Olympic Virtual competed in one of the most unique flightsimming events, the Virtual Airline Reliability Award (VARA) event, whose purpose was to properly simulate the actual operations of a real airline while adhering to a published schedule. Success was determined by recording any delays and awarding airlines that execute the most flights while deviating from their schedule as little as possible.
OAV achieved 87.92% reliability!
More information on this event follows below:
The Idea: John Clever, the dispatcher of Zulu Air, wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was a long day! He was sure when he took his place in front of the computer and radio unit eight hours ago that it was going to be just another boring afternoon, but, before he had finished his second coffee, the phone had started to ring and the company radio frequency got busy. One captain informed him that he had strong stomach problems and wasn’t able to fly. The Maintenance Department reported that they had discovered a broken door on an aircraft scheduled for another flight. The meteorology office had issued a warning about possible heavy thunderstorms in Windy City where two Zulus aircraft were soon scheduled to land. John, though, knew that he worked for the best VATSIM airline! He reacted quickly: a phone call to another captain who was on standby and who 30 minutes later was boarding the aircraft, replacing his sick colleague. Another call and a replacement door for the broken airplane was found; Zulus Air mechanics showed their skills by completing the overhaul a few hours earlier than expected. John discussed the situation in Windy City on the radio with the two concerned captains and decided that the aircraft which was needed there for an early flight the next day would wait in the holding pattern until the storm passed while the second one would divert to an airport only 60 miles away. Once again, John and his pilots had managed to get all the passengers to their destinations almost on time and happy.
- What is VARA?
- Virtual Airlines Reliability Award (VARA) is a special event that is organized by Polish VACC 1-2 times per year. The task given to airlines is to create a realistic timetable for selected airports in Poland and certain other countries in Central and Eastern Europe and on the day of the event, they must complete their scheduled flights while avoiding delays and cancellations. No teleportation and no possibility to “buy” another aircraft in a few minutes – it’s all as real as it gets!
The goal: The VARA Award
During the event, an automated script measures delays and checks for other errors while flights are executed. Individual flight scores are averaged so as to determine what is called THE RELIABILITY INDEX. Consult the “Rules and Documents” page to learn how the RI is calculated.
Based on the RI, an airline can be granted:
| VARA GOLD | RI 90% or more |
| VARA | RI 75% or more |
If an airline has a difficult timetable (many flights, many pilots, short aircraft turnaround times), an additional bonus is added to the RI.
VARA is not a competition between airlines. You don’t compete against other pilots, you compete against all adversities and your goal is not to beat any airline but rather to achieve the level required for VARA or VARA GOLD.