JaneRachel

Guys, I wanted to share with you some of the content on offer at Flight Angels if you want to bid for a flight sim, train sim, or even truck sim bargain. Yes, you read right, PMDG are full partners in the event and will be offering 5 lucky people licence keys to be amongst the first people in the world to fly the much awaited new Boeing 747-400 from PMDG (Rob will also be there live to discuss with you all and share live news of new products!!) Our friends at Dovetail are also partnering and sponsoring a flight leg and Matt Peddlesden from DTG is on hand to discuss everything flight and train from Dovetail, along with a massive giveaway of FSX:SE Steam Keys, copies of Train Simulator 2016, over 100 train simulation DLC items from Steam and much more - and for the train fans, 25 of you will be lucky winners of TS2017 Pioneer edition that also includes a beta access for the new TrainSim world from Dovetail!! Thank you so much Dovetail for your generosity and support! ORBX, another official partner at the event also have a fabulous giveaway - 20 lucky winners will each receive 10 ORBX products of their choice - yes 10 ORBX products from their catalogue of YOUR choice for 20 lucky people! A2A Simulations, are also partner and sponsor and are going to be giving one very very lucky winner on the day their entire product catalogue - yes every plane and pack that A2A have ever produced will be going to a lucky winner! Their is also the opportunity to bid on copies of each and every one of their aircraft, with all bids going to the charities! Aerosoft are running a special sale over the weekend at www.aerosoft.com with proceeds going to the charity! Thank you guys! - Amongst other items, they are running special offers on airport scenery, the Aerosoft F-16 and more!! (we have F-16 pilot Col Champagne with us on the day!) Mathis Kok is also going to be making a very special live chat on the weekend - Those who know Mathijs know he is an incredibly engaging speaker! Thank you Mathijs! Did I tell you also that our friends and partners at IRIS are also offering their entire catalogue to lucky winners on the day - if that is not enough, they will also be offering the winners free access to all new releases for the next year! The amazing people at Just Flight are also running some very special product sales - watch this space for a special announcement The lovely people at Key Publishing are offering some very special yearly subscriptions to magazines such as PC Pilot Magazine! thank you guys! If you love Truck Simulator (and who doesn't!) - the world's leading simulation publisher Excalibur, are offering scores of keys for their entire product range, including Euro Truck Simulator and American Truck Simulator If you think this is all the prizes or companies involved on the day, i am just getting warmed up - watch this space as there is so much more to discuss! I would also like to thank AVSIM for their generosity, support and partnership in this event - we couldn't do it without you. I would also like to thank our official partner VATSIM for all that they are doing - watch their skies for some Flight Angels action! The wonderful guys at YouTube are also official partners for this event and are doing a ton of work behind the scenes in making this a reality for us all and promoting the event! Thank you YouTube! How do you win this stuff, visit www.flight-angels.com where we will be running a 24 hour YouTube live stream (you can view the stream live at that webpage immediately the event starts) We start at 7PM Eastern (midnight UK) this Friday and will be running for a full 24 hours. Again, all proceeds go to the children's charities, so please make use of the donate buttons on the page. It is not hyperbole to say that every penny, cent and euro helps some very deserving kids! Thank you to all our supporters and partners (and yes we have more to announce!) and thank you all for being there. This is simply the biggest flight sim and aviation event in history - let's make it the biggest donation to sick kids around the world in simulation and aviation history!! Jane This post has been promoted to an article

Hey Christopher it will be a pleasure to meet you too! I really care about helping kids and the disabled. As many of you know, I no longer hide the fact that I am likely the worlds only conjoined Siamese twin in flight simulation! I had over 40 surgeries as a kid so I care deeply to help others. You can read a bit about it in the interview here and understand why I do what I do http://www.develop-online.net/press-releases/life-rsquo-s-a-game-for-pioneer-jane/0223942

