UK Virtual Air Ambulance Service

Hi there,
I am keen to support the work of the Uk Charity Scenery project, and being a long time simmer on many platforms, I have recently found the excellent rotary flying that can be found on the X-Plane 11 platform. Having flown helicopters in the British Army in the 80s I have always had a passion for rotary flying, and have decided to form the Virtual Air Ambulance Service. VAAS is an x-plane 11 only organisation dedicated to emulating the excellent work carried out by the UK Air Ambulance units. The VAAS website can be found here: vaas.crewsystem.net and I hope that those of you who enjoy rotary flight may consider joining VAAS. You can fly using the freeware EC-135 from rotorsim or purchase any of the great XP11 helicopters now available, and support the UK Charity Scenery Project as you further your VAAS career. I encourage all VAAS pilots to fly on VATSIM and promote Air Ambulance operations through your flying commitments. The website is not 100% complete with some generic airline banners still visible but as my coding skills improve I will get it converted to a fully rotary based website. Apologies if I offend anyone by my recruitment campaign, but I do not seek profit in any way, just to promote Virtual helicopter flying in the UK for now, ( I am open to expansion ) Stay safe and maybe see you on the VAAS pilot roster soon. Kind regards - Karl H.

Tried registering but had some email error coming up. I than tried to reregister, and it said that the email address was already in use so I don’t know if my registration went through.

Hi fearless,

I will check the applications and see what the issue is. I know the system works as I tested it myself and have had another application come through and accepted it. I will get back to you with a solution hopefully. Cheers and stay safe - Karl H.

Hi fearless, I cannot find any record of your application, so it didn’t make it into the system I am afraid. I do not know why it would say your e-mail was already registered as it definately isn’t.

If you try again and are unsuccessful, please get back to me with the JOIN information in an e-mail and I will submit your application from my end and get you on board.

Sorry for the problems you are facing which are new to me as you are only the 3rd applicant ever LOL.

Stay safe and get back to me when you get the time.

Cheers - Karl H.

i think there may be an issue with the join up system have tried to sign up today and it shows an error at the top of the screen when clicking submit.

Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: Invalid address: (From):

Hi Dan,

not sure what the problem as I have tested the join system a number of times and registered OK, I can only guess it must be connected to your e-mail address name. Send me a PM at MODSIM with the e-mail address you tried to register with and ill see what the problem is. I will look at the join coding and see if there is a problem, but like I said I have tested it, and a chap has joined from Australia OK, so I am a little puzzled.

Cheers - Karl

Hi Karl

I love the idea here, I’ll get on to joining soon. Given that it’s vatsim based I wonder if it would be useful to do a guide for appropriate radio etiquette as a HEMS flight? It’s a little different than standard VFR I guess - do the vatsim controllers take note of exemptions and things? From my observations in the back seat of a UK air ambulance this last year, the pilots do a lot of telling atc what they need to do and control do their best to make it happen
I’ll contribute what I learnt but I’m no expert.

Best wishes

Hi there,

I really do encourage all VAAS pilots to show a presence on VATSIM & IVAO ( some are members of both orgs ) but it isn’t mandatory of course.

Personally I try and fly on VATSIM whenever I can, but I leave the London HEMS stuff to 104thMaverick as you definately need to be on the ball.

I haven’t made VATSIM or IVAO aware of VAAS as yet as we are still less than a month old.

It would be great to chat about your thoughts and approach them, making sure we are on the same page and what they would expect from VAAS pilots.

I hope you do join us, and look forward to your application.

Best regards - Karl H.

Hey Karl,

I’m afraid I’ve struggled to join also:
“Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: Invalid address: (From): mail.vaas.crewsystem.net
This error comes up like the others.

I’m probably late to the party but I’ve just found out this is now available in case people hadn’t seen it:

I am looking forward to getting stuck in to this a little bit.

Best wishes,
Nathan

Hi Nathan,

Despite the error message, the applications are still coming through. I have raised a ticket with the WebHost about the issue.

Welcome to VAAS, I hope you enjoy your Virtual Air Ambulance pilot career.

For those that don’t know about VAAS, here is some information:

The Virtual Air Ambulance Service ( VAAS ) has been created to allow fans of rotary flying on any of the current flight simulation platforms, but in particular X-Plane 11, an opportunity to undertake Virtual Air Ambulance flying duties on the VATSIM network ( offline flying and flying on another preferred network is completely fine as well. )

The commander and creator of VAAS has been a flight simulation fan for many years, using many of the Microsoft iterations of it’s flight simulator since the 90s, while more recently using Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D to further enhance the enjoyment of flying both fixed wing and rotary aircraft. As a relatively new user of X-Plane 11 he highly recommends this platform as the primary simulator choice for VAAS flying, although any platform can be used.

