Well, it’s been quite some time since my last post here but after a sleepy period interest in FRED seems to have picked up.  I’ll have a couple of new videos soon, but for right now, here’s something special.

Ted Cook recently contacted me to share his freeware virtual FRED for Microsoft Flight Simulator (FS 2004 or FSX).  This is in addition to Jacques Brault’s freeware virtual FRED for X-Plane already announced in these pages.

I’ll let Ted tell you about his virtual FRED in his own words:

“I have been an aeromodeler from my pre-teenage years.  I had to curtail my activities some time ago due to being unable to drive and get to the decreasing amount of flying sites left.  Coupled with an interest in computing, making models for flight simulation is the substitute.  I live in Stoke-on-Trent, about a mile and a half from the site of the old Meir aerodrome and close to where Eric lived.

“FRED is just a step up from a quarter-scale model.  From the simulation design point of view, there is the ability to model almost all the details without using too much data which is good for the simulator program.  The cockpit is very simple and also easy to model.  Finally there have been so many variations of FRED that anything I made was probably going to be accurate, which is satisfying.

“There have been well over  700 downloads and  two repaints of FRED so far so someone else must like it.”

Thanks, Ted, for sharing!

Image:  Ted Cook’s deft handiwork is evident in these screen shots of a simulated G-ASZY in its early red and white paint scheme.  Courtesy of Ted Cook.