island, looks fantastic! More screenshots and details are available on the iBlueYonder website. BVA members are eligible for a special 20% discount on the scenery by using a special code that was sent out in an email today, but only for purchases made directly on the iBlueYonder website. When you purchase the scenery, enter the code found in your email when you checkout so the total price is just under US$20. We encourage any members thinking of purchasing the scenery to use the code, so we can continue to secure great discounts like this in the future. If you have not yet received the code via email, you can find it in this forum post: http://forums.bvartcc.com/index.php?topic=13533.0. In celebration of the release, and member discount, we're staffing up Nantucket, Hyannis, and Martha's Vineyard tonight, beginning at 8pm ET. We would like to thank Bill Womack for generously donating this discount to our members, and hope our community appreciates the opportunity to get a great deal on a fantastic scenery release for an airport in our home airspace. See you at Nantucket tonight!

Thank you very much to the 40+ members who took the time out of a busy holiday schedule to attend tonight's All-Member Meeting. We had a great discussion about topics members brought to the table. We discussed a wide variety of topics; I've included some of the highlights below. In addition to this list, I have several other "to do" items for our team to discuss at our first meeting back after the holidays. For anyone who wasn't able to attend the session, please feel free to share any thoughts, questions, or comments on this thread. Pilot Timetable We discussed several ideas for improving the visibility and use of the Pilot Timetable. More on that in the new year. vPilot 2.0 vPilot 2.0 has been released to the VATSIM community. The current version, as well as Version 2, will both work. At the moment, our Getting Started Guide references the older version of vPilot. However, an update is underway for the Getting Started Guide, including updating the vPilot screenshots to the newest versions. If you use the BVA Model Matching Rules in vPilot, they are compatible with either version. Events We had a wide-ranging discussion about events, including several ideas for us to think about moving into the new year. Donations A big thanks to the many people who have donated to make the community a reality over the past year. As a registered 501©(3) non-profit organization, we rely on the generosity of our members to run! Happy Holidays to all!

It's a LNdmark day! Congratulations and well done.

This event is about to begin! To participate, join TeamSpeak: xmas.maldair.com. Then, follow the instructions to connect as a pilot, posted here: http://roo.servebeer.com/cccgf.html. Looks like we will have a few controllers involved in the event once the ATC portion begins (in just over an hour).

Well done! Congratulations. I guess my attempts to screw you over by giving you inaccurate information and crappy feedback were unsuccessful.

Boston Virtual ARTCC welcomes our members to participate in a Christmas Cross-Community Flight. This flight, which welcomes members from all online aviation communities, is an opportunity to say hello to like-minded flight simmers from around the world. Everyone is welcome; there will be members from multiplayer, VATSIM, and IVAO communities at the event. The event will begin with a non-ATC group flight from EFRO to EFOU (airports around the Lapland area). Following that, there will be ATC provided at a number of airports in the area. BVA's air traffic controllers will be part of the event, and will work with controllers from different communities and from around the world to provide coverage in the area. Members are welcome to join the Cross-Community Flight TeamSpeak server beginning at 1pm ET before the flight. All of the information about the flight, including the TeamSpeak server information, will be published on the day of, at: http://roo.servebeer.com/cccgf.html. The initial flight will depart EFRO at 3:15PM et (2015z). Members can join the event using any of: FSX (boxed or Steam) Prepar3D To join, you'll need to use the 'JOINFS' client. More information about how to connect and use the client is posted at: http://roo.servebeer.com/cccgf.html. Even if you choose not to fly, you are welcome to join members of the global online aviation community this December!

Congratulations to Benjamin Dudley (DL) for passing his Class B Ground OTS tonight. On to Tower!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of certifying Krikor Hajian (HI) for the full on-peak Boston Center during a busy feeder session for New York's "Night In EWR II". Krikor approached a busy, challenging, complex traffic picture with the positive, energetic attitude he brings to every facet of Boston Virtual ARTCC. Krikor joined the community during the summer of 2015, and his first training session took place on June 23, 2015. We don't keep track of many records but I'm sure that's up there with one of the fastest times to go from Class C Ground all the way to an on-peak CTR certification. It's been a pleasure to work with HI for the past few months and I look forward to seeing his learning continue in the on-peak environment. Well done!

Update -- on the advice of the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, we have contacted the Office of the Attorney General for the State of New York. We have submitted the complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau as well as our conversations with GalaxyVisions (our provider) as evidence that we are owed almost $3,000 in payment made for services that were never provided.

