Pete Dowson announces he will retire on reaching age 75

[Guest]

He's retired again!?  😉

75 is young these days

Cheers, Rob.

[overspeed3 410]

Just want to say to Pete: Much thanks for your tremendous contributions to flight simming over the years...

Do not go softly into that good retirement!  

[Camsdad13 64]

Well deserved Pete. If there is one person who made the most impact on our hobby, it is Pete. Both Hardware and software development in our hobby could not be where it is without Pete Dowson. Thanks Pete for your work.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,942]

Pete might be able to get a few flights in now. John is a very capable programmer and FSUIPC is in safe hands.

I don’t know where we’d be without FSUIPC and Pete. Back in the Dark Ages of Flight simming I think.

I don’t know if AvSim has an honours system. He’s certainly deserving of recognition. And he’s far more likely to accept one from AvSim than the British Honours System as he’s a staunch socialist! 😄

And to paraphrase Churchill.. Never in the field of flight sims has so much been owed by so many to so few.. or one.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,942]

3 hours ago, Chuck_Jodry-VJPL said:

 If ever a hall of fame is established your name will be among the pantheon of the Gods .

If AvSim doesn’t have one what better time to create it. 😉

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

Our Flight Simulator without Pete's contributions:

 

Thanks for saving us Pete and enjoy your retirement...

Regards,
Scott

[spilok 1,133]

A very happy retirement, Pete.  I did it 2 years ago.  Life is good.  Flight Simulation would NOT be the same without you!

 

Stan

[A340Bangla 40]

I know that I have been a Project Magenta user since 1999, means I have been using FSUIPC and WideFS since at least then.

Thank you Pete, for countless hours of enjoyment of our hobby which would not have been the same without your work.

Enjoy retirement, I am since a couple of years already and at a much younger age than you.

Edited December 19, 2018 by A340Bangla

[John_Cillis 2,406]

On 12/17/2018 at 1:18 PM, jabloomf1230 said:

In case, anyone missed the post on the FSUIPC official forum:

https://forum.simflight.com/topic/86409-run-program-in-profiles/?do=findComment&comment=523758

His son John will take over the development of FSUIPC, so there should be a seamless transition.

We are aging simmers, I am 57, I started simming in 1984 when I was 23, FS2 on a C64, then FS2 again on an Atari ST, which I still can run in my ST emulator which is cool for old time's sake.  My daughter is nineteen, she calls herself a "zillennial" because she was born in '99.  She bridges the past and the future in my family, she loves the classic Rock I fly by (Journey, Kenny Loggins, Huey Lewis (who I have known), Jefferson Starship, Pablo Cruise, Chicago, Boston, Toto) and she loves today's music, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and so on. 

My daughter tells me not to listen to Ariana Grande (I was in London last year just after the concert attack, my daughter had seen Ariana on her tour in Phoenix) my daughter tells me if I listen to today's music when I fly, I will make it uncool and we laugh about it, ain't that the truth.  I don't dance to music, my body screams pain, but I fly by music and I think of old time simmers like Pete who have given so much to our hobby.  I feel Pete has helped keep the hobby alive, keep it fresh, my lil program Autoland Assistant, way back when, was based on FSUIPC. 

Then I had to use another dll when Peter went commercial, and I let the code expire because we all prefer hand flying our landings anyway, who wants autoland?  I gave my code to an Avionics company in India for free so they could make an autolanding module, they made good money and we stayed good friends, a band of brothers.  I did not need their money, I just wanted to help their aviation industry, which I did, until better autoland programs came along, there is always room for improvement.

Pete is a legend, but not a hero, the story goes you do not want to be close to a hero,they will take you to the grave, lol.  Better to be a Legend like Pete,  Here at Avsim I am but a peon, I post among so many Legends in our hobby, I do not know where to start.....  RealAir Maybe?

John (formerly known as Cactus521)

[ErichB 3,639]

Congratulations and and a big thank-you are in order.  

How and why MS and LM have not managed to provide a module as an inherent part of the sim platform is beyond me.

[TextRich 88]

Well deserved retirement for a hero to thousands.

[Boomer 1,619]

5 minutes ago, BF Bullpup said:

Well deserved retirement for a hero to thousands.

Nay, to millions.

[out 769]

55 minutes ago, Boomer said:

to millions.

of pounds for Pete, I hope. 😉

[greggerm 312]

I didn't see this news earlier in December... shame on me!

In the world of Flight Simulator addons, FSUIPC has been just as essential as the base simulator for every significant addon we enjoy today.

Whether you own FSUIPC and enjoy its customization and capability, you use the free bundled instance where needed, or you use addons which rely on other interfaces which, for all intents and purposes, were 100% inspired by FSUIPC - we all have been touched by Pete's groundbreaking work.

Cheers and cheerio, Mr. Dowson!  THANK YOU!

[simbol 5,819]

@Pete Dowson,

My congratulations for your retirement Pete, many thanks for all your efforts, help and endless contribution during all these years no only towards the flying sim community but also to 3rd party content developers like myself

All the best,

Simbol