2024 Spreads its Wings

Happy new year, everyone!

Looking Back - A Year of Technical Debt

2023 has been a very busy year. Tons of updates, a few remakes and a new plane. Revisiting older guides definitely wasn't the most interesting thing to do, but it had to be done at some point. Overall, I am glad it's behind me since the standard is now much more uniform than it was before. This means less maintenance to do in the future (at least, for some modules) and a more streamlined workflow with less time being wasted trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I think it was a necessary evil before even attempting to tackle on the newer projects... the "big 'uns".

As a recap, here is a brief list of what I worked on throughout the year:

• F-86F Sabre Guide Overhaul (Early January 2023)
• MiG-15Bis Guide Overhaul (Early January 2023)
• DH.98 Mosquito Guide Update (Early January 2023)
• Mi-24P Hind Guide Update (Early January 2023)
• Ka-50 Black Shark III Guide Update (Late January 2023)
• F-16C Viper Guide Update (Early February 2023)
• F/A-18C Hornet Guide Update (Early February 2023)
• Mirage F1 Guide Creation (from February 2023 to July 2023)
• Mirage 2000C Guide Update (Early August 2023)
• F-14B Tomcat Guide Update (Late August 2023)
• A-10C Warthog Guide Update (Late August 2023)
• Sa-342 Gazelle Guide Overhaul (Early September 2023)
• P-47D Thunderbolt Guide Update (Late September 2023)
• P-51D Mustang Guide Update (Late September 2023)
• Spitfire Mk IX Guide Update (Late September 2023)
• FW190A-8 Anton Guide Overhaul (Late September 2023)
• FW190D-9 Dora Guide Overhaul (Late September 2023)
• Bf.109K-4 Guide Overhaul (Late September 2023)
• Mi-8 Guide Update (Late September 2023)
• L-39ZA Albatros Guide Overhaul (Early October 2023)
• F-15E Strike Eagle Guide Creation (Late October 2023 - Present)

Looking Forward - A Year of Mad Hopes

So... what's next? The first item on the list is to keep working on the F-15E. Needless to say, it's a monumental task. Within the last three months, more than 300 pages have been completed already, but there is still a lot of stuff to do. I want to have the first version completed before doing the eagerly awaited updates for the AH-64's new features and datalink updates for the A-10, F-16, and F/A-18. The Phantom will likely come after that.

Once more, the DCS 2024 and Beyond video has shown us a shiny sneak peek into the future of flight simulation. The Iraq and Kola maps look very interesting, and the upcoming modules look quite promising. The Chinook, Phantom, MiG-23, Hellcat, Corsair, Intruder, Hercules, La-7 and Kiowa Warrior are all aircraft I can't wait to start flying in the virtual skies. I'd rather not think too hard about "when" since I'm still very much playing catch up with the current modules already available. I could blabber for hours and hours about all that stuff I am hyped about, but everyone and their dog has done it by now.

Eagle Dynamics and their partners appear to be investing more resources into developing the WWII PTO (Pacific Theater of Operations), which brings interesting possibilities to the table. Corsairs and Hellcats will likely have a (very deadly) playground to fight in.

My jaw dropped once I saw that a full-fidelity MiG-29A was in the works. I've been waiting a long, looong time for this to happen. The Fulcrum will fit in very nicely in the 1980's Cold War servers. The Flaming Cliffs 3 MiG-29 has always left me with so many questions on this jet due to its system simplifications... digging through its nuts and bolts is going to be a ton of fun.

So... that's pretty much it for now. Stay tuned!

Chuck