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Steve Dra

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Everything posted by Steve Dra

  1. Painters (and folks searching in vain for a2a liveries) REJOICE!, flightsim.to just read and approved my request to ad "A2A Comanche" as a category. Painters, if your plane is not automatically moved over, you just have to change the category on your paint from "other liveries" to "A2A Comanche". I had to change mine and it now shows in the proper category.
  2. I just released my bare metal livery....you can get her by clicking the link in my sig for MSFS paints.
  3. I too was traumatized when I ended a very nice flight from Catalina to Burbank and went to tow the plane and she did, what they call in the ice skating world, a "Triple Salchow". I was just as surprised as the audience was when the 1st one was done on the ice decades ago, though sadly my Comanche did not stick the landing as well as most Olympic skaters do. 😞 I can only imagine this happening in VR, I think most would hurl their fruit loops on to the keyboard as even in on a 2d screen its shocking enough when you're not expecting it. 🙂
  4. Hehe.... Silver Bullet One (really need to revisit this one...time is never on my side though) 😞 @fppilot Hey Frank...sorry have not kept in touch since the expo. We'll need to catch up, esp if you have any other HJet paints you want to do. Was fantastic meeting Marwan at the Expo, super nice guy!
  5. Not sure at the moment, with time constraints, if I'll get a chance to do much painting on this plane. I did however "unpaint" her for MSFS... and I'll upload the bare metal texture maps as a whole aircraft to flightsim.to and let other painters use them to create bare metal liveries if they'd like. Just started with the Comanche so don't expect to see her at flightsim.to just yet. Still a few things to figure out with the texture maps.
  6. Ugh...hope its been validated by Scott (if he's reading this post) and he'll chime in with a response). I have not flown her yet but will see if I'm experiencing the same issue when I do and report back.
  7. Hey Bob...the uniqueness of every Comanche we're all flying will give you a variety of answers. The bottom line is that if you're not flying a factory-fresh aircraft, and chose the "Used" or "Auction" version of your plane...it may have a bad mag from a neglictive previous owner. Even if yours is new...Mags do go bad. Go here and check out your engine status on your Comanche and see if she's failing on ya. This is one realistic aircraft from what I've seen so far...and each one has a randomness of airworthiness that will certainly keep us all on our toes, and being a lot more careful on maintaining, preflighting, and leaning her in cruise (and on the ground). Oh another thing...if you've been idling her full rich on the ground...the plugs will foul, just like the real thing. 🙂
  8. In the Navy it's referred to as "Vert Reps" or Vertical Replenishment. I was involved in many of these when we were at sea...and all the helo's in the task force pitched in...this was the SH-3 I worked on (We were sending supplies over to the small frigate in our task force) Here is a time when we worked with a CH-46 squadron on another ship.
  9. She was a fun (but challenging) aircraft to paint. I added a lot of details through extensive research on each livery I created (spent more time researching as good photos of the old girl were hard to come by) This USAF MATS livery took a while as it was hard to find any good pics of the wings...I finally got them and got the non-skid pattern correct. The yellow decals over the cockpit windows were especially challenging due to how the 3d model is stitched together there. I recall it taking more time than I care to admit to get the Everts "Blue Canoe" detailed. I worked with a former Everts mechanic who worked on her to get exclusive pics to add details that I otherwise never would have known existed. The red cowl flap indicates the engine was just changed less than 100 hours ago and needs mineral oil run thru it vs standard oil. That pic of the wing was one of his personal pics he shared with me, and shows where the water filler cap is for the water injection system...which I added to my paint. On the main pic you see the black patches under the flaps...those are rubber mats added to the flaps to keep rocks from dinging them on gravel runways. And more subtly, the rudder has a different reflective property than the vertical stab...that's because its covered with fabric, not metal. 🙂 I know that even if I flooded the post with the thousands of external screens I've taken over the years, it would not convince the die-hard cockpit simmers to venture outside every once in a while. 😁 To each his own, I don't pass judgement anyone's simming preference, I just try to provide visual examples of the world outside the cockpit in hopes it may spark some curiosity of what they are missing out on. Personally, my immersion is ruined every time a neighbor fires up his obnoxiously loud weed trimmer outside my office window. I tried to integrate the sound into my immersion by pretending it was another noisy prop plane (or ultra-light) starting up next to me on the ramp...but when you're at 35,000 feet in cruise, its hard to incorporate that sound into your immersion bubble. LoL PS I know this unique Everts bird had a sad ending, the video of her last landing proved that no matter how thick those rubber mats under the flaps were, they could not prevent bad things happening when the right MLG hits a rock berm. 😞
