Told ya I'd be Back!
There have been some changes and not everything is up are running but we are still back up and running. For those of you looking for scenery and aircraft files they are being relocated the Sryth's Hangar, VARO files that were created by other individuals will be located on this site.

The VARO Race Server is still up and running but its now running FSHost 3.0 which means that all FS2004 pilots MUST turn there frame rate down to 20 since FS2004 sends information for each frame. Its complicated yes but trust me the server will run better if all FS2004 pilots do this.

Website is down

It looks like the site will be down until we get some things worked out. VARO operations will continue as scheduled with the exception of the warbird class since it is going to be diffucult to get the files to the pilots. We are still looking for the best day to run events now due to some changes please if you are a registered pilot send an e-mail to Sryth with a suggestion.

Postponed.....
The KMQJ F1 Race has been postponed due to some time conlicts. It will be run during one of your off weekends. We are still looking for the best times to setup races. Please if you are a VARO registered pilot let us know when you are most available. We have 30+ pilots on the roster and have only been hearing from a hand full, we need the information to better run air races

Reminder!
The KMQJ F1 Race scheduled for 10/25/03 will be run on 10/26/03 at the usual time. I have had to make some changes due to my new job. Expect an updated schedule online in the next few days.

Unlimited Race at KMQJ success after initial failures.
We had some connection issues early but after the issues were resolved we had a excellent set of heat races and a tight Gold Race. Results can be found on the Standings page or look on the Schedule and go to the Unlimited event.

Unlimited Race files cane be found here. extract them into fs2002\flights\varo then head into flight sim and select a flight got to VARO and pick the appropriate file.

VARO Project update and the Start of The Winter Season

First I am proud to announce the VARO Racer Project is moving along very well, there are many aircraft in the production line and a few are almost ready for release. If you check out the VARO Racer Project page I have updated RareBear with an image from inside flight sim as well as added Critical Mass.

The start of the Winter Season begins tomorrow with the Unlimiteds at the brand new KMQJ course. Hope to see all pilots there for the start of the season. Pilots wishing to race in the event tomorrow should stay posted to this page for the events files which will be released tomorrow around 5pm est.

World Wide Air Racing files added to the Files section

Good news our partners over at WWAR have allowed us to host there Official Courses and Aircraft. Head to the Files page for a great T-6 and there canyon course. Files are Fs2002/Fs2004 friendly.

The Winter Season will begin next week on schedule with the Unlimited races at KMQJ. Hope to see everyone there.

Major Updates to VARO

With the Winter Series starting in a little more than 2 weeks, the scenery has be reworked and I can actualy say I am happy with it finally. I Have also started the uploading of the Warbird aircraft. I am currently in the process of getting permission to upload the rest of the aircraft.

Pilots make sure you get the latest Scenery and I will see you at Pylon School this weekend.

New Pylon design
Check out the new pylon design inspired by the real pylons at here. click here to see the sample

Warbird Class announced!
Along with the improvements to the website we have created a class of racing that I have been looking forward to for a long time Stock Warbirds. They may not be the most glamorous but they are still fun to race.

Unlimited Heat Racing this saturday at 10pm est. Bring your unlimited and make sure you have the scenery Then meet us at the Race Server. All race pilots welcome.

Stay posted for official Winter Cup infomation

Slowly Coming back online.

I have the files section rebuilt and back up on the website. I have also posted all the skins for the Reno Racer that I can find and I have split the files up so there are only around 7 megs apiece.

The Paint that Aircraft Contest package is ready to be sent to anyone that is interested please e-mail Sryth and I can get the package out to you

More Details and the Paint that Aircraft Contest


still don't know the aircraft?

Here is it its built and ready for a new coat of paint.

Announcing Paint that Aircraft Contest Rules
1. The contest will run for 1 month at the end of which a winner will be announced.
2. 2 paint schemes must be submitted one for each stage of the aircraft.
3. The contest is open to anyone.
4. Templates for Photoshop and Paintshop pro must be made available.

What will the winner get?
1. A credit in the final release of the aircraft.
2. Offer to paint more VARO aircraft.
3. Our thanks and gratitude.

Anyone interested in paint the aircraft should e-mail Sryth for a paint kit which include a very basic wireframe template. As well as reference images for the different paint schemes.

Contest will officially begin Sept. 12 2003 and end October 12 2003

Name that Aircraft



The first major new aircraft coming exlusively from the VARO Hanger

VARO forum up and running!
I have found a very good free board with lots of features and no pop ups. It will become an important part of the VARO site you can reach it here
VARO Forum

Hi to all. Varo lives on! Viper, Wombat and Rotorhead are currently working toward the next VARO season of Air Racing. Some changes are in the works and we hope to make VARO more fun and exciting for all the competitors. There will be an open session tonight , 8-9-2003, probably hosted by rotorhead around 2100 CDT. For information regarding IP's for the game and Roger Wilco, Please send an Email to tkjake@tds.net so you can be contacted with the info. Also if you search for "rotorhead" in roger wilco and join the session, we will be able to get you up and running from there. Hope to see you there!

Sryth to step down
Its official Sryth creator and president of VARO has had to step down. I have had a lot of issues lately with life outside of air racing and cannot put the effort I once could into the sport. Its a very hard decision to make but its must be made I am involved in to many thing to be active, it is also not fair to the pilots who love air racing to suffer under my absence. I will stay on as webmaster as well as a consultant.

Where does that leave VARO?
Well currently the officers are discussing the best course of action to take. I feel very confident in Wombat,Rotorhead and Viper that they will know what best to with VARO.

As for me....Its been a great run from november to now. We have ups and downs but we have had fun the whole way. I hope that continues into the future.

Joel "Sryth" DeRossett.....signing off

Race report for 6-28-2003:

The June Unlimited Race saw a total of only five participants, but they put
on a great show. With Sryth acting as Airboss, all the aircraft safely got
into the air. When the green flag flew, everyone dived for the start/finish
line, and we had a race. The racing was tight as the planes and pilots were
very equally matched in a race that saw passing to be very difficult. In
the end, they crossed the finish line in this order:
Rotorhead
Wombat
Viper
Rookie
Unfortunatly, Bihaeng didn't finish due to a crash on the west end of the
course. Rescue of the pilot was succesfull. Rotorhead redeemed himself for
last weeks pilot error. Points will be posted soon. Thanks to all who
showed for this event!

KMSO Unlimited Race Files Available

KMSO 6-28 Unlimited
download required for race

also I have a last minute texture to add to the Mustang along with the aircraft.cfg

Get them Here
just extract to your Reno Race directory and overwrite the aircraft.cfg

VARO Unlimited lineup for 6-28-03
VARO Officer briefing meeting at 8:30pm est
Hot laps begin at 9:00pm est

Silver Race will start at 9:30pm
Silver Race Lineup
1.#20 Wizardd
2.#19 BiHaeng
Open slots for certifed pilots, If no certified pilots show, The silver Race pilots will be promoted to the gold race. If there is no silver race practice will be extended

Gold Race will start at 10:00pm
Race Lineup
1.#22 Rotorhead
2.#4 Wombat
3.#15 RAF_Seablade
4.#5 Viper
Race will start ontime unless there is a need for delay. All officers and air bosses are required to attend meeting

KMSO F1 Standings posted

see the standings page for details

Late Race Run by Sryth not good enough.
The late run by #31 Sryth in saturday's VARO F1 race at KMSO was not enough to pass the race winner #5 Viper. Viper lead from the wire to wire in the race after starting 3rd. The pole award winner #22 Rotorhead finished last after a costly pilot error at the start of the race. New comer #23 Rookie nabbed the 3rd spot. Attendence was down to a dismal 4 pilots but we still got the gold race in and it was a fast one with a total over all time of 6:57.44. Overall the race went well there were a few technical glitches and some Roger Wilco problems but once we got things started the race went smooth. Special Thanks to #4 Wombat for his Air Boss duties and excellent race coverage.

The KMSO Unlimited race is next saturday I hope to see all of you there!

Other News
Officer openings.

Looking for a Public Relations/Race Reporter responsible for promoting the league on the net as well as press coverage of the race.

Vice President. see rules for description

Changes to VARO
We are looking at two new voice communication packages Team Speak and Battlecom both offer free service and have better stability than RW.

New Aircraft and rule changes coming next month.

Official KMSO F1 Race setup files

KMSO F1 Race 6-21

Server will open at 9:00pm est for hotlaps RW will be decided in the race server.

Sorry for the delay he is the official race lineup and schedule
VARO F1 lineup for 6-21-03
VARO officer briefing meeting at 8:30pm est
Hot laps begin at 9:00pm est

Silver Race will start at 9:30pm
Race Lineup
1.#23 The Rookie
2.#19 BiHaeng
Open Slots for certified pilots, if no certified pilots show, The silver race pilots will be promoted to the gold race. If there is no silver race practice will be extended

Gold Race will start at 10:00pm
Race Linup
1.#22 Rotorhead
2.#20 Wizardd
3.#31 Sryth
4.#4 Viper
Races will start on time unless there is a reason to delay. All officers and Air bosses are required to attend officer breifing

Important Correction!
Due to a malfunction of the reporting form I did not recieve 2 important qualifying times. With the addition of these times the Pole award for the unlimited class should have been given to #22 Rotorhead with a time of 2:31.94. Official race line ups will be posted on wednesday. Remember if you can not make the race you must find a substitute pilot to receive points for the race.

