FSWeekend 2009

[Trevor Hale]

As many of you know, Fsweekend 2009 starts Saturday November 7th (Tomorrow) and runs through Sunday.  For those of you who are lucky enough to venture to this show, please gather lots of information for us unlucky folk that are stuck in the Northern COLD Tundra of Canada... Errr I mean those of us unable to attend.. . We will all be waiting eagerly to hear what you have to share with us when you return.  Most importantly though, we wish you all a safe drive/flight/walk/train/ adventure.

Trev

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

thanks trevor......
off in the morning 0430       leave it with me, loads of info coming up monday.
look forward to meeting everybody 
rgds ... ian

[Bob Reed]

Thank you Ian!!

[Hessel Oosten]

Till Tomorrow Everyone !

++++ FUN++++

Hessel

[PaulEMB]

Hi all,

Got back (to Belgium) an hour ago from spending the afternoon in Lelystad. It was my first visit, and I have to say I found the museum more interesting than the FS event.

This is probably because as I am building neither a Boeing or an Airbus, and there was a distinct lack of anything else, apart from the trusty C172.

Nevertheless, I met a few old friends, including Dieter Jakob, and his wife. Dieter has now retired from Lufthansa, and will be spending more time developing new products.

More than 50% of the event is dedicated to Dutch clubs, and AVSIM type organisations. There was an impressive array of new hardware on display, including some new suppliers, and an expanded range from existing ones.

Spanish suppliers OpenCockpits and Sismo had some interesting hardware on display, at reasonable prices.

I was sorry I had to drive back to Gent, as I have a feeling that the social side would have been of more interest, but maybe next year....

I'm sure Ian will give us a better review on Monday, and look forward to other contributions - at least the visit fired up my enthusiasm to get started on the ERJ again - there's not many of us about!

Best Regards,

Paul

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Thanks for the report. I'd probaby feel the same as you about attending the event.

I'd have more fun at a boneyard.

[ivar hestnes]

I am looking forward to see some pictures

waiting and waiting 

[Bob Reed]

Waiting and waiting.. Come on Paul get that ERJ back together!!

[PaulEMB]

Guys,

I posted a pic in the gallery from today, but cant figure how to put it in the post
G


Paul

[Trevor Hale]

Great Paul,  I added it for you.  what you do is, when viewing the picture in the gallery, right click it and select "copy image location"

Then in your post press the icon beside the "RED FLASH ICON" and paste the image location there.

Thats it.

Trev

[JWS]

I attended yesterday and it was great to meet a lot of other builders that are famous (or should I say "infamous" ), even had the pleasure to meet the great Pete Dowson. Spoke with a lot of vendors and had a chance to introduce my wife to some of you guys.
Furthermore saw my TQ (from Revolution) being showed (off) and I will be getting it next week.

Pitty that the round table discussion organised by the Dutch KLM VA wasn't what we had hoped for. Only few people showed up (they must have known I was coming) so we called it a day and had a private chat ourselves.

Grtz.

JWS

[Trevor Hale]

Glad to hear you had a great time.  It is great that you got to meet so many wonderful people.

Sorry to hear that KLM's Round table discussion didn't go as planned.  that is a bit disappointing.

Regardless, thanks for letting us know about your trip.

Trev

[pdpo]

Hi Paul,

if you enjoyed the museum more then the FS event then you went to the wrong place.
Lelystad is worlds largest fs event in a rather small aviation museum while the 'mondial de la simulation' in 'le bourget' is a rather small FS event in the huge aviation museum.
Got my point!
That museum is really worth visiting at half price of lelystad if I can remember correctly. From Gent it must be almost the same distance to Le bourget.
From my place (about 25 minutes to the gent expo) I drive to le bourget in about
3h15.
Greetings Peter

[fly_ebos]

I had a great time yesterday.

My mine objective was to see and speak to the cockpitbuilding people, and I got away all excited about the near future. The guys from Revolution Simproducts were really nice guys with an awesome TQ (expecting mine within a week). Bart from FlightDeckSoftware gave us a really good look at his software, being demonstrated in an FlyEngravity desktop setup.

But I got the most excited with FlyEngravity. In partnership with CPFlight they'll bring out plug&play modules for the MIP and overhead, no soldering required anymore. And a single seat device is planned aswell.

I spoke to the people of Sim Construct about there cockpit overhead frame. It look really sturdy, although pricy. There upcoming rudder panels felt 200% real.

All in all a good 2 hours of fun!

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

hi captains........
had a bit of grief uploading photo's of the weekend, but uncle trev's sorted it now, love him 
cant find a dedicated section for meetings or gatherings, so put them in an album.
http://www.cockpitbuilders.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=43
just want to say thanks to everybody who i met and for the great time.    for me, it's not all about cockpitbuilding, it's a great opportunity to check out people and fresh ideas.   to meet friends old and new and catch up.
fourth time i've been and it's as enjoyable as ever 
hope to see you all again next year.....
regards from wales....  ian

[Boeing Skunk Works]

Wow Ian, thanks for the photos. It's nice to put a face with a name.

