Evan Reiter

Thank you Tom, amazing! I was actually going to send you a note to ask whether you thought it would be appropriate to post on some of the simpit building forums that you frequent. I know it's not directly the right audience but at the same time I'm sure all those people are FS users and many may use an online community in one form or another. By the way, I'm already getting requests to add communities to the list :). Evan

As you may already know, GameSpy has been unavailable to users since earlier this week. Users who attempted to login to GameSpy received no error message; they were simply unable to sign in. Today, BVA is able to officially announce that the decision to discontinue GameSpy support for FSX multiplayer was made by Microsoft. Glu Mobile, the company which owns the GameSpy brand has confirmed the decision to BVA via a spokesperson. What you should do: Get the word about the new website out there! The more site traffic we have, the more people we can help educate about the options, including our community. Please share the link with friends, aviation enthusiasts, and pilots! Here’s what you can do to help: 1. Visit the website. Every hit counts! 2. Post your thoughts, comments, and feedback about http://www.fsxbeyondgamespy.com on our community forums 3. Share the FSX Beyond GameSpy link on aviation and multiplayer forums like AVSIM, FlightSim.com, or post it on websites you control 4. Visit BVA’s social media pages (including Facebook) and like or share our post 5. Post the FSX Beyond GameSpy link on your own social media pages with a message about why supporting multiplayer is important to you 6. E-mail the link to friends 7. Encourage other communities you know of to use the built-in contact functionality to add their name, IP address, and web link to the site With your help, we can help those displaced by the discontinuation of GameSpy for FSX find a new home and ensure the success of FSX multiplayer through Direct Connect! Find more information in the Press Release e-mailed to all BVA members earlier today.

The FAA's Preferred Route Database, known as the "Route Management Tool" and accessible from the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) is offline for maintenance. The database includes many TEC and preferred routes for BVA's local airspace and is linked in several places on our website. Those links now display a "Not Found" or "Under Maintenance" page on the ATCSCC website. The page itself indicates that the application is undergoing maintenance and that service will be restored shortly. In the interim, preferred routes for official BVA events may be found on the respective event pages. We will post an update when we notice that service has been restored.

Very nice. We'll probably do another one before the end of the winter. The pilot materials are already written so the challenge will be coordinating enough military traffic such that we can effectively protect the airspace.

When developing complex software for FSX (itself one of the most complex pieces of software ever written), occasionally we run into situations which are temporarily beyond our understanding. Recently we have been trying to develop some pretty exciting new functionality for FlightDesk and were just about to launch a new version of FlightDesk in beta. For about 2 weeks we have had the versions running in parallel with no issues. Unfortunately we have recently encountered several crashes of the primary, current FlightDesk server. If you were flying in today's event, or yesterday, you've likely noticed FlightDesk shut down and require a re-start. We have been monitoring the server extra carefully to try to determine when FlightDesk crashes and re-start it right away, as well as to try to figure out the sequence of events that leads to these issues. The good news is that these crashes have not been caused by the new version we have been working on. During today's event, for example, we were running just the current version of FlightDesk. The bad news is that we aren't sure exactly what is causing the issue and we have not been able to duplicate it on command. That makes it very difficult to solve. Over the next few days we are likely to see FlightDesk's server continue to crash intermittently. Rest assured that Bill is doing everything he can to find whatever is causing the issue and stop it. Until then, if you are online when FlightDesk's server crashes, here's what you can do: If the server does not come back to life within a few seconds, it's likely that an administrator hasn't been advised of the crash. Please e-mail [email protected] so we can get the server restarted. Think about what might have caused the crash. We think that the crashes might be related to people entering/leaving the session or briefing room. If just before FlightDesk crashes you left the session, or if you just entered the briefing room to change your aircraft, please let us know. Any new information we can gather is a possible lead which will help us solve the problems.

Our ISP has advised that as of this afternoon they have successfully switched their facility back to utility power. Their generator remains on so that the power will switch directly back to the generator in case of any emergency.

In order to set custom weather for our KPDX Challenge Event (3-6pm ET on Sunday), the server will be restarted on Sunday at 1:00pm EST and 6:30pm EST. Please time your activity on the server so as not to lose your flight when the server is restarted. The clocks go back one hour in most of North America early Sunday morning as Daylight Saving Time ends.

As of 9:45am ET, our ISP remained on generator power with regular fuel deliveries scheduled. Utility power is expected to be restored on Monday, November 5. There are no outages likely in the foreseeable future and our ISP has been providing us with regular updates about the status of their equipment.

Our server remains online on generator power with normal connectivity. As of 11pm ET, our ISP has received a delivery of 1,200 gallons of fuel for their generators (which will last for about 3 days of power). They continue to work with the local power utility and expect power to be restored after 6pm ET tomorrow. Until power is restored, the ISP has sufficient fuel and resources to run our server. We will let you know if there are any outages expected or if the situation changes. All the best to our members who were in the storm's path. Many have to not only work on restoring their own homes but go to work and manage the same issues there. The major New York airports remain closed indefinitely (though KBOS remains open).

As of mid-day, our ISP is still on generator power because local utility power substations are submerged or flooded. The server has remained online throughout the hurricane and we have noticed no major spike in connectivity. Knocking on wood for tonight's event.

Our ISP has advised us that they have switched their systems to emergency power after multiple conversations with the local power company and based on weather conditions in other areas. Utility power at our ISP's facility is still working as expected and remains available as a backup. The storm surge has not affected our ISP's facility as as of yesterday afternoon they do not expect it to. They continue to monitor the building and critical systems, have extra staff on hand, and have fuel vendors in standby in case prolonged use of their generators is required. As of this morning tonight's Regional Circuit event (CYVR & KSEA) is on, though we are expecting a slightly lower turnout of pilots and controllers. We will continue to monitor our ISP and advise you of any changes to the situation as they become apparent.

