You dive me deep into memories with this question! It was many years ago, my first project for Flight Simulator was repaints for some general aviation aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002. The first commercial project I participated in as a 3d artist and developer was the “Roaring Thirties” from Lago for MSFS 2004. There were two airplanes included: the Beechcraft Staggerwing and Stinson Gullwing. In 2006 I, along with my friend and colleague, founded a company named SibWings lab. (Siberian Wings laboratory). The Saab Safir, Cessna Birddog, Pitts Special, and An-2 for Microsoft Flight Simulator X and P3D were released by Sibwings. In 2017 I started my own company under my personal brand – ATSimulations.

What do you find most exciting about working as a flight sim developer?

In short: this profession allows me to bring the aircraft I want to life in a virtual environment, with the level of detail I require. For a bit of a longer answer, I believe that inside every sim fan is an ex or future pilot or maybe someone who didn’t become a pilot because of health or circumstances. It was the same thing with me personally. Some health issues didn’t allow me to enroll into flight school to become a real pilot, so I found myself in this profession which is on the edge of engineering, computer graphics, and flying — yes virtual — but you know the modern lever of it – crazy realistic visually, but 100% safe 🙂

In addition to the Antonov An-28, some of your other projects for Microsoft Flight Simulator include the Antonov An-2 and the Dornier Seastar. Are there any unique challenges or items of interest when creating a Soviet-era aircraft compared to one from a Western manufacturer?

Absolutely, the Soviet engineering school wasn’t totally separated from other worlds, of course, but many of their decisions could seem strange at first sight – did you see An-2’s horizons, for example? This makes these aircraft unique and interesting, especially for the sim community, when you can touch the aircraft from another era and from another country unreachable to you in real life.

Are there any interesting features or flight characteristics of the An-28 that simmers may not notice immediately on their first flight?

Actually there are many non obvious things there. Maybe quite regular, but done by a unique engineering school we talked about before.

• Most gauges have their own power switch (horizons, fuel meters, turn indicators)
• Four fuel tanks but no fuel selector
• Flaps have no steps and could be set on any angle, slats extend automatically (same as the An-2).
• HSI/ADF navigation gauge but no NAV radio – Soviet ILS system – frequency set automatically by close airport beacon, if equipped
• Nose wheel steering system has its own power switch
• Gauge in the center of the panel shows literally the position of the throttle levers, I haven’t faced something like this on any other airplane, but with it it’s easy to check the throttle set on real flight videos

Discovering things like this by yourself is part of the gameplay, in my opinion!

One more thing: there is a small decal marked “ENG” – pressing it will change labels and caution lamps language from Russian to English, may simmers I saw haven’t noticed this feature yet.

Is there an aircraft you’ve worked on that you are particularly proud of? What makes that plane special?

All of them are special to me! I can say that An-28 was definitely the most complicated and challenging for me, the biggest one I’ve made yet. Moreover, MSFS 2024 is the most advanced sim platform I have worked with. The An-2 for FSX takes us 5-6 years of “chill” development. The An-28 took around two years, with scans, with systems learning, and systems compiling. The MSFS2024 electric, fuel, and hydraulics systems are the most complicated simulation I been faced with. But again, each one of them is special to me — I could tell a story about every single one. The small Cri-Cri which is a full metal tiny twin French Broussard  — I met an owner of N7 built in Oshkosh. Saab Safir – we got several laudative and touching review letters from ex Swedish Air Force pilots.