Pilots requested for flights this week at LGB

[Keith Smith]

We'll be demoing at a military conference Mon-Thu of this week. The full schedule will be posted tomorrow, but the Monday session is from 11am-3pm PST.

Operations in and out of Long Beach are requested and appreciated!

[Keith Smith]

As it turns out, we'll be monitoring all ATC frequencies at the show, so even if you're not flying in/out of Long Beach, it will still add value to the demonstration.

[Keith Smith]

The I/ITSEC conference schedule for the remainder of the week is as follows:
Tue 0900 - 1530 PST
Wed 0630 - 1500 PST
Thu 0630 - 1200 PST

Thanks to the pilots that flew today, it went very well!

[scottcame]

I'll try to jump on at a lunch break in the early afternoon Tues, and could do a couple of early morning flights Wed and Thurs. So will there be ATC online at 0630 PST those days?

[Keith Smith]

Thanks Scott, yes, that's correct, we will unofficially be opened up earlier on Wed and Thu. It will just be a single controller, though, covering all freqs.

We had a great day today. This is a very different audience than the other shows we've done. We're not attempting to reach individual pilots at the retail level, rather, we're generating interest in various branches of the military. People come by, see it in action, and the discussion starts, with follow-on meetings scheduled as a result. Other than one person today, who happened to also be a student pilot, nobody has actually flown the sim other than us. Rest assured, though.

We have a decent size monitor set up on a high table showing the scope in action, coupled with audio from ALL active ATC frequencies so people can hear what's going on. This is why it's less critical to have someone at the same field as where we're flying. All that matters is that we have SOME traffic, SOMEWHERE within the coverage area to generate the audio. We can then point to the big scope and say, "that guy's over there, doing these operations..." and then they follow along for a 10-20 seconds before they get back to the conversation about how it could be used in their particular branch of service.

Thanks again to the pilots and relief controllers, it really helps a great deal.

Keith

[Keith Smith]

Thanks to everyone that flew, including the controllers that hopped into their aircraft when they were off duty. Having the radio activity and planes to show on the scope was awesome.

Lots of great military leads came out of the show, along with a nice civilian one, too.

Will post pics on FB when able.

[scottcame]

Keith, I apologize for not flying as I said I would. Work got the better of me this week. I'm very glad to hear the event went well. It would be terrific to have more traffic on the network in the near future.

[Keith Smith]

It is going to take a while for the retail base to grow to the point where we have higher levels of concurrent usage, but the commercial users have the potential to accelerate that process quite rapidly.

They are coming

Keith

[Steven Winslow]

I got a couple flights in during the demo hours. Talk about pressure! When you can hear the crowd in the background and you know your voice is being broadcast in a trade show area (just assuming it was a trade show type thing) it's a little intimidating. Thanks for the experience!

[Colin Payette]

I got on yesterday morning for a trip from KSEE to KTRM and could hear the crowd in the background too. It felt like a busy day at the airport with split frequencies - very authentic.

Maybe the controllers should loop a tape of chatter behind them on normal days