Mr. HUSKIE
As the popularity of Flight Simulators continues
to grow, the demand for 3rd Party Add-on Aircraft also increases.
One of the top experts in the field is Dave Eckert, the developer of the FS2000
HH-43B and upcoming FS2002 HH-43F Huskie add-on flight model. Here is Dave in
his own words:
My father always loved
aircraft but his eye sight wasn't good enough to fly. He joined the Army
Air 
Corps in 1946 (tried in 45 but they told him to finish high
school). He spent 20 years in "Rescue" as he called it. He was
a crew chief in many aircraft including the: C-82, PBY, H-19, H-21, R-5, SA-16s
(Including the very model depicted by Revell), B-17
with life boat, and of course his favorite the HH-43B Huskie.
He then went on to be a mechanic for United
Airlines at SFO until he retired in the early 90s.
The summer of 1998 he
became ill with what we later found out to be cancer .The doctors could not
seem to figure it out until it was too late. Anyway, I took him to see Saving Private Ryan about a month before he died. I saw the CG-4A
As part of my research
for the CG-4A model, I decided I wanted to build a flightsim version to
see how it would fly. I knew nothing about building add-on aircraft, but I
bought Aircraft Factory 99 and trudged forward. The
program was hard to use and my results were less than desirable. I
also discovered that real numbers don't translate in to flightsim, at least as
far as flight dynamics go.
Meanwhile my father
had passed away and so I shelved my
project. In the spring of 2000 Abacus released FS
Design Studio. This program made aircraft design dramatically easier with far
more complex aircraft available.
My first project was
the HH-43B. Building it was a way to keep me close to my dad. It
was a lot of fun to build but even more fun to research.
That same year my wife bought for me the domain name of www.daviator.com and web hosting. I had no idea what to do with it so I threw a couple of my
flightsim creations up there.
Since then I
have done flightsim work for Abacus (US), Just Flight (
My main love is
vintage aircraft. I like anything that is old, slow, loud and messy.
No jets for me thank you.
My real job is with
I have a
wonderful wife Jessica of 7 years this June 1. She not only allows this
hobby but encourages it. I think it might have something to do with the toys
she gets form my extra income. No kids (that I know of) but we're
trying. Oh, I just turned 39.
Dave Eckert
Look
for Dave’s FS2002 HH-43F add-on in the near future!!
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Editor’s
Note: We’ve been involved in Dave’s
project almost from its inception. We had no idea of the time, research,
attention to detail and dedication necessary to build accurate flight sim
aircraft and scenery. Most of these designers do it for love of the hobby and
make the end result available to the flightsim community at no charge
(freeware). We are deeply appreciative of the effort put out by Dave and his
peers.
Thank
You!!!!!
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