Operations Manual

Our History!

Buffalo Airways Virtual was created in early 2010, by Thomas Emms & Randy Kearnes. Inspired by the television show Ice Pilots NWT and our love of vintage aircraft, we contacted Buffalo Airways for permission and a few days later, the good news arrived!

After receiving permission from Buffalo Airways we decided to design a simple,unique website. We also decided to create our own version of the Buffalo Airways logo, which can be seen on the header. Buffalo Airways Virtual is the Official VA of Buffalo Airways. This means that we are able to be in close contact with the staff at Buffalo Airways and they may join us from time to time on Discord, the forums and in the air on VATSIM.

All pilots joining Buffalo Airways have to complete at least 10 hours on Flight Simulation software. They are now required to fly those 10 hours with Buffalo Airways Virtual.Through our strong partnership with the Real World Buffalo Airways we will bring exciting features not currently provided by other Virtual Airlines.

These will include features such as a direct link to the Buffalo Airways Satellite System, meaning we can view & track the Buffalo Airways aircraft in real time! We also provide a 10% discount code on all Buffalo Air Wear products.

Buffalo Airways Virtual's official launch date was the 1st of August 2010 however we were accepting registrations before this. Pilots who registered before this date have been given a special "Founding Member "award. Our launch event was taking the CL‐215's from Red Deer, Over Canada then Onwards to Europe! Since allowing registrations, Buffalo Airways Virtual has been growing by leap and bounds. We had over 50 pilots in less than 8 weeks! We also have a steady number of flights being flown each day!

You can also look here About u s

Membership Requirements & Application Information:

To join Buffalo Airways Virtual you must be at least 16 years old. This is to comply with the worldwide Children s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998. You must own, and file pireps, using ONLY, a legal, working copy of MSFS (Microsoft Flight simulator 2024 or 2020), X‐Plane, Prepar3D or Microsoft Flight Simulator X.FS9/FS2004 are not supported, and must NOT be used to file pireps in Buffalo Airways Virtual.

You must have a valid e‐mail address. You also agree to file your first PIREP (Flight Report) within 14 days of your registration being accepted, you will be mature, not use any sort of bad language, racism or abusive comments, when you interact with anyone in Buffalo Airways Virtual, this be in on Discord, when talking while flying online, or anywhere else. You will not submit any false information when submitting application(s) or representing Buffalo Airways Virtual in any way. You will allow Buffalo Airways Virtual to send you NOTAMS via E‐Mail (Max 3 per Week).

You will understand that your application can be rejected at the discretion of Buffalo Airways Virtual or Buffalo Airways Ltd without prejudice. There are no payments required to join Buffalo Airways Virtual and therefore no refunds will be given.

Please note that there is a maximum of 2 accounts. If your 2 nd account gets deleted any further applications will be rejected. If there are 2 further registrations, 4 in total, your IP and email may be blocked from our web server for spamming.

Membership Requirements & Application Information:

To join Buffalo Airways Virtual you must be at least 16 years old. This is to comply with the worldwide Children s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998. You must own, and file pireps, using ONLY, a legal, working copy of MSFS (Microsoft Flight simulator 2020), X‐Plane, Prepar3D or Microsoft Flight Simulator X. FS9/FS2004, is not supported, and must NOT be used to file pireps in Buffalo Airways Virtual.

Applications can be denied for any of the following reasons:

Full/Part of your real name is written in capital (CAPITAL) letters only.

Invalid Birth Date,eg; Under 16 YOA,Partial or No birth date given.

Invalide mail account,eg; gives an error message.

False location given on application.

Any other valid reason given by staff.

Downloads:

Buffalo Airways Virtual has a variety of downloads available in the download section, found here Download s These include Scenery, Aircraft and Textures.There are freeware aircraft available and also a range of textures for Payware aircraft. Most downloads include instructions. Please note that we are not responsible for any 3rd party website links or downloads. All files are copyright to their original owners.

Flight Operations:

Buffalo Airways Virtual does not assign flights.You can view a full list of our flights on the web site. Or click the link here. A list of our Flights

All of our flights are created to be as realistic as possible, most of the flight information is provided to us by Buffalo Airways flight crews.

Acars:

In Buffalo Airways Virtual, we use SmartCARS 3. Which can be found here. SmartCARS 3 Downloa d . See the getting started guide for info on setting up SmartCARS 3. The guide can be found here. Getting Started Guid e No other Acars are supported, and use hereof will result in flight rejection.

Jumpseating:

‐ Is allowed.

Pilots are not required to fly from the last airport they landed at. You can fly any flight at any time as long as you have enough hours to fly the aircraft used for that flight.

Inactivity Policy:

New Pilots:

After your registration is accepted, you must file one (1) PIREP within 14 days otherwise your account will be deleted.

After First Flight. Staying Active:

Pilots are required to file at least one PIREP every 30 days. If a PIREP is not filed within 30 days the pilot will be set to inactive (suspended), and the pilot will receive a notice from the hub manager, via mail and/or Discord. If after 90 days a PIREP has not been filed, pilots will be contacted by their HUB Manager, via mail. If no response is received within 7 days, the pilot will be deleted.

If your account is set to inactive (suspended), you must contact your Hub Manager to re‐activate your account to active status

Once an account has been deleted, you can re‐apply to join however there are no guarantees your 2nd application will be accepted. The hours, awards, and flights you had on your previous account, will not be added to your new account, nor will you receive your previous pilot number.

