2020
What a year it’s been. So much has happened in this crazy year. Now, if 2020 had been a normal year, I’d just go along with my New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, but since so much has happened this past year, I felt that I had to wry this topic. I had to share my 2020, well, my IF and IFC-related 2020. 😂
Without further ado, lets remember the crazy year that was 2020! If you read the whole thing, I may even give you a cookie.
A Year of The IFC
My rambling begins in January of 2020, when we all thought this year would be great. Funny to think that we all thought this year would be great, and it turned out not to be. I’m going to go though each month of this year on the IFC.
January
I don’t recall much happening in January, mostly cause I don’t remember. I do recall that was when North American Pilot’s Club was in its infancy, that was all the way back when we were known as Tanistic Air Virtual, and we weren’t approved yet by that time either (which is why 90% have probably never heard of Tanistic Virtual. Crazy to see how much it’s changed in only a year! I remember making one lone topic in the month of January way back in the days when we were allowed to change the weather and add clouds and such (topic linked here). Nowadays, we won’t have to add artificial clouds, cause we’ll have clouds in the sim! I remember we were also just sliding away from the hype of 19.4, with the A350 and C172, with the former being added and the latter receiving a rework, and everyone was flying those planes. And my favorite topic in the early part of 2020 was created way back in January, Guess The Airline and Aircraft [Part 5] was created, part of the OG guessing games. Part 5 had some of my most fun memories on the IFC (I guessed that Air Algiere JetStar correctly @Alex_Kraz). Boy this feels nostalgic, talking about things a whole year ago.
February
So here we are, February. This was the month when I made those WWII stile #screenshots-and-videos topics (one of said topics can be found here). The clouds are still there, so I guess that was when we could still add artificial weather to our photos 😂. This was also way back when the original “Guess the Aircraft” threads were still going (I think we were still on part 5). February wasn’t that eventful IFC-wise overall from what I recall.
March
The month of March for me was one of my more active months in terms of the amount of topics I made. Including the infamous How to Be Cool in Infinite Flight topic. A.K.A. the topic that won’t die. It was also when I was one of like 3 people to fly to Berlin Tempelhof in this FNF, still one of my favorite FNF’s to date. These were some of my favorite times on the IFC, the year of 2019 and the first few months of 2020 were great. By this time I had been regular for about 5 months (give or take a few days) as well.
April
April was a month where lots of things happened for me on the IFC. I officially became the only staff member at the old Tanistic Air Virtual after @Tsumia left (I don’t blame him looking at the state of the VA at the time), and my good friend @Alaska096 was suspended (more on that later. I kept the VA alive though, and I’m so grateful I did. If I didn’t, we wouldn’t have the current-day NAPC! If my memory serves me right, @Alaska096 was suspended on either April 26th (I scrolled through a few thousand posts to double check), and when I found out I was both sad and confused as to why he was suspended, as he was one of my best friends on the IFC at the time having previously worked with him on a few things. He was gone, and I had no idea if we would ever come back.
But things did look up near the end of the month. I met one of the best people I know, @United2. I didn’t reach out to him, in fact, he reached out to me inquiring about Tanistic Air Virtual. At the time I had no idea that we would become the great friends we are now and bring Tanistic back again, and when that didn’t work, went all in on North American Pilots Club.
May
To sum up May all in one word, I would choose relief. On May 4th, to the delight of some and the disappointment of others, @Alaska096 came back from his suspension. Finding out that he was back was one of the best moments of the year in terms of how far the IFC and IF go. On May 29th, @United2 officially joined the NAPC (then Tanistic Air Virtual) staff team, a big step towards our eventual approval, and @Gyan_Gautam1 also joined the team on May 31st.
On May 11th, I had my 1 year anniversary on the IFC, highlighted in this topic, and it had been a huge milestone for me. My first year had been great overall, and I was so glad I stuck around. And I still am glad I decided to stick around!
