Neuigkeiten

Community

• Pilot inbox: every pilot now has an Inbox in the menu. Send a message from Staff › Community › Pilot inbox to one pilot, every pilot, a hub or a rank and above. Pilots get a notification and can reply; only that pilot and staff see a reply, even on a message sent to everyone. Each message is stored once and compressed, read messages move to the archive after 30 days, and the page shows the space used. See Pilot inbox.

Pilots and staff

• Real-world pilot badge: pilots who fly for real can ask, from their profile, to be verified. You check their licence outside Vaeroly (on a call or in a message; Vaeroly keeps no copy) and press Verify on the new Real-world pilots page in the staff menu. The badge then shows on the pilot's profile and in the mentor lists, so new pilots know who to ask. Only pilots who ask get it, and they can remove it at any time. Turn it on under Optional features › Real-world pilot badge. See Real-world pilot badge.

Staff work

• Everything waiting: the review queue has a new first tab that lists every PIREP, application, hub transfer, rank request, claim and leave request you can decide, in one list, oldest first. Anything older than 2 days is marked over 2 days. The EFB's Staff tab links to it too.
• A reminder when something waits too long: when PIREPs, applications or hub transfers have waited more than 2 days, the staff who can decide them get one bell note, and no more than one every 2 days. A pilot whose PIREP waits now sees how long staff here usually take to decide one, on the PIREP's page and in the EFB.
• Lists keep their filters: the staff lists of PIREPs, pilots, routes and the fleet remember your last search and filters, so coming back from a pilot or a PIREP brings you to the same list. Clear forgets them.
• Help on more staff pages: the ? next to the title now opens the right Help on 18 more staff pages, such as activity rules, the activity log, rank requests, application questions and airport NOTAMs.

Everyone

• Find anything: press Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac), or Find anything in the menu, on your airline's pages to jump to a page, a flight or one of your PIREPs. Staff also find pilots and PIREPs by number.
• ACARS 2.8.83 shows what's new once after an update, in the app's language.
• Faster pages: the dashboard, the staff PIREP list and the booking page open faster, and the live map asks the server for less when no flight has moved.

Accounts

• Scan to sign in: pilots and staff signed in to Vaeroly on a computer can sign in the Vaeroly app on their phone, or ACARS, without typing a password. On the Profile, under Signed-in browsers, press Sign in a phone or ACARS, then Show a sign-in code: scan the QR code in the phone app (Scan a code from your computer on its sign-in page), or type the code in ACARS (Use a code from the website, ACARS 2.8.82). The code works once, for 3 minutes, and only someone already signed in (with two-step login or a passkey, if they use one) can make it. The new device shows in the new Phones and ACARS list on the Profile, with its own Sign out. See Scan to sign in.

Help

• 11 more videos in Help › Videos: for pilots, getting to the aircraft (jumpseats and delivery flights), planning with SimBrief, the live map, your hub and its airports, your profile and privacy, nice flights and pilot of the month, safety checks before you fly, charter trips and personal goals, and your collections. For staff, charters, curfews and market prices, and sound packs and alerts. English voice with English and Arabic subtitles, about a minute each. See Videos.

Bookings and dispatch

• Cancel a pilot's booking: staff who can send dispatch messages now see Cancel this booking on each flight on the Dispatch page (Staff › Dispatch). Write the reason the pilot sees and confirm. The pilot gets a notification with your reason, the aircraft and the flight can be booked again straight away, it goes into the activity log, and it doesn't count against the pilot's booking record. See The dispatcher desk.
• File a PIREP for a pilot: when ACARS lost a flight, staff who decide manual flight claims can file it from the pilot's page (File a PIREP for this pilot), with a reason. It is accepted at once and the pilot is told. See Managing pilot records.

• The EFB's Staff tab: staff now have a Staff tab in the EFB, on the website and in the Vaeroly app (under More on a phone): the PIREPs, applications and hub transfers waiting for you, and the booked flights you may cancel. Each part shows only with the same permission as its staff page, and every decision is the website's own. See The EFB Staff tab.

Hubs

• An approved hub transfer moves the pilot there: approving a transfer now also puts the pilot at the new hub, free. A pilot who holds a booking stays where they are until the booking ends.
• Jumpseat to my hub: a pilot away from their hub with no booking gets a one-tap Jumpseat to my hub on the Routes page and in the EFB's Book tab. See Hub transfers and My requests.

Smaller changes

• The sound pack follows the flight's own callsign (Main or Secondary), not only the route's.
• Training path sign-offs show who signed them and when; hangar files show who uploaded them; de-icing requests show the temperature.
• Pilots with only a negative bonus no longer appear on the leaderboard with nothing flown.
• Countries are spelled one way across passports and stats (for example Turkey, Czech Republic).

Help

• New guides: Hub transfers and My requests, Aircraft maintenance and Opening and closing applications.

Flights

• Emergency squawk alert: a new optional feature, off until you switch it on (Staff › Airline settings › Optional features › Emergency squawk alert, under Flight analysis). When a pilot sets the transponder to 7700 (emergency), 7600 (radio failure) or 7500 (special code), your live map marks the flight with a red ring and the staff who review PIREPs get one notification on the bell. The mark goes when the pilot sets a normal code again. It works with the ACARS your pilots have now. See Emergency squawk alert.

Booking

• "You can't book this flight yet" says what to do: when your airline flies aircraft from where they are and none is at the departure, the message now links to the Fleet page, so pilots see where the aircraft are. Staff who look after the fleet also get links to move an aircraft there or to change the setting.
• Routes that need attention on the Review queue: staff who edit routes now see how many routes pilots can't book (no aircraft of the right type, or none at the departure) or that can't be drawn on the maps, with a link to the list. Useful right after an import.