VARO Weekly News #1

Qualifying is over, and for the pilots that showed things went off with very little complications. After 4 days of qualifying the Lineup for the races are set. Congratulations to the pole award Winners #22 Rotorhead turning in a qualifying time of 2:29.16 in the F1 and Wombat with a last minute hotlap out at the unlimted course of 2:34.72 a little over a second faster than Viper in his hot Super Corsair. The official race lineup will be posted by wednesday. To all certifed pilots that did not make qualifying you still have a chance to make the feature, heres how. Certified pilots that arive on time for the race start will be placed in the silver race if we have more than 4 certified pilots show up we will run 2 heat races. The top 2 places of the silver race will then be allowed to race in the gold race.

VARO pilots we have had very low numbers in the race server over the past 2 weeks. This may be due to bad timing or maybe pilots just got involved and decided they were not interested. No matter what the reason VARO can only handle 32 pilots at the current time and any pilot that is registered and not showing is clogging up the database so the following list of pilots are on the bubble to be removed from VARO. These pilots have not shown up for any VARO events what so ever and if they do not e-mail me with a valid reason for not participating or show up for the next race they will be removed for the roster. VARO is only as good as its pilots and if the pilots don't how to events VARO does not look very good.

Pilots on the Bubble
3 War-x-
6 MachToo
7 obneto
8 Maverik
11 WTR*755
12 USAF_RET
13 Toad
14 hell kat
17 CatEye
18 Argo7
21 Rabb

Again if you have a vaild reason for not participating in VARO events and still wish to participate please e-mail Sryth. Also if you are on this list and feel that you should not be please let me know that as well my records may be off.

Finally the future of VARO
After a long discussion on saturday with the pilots I have come up with some ideas. Pilots have mentioned they would be interested in racing military jets on a long course. I am currently scouting locations for such a course. I have also put in the works plans to get a bearcat involved in air racing along with possibly a p-38. Something else that may be a possibility is an airshow. I was planning one a while back. I have since scalled it down and it will most likely be more of an open house for anyone interested in VARO to come and look around while we are in the server. There would be static displays of aircraft in production along with all VARO pilots aircraft, and of course airracing. Another event that may happen is the VARO Preservation Race. This would be a race using stock warbirds on the unlimited course. Each pilot that wishes to enter would be assigned an individual aircraft and we would run the race at the Airshow. The airshow would take place during the last month of the season at the champtionship

Well thats VARO Weekly #1 remeber all items in the Future section are subject to change

Qualification Files Online

Download the following file and unzip to your Fs2002 directory. Then go to "Select Flgiht" Select "VARO" then the 6-14 Qualification file. This will setup Flight SIm correctly for qualifying

6-14 Qualification Flight Files

I have also place the pit assignemnts on the Qualifying Page

Server opens for qualifying at 9:30 est.

6/13/2003 20:21 CDT
FI Panel

From Rotorhead. HI guys. I hope you like the new panel for the F1 racer. Ok, it's a little overdone, but what the heck. Please note that the manifold pressure readout on the VM1000 gauge will be a little screwy at full throttle. I simply can't find a MAP gauge that will read pressures as high as this plane will run at. Please wear a helmet when flying this bird because if she ever blows, she will blow BIG TIME! If anyone needs a gauge file for the panel feel free to drop me a line at tkjake@tds.net . See ya all on Saturday

Qualifying Results are now online go to the Qualying for info.

Other News
I have new files for all VARO aircraft in testing. Also expect a skin pack for the Reno Racer soon. I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce 2 new officers. #5 Viper will be taking over duties of Construction Support Officer. He is currently working on the mustangs and f1s to make them more competitive. Our other new officer is #22 Rotorhead, Rotorhead was involved with VARO all most for the begining and now takes his place among officers as Race Support Officer. He is the first to fill this position and should do a fine job. We are still in desperate need of a Public Relations officer. If you have good communication skills and can promote VARO all over the internet we want you!

Next Event is the F1 quals at KMSO hope to see all the F1 pilots zipping around the 3 miler

Qualification Files Online

Download the following file and unzip to your Fs2002 directory. Then go to "Select Flgiht" Select "VARO" then the 6-7 Qualification file. This will setup Flight SIm correctly for qualifying

6-7 Qualification Flight Files

I have also place the pit assignemnts on the Qualifying Page

Server opens for qualifying at 9:30 est.

Qualifying Begins on Saturday!
Its about time

After almost 2 months of downtime VARO is back and flying in the right direction. We have mad major changes to make VARO success full including a qualifying system and solid rules to deal with connection issues. The website has gone through many changes with added sections and better navigation. Even with all these changes we are only as good as you officers and pilots. We are currently in need of both. The following officer positions are open and will be filled as soon as possible.

Public relations Officer. Mainly responsible for promoting VARO across the internet and working with other organizations to provide sponsorship and prizes.

Race Support Officer. Responsible in the running of VARO Race Events with help from the VARO board. Like running ATC this job is for you.

We are also in need of Air Bosses. The airboss also helps run events works in conjunction with an Event Organizer.
If you feel you would make a good officer please e-mail Sryth and we will get you setup.

I hope every one is primed from some fast racing and a hard fought championship.

Flying Fast with Props
Sryth

ATTENTION ALL VARO PILOTS!!!

As we head towards a new season of racing with VARO, we have a few things going on.

First, we will be contacting all pilots regarding their system/connection certification and pylon school certification.
We want to have as many of you certified and ready to go when we start qualifications in June.
I'll be sending an email out in the next day or so with more info. I hope to get in a few practice sessions and pilot certifications before June 7th.

Second, we'll be filling some additional spaces on the VARO board. We currently need a new Construction Support Officer to help with new skins, aircraft and scenery constructions.
We also will need a bunch of Air Bosses and Race Control Officials along with a Race Support Officer. Air Bosses and RCO's will be responsible for helping to run our official events, qualifications and even practice sessions. We need a deep pool of RCO's so that we are well covered during events in case there are schedule conflicts with the main board members. Our goal is to run all events as scheduled. This means we will need the help of everyone to make sure we have enough staff to keep events on track. All RCO's and Air Bosses will report to the RSO.
We will have some training sessions to get anyone interested up to speed. Believe it or not, running a race event takes some practice, discipline and planning. But, we have the tools to make life easier. What we need are bodies.
If you're interested in any of these positions, contact me.

Finally, I hope everyone is prepared and excited for the upcoming season. We should see some great racing and a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to shaking off some of the rust with new faces and a new attitude.
If anyone has any questions, concerns, thoughts or comments don't hesitate to contact me.

Bank it and yank it.
flatline_____

VARO Air Racing season starts in June be ready.

From now until the month on June Practice sessions and Pylon Schools will be held through the week and every weekend to get all pilots ready for Racing In June.

Stay Posted for further details

Sryth
VARO President

VARO Grand Re-Opening
We are back with a new site and a new attitude toward racing

Starting in June the season is back on!

I would like to thank the VARO staff for making this possible and keeping me motivated through all the problems and set backs if it were not for them VARO could have died a rather sorry death. I would also like to thank Mark Kallio at Pylon1 for providing a great presence on the web for not only VARO but for Air Racing in general. Visit www.pylon1.com for all your air racing news and info.

VARO Staff
Flatline
GOferBROKE
Baron
Roscoe

VARO Website Update
Website construction coming along nicely should be done very soon

Stay posted!

Other News
Unlimited Class Filling Up Fast!
Only 7 spots remain, if you want to be an active Unlimited Pilot sign up today!
visit our new Join page for instructions

VARO Website under major Overhaul

I am rebuilding the website along with all the pages in it.
Stay posted for the new and Improved VARO

Calling All Pilots!
VARO Rebuild Well Underway!

All racers can understand the strong desire of holding events in a fair, competitive atmosphere. We came to the realization a major change was needed. VARO CEO, Sryth, put the season on hold and Erik Thompson, CEO of West Coast ATC, volunteered for the task of Support Professional. Much deliberation and long hours of effort by many created a process of certifying pilots, to get all on a level playing field.

Some racers that attended were kind enough to send me their comments on the certification process. Roscoe was the first to get scrutinized and was very impressed with Eriks' expertise. Also, WarX says, "Erik did a very good job helping me out. Found out a couple new items about my computer as well. When connected, I can now run about 75% resources free on the dial up and get a decent enough connection to hopefully not be bouncing around anymore. I'm running a PII 450 mhz machine, with a 56k dial up modem (only thing available in my area…bummer), so I'm a bit behind on the power/processing speed, but seem to have enough to run."