Flight simming YouTube and Twitch fans may well have heard of the streamer 104th_Maverick, 104th Maverick Youtube channel who flies not only on DCS and ARMA3 but also on X-Plane 11 where he enjoys flying Air Ambulance Helicopters, as well as showcasing the majestic and world famous Concorde ( callsign Speedbird 007 ). He is a great ambassador for the work of the Charity Scenery Project: Link here to the website charityscenery.co.uk

In light of the work that this great project does in raising funds for Air Ambulance Services throughout the UK, VAAS will also support this great cause in any way it can, encouraging VAAS members to purchase their prodcuts, including the UKAAM, all priced at just £1.

VAAS pilots can undertake the career of a Virtual Air Ambulance pilot, choosing one of the many Air Ambulance locations to base from, and using the excellent HRM and UKAAM mods and helicopter models provided for x-Plane 11, they can take part in challenging Air Ambulance scenarios around the World.

There are lots of great scenery additions to enhance your VAAS flying experience available for x-plane and other platforms, including those from ORBX, the Charity Scenery Project and from VAAS itself who are creating an extensive XP-11 Hospital Helipad scenery pack for use by VAAS pilots.

Scenery creators are most welcome to assist in a non flying role, please just e-mail the VAAS Commander with any expressions of interest.

Thanks Karl

I’m all set up - gave it a whirl this afternoon. I’ve done a flight which all seemed to go well but then ACARS crashed when I pressed “end flight”, followed shortly after by x-plane. On the live view it has my last known location (Back at Welshpool) and it’s showing as an active flight on your VAAS website but I now can’t end the flight.

EDIT: I started and aborted another flight but that one’s lost now. Nevermind I’ll try again.

Best wishes
Nathan

Also,

The download of XUIPC you have on the website is preconfigured with some odd joystick offsets. May be better to direct people here: XPUIPC Download Page to get a clean copy.
My FTR button also paused the sim amongst other things, and autopilot button did weird things to the lights. I could not work out what was going on!! :joy: :rofl:
Figured it out now, I’ll try another wee flight with ACARS and see how if works.

Nathan

Really sorry for all the questions, I’m new to virtual airlines and VATSIM etc.

So ACARS still won’t let me record a flight, though it tracks me and puts me online alright. I just get an unexpected error when I try to end the flight.

It also prevents me from starting my engines which is weird. (When ACARS is running and a flight is started, my engines won’t ignite, just the starters. If I abort that flight, close ACARS and reload the aircraft, engines run fine. I’m using the rotorsim EC-135v5. )

Any help from anyone would be appreciated.

Best wishes
Nathan

Hi Nathan,

don’t lose your flights, please submit a manual pirep anytime, it takes 1 minute.

The VaBase Acars is unfortunately geared towards an Airline based VA, which we are not ! Other members have had issues with the starting at a gate and set parking brake features, again these are issues Virtual airline pilots don’t face.

I have issued tickets to VaBase support outlining our unique problems but whether they can or will change ACARS to suit VAAS is unknown.

I ask all VAAS pilots to simply submit a Pirep, which you can do from your own dashboard, until I can get ACARS working for us.

Cheers and good luck - Karl

I highly appreciate this initiative.
This just fits in with what I am doing in the Netherlands in X-plane.
I even made a scenery to have all the medical pads of the Netherlands availible.
Free to download at X-plane.org.
Along with all the offshore platforms for the Dutch coast for which medevac is the only solution.
So if you want to branch out across the pond I will be in.
For now I check out your site.

Good morning Karl,

Application submitted this morning, however, the mailer error appeared.
Just checking that they are still coming through?

Hi mate,

I have processed a dozen applications this morning, so they are coming through. Check the roster and if you are not appearing on it, please apply again or e-mail me with the application details at karlhughes1464@gmail.com and I will do the necessary.

Sorry for the confusion but I am working with the Webhost to resolve the issue.

Stay safe and good luck - Karl

Hi Appie,

VAAS would be very keen to open a base in the Netherlands, please apply, join a current unit and we can talk about setting up your suggestion.

Stay safe and look forward to hearing from you - Karl.