Help

• Help › Videos: 31 short videos, about a minute each, that show how it works on today's screens. For pilots: your first flight, installing ACARS, booking, during the flight, after you land, ranks and awards, the EFB, events and tours, VATSIM and IVAO, a flight that wasn't recorded, and your logbook. For staff: the staff side, reviewing PIREPs, letting clean flights accept themselves, new pilots, dispatch, events, rosters, training, fleet and routes, and keeping pilots informed. For owners: opening or moving an airline, its look, the staff team, Discord, money, growing, other airlines, your data, and handing over or starting again. English voice, with English and Arabic subtitles. The help guides they explain link to them. See Videos.

Events

• New event notifications: a new optional feature, off until you switch it on (Staff › Airline settings › Optional features › New event notifications). When you create an event, or move a coming event to another time or airport, every active pilot of your airline is told: on the bell, on their phone with Vaeroly, and in browsers that turned it on. A series is announced once, with its first date. Pilots can turn it off on their phone (More › Notifications for events) and in their browser. See Event notifications.

Booking and dispatch

• Crosswind check: a new optional feature, in the recommended set (Staff › Airline settings › Optional features › Crosswind check). The booking page compares the arrival's crosswind now and at the expected arrival time (the forecast) with the aircraft type's maximum demonstrated crosswind, on the runway with the least of it, gusts included, and lists alternates when it's over. Built-in figures for common types; set your own per type on Operations › Fleet. Advice only: it never stops a booking. See Crosswind check.
• Crew rest: a new optional feature, off until you switch it on, for airlines that fly with duty limits. After a number of block hours within 24 hours (10 to start with), a pilot rests a number of hours (10). Pilots see their duty left on the dashboard and their rest when they book. Warn only, or strict: a booking that leaves before the rest ends is refused. Set it on Operations › Crew rest. See Crew rest.

Pilots

• Booking reliability: a new optional feature, off until you switch it on. Of each pilot's bookings of the last 90 days, how many were flown, cancelled by the pilot, or left unflown, on the pilot's staff page and their own profile, and for staff next to the holders of an event's departure slots. Bookings staff cancelled, or cancelled to dispatch the same flight again, don't count. Information only: no points or penalty. See Booking reliability.

Security

• Turning two-step login on or off now also turns Sign in with VATSIM off, as a password change and Sign out everywhere do. Turn it on again on your profile.

Moving your airline

• Fly on both platforms while you move: when you import from another platform's API (Staff › Airline settings › Import & export › Import from another platform (API)), tick Keep in sync every night. For 90 days, new pilot records and new accepted flights then come over every night, so pilots can keep flying on the old platform until they're ready, and nobody loses a flight. Routes, fleet and ranks are never changed by it, no flight comes over twice, and a flight a pilot also filed here is left out. The API secret is kept sealed, for reading only, and never shown again; it's deleted when the sync stops (press Stop, after 90 days, or when the other platform refuses it). See Moving your airline.

For owners

• Start again with the same pilots: a new optional feature, off until you turn it on (Staff › Airline settings › Optional features › Start again with the same pilots). The owner, and only the owner, can then clear the airline's flights and PIREPs, and if they choose its routes and fleet, from Staff › Airline settings › Ownership and data, and keep every pilot with their account, pilot ID, staff roles and transfer hours. The page shows how many PIREPs, bookings, claims, routes and aircraft will go before anything happens, asks for the airline's name, and saves a copy of the data first for you to download (30 days). It can't be undone; the fleet and routes can be imported back from the copy. See Starting again with the same pilots.

Booking

• Pre-flight risk card: each booking (and the Flight tab of the EFB) now has a Pre-flight risk card with one answer, Go, Caution or No-go, and a line for each check with its reason: the weather and forecast at both ends, icing, SIGMETs and AIRMETs along the route, NOTAMs, your curfews, the alternate and the controllers online. Advice only: it never stops a booking or a flight and changes no score; a source it can't read says "unknown" instead of guessing. New airlines start with it on; turn it on in Staff › Airline settings › Optional features › Pre-flight risk card. See Pre-flight risk card.
• Timetable day: a new optional feature, off until you turn it on (Staff › Airline settings › Optional features › Timetable day). Pick a day on Staff › Operations › Timetable days and your airline flies its timetable: pilots take one of the day's departures on Book a flight › Timetable day and it's booked for them at its scheduled time, one pilot per departure. The departures are your own scheduled and cargo routes with a departure time that are flown that day, from all airports or one hub. See Timetable day.

Being found

• Pages for each simulator and network: Vaeroly now has public pages for pilots who search for a virtual airline by simulator or network: Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane, Prepar3D, VATSIM and IVAO. Each shows the listed airlines that fly it, busiest first. To be on them, list your airline in the directory and tick your simulators in the Directory profile card (Staff › Airline settings › Settings › Community).
• Public route list: a new optional feature, off until you turn it on (Staff › Airline settings › Optional features › Between airlines). Airline › Route list shows your fleet by aircraft type and your scheduled and cargo routes, and search engines find it while your airline is in the public directory. See Being found on search engines.

For your pilots

• My logbook: pilots who fly for more than one airline on Vaeroly now have one logbook for all of them. My logbook (in the main site's menu, where My imported flights was) lists every flight they filed at every airline, and the past flights they imported, in one list they can search by flight number, airport, aircraft, registration, airline and dates, with each landing's rate and grade and a CSV download. Only the pilot sees it: your staff never see a pilot's flights at other airlines, and nothing in it counts for your ranks, points or leaderboards. Nothing to turn on. See My logbook.

