Photoreal Scenery of the Continental USA by SimSavyy in Avsim Store

Posted: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - 20:24
Photoreal Scenery of the Continental United States of America by SimSavyy

"Photoreal America" is the first completed product in the Sim-Savvy "Massive Scenery Collection". The product contains photoreal scenery of the entire Continental United States for use with Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX).
A new 500Mb USB3 external hard drive ($100 value) is included in the purchase price and will be shipped to you. Photoreal America comprises 400 gigabytes worth of data. The scenery loads directly from this supplied hard drive and does not fill up your local drive. This also leaves room on the supplied drive for future "Massive Scenery" releases and additions.

Unlike the default vector based scenery that comes with FSX, "Photoreal America" allows you to see the real view below. The scenery is generated from USDA NAIP 1 meter aerials that are taken every two years on a rotating basis. Student pilots can use FSX with Photoreal America as a training aid to practice between lessons. Veteran pilots can use FSX with Photoreal America as a flight planning tool. Imagine practicing a takeoff or landing at an unfamiliar airport you are scheduled to fly to. With Photoreal America you can see the real landmarks and runways below.
Visit the Avsim Store today.

Dangerous Airports 1 from Aerosoft

Posted: Monday, June 13, 2011 - 3:37
Staff reviewer Roger Curtiss puts his life in peril as he takes on Aerosoft's Dangerous Airports Vol 1. "Sure, any airport can be dangerous. What with all the noise, spinning propellers, powerful jet engines that can suck you in from the front or blow you over from behind, and all manner of aircraft and vehicles to avoid and hope they see and avoid you. So what qualities single an airport out to be designated as dangerous?"

"These airports will kick your butt. Takeoffs require very close attention to airspeed and climb performance with a need to climb as efficiently as possible in the mountains to get clear of the terrain. Trying to execute smooth approaches and landings often involves threading the needle and amounted to some of the most demanding simulator flying I have experienced. The physical nature of the airports renders the usual visual cues to be quite less reliable."

"Dangerous Airports is not your average add-on. It features airports and flying conditions that will test your skills, keep you thinking, and ultimately make you a better pilot through mastery of the techniques needed."

X-Aviation Releases Take Command! Series CRJ-200

Posted: Monday, June 13, 2011 - 3:18
X-Aviation is pleased to announce the release of the first product in our new Take Command! series of products. The CRJ-200 is the most sophisticated and anticipated aircraft product ever produced for X-Plane to date. It brings simulated systems, a custom FMC, real world navigation data, vector displays, and much more! For more information on this product and to download the manuals for FREE as a means to get an idea of how fantastic this product really is you may view the product at the X-Aviation website.

On The Horizon - Captain of the Ship - 377 Stratocruiser

Posted: Sunday, June 12, 2011 - 18:05
What kind of airline captain are you? This new project from A2A Simulations is enormous. It comes with over 1300 new sound recordings, new natural speech module, a live engineer, virtual flight attendant, captain's log, a career based system, etc.
Watch this video preview to see why this project goes where no commercial airliner simulation has gone before.

DBS Airport GPS (FSX) Updated

Posted: Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 17:50
DBS Studio release update 1.8 for DBS Airport GPS for FSX. What's new in 1.8.0: Updated integration to panel.cfg Helicopter mode (Airport GPS now active on altitude up to 100 feet)

Coming Down The Tracks, Railway Simulator 12

Posted: Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 17:47
The Boxed edition of Railway Simulator 12 comes in deluxe slipcase packaging and includes a complete 240-page printed manual and has 8 new routes. Railway Simulator includes a host of new and updated features, among them an all-new Online Multiplayer option which allows users to work as a team to build and operate virtual railways together with other enthusiasts.

Railway Simulator features high resolution terrain and texture detail, fantastic graphics, state-of-the art sounds,accurate train physics - not to mention new routes, new locomotives and rolling stock, and new scenery content. Railway Simulator will also work out of the box with content created for Trainz 2010.

The Download and Boxed editions of Railway Simulator, powered by Trainz 12, will be available through Just Trains - the Download will be released on Friday 17th June and the Boxed edition the following Friday, the 24th June.

CALL! for Airbus EVO Vol.1

Posted: Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 6:34
CALL! for the Airbus EVO Vol.1 is a First Officer simulation. This easy to use software brings great realism into your virtual cockpit making you "feel there".

