Tom and Avsim Staff.

 

I would be interested in bringing my new mobile simpit to the next Avsim Convention but it would be limited to driving it around the North East Corridor.  Reason is, two things...one I live on Nantucket so a round trip ferry ride to get it on and off the island can be around $600 (havent done the trip yet in peak season) and second just gas and time cost.

 

Here is a video of it, done while I was still building it and here are a few pic's of it finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to this I also have the back and under the sim built out for r/c mulicopters and trucks with a soon to be 40" screen for live video feed from the Phantom (or soon to be Inspire1).

Really impressive setup! Congratulations. It put a heck of a lot of work in assembling this setup and it shows! Were you at our last conference in Wichita? There were some great cockpit setups there too. Enjoy!

 

Best regards,

No I wasnt at the one in Wichita. Perhaps this coming year.

There are no AVSIM Conventions scheduled in the foreseeable future, if ever.

 

Best regards,

There are no AVSIM Conventions scheduled in the foreseeable future, if ever.

 

Best regards,

 

Can I ask why Jim out of curiosity? Has their popularity waned? If so is it seen in Avsim as a symptom of a declining market?

Tom is out of the office right now and may respond later.  After the Wichita conference, I recall Tom mentioning something like this.  It is extremely costly to setup and run one of these functions.  We have many members located overseas and it is not economically feasible for many to travel to the US.  I'm sure there are many more reasons.  AVSIM has grown by leaps and bounds and every day I see hundreds of new members.  So I do not think there is any indications of a declining market.  In fact the popularity of flight simulation is increasing every day.

 

Best regards,

I truly believe that is less a result of "loss of interest" as it is directly related to the insanely increased costs of transportation to the venue, as well as the costs of hotel room and food that are the proximate cause of low attendance.

 

For example, the total cost for me to attend the last conference in Wichita was $1600, and that was a rather short trip from Chicago. For one who's monthly income is less than $2,000 that was a very difficult decision to make. I'm glad I did, but...

Cool, thanks guys!

I truly believe that is less a result of "loss of interest" as it is directly related to the insanely increased costs of transportation to the venue, as well as the costs of hotel room and food that are the proximate cause of low attendance.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head!

 

Even though I've been a member here for 11 years I always pass on them as well, mainly due to the cost of airfare and hotel to see displays and exhibits of things I can see online. Although the cost of the trip isn't a problem, I'd rather spend the money on a regular vacation. Or even use that money to load up on new addons or put it toward a computer upgrade. Of course if the convention was local, I would no doubt attend at least one day.

I'll hit that nail also. I really wanted to attend the Dulles Avsim convention but decided not to when I saw that United had a monopoly on direct flights from Denver and they were not embarassed to maximize their profits on that fact.

 

I drove to the Wichita convention and very much enjoyed it. There were not many vendors there but it was great meeting people in person that you conversed with on the Avsim forums. The museum and cockpit exhibits were also very interesting.

 

The Seattle conference had lots of vendors and great deals. But the pinnacle was talking with the Microsoft Aces team in the hotel bar. This was right after FSX was released and the main topic was "Why can't I get this to run on my machine?".

 

The best Avsim conference for me was in Denver though. Having access to United's Level D simulators for $100/hour is a tough act to beat. And I only had to drive 15 miles to attend it.

 

The Avsim conferences do offer a lot more than just access to information you can get online, but I agree attending can be expensive and is probably the main reason for low attendance. Southwest now also has direct flights to Dulles from Denver so bring on the next one!

 

Ted

 

 

United had a monopoly on direct flights from Denver and they were not embarassed to maximize their profits on that fact.

 

Why should that embarass United - aren't other airlines allowed such direct flights?

I don't know how airlines get permissions for gates and flights at airports. All I know is that United had the only direct flights back then and their prices were three times what the other airlines were with the time consuming layovers.

 

Ted

That's the way the markets work. If no other airline choses to offer a direct flight then you have to have pay the going rate for for it.  Perhaps the time consuming layovers are worth the price?

You are right Gerry, that is the way the markets work, but I didn't have to pay the going rate and I didn't. My point was not to belittle United, even I have no fondness for that airline, but to state that I did not attend that AVsim conference because the flights were either to expensive or too time consuming. I could not take that much time off work. I just checked flights to Dulles from Denver. United Airlines direct is $500 or more one way, Direct Southwest flights you can get now for $169. Apparently United still has quite a bit of pricing power. I believe years ago during the time of the Avsim conference when United was the only direct flight a one way ticket was over $600. At that price you could build yourself a new FS computer for the cost of United's round trip ticket and that is what I chose to do instead.

 

Ted

Nice setup :-)