With the National Weather Service predicting that Hurricane Sandy will be advancing toward the Northeast over the next few days, our server ISP (which provides FlightDesk, FSX, and Live ATIS) has advised us they have a backup plan to ensure our server remains online throughout the storm. They have emergency power systems which can be run by fuel-powered generators in the event of a long-term power outage. The latest forecast shows the Hurricane expected to make landfall between Monday night and Tuesday morning. Our server's data center is located in the area which will be affected by the storm. Our website ISP is located on the other side of the country and is therefore not expected to be affected. We will post updates on our website, as well as our Facebook page, if we do encouter any outages due to Hurricane Sandy. We are expecting to know by Tuesday morning whether or not the server will be online for our Regional Circuit. If you live or work in the area of the U.S. Northeast affected by the storm, please take the necessary precautions and be safe.

Maintenance was completed around 1:45am ET and now all systems are online as normal.

Friendly reminder that the server will be shut down at 11:30pm ET this evening by our ISP in order to perform the maintenance described above. Please time your flights to ensure you are on the ground by that time. We will post an update to the website's "Server Information" page when the server is back online.

Our FSX server, including FlightDesk, FSX, and Live ATIS, will be offline from 11:30pm ET on Wednesday, October 17 to 2:30am ET on Thursday, October 18 (3 hours). We will be performing maintenance to upgrade the networking capabilities of the server, including the installation of a second network card. This will enable the expansion of FlightDesk to offer new features which we will begin testing in the next few months. We apologize for the downtime and hope you recognize that some outages are necessary in order for us to continue developing FlightDesk, one of the best pieces of software that will ever interact with FSX. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to speak to any of our administrators.

Post your thoughts on the 6th anniversary event here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3235 While we are leaning toward an event similar to the Boston Tea Party runs we have had in the past, we won't be calling it that.

We have just added a few afternoon events to our calendar (www.bostonvirtualatc.com/Events/Calenda ... rview.aspx) including: - Regional Circuit Double Play (September 29, 1-4pm ET), probably the first Rc BVA has ever had on a Saturday afternoon - SoCal GA Fly-in (October 13, 3-6pm ET) - Seattle GA Fly-in (November 10, 1-4pm ET)

In order to allow pilots and controllers to participate in sessions that incorpoate some daylight during our peak hours, the server time has been set back to our standard winter 3 hour time delay (i.e. 8pm ET = 5pm Server). This should extend daylight hours into our session's 8-11pm ET peak hours and allow pilots and controllers to enjoy a little extra daylight. We normally keep a 3 hour time delay throughout the winter and return the server to real time during the summer months.

Our website ISP has scheduled maintenance to perform a RAM upgrade between 11pm ET on September 7 (Friday) and 5am ET on September 8 (Saturday). Our website and forums will be offline during the maintenance. The estimated downtime is 1 hour, though that could occur anywhere within the maintenance window.

The event materials, including the details on the page as well as the NOTAM with detailed information about SFRA procedures, have now been posted: http://www.bostonvirtualatc.com/Events/Challenge.aspx. You need to be logged in to view them. There is a lot of information but despite the length, it's all relatively straightforward. The section "Basic SFRA Requirements" on the page itself really does give you all the information you need to know about flying in the event provided you are already familiar with sectional charts and have a vague idea of what the SFRA is. Settle in for a long haul next time you're online and do a little reading so you're ready for the event on Sunday, September 2 from 3-6pm ET. This Challenge is all about airspace: understanding where you are, what the requirements are to go where you want to, and how to navigate between airports without violating airspace or restricted areas. Most BVA members will never fly into the Washington SFRA in real life. However, many will encounter TFRs which create similar structures or fly through complex, multi-layered airspace environments. If you can manage this airspace (particularly the SFRA transition from KHEF to KESN), you can handle airspace anywhere! In this Challenge, pilots are to fly between the three controlled airports: Manassas (KHEF), which is located within the SFRA, and two outlying airports, Frederick (KFDK) and Easton (KESN). You can fly the route in any order (the route options shown below are examples) but the idea is to operate within the SFRA on each flight, either transiting through it to fly between KESN and KFDK or entering/exiting it to land at KHEF. You'll know you've done everything right if you don't see a military aircraft approaching and rocking its wings to intercept you! If you have questions about the materials, let's make this the official forum thread. Please ASK HERE! We're tried to make the materials as simple as possible and give you links to as much information as we can, but the varying degrees of experience in our community, as well as the compromises we make when trying to simulate the utmost realism, probably mean that we've missed something.

You wouldn't have had the chance. The bad weather at DCA (at one point down to 1 1/4 visibility with 2000-ish RVR's) precluded our use of the River Visual and we were stuck with ILS 1 all night.

It will be available by Thursday at the latest, posted to this forum thread and linked on the Challenge page of the website.

As Dan said, we're working on a comprehensive briefing document for pilots which outlines very specifically the requirements and procedures to follow. The point of the event will be: 1. Read, understand, and follow the procedures we give you 2. Navigate smartly to avoid airspace and show off your understanding of complex, multi-layered airspace environments 3. Multi-task with simultaneous ATC communications and flying the plane The materials for pilots will be available this coming week to allow you plenty of time to review and prepare for what's bound to be an exciting event.

We had very low traffic (barely broke 20 pilots) during the Rc today. We'll probably re-consider whether we continue to do Regional Circuit events on Friday nights (11 pilots online with 7 controllers at 9:45pm ET). Opinions?

Maintenance is complete and FlightDesk is back online. Thank you for your patience.