The Fist officer reads the following checklists:
COCKPIT PREP, BEFORE START, ENGINE START, AFTER START, TAXI, BEFORE TAKEOFF, TAKEOFF, AFTER TAKEOFF, DESCENT, APPROACH, AFTER LANDING, and SHUTDOWN

After reading each item it will wait for your action making sure you are properly following the checklist flow.

Flight Crew for Airbus 'Evolution' Series

Posted: Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 6:30
FS2Crew is pleased to announce that it now supports the newly released Airbus "Evolution" series published by Wilco. Please taxi to the FS2Crew website for more information.

FS2Crew has been on the Flight Simulator scene for over six years. It develops advanced airline crew simulations for select FSX and FS9 aircraft, such as the iFly 737NG, PMDG 747, LDS 767, PMDG J41, and more.

Fly Around The World With It's Your Plane (IYP)

Posted: Friday, June 10, 2011 - 23:12
An adventurous and challenging programme containing 268 Individual Flights. Fly Around the World, with Michelle (a.k.a. Mike) your Co-Pilot, in your favorite General Aviation (GA) aircraft. Throughout this trip, Michelle, who has traveled these routes before, will be sitting in the right-hand seat ready to assist you and to let you know what experiences to expect en route.

Robert Cezar, creator and developer of IYP spent hundreds of hours planning, plotting and documenting these "real" trips. You'll be staying in real hotels and visiting real world locations. If you enjoy the challenge of "really flying", then you will find this trip not only great fun but also very informative.

The Fly Around The World programme heads north and westwards from Oceano, California, up through Canada and across to Asia, southwards to Australia and the South Pacific Islands, across the Asian sub-continent, via Russia to Africa and then north to Europe. The program then heads back to explore Eastern Canada and the United States, turns south down to South America, and then up through Central America and Mexico, before finally returning to California.

Complete Overview of this 268-Flight Adventure!
Parts One - Eight of the Fly Around The World Programme
Location of some of our IYP pilots who are already enjoying their Fly Around the World experience.
Fly Around The World is a feature for users operating the Registered version of It's Your Plane (IYP)

GF-WP-6 Annunciator Panel Released

Posted: Friday, June 10, 2011 - 23:02
GoFlight Technologies is pleased to announce their first of this year's new modules and hardware accessories, the GF-WP-6 Annunciator Panel. This unit is the world's first self-created and modular annunciator panel available anywhere and comes with 60 adhesive backed and reusable mylar windows which can be easily programmed and backlit with any color selection using GoFlight's intuitive software.

The GF-WP-6 marks the first of a new line of products available from GoFlight, in their continuing mission to enhance the virtual skies with additional PC-based peripheral add-ons.

Virtavia C-17A Globemaster III For FSX & FS9

Posted: Friday, June 10, 2011 - 18:19
Virtavia has released their C-17A Globemaster III for FSX and FS9, eleven texture sets are included with unique models for FS2004 and FSX.
Full native FSX model uses 2048-pixel exterior textures with bump mapping and self-shadowing and a high quality 3D cockpit with many mousable functions and systems, FS9 VC is reduced in detail but has full systems and gauge functionality.
High quality 2D panel suite, a 29-page user manual in PDF format and high quality TSS soundset included for FS9 and with FSX-specific sound. Features such as fowler flaps, spoilerons, reverse thrusters, front exit and steps, paratroop doors, rear cargo to level AND optional ground position, togglable pilots and togglable formation ('slime') lights are included, visit the Virtavia hanger for further details.

2 More DVDs from JustPlanes/WorldAirRoutes

Posted: Friday, June 10, 2011 - 15:14
Another installment of the JustPlanes/WorldAirRoutes documentary DVDs from Marlon Carter. "Atlas Air is an American cargo airline based in Purchase, New York. It operates scheduled freight flights on a wet lease basis for some of the world's leading airlines. In a previous review we had the opportunity to see the operations of Air Atlanta Icelandic’s 747-400F and now we will examine its A300-600 operations for Air France."

