Welcome to the FSElite Developer Month. Our theme this year is about delivering for the community and part of that is delivering great content to you all. As part of our commitment to you all, we’re pleased to announced Developer Month – a month themed solely around celebrating our great development community. Over the course of March, you’ll be treated to some behind the scene looks at some of our favourite developers, stories from the FSElite team, exclusive interviews and more.
Ken Hall, a developer who works with Orbx, took the time to speak to us about some of his past projects and how he managed to get involved with one of the most recognised developers in the community. His work on Catalina and Pago Pago is some of the best and most detailed work you can find in the simming world. Find out how and why he does it below.
Don’t forget, you can read our review on Catalina Airport (KAVX) here.
Tell us a little about yourselves and how you got started?
I have always loved anything to do with flight, always look up when any kind of aircraft is flying over.
Learned to fly ultralights at Warnervale in a skybox, had an awesome instructor who was so confident in his ability to fix any mess I could create that he allowed me so much freedom at the controls, that I discovered what not to do very quickly. Had my first solo at 10 hours, something you never forget, I concentrated so hard on that cct, still the best landing I ever made. Because Paul my instructor had been a commercial pilot with thousands of hours experience he pushed hard, I’d be setup for a great landing and about to flair and he’d mess things up and see if I could correct it or power on and go round. The skybox was a taildragger and a bit twitchy because it had a VW / Aeropower engine the C of G was a bit forward making the conventional 3 pointers all but impossible so Wheelie landings were preferred
We practiced landing in paddocks, something which proved very comforting during a circumnavigation of Queensland flight, I had a forced landing emergency no far from Rockhampton and managed to get into a paddock, it was a tad hairy but we both walked away safe, replaced a damaged bungee strap on the undercarriage and after fixing the problem continued on to our destination.
Well, after that trip I was determined to get my own aircraft, started with a typical rag and bone ultralight, a single seat fully enclosed cockpit version of a thruster, named her “Red” and had a love affair with her that lasted 5 years, most of the flying done around Mudgee N.S.W. nothing like owning your own aircraft you get to know her so well, she became part of me. We herded goats, did river runs at 50 feet, dropped flower bombs, even dropped toilet rolls out of the cockpit at 5000 ft AGL and chased them down, cutting the streamer with the prop, won spot landing competitions, attacked balloons filled with helium, pretending to be some reincarnated WWII fighter ace, red was the best pure fun flying I ever did. I tried other ultralights at Holbrook ultralight club, most memorable was a B1RD, or Bird.
Bicycle wheels for undercarriage, single skin wings, no ailerons just rudder and elevator. Only instrument was a clear plastic tube mounted between the rudder pedals, it worked by using a tiny hole in the top of the tube to create air pressure to lift a plastic disc inside the tube to rise as pressure or speed changed, the faster you went the higher the disc rose inside the tube, the tube had a red marker about half way up, the idea was to keep the yellow disc above the red dot, about 25 knots.
This was low and slow paradise, if the wind got above 10 knots it got very interesting. I remember an evening flight there, it was winter and the sun was casting an amazing orange pink glow on the snow capped Snowy Mountains, no wind just peace and the view.
Sold red and bought a faster machine, a sapphire, another single seat beauty, composite construction, steak like a glider with a mere 40 horsepower rotax motor set up as a pusher, motor behind the wings pushing. Very slippery and great glide ratio, this one had been built with spoilers to facilitate steeper descents, cruised at 90knots at 13 litres per hour, now I was really cruising, did many Nav flights in her, just so smooth, eventually sold her when we moved to Tasmania. A sad day indeed.
So all of my flying was VFR and low, under 5000ft AGL, I loved the view from that height, so today I still am hooked on that view. I never bought another aircraft and life in tassie was pretty hectic, I moved there to become a full time landscape painter, I had my own gallery at Mudgee and sold many paintings from ther, and the intention was to improve my painting skills and capture the rugged beauty of Tasmania on canvas. My wife Kerry was a nurse and fully supported to move, I had been installing satellite dishes in Mudgee and the gallery was a passion that fed my soul, not enough income to live on though.
Allwas going well in Tassie, I was selling a good amount of paintings and combined with Kerrys nursing income we were doing fine, only thing missing was the flying.
I had played with FS 95 or was it 98 and had made some crude rudder pedals to assist in at the time learning to fly, must have been FS95 then as I was about 45ish when I was learning.
FSX came out and I thought, maybe a flight sim could help ease the withdrawals of having nothing to fly, FSX looked like crap and performed even worse, but Hope was there in the form of a new company, Orbx, I had installed Vista Australis and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.