Fleet

• Fleet pictures: each aircraft can now have its own picture, and pilots see the pictures on Book a flight › Fleet and on their booking (staff see them in the fleet list). Press Edit on an aircraft in Staff › Operations › Fleet and paste a link into Picture link, with a Picture credit if it needs one. An aircraft without its own picture shows its type's picture, so one picture per type is enough to start. Vaeroly stores no pictures: each is a link to an image hosted elsewhere. Use your own screenshots or pictures you may use. See Fleet pictures.
• Aircraft type pages: each aircraft type of your fleet can have its own page, opened with About this type on Airline › Fleet: who flew it in the last 90 days, where it flies, the three softest landings on it, its aircraft with their names and liveries, the add-ons pilots across Vaeroly fly it with and links to the add-on makers' own websites for Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane (links only, nothing hosted). Pilots who hide from leaderboards are never named. Off until you turn it on in Staff › Airline settings › Optional features › Aircraft type pages. See Aircraft type pages.

Emails

• A fuller weekly summary: pilots who turned on the weekly summary email now also get their best landing of the week, the airline's next event this week when they haven't signed up for one, and one flight to try from where they are (when your airline has What to fly next on). It stays off until each pilot turns it on in their Profile. See Email notifications.

Your pilots

• Pilot reviews: a new optional feature, off until you turn it on (Staff › Airline settings › Optional features › Pilot reviews). Pilots with at least 3 accepted flights at your airline, still flying or gone, give it 1 to 5 stars for activity, staff answers and review speed, with a few words. Airline › Pilot reviews shows them without names, and from 3 reviews the airline directory shows your average. You and staff with Airline settings can reply; reports hide a review until Vaeroly moderators look, and your staff can't hide reviews. Turning it off hides them all again; nothing is deleted. See Pilot reviews of airlines.

Community

• Departures board: a new optional feature, off until you switch on Hub departures board in Staff › Airline settings › Optional features. Each hub gets an airport-style board of its departures and arrivals (booked, boarding, departed, en route with the expected arrival, landed), linked from your public page and Airline › Departures board. Staff see links to show it on a stream (OBS, dark, light or see-through) or on your own website. No pilot names; pilots who hide from live maps aren't on it while they're booked or flying. See Departures board.
• Flight share picture: a new optional feature, off until you switch on Flight share picture. Every accepted flight gets a picture with its route on a map, the aircraft, the landing rate, the points and your colour and logo. Pilots download it from their PIREP, share it from their phone, and pasting their flight card link in Discord, X or WhatsApp shows the picture as the preview. See Flight share picture.

Discord

• Accept and Reject from Discord: the bot's PIREPs waiting for review post now has Accept and Reject buttons. Staff whose Discord account is linked and who may review the PIREP decide it right there; Reject asks for the reason first. The post then shows the decision, the pilot is told as usual, and the activity log marks it "from Discord". Only on posts made by the bot in a channel; untick the buttons in Posts to remove them. See Connecting Discord.
• Event reminders: a new post type, off until you tick it in Staff › Airline settings › Settings › Community › Posts. The channel gets a reminder a day before each event and another an hour before, with the start time, the airports, how many signed up, the departure slots left and a Sign up button.

Fleet

• Delete the whole fleet: the owner can now delete every aircraft at once, for example to start again after a wrong import. Open Staff › Operations › Fleet, then Delete the whole fleet below the aircraft list, and type your airline's ICAO code. Aircraft that were booked or flown before stay for their history, grounded and hidden from booking; aircraft a pilot has booked right now are left as they are. PIREPs, bookings and routes aren't touched. See Deleting the whole fleet.

Live map

• The public live map is gone: vaeroly.com/live and the setting that showed your flights there were removed; old links open the airline directory. Your airline's own live map stays as it was.

Every feature below is off until you turn it on under Staff › Airline settings › Optional features, except the page colours, which are part of Branding.

Your airline's look

• Page colours: Staff › Airline settings › Branding › Page colours sets the sidebar, page background, cards, text, buttons, links and an accent colour, for light and dark mode, with ready-made palettes, a live preview and a check that warns when text would be hard to read. Saving nothing keeps Vaeroly's colours. New airlines start with Branding on. See Your airline's look.
• Airline handbook: a PDF written out from your live settings, on Community › Documents. See Airline handbook.
• History timeline: your airline's story from its own flights, on Airline › History. See History timeline.
• Route map poster: a printable map of your routes or of a pilot's flights. See Route map poster.
• Aircraft names: give each aircraft its own name on the Fleet page. See Aircraft names.

Keeping pilots flying

• Pilot of the month, picked by rules you set. See Pilot of the month.
• Personal goals pilots set for themselves. See Personal goals.
• Tail collector: which of your aircraft each pilot has flown. See Tail collector.
• Promotion moment: the new stripes on the dashboard after a promotion. See Promotion moment.
• Training path: steps of skills ACARS already measures, which can unlock aircraft. See Training path.
• What to fly next: up to three flights on the dashboard that move a tour, an event, a focus airport, a route wish or a new airport forward. See What to fly next.
• PIREP kudos: pilots press "Nice flight" on each other's accepted flights. See PIREP kudos.

Operations

• Charter requests from made-up customers. See Charter requests.
• Airport curfews with a booking warning and an optional scoring rule. See Airport curfews.
• Delivery flights for new aircraft. See Delivery flights.
• Any airport to any airport on the map: with Fly from anywhere to anywhere ticked under Staff › Airline settings › Settings › Charters, the Book a flight map shows every hub and airport, and pilots pick both the departure and the arrival there and book a charter. See Fly from anywhere to anywhere.
• On-time performance and late-departure reasons. See On-time performance.
• Hub connections saved by on-time arrivals. See Hub connections.
• De-icing in winter when the departure weather shows icing. See De-icing in winter.
• Difficulty bonus for landings in crosswind, gusts or low visibility (set its points on the Scoring page; 0 by default). See Difficulty bonus.

