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

Practice Session #2 Record Breaking Session!
We had the most pilots ever on the VARO server and from what I saw and heard we had very little frame rate or lag issues

Pilots In Attendence
#2 Roscoe(Construction Support Officer)
#5 Flatline(Varo Vice President)
#6 Baron(Public Relations Officer)
#10 Mags
#11 Sryth(Varo President)
#13 Maestro
#15 Rotorhead
#16 Black Rider

Photos will be posted shortly.

Attention All Pilots!
If you have AIM or ICQ and wish to stay in contact with myself or some other VARO Board members please message me at agentsryth(AIM) or at 18477237(ICQ). I am online a lot so fee free to message me.

Check out the news digs. Thanks to the wonderful people at Pylon1 for the space and the domain in our time of need. We are now back up and running with an even better setup. Everything is working with the exception of the archive section which I am working on right now.Stay posted for further updates

VARO Update!
I have started work on the next course. I will tell you the location but the the course will remain undewraps untill the last race of January is completed.
The next VARO 2003 Racing series site is located at.......Mojave California(KMHV). head out there fly around get a feel for it. Its a lot like KRYN(Current HQ for VARO) but I promise a whole new expierence in VARO Race Courses.

On other fronts. The F1 is still going through flight tests. I would guess the flight model is around 90-95% complete the visual model is undergoing a complete overhaul so I can fix some problems with the mesh. Fear not however it will be finished soon.

Schedule issues. I have made a mistake with my personal schedule. I was planing to attend Lanwar a rather large lanparty this weekend. So I pushed the first race back a week. Well the party is not this weekend it is next weekend(to my surprise) so VARO will stay on schedule I will however be out for that race. Never fear however the VARO Board will be in complete control. I have faith in the them to run a good event. Anyway This weekend will be the final practice before the races start so if you are still interested in racing with VARO this season. Head to the downloads page and get the newest scenery and the 2003 update for the VARO Reno Racer. We do have permission to use the biplanes I have to add them to the Download page if you can wait just look for them on www.AVSIM.com. Hope to see everyone this weekend.

Next practice
Saturday Jan 11, 11pm est. on the VARO Race Server
Roger Wilco will be in use please use it. Even on at 56k connection is has very little effect on gameplay.

VARO Race Server up and running as of 11pm est.

Stop in for a few laps

Click the server status link for server info

VARO Race Server Offline
Pilots in attendence for Official Practice Session #1
#11 Sryth
#02 Roscoe
#05 Flatline
#09 Mags

Unregistered Pilots
themailman12

VARO Reno Racer 2003 season patch!

Its uploaded and ready for download. Here are the instructions.
1.Make sure you have the Reno Racer Pack from Avsim or Flightsim.com.
2.Download and install both VARO Reno Racer Packages found in our download section.
3. Download the Season Patch here.
4. Extract the Season Patch to where you have the other VARO Reno Racer packages installed.
5. Select your aircraft and race.

Aircraft have been assigned to pilots at this time. I am no longer accepting custom aircraft for simplicity sake. If you do not like you assignment you may choose one of the aircraft that are not assigned for your racer but you must choose before the frist race.

First Official Practice Session this today!

10pm Eastern Varo Race Server

Other News...Big News The VARO Formula 1 is now in prototype phase. We have a flight model. Still needs a few tweaks to make it perfect and I am putting the final touches on the visual model before it goes to the paint shop for a new coat of factory paint. Here is a pic of the F1 in its current state.
Finally I am putting together the 2003 Season Version of the VARO RENO Racer Package. It should be done and ready for download in the next few hours.

WE ARE IN NEED OF A RACE OPERATIONS OFFICER! look in the bylaws for information and e-mail me if you are interested.
See you at KRYN

Sryth
VARO President

Welcome to 2003 VARO Pilots. SIte update.
I have finalized the schedule for the first month of racing and reworked the Bylaws to contain the New Race Format. Check out the Schedule and Bylaws pages for the new information.

Other news. The VARO Reno Race 2003 package is almost ready I will be uploading it for the practice session this Saturday. I have also sent the F1 Prototype model out to have the Flight Model reworked and tweaked. Should have word on it soon. Other than that things are going smoothly and can't wait for the first Race Weekend.

Sryth
VARO President

Hey all! Happy new year!
As the year turned, myself and Warren were racing in some of the closest racing I've ever experienced!!!
To recap...during five lap races, I cut inside first pylon on start lap, to leave war-x leading by a tail feather...LITERALLY!
The next race (perfect air start, btw) I lead until a blackout on second pylon (due to both of us setting EVERYTHING to full realism settings), and was lead by war-x the whole race!!! He is one to watch out for!

If you haven't used full sliders, AND realism, YOU NEED TO!!!! It's a kick!!
If you haven't tried it yet...the crash with other aircraft setting WORKS!!!! YES WE WERE THAT CLOSE!!!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!!!!
Baron (VARO Public Relations Officer)