Some people message or email me congratulating me on the number of readers and members we have on the Facebook group. The truth is: numbers are meaningless to me. I have no pleasure in seeing numbers grow just for the sake of it. I don't try them to grow. I don't force them to grow. If, by any chance, the numbers rise, it's because people want to join; because they appreciate our work and, most important, our community.
It all started a bit over two years ago when, after years (yes, years) of wanting to do something for the helicopter flight simulation community -- and after a previous helicopter simulation project eventually died --, I decided to finally start it. The name was in my mind, also, for years already.
I built a website, created a logo, started writing some stuff and, two years ago, on this day, HeliSimmer went live.
From then on, a lot has happened. The flight simulation community have seemed to enter a new golden age with products such as Flight Sim World arriving and the other platforms out there growing and getting more and more mature.
Developers have come and gone. Thankfully, it seems that the balance is positive, and we have more people working on addons and modifications nowadays. Virtual Reality became, well… Real.
Flight simulation is progressing like it hasn’t for quite some time.
These are, indeed, great times for our hobby and the last couple of years have been a blast. HeliSimmer has been growing slowly but steadily. We have made lots of friends and we started to make a name in the community and the industry. Developers are now contacting us.
We also started going to events (even if they are just local ones -- it's what we can afford folks), it's amazing to be able to reach out to people out there and show them our hobby. We have more events coming this year (also local) and one of them, going forth, will be very dear and special to me.
Companies are more aware of our existence and, as a result, they are aware that a helicopter flight simulation market does, indeed exist -- even if it's a niche inside the flight simulation niche. But we do exist. We are here. And we are a demanding bunch.
I must thank you all for the last two years and, in particular, to those that have helped me very directly: Joe Hudson, Drew Bolton, Tristan Ayton and Nick Bates. I also thank all the friends that I have made this past two years: from community members to developers, to those in other websites. At a risk of sounding cliche, the number is, indeed, simply too big to put your names here, but you know who you are.
To all of you. All. Without exception: thank you. It's been a pleasure, an honor and extremely fun to be part of the community. Thank you for having us.
Oh! And don't forget: we now have a JoinFS hub, which means it's easier than ever to gather some friends and fly around the world together in FSX, P3D and X-Plane! Go check it out!
