A build with fixes for bugs 607 and 609 has gone out to the beta testing group. I'll post news about progress with this build after a few days.

It has been a while since an update so here's the latest.

First, many of you have noticed and pointed out that progress on FSX-compatibility has been less than swift and that updates have been few. The reason for that is that I simply have not had the time to commit to development in the last few months as I would like. The company I am helping start is still very much in startup mode. Both that and a rather busy home life all combine to take up most of my days.

The shame in this, but perhaps also the good news, is that back when I released the last internal testing build in the October most of the core functionality was completed. There isn't really much left to do to get this going.

I spent the recent long weekend on a couple of key problems. First, I fixed bug 607 which was causing planes to show up way off altitude when above transition altitude. Second, I finally cracked the problem of getting SquawkBox to run on two different machines, a very important feature for the more hardcore pilot.

Where does development proceed from here? I have heard many of you loud and clear that you would rather have early access to a build that mostly works than have to wait longer for a build that has all the last bugs resolved. So I am committing to releasing a public beta and have VATSIM's buy-in for that approach. So as soon as I get a build that works well enough to be released widely, it will be in your hands. Then you can help squash the last bugs while you enjoy flying with SquawkBox and FSX.