OnCourse Software was formed by Dave March in 2002 with the sole aim of publishing his latest creation FlightDeck Companion. But the history of this very unique and the original cockpit environment add-on for Microsoft's Flight Simulator goes back even further than that! And Dave's programming talents can be traced back even further still!

How many of you remember the first (yes the first) multi voice ATC program named UK Adventure Creator. Well that was Dave's first venture into the commercial software World of Flight Sim add-ons way back in 1997, shortly after the release of Flight Shop.

In December 1998 Dave released a module for the then very popular ProFlight 98. The module was named the COMBINED module, as it brought together Dave's favourite features of three other developers. It wasn't long before Dave's requirements and those of many users of the COMBINED module, and in particular Scott Hayden, soon became too much for a ProFlight module, so Dave produced S-Combo (The Standalone Module). This was the very first of its kind... offering co-pilot callouts, checklists, etc, etc and obviously marked the way for others to follow.

S-Combo evolved through several upgrades and then Dave developed an even more adventurous version called Classic S-Combo, written specifically to work with Ralph Tofflemire's excellent Classic 747-200.

In 2002 OnCourse Software published FlightDeck Companion, which took the cockpit environment to even newer levels of realism. An outstanding success with Worldwide sales. During the next couple of years the product was further enhanced with no less than 8 FREE updates.

Toward the end of 2004 Dave was approached by Aerosoft, a well known and respected German Flight Simulator software publisher to produce a German version of FlightDeck Companion, which he did. With a few new enhancements plus support for many more aircraft this was released by Aerosoft under the name of FDC Live Cockpit version 2.0.  Sold in both download and boxed versions ( the later sporting a 80+ page printed manual in both German and English) was once again an amazing success! Even today, more than 8 years after the initial release of FlightDeck Companion it successor FDC Live Cockpit has been seen in the top ten of many retailer's list of best sellers

Never one to sit back on his laurels Dave produced a major FREE update to FDC Live Cockpit (version 3.0) which was released toward the end of 2005. Since then FDC Live Cockpit has been updated periodically, free-of-charge, and at the time of writing the most recent version (3.12) was released in March 2010.

S-Combo, FlightDeck Companion and FDC Live Cockpit continue to offer what no other product does. A program that is as configurable as the day is long... can be tweaked for use with almost any third party aircraft you wish to add to Flight Simulator. FDC Live Cockpit offers so many unique features it is without doubt much, much more than just an add-on to enhance the cockpit ambience.

What you might see in similar programs today you probably saw first in FDC yesterday...

So what is next? Well the latest offering from Dave March is an exciting program called ProFlight 2000 Emulator, or PFE. This amazing program allows you to use that much loved ATC program ProFlight 2000 with today's latest Flight Simulators (FS9 and FSX). Don't be fooled into thinking though that this is just a vehicle to enable you to use ProFlight 2000 as it was. Oh no, since its release Dave has managed to enhance the program beyond belief. In much the same way as with Dave's previous programs he has introduced many 'firsts' into PFE. And like his other programs I am sure others will attempt to copy and implement many of the amazing new ideas Dave has brought to the world of simulated ATC. The immersive factor achieved by this program is undoubtedly second to none!

What comes after PFE is not known by anyone other than Dave March, so your guess is as good as mine. Whatever it is though will, I'm sure, be of the same professional standard we have come to expect from Dave's company.