SimAddicts Anonymous

[Ian Warren]

Hi , forgot , this is a Welcome MAT ! bugger

All the above previous comments .. and YIP and add a little , FS -aircraft /navy.

Navy ?

Ian

Christchurch maybe ?

[HeyChief]

Hi Ian, Yep I was there till Nov '64, then went to the Essex.

HC

[Ian Warren]

Hi HC
Essex Class , 1st in Class Essex CV-9 , amazing Carriers , WW2 super history with them , Think Franklin was the HELL boat of all the Class and history read , to see and believe the damage ..., I started a scratchbuilt CV-41 since being the most modified Carrier ever Now as u will no a Museum , must visit San Diego , North Island or were shes been parked .., be most interesting visit .

Ian

[Ian Warren]

Hi Natas2003
Hamilton , started scenery there , thanks to Paul Baker and photos , its 1 off these stop/start projects , that really need the heat turned up .

Been spending to much time a the Wiggy Museum for aircraft paints ... C 130 ,
Outta my norm , nice to try all and new areas ..

Ian

[dogtrack]

Morning all...well, it is here. Retired last Summer from a career in Healthcare. So I suppose you could say, I now spend more time than is really healthy, flying virtual skies.

Other than a love of Airshows, I have no real knowledge of any aircraft whatsoever. Quality scenery is my thing...just love to see other places and use a amphibious aircraft to do it. Which is how I have ended up here; after dropping onto Robin Corn's R.N.Z. series.

Who knows, maybe one day I shall make it for real. In the meantime, perhaps I ought to take the wifes advice, and get out more.

C YA, Arnie.

[ardypilot]

Welcome dogtrack!

I love airshows too Check out the Real Aviation forum for lots of photos I and a few others have posted!

By the way, I notice it is your birthday today! I hope you had a great celebration

[bardos]

Hello everybody far South-East,
I am Max, born in Groningen (Northern Netherlands) many years ago.
I am working in the Universital Medical Centre Groningen as a senior medical analist. We have since 1989 a little farm in Drouwenerveen, 45 km south of Groningen, and live there together with wife, 2 dobermanns, 6 horses and 18 sheeps. Hobbys are driving four-in-hand, eventing and flightsimming!
Most flying from EHGG (20km from here) in NL2000 and NW Germany (made by
www. m-r-software.de freeware!) with Milton Shupes awesome AC680 Pegasus
or Derek Palmers the Havilland Dove
Since a few years discovering the beautiful places of the world:
Alaska-Munchbros, Pacific/Australia-VOZ, and now NZ!

Greetings from a real sunny Holland,

Max

[ronindanbo]

Hi Guys

Dan Mitchell here I am from Wellington, NZ and do a bit of modelling for FS, good to see an NZ focussed forum around the place. I am currently working on a number of AC projects in my group BSMP one of which is the Swearingen Metro 23/III which I intend to release in Origin Pacific colours to give it that homegrown feel

[Jimmy]

Hi and welcome Bardos and Ronindanbo. hope you like it here (I know I do! )

Smooth landings,
James B)

[Codge]

