AVSIM Special Feature AVSIM 2002 Conference & Exhibition Highlights by The AVSIM Staff September 20, 2002

Photo by Marty Arant

The location couldn't have been more beautiful! Lake Tahoe is a little hard to reach—though certainly the effort proved to be worth it to experience Friday's events at the Reno National Air Races—but for those who couldn't join us we hope this article will convey some of the comradery and excitement we enjoyed. Though the opportunity to meet and talk 'simming' proved to be the best part, we'll take you on a 'virtual tour' of the great exhibits, share highlights of the many excellent presentations, and some great moments during this past Friday and Saturday.

A couple of European Simmers who flew in all the way from Norway and Netherlands Please click on all images for full size display

While most attendees were West Coast residents, many came across the U.S. and from afar. Among them from Europe were Richard Goldstein, London, UK; Andrea De Luca, Varese, Italy; Wolfgang Schwarz, Wang, Germany; and Gert van der Winden, Amsterdam, Holland; and others as well. AVSIM staffers who made the trip over the pond were Matt Johnson, Essex UK; Miro Majcen, Ljubljana, Slovenia, EU; and Aidi Williams, Hereford UK. And several exhibitors came from around the world, including Alex Ford, Cambridgeshire, UK (JustFlight); Mathijs Kok, Amsterdam, Holland (LAGO Online); Andrew McLean, Sydney, Australia (Aerosoft-Australia); and Curt Roth, The Netherlands (The Real Cockpit).

AVSIM Goes to the Reno Air Races

On Friday morning, September 13, some 85 of the AVSIM Conference & Exhibition attendees traveled on the AVSIM charter buses from the Horizon Hotel and Casino in South Lake Tahoe, over to Stead Airport to attend the Reno National Air Races. For an account of the day's events see Steve "Bearracing" Cartwright's illustrated article here.

Social Events

To get everyone in the mood JustFlight sponsored a "Social" to kick off things Friday evening. There's no question this will be a 'staple' in future AVSIM conferences!

Everyone was hungry after a day at the races

Alex Ford, JustFLight and Marty Arant, VMAX and AVSIM during "guess what I'm drinking' game"

Hard working AVSIM Staff couple Kathryn and Robert Whitwell enjoying the cocktail party

There were some terrific hardware and software package prizes many attendees took home with them! Some were handed out at the Social event Friday evening, and many more at our Awards Dinner Saturday – including the Microsoft/AVSIM 'Ride to Reno' reimbursing conference and travel expenses to Rick Brhely of Davis, California. Also Saturday we had six finalists compete for GoFlight's/Precision Flight Control's spectacular award. A crowded room of attendees witnessed the Tahoe Landing contest, where each finalist flew their approach projected on a large screen—after an exciting round with very close results Alex Christoff won the event.

Microsoft's Ken Laver-ing after he recieved his copy of PSS A320 package during the Friday Social prize draw

Richard Harvey with a copy of ATC Simulator; behind him you can see Dave Whittington and his wife together with Sue Johnson, mother of AVSIM's Matt Johnson

AVSIM's sunburned Miro Majcen handing over the big prize donated by CH Products

Kathryn Whitwell draws winning tickets as Bob Kirkland announces their names

We handed over the big prize draw (if you happened to be from Europe or Australia <G>) to a woman's hand to get it right—winner Rick Brhely only had to get here from nearby Davis, California!

Marty Arant oversees ambitious pilots hoping to qualify for the "Tahoe Landing" contest (Photo by Mark Roberts)

Captain Tom Otterbein (Ret.) explains the finer points of carrier landings

Our keynote speaker Captain Tom Otterbein (Ret.), former commanding officer of the U.S. Navy's Top Gun school and C.O. of the U.S.S. Truman (CVN-75), recounted carrier operations, citing the evolution of catapults, the mechanics of arrestor cables, and what it's like to fly from a carrier deck. Notable was his remark that "Considering the explosive force of the earlier catapults, pilots were instructed simply 'After launch—once you regain consciousness—raise your landing gear!'"