June
June was a pretty standard month for me IFC and IFC-wise. I don’t remember much happening in that moth other than the fact that I made my first real topic in the #real-world-aviation category (you can see it here). Because my first topic was originally posted in #general and moved to #real-world-aviation. So this was my first real topic in the category. And by June North American Pilots Club was well on its way to becoming a proper VO (still known as Tanistic at the time). We also welcomed our current COO @Josh_Smith to the team as well in June. I do recall that we applied as “Tanistic Air Virtual” to the IFVARB on June 10th. That was a crucial day of this year because even though we ultimately didn’t get approved, it helped pave the path the VO North American Pilots Club.
And how could I not forget? The Rickroll Army, also known as the RickRollers. All I can say is, it was fun while it lasted. What started out as a few friends sharing a nice laugh evolved into a group full of maniacs rickrolling everyone (yes, I was a maniac too lol). No regrets. Well, no regrets creating the Rickroll Army, I regret not enforcing the rules and I’m sorry if we annoyed anyone. 🙃
July
Well well, we made it to July. In this month, I was able to post my very first IF movie in the #screenshots-and-videos category, my 4th of July All American Special, it still stands as one of my personal favorites. In July, I also hosted my first event, this one was a collaboration with my friend @USA_ATC. And Tanistic Air Virtual had officially been rebranded as North American Pilots Club, the VO that we all know today (though at the time we still hadn’t been approved).
I also noticed that in July, tensions were building between community members. First it started small, like the fact that arguments were becoming more and more frequent and that the anger between members and the hate towards the mods was increasing as well. In PM’s people were complaining more and more as well. Almost as if something was building (it was). Little did I know that the next month would be crazier than a NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway!
August
August was chaotic to say the least. Hate against the mods, controversial topics, nonstop arguing, and there was almost a flat-out revolt. A PM I was in was leaked, and I almost lost all trust at that point, I couldn’t take all the arguing nor could I take the fact that all my trust had been drained because one of my friends had leaked a group PM. I honestly can’t describe all the events that happened in that one short month, it’s as if all the events for the past month or two had been building on this one explosive time frame of less than a week or so.
I lost too many friends throughout the month of August. @Big_Elijah, @Infinite_Flight_Sims, Starz (@anon41771314), and more. Long-time members of the IFC like Alex (I don’t know his anon #), and others have left. A sore wound that still hasn’t healed fully is the fact that some of my best friends aren’t here on the IFC anymore. My best friend on the IFC (Alaska096 / anon38496261) also left, but that was unrelated to the unrest that was going on in the IFC. But it was still incredibly sad to see him leave along with all the others.
Oh, and then there’s the one known by the name of [Redacted]. If you don’t remember or if you weren’t here then, [Redacted] was someone who was around on the IFC, actually a quite respected member. But then he turned, and sorta started a revolt of his own. Posting photos of XPlane in our #screenshots-and-videos category, and much more I’m not mentioning. Now this was before [Redacted] started trolling a lot, so what happened back in August was something that I thought was ridiculous at the time, but I look back and have a good laugh.
But something good did happen in August. @Javier_Blancas made a livery on the 77W thanking the community for everything. (Note: this next part is not self promotion). I made my first and only #features topic for the livery (link here). Not only was it a beautiful livery, from what I saw it helped unite the IFC, even if only for a bit during the month where everything was going downhill. And the idea of the livery even made its way onto the IF livery of the 772!
September
September to me was a month of healing. From all the problems that happened in the Month of August, the one and only @ran came to the rescue with his Enough Is Enough topic. From covering the hate between the mods and staff and the IFC members, to everything else that arose in the previous month. People made things right with each other and things stemmed to get better. Not all the wounds were healed, but a lot of us did try and make it right with others, and I feel that September was a month of forgiveness. Tensions seemed to die down, and some of my friendships were repaired with people that we had let’s say an argument in the past.
And possibly one of the best moments of 2020 IF-wise had to be when NAPC was approved. On September 27th, North American Pilots Club became an official VO. A journey fulfilled not just by NAPC getting approved, but by meeting some amazing people along the way. And I’m so grateful for everyone that was part of North American Pilots Club, wether you’re a former staff member or current, or even a pilot. And yet the journey continues to continue making NAPC the best it can be. That day was one of the best of the year when I first heard the news that we were approved.
