Christopher Low

Diesel was £2.18 per litre at Stafford Services. I checked out of curiosity 😉 My car did sterling work on a full tank. There and back with a couple of gallons left in the tank. 530 miles of combustion engine prowess. Choke on that, electric cars 🤣

The salmon was more "mashed up" than the smoked stuff in your photo. I would have certainly preferred it to be smoked salmon, since that is one of my favourite foods 😋

I purchased the sandwiches from the local service station where I filled my diesel tank shortly before starting the journey to Bristol. The use by date was that day (Friday October 9), so the price had been reduced from £3.70 to £2.60 🙂

It could have just said "yes" 🤣

My sincere apologies for that unacceptable oversight, Jon. I can confirm that they were on white bread 🤣

The first UK Flightsim Show in seven years. I never saw it coming, but I was so happy when it was announced. I always thought that Aerospace Bristol would be a cool location for the show, and that proved to be the case. I started my journey from Ulverston, Cumbria at 8:15 AM on Friday October 9. It was rather grey and wet until I reached Manchester, but then it started to brighten up. Unfortunately, I encountered serious delays between Junctions 21A and 18 on the M6 (starting at the Thelwall Viaduct over the Manchester Ship Canal). An hour of crawling along at walking pace 😡Traffic started flowing again after that, and I stopped at Stafford Services for my lunch (salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, and an apple). I resumed my journey a short time later, but it did not take long for me to encounter yet another lengthy delay as traffic once again slowed to a crawl at times through Birmingham. Even worse, the transition from M6 to M42 to M5 seemed to be unnecessarily long and time consuming, and it seemed to add another twenty miles to my calculated drive distance between Ulverston and Bristol. This was another hour of messing about 😡 Fortunately, driving became more relaxed after I joined the M5, although there were some nasty showers during this final stage of the journey. I arrived at my hotel in Bristol at 14:45, so that was 6.5 hours on the road. To be fair, the scheduled check in time was 15:00, so I timed it right 😉After a shower, and a little wander around, I booked an evening meal for 18:30. Jon B was staying at the same hotel, but he was not arriving until later, so I enjoyed my own (admittedly awesome) company for my first dining experience of the trip 😁 I decided to settle down early for the night, keen to get to the main event the following day fully refreshed. I was up for the breakfast bar opening at 7 AM, and enjoyed a full cooked English breakfast (always a treat on these trips) 😋 This was followed by some impatient pacing back and forth in my room, in an attempt to get the clock to move faster. It did not work, but by 8:40 AM I was ready to take the short drive to Aerospace Bristol. The organisers had warned that there were a limited number of parking spaces at the museum itself, but when I arrived at 8:50 AM, there were only a few cars parked there. I selected a suitable spot, turned off the engine, and just sat there savouring what was about to happen. The first UK flightsim show in seven years! At last the moment had arrived that I had been dreaming about for so long since Covid shattered the RAF Cosford experience 😎 I sat in my car for about fifteen minutes, not really sure where the entrance was located, and also wondering if others had joined a queue. I made my decision when I saw another group of visitors wandering towards the green hangars. When I arrived at the entrance, there was one guy in the queue (the others were milling about chatting to each other, so I managed to get ahead of them). I started chatting to the guy at the front of the queue, and very soon more visitors started to arrive. Lots more! The doors opened slightly early at 9:45 AM, but by that time the queue stretched right into the car park and around the corner. This was a very encouraging sight, and an early indication of just how busy it was going to be throughout most of the day. After getting my ticket scanned, and receiving a wrist band (which I am still wearing), I decided to visit the Northwest Flight Simulator Group in the Aerospace Galleries (prior to making my way to the Concorde Hangar), as I knew that this was Ray Proudfoot's gang! I had a quick look at what they were doing, and noticed a quite nice looking joystick that they were using. Apparently, it was a WinCtrl flightstick, and I was surprised to hear that it only costs around £50-£60. The movement felt very nice. In fact, it reminded me of the REAL Airbus sidestick that I had used at the Salford Quays full motion flight simulation experience several years ago. I then made my way to the Concorde Hanger, and could not believe how busy it was already! The place was absolutely packed 😲 There were so many people there that it was extremely difficult at times to get close