As I'm sure you can tell there are more than a handful of people very keen on filling #8 and we're not your typical squadron where we have a "bottomless" roster of pilots. We keep ours to the same number of pilots on the real Thunderbird team and thereby every pilot becomes extremely in tune with his position and also the Thunderbird routine as a whole. We like to call ourselves an open team in the regard that we're open to support other efforts of similar sort, although we don't have time to actually fly with other people much less help solve computer issues that are non-VTB related. We're also open in a sense that if someone comes along that has the "right stuff", we won't hold that person back from trying for a position already occupied by a team member. However, just realize that this would require something extraordinary unless one of us retires, since this is no walk in the park and it would be hard to replace countless hours of experience right off the bat! We've had many people come and go after seeing how much harder it was than they first thought. Again, this is not meant to discourage you, just prepare you for the reality of it.
Please understand we get a tremendous amount of email and instant messages asking all kinds of things and we only do this on our spare time and it can get very time consuming trying to accommodate everyone (especially outside the scope of the Virtual Thunderbirds). You'd be surprised about all the different kind of questions people ask that don't really have much to do with us directly. With that said, we appreciate the feedback and support we get. Sometimes we might just not have the time for everyone...
When telling us about yourself, if you want to stand out, a good way not to do it is by saying "I'm a darn good pilot" or "My skills are at least up to the level you require" etc cause every other bio we get has these words (or similar comments). The formation flying we do is definitely a lot harder than it seems at first and the only way to find out, is by trying it I suppose! Many people have tried it and been very humbled by the experience. My point is not to chase any of you off nor make it seem that we (the VTB) are all that good (we FUBAR maneuvers just like everyone else from time to time), but just realize the flight dynamics of this sim (IMHO) far surpasses MSFS and the kind of flying we do requires thousands of hours of practice. For example, I could say I've flown flightsims for almost 17 years, been a real-life pilot for 7 years, but that says very little about my ability to do this in Lock-On. All I'm trying to get across is that we're not super human in any way, but extremely dedicated to the team and willing to spend large amounts of time perfecting this and taking it the that extra step each time.
So, back to where this (long) message started... When our new mod for 1.1 is done, we'll be ready to host some tryouts and round people up. Until then, you can always practice on your own or with others and we look forward to have you "show your stuff" later on!
LawnDart
! Another point that might not have gotten across yet is that, we won't be rushing through the tryouts and assigning pilot(s) as soon as we can. We have the luxury of letting it run its course, since the "show pilot" slots are already filled. The tryout(s) are going to have to be split up in groups since there are more people wanting to join than what would be a good number to host for and whenever we get going, we'll figure out who goes when (people have different schedules). That's number one. Secondly, as it's explained in the FAQ the tryout might be a series of flights and we look for the following: Precision, attendance and above all progression! Add to that: General knowledge of the Thunderbirds as well...