Well, my demo computer did not survive the trip, but we MAAM-SIM types did, somewhat the worse for wear, as you may have seen from that picture I posted earlier. *:-* *:-* *:-* *:-* *:-*IMHO, the 2003 AVSIM Conference and Exhibition at the Mid Atlantic Air Museum could not have gone better. The culmination at the awards banquet at the Inn at Reading, on the other hand, was marred, nay, nearly drowned out, by the loudest wedding reception on human record! It sounded more like a football riot on the other side of the moveable partition and the keynote speaker, Captain Walsh of UAL, competed manfully with it, demonstrating coolness under fire. I only wished that we had brought along the big subwoofer so we could have planted it against the wall and given them a dose of BT's powerplants at full song to compete with the damned Macarena! Put the Inn at Reading on your avoid at all cost list and stay elsewhere when in the Reading area.To happier news... Briefing Time was awarded "Honorable Mention" (I prefer the term Silver Medallist, myself) in the Commercial Aircraft category of the Bravo Zulu Awards, behind Vmax's "Ready For Pushback". We are most grateful to our good friends here at AVSIM for the honor and, considering the fact that our team consists of all volunteer developers and that none of the profits are plowed back into the team or its resources, I think that's pretty darned good, indeed! Admittedly, we can't be considered in the Freeware category, because even though we don't take any money, you folks have to pay. So unless a special category comes along to fit our situation more closely, we'll be happy to take our chances with commercial flight sim companies, both large and small....and wouldn't it be great if there were enough other teams doing the same sort of thing - benefitting and supporting good causes with their art and craft - that such a "non-profit payware" category would be well populated?OK, I'm off the soapbox, mates. :-)Speaking for the Mid Atlantic Air Museum, we thorougly enjoyed hosting the event, and the only sad thing is that it will probably not be repeated, in the interest of variety and fair play to other parts of the country and world. We would love to have an annual FS show at MAAM. In lieu of that, MAAM-SIM will continue to do our thing at MAAM's big World War II Weekend every June, and we hope that simmers will flock to it and say hello. Those who joined the museum this weekend in hopes of a seat on BT in the Low Level Lottery will even get free admission to the show. :-)The Low Level Lottery, despite the threat of a fast advancing weather front, was a smashing success, both for MAAM who now has a bunch of new members, and certainly for the four winners who were treated to a great flight in "Briefing Time' by MAAM President and Chief Pilot, Russ Strine. For the rest of the day and night, the new B-25J crew members were easy to spot among their fellow convention goers by the big, goofy grins permanently plastered on their faces! As BT taxied back to the ramp and stopped, the four winners deplaned and, engines still running, were replaced by Bill Womack, Time Westnutt, Keith Maton, and Ian Pearson (no room for me - but been there, done that, got the T-shirt) for a long, thrilling thank-you flight to MAAM-SIM which left at least one of them (name withheld to protect the nauseous) a bit green about the gills, but pleased. :-)The AVSIM Fly-Off was a landing competition in the 2004 (preliminary patch) Briefing Time in the real weather as Isabel passed KRDG. To say it was a challenge, performed on a massive projected screen in front of a crowd of other simmers at the banquet site, is putting it mildly!! I was pleased to judge the finals, along with Steve "Bear Racing" Cartright and Doug Horton. Marty Arant had them set up for the final approach very high above the VASI slope, so it was virtually impossible to drop altitude without busting flap and gear speed restrictions. In fact, having tried it later, I don't think it can be done under the conditions. In the end, all five finalists did exceed the limits, and one made a 300 mph short final under full throttle! I guess he thought there were points awarded for shortest elapsed time to crash on the runway.;-) Here's a secret from the judges panel... if any of the contestants had circled to drop altitude, or, better yet, slipped to do it, he would have won hands down.We met a lot of great folks, learned a good deal, put a lot of faces to names we had long known, won some super prizes, made some good corporate contacts for future help for MAAM, did severe damage to the Berks County supply of beef and ribs, and drained a fair amount of various libations. A good time was had by all. I invite my fellow conference goers, both MAAM-SIM and otherwise, to post some of their exhibition photos below. I'm afraid that I took very few, myself, being absorbed by other things, but I've seen some beautiful shots on laptops and would like to see them again, here.Hope to see everyone at MAAM in June, and at the 2004 Conference and Exhibition, wherever that is, next fall.Bill Rambow MAAM-SIM - Rambow, Visser, Banting, Young, Womack, and Hamblyhttp://www.fssupport.com/maam_sim/maamsim_logo.gif

It's just a pity that none of us thought to video Bill's approach and, er, "landing"... :-hahSeriously, to back up Bill's comments, it was nice to put faces to names and to meet a whole bunch of people I would normally be an Atlantic Ocean away from. I'll put up some photos of my own somewhere, as soon as I have rescued them from the depths of my currently dead Windows XP machine but in the mean time, thanks to all for making it an enjoyable event and to Bill for putting up with a strange British bloke for four days!!!Are we forgiven, seeing as Schumy won? ;-)Ian P.:-halo

Jawhol! :-)Bill Rambow MAAM-SIM - Rambow, Visser, Banting, Young, Womack, and Hamblyhttp://www.fssupport.com/maam_sim/maamsim_logo.gif

Bill, Remember the chip shops!!!Timhttp://www.cambridgeflyingclub.com/images/timavatar2.gif

This has just refused to send once, but I shall try again with just one attachment and see how it works...Keith and Bill W in the back of BT - before the 3G turn that no-one was grinning after except me! :-hah

Darn. That didn't work. :-(As the forums don't seem to like uploads from my PC, I shall send the files to Bill instead, as he already seems to be able to post them! :-hahHopefully, you'll get to see them soon...Ian P.:-halo

The fly-off was crazy... the B-25 took forever to slow down. But I know MAAM is working on it. -- "You like dags?":-jumpyhttp://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg------------------Kenneth WeikTWVA395 / [email protected]