1 hour ago, Iadbound said:

I'm a de facto CIO for my organization (too small to have a real one), and for IT work I always say: how ever long you think it will take to do, multiple that by 4X and that's how long it will actually take to do.

I hear ya!  In my real job, I do coding to automate and optimize workflows for clinicians.  On one coding project, the base coding was so easy that I was mocking up the script as the SME was showing me the steps to recreate the process.  Had the mock code working in an hour.  The project took 3 weeks to finish and move to production after all the MD board approvals, change control meetings, security blessings, testing, updates and mitigation code I had to add. 

Just like painting planes....some paints (like JAL)...I had the base textures done and on the maps in 30 mins.  3 hours total to do all the rest of the stuff associated with a paint project.🤔 (thumbnails don't paint themselves, LOL)

16 hours ago, micstatic said:

Just got it and started playing around with it.  I like it a lot so far.  Build quality seems good.  The setup was amazingly simple.  Run the program then start the sim.  That's it.  It plays nice with the 737/747/777.  I'd really like to see Maddog support and possibly CS767 added seeing they are similar in the real plane.  But not sure it will be done.  I also have the skalarki for airbus flying.  I find this one more enjoyable to push the buttons.  Has more of a spring like feel.  

I can only agree  - i  have a tablet for the FSL but my VR CDU-II feels" just better as you tell. Thats why i hope Ifly will /is compatibel.

 

Michael Moe

Great job, Steve e al. Might want to add a new banner to your paint project list. I would certainly use it. How much of a discount would I get on a new 747 if I had the FSX version? Just kidding. And not. Seriously, iFly is respected and with this release there is only more reason to respect it. It comes at a really good time for P3D.

On the topic of painting..Ironically, I do artwork and some limited Paint.net work (banners, agitprop, etc.) It's great to expect people to teach themselves how to do P3D  repaints and there are lots of great resources, but I'm not sure we can any longer expect talent to just develop naturally. Some good (and patient) painters might want to partner with motivated ignoramuses and literally start from the beginning. Not Steve, who has other priorities, but there are others. I'm sure there are people who would be willing to learn and could develop into a valuable resource for the community, Start them out with some simple project to learn the basics, and go from there. I did two FS9 repaints, but things might have changed a bit since then, and I'm not just speaking of my cognitive abilities. Food for thought. As much as I like P3D, I'm not sure we can take things for granted like we used to be able to.

I also think we sometimes forget that "developers" are not big companies, but often ad hoc groups of very talented and dedicated people who are probably often lucky to be making minimum wage given the amount of work they're putting in. I just wanted to add a note of appreciation beyond my purchase. And a hat tip to the hobbyist repainters without whom the best airplanes would have a very limited wardrobe.

11 minutes ago, Tim_Capps said:

Great job, Steve e al. Might want to add a new banner to your paint project list. I would certainly use it. How much of a discount would I get on a new 747 if I had the FSX version? Just kidding. And not. Seriously, iFly is respected and with this release there is only more reason to respect it. It comes at a really good time for P3D.

On the topic of painting..Ironically, I do artwork and some limited Paint.net work (banners, agitprop, etc.) It's great to expect people to teach themselves how to do P3D  repaints and there are lots of great resources, but I'm not sure we can any longer expect talent to just develop naturally. Some good (and patient) painters might want to partner with motivated ignoramuses and literally start from the beginning. Not Steve, who has other priorities, but there are others. I'm sure there are people who would be willing to learn and could develop into a valuable resource for the community, Start them out with some simple project to learn the basics, and go from there. I did two FS9 repaints, but things might have changed a bit since then, and I'm not just speaking of my cognitive abilities. Food for thought. As much as I like P3D, I'm not sure we can take things for granted like we used to be able to.

I also think we sometimes forget that "developers" are not big companies, but often ad hoc groups of very talented and dedicated people who are probably often lucky to be making minimum wage given the amount of work they're putting in. I just wanted to add a note of appreciation beyond my purchase. And a hat tip to the hobbyist repainters without whom the best airplanes would have a very limited wardrobe.

Thanks Tim!  As far as the banner...took me almost 10 years to change it to add the DC-6's hehe.  Here is a better link to bookmark: Flight1 Upload site 
If you're referring to linking to all the sites where I have paints uploaded (either by me or adventurous others who like to add my paints to their site to bump traffic...but not going there in this post...as long as they don't try to sell them, hehe)...that could be a long list. 🙂 

..."How much of a discount would I get on a new 747 if I had the FSX version?" I think you may actually be entitled.  I would check it out.  I painted a few PAX 747s for them...and a ton of BCF's when that project released.
Here is the post I made here about the BCF back in 2019:

On the topic of teaching others to paint....let's say I've done my share in the last two decades.  I won't mention who they were...most were painters to begin with, I just helped them with some things I've picked up along the way to streamline their methodology.  Getting in the sub-hobby of painting planes of course takes a commitment, a touch of insanity, and the willingness to loose all your hair....not to mention all the cuss words you'll invent along the way...and that's saying something for me, as I was a Sailor for 11 years and thought I'd heard them all! 😂
Anyway, there are several skillsets that I consider prerequisites to painting that will launch you pretty quickly into the maelstrom, obviously being proficient in a painting app being one. That is were I started, already having that skill...I just needed the knowledge of the intricacies of texture mapping, platform (2004, fsx, p3d, MSFS) file structure, channel mapping with the new PBR tech, etc.  MSFS added json headaches and a host more...hence why I'm not a prolific MSFS painter, yet. 😉

 ..."I also think we sometimes forget that "developers" are not big companies, but often ad hoc groups of very talented and dedicated people who are probably often lucky to be making minimum wage given the amount of work they're putting in. I just wanted to add a note of appreciation beyond my purchase. And a hat tip to the hobbyist repainters without whom the best airplanes would have a very limited wardrobe."

