Virtuaalilentäjät r.y. / Finnish Virtual Pilots Association is a registered society that aims to bring the Finnish virtual pilots from different simulators and communities together. After all, it is the same hobby, it is no matter what simulator you fly. Our only requirement is that you are a online pilot who flies in the Internet. The society arranges meetings, conventions and other happenings, not forgetting our attempt to collect and store real aviation history. By bringing the virtual pilots and war pilots together we hope that both sides gain something. You can see the results of this action from our World War II History section.

If you need to ask anything, want information or just want to chat before the convention, you can join us in the Virtual Pilots Finland general discussions forum: virtualpilots.general general discussion forum.
In case that link above doesn't seem to work, try this backup link.

Mosquito Meeting returns to the northern area, out of all civilization, after visiting southern Finland during 2001/2002. The place is located at Taivalkoski, northern Finland. Distance by road from Helsinki is 760 km, from Tampere 641 km, from Kuopio 372 km and from Oulu 153 km.

Roadmaps: Taivalkoski general area. MM'03 exact location maps and how to find your way:

MM'03 GENERAL LOCATION

MM'03 EXACT LOCATION

There are several possibilities of arriving to MM:

1: Come by your own car or other traveling system.

2: Come to Oulu by airplane or train and join the rest of the people travelling from Oulu to Taivalkoski.

3: Organize a car pool or rent a minibus for travelling together with friends. Check the discussion group for contacts.

Take notice, that you can arrive to Oulu by Wednesday and sleep in MM'03 early arrival's accommondition, then travel together to Taivalkoski Thursday morning.

You will find EXACT, DETAILED driving guide from the discussion group virtualpilots.general.

Driving guides:

If approaching the site from general direction of Oulu, drive towards Taivalkoski. The site is approximately 50km from Pudasjärvi, on right side of the road, five (5) kilometers before Taivalkoski itself. There will be a MM sign (easily recognizable because the mosquito) on the roadside.

From direction of Taivalkoski, site is about 5,7km from the city, on the left side of the road.

Oulu-Pudasjärvi-Taivalkoski, road number 20.

From direction of Kajaani, following route is suggested:
Kajaani-Paltamo (roads 5, 22)
Paltamo-Puolanka (road 78)
Puolanka-Road 20 crossing
Road 20 crossing - MM03 (right turn, MM03 on right side of the road after approximately 45kms)

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED. For last minute registrations please contact registrations officer, information below.

If you have questions about your registration or you are a latecomer please contact the registrations officer BlauKreuz. If you have any kind of problem with registration form, please contact BlauKreuz.

The convention charges are as follows:

• 70 euros - Virtuaalilentäjät ry member (membership fee paid for 2003)
• 80 euros - a non member
• 50 euros - foreigners and youth price for Virtuaalilentäjät ry youth members. Contact us to apply for youth price before registering/paying.

The convention charge is to be paid to the bank account Nordea 125730-513202, 20.06.2003 at latest. Recipient Virtuaalilentäjät. Please DO remember to mention following in the money transfer: MM03 fee, your name, handle and email. Foreigners see note below.

NOTE! Foreign participants must send us their passport and possible visa (not the credit card) number in beforehand!

Note! Your registration is not valid until you have paid the participation fee (exception: Overseas travellers may pay on site) and sent the registration information. All of the registration form fields are mandatory. If you selected "Other" simulator you will need to send a separate email and explain what is the "Other" simulator and why YOU should participate, unless you are Virtuaalilentäjät ry member who has paid his membership fee. MM is open for all online flight simulator fans are welcome. The general rule for participation is that you need an active pay-to-play account in a online flight sim host (WB/AH/WW2OL), or you are member of an active online squadron (IL-2, EAW, CFS) or member of a well known, long term online squadron. And preferably a member of the association.

In order to get Virtuaalilentäjät ry member discount, you must have paid the Virtuaalilentäjät ry annual membership fee by 1.6.2002. If you haven't yet joined the club and don't remember how see Virtualpilots.fi.

The Virtuaalilentäjät r.y. reserves the right to limit the number of participants should there be too many registrations, late comers may or may not be dumped. To be on safe side, please sign in in time.