  10. I'm kinda' fond of liveries. 😉 Especially when you can get shots like this in the sim.... Once you're up at flight levels and on the AP for the cruise, it gets kinda' boring just sitting in the cockpit, esp when you have a virtual photography aircraft at your fingertips to gaze at the beauty of your aircraft interacting with the environment. (as a livery painter I may be a little biased though, LoL)
  11. LOL...was thinking the same thing. Devs giving exciting news tend to get a slew of well-deserved likes. I usually get most of mine when I release a new paint or an NDA is lifted and I'm allowed to post preview screens or discuss things that were kept under wraps. 🙂
  12. Was great seeing such a showing from the MSFS/Asobo team and all the Devs, Content Creators, etc. Met a lot of folks I'd had only seen on the web previously, it was fantastic. I'm in the picture of the raffle...wonder if anyone can pick me out? (Hint, I'm wearing a US Navy Veteran hat)
  13. Responded over at flightsim.to ....looking forward to granting your request. 😉
  14. Hey sniper, Avsim only allows you to store 100 private messages and my box is habitually full. If/when I get to paint the 500, you will find them where all my other MSFS paints are...just click the link to flightsim.to in my signature line to see the aircraft I've already painted. You can also leave me messages at my flightsim.to account. 😉
  15. I thought it was pretty packed with both. We had a full A320 cockpit, an F18 setup that folks could demo lining up and launch off the catapult (DCS) with all the HOTAS controls, more VR headsets than I could count...motion and fixed based sims, the Asobo/MS, XPlane and Lockheed P3D teams were all there. And when you were not geeking out about all the Sim-stuff....there was things like this all around to gawk at: If anything, I was overwhelmed by too many things to look at. 🙂
  16. Hehe....you had only a small glimpse of his passion about our hobby and development in the video. Listen to him speak in person where he's not as constrained due to internet decorum, and you'll have no doubt about his passion! 🤣 I'm sure Raul would still be chatting to me about what he's planning for his future projects if I didn't have to leave the conference on Sunday and catch my flight! LoL.
  17. The things Raul showed me at the Expo were amazing! I consider @simbol to be the most passionate developer on the market...and if it can be done in MSFS, he'll make every attempt to do it (balancing the feature's value vs performance of course) Behind us, you can see the Single-Point fueling station on the Phenom 300 wing root. I'll let you guys speculate what fueling features Raul said at the show that he's planning. 🙂 (maybe he'll share a hint here) Hehe. Raul, it was great connecting with you again...and my FSreborn polo from the 2018 Expo in Vegas was in storage or else I would have worn it to this one. 🙂 I can't believe it's already been 5 years since! Oh, and if you need help with any painting...I know a guy. 🙂
  18. After chatting with Raul @simbol at the Flightsim Expo this weekend...I have no doubt that the M500 and the Phenom will literally set the bar for fidelity and features.
  19. I actually tried to trick Evan into telling me...as I was leaving the museum on Sunday I shook his hand and thanked him for all the effort and a great show (He really does go way above and beyond) and said "Great show Evan! I'll see you next year aaaaaat...." He said nice try. 🙂 Not sure if he even knows yet. He mentioned that with this year's record-breaking attendance, our little niche hobby actually can entertain Convention Center - level venues...and he's going to look into that in next year's planning, so great things coming!
  20. In fact I was now that you mention it. 🙂 I gave a very brief 45 min seminar on how to get an MSFS paint project started. (If you're a member of FSA, you can watch the recorded live streams for free)
  21. I went, thought it was amazing! Too many people to list that I met in person that I previously only ever saw online (Twitch, youtube, etc)....but many popular flightsim personalities were there, for example: Chewwy94, Moosestaffa, @twotonemurphy, Q8 pilot, CitationMax1 (had no idea he was THAT tall!), @simbol , @Marwan Gharib, @virtuali, Colin at TFDi (Flew on the same fight from Tampa with him), and finally, almost all of the PMDG crew....many of whom I've interacted with over the years on the beta team, but had never met previously. I didn't take too many photos, as I knew there would be many displayed by other attendees (I think the count was just over 1800, a new record attendance). This one, however, made me laugh as it looks as though Mike (Moosestaffa) was about to take out Max (CitationMax1) with his classic Moosjitsu Death Chop®! I highly encourage everyone who has a passion for flightsimming and this community in general, make every effort to attend a show in the future...get out from behind your computer screen and shake hands with the real people you interact with online every day (oh, and see some pretty cool flightsim stuff at the same time...and get some great show-attendee deals that were practically criminal)! Friendship and Memories...You'll take them away from these events and cherish them always!
  22. My Navigraph subscription is like a fine wine....it just gets better with age! 🙂 Just updated it and the weather addon is a fantastic new feature. They just keep coming.
  23. I hear ya! The good news is that Raul noted it will be $32 for the M500 and he's really keen on keeping the prices of his products reasonable...and to me, at that price, its a tremendous value for what you're getting.
  24. they sure are.....maybe someone will post the pics they showed in the stream.
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