I've Just Struck Gold. Mike Stone's ENTIRE collection

[bigrobmjca AS350]

I have just found Mike Stone's ENTIRE collection. Now, it's about 90 MB, but it's well worth it.


http://fsfiles.org/PA/index.php?act=view&id=13

[Buckeye Roy]

Link doesn't work.

[bigrobmjca AS350]

Would it be illegal for me to try to upload them on AVSIM?

[bigrobmjca AS350]

http://voz-ai.org/files/PMStone.zip

However, there should have been a page where you had to accept the license.

[bigrobmjca AS350]

http://voz-ai.org/files/PMStone.zip

Give it another go Roy. See if that one works. Believe me, IT'S WORTH THE WAIT!!!!!!

[JSkorna]

Hi,

You should not load them to AVSIM without Mike Stone's permission.

Thanks!

[bigrobmjca AS350]

Don't need to. Never would. the second link I posted SHOULD (keyword) SHOULD work.

[MidniteRider]

I am not sure this is gold. Maybe silver..... but nice to have anyway. Thanks for the great link.

[Buckeye Roy]

Eventually got it to work. And they will work in FSX also. Well at least some of them. Good to have if you can't find a model made for FSX.

[sonjamichelle]

Would it be illegal for me to try to upload them on AVSIM?

Knowing Mike somewhat personally and as a member of the developer community from that "era" I would most definitely NOT upload his files to ANY flight sim site without his express permission.

When we hosted StoneAir based models of our ASHA aircraft I went to him for direct permission to do so.

[vic365]

I would definitely agree with Sonja...and there isn't much reason to upload anywhere else as long as the link works?

Vic

[kingsak]

Not familiar with his work.
But, I just started using FSX & I'm lookin' for
some good quality a/c.
What kind of aircraft we talkin' about here??

[sonjamichelle]

Not familiar with his work.
But, I just started using FSX & I'm lookin' for
some good quality a/c.
What kind of aircraft we talkin' about here??

Just about every major aricraft you can think of and then some was modeled by Mike. His aircraft were tailored for low and mid end computer systems so they lack many of the bells and whistles you see with payware or large development teams. His aircraft have no virtual cockpit. Repainting them is probably the easiest out there and all models come with blank textures.

Most of the aircraft were designed for FS2002. Several were updated for FS2004 and a few were designed for FS2004. All were modeled using GMAX.

After years of harassment, complaints, demands and a few threats Mike finally called it quits and closed shop.

Believe it or not one downloader actually flamed and IIRC threatened him because one of his windscreens was off by 3 degrees.

Mike had a very unique personality, he developed the aircraft for his own enjoyment and amusement. He took requests from time to time but mainly modeled what he wanted when he wanted. He had a very large following and many of us in the developer community shared the same feelings when it came to the harassment and demands from the sim community at that time. In fact many of us have left the development scene all together or now develop anonymously under the wing of commercial companies.

I would highly suggest that if you download Mike's collection that you do it with the expectation that the aircraft may not work out of the box with FSX and may need lots of tweaks. Also keep in mind that support from Mike may be non existent. Many simmers burned their bridges with him. He made the decision to pay attention to his health and family and give those issues priority.

The StoneAir collection has been in use by ASHA for many years now, so support and tweaks from ASHA pilots could be available.

[Lochnivar-AS430]

which is sad.

The part about him being harrassed.

I have never understood why people complain about free stuff...

especially freeware.

[MidniteRider]

Thanks for that history of Mike Stone. It very much changes my opinion of his work. I have always wondered why there seemed to be such a fuss about his stuff. It always seemed a little sub-par to me compared to some of the other freeware.(not saying I could design and fly anything) But understanding what he was doing and why he was doing it shed a whole new light on his work.

I have not put him down for what he did, I was not impressed with all of it. But knowing that he was aiming for lowend systems and really was doing it because he wanted to, not really trying to impress anyone. That gains a lot of respect from me.

I have been flying the ASHA C-17 lately that is a Stone model and it is nice. Not sure who painted it but that part is real nice.


EDIT: I also would never have complained to him about anything he made, much less gone off the deep end over 3 degrees. If you are that particular about it, you need to be buying "high dollar" payware.

Thanks again for the lesson in history!