End of an era

Since 2005, when Koorby pioneered VOZ 0.99 and launched arguably the most popular and most-downloaded addon in the history of FS2004, countless people from all around the world have joined the VOZ community and it has had a rich and avid following with some great times and also growing pains as the community widened its reach. With the final release of VOZ 1.8 now being available both to download and also to order on DVD from the Flightsimstore, we've decided to draw the curtain on the VOZ era, and encourage simmers on FS2004 to migrate to FSX and enjoy the new golden age of flight simulation.

To that end, we're closing the VOZ website and forums and encourage all VOZ users to join two communities being led by former VOZ founders and developers:

For FSX Freeware 

OZx has released nearly 300 airfields for FSX in Australia, which are matched to Orbx's FTX terrain regions for Australia. In addition, OZx is quickly gaining a reputation as the home for some very nice photoreal addons around the world, and the fastest growing FSX aircraft and helo repaint library on the net. The spirit of VOZ is alive and well, with many ex-VOZ developers now creating some wonderful freeware sceneries at their new home.

For FSX Payware addons

Koorby's next project after VOZ was to create Orbx, a commercial addon company which is staffed by the founding developers of the VOZ project, and has over the past 18 months released entire 1m/pixel terrain coverage for Australia for FSX, which has raised the bar yet again. In addition to seamless terrain regions covering the entire country, Orbx has also released six superb payware airports, and six equally payware-quality freeware airports.

Orbx has plans to release over 30 payware airports for Australia in the next 18 months, covering all the major internationals and many regional and smaller airports.

Orbx's next series of terrain addons will focus on USA/Canada, in the bush flyer's mecca of the Pacific Northwest region. Orbx will also continue to release many fine freeware addons, and of course, indirectly supports the OZx development team who will also continue to create hundreds more airfields for Australia and soon USA/Canada.

Final words

While it may be sad to see this wonderful community and site close its doors, it's also a great time to enjoy your flight simulation hobby, with new hardware and operating systems making FSX really perform at its peak, and the visual experience in the sim is now a feast for the eyes. If there's ever a time to make the move to FSX, it's now. You'll be surprised how well that version runs on your PC.

So from the entire team who made VOZ what is was over the past five years, we wish you farewell and safe skies always. We hope to see you on the OZx and FTX forums really soon, where the VOZ spirit lives on always!

John "Koorby" Venema

Jay Kae

All the VOZ developers 2005 - 2009

The VOZ team gratefully acknowledges the support and sponsorhip from the following respected flight simulation organisations.

Thanks for sharing the journey with us over the past five years!