When we started OFS, we didn't have any volunteers willing to be tutors to teach other people the basics of flying. So we decided to create the first courses as eLearning content here on the website. This is very demanding and takes a lot of time, but it allows you to learn about different topics at any time of the day and at your own pace, without depending on other people. Ideal, for example, for people working shifts and with family commitments who cannot attend regular sessions. The eLearning courses on our website are open to everyone.

In parallel we have created a Discord server and organized ourselves there. Fortunately, people have come forward who are willing to help beginners with getting started problems. These people are our trainers or tutors. If you are working through an eLearning course, for example, but have a problem or question within certain topics, you can contact us in Discord. We will then try to help and, if necessary, with a flight lesson together.

On our Discord server there is also an "Events" channel, where tutor guided training sessions, workshops and courses are offered:

Training Sessions

A training session is a regular appointment (e.g. every Wednesday evening from 8pm CET is the F/A-18C training by Iceman), where a tutor offers different topics about a specific aircraft. By arrangement with the tutor, it is relatively easy to jump on and join in. What is done in the training session and to what depth is decided by the tutor. He is responsible for the quality of the training. The OFS team relies on the tutor's skills as much as possible.

Workshops

The next level is a workshop, which convey everything important about an aircraft, in a condensed form. Here, the content is more structured than in training session and builds up with each workshop session. A tutor announces a workshop and takes a limited number of flight students (e.g. 5) as a group. This group then meets again regularly and works through the topics together in both theory and practice.

It is difficult to start in the middle of a sequence of workshops and all participants should attend all evenings, if possible. Depending on the complexity, this can be as many as 10 to 15 evening sessions. The material is often quite compressed and is aimed more at people who already have some experience and, for example, are looking to change to a new aircraft, but beginners with commitment should be able to complete it.

Days and times are dependant on the tutor and the participants. The tutor is responsible for the quality of the workshop, just as with the training sessions. Again, the OFS team relies on the tutor's skills as much as possible.

Courses

Based on our eLearning courses on the website, we have started to create structured courses in which a tutor teaches all relevant topics, sorted from easy to difficult. For example, there is a tutor-led DCS A-10C basic course. Over approximately 7 evenings we discuss theoretical content for approximately one hour each, based on a prepared presentation, and then practice what we have discussed in joint practical exercises on our own multiplayer servers. Included is the cold start of the aircraft, taxiing, takeoff, aerodrome circuit pattern, landing and shutdown. At the end of each course there is a small final exam. This is just to make sure that the student pilot is able to participate in the following courses without still struggling with the basic knowledge.

The content of the courses is fixed, based on the content of the website. Both the quality and the structuring of the material is determined, controlled and constantly improved by the OFS team.

The material is covered in detail, so that even beginners can follow easily, unlike, for example, workshops, which are aimed more at people who already have some experience and, for example, just want to switch to a new aircraft, but this also means that you should allow more time.

It takes an enormous amount of time and effort to set up the courses. That's why we don't have many on offer yet. You can see which ones are available in the Discord channels or here. Please ask for details in our Discord server. You can contact kaltokri there.