Thanks to Francisco and Paul for leading the celebration!I shadowed along offline--hmm, got to learn this online stuff! Put a nice ending to the hectic week. (Though the 50kts crosswind on approach almost put another end to the week...)Great fun working with all you guys.Mike

Agh.... I wanted to be a part of it... Not enough advance warning.....Oh well....

Dave,Gosh, Matt decided to act pretty quickly. (I missed the announcement as well.) But it is probably a good thing that he got the event done in good time--not to let it linger on.M.

I missed it because I feel asleep. I'm also under the weather lately.I was trying to figure out this SB thing and I'm just famboozled. It's frustrating dealing with the lack of instructions it seems. Does anyone have a good reference on how to get this thing working?ThanxWoodreau/ KMVL

Check out this page:http://www.vatsim.net/gettingstarted_2002.htmlIt's what I used.Also note that the server addresses SquawkBox lists when you connect are mostly outdated. Go to vatsim.net and look for what servers are online, pick the one closest to you and type it in manually.Hope this helps.Regards,Marc

It was alot of fun hope to do it again soon(maybe with classic aircraft ala fs9)Floyd

Mike, thank you so much for this wonderful summary of a great challenge. I really enjoyed it a lot and look forward to seeing such an event soon in the near future. And another thank you goes to all participants, either flying for avsim.com or fs.com and, of course, Matt for organizing this thrilling event.CheersPhilCome to DAD!http://www.dangerous-airports.com/images/dad_logo.jpg

>I feel very strongly that it should NOT be a fixed route >thing. If you look back over the logs, more of the >discussion focused on route planning than any other single >issue. That seems to me to be one of the key strategic >elements; if you lose it, you're left with which team can >pass the baton quicker, and which team has faster planes. >Why not add in a third (and to my mind much more >interesting) variable? This race was a good example of how >a contest like this can be won or lost based on flight >planning--AVSIM should have lost for going east-to-west, but >then FlightSim lost by deciding to skip South America and >then having to change their route in order to hit it. >Yes, that's why giving a list of targets to hit but not the order in which they should be hit is a good idea.We could of course ask both teams to submit the order in which they plan to fly the destinations to the umpires beforehand so they can keep track of progress.>>Regarding planes, I'm kind of torn. If you guys really want >to hit 100+ cities, maybe we should allow some jets, >otherwise we might not live long enough to see the end of >all this. I'd like to see some regulation of what planes >can be chosen, though, because especially when we're dealing >with downloaded stuff, there's really no telling what's >realism and what's fantasy. I mean, I can go download a >flying shoe and take that out for a spin, but I really think >we should strive for something better than that. >We might set a rule that no more than X legs may be flown using jets, no more than Y using turboprops.Or/and make a ruling that a pilot may not switch to a different aircraft once he has started in something.Makes initial aircraft choice for a team vitally important. Do you go for aircraft with long range but lower speed or for speedmonsters that will run out of juice during the longer legs (so they have to detour instead of taking a direct route across large bodies of water and deserts).>I also don't really think it would take that much away from >the race we've just had to have another one soon. I see >that reasoning, in fact, as kind of silly: "We just had a >great time!! So good that we're not going to let ourselves >do it again for another year!!" I do agree with having the >annual RTW race, and maybe that can be the big one, and >there will be other smaller ones, but in my mind, anyone who >wants to plan and execute a race should be encouraged. >There were a whole bunch of us who cottoned on to this >partway through and didn't really get a chance to fly, at >least not until the end, so it only makes sense to >capitalize on that interest and give those folks a shot. >We should keep the idea alive, but IMO proper planning in advance is needed.Set up a sound idea and set of rules and only then start thinking about a startdate.Plus a period in which people can fly other things (like VA commitments) is also good.>Anyway, I'm more than willing to help plan this out. >Ideally we probably need four or five people to get together >and establish the rules--one person doing it probably won't >really work anymore, but leaving it in the forums will >likely just result in endless argument/discussion. >Yup. I'll see what I can do about setting up a private forum at my home machine or maybe a mailing list (I can do both at home, no depending on 3rd parties. Or maybe Avsim can provide a private forum?).People interested in helping plan this thing leave me a message and I'll get back to you.

Guys,If we're going to do this again next year as "The Big One" why don't we work on some smaller "Round the X" races now.If we limit the aircraft more then even a relatively short race can take a few days.How about :Round Europe in a 172. (or single piston) (visiting every country's capital)Round the US in a twin. (anything but jets) (visiting every state capital)Round the Islands of the Pacific in a Floatplane.Round South America in a tail dragger.Round Africa (or Alaska) in a bush plane (DHC Beaver).Round the North Sea Oil Rigs in a helicopter.Just as a few ideas. It would specialise each race so we can learn a new type of flying for each one. It will be geographically (and therefore meteorlogically) different, flying different aircraft types in a different way.What do we think?Ian

Good idea, keeps variety as well as allowing more and smaller locations to be visited.

Guys, Seems from your words that a lot of you guys don't get pretty much along with VATSIM and the SB. But in my opinion you don't have to fear it or anything else... That stuff is easy, but, as someone said, it lacks instructions, so if anybody wants to try and figure out how that stuff works, and the sites you've been visiting aren't enough help, feel free to drop me a line at my private e-mail ([email protected]) and i'll try to help you guys... Please note that due to the time difference i may not respond to you as quickly as you wish but i promise to answer every question.RegardsFrancisco Leit

I guess that it was bound to happen as soon as Team FS would arrive at KLGA... The problem was that they arrived much later than it was expected and we missed the oportunity to make this on a convinient hour for both Europe and USA (it should have been some 4 or 6 hours earlier). But what the heck, team FS after all was even more behind (they've also got some problems with crossing the date line), but that's not the matter now... Too bad that we could not make this an event to remember (This final Leg of course, 'cause the RTW race event was truly historic), but maybe next time... Now, when is the next event actually starting ?? I'll be trying to negotiate a special plane to fly on this new event, altough the king air has proven very good for this kind of flights ;)RegardsFrancisco Leit

Congrats all on your flight! I have been following the whole trip. Unfortunately I was in the midst of moving and had to get the broadband installed at the new place. Otherwise I would have been flying with ya! Once again congratulations for Team Avsim in bring home the cup. Heh heh... maybe we should make some kind of award cup in gmax LOL!