If you are unable to fulfill this commitment, please contact your hub manager to make an alternative arrangement, such as a Leave of Absence (LOA)

Leave Of Absence (LOA):

If you wish/need to take a Leave Of Absence of longer than 30 days, you must contact your Hub Manager to ensure your account is not getting deleted after the above mentioned 90 days. Hub Manager Contact information can be found here: Staff page ‐ with E ‐mail adresse s

PIREPS:

Hours:

BAV operates a policy of allowing a maximum of 8 hours flyingin any given UTC/ZULU 24 hour day, unless a single flight is longer than that time. Any pireps taking a pilot over this time will be rejected.

Deviations from the schedule: you must land at the designated airport regardless of an issue with the flight whether it is from a mechanical, engine or weather issues. Missed approaches are acceptable, but touch and goes are not unless specified in the schedule.

Time Acceleration:

Flying greater than 1x speed is not allowed. Pilots who submit PIREPS with any speed greater than 1x will have their PIREP rejected

Pausing:

Is Allowed. All PIREPs with pausing in them will be accepted, regardless for how long.

Aircraft:

Flights must be flown using the correct aircraft. Flights flown with a different aircraft will be rejected, unless specified in the schedule.

On the Flights page Our Flight s , you can see which aircraft it assigned to any given flight. In this example flight BFL1011, the correct aircraft is the DC‐3.

Because MSFS (Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020) does not have all aircraft used in Buffalo Airways Virtual, a few substitutions are allowed. These substitutions can be found here. A list of substitute aircraft for MSFS202 0

Slewing:

Flights using slew will be rejected, even if activated on the ground.

Touchdown Rates:

The acceptable touchdown rate is between ‐500 fpm and +800 fpm. Pireps filed with landing rates outside of this range, will be rejected.

FuelData:

PIREPS may also be rejected if the fuel usage/flight data is wrong, or there is none at all. There must also be no mid‐air refueling. Flights are not allowed with fuel set to Unlimited .

FlightLevel:

Altitude for each flight in the flight schedule is a suggestion only. You are free to plan any altitude you desire. However, flights in the Electra s and Orion s must be flown between flight level 180 (18,000 feet) & flight level 240 (24,000 feet) unless otherwise indicated in the flight s schedule.

PilotingSkills:

Pilots must demonstrate good aircraft control; Pireps indicating poor control, for example excessive stalls, over speeds can be rejected

Manual PIREPS:

As of this revision (June 2024) Manual Pireps are no longer allowed, and will be rejected. Sometimes sim connection is lost and that can be frustrating, especially if you've already been flying for a couple of hours but it's no different than landing heavily at the end of a long flight and having it rejected.

Multiplayer Flying:

Buffalo Airways Virtual encourages pilots to use the Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network VATSIM

Vatsim's websit e ) or the International Virtual Aviation Organization IVAO Ivao's websit e

Both networks offer worldwide Air Traffic Control (ATC) coverage and real time flying with fellow pilots. You can connect to such networks using either Swift or vPilot for Vatsim or IVAO s own program, IVAP.

When flying on Vatsim your Buffalo Airways pilot number is to be used as your callsign. Not the flight id.

Ranks

Upon joining Buffalo Airways Virtual, pilots are assigned the rank of RampHand (Rampie)

The current ranking system is based on how many hours you have logged in Buffalo Airways Virtual. With every jump to the next rank level, you will have access to new aircraft to fly. You can see the rank system here. BAV's rank syste m

Transfer Hours:

Buffalo Airways Virtual does not transfer hours from any previous virtual airlines. The only person(s) allowed transfer hours are real‐world Buffalo staff who will be given 1 Transfer flight and 50 hours upon registration.

Awards

Buffalo Airways Virtual has a great Award system. You earn the right to awards in different ways. When you make your first greased landing , ei. A landing of less than ‐100 fpm, you are entitled to the Greased landing award.

Other awards are one for each year of service, for reaching a certain amount of miles flown, for flights done, and also for donating to BAV. We also have awards for completing different tours. You can always see your shining awards on your profile page on the website.

‐ A few examples of (many) Awards.

The Greased landing award should be given by your hub manager automatically. For all other awards you must request it, by making a post of your accolade, on our Discord page, in the hub channel of the corresponding hub, where you are a pilot.

Discord:

Buffalo Airways Virtual has an active 24/7 Discord server setup for Pilots only. We encourage all pilots to use this server.

When joining us on Discord please be sure to set your discord profile name to your BFL# and name such as ‐ BFLXXXX ‐ First name, Last name. Example: BFL1532 John Anderton

You can find our AUP (Acceptable Usage Policy) Here: Discord Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP)

Our Discord Information can be found on our website. Or ‐ Click here on Ressources on our webpage, and then on Discord in the drop‐down menu.

You can join us on Discord at any time here ‐ Join us on Discor d

Contacting Buffalo Airways Virtual

If want to contact a member of staff, this is done via the staff e‐mails, or on Discord. Staff emails can be found here Staff with Emails

Donation!

Running a virtual‐airline incurs costs with website hosting, file storage and software, it adds up.

Buffalo Airways Virtual has only continued to exist thanks to our volunteers and support through donations from our members.

From 1 to 100, all donations are helpful. As a donor, you will receive an award and be recoginized as a contrubutor on this page. You can get to the donation page, by clicking the picture below.