Cut a long story short, I joined OZx and learned how to make scenery, after maybe 50 Or so freeware strips about 8 in Tassie, first one was at a place called Claude Rd, nestelled beneath Mt Rolland, discovered it when installing a satellite dish. I had found an outlet for my love of flying, Scenery Design, I could combine my love of landscape painting and flying. All I needed to do was learn all the new skills required, how hard could it be?.
Tell us how you managed to get involved with Orbx
After buying AU Blue I was hooked, bought copies for mates I was so inspired, this was the best any sim had ever looked, I wanted to create some of my own world, places I wanted to fly in, so I joined OZx did my apprenticeship and one day asked John (JV) if there was anything I could do to help at Orbx, after looking at the work I did for Moruya Airport he offered me a place on the team, first project was Morrabbin, one of the biggest GA airports in Australia, I was excited but fearful I was out of my depth. Just go for it, that was it, the start of a journey that is still in progress.
Interests outside flight sims?
Fly Fishing, I love mountains and rivers, wading up a steam is bliss, catching, I release everything, is just a bonus, Nature is my kind of escape.
I have a Kayak and a mountain bike, I love exercise and nature so go figure why I would get involved with these two things.
I love photography used to have a Dark Room, remember using film. I love black and white, spent hours developing negatives and creating huge prints, actually won a couple of awards for them, now it’s photoshop and digital, amazing what you can do in photoshop in miniutes that took hours and many attempts in the dark room.
I bought a phantom 4 drone and love it, how good is FPV in a drone, I’m flying again, well my eyes are and the body is safe and sound on firm ground.
Also play drums, tried a guitar but never got the hang of it but drums, wow playing takes you to a place like you inside the song, the music, great way to get rid of any left over energy, my kit is a set of Roland V Drums, perfect for preserving the neighbours ears, although Kerry likes me to play her favourites through the speakers, even our dog Molly gets up and dances.
Catalina Island and Pago are full of detail, how did you create it in such fine detail?
Comes back to my love of VFR and Landscape painting, both Tim and I wanted more than just an airport, we wanted our fellow simmers to feel like they had actually visited these places. There’s only one way to do it, take the time and make the effort, nothing generic, other than a static aircraft or item that’s expected at the airport. Points of interest, unique vegetation, animals, people. These things separate one place from another, go beyond the airport boundary, Pago has its own autogen, we created vegetation that didn’t exist in the simulators stock models, the churches on Pago, there are a staggering amount of amazing church buildings, we modelled about 10% and yet people still haven’t found them all, there’s a shipwreck that took a day to model, maybe a few people have taken a screenshot of it or seen it, but it’s there, waiting for people to take the time to look beyond the airport apron. There are over 20 flowerpots, that’s those amazing rock structures covered in veggies that are strewn around the main Island, all unique, all as close as we could get them to what they really look like, it takes time but it’s worth it when you see a screenshot of when someone found it.
Catalina, we did the whole island, not just the photo real but all the points of interest, the coastline is one of the most scenic anywhere, it takes 30 min just to fly around that coastline, every dock, jetty, unusual building is in there, two harbours is one of the prettiest places has the Wrigley’s maritime heliport, dock, training centre, even the scuba diving bottles are there, no one has found them yet, bison wandering around on the hills. Avalon Harbour is filled with landmarks, never modelled before, even the Nautilus, a underwater viewing attraction is there, detail is everywhere, you just have to look.
Where do I see flight simulation in 10 years?
I see VR as a no brainer, flying is 3D, that’s it, inside the cockpit, I mean right inside, every knob, button, switch, lever, instrument as real as if your in your own car, not a screen with made up panels but a real cockpit, FS2 is getting so close, those guys have modelled some of the best cockpits I’ve ever seen, still to come is interacting with all these switches, virtual hands, it will take time, but if you really want to simulate flying, VR is a must.
Next I see a shift to photo realistic scenery, it’s happening now but due to technical limitations compromises are needed, but people want to see there own house, there town, city as it is, landclass is the best we have at the moment but in time people will demand more.
Then there’s the physical side of things, not just the rendering which most sims are physically rendered, but the motions, we have force feedback and buttkicker, but I’m talking a chair that combined with the VR headset, lets you feel the turbulence, I’ve felt what it’s like to get kicked buy a big thermal, first time scared the hell out of me, when sims can do that, we will be there.
I’d just like to add that flight sims will be with us forever, they are part of mans eternal dream of flying.
Thanks for taking the time to put up with my stories and views of our future.
Cheers All
