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Interview with Doug Linn Original Creator of Misty Moorings Conducted by Dominic Smith Doug, could I first ask you how you got involved in flight simulation? For me, getting into flight simulation was probably driven by the same factor as many people. I always dreamed to fly, my life requirements just didn't allow it, so the next best thing is a simulator. Result? Dream come true! Especially with the amazing quality of today's simulators. My first simulator was on a Radio Shack TS-80. We used a little tape recorder to "load" the program into the computer. We flew inside a 5 mile square of territory, and at the time, that was a thrill. Telling me then what I would be flying today, I would not have believed it. How did the idea for Misty Moorings come about? A trip with my wife to Alaska brought about Misty Moorings...the original site for FS2004. Standing on the dock at Ketchikan and watching the busy Beavers coming and going hooked me. I was well into flight simulation by that time. Having been to such a magical place, we all dream to return there so the love of the simulator and the memory of the Misty Fjords came together to create Misty Moorings. Now, not only could I go back any time I liked, but I could also have fun sharing it with other people at MistyMoorings.com, which as we know, has now become Return to Misty Moorings. How did you end up working with Brad Allen? Misty Moorings was fading away as FS2004 was fading. The updated Microsoft simulator came along and as people moved to the new platform, Misty Moorings fell into disuse by the community. One night a fellow named Brad Allen called me out of the blue and asked if I would be interested in working with him to create a NEW Misty Moorings that would use the new platform. I converted to FSX, and Brad and I went to work on it together. So the "RETURN" was added ... resulting in "Return to Misty Moorings." Brad and I have continued to work together throughout RTMM's history and it has been a lasting partnership. Could you tell us about the "From Here to There" philosophy at RTMM? Why do we fly (simulation)? It is simply the thrill of taking off, navigating and landing safely. Of course it is also thrilling to have a "location" to land at and one that is also pleasing to the eye. RTMM adds that eye candy. But the focus is not on the scenery location, the focus of RTMM is "getting there." (Here2There). First we find a stunning location, one that is fun to fly to, one that graphically takes your breath away and that is relatively easy to find in the Misty Fjords area! Then we build a little scenery location there. The simmers, in order to see it, are led through some of the most beautiful geographical mazes on earth. With our autopilot flight plans, you can turn on the autopilot and just look at the scenery going by (as you would on a flight-seeing tour). Or you can fly that maze by following the GPS track just as a real bush pilot does. Although we offer people hundreds of scenery locations, we focus on "getting there" ... hence Here2There. Do you have a favorite aircraft in which to explore the world of RTMM? I mostly fly the "Misty Beaver" and the "Misty Goose". The Beaver is Aerosoft and I think the Goose is freeware. Adding the Misty repaints adds yet another dimension to the experience. Doug, in Brad's interview, he mentioned that you have created something called a Trip Ticket. Could you explain to the readers what this is? Yes, this is to sharpen our focus on the "here2there' aspect of the flight simulator experience. If you fly with a pilot/tour guide in Alaska, he will be "talking" to you during the trip. They are more than taxi drivers, they are guides and are very knowledgeable on the area. We try to duplicate that experience with our Trip Tickets (TripTics). We have created TripTics that allow you to follow along with the flight. On some of them, we add historical information on what you are seeing, and almost always point out geographical features. We are attempting to, like a flight/tour guide, give you information on the area and make it more than just a flight... it becomes an experience. You can see examples here: http://return.mistymoorings.com/triptics/TripTics/last_resort_bear_island/last_resort_bear_island.php http://return.mistymoorings.com/triptics/TripTics/owikeno%20lake/trip_owikeno_lake_trip_ticket.php These are used by bringing them up, and putting them into a window beside your simulator window. Then you can fly and follow the TripTic for information on what you are seeing. It's yet one more way of getting people excited about the amazing scenery in the RTMM area. You can learn more about the TripTics here: http://return.mistymoorings.com/faq/#t What aspects