Chris Bawden
My name is Chris Bawden. I live in Brisbane, Australia and my daytime job
is a Business Analyst with a government agency. In spite of my job title
there's not much business analysed but mainly technical and business
support for a mainframe accounting package.I have been using flightsims since the original FS running on a floppy drive and started designing aircraft on FS4. As with most designers I progressed through FS5, FS98 and am now working on FS2000 (an aircraft designer's dream). My aircraft designs include a Boeing 767, 737-300, 400 & 500, Shorts 360, BAE 146-100, 200 & 300 and a Brasilia. My current project is an FS2000 Dash 8.
Apart from flightsims I am interested in aviation generally, and can be found at the airport most weekends looking at the real stuff.
The thing that most surprised me about the FS community is that pilots who fly the real stuff during the day come home and fly them again on their PC. Most of the performance information I use for my flight models comes from pilots of the actual aircraft.
For budding aircraft designers out there I thought I would share a few design rules I follow.
1. No matter how many parts are available it won't be enough.
2. If it looks right then it probably is.
3. A good aircraft will take a LOT of work.
4. There is always room for chocolate, no matter how much you have eaten. Although not an FS rule, it's a good one anyway.
5. Someone out there is always willing to help. FS designers love to show off.
Christopher Bawden
chrisb@uq.net.au