FS Aspen for FSX/FS2004

Posted: Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 17:22
Flight1 Aviation Technologies and Flight1 Software are proud to bring you the FS Aspen GA Glass Panel solution for Flight Simulator X and 2004. The Flight1 FS Aspen PFD system integrates virtually all instruments and gauges into an easy-to-use display for all your aircraft within your flight simulator and is one of the hottest selling GA retro displays available today. The package includes the FS Aspen PFD, S-TEC Fifty Five X Autopilot, User Guides & Manuals, Flight1 Gauge Utility, and a demo version of FS Panel Studio.

Indo-Pacific Landclass from SceneryTech

Posted: Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 1:48
Staff reviewer Arjun Murthy takes a look at Scenery Tech's Indo-Pacific Landclass. "Indo-Pacific Landclass Scenery covers a large area from New Zealand to Australia to Papua New Guinea to Indonesia and many other places. This scenery is a part of the many Landclass sceneries including South / North America, Asia and Europe published by Scenery Tech."

"This landclass uses the default FSX scenery files and modifies it to form a more realistic representation of what it is like in real life. A few places in the scenery are exactly the same as the default. The majority of mountains ranges are changed. Since this landclass uses the default FSX scenery files, there should be no increase or decrease in frame rates."

"The Indo-Pacific Landclass add-on scenery from Scenery Tech is very good in some areas but not so good in other areas. Although the same formula is used for the definition of cities (that can be viewed by Virtual Pilots), each city and town is different in small ways. Although it may take away a little touch of realism, it certainly does counteract it by inputting realism into other areas."

TrackIR 5 Released

Posted: Saturday, May 2, 2009 - 0:47
NaturalPoint is proud to unveil TrackIR 5, successor to the best-selling head tracker in the world, TrackIR 4. Through a series of hardware enhancements as well as completely overhauled software, their fifth generation head tracker offers new levels of precision, freedom and reliability.

More Precision - With a 640 x 480 sensor resolution, TrackIR 5 has triple the number of pixels as a TrackIR 4, resulting in radically more precise tracking and further tracking distances. Combined with NaturalPoint's new Precision Grayscale analysis, it achieves a reporting resolution of 96,000 x 72,000. The result is a potent 10-fold increase in effective resolution over TrackIR 4. See a video demonstration of Precision Grayscale on the Product Comparison page.

More Freedom - TrackIR 5's 51.7° field of view is an increase of more than 12% over TrackIR 4. Enjoy more trackable real estate as you move around as much as you need to. Like to sit close to your monitor? Track a fuller range of head motion from up close. Want to keep your distance? Leverage the higher resolution with the wider field of view and enjoy more room than you'll know what to do with at larger distances. With an effective resolution of 1850 subpixels per horizontal field of view degree, you'll still enjoy tremendous tracking fidelity.

More Reliability - TrackIR 5's intelligent design aims to reduce damage from wear and tear with a magnetically attached base and USB cable anchor. The newly designed software introduces NaturalPoint's Spurious Marker Rejection to help filter out unwanted light sources in hostile conditions.

Airport Design Editor Version 1.40

Posted: Friday, May 1, 2009 - 14:35
ScruffyDuck Software and the ADE Development Team are delighted to announce the release of Airport Design Editor Version 1.40. This is a significant new release with a number of bug fixes, enhancements and new features. The major new function is the Visual Approach Designer. In the past creating approaches has meant writing xml code and repeatedly checking it in FS. With Version 1.40 we have introduced a graphical interface for approach design that mimics the FSX GPS Display. In addition ILS approach code can be automatically added when adding a user specified ILS. It is now possible to randomize parking order, or drag the order of parking spots to suit your needs . Users can now import information from a bgl or xml files into an existing project. We have enhanced a number of areas including the range of co-ordinate formats that can be used when entering locations; runway length of greater than 20,000ft are now allowed; inclusion of no crash and no autogen suppression of objects; locking of objects groups such as runways or aprons is now specific to each project. We have fixed many bugs including the one that caused ADE project files to grow in size and the one that caused objects to move after setting their position manually. For full details please visit the ADE Home Page .

