It may be April Fools' Day, but for once we're not kidding!

The first issue of the FSInsider e-newsletter is on its way to zillions of loyal customers all over the world, thanks to the power of that series of tubes known as the Internet.

Not on our list? Sign up now and we'll clutter your Inbox with something you might actually find interesting: FSInsider News!

A friend of ours sent us a link to an article in the Grand Traverse Herald out of Traverse City, Michigan that we wanted to call out here. The story is about Kevin Query, an 8th grader at a local Junior High School, who volunteers at the Munson Medical Center's Infusion clinic, spending time with cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

It seems that Kevin aspires to be an airline pilot, so when he visits the clinic, he brings his father's laptop loaded with Flight Simulator. From there, playing copilot and flight instructor, Kevin gives patients of all ages a chance to fly all over the virtual world. We'll be following up with Kevin to see if there's anything we can do to lend a hand, but, in the meantime our hats are off to a teenager who could teach us all a thing or two.

Read the full article.

We're really excited to announce the new Flight Simulator X in-game home page.

You'll see it every time you click the Home button inside the Flight Simulator X game "shell."

The new in-game home page shows you articles and headlines from the live FSInsider site. In addition, if there are new service packs or other important information that could help you get the most out of Flight Simulator, we'll be able to tell you about them right there in the game shell.

Any time you click a link in the in-game home page, you'll come to the full article right here in FSInsider, in a new browser window.

Enjoy!

The dust is settled from the launch of Acceleration, things are winding down on Service Pack 2, and we’re making some big behind-the-scenes changes on the Web site so that we can hit the ground running next month after a short holiday break.

One of the biggest projects in the past few months was showing Acceleration just before release at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada. It was a long trip, with a lot of hard work, but it paid off, and we had a great time.

Check out Hal’s write-up on Reno—the latest in his “Thrilling Cities” trip report series—on his blog. It took me a while to get this posted here, but not nearly as long as it took him to write it. Like the saying goes, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. Anyway, I thought it was worth the wait—hopefully you will, too.

The Flight Simulator team is seeking experienced software engineers. You can read about current openings on the Microsoft Careers Web site.

Right now, we're looking for qualified individuals for these positions:

Software Development Engineer (Simulation)

Software Development Engineer (User Interface)

Help us create the next version of one of the most successful franchises in the history of entertainment software!

Doing a show like AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI, is kind of like moving into a new house. For some period of time before the event, everything else moves into second place - it just has to wait until after the big thing is done.

Well, another Oshkosh is done, and we're all starting to wake up and go after the things that piled up because of  it ... Like the song says, we ain't foolin' around, cause we done had our fun!

The show was a great success for us, and as you can see from the comments by EAA president Tom Poberezny, we weren't the only ones who enjoyed it:

"After seeing the tremendous week of activity at EAA AirVenture 2007, I believe we can use the term 'the best ever' in describing this year's event.  The number of aviation innovations and introductions we saw at Oshkosh were unprecedented, and there was a very positive feeling among pilots and aviation enthusiasts.  In addition, exhibitors throughout the grounds noted strong interest and, in some cases, record sales."

Attendance: Estimated 560,000 - Increase of about 3.2 percent from 2006

Total aircraft: More than 10,000 aircraft (and Hal saw them all ...) arriving at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh and other airports in east-central Wisconsin.

Total showplanes: 2,647.  That figure includes 985 homebuilt aircraft, 1,014 vintage airplanes, 365 warbirds, 136 ultralights, 117 seaplanes and 30 rotorcraft.

Commercial exhibitors: 784

International visitors registered: Approximately 1,700 from 60 nations. (NOTE: This total includes only non-U.S. visitors who register at the International Visitors Tent, so the actual international contingent is undoubtedly larger.)

Total estimated campers (Camp Scholler drive-in camping area):  More than 38,000.

Media: 887 media representatives on-site, from six continents.

Portable Toilets: 1180 (and 10,600 rolls of toilet paper!)

Hal Bryan, Abby Lin, Brandon Seltz, Brent Conklin, and Mike Lambert and I came from the "home office" in Redmond, and we offer special thanks to Dan Sallee, Justin Lamb, Katy Pluta, Leon Provencher, Matt Gamboa, Owen Hewitt, Roy McMillion, and Will Allen for volunteering their time to help staff our booth.

Special thanks to our friends at EAA, including Sue Christensen, Jeff Kaufman, Heidi Plato, and Jan Streblow. Thanks also to the long-suffering-but-always-helpful Jason at the Super 8 who managed to stay sane in spite of the best efforts of the Microsoft team to defeat  him in a game of motel-Tetris.

A few of our attendees even found time to do some blogging while they were there - for a few stories and some photos, check out what they had to say:

Hal

Roy

Owen

Dan

On July 8th (7-8-07) Boeing rolled out their new 787 passenger jet. Hal Bryan and I were lucky enough to be amongst those invited to the big event at Paine Field up in Everett, Washington.

"It was a strange thing to be led along a red carpet through the largest building in the world," writes Hal. "Especially as we were ushered past thousands of people who had actually built the airplane we came to see."

This--and more--in Hal's blog entry about the big event.

David Henry and Mike Singer recently flew down to Los Angeles to record voiceover audio for the missions in our upcoming expansion pack. Luckily they were involved in the recording, not the voicing (although they did apparently sneak into the booth at one point to record a new hit single, as caught on film, below).

Read Mike's trip report.

Miss America, that is, and looking awfully good for someone in her 60's!

Our Lead Game Designer Paul Lange went to Oklahoma to take some pictures of an airplane, and ended up not only going for the ride of a lifetime, but getting to fly as well!

Apparently, Lange is Celtic for "Lucky $%*$(!!". 

Anyway ... be sure to read about it in his blog, if you haven't already.

A few weeks ago Mike Singer went to Miami to watch 23-year old Barrington Irving take off on his around-the-world flight. We've been working with Barrington as an offical sponsor of his trip, so Mike wanted to be there for the launch event.

"Watching Barrington take off into the late-morning sky," Mike writes, "watching him make several low passes in the fastest certified single-engine piston plane in the world, watching him finally leap into the sky and turn north as thousands of kids watched--this was without a doubt one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen."

You can read more on Mike’s blog.

Never ones to refuse a trip south during the lingering days of a Seattle winter, Hal Bryan, Mike Singer, and I recently flew to San Diego to attend the Mutual Concerns of Air & Space Museums seminar. This year's event gathered together movers and shakers from air and space museums all over the world.

When airplane fanatics get together the lines between work and play blur a bit, but the trip wasn't all fun and games (although rumor has it Hal and Mike made a quick side trip to Sea World, apparently justified by taking a picture of the Mission Bay VOR while everyone else was looking at the fish).

 Hal did a great write-up of the trip, which he turned into this article.