of RTMM are you most proud of? The RTMM team! Without the talented team of people we have working on the site, there would be no RTMM. We are located world-wide ... yet we work together as though we were neighbors. Each person brings a special expertise to the team. Often when they are discussing a technical issue, I simply sit back and watch the emails, totally in awe of their knowledge. RTMM has become known as a trouble-shooting site for many. Getting on to RTMM has a learning curve (well worth the effort in the end). If you ask a question on our forum, you will get an almost IMMEDIATE response. Our people are like hawks sitting in the trees watching for the mouse. And when they spot someone with a problem, they respond quickly and lead that person through the problem to its solution. You can learn a great deal just by watching how problems are solved on the RTMM forum. RTMM is FREEware. We are very proud of that. As extensive as our site is, our team is made up of volunteers that freely give their time to create this FREE asset to the flight-simming community. Obviously one has to purchase some other software packages which are the "base" for RTMM, but all of our contributions which are layered upon those are free. We have over 450 locations, we've also added all of the "missing USFS" cabins and we have over 800 flight plans TO and FROM all of the locations. We have no advertisements, and the only money we get for supporting the page is from donations from our fans, who most generously keep us in business! Doug, I know that your son Dan is also part of the team. Could you tell the readers about his important role? My son, Dan, makes everything the RTMM team comes up with work. Dan also designed the web site and keeps up with the forum "oddities" that can happen with registration, etc. He is an expert in programming a site like ours (he has designed commercial web pages, working for very large I.S. companies). We make the stew, Dan makes the pot! All of the graphics you see on the site are his. I simply "place" them, but he creates them. He's rather shy about this and stays in the background but all our folks know the amazing contribution he makes to the success of RTMM. (Makes dad proud too!). What new/future projects and ideas are you most excited about at RTMM? We are always exploring the latest "edge." When we saw DX10 and P3D coming over the horizon, we acted quickly to be ready for these formats so we would not be left behind. Our object design team converted all of our objects so they will work for FSX, DX10 and P3D ... few sites have done that. One of the learning barriers are adding the object libraries, however, the team helps people through this. So our future depends upon what comes over the horizon next. I'm also exploring TwitchTV. This is a new endeavor for us. If you look at the Microsoft Flight Simulator X channel there, you will see 15-20 broadcasters running (mostly you will see the panel of a big jet). What these people do is amazing, but it also lacks something RTMM has ... a low and slow view of the amazing scenery on the ground! I broadcast at 1200 feet above the terrain, often right down into the scenery! It's not uncommon to experience the thrills of trees passing sometimes only feet from your left or right wings, and then landing on a glacier or lake! If you want to SEE Alaska ... you will not see it from 20,000 feet...but you will see it watching MistyMoorings TV. You can find our TwitchTV channel here: http://www.twitch.tv/mistymoorings This is the main channel. If you would like to see the most recent auto recordings, you can go here: http://www.twitch.tv/mistymoorings/profile We believe this, low and slow approach, is an unexplored niche in this medium. I rarely fly in the cockpit while broadcasting, except for landing purposes. The rest of the time I am flying "outside" and moving the "camera" so people get the best view of the passing scenery. This new endeavor fits perfectly with RTMM, focusing on the low and slow flights from "Here2There." Many thanks Doug for taking the time out of your schedule to talk to FlightSim.Com. We can't wait to see what the future holds at RTMM! External Links: For those interested in more information about "Return to Misty Moorings" and all they have to offer for free, you can visit their web site at: Return To Misty Moorings http://return.mistymoorings.com Return to Misty Moorings Forum http://forum.mistymoorings.com Misty Moorings Twitch TV Channel http://twitch.tv/mistymoorings "Alaska Adventures" virtual airline http://www.flyaka.com "St. Paul Airlines" virtual airline http://www.stpaulairlines.com Return To Misty Moorings Aircraft Aerosoft Beaver X Flight Replicas - Super Cub: Extreme OZx Grumman (Freeware) A2A Piper J3 Cub Carenado Cessna 185 Nemeth MD 500 DodoSim B206 Manfred Jahn's Basler BT67 (Freeware) Polish Trainer RWD8 (Freeware) Pasped Skylark Aerosoft - Wilga X -