Tom Allensworth welcomes simmers to the Annual Awards Banquet

All will agree that the highlight of the Awards Dinner was Tom Allensworth's special tribute to Rich Harvey and to Peter Dowson who were recognized for their "Lifetime Achievement" in flight simulation; please see their citations here and here. And we were especially pleased to announce the Rich Harvey Scholarship, a scholarship in honor of Rich to be established with Embry Riddle Flight Academy for aspiring pilots.

Rich Harvey learns of selection for Lifetime Achievement

Tom presents Lifetime Achievement Plaque to Rich

Tom announces Rich Harvey Scholarship

The banquet was well attended; all agreed the Chef's dinner was excellent!

Staffers and distinguished guests – left to right: Alex Ford – JustFlight, Doyle Nickless - GoFlight, Maury Pratt, Tara and Rich Harvey - TRI, Tom Allensworth, Capt. Tom Otterbein - keynote speaker, Carl Norman - Ubisoft, and Ken Levering – Microsoft.

Another view of the banquet hall

As if that weren't enough, Maury Pratt and Steve Cartwright presented Avsim's 2002 'Bravo Zulu' plaques for the truly outstanding contributions of new simulators and related hardware, aircraft, panel, scenery, and add-on utilities we've reviewed this past year. To see what AVSIM Online's Editors judge to be the best from both freeware and commercial product (including shareware) publishers and developers, please see AVSIM 2002 Bravo Zulu Awards.

Maury Pratt was more than pleased to announce this year's Bravo Zulu winners!

Steve Cartwright presents award for Flight Simulator 2002 to Microsoft's Ken Lavering

Steve Cartwright congratulates Bob Kirkland receiving Phoenix Simulation Systems BZ award on behalf of Graham Waterfield; JustFlight's Alex Ford joins in (they're retail sellers of PSS boxed products)

The Exhibition

Remember the first time your parents took you into a toy store—or maybe just the last time you walked into a computer store—well multiply that by about a factor of ten and you will get the amazing display of flight sim items on exhibition at the AVSIM Conference. we saw a few simmers almost pull themselves apart trying to decide whether to stay and play with all the new toys or head next door for the phenomenal presentations.

Though there is nothing like having been there, we know some of you just could not make the trip. But that is not reason for you not to get a sample of what was offered. So while it would take me a week to detail all of the great products and spokesmen for the exhibitors, we can give you a quick walking tour of the room and its highlights!

CH Products had a crowd-pleasing display (Photo courtesy of Jim Rhoads)

As you entered through the double doors, you were immediately drawn to the left and the beautiful display by CH Products. With two full setups highlighting the wonderful combination of control products offered by this flight sim legend, it was possible to test for yourself both a general aviation setup with yoke, throttle and pedals and the fighter equivalent with a couple of different sticks. It is hard not to be impressed with the ability of all the products to function together as a package. You can eliminate many of those annoying key combinations with all of the programmable buttons. In fact, look for an in-depth AVSIM review of the CH Products packages in coming weeks.

Continuing on to the left from there brought you to the Computer Pilot magazine table and a free copy of this now monthly offering. Computer pilot has now brought simmers that elusive monthly print outlet most have long sought. With comprehensive coverage of the flight sim community, it is just the ticket for those times when you can't get to the computer but want to keep up on what is happening in the community.

As we continue to circle the room, we come to the Razors Edge Software booth and their super AirPlan add-on. Originally designed for real world pilots, AirPlan brings complete moving map coverage of the world, point-and-click flight planning, a built-in logbook, the ability to add sectional chart coverage and much more. With another major upgrade in the works, this is one add-on which will likely make the jump from real world flight to flight simulation with no problems. The crowd around the booth checking out the dual monitor setup sure seemed impressed.

Here's a crowd watching the new CFS3 demo being displayed; notice keynote speaker Capt. Tom Otterbein on far left overseeing the flight :)

Next up was flight simulation giant Microsoft and a chance to get your hands on both FS2002 and the much anticipated Combat Flight Simulator 3. It was the latter that seemed to draw most of the attention and for good reason. From stunning graphics to a new dynamic mission generator, CF3 looks like it will once again push the limits in combat sim design. Slated for a release later this year, you can be sure AVSIM will have a crack review team in place to bring you the full assessment of this new platform.