Airports and flights

• Airport tips pilots leave for each network. See Airport tips.
• Spotter guide: flights landing at an airport in the next hour. See Spotter guide.
• Hub weather room: today's hazards on each hub's routes. See Hub weather room.
• First network flight helper: the radio calls for the pilot's booking. See First network flight.
• Flight data report on a PIREP after a crash, a very hard landing, a tail strike or an overspeed. See Flight data report.

Staff work

• Review lock: others see who is reviewing a PIREP for 10 minutes. See Review lock.
• Recruitment steps for new applications, with an email at each step. See Recruitment steps.

Training

• Mentor programme: turn on Mentor programme under Staff › Airline settings › Optional features. Staff › Training › Mentors marks experienced pilots as mentors and pairs each new pilot with one. The mentor sees only that pilot's PIREPs filed while they're paired, leaves a short note on each and signs them off when ready; pilots find it under Training › Mentoring and on their dashboard. See Mentor programme.

Claims

• VATSIM track on a claim: pilots who fly on VATSIM can press Keep my VATSIM track on their Claims page. While they have a booking, Vaeroly keeps where the VATSIM feed shows them, and a claim on that booking shows the track to staff next to the screenshots. Only with the pilot's tick, kept 7 days, and never used to decide a claim. See VATSIM track on a claim.

Community

• VATSIM events at your airports: Staff › Community › News & events lists the upcoming VATSIM events at your hubs or at airports your routes fly. Press Add as airline event to open the event form with the name, start time, hours and airports filled in, change anything, then create it. See VATSIM events at your airports.

Pilots

• Browser notifications: pilots can turn on notifications in their browser on the Notifications page: a PIREP accepted, rejected or questioned, staff replies, an event they signed up for about to start, and a booking about to expire. Each browser is turned on separately, and nothing is sent until Vaeroly switches it on. See Browser notifications.
• Two new bell notifications for every pilot: "an event you signed up for starts at HH:MMz", within the hour before the start (at airlines that send event reminders), and "your booking expires at HH:MMz", about two hours before a booking that hasn't started expires. Each comes once, and they are on the bell whether or not browser notifications are switched on.

Pilots

• Landing coach: pilots open Logbook › My landings to see their last 50 accepted landings as a trend (landing rate, touchdown past the threshold, distance off the centreline), averages by aircraft type and one tip to work on, from fixed checks against your own hard-landing limit. A flight without a figure is left out, never counted as 0. See Landing coach.

Community

• VATSIM group flights: from two hours before an event until it ends, the event page lists who signed up and is connected on VATSIM, the callsign of their booking, whether their flight plan is for the event's airports and where they are (at the gate, taxiing, airborne, landed). Tick Must be flown on VATSIM on an event (Staff › Community › News & events) to give the event bonus only to flights seen on VATSIM. See VATSIM group flights.

Operations

• Our crew here: the airport page and the booking page show what your crew did at the departure and arrival: landings, the usual runway, the average landing, go-arounds and crew tips. Pilots suggest tips; you approve them under Crew tips (Staff › Operations › Hubs & airports). See Our crew here.

Booking

• ATC online at your airports: the flight list shows which controllers are online on VATSIM and IVAO at each flight's departure and arrival (tower, approach, centre and the others, with the ATIS letter), and ATC at either end lists only flights with a controller online at one end. The dispatch page lists each station with its frequency. See ATC online at your airports.
• Company routes: save your standard routing on a route (Staff › Operations › Routes, Edit, Company route). The dispatch page fills it in and sends it to SimBrief; pilots can still change it. Next to it, pilots see the routings other crew flew on the same city pair. Route imports read a company_route or routing column. See Company routes.

Pilots

• VATSIM rating on applications: an applicant with a VATSIM CID on their profile can tick a box to show you their VATSIM pilot rating and hours. While the application waits, you see them on the applicant's page with a link to their VATSIM stats. Nothing is read without the tick. See Your VATSIM rating on an application.

Booking

• Charter trips: with Fly from anywhere to anywhere on (Staff › Airline settings › Settings, tab Flights, under Charters), pilots can plan a charter of several legs from anywhere to anywhere: they type the airports in order (for example LOWI LSZH LFPG) under Fly a charter or on My trips. They book one leg at a time; when a leg's PIREP is filed, the next leg is booked for them, on the same aircraft when it is free. The pilot and the aircraft move with each leg, and every leg is an ordinary charter: ACARS, PIREP, scoring, pay and the logbook work as today. See Charter trips.

Booking

• Fly from anywhere to anywhere: in Staff › Airline settings › Settings, tab Flights, under Charters, the new Fly from anywhere to anywhere box lets your pilots pick both airports of a charter, even when neither is on your routes or hubs: a Cessna from a small field to wherever they want, for example. The pilot and the aircraft move to the departure when the charter is booked; ACARS, PIREPs, scoring, the logbook and Discord posts work as for any charter. It is off until you tick it. See Fly from anywhere to anywhere.

Booking

• SimBrief airframes for your pilots: in Staff › Fleet, the new Airframe profiles for pilots card lets you name the SimBrief airframes your pilots should use for each type (for example A320 CFM and A320 IAE with sharklets) and pick a default. They head the airframe list on the booking page, and the default is picked for the pilot.
• Aircraft search: the aircraft list on the booking page has a search box.
• Change buttons: each row of Ready to dispatch has a Change button that opens that section and puts the cursor in its first field.
• VATSIM and IVAO callsign check: the booking page now waits for the network feed it asks for, so the check no longer says a callsign is free just because the feed was still loading. A slow feed only makes the first page wait.

