Interview

As you probably already know by now , Oliver Michel, left Polychop Simulations and started his own company. What's ahead? We had to find out!

Hello Oliver. Thank you very much for your time. Care to tell us a bit about you?

Hi Sergio. Thanks for inviting me to this interview.

Since I was a kid a had a huge bias for the BO-105. This was due to the reason, that my father was a Military Airtraffic Controler and he took us to almost every Flightshow...

At one of these shows I saw the 105 for the first time, and it was love on first sight. At that moment I knew that it would affect my life.

In 2012 some friend of mine told me: “Did you know that there is a realistic A-10C simulator with a clickable cockpit ?”. I asked him: “From which company?”

At that point I got in touch with DCS and suddenly the BO-105 was knocking from the inside of my head and it was clear, the 105 must see the light in DCS.

“Nothing can be perfect, there is always room for improvements”

When I was starting the 105 project in 2012, my head was full of ideas. I put everything in the background like family and my girlfriend...

I also figured out, that I would need a very good coder.

One day Coretex was knocking and asked me to help them on the F-18. There I met Pat from La Reunion. Both of us had the same target: perfectionism!

He also kindly asked me to give him a hand texture/3d wise on the Gazelle and I said: “Sure! If you can give me a hand on the BO”. From that point I did 3D and texturing for the Gazelle and the BO-105. Since 4,5 years I have a 15-20 hour day to pour my passion and Ideas in both projects especially the 105.

Pat is a real nice person and a really good coder.

To put this in a legal frame, we founded Polychop in 2015 together with another partner.

Unfortunately the team didn't work for very long, and I decided to leave Polychop and founded Poly-Dynamics.In that time we also found good friends who are Bryan and Roie (Guys, you are great! Thanks for all what you did!).

Let’s start with the obvious question everyone’s asking: what happened to Polychop and why did you leave?

Due to discrepancies inside Polychop with our third partner. I decided to leave with my Bo 105 Project, Pat joined me with the new company. As the Gazelle is his Baby, he will also stay in Polychop.

What now for Polychop? Are they going to keep providing support to their products?

I guess yes. Since I left Polychop, I really don't know.

What’s up with the new company? Who’s with you right now? Did you bring some of the folks from Polychop with you?

As stated before, Poly-Dynamics will be me and Pat.

You brought the 2 products that were publicly under development by Polychop: the Stuka and the BO-105. Can you let us know what’s the status of the BO-105? Where are you in terms of development? When do you expect it to be released?

The BO-105 is coming along very well. The first release will include the Antitank version (BO-105 PAH1A1) and the recon version (VBH). We plan to release it somewhere in 2017.

The other versions (HKP-9A HELITOW and the R.O.K Army version) will follow. As you may know, it takes time to code. All versions are modeled and textured. There’s just the coding left.

What’s the biggest challenge you’d say you encountered with this project?

Uh – I would say – to find the proper pictures and the fonts. Especially the fonts took me ages to find, but I had very helpful guys in the ED community wich gave me a hand. I use this chance here to say THANK YOU to all.

And the biggest one you have right now?

The split with PC is more complicated than necessary.

To sort my passion and ideas. Sometimes I wish I had 4 hands to proceed faster!

What are your expectations for the BO-105? What is it that you are hoping the community will feel towards it?

The BO-105 is a work of Passion. Therefore, I hope the community will love it too. Many guys will be surprised by the flight behavior especially the collective one. We have real German Army pilots, testing it.

There have been some criticism about the Gazelle. The flight model was pretty good at the beginning but, with the updates, it started degrading. People are now concerned that will happen to the BO-105 as well. Did you understand what happened on the Gazelle? Is it something you can prevent on the BO-105?

I'm actually the wrong person to answer this question anymore. I would rather refer to the remaing guys at polychop.

Well – All I can say that they were tested by real combat pilots. I also understand that some users complain but It's important to know that not every helicopter's flightbehaviour is the same, and/or flying your favourite helicopter doesn't mean you can fly every helicopter.

The BO-105 will be coded complety different. All of you will be surprised.

Overall, what can we expect from Poly-Dynamics? What kind of company do you want it to be and how close to the community should we expect you to be?

Poly-Dynamics will do the best to keep up as close as possible with the community and it will be a reflection of real passion.

What’s next? What is it on your to-do list that you need to get done right now to get everything flowing?

Definitely the manual, I already started. It's very time consuming.

Oliver, thank you once again for your time and for answering our questions. Any last words?

No Problem – I thank you for the Interview too :)

Last words:

"The journey is the destination, it's all about passion and love"