One of VAROs newest pilots, Wombat, offered this. "I thought my session went very smoothly. Erik walked me through shutting down all non-essential start-up programs to free up as much systems resources as possible. After that he had me get in the cockpit and check my in game frame rate. He was impressed my slower 600Mhz P3 had a sustained 25 FPS rate, and suggested I may do better with 22FPS. I did change to that afterwards. After that he had me take off and he hit me with a barrage of packets with zero loss. All in all a very pleasant and educational experience........." Wombat was noted not to have updated to DX9 and although Varo would like to see all pilots updated to DX9, it might not be mandatory.

Many seem to have neglected the chance to get the new process going. It's real disappointing to think Varo will loose racers that aren't scheduling certification sessions. The determination to see Varo get through these growing pains has taken a toll on many concerned. Readers will notice, the two comments quoted were from racers on dial-up connections and fairly dated systems. They have been certified, proving that most that desire to race, indeed can!

More changes are in the works to keep VARO a top-notch organization and the premier site for online air racing!

Stay tuned for more developments!
#19GOferBROKE

Certification Process Changes -- Please Read !

VARO wishes to apologize for any confusion these changes may cause but to make the PC Certification
process go smoothly and to keep the certifications running in an organized manner, these changes in
the certification process are necessary.

Things you will need to know !

1. You will need to have Roger Wilco installed on you system.
2. Erik might want you to take screen captures of certain info and send it to him, so you must know how
to screen capture and be able to copy and paste said images to a program capable of saving that screen
capture as a jpeg. Photoshop and PaintShop are two types of these programs. There are more.

After consulting with VARO's Support Professional, Erik Thompson, this is the way he would like to handle
the pc certification process.

1. Certifications will continue as planned this Saturday and Sunday also. ( 4-12-03 and 4-13-03 )

2. PC Certification sessions on Saturday will be held hourly starting at 5pm PST, and running till
10pm PST. The scheduled sessions for Saturday will be 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm PST.

3. PC Certification sessions on Sunday will be held hourly starting at 4pm PST, and running till
7pm PST. The scheduled sessions for Sunday will be 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, and 7pm PST.

VARO pilots scheduled to have their PC Certification session "will show up in the VARO Lounge 5
minutes before their scheduled appointment". Please verify your time zone and please be on time
as our Support Professional will be already in the lounge and be waiting for you. To get to the VARO
lounge link, please go to ,,,,

http://www.westcoastatc.com/

Once there, go to the VARO Lounge by first clicking on the small blue box in the upper left hand corner.
On the next page, click on the VARO Lounge link. This will automatically start Roger Wilco and log you
into the session.

Erik will already be in the session and will walk you thru most of the process so there is not much more
that you need to know.

Each pilot is required to contact VARO with their time slot of choice. Please send an email to Roscoe, Gary,
or Joel. Please do this as quickly as possible, as we would like to fill this weekends time slots as soon as possible.

Check to see the time for your scheduled session as names will be added as they are received.

Saturday:

5pm - Flatline

6pm - MachToo

7pm - Oblivio / Obneto

8pm - GriffonJET

9pm - GOferBROKE

10pm

Sunday:

4pm

5pm

6pm

7pm

Another certification session will be held next weekend also.

Pilots with Certified Machines

Race # 2 --- Roscoe --------- Cable
Race # 5 --- Baron ----------- Dial Up
Race # ? --- Raven11 -------- Cable
Race # 8 --- WarX ------------ Dial up


As you know, this is a necessary process to get all VARO pilots computers certified per the
new VARO standards. The Virtual Air Racing Organization wishes to thank all pilots for their
cooperation during these certifications.

Roscoe
"Fly Fast With Props"

VARO Taking Major Steps Toward Eliminating Lag Issue
CEO Confirms New Certification Process

Big news just released notifying all racers of new procedures! To get us all on the same playing field, we have been very fortunate to have the services of Erik Thompson, CEO of West Coast ATC volunteer his time as Varo Support Professional. His extensive knowledge of networking and computer set-ups has brought to light many issues needing attention. Erik says, "We are racing against connections, not planes or pilots." His ability to monitor and evaluate everyones' connections while we race has made this new process an obvious necessity.

Pilots need not fret the new changes. Almost all of our PCs can benefit from the "tune-up" Erik is able to perform. Even those running moderate connections; i.e. dial-up, can be brought up to standards in a consultation with Varos' Support Professional. This type diagnostic service is very valuable and would cost an individual a substantial amount should they seek this information on their own. I'm extremely grateful Erik has chosen to volunteer his time and knowledge to all racers. This will take time and racers need to get an appointment for a one-on-one consultation.

View this as a qualifying session. "You can't go to a NASCAR race and try to qualify in a go-kart.", Erik said.

These measures may seem drastic and troublesome, but anyone that has been frustrated by the connection issues we have all seen will welcome the efforts. The "walkthrough" that will be enacted is a painless diagnostic session and you will be amazed at the expertise of our Support Pro.

Eliminating the issues hindering our racing has become the priority of Varo.
Read the steps outlined in the official notice sent out and let's get this program rolling!

#19 GOferBROKE, over and out!

Saturday Night Recap
New Pilots, Diagnostic Service Showing Promise!

An event scheduled with the P-51 race plane guarantees excitement and close competition. Saturday night was no exception.
It was great to see three new pilots come out and I hope more on the roster become involved as Varo eliminates connection issues. MachToo was unfortunately unable to connect, apparently due to router settings. Don't despair, buddy! We will get to the root of the problem and look forward to your continued participation. Wombat and Raven11, fresh off their checkrides, were also in attendance and ready to race. Wombat has experience with a well known commercial racing sim and showed great skill as he flew the course at KMSO. Raven11 came ready to compete and demonstrated his desire to become a player. His flying had improved a lot in only two days since his checkride session. Great to have you aboard, guys!

The event was held as a mock/practice race and featured some excellent flying. West Coast ATC once again provided the servers and evaluated our connection throughout the event. I'm extremely grateful and excited that Varo has access to an excellent Support Technician.

Heat1A was a barnburner! Sryth, Flatline and Wombat put on a fine show. Roscoe was attending and got a chance to fly the pace plane.
The racing was close and as Sryth led the pack, Wombat and Flatline had an excellent battle for 2nd and 3rd. Wombats' prior pylon experience really showed as he was in the heat of competition from the start!

Heat1B brought more connection issues to light as GriffonJET and GOferBROKE tried to race together. The lagging problem was again a factor as GJ was seen to lag behind while claiming to be in a close race. More to come on this very difficult anomaly!

Heat1C was called to the line. Raven11 got his first taste of real competiton, racing together with Wombat and Roscoe. Roscoes' experience prevailed while Wombat put up an excellent fight for the lead! Raven11 was not to be counted out, as he wasn't far behind.

A three lap, standing start was proposed between Roscoe and Wombat, as it appeared a lag had marred the outcome of their prior engagement. The duel was settled with Roscoe leading and Wombat second.

Silver Race participants were called to the holding point and as GOferBROKE paced, the field gathered for a chance to race into the Gold. Raven11 had a chance to fly in the Silver Race and disappeared. Possibly another connection problem cost him a chance to get into the final. Anything can happen during a race and he might've made it into the Gold had he been able to return in time! More lag issues were apparent as the field circled the course.

The Gold Race included all pilots, as to be fair considering the problems with determining a definite finishing order in the Silver event.
After witnessing the earlier difficulties I contacted Erik, Varo Support Technician, before the Gold Race began. His monitoring of Varo events over the last three weeks has shed light on many difficulties.

A standing start was agreed on, as no pace plane was available. All pilots departed and the lag gremlin reared it's ugly head, again. Some close competition was again tainted by an airplane being unscoreable.

It seemed apparent what Varo had to do. The earlier postponement of points racing certainly appeared to be the correct move as it was obvious we had much to do to solve all the issues. Much frustration in trying to hold a fair, competitive event has many changes being implemented. Varo and West Coast ATC is working hard getting to the root of this and all pilots will be notified soon as to what will be required.

I can't thank Erik Thompson and West Coast ATC enough for devoting the time and knowledge required to raise Varo to a higher level.
The prospect of seeing the end of this era of glitches and gremlins has your reporter very excited! A clear-cut plan will be implemented soon. It will take time, but the end result will be worth it.

Again, welcome to our new pilots! Good to see more interest in the fly fast, turn left crowd!

#19 GOferBROKE, Over and out!

VARO Season 2003 Postponed

It has taken a lot of thought and a lot of discussion but I feel that to address the current unrest within VARO we must postpone the season, until we have all the bugs worked out. VARO has grown very fast since we started up in November and that is great. However, we pushed VARO to it limits and it is starting to show strain. SO, to help lessen the pressure, we are putting the season on hold. Some of you may not agree with this but it needs to be done. However I have good news, VARO will continue to be the Number 1 home of Virtual Air Racing in the world. VARO pilots have seen some of the largest and probably the most impressive air racing ever and it will continue. We are planing to still have racing every Saturday and new courses every month. The only change is, scoring will be removed. We are flying for fun and bragging rights from here on out. The scoring will eventually come back but not until we have ironed out the bugs. I understand some people will be disappointed by this decision but it will only help VARO go into the future.

