I DO fly ...

[Guest R_Driscoll]

I'm just a bit worried by the rumour that I spend my whole sim time making objects and never get out of the hangar. So I am posting a few shots here to prove that I do fly. So there.Shot one: returning to park after another successful flightShot two: overflying London Bridge (photo from ground, but that's definitely ME flying the 172 into the bridge)Shot three: personal security guard for Renegade - now why would he be there if I didn't fly the thing? Huh?Shot four: liftoff on the biggest bird (you can see me in the 17th window from the back quite clearly, no not the guy in the front, the one behind him holding the airsickness bag)Shot five,six: gratuitous sunset shots. From a tourist brochure, I suppose?And I'll try to be serious again next week ...Regards,Rob D

[Guest jonpoint]

It's OK Rob, I know you fly sometimes. I do too but, like you probably spend most of my time actually flying around my own work and don't get to do 'real' flights much. My GeeBee development is a case in point. Actually, stuff it - I've got some BAD flying shots too - I may as well upload them for all to laugh at. From some of the emails I get, some people out there think I can actually FLY an aircraft... :-hahActually, out of boredom, I DID fly on the weekend - took the R/C motorglider out yesterday. Yesterday? you ask, with that gusty Nor-easter? Yep, took it down the local soccer field and just flew around aimlessly, pumping batteries in when they went flat, trying to keep below the treeline (and the 40kt winds). As usual, I crashed. 3 times in fact - the prop hub disintegrated on the last one and the batteries were all flat so I went home. Almost forgot how much fun it really is - now I'm scouring the ads looking for a smaller motorglider kit for Christmas :-kewlJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Robert,I know how you feel. My extensive work with FLED prevented me from flying seriously for a LONG time. I just didn't like the thought of wasting time flying when I really should have been getting on with the mountain of work that I had set myself. I am a bit of a perfectionist, and when I decide that something needs to be done, I can't settle until I have done it :-)Upgrading the taxiways, AI pathways and AI plane parking spots at the fourteen largest airports in the Seattle region was the most time consuming project that I have ever undertaken with FLED. I look back on this particular aspect of my work with great pride, simply because FLED is such a difficult beast to work with. It must have frozen literally HUNDREDS of times throughout the entire project, and each time this required a complete system re-boot :-eek The thought of going back in time to the very start of this work gives me nightmares ! :-batChris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest R_Driscoll]

I think Chris that your work must have been in several phases, because you also put all those trees and other package objects in place for both Seattle and San Fran. I'm not sure whether you did this as two separate exercises or at the one time, but you clearly put a lot of care into the placement of trees etc. (I thought of making a little ranger man for FU3 and calling him Chris, but thought you might take this the wrong way and get insulted. So I didn't!). I use your packages in San Fran but a mixture of authors in Seattle (for obvious reasons!). But I use your taxiway / AI work in both areas (except I had to rebuild some of the files to allow long distance flight, Markus Brunner's work).I am totally loving flying, model building and package building - I get tremendous enjoyment out of it, and I still love FU3. Its not just the add-ons, but the basic game itself is what I always wanted in a flight sim - the Cascades are amazing, the choice of planes and amount of scenery (I mean high quality) is still more than sufficient for my needs (and I haven't loaded UK yet!). I like the San Fran region as well, but never have time to fly there much - too many other things to do, and maybe after several years I have become more accustomed to Seattle's face.Many of my crashes are to do with my test-pilot role! Trying to get too close - are there any Chinook effects, did I miss a pixel here, "whoops a side is missing" type stuff, as you can see from my CLOSE encounter with London Bridge!OK, see ya up there,Rob D.