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Interview: Brad Allen - Return To Misty Moorings Conducted by Dominic Smith Brad, could I start by asking you where the inspiration for RTMM came from? Well I grew up in Florida, the son of a US Air Force veteran who reached the highest enlisted ranking of E-9. My father spent most of his career as a maintenance crew chief working on a lot of aircraft from the Korea and Vietnam wars. He was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL. I occasionally spent time with him at the base and he'd take me out on to the flight line and I got to sit in some aircraft as a little boy. So I've been around airplanes and helicopters all my life. As a youngster, I liked to build model aircraft and hang them from my bedroom ceiling. It wouldn't be too far off the mark, if I said that I've wanted to fly all my life. I became interested in personal computers when they arrived and my first flight sim software was in 1988 with Microsoft FS3. The hobby has advanced a lot since then and I've stayed active with all the editions that have followed. In 1998, I got serious about flying and started taking private pilot lessons and soloed. I impressed my instructor because I already knew a lot of the terminology. Things such as radio communications, the phraseology used, VOR and NDB navigation tracking principles, and how to do some basic flight manoeuvres, were all second nature due to my simulator experience. I soloed and did several solo cross country flights. My logbook (which I still have) has 29 hours in both C152 and C172 aircraft. However, just before testing, my finances were suddenly redirected and regretfully, I've not yet been able to pick it back up again. At that time I had FS2004 and flew on VATSIM, up high and in fast movers. As the scenery detail increased in realism I wanted to be closer to it, and so I began flying "Low and Slow". When I got my hands on "Misty Fjords" by Holger Sandmann, it was exactly what I was looking for. Doug Linn had created the "Misty Moorings" web site back then as it was affiliated with "Misty Fjords". The team at "Misty Moorings" had created a fantastic web site, one with an emphasis on bush flying, and all for free. When the flight simulator community migrated from FS2004 to FSX, "Misty Moorings" got left behind. When the incredible Pacific Northwest and Pacific Fjords regional sceneries (created by ORBX/FTX) arrived, the scenery bar, in terms of detail, was set to a whole new level. In late 2010, I contacted Doug and asked him if he wanted to revive "Misty Moorings". He was kind of hesitant until I showed him how great the area looked in ORBX/FTX and FSX. I asked if he would at least let me recreate the old MM scenery for FSX. Eventually he agreed to work with me on my idea. I came up with the name, as it really was a "Return" to Misty Moorings. Looking back, it was that little email conversation that Doug and I had that really started RTMM. Brad, is it still possible for users of FS2004 to enjoy the original Misty Moorings scenery? Absolutely. The old FS2004 scenery designed by the original developers at Misty Moorings is still available on our site. Doug still maintains that area of RTMM for anybody still using FS2004. As many will know, the world of RTMM is a collaboration of many talented developers. With that said, could you tell us a bit about your team and what roles they play? Okay here goes. I come up with the ideas for scenery, enhancements, group projects, scout for locations, create scenery, make flight plans, recruit new talent and organize the team for any combined projects. Doug Linn does pretty much the exact same thing, except that he also maintains the homepage and its daily upkeep and chores. He creates ideas as well, like the trip tickets and much more. He's the boss! Dan Linn helped design the look of the webpage, its control interface, monitors our forum software and keeps our server space up and online. Guy "Spud" Maricich does all of our quality control, testing and troubleshooting. He's also the first one who will offer help in our forums and welcome our newest members to "Misty's Place". Dexter Thomas is our main AI traffic designer and audio expert. He is one of the best at this! Rod Jackson develops large scale scenery projects and creates interface utilities like our RTMM Season Switcher tool. Klaus Troeppner creates aircraft and helicopter repaints and is our helicopter operations manager. He's always reminding me not to forget the helicopters. I won't forget Klaus! Jeff Greene does mission creation, watercraft and watercraft operations. He's