A status update from Matt Davies and the projectFLY team has been issued, covering three major areas relating to the app.

The post went straight into detail about the Focus Group for projectFLY pilots, which essentially allows passionate and driven users to provide feedback on issues before being released to the public. It is expected the group will open to applicants within the next couple of days.

In the statement, Matt and the team wrote: "The projectFLY Focus Group (FG) is a group of Flight Sim addicts who all use projectFLY to varying levels.

"The primary goal of the FG is to test builds of software to iron out any issues before it's ready for the public to use.

"We're not looking for the "best" simulator pilots, we're looking for passionate, driven individuals - individuals that want to see projectFLY thrive. If that's you, we look forward to welcoming you in to the team!"

It therefore seems very likely that the Focus Group will be testing out V4 of the app, which has been delayed many times due to varying reasons.

Adding on to their Focus Group announcement, a Patreon campaign will be launched when the Focus Group goes live to allow the community to help fund projectFLY's running costs. Much of the infrastructure cost in the past has been paid for by Davies himself, but the high costs forced the team to migrate data to new servers last year.

"Until recent times, the infrastructure costs were covered primarily by Matt himself, with help from donations and subscription packages purchased through the website," explained the post.

"projectFLY doesn't have any corporate sponsors or show ads, it's completely reliant on its community - hence the Patreon page.

"As projectFLY further expands, we're looking to the community for financial help in order to cover operating costs which will allow projectFLY to exist & be developed.

"You'll be able to support projectFLY from as little as £1/month - thank you for your continued support & consideration!"

The third and final aspect of the update was that of timelines, in which V4 is hoped to be released with no downtime.

"Naturally, as much as we can plan for things, as proven in previous times, due to the fact we are all volunteers, our availability can and does change frequently.

"Our focus right this minute is to create a new and improved Focus Group. This is a necessity as we need a proper way of testing our software - we are, as stated above, very close to finishing this.

"Once the FG has been created, we will then turn our attention to v4. With the help of the FG, we will be pushing out frequent builds for the group to test. Once we are all happy, we will then release v4."

Edit 21:00 UTC: The Focus Group is now open for applications. Further information is available on their website.

It was estimated that the process detailed above will take about 4-6 weeks, with emphasis placed on the fact the combination of a new testing method, along with the testers themselves, will require some familiarisation and adjustment.

As aforementioned, the team aims to release V4 with "zero downtime". "We want the process to be as smooth as possible for the end user."

In closing, Davies thanked the community for their support and pledged to make permanent stability as the number one priority.

Threshold will continue to report on the progress of projectFLY V4 as and when significant developments unfold.