I visited their website this afternoon. Actually it's a very nice site.... well designed (IMO) and intuitive. However, it's SLOOOOOOWWW. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Avsim's zippy loading of pages. But in between waiting for HoverControl pages to load, I was able to cook and eat my dinner!!!!Is it just me? Does anyone else find their site to be much too slow to be useful? I know I don't have time to wait minutes for each and every page to load and forget about downloading anything. :-eekI'll try again another day........ maybe today was just a bad day. -Lindy :-rotor

I encountered the same thing but the sluggishness is not normal.Who is Keith W. Kennedy ??Calhover long and prosper

Jordan wrote at hovercontrol.com:"Hovercontrol has doubled its membership in 1 day. So needless to say, the traffic is VERY heavy right now, and is causing the overall experience to be very slow. Things should get back to normal as soon as the traffic dies down from the promotions running on the major websites. Thanks for you patience." --> "We are thankful for all of the traffic that we have been recieving from the major sites since yesterday, but so many new visitors are downloading files, that its blocking normal traffic from flowing. We are temporarily disabling the file download/upload capabilities until traffic dies back down to a normal level. Hovercontrol is a non-profit and advertisement free site, so unfortunately our budget for handling unusual traffic bursts is limited. Thanks for your patience, and we welcome all the new members!"

Yes, I saw that notice posted when I went back to the HoverControl site at a later time. It certainly explains things. Looking forward to visiting the site more often.-Lindy :-wave :-rotor

Good question. I am Keith W. Kennedy, and I am a fan of MSFS helicopters that has found a great place to hang out and finally learn to fly these beasts at Hover Control. I started with FS98 and a 4 button joystick thus making chopper flight virtually uncontrollable. Graduated to FS2K2, twist grip joystick, and controlled crashes. Found and joined Hover Control in Sept., studied flight school docs, took a few private lessons from great instructors, and became the third certified pilot with HC. I know my name is a new one to the FS helicopter community, but one I hope will become more familiar in the future. I just wanted to let other chopper enthusiasts know about HC. I started with the choppers just after Keith's Virtual Helipad closed, but have read many posts about what it was and how it was missed. Thus I wanted to let all the rotor heads out there know there was a new place to visit.The HC staff was not expecting the overwhelming response to the promo I posted, but things have at the site are returning to normal. It's good to know there are so many other rotor heads out there, and a group I'm proud to be associated with.

Your "announcment" is nothing more than PR work with typical gross exaggeration. Too bad that isn't all.The very notion that the spirit of Keith's Virtual Helipad lives on at Hover Control is totally absured. That "spirit" died with Keith's website. It's been gone too long, this is another time and these are totally different people with totally different attitudes and totally different objectives.Have a great year, 2003Calhover long and prosper

Some of the people are different, this does happen as folks leave the hobby for various reasons and new ones take up the hobby. Some of the people we have at Hover Control are the very same people that were regulars at Keith's. Now after reading many posts at many different locations let me see if I understand just what everyone was lamenting when the Virtual Helipad closed. 1) A web site dedicated to the helicopter enthusiast; 2) A place that fostered the free exchange of ideas to encourage designers to build helicopters and associated software for MSFS; 3) A place where people were encouraged to ask questions and help answer questions submitted by others if they had releveant information; 4) A place where the helicopter enthusiast could go to learn about new aspects of their hobby, interact with others of like mind; 5) A resource center for enthusiasts and designers; 6) An outlet for designers to display and share their end results with other members of the FS helicopter community; 7) A place that was friendly and you wanted to spend time reading and learning; 8)And yes, the file downloads. Is this what Keith's was, what did I leave out? Was this the "spirit" of Keith's virtual helipad?Hover Control IS a new site, in operation for less than four months, I seriously doubt Keith's gained its reputation and devoted following in such short a time. Do we have Keith, sadly no we don't. He must be a very unique individual with whom I wish I could have interacted. We do have members and staff that were a part of Keith's while it was in operation. We do offer and encourage the free exchange of ideas. We do encourage designers to build new aircraft and associated software dedicated to the FS helicopter. We offer an open and non-judgemental atmosphere for beginners to ask questions and learn. We offer something I don't believe Keith's did in a comprehensive program to teach people to fly the FS helicopters. For some people learning to master something like the FS helicopters brings a sense of reward, and we encourage that. We are trying to post news items to keep chopper enthusiasts informed of new designs and so on. (It does help substantially if individuals such as yourself would contribute rather than say "You're not Keith's" and walk away.)Are we the same people from Keith's, some are some aren't. In life and organizations the individuals change, come and go. Such is life. Are we Keith's Virtual Pad, no we are not, nor do we claim to be. I'm sorry you didn't find the familiar graphics and interface you came to know at Keith's, but HC is the first and only site I have seen to even attempt to give rotor heads a place to go since Keith's closed. And I believe (after chatting with many of Keith's regular visitors) that was the largest part of the "spirit" of Keith's, to give rotor heads a place to go, look around, download, talk, and exchange ideas. In that HC does embody the "spirit" of Keith's. We are new, give us the same chance everyone gave Keith's, come back in a few months for another visit and we may even have expanded the download section to something more in line with what you expected to find. We certainly meant no offense, and I personally apologize because it appears we have offended you.