Other Bad News
Roscoe,a founder of VARO, has decided to step down from his Construction Officer duties. He has done an excellent job with the F1 skins and Widowmaker is still an impressive Mustang. Roscoe will still be around, just as a pilot, so if you are in a session with Roscoe take a second to wish him luck with his future endevours. I would like to personally thank Roscoe for helping me put VARO together. He was one of the first people to get involved and his help has been tremendous.

More Good News
The air show is still on and there will be air racing there so stay posted. We are still working out an agreement with West Coast ATC to provide servers for Air Racing which will improve racing. West Coast ATC is a valued partner. I encourage all pilots that are interested in Virtual Airlines or just flying ATC to head over there and catch a session.

Officer Openings and Pilot Rules Group
With Roscoe stepping down there is now an opening for in the Construction Support Office to be filled immediately. I am also taking nominations for the Pilot Rules Group. These will be 3 pilots that know and understand the bylaws and proceedures and are willing to enforce them. They will also handle any protest that may occur. All pilots with the exception of the President and Vice-President are eligible. To nominate a pilot simply send Sryth a short email with the pilots name and reason why they should be nominated. I will take nominees until May and then we will have the vote.

Final Words
Fly Low, Fly Fast!
VARO is only as good as it pilots, and all our pilots are the best. Who else can do it at 500 mph, 50 feet of the ground in an aircraft 60 years old? Ok, maybe they are a little crazy but it sure is fun!

Sryth
VARO President

Unlimited Race Coverage
Small field yields great racing!

Late to get started and only six racers to show up, we gathered for a night of Mustang action. Flatline, WarX, GriffonJET, WTR*755, Tiefighter and GOferBROKE were all wondering if more racers would appear as the official notices were sent at the last minute. Our scheduling will be posted a bit more in advance to all pilots so we can get better participation. West Coast ATC was kind enough to offer the use of their servers for the evening. This not only gives Varo sessions a great server to utilize, but WCATC CEO Erik Thompson can monitor all connections and give feedback on all data collected. The close proximity we race at presents many more problems with a multiplayer session than normal and it has been quite an experience getting a technical de-briefing of the problems that occur. Thanks for all your help and expertise, Erik!

Action began, after a period of hot laps, and Heat 1A was announced. WarX, WTR*755 and GOferBROKE were called to the line with GriffonJET flying pace duties. WarX was having a connection lag and we flew an extra pace lap, curious if our gremlin was making a return. At the start, WTR*755 and GOferBROKE streaked down the course with GOferBROKE able to get the lead. After some close racing, 755 was victim of an untimely(for him) disconnection. GOferBROKE got the win with WarX second. Unfortunately, WarX had to leave, as he lamented his work schedule.

Heat 2B was readied and 755 given the chance to race again, due to the earlier problem. GOferBROKE flew the pace plane and scored the race too, as we were short of officials! After the countdown, spot view was chosen in the pace plane, as the first 2 laps were viewed from a high vantage point. It was a great race with Flatline being pressured by GriffonJET and Tiefighter battling with 755. All planes were very close and the interval was less than 2 seconds for the entire heat! Desperation was evident as GriffonJET tried to gain on Flatline, eventually crashing his plane! 755 and Tiefighter were engaged in a fierce battle the whole 5 laps with 755 making a great move right at the stripe to pass for second place. It was a very exciting heat! Flatline prevailed as the winner, 755 and Tiefighter a very close second & third in almost a photo finish! Tiefighter experienced a slight problem and crashed on landing, only to get a DNF after the fine race with 755.

The Silver Race was decided to be shortened to 5 laps with a runway start, due to time and lack of racers. Tiefighter and GriffonJET squared off, ready to duel for the final spot in the Gold Race. GJ was quick to get the lead and put the earlier crash behind him(despite some good-natured ribbing from fellow racers!). He used his experience and skill to lengthen the lead as Tiefighter trailed. GJs' win moved him into the Gold with Tiefighter accepting pace and scoring duties.

All racers present mentioned the anticipation of a competitive final. Only four planes were to start the Gold: Flatline, GriffonJET, WTR*755 and GOferBROKE. Tiefighter flew a pace lap and as he started the countdown, his connection departed. All landed and regrouped, and when Tiefighter returned we took off again. Nervously, I took a deep breath as we lined up.

We were passing the scatter pylon and almost to the course when the race began. Your reporter dove almost vertically to gain speed and had a brief view of GriffonJET challenging on the outside. GJ had a slim lead which was short lived as GOferBROKE held the inside line. Flatline and 755 were very close behind. I only had a few chances to look for other planes and whenever I looked back, the pack was right on my tail! I couldn't see GJ so I knew he was still very close. As Tiefighter called the race(in fine fashion) it was apparent GJ was still battling me for the lead. I caught an occasional glimpse of his plane as we traded the lead 3-4 times at least, during the 8 laps. Flatline was right behind me when I glanced out my rear view. Around lap 4 or 5, I flew a poor line and GJ was quick to capitalize. He took the lead! We traded the lead twice in that lap alone as I was able to pass again! GriffonJETs' attempts to regain the lead evidently included some moves that enabled Flatline to pass him for second place! These guys were pressing hard, forcing me to focus on flying a good line. 755 was also close behind the entire race.The field was very tight at the finish!

The racers that compete on a regular basis get better everytime we fly together, making it even tougher to be out front. Varo has some excellent pilots and I sure hope more start to come out and race. The absence of a full field was a disappointment, but the action was still fantastic! The excitment was evident as Flatline and GriffonJET offered a great exchange of their perspectives afterwards. Our VP was thrilled at the tight, competitive heat as we were so very close! This was some of the most competitive racing to be held by Varo and it can only get better as we grow.

Gold Heat Results
(1)#19GOferBROKE
(2)#5Flatline
(3)#17GriffonJET
(4)#25WTR*755

Thanks a million to West Coast ATC for the use of the servers and patiently waiting through the delayed schedule.

#19GOferBROKE, over and out!

Practice Session Featured GREAT Action!
Thanks to Erik Thompson, CEO of West Coast ATC for supplying the servers and his excellent diagnostic service.

Tonights gathering was focused on solving the lag and connection issues. Flatline, Roscoe, WTR*755, GriffonJET & GOferBROKE were present and determined to find our gremlin. Along the way, some GREAT practice races were flown! Hope WTR*373 and Comair 27 enjoyed what they saw, as they joined for the show.

West Coast ATC has been kind enough to offer the use of their RW base station and let us hook our session to the dedicated server. There was an ATC session still winding down and FSHost2.3 was being utilized. The pilots flying their routes in the ATC session, along with our little group, provided enough traffic to bring our little demon back. The darn lag! We switched to Flatlines' seperate IP and flew another race. Some excellent action in the F1 racer followed with GriffonJET demonstrating some fine piloting skill. Other fliers were close behind and relieved when no lag gremlin returned. It seemed probable that FSHost was hindering our connection.

More help came from Erik at this point as we went back to one of his computers for more practice. We flew without FSHost and Erik was examining all flow of bandwidth and latency info. Having several PCs at his disposal, and no more ATC traffic to get home safe(!), he pitched in and monitored all our movements. The info gathered by the races after this was what all present considered to be the final word..........Goodbye Gremlins!

Pace duties were shared as we went to the P51s'. Three more fantastic practice heats were flown and as Erik gathered information, some of the best action a pilot could ever ask for ensued! This was some of the finest piloting I've had a chance to witness! All racers were close with GriffonJET showing he was determined to be a contender. Flatline demonstrated he was definitely back, too. The final heat was won by Tony and it was good to see him in front. Roscoe & 755 were in the hunt all the way, too!

Afterwards was very informative as Erik gave his appraisal of the data gathered. We all left better educated and very excited to see definite progress. Varo has some great action to offer and with the prospect of smoother events, your reporter is urging all pilots to come out next Saturday night for the Unlimited Race! Some un-official practices might be held leading up to the event and email notices will be sent out.

I'm truly excited to see an answer to our glitches!

Thanks again to Erik for his assistance!

#19GOferBROKE, Over and out!

VARO First Annual Air Show announced
Should be an awesome who check out the Virtual Air Show page for details

A word from the President
After last nights fiasco I started to question weither VARO was ready for open racing using Fs2002. I though long and hard and the conclusion I came to is.....YES! Up until last night we have has 4 races that race smooth as silk, Granted we had our issues and new pilots that needed help but for the most part the practices in november and december helped tremendously. Where do we go from here? We move on to the mother of all races the Unlimited! In 2 weeks I want to see every VARO pilot that is registered show up for the Unlimited race and really put the VARO staff to the challenge to prove we can run a solid event. VARO will never die as long as we have good pilots that just want to have fun and help promote air racing. Final point due to last night problems I am making the Flight Viewer 2 program mandatory for the rest of races. With this program I will have the raw data I need to make an official decision on the race. I will have a test session for pilots to get to know Flight Viewer 2 before next months races.

Remember Month 5 is our All-star break get yourself ready for the big party.

