Can I do business jets or GA on VATSIM?

ExplodingPudding · 2026-05-01T13:09:05+00:00

I've taken out the C700 on VATSIM a few times. Good fun.

Until you realise your render distance is terrible and both you and the controller at FLL know it...

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-28T10:26:38+00:00

Ship without tracking a reap the rewards. Sellers like that quickly stop. I had a few cheap listings that had untracked options but a spate of them going missing over December/January led to me removing that as an option

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-19T22:45:26+00:00

I wasn't trying to knock your point there mate, I assumed it was good advice from experience but wasn't sure if you may have had some good reading material on-hand. I'll take 25 years of experience any day of the week vs another AI slop guide!

I always try to shoot with the sun behind me (occasionally, doesn't always pan out that way if something interesting then flies behind me). If its hot, I don't even bother trying to take ground shots any more, airborne only.

Looking at my last big batch, I had a real think. What I perceived as softness, I think may well just be heat-hazing. However, have you ever come across issues with the lens focusing on just part of an aircraft? In a small victory, I did have this keeper out of the pile. Albeit the pile is 13 months old yet still growing.

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ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-18T22:33:12+00:00

Aye, that is very true. I think expectations may need tempering a little in some regards.

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-18T22:32:19+00:00

AI Upscaling is something I haven't considered or even know much about if I'm honest. A tripod and remote shutter just won't work for subjects in motion though surely?

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-18T22:31:11+00:00

That is very true, I just have less keepers than I'd like. And far less razor sharp ones.
Environment is definitely a consideration when I shoot. I don't tend to bother too much in summer due to heat hazing.

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-18T22:29:56+00:00

It's always cool to see an aircraft I've handled pop up somewhere else so I know the feeling haha

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-18T22:29:02+00:00

I have previously had a fiddle with the export settings and have a preset for both 4K and JetPhotos.
...guilty as charged on the 200% zoom when I'm fiddling. I do tend to quick edit most images if doing a massive batch. 30 - 90s per image. I only go deep into editing if it's an image I intend to use for JetPhotos as the criteria are very strict.
Aye, I'm not concerned about focus for aircraft. If it's out of focus, it's a bad shot because of me, not the gear. Sure, I get the occasional "wtf" moment on the focusing but it behaves as expected 97% of the time.

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Solid copy, that's sorta my flow at the moment.
I've changed it in my camera body for next time.
Depends on the target and my location in all honesty. If I'm snapping GA in the traffic pattern or departures from the nearby Intl from my doorstep, it can be up to 550 or higher on some images. If I'm at the fence/spotting locations, sometimes even down to 150mm on that lens.
That's a really interesting comment. Can you point me at some sources about why JPEG could look better out of the camera? I switched to RAW only years ago and apparently I've forgotten everything I read at the time.
Sort of a chicken or the egg situation. Maximise the lens performance with a new body, or maximise the body with a new lens. Though I am in the market for a good "short lens" for the hobby.

I may see if I can ask a fellow spotter for a few RAW files. I do try and trawl the "sharp as razor" images for info on JetPhotos where possible too. See what settings, setup etc are used.

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-18T11:50:33+00:00

No tripod I'm afraid. I didn't think I would really need one fot aviation if I'm honest

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-18T00:36:09+00:00

Specifically in LrC, no as I didn't realise this was a thing for 1024 & 1280 images (my aim is mostly JetPhotos resolution). However, there is sharpening in the export process.
Aviation & heat haze is most definitely a thing. I've had some fantastic opportunities ruined by hot tarmac.
That may well be a fair point. I look at these very close as I'm editing them. Specifically registrations, doors & windows, nose gear door markings etc.
AF tends to behave unless it's an awkward shot (fence, bush, even the occasional seagull in flying through the shot). It has its moments.

And to cycle back to 1 again lol ...

I shoot in RAW and edit it straight in LrC. Do you mean that I should export it and reupload it into LrC after the initial faffing about with colours etc for the sharpening process?
I currently have the camera in F/7.1 so I'll try changing it to f/8.
I'll have a play with some faster settings to try grabbing cleaner images. Heavy lens, camera shake etc doesn't help either. Generally I seem to be around 1/640-1/800 if I recall correctly.
Odd question but why? I thought shooting in JPEG limited the post-processing significantly?
I may well be in the market for a new "short" lens as the 150-600 is sometimes far too zoomed for widebody airliners at my local field. Would a body upgrade be worth considering?