Very true.  I've worked as a painter/beta tester for many devs, and they are a small as you can imagine, incredibly dedicated to their work, and seriously fun to work with when you discover they are just as nuts as you are about aviation/simming. 🙂 

35 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Steve ... I thought you were full on head deep in the bowels of Jorge and his vision of world dominance 5 miles at a time 😉 

Glad to see you're still willing and able to provide your talents to P3D.

I appreciate your work and dedication, please don't forget us multi-platform users.

Cheers, Rob.

Hehe....I'm a simmer above all....and while I felt I had moved on...if not for any other reason than I didn't have enough time between the real world, painting and simming...to maintain and be proficient in 2 simming platforms.  It was not possible in the current 24 hour format our planet lives by.  I really want to move to Centaurian time, standard thirty-seven hour day aka MIB. LOL

Anyway, I had missed flying tubes while in MSFS, and know (for now) that P3D/Xplane are the platforms for that, so when Jannie approached me for this project, I knew I could contribute to the community and get some tubeliner flying in at the same time (if not for just taking the 737 up for a paint inspection flight....have only done 1 real flight so far even after 14 paints....KLAX to KLAS...hehe and it wasn't even my paint, it was Ric's...but such is the life of a painter). 🙂 
(yes...the FBW A320 is excellent but I specifically missed Boeing tubes, and the other freeware mod offerings are just not there for me).

So I'll keep painting for the community et al, regardless of their platform preference (well...P3D/MSFS...can't do XPlane although I tried, not because I didn't like it...but I'd need another few hours tacked on to that Centaurian time (37 hour day) 🤔

 

 

 

On 12/17/2021 at 6:26 AM, Steve Dra said:

I'm hoping my next paint will unite all simmers and make flying the virtual skies....friendlier.

Meanwhile....back in the paint booth....

 

Just did my first full flight in the 737. Here’s a suggestion for everyone: when you’re at FL360 don’t accidentally trigger the opening of door 1L. Other than that, I was very pleased. And though I rarely think about it too much in most planes, the sounds of the switches are sooo good. 

1 hour ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Steve ... Is it Live or is it Memorex?   🙂   Wonder how many old folks remember that one?

Cheers, Rob.

Remember it well....shattering wine glass and all.  Their cassettes were da' bomb in those days...then CDs came along....

2 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Steve ... Is it Live or is it Memorex?   🙂   Wonder how many old folks remember that one?

Cheers, Rob.

Now I got all of the old ads in my head! I think we need to bring back 8-Track tapes.

Cheers, Pete

17 minutes ago, Steve Dra said:

Remember it well....shattering wine glass and all.  Their cassettes were da' bomb in those days...then CDs came along....

Steve, any chance of an SAS 738?

Cheers, Pete

2 minutes ago, PilotPete99 said:

Steve, any chance of an SAS 738?

Cheers, Pete

Possibly....list is getting long....need help hehe. (but I do like SAS) 🙂

Meanwhile...

Still a lot to do (it looks deceptively complete...trust me its not...at least I have paint on the winglets and engines. 🙂 ).  I'm on a holiday schedule so I'll throw paint at her when I can and of course release her when she's done.

 

 

17 hours ago, Steve Dra said:

Still a lot to do (it looks deceptively complete...trust me its not...at least I have paint on the winglets and engines. 🙂 ).  I'm on a holiday schedule so I'll throw paint at her when I can and of course release her when she's done.

Speaking of still a lot to do....for those who don't paint...."ignorance is bliss", hehe.  You guys may not realize just how much work goes into the little details, but here is about 2 hours worth of "painting" and tweaking just the nose gear doors...and my eye instantly spots about a dozen things still to do in this shot.🤪  I learned one thing about UAL paints though...they put a ton of writing on their nose gear doors! 🤬

One of the reasons it took so long is because I got a good enough close-up pic (not seen in the shot above of my Photoshop desk), to actually recreate most of the text, so I did...the little red text in the rectangular red box says "INFLATE TIRES WITH NITROGEN ONLY", and you can read it in the sim. 🙂 

The things you learn while researching a paint are pretty amazing sometimes...who knew that UAL put "SCIMITAR" under the nose along with the model type?  I sure didn't (until now).  Who knew that the inflation number seems to differ from plane to plane?  You would if you scoured the internet for close-up pics of the nose gear doors. FYI 0295 is 204, while on another UAL 737-800 it was 205....really. It's 170 on the one 737 MAX pic I found...go figure. 🙂

Anyway, I'm plugging away at it when I have time...patience is a virtue...hehe...trust me nobody wants this done more than me. 

 

UAL has been uploaded to the flight1 library....get it here when it posts.

http://library.flight1.net/

Found out she has shiny engine intakes...got out my virtual buffer. 🙂

 

1 hour ago, Steve Dra said:

UAL has been uploaded to the flight1 library....get it here when it posts.

http://library.flight1.net/

Found out she has shiny engine intakes...got out my virtual buffer. 🙂

 

Thank you so much!!! Awesome job Steve!! Your work is highly appreciated!!

United is looking amazing! Just wanted to add that I'm using 5.2 with no problems and the HUD even works fine. I'm finding EA is better than I remembered, too. Don't think I ever gave it much of a chance. I did finally go through the tutorial and was impressed. I used autolanding and, as expected, it worked perfectly. There are a couple of very minor idiosyncrasies probably related to my setup and style, that don't bother me. I've only become more impressed with how solid a product this is and good it looks without dragging FPS down. I think I'm ready to try a flight to Samos. Hope Steve gets some help on the painting because this girl deserves a big wardrobe. What a great way to end 2021.