Donn E. Bohde
'm 42 years old,
married to a wonderful woman and the proud father of three great
daughters. Being the only male in this family, which includes a dog,
hamster and goldfish, I have learned the importance of flight
For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in General
Aviation flight. One of my earliest memories is flying with my
Grandfather in his Cessna 180 on floats, which he kept at his home on
Drummond Island at the eastern tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. As
I grew older, I would spend summers at Drummond and would make
frequent flights, with my Grandfather, practicing all aspects of
flying.
Having been a pilot since the early 1920's, my Grandfather was most proud of his first pilot's license (when they first became necessary) which was signed by Wilbur Wright himself. Although he passed away in 1993, after logging many hours of flight, he has left in his wake many people who have caught his enthusiasm for flight and "followed in his footsteps", becoming pilots. Just in our family, my father, brother, and several cousins have all received their "tickets". Even my mother has soloed. Strangely, however, although I have definitely had the "bug", my flying thusfar, has been confined to the simulated variety. I'm sure however, that my turn will eventually present itself.
A relative newcomer to this wonderful pastime, I purchased my first computer in 1994 followed immediately by my purchase of MS FS5.0. I have since upgraded to FS5.1 and upon upgrading to a Pentium, will move on to FSFW95. I purchased BAO's Flight Shop program in early 1996 and immediately sat down to design a Cessna Skymaster. Finally after countless hours of trying to make sense of the manual, it became an airplane and I flew it around the world, stopping at every default airport in FS5.1.
Soon, I got the bug to do a proper seaplane and chose to model a Cessna 185 on both floats and wheels (WBC185.ZIP) as a tribute to my Grandfather. This time I took special pains to make it as visually accurate as possible (I am an architect, after all). Until this time, still "modemless", I had no idea just how popular this hobby was. My eyes were opened wide when I joined Compuserve and first visited FSFORUM and saw how widespread this "simulation virus" had become. I just had to upload the 185 for others to splash around in and enjoy.
I am in the process of upgrading the Cessna Skymaster and will upload the visually accurate model when completed. Visually accurate Flight shop aircraft design is indeed a challenge, but one which is most enjoyable and rewarding, especially when the results can be shared with so many fellow "simmers".
I can be reached by E-Mail at 105213.3330@compuserve.com