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Airline2Sim

2021 Update

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Hi guys,

An update from me as I know I've been absent from here for some time. I have my own personal reasons for that which I won't go into here but needless to say the last 18 months has not been particularly easy. At times I've had no PC, almost no internet access, no home, no transport, have been in the middle of a revolution and civil conflict with live rounds being fired around my head, narrowly escaped the biggest peacetime explosion in history and spent an extended spell in hospital. Without wanting to be dramatic, keeping Airline2Sim and Aurasim alive have at times been the least of my problems.

That said, I can see that a venture like Airline2Sim cannot simply be placed on a shelf whenever I don't have the time, energy and motivation to give it attention. Reading through some of your posts which convey your disappointment in my absence for the last 12 months has been frankly quite humbling. Clearly I have at times failed to respond to your queries and have neglected you -  the famous 'I'll reply to that tomorrow' syndrome, where tomorrow becomes next year - and for that I'm truly sorry. I've drawn a line under late 2019 and 2020 and hope that you guys can see that I've tried to play the best hand I can with the cards dealt to me in the last few years. 

Let me absolutely clear and bring you up to speed on where we are now:

The New Aurasim

Unfortunately Aurasim is often broken, due to the fact that it runs on ancient, temperamental code and that when we bought it back in 2013, we quickly bolted on a Paypal API to gate access to it that had zero functionality to fix problems with it. Any updates to the Paypal API breaks it and as I don’t know how it works then I can’t fix Aurasim log in issues. I would also point out that we only charged $3 for a 2.5 year subscription that is still valid 6 years later in some cases as no one (me!) thought to build in functionality to end subscriptions, so I am paying a significant sum from my own pocket to keep it online in hosting and licensing costs each year. Therefore in early 2021 we will completely tear down Aurasim and rebuild it with a new updated Navigraph airport and runway database, new weather import funcionality, a new desktop app to run it and also looking to see whether we can port the performance data into the Q400 itself. Until then, if you've purchased a subscription recently and it doesn't work then I will happily refund you your five bucks. Please just drop me a line ben at airline2sim dot com. The new Aurasim will be setup from the outset to be easily run and managed and we can quickly resolve issues. So bear with me for a month or two and we will fix this once and for all.

Airline2Sim + New Site

The Airbus A320 Cadet Program was recorded back in late 2019 with our friendly orange Airbus pilot James and has been in the can ever since. Thankfully I've had the chance to finally pull it all together and add some nice new V5 footage to bring it up to 2021 standards and it's I think our best yet. It's WAY more in depth than the Q400 and even the 777 Programs. There's almost nothing we don't cover in this one over 22 episodes (and there may be more yet.) All being well, the first 6 videos in the series will be released tomorrow December 26th 2020 on our new site, with new episodes appearing every few days up until the last week in January. We're still adding some of the final touches to some of the later epiosodes and just added a Airbus A321/IAE engine differences video, with a different Airbus pilot (ironically also called James).

In other news, we're just about to move our site to Shopify, which for those of you who don't know or care, is like trading in your 2008 Kia for a BMW 750. In terms of customer management, ease of use, offering discounts, loyalty bonus, ability to change themes and images in seconds it is a revelation. By comparison our old clunky and tempramental Wordpress site feels like something from the 90s. Its day are numbered (literally) and the whole experience for you and me will be a lot easier. 

Future Programs

Do we plan to do more? Hell yes. You buy them and we enjoy making them, but they are time consuming and complex to produce. I can't give you any timescales but we will eventually cover the 737 NG3/MAX, 747-400/-8, 787, ATR and at least one more Airbus, depending on what comes along. We obviously will be continuing our relationships with developers like Inibuilds to do free tutorials for products that come along from time to time.

Airport2Sim

The idea of short tutorials for airports with customised GSX files was intended to fill in the gaps between airliner releases and to be fair this is exactly what they've achieved. There are more planned but the state of flux with MSFS coming into the market and disrupting the natural flow of the sim world, we put them on the back burner. There will be some more so watch this space.  

Future Software - Global VOX

Something in the sim that has eternally annoyed me will be our next project for 2021. It's a very simple proposition from a programming point of view and plays to our production strengths also. I can't say too much but you'll love it! 

Summary:

The one thing I've learned in my short time as developer is that it's easy to get carried away with huge promises. Remember when PMDG were going to do an Airbus? Or that X-Plane would be their next big focus? Or that the NG3 would be in MSFS in a matter of months? Who can forget when Aerosoft were going to develop a whole new sim? Or Mettar Sim with their A380? It's not because people are full of it, or don't try hard enough. It's simply because grand plans and reality often don't wish to play well together.

One example - I had lunch a few years ago with a really cool 747 pilot who flew into Kai Tak and was desperate to make a set of videos with him showing you how it's done - I even promoted it. Could I ever get this guy when he was free to come to my studio? Nope. He was always on his motorbike, or on a cruise, or on the beach in Bali. So it slipped away. Same with a million different ideas. Big plans are great, but the reality of months or years of solving problems to make them happen is the tricky bit. Occasionally we can get the stars to align and make it happen. And we will again! 

Peace to everyone - I hope you have a great Christmas and here's to a productive 2021. I'll go through the threads and tidy up any from the last few months or answer any that need my attention. 

