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Mark Beaumont Dark Moment's the name, flying's the game.I can't fly at all, actually. Not even like a duck, although my colleagues in multiplayer might argue that point. I've spent most of my errant life to date in the cruise shipping industry, playing with things that float, not fly. Being a boy, I've been in love with aeroplanes since the beginning of time, of course, but nobody has ever seen fit to let me loose in one. I was born at a very early age, in London, England. My father was with the British Foreign Office and a life that might have been geographically very transient was brought firmly back to earth with his untimely death in Singapore when I was six. My poor mother, all alone and with two small boys, brought us back to England on a Qantas Lockheed Constellation. It took three days. My father's sense of humour must have been hereditary, however, as my happiest memory of the trip is of a large turkey on a platter shooting out from below the galley curtain and careering down the aisle as our Captain executed a particularly sharp climb out of Istanbul. You couldn't write a better script than that. After spending most of my school years playing snooker, foxhunting and driving far-too-fast cars held together with string, sticky tape and somebody else's money, I trained and qualified as a photographer. I worked for BBC Television and various studios in England, eventually joining a business that operated photography units on cruise vessels. The work was a grind, but the lifestyle and travel fabulous. One day, the management of China Navigation Company, Hong Kong, called me into their office. "Mr. Beaumont", they said, "we understand that you are leaving your job as our Ship's Photographer". I was bored, and was. "Well it seems to us that all you've done since you've been aboard our vessel is lean on the bar and chat up old ladies". All this was true, and I made to leave the room apologetically. "No, no", they continued, "you don't understand. We'd like to pay you to do that. You are now our Cruise Director". I could now do what I was doing anyway but didn't have to work at all, or so I thought. Like every occupation you sit about at for too long, the paperwork started piling up in front of me and I ended up managing the "Coral Princess" and its business for that company all over Asia and Australasia. I was now a Cruise 'Executive' and, to be fair, they did give me a few more beer tokens. All went well excepting a year in hospital in the mid-80s when I contracted testicular cancer; although fully recovered now, I hope, I mention this only because I will always reach out to those with similar problems in life. Think positive and listen to those more qualified than yourself, that's my only immediate advice. Hong Kong instilled in me my great passion for Cathay Pacific Airways, the history of which is straight out of a "Boys' Own" Annual. The Swire Group operated both my shipping company and the airline, and so I was lucky enough to travel extensively on Cathay's aircraft: mostly Tristars and early 747s in my days there. With much business travel regionally and equally frequent discounted travel to the beaches of the Philippines and Thailand at the weekends, no flight was ever complete without a spell in the jump seat. I've been lucky enough to be there for the infamous Kai Tak R13 landing many times. Those memories are very special. Back in London when Swire sold their passenger shipping interests (did well, didn't I?) I started up a new cruise ship broking company for Clarksons and got to know every available wine bar in The City over a three year period. Cunard Line were kind enough to call in 1994 and so then it was off to New York (on the company ferry) to take up a very impressive position in Fifth Avenue. Well, I had a good view from my office, anyway. I ended up running QE2 and ten other ships for Cunard until that company was sold to Miami-based Carnival Group a couple of years later. In the meantime, the most beautiful girl in the New York office had responded to my desperate advances and so I remained in the U.S. to marry my lovely wife Maryann. I continue to work as a ship broker and consultant to the cruise and ferry world. We've lived in Fort Lauderdale, FL and Frederick, MD but are now back in NY living in Bayville, Long Island. We're lucky enough to have both a co-pilot and navigator in training: with my history, Katherine Grace and little John Montgomery are two of life's miracles for which I shall always be grateful. At time of writing, Katherine is six and John is nearly one year old. I love computers and what they can do for us. I've never quite understood why as, like most people, I don't begin to understand them and yet we rely on them for so many things. My interest in flightsimming started with FS4, I think, but although I owned subsequent versions I didn't really get into this world properly until FS2000 arrived (I missed FS98 completely). Suddenly, everything started to look real, and worked as it should. The day I discovered the world of freeware was a turning point in my life: I became a download junkie. I grabbed everything in sight, spent hours installing it, flew it all once, and became a gold mine of useless information. Since those heady days I've tried to put this in perspective to save my marriage, my sanity and my hard drive. I've tried my hand at various bits and pieces of development work for our community over recent years but have narrowed this down to a focus on Cathay Pacific, the British RAF display team "The Red Arrows" and, of course, the DC-3. I maintain dedicated websites for these interests which are all currently accessible through www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html . Swire Mariners is one of a number of websites I've developed voluntarily for associations and charities. I'm pleased to say that my "Red Arrows" work, put together with a couple of famous Finns, is featured on the "Red Arrows" own website. My love for the Dakota grew out of my interest in Cathay Pacific's founding aircraft, "Betsy". I've painted her up in pretty well every livery she ever wore, and that led to requests for other things. The more I learned of the DC-3, the more interested I became, and now she's pretty well all I fly. She's changed my approach to simming as I'm now learning far more about actually getting up there, staying up there and getting down again, rather than simply acting as the curator of a hangar full of unused aircraft. In all this, I was a late comer to DC-3 Airways, feeling that I would never have the time for involvement in a virtual airline. How wrong I was. I get far more from DC-3 Airways than I ever put in but, in any case, the airline is structured so that you do what you can, when you can, and is staffed and piloted by the best bunch of blokes that you could ever hope to meet. The online friendships I have established through my involvement with DC-3 Airways are the cornerstones of my enjoyment of this hobby today.
And so it stuck. Call me what you will, except on short final if I have precedence and need a beer. It was a great honour to be asked by the CEO of DC-3 Airways to join his management team, initially as Aircraft Design Coordinator and subsequently as Vice President Fleet. I see this, firstly, as recognition of my own humble efforts in repaints and modifications for our fleet, for which I am greatly appreciative; but, secondly, as a wonderful opportunity for me to pull together from our pilots some of the best work for the DC-3 and flight simulation available anywhere. You'll often find me in the forum when I should be working and my email is available to all; I will welcome your interest in helping to strengthen DC-3 Airways' reputation as the finest virtual airline in flight simulation today. Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumont 18 November 2006 NOTE: Mark lost his 35-year battle with cancer 19 January 2018. He will always be remembered among our membership as a fixture in the flight simulation world. Airways 1054, climb and maintain 3,000, expect infinity in 10 minutes. Godspeed, Mark.
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