As many of you know, when we used to run an FSX multiplayer server, we contracted with a New York City-based web hosting provider called GalaxyVisions to provide dedicated hosting for that server. For reasons I will describe below, we were routinely pre-paying for a year of service with GalaxyVisions on the condition that the pre-payments were refundable if we elected to close our account. However, when we attempted to cancel our service and receive the refund we were entitled to at the end of last year, our requests were delayed, deferred, and eventually ignored. To this date, the company owes us more than US$2,000 that was paid for service in 2016 that we never used. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact the business and submitting a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, we have decided to submit a formal complaint with the New York Department of Consumer Affairs. This forum post provides some background information about the scenario, why this issue has come to be, and what we as an Administration Team are doing to try to recover the funds our donors contributed to the community. Unlike almost every other game, an FSX “server” is actually just a regular version of FSX, like any of us would have. There is no “server only” mode in FSX; you have to be running a flight or connected as a controller in multiplayer mode to allow others to connect. As a result, the FSX server computer must be capable of providing desktop graphics. An onboard card is not enough. If you’ve ever done any research into web hosting, you’ll know it’s next to impossible to find dedicated hosting that offers desktop graphics. Most server farms have “blade” servers that aren’t physically thick enough to support a PCI graphics card. After two separate projects to find different providers, GalaxyVisions was the only one we had ever been able to find that could accommodate FSX. They did this by installing a graphics card that I personally FedEx’d them. That’s right: our old FSX server was powered by a graphics card I sent to GalaxyVisions and they installed for us. Despite the occasional issue, we were generally satisfied with GalaxyVisions’ service. Given that, and the fact that they were our only choice, we had been pre-paying for a year of service in order to get a free three months. In other words, we pre-paid for 12 months of service but got 15 months. This deal provided almost $1,000 of savings each year for our community. Before we agreed to the pre-payment, we confirmed in writing with the ISP that we could cancel the account at any time and receive a pro-rated refund for any pre-payment. Fast forward to September 2, 2015, at which point our organization was reviewing options for the FSX server. At the time, I emailed our contact at GalaxyVisions to confirm that the refund option was still available for us: On November 18, 2015, I formally requested to close our account and receive the pro-rated refund, and for them to return my NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS to me. I received the following reply: Since that point, no action has been taken. We have neither received a refund nor an explanation from GalaxyVisions. When I first emailed to follow up, they would say “oh yeah, it’s in process, it just takes a few weeks”. Eventually, they stopped answering me altogether. We have tried multiple points of contact. It’s got to the point where GalaxyVisions began screening our calls. When I would first call, they would answer, then hang up once they found out who I was. So I would ask Jeremy or Phil to call…and they would get the same thing. Now, any calls from Jeremy, Phil, or I just ring to voicemail. We’ve tried emails to the COO and CEO, and I even tracked down the phone number of the COO’s wife. All to no avail. We also tried a credit card dispute through our bank and a complaint through PayPal. However, the timelines and also nature of the dispute are such that the bank and PayPal aren’t able to help at this point. Given that, about a month ago, we submitted a formal complaint through the Better Business Bureau (GalaxyVisions was once an accredited business although they no longer are). The complaint reads as follows: The Better Business Bureau reviewed our complaint and agreed that it had merit. They contacted GalaxyVisions and provided the ISP 30 days to respond. GalaxyVisions has declined to reply to us. The Better Business Bureau is a non-profit organization, like us, and as such does not have the resources to follow up further. However, they recommended we submit a complaint with the New York Department of Consumer Affairs, which does. That is our proposed next step. We will be asking the New York Department of Consumer Affairs to review the emails from GalaxyVisions in which we were promised a refund, and will ask for legal action to be taken, if required, in order for us to get our donors’ money back.

Maintenance has been delayed until June 3, 2016. Because multiple servers are being updated at the same time, there is no exact timeframe for when our website will be offline. However, the outage is estimated to only last between 1-2 hours.

Our ISP has advised us that emergency maintenance is planned on our server for approximately 1-2 hours sometime between 10pm ET tonight (May 26) and early tomorrow morning. Members attempting to access our website during the time the maintenance is scheduled may find that the site doesn't load, or that elements of the website aren't working as expected. Normal service should be available by no later than 12pm ET on May 27.

Well deserved!

Reminder: Our Approach Plates - Part 1 Ground School seminar will be held at 6pm ET today. The remaining two sessions will be held on May 29 (Part 2 of Approach Plates) and June 5 (RNAV), wrapping up the 2015-2016 series of Ground School seminars.

The next Ground School session (Holds) has been moved to April 17. The new schedule is reflected in the initial post above.

I wasn't able to attend the event (work) but I've heard some early feedback from a few of the guys who were up late last night. Very interested to see what others have to say. How did the event go? How did it compare to some of the recent Regional Circuits that we have hosted in ZBW? Is the "on the road" concept something we should continue to explore with ZDV and/or with other facilities?

The Regional Circuit hits the road! Based on a suggestion from one of our members, we're working with the Denver ARTCC (ZDV) for tonight's Regional Circuit. Denver (KDEN) and Eagle County (KEGE) are featured from 8-11pm ET. Spawn in at either airport, or fly into the event, and transport the last few skiers of the season up to the hills. Airport Updates for Eagle County (KEGE) are available as part of a package of Colorado airports. Please download the updates (if you run FSX or FSX:SE) and install them before flying the event. This is our first Regional Circuit on the VATSIM network being held outside of our own ARTCC. Please share your experience and feedback here on our forums after the event as we determine whether this format and concept can continue at other airports across VATSIM.

Nate is now our newest Class B Tower controller, recently passing his OTS at KBOS in the always-challenging 4/9 configuration. Helicopters, go arounds, squawk codes, and VFR aircraft couldn't throw him off his game. Watch out TRACON...Nate's on his way!

Boston Virtual ARTCC's Airspace Briefing Guide (ABG) provides guidance for both member and non-member pilots who are flying within our airspace: Boston Center, or ZBW, on VATSIM. We strongly recommend all pilots review the document prior to flying in our airspace for the first time. The ABG covers important information about having the most recent/updated scenery, some general recommendations about flying online, and several procedures specific to our airspace, particularly operations at KBOS. Please visit bvartcc.com/ABG to download the latest copy of the ABG.

Well done HO! I've heard great things about your checkouts all the way through the system. Welcome!