Changelog

Maintenance release combined of some bug fixes and smaller changes.

• Improved: Upcoming Tour events will no longer show Book Flight button if event has not started yet

• Improved: Backend AIRAC update functionality

• Fixed: Custom VA Pages not taking into account honorary ranks

• Fixed: AIRAC route drawing was not including first and last waypoint of route and caused erroneus drawings outside the expected path

• Fixed: METAR fetching in some cases was throwing errors

• Fixed: View Phoenix Profile button was not among Pilot table actions

This changelog summarizes silent changes made since 5.0.21;

• Fix: Accepting Livery would not accept pending PIREPs in some cases;

• Fix: Remove billing address after VA Owner change;

• Fix: Tweaks to User GDPR Anonymization;

• Improvement: Billing page now accessible by VA Owners Onlyl

• Fix: Pilot table tweaks to not display pilot accounts from deleted users;

• Fix: Leaderboards would sometimes not display previous years correctly;

• Fix: Badge for visited airports would not be awarded correctly;

• Fix: Staff permissions regarding pilot bans/unbans were incorrect in Pilot Table;

• Improvement: Rudimentary simbrief aircraft id validation in Favortited Aircraft;

• Fix: Deleting hubs will not unset hub location for deleted pilots - was causing an issue when pilot account was restored;

• Fix: Live Flights table spacing issues;

• Fix: An issue with VA Initiated merges which would never complete;

• 5.2 Compatibility: PIREP Comments made in 5.0 get sent to 5.2

• Fix: Multiple Landing AutoReject was broken and would not store multiple landings detected;

• Improvement: Made changes to Changed VA redirect socket job, reduced access log write frequency;

• Improvement: Added validation rules when creating containers for Size and Weight; Size ‘large’ and weight ‘heavy’ are no longer accepted in form input.

• Fix: Honorary rank was not shown in the topbar when honorary rank is preferred;

• Fix: Duplicate event point awards when reflying last leg of the tour;

• Fix: Dispatch issue with luggage weight when not dispatching via SimBrief;

• Improvement: Tour events now show start date for upcoming routes;

• Fix: Aircraft editor did not show inherited CI value from Fleet;

• Fix: Restoring pilot profile without ‘reuse username’ may sometimes lead to strange usernames;

• Fix: Fixes to weight units sent to SimBrief;

• Improvement: Clarify weight units in Phoenix Dispatch being sent to SimBrief;

• Fix: Booking count in Aircraft Resource page in Phoenix;

• Fix: Importing airports now correctly requires airport name;

• Fix: Flight Map was confused about local/UTC timestamps in SDT/ADT

• Fix: Select Hub modal on first visit would sometimes show hubs from another airline

• Fix: Book Flight map’s Tag filter was applied incorrectly and was not filtering completely

• Fix: Double weight conversion in View Booking page when using imperial units

• Disabled Stand Creation in 5.0 due to Stand Project

• Fix: Correct date/time logging for Pegasus required files so they are not downloaded needlessly when there has been no update

• Improvement: Featurebase integration in Error pages and in Orwell → vAMSYS Support

• Fix: Text Editor could not insert links

• Improvement: Change how routes are parsed and drawn on the map

• Disabled Pegasus Flight Map

• Fix: Danger alert did not have styling applied


Say Hello to a Smoother Flight Planning Experience

We’re thrilled to share that vAMSYS v5.1 Beta is finally here, bringing with it an all-new SimBrief and Navigraph integration that we think you’re really going to love. Here’s what’s new:

• **Easy Account Linking:**

Simply connect your Navigraph account, and if you’re a SimBrief user, your flight planning just got a whole lot simpler.

• **Better Maps for Navigraph Unlimited Subscribers:**

Enjoy improved airport maps loaded with new layers showing stands, taxiways, runways, de-ice zones, and more.

• **Cool SimBrief Features:**

- Your custom SimBrief Aircraft Profiles now sync directly to vAMSYS for a seamless dispatch process.

- You can preview your Operational Flight Plan (OFP) before taking off, making it a breeze to tweak payloads, fuel, or inspect TLR details.

- When you’re ready, the OFP is generated in the background, and any tweaks you make on SimBrief.com sync back automatically.

- Plus, Virtual Airlines can now set up fuel and cost overrides per fleet or aircraft, and your SimBrief OFP data sticks around for future reference.

Meet the new Orwell

We’ve given Orwell a complete makeover. Everything you need—from managing airports and fleets to handling sceneries—is now in one intuitive place. It might feel a bit different at first, but we’re sure you’ll grow to love the streamlined setup:

• **Everything in One Place:**

No more jumping between different systems. Manage hubs, fleets, and more all from Orwell.

• **New VA Statistics Page:**

Check out live flight histograms, PIREP review charts, fleet logbooks, and detailed airport movement tables. Play around with the date filters to see exactly what you need.

Heads-Up on What’s Missing

Since this is a beta release, there are a couple of things we’re still working on:

• **Stands Functionality:** Currently taking a backseat.

• **Importers/Exporters:** Not available just yet.

What Else Has Changed?