always helping us with testing and dabbles with panel design. Jeff is an invaluable asset for our forum support requests and troubleshooting needs. Steve Weinkamer is our object library specialist and creates scenery and objects. Rod and Steve converted each object and made our current libraries usable across all of our simulator platforms. Robert Pomerleau is our video producer and helps promote RTMM on various simulation web sites. Dieter Linde maintains our navigation database waypoints for "Plan G". He also translates email communication and documentation into German. This is incredibly useful for non-English speaking German developers working with us. Other developers we have working with us are Murray Bremmner, Mike Broemme, Urs Burkhardt and Dr. Thomas Menzel who created our "Alaska Power Project" which is very popular. Gary Kinch is our newest contributor and we like what he's bringing to the table so far. We're always looking on adding more developers to the team. Others who've contributed in the past include; Xavier Carre', Jacques Alluchon, Rob Abernathy, Chris Losh, Loic "Amentiba", Terry Carr, Chris Brisland, Harald Gabler and Kim Gowney. There's also Jan de Jong, who helped out with some custom ship repaints for our RTMM shipping project. I must also give credit to Holger Sandmann, Francois Dumas, Bill Womack, John Venema and the team at ORBX/FTX who have been very supportive of RTMM. Other contributors, include the late Jon Patch and Bill Dick. I'd also like to thank the many talented freeware object designers who have shared their work with us, like Mark Lee and Ken Hall from their OZx days. All these talented individuals, past and present, make what we do possible. Without them, the world of RTMM would not exist. How do you go about creating the scenery at RTMM? First I go out and fly around the regional base sceneries we work in. By doing this, I am able to search for areas I like the look of or find interesting. These are places where I think a small unimproved airstrip or lakeside cabin might work. The important thing here, is that any enhancements, must not (in a major way) detract from the original look of the base scenery. Due to the location of RTMM, there is a multitude of great looking geographical locations. The RTMM scenery sits in a treasure trove of plateaus, valleys, wide open spaces, coves, lakes, bays and fjords. There are simply so many places to discover! Because of this, it makes choosing one area over another, even harder. When it comes to creating objects or airstrips, I leave this to the professionals, as I don't really have a clue! The only way I can build scenery is with my imagination. I've been using "Instant Scenery" since version one and with it, I place objects into my scenery creations. The only objects I use are objects from our own libraries. Does RTMM have a virtual airline or online presence? We currently have two VA's that we are happy to have as partners! Both Alaska Adventures and St. Paul Airlines use our scenery for their bush pilot operations. I like VA participation and think it brings an important amount of realism to the flying experience. We've had some online flying and multiplayer presence before but it's something we would like to expand into more. We've not had anyone really take on that role yet. We're looking into a new online TV idea called "TwitchTV" and Doug's been experimenting with our own channel on that network. People who are interested can tune into our channel and follow along on virtual flights, project development, etc. Brad, what aspect of RTMM are you most proud of? One of the things I'm especially proud of is the substantial amount of free content that the team has created over the past five years, much of which, is of payware quality I might add. This makes myself and the team at RTMM immensely proud, not just because of the quality of work, but because of the fact that we're able to give something back to the community. However, the thing I'm most proud of, is the way we've managed to assemble such a great team of people, a team that works incredibly well together. This in my mind is what makes our webpage so unique. Not only do we all share a common passion for this type of simulated flying, but we all enjoy flying in this part of the world. RTMM is a result of that joint effort. Before an individual can enjoy RTMM, are there any special requirements that he/she should be aware of? At RTMM we put a lot of time and energy into creating each file and as such, all we ask for in return is that people take the necessary steps and time to install our collection of object libraries. This is the first and most important thing a person can do at the start, as without these libraries, the various sceneries will not