Hello everybody.My name is Stephen-username Codge.Isn't it great to have non resident NZers on this forum,a big welcome to NZ,make sure you get Red Barons 20m mesh & topo! no I am in no way connected to this developer,just a very impressed customer.You get what you pay for as a rule and it is well worth every cent! I am a 36yr old man living in Dunedin on the Otago peninsula with my 2 children,7yr old girl Piper and 4yr old boy Cessna! only kidding his name is Daniel.We have a wee cottage right on the water and a .creek on our front lawn that goes under the road bridge and out into the harbour.We launch our kayaks and paddle out to our 21 foot Hartley trailer sailer moored in the bay which we can watch from our lounge window! The view is a "million Dollar" view yet the house cost 60,000 3 years ago.I am feeling truly blessed to have such a lifestyle in this grat country of ours. I have done real flying years ago when I was about 16 and had ideas about being a commercial pilot but discovered girls and V8 Holdens and got sidetracked and ran out of money! About a year ago a friend told me about MSFS and even set it up on his old Pentium 2 for me once we over clocked it from 300mhz up to the 450mhz required to run FS9. Within a week or so I was addicted and went out and ticked up a "real" computer.2.4gig AMD,and haven't stopped adding to it ever since.!.5gigs of DDR2 RAM,a ATI 9600PRO card,CH Products Yoke,pedals and throttle quadrant.Butkicker seat shaker,headset and mike and Broadband for multiplayer. Just over a year ago I knew absolutley ning about computers and now am about to go into biz with my already mentioned friend fixing and servicing PC's. He knows what he's doing,I'll be the apprentice! and take care of the advertising and PR. I have been on a benefit since Piper was born but need something for the future.I would love to make a living out of FS if I could one day if possible.In between meeting my childrens needs I spend pretty much every waking hour on FS.I'm hoping this will come down to a more sane level of time in the future although there is no sign of that happening any time soon! I am Hooked! Is there a FS annonymous anywhere? Maybe I should get another girlfriend! that would help-maybe.My wife died of a brain tumour 18 months ago so I have nobody to nag me to get off the bloody computer! We have a pet duck that just turned up last Xmas and never left! it pecks on the door and quacks to be let in and fed (dog roll) craps on the kitchen floor and hassles the cat ,then it's back outside for a swim in the creek! I'm quite envious.It can fly,swim on and under the water and wander around on land as well. Well i think that'll do for my intro and I hope see you all here and on teamspeak in the years to come.Kind regards to all-Stephen.

[creator2003]

great posting codge lov the lifestyle mine to is the same in many ways
having fun while trying to make a buck $ and of course looking after the kids

[Alex]

...

[ZK-MAT]

I've just realised I haven't added anything here Hi Alex, nice to see you made it!

I am 36 years old, live in Tauranga, married with 3 kids, (15, 12 and 10 y/o), like long walks on the beach and candle-lit dinners. Oh, wrong forum

I work in the insurance industry, assessing and investigating fire & general claims, and get to travel a fair bit around the country whenever there are storms etc. Next week I'm off to Timaru and CHCH for 5 days to see snow and water damaged property - it was either that or the Manawau/Wellington area with slips, mud and sewerage...

In my spare time I surf, and about 6 years ago got my eldest into surfing so have a buddy for our surfing safaris. I play guitar (as does my son), along with a few guitars we have a piano and drums (wife decided she wanted to have 'a go' lol) also at our place so it gets quite noisy at times. My wife teaches English and History and is very accomodating of the time I spend in front of the PC, even if she does take the piss out of me "talking to my little friends" in the background, which makes it hard having a serious conversation with ATC at times as she is often muttering "goose egg egg kite" whenever I talk in phonetics.

I have had an interest in aviation for a number of years, but only since I bought FS2004, whilst most here have been following this sort of thing for decades. I enjoy FS immensely but my real passion is the WW2 era, and I am heavily into BF1942, Forgotten Hope, BF2 and IL-2. IL-2 is providing me with the most satisfaction at this time, you really have to 'fly' the planes rather than just pulling back on the stick and applying full power.

I am a member of various gaming/flight sim communities (Virtual Air NZ, Virtual Pilots Assoc, Demonz, 42United, KiwiSim), and enjoy most the companionship that online gaming provides, whether it be WW2 war gaming on TS or FS on voice comms. I spent too much time messing about with gaming footage and have several ideas to make an epic FS video but just haven't found the time yet.

My next goal is to commence PPL training, maybe 2006 will be the year I actually do something about that!

If you made it this far well done, it turned out a fair bit longer
than anticipated!

[Bazza]

My turn to join in.......