Flight plans

• Remarks by callsign: in Settings › Flights, airlines that fly under more than one operator code can set a remark per callsign start (its first 3 letters). A flight whose callsign starts that way files that remark instead of the airline's usual one, on the ICAO flight plan, the VATSIM and IVAO forms and SimBrief.

PIREPs

• Download PIREPs: the All PIREPs page has CSV and Excel links for the flights it shows, with its search and filters. Staff limited to some hubs get their hubs' pilots only. Up to the newest 50,000 flights per download.

Live map

• A pilot who drops off VATSIM or IVAO for a moment (a reconnect) keeps showing as seen for up to 5 minutes instead of not seen. Online points still count each minute as it was.

Apps

• The store buttons are now the official Google Play, App Store and Microsoft Store badges, in English or Arabic.

ACARS 2.8.44

• Teach hidden switches: in Teach Vaeroly this aircraft, a switch the simulator doesn't show has Find it: turn it on and off and ACARS learns where the aircraft keeps it (for example the FSLabs A321's parking brake). Flap positions that read alike (the FSLabs A321's 1 and 2) are told apart the same way.
• The teach window fits the screen with no scrolling.
• Shutting down without the parking brake is only judged once ACARS has seen the brake set during the flight, so aircraft whose brake never reaches the simulator no longer lose points.
• When the simulator connects but sends no data, ACARS says what to try.
• The stable-approach checks are made only on final, within 10 nm of the arrival runway, at the height above the runway, not above the ground under the aircraft: a STAR over hills far out is no longer an unstable approach.
• When the EFB window on Windows can't reach the crew centre, it shows its own page with Try again and Open in your browser, and the help has a section on what to check.

Also

• The map on a PIREP zooms with the mouse wheel.
• The stream overlay is never blank: before the first flight it shows the pilot and Waiting for the next flight.

Group flights

• Your own callsign: on the dispatch page and in Change booking details, a pilot can type their own callsign: the airline's code and 1 to 4 letters or numbers. It must be free among the airline's booked flights; if it isn't, a free one is suggested. When another pilot already flies the same flight, the callsign gets a letter after it (for example ABC101A), so a group flight never has two pilots on one callsign.
• The live map shows each flight's callsign under its flight number.

SimBrief

• Routes go both ways: a route you change on SimBrief becomes the booking's route, so the next plan keeps it. Pilots signed in with Navigraph who change the route or load on the booking can leave Make the SimBrief plan again with these changes ticked and the plan is made again when they save.

Times

• Local times now read on a 12-hour clock, for example 7:45 PM next to 16:45z. Zulu times stay 24-hour.

Live map

• On a wide monitor the live map uses the whole width beside the menu.
• Fixed: on very large screens the side menu and parts of the page could go blank when the map opened.

ACARS

• Messages sent from the dispatch page keep reaching ACARS before a flight is tracked: one failed check no longer stops ACARS asking for them until it restarts (ACARS 2.8.44). A booking past its start window no longer gets them.

Live map

• Counts at the top: how many flights are in the air and on the ground, how many fly on VATSIM or IVAO and how many pilots flew today.
• Filters: all flights, one hub, one aircraft type, or online flights only.
• Flight panel: pick a flight to see its progress, altitude, ground speed, vertical speed, aircraft, network, altitude so far and next waypoint, with Follow and Watch live.
• Flown trail: the route already flown, coloured by phase of flight.
• Smoother planes: planes keep moving along their heading between updates.
• Easier list: phase and VATSIM or IVAO badges and a progress bar for each flight.
• Network badge: green when VATSIM or IVAO sees the pilot right now, amber not seen when the pilot chose a network but isn't on it, or Offline. The online count leaves out flights the network doesn't see.
• A flight's popup stays open when the map updates, and phases and time to go are in your language.
• Full screen and Follow flight buttons on the map.
• Public map: when nobody is flying, the map says so; it opens on the whole world, and members get a link to their airline's own map. (The public map was removed on 19 Oct 2026.)

Return flight

• Return flight: when booking, tick Book the return flight too? and the route back is booked for you, with the same aircraft when it's free, as soon as this flight's PIREP is filed. You can add or drop it on the booking page.

ACARS 2.8.43

• Ending a flight: at the gate the flight ends once the engines are off and the parking brake is set, or when you press Finish flight. Finish flight works only after landing.
• Connected flights: as a flight ends, ACARS asks whether you fly a connected flight next. Book it, and ACARS starts tracking it as a new PIREP by itself.
• Captain's announcement: turn it on in Settings → Voice. A few minutes after levelling off, the captain tells the cabin the altitude, the time to landing and the weather at the destination.
• Cabin chime: a soft chime before cabin announcements, and when the weather at your destination changes in flight.
• NOTAMs for your departure, arrival and alternate, before and during the flight.

Installed copies offer the update by themselves; new copies are on the ACARS page.

Vaeroly NOTAMs

• Vaeroly can now post notices for every airline. General notices show as a banner at the top of the site; airport notices (for example a closed runway) show with your flight's NOTAMs on the booking page, the EFB and in ACARS.

SimBrief

• For staff and testers signed in with Navigraph: Choose another SimBrief plan from your recent plans, your own airframes and OFP layouts on the dispatch page, Check fuel and times before you fly, and take-off and landing numbers from the booking page and the EFB.
• Staff and testers not yet signed in with Navigraph see a Sign in with Navigraph button on the dispatch and booking pages.

Discord

• PIREPs waiting for review: the post in your staff channel now shows ⏳ Waiting for review, then changes to ✅ Reviewed: accepted or ❌ Reviewed: rejected, with who reviewed it and when. When the bot posts, it also marks the post with the same reaction.

