A longtime Infinite Flight user provides commentary on his appreciation of many enjoyable continuing years with Infinite Flight
Well, as has been pointed out to me, it is my anniversary on the forum (no, it is not my birthday). I actually realized that it is my fifth year anniversary, however, so I think a few words are in order.
First off, I just want to say how appreciative I am for the entire experience that the Infinite Flight developers and staff have created and continue to create. It’s not just five years I’ve had with them – I was already here back in Sept. 2013, the first time I purchased Infinite Flight on my iPad 2. Almost from the beginning I realized I had stumbled on something great; over the next many years, through two device upgrades and numerous updates, that feeling was only reinforced.
The constant updates throughout each year, and the anticipation for each one was and is fantastic. At the beginning, before the forum was around (and it was created sometime in early 2015), Infinite Flight had a blog, but not the current one :) Simply put, it allowed us users at the time to see development updates on the 747, which until that point had just one variant and livery in game.
The really big update around that time however was live multiplayer. Similar to global, this promised to revolutionize the entire Infinite Flight experience, and it certainly helped show me the potential in store for Infinite Flight. We might take it for granted, but the developers really do push the envelope of what was and is possible on a mobile device. Following the introduction of live, as it was known at the time, I eventually found my way to the forum, in order to mainly apply for IFATC but also to monitor a few feature updates (yes I was one of those that simply perused the forum for a while before joining).
Following a successful IFATC test, I was able to join that community for a couple of years, and certainly enjoyed pushing tin in the Infinite Flight skies. Unfortunately that came to an end when life took over and I could no longer devote enough time to both occasionally fly and meet minimum controlling requirements. I can’t imagine how the IF Slack must have grown since those months in '16-'17. Needless to say, IFATC is just one example of the strong community Infinite Flight has managed to build over the years.
This forum is by far the crowning achievement of Infinite Flight. Not only have the developers and staff been able to continuously perfect the best next-gen mobile flight simulator, they’ve been able to bring together a diverse group of aviation enthusiasts from across the world to share a common passion for aviation. This is no small achievement. Additionally, the ability to talk with anyone from the team, from @schyllberg to @MishaCamp regarding support tickets and update queries, to bombarding @jasonrosewell with questions about update teasers and features, is a fantastic part of this community. The clear passion that all of you have for this simulator and community is obvious, and I want to say it doesn’t go unnoticed.
In addition, the forum hosts some great discussions, from real world aviation updates to technical conversations about AoA and the physics behind flight (@adit and @A_Hippopotamus I know it’s relatively random and you’re probably very confused as to why I’m tagging you, but your discussion here is a perfect example of this). But it’s conversations like these that occur every day here, and it’s absolutely fantastic to watch. We have such a large collection of talent on here, and that manifests itself in multiple ways. Think of the photographic skills of those in the screenshots and video categories (such as @NoahM and @Alexander_Nikitin, whose 20.1 Trailer was absolutely fantastic), or the creativity and organization skills seen in realistic fly-out events, or the artistic talent in the numerous drawing threads on here. Even @Tyler_Shelton’s ability to keep on generating an IFATC schedule every week, and make the entire IFATC run professionally and smoothly.
Besides all that, and making up a large part of this forum, the sheer amount of feature requests on here is insane. But what’s even more astounding is how many of those requests have actually made their way into Infinite Flight. Part of the reason we watch teasers and talk up features is because we know the developers listen – it’s awesome. I still remember how many times I bothered @Cameron to include missing callsigns. I think I made four lists in total throughout the years, and I don’t think it bothered him… too much. But sure enough, they did make their way into the sim!
In addition to conversations, simply joining in on the Friday Night Flights, or rocketing off on a refueling flight with whoever’s available at the moment (such as when @Usman_A @AnonymouslyAnonymous and I flew along the Brisbane Coast in fighters and the KC-10 this past summer) can be a whole lot of fun. The forum helps facilitate flights like this which otherwise would be much harder to organize.
It’s really true that Infinite Flight is the best mobile sim out there. Global was ground-breaking on so many levels, and I can’t believe that we’ve already had this for a couple of years. It seems like yesterday when we were all trying to decipher whether @Laura was actually being serious when she posted the infamous “April Fool’s” joke from space of the “new dawn” in Infinite Flight. But sure enough everyone poured over global development, each feature, teaser and addition, and here we are a few years later, still doing the same, except with the A350, 777 and now 757. When @philippe and the team finally finish work on Project Metal and clouds finally make their way into the sim, I can only imagine what the experience will be like. We’ll be waiting in anticipation to see.
For everyone who read this: nice job, you made it through the whole thing. If I didn’t tag you it doesn’t mean you don’t have a major impact on this community - I really just highlighted who came to mind at the moment of writing.
Thanks for 5+ fantastic years, and on to the next 5! Keep up the great work, and in closing, let’s give it up for the developers, staff, and this community!