• **Airports:**

- New Airport Briefing URL linking to Phoenix resources.

- Bulk actions now let you manage base toggles, categories, and more.

• **Email Tweaks:**

- Subject lines can now include variables.

• **Global Search:**

- Find pilots, PIREPs, events, and more with our upgraded search feature.

• **Keyboard Shortcuts:**

- CTRL+K opens search, and CTRL+S saves your forms.

• **Navigraph AMDB Integration:**

- Enhanced airport maps with detailed layers.

• **SimBrief v2 Integration:**

- All the new SimBrief features are up and running.

• **Live Flights Histogram:**

- See real-time flight data like never before.

• **Enhanced PIREP and Payload Features:**

- Check out the new chart on the PIREP review page and improved random payload generation.

• **Callsign and Rank Updates:**

- Now you can use the aircraft registration or pilot username as your callsign, with rank abbreviations appearing upfront.

• **Commenting Improvements:**

- New comment options and presets on PIREP Claims and Registration Reviews.

• **Operational Boosts:**

- Runway detection, route-level overrides for PAX and bag weights, improved imperial unit support, and an experimental timezone feature for overnight actions.

• **UI Overhauls:**

- Redesigned Dispatch, PIREP View, and Review pages, plus a fresh Bookings page and more.

• **And so much more to explore…**

Feature: VA Pilot Account Merge Tool

In Orwell Pilot Table, VA Staff can now select and merge Pilot Accounts. This tool should be used as last resort and users should merge their user accounts.

This tool does not combine user accounts - meaning their network IDs, discord linking etc will not transfer - for that to happen user needs to perform full account merge.

Improvements:

• Take into consideration deleted pilot accounts when performing user account merge

• Exclude vAMSYS Robot from Leaderboards

• Add Year-To-Date leaderboard

• Add Historical leaderboard for previous years

• Show luggage weight in View Booking page

Fixes:

• Incorrect action applied when performing bulk ignore action in Livery Review in Orwell

• Process Pilot Invites one at a time, resolving potential duplicate pilot username assignment

We're thrilled to share exciting updates in vAMSYS Version 5.0.21! This release introduces notable features and improvements for enhanced user experience.

New Feature

VA Pilot Account Merge Tool

• Allows VA Staff to merge Pilot Accounts in the Orwell Pilot Table.

• Note: User networks or third-party integrations are not combined. Users must perform a full account merge for integrated feature continuity.

Improvements

• Consideration of deleted pilot accounts during user account merge actions.

• Exclusion of the vAMSYS Robot from leaderboard calculations.

• Addition of Year-To-Date and Historical leaderboards for previous years.

• Display of luggage weight on the 'View Booking' page.

Fixes

• Resolved incorrect actions during the bulk ignore function in Livery Review (Orwell).

• Improved invite processing to address events of duplicate pilot username assignment.

Fixes:

• Pilots not being correctly removed from linked Discords

• vAMSYS Staff being bannable

• Pending Pilot applications were not removed on User merge

• Book flight airport selector fix in case of no jumpseat options

• Visual issue with airport based tours not always registering as complete if route start date is null

• Issue with transfer PIREPs not always submittable

• Ensure staff entry is deleted when user is deleted

• Make Social Icons not collapsed in Orwell

• Make custom Buttons in Phoenix dashboard not grow in certain configurations

• Deleted aircraft were not being counted in profile most used aircraft

• Online Network remarks not sent to IVAO

• Incorrect display of aircraft being booked when dispatching

Improvements:

• NOTAM content formating

• Change Select page to grid layout for different display order of 'big' airlines

• Increase import line limit to 30k

• Breakdown STD, ATD, STA and ETA times in Flight Map and API

Fixes:

• Pilots not being correctly removed from linked Discords

• vAMSYS Staff being bannable

• Pending Pilot applications were not removed on User merge

• Book flight airport selector fix in case of no jumpseat options

• Visual issue with airport based tours not always registering as complete if route start date is null

• Issue with transfer PIREPs not always submittable

• Ensure staff entry is deleted when user is deleted

• Make Social Icons not collapsed in Orwell

• Make custom Buttons in Phoenix dashboard not grow in certain configurations

• Deleted aircraft were not being counted in profile most used aircraft

• Online Network remarks not sent to IVAO

• Incorrect display of aircraft being booked when dispatching

Improvements:

• NOTAM content formating

• Change Select page to grid layout for different display order of 'big' airlines

• Increase import line limit to 30k

• Breakdown STD, ATD, STA and ETA times in Flight Map and API

Discord-Related Fixes:

• **Discord Daily Statistics Summaries heading date was off by a day**: Corrected an issue where the heading date in daily statistics summaries was showing the wrong day.

• **Possible to link several users to the same Discord account**: Resolved a bug allowing multiple user accounts to be linked to the same Discord account.

• **User Merge would not merge linked Discord account**: Ensured that merging user accounts now correctly includes linked Discord accounts.

Route and Dispatch Management:

• **Route Importer would insert current time if departure or arrival time was empty**: Fixed default behavior when route times were left empty during import.

