Just wanted to let everyone know that I am officially retired from writing for PC Pilot magazine. After 13 years, and over 200 reviews, features, or tutorials - I’m ready to hang it up and let some fresh perspectives provide their take on the flight sim world.
The job was always interesting, but demanding in a way that is different than writing for a website. Word count constraints and having to make small images supplement the writing was always a challenge. And I’m a terrible procrastinator, so deadlines always loomed over me because of my own failings.
My editor (Derek Davis) is the best of the best. Not once, in 200+ articles, did he ever question content or try to guide my opinions or conclusions. I was also fortunate in that developers remained respectful through my praise or criticism (except for ONE person - but I’m not naming names).
My favorite articles were undoubtedly the “Challenging Airports” series…which ran non-stop in every issue for ten years. The research for those articles led me to have awesome conversations and e-mail exchanges with pilots from all across the globe. From a LtCdr. that flew C-130s to Antarctica to Dash 7 pilots flying into Courchevel to our very own @Scoop giving me the lowdown on the awful weather along the Irish coast - they provided me with local knowledge, stories, operational details, and photographs that helped bring the airports to life for our readers.
I enjoyed interacting with and learning from my other PC Pilot writers and contributors - some have come and gone over my 13 years - but all were hard working and always tried to “get it right”. They are all top notch researchers and authors and I will miss them. I plan to continue subscribing because the insights they offer come from years of experience and I trust their evaluations…and I enjoy having a paper copy in my hands. I wish them all the best.
And what does this mean for Mudspike? Well, it is my hope that I can be more attentive to the main site (Mudspike.com) and gin up more content with the same eye toward accuracy, but without the constraints of space or time. We will remain free of developer pressure, the site will remain free, and we will not accept advertising. This is my hobby, not a business. Another side benefit is being able to spend more time with my family as my kids grow up faster than my heart can stand. The pages of the calendar peel back at a frightening pace.
13 years is a good run! My wife used to write for a well known astronomy magazine…it pretty much killed the hobby for her when the burnout kicked in. She stopped writing a few years ago to focus on other interests and hasn’t looked back. So thanks for all the great articles Chris, and I’m glad you pulled the handle before you lost interest in the hobby altogether. I’ll continue to subscribe to the digital version as the magazine is always a good read.
My Dad is a PC pilot subscriber and loves your articles. He’s much more of a civilian pilot and likes to do things right, so your challenging airport series was always a favourite.
@BeachAV8R I think you’ve always been one of the precious few reviewers that was able to find balance between being technical and being entertaining. I understand your decision to retire from writing for PC Pilot, but I kind of get it. Sometimes it’s better to stop before you start to not like doing it anymore. I’m just glad you are able to have more quality time with the family because of it.
With the ever-growing flight sim community, I find it remarkable how little drama goes on over here at Mudspike, and how relaxed the place is despite people with all these different backgrounds, personalities and interests. To me, it’ll always be my fun, quiet place to go to.
I hope you don’t feel that coming when it comes to the guides Chuck! Need one for the Mi-24 sometime in the near future I reckon
Same. It’s something Chris started, but we, you, me, all of us do. Mudspike is people. It helps that we’re a small club, and we’re all mature enough to keep an eye on what binds us, instead of what divides us.
I check, read and check Mudspike over double figures each day. Its my favourite place. I can be myself here and so can everyone else. We all get along for the most part and we all have a giggle.
To grow the main site will be brilliant. I wish I had something useful to contribute other than memes, pineapple pizza mockery and thread derailment to help its content grow. I do consider it occasionally but let’s be honest. My prose is not…eloquent is it lol.
I look forward to reading it all though and meeting all the new faces it will bring in here.
Also agree with @schurem there @Chuck_Owl, we need an Mi24 guide please. If you want any good screens of then crashing, we can help😉
I made it to the front page, so you can too!
I don’t consider myself a writer, but if you are interested in what you are writing about it’s quite a leap that you’ll make in terms of writing quality and style when you get in to it.
There is also ample manpower and willpower here to review and guide your work if requested, I am sure.
All this talk of retirement makes me think of Danny Glover / Lethal Weapon, so I can’t help but think in two weeks time they’re going to offer him the exclusive DCS F-35A review?
Those challenging airport articles were for sure a highlight of the magazine. Would be neat to have them all in a ‘special issue’ or something but I guess the sheer volume of even just those articles would be a little prohibitive.
Also felt like you were one of the few (if only?) writers to focus on combat flight sims, which was nice.
It is nice to have a piece of paper in hand. I still have a few physical magazine subscriptions: PC Pilot, Outside, Travel & Leisure are about all that is left. They are great poolside reading. Outside has always been a bit super snobby though…they are more a product catalog with high end stuff at ridiculous prices. But they have some great journalists and story-tellers. I tried to break into writing for them once…submitted an article about kayaking drunk at midnight across a lake in freezing conditions to win a girl back. I guess there was too much irresponsibility on display for them to feature it…
I don’t think I’ll ever lose my interest for the hobby. As you know, all us pilots covet other rides so flight sims let me release my inner Walter Mitty. I love it. And I hope people do continue to subscribe (I will) - they have a great pool of talented writers.
The weight of deadlines was throwing off my splash shots…
Awesome. I loved the Challenging Airports series. What is really cool is that now you can fly many of those in MSFS without having to hunt down payware or freeware scenery. MSFS changed the game with regards to providing an “out of the box” experience.
Agreed. Yesterday I cleaned up the canoe. To my dismay I see that the carry yoke is rotten on one end. As soon as I get a replacement (one is on the way)…me and the boys are going fishing!
