Will Microsoft keep Megis?

[KevinAu 441]

I think that is exactly what Microsoft should do. Add bulldozers and add elevation changes to the runway so that it would be unuseable...while leaving Meigs as the start up scenario as always...this would allow millions of people to see for themselves in a vivid way what has happened.

[shermank 170]

Meigs is not the only shuttered airport in Chicago still on FS. The Glenview Naval Air Station, located NE of O'Hare and Se of Palwaukee was decommissioned maybe ten years ago. What used to be an airbase is now a collection of single and multi family homes...upscale to say the least, in the suburb of Glenview IL...just, one more thing to rant over...:-)Sherm

[Guest]

>You sound like you are blaming all the people in Chicago. >The only people to blame are Mr. Daley, the police who >guarded this operation in secrecy, and the constructuon >workers. (And any others behind this operation). The FAA >didnt even know about it, thus it was a completely secret >plan- that doesnt mean it was all of Chicago. No one even bothered to notify the tower crew. When they showed up for work at 4:30 am, they were prevented from entering the property... until a phone call from the FAA convinced the Chicago police that they must be allowed in to do their jobs. Just because no traffic could come in or out, the airspace is still under their control, until the FAA can make the appropriate changes.As far as the 16 a/c stranded there, one of 'em is a Merlin III (belongs to a good friend of mine) who's seething. There's no way he can T/O from the taxiway, so Daly's gonna have to pay through the nose to have it hauled to KGYY on a lowboy... :)The local media have been raking Daly over the coals on this issue, so I hope that it blows up in his face!

[Dillon 2,197]

Come on Sherm, you can't compare Meigs to Glenview... That's like trying to compare Hawaii to North Dakota. We're talking about lake front property here, overlooking one of the most beautiful skylines in the world... Toronto's downtown airport can't even compare to Chicago, in fact what city can. Not one person here is ranting about some local heartland airport very few have heard about, this is a major peace of aviation history that's going away. There must have been some reason why MS chose this airport over Glenview... Think about it Sherm and get back to me.

[Guest skylanepilot]

No, Jason ... I certainly don't blame the people of Chicago. The blame is squarely and entirely on Mayor Daley and his Administration. I've done business in and around Chicago for years and actually like the city (the current situation not withstanding).I personally have decided to boycott Chicago moving forward. Not out of malice toward the people of Chicago, but out of respect for the general aviation community. I can't vote Daley out of office, but I can express my opinion with my wallet.Ulitimately, the only thing Daley and his ilk listen to is the tinkling of cash into their coffers.

[Guest B1900 Mech]

Marston mills Airport Shuts Down! It happened In my home town to :( This is also the site of my AMA remote control flying site!

[shermank 170]

>Come on Sherm, you can't compare Meigs to Glenview... >That's like trying to compare Hawaii to North Dakota. We're >talking about lake front property here, overlooking one of >the most beautiful skylines in the world... Toronto's >downtown airport can't even compare to Chicago, in fact what >city can. Not one person here is ranting about some local >heartland airport very few have heard about, this is a major >peace of aviation history that's going away. There must >have been some reason why MS chose this airport over >Glenview... Think about it Sherm and get back to me. Dillo, I was not trying to compare the two airports...merely pointing out that MS was still showing another decomissioned airport in the Chicago area. I suspect it was more programmer error than anything else. As for why MS uses Meigs as its default, I posted an answer in a similar thread over at flightsim, somewhat different than the one I am about to give here, after having thought about it a little more. But, basically, or as Mayor Daley would say, "basiciiiy" (he has a hard time with his L's)...MS bought the original flight sim program written by Bruce Artwick, a Univeraity of Illinois computer science grad who was working in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois when he wrote the first program in the early 1980s. At that time, computering was in its infancy and the progrram was very primitive, with little more than wire frame images, and a lot of imagination required. I suspect that Artwick chose Meigs as his default starting airport because he could easily designate it as something unique by the image of the John Hancock Center off the the left in the distance. It is a building that was, and still is, easily depicted in wireframe format. I am only guessing about this, but, it would give sim flyers an easy and quick land reference for takeoff and landing in an otherwise fairly bare sim-landscape. When MS bought out Artiwck (in the midst of some controversy as I recall), the MS people evidently decided to keep Meigs as a measure of continuity. btw, flying vatsim yesterday afternoon the Chicago controller continued to allow the use of Meigs. A couple of pilots took advantage of that. I merely chose to do a quick touch and go in memory and have moved my FBO up the lakeshore to KUGN. I am still looking for someone to create the patch to show Meigs in its current reality...as much as I, like other simmers and pilots miss what was a great Chicago landmark and special spot for aviators.Sherm

[Guest Tim13]

Getting back on topic, I would choose KSTL Lambert-St Louis International airport. This is a nice airport that is smack dab in the middle of the country with some nice scenery nearby.Tim13

[Guest Cpt_Simoty]

Hey allThanks for all your comments.Do you think that maybe some where totally different would be a good idea? The current software has us loading up in the middle of a brick jungle. Do you think maybe somewhere in alaska we could load up with amazing scenery all around us? Or maybe not even in the US.What is the opinion on these matters?Simon

[MartijnPleines 0]

As a long time fan of the Flight Simulator series, I too regret the demise of Meigs, one of the most spectacular small airports.But, if you stop and think about it, Microsoft already have the perfect replacement for Meigs-it has a great reputation in aviation, particularly GA, it has a grea tie-in with the historical theme of FSaCoF (the EAA museum), highly detailed scenery is available from MS already, and it isn't all that far from Chicago either: Wittman Regional Airport(KOSH).

[Guest]

Meigs field became famous because of Flight simulator. It became so famous because it was the default airport right from the time when Flight Simulator was created. Many would have never known about a small airport called Meigs Field and thanks to Flight Simulator it is now world famous and a tourist attraction. So it will be bad for Flight simulator to take it out.Shri

[Guest kyle]

If they remove it and replace the default location, I would have to say that Chicago-Illionois University (Willard (CMI)) http://www.willardairport.com/ should be the default - since that is where it had it's real beginings.Flight Simulator began as a graduate-student thesis at the University of Illinois by Bruce Artwick. The purpose of the simulation was to develop a method of displaying 3-dimensional perspective in real time on a computer. Little did he know that it would grow into a popular and useful computer application

[Guest N247BK]

Meigs was a great little airport. I live in Virginia, but had a chance to see it up close once, and was quite thrilled because of the experience with MSFS.I think they should make Ronald Reagan National at D.C. the default for FS2004. But, that one must be only days from closing, given the security concerns around that place.

[Guest]

In the interest of realism it should probably go and be replaced by a lovely park. Then we can land on it and damage the grass so Daley can pay to fix it! :-lolDavid

[Guest]

While Meigs has always been the default (as long as I remember anyway!) I still recall Champaign/Urbana received more than its share of artistic attention from the beginning - presumably because the original programmers went to U of Illinois. (can anyone confirm that?). I remember being amazed to land there in an early FS version and seeing the detailed sign on the FBO.I'm not advocating Champaign/Urbana be the new default by any means! I've been there and it is somewhat scenically-deprived ;-)IMO.David