Simventure 2024 is a part of a much larger legacy. Every summer since 1953, Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, WI hosts an airshow known as AirVenture. It grew to become the largest airshow in the world. During that week of celebration of everything aviation, KOSH is the busiest airport in the world, seeing over 10,000 arrivals and departures. Airplanes of all sorts–from single-engine pistons to high-speed military aircraft, gliders, helicopters, seaplanes, homebuilts, and now eVTOLs have to somehow play together in a relatively small airport. To keep everyone safe, the FAA publishes complex arrival instructions in an approximately 30-page notice. Seeing it happen in real life is exciting. The landings are rapid-fire, sometimes two airplanes landing on a single runway at the same time! The Oshkosh Airshow is a mecca, and flying this complex arrival is a bucket list item for every pilot.
For the last few years, PilotEdge, a company that provides live Air Traffic Control service to the flight simulation community, has organized a simulated experience of the Oshkosh arrival procedure called Simventure. It is held one week before the actual airshow. This sim event has also grown, now to over 2,000 participants. This year, I took a video of it, and I hope it helps, entertains, or both.
If you have ever flown the actual Fisk Arrival, how did your experience compare to this simulation? Let me know in the comments.
I’m trying something new on my YouTube channel, Flying in Cerulea. I produced a flight sim video that I’ll publish as a YouTube premiere. That will allow viewers to see the video as it airs for the first time, hopefully along with others. I’ll be watching, too, and there will be a live chat.
My channel only has 177 subscribers so far, so I have a sinking feeling that no one will be in attendance for this premiere. But it’s a start, and I plan to do other videos like this, hopefully with a growing audience. And I did learn a lot of things while producing this video.
The video is a recording of a simulated flight from Myrtle Beach, SC to Wilmington, NC that I took on June 5, 2024. I set up a webcam and made commentaries throughout the flight. I used Snagit to capture the screen, the webcam, the mic, and the cursor. Then I used iMovie for editing, and this is the first time I added a bit of music.
The premiere is on Friday, June 7, 2024, at 5 PM Eastern time. If you have a chance, stop by, check it out, and maybe subscribe to the channel. Click on the image link above for details and a notification/reminder. Hope to see you there!
This post is the sixth and last of a short series on how to develop your home flight simulator. It’s for the complete beginner, keeping things simple, not meant to be a comprehensive guide, though this final post is perhaps the most complex.
If you have done what I discussed in the previous posts in this series, then I assume you have your simulator up and running, you have some hardware flight controls (yoke or stick, throttle quadrant, rudder pedals), and maybe you added some hardware instruments to make the simulated flying experience more realistic. You know how to take off, fly around, land, and maybe you’re learning about navigating, communicating, and how to use your autopilot. The more you learn, the more questions you’ll have, and the more you’ll become aware of the myriad of enhancements and add-ons that are available for flight simulators. There are so many that I won’t even try to make a list of individual products. Instead, I’ll paint a picture in broad strokes.
Some of the airplanes included in XP12
Whatever flight simulator software you use, be it MSFS, X-Plane, or any other, it will come bundled with several airplane models that you can “fly” on your simulator. You’ll probably have a few single-engine pistons, a twin-engine piston or two, maybe a turboprop, perhaps a seaplane, small jets and large jet airliners, a fighter jet or two, a helicopter, and maybe some exotic flying machines like an ultralight, VTOL, or a spaceship. That might sound like a lot, but you almost certainly will want to have more, perhaps a specific, favorite airplane to add to your fleet of sim models. You are certainly not restricted to just the few that came packaged with your basic sim software. Do internet searches to find the major sites that sell add-on airplanes for your specific flight simulator. The typical cost for good airplane model software, expertly programmed to closely match the flight characteristics of their real-life counterparts, is about $20-50, more or less. As an example, here is the official X-Plane store: https://store.x-plane.org. Many other sites like this sell flight simulator add-ons.
x-plane.org store
I’m sure you noticed that they sell not only airplanes, but other things such as airports, scenery, and a plethora of utilities. Your basic flight sim software will already have a comprehensive representation of real-life scenery and airports, but the add-ons will have more detail and higher resolution, all to become more and more realistic. And the utilities cover every aspect of flying, from pre-flight to engine shutdown. You will find that the world of flight simulator enhancements is extensive and creative.
SimHeaven terrain areas
Of course, there are specialty shops that focus on one specific thing. Again as an example, here is a company that focuses on scenery: https://simheaven.com, though they are certainly not the only company to focus on this. There are other ways of enhancing scenery detail and resolution.
Some enhancements will open up your simulator experience to include other flight sim enthusiasts and service providers on the interwebs, such as live ATC (Air Traffic Control), with companies like PilotEdge and VATSIM.
And for those of you who use ForeFlight on an iPad, it will integrate with the flight simulator so you can use the power of this comprehensive electronic flight bag right along with the simulator, just like you would do in real life.
After decades of evolution, the world of flight simulation is now rich with options, resulting in a simulated flight experience that is coming closer and closer to real life. If you are an actual real-life student pilot or certificated pilot, we are certainly at a point where flight simulation activities can positively contribute to your education and proficiency in real-life flying.
If you are curious about flight simulation, I hope these six articles have answered some of your questions and hopefully piqued your interest.
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