OZx 2.2 Released

Posted: Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 14:32
OZx is proud to announce OZX 2.2, a further update to our Australian scenery project. Let AussieX take you further into your journey of discovery of our ancient land, from the lush greens of eastern Australia with tiny aerodromes such as Berendorff Road and Nobbies; through the fiery red outback with airfields that service the many remote communities such as Harts Range, Hermannsburg and Ampilatwatja. Adventure into strips that are seldom used except by the likes of the Australian Royal Flying Doctor Services' iconic Kingairs and PC12s - remote strips like Tilmouth Well. You can then continue your journey over the gold of the great western wheatbelts with wheat silos now dotting the landscape from Esperance to Perth. Fly into the beautiful south western pastoral country around Margaret River where you can enjoy some of the great wines and cheeses produced in this amazing area. Then let your wings soar over the azure blue of the Indian Ocean and the great North West Shelf searching for Legendre, Griffin Venture or some of the other huge oil rigs that harvest this black gold from beneath the ocean floor. You will find the Australian landscape coming to life beneath you with mines like Broken Hill and Moura, huge salt plants and not forgetting the agricultural industries contribution with mighty wheat storage depots and terminals. You will find Kingfisher, Snapper, Cobia and many more lonely oil rigs toughing it out in Bass Straight; where the frigid winds of the antarctic scream their torturous way northward, searching for victims to flay with their icy, storm wracked tentacles as they blast the wind farms on the western coast of Tasmania with a freezing fury. Turn north again and you can fly at a more leisurely pace as you search for the numerous farm strips around the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney. Travel again through this vast land and experience the beauty and remote majesty of our harsh continent of extremes.

Widetraffic 1.3 for FSX Available

Posted: Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 14:27
Widetraffic 1.3 is useful when you wish to synchronise AI and multi-player aircraft when wideview is used to create panoramic views via a LAN computer. Widetraffic 1.3 offers improved synchronization of landing gear, flaps, speed brakes and running engines status, allowing all the AI aircraft to appear identical throughout the networked FS sessions.

Download section and bargain bin at the Avsim store

Posted: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - 16:39
The download section of the Avsim store keeps expanding. It now includes scenery from SimGiants, FS2crew titles and best sellers such as the Wilco 777 and Tower Simulator.
The Avsim store also features a bargain bin section where you can find several titles for less than $10. Hurry up, these products won't stay in stock very long.

Visit the Avsim store today.

Wellington from First Class Simulations

Posted: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - 1:35
Staff reviewer Laurie Aston takes a look at a venerable, historic WWII aircraft, the Vickers Wellington as presented by First Class Simulations. "The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s. It was widely used as a night-time bomber in the early years of World War II."

"The external views of the Vickers Wellington are very nicely produced with colour schemes and details neatly finished and detailed to the extent that after my recent viewing the Wellington in the museum at RAF Hendon in the UK, I was able to confirm the authenticity of the simulated aircraft. Four versions of the Vickers Wellington are available and a total of six beautifully painted and finished aircraft are waiting to be flown."

"The instrumentation is very accurately reproduced in the simulation as can be verified by the Pilots Notes for the Wellington, and it all works very well indeed. The sound team at First Class Simulations has done a great job on the Bristol Hercules sound set, and having heard a lot of Hercules engines over a period of time, in my opinion they have the sounds copied perfectly."

"There are two missions are titled as follows: Coastal command, and Winter Warrior. Before embarking on the missions it is necessary to install the “RAF Driffield” scenery, only available for FSX and after that you can start a mission."

"The First Class Simulations Wellington really is a first class product.This simulation is rich in content and detail. It has superb paint jobs and the addition of RAF Driffield is an added bonus, although only for FSX users. I have to recommend this simulation as one of the best I have reviewed and is a good quality product with a good choice of planes."

1958 Cessna 172 for FSX Released

Posted: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 0:51
SimFlight3D launches its first model, the 1958 Cessna 172 (straight tail) for Flight Simulator X, complete with real manual flaps, fully operational cockpit and panels. Other features include: chart for map screen use, mike button for ATC window, animated pilot, oil check door and dipstick. Now available in four paint schemes.

With over 15 years of 3D modeling, graphic design/conceptualization and animation in the video game industry plus actual flying experience, SimFlight3D was created to promote sophisticated, accurate aircraft models. For more information and to view the newly designed model and updated fact sheet, change heading to the SimFlight3D website.