to a stall to see clearly what was on display! That being the case, I decided to wander around the full hangar, enjoying the atmosphere, the noise, the enthusiasm.....and Concorde. In fact, I was so distracted by all of the stands, people and noise that I actually failed to notice Concorde for a few minutes! It blended in with everything around it so well that it almost seemed to be part of the show itself, rather than a separate entity. Now, this brings me to an observation that I made over the weekend. There were a lot of people queueing for a chance to get inside Concorde over the two days of the show. Nothing wrong with that, but I could not help thinking that it was a bit of a distraction from the show itself. I did not anticipate that. Access was from the mezzanine level, where the auditorium and AvGeek hangar were located, and there was a permanent queue in this area. Maybe I am over thinking this, but I cannot help feeling that a flight simulation show should be entirely about flight simulation, rather than getting a quick peek inside what is admittedly a stunning and legendary aircraft. Anyway, back to the show. I stopped at the JustFlight stall to see what they currently had on offer. They were offering discounts on various products, and also pre-orders for two items that were being actively demonstrated (the JustFlight Airbus A300B4, and the Bluebird Simulations Boeing 757). These two airliners were available for hands on test flights and general exploration of the cockpit/systems/cabins etc. They both looked good, although I did not have a go myself! I have been thinking about the JustFlight Fokker 70/100 package for quite some time, but never pulled the trigger. This show was an opportunity to have a closer look at some of the promotional stuff, together with the added incentive of a £10 discount. I will come back to this topic a bit later..... It was at this point that I met Jon B for the first time. I had texted a description of myself to him, and he managed to find me at the JustFlight stand. What a great guy! I had many chats with him during the course of the weekend, and it was a pleasure to meet him. He was very interested in some of the JustFlight products, so I gave him the space to chat with the developers, and had another wander around the hangar. Some of you may be surprised to learn that Deadstick (the bush flight simulator) was on prominent display at the show. This product seems to have been in development for centuries, and I guess that most people thought that it was exactly what it states on the tin. DEAD. However, visitors to the show were able to get hands on with the product, and I watched the on screen pilot walking around an airfield, entering FBOs and hangars, and interacting with objects and equipment. I must admit that, despite only flying airliners for quite some time, I have always had an interest in this product. It is something a bit different, although I must admit that I am not a fan of tail draggers! Whatever the case, it was good to see them. I really wish them all the best. I was hoping to meet up with friends from previous flightsim shows at this event, and I was not disappointed. After another short wander around the hangar, I finally re-united with Raul Morales (SimBol; FSReborn developer) and Kevin Firth. Ironically, this was right in front of the Deadstick stand, so I had completed one additional circuit of the show before landing right next to them! Raul was deep in discussion with someone, but Kevin saw me immediately. It was fantastic to see them both for the first time in seven years. The last time that I had seen both of them was at Cosford 2019, when Kevin and I were actively promoting the AI Lights Reborn Professional Edition for P3D. How times have changed since then! Raul was very happy to see me, and I also met one of his current beta testers (Torsten, who lives in Germany). I also met Steve Waite again (Ideal Flight) and his lovely wife. I had previously met him at RAF Cosford back in the day, and we generally enjoyed a meal together with Kevin Firth on the night before what were then single day events. It was great to see you again, Steve 👍 I have to be honest here, and say that the sheer number of people at the show at this point was somewhat overwhelming. I felt a bit lost in a sea of activity, and I found myself wandering rather aimlessly at times. Fortunately, that wandering brought me back towards the JustFlight stand just in time to see Erich Berner. He was also involved with the promotion of AI Lights Reborn Professional Edition in October 2019. Unfortunately, he was only there for a quick visit, and he had to leave a short time later. Nevertheless, it was great to see him, and hopefully it will not be another seven years before we all see each other again! By mid afternoon, I was a bit lost. I did not really know where to go, or what to look at. I bumped into Jon B again, and he said that he was on his way to the auditorium for the EFBx presentation by Katie Pilot. I