mutley 4,487 Posted August 1, 2013 Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 Fred was one of our founding members and one of my original reviewers. We kept loosing touch but today Fred sent me and a couple of other FS sites he frequented the following update. It just goes to show how far you can go after getting the simming bug! Hello All, I have been meaning to write a letter of thanks for a few months now, but wording it correctly has been quite difficult. My name is Fred Clark. A few of you will know me as ‘mulletman’ from some of the Sim forums about 4 or 5 years ago. Most of you of course, will not. On 1st August 2003 I bought a copy of Flight Simulator 9 from a well known UK PC outlet. Little did I know at the time, that it would change my life forever. At the time I was still in school, about to select my GCSE subjects, and, having been bought up in a family of engineers, was looking to go into that same field. Specifically motorsport. However having started dabbling around with flight sim, I soon discovered that I was enjoying it quite a lot. It wasn’t too long before I started purchasing some add-ons to expand the experience. First was Just Flight’s A340 Professional, and soon after that was PMDG’s 737NG. It was the 737 that really made me set my sights on turning this hobby into a career. I spent many months learning the systems, switches and buttons to operate the sim, and spent hundreds of hours (easily enough to obtain an ATPL twice over) replicating real world flights Having finished my GCSE’s in 2007, I applied for Oxford Aviation Training. Unfortunately, although I was accepted by the school, I couldn’t get the money together, so having done a couple of years at college, I settled into various retail jobs. During this time I continued simming, spending many hundreds of pounds on the latest releases, the stand out ones being Level D’s 767, PMDG’s 747QOTS, Wilco’s 737 PiC and Mega Airport Frankfurt to name a few. I also started to write reviews, helped by the journalism course I had done at college. I wrote only a couple for AvSim, with the majority being written for Mutleys Hangar when it was launched. All the time, I was helped, encouraged, and entertained by the many members of the aviation simulation community. The only place I probably spent more time than FS was the FS forums, and I don’t regret one single minute of it. I do recall being invited to have a look round the Just Flight offices in Huntingdon, a trip which I wrote about on Mutleys Hangar. It was fascinating to see how big the industry was becoming. After a number of years in retail (and the teenage discovery of girls and nights out), I lost touch with Flight Sim and its communities, and it wasn’t until a trip to my then employers head office at Gatwick that I decided I should really get my act together and pursue the career I dreamed of. I applied for CTC Aviation training, and to cut a long story short, I am now a First Officer flying the A320 family for Easyjet at London Stansted. Without the welcoming and ever helpful people in the simming community, most notably yourselves, the people running these forums and developing and supporting the addons, would have never wanted to chase the career, and heaven only knows what I would be doing now. The best thing is that the forums are still alive and well. Lots of new faces, but plenty of the same ones, and that’s down to the hard work and dedication shown by all of the people behind the scenes. So I would like the say thank you to you all, as you are in a way, all directly responsible for me being able to achieve my goals. And giving me a dream to work towards. I wish you all the very best for all your current projects, I hope to see you around on the forums in the near future, as soon as I can get my rig together, and get back with the programme! Kind Regards, Fred. So thanks Fred and very best wishes for the future from all the Crew! 1 Link to post Share on other sites
jaydor 345 Posted August 1, 2013 Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 Brilliant letter. Good journey onwards into the future Fred.. Link to post Share on other sites
hurricanemk1c 195 Posted August 1, 2013 Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 Well done Fred! Nice to hear from you again Link to post Share on other sites
britfrog 180 Posted August 1, 2013 Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 Nice to see that there are still some youngsters out there that have enough gumption to get off their asses and chase their dream , there are far too many nowadays that just want to sit on their can drink beer and play on their X box and wait for the next check from social services. Well done that lad , I am sure your parents must be very proud! Link to post Share on other sites
needles 1,010 Posted August 1, 2013 Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 [quote name="mutley" post="87273" timestamp=and one of my original reviewers. So thanks Fred and very best wishes for the future from all the Crew! Here here Joe. I thought Fred had just gotten bored of flight simming and found girls. Good for you Fred, may you have many happy landings. Hope to see you here again soon. Best wishes Brian Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,285 Posted August 1, 2013 Report Share Posted August 1, 2013 A very nice letter that shows what a genteel type of guy you are, glad to make your acquaintance Fred. I am happy to hear that you persevered and reached a desired goal in your life, many are not as lucky. I wish you the best in your new career and life in general. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted August 2, 2013 Report Share Posted August 2, 2013 I love it when they leave the nest and prosper. All the best, Fred. Good of you to stick your head in and update us. John Link to post Share on other sites
J G 927 Posted August 14, 2013 Report Share Posted August 14, 2013 Its good to see that you got there in the end... Well done indeed! I trod the same course but with a different outcome. I was enthralled by flight sims while still young (green screen and wire framed), but it lead to an equal fascination in the devices that the sims ran on, I too ran into girls, and it wasn't until I had married one and that pursuit was nipped in the bud that it dawned on me that a career in banking wasn't for me. I too jumped ship, but over the other side and into an IT career. Although this has proved to be a fruitful move, and I cant say I have ever regretted it. I still wonder what life would be like if I had done what you have done! Good on you! - follow your dreams. Link to post Share on other sites
flybytes 34 Posted August 16, 2013 Report Share Posted August 16, 2013 What a lovely posting! In these days of posterity, bankers greed and lawyers/politicians (majority of politicians here in UK & USA seem to have a law background) obsessed with taking more out of society than they contribute. Like Fred, I knew what I wanted to do in life at an early age - at 14-years old (way back in the 1960's) when the Gemini space programme was a boys' inspiration, unlike today when a young man has to grow up with David Beckham as a role model - I was interested in electronics, astronomy, aerospace and computing - I've been fortunate in being able to combine all but the astronomy in my career. Wish you the best of luck Fred. Ray. Link to post Share on other sites
JF_Rich 1 Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 My flight back from Munich to Stansted on Sunday had a certain Fred Clark as F/O. Sadly I wasn't able to hang around at the end of the flight to say hello. Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,487 Posted April 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 We thought him everything he knows, you know Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted April 7, 2014 Report Share Posted April 7, 2014 We thought him everything he knows, you know ...but not everything we know! John Link to post Share on other sites
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