UbiSoft previews LOMAC! (Photo courtesy of Tim Suckow)

But right next door was UbiSoft and their IL-2 Sturmovik, winner of the 2002 AVSIM Bravo Zulu award for Commercial Combat Simulation. And while the stunning graphics and playability of the IL-2 were a hot topic of discussion at the table, it was the highly anticipated Lockon: Modern Air Combat (LOMAC), which captured the biggest crowd. Even though it is not set for release until Spring of 2003, it is already easy to see what all the hype has been about.

The AVSIM Store features GoFlight's equipment stack, including radios, landing gear lever, and the just-announced Autopilot module (Photo by Mark Roberts)

As we round the corner for the home stretch, things just keep getting better and better. First, there was a table with a couple of stellar AVSIM Store offerings. Catching your eye first had to be the new massive console from GoFlight featuring the entire line of modules, including the new Autopilot module. Both are slated for release in coming weeks and will really round out any simmers setup. Why hit all those keyboard combinations when you can use the real buttons and switches!

Here's the AVSIM Store booth set up to demonstrate the Lake Tahoe Approach using incredible scenery Andrew McLean brought along; note the TrackIR GX camera positioned atop the monitor (Photo by Mark Roberts)

Also drawing a crowd and a few giggles was the NaturalPoint TrackIR GX hands-free game controller. The giggles came from those who saw users stand up from the monitor with a small silver dot on their forehead. But those giggles turned to nothing but smiles once visitors saw what this product offers. Using a small transmitter mounted on the monitor, the device is able to track your head movements and move FS2002's virtual cockpit just as if you were in the captain's seat.

Flight 1's booth featured a variety of great products. (Photo courtesy of Jim Rhoads)

Then came the Flight1 table and demonstrations of the myriad of titles this sim distributor has to offer. From the new Greatest Airplanes: Archer for FS2002 to Sabre vs. Mig for Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2, there was something for just about any taste. There were quite a few attendees who spent a bit of time looking through the selection on display. And that is just a drop in the bucket of what this group has to offer.

Completing the circle was long-time flight sim publisher Abacus. This is another of those developers with just too much to cover. From the design genius of Flight Simulator Design Studio, soon to be upgraded, to the fabulous entry products such as EZ-VFR, Co-Pilot and EZ-Landmarks, Abacus has long been an industry leader. One of the popular products seemed to be the soon to be released Visual Aircraft and Scenery Studio. Designed to integrate with FSDS, this texturing and colorizing tool will likely be a must have.

We hope this quick tour has given those unable to attend the conference at least a taste of what is available now and coming down the road for today's aviation simulation enthusiasts. It is hard to go wrong by choosing products from any of the conference exhibitors. And if you still have any questions, rest assured an AVSIM review will likely be in the offing for all those new products mentioned.

The Presentations

We had an enjoyable and informative day of presentations and demonstrations Saturday, including lively audience participation along with the opportunity to ask questions about some very interesting upcoming products. These presentations covered a fascinating range of topics, not only about not-yet-released products, but also practical experience in building home cockpits, developing scenery, painting aircraft, and two remarkable accounts of FS applications to real-world flight test operations and also military crew training.

Here's the presentation line-up:

