FSX Acceleration

So I finally picked up the Acceleration Expansion and I have to say if this had been out years ago VARO would be huge today. From the "Reno Racing" to the "Red Bull Air Racing" everything seems to be spot on, and the missions are incredible. I wasn't really sure what to expect but when I loaded up the Pylon School mission which started my on the ramp at Reno with three or planes and a pace plane I was sort of impressed then the planes started taxing and the next thing I new I was flying in formation on the pace lap being guided over the radio from the pace plane. If that wasn't cool enough the racing was spot on as well with myself and the three simulated planes screaming around the course you could see and hear everything as expected. All the little details are there from dealing with engine stress to managing ADI needless to saw I was impressed.

After tooling around in the Mustang I decided to check out the Red Bull Air Racing. I have to say I love the way everything looks and feels but it could use an update to the latest rules and procedures...more on that in a minute.

Finally I loaded up a multi-player mission and to me this is where this version of FSX really shines it does everything that I would ever want it tracks everything right there in the game and the mission can be setup to do just about anything. As for the racing I wasn't racing against anyone but the potential is more than massive.

So how does all of this effect VARO, well for the first time I think that all of the tools are in place inside Flight Simulator to make air racing available to everyone with that said though its all in the missions. Now I experimented before with mission building with very little success but the new system is easy to use and very powerful so my current plans are to build a set of race missions based on the 2009 Red Bull Air Race World Championship. I am not 100% sure how I am going to do this but its a learning process. I am currently working get the SDK up and running on my development machine. I will post more on this as it becomes available.

For those of you not inclined to racing around in circles. Microsoft has released multiplayer missions for the T6 and Sport courses at Reno along with the build in Unlimited course(visit FsInsider for download links).I would be up to bring back some race nights.

A New Look

A New Look
With a new direction and new website. I felt it was time for a new logo to go along with it all. So without further delay check out our new logos.

Expect to see these logos on this page along with many other VARO publications and sites as well as racing aircraft.

Aircraft and Software Testing
Last night I was able to get the last 3 Flight Simulators loaded on my machine last night to begin testing. I am primarily focused on FSX because none of the old VARO stuff was designed for it and I can say though preliminary testing the Transponder works as it did before. The scenery work but there is an issue with the pylon guides which I believe has more to do with the fact that they are not textured. I think that the scenery will possibly need some work but the Transponder is ready for release and as soon as I get it re branded I will post it up to the blog.

Now that I have a working Transponder I am going to begin testing production aircraft to find a set of aircraft that are well matched and competitive. Once I have the 1st wave of testing complete I will be posting my findings.

Fly Fast Turn Left...and Sometimes Right(only in Oz of course)

Lead Race Organizer

Sryth

VARO Update May 14 2009

Welcome Back, or better yet welcome to the new an improved home of VARO

There are probably a few people out there that have wondered what happened to VARO some may not care, other may wish that we would just stay down. Rest assured I wouldn't be bringing VARO back unless I felt that we could put on solid fun events that are both challenging for experienced pilots but accessible for even the greenest pilots. In an effort to provide the best experience possible we have made some change some that people will like and some that some purists will call me out on. Overall I feel that the changes make for a better experience.

So What has changed?

No More Points Series(for now)

We are no longer in the business of running a racing series. At least for the time being all races will be self contained events. Each event will run one possible two classes that will be dedicated around a particular course. Now with that said there will be some form of points awarded after each event that will go toward a "Pilot of the Year" or say the "Pilot of the Summer" award. This way pilots that want to be competitive can race for a larger goal and bragging rights but pilots that only wish to race occasionally can do so. With all of that said I would like to in the future run a F1 series at some point for now however the concentration will be on each event and providing the best possible experience for each event.

Race Format

Gone are the multiple heat knock out style racing, now each event will consist of a qualifying session and three races. Qualifying is something that VARO attempted many years ago very unsuccessfully I may add, now with the current timing system qualifying has gotten dramatically easier. Qualifying will take place 15 minutes prior the the scheduled pilots meeting pilots will have an open course and must submit there time to the Race Organizer before the time is up, Simple. Qualifying will then determine the starting order for the 1st Sprint race. The 2nd Sprint race will see the field starting order inverted based on qualifying. Finally the best time between both Sprint Races will determine the Start order for the Feature Race will be considerably longer. I believe this format will give everyone the most "bang for the buck" so to speak allowing pilots to race in all races with the option to sit out a Sprint Race if they so choose.

Aircraft Development

In the past VARO has developed our own racing aircraft primarily due to the the serious lack of aircraft out in the flightsim community. Today there are many options out the for racing aircraft including aircraft for many classes. What does this mean for future VARO aircraft development? For starters all unlimited style aircraft are going to be replaced by aircraft already produced by very talented aircraft designers. T-6 and Jet aircraft will remain pretty much the same however I am looking to replace them as well. All in all the only development the VARO will be doing is for the F1 aircraft and that will be based solely on the interest of pilots to race in an F1 series. Bottom line developing aircraft takes a lot of time and distracts for the over goal of VARO which is to put on great events.

Software Development

As some of you may remember the last time we race I have finished up the Transponder RC 3 which turned out to be a very solid and user friendly program. The program is still in existence will well only get better as I am already begun to work on new features to make the program even better.

Scenery Development

Before we closed the site down the last time I announced plans to expand our courses to Hawaii,Europe and Australia and I intend to continue with those new courses, I am working to create even more with the goal to hold events in many new and interesting places all in the effort to get pilots out of there normal comfort zones and to see all that Flight Sim has to offer.

