Do Orbx Employees, Owners, Developers Find Time for Flying in Flightsim??

[fltsimguy]

As to the question, I'm just wondering, after seeing an extremely detailed post from Holger this morning on how to deal with a compatiblity issue CanUK Calgary Intl (CYYC) compatibility with FTX Northern Rockies.  A complete run down on what files to modify and how to do it.  Incredible!

Do you folks ever fly just for the fun of it?  Can you still enjoy flying in flightsim?  Or is it all work no play?  Or do you care to fly, is it all just a job to you?

Supplemental

I remember when I was working in forestry, in the bush, climbing mountains all day, in miserable conditions, doing timber inventory in all those places covered by PFJ, sometimes I thought that I would never like to hike and climb and look at trees again.  But, you know what I did on my summer holidays, I backpacked, rock climbed, paddled my canoe into the wilderness....and I still enjoyed it.

[Martin Henare]

Very rarely and its usually in some form of test. With airports and important test is to fly into the new scenery from well out of the new scenery area. So for me it is a chance to do some normal flying. But 90% of my time is in slew mode, or buzzing around in the Robinson

[Ryan Mason]

I don't do nearly as much as most of the guys by way of development here, but I usually fly 3-4 times a week, I set aside from 10pm-12am, that's when I get to fly for the fun of it.  I try and make sure I still have fun in the sim to remember what it's all about.

[Jay Kae]

Usually I have a little bit of time left per day, between the 11 seconds and around 2 or 3 minutes

[Ian Routley]

Very little ... but I do start and shut down the sim more than most normal people do.

[Ryan Mason]

Usually I have a little bit of time left per day, between the 11 seconds and around 2 or 3 minutes

That is so true when it comes to you mate lol

[fltsimguy]

Well now, this is enlightening.  Sort of how I figured it might be given the efforts required to run the website, provide excellent support service, develop, test and market the products...its full time!

Well I guess you know already though that the rest of us are really really enjoying the dedication and efforts you all make.  I have been recharged in this hobby because of Orbx.

[Tim Harris]

Maybe once a fortnight I will manage a 1 hour flight from A to B (of my choice) , mostly I fly routes (on autopilot, on the second screen) that people report issues with to try to replicate problems,

Unfortunately due to constant fresh installs of FSX and our products you quickly get over reinstalling all those other things/tweaks you loved

[John Venema]

I rarely get time to fly in the sim, and I usually find that if/when I do, it's when I need to finally turn off the PC at some late hour, or spend time in the real world with my family. Like Marty though, I do spend a lot of time in Slew Mode and also in the R22 doing low level circuits of our scenery during testing.

The one time when the team members *do* spend some time actually flying is at Avalon Airshow, so we're looking forward to March 2011 when we can 'indulge' in some stick time for 4 days! 

[CoolP]

I think Jay Kae's world tour on the C310 was and is some dev flight event. But I think he amends "I'm at work!" or something to his flight plan, otherwise the VATSIM controllers will try to call him all the time. 

But maybe they know that he's one of the busy guys around (are there any not-busy guys at Orbx by the way?), so maybe the give him a heading, pass that message via text instead of voice and think "after he's done with the forum guys, he will surely proceed". 

Like it seems in this thread, the real downside of being a dev for flight sim stuff is that your former hobby is work now and you have more than enough of it to lose the "hobby" view on it. So maybe some fascination is gone then while the products itself transport a lot of it.

Magic people in my eyes. Seeing the end of the year approaching, I wish you all a happy, nice and relaxing time then (not now, don't get me wrong  ).

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi guys,

it's a bit odd indeed: I hardly have time to do longer sim flights anymore yet I keep buying more of those great new aircraft releases 

On the plus side, due to our involvement with a local commercial client, I get to ride shotgun in a real helicopter once in a while, which is a nice bonus 

Cheers, Holger

[Jay Kae]

lol the tour has been put on hold indefinitely Also just to reiterate because someone asked the question in PM, I am not an Orbx employee

[Bruce Hamilton]

..I get to ride shotgun in a real helicopter once in a while..

Bucky Lastard!  I'm seriously jealous. 

[CoolP]

I see, Jay Kae, you are not one of them but very much like them (busy and fast). You are right, I saw your name here and there and it seems like they put up that Batman sign in the cloudy skies and you appear. 

I've feared that you would report that the world tour is on hold but I still find the idea a very good one. So keep it up and good luck there.

As you see, the Orbx members have to do some hard work too, riding choppers and stuff. I double the jealousy there from Bruce.

[Bill Womack]

I'm like Tim - maybe once every couple of weeks (if I'm lucky) I'll get an hour's flight in. Now that I've got my new POD built, I'm hoping to improve those numbers. One interesting side-effect of flying for fun is that I've found the more I fly, the more excited I become about new FS projects. If you just slew around constantly in 1-2 minute bursts, it's easy to lose sight of why this hobby is so cool in the first place. So yeah, that's why I built my new flying-only rig... right. 

[Russ White]

I never fly in the sim.

All my sim time is spent in slew mode placing things i've made.

I was never really a big simmer in the first place 

Russ.

[Heiko Glatthorn]

it's a bit odd indeed: I hardly have time to do longer sim flights anymore yet I keep buying more of those great new aircraft releases 

Sounds familiar... 