Also

• Pages use more of a big monitor: crew centre and staff pages up to 1680 pixels wide, the site's pages up to 1440.

• Sign-in pages no longer show up in search results, and airline and alliance pages describe themselves better.
• On phones, long notices no longer make pages scroll sideways, and the EFB title fits in Arabic.

Vaeroly is free for pilots and airlines, with every feature and no limits. There is nothing to pay and nothing to set up.

Changes for everyone

• Free, for good. The Terms of Service now say so. Creating an airline only asks you to agree to the Terms.
• Maintenance limits. Staff choose the landing rate, the G and the hours an aircraft stays grounded after a hard landing, under Staff → Settings → Flights & scoring → Maintenance. Left empty, the usual limits apply.
• Points shop: an item's Cost (points) is what was called its price.

A short update with fixes and checks before more airlines join. Nothing needs turning on.

Changes for everyone

• "Confirm you're human" check on sign-in, sign-up, the contact form and the other public forms, so automated sign-ups and spam are stopped before they reach you.
• Send to VATSIM now passes the whole flight plan, with your airline's remark last in the remarks.
• Pilots pick their hub from your airline's own hubs.
• Review queue: ask the pilot a question straight from the queue, and see "Pilot replied" with the answer. Rejecting a claim needs a reason.
• News posts can be edited after they are published.
• Landing analysis shows where the aircraft actually came down.
• Easier to read and use: clearer buttons in the dark theme, a readable "Low" priority tag in any airline colour, a named route map on the booking page, and "Skip to content" that lands on the page's title.
• Privacy and cookies: the Privacy Policy and Cookie notice now list every cookie and every service the site uses. The sign-in cookie has a new name; nobody is signed out by the change.

ACARS

• 2.8.13 (Beta): a position of 0, 0 or an impossible altitude is no longer recorded, so it can't draw a line across the map or move the touchdown off the runway.
• 2.8.14 (Beta): go-arounds are logged and the circuit afterwards stays the approach; X-Plane on another computer on the home network is found by itself; positions that couldn't be sent survive a restart.

Help is also on our Discord server, linked at the bottom of every page.

This update brings clearer menus, better phones and Arabic, fairer scoring, and new ways to work with the other airlines on Vaeroly. New features are off until you turn them on in Staff → Airline settings → Optional features, or tick them in Settings. The few changes that apply to everyone are listed first.

Changes for everyone

• Menus by role. Pilots get eight menu groups (Book a flight, My flights, Standings, Events & tours, Live map, Airline). Staff get one Review queue with tabs for PIREPs, transfers, rank requests, claims and leave, then Operations, People, Community and Airline settings.
• One Airline settings page with tabs: Basics, Pilots, Flights & scoring, Community, Integrations and Danger zone. Changing the web address or ICAO code now needs the airline's name typed.
• Phones. Tables show as one card per row, tap targets are larger, and the menu opens over the page.
• Manual PIREPs earn no landing points for a typed-in landing rate, and don't count for the smooth-landing award. You can turn manual PIREPs off altogether (Settings → Flights & scoring).
• A flight rejected after it counted now undoes what it triggered: its duels open again (the bonus is taken back), automatic awards it earned are taken back, its money comes out of the finances and its aircraft gets the wear back.
• Late PIREPs. A booking that got airborne waits a week for its PIREP, so one sent late from the ACARS outbox is still accepted.
• Discord arrival posts show your accept or reject decision whenever your channel is connected.
• Score lines in Arabic. Arabic readers see the score lines and flags of a PIREP in Arabic.

New for pilots

• A first-flight card for new pilots, a booking page that shows the next step, and an optional weekly summary email (each pilot turns it on in their profile).
• Sign in with Discord, for pilots who linked Discord on their profile.
• ACARS 2.8.2: a simulator crash or reload no longer ends the flight, and the squawk code is recorded.
• Public profile: flying across all airlines on Vaeroly, with a link-preview picture.

New switches and settings

• Competitions (community goals, team challenges and duels) on one page with tabs; a tour can be flown as a trip.
• Rosters and bidding: publish a month of pairings; pilots bid, and seats go by seniority.
• Paused time: choose whether time paused in the air counts towards hours (Scoring).
• Verified careers: see an applicant's record at other airlines on Vaeroly, with their consent.
• Alliances, a network events calendar and network seasons for pilots.
• Hiring: say you're recruiting and who you're looking for; pilots can filter the directory for it.

For owners

• Starter templates: offer your hubs, fleet, routes and ranks to new airlines, or start from one.
• Benchmarks on the analytics page: your retention, flights per active pilot and review wait against the median of similar-sized airlines, anonymously.
• Health strip on the staff overview, event reminders and a weekly Discord recap.
• Operations API: read-only schedule, events and rank ladder for your own website, and a new "Schedule" permission for named API keys.
• A public status page at /status.

New help articles cover competitions, the economy, integrations, working with other airlines and rosters.

This release connects your airline to the tools around it (Discord, your own servers and apps) and lets you make the crew centre your own. Every feature is off until you turn it on in Staff → Optional features, so nothing changes for your pilots until you choose. Two changes apply to everyone: API keys are now stored in a form that can't be read back (see "Integrations"), and pilots' SimBrief settings can now follow them to any device.

Discord

• Discord roles by rank (switch "Discord roles by rank"). On Staff → Ranks, choose a Discord role for each rank from your server's own roles. When a pilot is promoted, the bot swaps the role; "Sync everyone" in Settings → Discord server does it for all linked pilots. The bot needs "Manage Roles", and its role must sit above the rank roles in Discord.
• Clean-up when a pilot leaves. With the same switch, a pilot who leaves, is suspended, is merged into another record or deletes their account loses the airline's roles and nickname. Nobody is kicked from your server: that stays your decision.
• Arrival posts follow the review. An arrival posted to your channel is updated when staff accept or reject the PIREP, with the new status and points.