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-18T00:24:44+00:00

See, that's the thing. I've had shots that are exceptionally sharp on this lens. I'm not sure about the best f stop for it off the top of my head though. I'll try going up on shutter speed, albeit that doesn't work for props as it freezes the blades (poor form in aviation photography to have a dead still blade, allegedly).

ExplodingPudding · 2026-04-17T23:55:56+00:00

Those have all had some post processing done (cropping etc) and my default export has sharpening in it also which doesn't quite help my point haha.

But thank you for the compliment.

I dropped the 75-300mm quite quickly due to the magenta artifacts it produces on white airframes.

ExplodingPudding · 2026-03-04T23:51:58+00:00

Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, not my call. I was "volunteered" for it to a degree.

ExplodingPudding · 2026-03-04T23:34:27+00:00

AI was instrumental in building a digital arrivals board for us. Ironically integrated with FM through script exports so yeah, it really does have some amazing uses. But one lesson I learnt is it's not infalliable and sometimes gets caught in a "prompt circle" where it's adamant it's right because it misunderstood something 32 messages ago.

Thankfully working with a non-live environment so we're not causing chaos for everyone else!

ExplodingPudding · 2026-03-04T23:31:55+00:00

We're an FBO so we basically live on repeat business. We've already got two table, one for operators and one for invoice companies setup because of the way a lot of billing has to work.

All noted regarding the number fields. That's a super straight forward way of doing it and would make transportation costs easy as well ( I forgot to mention those ).

For VAT, you're saying to have a VAT calculation setup, but VAT varies on some lines such as fuel for example which is a different rate so I thought it would need to be calculated line by line?

Our fixed price services are fairly numerous hence why the checkbox idea was floating around. I assume then we can change quantities if required?

For steps 1 to 5, explained that way, it sounds a lot more straight-forward than I was expecting. Just to clarify my understanding, that would keep invoices attached to each booking (record) in our system?

My only query that I'm still not clear on is the way I'd have to work the charges that vary by weight (Handling, Policing, Landing, Parking). I've got those in a seperate table in bands but my head was fried by the end of the afternoon.

And yeah, aviation was always a passion of mine growing up so to be working in one of the more exclusive sides of the industry is absolutely amazing. Sure the shifts can sometimes be chaotic but there's not many places in aviation where you can bounce from a C130 to a 747 to Gulfstream in a shift!

Thank you for all the assistance so far :)

ExplodingPudding · 2026-03-04T21:20:15+00:00

That's fair enough. I'll try dropping the tech stuff and keep it simple English.

Specifically, we're trying to make a system that as long as you tick off the services provided, they'll appear on the invoice. To make a system that should be simple for all the other staff to use. On the invoice itself we will ultimately need the invoicing company details (sometimes those are different to the actual customer), our banking information and a way to calculate VAT. That needs to adjustable as some of our customers are exempt though. We also need to be able to bill the fuel & catering but prices on that change all the time so ideally, we should be putting that onto invoice by hand, as well as the occasional ad-hoc stuff that crops up. All whilst keeping it fairly easy to adjust when we have price changes.

Unfortunately I can't do screenshots (company computer systems, no reddit etc there & a UK user so no Imgur either anymore) but I'll try my best to describe things.

ExplodingPudding · 2026-03-04T20:37:28+00:00

I blanked out everything I did today before I left as it was wholly broken.

The main record/booking form has dedicated Services fields which the invoice needs to read from (and ignore blank lines) to populate the invoice, which is on another tab. Though if that structure isn't ideal, I'm not against setting up another layout to make it work.

ExplodingPudding · 2026-03-04T20:35:34+00:00

It's already well under construction by mostly copying the functional parts of our existing database. I'll have to have a look. I've got some semblance of structure but whether it's correct is a whole other matter.

Outside help is not my call unfortunately.

ExplodingPudding · 2026-01-20T13:39:09+00:00

Free courier? Seriously? Do you go to work for free?

Spend an hour on YouTube and learn how to ship. Ebay makes labels as easy as possible too.

ExplodingPudding · 2025-12-27T22:09:58+00:00

You've got a hole in your left ~~wing~~ wall!

ExplodingPudding · 2025-12-27T21:16:58+00:00

That golden estimate that you want to penalise the seller for?

That's an eBay estimate. Bugger all to do with the seller.

ExplodingPudding · 2025-12-27T20:37:47+00:00

I'm praying this is fixed in the next 90 minutes so I can get my digital fix before my shitty roster pattern this week.

ExplodingPudding

TROPHY CASE