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Steve Dra

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About Steve Dra

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    Painter

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    Male

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    VATSIM
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About Me

  • About Me
    USN AT1, served on several ships on the east coast. Avionics Tech on the SH-3 Seaking

    Aircraft painter for Flightsim.

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  1. Thanks....sometimes I even UN-paint an aircraft...which is actually trickier than painting them. 😉 Man I need to get back to flying this one. Such a great aircraft!
  2. You don't need to see if this is the right place.....this is not the thread you're looking for.....you can go about your business....move along, move along. Sorry...couldn't help myself.
  3. Yeah have to agree about the old...old days even before is was Avsim. Tom could be onery at times, but I enjoyed our conversations...and we shared a common bond as we did the exact same thing in the Navy...even working on the exact same aircraft! Anyway, members come and go, and I miss some of the old crew and guess I just remember things as not as toxic as it seems to be today. Maybe I'm just getting old and its time to me out to pasture. 🙂 Cancer tried to get me once, and diabetes is always trying to kill me, and eventually will if I don't die of something else first. Certainly more years behind me than ahead, I just want to enjoy them doing what I love, contributing to the community... so I'll probably die with a virtual paintbrush in my hand, right in the middle of a livery. 🤔
  4. Truer words have never been spoken in Avsim. I've said it many times that they will be the 1st ones in line to buy it the second it releases...wearing the paint off their F5 key on release day just to get their hands on it. Those who say they won't are only lying to themselves (because we certainly don't believe them), or just confirmed they only come here to complain about something I have no intentions of buying and flying...that is a kind of person that must be fun at parties. 🤣 It seems to be 95% non-constructive (that may be a conservative estimate, LOL). I think a better metric would be to measure the poster's demeanor in all flightsim forums and determine if they are simply a whiner for the sake of complaining about anything, or they have poignant, sometimes harsh, but mostly valid content in their statements. Frustration and impatience has a huge role in most replies, and I get that. But being civil and courteous in your replies generally gets you much further if your true goal is to actually effect change or make valid points others can comment or expound on. Saying "RSR is this or that", "PMDG is this or that" usually does nothing other than turn off the listening devices of folks who can actually make the changes, and ultimately just leads to piling on by the beta dogs in the pack...just waiting for the alpha to make the 1st insult so they can jump in. Such is the so-familiar pattern here lately when it comes to that four letter word (PMDG), that you can set your clock to the responses once the 1st insult arrives in the thread. Its no wonder this once-awesome flightsim website has become what it is, and I won't repeat some of the insulting phrases its been called...both in other sites and here as well.
  5. Absolutely one of the best features on the aircraft, esp for beta testers that have to test long flights and don't have anywhere near the actual time to do them in real time. I'd only have about 20% of the beta test flights I've done so far if it didn't have this feature. And you'd have 2 scenarios if the 777 didn't have it. A beta cycle that was 10 times longer than usual because we'd have to test 15 hour flights in 15 hours (and we typically do dozens of the same flight to validate things, we don't do just one flight and say..."Yep, it works"). And we do test long haul flights in real time...just not as many of them that we'd like because if we did, the 777 would be a 2026 release at the minimum. A beta cycle at a normal duration, but we'd probably miss 70% more stuff and you'd get to find it (and report it) in the released product. How fun is that? So its a great tool for testing, and for the folks who what to do a complete flight in a certain time span and are ok with technology helping with the biggest challenges of flying long haul... real time. 😉
  6. Hehe....you should state that you said that rhetorically or you're going to get an earful from disillusioned Avsim'ers that are convinced RSR is the devil himself and PMDG is an evil company heck-bent on sucking as much money from unsuspecting simmers that are forced to buy their products. 🤔
  7. Will you be painting the piston or turbine? 🤔 I know : Yes 🤣
