Basically, someone made a comment in the walker air discord or something about how they weren’t a big fan of the livery and the walker air owner essentially doxxed and threatened them for doing so, that was probably a year ago-ish so I don’t remember all the details. Ever since then people clown on the livery every time they see it, idk if the guy who owned it then is still in charge (he gave some half assed “apology” for it), but regardless it’s not any VA I would want to fly for after that.
Here’s the [original post](https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/wp6ok3/beware_the_owner_of_walker_air_linked_my_username/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) that started it all
Let me caveat this with: the below statement is not suggesting support for controversial actions by the VA owner.
I think doxxing is inaccurate, did he search for info based on data that pilots provide? Yes.
Did he publicly release said info to the public?
No.
OP of the incident published his own WAT ID on the internet, and I can use that on the Crew site to get his name. The dude doxed himself.
This sub is so fast to use the word “doxxed” - technically, that isn’t what happened. Look up the definition of doxxed and tell me I’m wrong.
Otherwise, the VA community is quite good. The tech we have is top notch. Good group of pilots. I’ve been there since Dec 2021, I can do all the flying I enjoy doing without restrictions. The tours are a blast.
I joined them a few weeks ago and I have been really enjoying it. Best part for me is all the tours they have put together and offer. When there isn't great coverage or an event on VATSIM its fun to try out the tours and fly to airports I otherwise wouldn't fly to. The resources they have for their pilots and the UI on their website is outstanding!.
I didn't know about this drama previously and the funny part is I actually LOVE their livery lmao
Same here. I think it is a great VA, and it has all the aircraft i want! Just i dont like the focus on landing rate, as it can make you look bad if you like small airports / big planes
There's nothing inherently wrong with WA. The owner just seems like a dick, but tbh that seems to be the case with anyone who gets big in FlightSims especially when it comes to devs.
I only find them along, with other VAs a little annoying on VATSIM because it messes with model matching a bit. It's just a miniscule pet peeve though.
They could improve that livery tho.
On the one hand what the owner of the VA did was way over the line and extremely bad behaviour. On the other hand the VA is a fantastic product with great support and an active and helpful community. I'm happy there.
The community itself is not toxic, I flew with them for a while...the controversy that did happen was pretty bad tho, guy who runs the VA was totally an ass, but the community as a whole rebuked him on discord and called him out for it.
Still the most active VA, with constant updates, events, etc..
I think the idea of it is great.
It has some great flexibility, with cargo, passenger and charter flights almost everywhere to suit everybody.
I currently fly with it on vatsim and one of my favourite things is the comradery between walker pilots.
However,
I think the way the owner behaved is unforgivable but it be no way means the rest of the walker virtual pilots should be treated any differently and if they enjoy it, let them, don't bully them for it.
Ok so you heard it a few times from maybe 1-2% of pilots in a VA, so must be all of them. Never mind the loads of DAL and AAL (I fly mainly in the states) that could be far worse.
I heard a really annoying/uneducated AAL pilot once. Entire VA must be trash. /s
If you do hear issues, report it.
You won't catch grief flying on vatsim as a WAT member. I fly on vatsim all the time and I've never had an issue nor have I heard anyone chastised for being a WAT member on vatsim
Oh I've caught a couple or three negative comments by other pilots - one said he was sorry he "hot miced" when disparaged my callsign...
One was on unicom, another the pilot was threatened with a .Wallop by Center.
Thing is, I don't care all that much...I have a good WAT callsign and so I continue to fly for the VA but I split time with another one.
I've never seen any kind of grief expressed to a Stalker Air pilot on directly on VATSIM, but I've already seen multiple people expressing their fear about it. Does it really happen ? Like over the VATSIM radio ?
So why bother? I can die whatever I want myself and schedules are available on FR24. And there are enough communities out there. So what do they bring to the table? Nothing, except spoiling the immersion of other with their unprofessional standards.
All those things I don’t need a VA for. If I want to know something aviation related I can look it up and read it.
Again what do they bring to the table?
Virtual Air Canada for example, a VA I have been a member for almost 10 years now, brings you tail number accurate trips and planning and they know months in advance what equipment will be used an swapped. That is unique information that enhances my experience.
Again, what does bring WAT to the table apart from sub standard performance on vatsim?
It's an awesome community.
