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About Us
Aviationbuff.com is the result of
my lifelong
passion with all aspects of flight. I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska
during the 1960's and fondly recall watching Starfighters, Phantoms and
Hustlers streak over my back yard. Aircraft and aviation in general has
always captivated my imagination and I spent endless hours reading books and
publications about aircraft, pilots and famous air battles. This
fascination with flight has never waned.
I fulfilled a personal goal when I received my private pilots license in 1985. I accumulated over 250 hours of flight time while flying a range of
aircraft including the Piper
Tomahawk, Warrior II and Archer II as well as logging simulated air combat hours
with Atlanta's Sky Warriors in a Beech T-34A
Mentor. As is often the case, the financial needs of a growing family along
with conflicting time requirements have had a huge impact on my free time as
well as the funds
required to maintain my currency. As a result, I have had to curtail my
active flying for now but I look forward to the time when I can
resume logging flight hours.
I have two additional passions which
compliment my aviation interests rather nicely. One is aviation
photography, I have been attending airshows and aviation events around the country for more than 25 years and
have compiled a large archive of unique and interesting photos. During the
80's & 90"s, I shot thousands of photos with 35mm film SLR cameras like the Yashica FR-II, FX-D and
later the Nikon N2020. As digital cameras became more affordable and cost
effective, I began using some of the early "super zoom" digital cameras like
the Fuji S7000 and
Nikon 8700. This type of camera worked very well for static shots but lacked
performance and quality when shooting aircraft in flight. I finally made the transition to a true
digital SLR in early 2006 and I am currently using Nikon DSLR bodies along with a
variety of old and new Nikon lenses. I attend
many aviation events and add new images
frequently so visit the Photo Gallery to see what's new.
My other interest is in computer flight simulations.
In early 2001 I created a series of flyable aircraft for use with Austin
Meyers' X-Plane flight simulator. These were great fun to design and fly and
I decided to share the aircraft with others through AVSIM.com and
Flightsim.com. My Lockheed P-3 Orion and Piper Tomahawk for X-Plane
received favorable mention in PC-Pilot magazine.
In late 2002 I decided to create an
aircraft for the MSFS environment. Almost one full year later, I completed my first flyable aircraft for use with Microsoft Flight
Simulator 2002 and 2004. This freeware Lockheed L-188 Electra was designed
and created completely in-house and has been downloaded by more than 15,000
users. The L-188 Electra for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 and 2004 can be downloaded from
the MSFS Aircraft Link on this site. The Electra files can also be found on
the PC-Pilot #35 CD-ROM disc released during the summer of 2005. Additional liveries can be found at the
popular flight simulator enthusiast sites avsim.com and flightsim.com. You
can view more information on the MSFS Electra here:
Electra for MSFS 2002 &
2004
Chris Buff
lives in Suwanee, Georgia USA with his surprisingly understanding wife and 3
children. Please
forward any comments or questions to Chris by clicking
here.
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