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Tomlin
11-13-2007, 04:12 PM
Hi guys

Some of you may already be aware that I am organizing a charity flight event, much like that of World Flight (but much shorter) that is coming up in early December. As a novice flightsim event organizer, I have some questions and ideas that I would like to run past those that have some experience in this sort of thing.

First, I have a limited crew, and it looks like all the guys who know about flying and simulation, wont be able to attend due to other obligations unless something happens.

As a result, I know that I will for sure be the PIC on all 10 legs (at least we have an 8 hour overnight rest period!) but because I know we will have some visitors come one day of the event, I will inevitably have to take some time away from the sim to answer questions to those coming by that donated.


Im guessing that most of the crew for the majority of WF events are already fairly knowledgeable about simulation and/aviation, but in my case most will have only had a very small introduction to it.

Let's face it- there are very few people out there that love flight simulation like us home builders do (crazy enough to build a home sim). As a result, many times it's hard to find people that are half-way qualified to help fly a jet sim. It's even harder to get them to commit to training for 2-4 hours BEFORE the event takes place, and then they could possibly get bored during the cruise phase of flight, so this is what I am considering:

I plan to 'introduce' them to the Learjet 1 week prior to the event, and let them see it work, practice some basic Crew Resource Mgt. and maybe peform some takeoffs and landings some to get a feel of the aircraft. THEN during cruise, teach them all the critical stuff that all of us would normally learn during Ground School. Although a break from tradition, I see this as a way to keep them focused and not bored during cruise, AND they can kind of see and learn what's important as it's happening.

What do you think of this? Any other suggestions for the training/crew?

This event is designed to collect non-perishable goods and monetary donations to benefit the community through a local non-proffit organization. However, it is also being used as a way to introduce folks to flight simulation in general as well.

It's a good thing though that those crew members that have seen the sim in its current state, are very excited. Cant wait till they see it at the event. Lots of work to go before December 1st!

Tomlin
11-13-2007, 04:43 PM
Oh, I'd like to add that anyone in the area on the 7/8 of December is welcomed to drop by if in the area (hard to imagine though!)

NicD
11-13-2007, 06:32 PM
For every committed World Flight crew member there is one who says they are committed but bug out near the end, and another one who couldn't give a toss about fund-raising and bugs out when the pressure is applied. Sorting out crew is not easy, so you need to apply reasonable pressure early to sort out the sheep from the goats.

This year we insisted that each of our crew donate a minimum of $250 before the event. This worked well. But next year I'll be requiring that some of that be a prepaid non-refundable deposit on their crew slot.

For training we set up a program for that early and so when crew signed on they knew exactly what they were committing to. The training worked brilliantly and made the event run smoothly. We released training documents to the crew one month out, discussed these on the forum, and then just before the event we had a 2 hour group training session, followed by a 1/2 hour hand-flying exercise for each crew member. Each crew member started with 2 slots as first-officer to help them ease in.

We also did some familiarisation during cruise. That can work. If you're online with ATC, use real weather, and take accurate fuel loads they should be kept busy monitoring the aircraft, radios, weather, and fuel consumption enroute... just the like the real guys do! :)

Be prepared to get very tired. Ideally you need at least one or two highly committed people to help you out. Doing this on your own is not recommended.

All the best with your event, hope it goes great!

Tomlin
11-14-2007, 09:24 AM
Nic,

This was excellent information, and confirms some things in my mind. I will push forward for the familiarization flights before the event. Good news is, I got one of them already being 'groomed' for the FO position. Now a few more to go.

Thanks again,