[CCIP]

It's been really good! It varies from airline to airline obviously, and I've only been a member of one, but it's been a great experience all around. The only mandatory requirement is flying at least once per month, and the booking system for flights is very flexible (at least once you have enough of a rank to have access to all the equipment and routes). The community is good - I wish it were a little more active sometimes, but there's enough to keep me occupied. There's quite an age spread and even simming style spread between people, but there's always people who are similar enough in interests to interact with.

In my VA the main parameters are that you file your flights (with one of a couple of methods) to prove you followed realistic procedure, including routes and performance. All reports filed are reviewed by actual human staff and approved/rejected. There's some pretty clear-cut rules for rejections, but they're not too harsh. The main tracking method is the VA's own ACARS app, which is basically a chat + flight tracker. It actually gives some really nice feedback.

I know some VAs are more strict and demanding, but most are not. There's a lot of fairly casual flyers in mine, but all in all there's a really nice professional sort of atmosphere to it. There's also a lot of flexibility for difficulty - and even I sometimes fly really complex payware planes, and sometimes just slightly spruced-up freeware with basic systems. Some people only fly on VATSIM (and bug others to join them constantly), others don't even use the default FS ATC and just fly silent (I mostly fly offline with RadarContact). The only goal is that your final flight log proves that your flight went mostly like the real thing.

It's definitely done two things to my virtual flying - first it made me fly a lot more than I used to, and secondly it significantly improved a bunch of my flying skills and knowledge thanks to advice that I got there. It's not a good place to get basic tutorials on IFR flying by any means, but once you're at a certain level, I think being in a VA is probably the best way to improve your flying.