About – Contact

Contact Information

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contact (at) fox3simulations (dot) com

Formerly the YouTube channel was called DCSDigitalCombatSimulator – It was setup in 2018, and in hindsight the naming idea wasn’t the greatest decision ever, and as the channel continues to grow, the potential was there for some confusion, so in Feb 2022 we settled on a proper name and thereby our identity and a home.

A little bit about me:

Born in the early 80’s, I lived in England and would always look forward to visiting my Grandparents in Germany.. A big part of this excitement was the flight. These were the days when you could visit the cockpit, and once I joined the air cadets, not only was visiting possible, but if you asked nicely, and mentioned you were in the ATC, almost every pilot would let you sit in for landing. Jumpset unfolded, the 5 point harness locked in place, I was hooked.

Did I mention no internet? This was the days before the net found its way into our homes, so I flew my little old flightsim at home, wondering what the various buttons and lights did, and on my next flight to Germany, I’d find out. As I progressed through the ranks at the local air cadet squadron, a place came through for a flying scholarship. We were all given about 45 minutes flying 1-2x a year, but scholarships were very rare, luckily I was the only one old enough at the time, so I got it.

I mentioned my bit of experience with flightsim on the computer (which by the way, was the days before textures were a thing, it was just plain coloured rectangles and lots of imagination) and the instructor chuckled “yeah, those games won’t be much use to you here…”

Maybe he thought I meant some sega arcade game, I don’t know, but he was blown away with how well I flew the aircraft, very new at the time, the grob tutor. I recall him taking me through the clouds on my first flight, and asked me to take over. I instinctively looked at the artificial horizon, and he saw I was doing this. I don’t know why this was such a surprise to him, perhaps most kids didn’t do this, but I knew from the flight sim, you had to.

I was on my check ride before going solo, with the CFI, Sqn Leader Watts. He was so impressed with my abilities, that he put me on the other runway on my second approach in – which had a crosswind. I recall as we came in, he had both his hands held on the side window, indicating to the other staff – The kid’s got it. I had little experience in crosswinds, other than the sim, all I knew was I had to crab down, then kick it straight in the flare and hope I got my timings right. It was a great landing, but I’d be lying if I said it was anything other than luck. I had no idea how hard I had to kick, or exactly when the wheels would touch, that’s something no sim can teach, but it was all I needed to get my name highlighted at the top of the list for further training.

3 months later, I was the central flying school RAF Syerston, for an advanced gliding course, something I’d never done before. Within 24 hours of first laying eyes on the viking glider, I was going solo. I’m not sure this would be something repeated in todays age, even if the cadet was proficient, but back then I was just excited. A couple of weeks later, I was on part 2 of the course, enjoying a 5 hour solo ridge soaring over the mountains in scotland at a place called Portmoak.

The day before I turned 18 was my last night I was in the air cadets, although 2 years later I received a letter in the post. It was RAF Linton on Ouse, the place where I initially did my flying training. It was 642 Sqn, and were asking me if I wanted to come, and get trained up to become an instructor on a voluntary basis to help share what I knew, and fly the younger cadets of tomorrow. Unfortunately circumstances, like having no car, meant that I wasn’t able to do so, but it was a fantastic offer that were things different, I’d have snapped up.

My passion for flight lives on, I’ve always been into computers, so naturally, if you can’t do the one, but can combine the both and continue to live the dream, albeit virtually, then why not?