decided to do the same, more as a change of pace and scenery than anything else. However, the presentation was interesting. Like many others, I had assumed that EFBx was just another EFB (presumably with more detail to make it stand out from the crowd), but it seems that it is a lot more than that. It seems to be a utility that takes a lot of different aspects of flight preparation (that are currently done by multiple different software products), and combines them into one. Now, I want to mention the goodie bag at this point. I had forgotten to collect this (actually, I did not know where to go to get it), so I headed back to the Aerospace Galleries to ask where I needed to go. It was actually in the same area where I had visited the Northwest Flightsim Group at the start of the day. However, when I opened it, all it contained was a bunch of flyers that were freely available to anyone at the event, and an IniBuilds lanyard. I was genuinely puzzled by this. I was rather hoping for something that could be used towards purchase of a product (for example, a £5 or £10 IniBuilds discount voucher). The only voucher that was in there was a 10% discount JustFlight one, which was great, but these could be picked up by anyone at the show, thereby making the goodie bag rather pointless. I met up with Raul and Torsten again later in the afternoon, and we all had a look inside Concorde. I had already been inside a Concorde (G-BOAA) at East Fortune museum in Scotland (east of Edinburgh), so I knew what to expect. The cockpit and cabin look very narrow and claustrophobic. In fact, I am not sure that I would have felt all that relaxed in such a restricted environment at 60,000 feet! I left the show on that day with mixed feelings. It was great to meet up with my old friends, and meet a couple of new ones. However, I felt a bit lost at times as I wandered around. I was rather hoping that some other AVSIM members would notice the UK2000 beta tester ID card around my neck, as it would have been nice to talk about a few UK2000 airports with other users. Maybe the card was just too small and indistinct? Later that evening, I enjoyed a meal with Jon B in the hotel restaurant, where we discussed the day's events, and what to expect on Sunday. We had a meet up with Howard (Rocky 53) planned for the café at 11:45 AM, and I wanted to listen to a presentation in the auditorium before that. Other than that, I was hoping that Sunday would be a more productive and satisfying day for me.... I arrived at Aerospace Bristol on Sunday morning at 8:40 AM. I sat in the car until 9 AM, and then made my way to the front entrance. This time I was in my rightful place at the head of the queue 😁 There were nowhere near as many people waiting in line when the doors opened at 9:50 AM, although it was a bit colder than Saturday! Jon B had joined the queue when it was very short, so we both made our way directly across to the Concorde Hangar. I wanted to see what the place looked like before all the visitors arrived. As it happens, Sunday was a lot quieter than Saturday, and the entire place felt more relaxed and accessible. We made our way across to the JustFlight stand again, but I left Jon there in discussion with one of the developers. I had the opportunity to see more of the products on display without a thousand people in front of me, so it was more comfortable and enjoyable. I made my way around to the PC Pilot stand, and noticed that they were offering free copies of slighty older issues to anyone who provided a name and email address. I decided to "sign up", mainly because I wanted to let them know that I had written a couple of articles for PC Pilot way back in August 2002 (Issue 18; Flight Unlimited 2) and October 2003 (Issue 25; Flight Unlimited 3 freeware). That was before their time, and they were not familiar with the name of the assistant editor at the time (Mark Embleton, who has subsequently worked for JustFlight for at least twelve years). I was hoping to see him again at this show, but he was not there ☹️ I then headed for the auditorium on the mezzanine level. A presentation by Ben Weston (Airline2Sim) was scheduled for 11 AM, and I really wanted to see it. I was happy to hear that Ben was back in business with existing and upcoming products, and I wanted to connect with him again. I met him at my second flightsim show at RAF Cosford in October 2015 (the same time that I met Kevin Firth), and I thought that he was a really nice guy. I had not seen him for probably ten years, but he instantly knew who I was as soon as I had sat down. It was great to meet up again, and I genuinely want to see his business prosper. I enjoyed the presentation. I had his Dash 8Q-400 product back in the day, and his "step by step" instructional videos with a real world pilot of the aircraft were excellent. After the presentation had ended, I returned to the JustFlight stand to find Jon B. We were scheduled to meet Howard at 11:45 AM in the café, but I had enough time to ask Richard (one