#Airbus a380 simulator online simulator

According to RedMugs, AJ told the community that he was communicating with Microsoft. AJ would later claim to pay $2,500 in hosting fees and a laptop to host the community’s game server-though neither were in use for very long.ĪJ was also attempting to get more involved in other ways. According to fellow founder and administrator Salad, AJ tried to step up, offering an AWS server as the community was growing in 2019. By the end of the year, the Discord had more than 6,000 members. From June to August 2019, it amassed over 1,400 members. RedMugs was just 14 years old when the server launched and didn’t have many resources to keep the community going as it started to grow-and it was growing fast. Voice channels in Discord were used to communicate, and the fsATC game server hosted the flights, which had people jet-setting across the virtual world. Once training was completed, they could join in on the roleplaying action, serving as air traffic control or as pilots. It offered an in-depth flight school and air traffic control training program that helped beginners get their wings.

#Airbus a380 simulator online simulator

They set up a multiplayer server for Microsoft Flight Simulator X, a game that was originally released in 2006 but saw a resurgence in popularity when it was released on Steam in 2014.įrom the outset, the community was approachable to beginners and impressively thorough. It was formed largely by a four-person team: RedMugs, Salad, Ninja (who would ultimately leave as the server started getting popular), and a person who identified themselves to the other administrators as AJ. That’s enough to put the games around the top 100 most played.įsATC was a perfect home for people like DorkToast because it was set up to bridge the gap between the beginners and the pros. The two versions of Flight Simulator available through Steam- Microsoft Flight Simulator X and the newer Microsoft Flight Simulator-average more than 6,500 concurrent players combined at any given time, according to SteamCharts. This is thanks in large part to the release of Flight Simulator, a reboot of the classic Microsoft title that dropped last year.

That worked until one founding member of fsATC, like a pilot flouting the directions of air traffic control, decided to go rogue and veered directly into turbulence that shook the whole community.Įvan Reiter, a real-life airline pilot and cofounder of the Flight Simulation Association-an organization dedicated to the growth of the flight sim community-says that the flight simulators, a relatively forgotten genre of games that seemed to be relegated to memories from the early 2000s, have been given new life in recent years. The community as a whole operated on a similar premise: As long as everyone kept the cooperative spirit, it continued to grow. When everything goes right-when air traffic controllers and pilots cooperate-planes take off and land without the slightest hint of a problem.

If this sounds a little mundane, well, consider that a virtue. Success is declared when a plane safely lands at its designated destination. Air traffic controllers keep tabs on flying conditions and are tasked with clearing flight plans proposed by pilots looking to complete a journey. Instead, they fly by staying grounded in reality. Members of fsATC and others in the flight sim community would rather not have the skies littered with daredevils. Perhaps you remember entering the cockpit of a classic version of Microsoft Flight Simulator and buzzing the Eiffel Tower or landing on the Golden Gate Bridge-the type of reckless feats that become possible only within a video game. They are located thousands of miles apart, brought together by a Discord channel and a multiplayer server for Microsoft Flight Simulator, both operated by a bustling community known as fsATC, or flight simulator air traffic control.įormed in the summer of 2019, fsATC is one of a number of communities that have cropped up around flight simulators with the goal of keeping the game as realistic as possible. But the controller isn't seated at O'Hare, and neither is the pilot. In fact, air traffic control just gave a pilot word that they are clear for takeoff. The air is still, barely a hint of clouds overhead.

It's a peaceful evening in the sky above O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.