Sky Warriors?

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 2:56 pm

Well here i am sitting at school after just taking a test and not being able to go home yet and have had several random thoughts about space camp going through my head.

The other day i wa slooking at an old brochure from 1998 and saw something i had forgotten about. AC Mach 2 and 3 had a program where you could actually go and fly. For Mach 2 it was just doing military short hops with an instructor in the plane that you had some control of during parts of the flight. But for Mach 3 they had Sky Warriors where you would go and participate in air to air combat in a real plane against another real plane with lasers to indicate hits then smoke ofcourse for the hit plane. I'm sure most of you have atleast heard of this type of program at some point. I remember 2 of my roomates at AC in 96 from another team went and did it and said it was great. Unfortunately i couldnt afford to do it because it cost almost as much as ac itself. So my question is why dont they do this program anymore? I would have loved to do it if i could have. Space academy and Advanced space academy i believe had a similar program except it was just doing expirements in the plane for academy and flight time behind the controls for advanced academy.

monkeynautt · Post by **monkeynautt** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 5:27 pm

I heard somewhere that it was stopped because of insurance reasons. I could be wrong though.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 5:52 pm

I remember whne I went to Academy a few years ago and got to go for a flight. We had a worksheet to do, but we ditched it and just flew. I remember doing zero-g moves. That was the reason I became a pilot (or am becoming one).

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 9:16 pm

Well as far as insurance goes i would think that the insurance of the company that conducted the flights would cover them. But then again i don't know that for sure.

Repeat · Post by **Repeat** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 1:59 pm

My first year at Academy, I didn't go, although some of the people in my group went and had a lot of fun. Because of this, the following year, when I went to AC, I decided to try the You Can Fly program. In 1999, I flew a four-seater Piper for a half hour, along with two other Mach 2s in my group. The following year, they had canceled the program. I've heard a number of different rumors as to why the program was canceled, and I'm not sure which one is true.
I heard that after JFK, jr, crashed, the insurance skyrocketed, and the Sprocket Center could no longer afford it. I also heard they canceled it because often the weather would prevent the You Can Fly program from taking place, and they ended up having to return a lot of money. Finally, I also heard that they were looking for ways to cut costs, and the You Can Fly program wasn't turning enough of a profit to be kept.
Like I said, I'm not sure which of these is true, so don't kill the messenger!

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 5:07 pm

Well I did the you can fly thing when I was in Academy and the next year they killed it. You are right though because the weather often cancelled it.....it happened to me once.

Benji · Post by **Benji** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:39 am

I correct myself: I was at Camp, not Academy. We had to pay $50 each, more than the cost of renting the plane and pilot would be for an hour (with 3 people in a plane), so I don't think it's cost. Maybe they felt it was excluding people?

spacecampaddict28 · Post by **spacecampaddict28** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:18 am

I had to pay 79 dollars in Academy. I remember just me and a couple of other people did it on my team. I have no idea what the rest of the team did while we were gone...it was kind of odd just to leave the rest of your team there and go somewhere and randomly come back.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 11:38 am

Wello You Can Fly and Sky Warriors were two diffrent programs. Sky Warriors was one of those programs where you did simulated air combat with lasers in actual planes. And Sky Warriors if i remember cost quite a bit more than the prices listed above.

Repeat · Post by **Repeat** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 4:16 pm

You Can Fly for Mach 2 was 200-something, I believe, and Sky Warriors was even more. My first year in Academy, when I didn't do you can fly, while the rest of my group was off doing that, the remaining people (all, like, four or five of us...), played pictionary, Lisa style... She was my counselor waaay back then...

gordo · Post by **gordo** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 10:25 pm

Others would be able to provide better detail. But the Sky Warriors program was canceled due to the company running Sky Warriors (out of Atlanta) ceased operations due to insurance problems and a mishap not involving customers.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 6:08 pm

Well that explains it then i guess. Thanks for the information too bad it sounded like a great program from the people who i talked to that participated.

Sky Warriors?

Sky Warriors?

SkyWarriors was discontinued for non SpaceCamp reasons