• **Tag filter in VDS Routes contains tags from deleted routes**: Updated the tag filter logic to exclude tags associated with deleted routes.

• **On SB Dispatch alternates number not sent to SB**: Corrected the dispatch logic to include the number of alternates in the data sent.

Pilot Management:

• **Ignore deleted users when validating online network ID uniqueness**: Ensured that deleted users are ignored when checking for unique online network IDs.

• **When banning a user, apply ban to deleted pilot accounts too in case of restore in the future**: Enhanced the banning process to apply bans to deleted pilot accounts as well.

• **Pilot Restore would sometimes not reset activity grace**: Fixed a bug that prevented resetting the activity grace period when restoring a pilot account.

• **Halt Pilot deletion for not meeting activity requirements if they have/had active flight in the last 30 minutes**: Safeguard added to stop pilot deletions if the pilot has recently been in-flight.

• **Halt Pilot deletion for not meeting activity requirements if they have a PIREP in processing or pending review**: Prevents deletion of pilots with pending or processing PIREPs.

• **It is possible to create multiple pilot invites for the same user when invite is already pending**: Restricted duplicate invites for a user who already has a pending invite.

Permissions and Security:

• **It is possible to ban VA Owner and VA Staff**: Corrected an issue allowing bans on VA Owners and Staff when it should be restricted.

• **Ban/Unban not properly tied to Staff permissions**: Ensured that the ability to ban/unban is now tied to proper staff permissions.

Rank, Badge, and Tour Management:

• **When editing a Rank PIREP requirements cannot be edited**: Resolved an issue preventing changes to PIREP requirements for ranks during editing.

• **Badge expected 'greater than' in PIREP count evaluation and not greater than or equal to**: Fixed badge logic to include "equal to" in PIREP count evaluations.

• **Tour would not register as complete in some cases where leg was flown more than once**: Ensured tours are marked complete even when legs are flown multiple times.

• **It is possible to create a tour with no legs**: Added validation to prevent creating tours without any legs.

Billing and Plans:

• **Billing page text descriptions not recognizing plans between per year and per month**: Addressed confusion in recognizing annual versus monthly plans.

System Performance and Stability:

• **Orwell Pilot list column sort error**: Fixed issues with sorting columns in the pilot list.

• **Memory Issues in VDS Routes and Orwell PIREP list tables**: Optimized tables to reduce memory consumption and improve stability.

• **PIREP Points sum would not update after adding Social Points for Group Flight or Shared Cockpit**: Ensured that PIREP points are recalculated correctly after adding social points.

Discord-Related Fixes:

• Discord Daily Statistics Summaries heading date was off by a day: Corrected an issue where the heading date in daily statistics summaries was showing the wrong day.

• Possible to link several users to the same Discord account: Resolved a bug allowing multiple user accounts to be linked to the same Discord account.

• User Merge would not merge linked Discord account: Ensured that merging user accounts now correctly includes linked Discord accounts.

Route and Dispatch Management:

• Route Importer would insert current time if departure or arrival time was empty: Fixed default behavior when route times were left empty during import.

• Tag filter in VDS Routes contains tags from deleted routes: Updated the tag filter logic to exclude tags associated with deleted routes.

• On SB Dispatch alternates number not sent to SB: Corrected the dispatch logic to include the number of alternates in the data sent.

Pilot Management:

• Ignore deleted users when validating online network ID uniqueness: Ensured that deleted users are ignored when checking for unique online network IDs.

• When banning a user, apply ban to deleted pilot accounts too in case of restore in the future: Enhanced the banning process to apply bans to deleted pilot accounts as well.

• Pilot Restore would sometimes not reset activity grace: Fixed a bug that prevented resetting the activity grace period when restoring a pilot account.

• Halt Pilot deletion for not meeting activity requirements if they have/had active flight in the last 30 minutes: Safeguard added to stop pilot deletions if the pilot has recently been in-flight.

• Halt Pilot deletion for not meeting activity requirements if they have a PIREP in processing or pending review: Prevents deletion of pilots with pending or processing PIREPs.

• It is possible to create multiple pilot invites for the same user when invite is already pending: Restricted duplicate invites for a user who already has a pending invite.

Permissions and Security:

• It is possible to ban VA Owner and VA Staff: Corrected an issue allowing bans on VA Owners and Staff when it should be restricted.

• Ban/Unban not properly tied to Staff permissions: Ensured that the ability to ban/unban is now tied to proper staff permissions.

Rank, Badge, and Tour Management:

• When editing a Rank PIREP requirements cannot be edited: Resolved an issue preventing changes to PIREP requirements for ranks during editing.

• Badge expected 'greater than' in PIREP count evaluation and not greater than or equal to: Fixed badge logic to include "equal to" in PIREP count evaluations.

• Tour would not register as complete in some cases where leg was flown more than once: Ensured tours are marked complete even when legs are flown multiple times.

• It is possible to create a tour with no legs: Added validation to prevent creating tours without any legs.

Billing and Plans:

• Billing page text descriptions not recognizing plans between per year and per month: Addressed confusion in recognizing annual versus monthly plans.

