I got this note a while back from reader Jim Dhaenens who'd set up a Flight Simulator display at a recent event, and thought it was too good not to share. Jim writes:

Hi Hal,

I'm not a Community Evangelist, but I played one yesterday at the Museum of Women Pilots during their open house here in Oklahoma City. They had the usual stuff I guess: helicopters landing on the lawn, pilots of all ilk, male and female wandering about telling stories. The Museum has some pretty cool stuff on women in aviation but as with most world changing applications of physics, the differences are overshadowed by the subject matter.

I went at he behest of the Oklahoma Chapter Chairman of the Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots, Liz Lundin. She also happens to be the Executive Director of Curtiss-Wright Wiley Post Hanger, Inc., the folks I intended to benefit from my Wiley Post Airport scenery. I presented the scenery and invited everyone to my table to try it for themselves.

Being a relatively recent convert to Flight Simulator (I got my first copy 4 years ago) I thought that everyone knew what it was and what it did. Some folks said that they had it, but it was an older version. Some folks couldn't believe they could go out to the local Wal Mart or Circuit City and get it. Most older pilots would not try it ... at least in sight of other pilots. I happened on a strategy that worked every time...kids.  As kids would look around the Wiley Post Scenery, I would tell their parents/grandparents/adult escort about the simulator and scenery.

The conversations would go like this:

"That looks nice, do you have any Lear Jets little Tommy could fly? His grandad flies a Lear 60."

"Well, Ma'am, I have a Lear 45, will that do?"

"I suppose so, we have a Bonanza at Wiley Post," and invariably they would show me their hanger space at the airport.

I had a few challenges on the scenery...some of the folks that owned businesses at Wiley Post were there and challenged me to show their businesses and other sites at the airport.  All went away satisfied if not amazed at the detail.

And I met a bunch of good folks, from people who remembered the Wiley Post Hanger when it was at its original location, to a young couple who have one of the most aviation.centric marriages I've seen: He is a Navy Pilot and flies EC-6's out of Tinker AFB and she flies for Southwest Airlines out of Will Rogers.

I felt like I should have had a Flight Simulator X banner over my table.

At any rate, I thought you might be interested.

Jim

My thanks to Jim for writing, and especially for supporting a worthy cause. If I had "Honorary Evangelist" badges, I'd send him one right away! Click the picture at the top of the post to learn more about the museum.

Inarguably one of the best things about the Flight Simulator series (and, arguably, one of the best kept secrets) is its extensibility. Aircraft, scenery, missions, utilities, virtual airlines ... you name it, somebody has added it to Flight Simulator. A friend of mine refers to it as the only piece of software he owns that gets upgraded every single day. One group of people that always goes above and beyond in terms of expanding the hobby is a group of scenery designers called Flight Ontario. Specializing—as you've guessed—in the greater Ontario area, they do wonderfully detailed renditions of airports big and small.

But that's not all they do. They also pack up computers and people and joysticks and things and set up Flight Simulator demo stations at seemingly every aviation event north of the US and east of Manitoba. I'm humbled by their dedication, grateful for their contributions, and always a little embarrassed that we can't do more to help. Their most recent demo was at an open house at Vintage Wings of Canada in Gatineau, Quebec. VWOC is home to a beautiful collection of old airplanes that, like our local Flying Heritage Collection, are flown regularly. They've got a Mustang, a Spitfire, a Hurricane, and even a Fairey Swordfish, to name but a few. Check out the photos from the event here.

Our ongoing appreciation goes out to everyone at Flight Ontario for building great scenery and for bringing the world of flight simulation to so many people!

For anyone despairing about all of the ills of the world, whether it's overpriced gas,  undervalued dollars, wars, natural disasters, low frame rates, or the fact that Pontiac is effectively relaunching the El Camino next year, I have good news: The intelligent and productive adult population of this planet was just increased by 71. On June 17th, the inaugural class of Seattle's Aviation High School graduated in a ceremony that, like the class itself, was a perfect mix of intelligence, efficiency, irreverence, and a great sense of humor. I consider myself lucky to have watched the AHS Class of '08 grow since the school opened 4 years ago, and luckier still to have befriended a number of them like "Falco," "Extra Canopy Bug Guy," "Andrew," "Monkey Story," and my dear and occasionally erstwhile mentee, "Cheesy".

Keiko Hiranaka, the class speaker, captured the tone perfectly in her speech when she declared that she wasn't the least bit nervous about facing her future, because she is "...a nerd with social skills." It brought down the house, but it also says something utterly wonderful about the culture at AHS: "smart" and "popular" are not mutually exclusive. That's no small achievement in the pubescent chaos of high school. My hat, were I wearing one, would be off to principal Reba Gilman, her faculty and staff, and, most of all, to the graduates. They're fanning out into adulthood, heading off to schools and jobs in just about every imaginable discipline, and the world just got a little smarter, a little funnier, and a little happier for it.

On behalf of all of us at the Flight Simulator Factory, congratulations to the AHS class of 2008! 

(Note to anyone reading this who might have seen me at graduation: If you noticed, or think you did, that my eyes were a little redder than they should be for someone watching other people's kids graduate ... it's allergy season, or something. Shut up!)

Last week, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection officially opened to the public at its new location on Paine Field in Everett, Washington. The night before the opening, they held a VIP reception that, thanks to a charitable interpretation of the “V” and “I”, a few of us attended as well. (We also managed to slip copies of FSX and Acceleration into the gift bags that were handed out, inching us ever closer to world domination.) It was a chicken skewer and champagne sort of affair that found us mingling with the local aeroscenti while the ice-sculpted P-51 slowly melted to the strains of Glenn Miller.

Allen’s collection includes a number of rare warbirds, restored to extraordinary levels of authenticity, including even components that might never be seen – cloth wiring harnesses, original primer paint, etc. There’s a gorgeous Spitfire MKV, a P-51D, an FW-190D-13, an A6M3 Zero, a BF-109E, and a Polikarpov I-16, to name a few. One of the most remarkable pieces on display is a simple oil pan – several of them, actually, on the floor underneath each airplane’s engine. An oil pan means oil, and oil means that these are functional machines, and this is what differentiates Allen’s living, breathing collection from a traditional museum. Nearly all of the airplanes are not only flyable, they’re flown. Regularly . You can look for the scheduled “Fly Days” on their web site.

Paine Field also hosts the Future of Flight Aviation Center and the Boeing Factory Tour, not to mention the Museum of Flight Restoration Center. The addition of the Flying Heritage Collection cements this airport’s role as a key destination for anyone interested in flying machines.

Here are a few additional pictures:

This bit of info went out in our June newsletter, but merits a quick copy and paste here to make sure nobody misses it. If you don't subscribe, you really should. All the cool kids do ...

When you do want to take a break from racing and look at the world of flight at a more luxurious pace, keep an eye on the TV listings for your local PBS station (if you live in the US): we're very proud to be a sponsor of Brian J. Terwilliger's classique nouveau aviation film One Six Right. The film will be showing on PBS stations around the country over the next two years (in HD on some). Ostensibly a documentary about Van Nuys Airport, north of Los Angeles, it's really about a whole lot more. Real-world pilot (and fictional spaceman/archaeologist) Harrison Ford has called it "one of the finest aviation films ever made."
 
The film celebrates small airplanes and community airports and is a powerful tool to use in convincing others of the benefits of General Aviation. If you don’t see One Six Right on the schedule of your local PBS station, call them and ask about it! To learn more about the film and to watch the video spot we produced, visit our One Six Right partner page.