Thanks Chuck. I tried (whether writing for the magazine or this site or SimHQ) to balance the feel of things with the proper ratio of my perceived entertainment of things. You can write 1500 or 2000 words of bashing something for the 1% of stuff a sim gets wrong…or you can weight it 80/20 or 90/10 on stuff that works versus criticisms. It is, of course, a variable formula. I mean…you might have a plane module that gets 99% of the systems modeling right, but if the autopilot drives you into the ground every time, or if the engines catch on fire at takeoff power…well…those are game killing things that deserve highlighting.
I know developers were tired of me beating the drum of “documentation is poor”. I was raised in the golden age of simulations where you went to the store and picked up a box with a weighty manual. I’ve come to agree that a well made, professionally formatted PDF is good enough…but to ship a product with a 16 page leaflet to describe a complex product is ridiculous.
We don’t always get it perfectly right - but we try to keep things level here. We owe that to all of our readers and participants that seem to inherently find the right tone. We appreciate everyone for keeping the site positive and making it a fun place to swing by. It is my corner pub without question.
Ted Lasso is among us! (I can’t wait for the next season!)
I love reading about what all of you are doing out there…playing sims, doing projects, growing gardens, raising kids, visiting historic sites, mourning pets, building playgrounds, finding jobs, losing jobs, struggling, and overcoming. It is a great community and I’m amazed I’m so interested in “strangers” lives.
Yes…it has been only getting slow updates. I have quite a few articles on the back burner. You should be seeing the pace pick up.
You do great…! If you find something you’d love to write about we’d help you through the process. Variety is the spice of life as it were.
And that is why I lasted 13 years writing for the magazine. Within just a few minutes of diving into a module, add-on, or feature article…I’d find myself absorbed in getting the details right. As I’ve repeated too many times already…the Challenging Airports series was great for that because I’d find historical weather recordings and would usually have to dive back 20, 50, or more years to determine how the airport evolved, what types of aircraft operated there, what airlines…etc… Then I would try to find people that could comment on operating there, study FlightAware or FlightRadar24 flight plans and tracks to determine how they are operating now if I couldn’t get real gouge.
One of the really fun parts was seeing how all the national civil aviation institutions publish their charts in different formats with varying degrees of readability. Though I had to reference Jepp charts on occasion, it was more fun to use national published AIPs to see how they do it. The Europeans cram a TON of information onto their charts…lots of notes, advisories, and sometimes they are pretty darn busy - all of it ranging from critical to useful.
I’ll miss sometimes getting the early scoop on things and keeping secrets - it was nice that many people in the industry trusted me to keep my mouth shut. Being a print magazine with an approximate two month lag between what you read today and when it appears on the newsstand has its challenges.
That would be a nice little volume of articles. By my count - I think I did 61 of them:
St. Barts - TFFJ
Lukla, Nepal - VNLK
Courchevel, France - LFLJ
Tegucigalpa, Honduras - MHTG
London City, United Kingdom - EGLC
Aspen, Colorado, USA - KASE
Washington/Reagan DC, USA - KDCA
Saba, Netherlands - TNCS
Kai Tak, Hong Kong - VHHH
Paro, Bhutan - VQPR
Mountain Air, North Carolina, USA - 2NC0
McMurdo Station, Antarctica - NZWD
USS Nimitz, US Navy - CVN-68
St. Maarten, Netherlands - TNCM
Barra, Scotland - EGPR
Madeira, Portugal - LPMA
Castlegar, British Columbia, Canada - CYCG
Congonhas, Brazil - SBSP
Sion, Switzerland - LSGS
Telluride, Colorado, USA - KTEX
Anda/Sandane, Norway - ENSD
Lamidanda & Syangboche, Nepal - VNLD / VNSB
Lugano, Switzerland - LSZA
Queenstown, New Zealand - NZQN
Khe Sanh Airbase, Vietnam
Papua New Guinea - Various
Tivat, Montenegro - LYTV
Catalina Island, California, USA - KAVX
Vagar, Faroe Islands, Denmark - EKVG
Malvinas, Argentina
Falklands, United Kingdom - SFAL
Cusco, Peru - SPZO
Unalaska, Alaska, USA - PADU
Skiathos, Greece - LGSK
Fernando de Noronha, Brazil - SBFN
Innsbruck, Austria - LOWI
Milford Sound, New Zealand - NZMF
Svolvaer/Helle, Norway - ENSH
Isafjordur, Iceland - BIIS
Narsarsuaq, Greenland - BGBW
Valdez, Alaska, USA - PAVD
Aosta, Italy - LIMW
Lord Howe Island, Australia - YLHI
Alert CFS, Nunavut, Canada - CYLT
Bolzano, Italy - LIPB
Sucre, Bolivia - SLSU
La Nubia, Colombia - SKMZ
Petersburg, Alaska - PAPG
Akureyri, Iceland, - BIAR
La Mole, France - LFTZ
Nuuk, Greenland - BGGH
Pasto, Colombia - SKPS
Sparrevohn LRRS, AK - PASV
Reggio Calabria, Italy LICR
Donegal, Ireland - EIDL
Chambery, France - LFLB
Samedan, Switzerland - LSZS
Cochabamba, Bolivia - SLCB
Toronto City, Canada - CYTZ
Gilgit, Pakistan - OPGT
Annecy-Mont Blanc, France - LFLP
The main editor (Derek Davis) is a huge fan of military flight sims. He wrote quite a few articles on things like IL-2 and Falcon 4. He is a huge fan of retro sims and his knowledge about WW2 type stuff is excellent. I was terrible at WW2 stuff. I wrote an article about the Mosquito and IL-2 4.09 and those two were my worst assignments. I felt completely out of my element.
Thanks for all the kind words. It was a great run.
(before kids when the time was a less scarce commodity).
- it was nice that many people in the industry trusted me to keep my mouth shut. Being a print magazine with an approximate two month lag between what you read today and when it appears on the newsstand has its challenges.