Integrations (Staff → Integrations)

• Named API keys (switch "Named API keys"). One key per tool, each allowed to read only what it needs (flights, pilots), and revoked on its own. A key is shown once, when it's made; after that the list shows its name, what it may read and when it was last used. Up to 120 requests a minute per key.
• Keys are stored hashed. The airline's Ops key and older ACARS keys can no longer be shown again. They keep working; if you've lost one, make a new one. Owners whose Ops key was affected got one email about it.
• Webhooks (switch "Webhooks"). Your own server gets a signed JSON message within seconds when a PIREP is filed or reviewed, a pilot joins, leaves or changes rank, a flight is booked, cancelled or takes off. Failed deliveries are retried for about 15 hours; each webhook has a delivery log and a "Send a test" button. A webhook that has failed for three days is switched off and the owner is emailed. Up to 5 per airline.

Your airline, your look

• Branding (switch "Branding", Staff → Branding). Upload a logo (shown in the menu, on your public page and in the airline directory) and a banner behind your public page's heading. Emails about your airline carry your logo, colour and name.
• Your own pages. Up to 8 pages in Markdown, public or for members only, listed in your menu: a crew guide, SOPs, how to join.
• File hangar (switch "File hangar"). Upload PDFs, text files and ZIPs of checklists to a document, up to 10 MB each and 250 MB per airline. A new upload keeps the older ones as earlier versions, with a note. "From rank" locks a document for pilots below that rank, showing the rank they need. Files are only for signed-in members; liveries and large files stay as links.

Pilots' pages

• Badges page (switch "Badges page"). The Awards page (now in every airline's menu) shows each pilot's progress towards the awards they haven't earned ("12 of 25 flights"), when they earned the others, and how many pilots hold each one. Upload an image per award in Staff → Community. New award kinds: countries landed in, aircraft types flown, event flights and night landings.
• Dashboard layout (switch "Dashboard layout"). Pilots hide the cards they don't use and put the rest in their own order ("Customise your dashboard", at the bottom of the dashboard), and can go back to yours. In Staff → Dashboard layout you set the default order and add your own blocks: text, an optional picture and an end date, for everyone, for one rank and above, or for pilots at one hub.
• SimBrief settings follow the pilot (no switch). "Save these SimBrief settings" on the booking page now keeps them with the pilot's account, so they're filled in on any computer. Nothing changes until a pilot saves once.

Not in this release

Codeshares between airlines, your own domain name, sign-in for outside apps and a new design are planned for later. Navigraph charts and procedures at dispatch will follow once access is confirmed.

This release adds community, dispatch and flight-analysis features. Every one of them is off until you turn it on in Staff → Optional features, so nothing changes for your pilots until you choose. The one exception is a rank rule that only applies once you set it.

Ranks and recruitment

• Days in service on a rank. Next to hours, points and flights, a rank can now ask for a number of days since the pilot joined. Leave it empty and nothing changes. Pilots see "Days in service: 12 of 30" on the Ranks page.
• Rank-transfer requests (switch "Rank-transfer requests"). Pilots coming from another airline ask on the Ranks page: where they flew, their hours, their rank there, the rank they'd like and a link as proof. You decide in Staff → Rank requests, granting hours and/or a rank floor, or saying no with a reason. They get an email either way.
• Your own application questions (switch "Application questions"). Up to 10 questions on the join form: short or long text, yes/no, or a choice list, each required or optional. Answers show with the application in the review queue and on the pilot's page. Rewording a question later keeps the answers already given.
• Merging duplicate pilot records (switch "Merge duplicate pilot records"). When someone joined twice, open the record to keep, choose the other one and read the preview: what moves, what's dropped as a duplicate (an award held twice) and anything that stops the merge. Nothing moves until you confirm. The folded record stays, marked as merged.

Scoring

• Every change to your scoring rules is kept as a numbered version, with who saved it and when. Each new PIREP shows "Scored with rules v7". When you re-score a flight, you see the old and new points and exactly which rules changed between the two versions.

Community

• Community goals (switch "Community goals"). An airline-wide target over a date range: hours, flights, distance, points or soft landings, optionally for one aircraft type or airport, with up to three tiers. Pilots see progress on their dashboard and a Goals page with the top contributors. When it ends, everyone who helped gets points per tier reached, the top contributors get extra, and you can add an award.
• Team challenges (switch "Team challenges"). Teams by hub, by rank, a balanced random draw, or pilots joining a team themselves until the start. Standings update as flights are accepted; the winning team can get points and an award.
• Public live map. If you opt in (Staff → Settings), your flights appear on vaeroly.com/live with the callsign, aircraft, route, altitude and speed, but no names. Pilots who hide themselves from your own live map are left out. (Removed on 19 Oct 2026: vaeroly.com/live now opens the airline directory. Your airline's own live map stays.)

Dispatch

• Suggested alternates (switch "Suggested alternates"). The booking page lists civil airports 50–250 nm from the arrival with a runway long enough for the aircraft, nearest first, with their current weather. The pilot's choice goes to SimBrief and into the VATSIM/IVAO flight plan. Set how much runway each type needs on the Fleet page (sensible values are built in).
• Expected loads (switch "Expected loads"). Each route gets a demand figure from the airports' size, the distance and the day of the week, or your own figure on the route. Dispatch starts from that many passengers, and your finances use the same number.
• Airport NOTAMs (switch "Airport NOTAMs"). Staff → Airport NOTAMs: write a notice for an airport (information, caution or closure) with an optional start and end. Pilots flying from, to or diverting to it see it on their booking, above the official NOTAMs of their SimBrief plan.

