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Only 20 hours until 10,000 logged hours of flight simulation. Since 1982. Business career caused some periods of inactivity.

Hi Everyone! Whether it be to late or not, there always is time to answer, or at the least ponder, the following question: "What would my dream sim be like?" For the simple... What would you want in it? How you want it to work with your system? How complex do you really want it to get? And in comparison to modern technological advancements... how ethical is it? For the computer professionals... How would you want the integrated code to manipulate the system? What are some key points of optimization? But most importantly, whether DoveTail makes something half decent, or whether a company comes out of the shadows with an unimaginably beautiful sim, how much should we rely on them? Would it be a good idea to hire an experimental community of coders (with previous flight simulation experience) to help these companies add to the sims? I know it sounds like pure speculation, but that is not what I am asking of you. I genuinely want to hear your opinions. And not so much opinions actually, but, rather, more like visions. I am tired of so many companies coming out with amazing concepts... with overpowering cons. With that said, I ask you... what is a dream sim in your perspective? What do you think is the future of Flight Simulation?

In all the fracas last week due to the advertising exploit issues and system fix, we totally forgot the user voting for the first ever Einstein Award. The community voted and the results are in! Holger Sandmann has been voted by his peers and community members the first recipient of this award. Congratulations Holger! Here is the text that accompanies the award and that you can read in Holger's award list. "The AVSIM Community nominated and then voted Holger the Einstein Award for continuing brillance and focused contributions to our hobby. As a result of that vote and in recognition of many years of contributions to the hobby, we congratulate Holger on being the FIRST Einstein recipient. Dr. Albert Einstein was a person of brillance and possessed a singular focus on his interests. In the case of Dr. Einstein, it was physics. As this award is presented to Holger, it means the same; that a brillant and focused contributor to our hobby has been duly recognized and presented this award." This post has been promoted to an article

Saw the latest blog announcement about POSCON that they are officially out of beta and they have a lot of new updates! The network has been quiet lately but it seems they are very active and "in the game". I know Android when starting off didn't become popular for sometime but now it is a major player in the market against Apple's iOS... a similar thing is happening here it seems. What do you all think about POSCON? Here is their latest announcement: https://forums.poscon.net/blogs/entry/15-december-2021-update/

JK! But damn it wouldn't that be great. They ought to take the Flight skeleton (mostly dynamics) and pair it with some basic graphics. That base with their fleet all for under $150. I would be sold in a heartbeat. ...and now back to life.

Those who watch the flight sim world carefully will have noticed a growing trend in our world where products are concerned, namely the dispensing with any level of testing of products before they are released. I'm not going to debate whether this is good or bad for our community, just point out that is likely has become the norm for paying customers to perform work traditionally done by the developer, which means the customer are paying to become testers of the products themselves. As an experienced tester of flight sim products, I note today that a product was released that has so many discrepancies that it would have never been released by the developers I normally work with - problems that were so easy to find (they literally jump out at you) and correct that I could have resolved the 20 or so issues myself in less than an hour effort, which begs the question why did the develop not even check his own product before release? I would have been embarrassed to release a product with the number of easy to spot and resolve problems as this product has, and I'd have been embarrassed to say I was on the testing team (though I seriously doubt there was one). Now the flip side of this means that we'll get products faster, and if the developers act quickly to correct issues identified by customers will get error free software faster. Again, I'm not weighing in on whether this practice is good or bad for the community, it's really up to individuals to say for themselves. But what I will way is that given the number of products I'm seeing that had little or no testing (and I promise that the number of products is likely larger than most of our community knows), I do believe that developers should tell customers if the product has or has not been tested when it's released. I believe that's the fair, honest, and honorable thing to do. NOTE: Late last year FSFX released an Alpha version of Chase Plane to the community. They were upfront about the product being in Alpha, yet the product was so highly functional that most all users thoroughly loved it. I had the opportunity to become familiar with this product for a few months before it was released, and I personally voted for the release. The way FSFX released it was terrific, and I believe that FSFX established a model for how and when an Alpha or Beta should be released to paying customers. Now, I have to be honest (and I always will), Chase Plane was at the level that most tested payware is when it's released - the guys at FSFX are just so open and honest that in their eyes it was a Alpha. I've been in the flight sim community for well over 30 years, and I'm very happy to see our community growing like it's presently doing - everyone should be! But growth means changes, and not all of them will be good. We also have developers who are younger and younger, and while talented they lack a little experience and are quick to jump to decisions with their products. Without the presence of standards or a body to weigh in on important matters (which will likely never happen), it's up to the paying customers to decide what is, or isn't' acceptable. Okay, post now officially far too long. Thank you for listening.

Hello, My name is Brandon, aka "Pinncom2016" and I am a flight simmer. I am apart a small community of enthusiast who all enjoy flying. Mostly online with others and in the real world. A few years back, I was homeless. I did not know where my next meal was going to come from, living out of my car and moving from shelter to shelter just to keep warm for the winter. I have since moved on from that dark past and have my own place and a great job as a web developer and I wanted to give back to those that have helped me along the way. I will be filming a series of flights covering over 58,000 nm (nautical miles) to raise awareness for the homeless and homeless families in America. Let's get together and do something that has been overlooked in America and across the globe! All donations and proceeds will go to the Homeless Families Foundation and the National Alliance to End Homelessness (forgot to mention in my first video) to help them feed and shelter the homeless across the continental U.S. With your help let's try and reach our goal to raise $2500 for each foundation. Thank you so much for the support and I hope I can continue doing more campaigns that can change the world. Pinncom2016 Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/cookbn1 Link to the Gofundme account: gofund.me/mzhfytnk Links for each organization: Homeless Families Foundation: http://www.homelessfamiliesfoundation.com/ National Alliance to End Homelessness: http://www.endhomelessness.org/

I was thinking of buying a 737 overhead panel, and was comparing some of the different products being offered. I looked at the scaled-down VRInsight V737 Overhead, plus kits from other manufacturers, and stumbled on the ultimate flight simulation experience. I warn you, DO NOT CLICK on the link in this article if you are happy with your current flight deck - because this kit is a game-changer. Quite reasonably priced at below 300,000 Euros and available for immediate delivery! Be sure to expand the image to full-screen view! Seriously? I want this sooooo bad!

A 48 Hour Deal has started on Just Flight, for Airbus Collection Long Haul (Download) for just £5/€6/$8 – this ends at 2pm (UK TIME) on Saturday 7 June http://www.justflight.com/product/airbus-collection-long-haul-download

Not sure if you chaps have seen this already, but i found it a mildly distracting review regarding the history of our beloved franchise. I didn't make the video, nor have any relationship to the individual who did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff07H0xRRKM I also rather enjoy the "John Dunbar Theme" music from "Dances with Wolves"

http://steamcommunity.com/games/dovetailgamesflightschool/announcements/detail/896590187165973021

Greetings Everyone, My wife has a client who is well on his way to opening a true Flight Simulator museum at the Boundary Bay Airport, in Delta BC, Canada. I just thought I would pass along the info she gave to me tonight as they are starting to look for Founding Members. I am sure as it has to do with simulators, it would be of interest to many on Avsim. Cheers, Brendan Keith NAMOFS.pdf