Biplane Race Coverage...
Good turnout marred by connection/scoring difficulties

All pilots in attendance showed early on it was going to be a great night of racing. The return of Crash Murdock after struggling to get his connection raceable was real exciting as he looked to be a contender right away. One of our newest pilots, CSS Spit(Chris to his buddies!) appears he will be in the thick of the action, also! BTW, Chris is a member of the Miss America Unlimited Race Team! Great flying, guys!

As Heat1A started the connection issues began as one pilots' plane appeared to lag to the point where he was declared unscorable and was granted a spot in a subsequent heat. Your Race Reporter got the holeshot and settled into the groove for a win. Reducing sensitivities and lots of practice really seemed to pay off!

Heat1B was a great match-up as Sryth, CSS Spit, WRT*755 & Roscoe traded positions many times in the 5 lap preliminary. 755 had an early lead as he was soon challenged and overtaken by Sryth and CSS Spit. Roscoe has confided, "........(after) the race was disappointing. I wasn't able to compete in any of my Heats and can't understand it." Sryth won with CSS Spit, 755 and Roscoe chasing our leader real close. Any slight mistake is crucial in this tight racing! Smoothness and consistency are the entire key to quick laps!

More great racing followed as Crash Murdock and Xasher were engaged in a fantastic battle. Roscoe was gaining a bit it seemed and GriffonJET was a victim of lag issue again and raced in another parallel dimension. He appeared to be lagging to the point of being unscorable as he called out when crossing the stripe and was gathering screenshots to validate his finsh! GJ is a great pilot and I really hope we can get all pilots on the same page. The action we saw was fantastic as Xasher was battling with Crash Murdock for the entire heat. Xasher appeared as if he would be the winner when we were treated to a photo finish! Crash Murdock used momentum and some great skill as he made a pass for the win, right at the stripe! What a finish!

After suffering through many restarts and lag issues, another heat was announced. Tiefighter, a recent roster addition to Varo, had a chance to make it to KMSO late and with no practice. Great to see CJ as he is a long time flying buddy of your reporter. Once he gets a bit of practice he will be a tough competitor! The door in the Ops office opened again as Baron made an appearance. He was reluctant to race, due to his late arrival, though! CSS Spit, 755, Roscoe and Tiefighter was called to the line as this race would fill the last spots in the final. 755 had an early lead and crashed as he entered turn one. He was real disappointed when reporting a lag glitch was responsible for the incident. A real shame too as it appeared he was going to dominate the race. CSS Spit and Roscoe were battling close together for the duration of the heat with Spit first and Roscoe in a close second. Tiefighter was the victim of no practice and was staying wide when the lag gremlin began to affect his planes position.

We tried to get the Gold Race underway when it soon became apparent the gremlin was in this writers plane! I had a clear view in front and 5 planes in my mirror when it was announced by the scorer he saw other planes competing for the lead! I had practiced almost every night this week and some in race conditions in the morning. To date, this was my best race ever flown!

Lots of pilots were confused and disappointed over the results of all the kaos! On a positive note, we saw a GREAT turnout and what will build a good base of racers for future events! Unfortunately, with all the confusion, a lot of weight was put on the CEO as he was forced to defer any decision on scoring or standings. One pilots' opinion was well taken as he stated he had flown his heart out all night and would hate to see it go down the drain. I can REALLY relate to that as I felt eager to re-run the final and try to settle the doubt of any in attendance! Other pilots that should have had a better opportunity to get in the final were also considered as their chances were tainted by the gremlins.

Final Results Just Announced!
Email confirms results and CEOs' resolve to keep racing!
Personally, this writer would have abided by any decision by our CEO to cancel or re-run the event. I am sure the decision to score the event was a tough one for Sryth. We went to a seperate IP without FSHost for some practice in the F1 Racer for some test laps. We were also real concerned about testing the connection/lag problem. It shows me his determination to get things organized and make it fun and fair for all. The scheduling changes announced are proof he is concerned with making Varo a premier organization. I feel as if Varo will get thru the growing pains. We are seeing more pilots every week! And more will come as Varo grows, too! Here's to more racing with some great guys, GOferBROKE

Gold Race Results
1.#19 GOferBROKE
2.#22 Crash Murdock
3.#23 Xasher
4.#28 CSS_Spit
5.#11 Sryth
6 #02 Roscoe

VARO Race Server Online
Check Server Status for Details

VARO F1 Racer Released
Head to the download section for the VARO F1 Racer we will be racing this weekend. Be mindful it can be a handful. If its to much try "Auto Rudder". Watch for a skin pack coming soon.

First Official Practice at KMSO
Saturday night we got to see quite a few pilots wanting test time on the new course. Certainly a pleasure to see the return of Roscoe and Crash Murdock.
Roscoe has been busy and Crash has been struggling with connection anomalies. Great to have both in attendance. Also flying was Sryth, Flatline, GriffonJET, Xasher, WTR*755 and GOferBROKE.

Two practice races with the Unlimiteds were held and one for the Pitts. Open testing followed. Your race reporter was behind the 8 ball all night and flew some awful laps. Some others were trying to solve a lag issue one of the pilots had. The turnout was great, though! Real encouraging to see all the interest in VARO events.

The details of the action escaped the scrutiny of the reporter as I had a personal "crisis" of sorts distract me right as the first practice heat was announced. I was following quite a flock in the second event as 4-5 Mustangs circled the course in fine fashion, right off my nose. Things were happening fast and not displaying player names kept me from knowing the order of finish. It was indeed a close finish at the stripe, too.

A few pilots had to leave and the Bipes were flown and crashed by many! Need to hot lap that squirrly sucker and get trims set and pilot steadied before a race! WOW!

Sryth announced that there would indeed be a race this coming weekend!
Hope everyone can make it for Saturdays race! See ya there!
#19 GOferBROKE

News from Fellow Air Racing Organizations

News update on FSAR - "Flight Simulator Air Racing"
www.f-s-a-r.com is offline permanently as of March 1, 2003.
The organization, however, is still alive. Progress on a new website,
as well as add-ons for FS2002 are still underway. The organizer/webmaster of
FSAR, Joseph Thompson, aka "GriffonJET", is proud to be a pilot at VARO, and
intends to continue racing and promoting VARO. There will be an announcement
here at VARO, and also at www.pylon1.com when FSAR is back up anhd running.

Post Race Report
The following is excerpts from our Vice Presidents' account of last Saturdays Unlimited Race.

"........another great night of racing at VARO. Full heats and lots of twists and turns made an exciting time."
"From my perspective, I went into the race with a lot of uncertainty. I've been working hard on building a new aircraft for VARO and have been
sacrificing practice time. I think it showed in my racing. while I was able to hold on to third place, that was only after some unfortunate luck for
other pilots."

"During the gold race is where it became most apparent as I watched GOferBROKE, Baron and WTR slowly work their way further and further ahead of
me. It was neck and neck for WTR*755 and me for a bit with an occasional glimpse of him flashing in front of me on the tighter turns. But his superior flying
and much cleaner line put him squarely ahead of me about halfway into the race. After a few botched turns I shifted my focus towards holding off
GriffonJet behind me and not making any more mistakes. That was pretty much my strategy through the end of the race.
By the end of the night I was exhausted but definitely had a great time."

Thanks to Flatline for taking time out to share his views of the action.

VARO Racer Server Online
I am going to start leaving the server online more often. We are now a beta group for FShost so we are running the newest version with all the new bells and whistles. Please check the server status page for more information, make sure you open the page in a new window I have yet ti integrate the status page into our site yet. Also you must have Direct X 9 to race with VARO from this day forward. DX9 fixed a connection issue that will start kicking users out once the server is over ten people. I am sorry for the inconvience.

VARO Race Results posted!
I have posted the official results for the KMHV unlimted race. Along with the over all standings. Check the standings page for more information

KMSO available
The next stop in the VARO 2003 Air Race tour is now available.
Additions to the normal scenery are as follows
---VARO custom built portable hangers in airport parking areas
---VARO custom built F1- Biplane hanger located on the Large Ramp
---Winners square photo op area directly infront of the tower

These are the first of many scenery upgrades that will make VARO a more immersive and viberant expierence

5 pilots removed
I have removed 5 pilots from the active roster that have not accumulated any attendance points in 2 months of racing. I will continue to remove pilots that do not attend races. If you have a reason why wou cannot compete in VARO or wish to be placed inactive please e-mail Sryth. In light of the pilot removals I have updated the VARO Reno Racer. The new Aircraft.cfg file can be dowloaded in the downloads section.

A new Gold Winner this week!
Tonights race drew a great turnout! We had a few new faces appear and unfortunately a few tried to race, but were suffering from issues. Maestro, if you can email me some specifics on your system and problem, I'll look around for info. CapN'Dondo made a brief appearance and only got in a few laps in Heat 1B. SM77 made a brief showing, the victim of time lag. He is from Copenhagen, Denmark. Hope you can make it into some races, buddy! After we flew some hot laps, which featured some absolutely horrible laps by your reporter, Heat1A was announced. Flatline, WTR*755 and myself were called to the line. 755 is the newest member to race, and a long time flying buddy of mine(along with SM77). While Baron flew pace, we took off. GOferBROKE was having problems and trailed the field, others weren't quite familiar on tracking the pace plane and the start was waved off. Xasher tried to start 1A and having a glitch(Auto-Follow inop), he aborted and was granted a spot in 1B. Another attempt was made and the sight of Flatline being closely pursued by 755 was a mystery to this pilot, as they were a quarter lap ahead of me and going away! Then, I realized my gear was down! DOH!!!There was a great race between Flatline and 755, with them finishing 1st and 2nd respectively. They were moved into the Gold heat, GOferBROKE had to race in the Silver.

