Hello, folks! It’s been another great year for the flightsim community and The Pilot Club. As we say goodbye to 2024 and welcome in 2025, I wanted to provide an update on the State of the Club. If you prefer to listen to this message (11 min), click HERE.

First, I’d like to thank all Members who contributed their time and energy to TPC. You make it a great place for flightsim enthusiasts! I appreciate and value what you bring to the Club.

From the very beginning, our goal for the Club was to create a place to share experiences with other flightsimmers, to help folks who are new to flightsim, and to fly group flights together.

The Pilot Club is all about Teamwork, Passion, and Community. These are our values and pillars, which guide us in everything we do in the Club.

In April we celebrated TPC’s third birthday on Earth. As we continue to grow, our primary mission remains the same: to provide a supportive environment for flightsim and aviation enthusiasts to thrive, fly, and make new friends. Because our mission resonates with so many people in the flightsim community, we continue to see substantial growth.

In December 2024, we hit a major milestone: 5000 Members.

2024 Overview & Recap:

It’s great to see more folks join the Club! I’m also excited to report that we continue to grow our ATC and IRL Pilots base, and having that integrated environment brings a lot of value to the Club! Additionally, TPC continues to operate as an official VATSIM partner and ATO, which brings the VATSIM stamp of approval, publicity, and better coordination with the Network.

One of the key things that attracts people to TPC is the variety of activities that Members can do in the Club. There’s something to do for every Member. In 2024, the Club conducted 235 scheduled group flights/events. That’s huge! We also introduced a new type of event - AIRPLANES & COFFEE. This event provides an opportunity for Members to get to know each other, hangout, drink coffee, and talk about airplanes and aviation.

In 2024, we conducted several TOWNHALLS. Its a great way for Members to connect with the Staff and hear about Club’s plans in development. We also announce TPC Company Perks Giveaway Winners during these Townhalls.

Our EXPLORER missions continue to provide an opportunity for Members to explore new places and earn TPC Points. Stay tuned for more exciting and challenging destinations in 2025, like this.

TPC Quarterly LONG HAUL missions curated by Jan | TPC280 became very popular and offer another dimension of the flight simulation.

Our livery designers have been hard at work in the paint hangar. Currently we have over 55 TPC liveries for various aircraft, with more in development.

Speaking of things looking pretty, in 2024 we have held 12 Screenshot Contests. It’s a great way for TPC Members to share their epic flightsim pics with the community. Thank you to all who participated and congratulations to the winners! You can see a showcase of Members’ pics HERE.

TPC Media Team re-launched our weekly video podcast called “TPC Hangar”, now hosted by Jacob | TPC117, which aims to inform Members about the weekly events in the Club.

One of the neat little features we have in the TPC Discord server is our daily aviation quiz. The quiz has over 500 questions and growing. It’s a great feature to test your aviation knowledge!

In 2024 we continued to offer our giveaways to the Club Members. Throughout the year we have given away aircraft, scenery, gift cards, flightsim hardware, and Club merch. This is our way of saying thank you for flying with TPC.

Our partnerships with ARTCCs continue to develop, allowing us to have better planning and ATC coordination with VATSIM for our group flights. In 2024, Memphis (ZME) ARTCC was added as our newest VATUSA partner. We appreciate our VATSIM partners for their continued support and feedback they provide to the Club.

Speaking of partnerships, in 2024 we added a few new commercial Partners: Pimax, Skytation, Hype Performance Group, and FSElite. Our Partners provide discounts to TPC Members, so check out our Partners Discounts Program.

In June, The Pilot Club participated in FSExpo 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada, which was an amazing experience. Definitely check out the blog post for the highlights. TPC will have a booth at this year’s Expo as well!

In 2024, many Members contributed to the Community by being engaged on TPC Discord server.

Here are our 2024 TOP 10 Pilots:

Stuart | TPC73 | C-FCMC
Dylan | TPC1496 | DELA
Stephen | TPC341 - N341SW | ZID
Dylan | TPC802 | KPIT
Oren | TPC171 | FERL
Brad | TPC178
Andrew S | TPC51 | N51AY
Ron | TPC142
Marc | TPC444 | J39D
MattB | TPC711

2024 has been a great year for our Training Program, led by Elliot | TPC24. Big shout out to our Instructors and Flight School management!

