The International Virtual Aviation Organisation™ is a dedicated, independent, free of charge, service to enthusiasts and individuals enjoying and participating in the flight simulation community worldwide. The International Virtual Aviation Organisation™ was formed to supply high quality services to its users on demand


Providing the Flight Simulation community a highly realistic aviation environment, is IVAO's prime objective. This includes, a real-time system for online flying (as pilot) and controlling (as air traffic controller), databases with aviation information, and organizing training and online events.


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IVAO Press Release

December 2nd, 2005


Many enthusiast of the Flight Simulation community have all been wondering about the recent developments at IVAO. Likewise, many have been wondering why we have not made any public releases to address these issues, the reasons for removing Mr. Morten Hansen as President, and changing the web address to www.ivao.aero.


To understand the main point of all of these issues, all must first realized that IVAO’s past practice for many years was actually governed by Headquarters or HQ for short. Appointments to HQ’s, Senior HQ Staff, Division Directors and Assistant directors, and Supervisors on the network all were voted on by HQ’s. Council, which some have made statements about, actually never voted on these appoints, and as such has not been the executive decision making body of IVAO.


In reviewing the HQ positions, it has been made of the President, Vice-President, Executive Director, and Executive Assistant Director. Each one of these positions is allowed one vote for a motion that requires action by HQ. However, if there was a tie vote then the Presidents vote would carry the action in the direction that he had voted, since there are only four members. In most of the cases this was the practice, unless there was an issue that the previous President was persistent about, then the ownership of the web address would be used as reminder if his position was not enacted. Over a period of years, this became a constant point of irritation with the other HQ members and other IVAO staff which finally had to be rectified.


With this summarized background, we have been delaying any public news releases out of respect to Mr. Morten Hansen, since we have tried to negotiate with him an agreement whereby he could still be a part of IVAO, but as an equal on a Governing Board. To date these negotiations have not been successful and thus we find ourselves at the point that we must likewise inform the Flight Simulation community of our position, the main reason for removing Mr. Morten Hansen from the President’s position, and the changing of the web address.


First, Morten has the domain registration for ivao.org. This can be easier verified and likewise Mr. Erwin Lion has been the administrator of this website. For many years, which we all have known, they have been considered the Founders of IVAO due to the nature of their individual contributions, i.e. Morten obtained the web address and Erwin provided the server. As the network grew in members and geographic locations many of our members “Donated” servers for flight simulation connectivity, division websites, and voice servers. However, IVAO has and still to this day, relies on the giving nature of its members to support these services. We do not accept money from advertisements, charge members, or request donations for the services we provide. This is to say, we are truly a volunteer member community with the main server used for administration services provided by Mr. Erwin Lion. As such, the only legal claim of ownership that Mr. Morten Hansen can show title to is the web address. The actual main site services are maintain by other volunteers, which includes the server, webpage updates, client programs for ATC, Pilots, FS Multiplayer connectivity, databases, and the list goes endlessly.


During the last six months, it became clear due to some actions that Morten was pursuing, that some basic philosophical differences between various levels of the IVAO Staff and him could lead to mass resignations and jeopardize the very exist of IVAO as many have known in the past. These differences had lead up to a point whereby a meeting was scheduled late in November 2005 to discuss these issues. However, it became clear by individual conversations with Morten that if certain departments did not follow his individual directive, that they would be eliminated from IVAO. The actions he suggested and if not followed, then he was considering closing IVAO, which was taken as termination of the web name registration in mid December of 2005. When HQ, without Morten being present, considered these actions and our responsibility to our members, the decision was made to approach Morten with alternatives which would allow him to remain with IVAO, but not as President. He declined these alternatives, which to this day, are very similar to the proposal we made to him recently, whereby he could be a part of IVAO, but as an equal on a Board of Directors. This proposal was refused prior to the IVAO Staff meeting and therefore, the decision was made by the other HQ members to remove Morten as President and to elect Erwin as President. Following this action, which was based on HQ voting majority, the web name was changed to www.ivao.aero .


From the recent inquires and posting on various websites, some have questioned our actions. Be assured our decisions and the actions we took were solely driven by the overall stability of IVAO, our members, and the overall morale of many of our staff members. Likewise, our intent is not to publicly downgrade Mr. Morten Hansen who has been a contributor to the IVAO network that all of us have known over the years. We still would welcome him to be a part of the www.ivao.aero organization, but on equally terms as a member of a Board of Directors and with the status as one of the Founding Members. However, this is based upon the terms that we offered him and the decision to join the present organization depends upon him accepting our proposal.


We appreciate the concern that many have had during these past couple of weeks. However, we also ask for your patience and understanding since we do not intend to be a part of a continual deformation of our past President or the actions that we have taken. To the contrary, we expect that into 2006 IVAO will be one of the leaders in virtual flight simulation networks and will provide even better services as the year progresses. We would also like to think that Morten would be with us as we move forward.

On behalf of IVAO Headquarters,

Erwin, Gustavo, Alain and Allen