System Performance and Stability:

• Orwell Pilot list column sort error: Fixed issues with sorting columns in the pilot list.

• Memory Issues in VDS Routes and Orwell PIREP list tables: Optimized tables to reduce memory consumption and improve stability.

• PIREP Points sum would not update after adding Social Points for Group Flight or Shared Cockpit: Ensured that PIREP points are recalculated correctly after adding social points.


vAMSYS 5.0.17 and 5.0.18 have been released to the public.

User Account Improvements

5.0.18 carries on with additions introduced in 5.0.17 and reworks User Management page.

Users can now see their global statistics across all VAs they are in.

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• Added filters to Profile Map for Flight Type, Aircraft Type, Operator and Tags

• Added date selection modifiers for quick changes +/- month/year, register date and Today

• Profile map start date defaults to show last 100 PIREPs by default, if that many are available

• Added notifications to My Profile and Account Settings if there are pending friend requests

• Clicking on Leaderboard user will now open profile page in the same tab

• Added forgotten Rank Transfer options from 5.0.17 to the My Profile -> Preferences Page

• Logbook is now sorted by flight count, not aircraft type

• Phoenix Event description uses more Markdown formatting options

• Added Server selector at the bottom of the page where 'Served By' lives

vAMSYS 5.0.17 and 5.0.18 have been released to the public.

User Account Improvements

5.0.18 carries on with additions introduced in 5.0.17 and reworks User Management page.

Users can now see their global statistics across all VAs they are in.

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• Added filters to Profile Map for Flight Type, Aircraft Type, Operator and Tags

• Added date selection modifiers for quick changes +/- month/year, register date and Today

• Profile map start date defaults to show last 100 PIREPs by default, if that many are available

• Added notifications to My Profile and Account Settings if there are pending friend requests

• Clicking on Leaderboard user will now open profile page in the same tab

• Added forgotten Rank Transfer options from 5.0.17 to the My Profile -> Preferences Page

• Logbook is now sorted by flight count, not aircraft type

• Phoenix Event description uses more Markdown formatting options

• Added Server selector at the bottom of the page where 'Served By' lives

[vAMSYS 5.0.17 is now available for Public Testing on vAMSYS Next](https://next.vamsys.io)

We're excited to announce that **5.0.17** marks the first vAMSYS v5 release with a public beta testing period. Moving forward, we plan to leverage public testing more frequently to gather valuable feedback on new features and improvements.

A few important points to note for this initial public beta:

• **Shared Database**: vAMSYS Next and vAMSYS.io operate on the same database. Any actions taken on vAMSYS Next will be immediately reflected on the main vAMSYS.io platform

• **Open Access**: vAMSYS Next is available to all vAMSYS users

Pilot Profile Rework

My Profile

The **My Profile** section has been restructured into several dedicated pages:

• **Dashboard**: The previous "My Profile" page

• **Map**: A new flight history map

• **Statistics**: Charts showcasing your pilot statistics

• **Badges**: Displays badges (or awards, depending on your VA's terminology) you've earned

• **PIREPs**: A list of your PIREPs, relocated from the Flight Centre

• **Claims**: Your PIREP Claims, also moved from the Flight Centre

• **Preferences**: Manage your pilot-specific preferences

• **Account Settings**: Redirects to vAMSYS Auth for managing account details

Dashboard

• The **Statistics Breakdown** no longer includes a Settings tab

• The **Details Section** has been streamlined, and the Hub Change button now includes a tooltip explaining its purpose

• **Popular Aircraft** are now tracked based on PIREPs rather than bookings

• The Badge Breakdown has been moved to the bottom of the page

• The **Bookings Table** has been removed

Map

The long-anticipated **Flight History Map** is back, now better than ever and in full-page view

• Displays all your flights within a selected period (default: one month ago to today)

• Offers visualization options for both great circle routes and actual flight paths

Statistics

Introducing the **Pilot Statistics Center**, complete with detailed charts:

• **Aircraft Types**: Types used in PIREPs

• **Callsigns**: ICAO callsign prefixes used

• **Network**: Networks where flights were booked

• **Departures**: Day/night departure breakdown

• **Route Types**: Types of routes flown

• **Simulators**: Simulators used

• **Event Flights**: PIREPs with bonus points

• **Landings**: Day/night landing breakdown

• **Flights**: PIREPs flown per month (starting from your registration date)

• **Landing Rate**: Average landing rate per month

• **Logbook**: A detailed text summary of your aircraft types, total flights, passengers and freight carried, air time, distance flown, fuel used, and day/night takeoff/landing stats

Badges

For now, this page offers a basic breakdown similar to the one on the Dashboard. We plan to expand its functionality in the future.

Preferences

The previous settings drawer has been replaced with a full-page interface, retaining all previous options:

• Use Imperial Units

• Prefer Honorary Rank

• Preferred Network (pre-selected for dispatch)

• **SimBrief OFP Format**: Now always visible. If the VA disabled pilot overrides, it shows the default set by the VA. Otherwise, pilots can choose their preferred format

• **Delete Pilot Account**: Initiates a 60-day freeze before deletion

**New in 5.0.17**: If not disabled by your VA, pilots can now **Reset Pilot Account**. This option, requiring password confirmation, removes all bookings and PIREPs from your account. These records are reassigned to the VA's Robot Pilot to preserve overall VA statistics.