  8. After reading all the comments here...some are right on point, some are off a bit but still relevent, then there are the rest 🤔 For those, I always like to fallback to humor to cope with their kind, which sadly is what we all have to do these days when they get going on their tirades . Funny thing is that they'll be the 1st ones in line to buy the next plane, then they'll hardly get it installed when they come back here to complain about it. Here is a scene I keep thinking of when I read some of their posts: Very funny movie and fits the state of this community these days for a few who's main hobby is complaining, not simming.
  9. It is. When the 747 freighter (the -400F) comes out...I may not fly anything else. 🙂 I'll be completely worn out on the 777 by then (on the -300ER at least...may still do -F flights in her because she's such a good freighter). I've already flown it around the world and logged over 100 flights with it. I painted this fictional long ago on the P3D version...I will bring it to MSFS and it'll be my main 744 freighter.
  10. I've flown both the CS and PMDG 777s in MSFS. Hard to tell which is better. /sarcasm mode off.
  11. Its because its not hard to push good textures to all 20 buildings in the area. 🙂
  12. And RSR noted....this was one tough bug to find and squash! We all parked our 777s and jumped back to the 737 to extensively hammer the updated build (for all NINE models) to make sure it was ready to go. I have to say it was refreshing to hop back into the "tiny" Boeing for this round...and I proceeded to criss-cross her across the US, hoping to not find the bug, nor any others that sometimes reappear when making a major bug fix. Since it was the 737, you know I could not resist snapping a few pics (that I could share) of her journey...(well...I've also snapped 100s of the 777 thus far...and can't wait to share those with you when I'm able) Here is the -700 in Jviation's excellent Florida One livery, rocketing out of my home airport, on her way to the site of the 2024 FSExpo this year. After landing in Sin City, it was a short hop to KLAX in yet another Jviation masterpiece, this time in the -700's bigger sister. (I feel hands-down J is the best painter out there, a testament to his abilities, coming from a 20 year veteran of painting myself...I fly HIS paints, hehe) And a final shot that just makes me smile when I see how incredibly far we've come in this hobby in the last 20+ years! (this livery looks so good that the Vegas Sphere could not help but sneak a peak as she departed.) 🙂 I have to return to my sequestered briefing room that holds the 777 and get busy with the new Build RSR noted is coming (or may have already come) our way. It was truly refreshing to hop back into the 737 for a while, and its pretty amazing how different the 2 aircraft are, systems and automation-wise. I had to remember when transitioning back from the 777. In the 777 Packs...set'em and forget'em Pressurization? the 777 knows the landing elevation, no need to play with switches or dial in elevations 3 position landing get? Ha! Up or Down in the 777 AutoBrakes, the 777 turns them off after liftoff. Setting ILS freqs and headings....humph....old school, the 777 knows them and sets them. Paper checklists?....how 20th century. Forget checklist items when taking the runway for departure...you get a warning on the EICAS, calling you out that you missed something (quite embarrassing hehe) Other things to get used to when moving up to the 777....Size, weight, inertia. This beast is huge....don't try to taxi her like a 737....go into a turn thinking you're a 737, and you'll put her in the grass...or worse. And remember how much wing you have out there, hanging over the taxiway edges or when pulling into a stand. The only things that are similar between the 2 aircraft is that they are both Boeings, have 2 wings and 2 engines. After that, they are almost completely different machines.
  13. You're coming dangerously close to plagiarism of the Emperor. I, as a Rebel Scum can do that...all day long...You on the other hand, may get a little electro-massage therapy from the man himself if you keep it up. I'm pretty sure in in chapter 3 of your Welcome to the EMPIRE handbook, it clearly suggests that you treat the Emperor with reverence and complete obedience, and never mock him. I recall, after I dropped out of Empire School, that in the indoctrination lecture they mentioned much of the same. I do not wish to see you perish....but if it's your destiny, so be it.
  14. Oh a agree...she was a hottie! Voiced by the late, and very great Joan Rivers. RIP Funny lady.
  15. While I try to do the opposite and close this thread with my ridiculously overbearing film references....remember I'm Rebel Scum...and just like a tornado, chaos follows me wherever I go. However, when I'm calm, relaxed, and focused on a task other than destroying Avsim threads from the likes of Evil Empire officers....I paint these thingies....(call it Light side of the Force, LOL) And forum rep is everything...there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of innovative ways to up it (hehe...jk of course)
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