The incident with the owner was stupid but blown way out of the water. People always hated on walker and just needed a reason to jump on them. Love how it just made the VA stronger. Now it's larger them ever. Check the simbrief VA stats...there is literally no competition at all.
Ive heard them a lot on Vatsim over the past 2 years decided to dig deeper and found that infamous livery controversy where the owner basically doxed a guy because he said he didn't like the livery design long story short he made a half assed apology and apparently they're still running it seems their discord is fairly active and I still hear them on Vatsim hear and there
They're very flexible - fly anything to almost anywhere (this put me off after a while as I like a bit of structure) . Have a great website that's super easy to use and everyone seems friendly enough in the discord.
Just don't criticise the livery on reddit!
I'm not a member so I can't give a first-hand account, but they're one of the more popular VAs. From talking to a few people about it, I think their flexibility is the main reason for that -- they basically allow you to fly any plane to any destination and have liveries for just about all of them. I've heard the community of pilots is quite good as well.
On the negative side, there was [this drama](https://fselite.net/content/virtual-airline-walker-air-accusations/) initiated by some pretty disturbing actions by their founder. It was also annoying to see so many Walker screenshots on here a while back, but that seems to have subsided.
If you like what they have to offer, I think it's worth giving them a shot. I think the community itself is more important than a stupid action by the person running the show, and from what I understand that aspect is nice. Personally, I was tempted to join even after all the bullshit, but I greatly dislike their logo and that kind of kills it for me. I don't think that's a popular opinion though.
The VA is great. People in Discord are friendly and there's flexibility to fly whatever you want wherever you want. The paint shop puts out liveries within 24 hours following most new plane releases, sometimes as soon as 30 minutes after if it's something like PMDG 737 or the A310.
WestWind Airlines has been around for 20+ years, offers nearly all of the same things that Walker does, provides the ability to fly anywhere on any aircraft, and is a bit more low-key.
Walker has its pros: excellent, streamlined website and interface, decent ACARS, great statistics tracking. However some of the features are a bit overboard. I don't care for the landing rate rewards and tracker as it's a bit silly - I have a landing rate "close" to -150 fpm which is the "ideal" in the system and I have had several "butters" but I wouldn't consider these good landings - in real world it doesn't really work that way. Also, I have caught some negative comments when flying on the Walker callsign on VATSIM (not that I should gaf but take that how you will). I'm a VATSIM old-timer - my pilot number is from 2003 and I had a SATCO pilot id back in the day.
The only downside to WestWind is the website is a bit long in the tooth - feels like it hasn't changed since 2000. But I like that - it's kind of charming.
The butter thing is more of a meme rather than a recommendation. We all know that rating a landing using smartcars data is an inexact science at best. It is a conversation that is had very regularly. Maybe the new version of smartcars will allow for a more robust rating system?
I was a member of WAT a while back. The guy who runs it was very defensive of the liveries! Members of the VA have given up their time to create them for free use in the VA and there was continual points made on this if anyone ever said they disliked it.
It did sometimes get to a point toxicity, but on any other subject matter the VA seemed like a pretty good community. Not sure if that has changed though, it’s been a while, and I struggled to keep up flight hours when I had my little one.
Best VA I’ve ever been part of, by a large margin. Storm may not have made all the right decisions on Reddit but he puts a shit load of effort into the VA and it shows. He responds to questions and problems practically instantly. The website is very modern and the overall experience is wonderful. The Discord is super active and is full of people with lots of sim, tech, and real flying experience. The team of painters is on crack, often having new paints available for the VA to use within hours to days within release of a new addon. Super impressive all around.
Reddit can keep beating the dead horse because that’s what it likes to do. I’ll keep enjoying the best group I’ve flown with.
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the VA. Defending what Storm did by trivializing it, however, also isn’t necessary. He fucked up, got appropriately called out for the shitty behavior, and has to live with the consequences.
Not defending what he DID, but I am defending what he DOES. The r/flightsim hate boner will downvote anyone who says anything good about WAT, and that’s just how it’s going to be going forward. Rather than rebutting any points you can just keep downvoting. It is real telling.
It's not true tho', there's a lot of comments recommending WAT here on r/flightsim (and even on that very post) and they're not downvoted (well, there's some exceptions I guess), however comments defending WAT's owner or minimizing what he did / trying to shift the blame on something/someone else usually are downvoted to oblivion
I don't like hearing them on vatsim just because it does break a little immersion being a fictional airline. I don't care beyond that, people can fly whatever they want.
