When did you start developing for flight simulators and what got you interested in it?

I started developing for flight simulation back around 1995 with a small MSFS based project. I found an online weather map site that had current surface conditions for the USA, so I wrote a program that would decode the graphical map symbology and convert it back to text form. I then spent the next few months researching and decoding the relevant portions of the MSFS situation files so I could automatically inject the current weather conditions into your saved situation file. This allowed MSFS to automatically launch with current real weather conditions.

Through this experience I began thinking how wonderful it would have been if I could have concentrated 90% of my effort on my new development ideas and maybe only 10% of that effort figuring out how to plug into the software. Instead I had spent maybe 10% of that effort on the fun parts, and 90% of my time on the gruelling, tedious process of reverse engineering someone else's binary file structure.

Not long after that experience a few people on one of the flight sim mailing lists at the time began to wonder about developing our own flight simulator from scratch. We were young guys back then and didn't know what we were in for. But by the time we realized how crazy/naive we were, and how huge the project actually was, we had a few things running and working, so we stuck with it and here we are today, more than 15 years later, still sticking with it!

What do you consider your best or most popular work?

I can't explain why exactly, but from the very start, way back in 1996 and continuing to today without interruption, I've never had any doubt that FlightGear would be successful and popular.

What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of a project?

For me personally (over the past few years) I think the most difficult thing has to be time. I started this project when I was a young 20-something guy with all the time and energy in the world. Now I'm a 40-something guy; married, kids, dog, house, and a million and one commitments and demands on my time. As life proceeds, it seems like it becomes more and more difficult to juggle all the demands of life; especially when trying to find some sort of balance so as to avoid frustration but at the same time, be productive at least once in a while. I wouldn't trade this with anyone, but somewhere along the way here I became the grown up that had to carry all the weight of the family and all the demands of life ... it's kind of funny how that happens.

What have been your favorite projects?

One thing I do on the side as a portion of my day job, is UAV embedded flight controller work. I did a demo where I converted our F-14 for fully autonomous carrier launch and recovery. That was a lot of fun to get working.

What software packages and tools do you use to develop?

I am probably "old school" ... I use text editors (usually emacs) for editing code and compile with "make" and gcc. I've always been frustrated by the constraints of integrated development environments. That's just my personal preference. I've been doing this long enough to know that every developer has different comfort zones, so I support whatever makes people the most happy and productive. For me, that is emacs, xterms, and running make and gcc from the command line.

Who would you consider to be your mentors or inspiration in the development world if you have any?

When I first started down the FlightGear path, I met a guy from Texas who had done quite a bit of professional level flight simulator work. I haven't kept in touch with him as much lately, but in those early years he was very gracious to offer support and advice. He was my first flight simulator mentor.

Can I just stop and say one thing here. I feel mentoring is probably the most important topic in this entire interview. A lot of people pursue an idea or interest for a few months, maybe a year or two, and then move on to other interests or other jobs. That is true for me with many things, but I have been involved with FlightGear since about 1996. That's long enough to start losing count ... can it really be 18 years?!?

During that time I have met so many wonderful people through FlightGear. There are people with experience and knowledge and skills far beyond my own who have come and contributed (or are contributing right now) to FlightGear. I have looked up to many of these people as mentors in the areas of strength that they have brought to the project. For me, FlightGear has been a tremendous learning experience.

I also see that time is flying by. 18 years seems like an eternity for a software project, and it's long enough to realize that even if I would want to, I won't be around forever myself. So I have thought about this for quite some time and one of my goals as a project founder is to be a mentor myself (as much as possible) to others. I realize that FlightGear needs to bring in new and younger talent, and I and others need to be involved in bringing them up to speed, encouraging them, and helping them branch off in new directions with their own ideas.

Honestly, it is hard to give up control, but one thing I have tried to be conscious of is bringing in new people, helping them to get started, and then giving them the freedom and flexibility to enhance the project. I am human so I do everything imperfectly, never as well as I would hope or imagine, but I do think about these things, and I do try as best as I can to pursue these goals.

So I see all these things tying in together and being integral to a healthy long term project, mentoring, transition, hard work, learning as you go, taking some risks, and occasionally making mistakes (but also learning from them.)

Do you develop payware/freeware or both and why?

FlightGear is 100% open source. Personally I do various software development as part of my day job, but FlightGear itself is open source. I should perhaps point out that freeware is not always the same as open-source. We make FlightGear available for free, and we make the source code available for free, and we require that changes to the source code be offered back to the project.

Do you have any experience in real aviation?

I do not have my pilots license, but I have been building and flying model airplanes since I was a kid. Over the holidays I began studying for the FAA private pilot written exam. That has been more difficult and more information to learn than I anticipated. The FAA has a lot of specific ways of doing things, specific language, and specific rules and procedures -- things that you wouldn't necessarily encounter in a flight simulator. But it's been a good process. I still hope someday to be able to have the time and money to be able to work on actual flight training.

What started your interest in aviation?

