( WHERE ALL YOUR HOURS COUNT ) Universal was created by two senior pilots with thousands of hours of FS flight time. There are two main choices in the virtual or flight simulation community, one choice is to fly on your own and the other is to join a virtual airline and there are many fine airlines to select from. Going from website to website we found that each airline had something to offer that was either unique or unusual, some airlines were found to be "top heavy" in management and some had no management. Other airlines were extremely automated and some were simple with minimum requirements in submitting information. Some airlines are extremely friendly and some are downright .... well, shall we say "less than friendly" although those that are unfriendly are very rare. In most cases the airlines would permit the transfer of your hours but limit you to 50 or 100 hours or perhaps slightly more but certainly less then the accumulated hours you have earned over many years. Many of us have been flying since the days of MSFS-1 which came out in 1984, over 30 years ago, and many of us pilots who began flying that version, later began keeping track of their hours and find it difficult to toss out thousands of hours because hours are not transferable. Most of these pilots lasted longer than some virtual airlines! For this reason, we decided to open Universal Airlines on behalf of those senior and experienced pilots who have hundreds and even thousands of flight hours who simply feel it wasn't fair that they be asked to dump the logbook and start over. Don't get us wrong, many fine pilots have no problem and even prefer to start over but often many pilots just don't want to give up if the airline they flew for either closed or they no longer wished to fly for the virtual they were associated with and in turn are left on the tarmac with a homeless feeling. When we opened Universal Airlines and ran it for 5 years, we realized that in order to attract pilots, we had to have a "recognized" airline name, like Lufthansa or American. No matter how much time and effort we put into the airline, success remained elusive. Therefore, we've turned "Universal" into a resource that pilots can use at home, with hours kept in your Microsoft "LOGBOOK". Here, you always receive "Full Credit" for your flight hours. You do not have to meet anyone's requirements, except those you set for yourself! No joining a Virtual Airline is necessary! Explore our vast number of flight schedules designed to help you explore the world of flight! You may download aircraft from the many flightsim sites, and use the suggestions in our schedules indicating what aircraft are appropriate to fly a particular route. The included Microsoft FS2004 based learning area should be of help to most pilots. The desire to fly and participate in a simulation that has been around a very long time. It is hoped that our efforts here will contribute to future flights through the virtual world. Although most of our aircraft will work in both FS9 & FSX systems, we recommend sticking with FS9 (FS2004 A Century Of Flight) because of the thousands of high quality sceneries already available for free! As computers became more powerful, FS2004 (FS9) runs even faster on them. One of our unique features, located in our schedules, is that we include hyperlinks to the cities, states and countries as well as airports you will be visiting. You can also enjoy learning about the places you visit as well as flying to them! In this way, you can become an armchair traveler as you journey around the world. "Welcome To Universal Airlines "
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