function as intended. Yes, it is quite time consuming, but we will gladly assist people looking for help. All they need to do is stop off at our friendly forums and inform us of the issue. Before asking for help though, it's recommended that new users of RTMM, read our included installation documents. These are located inside each zip archive and include specific information relating to that file. The requirements for RTMM call for FSAddon's Tongass Fjords, plus three ORBX/FTX regions to be installed. The regions are: PFJ, SAK and the PNW. These are used as our base sceneries. The additional scenery which RTMM offers, is built on top of these regional sceneries. You don't have to have all four base sceneries installed, but if you do, then you're ready to enjoy RTMM to its fullest. Once the necessary requirements have been installed, the next thing to do is to pick a location from our scenery library. Each scenery has its own storyline. Reading these, enables you to get an idea of what the place might have in store for you. Our numerous sceneries also include their own flight plans and maps. With these, you'll have no excuse for getting lost! When you're ready...take to the skies and enjoy the wonderful world which RTMM offers. Go slow and don't be afraid to deviate off the flight plan if you happen to see a nice little bay tucked away inside a fjord! Explore. There may be a hidden scenery down there, one that you might never have known about had you continued on with the flight plan. The vast amount of scenery you're able to explore, means you may never pass that way again. Is RTMM for FSX only, or can users of FSX Steam Edition and P3D enjoy it too? Well, thanks to our team and their combined efforts in converting such a massive collection of library objects, RTMM works with Microsoft Flight Simulator X, FSX with DX/10, FSX "Steam Edition", plus all of the variants of Lockheed/Martin's Prepar3D (at time of writing). The installation procedure is basically the same for all four of the current flight simulator platforms!" For the pilot who wishes to do more than explore the scenery, what can RTMM offer? "From Here to There" that's our motto. Our primary focus is taking the user on a journey, a journey that doesn't just have a departure and destination point but one which also contains a story that you can interact with along the way. A flight which includes a nice pristine little lake at the end is great, but it would be so much cooler if you could discover and see hidden gems along the way. Some of these gems include; seeing a cruise ship journey up Glacier Bay, a school of dolphins jumping in the water, a pod of Orca, flocks of birds and jumping fish. There are many more, but this gives you an idea of the level of immersion that RTMM offers. There are little storylines for each location. These stories usually include historical facts, laced together with a fictional narrative. We have AI shipping for users to see along the way, missions to take that follow a theme and trip tickets that are pre-packaged journeys. These include descriptive locations you can locate as the journey unfolds. We even have a boating section where the focus is on watercraft instead of aircraft. On top of all the above, we have an extremely active forum where we cover all aspects of our webpage. That's the place to go for answers. The forums are also a great place to meet others who enjoy this wonderful hobby. As you can see, RTMM is a fantastic and friendly place, a place where you can share your passion of flight with others. Brad, if an individual wished to create scenery for RTMM, how would they go about that? Just ask. On our front page is a section that is intended for interested developers to check out. That will answer the specifics. It's really just a matter of letting us know you're interested and then working inside our area of coverage with a focus on the "Bush Flying" side of things. We're always looking for people who like to create scenery, enhancements, and that door is always open. Just let us know you want in. Brad, I've noticed recently that the team have started to enhance parts of the PNW created by Orbx. Is it possible for you to tell us what plans you have for this area? We've recently released the first package of a large scale scenery design named the Vancouver Island Project. It will focus on Vancouver Island located inside ORBX PNW. Our first package for the VIP scenery is the "North Island" region and this area has plenty of places to explore. For those who aren't familiar with the area, Vancouver Island is a very large island with many different areas and geographic zones to explore. Our aim is to eventually make enhancement for the entire island. What's on the horizon that we can look forward to at RTMM? In addition to the rest of the Vancouver Island Project, Rod is in the process of making another large scale scenery project named Western Chugach Part 2. This is near Seward and Whittier, Alaska and located inside the ORBX SAK region. Now I wasn't quite ready to say this but I'm going to go ahead and announce that we're in the early development process for what will undoubtedly be our largest scenery project ever. It starts in Valdez, Alaska and then works its way over 800 miles north across the last frontier to Prudhoe Bay. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline! Murray Bremmner and I started forming the groundwork a couple of months ago and Murray's been extremely busy. He's created a library of custom pipeline objects for us to use which will enable the team to actually place each mile of the pipeline (that's above ground) onto the scenery. When completed, you'll be able to follow the actual path from start to finish. On top of this, we'll be adding or enhancing the pumping stations that are found along the way, enhancing the worker camps, small communities, villages and airstrips that line the route. This incredible scenery will also have missions, custom aircraft repaints, AI traffic, custom sounds and signs. It will also contain a lot of custom objects, all linked together by a storyline. This will focus on giving our users a sense of what it might take to maintain, repair, work for and support the pipeline in one of the most demanding environments on earth. I've even come up with a fictional company and logo that the storyline will revolve around. Basically, it flies company support personnel to and from the pipeline. It'll be a huge undertaking and one we can't wait to see released. Once outside of the SAK region, users who have FTX Global, Vector, OpenLC NA Alaska/Canada and a good mesh package installed, will see the entire pipeline at its best. We're going to try and see how it works in other packages as well. Looking ahead, what are your thoughts on the future of flight simulation? Well for us at RTMM, we're extremely positive as we have a huge canvas to create things on. This is due to the incredible sceneries created by ORBX and FSAddon. As well as this, Prepar3D is being updated and FSX Steam has been released, so in terms of simulator engines, we're more than catered for. As far as tech shifts in the hobby go, some of the new multi-screen and panel configurations are pretty exciting, but rather cost prohibitive for some. Looking way into the future, I hope the personal computer still has a market share so our work can live on. It's advanced a lot over the last thirty years, so who knows what lies ahead. Lastly Brad, what would you like people to know most about RTMM? That we're still extremely enthusiastic and passionate about being able to give back (freely) to the community. We'd also like people to know that 'yes' we're aware of the work involved in the initial setup of RTMM. People often ask for a 'One Click' installation process, saying that the current procedure is...too much work, takes too long, etc. But here's the trade off. Knowing that you had to learn a procedure so as to gain a reward can often be one of the most satisfying aspects of life. Not that the installation of RTMM is difficult, it's just that it demands concentration and a bit of time. Sometimes the most enjoyable things in life, come from the understanding that you had to learn something new in order to get the finished result. If you do get stuck though, there are always plenty of people in the forums to offer you guidance. Once you have the library of objects installed and tested to verify they're all active, then you can pick any location from our scenery library and begin your own personal journey into our world. We're ready to help you get from here to there. Brad, thank you for taking the time to be interviewed by FlightSim.Com. It's been my pleasure Dom. And thank you for taking the time to help tell our story. Now let's all go to "Misty's Place" and have a cold one! I'm thirsty!! Newbie's have to buy the first round though! External Links: For those interested in more information about "Return to Misty Moorings" and all they have to offer for free, you can visit their web site at: Return To Misty Moorings http://return.mistymoorings.com Return to Misty Moorings Forum http://forum.mistymoorings.com Misty Moorings Twitch TV Channel http://twitch.tv/mistymoorings "Alaska Adventures" virtual airline http://www.flyaka.com "St. Paul Airlines" virtual airline http://www.stpaulairlines.com Recommended Base Scenery: FSAddon "Tongass Fjords X" ORBX/FTX "Pacific Fjords" ORBX/FTX "Pacific Northwest" ORBX/FTX "Southern Alaska" -
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