Hello Chums.... ...!

I have a regular scan through all these various 'VA Sites' posted here (and elsewhere) and during all of my many years of Sim Flying I have never yet come across a VA Site dedicated to the benefit of 'poor' aviators.... ...?

....the 'normal' ones who have paid mega-Bucks to get their (PPL) Licence, with the arse worn out of their trousers, toes poking out of shoes, driving battered Ford Cortinas, who fly peeling paint Cessna 150's, Homebuilts, Microlights, Ultralights, Flex-wings, etc...
....and struggling to pay for their hangar-age, insurance, medicals, aircraft maintenance, CAA/FAA inspections, fuel, etc, etc.....ie; ....Real-Life Aviators!... ...!

All of the Sites appear to be aimed at wannabee, 4-Gold-Band Epaulette Captains, with fancy hats and posh flight cases, driving large, shiny aluminium Commercial, jet-propelled Jumbo 747 passenger buses.... ...!

...or Gung-ho Pilots showing off in their shooting/bombing jets/War-bird piston props...

...or Poser Pilots showing their skills in their Extra aerobatic aircraft....

.....or even WhirlyBird Pilots spinning endlessly around in ever-decreasing circles... ...!!

Nothing for we' low and slow' General Aviation Pilots who enjoy the occasional fly-ins and Club runs to meet up with friends, and maybe a short hop to another County/Country for a spot of shopping, sight-seeing, and back home again... ...!

What we need is a......"General Aviation Flying Club* ".... ....!!

Paul....G-BPLF.... ...!
http://www.aeroclub.co.uk

* ...Abandon hope all ye who expect one of these...any time soon!... ...!

What about Bushflying unlimited?

Hi Paul,

I think a GA flying club won't work. I'll tell you why. There is nothing to do, no goal in flying. Unlike a VA you don't have a fleet and you don't have routes. There are no 'jobs' like on BFU (see them as the routes of the airlinecompany). A good example is (was?) Emma Field Flying Club. You bought Lago's Emma Field, became a member of the Flying Club and then what? There was nothing to do, just a few (if anybody) online. They even never finished the website.

Because that is the biggest problem of a flying club, you have to do it online. You have to be with more than 1 person to have some activity (unlike a VA where you pick a route, fly it offline and post a PIREP). So you need a server where you can host your club 24/7. Then it has to be interesting for people to join, so you constantly need to organise tours or events (unlike a VA that has a few hundred fixed routes).

I could go on for a while but the closest that comes to a 'working' flying club are the tours like they are organised by Jimbo and A1.

Crash

VIRTUAL POKER RUN: Plan a flight with 5 stops, at each stop the host of the event (who only observes -perhaps as ATC) draws a card from a shuffled deck when a player lands... he then tells that player via private message what his card is and records it on a slip of paper, by the time you stop in at the last destination each pilot participating in the match will have five cards, the holder of the winning hand gets a prize of some kind.

FLY IN: virtual spot landing competition. Short field landing competition. Short field takeoff competition.

VIRTUAL LONG HAUL: 2 players in FSX can man the same aircraft, one flies, the other navigates by sectional chart over long distances, trading seats at each fuel stop. perhaps even around the globe?

FERRY PILOT TEAM: Load real world weather - two men team fly one aircraft (FSX feature) - the host of the event assigns them a "ferry flight" to deliver a used airplane to its new owner in a random city. it will be up to the two man crew to plan their flight (NO GPS) gather route and weather information, collect information about fuel stop airports and the destination airport and complete the flight successfully... and BTW - since this is a high time used airplane there is bound to be some sort of malfunction that the two man team will have to deal with properly in order to save the aircraft 

VIRTUAL CIVIL AIR PATROL: (AKA hide and go seek) one player leaves the airport in a cessna 172 and flys out - landing in a field somewhere within 50 nautical miles of the start point. he has 5 minutes to call ready - aircraft labels MUST be turned off... after 5 minutes the rest of the players all loaded up in the maule civil air patrol planes must take off and find the "downed airplane" within one hour. The host of the event can give real life type hints to the Search planes every 15 minutes like "We have a copy of his flight plan from the flight service station... he was heading on a more or less direct route from XXX airport heading 280 degrees to XXX airport" all the way to "phone calls have come in from witnesses about an hour ago saying they saw a low flying aircraft near highway 20 that appeared to be in distress" Take turns being the crasher.

tons of things you can do with multiplayer FSX/ FS2004

FTL992 wrote on May 26^th, 2007 at 1:24pm:


Wow...!

"Stuff" is good...!!
We need more "Stuff"!
Without "Stuff" we would all die...!!

.... ...!

Actually...
It looks like another one of those Sites which encourage, or insist upon, the use of "Teamspeak", which not everyone is keen on using, for various reasons......
...which makes the Sim V Week-end Tours preferable in the majority of cases......!

Paul....going shopping for some more "Stuff".... ...!


P.S. Note that the vast majority of our flights revolve around the use of FS 2004 (FS9)....not FSX!......!