VAs can disable this option in Orwell -> Settings -> Airline -> Pilot -> Enable Pilot Account Reset toggle.

Day/Night Departures & Arrivals

vAMSYS 5.0.17 introduces a feature to evaluate whether your departures and landings occurred during day or night.

• This determination uses the airport's location and the times recorded on your PIREP to calculate whether the flight occurred before or after civil twilight

• Note: If your simulator is not set to real local time, these evaluations may be inaccurate, as we can't track simulator time

Testing Required

We've updated how **Profile Map**, **Book Flight Map**, and **Destination Maps** load and navigate. These maps now leverage navigation methods used in other areas of vAMSYS, eliminating the need for full-page refreshes.

If you experience issues where a map fails to load:

1. Hit **F5** to refresh the page

2. If the map loads after refreshing, try retracing your steps

3. If the issue recurs, report it to your VA Staff or Vision with **precise steps to reproduce the error**. Detailing each click and action is crucial for diagnosing the problem

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• Updated Trigger Event for Flaps/Engine scorers to clarify the 30kts speed threshold

• Landing points are now limited to whole numbers; fractional points are no longer allowed

• SimBrief now supports fuel calculations in kilograms. Conversions have been implemented in vAMSYS for users preferring KG

• Multiple improvements to Tours Event pages, including correct leg sorting and hiding completed legs

• Switched to a cloud-based map tiles provider for enhanced performance and reliability

• Fixed an issue where activity grace periods were not removed when restoring a pilot account

• Disabled PIREP point editing when no scoring group is attached to the fleet used for the PIREP

• Resolved issues with holiday cancellations not fully restoring unused days

• Fixed validation of network IDs to prevent conflicts with deleted user accounts

• Removed the Pilot Data Export feature

• Social icon URLs now require a full URL, including the `https://` prefix

• Fixed a bug allowing pilot registrations for VAs on trial

• Addressed a rare issue where the Profile page failed to load due to missing booking data

We're excited to announce that 5.0.17 marks the first vAMSYS v5 release with a public beta testing period. Moving forward, we plan to leverage public testing more frequently to gather valuable feedback on new features and improvements.

A few important points to note for this initial public beta:

• Shared Database: vAMSYS Next and vAMSYS.io operate on the same database. Any actions taken on vAMSYS Next will be immediately reflected on the main vAMSYS.io platform

• Open Access: vAMSYS Next is available to all vAMSYS users

Pilot Profile Rework

My Profile

The My Profile section has been restructured into several dedicated pages:

• Dashboard: The previous "My Profile" page

• Map: A new flight history map

• Statistics: Charts showcasing your pilot statistics

• Badges: Displays badges (or awards, depending on your VA's terminology) you've earned

• PIREPs: A list of your PIREPs, relocated from the Flight Centre

• Claims: Your PIREP Claims, also moved from the Flight Centre

• Preferences: Manage your pilot-specific preferences

• Account Settings: Redirects to vAMSYS Auth for managing account details

Dashboard

• The Statistics Breakdown no longer includes a Settings tab

• The Details Section has been streamlined, and the Hub Change button now includes a tooltip explaining its purpose

• Popular Aircraft are now tracked based on PIREPs rather than bookings

• The Badge Breakdown has been moved to the bottom of the page

• The Bookings Table has been removed

Map

The long-anticipated Flight History Map is back, now better than ever and in full-page view

• Displays all your flights within a selected period (default: one month ago to today)

• Offers visualization options for both great circle routes and actual flight paths

Statistics

Introducing the Pilot Statistics Center, complete with detailed charts:

• Aircraft Types: Types used in PIREPs

• Callsigns: ICAO callsign prefixes used

• Network: Networks where flights were booked

• Departures: Day/night departure breakdown

• Route Types: Types of routes flown

• Simulators: Simulators used

• Event Flights: PIREPs with bonus points

• Landings: Day/night landing breakdown

• Flights: PIREPs flown per month (starting from your registration date)

• Landing Rate: Average landing rate per month

• Logbook: A detailed text summary of your aircraft types, total flights, passengers and freight carried, air time, distance flown, fuel used, and day/night takeoff/landing stats

Badges

For now, this page offers a basic breakdown similar to the one on the Dashboard. We plan to expand its functionality in the future.

Preferences

The previous settings drawer has been replaced with a full-page interface, retaining all previous options:

• Use Imperial Units

• Prefer Honorary Rank

• Preferred Network (pre-selected for dispatch)

• SimBrief OFP Format: Now always visible. If the VA disabled pilot overrides, it shows the default set by the VA. Otherwise, pilots can choose their preferred format

• Delete Pilot Account: Initiates a 60-day freeze before deletion

New in 5.0.17: If not disabled by your VA, pilots can now Reset Pilot Account. This option, requiring password confirmation, removes all bookings and PIREPs from your account. These records are reassigned to the VA's Robot Pilot to preserve overall VA statistics.