New Organization Formed for Flight Simulation

Posted: Monday, April 27, 2009 - 17:39
In a meeting today in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, a new organization was formed to be an advocate of flight simulation, the community and organizations in support of our hobby - The International Flight Simulation Consortium. Attended by some 25 developers, community members and publishers, the nascent organization has created an interim board of directors. The IFSC has been launched with the intent to represent and promote our hobby world-wide. We will be publishing more news in the coming weeks on the goals and membership requirements of IFSC.

Boeing Model 40 Released

Posted: Sunday, April 26, 2009 - 17:39
The Boeing Model 40 was a United States mail plane that became the first aircraft built by the Boeing Company to carry passengers. Golden Age Simulations is proud to present this great plane for Flight Simulator (FSX or FS9). Their package presents both the Model 40 C and B-4. The model C is presented in the livery of Pacific Air Transport matching that of the restored aircraft 5339, powered by the Pratt and Whitney Wasp with a constant speed propeller. The B-4 is dressed out in both the livery of United Airlines and Western Air Express and is powered by the Pratt and Whitney Hornet.

Death Valley + HolgerMESH Freeware Released

Posted: Sunday, April 26, 2009 - 17:30
Photoreal scenery for FSX SP2 created at a resolution of 2m/pixel (some interesting areas has been made at 1m/pixel, like Trona), with autogen and enhanced nightlights. Summer Season Only. There are some very nice lakes with animated water. You will see that this area presents so many interesting things to see, it's not only the desert.

There are fantastic farms and rural environments, very cute cities, industrial areas and the scenery changes a lot during the day. You will see fantastic colour nuances depending on the time you fly. It's also beautiful in the night, OZx has experimented with a new method to realize the nightlights that they will apply also to their future sceneries. The HolerMESH is included in the zipfile you download but has it's own installer, so you can use it if you desire but you do not have to. Vist the OZx website for complete details.

AVSIM Announces System Redesign is Underway

Posted: Sunday, April 26, 2009 - 12:26
The management of AVSIM is pleased to announce that a total system redesign is underway. Our first priority is to do a complete remake of the file library system. That will be followed with a front page, and major functions redesign. Our goals are simple; clean up the library, add functionality and increase reliability. As we are sure that most users have noticed, the reliability of the library and the speed at which is serves our users are decreasing. We know that this is a function of outdated architecture and a reliance on backend systems that are much more hardware intensive than they can be by updating to today's latest technologies. We plan to implement similar changes within the AVSIM web site as well. Modern, fast, and reliable are our goals. Another significant goal is to converge user ID's and passwords. We want to have a user database that allows access to all functions, library and forums as the two most prominent examples, with one User ID and Password. Most importantly is reliability and speed. We know that of late things have been a bit "flakey", and our intent is to solve those issues and bring AVSIM into the 21st century in terms of design and ease of use. We will be keeping you up to date on these improvements over the coming weeks and will most likely announce the opening of wide area BETA Testing in some areas soon. Stay tuned for more news on this effort.

Real Air Duke For FSX

Posted: Saturday, April 25, 2009 - 23:49
Real Air Simulations release the Beechcraft Duke B60 for FSX, their first twin piston prop. The Duke comes in several liveries, all with very high resolution graphics, dynamic shine, bump mapped surfaces, 3d cockpits with both panning and fixed views, full stereo enhanced sounds, detailed flight dynamics and custom lighting and special effects. Included in the package comes a suite of documents, pilot's operating manual and a fully illustrated flying guide. Other features include a full set of IFR true-3d gauges, an interior with very high levels of detail, with every switch and control in the virtual cockpit fully functional, smooth gauge animations and options for either conventional steering or castoring nosewheel and differential braking. For a full feature list, detailed high resolution screenshots and further information, please visit Real Air Simulations Homepage

FSX Aircraft ToolBox Version 1.1

Posted: Saturday, April 25, 2009 - 1:17
TweakFS has released a new edition of the their FSX Aircraft ToolBox, a tool that allows developers and FS users alike to make non-destructive changes to the FSX aircraft fleet, back up/restore entire aircraft folders, enable/disable aircraft groups and automate the creation of high-quality thumbnails used in the FSX aircraft selection dialog. This new version adds full Vista UAC compatibility, additional custom search features and a bug fix. Version 1.1 is a free update for existing registered users and is available from the TweakFS website.