A New Flight Sim

I am not sure how many of you have upgraded to Flight Simulator X but I can say that I have and really enjoy the simulator greatly. Now that doesn't mean that VARO has abandoned our FS2k2 and FS2k4 pilots. Thanks to the folks at Chocolate Software and their FSHost server all 3 versions of the game can connect to the same server and see each other. Now i am still working out the details and some research may be involved but I cannot see a reason why with the Transponder and FSHost we cannot have all 3 sims racing against each other. The only possible issue we may run into is aircraft but that should not be an issue.

Keeps getting better with Age

VARO was started some seven years ago and yes we have had our ups and downs we even had a bit of a feud going there for a while but in the end it comes down to having fun and doing something that we love to do and for most of us do not have the means to do in real life. Stay posted for more updates to this site as they will be coming as fast as I can get things together. Hopefully everything will be in place to start turning laps in a few weeks I would really love to be on course with our first open practice before Memorial Day here in the states.

Fly Fast Turn Left...and Sometimes Right(only in Oz of course)

Lead Race Organizer

Sryth

VARO Back Online

Virtual Air Racing Online.....

Back In the Air Soon

VARO aircraft to be discontinued.
All VARO aircraft will be taken down from the website at the end of the day, however fear not most of them are slated for rebuilding and individual release. Now you may be asking yourself why I am taking down the aircraft that made VARO possible. The simple fact is that in their current configuration doesn't fit into the image that I have for FS Sport Plane. This is a very hard decision for me to make but I do think it is for the best. For those of you who still fly the various aircraft and those of you who worked on these aircraft I offer you my greatest gratitude.

Other News and Updates
It may not look like it but I haven't forgotten about FS Sport Plane I have just been busy with other things in the real world but recently I have gotten the itch to model and fly again so expect some more updates on the various aircraft we are working on here.

Hydroplane Project
Its the on again/off again project that continues to intrigue me. So inspired by the upcoming Hydroplane boat racing season coming up I am working toward having the basic project ready for the start of the season in June. Stay posted for more details about this project.

F1 Air Racing
Due to some lack of initial interest and lack of the new aircraft the F1 Season will be placed on indefinite hold until such time as it is viable. Anyone interested in racing should still post in the forum so I have some idea of the interest level.

FS Sport Plane Press Release:
Updates keep on coming!As you may have noticed the change over has been a bit slow, and that's only because FS Sport Plane is working to build the easiest to use site we can and that takes time. We have however got the Workshop working and you can view updated images of our current projects. Currently I am working to get the Hangar section up and operational will new and improved installs for the VARO aircraft along with the Transponder timing utility and the VARO Course files. Also in the works is new scenery for our test facility located at the Battle Mountain Airport(KBAM) in Nevada.

F1 Racing Rulebook Coming soon
The new updated rulebook should be available in the next couple days.
Here are some of the changes:
Improved qualifying method
Update Livery rules
Updated racing format to a 3 race an event only
Updated scoring, All races count for scoring even heat races
Added Championship Race structure.
Check out the forum for a preview version of the rulebook

I also have a tenative schedule planned and I can truly say we will be an international series having 5 races in the States and 5 across Europe and Australia.


Tenative Schedule

Week 1 KMQJ
Week 2 KMSO
Week 3 KDVT
Week 4 KMHV
Week 5 Hawaii TBD
Mid Season Break New Livery releases and Updates
Week 6 YMAV
Week 7 Australia TBD
Week 8 France St Flour/Coltines Airfield LFHQ
Week 9 France Moulins Montbeugny Airfield LFHY
Week 10 England Long Marston Airfield
RENO/4SD Championship Races

Aircraft Updates
The biggest update has to be the announcement of the MOXSY Screaming Eagle being built and designed by our partners over at MOXSY/MoTIS VJD. We should have more information soon since the aircraft preview has been announced for today.

As for the rest of your aircraft progress continues. The Shoestring is almost ready to be placed into Flightsim and testing on the NXT is planned to start next week.

Stay posted to this page for more news and information about upcoming FS Sport Plane projects and events. Specially look for our next big racing league set to "thrust" into view very soon.

FS Sport Plane Press Release:

F1 Air Racing coming back from the dead!
Its been ten months since I closed down VARO and in that time I have been working on the FS Sport Plane site as well as putting together new ideas for the future. Somewhere in there I found some F1 aircraft I had been working on and decided that I would give racing another shot. With that said FS Sport plane along with help from our partners at MoTIS Virtual Jet Design will be launching a new F1 racing series to coincide with the opening of the FS Sport Plane site. The new series will run along with the other planned cross country race events and will have all the fun and excitement of the old VARO F1 races with a few new twists and improvements. The new F1 series is tentatively scheduled to kick off in April with test events taking place in March.

New F1 aircraft:
In order to help usher in a new era in F1 air racing, FS Sport Plane will be releasing an all new model of the current VARO F1 as well as a couple of new models. All of the F1 aircraft will be fully functional with moving parts and virtual cockpits. Expect to see more information on the new aircraft as well as a new and improved VARO F1 very soon.

We Need Pilots!
With the announcement of this new series we are going to need some pilots. With that said we are looking for at the least ten interested pilots in order to start the series. Pilots will need to read and follow the VARO Rules Handbook as well as commit to participate at least 10 races over a period of 3 to 4 months. Now I will assure that our races will be scheduled to prevent any conflicts with other racing organizations to allow pilots the maximum opportunity to participate. So, if you have raced with VARO before or are completely new and interested in racing. Please sign up in the forum and post your interest in the F1 board. Signing up now will get you access to exclusive internal news and information for the upcoming series as well as access to beta aircraft before they are available to the public.

Other FS Sport Plane News:
Development continues on the NXT I am currently getting ready to begin flight model testing which if all goes well we should have a limited release model ready very soon. I am also proud to announce that the website is almost finished and should go live this evening.

Stay posted to this page for more news and information about upcoming FS Sport Plane projects and Events.