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Steve Dra

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Everything posted by Steve Dra

  1. Steve Dra
    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.
  2. Steve Dra
    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. 🤔
  3. Steve Dra
    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.
  4. Steve Dra
    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. 😉
  5. Steve Dra
    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. 🤔
  6. Steve Dra
    Will you be painting the piston or turbine? 🤔 I know : Yes 🤣
  7. Steve Dra
    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.
  8. Steve Dra
    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.
  9. Steve Dra
    I've flown both the CS and PMDG 777s in MSFS. Hard to tell which is better. /sarcasm mode off.
  10. Steve Dra
    Its because its not hard to push good textures to all 20 buildings in the area. 🙂
  11. Steve Dra
    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.
  12. Steve Dra
    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.
  13. Steve Dra
    Oh a agree...she was a hottie! Voiced by the late, and very great Joan Rivers. RIP Funny lady.
  14. Steve Dra
    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)
  15. Steve Dra
    If you see me starting to glow, warp the scene around me as I come back to life after being shot a dozen times point blank with a Desert Eagle...then start flying...be scared. And if you ever find yourself in this situation...just stand behind me... "I'll handle them"
  16. Steve Dra
    I recently lost my real job of 15 years, so in between beta testing the 777 and looking for a new job, I came here to see if I could boost my like count...the real goal of any forum junkie. 🙂 Its a good distraction, as is flying the 777, but right now she's in cruise, I handed the yoke to my relief crew and just about to hit the crew rest bunk. I gotta' be sharp when I land her in XXXX after a 14 hour flight. (how's that for getting back on the subject of flightsimming?, hehe). Friendly bantering about all things si-fi and movie trivia is an ultimate distraction, and as you can see....
  17. Steve Dra
    You could easily topple the empire that is Monster Cable if you could break that farce. I have $1000 going to the 1st person who can come to my house, watch the 1st Jar Jar scene 10 times...and 2 of those times I switch out my $50 Monster HDMI cable with an Amazon Basics $5 one...and they correctly picked those times. 🙂 Us measly humans are so susceptible to marketing hype...glad I'm not one of them. (well...not any more.hehe...I DID pay an extra $100 for a S/N ratio upgrade I could never hear)
  18. Steve Dra
    And as luck would have it...we have a NEO in that movie AND and NEO in flightsim. Coincidence? I think not! Similarly, if you crash in that Matrix thingy, your body doesn't die, only your mind (or memory)...just as in flightsim, if you crash, no physical harm comes to you (unless you throw your joystick at the monitor in outrage and it ricochets back and hits you in the face!) It seems all us simmers may be living in the Matrix, and may not even be aware...but isn't that the point? (Hmmm....quite the metaphysical conundrum isn't it?). For me personally, I'm still waiting for Trinity to come up to me in a nightclub and tell me life-changing secrets...I'll let you guys know if that ever happens. But of course by then, they would have already cut the hard line🙂 EDIT: Now that I think about it...is it any coincidence that Duracell Batteries are the most popular? I think they just let us believe Energizer is equal with their cute bunny...they carefully analyzed our brain patterns in the 1st Matrix and determined we just love us some cute bunnies...seems exactly how a computer would think! Next we'll notice that Flightsim 2024 will reach 80% perfection with all simmers...because as anyone knows (that's chatted with the Architect Agent Smith), making it 100% perfect would be ...a disaster.
  19. Steve Dra
    Then all I can say is..."Smoke 'em if you got 'em" As for trekkies, they too have an outstanding parody movie they can be proud of...and I'm at constant odds over which is funnier. Almost like picking between the Dark side of the force and the Vulcan Mind Meld. 🙂 (how's that for cross-camp contamination?)
  20. Steve Dra
    How dare you introduce yet another movie genre into this thread! I bet when Agent Smith notices...you'll be seeing a black cat walking by, then turn back to see the exact same cat again! At that point its too late...they already cut the hard lines, so I suggest you get out...NOW!
  21. Steve Dra
    You noticed! Now see if you can find the other 2 glaring cross-genre flubs in my other post. 🙂
  22. Steve Dra
    Who you calling Scruffy-Looking? Musta hit a nerve.
  23. Steve Dra
    I've got a bad feeling about this.
  24. Steve Dra
    Ahh yeah Accky (that's what his friends called him). I remember playing 3D chess with him one day and he just about had me checkmated, so being the Rebel Scum I am, I resorted to "influencing" him to forfeit. You just have to know what triggers him. From that day forward, I always kept these 2 things in my Y-wing...named the "Galileo" whenever I needed to get him back in line. Who can spot the 2 glaring errors in my story?
  25. Steve Dra
    You know as a Rebel Scum....We subscribe to every level of chaos imaginable. If I brought the Wookies, Ewoks, and Gorns into this...we could shut down Avsim in a minute! 🙂
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