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Two years and counting!
Will you ever go away dude?
Even though our first
commercial scenery was released in January of 2007, BluePrint
simulations started operations a few months earlier. I tested the
waters by developing KRDU2010 and releasing it as freeware on
Avsim.com and Flightsim.com during the summer and fall of 2006. I
was quite overwhelmed by the encouragement and support that I received
then, and I am even more overwhelmed by the support and encouragement
that I continue to receive today. The story started much earlier
tough...
Back on the days of
FS4 (running in an IBM PS1), I dreamed of flying
real-looking B757 in and out of real-looking airports, especially my
favorites O'Hare, Orlando and Atlanta. Perhaps I was naive
thinking that flight simulation was more than a hobby because it enabled
me to experience flight in a way that made it feel REAL. The fact
is that I will never forget the day I downloaded the first
"real-looking" United B757 or the day I purchased my first SimFlyers'
scenery. It was like being in heaven, what ever heaven might be.
One thing is for sure though, I never imagined the impact that
such simple facts would have on my life. Over time, one thing led
to another and before long I found myself flying real aircraft in and
out of real airports, and the flight simulator was relegated to
occupying space in the hard drives of my ever more powerful computers.
By the time I realized that flying across both the Atlantic and the
Pacific toward more and more exotic destinations would actually never
happen, FS2002 and Gmax as well as the great products by add-on
designers like Phoenix Simulations, Aerosoft/SimWings, and FlyTampa were
already available. I just could not believe what I had been
missing. How could I become part of it all? Thanks
Microsoft, thanks PMDG, thanks PSS, thanks 767PIC, thanks SimFlyers,
thanks Aerosoft, thanks FlyTampa, thanks you all. The dream
is alive ... and I have been missing it all.
A few years later,
starting up my 767PIC at a gate in SimFlyers KMCO v2 and flying way
across the Atlantic to land at any of Aerosoft's many European
destinations became routine. That is when I decided that I would
spend most of my time, at least for a while, making my own contribution
to this unbelievable experience. But, would anyone like my stuff?
In fact, would anyone pay to enjoy it? After all, I still have to
pay my bills. Being quite handicapped at hard-core computer
programming, an attempt to offer a new aircraft seemed just plain
stupid. After all, PMDG and Level-D had already set the standard.
But hey, making my dream airports a simulated reality was not such a
stretch. Miles, meters, inches and feet are just words in a
language as natural to my brain as Spanish and English are.
Visualizing structures in 3D is as natural to me as it is walking or
breathing. And to top it all, I am a real pilot so I know my way
around an airport. Soon enough I downloaded, installed and learned
Gmax. It took me a couple of days and voila, I was on my way.
That is how the idea of selecting a challenging new terminal and
bringing it to life was born. BluePrint Simulations was just the
name that popped into my mind as I wished I had the real blue prints for
RDU's new Terminal 2. The name stuck even though I realized that I
could recreate it without an actual set blue prints as long as I dared
to let my imagination take flight. It was not long before I became
obsessed with recreating every detail of some of my favorite airports.
The fact is that thousands of you out there now enjoy the results.
Nothing makes me happier than knowing that I have helped some of you
bring your own flying adventures to life.
Not everything has
been so easy though. Today, I receive daily e-mails pointing out
that I do not use animated jetways and vehicles, and that my sceneries
are not AES compatible. Every day I think that it would perhaps be
best and less frustrating to enjoy my own creations at home as I used to
do before I started flying for real. Then I realize that if the
PMDG guys or the SimFlyers guys, or the Aerosoft guys had listened to
such stupid criticism, we would not have the unimaginable options that
we have today. So I once again commit myself to moving ahead, in
part to satisfy my own dreams and in part to contribute to the ever
increasing and improving set of FS adventure options.
Unfortunately, on a
daily basis I have to read stuff like: What a waste you moron, no one
cares about Buenos Aires or Caracas. Don't you realize that they
are not in the US? or ... Hey, dude, KORD and KMCO have already
been done! or ... Watch out, KATL and KMCI will be released soon
by someone else [even though you announced you were working on them
almost a year ago!] It helps telling my self: So what? if the
FeelThere guys had not produced their awesome Airbus Series because PSS
had already done it, the awful reality is that today we would not have
the outstanding Airbus Series by FeelThere! Now,
that would have been a waste ...
So, our KORD scenery
will be our KORD scenery. Our KMCO scenery will be our KMCO
scenery. Our KATL scenery will be our KATL scenery. Someone
else has already done them? Who cares... If you do, please spend
your time more constructively instead of warning me about the obvious.
Believe me, I am aware of it already. And, honestly, I do not
care. By the way, the Buenos Aires/Caracas package is our best
seller ever, even though you warned me that no one would care.
What if I had listened to you and moved on? That would have been
the real waste, don't you think?
For now, I am here
to stay. My choices will sometimes please you, or frustrate you,
or threaten you. Fortunately, they are my choices to make,
mistakes to get over, and my dreams to follow. Just enjoy them and
say: Thank You! I sure do it every day:
Thank you for the
last two years, and Thank you for all the years to come!
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