State of the Club - December 2021
Hello, folks and Happy New Year! 2021 has been a great year for the flightsim community and TPC. On this last day of the year, I’d like to let you know about the state of the Club.
TPC is just 8 months old and we already have almost 800 members! Wowza! We are growing fast and it is exciting to see more folks join the Club! I’m also excited to report that a substantial number of our members are ATC, and having that integrated environment brings a lot of value to the Club! We also have many IRL pilots, both private and commercial, and with this collective knowledge, experience, and insights into real world flying, it offers another layer of immersion for the Club members.
The Pilot Club is for those who are passionate about aviation. Our primary goal is to provide a supportive environment for flightsim enthusiasts to thrive, fly, connect, and make new friends. To achieve that, we conduct scheduled group flights, which are listed in our Dispatch on the website and in DISCORD server. If you like to fly airliners or bizjets - we have flights for you! Like to explore flying GA VFR? We got you covered! Some of our flights are hybrid, allowing both airliners and GA to fly into a designated facility. We also have a monthly World Tour flights, Challenge flights, Explorer series flights, and more, giving you more things to try, learn, and experience!
We have been very busy in 2021. TPC has been approved as an official partner club of VATSIM, which has been our goal since April. Being an official partner brings the VATSIM stamp of approval and the ability to better coordinate with the Network.
Since inception in April 2021, the Club conducted over 160 scheduled group flights, which is remarkable. Our Sunday-Funday group flights continue to be our most popular, with 15-20 pilots flying those every week, thanks to the hard work by Andrew, who’s been hosting these flights since the beginning. Our World Tour flights, held once per month on the first Saturday, have also attracted a lot of participants, and have been an awesome adventure for the Club. Lucas has put in a lot of work into planning and executing these flights.
We continue to develop group flights for the Club, and with the help of Flight OPs Team Lead Paulie, our GA Program has been thriving, with more members joining the exciting world of general aviation.
Earlier this year we had a few new Staff members join the team. Maverick has joined Flight OPs to help Paulie with GA Program, as Paulie has been promoted to Team Lead. Noah has stepped up to handle the Challenge Flights, and Ethan will handle Club’s FNO flights. I’m very excited to welcome them to the team, as they are passionate about running the Club and ensuring we continue to thrive in 2022.
As far as social features in the Club, we had several Townhalls and our first Trivia Night; Jasin and Maverick helped put that together and it was a big success!
I want to thank the whole Staff team for making our Club a great one! I am truly humbled and amazed at all you do for the Club!
Our Training Team, led by Elliot has been working on providing necessary training to Club members, while at the same time gearing up for an ATO (Authorized Training Organization) certification, which we hope to obtain in 2022. David and Josh H have been instrumental in getting the ATO cert going, so that we could train the pilots and give P-ratings right inside the Club environment.
Earlier this year, we launched our Virtual Airline - TPC Charters, led by David (The Dude). The management team there is making solid progress as we grow, and offers a small airline environment to those who seek a bit more purpose for their flights.
Next, a very special thank you is in order to our Admin Team. Eric and Josh have been making solid moves behind the scenes, making sure our day-to-day operations run smooth in the server and in the Club in general. We would not be where we are today without their passion, knowledge, and drive to make this place even better! They implemented many new features in the server to make your experience at TPC a great one: new channels, custom bot integrations, moderation features, and many other things that allow us to have a welcoming and friendly environment.
Finally, I want thank all members who contribute to our Club. You make it a great place for flightsim enthusiasts! Your contributions are valued and appreciated!
As we move into 2022, the future of the Club looks bright. We continue to fine-tune our website, which we launched in 2021, with new features coming, such as the Merch store and Members profiles. Our partnerships with several VATSIM ARTCCs continue to develop, allowing us to have better planning and ATC coordination for for our group flights, with several exciting events planned for 2022. Our partnership with Sky Blue Radio will allow us to build a solid foundation for the fly-in format group flights on Thursdays. Our friends at Flightsim.com will bring us flightsim news and updates to keep you in the loop of developments in the community.
In 2022, we are looking forward to sponsorships by Textron and Navigraph, to bring new giveaways and prizes to the Club.
As we say goodbye to 2021, I want to thank you all for being here. Together, we will continue to make this Club a great place for flightsim enthusiasts to thrive, make new friends, and fly together.
Happy New Year!