My fondest regards

Ben 

 

Edited by Airline2Sim
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airline2sim_pilot_logo_360x.png?v=160882| Ben Weston www.airline2sim.com 

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Welcome back Ben.  

Looking forward to the A320 program.  I would love to see a continuation of the 777 program in the future too (F/O program?).  I was a big fan of the first 777 program.

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1 hour ago, scotth6 said:

Welcome back Ben.  

Looking forward to the A320 program.  I would love to see a continuation of the 777 program in the future too (F/O program?).  I was a big fan of the first 777 program.

Thanks for the kind words Scott. We'd love to do more with the 777 for sure. We had some plans with Myron to come back and do a bunch of stuff but he's not flown it since 2014 so by his own admission, some of the details might be hazy. Let's see - I'd love to revisit it. We really need all the datalink stuff to make the long haul tutorials work, so we were also hanging back for PMDG GFO... 


airline2sim_pilot_logo_360x.png?v=160882| Ben Weston www.airline2sim.com 

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Looking forward to this, @Airline2Sim (Ben).

When are you launching you new website? All you programs and works are excellent and to be honest, I'm really eager to get a look at the new Airbus program! 🙂

 

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🙂

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3 hours ago, travelabroad said:

Looking forward to this, @Airline2Sim (Ben).

When are you launching you new website? All you programs and works are excellent and to be honest, I'm really eager to get a look at the new Airbus program! 🙂

 

Thanks for the kind words. We’re working around the clock tonight and tomorrow to get the first tranche of Airbus videos online and all the old content ported over so hopefully not much longer. More than likely we’re looking at tomorrow now though. 

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airline2sim_pilot_logo_360x.png?v=160882| Ben Weston www.airline2sim.com 

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10 hours ago, Airline2Sim said:

Thanks for the kind words. We’re working around the clock tonight and tomorrow to get the first tranche of Airbus videos online and all the old content ported over so hopefully not much longer. More than likely we’re looking at tomorrow now though. 

That's fair! 🙂

Don't overstress youself. Have time for the Holidays as well. I'll be looking forward to it.

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🙂

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Hey Ben. It’s great to hear that you are back and that the airbus is ready to roll. Sounds like you’ve had some adventures. Hopefully 2021 will be a bit quieter for you!

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@Airline2Sim Nice to see you back in the game Ben 🙂 Glad you're ok, welcome back! 

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Kevin Firth - i9 10850K @5.2; Asus Maximus XII Hero; 32Gb Cas14 3200 DDR4; RTX3090

Beta tester for: UK2000; JustFlight; VoxATC; FSReborn; //42

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9 hours ago, travelabroad said:

Not to sound impatient - but ...

... any news here, Ben ( @Airline2Sim ) ?

Unfortunately the renders are taking a little longer than planned. We’re aiming now for a launch later this evening U.K. time. Sorry for the wait 😅

In the meantime you can take a look at the program syllabus and schedule right here: 

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0521/9336/2112/files/Airline2Sim_A320_Cadet_Training_Release_Schedule_378f66f9-356a-42ab-9ffb-bff60a410398.pdf?v=1609105720

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airline2sim_pilot_logo_360x.png?v=160882| Ben Weston www.airline2sim.com 

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Hi Ben @Airline2Sim,

Wow it sounds like you have had a pretty awful time of it. It all very much makes sense now why you have been absent and why Aurasim doesn't work. But your products are of outstanding quality and I am actually going to buy all of your products now plus the Airbus videos as I want to support you going forward. Compared to other product available on the flight sim market I can tell you I have never felt disappointed with the product I have purchased for the price you sell them for. I still go through the Q400 training series when I want a refresher on flying the Dash! I too how had a "how deep the rabbit hole goes" moment which some of the projects I am doing and learning at the same time. It is so so easy to get over ambitious and over promise. Just look at this "CyberPunk 2077" thing. Apparently the developers for that have tarnished their reputation completely by releasing a game full of bugs and charging a high price for it. Welcome back and please please don't turn into another "FSX Genius" etc etc!

Regards,

David

Edited by ferrariman15
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David Thwaites

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1 hour ago, ferrariman15 said:

Hi Ben @Airline2Sim,

Wow it sounds like you have had a pretty awful time of it. It all very much makes sense now why you have been absent and why Aurasim doesn't work. But your products are of outstanding quality and I am actually going to buy all of your products now plus the Airbus videos as I want to support you going forward. Compared to other product available on the flight sim market I can tell you I have never felt disappointed with the product I have purchased for the price you sell them for. I still go through the Q400 training series when I want a refresher on flying the Dash! I too how had a "how deep the rabbit hole goes" moment which some of the projects I am doing and learning at the same time. It is so so easy to get over ambitious and over promise. Just look at this "CyberPunk 2077" thing. Apparently the developers for that have tarnished their reputation completely by releasing a game full of bugs and charging a high price for it. Welcome back and please please don't turn into another "FSX Genius" etc etc!

Regards,

David

You're very kind David, thank you. I'll also try to stay out of jail 😅😅

Edited by Airline2Sim
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airline2sim_pilot_logo_360x.png?v=160882| Ben Weston www.airline2sim.com 

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I'm very happy for you, Ben, not just because of your return, but because things seem to be going so much better for you now. Stay well!

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Walter Meier

 

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Welcome back.  Missed you.  Signed up and bought the A320 course.  Any idea when the videos will be available?


Bob Zolto

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