Yesterday on the 7th December, Chuck Yeager passed away at the age of 97. Remembered by many as the first person to break the sound barrier, he was one of the true greats of the aviation world and will be greatly missed. Enjoy your new wings Chuck...you've earned them!

Flightsimmers can often take advantage of resources supplied to real pilots. Today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sent out an announcement about their From The Flight Deck video series. Intended to brief pilots on features of destination airports, these high quality Youtube videos can be used by flightsimmers in the same manner. The collection is fairly small so far but it looks like they have plans to regularly expand.

There are many ways to navigate while flying--by pilotage, using the stars, by satellites, by ground radio stations... But how about navigating by furrow? Author Allan Jones digs up an interesting piece of early aviation history and offers a way to fly it today using your flight simulator.

Donate computing power to speed up the search for a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. Navigraph announces the project Simmers Without Borders. A group of developers at Navigraph have started a pro bono initiative inviting all members of the international flight simulation community to donate computing power to speed up the search for a vaccine against the coronavirus.

Why do we fly? Dominic Smith shares a rather personal piece about the need to fly (simulated) and what makes it so special. He then shares a sample flight that shows some beautiful country where he loves to escape through the wonders of GA aviation.

Announcing FSWeekend 2019, coming this weekend. Since 1998 flight simulator enthusiasts and cockpit builders have been coming to the Aviodrome at Lelystad Airport to show visitors and each other what is possible with flightsim programs. Dozens of exhibitors will enhance participants into the fascinating world of flying behind your computer. There will be a wide variety of cockpits available for people to fly.

To celebrate the festive period, FlightSim.Com is inviting members to redesign the existing FlightSim.Com logo, into a Christmas themed version. Bill Womack from Orbx has kindly agreed to be the judge, with the top three designs all receiving a First Class Membership for a year. The winning entry will be used for the duration of the Christmas period.

In the flight simulator world we can choose our weather, time of date, season and so on and take the exact flight we want. In the real world--things happen. Real world pilots of course do plenty of flight planning but events can occur that throw off the best plans, sometimes ending up with the plane landing somewhere other than intended. Airline captain Tony Vallillo shares several "diversionary tales" from his long career.

For over 22 years, FlightSim.Com has offered a wide variety of services to the flight simulator community. Today we would like to announce the addition of a major new service, our FlightSim.Com Store.

The 6th annual FlightSimCon convention announces initial sponsors, speakers, highlights and exhibitors for the 2018 event to be held in June in Dallas. For the first time, FlightSimCon is being joined by Cockpit-Fest USA, an annual event for cockpit enthusiasts with roots dating back to 1999. Top tier sponsor has been announced to be Gleim Aviation, well known for their pilot training materials.

Allan Jones brings us a story that combines some real aviation history and some flight simulation. Learn about WWII pilot Joy Lofthouse and the Air Transport Auxiliary who delivered newly built military aircraft. Then take on the challenge of an FSX flight in WWII Great Britain, flying VFR only through limited "balloon lanes".

During 2018 there will actually be two Cockpit-Fest USA events. "Warbirds On Parade 2018" will be held at the Cold War Air Museum in September. Cockpit-Fest USA will also team up with FlightSimCon which is holding their sixth annual flight simulator conference in Dallas during June.

The Blackburn Firebrand is not one of the more famous planes of WWII, but it does have an interesting history and some interesting flight characteristics as well. Martin La Grange tells the story of how the Firebrand came to be and developed during use, and also introduces the Alphasim version that you can use in your flight simulator.

Continuing from the previous "Going Places" installment where he arrived in Montevideo, Rodolfo Astrada turns around and heads back north. As before, he weaves in stories of the regions being traveled, including Uruguay and Madeira, and aircraft history, including the Boeing 727.

As you of course know, we run a variety of advertising on FlightSim.Com in order to help pay the bills. One of the ad agencies we use, Network N, has asked for our users to complete a short survey. Your answers will help ensure that the ads we run are more relevant to your interests.