Heat 2B was interesting as Sryth, Baron, GriffonJET, Black Rider, Xasher and CapN'Dondo all made a start. CapN'Dondo arrived as the racers were preparing to begin 1B. He was lost due to a connection issue, I'm guessing? Black Rider was getting in some good laps, and fell victim to a ground encounter. Sorry you guys didn't make it back... Sryth fell victim to a lag glitch and fell back early as GriffonJET, Baron and Xasher had a great race for the lead. After the 5 laps GJ and Baron were advanced to the Gold with Xasher and Sryth filling out the Silver.

We were keeping a good pace to the events, and the Silver Race entrants were called to the runway. Baron again flew pace as Sryth, Xasher and GOferBROKE all made a close start. Sryth was again on the receiving end of the bad luck, as another glitch made him unable to compete. Xasher was pressing hard to gain, when he clipped the ground with his wingtip. Ouch! GOferBROKE was awarded the Silver win, as Sryth proposed a Consolation Heat between Xasher and himself for the final spot in the Gold Race.

A five lap, standing start was agreed on to expedite matters. Sryth was holding a slim lead with Xasher not giving an inch! And, to complete the hat trick on bad luck, Sryth ran out of fuel on short final and crashed, giving away the right to race in the Gold to Xasher.

It had been quite an evening and the Gold Race was announced. Twelve laps for the final. Flatline, Baron, 755, GriffonJET, Xasher and GOferBROKE all paced behind Sryth. Yours truly wasn't getting very good FR and was having a heck of a time tracking the pace plane as we rounded the scatter pylon. Confidence wasn't real high in my cockpit, due to poor flying earlier. We were given the countdown and the action began. I was trying to focus on my line and didn't see other racers. I knew there could still be a plane close to me, if not leading. Confidence still kinda low, but the view clear! We flew three laps before I could clearly hear, "Race#19 is leading!" Baron was running a real close second, Flatline and 755 dueled for third and fourth with a battle brewing between GriffonJET and Xasher! 755 made the pass stick for third and Baron was pushing his bird to the limit when he called in that he'd cut a pylon. 755 gave this perspective, ".....I had a pretty good start when I saw you(#19) and Baron diving for the front stretch. I just tried to follow you guys and focus on a good line." When asked just how close the racing was, he replied, "I could see Flatline every now and then and knew we were real close, forcing me to concentrate on the course and(#6 & #19) you guys." He was also able to see Baron go inside the pylon, just to give you an idea how close the racing gets! Jeff(755) is real easy going and tough to get excited, also having had worked all day! He ended by saying he had fun!

Baron called again with worse news, he had a Mayday! Mechanical gremlins forced him down and he was the victim of a crash. Xasher soon called Mayday due to lack of fuel. The race continued with GOferBROKE winning the Gold with 755 getting second in his very first event. Congradulations, 755! Flatline and GriffonJET were close behind in what was possibly the closest finish ever for a four plane group. Did I mention the racing is close at VARO?

As everyone gathered after the race for some pix, we unwound and traded stories. There were some drained pilots after the events of the evening. It was agreed that a good time was had and this writer, personally, was in stunned silence. I was shocked and worn out from the intense 12 laps of concentration. Somebody pinch me to see if I'm awake! I think I won the Gold Race! Gotta check the news tomorrow to see if it's true!

#19 GOferBROKE Mojave Gold Race Winner

VARO Race Server Online
Mojave Unlimited race begins in 1 hour
Check server status link for more information

Sryth's Racing Tips Volume 1
This is going to be a timely section related on going fast and being competitive using VARO's excellent P-51D Reno Racer developed by Roger Dial.

Tip #1 Lighten Up that Bird
Whatever you do do not run your Mustang with a full fuel load. You will be slower due to the extra weight of the fuel. You want to trim down to the least amount of fuel as possible. Be warned however you still need to be able to land to complete a race

Tip #2 Be consistant
Pilot that are real fast will tell you that the more consistant you are with your line around the course the faster you will be. Try to make a little movement on the control as necessary. If you deviate from your line do your best to get back into by the next pylon. To aid in staying "On your line" I use my panel as a guide. If I can see the pylon at a particular angle in a exact spon on my panel I know I am in the right spot. A lot of this also comes from feel the more laps you turn the more of a feel you will have. Another tool to use is to record your laps using the flight video mode. You can then later look from any angle with out fear of crashing.

Hope these tips help and always remember fly fast, fly low, turn left

FSViewer 2
For those pilots that are confused about getting FSViewer 2 you need to go to the following site FSZWever be sure to download FSViewer 2 beta. The prior version will not work properly with FS2k2

VARO Aircraft Test download available

Head to the aircraft testing page for more information. All VARO registered pilots are encouraged to enter. This is a VARO offline event

Biplane Race Coverage
Here is my chance to convey the excitement and competition of VARO. You will be getting a weekly recap of races and practices, along with any other breaking news. S

Starting with Saturday nights action, we were slightly concerned over a small turnout. Our newest member to show was Xasher(pronounced THRASHER) and he was flying real well. His practice laps and first heat was all this writer got to see, but it looked impressive. His first race with VARO was Heat 1B and he won! Great flying, buddy! Sryth got the lead at the start but seemed to be having a handling or trim problem in the squirrly Pitts and was passed by Xasher and War X in turn 2. It remained in that order, with Xasher stretching his lead. Back to Heat 1A, GriffonJET and myself had a heck of a race with Crash Murdock having a scenery issue. Tough racing with no pylons! Give a holler and we can get ya set up, Crash. Easy stuff. I had early handling issues and got a bad start. So, GriffonJET was leading most of the heat, with GOferBROKE slowly reeling him in. A pass was made and with the lack of visibility and the aggressive style of that GOferBROKE guy, I just hope it was somewhat clean! So, Heat 1A was a GREAT race with close competition between GriffonJET and myself. The fun is VARO on Saturday night, folks.

With 6 total pilots showing up, everyone was assured a place in the Gold Race. We had fierce crosswinds and this pilot has no rudder axis on his joystick(just the facts, no excuses!). The line-up had GOferBROKE and Xasher in row 1. At the start, your reporter really blew it and crashed, taking out Xasher. I was ready to take my medicine, but asked Sryth to restart the race due to the unfairness of Xasher being involved in my screw-up. I was ready to count laps, when asked if I was going to race. After botching the first attempt, I was glad just to start from the back of the pack! This put GriffonJET and Xasher on the front row for the restart. When the flag fell, GriffonJET took the lead and I saw noone else as a clear lane behind GriffonJET stayed available. We raced for 10 laps in the Gold and GJ flew an excellent final heat. He was running some fine laps as this pilot can attest as I had front row seats to his performance. Xasher finished third and War X fourth. Yes, the racing is close and did I mention exciting? During hot laps, before the racing began, GriffonJET expressed a lack of confidence in his ability to fly the Pitts on a competitive level. I asked him if he could elaborate further and got this reply......"Early Saturday morning, I flew 15-20 practice laps in the Pitts, and was very disgusted with my personal performance. I felt my lap speeds/times could have been a lot better. I was having a lot of trouble keeping the little hot rod under control, and my landings we're a bit bouncy. I did not feel that I had a chance to perform well in the big race." Regarding Sat. nights laps, "I feel all pilots that I've raced with at VARO so far are excellent. It's hard to compare myself with them. At the start of the event, a few of us flew some more practice laps. Still, I did not feel comfortable with the aircraft. Watching Xasher practice, he really looked fast." GriffonJET further pondered his impending Gold Race, "Although I finished 2nd in the first heat, I still didn't think I had a shot at taking the gold." Now, with the last couple days to unwind and reflect, GriffonJET offers his perspective of the Gold Race for Biplanes. He offered this great pilots view. " When the gold race started, I really concentrated on getting a good first lap. I think I did. By the second lap, I had my mixture settings just where I wanted them, and looking behind me, I could count all 5 pilots. Each lap, I would look back, and to my amazement, they we're still behind me. I just tried as hard as I could, and was worried about my fuel supply. One of the last laps for me was real bad. I nearly cut the home pylon. At the end of the race, I realized I may have actually won, yet I was not out of trouble yet. I remembered that on the 4th-5th lap, I bumped my left landing gear, and I thought It was probably damaged. On landing, My left wing seemed to drop, giving me the impression that I had no gear there. After bouncing on my right gear about 7 times, and nearly stalling at about 50kts, I yelled "go around, repeat go around", and I added throttle, and pulled off the runway. On my second landing attempt, I found that my gears we're fine, and after again a few bounces, I made it!" Quite a gripping account from our newest Gold winner. I beleive it was his first Gold win, and gotta think it won't be his last as he seems a little faster every week!