VAs can disable this option in Orwell -> Settings -> Airline -> Pilot -> Enable Pilot Account Reset toggle.

Day/Night Departures & Arrivals

vAMSYS 5.0.17 introduces a feature to evaluate whether your departures and landings occurred during day or night.

• This determination uses the airport's location and the times recorded on your PIREP to calculate whether the flight occurred before or after civil twilight

• Note: If your simulator is not set to real local time, these evaluations may be inaccurate, as we can't track simulator time

Testing Required

We've updated how Profile Map, Book Flight Map, and Destination Maps load and navigate. These maps now leverage navigation methods used in other areas of vAMSYS, eliminating the need for full-page refreshes.

If you experience issues where a map fails to load:

1. Hit F5 to refresh the page

2. If the map loads after refreshing, try retracing your steps

3. If the issue recurs, report it to your VA Staff or Vision with precise steps to reproduce the error. Detailing each click and action is crucial for diagnosing the problem

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• Updated Trigger Event for Flaps/Engine scorers to clarify the 30kts speed threshold

• Landing points are now limited to whole numbers; fractional points are no longer allowed

• SimBrief now supports fuel calculations in kilograms. Conversions have been implemented in vAMSYS for users preferring KG

• Multiple improvements to Tours Event pages, including correct leg sorting and hiding completed legs

• Switched to a cloud-based map tiles provider for enhanced performance and reliability

• Fixed an issue where activity grace periods were not removed when restoring a pilot account

• Disabled PIREP point editing when no scoring group is attached to the fleet used for the PIREP

• Resolved issues with holiday cancellations not fully restoring unused days

• Fixed validation of network IDs to prevent conflicts with deleted user accounts

• Removed the Pilot Data Export feature

• Social icon URLs now require a full URL, including the https:// prefix

• Fixed a bug allowing pilot registrations for VAs on trial

• Addressed a rare issue where the Profile page failed to load due to missing booking data

View Event page changes for Tours

• Leg information in the sidebar replaced with a sorted list of airports involved in the tour

• Added Event Routes/Airports & Status table at the bottom of the page:

• Table lists all legs in order

• Route based Tours additionally list Callsign, Flight Number, Flight Length and Distance

• Legs flown are indicated as flown and also have a View PIREP button

• Legs to be flown have a book flight button if not booked, or View Booking if already booked

• In case of event restrictions and Airport based Tour - Book Flight button applies the restrictions as set by the event to the Flight Dispatch list

• In case of Route based Tour, Book Flight button only offers the selected route to be dispatched

Presence of Book Flight button does not mean that all qualifying PIREPs need to be booked via event page - if all event conditions are met, it does not matter whether booking was made via Flight Centre or via Event page.

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• Route Exporter bugfix - it was not exporting routes with no routing

• Holidays being cancelled would not return unused days

• Rejecting Liveries in Livery Review would always apply an invalidate action on pending PIREPs

• Removed helpdesk submission form in Orwell until it can be implemented natively

• Landing Rate AutoRejects being applied incorrectly if landing rate is 0 and related adjustments

• Minor query improvements across event and Phoenix PIREP list pages

View Event page changes for Tours

• Leg information in the sidebar replaced with a sorted list of airports involved in the tour

• Added Event Routes/Airports & Status table at the bottom of the page:

• Table lists all legs in order

• Route based Tours additionally list Callsign, Flight Number, Flight Length and Distance

• Legs flown are indicated as flown and also have a View PIREP button

• Legs to be flown have a book flight button if not booked, or View Booking if already booked

• In case of event restrictions and Airport based Tour - Book Flight button applies the restrictions as set by the event to the Flight Dispatch list

• In case of Route based Tour, Book Flight button only offers the selected route to be dispatched

Presence of Book Flight button does not mean that all qualifying PIREPs need to be booked via event page - if all event conditions are met, it does not matter whether booking was made via Flight Centre or via Event page.

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• Route Exporter bugfix - it was not exporting routes with no routing

• Holidays being cancelled would not return unused days

• Rejecting Liveries in Livery Review would always apply an invalidate action on pending PIREPs

• Removed helpdesk submission form in Orwell until it can be implemented natively

• Landing Rate AutoRejects being applied incorrectly if landing rate is 0 and related adjustments

• Minor query improvements across event and Phoenix PIREP list pages

Importers and Exporters

Closed all pending improvement/feature requests regarding Importers and Exporters.

• Improvement in Route Importer to treat blank 'Hidden' field entry as false

• Airport Manager Import and Export added

• Pilot Data export added

• Badge Import and Export added

• PFPX formatted Route Exporter added

• PIREP Data Exporter added

Be sure to check the Importer/Exporter [documents](https://docs.vamsys.dev/data) and any notes in the exporter/importer.

