The AVSIM FANCONS have been an annual event for a number of years, starting in 2002, with a large break taken from 2009 until 2013, when we did the FANCON in conjunction with Cockpit Fest at the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita in April. In-between we held a couple of social gatherings at our annual Board of Director's meetings in Chicago, Washington D.C., etc. Many of you have attended the FANCONS and our "socials" and we hope you enjoyed them.

It has always been a puzzle to me, frankly. Gatherings of simulation enthusiasts in Europe draw hundreds, if not thousands, of attendees and exhibitors number in the dozens. AVSIM FANCONS, with rare exception, drew hundreds of attendees (at most), and a handful of intrepid exhibitors. I can accept that maybe we were not doing something right; advertising, price, location, whatever. However, having experimented with locales as diverse as San Diego, Washington D.C., Seattle, Wichita, and so on, geography did not seem to make a difference. Cost of admission didn't seem to make a difference. Whatever the reason, U.S. based flight sim enthusiasts just didn't seem to want to attend in numbers that made holding a FANCON worthwhile, for either our exhibitors or AVSIM.

Given the small level of interest (relatively speaking) in the U.S., the cost to put on a FANCON, and the state of the economy, I don't see AVSIM doing a FANCON this year. In fact, I don't foresee another AVSIM FANCON happening again, at all. We are open to suggestions and insight about how to change this around.