NZFF 10th Birthday

[Ian Warren]

Congratulations to the New Zealand Flightsim Forum , well, also to all who have contributed, to the ones who moved away and to the old boy's who got here and are still here after 10 years, now that wasn't so hard to , its going to be interesting to see what happens in the next decade so to all and pat yourselves on the back. ... And to you Andrew, It was a bloody great idea.

[Naki]

Happy Birthday NZFF!...I'm still here just.....need to post a bit more ...with the long Winter nights approaching I can turn my attention back to flightsim

[Ian Warren]

Paul, least you are still posting that is the important thingy, even I have slowed down due to my time is required to go into other things, I'll wait till the my tenth NZFF year May the 05 2006 , back then I was really busy working ... be interesting to hear what other peoples were doing this time ten years ago.

[dbcunnz]

I would like to acknowledge the fact that although Andrew setup the site and launched it on the 26th April 2006 both Robin Corn (toprob) and Alex McLean (Alex) had an input to the beginning of NZFF.

I would like to give them a huge thank you and a well done guys.

Maybe Andrew, Robin and Alex or any of those three might like to post some comments and fill us all in with the history of the NZFF startup.

[toprob]

This was all Andrew and Alex, really. Andrew wanted me onboard as a sort of figurehead, someone old enough to buy the beer for the xmas party... I can still remember that Andrew called me 'the father of flightsim', which kind of freaked me out. At the time I was obviously past it, pushing 50, so now pushing 60 I'm more the 'grandfather of flightsim', who gets propped up in the corner at board meetings...

Andrew's drive has really pushed him ahead to other things; with young people like him -- and my own kids, who are a similar age -- I think that the 'youth of today' is doing all right.

NZFF definitely used to be a younger crowd back then, although I can recall that Avsim did an age survey back when I was late 40s, and I was the exact average age -- I think that this average age has probably risen now. Would be great to see what happens over the next ten years, with some new sims on the horizon.

[dbcunnz]

Knowing that the forum was started in 2006 on Sunday I decided to do a little research and of cause the first place to look was in the members and Andrew to see when he joined the forum and found it was on the 26th April 2006 so promptly put things into action and found the first screenshot posted was also by Andrew the day after he had launched the forum.
I then sent him a PM asking about it and this was his reply.

Hi Doug,

Wow 10 years huh! It was me Robin Corn and Alex McLean who started it and I don't have a photo of us together as such although there is a snap of a group of us at Ohakea airshow 2008 including Zac Yates (who just got married) and Jared Yates (aka hardcorepawn) who is now flying C208 Caravans in Papau. Nick Bates is also in the photo and is flying helicopters out of Guam. I myself am flying Metroliners out of Auckland for a job so it's a common theme that flight summing in our youth definitely helped spark the interest in aviation that has led to our careers.

I don't visit the forum anymore but am happy for you to pass these details on. Well done in keeping the website going for the next generation of simmers!

Cheers,
Andy

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb7/ ... show26.jpg

[AdrianPetford]

Congratulations to NZFF, still my favourite flightsim forum after all these years.

I migrated here from the Kiwiflightsim mailing list and lurked from the start, but without posting. It was only a couple of years later that I registered so I could download an edited AI traffic file Charl had created.

Through the forum, I've made many great friends some of whom I've also shared good times with in real life on my various visits to NZ. Hopefully will be back later this year to catch up with everyone again.

Things have moved on so much in the simming world in the last decade but NZFF remains a port of call for me on a daily basis.

Here's to the next ten years.

[Ian Warren]

Ade , One off the biggest things was meeting and showing you around, meeting everyone and bringing it all together ... Rob was a little long with his chat tho, .. I was seriously going a real NZ Greenie ..... we found that on the way home

[Charl]

...I could download an edited AI traffic file Charl had created...

It was one of those times when a whole lot of things came together. Robin was putting out the first of the NZ sceneries which was the focus. As I recall there was chatter on Robin's site about doing other stuff, and from there young Cheeky Trolly (sic) took a punt on a more general forum. It became a great melting pot of things FS NZ: landclass, mesh (whatever happened to Christian Stock?) sceneries aplenty, GA AI planes and plans, aircraft repaints... I reckon Project NZ was unparalleled in the FS world.
Still do, and my sim is locked in 2006 as a result!
And nice to see the "Postcards" thread still locked and getting viewed (47,000 times... my word). I still get people emailing about NZ; interestingly of late, as newcomers to FS9.

For the next 10 years? Maybe there will still be appeal to youngsters wanting to start a flying career.
Perhaps a good start: many of them would go on to fly remotely piloted vehicles!

[Ian Warren]

Perhaps a good start: many of them would go on to fly remotely piloted vehicles!

Isn't that ARBUST are today ... except your computer chair is in the front end , It is amazing the many who started here were using FS as a training tool and teaching us , one was Nick Beatty - honing his skills as air traffic control when he was training in Dunedin control tower, got home at night, we had the multiplays with nick in the control tower directing and had a bunch of us using AIP charts , he now works in the Christchurch Control Tower doing the spotting and sorting, dose need flightsim anymore ... dose it all day.

[Splitpin]

Well done guys ... its become my home away from home

[cowpatz]

Congratulations to those who had the foresight to start the forum and to the members that have supported it over the last decade.
Well done.
What really scares the c**p out of me is just how damn fast that decade went by

[Ian Warren]

What really scares the c**p out of me is just how damn fast that decade went by

Bit of a head scratch , when you were a kid, the ten years seemed it was like a hundred .... the next ten was, well we all been there, thinking all this time .. WHOOPS! ... now were did that go type thinking.

[Fozzer]

Congratulations Chaps!.... ...!

Being a very active member of "Simviation" since the 1990's, (and NZFF since 2010), I have noticed the differences in the Forums, mostly comprising of young, enthusiastic Lads then, eager to become real pilots!

Having been there, and done it, and got the tee-shirt, (apart from real pilot), for so many years, and feeling that I know it all by now, I find fun in digressing now and again onto other interesting subjects (Food, Motorcycling, Free Sex, Meaning of Life, etc), just to keep the forum(s) alive and kicking!.... ....!

Nowadays, the Forums consist mainly of we Old Folks trying to regain our youth, while the youngsters are off, doing; "other things".... ...!

NZFF is certainly very quiet at the moment, whereas "Sim V" (and NZFF) is being kept alive by we Old Timers, and our efforts in introducing fun, laughter, and other various interesting stuff to boost the posts!!

Fun Stuff and Laughter is the way to go!.... ...!

Paul.... ...!