Since 2000, Worldflight Australia has raised over $300,000 for the RFDS. This year, WorldFlight Perth is changing charity!
The History of the Worldflight Charity Event
Where it all started…
The concept of a virtual, round the world flight for charity was started by a team in the United Kingdom, in November 2000, and has spawned an annual event with participants all over the globe.
‘World Flight Australia’ was started in 2000, with 15 Pilots and crew manning the Boeing 747-400 simulator built by Matt Sheil of Sydney.
Worldflight Perth is born..
The first Perth based sim joined the event in 2013, flying the Flight City Simulation Centre Boeing 777, with a team of 13 pilots.
The following year saw a slightly different crew move to flying “Velocity 738”, a Boeing 737 NG simulator owned and built by Gwyn Perrett of Aerosim Solutions in Perth’s Northern Suburbs
Perth becomes a two-team town
In 2015 Greg Hateley came on board with “Giant 1471” his home-built Boeing 747-400 simulator joining the Perth contingent with a separate crew.
The two teams since then have chosen to work together to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Western Operations.
WorldFlight Perth moves to Make-A-Wish
In 2022, WorldFlight Perth elected to look at supporting a different charity that conducted important research into and provided support for people living with cancer. The reason behind this change was one of the original WorldFlight Perth team members has received some devastating news this year which has been felt among the entire Perth teams. This year, we’re supporting Make-A-Wish foundation Australia who give life-changing experiences to critically ill children.
What is Worldflight?
A “virtual” round the world flight, to raise money for charity, held in the first week of November each year.
It is conducted in an online environment on the VATSIM network over a 7 day period flying 24 hours a day and is operated in real time as a regular airline would. During this time crews fly over 45 sectors with 45-60 minute turnarounds scheduled to allow for crew briefing and cockpit preparation for the next sector.
If you are an avid flight simmer you are always welcome to jump online and join us to fly any, or all, of the sectors you like.
Worldwide participation and growth…
The popularity of conducting a World Flight for charity is growing; over the years teams in Canada, Ireland, Scotland, England, USA and Austria have joined the simulators in Australia.
Each individual team selects their own needy charity, raising funds through donations and corporate sponsorship.
With a large number of teams and other individual sim pilots involved each year the virtual skies get very congested so we are very fortunate to have Virtual Air Traffic Services (ATC) provided every step of the way by VATSIM members around the world.
How can you participate?
While the dedicated worldflight team is picked well in advance there is the opportunity for jump seat rides for a small donation (Starting from $10).
Most teams are now broadcasting, like us, on platforms like Twitch TV from their cockpits for the entire event so you can follow along from home any time.
Of course, the whole point of the event is to raise much needed funds for charity and we would sincerely like to thank all past contributors for their support over the years.
Please look for the Donate Now button if you would like to help us out for this years event.