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• Fixed registration issue via Pilot Sharing Agreements

• Added Team vAMSYS functionality to merge users

• Apply multiple point presets when editing PIREP Points

• Events in Phoenix will now show 2 digits of the year for start/end dates

• Pilot badges in Phoenix ordered in descending order

• Added Initial Activity Removal Email

• Phoenix -> Resources -> Airports added columns for Outbound Routes and Outbound bookings made in a year from that Airport

• Phoenix -> Resources -> Aircraft added column Bookings made in a year using that aircraft

Importers and Exporters

Closed all pending improvement/feature requests regarding Importers and Exporters.

• Improvement in Route Importer to treat blank 'Hidden' field entry as false

• Airport Manager Import and Export added

• Pilot Data export added

• Badge Import and Export added

• PFPX formatted Route Exporter added

• PIREP Data Exporter added

Be sure to check the Importer/Exporter documents and any notes in the exporter/importer.

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• Fixed registration issue via Pilot Sharing Agreements

• Added Team vAMSYS functionality to merge users

• Apply multiple point presets when editing PIREP Points

• Events in Phoenix will now show 2 digits of the year for start/end dates

• Pilot badges in Phoenix ordered in descending order

• Added Initial Activity Removal Email

• Phoenix -> Resources -> Airports added columns for Outbound Routes and Outbound bookings made in a year from that Airport

• Phoenix -> Resources -> Aircraft added column Bookings made in a year using that aircraft

Server Provider related issues 16 Oct to 21 Oct / Missing historical position reports

Last week we were experiencing serious network issues due to an issue with a switch at our server provider. Full notes are available for VA Owners and Staff in our Discord #announcements section.

We expect historic position reports to be restored after 6th November when the final round of downtime in our primary server is complete.

Engine Cooldown / Flap Retraction Timers

v5, in our view desirably so, starts engine cooldown and flap retraction timers after landing - i.e. after the plane has touched down and slowed down sufficiently to start taxi phase.

If this behaviour is not desirable, Cooldown and Flap Retraction scorers can be set to mimic v3 behaviour and start said timers on touchdown.

To make the change, you will need to delete scoring rules for 'Flaps not retracted after Landing and before Parking', 'Flaps retracted after Landing and before Parking', 'Engines Cooled Down' and/or 'Engines Not Cooled Down' scoring rules and add them back with your preferred rule parameter for timer start. You only need to make this change if you wish to change the timer start to be based on touchdown.

Query refactoring and general improvements

Big focus over this week was on database queries we execute and jobs we dispatch to our worker and attempts to improve/minimise them as needed. We have made significant progress in eliminating some duplicate queries being run on every page load. Fixing this technical debt does not offer massive performance increase (maybe 0.2s off of page load time), but is nonetheless desirable. This technical debt remediation work is still ongoing across vAMSYS as we discover inefficiencies.

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• URLs with www's in some emails leading to broken pages

• Missing logos in some emails preventing emails from being sent

• Route Export using tags exporting routes of other VAs if they use same tags

• SimBrief ID is visible in the Aircraft table in Phoenix allowing pilots to easily spot if they entered a wrong ID and now are getting SB Dispatch errors regarding unknown type

• PIREP processing fixes in cases where on blocks or landing time is missing from the log

• Fixes for API erroring out when Pilot being retrieved does not have Statistics generated

• Fixes for some VA Alerts not being sent to Pegasus correctly

• Disabled viewing PIREPs when they are being processed

• Disabled staff options for Claim PIREPs

• Fixes to User/Pilot creation when VA does not utilise rules setting

• Phoenix Profile / VDS would show Airport name from another VA

• Fixes to Activity indicator in Phoenix Profile where it would not turn seconds into hours properly

• Orwell has an indicator now when a VA has a pending callsign review for their protected callsign

• Maps can now understand DMS coordinates when using 11 character notation

• Fix to 'Agreement' flag being incorrectly shown on Pilot Registration Review in some cases

• Increased SimBrief download list to show more than 50 options for users who do not use search and believe we are missing entries

• Fixes to Route Comparison statistics where it would display wrong averages in cases of taxi time being awarded for PIREPs

Server Provider related issues 16 Oct to 21 Oct / Missing historical position reports

Last week we were experiencing serious network issues due to an issue with a switch at our server provider. Full notes are available for VA Owners and Staff in our Discord #announcements section.

We expect historic position reports to be restored after 6th November when the final round of downtime in our primary server is complete.

Engine Cooldown / Flap Retraction Timers

v5, in our view desirably so, starts engine cooldown and flap retraction timers after landing - i.e. after the plane has touched down and slowed down sufficiently to start taxi phase. If this behaviour is not desirable, Cooldown and Flap Retraction scorers can be set to mimic v3 behaviour and start said timers on touchdown.

To make the change, you will need to delete scoring rules for 'Flaps not retracted after Landing and before Parking', 'Flaps retracted after Landing and before Parking', 'Engines Cooled Down' and/or 'Engines Not Cooled Down' scoring rules and add them back with your preferred rule parameter for timer start. You only need to make this change if you wish to change the timer start to be based on touchdown.

Query refactoring and general improvements

Big focus over this week was on database queries we execute and jobs we dispatch to our worker and attempts to improve/minimise them as needed. We have made significant progress in eliminating some duplicate queries being run on every page load. Fixing this technical debt does not offer massive performance increase (maybe 0.2s off of page load time), but is nonetheless desirable. This technical debt remediation work is still ongoing across vAMSYS as we discover inefficiencies.

