Spotted this yesterday and was one of the many who downloaded but the file stayed well & truly zipped until I checked back on here today. Suffice to say that it has now been sent packing to the recycle bin and along with many others will continue to wait for the real thing from Derek to appear.
I downloaded this and tried it before I saw this thread. Believe me, if you were looking for the definitive Heron, this wasn't it. Although to be fair, it was still 100x better than anything I could create. Apparently, it was also 100x better than anything the 'author' could create, too....hence the plagarized & stolen bits.
The model has been ditched by AVSIM, would you believe it was by far the most popular download yesterday!!!!!
Unfortunately, I think many people (myself occasionally included) judge the "quality" of a download by it's file size. They see something clocking in at 50+ megs, and they think it HAS to be good!
Definitely looking forward to a quality Heron, though!
[General]
performance=Length: 48ft 6in\nWing span: 71ft 6in\nWeight: MTOW 13,500 lb\nPower: \nDesigner: Les Penridge\s Air file by David Henderson\nDate: \nFlight model: Brian Horsey\nTextures:\nRepaint: Gerry McLaughlin\n
Note, 2 [General] entries Fs only reads the first as far as I can see, the airfile description had obviously been edited and his name replaced all the others, what the muppet failed to do was delete the origional [General] sect
these names also appear when I opened it in Aircraft Container Manager nDesigner: Les Penridge\s Air file by David Henderson\nDate: \nFlight model: Brian Horsey\ and opening the mdl file in notepad reveald Copyright 2003 Felix Rodriguez the mdl copyright holder in text among all the gibberish.
So many peoples stuff has been used without a by your leave seems a right mishmash of somehow joined together bits.
Fair enough, Rich, but as Garry has already recognised, I don't hold such bitter views over it. I don't think it is a deliberate campaign to steal others' property and claim it as his own. I don't think he is clever enough to do that and reckon it is a case ignorance of etiquette and an over-enthusiasm to publish a full "product". This chap is clearly in Puerto Rico or around that area, given his enthusiasm for Prinair, but by his writing is either not educated to a high standard or has difficulty with the English language. He did actually write to me a couple of times in 2004/2005 asking for help with developing the model - e.g. "i start to built with FSDS version 2.24 a full flying model deHavilland DH114-2D Heron for FS2004 with things like Animating the Engine Cowling & Doors to open and close". I couldn't help him because he thought I had built the model in my "Three Herons" series but of course the model was Dee Waldron's. He also said "my Dad Fly with prinair For many years" which is quite interesting.
So I still believe the model is his. Gary feels it looks like the DW model, so let's be realistic - he wouldn't have good access to plans and documentation in Puerto Rico and he may well have based his dimensions on those of the DW model or any other source he could find. I wouldn't expect him to have the means to make his own FDEs so yes, maybe he nicked those. This would hardly be the first time that has been done, and Dee's very free distribution and development restrictions could possibly be interpreted as allowing this.
I really believe we should be trying to help this chap get things right rather than alienate him, and I have a distinct feeling that he probably feels scared to communciate with people such as us as he feels inferior (especially as we keep demanding the withdrawal of his work) and possibly overpowered by the language barrier. History has proved that starting wars achieves little.
Incidentally,AVSIM have confirmed that the email address in his paperwork is correct if the www. on the front of it is omitted, a genuine mistake, perhaps.
John, this is a extract of his suposed mdl file opened in notepad, if this is his work why is the copy right listed as Copyright 2003 Felix Rodriguez, Felix is/was a genuine modeler living in The US and note the date 2003.
He needs to be put off doing it again, scroll to the bottom to see the copyright.
Garry the last 3 lines are the relevent lines the gibberish is the mdl file codes, now if you are realy fast you can purchase a copy off his site for $9.99 heres the link