Guys, I am being serious now, after 14 years in this industry at PC Pilot Magazine and heaven knows what else, I had to share what was the most memorable, phenomenal experience in the sim I ever had. I am really really serious and was bursting to share! Last night, in rehearsal for Flight Angels next Saturday myself and the streamers, Bel Geode, NovaWing24, Catstrator and others were introduced to Colonel Doug Champagne, the USA's most decorated serving fighter pilot and we had a preview of his presentation for next weekend. He discussed his interception flights in 9/11, how the whole skies of the US went quiet that night apart from military patrols, the eeriness and horror of that day we remember today. He was a real hero of 9/11 and organised the entire combat air patrols for the USA in the response, in his role as a senior Colonel. He spoke of being in the air as the Towers were hit and diverted to respond. It was very very very moving. All of the streamers, including myself were deeply moved by his story - they actually applauded him and thanked him for his service at the end in tears - and this was supposed to be the staff rehearsal. He also spoke at length on flying in both Iraq wars with the A-10 and F-16, special forces close air support and so many many other stories. He was supposed to be addressing us for one hour, but we ended up talking for four (I blame Bel Geode who kept asking the questions :-)) ) That was followed by the Colonel demonstrating the F-16 in the simulation, talking through the avionics, his combat missions and actually repeating missions live in the simulator teaching combat flight techniques. Guess who went up in a Cessna, airliner and a MiG in multiplayer to be shot down and intercepted by the Colonel every time. It was quite simply the most incredible experience I have EVER EVER had in flight simulation, so I didn't want you guys to miss his talks next weekend. Again, this is the most decorated current fighter pilot with over 43 combat medals, the Air Medal with nine oak leaf clusters etc etc! This isn't a cynical push to promote the event, it is genuinely me and the streamers completely blown away by our experience last night and genuinely and passionately don't want you to miss out on talking with and seeing demonstrations from the most engaging and charismatic pilot I have ever know. We were simply blown away. That is serious, totally heartfelt, most of you guys have known me for years and that I mean stuff. He has given up the entire weekend of next weekend to be with us (and has special military permission! not to be called away!!) as he cares passionately. He has a severely disabled child himself and wants to help us raise money for disabled kids. Please please, try and find time to be there and support Colonel Champagne. You can watch the YouTube livestream chats with him at www.flight-angels.com. For a small donation, you can also take part in special invite only workshops where he will be demonstrating the F-16 training sim on live feed! Again, this is not marketing, not today of all days. We were just so moved by meeting one of the aviation heroes of 9/11 we had to share this with you hand on heart as the streamers will tell you, it is an incredible experience to find out exactly what happened in the air that day and the bravery and courage of those involved. He has special Pentagon permission to discuss the events from the airforce perspective! I salute Colonel Champagne and his squadron who responded on the day of infamy.

thank you so much for that! I look forward to seeing you there. I am so excited by all this personally too! What is going to be really exciting is that Col Doug Champagne (America's most decorated current serving fighter pilot) and Col Hardy from the Tuskegee airmen will be sitting together sharing stories for all of us too. I think that will be just phenomenal! More news from other developers and publishers coming too! There is so much going on!

