BPL

This is what came to my mind initially upon seeing the abbreviation "OBE." I was a bit confused for a moment. The mental image of the whole Orbx team sitting around astrally projecting or something is a bit of an odd one.

Happy Birthday, Martyn! Glad to have you back on the forums!

Happy Birthday, JV!

Nice work, François! This is quite an undertaking! Thanks! I noticed some airports in North Carolina and Virginia missing from the list; I'll send you a message with a list of them.

Happy Birthday, Iain!

Merry Christmas to you and your family, Iain, and to the rest of the Orbx team and forum members! A few days ago, we received close to a foot of snow where I live in North Carolina, so we're having something of a "white Christmas" here, although I don't know how much (if any) of the snow on the ground will remain until Christmas Day.

Very sad news. I corresponded with Neil on a number of occasions via the forums and email regarding FTX Global freeware airports and his "misfit" airports project. As others have said, he was a true gentleman who was passionate and prolific in his work. Among his many superb FTX Global freeware creations was a detailed, outstanding rendition of my local airport KBUY (a project he very kindly took on at my request), as well as other airports in my area. He also fixed a large number of "misfit" airports that I pointed out in his misfit airports thread. The work he did on these airports was excellent; he was meticulous (and fast!) in recreating the airports in accordance with their real-world counterparts and in ensuring the accuracy of his work. Neil told me this once in an email: "I use the doing of these airports as something to keep me busy, and add (hopefully) to the enjoyment of others. I'm 77 yrs old and NEED something to keep me busy and mind occupied." Neil certainly has added to my enjoyment and the enjoyment of countless others and left a great legacy in the massive body of airports he created for Orbx, and most of us here know little of his life beyond just this one small corner. I am glad to have had the opportunity to correspond with him and am very grateful for the work he did. Neil will be missed by many. My condolences to his family, friends, and the Orbx team.

Congratulations, Iain, and thanks for all you do here! You make these great forums a better place, and your screenshots are always stunning. (And that is one beautiful moggie you have there!)

Happy Birthday, JV!

Wow! That sounds like an amazing trip, Caleb! Have fun! I'm looking forward to the photos and videos you'll post. That's really cool! Any chance you could post some photos or videos of these aircraft or any of your real-world flying?

Yes, this is an excellent tip for the newbies! Here's a link to the map, which I keep bookmarked: ORBX Freeware and Payware Combined. From there, you can also download the KML file for the map, which can be opened and saved to "My Places" in Google Earth. (The map is updated periodically to include new releases, so, if you choose to download the file to use in Google Earth, check back from time to time to see if the map has been updated so that you can download the latest version.) It's a very useful resource. You can find Orbx's extensive and excellent freeware collection at this page. Most of the freeware airports on the map linked above are part of the FTX Global NA Airport Pack or the FTX Global EU Airport Pack.

Absolutely gorgeous shots of my local area! You probably flew over my house! I live between W88 and KBUY. I don't follow the screenshots forum much, to be honest. I usually just check in on the monthly screenshot contests to take a look at the entries, but, scrolling through, I saw "Burlington-Alamance Regional" and thought, "Hey, that's my local airport!" I also just took a look at your last hop from W91 to W88, and those shots are stunning, too! I should look through this series of shots you have going and pay more attention to the screenshots forum in the future. Looking forward to seeing where you go next! There are many excellent Orbx airports in this area, both those that are part of the freeware packs and those that are corrected and enhanced as part of Vector. Edit: It looks as if your previous sets in the series aren't showing due to fsfiles.org being down. At least I got to see the sets in my local area, though!

This sounds great, JV! Thanks for the sneak peek into your future plans! It's great to see where Orbx is headed, particularly with the new TrueEarth regions, which look just stunning! I've been excited to see the places you're planning to produce as TrueEarth regions (especially Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the PNW, as these are particularly interesting and beautiful places to me that would have been among my top picks for a scenery of this nature). Among the potential scenery projects you've mentioned above, New England Maritimes, a France TrueEarth region, and the many TrueEarth regions you're planning for the USA sound particularly exciting to me! Would New England Maritimes be a landclass or TrueEarth region (if you're able to say at this time)? Is there any chance we could see a TrueEarth (or landclass) region covering North Carolina? As I pointed out in this post (with some admitted bias ), I think North Carolina would make an excellent Orbx region. Virginia and other East Coast states also would be great to see. Thanks again for the brief update on the future of Orbx regions! Things are looking great in Orbxland!

Happy Birthday, Iain!

Thanks, Iain! Merry Christmas, everyone!