Navigating Phoenix

Phoenix is the pilot portal — the place where you book flights, track your career, and connect with your Virtual Airline community. This guide walks you through what you will see when you first log in and how to find your way around.

The Dashboard

When you log in to Phoenix, you land on the dashboard — your home page. Think of it as a personalized overview of your pilot life at this VA. The dashboard is built from widgets that your VA staff have arranged, so the exact layout varies, but here are the widgets you may encounter.

Booking and PIREP Boxes

Quick-glance cards showing your upcoming booking and recent PIREPs. If you have a flight booked, the first card shows your next departure — click it to go straight to the booking details. Remaining cards display your latest filed PIREPs with their status.

Your Statistics

A detailed breakdown of your personal flying statistics. You can switch between time periods — all time, last 90 days, last 30 days, or last 7 days — to see how your numbers stack up. The statistics cover:

• PIREPs — accepted, rejected, invalidated, and manual counts

• Points — regular, bonus, total, and average per flight

• Flight time — total hours flown

• Distance — nautical miles covered

• Transport — passengers carried and cargo hauled

• Fuel and landing rate — fuel used and average landing rate

• Current location — the airport where your pilot is currently based

If you have not filed any PIREPs yet, you will see a welcome message instead — nothing to worry about, it will populate after your first flight.

Airline Statistics

Similar to your personal statistics but for the entire Virtual Airline. See how the VA is performing as a whole — total PIREPs, points, flight time, and distance flown across all pilots. You can filter by time period (last 7, 30, or 90 days) to see recent trends.

NOTAMs

Notices to Airmen from your VA staff. These are announcements, updates, or important information your VA wants you to see. NOTAMs are color-coded by priority (low, medium, high) and show their read status. Must-read NOTAMs are highlighted — make sure to open and read those. Click any NOTAM to view its full content.

Events

If your VA runs events, you may see upcoming or active events displayed on the dashboard. These could be group flights, fly-ins, or special challenges. Click through to see event details and sign up.

Community Activity

Shows the current Community Goal or Community Challenge if your VA has one running. You will see overall progress toward the target, time remaining, and your personal contribution. For Community Challenges, the widget also shows team standings and which team is in the lead.

Live Flights

A real-time list of pilots currently flying for the VA. See who is in the air right now, where they are headed, and what aircraft they are flying. If no one is currently airborne, the widget backfills with recent completed flights so there is always something to see.

Social Icons

Links to your VA's social media and community platforms — Discord, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and more. If your VA has Discord integration and you have linked your Discord account, you may also see a button to join the VA's Discord server directly from the dashboard.

Quick Action Buttons

Shortcut buttons that your VA may place on the dashboard for common actions — book a flight, file a PIREP, view events, or jump to custom pages. These give you one-click access to the things you do most often.

Images and Text

Your VA staff can place custom images and text blocks on the dashboard — anything from welcome banners and airline branding to important notices or quick reference guides.

Main Navigation

The sidebar navigation organizes everything into clear sections. Here is what you will find in each area.

Flight Center

This is where the flying happens. Book flights, view your bookings, and access your PIREP history. If your VA uses SimBrief integration, you will also dispatch flights from here.

My Profile

Your pilot profile page — your rank, statistics, badges, and flight history. This is also where you manage your pilot settings such as preferred network, imperial or metric units, and holidays.

Activities

If your VA runs activities like Challenges, Tours, or Community Goals, you will find them here. Browse available activities, track your progress, and see leaderboards.

Community

The social side of your VA. View other pilots, check leaderboards, and find links to your VA's social channels. Community resources and shared content from your VA live here too.

Resources

Reference material for your flying. This section includes airports, aircraft, fleet information, and any custom pages your VA has created — such as SOPs, livery guides, or rules.

Browsing Airports

The Airports page, found under Resources, gives you a searchable table of every airport your VA operates from. You can search by ICAO code, IATA code, airport name, or country. The table shows:

• ICAO and IATA codes — standard airport identifiers

• Airport name and country — so you can browse by region

• Hub — which hub the airport belongs to, if any

• Outbound routes — how many routes depart from this airport

• Outbound bookings — how popular the airport has been in the last year

You can filter the list to show only your favorite airports. To mark an airport as a favorite, click the star icon next to it — favorited airports also appear differently on the flight booking map, making them easy to spot when planning your next trip.

Airport Detail Pages

Click any airport to open its detail page. Here you will find:

• Current weather (METAR) — live weather data for the airport

• Destinations — every airport you can fly to from here

• Airport statistics — overall traffic data for the airport

• Your personal stats — your own history at this airport, including flights in and out, passengers carried, cargo hauled, and average landing rate

• Stands and gates — available stands, organized by group

• Scenery — simulator scenery packages for the airport, if your VA has added any

• Briefing and information — any notes your VA staff have written about the airport

Your Settings

You can access your pilot settings directly from the dashboard if your VA has the settings button enabled. From here you can:

• Switch between imperial and metric units

• Toggle your honorary rank display

• Set your preferred flying network (VATSIM, IVAO, offline, etc.)

• Manage your favorite aircraft and airports

• Book holidays (if your VA uses activity requirements)

• Apply for a rank transfer (if eligible and if your VA supports transfers)

Where to Go Next

Now that you know your way around, here are some guides for the things you will do most often:

• How to Meet Activity Requirements — understand what your VA expects and how to stay active

• How to Book Holidays — take a break without losing your account

• How to Apply for a Rank Transfer — bring your experience from other VAs

• Account Management — manage your vAMSYS account and linked services