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Alejandro Irausqun |
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[In addition to his professional work and TooMuchFS contributions, Alejandro is also the Panel Designer for VeneAviones FS design group] I’m
a 33 years old Aeronautical Engineer, living in Valencia (SVVA),
Venezuela. I was born and raised in Paraguana (SVJC), a warn place
with true blue clear skies. Married to Mildred (I swear: Mildred is my
wife's name, not my computer’s name…) with two kids: Alejandro José
and Mildreana del Carmen. I work as an Quality Assurance
Consultant for the automotive industry; haven’t work (yet) for the
aeronautical industry but have closely followed the homebuilt aircraft
movement around here. The
first time ever someone invited me to see a PC, the first thing he
loaded was FS2! (thanks Shakid!). I was already nut about aircrafts,
and it was clear that I needed a computer, but that didn’t happened
until I got into college. From there, I have used all versions of
SubLogic+BAO+MS FS plus some essential add-ons for each version, with
the exception of FSFW95. In the late years of FS4.0b (that was prior
to the 2 year product cycle) a friend (thanks Mayito!) got access to
the internet (no the WWW yet) and some BBSs so I started adding planes
to the sim, becoming into what I am now, an FS aircraft
“collector”. Once I got a 3½” disk full with some nice FS5
planes, and when I emailed one of the authors, the well known Eric
Mitchell, he pointed me to WingsArk.com and it was like finding a
treasure! (thanks Eric!). Immediately FlightSim.Com followed and so
the other FS sites. That was 7 years ago. I has been logging in FSC
ever since at least once a week although my FS PC has been off-line
most of the time. My main interest are historical, Golden Age,
Classic, GA and commuter aircraft. I am currently using FS2002 in a
computer tailored as mid range for FS98 with acceptable results after
upgrading my video card. I
am not a round the world traveler (no yet) and the only article I had
submitted to FSC “Our
very complex 3D viewer…” was for some reason never published.
But had I read almost every Op-Ed and Feature articles there so had
read Ron, Bill and Tony stories with lot of interest (sorry Peter, I
missed yours); and when Hans published his article showing lots of
similarities with me I emailed
offering him to “count with this friend from Venezuela to share your
FS and real aviation adventures”. He was kind enough to remember
that when the FSFC team needed someone from South America to fill the
globe, so I was calling in. Thanks Hans and Ron, wonderful idea! It
has started a new learning process for me. Prior
to this adventure my last FS “job” was as beta tester for one of
the most fascinating navigation add-on for FS, the FSGarmin 430/530
post release version by SimSystems (Thanks John!) [Just after I wrote
this, SimSystems surprisingly closed its doors, what a shame]. Despite
all the time I spend in my PC doing FS stuff I have never released an
FS add-on, but If you dig on the readme files of certain planes,
panels, gauges and sceneries on the file libraries, you will find my
name as a contributor to those projects. That’s my philosophy: If
you want it and don’t / can’t do it yourself, help others to do
it. I will never fly and FS aircraft without the proper panel for it,
so I am starting myself in panel design. Other thing I am working on
are in a simple homebuilt cockpit and controls for FS. On the real side, I am described by my friends as someone that loves anything that flies (although I have problems with some tropical insects). I was fortunate enough to fly for the first time in a GA aircraft. As Richard Bach wrote in his book “A Gift of Wings”, you can choose between Aeronautics or Aviation: I choose the first. Later I moved to Valencia, were the homebuilt aircraft and ultralight movement was concentrated (I say “was” because GA and UL has almost disappear here). My home was an apartment located just below Valencia’s glideslope (see the buildings to the right in the Cozy picture?), so going to the airclub was not an issue. I has been sharing lot of time with the these builders and pilots, and had had the chance to flight with them and to handle their planes. It has been always my goal to obtain my PP license and built my own aircraft. My initial target is an UL autogyro called the Gyrobee (http://taggart.glg.msu.edu/gyro/gbee.htm), then I will pursuit something like the TwinCozy (http://www.infortel.com/cozy/), a custom Cozy MkIV with twin car engines driving a pair of coaxial counter-rotary propellers. Thanks goes here to Ruben, Carlos, Carmelo, Antonio, Felix, Franchi and others. Being near to the airport had it advantages, like meeting with a real world traveler, Gerard Moss, when he landed at Valencia on the initial legs of his round the world flight in a motorglider (www.asasdovento.com.br), which I plan to repeat in the sim but with a mix of planes (it was a sloooow flight). The picture shown was taken in front of the Aerobk repair shop, were his plane stayed one night. I am the one in the back (that is what happen when someone ask for a picture and you move first…). The picture is part of the photo archives from the flight. Note the folded right wing. Yours
truly, Alejandro
J. Irausquín “el
aeronauta” (a.k.a: “el aeroloco”)
Reply - Strangers in a strange world
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