We held a practice race for the Mustangs as a nightcap to the biplane action. It was determined we would run 12 laps and(typing meekly) I crashed taking off AGAIN in the darn crosswind! DOH!!! Baron was pacing the pack and I was able to restart and catch up to the field. Rotorhead had also arrived after the Bipe Gold in time for the Mustang event. Being a small crowd, Baron was asked to race also. With Sryth, Baron, GriffonJET, Rotorhead and (I think Crash Murdock, too) GOferBROKE all flying, we rounded the scatter pylon. The start went smoothly when a plane flashed right in front of me going into turn 2. It was Sryth and he had the lead! I was hot on his tail, hoping for an opening and none came as Sryth flew a great race. Rotorhead was pressing me hard, forcing me to focus on staying tight and smooth. Suddenly, at the end of lap 11, Sryth ran out of fuel and called,"Mayday!" He was able to land without incident. Rotorhead and myself were real close together, and the pilots watching from the tarmac commented on how very tight it was! Rotorhead's a top pilot and can always be counted on to be in the front of the pack!
Hope to see more and more racers as VARO grows. The more, the merrier!

Congradulations to GriffonJET for his Gold event and Xasher for his heat win! Good to see War X and Crash Murdock, too!

More news soon, Saturday is the Unlimited race at Mohave. Should have a good turnout for the Mustangs!
As a real treat for all of us will be pix from all future events. Please send any you have to me in Jpeg format and I'll post them.
Your Race Reporter, signing out!
Gary
#19 GOferBROKE

Pics from KMSO of the new Hangers

All images taken from pit #1 at KMSO the March stop of the VARO 2003 Season. Sorry they are so big I will replace them with thumbnails soon. Just wanted everyone to see the future today

Attention Pilots!
Standings page updated as well as the roster.

New Unlimited Pilots if you have not selected your VARO Reno Race mustang please do so soon. I have an update to make for this weekend but I need the rest of the new pilots in the .cfg file. Using the VARO Reno Mustang is required any pilots no using the package will be disqualified. It is very easy to setup just follow instructions are in the files them selves.

Important Any pilot that is not on the Roster and thinks they belong please e-mail me and we will see if I can find your application.
also any pilots that do not have any attendence points will be marked inactive and will have to attend 2 practice sessions to have this status removed.

Still looking for logos. I will take anything from anyone. serious entries only please here are the details
Course Logo contest. I am looking for logos for all the race courses of VARO. If you think you have what it takes make a logo for the KRYN course and send it in a 640X480 jpeg to Sryth. All entires will be considered and the winner will be selected by the VARO pilots.

Where do you want VARO to go? I am curious to see just what pilots are interested in. If you think you have an idea for VARO let me know. Not that I am running out of idea. VARO is kinda like my child and I am watching it mature and outside influences are sometime good things. If you have an idea please don't hesitate to send it to me weither it be a new racing class or ideas for acrobatic competitions(actually these are in the works as we speak). Send comments to Sryth

Race Reporter has been found!
Race #19 GOferBROKE has be given the office and I can't wait to read his comentary on VARO race events.

We are still working on all the other things we have announced
-F1 is almost ready have to fix a small scale issue
-Aircraft Test. Modified version starting wednesday
-Certified Pilot Exams. Need to be written most pilots are being certified at events. The larger VARO gets the more important the tests will be
-Air Boss exams. Currently Air Bosses are be selected from pilots showing potential
-Month 5 Fly-in(All Star Event...kinda its gonna be fun). Here is what is planned at the moment. 2 weekends. 1st weekend Sport Class Air Race followed by Acrobatics competition Prelims. 2nd Weekend Big Weekend All day event Acrobatics finals, Vintage race pitting all the test aircraft against each other flown by VARO's top pilots. Aircraft Test Final Race flown by number 1 and number 2 pilots in VARO. T-28 Race. The 2nd Weekend will run a lot like an airshow I will release a schedule a few weeks before and I encourage all pilots to attend as much as possible.

Hope everyone is having fun we seem to be developing a very good organization here.

Sryth
VARO President

VARO Race Server Offline
Practice session open all night
Check Server Status page for details

Aircraft Test Announced.
Check the Aircraft Testing link for details

VARO Race Season Unlimited Class Candidates announced.
The imgaes below are of the latest Candidates that may be added to the Unlimited class for the second half of the VARO 2003 Season. All aircraft are being tested at the Mojave race course. Candidates that are deamed race worthy will be added to the available aircraft of VARO


















Other VARO news.
VARO F1 will be available very soon!
Online Airboss and Certified pilot exams will also be made available in the next few weeks.

VARO needs logos.
I am announcing a Course Logo contest. I am looking for logos for all the race courses of VARO. If you think you have what it takes make a logo for the KRYN course and send it in a 640X480 jpeg to Sryth. All entires will be considered and the winner will be selected by the VARO pilots.

Battle of the Airlines Trophy begins tomorrow!
Follow link below for details


Mission to the Moon

VARO Server Offline

VARO Race Server Online click the Server Status Link for details

Awards added to Roster Page
I have added a little color to the Roster page check it out and see how it will look in the future

New sections added to VARO website.
I have added a new section Official System Setup. We also have 2 new pilots and I have updated the Bylaws page. Please visit these sections for more information.

Official Mojave(KMHV) Race Course Released.
The second stop on the VARO tour KMHV race course is a 8 mile course set in Mojave California. Check the download page for the install files. You must have the KRYN course installed correctly for the KMHV scenery to display properly. If you do not have the KRYN scenery installed properly visit the First Time Users page on the download page for proper install procedure.

Race Weekend Results Posted
After an awesome weeked for racing the points are starting to increase. The Standings section has been updated with the latest results. One importnat fact to note..there was a server glitch during the gold race on the last lap which dropped the race leader and a few other pilots. After a short pilots meeting the standings were resolved awarding Flatline the checkers for the first ever VARO Unlimited race. Roscoe and Griffon Jet were both awarded second place points due to there close racing. It was to hard to decide who was in second and who was in third so we split the difference and awarded them both second place points.

With all the action on Saturday I (Sryth VARO President) and going to be creating a new officer position, Race Reporter, The Race Reporter's job will be to recap the race much like a sports writer would. I am going to be adding a new page to the website specifically for this. The Race Reporter will be responsible to attend all races and all meetings unless there is a major issue. The Race Reporter should have good comunication skills and should be very descriptive. I am looking for someone who will in short add some viberant comentary to VARO and give pilots who were not in attendance something to read and get them involved. The Race Reporter can do whatever is necessary to cover the event includeing interview pilots(over e-mail please or on seperate RW channels). Candidates should send me a short recap of a VARO race(real or fake) I will pass the entrees to the board and we will select the new officer.

Great Night of Racing

Great night of racing with a few hiccups. My personal night started with a massive harddrive failure with about 3 hours till the race. With a backup harddrive I started up the server for racing. Nine Pilots showed for VARO's first ever Unlimited Race and from what I gather the largest Unlimited Race ever held online. We ran a total of two heat races then a Silver and Gold race. Technical issues prevented the Gold race from finishing however after a quick discussion a winner was named and the results finalized. After all the crazyness we held a F1 practice session where the F1 perfomed fairly effectively. Overall Roger Wilco performed great it saved us a lot of losses when the server went down the pilots performed awesome and the new airstart procedure was breathtaking. Once I get my system back in top form I will post photos and official results.

Jan 25 KRYN Unlimited Race Pilots in Attendance
#02 Roscoe
#05 Flatline
#06 Baron
#08 War-X
#10 Mags
#11 Sryth
#14 Rotorhead
#17 Griffon Jet
#19 GOferBROKE

Pace Pilots
#05 Flatline
#06 Baron
#11 Sryth(sorry about that pylon issues)

Airboses
#02 Roscoe
#11 Sryth(Event Controler)
#14 Rotorhead

Final Note
All pilots, we are working with an idea to change the start time of the server. I am open to the change but I am not going change start times on a whime. If you feel the start time needs to be changed please e-mail me with your suggestions. Be sure to tell me your time zone so I can get an adjusted time. Also I am working with a program that tracks and records a pilots location through an entire race this will help show pylon cuts and get me official race times. If you would be interested in testing this program during the next race please e-mail me and I will send you the link to the website and tell you how to get setup. Special thanks to all pilots especially the pace pilots and the airbosses.

Race Server online check the Server Status link at the bottom of the page for more information

VARO F1 Beta release
I told you it was coming and here it is. F1 Beta. Now its still needs some work but its flyable and is looking pretty good. Once minor thing you need to do is make sure you have autorudder turned ON. The aircraft has a lot of torque at high speeds and can become un stable if you turn it off. For those of you who download this file before tonights race we will run a test race after the unlimited races.

Big Race starts in about 4 hours make sure to be there around 9:50 est. We will start setting up heat races at 10 and its first come first serve.