Dave Eckert, Abacus	ABACUS FS Design Studio V2
Doug Horton, Consultant	Customizing AI in FS2002
Andrew McLean, Principal, Aerosoft-Australia	How to Interface Switches and Joysticks to FS2002 Using 747 MCP Hardware
David Whittington, Fellow, Boeing Simulation Lab	Professional Use of FS2002 at Boeing
Bryan O'Connor, Consultant	Building a Cockpit in Your Spare Room
Daniel Boulay, Deputy Director VATSIM North America	Home made Cockpit of a Dash8-100
Dr. Robert Richards, Principal Investigator, SHAI	Common Cockpit Helicopter Training
John Dekker, Principal, JDT LLC	Radar Contact 3
Martin Arant, Owner, VMAX	NaturalPoint Game Controller
Ken Lavering, Lead Program Manager, Microsoft Flight Simulators	Microsoft Flight Simulator, Maintaining balance after twenty years; Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002: A behind the scenes view into developing FS 2002
Scott Anderson, Business Development Manager, Microsoft Combat Flight Simulators	Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3
Andrew McLean, Principal, Aerosoft-Australia	Creating Textured Ground Scenery for FS2002 and Fly! Using Free USGS Map Data
Mike Kelley, Owner, Village Video	Quick and Easy Repaints for MSFS Aircraft with Photoshop
Mathijs Kok, Principal, LAGO	"Start Evasive Maneuvers, Pirates 6 o'clock Low!"
Richard Harvey, Principal, Terminal Reality	Fly! II Post-Mortem

Marty shows how it's done! No, that 'dot' on his forehead isn't cosmetic; it's the reflective thingy TrackIR follows to position your view. (Photo courtesy of Jim Rhoads)

The presentations were followed by the AVSIM Store's Martin Arant, who conducted the Tahoe Landing Competition. This was truly a fun event for all as we watched hapless Captains pilot their disabled Boeing 737's to (usually) safe landings in spite of terrain, strong tail winds, and, um, a dead engine and various hydraulics problems. The dreaded moment came for each contestant when Marty, acting as first officer, announced "Left engine out, your plane Captain!" Each finalist did remarkably well (the applicants 'qualified' during morning practice sessions at the AVSIM Store booth); and Alex Christoff of Minneapolis, MN came away with the honors and a fully-configured GoFlight instrument rack and Precision Flight Control's new dual-lever throttle component.

One announced presentation, Robert Randazzo's "How I Went from Simming to Line Pilot" was withdrawn when Robert, Chief Pilot with Atlantic Coast Airlines (who also heads the Precision Manuals Development Group) was called upon to hande a last minute crew substitution. Nevertheless Robert's promised a text copy of his remarks which we'll post.

We're pleased to add that the presenters without exception did a most professional, well prepared and interesting job of conveying a remarkable amount of information in spite of the necessarily compressed time available to them. Congratulations, gentlemen! Please see The AVSIM 2002 Conference Presentations for highlights, photos of presenters and links to the full presentations (where available).

Wrapping it up...

We'd be remiss if we didn't mention the "mixer" held for exhibitors and presenters in our Hospitality suite graciously arranged by the Horizon Hotel and Casino ("refreshments" were provided by Avsim). While not "officially" a part of the Conference, this provided a relaxing (to say the least!) venue for them to get away from it all and for us to assist in making final arrangements. As you'll see in the photos below, this was no chore at all!

AVSIM staff together with Exhibitors and Special Guests in the Hospitality Suite

AVSIM crew, Bob, Rick, James and Chuck having a ball ;-)

Everyone at the bar; bartender-in-chief Mike Putnam did a great job and everyone had a drink, or two...

Tom impressing the ladies with the view ;-)

Evening view from the Hospitality suite

Well, as you can see everyone had a great time, and we very much enjoyed putting all this together. We're already planning the AVSIM 2003 Conference & Exhibition for next year's event and anticipate that to be the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum (MAMM) in Reading PA. When we are able to work out a schedule and the details, we'll report them here. And be assured we're looking at Europe for future conference sites as well!

Avsim staff members attending (Left to right — Tom Allensworth, Miro Majcen, Chuck Boudreaux, Bob Kirkland, Steve 'Bearracing' Cartwright, Rick Rosner, Maury Pratt, Marty Arant; Front row — Matt Johnson, Mike Putnam, Aidi Williams, Mark Roberts, James Webb).

A special thanks goes to our Sponsors and Exhibitors whose financial support made this year's event possible. Bravo Zulu guys and gals!

Photo Credits: Except where otherwise noted, photos were provided by Mike Kelley, who owns and operates Village Video, a company specializing in 3D animation and 2D graphic design.