August 2023: Going to the Next Level

New Sponsor, Museum Corporate Membership, Upcoming Events, and More As mentioned in our perspective piece about Flight Sim Expo 2023, we wondered if our exposure to a new level of flight simulation would impact our organization the same way we were impacted in 2019. We are proud to announce that August 2023 will be marked as a pivotal month for the operations of Skyward Flight Media going forward. Heads Up View LLC Sponsorship While at Flight Sim Expo 2023 as a media partner, one of the companies we made contact with immediately caught our eye with their product. After weeks of communications, today we announce that Heads Up View LLC is a sponsor of our organization. Heads Up View creates heads up displays for flight simulation that uses the same projection techniques found in the real world cockpits of well known military aircraft. Their units are not stands for a computer tablet superimposing data over a recorded image, but rather, actually projecting data using beam splitting glass. Going forward, Skyward will be using these displays for flights in various simulators. Reviews of their products and hardware focused articles that include their heads up displays are planned for posting this year. We would like to thank Heads Up View for their long time support of our efforts and thank their founder and CEO, Dan Hall, for the opportunity to evaluate their products. Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum Corporate Membership Formed in 1994 and recognized as the official air and space museum of Colorado in the United States of America, Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space museum has been a consistent facet in the love of aviation held by one of the Skyward co-founders. Skyward Flight Media is now a corporate member of this museum. Going forward, we plan on creating content based on exhibits at the museum, its educational programs, onsite flight simulators and live fly-in events. This is essentially the beginning of real world aviation coverage appearing on our website and other media channels to varying degrees. This new coverage will not begin immediately, however. Besides planning the type of content we would like to create corresponding with the schedule of the museum's operations, there is also paperwork for news media guidelines, filming requests and related topics. We expect our first content of this type to appear on our website in 30 to 60 days. Sponsoring VRChat Aviation Rookie Tournament 2023 After three years of dogfighting tournaments, the competitive VRChat Aviation scene can be hard to get into. Some of the larger organizations even limit how many events pilots that frequently win tournaments can participate in, for the sake of giving less skilled pilots a chance. But even then, it is a somewhat high hurdle for newcomers. In 2021 and 2022, VRChat aviation organization, the Black Aces , hosted rookie tournaments for first time competitors to battle others of a similar skill level with no risk of veteran pilots potentially ending their interest in competing in future tournaments. This year, Skyward Flight Media will be sponsoring Rookie Tournament 2023 with a combined 150.00 USD prize pool. With 1st Place receiving 75.00 USD, 2nd place receiving 50.00 USD and 3rd receiving 25.00 USD. The top three competitors also earn ranks within the Black Aces, which appear in their Discord server. Sign-ups for the tournament begin on August 9th, 2023 . Preliminaries begin August 19th, 2023 at 10 PM EST / 9 PM CST . Semi-finals and finals happen on August 26th, 2023 at 10 PM EST / 9 PM CST .
EDIT: To participate in this tournament, it is required for you to join the Black Aces Discord server , since that is where the organizers will interact with participants directly before and after the tournament. You are not required to interact with any other users or the larger community to participate in the event , but you will still need to be in the server by the time of the event. You can use the following button to join: Tournaments with new pilots that are using their unproven skills and untested tactics at a competitive level are often some of the most memorable air battles in VRChat. We do plan to discuss this event in an article in the near future.
About Page Updated Our About page had been updated. Our contact and staff pages have been combined onto this webpage. A list of our organization's memberships, partnerships and sponsorships will are also available on this page.
Mobile View Updated The quick menu in mobile view (smartphones, computer tablets) has changed in design and simplicity. It is easier to access and understand.
Other website updates have occurred. They are as follows: Rotating content thumbnail galleries on key webpages: home, content, articles, interviews, reviews, etc. This feature will most likely not be used on all categories. Home banner format and dimension adjustments. Various minor quality of life adjustments. Throughout the month of August 2023 further minor adjustments will be made. In closing, we once again would like to thank everyone that has supported us or has followed our content for so long. It is thanks to this active and passive support that Skyward Flight Media continues to progress and gives us the confidence to continue to strike out and see what is possible. Please look forward to our upcoming creative efforts!