"and walk away" ??? I beg your pardon. Check with some of these "old friends" you claim from Keith's. They can vouch for the fact I've been an active member of the helo community since it appeared in FS98 and have been quietly putting something back in, continuously, for the past 4 1/2 years and plan on doing so for some time to come. Where were you on April 15, 1998 ??? If you were around Keith's, you'd remember me but apparently you weren't and don't.As for "a place for rotorheads to go", I seem to recall this particular forum was created for precisely that purpose. Will we see a repeat ? Time will tell.Me? Offended? Sorry but you assume too much. I merely stated a fact with (to me) appropriate emphasis.Good luck to you guys, you'll need it.For me.....this thread is closed.Calhover long and prosper

Cal. What's your problem? the guys at Hover Copntrol are at least trying to perform a service and provide an opportunity for other helo fans to interact. I wasn't around for "Keiths" either but I'm glad I found Hover Control. I enjoy the forums, the information I've been given and the help I've received from Jordan and Keith and Paul at Hover Control. To each his own but a new site doesn't really need sour grapes to start out with. give them a break. Ralph B

Hang on Cal and let me check.......Nope, no one said I was just walking away. I do, however, wish you would re-read my posts. It was made perfectly clear that I was not involved in the FS community on April 15, 1998. I began with Flight Simulator in 1982 before M$ bought Sublogic, and the Cessna was the only plane available. Life and my now ex-wife turned my existance upside down, but that's another story. After several years rebuilding my life (which did not allow the time or luxury of a computer) I picked up a copy of FS 98 cheap and discovered the online simm community and the helicopters. I spent the next year and a half or so learning to fly all over again and trying to control my chopper. I am now ready to learn other things like repainting, and maybe try my hand at design. I try to contribute to the community in small ways, especially now that I can fly the choppers without crashing them, by helping newcomers to the hobby with basic chopper skills.I am very glad to hear that you have contributed as well, and I'm sure in a more comprehensive way than I have yet to achieve. But rather than sit here and "compare notes" and "question the veterans of Keith's" maybe you could simply answer my question. If I am as far off base as you obviously think I am, Just what was the "spirit" of Keith's?? And why does it have to be dead just because Keith's is gone? The "spirit" of Keith's only dies if we allow it to. It doesn't have to live only at the virtual helipad, it lives wherever FS helicopter fans carry on the exchange of ideas and the love of flying that Keith himself embodied. That is what I am told, or am I wrong there too? Didn't Keith enjoy flying and encourage everyone that he interacted with to do it and ENJOY the experience? Wasn't he always available to answer questions and offer solutions to the visitors to his site?And don't get me wrong, this forum is great, but it is not a site with downloads, multiple forums and so on. HC is the first such site since Keith's. I am not comparing HC to Keith's, nor (as I clearly stated in the previous post) is HC attempting to be or replace Keith's. It is simply the first place I (and many other members) have seen to offer more than a page for a forum. Will we be a repeat of Keith's, I doubt it. We will be different in certain ways and similar in others. I do believe you have the option to send me an e-mail through the forum here, and I invite you to do so. Maybe we can arrange a time where we can take a flight together, you can tell me about Keith's so I will get the real story, and we can celebrate the spirit of his site by enjoying the flight and afterwards offering up a toast to him.