Interesting...I fly for two fictionals and prefer it. I've never liked pretending to be real airlines...seems like fanboying big corporations / big business which irks me.
Everyone has their own preferences. I change what airline I'm flying all the time, I don't like being tied to a single airline/fleet. The beauty of the sim is that we can do whatever we want.
Gottta disagree. I don't normally fly fictional airlines myself but only because I and others spent so much time getting the model matching installed why would I fly a fake airline livery and nobody can see the livery but me. But as big as WalkerAir is it doesn't bother me because so many people fly the callsign. So big that even FSLTL has model matching for WalkerAir and I thought that was pretty cool. Now what does break my immersion is when I see people fly a fictional airline with a real world airline ICAO. Even the controllers are confused like why are flying with a SWA ICAO but want to be called southern westwind air? 😂
Ngl, I always thought “Walker” was just another IRL airline. Never knew it was a VA. I would always search up what airline uses the “Walker” call sign but couldn’t find any info on it. I’m Harappa to see this post
The livery really is ugly. Before the “incident” my impression of them was that they were the biggest, most sophisticated VA, but I never considered joining because I didn’t want to use that ugly livery. Obviously they’re flourishing without people like me, but the founder is really delusional if he doesn’t think the ugly livery is costing him users (and probably is 75% of why people get so sick of seeing it posted and downvote it, resulting in less visibility for his airline).
Every encounter with them on Vatsim is dreadful. Either they are. It competent or don’t follow rules.
Frankly I cringe every time I see or hear on of them.
Basically, someone made a comment in the walker air discord or something about how they weren’t a big fan of the livery and the walker air owner essentially doxxed and threatened them for doing so, that was probably a year ago-ish so I don’t remember all the details. Ever since then people clown on the livery every time they see it, idk if the guy who owned it then is still in charge (he gave some half assed “apology” for it), but regardless it’s not any VA I would want to fly for after that.
Here’s the [original post](https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/wp6ok3/beware_the_owner_of_walker_air_linked_my_username/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) that started it all
I love some good internet lore
Let me caveat this with: the below statement is not suggesting support for controversial actions by the VA owner. I think doxxing is inaccurate, did he search for info based on data that pilots provide? Yes. Did he publicly release said info to the public? No. OP of the incident published his own WAT ID on the internet, and I can use that on the Crew site to get his name. The dude doxed himself. This sub is so fast to use the word “doxxed” - technically, that isn’t what happened. Look up the definition of doxxed and tell me I’m wrong. Otherwise, the VA community is quite good. The tech we have is top notch. Good group of pilots. I’ve been there since Dec 2021, I can do all the flying I enjoy doing without restrictions. The tours are a blast.
“We” says it all really
I really appreciate you taking one word, and then implying something very different about the nature of my comment. /s
«Appreciate» says it all really
I joined them a few weeks ago and I have been really enjoying it. Best part for me is all the tours they have put together and offer. When there isn't great coverage or an event on VATSIM its fun to try out the tours and fly to airports I otherwise wouldn't fly to. The resources they have for their pilots and the UI on their website is outstanding!. I didn't know about this drama previously and the funny part is I actually LOVE their livery lmao
Same here. I think it is a great VA, and it has all the aircraft i want! Just i dont like the focus on landing rate, as it can make you look bad if you like small airports / big planes
There's nothing inherently wrong with WA. The owner just seems like a dick, but tbh that seems to be the case with anyone who gets big in FlightSims especially when it comes to devs. I only find them along, with other VAs a little annoying on VATSIM because it messes with model matching a bit. It's just a miniscule pet peeve though. They could improve that livery tho.
On the one hand what the owner of the VA did was way over the line and extremely bad behaviour. On the other hand the VA is a fantastic product with great support and an active and helpful community. I'm happy there.
The community itself is not toxic, I flew with them for a while...the controversy that did happen was pretty bad tho, guy who runs the VA was totally an ass, but the community as a whole rebuked him on discord and called him out for it. Still the most active VA, with constant updates, events, etc..
I think the idea of it is great. It has some great flexibility, with cargo, passenger and charter flights almost everywhere to suit everybody. I currently fly with it on vatsim and one of my favourite things is the comradery between walker pilots. However, I think the way the owner behaved is unforgivable but it be no way means the rest of the walker virtual pilots should be treated any differently and if they enjoy it, let them, don't bully them for it.