Well, it's more or less a 'holy act' that i have at least a pattern or a short sightseeing flight above the days work or others new scenery, before i shut down the PC. If i have more time that darn V key most likely gets in my way (did i ever had a flight without making screen shots...lol).

[Matt Tomkins]

Yep, very little flying. Mostly slewing in the test area for me.

[Jared Charalambous]

I'm probably the odd one out since durring development, I do my best to spend at least 2 hours on Sunday, most weeks test flying (Often more when i get into it).

Obviously a vital part of aircraft development is replicating what you expect the users to be doing so I do as many as possible tests in the environment of a realistic flight from start up to shutdown. Often it envelops a bit of time but it also makes for a better product IMHO.

This Sunday just been I loaded a flight to test the latest pass at the new Lancair landing lighting textures at dusk. The plan was to taxi around a bit, testing how it iluminates scenery then take off, fly a circut and land to test the brightness switching. It worked perfectly and I ended up doing about 10 circuts just for the fun of it. By the time I went onto something else it was fully night in the simulator.

Usualy durring the week when time is more limited I will just boot and test but I have often found myself trying to remember why I loaded the sim since I have been playing around for quite a while.

When not developing I still do my best to fly every Sunday.

The flipside of course is when beta testing our airports I do a ton of low level helecopter proximity flying and again I find one notices a lot more when doing real flying rather than slewing around. Also I find it sharpens the heck out of your helli skills

Finaly, to stay ahead of the curve, I do checkout a fair few other manufacturers products. Obviously the aircraft market is extreemly competitive so it pays to keep an eye on the latest and greatest The best way for me to do that is to fly them as any other user would.

Personaly I love flying in FSX so I MAKE time, be it testing or mucking around .

[John Bosch]

I barely have enough time for real life at the moment. Then in order of precedence it would be ...

finish my real life pilots licence,

do FTX development,

fly in the sim.

So, yeah, not a lot of flying here either! Mine isn't caused by the development load though. Just work and family.

[Ken Hall]

I try to fly with the OZXguys online friday nights, apart from that it's nearly all testing

, I used to joke about which aircraft was the best for instant scenery placement, and joked that the acusim B-17 was perfect(being sarcastic here), I needed to justify buying new aircraft and since I rarely got to fly them, but instead slew in them. I had to think of ways to justify the potential scenery placement advatages of each aircraft. I have a Hangar full of slewable IS placement aircraft, Heven help me if I ever have to actually fly them

You can usually spot the developers flying on friday nights by there LOUSY LANDINGS, just ask ED(Lamancha), were the 1st to put the nose into the dirt, very embarassing.

But I have to say that I love what I do and theres a real Buzz flying around something youve created, I enjoy getting positive feedback from the guys that take screenies of one of my strips especially if they take the time to set the shot up with Autogen turned up, some nice cloudset, and a time of day, either early morning or dusk is my favorite that makes the place look great.

As long as you guys enjoy flying our strips then I guess thats enough reason to keep making them.

Thanks for enquiring, and giving us a chance to let you see what it's like for us seduced by "The Dark Side"

cheers

Ken

[Butch]

In my case very much like Bill, I am a hardcore gamer and flyaholic. 

Developing has been more an extension of FSX, just an additional avenue to enjoy this fantastic hobby. I really enjoy thinking of a scheme, making it then flying in it. I get my headphones on spark up PS and just paint away. A new technique, or style you not done before.... etc. Keeps it fresh.

At the end of the day, if I can't nail that procedure approach and landing then the whole evening was just rubbish! Hehehe...

Cheers

Butch

[Ed Correia]

You can usually spot the developers flying on friday nights by there LOUSY LANDINGS, just ask ED(Lamancha), were the 1st to put the nose into the dirt, very embarassing.

cheers

Ken

He he, and I am sure you have the screenies to prove it.

Friday nights with OZx flying club is about the only time I fly. Other than that, default trike & slew.

[Mark Abdey]

It's good to know some of you hard working people have a little time left to enjoy the sim yourselves... your relentless - and no doubt often tedious - work does give a lot of pleasure 

At least you get read and see so many people enjoying the work you do, which hopefully makes up for it a little 

[John Bosch]

Friday nights with OZx flying club is about the only time I fly. Other than that, default trike & slew.

Hmm ... now that I have a functional headset again. It might be time to get back in to some online flying.

[fltsimguy]

I really want to thank you folks for sharing your experience and views on this question.  It provides us customers some great insight into the people behind the scenes.

I see lots of dedication and belief in the services you are providing.

[Jay Kae]

Here is a perfect example, got Bundaberg loaded, flew a couple of circuits... landed... enjoyed the wonderful scenery using BOB and the PeopleFlow and .. shut down and off to the next port of call. The daily maintenance of OZx, REX and some FSS stuff that needs to be done.

Then after I spend some time with the family, some more maintenance on the download servers of the various domains I own

fsfiles.org

myftx.com

fss-cdn.com

Main CDN

MF

etc etc

Then after that, I will go and play some gran Turismo with my youngest and then it is probably time to go to bed

[Butch]

Then after I spend some time with the family, some more maintenance on the download servers of the various domains I own

Then after that, I will go and play some gran Turismo with my youngest and then it is probably time to go to bed

Time with family is gold, they are only young once. Besides, someone has to show them how its done!