I had no idea the conversation had gotten so heated over here.My name is Jordan Moore. I own and operate Hovercontrol.comFor those that have said nice things about the site, thank you.I am a Helicopter and Scenery designer, as well as a software developer for other projects related to FS2002. I have enjoyed the sim since it was released (originally), and have been involved with the helicopter aspect of the game for around 3 years now. After F2000 was released, I finally felt that the Helicopter was mature enough to focus on primarily. Helicopters run in my family.I was an avid visitor of Keith's site, and was one of many that would have happily continued operating it if Keith had wished it to be so.I saw something sad happen to the helicopter flight sim community after KVH stopped operating, besides the obvious aspect of losing his services, and a genuinely enjoyable site. I noticed that the development momentum that had started to grow as a direct result of the popularity of his site, begin to fade away. All of us were starting to see less and less new helicopter and helicopter related utilities, repaints, and scenery. During this time I was doing what I could to contribute by releasing many VFR friendly scenery macros, contributing to helicopter friendly VA's and by desiging a Bell UH-1H Huey and a Schweizer 300. I also developed a real-time scenery management system that allowed helicopter friendly VA's to add scenery to a pilot's games as they flew...in real time. After months of work and testing, I gave this software and support to the Virtual U.S. Coast Guard. I also developed their working surface fleet ship designs. All of this was done for free, in an attempt to contribute back to the community and as a way of saying thank you to folks like Ian Standfast, Bill Lyons, Etc.I realised that my own development contributions were not enough, and that the community as a whole was still fading away because there was no place to begin building a focused audience again. Anyone that has searched for new helicopters on the major download sites recently will know what I mean. When I uploaded my Huey, and saw the high number of downloads, as well as the feedback I got through email, I realized the community was still out there, they just had no place to hover (pardon the pun)...ok don't pardon it.Hovercontrol is just my next contribution. I have been running websites and helping other VA's manage their websites for quite some time, so it was only natural. Right now, the site is relatively new, and there are so few developers, that Hovercontrol looks like a self promotional site for my own development. However, it is open to anybody that wants to share their projects with the Helicopter community.I won't get into the details but when you serve files and videos, and other content to a new audience of 2 to 3,000 users a day it becomes very expensive. I'm sure it will die down after a little while, but in the mean time its being payed for. I don't want popups on my site, and I want freeware projects to be what people come looking for.I spent several weeks trying to decide if a training program was a good idea for Hovercontrol. Knowing that the community was a little diminished right now, and that there was already a long-running member of the helicopter community accomplishing a similar service well. Our training program is part of an over all strategy to encourage communication and loyalty between virtual pilots, new and old. That, in then end, was why I decided it should be done, and I am committed to helping it mature and seeing it through. I personally was taught how to fly the sim helicopters one-on-one via the multiplayer servers by a good friend, and wanted to try and foster that environment for others. An open training environment patterned loosely on the real-world training programs gives more experienced members a chance to contribute back, as well as to give purpose to learning more skills. Also, after being a senior member of a very skills oriented (and active) VA, I believed I was in a position to understand the skills VA's are looking for when accepting new members. Multiplayer flight, voice communications, navigation, and ATC procedures are all important aspects of our hobby these days. The more the helicopter community has access to these types of skills and training, the more it benefits the community as a whole.Hovercontrol is free, it has been created by an active member of the community, and its sole purpose it bring the community back together. As well as to increase the development momentum once enjoyed by all of us.I don't think any of us would think that was a bad idea. I hope to see you around the site sometime. I, and the volunteer staff appreciate your visit.JordanOwner, Hovercontrol.com

I just found this old post, and thought it would interesting to look back on...and compare. I guess you could say that if we needed good luck to make it this year, we definitely had good luck...and then some.In the last year we have seen HC grow to almost 2000 registered members, and almost 100,000 user sessions per month (and that doesn't include the forums server). Our main file and video server answers approximately 2-3 Million hits per month, depending on what's going on in the community. In fact by the time I'm done typing this sentence, several hundred requests for files, and content will have been served. In order to deal with the traffic we operate 4 very capable servers distributed in different geographic locations to minimize the impact of a single failure, each handling different portions of the site's capabilities. We have 4 permanent staff, and hundreds of loyal and helpful members to help make sure things run smoothly, and to ensure that new members are given the attention they need to get up to speed in the community.This year, we have also gained a substantial corporate sponsorship from a avation magazine publisher (Vertical Magazine, North America's Helicopter Authority), which has been very exciting. We have also begun to sell HC merchandise through our online store. These accomplishments have helped us defray the very large costs of operating on the scale we do. We continue to offer a 24x7 multiplayer environment, a full time voice over IP capability, and a very customized forum system that caters directly to the helicopter flight simulation community. We also have several new BIG ideas in the pipeline, that are sure to please.Our training progam has continued to progress and succeed, and has helped hundreds of new pilots begin to appreciate the helicopter side of our flight simulation hobby, as well as the more technically challenging aspects of our hobby such as multiplayer and voice-communications.Hovercontrol has formed lasting relationships with several helicopter-related companies now, which continue to provide benefits to the helicopter flight simulation community. Most notably, the release of the Erickson Aircrane. Made possible by the permission and substantial support of Erickson Aircrane Inc. Surely, these types of relationships will continue to bring new avenues of enjoyment and technical breakthroughs to our hobby.Coincidentally, the number of helicopter related development projects, and the number helicopter enthusiasts has significantly increased during past year, and the number of new developers coming on board is once again on the rise. Hovercontrol does take pride in being part of that much needed turn-around, but we also realize that we are just a small part of a bigger picture. We are fully aware that it is the great people involved with our hobby, that make it the wonder that it is. If that same energy was what gave Keith's Virtual Helipad what it was, than that spirit is alive and well, and is continuing to grow.

Wow Jordan, the time really has flown by. I finally signed up with Hovercontrol in january, after using your tutorials to refine my hedlicopter flying. I was originally self taught, but was finally able to hover (with a slight drift) after visiting your site.I never knew Keiths Helipad I had no rudder control in those days so I ignored the helicopters. Now I mostly Fly the helicopters from TheLZ and some opf the Top Quality ones such as the Bell 47, Gazelle, as well as both your Aircrane and Schweizer 300. I still drift around a bit in hover so I'm too intimidated to apply to be a certifyed pilot.Thanks Jordan For everything you have contributed to the hovering aspect of the flight sim comunity

I obviously gave your website another chance. It's even now my default page. I spend all my flight simming time in the helos and truly appreciate the work you and others with HC have contributed to the helicopter sim community. It just wouldn't be the same without ya! -Lindy :-smooch:-rotor

I'm glad you did Lindy, we've been happy to have your visits and posts. And I'm glad we've earned your respect! You'll be one of those users that can say "I Remember when Hovercontrol was still young, and slow...!" Kind of like me, when I was a kid! LOL ok, gotta go.