After now 10
years of panel design and 5 years BAe Panel Project (please
see the 10th anniversary site for more information) I decide to stop the BAe
Panel Project now. It was difficult for me to come to this decision but after a
good deal of thoughts I feel confident that it is necessary. This decision
didn’t base on only one reason. Below I will try to explain you why I decide
to stop.
In the last months my complete private live has changed. This concerns my family,
my job and my friends. To deal with it and to restructure my complete live needs
a lot of time because nothing is like it was before. But please don’t
understand me wrong. Not everything what happened was bad anyhow I do not have
the time to continue with my panel project. This is the most important reason
why I quit.
Further reasons base directly on the Flight Simulator and / or its community. At
this point I would like to mention the increasing interest in flying with
virtual cockpits. Take a look at forums, reviews or reports in journals.
Everywhere you will read that they could not use the panel or package because of
a missing VC. A standalone panel will not be reviewed or announced today (I do
not know why, because five or six years ago it was completely normal to write a
review for a standalone panel or aircraft). If someone finally bothers to
combine the panel with an aircraft and reviews this set, the result is very bad
because it has no virtual cockpit. A 2D panel gets more and more inconsiderable.
Also important are the still missing realistic Flight dynamics for all British
Aerospace models. What benefit provides a full working system trainer without
realistic FDEs? In 10 years nobody was able to create approximately realistic
FDEs for the BAe 146 or ARJ. There were a lot of real world pilots who offered
their help and who were willing to test new dynamics but nobody had interest in
doing this job or had success with it. Because of this more and more real world
pilots turned their back on the FS model and my panel.
As a last reason I would like to mention the boycott of all common big German FS
websites to report anything about the BAe Panel Project since more than two
years now (any news or a comment about a new panel). In principle that’s not
really a problem for me. However I’m German so it gets me thinking especially
because I do not know why. But okay, a Roland for an Oliver.
Website, Forum and Future
The website, all downloads and the support forum stays online for an indefinite
time. Unfortunately I could not give support in the forum very often because of
the missing time, but Adrian and Peter are forum administrators of the BAe Panel
Project forum and have a lot of experience with my panels and both are willing
to help you if you have problems. Also there are a lot of forum members who have
experience with the real aircraft in case you have particular questions. Of
course each forum member is welcome to help with every question if he can.
In 2001 I once stopped making panels and came back two years later in 2003, so I
will not say that this is a final decision. But because of some of the above
named reasons, I don’t think that I will start again. I would like to thank
all of you for the wonderful time. It was a great hobby for more than 10 years
and I get in contact with a lot of friends, people who help with documents,
manuals and other stuff and people who just came to say thank you.