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An Interview with Frederick Zealor MSFS Scenery Developer Development Fred, could I begin by asking about when you first started developing for flight simulators and what got you interested in it? I first started flying a flight simulator program in around 1976. This was when I acquired an Apple II Plus, which I STILL have; complete with all manuals and such, and in the original box! My first foray into scenery development was in December of 1999 for FS98. This was to add a bunch of small, private airports for the Sacramento, CA area, which were sorely lacking in MSFS at that time. Moving forward to 2005-2007 (this time in FS2004), was again a desire to improve these airports (more like what I saw from a C-152). In 2016, using FSX/FSX-SE, I began making the small airports in Florida more realistic. This led me to being asked to join a flight sim club - The Ocala Flight Sim Club (OFSC) - a group of like minded, same age flight sim enthusiasts, and being asked to update several airports that had a personal interest in the membership (and others!) Could you tell us a bit about the nature of your designs and what you do? Most of the updates that I do are of small to medium sized, mostly private, mostly grass fields that Microsoft represented as a strip of grass and/or asphalt. I use AirNav and Google Earth plus any web sites I can find related to the project I am working on, to see what needs to be updated. What do you consider your best or most popular work? The funny thing that I have noticed...the first airport that I updated for Florida - X04, Orlando-Apopka Airport is the one with the most downloads! Fred, what do you find to be the most challenging aspect of a project? Finding as much information as I can about an airfield project - and sometimes separating out the facts from fiction is quite a challenge. If it is not too far, I will sometimes travel to the field to check out details that I cannot find any other way. The telephone is also a great help - people involved in aviation will help anyone with an aviation question, no matter how odd that question may be! What have been your favourite projects to date? There actually have been three projects - FD04, FL19, FA40 - which were personal requests by flight simmers who owned, lived on, or had a personal interest in them. These three were personally very rewarding. Fred, what software packages and tools do you use to develop your airports? The main tool that I use is Airport Design Editor (ADE) the fantastic program developed by Jon Masterson. I used to make my own 3-D structures and such back in the early 2000's but through lack of use, I have now forgotten how! I now rely on the fantastic libraries that FlightSim.Com and others provide for people like me, to use. Also, as I stated earlier, I use Google Earth and AirNav as info sources. Who would you consider to be your mentors or inspiration in the development world? I really feel that both John Loney and Ray Poole have inspired me to create as accurate a representation of my projects as I can. Do you develop payware/freeware sceneries or both and if so why? I strictly do freeware development. As all the programs, libraries and other data is freely available, I have no desire to infringe on these authors hard work by charging for their usage. The Team Fred, do you work alone, or as apart of a team on your projects? There is no team, only myself. Real Life Do you have any experience in real aviation? I received my PPL in 2001 at the age of 62, fulfilling a life long dream. I have had an interest in aviation since when I was about nine years old. The usual balsa models, plastic and paper models...then U-control and finally R/C models. From 1984 through to 2001, I was a member of an R/C Air Show Team - The Capital City Barnstormers, in Sacramento, CA. We flew anything from large scale models to a flying lawnmower and a witch on her broom! We performed for any size group - grade school kids to an opening act for large, full scale airshows. After leaving the team, I became a professional air show announcer for about twelve years. I met some FANTASTIC people. Fred, could you tell us abut some of those fantastic people? That is a hard group to pick apart, as ALL the airshow performers that I had contact with were amazing to be associated with...but I will try. When the Barnstormers were working as an audience warm-up, we were invited to the 'before show' social events and we brought along with us an R/C hot air ballon (a weather ballon in a covering with a basket with two propellers for steering/propulsion). To watch members of the Thunderbirds, Blue Angles and the Canadian Snowbirds mess with this air balloon was amazing! I had the personal pleasure of meeting with Mr. Bob Hoover, a real gentleman. As my announcing career was all in California at small shows, most of the performers were West Coast performers - Eddie Andreini, Bill Cornick, Spenser Suderman (holder of the world record for most inverted flat spins), Miss Julie Clark and Jacquie Warder (Jacquie B). Have you had any memorable real life flights? So far (thankfully) I have had no particularly memorable flights - number of landings equalls the number of takeoffs! However...I would say that sitting in the left seat with the right seat EMPTY, when waiting for clearance to start my first solo flight, was a day I will never forget! Fred, would you like to share with the readers what you do in real life? I have been retired since 2002, but when working, my real-life job was as an Electro-Mechanical Designer. This was mostly in the electronic industry and something I really enjoyed. When you're not developing sceneries, what other hobbies or things do you do like to do for enjoyment? As I stated earlier, I enjoy making things. I have been making paper models on and off for about 65 years, and this includes all kinds of models: boats, aircraft, military stuff and buildings. All you need is an inkjet printer, some card stock, white glue, scissors and tweezers; simple! Have you ever considered doing flight simulator development full-time? At this present time, the way I glue myself to the computer with a project, it might as well be full time scenery development! Future Fred, how do you go about choosing your next new design or project? I have a very scientific method I use to choose my next project - I use a digital aeronautical chart, scan through it and pick something that looks interesting. I then check the numerous download sites to make sure no one has already done it, look at Google Earth to see what it looks like, and if I like what I see - get started. What simulators do you design for now and which ones do you plan to develop for in the future? At the present time, I design/upgrade for FSX/FSX-SE. I also believe that my airports will also work with P3D but I am not sure, and have no intention to change to it. Fred, in what ways do you see development changing in the future? The way programs are developing, the future is open-ended, it should be very interesting. Your Thoughts What can sites like FlightSim.Com do to support you and the hobby better? I think you guys do a fantastic job of providing a place for people like me to share our wares. In other words, do not change a thing! Lastly Fred, what would you like people to know about you and your MSFS work? The bottom line is that I hope people who download my stuff get as much enjoyment from using them as I get from creating them. Thank you all for providing me with a chance to be somewhat informative about flight simming. Frederick Zealor Download Frederick Zealor Scenery -
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