I recently got the Q4XP and discovered Widerøe flies nice domestic routes in Norway. Perfect for a short 50min flight for example. I found widerøevirtual.online - a phpVms based VA. I liked what it offers: an overview of real life flights which you can choose to fly, helps you in creating a simbrief OFP. It seems a bit quiet here though, small group of members (which is nice I think) and you’ll have to wait on manual pirep approval. The VA seems new-ish, lets hope it grows a bit and becomes somewhat more active.
I’m also a member of klm-va.nl which is much more free: you can choose to fly real life scheduled flights (get more points for that) but you can just fly any dep-arr you like in whatever plane - and still get points for it.
I’ve also tried several VA’s based on the vamSys software - the most modern and solid build va-system I think. They’ve got some very active communities, which is also a very nice part of flying with a VA.
I’m wondering what others experiences are with flying on the sim with a virtual airline?
No. Absolutely not. Virtual Airlines place too many restrictions on what you fly, where you can fly, how you fly, and how often you must fly. For me, flight simulation is a hobby, and virtual airlines turn it into work.
I dunno where you had this idea that's 100% untrue lol
There are hardcore VAs as much as there are casual VAs where you can fly how you like, just using their ACARS to log the flight.
No more paper work like we used to have in the 2000s. Even with hardcore VAs, given all the automation there is now with the ACARS, it's just "click, send PIREP, voila".
For example prepping the flight on Simbrief takes more time than using an ACARS.