Hi everyone,The Round the World Race 2006 is projected for the week starting Sunday, February 19th.Much organization and practice to be accomplished in the next two months. AVSIM needs good experienced and dedicated pilots. Just the sort that frequent these forums!Team AVSIM won the Tornado Trophy for 2003 and 2004. Last year, the team got out-flown and out-organized by FlightSim. Time to turn that around, wouldn't you say? The Team wants to start getting organized so that the Forum membership can show its real talent.If you are at all interested in participating in this year's race, might you please respond to this post?Best,MikePS. We would all like to hear suggestions about how to make the Team work more effectively for everyone concerned. Veterans and newbies alike.

We lost mainly because we had a bit more bad luck than the other guys I think, it was that close.I think we had it down pretty well this year with continuous route planning in advance so everyone could see where we were going and could if desired scout ahead.Having several people ride shotgun and provide en-route weather updates was also a good idea that sadly didn't quite work for the entire trip due to lack of pilots.Hot backups worked well most of the time taking over when people crashed.Most problems we did encounter this year were due to unfamiliarity with aircraft involved (Concorde) and overstressing the Avanti (which I still think is due to an error in the aircraft and/or FS rather than us flying it incorrectly).I've taken up training in the Avanti again after not flying it for several months and it's going well.I've now also gotten Concorde down well, even pulled off a manual landing a few weeks ago when an ILS turned out to be misalligned for the designated runway. Of course we may well be unable to use either or both aircraft this time around.

And the AVSIM Team forum is now open for the 2006 Race. See above and join in!

Thanks for restoring the RTW race forum Tom. Maybe we can get you to fly a leg in a rotary wing aircraft in 2006. I'd love to witness you and Tornado Wilkes face off "mano a mano" in SH3's in a multiplayer session. :-hah Jeff Williams (KDCA)

I think last years AVSIM pilots were outstanding and I was proud to be a team member. I thought we flew very well during most of the race. Baton passes were quickly and efficiently accomplished. I don't think we ever stalled but we did bust 8 legs. The Concorde conundrum in the South Pacific was where we finally got caught by Flightsim. I have to give credit to the Flightsim team. If they had made a mistake we might have caught them. In the end they beat us to the finish by 3hrs and 10 minutes. I lurked in Flightsim's race forums several times during the race and they seemed to have at least two to three times as many team members that AVSIM had on-line. They had scouts, backup pilots, route planners, and were monitoring our progress every step of the way. Flightsim produced a very capable team in 2005 and I expect they will do it again in 2006.I hope Team AVSIM can recruit a larger pool of team members in 2006. We could use more European Time Zone (GMT, +1hr, +2hr) pilots and it would be great to have some Asia/Pacific pilots (GMT +10, +11) pilots to provide better 24hr leg coverage and support. I have started getting ready for 2006 race practice. I've gotten multiplayer and teamspeak working again. I'm using the RTW-Duenna again. I tried my first practice leg in a ** P-51 last night. I'm looking forward to February.

Tornado who??? :)There is no way that I am going to pick up a baton of any kind. After all, I *** do *** want to see Team AVSIM win!!!

Lol.... look's like I better go get that Chinook out of my hangar ;-)I'm not surprised that the memory is bad Tom, there are some things that you may want to forget :(

I've decided the winning strategy for FlightSim.com this year will be for me to plan and support - but not fly anything but the Vimy.One other thing - be it Avsim, FlightSim or Sim-Outhouse - FLY - JOIN IN.This event may well be the most FUN you will ever have in FS......If you don't think you can fly baton legs with those settings - you can scout, you can spot, you can help. This event is exceptional.Did I say that I'm enthusiastic about it?.....

What is the route?Dave T. .........On the Devon Riviera and active 'FlightSim User's Group' member at http://www.flightsimgrpuk.free-online.co.uk/

Of course, I will be there as well.As to Route, most of that planning will be partly behind the scenes once the rules are announced.For those of you who are new, Welcome Aboard.The best thing you can do to learn is begin reading some of last years threads here in this forum.I will also be putting together a links list, and my tips list from last year for pilots.You will also be required to use program called Duenna. It is a flight log and cheat protector to ensure each pilot follows the rules, and also verifies through FS that you did the correct route, aircraft, speed, etc....I'll add some more later today, heading out to a party right now.Take care all, and Go Team AVSIM!Best Regards,Joe

Hey, you are just too modest! Love to see Tom and Nels suit up for special opening stakes race! Or not. ;) Best,Mike