Summer Diary

Hi folks!

With July coming to an end, I thought I would let you know what's on my mind for the next upcoming months. I've had a lot of fun working on the Thunderbolt guide (much to the dismay of the modern jet jockeys among you), and I regret nothing.

 On the DCS Front: 

The first priority is to wrap up the Black Shark update. As with every update, I'm finding an increasing number of things I don't like about the initial 2015 version... I will try to add a bit of meat to the bone without falling into the familiar scope creep sinkhole. I found a few mistakes in the Weapons section, so I will correct them also when practical.

Of course, the Hornet update is also in the works. I was torn for a few weeks on whether to wait for more air-to-ground radar features to be implemented or not... but I think the next features could be months away... so I elected to start working on the features that are implemented so far. Rumor has it that the DCS Viper might have some new toys near the end of August, so I feel I will keep being busy for the summer.

 On Other Fronts: 

In the last months, there has been an increasing demand for Il-2 Great Battles guides. For those of you who may not know, I actually started simming with Cliffs of Dover and the very first guide I worked on in 2015 was for the Spitfire MkIa that flew during the Battle of Britain. Feels like forever ago, really. Sadly, I haven't gotten much stick time in any of the recent Il-2 titles due to spending most of my time in DCS, BMS, Prepar3d, and X-Plane 11. 

While the Il-2 modules are of lower fidelity, I've always had this secret dream to create some sort of Virtual Aviation Museum. What if a sim could be used to learn about the plane, even if some systems are not modelled? I thought of this concept for a while, and I've decided to give it a shot when I'll have a little spare time. I thought I'd start with a plane I've cherished since my childhood: the Hawker Tempest Mk V. The end goal would be to have more information than you'd need to use the plane in Il-2... but for those of you who enjoy these little technical details I think you will really enjoy that new guide format.

Another project I would like to tackle this fall is the Avro Lancaster. This has got to be one of my Top 5 favorite planes of all time. Aeroplane Heaven simulated a Mk Ib for Prepar3d and while the system fidelity isn't nearly close to study-sim levels, the developer did a most uncommon thing: the team modelled not only the front cockpit, but also the majority of different compartments within the aircraft. This includes things like the Bomb Aimer compartment, the gunner turrets, the Navigator compartment, the Flight Engineer panel and even the Wireless Operator compartment. This is extremely rare among sim developers to go to such lengths. I think it would be a great opportunity to teach about how flying night missions in the Lancaster really was (those who have seen Target for Tonight will know what I'm talking about).