GFI

[Lyle Barnett]

A couple of pics of a GFI that I flew on 11 FEB 2011 back in the days of old. I don't remember who the other pilots were. Their AA pilot numbers on on one pic. AA409, AA783, and AA742. I can't remember what my number was.

[Wayne Pierce]

Lyle,
I remember that flight;
AAL783 is myself- Wayne Pierce
AAl409 was Rick Stevens
AAL742 was Sergio Sanchez
You must be the one with no number as the simulator would, if checked, not show your own data tag.

If I remember right there were a couple of more pilots whom signed off before the photo was taken.

Thanks for finding that and posting it up.

Wayne

[Lyle Barnett]

Thank you, Wayne. I couldn't find the old roster to see who else was there.
That was Me in the plane with no pilot number.

[Harold Henderson]

Looks like y'all celebrated my birthday (won't say which # it was but I wasn't as long out of cloth diapers as now ) and I wasn't there! I remembered most of those AAV numbers.

Thanks for bringing back this memory, Lyle!

[Stanton Martis]

Nice pics, I miss the maddog md80s

[Harold Henderson]

Nice pics, I miss the maddog md80s

Don't recall which sim you are flying, but the Leonardo MadDog (82, 823, and 88) is available for P3D and MSFS 2020. It is pricey but it is also very good. I keep coming back to it.

[Rey Ramon]

I was just thinking of the GFIs we used to do. so much fun. Miss those days!

[Stanton Martis]

Indeed Harold, Leonardo's maddog md80s are amazing but I also like the Rotate MD-80 on Xplane 11, that's the one i am using offline at the moment

[Harold Henderson]

Indeed Harold, Leonardo's maddog md80s are amazing but I also like the Rotate MD-80 on Xplane 11, that's the one i am using offline at the moment

I believe the below screenshot winner is the Rotate MD-80 from when I was dabbling with X-Plane. I just never got comfortable with x-plane.

https://www.aavirtual.com/pages/SS_Gallery/202004f.jpg

[Stanton Martis]

Nice Picture. True, in xplane it takes time to get used to but It’s enjoyable. Gonna try to fly online soon using xplane. Thx for sharing Harold.

[David Briggs]

Why can't we start the GFI's up again ?

I am game for organizing, with input from the old timers on what worked and what did not.

Cheers!

[David Roark]

I would be up for GFIs

[Wayne Pierce]

Why can't we start the GFI's up again ?

I am game for organizing, with input from the old timers on what worked and what did not.

Cheers!

Old Timers ? You mean the more experienced pilots at AAV.
At some time in the past and I do mean the past, we had a Group Fly In on Fridays. It seemed that I had put them on since March 13, 2013 that is as far back as my records show and the last one was April 20, 2020. To have a GFI, it takes one to think of and create a route, provide charts for all, post it on our calendar, which we do not have anymore. Look at the VATUSA calendar and see where the FNO's were and stay away from them if possible as those were a nightmare for us. We would then meet on VATSIM at the assigned airports and use our Teamspeak channel, which I hosted. Most of us would be there an hour early to get our flight ready and just visit with on another. We always started the flights, if possible at 7:00 CT I believe. The flights were no longer than 350 miles for time constraints. Each week was different, once in a while we went out of the USA, but not often as language with controllers was a big issue for us. This was also the time when FSX, and FS9 were the big ticket sims. Xplane was new and did not work well with our system as yet. We had all the old AAL aircraft to fly the routes with. MD80, JS41, SAAB, B737, ATR, MD11, even the old Prop airplanes were used. We all had them.

I have a folder full of GFI's I made which the routes are no longer any good as the charts have changed.

BUT.... it seemed only the same very few 3-5 of us pilots ever showed up. The rank and file were not interested, inclined, not up to it or what have you, but not many joined in, but we had fun nonetheless.

Below is the format we used for the GFI.
********************************************
FROM:

TO:

Suggested Route;

PILOT RESPONSIBILITY FOR CHOICE OF SID / STAR
Your route may vary. I will not take responsibility for wrong or incorrect routing.

Distance:
AAL EQUIPMENT;
Time;
FRIDAY;MONDAY; 5:00PM PST; 6:00PM MST; 7:00PM CST; 8:00PM EST;
PUSHBACK @ -10MIN - WHEELS UP AT 0000Z
SUGGESTED LOG ON FOR PREP @ -60 MIN FROM WHEELS UP

NOTAM;
ALL GFI'S ARE FLOWN USING VATSIM. THIS IS THE ONLY TIME AAV REQUIRES USE OF VATSIM.

http://www.airnav.com/airport/
http://www.airnav.com/airport/

AAV FSACARS FREP IS ENCOURAGED

AAV TSP3 IN USE.

Pilots are required to be familiar with Instrument Procedures at their Departure/Arrival airport as well as use charts.
**********************************************
So a GFI is still possible to have but a lot of planning needs to be done by the individual doing it.

Thanks,
Wayne

[Harold Henderson]

Also, there was not a requirement to use real-wx as way back then real-wx was an addon package for the sims we were using. Now, real-wx is in MSFS2020, and I think it is in X-Plane??? I would still be in favor of NOT requiring use of real-wx as on-line VATSIM flying may be enough of a challenge for some.

I would like to get back into GFI's although now that I'm in the Eastern time zone for the US, my 9pm bed time comes an hour earlier!

We'll probably need to have some flight-sim specific "experts" to help us dummies get connected with or sim, VATSIM, Discord. I know Tim Farrell and Jose do a lot of on-line flying together. I'm not sure what flight sim they are using, but they might be 2 to use. Who else?

[David Briggs]

I can get us there with XP and VATsim. Like most things, once you understand how it works, the manual makes a lot of sense.

How do we get the newer folks engaged? Make it appealing to them? Communicate with them, make them aware?

I am also familiar with TeamSpeak.

XP does have integrated real world WX that is generally very accurate with very little cost to frame rate.

David