About the Author

Richard Hawley started programming in the early 1980s at the start of the home computer craze with the Sinclair ZX-81. Before leaving high school he had worked on three game projects for Assassin Software and later worked on conversions of classic strategy board games for 8- to 16-bit machines. He went on to develop end-user tools for popular flight simulations including Empire Interactive’s Enemy Engaged helicopter series and the highly successful Origin Jane’s Longbow series (MissioneerPlus).

He’s the director of Tricubic Studios, a small UK company dedicated to creating simulation and training environments using off-the-shelf 3D engines including Unity and Leadwerks. Together with technical artist David Hopkinson (Total War: English Civil War conversion) and physics guru Fred Naar (creator of Helicopter Total Realism for Microsoft Flight Simulator X) they are collectively known for their work on helicopter simulations.

I would like to thank my wife Dorothy for putting up with my long sabbaticals in front of the computer and my kids who have grown used to becoming experimental subjects on family board gaming nights.

People I’ve had the privilege to work with; David Hopkinson for being a patient sounding board throughout our joint creative endeavors, his talent of being able to make silk purses out of sow’s ears is a testament to his ingenuity. I’d also like to thank Fred Naar who not only created the most amazing and unique helicopter physics engine but who also is a really nice guy. Other thanks go to Rob Hardaway for years of designing impossible mission scenarios, but mostly for hanging around at flight simulation shows being mistaken for me (which I’m more than happy about since he’s six foot tall and fighter-pilot handsome).

Thanks to Adrian Licuriceanu at Quad Software for his technical support with Grome, and for playing the role of accuracy police for this book.

Finally, a big thank you to the simulation community, SimHQ, and various individuals that continue to be supportive in the face of my endless and annoying prevarication and distractions (of which this book is but one of them). Sorry!

Art is never finished, only abandoned.