I have always been captured by aviation. Going way back to when I was a toddler, my dad would some times take me down to watch airplanes when he got home from work. My parents were missionaries in Peru and so that is where I was born. I think as part of growing up in a remote region of Peru, I was directly exposed to much more aviation than the typical kid might have been. I recall when I was five years old, getting the opportunity to fly in a PBY Catalina. Now I have an RC model of a PBY Catalina and fly it off a nearby lake on calm evenings.

Any memorable flights in real life?

In 1992 I had the opportunity to travel back to Peru with my dad to visit some different community development projects he was still involved with. We flew in a Helio Courier on floats up to a northern region of Peru. This portion of the trip involved stops at several communities and an overnight stay.

On our first stop, we got stuck water taxiing on a hidden sand bar in the middle of the river. I was the youngest kid on the plane, so I had to strip down to my bvd's (underwear), jump out into the water and push the plane clear of the sand ... in front of a distressingly large audience assembling at the shore.

Later that afternoon we flew to another community further up the river. I was fortunate enough to ride in the front seat most of the trip, but learned quickly about some of the hazards of riding up front. The flaps on the Helio are cranked down manually with a crank mounted on the roof of the cabin between the two front seats. Watch out for flying elbows!

On final approach to our evening's destination we were lined up with a nice wide calm section of river. As we got lower and lower I noticed we were less and less well lined up with the calm section of river and more and more lined up with a short turbulent white water section of river that I hadn't noticed earlier. As we dropped below the tree line it became clear that we were going to land on the rapids, not the smooth open water. The pilot skilfully navigated us through the tricky landing and successfully got us over to shore and all tied up. It turned out he was worried about some shallow water in the open area and chose the deeper faster portion of the river instead.

The next morning we waited around until just after lunch for the fog to clear. This area was set in a deep river valley with steep surrounding foot hills about 1500' above the river. It was probably the most beautiful spot on the planet, but the pilot gave it his full respect.

For our departure, the pilot needed to make a choice; neither option was entirely without risk. He could chose to take off from the short turbulent section of river and all the challenges of handling a seaplane on a fast, tricky, turbulent river, or attempt a take off from the wide smooth section of the river, but risk getting stuck in a hidden shallow spot. After weighing the pros and cons, the pilot opted for smooth water and a much longer open area for his takeoff run.

All seemed well as we taxied up to the far upstream end of the take off area, but as we were turning around downstream, the current carried us sideways into some shallow rocks. The pilot immediately gunned the motor to get through the rocks; we roared down the river for what seemed like an eternity, and at just the last moment we lifted off and barely cleared the tree line. It turned out that we had broken off a keel, had a serious hole in our float and also taken on some serious water in those few seconds before lift off. I don't know for sure, but this probably was a closer call than anyone was willing to admit. Our next destination was a mandatory fuel stop and a nice wide section of the Maranon river (which is one of the two primary tributaries to the Amazon river.)

By the time we taxied to the fuelling dock our right float was nearly submerged. We quickly jumped off the aircraft and the pilot taxied up stream about 50 feet to a sand bar. He then decided he wanted to get at the bottom of the float to assess the damage so he pushed back into the water, started the engine, gunned it and ran the float up onto the sandbar. From there he was able to dig out the soft sand and get some idea of the damage.

As all this was going on, we were running up against another problem. In 1992 there was quite a bit of terrorist activity in various portions of Peru. It was thought that the area we were at was safe to stop for refuelling, but not a safe place to stay overnight. In addition, we were not permitted to fly after sundown, and the Peruvian air force was very serious about that restriction. (A few years later the Peruvian air force actually shot down a small missionary aircraft killing a young mother and her child.) So we were about 3-3.5 hours away from home and really starting to feel the pinch of needing to get fuelled up and on our way.

Meanwhile another small float plane had landed and taxied up to the refuelling dock. In this area the fuel was stored in 55 gallon drums, up at the top of the river bank, and needed to be carried down in buckets to the aircraft. This was a slow process, but we needed to get them to get going so we could get refuelled ourselves.

As soon as the other aircraft pushed away from the dock, our pilot stuffed a rag in the gaping hole of our damaged float, several locals pushed the aircraft off the sand bar and he quickly taxied the aircraft to the dock. The pilot had two float pumps, so he put my dad in charge of pumping the damaged float, and I hopped through the back doors to the other side and was in charge of pumping the good float. While we were perched on the sandbar, the good float was in the water and taking more of the weight so it ended up taking water in through the top hatches which aren't designed to keep more than the splashes out. Both my dad and I were hand pumping as if our lives depended on it, whilst at the same time, the pilot and a couple locals were running buckets of fuel down from the top of the river bank to the airplane.

As we were pumping, the other airplane roared past us and headed off to its next destination. A few minutes later, still pumping, the aircraft's wake rolled in and over our floats. Momentarily I was covered up to my middle shin as I was standing on the float I was pumping ... not an encouraging feeling. My arms were burning and I felt like all that work had just been lost.

