Well, there are the saturday and sunday tours (California and South America) which are always fun. Keep checking this part of the forum for more news and info on that. Then there is an airshow every now and then. And I'm on a few times a week just to avoid annoying AI and ATC.....

Crash

One of the big issues on an international forum and flight server is that time difference that Fozzer mentions.  Whjat is late in the evening for those in England is in the middle of the afternoon for those on the east coast of the USA.  And noon here in New Hampshire is 1 AM in Tokyo.

Then you have the GA crowd and the metal cigar crowd.  The two don;t mix very well when trying to fly as a group with friends.  Although they can coexist on the server.....just as they do in real life.

But the lack of active ATC is a problem for IFR flight and the metal cigar folks.

All in all... I think the SimV server is very underutilized.

Maybe those of us that like to fly online can "prosthelitize" (via PM... not hawking it in the general forum sections) a bit with our forum friends to join in the fun.

Of course were a re back to my "Teamspeak" pet peeve here too.     Sorry Fozzer.

best,

.....................john

OK>.. so I spelled it totally wrong!     

pros·e·lyt·ize   /ˈprɒsəlɪˌtaɪz/ Pronunciation Key -[pros-uh-li-tahyz] 
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object), -ized, -iz·ing. to convert or attempt to convert as a proselyte; recruit. 

Also, especially British, pros·e·lyt·ise.

Its a funny old do...

When one considers the number of Flight Sim users there are, both here and on other sites, its surprising how few of them actually join in in Multiplayer flights each day!

I can only assume that they rarely use the Sim for actual "flying", instead they spend the time designing, modifying, taking screen shots, photographing, building hi-tech computers, Sim pits....
....Cooking?... ... ... ... etc, etc... ...!

..or else they just fly off-line, Solo each time.... ...!

I browse around a number of my usual FS Sites each day, and find there are very few, if any, flight simmers involved in Multiplayer activity....

..and certainly NO FSX Flyers!

I think it has always been the same. I have been using Multiplayer for up to 10 years now, and not much has changed, apart from it being much simpler to connect to Multiplayer now... ...!

The same thing probably applies to "Fighting/Racing, etc, Games", few of them actually play "On Line"... ...?

How many Folks regularly use the various "Virtual Airlines" Sites for Multiplayer activities, I don't know?

The regular Week-end Tours on the Sim V Server are well supported by the Members, but the same sort of enthusiastic activity rarely appears on other FS Sites, I notice......!

I always enjoy someone joining me for a General Aviation Multiplayer tour/flying practice/navigation practice, etc, during the day, when I am on line... ...!

Its a lot of fun, well worth trying out, and an excellent place to find a "Flight School" for a bit of overall assistance!.. ...!

Paul....G-BPLF....FS 2004, FS Nav..and a big bag of Sweets... ...!

P.S. Its still surprising that very few of the Multiplayer Chums I join with on-line, here and on other Sites, actually use J.B's preferred "Teamspeak" method of communication... ...
..the majority of them still seem happy to pop in, and use the old "Chat Window" method...(with all its faults!)... ...!
I've got all the necessary equipment (headset, sound card, etc) to use Teamspeak, but I just cant be bothered to set it all up at a moments notice, when I wish to connect/join instantly, and get going!... ...!

You know Foz, i think a big part of those pilots visit the bigger networks to fly in like IVAO and VATSIM, since they also have VFR tours and alike.

It is true, VATSIM and IVAO are VERY busy places for multiplayer.  Stop by the main VATSIM webpage and check out the flight map......... typically literally HUNDREDS of flights at any given time...... and usually at least 100 controllers active.

Fozzer, you could fly VFR there....... but you'd have to do it literally by all the real world VFR rules, and you'd pretty much have to communicate via "radio"..... voice.  They do make allowances for those without voice capabilities..... but probably 90% use voice.

The main "problem" with VATSIM (if it is a problem) is that if you want to fly a "metal cigar", you'd better be up to real world procedures and be able to really FLY that crate.  You frequently need to use SIDs and STARS and such, and certainly be ready for stuff like holding patterns and following "going missed" procedures.  You could end up having to fly a DME arc.

All in all........ a fascinating place.... but not really for the "casual" flyer.

Fozzer, not sure why it is so hard for you to "set up" Teamspeak.  Can you explain?  I'm seriously curious.  On my setup I simply click on the TS icon, pull down to the server I want to connect to, and click on that item.... bingo... connected.  At the most, you'd have to plug in the set of headphones/mike if you don't leave it connected.  And if you don;t use the mike function for other stuff....... you can just leave that connected even if you unplug the phones so that you can use speakers.  You can even get a program called TComSet that causes your Teamspeak setup to change "channels" as you tune your Comm 2 radio frequencies.



best,

.....................john

Well, hopefully one of these weekends in the future I can join you guys for a nice little VFR flight. This upcoming weekend isn't looking good right now for being able to fly mid-day eastern US time, but maybe the weekend after that, so the Europeans can join in.
(I need to do some virtual Russian/Eastern bloc small plane shopping to see what I should use...)