Various other tweaks and bug fixes

• URLs with www's in some emails leading to broken pages

• Missing logos in some emails preventing emails from being sent

• Route Export using tags exporting routes of other VAs if they use same tags

• SimBrief ID is visible in the Aircraft table in Phoenix allowing pilots to easily spot if they entered a wrong ID and now are getting SB Dispatch errors regarding unknown type

• PIREP processing fixes in cases where on blocks or landing time is missing from the log

• Fixes for API erroring out when Pilot being retrieved does not have Statistics generated

• Fixes for some VA Alerts not being sent to Pegasus correctly

• Disabled viewing PIREPs when they are being processed

• Disabled staff options for Claim PIREPs

• Fixes to User/Pilot creation when VA does not utilise rules setting

• Phoenix Profile / VDS would show Airport name from another VA

• Fixes to Activity indicator in Phoenix Profile where it would not turn seconds into hours properly

• Orwell has an indicator now when a VA has a pending callsign review for their protected callsign

• Maps can now understand DMS coordinates when using 11 character notation

• Fix to 'Agreement' flag being incorrectly shown on Pilot Registration Review in some cases

• Increased SimBrief download list to show more than 50 options for users who do not use search and believe we are missing entries

• Fixes to Route Comparison statistics where it would display wrong averages in cases of taxi time being awarded for PIREPs

Book Flight and Destinations Map Enhancements

• **Overhauled Internal Map Logic:** Improved performance across various browsers by completely rewriting the internal map logic

• **Enhanced Route Drawing:** Improved the drawing of route lines on the Book Flight Map, especially for VAs utilizing provided routing

• **Connecting Lines Added:** Introduced connecting lines between airports on the Destination Map for better visualization

• **Button Alignment Fixed:** Corrected button alignment issues on both the Book Flight and Destination maps

• **Persistent Filters:** Filters applied in the Book Flight map are now retained to Dispatch route selection and actual dispatching

• **Updated Markers:** Markers are now displayed as round icons, and the Destination Map correctly lists base airports

• **Jumpseats to Nowhere:** Removed jumpseats to airports without outbound routes from the map

• **Multi-Tag Selection:** Both maps now support selecting multiple tags for enhanced filtering

• **Set Estimated Departure Time:** If a VA provides route departure times, users can set it as their Estimated Departure Time by clicking the helper icon

Pilot Features

• **Better Last PIREP Details:** The Last PIREP section on the Select page now includes departure and arrival airports

• **SimBrief Dispatch Fix:** Resolved an issue where SimBrief dispatch was not applying VA-set extra fuel settings

• **Extra Fuel Unit Type:** Added the option to specify extra fuel in kg or lbs. *Note: All weights are in thousands*

Phoenix Dashboard Improvements

• **Landing Rate Statistics:** The Statistics component now includes landing rate metrics

• **Login:** The login button is now locked to prevent interference from password managers that bypass the login form

• **New Components:** Added Text and Image components for VAs to use when building their Phoenix Dashboards

• **Dashboard Spacing Adjustments:** Adjusted spacing on the Dashboard when components have no content, maintaining appropriate whitespace

• **Flight List Enhancements:** Past flights in the flight list now include buttons for PIREP and Pilot Profile

• **Flight List Update Fix:** Fixed an issue where the flight list was not incrementing the number of past flights when current flights ended

Leaderboard Updates

• **Enable Online Leaderboards:** VAs can now enable online leaderboards via **Settings → Airline → Modules**. *Note: It may take up to 1 hour for 7-day leaderboards to populate, with additional time for other durations*

• **Leaderboard Customization:** Online leaderboards can be set as global or split into specific networks

• **Disable Hub Leaderboards:** VAs have the option to disable Hub Leaderboards through **Settings → Airline → Modules**

VA Staff Enhancements

• **PIREP List Improvements:**

• Fixed the network filter in the PIREP List

• Added a Booking Type column for better categorization

• Restoring a pilot's account now also restores any PIREPs that were pending review at the time of deletion

• **Scorer Fixes:**

• Corrected the Flaps Not Retracted scorer

• Fixed issues with Event Badges awarding incorrectly when multiple active events are present

• **Rank and Badge Management:**

• Page components now have honorary rank restrictions in addition to regular rank requirements

• Enabling badges is now a two-stage process with a new 'public' option, accessible via **Settings → Airline → Modules**

• **New Paused AutoReject:** Added paused % autoreject which can trigger on PIREPs who were paused for more than set % when compared to total air time

• **Engine Status Scorers:** Engine Warm-up/Cool-down scorers can now be set to be time-aware, preventing triggers if taxi time is less than the specified engine time.

• **PIREP Review Enhancements:** PIREP Review pages now include an information section at the top displaying:

• A real-time list of staff viewing the PIREP

• The number of PIREPs pending review

• The reviewer's position in the PIREP review sequence

• A "Next PIREP" button for streamlined navigation