Before I gave up all hope, the pilot called for us to jump in so we did. He had all the fuel he thought we needed, so he fired up the motor, got us pointed immediately down stream and was flipping his checklist markers as we roared full throttle down the river. Some how we managed to get airborne, and the pilot coaxed us up on a very very shallow ascent.

We touched down at home base just as the sun was setting, probably a few minutes past the air force deadline, and were met by a dozen or so people ready to whisk the aircraft out of the water. The concern and seriousness on their faces suggested that maybe this was overall a tighter situation than I had realized at the time, but thankfully we were all safely home at the end of the day.

Would you like to share what you do in real life?

In real life I work with a small company out of Alaska developing a marinize UAS. We have designed a fully composite flying wing that can be launched from a small boat and recovered in the water. It is a low cost system that doesn't require a large amount of infrastructure to operate. Our initial funding has been through NOAA.gov. NOAA's interest in a low cost marinized UAV is primarily for ocean survey work. The Japanese tsunami spread an immense amount of debris out over the coastlines of the Pacific. Alaska's pristine coastlines are especially hard hit. In addition to debris, NOAA has an interest in monitoring and managing endangered wildlife populations in some very remote areas, as well as doing a variety of other scientific projects.

What other hobbies or things do you do for enjoyment?

I have always built and flown model airplanes as my hobby, but somehow my day job of building and flying small UAS's has taken up most of those brain cells. In the past few years I have started learning a few songs on the piano ... simply for my own amusement, not to perform! I find that music stretches areas of my brain that hadn't seen much action in a while, and there are so many good life lessons in music. It takes me ten times longer to learn a song than probably most people, but I know that if I put my mind to it, I can do it. It might take me six months to learn a song well enough to play it through, but there is something about the process of learning and the symbolism of overcoming challenges, that at first seem impossible, that make it worth the effort.

Have you ever considered doing flight simulator development full time?

I have considered full time flight simulator work, but the opportunity has never really presented itself. What I have found is that for better or worse, fair or not, FlightGear has become my resume. People contact me assuming I have a full and complete mastery of the entire project and I can bring the same level of accomplishment to their project. I quickly try to explain that the truth is FlightGear is a culmination of contributions from hundreds of developers over 15+ years. As time goes on and as the project grows, my portion and influence rightly diminishes. But still, I can say that 100% of my work going back 5-6 years and a large portion of my work before that came about through my involvement in FlightGear and contacts and connections made through the project.

How do you choose your next new design or project?

This is hard to explain! I'll frequently think about various problems or challenges or interests that I encounter from day to day in all areas of my life. It always seems like the best ideas come to me when I'm out jogging or doing something away from my computer. But what inevitably happens is that when something captures my interest; I'll think about it more and more, and then finally I'll think of ways for tackling whatever it is. At some point the thoughts become a flood and I have to make time to work on them and get them out in code so my head doesn't burst!

What simulators do you design for now and what ones do you plan to develop for in the future?

Can I make a brief mention of one of my "for fun" side projects? I started this a year ago over the holiday break, ran out of time during 2013, but picked it up again over this most recent holiday break and finally have a few things people could try.

What I am building is a model airplane design tool. But rather than design your aircraft with traditional CAD and solid modeling techniques, you "describe" your design in sort of a "language." So instead of drawing up all your ribs, and cutting out all the notches for spars and stringers, you would say, "please make me a 60" wing with a clarky airfoil, I want a 10" chord, a spar at the 33% chord, etc." The software crunches out all the parts, makes an exact 3D model of the structure you asked for, creates full size build plans, and lays all the parts out on cut sheets for a laser cutter.

This is something for model airplane builders, but hopefully as time progresses, I'll have a chance to build some tie ins to FlightGear.

The program is called "Model Airplane Designer" and the web site is http://madesigner.flightgear.org. There is a working version of the software you can download and experiment with, along with some documentation, examples, and videos.

What can sites like FlightSim.Com do to support you and the hobby better?

FlightGear is an open-source, volunteer driven project. We do not have a marketing budget or arrangements to get our DVD on store shelves. Because of this we depend almost exclusively on word of mouth to let people know about our project. Whenever highly popular sites like FlightSim.Com do mention FlightGear, we see a spike in our web traffic and download stats, so we understand the importance of marketing and are always very grateful when we can get mentioned in the media.

What would you like people to know about you or your team and work?

I think in summary I just want to say how proud I am of all the people who have contributed to the FlightGear project! I have made many friends over the years through the project, and have met and communicated with people from all over the world. We have a group of wonderful and talented people that continue to surprise me every month with new ideas and new development. It is hard for me to express how much I have learned and been blessed through my participation in FlightGear and it is my hope and goal that others will find FlightGear to be a great learning tool, an outlet for their creative ideas, and maybe a fun way to spend an evening simulating flights to places we might never be able to visit, and do so in aircraft we would never have a chance to fly in real life.

Curtis Olson
curt0001@flightgear.org
www.flightgear.org