In this meeting in Coimbra there was present large group of pilots from the ex TAPVA and they went on with the rebirth of TAP Virtual, electing the Executive Commission as a Directive body integrating all present elements with the purpose to manage the company for the next five years.
It was the time for an intensive period of consolidation of projects, deeply supported in guidance from real TAP Portugal pilots and above all, marked right at the beginning by initiatives that culminated with the official recognition by TAP Portugal. TAP Portugal's Executive Office Vice-President Eng° José Queiroz recognized TAP Virtual as the sole entity authorized to emulate TAP Portugal in the cybernetic space.
The Model of Development is then defined as the back bone of the company, renouncing immediately to fantasist conceptions which were popular in the air simulation, the result of a forming and growing community. The option taken then is for rigour of operation, technical quality of its pilots and to simulate, wherever possible in a simulation, of the real TAP Portugal operation.
Therefore, TAP Virtual is then, the first company to adopt flight reports detailing the operation, making its pilots to report items that were to be evaluated and duly quantified afterwards. Some time later, the first pilot management software goes even further and demands differentiated flight reports according to pilot ranking. The type A and Type B reports are born, the later applicable to Captains and with a high degree of demand.
At the same time, TAP Virtual did not corner itself to simple virtual pilot activity, organizing soon after complementary activities, namely the important and very crowdy Congresses of Air Simulation that took place in the city of Guarda, workshops, and public initiatives worth of mention like the "month of simulation" in the FNAC of Santa Catarina in Oporto. At the same time TAP Virtual is requested to be present in several events of public divulgation in cities like Oporto, Guarda, Évora and Lisbon. On various occasions TAP Virtual was invited by the media to tell about its activities, providing technical articles. It is to be noted that during the Congresses in Guarda, real pilots validated all organized simulated flights. All those pilots deserve our respect and gratitude, but there is one amongst all which had been on our side since the very beginning and that was prematurely taken from our presence. Teles Cepeda, was the man that with lots of patience and comprehension stimulated us to adopt SITA. In one of the Executive Commission meetings, he spent endless hours explaining all its details in a meeting in the city of Leiria. It was then, the year 2002. . It would be unfair not to mention Captain Paulo Soares, the man that taught us all, about the A320 both individually as in workshops. There must be very few TAP Virtual pilots that didn't ask for his help in an extraordinary pedagogic capacity.
The need to properly fit grants and external aid, and to respond to the challenges of an ever changing world of simulation, made the structure of TAP Virtual to define with precision its juridical status. In 2003, the members of the Executive Commission founded ASA Virtual in Lisbon by means of a public registration immediately assuming by statutory regulation the intellectual property of TAP Virtual and its site, hence resolving lots of problems caused by the previous juridical void.
After its foundation, ASA Virtual celebrated an official protocol with TAP Portugal, which was mutually signed at the Air simulation Congress of 2003. This way, the statutory relationship between TAP Virtual and TAP Portugal became settled once and for all. Later on, other protocols were signed namely with the Superior School of business Management of Guarda by which an Air Simulation room was created, hence creating the foundations for future scientific collaborations.
Afterwards, Microsoft USA and ASA Virtual established a protocol of cooperation mutually compromising each other in scientific collaboration within the scope of the Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Externally, TAP Virtual pilots have been called upon to cooperate, and mention should be made to contribution of TAP Virtual pilots for the “Tese de Mestrado sobre a eficácia aplicacional das TI para PC" from Dr. Pedro Oliveira, subjecting themselves to scientific experiments and technical evaluations in TAP Portugal Level D simulator .
Since it was founded, TAP Virtual has never interrupted its activity, and has been developing internal mechanisms adequate to a correct flight and pilot management, adopting evolving supporting software that respond better and better to the model of company required. Encompassing these 6 six years of existence, different models have been adopted where rigour was ever more demanding and the level of proficiency became the trademark of the company.
IFPS must be singled out as it incorporated almost all the functionalities required by the company. But we knew we couldn’t stop there. The company needed to grow, to modernize and to perfect procedures, whilst increasing its level of demand.
In January 2006, TAP Virtual – after almost half a year of internal discussion and introspection – decides to change its functional structure and the Executive Commission, which has provide so many and so good services since the company’s foundation, is extinguished.
Thus, the horizontal concept of collegial governance is abandoned for a more pyramidal yet still collegial form of decision is adopted. In these terms, ASA Virtual appoints the President of the company for an undetermined period, and the President chooses his Staff. It is a phase of profound internal restructuring, of intense work and dedication, which has been preparing the new image of the company, while preserving its founding principles, the very same ones that were historically defined in the Coimbra’s meeting six years ago.
But TAP Virtual was slowly preparing itself for the 3rd phase of its development. In fact, there was always the need to provide the company with a fundamental technical instrument for its operation. It is fair to cite a person who developed the first working tool to manage pilots and flights (IFPS Integrated Flight Plan System), Miguel Costa. And it was with his work that we got closer to what would become the great qualitative leap in the history of the company. Not by his hand by impossibility but the seed was launched.
Carlos Godinho was a pilot of the early days of the company. He knew the company very well and attended all stages of its development. In an act of dedication Carlos Godinho together with the pilot Carlos Bandeira accepted to develop new software of management of pilots and flights. It begins a period of some indefinition that could be designated by "difficult times". The previous platform was outdated and the new platform was late. It is about four long years until the FOS (Flight Operation System) knew the light of day.
FOS is a complex and comprehensive tool, perhaps the most complete, sophisticated and demanding in the world of aerial simulation. It was created after hundreds of hours of work the structure that was going to manage the company in the next years. TAP VIRTUAL is proud of this work, unique in the world, which once again honors our country.
Following the launch of the FOS, contacts with the parent company are intensified and the FOS is fully operational with the actual operation of TAP. It is with great satisfaction that the current management of the company sees the extraordinary enthusiasm with which our pilots fly improving day by day their performance and dignifying the aerial simulation. It is with pride that are integrated into the ranks of the company pilots coming from various parts of the world as well as female pilots.
TAP Virtual remains faithful to the rigour of operation, to the ethical prepositions, to the strict dependency to the mother company (TAP Portugal), which continues to this date, to be the reference for action definition. TAP Virtual has for more than six years continued to freely avail all the required instruments to its pilots so that they may fly the national colors with pride.
We continue to thrive for excellence. Fly with us. We are aiming at the future. We know there is a lengthy way to go but we also know where we stand in both national and international air simulation context. With this assurance we are here to serve you.