Unique Features
As mentioned above we are using the API to build some nice features. Those features are custom made by our Lead Technical Developer Arie van Someren and are therefor unique. Meaning no other virtual airline is currently using these features. In this chapter we will explain some of these features a bit further.
Simple Stats and Data
The first feature might not be that unique. It is the usage of the API to pull out data from our virtual airline and show it on our website. Some of the data pulled and updated to our website automatically is:
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Statistics (Flown Hours, Nautical Miles, Fuel Used, etc…)
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Events (including images)
Live Map
This feature is making us a tiny bit more unique as it is custom mad by Arie, just for us. He has build a custom ‘Live Map’ with a custom design, suiting our branding and home-style. On this map it shows current flights, including the planned route, flown route and current location parameters (heading, altitude and speed).
Destinations Map
This map shows all the active destinations available in our timetable. You can filter the destinations by airline and type of flight (European or intercontinental). This map may help you choose a flight to your liking.
Now let’s get unique!
Here is a feature that truly makes us unique. The automated timetable is a feature that really helps us brining up-to-date realism. Here we will quickly explain in a basic manner how our system works.
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We first retrieve a lot of data from the Flight Radar 24 API.
By connecting to this API we can retrieve a lot of operational data such as currently flown flights, aswell as the historical data for KLM, KLC, TRA, TVF and MPH. This data is then stored onto our server.
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Then we retrieve the current status of our virtual airline routes from Vamsys.
By retrieving our currently shown flights in our timetable we can build a comparison database.
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The system then compares the current situation with the actual situation.
The system will filter (and flag) flights not flown in the past two weeks, flights that are new (unique), new times, callsigns and flight numbers.
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Now the dispatchers are set to work.
The system will give all flights with a changed status a flag and forward it to a list within our system to be reviewed by a dispatcher. The dispatcher can then decide to either approve a change (add a flight or change/adapt it), deny a change and keep the flight as is or remove/hide a flight when it is not being flown in real life anymore.
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Finalizing and publishing the dispatched batch.
Once the dispatcher has reviewed the flagged flights it will be pushed to operation. At this time the system will connect to the Vamsys API and upload the flights into our database. It will then automatically create a NOTAM, informing you what the changes are. It will only inform you of newly added and discontinued routes.
What makes this a cool feature too is that it stores the changes over a longer period of time and also follows the way we approve or deny certain flights. This way we can adjust settings and adapt more automation in the feature so that manual labour is needed less and less over time.
Got questions regarding this feature? Feel free to contact us using the buttons below.
*Please note that our unique features are not for sale.
Plans for the future…
Offcourse we have several plans for the feature. Some are already being developed, but will take some time! Some also need some help from Vamsys, as it required API-capabilities.
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Pilot Roster (auto assign flights)
We would love to offer the feature of auto-assigning you a pilot roster. This would randomly give you a day-, week-, or even a month schedule. Unfortunately Vamsys does not offer the API-option to create bookings externally yet. We are writing a formal offer to request this feature, but as you can imagin this will take a while and the amount of time is out of our hands.
In the mean time we are considering pherhaps creating a PDF-roster sent to you by e-mail. This is the way it works in real life too. But those are decisions that have to be made in the near future. We will offcourse keep you posted on our Discord and on our homepage using the ‘News Articles’.
A big wish is to have some more extensive cabin crew announcements on the flight. This would be a seperate software feature, but is something we are considering. It would select certain speeches based on your flight. Using the type of aircraft, specific safety briefing and the name of the departure and arrival airport.