Flight analysis

• Glide slope (switch "Glide-slope deviation"). Flight reports show the final approach against a 3° path to the runway the pilot actually landed on, with a band of one dot either side (as on an ILS), the deviation at 1,000 and 500 ft, the largest deviation above and below, and how long the flight was more than a dot off. It applies to flights filed after you turn it on; older reports keep the previous chart.

For pilots (so you can answer their questions)

• They only see what you've turned on.
• "Why is my alternate not in the plan?" After choosing an alternate, they need to generate the SimBrief plan again.
• "Why no official NOTAMs?" They appear once the SimBrief plan is attached to the booking.
• "Why no glide-slope chart?" It needs a flight recorded by ACARS that lined up with a runway; circling approaches and flights to airports without runway positions show the older chart.

This release covers the business side of Vaeroly: clear terms, better emails, easier setup for new airlines and a demo you can send to anyone. Nothing about flying, booking or filing changes for pilots.

For airline owners

• Getting started. A new airline opens on Staff → Getting started: first hub, fleet, routes, ranks, Discord and staff. Each step ticks itself off once it's done, and any step can wait. Until everything is done, the owner also sees a checklist card on the staff overview. It can be hidden.
• A standard rank ladder in one click. Six ranks from Cadet to Senior Captain, by hours. Smaller aircraft come first and the Captain ranks fly everything. Ranks you already have are left alone, and you can change them all afterwards under Ranks.
• Invite staff by email. On the Staff page or Getting started, enter an address and choose a role. The person accepts within 14 days by signing in, or signing up, with that address. They join the airline as staff with that role. As before, you can only give roles with permissions you hold yourself.
• Export everything. Staff → Ownership has a ZIP download of the whole airline: its setup, pilots, flights, bookings, events, awards and the activity log. Pilots' email addresses aren't included.

For pilots (so you can answer their questions)

• Terms at sign-up. New accounts tick "I agree" to the Terms and Privacy Policy. When the Terms change, signed-in users see a short notice once.
• Deleting an account now waits 30 days. Pilots are signed out and hidden from rosters and boards straight away. Signing in during the 30 days lets them cancel the deletion. After that, their personal data is removed and their flights stay in your statistics anonymously, as before.
• Download my data now also comes as a ZIP file, with a spreadsheet of their flights and their claim screenshots.
• Email choices. Pilots can turn off news-type mail (announcements, comment notifications) on their Profile page, or with the link at the bottom of those emails. Account, security and decisions on their own flights and applications are always sent.

Emails

• Every email has a new look, with plain text included for mail apps that prefer it.
• Addresses that bounce hard stop getting mail, so bad addresses don't pile up.
• Big announcements go out gradually to stay within the mail server's hourly limit. Important mail (sign-in, resets, decisions) still goes first.

The public site

• Questions and contact. New /faq and /contact pages. Contact messages reach the Vaeroly team, with spam kept out without a CAPTCHA.
• Try the demo. /demo opens "Vaeroly Demo", a sample airline with about forty pilots and a year of flights. Anyone can look around it as a pilot or as staff without an account: flight reports with landing analysis, the review queue, the roster, the live map. Nothing in it can be changed, and it starts over every night. It's a good link to send to someone who's thinking of joining or running an airline.

A behind-the-scenes release: Vaeroly is safer and faster, and staff access is now more precise. Nothing about flying, booking or filing changes for pilots.

Staff roles, redone

• Roles are now sets of permissions. Staff → Staff roles lists your airline's roles. There are six to start with: PIREP review, Pilots & HR, Operations, Community, Settings, and Airline admin (every permission). You can change them or add your own, such as "Hub manager" or "Tour guide", by ticking what each one may do.
• Nobody lost access. Every staff member has the roles that match what they could do before. Staff who had every tool now have Airline admin.
• Several roles add up. Give a staff member any mix of roles on their pilot page (Staff → Pilots → their name).
• Limit a role to hubs. A role can cover only pilots based at some hubs, for their applications, PIREPs, records, transfers and leave. Its other permissions are unaffected.
• You can't hand out more than you hold. Staff who manage roles can only add permissions they have themselves.
• Public titles. Each role has a title pilots see on the roster (for example "PIREP Reviewer"). Leave it empty to keep a role private.
• Clear answers. A page your roles don't allow shows a short "not allowed" page saying which permission is missing, instead of sending you back to the dashboard.
• New staff start with no roles. When you make someone staff, choose their roles on their page.

For airline owners

• Hand the airline over. Staff → Ownership lets you offer the airline to one of its pilots. They accept or decline by email within 7 days. You stay on as staff with Airline admin.
• Vaeroly support is read-only. Platform staff can look at your staff pages to help you, but can't change anything unless an administrator starts a support session with a reason. You get an email when that happens. It lasts an hour, and every change made during it is marked [support access] in your Activity log.
• Two-step login for staff (optional). Staff → Optional features → "Two-step login for staff" asks every staff member to set up an authenticator app.
• Activity log filters. Filter by person, action and date, and download the result as a CSV file.

Behind the scenes

• Encrypted backups. They run nightly, are kept for 7 days, 4 weeks and 6 months, and are stored off the server. A restore test is documented.
• Safer updates. New releases are tried on a copy of the database before going live. Updates reload without dropping requests and can be rolled back with one command.
• Health checks and error alerts, so problems are noticed before you report them.
• Faster staff pages. The pilot list, review queue, dashboard, leaderboard and statistics now make far fewer database queries at large airlines. Statistics load about four times faster.