Synergy: ArkanSTOL, The Pilot Club & AviNation Team Up

By Clinton Coonfield

Aviation endeavors begin with a single idea, a strong urge to achieve a notable goal that’s both difficult and rewarding. Like all things in aviation, we soon find like-minded individuals and organizations that share the same passion for learning and discovery, a combination of ideas where synergy takes hold, and something great transpires.

That’s exactly what happened in March of 2022, when members from ArkanSTOL (arkanstol.com)—a newly created type of STOL competition that incorporates multiple runways over real obstacles—teamed up with The Pilot Club (thepilotclub.org) and AviNation (avinationusa.com). The Pilot Club (TPC) is a recently formed flight-sim community of over 2800 members, where virtual pilots can fly in real-world conditions and receive virtual flight training.

“I stumbled across TPC, and saw that they had their own virtual ArkanSTOL competition. Looking at it, I thought, There is some detail here that you just don’t see in normal simulator programs,” said Charley Jones of ArkanSTOL.

“Come to find out, the guy that did the scenery package for Microsoft Flight Simulator, Spencer Doyle, did an add-on graphics package for Byrd’s Adventure Center, where the competition is held annually. He came out there and took something like a thousand pictures,” Jones added.

It wasn’t long before ArkanSTOL and TPC realized their interests were aligned, and a partnership ensued. The two organizations began collaborating to add the rules, graphics, and precise details of the 2022 ArkanSTOL course to both Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane platforms as a freely downloadable add-on package.

“I gave them all the dimensions as far as where the scratch line was, where the pylons were, and the 500 feet they had to stop in for qualifying and everything. They put all that into the graphics package for the simulator,” said Jones.

Not only did the team at ArkanSTOL see the technology as an inspiration to young pilots, it proved to have real-world value when it came to safety and coordination.

“We were trying to figure out, for qualifying, how many airplanes could we handle and what would be the safest separation between planes. Well, I said, let me talk to Paul and see if they can model it to see what’s going to be the best. (Paul Alarie was the first contact Jones had with TPC and helped with coordination between the two organizations.) That’s where we came up with the idea of 3 airplanes at 55 seconds apart. They just kept flying it and playing with it until they found the sweet spot.”

The simulation was so accurate that in 2022, during qualifying, ArkanSTOL applied the rule; allowing for the safest and most efficient use of distance and time.

AviNation’s commitment to educating and inspiring young aviators was on full display for the ArkanSTOL 2022 competition, when they volunteered to truck in a Cloud Flyer flight simulator - a non-powered, motion simulator platform - so that any person, pilot or not, could give the course a go. It was set up on site just a few hundred feet from one of the backcountry runways at ArkanSTOL. AviNation provided the hardware, Spencer Doyle provided the scenery, TPC provided the testing, and ArkanSTOL provided the venue.

Cooperation in all aspects of aviation has been the unwritten rule for good reason. It’s the understanding that the industry and community are much better-off when ideas and experiences are shared and collaboration is the norm. The exciting truth is that the combined efforts of working together with shared passion in aviation can literally help people defy gravity and bring dreams to life! ArkanSTOL,

TPC and AviNation know the value and reward of diligently helping others realize their potential, and they plan to continue that mission.

Come see the new improvements made possible by this collaboration at ArkanSTOL 2023, September 27th-October 1st. More info at www.arkanstol.com