Free Flight, Free Speech

KL-666 wrote:

KB7 wrote:and will be taking into account feedback received from the pilots (and others.)

Giving feedback as an "other", i do not understand why people need to be signed up. For me that is not working out. I do not know in advance when i am home or out. So when i am home, i would like to participate in such event. But then it is too late, because i did not sign up.

Yes i saw that about max participants. But what logic is behind that?

Kind regards, Vincent

Thanks for the feedback, Vincent. When I get back to helping to coordinate again I'll pass that one along too if nobody else has.

Answering your queries.... Some of the procedures we used for this event were because since not many (any?) of us were experienced at event leading we wanted to make it manageable for us to manage. And we wanted event participation feedback from a limited group.

Also, as an experiment we didn't want to be overwhelmed with pilots wanting to jump in at the last second. We wanted predictable planes without personalized development to minimize someone showing up wanting us all to download a half gigabyte 7777 [sic] with all kinds o' crap that would freeze everybody's frame rate by being within 100 miles of it or crash you outright if you didn't have it in your directory. Since we wanted ATC we also wanted to give them a reasonable estimate of the number of planes they'd have to handle and let them split duties. (Which was great because due to technical issues three ATCs suddenly became two, and due to a time overrun because of one pilot's continued FG crashing another person volunteered as an ATC in the last minutes of the event.)

Finally..... One reason this event was developed was because of the issues that surrounded the last USA Tour and several previous ones. I am NOT knocking open-to-all events. I've been in several legs and I'm hoping I'll be able to be in every one until the USA Tour is finished and maybe IAHM-COL will give us a new and fresh set of group flying fun. That said.... not everybody always wants to have a... well.... clusterfuck of new planes at the last minute with pilots who never flew a sim before yesterday but they'll sure cross your runway just as you're doing a takeoff roll in a plane that WILL flight-crash if it detects impact with another plane with voluntary ATCs who just volunteered yesterday so you thought you'd just spin up and go early but your airspace leaving is now controlled leaving you confused if you need startup and taxi permission or not - when your services to act as ATC were EXPRESSLY DENIED days prior because who wants to herd fighters? (And that ain't no knock on T-URBO who wins my award for best Controller in Flightgear at the moment. But IS a criticism that my offer to do the same was rejected several days prior and then day-of suddenly we have ATC. Yet I'm glad to have T-URBO still part of the FG community as a controller!)

In short, there are people who are VERY frustrated with elements of the USA Tour.... Yet.... we sure as hell won't make demands for IAHM-COL to change stuff because.... some people (like me) love flying free, too!!! Not to mention - at least for me - a libertarian spirit that says that before I complain about something I will in advance consider self-advice of, "If you don't like it... run your own event!" I like it but wanted to be part of something structured with experienced pilots and strict ATC control..... so I did.

Now, I'm not privy yet to major feedback from the event. Haven't caught Intl or Tank on since the flight and all the stuff I laid out elsewhere. However, I do know that for future events we do intend to take into consideration the comments we received, and I consider it my mission to pass along the concerns of those who couldn't or didn't want to proceed either. I volunteered to be liason for the FFFS forums as Tank did for the FG forums. And I don't want anyone (certainly not you Vincent!!! and absolutely not IAHM-COL) to take any of this personally, either. I value the feedback of both of you VERY much, as well as the other commenters in the thread too!

Now for a couple other quick checks and off to bed! I miss not having a joystick here!!! But maybe I'll get some more controlling time tomorrow to give me some needed balance.

KB7 wrote: And I don't want anyone (certainly not you Vincent!!! and absolutely not IAHM-COL) to take any of this personally

Do not worry, i do not take anything personally. Everyone can organize anything as they like, and i see if i can and want to attend. If not, there is no problem. My comments are just trying to be helpful, even if i may never attend the event myself.

I have another tip for the organization of this event. If it is really important to avoid people crashing in on the event, then the separate mpserver may come in handy. No one flies there. It was used a couple of times for the USA Tour, but it is not appropriate for that, because the USA Tour does want to attract new participants.

See the mpmap of that mpserver. No planes in there, so no risk of anyone coming too close and crashing all the planes of the event.

http://pigeond.net/flightgear/fgmap/?ll=25.792387860266476,-20.176317352783133&z=3&t=s&fg_server=FGMEMBERS,172.93.103.204,16606&update_interval=5&pilot_label=always&icon_mode=normal

Kind regards, Vincent

I was about to suggest them the FGMEMBERS server as a good resource to achieve the cleanliness they are looking for

I think you guys are onto something there!

I'm not sure about the status of future events... Intl gave hints that future ones won't be closed off. (Yet y'all are right - you can't control the actions of others in regular MP... and I wouldn't want to in regular MP!) I also wonder, for private group flights, if the MP server structure has the ability to boot players and/or set up some kind of password access to be able to join? It would be a great enhancement to capabilities.

And I haven't gotten another controlling session since Tuesday.... maybe today if the fates align.

try talking to Omega.
He is the owner of the FGMEMBERS server and he would be interested in a controlled environment that one can really call <<controlled>>

Including if necessary ability to boot off trollers or people not cooperating to your event.

I find that situation problematic, and thus that's why the USA tour is more of a <<burning man>> type of situation every month.