C74 AIR :: CHANDLER XPLANE PORTFOLIO

> Hey, how did you get started in acf designs and into the level of details?

Well, I probably started much like anyone else. Course it was 1997 and X-Plane was at an adolecent age of 2.5. I fiddled around with making planes that amused me. a little 'bud-lite' speed plane, a couple ultralights, a seaplane, when I went on a vacation to Maui made an MD-80 and explored Maui in x-plane and mimicked the hang-gliding-over-kona (powered ultralight/hanglider) ride. Through it all I opened a website, the Atomic X-Plane Tribute (AXT, and Atomic was just a name i used on everything back then). I fooled around with x-plane for some time, all the while wishing I could apply what I would learn there to someday being a pilot of some sort. I even managed to obtain a first generation copy of x-plane 1.1 that could run on 640x480 screens, as v2.x required 800x600. I negotiated with Austin and he let me re-master and sell v1.1 as "retro-ware" as a sort of demo for the full version. He let me sell it at $49, while the full version was... get this... $275 or $299 i don't remember which. Earlier than that, at 2.5 or 2.0 it had been as much as $549 if you can believe it. Anyway, at the same time, the AXT was getting popular, I was linked on x-plane.com, and ultimately was the ONLY site that had aircraft to download for x-plane. folks started making planes and I ultimately hosted up to about 250 different planes for v2 & v3. The folks wanted t-shirts, so while I fronted everything to do it, Austin wanted specific design and logo on them. All the fools who said they wanted shirts, ultimately never bought them and I was left sitting on 2/3's of the remaining units of a 100 shirt order. Basically I got super burned and screwed by x-planers and Austin who wanted free shirts, and folks who said 'yeah' but then never bought. Come about v3.5 and Austin's playing with 'textures' finally instead of flat shaded polygons, and nothing anyone had could perform or keep up, namely what I had. Some really rash guy opened up the x-plane 'registry' and basically stole all my thunder out from under me, Austin was no help on making a version "the rest of us" could use, and I was generally pretty pissed. 3.5 HSR (High Speed Rendering = flat shaded poly's) was the last version I used until v5.2 skippign all the way over v4.

When I got back in at v5.2, I still made my fictional aircraft, mainly for my own amusement and enjoyment. I made the same seaplane again, my flying spaceship design, managed to get my flying 'car' made with Bret S's help, and then made a Martian jetliner when Austin did MARS. I just loved exploring what could be made. amusing myself with the artwork, designs, and 'data' of it all.

http://c74.net/xplane/z_Legacy_5xx/

my custom spaceship design that I had made out of balsa, matte & illustration board and painted & colored, made into an x-plane plane. sort of Romulan and NASA, with aspects of being a luxury flying yacht:
http://c74.net/xplane/z_Legacy_5xx/2107/AADx2107comp.jpg

my custom flying car design that I had evolved since I originally conceived it in high school in '90
http://c74.net/xplane/z_Legacy_5xx/34z/AADx34zeroComp.jpg
http://c74.net/xplane/z_Legacy_5xx/34z/ZeroTimeline.jpg

My custom seaplane design. pretty straightforward, you can see my graphics work coming up to speed. cleary all 'special' as I wasn't a pilot and just made stuff that was pretty. I was getting into 3D and Poser, and had one of the, if no THE FIRST 3D cockpit including a sexy passenger. Static side panel renders, but the cockpit was done in 3D with the figure, textured, etc and rendered.
http://c74.net/xplane/z_Legacy_5xx/352/352_comp.jpg

I made a complete 'stock jet panel' replacement with rich, beveled, lit, and textured treatments. Back then you just picked if it was a glass panel or analog and you got what you got. so this one thing was a one-meal-deal upgrade/replacement for the stock panel that looked still straight out of v3
http://c74.net/xplane/z_Legacy_5xx/PANL_jet/Panel_jet_stock.jpg

Oh, I really can't take much credit for this past doing the photoshop lighting efect, but it is a 'view out the window' of early v5.
http://c74.net/xplane/z_Legacy_5xx/b200LIT/B200LIT.jpg

this one, I think you'll get the BIGGEST KICK out of. Back then I flew for a virtual airline, the Hawaiian Shuttle Virtual Airline HSVA. I think it was, aw heck I can't remember any more but I see his name on the list now and then. someone else made the Dash-8-Q100, that I designed my own artwork for the exterior in the VA livery. There is a Carlos Catenga Hula Girl Pin-Up basically on the nose, and a Tiki Mask on the tail, with the 'company name' in cool 'island' text down the side. I flew PHNL to PHOG (Maui Lihu I think, I can't remember too well.) Anyway, the ILS intercept rounded the volcano there and hooked inward fro the bay. Remember my mentioning my vacation to Maui, that's how that came to be. Anyway you can see some of my more trademark colors, graphic designs and stuff on the plane, and still with my non-pilot, more auto designer style panel & gauges.