Accomodation will probably be in nice inside quarters. Finnish Army half platoon tents will be available as well. But remember, Mosquito Meeting is no hotel. Casual clothing is fine, you don't need any special gear. A sleeping bag is highly recommended for comfort. The Finnish summer can be very warm, even +30 celsius in the shade during the hot hours. On the other hand, it can be chilly +10 and raining... Also, the nights are very warm and light since the sun hardly goes below the horizon.

Note that you are not insured by arranging team, it is recommended that you have a freetime insurance that suits your needs when you come to the meeting - not that we would have had any incidents ever, but it is always good to be on the safe side. This means that you will attend the convention at your own risk (eg. of injury or your own equipment). We recommend that you consult your own insurance company for further details.

If you need further instructions or help on what to pack with you, please contact us and we will help you out.

Network and hardware, what to bring:

• RJ45 cables, long ones preferred, as we have to spread around
• Computer, minimalistic configuration is practical
• Extension cord
• Prefer earphones over speakers
• Drivers and configuration software for your hardware (specially network card)
• HUB or SWITCH if you have one

Note: check before arriving that your network card is in 10M half duplex, just to minimize the amount of problems.

Most likely many people will be flying with your computer. So it is very kind to prepare your flight equipment with a premade paper that shows how you have programmed your stick. Most high end sticks can be programmed on the fly to one's favored settings. Machine owners should therefore keep their own programming files readily at hand, so you won't be at loss if someone has reprogrammed the stick. It is always VERY kind to ask permission first. CH stick users can find ready stick templates here for example: F-16 Fighterstick and Pro Throttle.

A request from the organizers: If you can select from a huge, large or normal monitor - please bring the normal monitor :-) It is hard to cram the computers into a limited space. Also any electric fans would be very useful. As you can imagine - or remember - the main convention room had som ewhat poor air conditioning and the heat even caused some computers to run badly. So bring your own air conditioning if you really intend to fly a lot.

Communications:

Practically all Finns understand and most also speak English so you should not face any language problems nor do you need to learn Finnish to get around. In Helsinki most hotels, shops and offices can server you also in French, German and Russian languages. Also, 5% of Finnish people speak Swedish as their native language and a great majority of people will understand and speak Swedish well. Truly a language enabled coutry!

Finland is the Promised Land of cellular phones. Coverage is good, and this is about the normal way to make a call here. If you have a GSM card of your own, you can use it in here. (US phones do not work, though - GSM cards should fit local phones which can be rented from eg. the Helsinki railway station).

Breakfast at MM98, it may not be this fancy always but...

Making of FPO, only partial truth shown.

Food is safe in Finland, water in most lakes and normal faucet water is good for drinking too. Beer differs in taste and in strength from US beers, typical percentage is 4,5% of alcohol. Strong alcohol can only be bought from special shops, which can be found from almost everywhere. There is no such thing as decaffeinated coffee. Coffee is strong when compared to US coffee-like product. Drugs are highly illegal and not permitted in the meeting.

FPO stands for Flack Panzer Oil and it is world famous amongst the online simulator community. No, you will not be told how FPO is manufactured...

In order to make Mosquito Meeting '01 a memorable and pleasent experience for all participants the arranging team has set up eg. rules for the use of computers and other hardware that all participants are expected to follow.

The tents are for sleeping and silent meditation, respect other people wanting a moment of peace. Additionally to the rules written in here common sence and set of unwritten social behaviour rules apply.

The MM Duty Officer can and will take necessary action to maintain peace and good atmosphere. In the worst case the participant may be excluded from the meeting and sent home at his own cost. No fees will be refunded in such a case.

Things you ought to remember before taking off in the trusty Junkers transport towards Mosquito Meeting:

• If you're bringing computer, take the smaller monitor. Remember all your cables for power and network. Doublecheck. Take extra extension / dividing cords.
• A big fan to cool off yourself and the con room is always useful. Bring hubs and switches for network. Make sure you got your Windows/OS system disks and drivers for your graphics adapter and network card, and that your network settings are ok.
• If you don't like snoring people - remember your earplugs!
• Mark your property, otherwise you might forget it when you leave the con.
• Take your cutlery (plate, spoon, fork etc) if you intend to eat in the con place ;-)
• If you bring a computer - before just putting it someplace check with organizers where is most convenient location so available space is used most logically.