[Official] Community Fly-In Friday: Guy Fawkes Day

[SeedyL3205]

We will be hosting an Official Fly-in alongside a group of community members (you!) on Twitch. This is an open event, free to all who would like to fly along with us and available to pilots of all skill levels. The goal is to have a great time, explore new locations of the world, and make new friends. This event is open to pilots on both the PC and Xbox platforms.

Hosted by @SeedyL3205, @simtom2, and @AlyKatz
When: Friday, November 3 @ 1800Z for two hours.
2023-11-03T18:00:00Z
Where: The Official Twitch Channel of MSFS

There will also be a Discord event channel open for those who want to voice chat with other members of the community.

Please see below for details on the upcoming Fly-In Event:

FLIGHT DETAILS

Remember, remember the 5th of November! On November 5, 1605, an assassination attempt against the English monarch, King James I, was discovered and foiled. The conspirators’ plan was to detonate large amounts of gunpowder under the House of Lords during the opening session of Parliament while the King was present.

Among the conspirators was explosives expert Guy Fawkes, whose name has since become synonymous with the gunpowder plot. For the next four centuries, November 5 (known as “Guy Fawkes Day” or “Bonfire Night”) is commemorated across the UK each year with fireworks displays and by burning effigies of Fawkes.

For our Community Fly-In this week, we will be flying from York (birthplace of Guy Fawkes) southbound to London where we will fly over the Palace of Westminster (which Fawkes and his co-conspirators attempted to blow up) and the Tower of London (where they were imprisoned).

To get into the spirit of Bonfire Night, PC pilots may wish to download the freeware We Love VFR Xtra - Fireworks add-on. This mod will create beautiful fireworks displays all over the UK when the in-sim date and time is set to 1900-2200 on November 5.

Pilots on PC can download the .pln file here:
2023-11-03 Guy Fawkes Day.PLN (3.7 KB)

We will be starting at UK11. Please load your aircraft 10 minutes prior to take off and taxi over to the runway in preparation for departure.

AIRCRAFT

Recommended aircraft: Cessna 172, CubCrafters X or NX Cub, Diamond DV20, JMB Aviation VL-3, or any other plane of your choice that can maintain a cruising speed of 110 knots or greater.

MULTIPLAYER SETTINGS

Please adhere to the following settings so you can see everyone / be seen by everyone.

Variable	Setting
Server	SE Asia
Multiplayer	All Players
Live traffic	As preferred
Weather	Few Clouds
Time of Day	Daytime

It is advised in this flight to turn off both aircraft collisions and terrain collisions. If you do crash, you can use “slew” mode to join the pack. If the pack will be too scattered before the first stop, we will use slew on a defined point to regroup.

COMMUNICATION

To communicate with others, a voice channel on the "Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Discord” at https://discord.gg/msfs will be available to join.

LET’S FLY

This is meant to be a fun and informal flight. Everybody is welcome, no matter the amount of experience.

[kenniekayoz]

Solo flight

[spatialpro]

Dear @SeedyL3205, @simtom2, and @AlyKatz

I believe there may be an error with the time next to the date/time at the very top (next the Add to Calendar). It states 18:00, (GMT+01:00) London, which is 1900Z. However, post and associated graphic state this flight starts at 1800Z. The key point is GMT and Zulu Time are the same and are not separated by an hour. Those who go by the time listed at the top (and presumably by Adding it to their Calendar) will arrive 1 hour late!

[Chewwy94]

Hi @spatialpro,

This is due to the fact that in Europe we have switched the clocks back, whilst in North America they switch back one week later, so things may look a bit weird on the forums. I’ll see if I can manually adjust something!

Thanks,
The MSFS Team

[SeedyL3205]

Hello @spatialpro,

There is a known issue in the third-party forum software where it sometimes doesn’t adjust for changes to and from Daylight Saving Time in different countries/regions. The correct start time for the event is 1800Z as stated regardless of what the forum displays as your local time zone.

Thanks,
MSFS Team

[TheBlackWind977]

The time above shows 11am PST to me. It’s always that time… so is that changing this week? Time zones confuse me a bit, but Google says 1800z is 12p my time which would be an hour later than normal.

[Chewwy94]

As stated above, the clocks have changed in Europe, whilst they have not yet in North America. For example in the UK we are back onto Zulu (UTC) time, which is currently 7 hours ahead of Pacific time. When the clocks in NA change this weekend Pacific time will go back to being 8 hours behind UK time as normal. Seedy has confirmed the event will start at 18:00z, so double check what time that currently converts to for your local timezone, and then for next week it should be back to normal!

Hope this helps

The MSFS Team

[GrungeSlayer]

A very handy tool for working out time zones

Time Zone Converter – Time Difference Calculator

[FlyerOneZero]

I have to say, while I totally get that there’s no time that will suit everyone, 1800 in the UK is going to be a problem for many people who work who might have been able to fly at 1900 (or 2000 as it originally was). Once the US clocks go back is the time going to shift again or is the plan to keep it at 1800 Zulu?

[TKManis]

I would really love to join this im still pretty new to the sim and looking for some buddys to fly with my gamer tag is TK Manis

[Maelmoor]

Will unfortunately miss the flight tonight, which is a shame as I love to fly in UK! York is a fantastic place to visit if you enjoy history

Have fun tonight!

[TheBlackWind977]

Yea, that was the confusing part I guess. I know UK changed, but North America hasn’t and that’s where MS is and Seedy is. That’s fine though, I just wanted to be sure.

[SeedyL3205]

We always list the start time in UTC because it is unchanging regardless of Daylight Saving Time. If there is ever any doubt, the UTC start time is correct, not the automatic time zone conversion from the forum software.

[CriminalPilot]

I didn’t have the fireworks addon but beautiful night flight nonetheless. Thanks all

[ElkanDavid]

A fun flight as always! The fireworks were a nice addition.

[EQUALIZER5047]

Nov 5th 19:00 - 20:30 zulu over Liverpool, Birmingham and London and no fireworks displayed for me. Oh well.

[SeedyL3205]

Hello @TH33QUAL1Z3R,

Did you have the freeware mod linked in the OP installed to your Community folder? This is required to see the fireworks.

Thanks,
MSFS Team

[EQUALIZER5047]

Yeah, I downloaded it and unpacked into the Community folder like it said on the download page. The weather is very bad in Liverpool at the moment so figured that may have been a factor but London has clear skies and I still didn’t experience anything. I was flying below 1000ft too.

Thanks anyway, though.

[EQUALIZER5047]

I’m an idiot. Yesterday was the 4th. Today is the 5th.

It ended up working as it should on the day. Apologies for the confusion.