of the JustFlight team) about whether the 10% discount flyer was in addition to the already £10 show discount. It was.....but he went one step further. Let's just say that he offered me a deal that I could not refuse 😉 Since it was 11:45 at that point, I said that I would be back after visiting the café to "sign the papers". Jon and I made our way across to the café to find Howard. Fortunately, Jon had Howard's contact information, and we also knew what Howard looked like from his AVSIM avatar. He waved to us from the far end of the café, and we met him for the first time. Yet another lovely guy, and an absolute pleasure to talk to. We also met his friend Bernard at the same time. We discussed the show and flight simulation in general, and that expanded to other areas of discussion that were very interesting indeed. After enjoying a coffee, we all made our way back to the Concorde Hangar, and I returned to the JustFlight stand to complete the purchase of the Fokker 70/100 Professional package. I have since downloaded the two aircraft, but I have not installed them yet. However, that will be done this week, and then I will need to take some time to study and test them. I will provide an update of my thoughts and experiences regarding these two aircraft at a later date 😉 I had another relaxed walk around the various exhibits, and met Howard again at the Octavi stand. He was very interested in the Octavi IFR1, which is a little unit that enables the user to access all major avionics instruments (presumably on a GA plane) from a single device. When he had completed his investigation of this, we both went to have a look at the 744 Experience stand. We started chatting with Dan Chang, and he explained what it was all about. It seems that there are two options. One is the flight simulation experience in the cockpit of a Boeing 747-400. This has a massive 12 metres by 4 metres curved projector screen for the display (which looks seamless). The simulator is run through PSX for systems accuracy, with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 providing the graphics for the outside world. I bet that looks fantastic when you are sitting in the cockpit! The other option seems to be a "business class" experience. They have a full cabin section with multiple business class seats, and you are treated as business class passengers with all of the food and service you could expect with a business class ticket on a real world airliner. Very interesting indeed. I decided at that point that we needed a selfie with Jon, so I went looking for him 🙂 Howard took the photo in front of the 744 Experience stand, with Concorde in the background. With Jon and Howard's permission, I will post a link to that photo at a later date. It was getting to the stage where I was thinking about my journey home. It had taken 6.5 hours to get to Bristol (mainly because of the two traffic jams in Manchester and Birmingham), and the thought of experiencing the same delays on the way home was not a comforting one. I met Ben Weston again shortly before leaving, and we discussed various things (UK2000 beta testing, upcoming Airline2Sim products etc). I introduced Jon to him, as the next Airline2Sim product is the Boeing 787-9 (with a real world TUI captain). I wish Ben the very best of luck with that, and his other upcoming products. It was coming up to 3 PM by then, and time to depart. I thanked Jon for his company and generosity over the weekend, and texted Howard to let him know that I was leaving. Thankfully, the traffic on the journey home was nowhere near as bad as on Friday (I made the transition from M5 to M6 without even realising it; no messing about on that back street called the M42), and arrived home at 7 PM after only four hours. Thank you to everyone who made my visit to FSim UK 2026 such a pleasure. I look forward to meeting you all again in 2027! EDIT: I also got the chance to let Calum (FS Elite) know about a slight issue with the SoFly LWOH Ohrid St Paul the Apostle airport (runway hold short signs state "02-19" instead of "01-19"). A minor issue, but important that they are corrected.

See my report that will be posted shortly 😉

.........and the trees/terrain mesh/vector data/seasons.

Most settings are HIGH. I am not even sure if ULTRA makes all that much of a difference visually on my 24" screen.

There are some people who would criticise the Sun for rising every day.

....except that I do not limit the framerate, and do not use frame generation.

They are definitely close to a release.

Taxiing in the 777 feels OK to me. It is the 737 that can feel a bit "shopping trolley" when making subtle adjustments during take off and landing. However, even that feels generally fine to me 95% of the time.

JustFlight have confirmed that both the Bluebird Simulations 757 and the JustFlight Airbus A300B4 can be pre-ordered at FSim UK 2026

JustFlight have confirmed that both the Bluebird Simulations 757 and the JustFlight Airbus A300B4 can be pre-ordered at FSim UK 2026.