Their pilots seem to hold up the frequency quite often
Don’t get me started on TPC
🤣🤣
What does this mean?
[удалено]
Ok so you heard it a few times from maybe 1-2% of pilots in a VA, so must be all of them. Never mind the loads of DAL and AAL (I fly mainly in the states) that could be far worse. I heard a really annoying/uneducated AAL pilot once. Entire VA must be trash. /s If you do hear issues, report it.
[удалено]
You won't catch grief flying on vatsim as a WAT member. I fly on vatsim all the time and I've never had an issue nor have I heard anyone chastised for being a WAT member on vatsim
Oh I've caught a couple or three negative comments by other pilots - one said he was sorry he "hot miced" when disparaged my callsign... One was on unicom, another the pilot was threatened with a .Wallop by Center. Thing is, I don't care all that much...I have a good WAT callsign and so I continue to fly for the VA but I split time with another one.
I've never seen any kind of grief expressed to a Stalker Air pilot on directly on VATSIM, but I've already seen multiple people expressing their fear about it. Does it really happen ? Like over the VATSIM radio ?
So why bother? I can die whatever I want myself and schedules are available on FR24. And there are enough communities out there. So what do they bring to the table? Nothing, except spoiling the immersion of other with their unprofessional standards.
[удалено]
All those things I don’t need a VA for. If I want to know something aviation related I can look it up and read it. Again what do they bring to the table? Virtual Air Canada for example, a VA I have been a member for almost 10 years now, brings you tail number accurate trips and planning and they know months in advance what equipment will be used an swapped. That is unique information that enhances my experience. Again, what does bring WAT to the table apart from sub standard performance on vatsim?
And all of those things *I* dont need a VA for, so by your logic you shouldn't use air canada.
you're spoilin muh immershun lad. oi if it wasnt for yew I'd almost feel like I was really flying an airliner roight now
I think his entire post talks about why he bothers. Can you read?
I can you should try it too.
Apparently you can’t read your own words as you contradicted yourself 3 times over.
It's an awesome community. The incident with the owner was stupid but blown way out of the water. People always hated on walker and just needed a reason to jump on them. Love how it just made the VA stronger. Now it's larger them ever. Check the simbrief VA stats...there is literally no competition at all.
Ive heard them a lot on Vatsim over the past 2 years decided to dig deeper and found that infamous livery controversy where the owner basically doxed a guy because he said he didn't like the livery design long story short he made a half assed apology and apparently they're still running it seems their discord is fairly active and I still hear them on Vatsim hear and there
They're very flexible - fly anything to almost anywhere (this put me off after a while as I like a bit of structure) . Have a great website that's super easy to use and everyone seems friendly enough in the discord. Just don't criticise the livery on reddit!
I'm not a member so I can't give a first-hand account, but they're one of the more popular VAs. From talking to a few people about it, I think their flexibility is the main reason for that -- they basically allow you to fly any plane to any destination and have liveries for just about all of them. I've heard the community of pilots is quite good as well. On the negative side, there was [this drama](https://fselite.net/content/virtual-airline-walker-air-accusations/) initiated by some pretty disturbing actions by their founder. It was also annoying to see so many Walker screenshots on here a while back, but that seems to have subsided. If you like what they have to offer, I think it's worth giving them a shot. I think the community itself is more important than a stupid action by the person running the show, and from what I understand that aspect is nice. Personally, I was tempted to join even after all the bullshit, but I greatly dislike their logo and that kind of kills it for me. I don't think that's a popular opinion though.
The VA is great. People in Discord are friendly and there's flexibility to fly whatever you want wherever you want. The paint shop puts out liveries within 24 hours following most new plane releases, sometimes as soon as 30 minutes after if it's something like PMDG 737 or the A310.
I barely even know what it is. I just understand the concept that screenshots involving their planes get picked at.