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Robert,If you want to create a little ranger called Chris, then be my guest. I could do with the publicity :-)You are right with respect to my work being in several phases. I originally started adding new airfields to the FU3 file library, one at a time. This included the basic dotted line runway, one or two buildings, the occasional animated jeep or microlight, and plenty of trees !After a couple of months, I decided that a large proportion of the airports in the Seattle region needed extensive taxiway and AI upgrades. I started by modifying some of the smaller airports (like Martha Lake, Harvey Field, Apex Airpark and Diamond Point). I eventually released a couple of upgrade packs (Airfield Packs 1 & 2), before my expanding abilities turned to the BEAST. This was the AIRPORT UPGRADES pack that I mentioned above. It wasn't an enticing prospect, but it had to be done. I can't remember how long it took to complete (maybe around two months of hard work), but I do remember feeling fantastic when it was finally finished !After this, I expanded my Airfield Packs, and combined them into a single product (AIRFIELDS 2001). This remains my "best selling" product to date, with over 700 downloads before I finally removed it from the library to make way for the recent SANFRAN 2002 and SEATTLE 2002 packs.Next on the list was the long awaited ability to add trees and other Seattle scenery objects to the San Francisco region. This was all due to the efforts of Bogdan Adamski, and I would like to sincerely thank him for providing me with the ammunition to do this.*** THANKS BOGDAN *** :-jumpyAnyway, I decided to upgrade the AI planes in the SanFran region first. These modifications were released in my SANFRAN PACK. This was followed by adding huge amounts of trees (and a few buildings) to virtually all of the airports and airfields in this region. When this was complete, SANFRAN PACK 2 was released.Next off the production line was my largest scenery project to date (SAN FRANCISCO STAR). This was named after an old scenery upgrade for Microsoft Flight Simulator 4. This was certainly a great deal of work (have you seen how many trees there are in Golden Gate Park, or on Angel Island ?), but it was tremendously exciting. I have a detailed travel guide to the San Francisco Bay area, and this helped me to create over FIFTY separate scenery packages for San Francisco STAR.Finally, I decided to combine everything that I had ever done into two separate scenery packs. These were SANFRAN 2002 and SEATTLE 2002. I removed all of my individual packages from the FU3 file library, and uploaded these two mega packs instead. I thought it made more sense :-)Apart from one or two minor upgrades, that is the Chris Low FLED story to date. I can't see myself doing much more scenery work with FLED (unless I decide to create a Seattle STAR scenery pack at some point in the future), but I would like to be able to design a flyable plane for FU3. This originally involved using the hideously expensive 3D Studio Max, and was therefore not possible for the vast majority of FU3 users. However, this may change in the near future.Anyway, thanks for reading my CV.Best Wishes,Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Wow, with a response like that........no wonder I had trouble getting a job :-lolChris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest jonpoint]

No, really Chris - it's OK.I did read it and drew some parallels with what I have been involved with. Looking back on it, the sheer amount of work done by the supporters of this sim is amazing, especially when you realise that everyone is doing it for their own interest :-)I can sympathise with what you had to go through with the packages - sure, each package is 'only' a few K but, knowing how many times you must have patiently pushed the reset button, waited for scandisk, then intrepidly opened FLED to see what mess it left when it crashed...Building aircraft is even more mind-numbing :-eek You work and work at it, then go through a hideously complicated series of events just to see what it looks like. Modifying flight models is worse - once you have converted your textfile to a segfile, hfile, resfile then imported it back into the plane (with Resviewer), you still have to fly the thing around to check it. Or, find that one glass pane has become transparent and go back through the efile (there are at least two lines of text for each polygon - the GeeBee has ~1300 polygons) to find the missing decimal point :-grrOne day, we'll all meet at the pearly gates and have a good laugh about this :-hahJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Jon,Fascinating stuff.......but you made one mistake in your post. You suggested that I "patiently" pressed the reset button.You were JOKING......right ? :-lolChris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest jonpoint]

Yes I was... I'm amazed how well mine's doing considering the abuse it gets :-lol Last night was a case in point. Cockpit designer crashed so many times I'm posting the GeeBee today with an unfinished F3 view :-grrJon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Oh God.....you mean that Cockpit Designer crashes frequently also ? What is it with these FU3 utilities ? :-)Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest R_Driscoll]

An impressive CV! Esp. since I know how long it takes to make the trees look right, and I enjoy the results of your work (esp in San Fran - I use a mixture of authors' packages in Seattle). So why have you stopped? We now have twice as many objects (OK, I haven't counted but its about that) to play with.But I think you've earned a break!;) Maybe someone else should pick up the load ... come on guys - where are the new packages?My CV is a bit different: Court appearance FAA 3/11/02 Wilful destruction of aircraft Court appearance FAA 4/11/02 Wilful destruction of property by means of an aircraft Court appearance FAA 5/11/02 Wilful destruction of aircraft Conviction SkyHarbour County Crt FAA 6/11/02 Destruction of aircraft Court appearance FAA 7/11/02 Wilful destruction of aircraft Court appearance FAA 8/11/02 Incidental property damage due to air incident and wilful destruction of aircraft Conviction Seattle County Crt FAA 9/11/02 Destruction of aircraft Conviction SkyHarbour Cty Crt ASI 10/11/02 Marked as dangerous: Not to fly under any circumstances Court appearance FAA 11/11/02 Wilful destruction of aircraft and property, to wit one hill. Conviction Grays AAF Cty Crt ASI 10/11/02 Flying in a manner guaranteed to shorten life and spill coffeeetc etc(They got it in for me, those guys).Gotta go - the Mazda has a flat tyre and I can't work out why.RegardsRob D.

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Robert,I think that I can claim responsibility for "jumping the queue" a few times when it comes to making my final approach. My traffic patterns in the Beechjet tend to be considerably wider than those of the AI planes, and it can be annoying to see an AI Cessna pull in front of me during final approach ! The pilot must get quite a shock when my Beechjet flies right over the top of him :-)I made a recent flight from Parrett to Gnoss, and the AI startup generated a MASSIVE number of AI planes. There were SIX aircraft in the pattern, and I had to abort the landing FOUR times :-eekChris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest R_Driscoll]

LOL!But I have more problems trying to get to the runway, with AI planes inching forward at the correct taxi speed!I hope we're not encouraging bad flying habits here?