Harry Follas
have been interested in aircraft and flight for longer than I can
remember. As a small child, Dad used to take my brother and I to the
airport to watch the planes land and takeoff. I guess that is where
it all started. I can still remember the old Friendships and 737s
interspersed with the occasional DC-8s and 707s and VC-10s from far
away places. Despite ultimately training as a Geologist, my real
passion lies in aviation.My love of classic propliners and military aircraft also stemmed from this time. New Zealand skies in the early to mid 1970's held an interesting assortment of aircraft, both old and new: The air force flew Bristol Freighters, Dakotas, Devons and Harvards whilst commercial operations still operated DC-3s, DC-4s, Bristol Freighters, Friendships and Argosies. For a small boy it was almost heart breaking to see these roudy old planes being retired one by one.
Dad had another great love that washed off on all of us--boating. For a time whenever the weekend weather was fine you'd find the Follas family out on the water. Auckland's Hauraki Gulf has a great reputation for cruising. It has dozens of islands with many excellent bays and harbours with sheltered anchorages. Another operator of classic aircraft flew several Grumman Widgeons and Geese. When they arrived in the bay I was transfixed! I suppose this is the underlying reason why I produce so many flying boats for flightsim...seaplanes combine two interests!
I'm a relative newcomer to flight simulation, but I've been an active modeller for many years. I had a copy of FS4, but never did much with it. My next purchase was FSFW95 in 1996, however when I discovered Flight Shop I was in heaven! If anyone has noticed that I spend a lot of time modifying and rebuilding other peoples' designs, it's nothing new; I have already been doing this to plastic kit sets for years. I always found that I couldn't find quite the right subject I wanted, so I bought the aircraft's closest cousin and attacked it with a scalpel! Pretty drastic but the end result was worth it. I've picked up a valuable contact along the way, namely with my colleague 'across the ditch' (Tasman Sea: i.e. Australia), Brian Horsey. Brian is a former airline engineer and does most of my flight dynamics files for me.
It is interesting that my designing for flightsim has had its spin offs. As a result of the Catalina I designed last year, I have now joined and become an active member of New Zealand's Catalina Club. The group owns and operates ZK-PBY, a PBY-5a on scenic flights around NZ. I commence training as cabin crew in September!
Harry Follas
chinook@ihug.co.nz