In our Flight School, we started 2024 with 1,700 students, and have gained 2,100 new students, making the current student cadre over 3,800.

In February we launched our P2 Instrument Rating Course as well as our P5 Flight Instructor Training Program.
In addition to our monthly Discovery Flights, we have also released live video workshops for a variety of topics, including: Flying in Canadian airspace, VFR and IFR Flight Planning, and more.
TPC has partnered with the Memphis (ZME) ARTCC.
TPC Training Department has grown since the start of 2024, but we are still looking for more Instructors.

Here is what’s on the docket for 2025:

We will be releasing an accelerated version of a few courses that will allow practice flights to be booked quicker.
The CMEL course will be released in early 2025, with ATPL soon after.
BIG NEWS: TPC is opening a Real World Part 61 Ground School (not affiliated with Vatsim). In 2025, we will be releasing TPC real world Part 61 Ground School with an instructor endorsement to take the FAA Written Exam. Stay tuned for updates as we progress. Very exciting!

Our in-house Virtual Airline - TPC Charters has been thriving in 2024 under the great leadership by CEO James | TPC36.

81 Charters pilots flew over 5,000 hours in 2024 using Charters aircraft.
21 Charters pilots made 34 Coast to Coast (C2C) crossings.
10 Charters pilots received the Top Gun award in 2024 with 2 pilots receiving it twice.
At the end of 2024, TPC Charters was valued at $892,812,476.

In 2024, TPC Charters Airline held 4 big events:

In 2024 we launched some new initiatives:

Coast 2 Coast - Northern Route: We added a new route for our Pilots to fly using small GA or BizJet aircraft and gain TPC Points.
Cargo Ops: We added FBO routes to allow for an aircraft such as the MD-11, A306F, 757F, 777F, and even the C-17.
Coast 2 Coast Canada: Awards pilots TPC Points for flying small GA or BizJet aircraft between CYYJ and CYYT (either direction) along a route of airports with Charters FBOs.

Later in 2025 we are looking to:

Increase Top Gun Award from 2,500 TPC Points to 5,000 TPC Points.
Increase C2C Award from 2,500 TPC Points to 5,000 TPC Points.
Raise pilots pay by 5% (from 25% to 30%).

If you are looking for a small airline feel, with strong management support, where the Pilots are treated the right way - look no further than TPC Charters! No wonder why top Pilots fly for Charters! Join now!

Our Developers led by Eric | TPC76 have been making solid moves behind the scenes, making sure our day-to-day server operations run smoothly.

In 2024, we launched the Flight Crew Portal (FCP), which provides Members with a personalized profile site, plus many cool features, like live operations map, callsign assignment database, and more. On the Discord side, the dev team continues innovation by bringing custom bot commands tailored for flightsim and aviation. These features greatly enhance the Club environment.

TPC Admin/Dev team has been hard at work with our new, custom TPC leaderboard. Stay tuned for more info on that!

Our Staff has been absolutely amazing leading the Club! From me personally - thank you for what you do! I am proud to be a part of this organization. If any Club Member would like to take a more active role in Club operations, like being a Developer, Flight Instructor, or Flight Ops Team Lead, please take a look at our Staff Vacancies page. We are always looking for new Members to lead the fastest growing flightsim community!

Last, but not least, I’d like to thank our donors and supporters. Without you the Club would not be what it is today. Your monetary donations help with prizes for giveaways and paying for Club infrastructure. That’s huge!

I want to thank you all for being here. Our Members, Partners, Donors, and Staff makes TPC a great flightsim community! Together, we will continue to make this Club a great place for flightsim enthusiasts to thrive, make new friends, and fly together. The future of the Club looks bright.

Since you read this far, you get a special bonus announcement: The Pilot Club is becoming a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) in January. This development will allow us to leverage NPO status in Club operations, paving the way for even more exciting developments.

Happy New Year!