I'm Bazza (Barry of course) a decidely Senior type member due to extensive maturity and was living happily in retirement until my son offered my a job recently, thus reducing the siiming hours. I reside in Tauranga.

Have followed all the sims for many years now, and can be seen on occasions at Simviation.

Enjoy the prop driven stuff, and have little interest in the Jets, Air-liners etc, now prefering to fly about New Zealand. Having said that I do have a Constellation, but normally settle for no more than two engines. Currently enjoying the Aero Commander AC520.

Have taken advantage of nearly everything put out scenery wise for NZ, and recognise a few names in the "intro's" who deserve to be in the New Years Honours List. There certainly has been some good stuff put out.

Can't understand how I weasn't aware of this site but saw a mention in AVSIM when trolling for "parts."

Look forward to checking out the forums.

[toprob]

I'm thrilled that NZFF has turned out so well, The spinoffs, such as the interest in NZ AI, are an added bonus.
I should do a quick intro, normally I don't get too personal on the web, but I'll make an exception here:)
I'd be considered rather elderly here, as I think the average age here is a lot lower than my customer base. I have 3 teenage children, none of which use the sim, thankfully, they tend to prefer the Xbox 360.
I remember when I first discovered local addons -- it was amazing to find NZ-related scenery, but after the initial download frenzy (on a 14.4Kb modem...) it dawned on me that releases were few and far between. My first reaction was the Godzone magazine -- trying to encourage others to get into design -- but one day I figured that someone would have to really get stuck in to make a difference. It never crossed my mind that it might have to be me.
Thanks to the Wayback Machine, these early days are archived on the web. (most of the images haven't survived, and many of the links no-longer work.) The FS2000 addons is particularly interesting to me -- it pin-points my first discovery of local addons. The ones which made the biggest impression at the time were Christian Stock's 150 metre mesh, and Ian Warren's Christchurch airport.
Somehow over the last few years I've gone from a flightsim newbie to my own full-time scenery design business, I dunno how that happened.
I guess that some of you may consider me 'the enemy', charging for scenery, but if I need to put all my time into NZ scenery then I need to support myself doing it. I do have a lot of respect for freeware authors, though.
Working full-time is a bit of an experiment, I still don't know whether NZ has the numbers to support a full -time scenery designer, but if I don't try it, I'll never know. Of course you can show your support by buying my scenery -- it doesn't cost much to give it a go, just $15 for an airport download to check to see whether payware is worth it:)
Remember that any forum thrives on contributions -- NZFF is already showing its value as a local resource, so keep up the support by posting often -- anything sim-related is up for discussion.
-Robin Corn

[ardypilot]

Welcome!
Welcome!
Welcome!
Welcome!
Welcome!
Welcome!
Welcome!

Its great to read each one of your own interesting stories!

I spend pretty much every waking hour on FS.I'm hoping this will come down to a more sane level of time in the future although there is no sign of that happening any time soon! I am Hooked!

Me too!

My life is as follows: wake up- go to college (work at foodtown on thurs/sat)- come home- check forums- eat- flightsim all night- start latest downloads going on my 56k net- go to bed- sleep for a bit- wake up

[Ian Warren]

Hi all

May as well keep/help Building the Snowball and keep it ROLLING!

Forums .. heck now getting the hangoff , maybe

Aeroplanes , Christchurch Airport , and memories ... were it all starts - hang on ! NO - Myself and Brother in the local pub and about to open the box for Flightsim1983/4 maybe not sure the version But 'Microsoft' sounds COOL ! . Al's then wife had a started a printin Bizz with an apple and '25thou Dole!ar' laser printerRrr so I was told 20 so years back !... Whoo that impressed me .. I can draw planes , but that box with FS had a pull , that was thenBut hell when they went holiday! who was left with BZZ pc and FS B) grey screen FS with the wish to see what it is today.

Life is great at 44 , with a Librairy on Aviation for the serious to just planes for us cool plane nutters , I live with a Battleship/Frigate/Aircraft Carrier - 9 ft Space Shuttle and a Cat called LF .. 'Little Friend' .

