We are celebrating our 4th anniversary here at Skyward Flight Media, so we are taking a look back with both co-founders to reminisce about how we started as a media organization, our goals and even a bit about where we are going.
Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza
A little over four years ago, I almost decided I was completely done with writing like this. After a decade of random projects and websites starting and ending in various states, I began to wonder if anything would keep me engaged in writing about flight games and sims. Truth be told, if it was not for the persistence of Skyward Flight Media co-founder Santiago Cuberos, I would have stopped all of my creative efforts after the sudden halt of our previous project in December 2019. With some serious support that renewed my drive, the initial talks about the concept of Skyward Flight Media began in January 2020. Prep work was completed within two months and the public opening of Skyward Flight Media happened on March 24th, 2020.
Four years later, I find myself deeper and deeper into the content creation merry-go-round that I proudly conduct for Skyward. Even as I write this I am conducting an ongoing interview, preparing two more, looking for up and flight games. Though there is also plenty of life in games and simulators that have already been released. Even titles that are decades old, made before I was even born, are still valid pieces of media for us. When I write down every potential article idea, sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed by the number of choices. Not a bad problem to have! The variety and flexibility of content that Skyward can produce without absolutely falling off with our readership is something I will always be grateful for.
During times of reflection like this, I look back at the things I’ve written and the array of flight related content is unique to say the least. From interviews with indie developers making their own marks on the flight game scene, two of my most in-depth game reviews to date for The Brew Barons and Thunder Helix, to Skyward’s first serious hardware reviews with Heads Up View and Yawman, starting a completely unplanned mission editor series for Digital Combat Simulator world with fellow staff member Caio D. "Hueman" Barreto and travelling in person for the first time to Flight Sim Expo 2023 to meet the people and companies pushing flight simulation forward.
If I were to list a few personal goals this year, they would be securing more interviews with developers, content creators and companies, giving the website a massive upgrade to make it both more ‘modern’ and flashy in most places and try to reach out to some well established names in the industry to provide a new type of content.
Know that while hanging out with staff and close friends in a Skyward themed virtual reality hangar, complete with an original design jet trainer, I raised a glass to you dear reader! Thank you wholeheartedly for your support thus far. Here is to another year!
Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos
It is sort of hard to comprehend the passing of time sometimes, isn't it? I never thought I would be writing these words to celebrate our website's fourth anniversary. When I think about it, to even think that it has already been four years since we started kind of boggles my mind and makes me feel a bit lightheaded; but let's take a step back to when I joined this crazy creative effort that I co-founded.
I joined what used to be Project Lighthouse back in 2017 as a Spanish translator with no other ambitions. I got assigned a couple of projects that I completed in no time, which left me with a drive to do more. This led me to asking Ribbon-Blue if there was anything else I could do to help him out, since he was the only one in the then leadership that was actively working on the website. He told me I could write an article if I wanted, and so I did. The rest is history.
When some internal issues arose and Project Lighthouse disbanded in late 2019, this left me wondering where would any of this go. I knew that Aaron was already a veteran of content creation on the internet, and at that time we were already very good friends, so I proposed a rebranding for Project Lighthouse. A fresh start is what we needed to get back into the groove, and I was right. It took us a couple of months, but after that we had Skyward Flight Media up running in March 2020.
In these four years, I have done things I never thought I would have had the possibility to do. I have been able to speak with developers, connect with fellow creators, get press access to games and DCS modules, among many things. It is just unbelievable to be in the position that I am and to have this platform that Aaron, Caio and I have built together.
But there is someone that I have yet to thank or mention, you. I genuinely love the community that has built around our articles and the general positivity that it has. We just broke 5,000 followers on Twitter/X and I couldn't be more grateful. Thanks for reading our articles, really, it does mean the world to me.
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