FSCheckride Available For FREE

Posted: Saturday, April 25, 2009 - 1:16
FSCheckride, a FS9/FSX addon is now available for FREE courtesy of FS2Crew. FS2Crew owns the rights to FSCheckride, and FS2Crew has decided to give it out as a free gift to the flight sim community as a token of its appreciation for all the support they have received over the years. FSCheckride was reviewed by Avsim and received the coveted Avsim Gold medal award.

To obtain your free copy of FSCheckride, please create an account on the FS2Crew website if you do not already have an account. Next, add FSCheckride to your cart and proceed through the Checkout. The product is totally free, so you will not need to enter any credit card info.

Cessna 182 Skylane II RG from Carenado

Posted: Friday, April 24, 2009 - 2:20
Senior contributing reviewer Alexis Esguerra looks at the FSX version of Carenado's Cessna 182 Skylane RG II. "I heard somewhere that Carenado has some of the best looking GA add-ons for Flight Simulator. And in regards to the Skylane RG, I can state from my experience with this plane, that the boast is pretty well-deserved."

"In the scrutinizing of the external model of this RG182, it is a practical clone; it really appears as if the developers didn’t miss a single thing. Every item that I looked for was found and looked just right, rendered in properly scale and textures that are exquisitely real. Propeller, visible engine components, the fasteners on the cowl… I could go on and on, but I think I made my point clear. This is one excellently-rendered external model. Inside, it doesn’t stop."

"The sound set for the Skylane RG deserves praise as well. The representation of the O-540 powerplant is plenty convincing, with no discernable audible looping of the sound files."

"Carenado's Cessna 182 Skylane RG II holds very true to it’s inspiration in terms of visual and audible details, and the flight model is supremely spot on. For anyone out there wanting to look a little closer into the retractable and/or complex world of aviation, I’d recommend Carenado’s Skylane RG without hesitation."

FS Altitude Western USA Released

Posted: Friday, April 24, 2009 - 0:56
The France VFR team is proud to announce you its second pane of FS Altitude representing more than 5 Millions km² from the entire Western coast of USA down the Mexican border (major party of Mexico included) getting to the Middle states of the USA. The scenery has been entirely realised with low resolution photo-realistic textures (14.25 m/pixel) that is perfect for replacing the default textures of FSX for IFR flights from 6 000 m (20 000 feet) altitude, rendering a realistic and reliable image of the given geographical zone or continent. As FS Altitude only displays when reaching a certain level of height, below this level all previously installed add-ons remain visible. IFR flight with FS Altitude provides you complete immersion due to the widespread view and the low resolution texture. For further information and screen-shots, please check the updated website.

US Cities X - Indianapolis

Posted: Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 1:03
US Cities X, from Aerosoft, is a series of city scenery for FSX that will cover US cities. Based on an extensive aerial image it will have all the major buildings and landmarks plus all the heliports and small airports that are inside the covered areas. It is clearly intended to fill the gap between the default scenery and very high dense city scenery such as Manhattan X, London VFR or Venice X. Because the file size is rather large due to the ground image it only includes one season (in most cases this is not a real issue) and no night textures. The VFR flights over these cities is mostly a day time affair anyway. The first in the range is Indianapolis, Indiana.

Flight1 Updates Citation Mustang

Posted: Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 0:55
Flight1 is excited to announce version 1.02 of the Citation Mustang. This version now includes the Navigraph navigation database, and includes SIDS and STARS. This update has been released in conjunction with our official Sun 'n Fun press release on the Mustang.

The Citation Mustang is a breakthrough combination of power, speed and true jet affordability. Certified to be flown by a single pilot, the Mustang features state of the art engines delivering speeds of up to 340kts as well as the latest in large-format glass-cockpit flight displays, easing pilot workload, all while passengers relax in one of the largest cabins in its class. Flight One Software and Cessna Aircraft Company have joined forces to bring you this authentic simulation of the Citation Mustang, exclusively for Microsoft Flight Simulator X.