Redbird Migration Goes Virtual (And It‘s Free.)

A scene from last year’s live-action Redbird Migration. This year’s event is all virtual but features even more great content than ever.

Redbird's annual migration, which is a virtual event this year, kicks off tomorrow and runs for two days, October 21-22. The good news is that registration is free, as it always is, and attendance is unlimited, which is new for this always-sold-out event. There are already more than 750 attendees, more than twice as many as usual. And for once you don't have to be a flight training provider or even a CFI to sign up, and you don't have to travel farther than your laptop to get to it. Here's what's in store, how to sign up and what events look especially promising.

Some background first, though. Every fall for the past ten years, flight training company Redbird Flight Simulations has put on its Migration flight training symposium, with some of the best speakers in the industry, forums on flight training topics tailored for flight training providers, as well as some crazy fun, like home movie contests for the attendees, which wind up being hilarious.

Who is Redbird? If you think of the company as those folks who make a lineup of cool, budget-priced flight simulators from desktop to full motion, you're right, but you're only getting part of the picture. Since it started 15 years ago, behind the leadership of founder and co-chairman Jerry Gregoire, Redbird has worked to push the limits of flight training. And that's not just with its game-changing hardware, which includes effective and high-quality full-motion flight simulators priced so even mom & pop flight schools can afford to get in on the full motion sim game. Significantly, and this is something that folks outside the flight instruction world don't always get, Redbird has also created cutting-edge software products, like its GIFT automated flight instruction package, to its voice recognition and connected cockpit solutions.

Migration aims to be an open air (figuratively this year) discussion of the challenges, opportunities and joys of flight training with some of the most successful flight training providers in attendance and providing great content, too. And remember, after you've signed up, you can always watch the presentations on-demand later.

This year discussions by Joe Brown, who founded what is now the EAA Pilot Proficiency Center at Oshkosh, will be discussing everyday proficiency, which is a can't miss for us, AOPA's Mark Baker will be taking a look at the future of private flying, including the challenges it faces, ForeFlight's co-founders Jason Miller and Tyson Weihs will be discussing the state of all things app-related, and a panel discussion with Baker, Women In Aviation's Allison McKay, EAA's Jack Pelton, GAMA's Pete Bunce and HAI's James Viola, promises to be filled with points and counterpoints from the industry's top voices at a critical time for our industry and our world. And that is just the beginning of the great stuff. Redbird says that this year's event will have twice as much as usual, with much of it presented as breakout sessions that you can access at any time, even after the event is over.

To sign up for two days of education and inspiration, go to Redbird's Migration sign-up page.

Plane & PilotStaff