Guys, I just had to share this release with you, as I think it will be of massive interest! It is with the greatest of pleasure that we can announce that the superlative team at A2A Simulations have joined us as a partner in Flight Angels 2016, the charity aviation online telethon of the decade. The company have also announced their biggest ever giveaway over the charity weekend. A lucky bidder at the event can walk away with the entire A2A catalogue of aircraft and products, be it Accu-Sim, Wings of Power or Aircraft Factory releases. “It is our largest charity giveaway in the history of A2A Simulations” enthused Lewis Bloomfield of A2A, “and all for such a fabulous cause to help seriously ill and disadvantaged children. It is the first time we have ever offered our entire catalogue as a single prize to one winner!” If you don’t win the star prize of the entire catalogue of releases, fear not, as the company have also made available scores of copies of each of their aircraft that can be bidded on individually. “We are also making all of our product line available to bidders on the weekend, which will be perfect for the Tuskegee Tribute part of the event!” added Lewis On the Saturday evening of the event and sponsored by A2A, there will be a very special simulation fly-in where people are invited to fly a P-40 or P-51 Mustang aircraft flying to Tuskegee Airfield as a very special salute for the brave Tuskegee airmen of World War 2. Both of the aircraft are, of course, part of the A2A stable of products. The Tuskegee Tribute flight will also be attended by the real Tuskegee airmen, including Colonel George Hardy, who flew over 21 escort and strafing missions during World War 2, flying his Mustang in close combat. Colonel Hardy retired after also seeing combat in the Korean and Vietnamese wars with the Flying Cross with Valor, the Air Medal with 11 oak leaf clusters and the Commendation Medal. We are so delighted to sponsor the Tuskegee Tribute flight using A2A aircraft”, says Lewis, “and thrilled to have Tuskegee veterans and Colonel Hardy as guests on our live stream to share their memories with us all. What an incredible opportunity to meet the real heroes of aviation” Flight Angels 2016 takes place on Friday 16th September for a full 24 hour live stream from midnight UK Time (4PM US Pacific Time) for a full 24 hours of flying, special events, celebrity guest interviews, prizes and so much more in the largest charity simulation event ever! Join us and donate to the children at www.flight-angels.com The event will be hosted by major streamers, including Froogle and Novawing24!

a huge thank you to Doofer99 for sharing this heartfelt video with his views on the event. Totally unscripted and from the heart. Please take the time to watch as he explains things so well!

Guys, A fabulous video on how you can participate over the weekend, even if you just want to watch and donate. Lots of speakers and guests over the weekend, including live questions with Dovetail, Aerosoft and others about their future plans! Don't forget also Americas most decorated contemporary fighter pilot Colonel Champagne will be there over the weekend demonstrating his F-16! Col Hardy, one of the last surviving Tuskegee Mustang pilots from World War 2 will be there to chat with you all too! Also we have Concorde pilots, Boeing pilots and so much stuff! A huge thanks to everyone supporting this event with promotion, software prizes and so much more, including Just Flight, Aerosoft, Dovetail, the amazing people at AVSIM, our partners over at VATSIM, Froogle and an army of streamers and FS related websites. I can also now officially announce that Google and YouTube are also official partners of the event! I cannot thank you all enough. This weekend is going to be amazing! Remember every single penny donated goes to the kids! Without further ado, here is the video, which is fabulous and explains so much better than me! The website is at www.flight-angels.com and we are now open for donations directly to the children's charities at that page! thank you so much everyone! Jane Whittaker

just so that you guys are aware, I am really excited to announce that three World War 2 veterans of the Tuskegee airmen squadron will be joining us over the weekend for live chat and a Q and A with you all! All three flew both the P-40 and P-51 Mustang and will be sharing their memories of those amazing aircraft. I would also like to thank AVSIM and the entire team for partnering with us on this event! www.flight-angels.com Jane

guys, some stuff you couldn't make up! I was just amazingly privileged to have lunch with, wait for it.... solo Everest summiteer, solo Atlantic rower, solo around the world cyclist, aviation enthusiast, multiple world adventure record holder James Ketchell! James is extremely enthusiastic about the Flight Angels event and will be talking to us live over the weekend, speaking to us on the move as he cycles right around the UK on another charity adventure! Its a fabulous opportunity for you all to talk to James about climbing Everest solo or rowing around the world in a tiny rowing boat or his love of aviation! So excited, for the amazing people getting involved with the weekend!