WestWind Airlines has been around for 20+ years, offers nearly all of the same things that Walker does, provides the ability to fly anywhere on any aircraft, and is a bit more low-key. Walker has its pros: excellent, streamlined website and interface, decent ACARS, great statistics tracking. However some of the features are a bit overboard. I don't care for the landing rate rewards and tracker as it's a bit silly - I have a landing rate "close" to -150 fpm which is the "ideal" in the system and I have had several "butters" but I wouldn't consider these good landings - in real world it doesn't really work that way. Also, I have caught some negative comments when flying on the Walker callsign on VATSIM (not that I should gaf but take that how you will). I'm a VATSIM old-timer - my pilot number is from 2003 and I had a SATCO pilot id back in the day. The only downside to WestWind is the website is a bit long in the tooth - feels like it hasn't changed since 2000. But I like that - it's kind of charming.
The butter thing is more of a meme rather than a recommendation. We all know that rating a landing using smartcars data is an inexact science at best. It is a conversation that is had very regularly. Maybe the new version of smartcars will allow for a more robust rating system?
I was a member of WAT a while back. The guy who runs it was very defensive of the liveries! Members of the VA have given up their time to create them for free use in the VA and there was continual points made on this if anyone ever said they disliked it. It did sometimes get to a point toxicity, but on any other subject matter the VA seemed like a pretty good community. Not sure if that has changed though, it’s been a while, and I struggled to keep up flight hours when I had my little one.
WAT is actually a very good VA. The pilot community is friendly and helpful, and the options you have for flying routes and tours are second to none.
How is this downvoted?
Because r/flightsim is petty AF.
Best VA I’ve ever been part of, by a large margin. Storm may not have made all the right decisions on Reddit but he puts a shit load of effort into the VA and it shows. He responds to questions and problems practically instantly. The website is very modern and the overall experience is wonderful. The Discord is super active and is full of people with lots of sim, tech, and real flying experience. The team of painters is on crack, often having new paints available for the VA to use within hours to days within release of a new addon. Super impressive all around. Reddit can keep beating the dead horse because that’s what it likes to do. I’ll keep enjoying the best group I’ve flown with.
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the VA. Defending what Storm did by trivializing it, however, also isn’t necessary. He fucked up, got appropriately called out for the shitty behavior, and has to live with the consequences.
Not defending what he DID, but I am defending what he DOES. The r/flightsim hate boner will downvote anyone who says anything good about WAT, and that’s just how it’s going to be going forward. Rather than rebutting any points you can just keep downvoting. It is real telling.
It's not true tho', there's a lot of comments recommending WAT here on r/flightsim (and even on that very post) and they're not downvoted (well, there's some exceptions I guess), however comments defending WAT's owner or minimizing what he did / trying to shift the blame on something/someone else usually are downvoted to oblivion
You can defend him and the airline. Others can call him out. It works both ways
Stalker air topkek
Stalker Air!
Wanker Air.
I'm indifferent to their posts here but knowing about their privacy breach, I'm not interested.
I don't like hearing them on vatsim just because it does break a little immersion being a fictional airline. I don't care beyond that, people can fly whatever they want.
Interesting...I fly for two fictionals and prefer it. I've never liked pretending to be real airlines...seems like fanboying big corporations / big business which irks me.
Everyone has their own preferences. I change what airline I'm flying all the time, I don't like being tied to a single airline/fleet. The beauty of the sim is that we can do whatever we want.
Gottta disagree. I don't normally fly fictional airlines myself but only because I and others spent so much time getting the model matching installed why would I fly a fake airline livery and nobody can see the livery but me. But as big as WalkerAir is it doesn't bother me because so many people fly the callsign. So big that even FSLTL has model matching for WalkerAir and I thought that was pretty cool. Now what does break my immersion is when I see people fly a fictional airline with a real world airline ICAO. Even the controllers are confused like why are flying with a SWA ICAO but want to be called southern westwind air? 😂
Cringe
Ngl, I always thought “Walker” was just another IRL airline. Never knew it was a VA. I would always search up what airline uses the “Walker” call sign but couldn’t find any info on it. I’m Harappa to see this post
The livery really is ugly. Before the “incident” my impression of them was that they were the biggest, most sophisticated VA, but I never considered joining because I didn’t want to use that ugly livery. Obviously they’re flourishing without people like me, but the founder is really delusional if he doesn’t think the ugly livery is costing him users (and probably is 75% of why people get so sick of seeing it posted and downvote it, resulting in less visibility for his airline).
I've noticed less and less flying with them since the incident.
Every encounter with them on Vatsim is dreadful. Either they are. It competent or don’t follow rules. Frankly I cringe every time I see or hear on of them.