Rules & Regulations

Introduction

Welcome to the new era of Shamrock-Virtual. Originally established in 2003, Shamrock-Virtual is a voluntary, not for profit organisation, that fulfils a role to provide a structured, educational and fun environment for pilots aspiring to recreate the flights of the Irish national carrier, Aer Lingus.

In signing up to join Shamrock-Virtual, you are acknowledging that you have read and understood this document, and that you agree to abide by the Terms and Conditions explained within its pages.

Administration & Recruitment

Shamrock-Virtual is a Virtual Airline that supports users of Microsoft™ Flight Simulator 2004, Microsoft™ FSX & FSX SE (also known as FS9 and FSX/FSX Steam Edition), MSFS 2020, Prepar3D, and X-Plane.

The applicant must be in possession of a legal copy of Microsoft FS9 (FS2004), FSX / FSX-SE, MSFS2020, X-Plane or Prepar3D.

The applicant must be 16 years of age or over on the date of application.

The applicant must be able to make and file their first flight within 30 days of acceptance.

The applicant must be able to complete and successfully submit a Shamrock-Virtual flight once every 30 days.

The applicant must submit their real identity – no nick names or aliases are allowed. A valid email address and an active IVAO/VATSIM identification number are also required upon registration.

NOTE:

If there are any discrepancies with the details you use on your application form, we will request a scan of an official form of ID such as a passport or driving licence to verify your details. If you are not comfortable providing this to us then please do not apply to join as there are no exceptions to this requirement.

Any application submitted with an invalid IVAO/VATSIM account will be rejected. You must rectify the problem before reapplying otherwise, the application will be rejected again.

General Member Conduct

Comments of a derogatory or offensive nature, or behaviour within Shamrock-Virtual including our web site, our social media platforms, or any of our Discord channels (both text and voice based channels), within the general flight simulation community, or anywhere else including any social media platform, which could bring Shamrock-Virtual into disrepute will be investigated and could result in immediate suspension and subsequent dismissal.

In addition, the following items are considered unacceptable:

Offensive language directed at staff or other members.

Pornographic links or material of all kinds.

Any debates or remarks which may offend international or minority members regarding religious preferences, sexual orientation and preferences, gender, or local customs.

References or links to illegal software.

Posts that are of a political nature.

Leave Policy

From time to time it may not be possible for a member to comply with the one flight per 30-day requirement.

For this we have a leave policy in place, where you will be able to take leave on a yearly basis up to a 90-day maximum. Leave is allocated on the 1st January each year.

If you feel that you may need to exceed this 90-day limit then please contact the Shamrock-Virtual staff immediately for advice.

Should the 90-day limit be exceeded by a Pilot without them contacting the staff then the inactivity rule will be applied and the account closed.

If a pilot is deleted, so too is their Pilot Profile and Logbook. These records are irretrievable once they have been deleted.

Once a pilot has lost their account due to inactivity, there is a 30 day “Cooling Off” period in place before they can apply again for a new account.

If a deleted pilot then applies for a new account and is successful, they will have zero hours on their profile and a rank of First Officer. Old hours cannot be applied to new accounts; they are lost with the old account.

Use of PHPVMS 7 ACARS

In order to properly verify flights and hours flown by our pilots, as well as recording other data about the flight, Shamrock-Virtual provides real-time Flight Monitoring (ACARS) software from vmshost.io. This software is provided free of charge to all members.

As PHPVMS 7 is an external software, software updates will made available to member pilots. Any issues with this software you can contact staff in the help & support section of our Discord server or by email. If a member forgets to use ACARS, a manual PIREP can be filed on the dashboard system. A link to the online flight on IVAO, VATSIM or POSCON will be required to validate a manual PIREP. Failure to provide such a link will result in the PIREP being rejected.

Membership of other Virtual Airlines

Members of Shamrock Virtual are permitted to be members of other virtual airlines. The only exception to this is in relation to staff members of other virtual airlines that model Aer Lingus. We feel that this may cause a conflict of interest. If a member is also a staff member of another Aer Lingus based VA then their Shamrock Virtual account will be suspended and a member of staff will get in touch with the member to advise them of the issue and how to resolve it.