I can't wait to get in to the pilot's seat and kick off the weekend. Pilots get in to the air because it allows them the ultimate freedom, to break the shackles of daily life, to literally ascend to the stars. In the cockpit, your troubles become as small as the houses below. Flight Angels 2016 does the same thing for deserving children. Every penny we raise helps the children break free from their issues, empowering each and every one of them to reach for the heavens with their goals and aspirations. They are carried on the wings of the pilots, aviation enthusiasts and everyone who donates during the event. The true Flight Angels!

guys, the official twitter account for the event, hosted by the charity guys is now up and running! Please follow @FlightAngels16 for the latest around the clock live updates!

thank you so much Mike, we are so excited about both helping the kids and showcasing our community to the wide world. Its an amazing opportunity for us all Jane thank you so much Bill for being such a big part of what we do!

Chuck, I appreciate it very much! As always AVSIM have always been so kind and supportive with all of our events. It means such a lot, thank you so much!

incidentally, I love your doggy avatar Will :-)

looking forward to having you with us Will, you are very welcome!

Guys, Froogle, Novawing24, a whole army of streamers, the Serious Fun Childrens Charity, the Vision of Flight Charity, Over The Wall Charity and myself have been working behind the scenes for a long time to create the world's largest online charity event in the history of flight sim. Incidentally, that is not hyperbole, starting this week, there will be worldwide press and marketing through the mainstream press and media! This is a BIG event. For those who don't know the SeriousFun children's charity, it was founded by Paul Newman and is THE celebrity charity in the world that supports children. They have an A-list of people involved including Tom Hanks, Danny De Vito, Kenneth Brannagh, Harrison Ford and many many others! The SeriousFun guys are throwing their full weight behind the event and running this as a partnership event. It makes it very big league indeed! Ok so what is happening? Froogle and the other guys will be live streaming a full telethon from 7PM Eastern, midnight UK on the 16th September, running right through in to the Sunday morning. We have scores of celebrity guests from aviation and entertainment, but more on that later. There will also be an around the world flight which we invite all of you to donate and join. Please help here guys and lets show the outside world just how great our hobby is. This is our chance to showcase the hobby to the entire world, literally! So you can fly with us on the flight legs. There will also be famous pilots and celebrities flying on the flight legs in the sim too! all broadcast via live stream! If that were not enough, we have special events within the telethon that you can donate $5 and be able to subscribe to not just view but take part. For instance, $5 will get you in to a live Q and A session on Youtube with Colonel Doug Champagne, America's most decorated living fighter pilot! Most of you will know the Colonel already. On that fateful day on 9/11 Doug was scrambled in to the air with his F-16 and his squadron to intercept Flight 93. He was in the air for over 24 hours, just taking short refuelling breaks and flew the first EVER armed combat patrol over the continental United States, protecting cities such as Detroit, Chicago and New York. Those of you who remember the F-16s circling the skies that week, it was Col Champagne and his team! Doug also was part of the Desert Storm and flew the first sorties over Baghdad in 1991! After some months organising and flying everything from Airforce 1 escort to air patrols over US cities he was moved to Afghanistan and launched the campaign there, spearheading the air assaults. In 2003 he was relocated to patrol the no fly zones over Iraq ahead of the second Gulf War and took down the SAM's ahead of the first wave of coalition aircraft entering Iraqi skies, of which he was also part. Doug flew over 500 hours on live combat missions during these historic days. He transferred to leading the US Air Force A-10 squadrons circa 2005 and in 2007 flew close air support for Special Forces in the Battle of Fallujah, flying low level fire support missions across the battlefield. Since that date he has continued to fly both the F-16 and A-10 in numerous sorties around the globe - some he can't tell you about! Not only will Doug answer your questions (and the man says he will be there the entire marathon without any sleep to make sure he can answer all questions on military aviation, Doug will also be demonstrating the F-16 and A-10 in the sim (Aerosoft F-16 in FSX and DCS A-10) with full live commentary and responding to the input from you guys. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet an incredible man. It is not without reason the world's press are getting involved! As exciting as that is, that is not all, not even close. We also have by my calculation over 20 other fighter and bomber pilots who will be present over the weekend and willing to talk to you and even fly in the sim flights with us all! Everything from Harrier to Vulcan to F-14 Tomcat pilots and crew! I am immensely excited to publicly announce too, the participation of many of the surviving Tuskegee airmen! They will be present over the weekend, many in their 90s now to share their stories with you of flying Mustangs and P-40s in World War 2 in live Q and A. Another incredible honour that has attracted worldwide media interest as this is a very special reunion indeed. During their presentation, I encourage all of you guys to join me on a special online flight which will be streamed in the background where we can fly the Mustang and P-40 in FSX in their honour in an aerial armada of simmers honouring these guys as they chat with us! It is a worldwide first. For those in to civil aviation, you are not left out, there is also the opportunity to take your ticket to join a cockpit demonstration of the Concorde, with actual British Airways Concorde pilots flying the sim, commentating to you throughout and answering your questions. There will also be workshops on flying both the Airbus and Boeing aircraft. I have been collared to talk about the Boeing 777! The list goes on and on, including competitions, prizes, other flying events. We also have partnered with VATSIM, Just Flight and other organisations for this event! To call it exciting is understatement. I have spoken enough, so please watch Froogle Pete's Youtube video below and let him describe this incredible weekend to you! https://youtu.be/LtuN2WlZuNc Guys, let's make it a weekend to remember and really raise some money for disabled and terminally ill kids! ok here is Jane Whittaker's call to action - please all help with this guys! 1) Obvious this one, but please attend the event and donate all you can. Every penny and cent you donate goes straight to the children 2) If you are in a virtual airline or run a virtual airline and want to get involved please contact us. We would love for some VA's to "take ownership" of some of the flight legs to fly with their guys on VATSIM. We will of course fully support and publicise your VA throughout all the media of the event and through the live hosted commentary during the weekend. (Froogle and the other guys will have sore throats from their constant telethon hosting!!). So again, if you are a VA we want to partner with you! 3) If you are a developer or publisher who wants to be involved, please let us know we are happy to accommodate you. For instance Turbulent Designs (the developer of ORBX Melbourne et al) and Bill Womack will be showcasing their new releases over the weekend! The amazing people at Just Flight have provided us with software prizes for attendees and their entire catalogue will be available to people attending at very special rates!! So developers and publishers we want you involved too please for full credit. Not only are you helping the kids, remember this is not just a flight sim only event, the most celebrity supported children's charity in the world are ensuring worldwide publicity for the event! 4) Please ensure that you support our special guests and attend the special events and give them a real flight sim community welcome. We are hoping too to encourage people from outside the hobby to take an interest in what we do, which helps us all build our community! 5) If you have a flight simulation or aviation related website please publicise this event for us, we would very much appreciate it. 6) Please share news of this event on any social media that you use, it will really help us! I want the flight sim community to really show the world how incredible we are. The truth is we are an incredible bunch. After 20 years in the community and over 14 as Deputy Editor of PC Pilot Magazine I know so many of you whom I am proud to call friends. We are simply the best and I mean that! 7) Anything else you can do to make this event a success, please make it happen A reminder of the URL - you can donate and watch the streams from here:- www.flight-angels.com This post has been promoted to an article This post has been promoted to an article

Hey Chris, Dangerous is indeed a whole new mission pack as is Cargo Crew. Both are newly created from scratch by myself and my team for Steam distribution. I will also point out, that sales of both packs support little Rosie Davies, an 8 year old who has had both legs amputated, is paralysed below the waist and has also had her stomach, bowel and a kidney removed. For instance, sales of Dangerous Approaches this week paid for her a special medical bed and she has also had hydrotherapy treatments and other medical support from my royalties for Dangerous Approaches and Cargo Crew. EVERY sale of either title supports Rosie! Incidentally, if you don't have FSX:SE you can get Cargo Crew and FSX:SE in a bundle together, which is heavily discounted or a triple pack of Cargo, Dangerous Approaches or FSX:SE, which is also discounted heavily. Jane

