Just a reminder that the 3rd annual Race Around the World will be starting in just under 2 weeks from now, between Avsim.com, Flightsim.com and the new entry Sim-Outhouse.com!Team Avsim will be needing volunteers to help defend our undefeated title reign! All you need is a copy or Flight Simulator 2002 or 2004!In this race, pilots choose a team to fly for, and fly the "baton" around the world in 2-hour legs using only piston-powered propeller or turboprop powered (2 engines maximum on turboprops) aircraft. - Each flying pilot posts a response in the active thread stating they have the baton and where they're going, keeping in mind that the pilot must reach that destination within 2 hours.- On landing, the pilot takes a screenshot of the Flightsim Flight Analysis screen with the analysis zoomed out to see the entire flight leg, and posts it on the thread as proof they flew the entire leg. Alternately, a new addon program is being tested now to automatically generate an alternate "proof" image to validate the flight.- Once the proof is posted, the next pilot is free to grab the baton and continue on. Any one pilot can not fly 2 legs in a row, another pilot must fly a leg before you can fly again.- Other team members are encouraged to fly alongside the baton carrier online, and to act as a scout at the intended destination to report weather, runway and terrain/obstacle conditions or scout out alternate destinations if the baton carrier will be unable to make the intended destination.Team Avsim has been victorious each of the 2 previous races, let's all get together and make it 3! The race starts at 12:00 noon, Eastern time (17:00 ZULU) on Sunday, February 20th.In the meantime, Team Avsim is currently conducting a practice session to hone our flying skills and shorten handoff times. All prospective Team Avsim members are welcome and encouraged to participate in this practice to familiarize yourselves with the race rules and procedures.The Race forum can be found here: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=227Hope to see y'all there!(Edit) Please try to keep this bumped, thanks! :)

How this for "bumped"? :)

That works nicely... :(

I'm presuming "bumped" means kept at the top?Therefore, how does one ensure that one does not accidentally "de-bump" it?CheersTim

"Bumping" a post does refer to moving the thread back to the top of the forum by submitting a response, after which it moves back down the forum again until another response is submitted, bumping it back to the top again. For non-pinned threads, the only way to "de-bump" it is to have nobody reply to it, and the thread will move down the forum onto subsequent pages and move into obscurity.However, Tom went one step further and "pinned" the thread to the top of the forum, so the thread will stay at the top of the forum automatically until he, or another moderator, unpins it.

Fascinating! If I had a dollar for everytime I saw "bump" in a post, I'd be a rich man. And now I know what it means.CheersTim

yw (which I only very recently found out what it means ;) ).

How do we sign up and how do we sigh on for a specific legs, or do we plan our own legs for flights ??? Sorry i am new but very excited about this, also if i decide to participate in observer mode, can i fly any aircraft or still restricted to two props ?

Hi, and welcome aboard!There is no official sign-up for the race, all you need to do is choose which forum you want to fly for (*cough*avsim*cough* :(), and fly for that forum.For the following, keep in mind that this is based on last year's rules. This year's rules should be posted 24 hours before the start of the race, and is said to have some changes to close some holes and other things, so the following way of doing things may change a bit this year....Under the rules, there is no official sign-up or reservation of legs. The baton officially goes to whoever posts a "I have the baton" message on the currently active thread FIRST. As such, one might wait several hours before being able to grab the baton. However, it is a Team Avsim policy for pilots who have already flown legs in the race to yield to new pilots looking to fly their first leg. So, your best bet is to post a message on the active thread at the time saying you're now ready and available, and depending on who's around, in line and who's flown how many legs, you might get a leg quickly. This allows more people to participate. (We like to be fair... :()It is officially up to the baton carrier to decide where to take the baton in their 2-hour timeslot. We are allowed to have a suggested route plotted to give pilots an idea of where to go, but the baton carrier has no obligation to follow that route if he/she doesn't want to, even if the pilot's diversion from the suggested route results in a new suggested route being made. However, rules are in place to prevent malicious pilots from deliberately sabotaging the team's progress by purposefully flying back in the opposite direction to waste time. Such flights will be invalidated and the baton returned to where the malicious flight left from.As for aircraft, the only aircraft that matters is the baton-carrier's aircraft, which must be a piston-powered prop with any number of engines, a turboprop with maximum of 2 engines, or a helicopter. Pilots that are flying alongside the baton-carrier to provide support, etc. can fly whatever aircraft they want, as long as they switch to a qualifying aircraft before they take the baton if they're flying the next flight. (You don't even need to sign on to the MP server in observer mode if you're flying alongside the baton carrier... :) )I hope to see you on the race (or before)! It's really a lot of fun, even despite the lack of sleep for some devoted Team Avsim members such as myself.... :(

AWESOME, one more question, what software needed to join MP, or do we fly via vatsim or other networks, if so whats are the software requrements ? And yes definatly i am flying for avsim :) also do you guys have like AWACS type of aircrafts that provide info of weather and conditions at the destinations, and is it ok to have that type of function in the race ???

We've been using Avsim's Bushnet MP server, which is essentially just a basic Flightsim Multiplayer server so you connect directly to it using FS's multiplayer function. Technically there's nothing wrong with flying on vatsim if it works for you, but since it's a bit complicated for some (messing with so many extra programs to get connected) and causes problems for some even when they know what they're doing, most of us don't bother with it and use the regular MP.. A computer crash will also send the baton back to that pilot's departure airport same as if the pilot crashes the plane, so we generally want to keep our FS's as stable as possible.... :)I'm not sure if AWACS type aircrafts are allowed or not, there are no rules specifically covering it. So, I'll just presume that it would be allowed as long as it's a piston-powered prop or a twin- or single-prop turboprop.

It's OK to have spotters scout ahead out likely destinations for the next leg and provide weather reports.We did that last year and it worked well.

I was thinking flying a russian TU126 as a weather reporting plane, not necessary fly the baton. Just thouhg it would be cool to have a awac type of plane circle around and provide reporting information :) let me know if this is cool.also whats the MP server connection information such as IP address and password, and will we have any type of voice chat support ?

Hello ever one i like to say good look to yll you going to need it to bet S.O.H. :-wave :-hah

The MP server (and TeamSpeak server if you can do voice) are both on bn.turbulentsky.com, although you'd have to use the ip address 24.30.147.25 in flightsim.