Like to Introduce Myself

[PROPELLERhead]

Hello,

I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Stacy. A hundred years ago (or at least it feels like it) I had a little company called PROPELLERhead (aka PhDPanels). I made instrument panels for MS Flight Simulator versions 4.0 through FS98. To really date myself I originally sold them on Compuserve via SWREG and expanded from there. Flight Sim was still in its infancy then. Nothing like today! I leaned mainly towards light civil GA aircraft. To toot my horn just a little I was the first to include the A pilar to the pilot’s left, give a realistic slant to the front window divide (if it had one, i.e.: Cherokees, etc.) and show a little of the front cowling out the windscreen. I worked with another gentleman who made the aircraft in ver. 5.0 and beyond under the Old Bailey & Barndoor Co. name. I basically custom painted his aircraft and combined them into the online package downloads. I wish I could remember his name, Jeff (something) but the gray cells are vanishing daily. He was a great help and a good guy. I also made a few panels for a Flight1 Software (retail box store stuff). My panels were featured in many of the hobby’s print publications back then from Australia to Europe and others in between. Even made the cover of Micro Simulateur in France. I was also a Beta tester for FS95 (the disc from Microsoft just showed up in the mail one day). I helped feed my family for a few years through selling panels although I was also an air traffic controller for my day job. After FS98 however, I stepped away from sims entirely when Microsoft came out with their first SDK in 98 (it was hard to compete against free back then).

Anyway, the above and $5.99 will get me a gallon of gas nowadays. I only included it to give you a little background. Fast forward to today. After I retired as a controller I decided to get back into sims…big mistake!! Now I’m hooked again. Of course, I felt compelled to teach myself how to modify the panels and paint aircraft. I quickly found out that the old tricks don’t work anymore. For example, there used to be a simple batch program one could use to locate the gauges where you wanted them on the panel. Everything was 2D then. Not so today. As such, that is pretty much what I’m here for. To learn how to build panels basically from scratch. Apparently, this is the site for that.

Here’s some of my stuff old & new…

Note: I always try to think outside the box in my work. Case in point, the red Comanche panel is actually the same aircraft (N1701P from Flightsim.to). One is when it was bought from the original owner via a Piper Dealer at KSAC and years later after it passed to a couple other pilots down the line. The yellow Comanche pin on the glareshield the wife picked up at a flea market…or at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Stacy

 

[Tako_Kichi]

A fascinating history, welcome to SOH and thanks for all your work. There are a few developers for the later sims i.e. FS2004, FSX, P3D etc. (my self included) who hang around here so you will be in good company.

 

[PROPELLERhead]

A fascinating history, welcome to SOH and thanks for all your work. There are a few developers for the later sims i.e. FS2004, FSX, P3D etc. (my self included) who hang around here so you will be in good company.

Thank you.