Anyways , I'm Sure all the above sounds interesting and great and as scenery is concerned takes lotta time building , FS is changing agian , but now getting the photo real scapes and the time city and airport with other 3rd party addin extra plus airway AI is making the old hobbie SuperREAL , To pay for is worth the cost to prove again the anything downloaded is perfect , and to get free is just as good but in time .

Just pleased to be 1 off the Gang and love to put energy and effort .

Ian

[Ian Warren]

Hey Steve 'Codge' , got back in sarvo , found lotta AGNs have adjusted to suit that Dunedin scenery, obviously looked at some stage looked at Robins as got some off his orginal area AGNs .... will have to remove maybe i'll have to get permission from Rob to use his , but little offset , think will edit what i have and see get them to u , have total off maybe 400/500 agn files , think was on outskirt s off the city , but think need to also find orgin off photo layout person .

Wrong place to post , see u all in scenery forum tomorrow night ,ME 'Pioneer Stadium Arms Weapon Meet ' first , have lotta interest from those guys as well .. to this site or at least trying to promote my fav HOBBIE to these Most extra interestin at time people ..

Met '2' today '1' a German tank driver survived D/DAY .. not going into story But mentioned to others bout my more recent Hobbie .. FS and FSNZ or could mean NZFF got them most interested ,
anyways back there tomorrow .. I want to drive a TANK! .. maybe into city , boyracer watch out !

[AlisterC]

hi everyone!
My name is Alister Curnow and I'm a 29 y.o FS2004 simmer from Christchurch. I know a few members of this forum, and count a number of you as good friends already. (thanks Alex for showing me here!)
I'm a busy (obsessed) virtual pilot and when not flying, Operations Manager for the Virtual Pilots Association. But, I was pleased to hear a general, non va specific forum had been opened in NZ for the NZ simmers to chat about NZ things. Good work Tolly! Pilots from around the rest of the world don't really care about my New Zealand simming! I do however tend to split my virtual flying time between NZ and North America, and lately more so in the US. I prefer IFR airliner flying, so after plying the NZ main trunk lines in a VANZ B733 for a couple of years, I have been flying mostly overseas. I've flown for a number of other different VA's in the past, and am currently also an F22 squadron commander for the US virtual airforce on IVAO. But despite my offshore involvement it will be good to be in touch with local fliers a little more.
Favourite aircraft for me is pretty much anything from the Boeing fleet. And the 737 NG in particular. So much so I've recently been accepted to become a part time instructor for Flight Experience in Christchurch. I have just got to sort a start date with them for my training, and I'll be in NG heaven!
Other than flying, I enjoy photography, travelling, cycling, cricket and hanging out with friends!

Nice to be here!

[ZK-LGD]

Howdy,

My introduction to flight simming began during the summer of 1999-2000 with "Crimson Skies", still the hoopiest (arcade) computer flying game ever. This, inevitably, led to "Combat Flight Simulator 2", especially the 3rd party add-on WWI theatre, and finally "Flight Sim 2002". Have no interest (whatsoever) in flying big tin, much prefering seabirds (especially the G21 Grumman Goose and G44 Widgeon).

Have dabbled in the following areas of flight simming: scenery design, repainting, panel building and flight dynamics design. Have been a member of several VA, but now run a small, one-man outfit/company.

At 55, am semi-retired, well-travelled, recently completed post-graduate work at UoC (University of Canterbury) and currently live with my partner and three mischevious (if somewhat lazy) cats in Plimmerton, Wellington (overlooking the Pauatahanui Inlet).

Non-simming interests include: archery, fencing (Japanese and C16th Elizabethan), historical research (pre-C17th Japanese, Elizabethan and Colonial/Victorian), cinema, and dressing up in medieval clothing and attending feasts and events put on by like-minded people.