Anyway, after that I ultimately switched was laid off from my IT career and started pursuing my aviation career. I made a Cessna 150, to match the same one I bought and still own, made that in v6 somewhere, used it in x-plane for all my primary flight training, untextured, stock panel, all gray, but learned volumes upon volumes. Finally around v7 put a texture on the C150 and put it on the now then x-plane.org, then followed by meeting and flying with the president of MiniMed who had N13PC Malibu, and made that plane for him. At the same time, John Zito of a marketing firm contacted me about doing all the Piper aircraft for them as a function of their rebuilding the 'newpiper.com' website. I said absolutely and started with the Malibu and beginnings of the Meridian. (John's meridian was totally bork). Anyway at the same time also, my own flying career was progressing and I was up to a point where I needed to make more planes for my own training needs. For my commercial needs I would need a Piper Arrow, and for my multi engine training a Seminole. I bought the necessary checklists and materials, and set out to make them. After doing the first Arrow III and Seminole I said, you know what, what the heck, lets just make them all, I have come up with a formula to make planes directly from raw information that's just a chug & plug method, they turn out at top grade accuracy and can be done as easilly as playing solitaire. So I remade the Arrow, and Seminole and proceeded to apply my creation technique to each of the new piper models at the time, in 2002/2003 and released them all 10 for free for v7.3. Since then, many many many things have changed. formats, methods, techniques, etc, but all towards more and more refinement and continued striving toward perfection and absolute accuracy to all facets. Pipers 740 released August 04 as the first retail product when Austin changed the panel format, made offset text files, and some number of other issues. I was trying to launch a much different business at the time and didn't really want to have to overhaul all 10 aircraft. In doing so, sort of begrudgingly, it was taking me away from trying to launch consulting and networking.... but as it turns out, all the glad, gracious and generous fans who had gotten the pipers 730 free for christmas '03 came and turned me around, and put my attention on my efforts, my labors, and the results of every faculty I had honed for the past 5 years. X-Plane. All of my technical, computer, graphics, networking, private pilot, instrument pilot, commercial pilot training all went into the melting pot and result in the aircraft crafter you know today.

> Weren't you a "squid" electronic tech...."You've come a long way, baby."

Yes, but even more than that. Graduated HS in '92 and got right out there. Bounced around jobs like anyone new to the workforce, trying to find a good fit. Everything from Mall to Car Sales. Eventually found a gig that took, graphic artist for an athletic supply company, making jersey logos, store signs, price signs, etc, even the company newsletter. Unfortunately entry level graphic arts didn't pay very well and E-1 base pay was more. My Grandfather always tells his WWII stories, has so many stories and memories, that I thought you know what... I think I just may do that. An uncle in Seattle where I had moved to had a nice '68 Chris Craft, and I had always enjoyed being on boats and around water, so... I joined the Navy. Took the ASVAB, scored high enough to pretty much pick anything I wanted. Was told that Submariners were both more elite, but also received more pay for sub-duty. I opted for electronics-submarines. Did all I could to excel at every single evolution, 'with distinction' and performance promotions from Boot Camp, A school, Sub School, DC School, C school and follow on equipment schools. For someone who nearly dropped out of HS for fooling around and being a clown, I was pulling 98%'s and top of class in Navy Schools. Worked hard enough to get to the top of my class to pick which "billet" I got so that I could return to Washington instead of going to Kings Bay GA. Attached to the SSBN 732 ALASKA, Ohio Class Trident Missile Submarine. My equipment was an extremely special 'gyro' navigation computer that monitored and ultimately replaced the then primary navigation gyro gimbal INS system. It was a "BB" that was electronically suspended and spun up to ~1800 revolutions per second, to then act as the 'gyro' by which intertial movements were sensed and calculated into ships movement. The computer that controlled it... looked like the Lite-Brite panels from the original Star Trek series. just on/off toggle switches and lights, about 120 of them to set all computer conditions and take readings from.

Anyway, apply Graphics and Art to component level electronics, Navy & Government ways and methods, mainstream Macintosh computer tech, networking, using, with Aviation pilot training & credentials. and I end up with a robust understanding of each, which all compliment each other, from the FAA type certificate data sheets, to the handmade photoshop artwork creating aircraft gauges. I don't think I could ask for a better recipe for success making aircraft within x-plane.

> Must have been those cold nights up in Bangor, WA......were you stuck in a tube in the water?

Lived in Poulsbo, WA. reasonable commute to Bangor, and not to bad to drive out to Port Orchard I think for the Ferry to Seattle. Yes, deployments were ~70 days at sea, without surfacing. Instead of the normal 24 hr day we all enjoy out here, submerged with the exact same lighting and conditions at any hour, it was an 18 hr day. 6 ON (shift work), 12 OFF (to study for ship & department qualifications, laundry, eat, sleep, and ships drills), then back ON again. Navy math, when is 70 days equal to 93 days? A: when it's an 18hr day. 70d x 24h = 1680hrs / 18 cycle = 93 'day' cycles. Can tend to screw with someone's mind. Test depth for the 'Boat' was 1000', beyond that is classified. All submariners receive a "Confidential" classified status as all systems on the boat are 'classified'. I was in Nav-Center, where ships position was, and I had "Top Secret" classification. NIS called even down to my second grade teachers and any neighbor I ever lived next to, for my background check.

Anyway, I remember little stuff, that was a decade ago. Little memories here and there of odd little stuff. But I also remember the whole experience, and it was a very fascinating time of my life.

Hope that gives you something to read. ;-) If you made it all the way to here, congratulations. I should save part if not all of it for the 'about' page on my site.

Best Regards,
Jason