Guys, I have had PM's from a number of you who don't have FSX:SE as to how they can donate for little Rosie Davies (if you don't know her yet, please read at the link below!) I have set up a direct donation campaign. All the funds raised on the funding web page go direct to Rosie. My mission packs for FSX:SE will continue to support her. Nothing is changing there. This just gives you another option of helping a wonderful little girl that the flight simulation community are already taking to their hearts! http://www.gofundme.com/o54h1k thank you all your incredible support. Jane Whittaker

I have always found this to be such a wonderful community here. I have quite honestly made as many long term friends here as I have with my work at PC Pilot Magazine. You go to so many forums these days and it is all rants and swearing. Here, you get to hang out with good people with a passion for our hobby.

these performance tests were done by Richard Benedikz for the magazine and I will pass your comments on to him in the hope that he can reply in detail to you.

hey Rick, I will PM you.

Guys, Just to let you all officially know, my Dangerous Approaches pack for FSX:SE has now been released on Steam. To quickly answer some queries that have come privately to my mailbox. Yes, these are fully fledged missions, with everything that goes with that (not flight plans!) and also includes full achievement rewards and professional voiceovers from a lovely lady who many of you may recognise from television in the USA. There should be a video promo released by Dovetail today. This is the first DLC pack actually written for FSX:SE and is myself and Dovetail in partnership (no other publisher or group are involved). It is a whole new product and not re-releases of existing classic FSX titles. You can fly the missions with any aircraft. My idea has been to support both new users to FSX who only have the default planes and those of us who fly complex add-ons. There is more detail on this here:- http://forum.avsim.net/topic/460937-dovetails-initiative/page-2#entry3176740 Here is a link to the Steam page for those who are interested:- http://store.steampowered.com/app/343955/?snr=1_5_1100__1100 There are a ton of other things in the pipeline that I cannot discuss yet, but I will mention some whole new aircraft collaborations with the wonderfully talented Daniel Dunn! Thanks for all the support and best wishes in my mailbox. I appreciate it and will respond to you all personally too. Please bear with me thanks everyone! Jane

thanks Robin, That is very kind of you to say that. I appreciate it. I am always around as I love being part of this community. In my 13 years at PC Pilot Magazine I have made many friends, both developers and consumer. So this hobby is special to me. Jane

hey Peter, There is a little tick box that you can select in the missions selection page that allows you to fly any aircraft on the approaches. It doesn't break the mission in any way, you still get all the voiceovers (it has a professional actress who is wonderful!), GPS flight plans (with embedded SID and STAR etc). All the mission completion and custom stuff in each mission still works fine. I made a point of coding each mission specifically for that flexibility. The only thing that you don't get if you swap aircraft is the trophy reward for the landing in your pilots log. Each landing awards a medal that is recorded permanently there. I had a lot of fun getting them all. The reason that the medals are not awarded if you change aircraft. That solves an exploit where cheating with something such as the ultralight (which would make the approaches easier) to record the landing doesn't award the trophy. That matters, because the missions are multi-player compatible and during beta people were challenging each other in multiplayer sessions to see who could land the best and get the awards. So no cheating allowed! The team at Dovetail spent many hours trying their hand at various approaches, with office challenges happening every day! Gibraltar is a firm favourite! So yes, in a nutshell, you can fly what you want, whether you are new to FSX or want to fly PMDG. It only affects the logbook trophy for reasons described above. Everything else is fully functional regardless of aircraft. I flew Castlegar in Dangerous Approaches yesterday with the A2A B-17 and loved it! Dovetail tell me they are releasing a video today to websites of some of the approaches. (I think it is their way of justifying the office addiction to flying these approaches ) Thanks ever so much for the question Jane

thanks for that Robin, appreciated!