Sryth

Roscoe's Tech Tips #1

Try this if your having a frame rate issue. I'm not 100% sure on this, 95% yes, but 100%,
not yet, still testing. I have been having a frame rate issue for a while now and think I may
have finally solved it. While on the taxiway, landing, or racing, with other racers in the screen,
my frame rates dropped to 10 fps and lower at times. Landing was a complete nightmare. So if
you think your frame rates are low, first try running a slightly smaller resolution. ( I went from 1024
to 800 ) That will help but the clincher seems to be to run the sim " Full Screen ". Just by changing
the view to full screen, my frame rates immediatly jumped to 23/24 fps and stayed there. ( target
frame rate was set to 24 ) Another racer had the same problem and changed his view to full screen
and got the same results as I did.

Just my $.02.

Ros

ATTENTION Pilots
There seems to be a slight miscommunication about how to properly setup FS to get the best frames and to reduce lag. All pilots need to make sure they have the following options turned off.
"Send Detailed Aircraft Information" and "Recieve Detailed Aircraft Information" these need to be OFF. It they are left on they can waste 10-15% of the bandwidth and cause problems with pilots on slower connections. For a more indepth explaniation please visit this link

January 25 2003 Race Weekend
Race and Server Info

All pilots this weekends race will be the first ever official Unlimited race in VARO history. We will be using the VARO Reno Racer setup. For those of you who have not updated to the newest version please visit the downloads page. The flight for this weekends Unlimited Race can be at the link below.

KRYN Unlimited Race

Settings Info
We will be setting the realism sliders all the way to the right for full realism. You may
uncheck the "aircraft stress causes damage" box, and you may check the
"ignore crash" box to make the racing a little easier for our first race. This may change
as the season progresses and the pilots gain experience. You also may leave the
"auto rudder" box checked if you desire, but you must have the realism
sliders set to full.

Server will be posted Saturday After noon

Roger Wilco will be at the usual place and password. Note to Rogger Wilco users please turn on "press to talk" no more hands free. We are going to try this and see how it works.
Any questions or issues please e-mail the mailing list or myself.

With this weekend being our first unlimited race there may be a flood on the server. If you connect to the server and have problems please e-mail me or catch me on Roger Wilco. If we have to we will start another server to handle the races.

Pilots please be sure to be on the server and ready 10 minutes before the session begins. We will announce Heats at exactly 10pm est.

Results from last weeks race have been posted in the new standings section. Check it out to see where you place. Also in building the standings page and posting the results I have added another way to score points, by showing up! Each pilot that attends a race or practice from last weekend on will recieve 5 points for each session. Now you can't just show up and leave you must at least participate in 1 race or at least 5 practice laps.

Attention all pilots. Sryth is back and he has somethings to say.
I have read the post race report and see a lot of good things and a few issues. I am going to put to rest some issues and lay down a few new rules. All changes come are in order of importance

1. There seems to have been a problem with foul language on Voice Chat. This is supose to be a fun sport if you need to use vulgar language please turn your RW off voice activated, otherwise the following actions will be taken.

1st Infraction: You will be asked to stop nicely
2nd Infraction: You will be kicked from the RW server. Any attempt to rejoin the server will result in being kicked from the race server
3rd Infraction: You will be banned from RW and the Race server for a month
4th Infraction: You will be removed from VARO pending discussion with the VARO board on how to prevent this from happening again

I term Vulgar language as to anything that is offensive to anyone on the VARO RW server. You need to use "Public" language when on the VARO servers.

2.Text Chat
It has been brought to my attention that the majority of Pilots are using RW with great success however those of you still using text chat be warned frame rates began to drop in the last race due to excessive chat. This is not an aircraft issue. We have had 10 aircraft in server using RW and expierenced no lag. If the problem persists and the majority of pilots are having issues with text chat RW will be mandatory. For those of your this affects RW has a very small effect on bandwidth and can be used on slow connections with very little problems.

3.Fuel
There is no rules in the bylaws for fuel for one reason. There are no rules! as long as you have enough fuel to finish the race and land you are golden, but if you finihs the race and can't make it back to the airfield due to fuel issues you got the back of the pack in the results.

4. Gentleman's Rules
We are working on programs to help us enforce rule but we are putting a lot of fath in pilots. So here is the deal if we find that a pilot is doing thins that are unfair(tweaked .cfg files or settings), cutting pylons etc. We will take action we are counting on pilots to be "Gentlemen" and play fair.My goal with VARO was to keep things simple but if it somes down to lots of people causing issues VARO will take action. And always remember the AIRBOSS,Vice-President,President are in charge with the President having final ruling over eveything when it comes to a race weekend.

5. Air Start.
We have decided that the current airstart procedure is a tad unfair. So we are modifying it and should prove for some awesome races. Now instead of "targeting" the aircraft in front of you in line we will now "target" a pace plane flown by another pilot not in the race. The pace plane will be a standard FS aircarft that can do about 250kts. All aircraft will line up as normal but are incouraged to fly the course as closly infline as possible. Just before the pace plane rounds the scatter pylon all pilots should hold the follow plane until given the spread signal. This will look wierd since it will put all aircraft in the same position. Once the spread command is issued all aircraft should spread right and setup you a run down the home pylon. Pilots should try to stay at the same altitude and as close to a line a possible. I should not see aircraft on top of each other. We will hold that for a few seconds until everyone is in shape then the pace plane will pull up. That is the signal to dive to race altitude and go full throttle. The pace plane canot be passed at any time before if pulls up any aircart doing so will be placed 1 lap down.

These changes will be going into the bylaws before the Next Big Unlimted race this weekend. We will be runing a practice airstart before the race just to see how it looks if you wish to help us with this please e-mail me We will run the practice saturday after noon between 1200pm to 4pm depending on if I am awake or not. If you have any issues with these changes or any comments(are the good, bad, need revising, etc) let e-mail me know. If you think you were in the wrong last weekend its ok to apologize to the mailing list. We are not looking for a lot of negative feelings here VARO is supose to be fun.

Sryth
VARO President

1-18-03 Race Info Update Server Info

The IP address for tonights race ( 1-18-03 ) is as follows
IP Address - 68.42.185.37

Roger Wilco
channel - varo
password - mustang

1-18-03 Race Info Please Read

Greetings All AirRace Pilots.

Welcome the the first official race of theVARO racing season. Biplane races will be
held for points and an Unlimited Demo Race will also be held. Please be advised
that only the Pitts S2S will be allowed to fly, no Challenger this race. Please have
all the necessary files downloaded to keep things moving and to keep everyone on
the same page.

The aircraft files, ( Pitts S2S ) You will also need all the mustang files for the
Unlimited Practice Race in order to see the other aircraft correctly and for VARO's
first Unlimted race scheduled to take place next weekend .

You'll need,,,,

1. The original Roger Dial Reno Racer Pack from Avsim,
2. The VARO Reno P-51-D Pack,
3. The VARO Reno P-51-D Pack Update
4. The VARO 2003 Season Patch.

The scenery files, ( Kryn Biplane and Unlimited courses ) First time users
please look at the "first time users" link at the top of the VARO Downloads page.
This was put together to make installing the scenery very easy and is definetly
worth reading.

The flight file.

All files can be found here, or

http://www.airracer.com/downloads.htm

except the flight file and that can be found here, or
from the link on the VARO news page.

http://varo.blogspot.com

Please Note Time Change
This Saturday (1-18-03 ) we will start racing at 10 pm eastern. Pilots
please check in 15 minutes before race time, as we will try to start
on time. All VARO board members are requested to sign in 30 minutes before
race time for a pre-race briefing.

Roger Wilco will be used. Please have it set up and ready to go prior to race time.

Settings Info

We will be setting the realism sliders all the way to the right for full realism. You may
uncheck the "aircraft stress causes damage" box, and you may check the
"ignore crash" box to make the racing a little easier for our first race. This may change
as the season progresses and the pilots gain experience. You also may leave the
"auto rudder" box checked if you desire, but you must have the realism
sliders set to full.

All pilots with an assigned race number, please log into the sim using the correct
format, such as #2_roscoe .

Server
To be announced via email and it will be on the VARO news page
Saturday afternoon.

Roger Wilco
channel - varo
password - mustang

If there are any questions that anyone needs answered, please feel free to email
me at dkh7d108@comcast.net or instant message me if you see me online.
I'll try to keep the messengers up all day tomorrow.

ros

Duane ( roscoe ) Hover
VARO Board CSO
AIM - bear77fan
MSN - dkh7d108@hotmail.com

" Fly Fast With Props "

Notice to all pilots
If you plan to participate in the Biplane Race this weekend you need to download the following file.

KRYN Biplane Race Flight
Simply point you zip program to the drive you have Flight Sim installed on and it will take care of the rest. If you have renamed your directories you will have to e-mail me for a fix.

Next make sure you have the Pitts S-2s from the downloads page. We will be using this aircraft for the race.

On race day to setup the flight properly go to "Select a Flight" you should have a "VARO" category which will contain the race flights. Select the KRYN Biplane race and you are all set. Please be sure to slew your aircraft to the left a few feet past other aircraft to prevent congestion.

If anyone has any problems please feel free to e-mail me