October
October brought a lot of change to of all things, my spotting. It was the first time I’d been spotting with a real camera, as seen in this topic. Since that first spotting trip, I’ve learned so much about using a proper camera and editing photos. I went from an amateur phone spotter to a real spotter, even though I’m still not super good, I’m I’m learning as much as I can. Other than that, I don’t really remember too much from October.
November
November was the rise of funny topics. I’ll be honest here and I can’t dig up any because most of them were unlisted so fast 😂. But there certainly were some golden topics in November. In the month of November I started doing regular events with my friends @SWA1997 and @zion89. We started off with our Across The American Heartland event with me and @SWA1997, and we quickly became good friends, @zion89 also became a friend of mine when all 3 of us worked on our next flyout. Really helped with both my event-hosting skills, and making my November great.
December
Ah yes, the final month of the year. I got myself a Christmas-themed profile photo, and then I was all set! Though it was a shame I didn’t see as many Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation profile photos as last year though 😛. In December we saw some of my favorite topics of the year (linked here and here). North American Pilots Club had it’s very first event on December 3rd too, it was awesome to say the least. And I discovered how nice and how surprisingly peaceful a nighttime approach was into an IFATC hub too! And we also finally got the 757 rework too! But with all that being said, I still gotta fly my farewell flight with @ran though (New Year’s resolution time)!
I also saw some of the best of the IFC around the holidays. Users everywhere were just that bit nicer to each other. It was great to log onto the IFC during Christmas Eve and see everyone just so happy and exited for the next day. And New Year’s Eve was something else as well!
A Year of the Real World
I lied earlier. I said this would only be about my IF and IFC-related 2020. But seen as so much happened this year, and the fact that I still have enough characters left, I’ll give a short summary of what happened to me this year in the real world. Don’t worry, I won’t write a book for each month, lol. 😂
This year sure was hectic in the real world, with COVID, lockdowns, elections, UFO’s, and much more. When I first found out about COVID, I thought the whole ordeal wouldn’t last past April — boy was I wrong! Over the lockdowns, I had lost friendships, but I had also rebuilt some too. One of my best friend’s got sick from the virus (luckily he’s ok now). So many things have happened that I’m not willing to share on the public IFC for the sake of privacy of others, but just so you know my life hasn’t been dull and boring. 😜
So, Where Am I Now?
The year that was 2020, what a year. This New Year’s Day, I’m writing to you remembering a year that will be remembered both by the real world and by the IFC for years to come. So many good friends and great people on this community have helped me stick around and they helped make 2020 that bit better.
I’d like to give a shout-out to a few of those very special people on the IFC.
@United2, @Josh_Smith, and everyone else at the @NAPC team. Y’all mean so much to me, and I’m glad to know you all. Wether you are currently staff there, or a former staff member, or even a pilot, you guys are amazing!
I’d also like to give a shoutout to my good friends in all of the group PM’s I’m in, you guys always manage to give me a good laugh and the conversations we have are really fun!
Thanks for all the great events @SWA1997 and @zion89! And thanks for all the help with those small but important things @PilotA320!
Thank you to my amazing friend Alaska096 (anon38496261). If you’re reading this, know that you’ve been a huge part of my time on the IFC through 2020.
Special thank you to the moderators and staff for putting up with me for all this time. You guys are always keeping this place at its best!
And finally, I would like to thank you. That’s right, you, the IFC. Y’all are what keep this place so great!
Now, the clocks are all shifting back to January, and the year that was 2020 had wound to a close for everyone around the world. We won’t forget this crazy year. A year that was filled with chaos and isolation but was also filled with kindness and friendships. Through everything that happened this year, we persevered both in the real world, and on the IFC, as a community. As calendars change and a 1 gets added to the year, we all remember 2020 and leave it in the past, and hope to make 2021 better. This year has changed everything, but it can’t change our love for aviation and the wonderful fact that we together, are a community, the Infinite Flight Community.
Cheers to 2020, and here’s to the new year! 🍾
— Butter Boi
No, I didn’t forget your cookie. If you made it through the whole topic, here you go. 🍪