Looks like you all had a good time.

Who is selling just the forward window frames?

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

hi mike.......
Engravity had a full flightdeck on show and included were the 'prototype' aluminium windshield/side window frames.    absolutely excellent.   my mate alan watson saw them and bought them there and then.  don't know about 'prototype', they looked pretty dam* good to me.
not sure when they will be in full production, your best bet is to ask Stef, he'll know for sure.......
rgds ... ian

[jackpilot]

Thank you Sir.
Nice to see all these smiling faces....for those who could'nt attend.
Jack

[rhysb]

Top photo's Ian, good to see you again and hope your enjoying the new map panels 

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

hi rhys........
that's a real cute cockpit you're sat in on your avatar 
the pleasure was all mine.   you and phil were real fun and that's what it's all about 
so the photo's are just a reminder of a great weekend.
i have to admit, the map light panels are still on my desk, i'm trying to find time to rip out the pit to
fit the new TQ, but things keep getting in the way      however i did get round to fitting the DZUS fittings - WOW ordered 50 more 
however, last visitor of the year is in 11th december, so i'll start then and hope to get most of it done before christmas.
have a great evening and if i dont speak to you before the hols, have a great christmas as well.
regards from the welsh borders.....   ian

[Trevor Hale]

that's a real cute cockpit you're sat in on your avatar 

Cute?   Cute???    Not sure that is much of a compliment towards you Rhys?  LOL  I doubt I would ever refer to anyone's cockpit as cute..  Although Ian may be referring to his cockpit here, as I am guessing your sitting in his?

You and phil were real fun and that's what it's all about 

Are you sure Ian??  Or is this just the  talking....?  I happen to think anyone is fun if you drink enough.. Not that we need to talk about alcohol...  Wait..  or do we?

so the photo's are just a reminder of a great weekend.

Ian needed the pics to remind him where he was and how he could find his way back to his hotel room...  Right Ian?

i have to admit, the map light panels are still on my desk, i'm trying to find time to rip out the pit to fit the new TQ, but things keep getting in the way

Hmmm..  LOL In other words, this missus has been running him ragged, and he hasn't had the nerve to tell her it is his turn to play with his new toys...   

however i did get round to fitting the DZUS fittings - WOW ordered 50 more 

LOL.. Good show Ian, They must be of top quality for them to be installed before the new TQ..

however, last visitor of the year is in 11th december, so i'll start then and hope to get most of it done before christmas.

Well it is always important to have goals..  Good luck with that..  This time of year with all the Milk and cookies...  Erm..  Rum and Eggnog, where oh where will you get the time?

LOL..  Ian, Just pulling your chain..  I am so glad you guys all had such a laugh at the show..  If I can swing it, perhaps I would like to ride with the UK group..  Everyone knows Breakkie with the group is the best part of the whole trip.

Trev

[rhysb]

Haha cheers Ian. I will try and get up to see you before the 11th then!! Cute cockpit hehe yeah it was a good day!

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

hi guys.........
yes it was a great weekend.........uk posse were well behaved and great fun as always.
hopefully joe lavery will join us next year (he is talking about it).   and trev, if you get over, you would be more than welcome to join us. 
DZUS fastners fitted because they only took an hour to drill and tap.   TQ means stripping out the
cockpit and is going to take me a week because i've got some maintenance to do as well   
but, i've got it hooked up to the Test Rig so i can just sit there and watch it working 
and rhys, anytime you're near, give me a call......real world pilots teach me so much and it always helps when you have fun in a 'cute' cockpit 
regards from the welsh borders.....   ian

[Boeing Skunk Works]

That goes all the way back to my thread about "Who actaullay fly's their sim" some weeks ago.

A lot of of us are flying them, but are we flying them correctly? I mean, we spend tons of money of these things that wives just roll their eyeballs at, and (unless they know better) real aluminum tube pilots think we're just playing airline pilot for a few hours at a time. And unless we are doing it right, I think we're wasting our money.

Do we use the performance charts, plan the flight; the way it's supposed to be, and can we really fly the damn airplane? That's my biggest question I really want to know the answer to. I see a lot of videos on U-tube, but I don't see a lot of airmanship or procedure, or even getting the aircraft down in one piece had it been a real landing. I see being about 20 miles behind the airplane, procedural errors, goss incompetance, innattention, complacencey, etc, etc.

Am I alone out there in the cockpit world? Or am I just too 'ate up' with trying to fly this 727 out of my basement to Munich? Please tell me I'm wrong.

[Trevor Hale]

I agree with you Mike,  1/2 the fun is learnign to do it as correctly as we can.  Fortunately people like Ian, have the extra advantage of real pilots near him.  For me, its not so easy..  That's one reason why I do so much reading.  The hardest part is that every airline has a different SOP, and based on that SOP..  It is hard to say what a pilot does is right or wrong. 

Until I figure out if what I am doing is right, I will just keep having fun, cause really that all I want to get out of it.