CRAP!Sorry guys, I don't know that I'm going to be able to join in... Came home last night to find my desktop machine (where FSX is installed) spitting up error after error about Delayed Write Failure to the drive that I have FSX installed on. Rebooting didn't help. I had to swap SATA drive cables to even get the machine to boot back up. Don't know if I lost any data on the drive or not.I'll try to do a scandisk on it tonight to see if everything is ok, but I'm not sure I'm going to want to commit to baton duties until I know for sure.My schedule this weekend also got pretty busy. Won't be around at all Friday night, and have a possible date lined up for Sat night. So, I'll try to join in, but no guarantees on me making it.I haven't even fired up FSX since the USA Criss Cross... I'll need to get the new Duenna installed, get FShost + Teamspeak set up for the new servers, etc...I'll try to join in, but don't count on me. Sorry!!!!

this is my first year also. Not sure if i understand it all but will read some or it. Do you guys use fsHost? and thats also how you setup baton transferrals?

we use FSHost. Baton transfers are usually planned while the previous pilot is underway, with final decision on who's to fly being made while the baton holder is on approach based on who's available at the relevant airports.Usually we try to have an emergency backup pilot available where the baton leaves from for the duration of that flight, and as soon as the destination of the baton is known people will start scouting out that airport to provide situation and weather reports and to set up for the next leg.Get signed up for the private forums to get the location of our FSHost and Teamspeak servers (locations will be posted here as the race starts, until then they're semi-private as "top secret" stuff goes on there :) ).

>we use FSHost. Baton transfers are usually planned while the>previous pilot is underway, with final decision on who's to>fly being made while the baton holder is on approach based on>who's available at the relevant airports.>Usually we try to have an emergency backup pilot available>where the baton leaves from for the duration of that flight,>and as soon as the destination of the baton is known people>will start scouting out that airport to provide situation and>weather reports and to set up for the next leg.>>Get signed up for the private forums to get the location of>our FSHost and Teamspeak servers (locations will be posted>here as the race starts, until then they're semi-private as>"top secret" stuff goes on there :) ).thanks a lot for the info but you kinda went over my head there for a little :) .What private forums are you talking about? and is teamspeak required?Thanks for your help. :)

HiSee this thread: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...=4842&mode=fullTeamspeak is not required, but it helps a lot. It's much easier to communicate with one another using TeamSpeak than trying to organize stuff over a forum.

Hi MikeHope you get your act (that's your PC) together and will be able to join in. You do have a few days to get that done.Since you are a Google Eatch Wiz: IF you get your PC going, how about doing something like you did for C/C USA? I'm thinking bonus airports, required airports, corridors and Jeroens draft. Would that be possible? I found your KML's to be an enormous help visualising what we are doing.If made public, it would also be a help for the other teams, but if so, be sure to leave out our planned route... :)BRGDSSven Sorensen, EKCH

Sven,Plotting the points is relatively easy (by that I mean the stops.) When I was doing my route planning for the USA Race I just had Google Earth search for the airport ICAO codes and then I stuck a PlaceMark at those airports. So, that works for the required airports, the bonus markings (use a different color for those). Just tell GE to save your placemarks after you do that to a file.Routes are a bit more tricky. What I had to do for those was take everyones' Duenna logs, which had the flight path position info in them and run them through a little coordinate converter program I wrote in Java, one at a time. Basically, the Duenna outputs the route in one coordinate order, GE expects it in another. Then I took that output and manually copy/pasted it into the big KML file. As you can see, it was by no means an automatic process, and could only really be done post-flight, so wouldn't be very helpful for pre-flight route planning.One thing I DID do before the USA race was use the ruler tool to get an idea of distances as I went from placemark to placemark. I used that to give me an idea of the distance and which routes were shorter, picking up the most bonuses. I then factored in average airspeed (I calculated it both at 300 and 350 to account for the climbout/landing) and compared the routes. I took the one that gave me the most efficient bonus-to-flight time ratio.Personally, I think this race is going to be MUCH more complicated and take longer than last year's due to the new rules, the East-->West flight direction, and the complications of the cabin class, the bonus structure, etc. I hope somebody on the team has an idea! I only quickly glanced throught he rules yesterday and I was pretty confused rather quickly...On the plus side, I did a scandisk last night and everything seems to be ok on the disk, so tonight I'll have to get the new Duenna, update my FSHost and Teamspeak and get on the server and give it a try. (Cleaning all the junk off my desk would be a good idea too! LOL)--Mike

ok. i found the private forums. Now....how do i get my username to be accepted? i signed up yesterday and sent the guy a PM like is sez to but no joy yet.

OMG. I actually made it back before the race ended.Was out of country for three weeks. Was supposed to be four, which was why I never checked in. However, trip ended early, so here I am.I think I've been gone too long to effectively be a participating pilot (lots of changes), but I will be around for general support. GO AVSIM!!!

might i be in the avsim team? i am not that experienced, but a scouting role will fit any waybest regardsleon

welcome aboard.It's all hands on deck, bring your own bucket of propwash!

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