A new patch is now available. Visit the download page to get it. Here is a summary of the changes:

• A fix for bad frame rate degredation and long hangs when using FS 2004.
• A fix for some users who were not joining voice rooms, or who were able to transmit voice but unable to receive.
• The connect dialog now requires you to enter first AND last names.
• The altitude box in the flight plan dialog now allows you to enter anything.
• Frequencies in the ATC list only show two decimal places.
• The installer defaults to the last install location.

Another patch with some fixes and enhancements will be coming in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime my plan is to work through all the model sets and requests for airline and livery code changes I have been sent. If you have sent me this stuff recently, thank you for your patience. You will be hearing from me shortly.

I have updated the bug page. I have closed out irrelevant issues and duplicates and ensured that all your suggestions from the wish list forum have been added as enhancement requests. The bug page now distinguishes between bugs and feature requests.

Speaking of bugs, the forthcoming patch should include fixes to the following:
Bug 558
Bug 566
Bug 555
Bug 548

I have been working this weekend to diagnose the problem of severely deteriorated frame rates and long hangs that some have been experiencing (myself included). I believe I have found the source of the problem and hope to have a patch released with a fix within the next week or so.

The SquawkBox 3 Launch Party rated a major success Friday night. Thanks to all that came out--it was fantastic to be able to put faces to names. People were here from some pretty far flung places. All told there were 30-40 attendees. I also want to thank the staff of the Vancouver FIR for hosting a great fly-in. I never thought I would see my local airport staffed with ATC, much less with that many pilots flying around. It really helped make for some great demos at the party.

Thanks to my friend Danny Maher for supplying all the gear. Thanks to my wife Michelle for organizing the logistics of the party and making all the food. Thank you to those that donated prizes for the raffle:

• Microsoft: copies of Flight Simulator 2004
• Precision Manuals Development Group: copies of the PMDG B1900C
• Flight 1 Software: copies of the Level-D 767

The raffle raised over $350 for Médecins sans Frontières!

Here are some photos from the night:

Eric showing how it's done

Daryl getting animated

The view from the cockpit

Scotte, Jim and Joel

The cutest pilot at the party

Those of you unable to attend the SquawkBox launch party in person, fire up your virtual engines and join the fly-in to Vancouver. The Vancouver FIR is hosting this online event to celebrate the release of SquawkBox. Come enjoy the spectacular scenery in beautiful British Columbia. ATC staffing is expected from April 8 2300Z to April 9 0500Z. For all the details, visit the Vancouver FIR website.

For all of you that have sent kind wishes, sincere thanks, offers of money, beer and other inducements, now is your big chance! The donate page is now setup. Show how you feel about SquawkBox by contributing to Médecins sans Frontières.

You can donate to my charity of choice in one of two ways: through direct donation or by purchasing an item from the SquawkBox store. Please accept my thanks in advance for your support.

More items will be added to the store soon.

A new patch of SquawkBox is now available. It is recommended that everyone download and install this patch. It is not necessary to uninstall the old version. The biggest change you will notice is support for much smoother aircraft motion. To enable this feature I suggest the following: go to the Advanced Options and enable "Allow Flight Simulator to smooth plane positions". Then go to the Multiplayer Options and reduce your "frequency of plane position updates" to a much lower number. I recommend 4 per second. This will shift a lot of the load of smoothing aircraft positions from SquawkBox onto Flight Simulator, which is more efficient. You should now notice that the smoothness of aircraft is now only limited by your frame rate in Flight Simulator.

Other changes in this version:

• Fixed a buffer overflow caused by addition of question mark aircraft. This was causing random crashes of Flight Simulator as well as strange behaviour with some flight controls. If you were getting random crashes this may address your issues.
  
• Heading and other data in the FSUIPC TCAS tables should now be correct.
  
• Download of the VATSIM server list should be quicker and more reliable. Those having trouble with this should see if this new build fixes your issues.
  
• FSUIPC 3.47 is now installed by the SB3 installer.
  
• SELCAL tones should now be more correct.
  

Please visit the download page to get this new version.