The Fly.Simvol association by Pacha Articles

Originally, Simvol was created by Jacky Brouze to allow the French users of Microsoft Flight Simulator to put in common their creations and to deliver them for free. As time goes by, under the supervision of Marc Schaub, several extra domains appeared whose the one dedicated to another pubic "civil" simulator: Fly!.
The evolution is such that the "Flight Simulator" part, after failing to find volunteers to maintain it was closed in January 2004 after several years of unequalled succes (almost 4.500.000 visits in 7 years !). With it also disappears the funding of the website.

Concerning the website dedicated to Fly!, it was unveiled on October 25th, 1999 and took the name of Simvol/Fly!. Besides, a group of creators was also created, the famous group ROTW (renamed "Fly.Simvol Club" in 2010) all creators and/or real pilots, passionate by the amazing possibilities of this simulator about the eventual improvements (the gossips will say it was necessary !). Following the decision to close permanently the Flight Simulator part, the group having no reason to give up, took the decision to go along on its own, and to get "subsidies" from advertisers and sponsors, created an association whose object is to "promote flight simulator software, to distribute addons and to manage a website dedicated to its activities" and which is named:

Fly.Simvol was created during an inaugural general assembly (according to French law) on Saturday 13th December, 2003 in a room in the Montparnasse train station in Paris generously lend to Fly.Simvol Club (for its annual congress) by the West Department of the SNCF (French rail company). At the same time, the website changed its name for Fly.Simvol to be in accordance with the one of the association.
Since 2003, Chris Wallace and the Fly.Simvol Club decided to create a complete simulator which will be named Fly! Legacy.

Simvol and its spirit remains alive. We are still dedicated to bring you a free, French-speaking (even if an English part has been added for our international friends), meeting-point between developpers and users as well as a place where addons are commented so that you can choose the right downloads.

Concerning the "Fly.Simvol" non-profit association, here are the main guidelines (in bold) :

The aim of Fly.Simvol is to promote flight simulation software [NB: Fly! Legacy and Fly! II exclusively], to distribute addons for them and manage an Internet site dedicated to its activities.

Admissions, sponsored by at least 2 members, are decided after deliberation of the Board.

The Board of the association is composed by :
- The President
- The Vice-president
- The Treasurer
- The Secretary

The members of the Board fulfill their duties for free.

Fly.Simvol is financed by :
- Fees from announcers who use the association's website
- State or collectivity subsidies
- Gifts by private citizens or companies

In order to achieve the goals of the association, the Board is entitled to sign partnership agreements with any kind of organization.

This may all seem very administrative and far from flightsimming, but it is necessary.
Let us wish a long life for our association and beyond for Simvol and simulation in general.