Regional Photo of French Islands HD

Posted: Friday, June 10, 2011 - 14:44
France VFR is happy to announce its latest release of Regional PHOTO for French Islands HD, being the 3rd pane of its new series of photo scenery in high resolution coverage. The scenery covers the overseas French Islands: such as Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Martin (French Parts); Reunion and Mayotte within the Indian Ocean; French Guyane and St Pierre et Miquelon Islands.


Regional PHOTO product range provides high resolution photoreal and terrain mesh coverage for each island. This photoreal texture replaces the standard Microsoft FSX default scenery by 0.85 to 1m/pixel resolution ground textures obtained from IGN aerial photography with a real landscape. High resolution real 19m (LOD11) optimized custom mesh is included. Further local sceneries can be added onto this texture to provide a greater level of realism. The scenery benefits from the latest cutting out techniques on the coastline that allows an extremely precise cut out without any damages within the mesh.

iGMap and iGMapHD 2.0 Released

Posted: Friday, June 10, 2011 - 14:40
The FSWidgets Development Team have released a major update to their iOS apps iGMap (for iPhone/iPod touch) and iGMapHD (for iPad). Both apps have been simultaneously updated to version 2.0 adding many new features. The major changes of note include 2 new seamless US IFR Enroute High/Low charts, 5 new worldwide map styles, access to a Cloud Based (online) navaid database that displays airport, VOR, NDB and Fix data right on the map, and a option to display a helicopter icon to replace the fixed wing icon. This is a free update for all users, to download it simply open the Updates page of the App Store on your device. For full details and screenshots of the 2.0 releases please visit the FSWidgets website.

Flight 1's Free Open Day 2011

Posted: Friday, June 10, 2011 - 5:54
Flight1 announces that the 2011 Flight1 Open Day will be held on Saturday 24th September 2011. The event will again be held at Shoreham Airport, the oldest licensed airfield in the UK and just up the road from the home of Flight1's European office in Brighton.

You should register for this FREE event via the Open Day webpage to guarantee entry and ensure you get your free goody bag on the day.

YSCB Canberra from Orbx FTX

Posted: Friday, June 10, 2011 - 1:41
Staff reviewer Peter Hayes flies down under to check out Orbx FTX Canberra (YSCB) Airport. "In FSX, Canberra YSCB is almost non-existent, and while FTX Au Blue improved the airport scenery enormously, this paid add-on takes the visual experience to the next level with oodles of detail, including, taxi-ways, aprons, buildings, vehicles, moving people and roads."

"Accurate and vividly detailed are the descriptors that spring to mind when you select and explore this airport scenery. The terminals are accurately depicted within the scenery showing the airport before the 'Southern Terminal Extension' was completed. The taxiways are accurate with excellent textures (including the grass and asphalt), great lighting and very clear signs guiding you to the departure or parking point. There are two runways and these are faithfully reproduced down to the asphalt surface, they look worn enough to have been used."

"Canberra YSCB is a great improvement over the default scenery, it is much more realistic and is accurately mapped so both accurate VFR and IFR flights are possible."

Classics Hangar Messerschmitt Bf 108 B

Posted: Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - 22:23
Classics Hangar releases Messerschmitt Bf 108 B 'TAIFUN' for FSX. The Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun is arguably one of the most influential aviation designs of it's time that set the benchmark back then and has not been bypassed in performance by most contemporary aircraft in it's class up until today. This iconic piece of aviation history is now avaliable for Microsoft Flight Simulator X as a faithful reproduction of German period aviation technology. All systems and instruments have been recreated based on the oldest flying Messerschmitt aircraft world-wide, the Bf 108 B D-EBFW with it's historically restored VFR panel. Additionally there are seven more paint schemes of historical and currently operable Bf 108 included as well as an alternative panel instrumentation based on the historical blind flying equipment with the addition of some modern Navigation Radios. The Aerodynamics, Stability and Control have been developed based on current real world flight data using the next gereration of AvHistory's Flight Model V 5.00.1 what makes possible a not yet in PC-Simulation experienced organic depth in depicting the fundamental principles of flying through air. More information and free use manual download from the Classics Hangar .

FSXRadar For iPad

Posted: Sunday, June 5, 2011 - 15:25
Positiongames has released FSXRadar for iPad, iPhone and the iPod touch. FSXRadar shows AI aircraft, Airports, VOR and NDB beacons on your device relative to your position of your simulated FSX aicraft. is a new program of the FSXFamily products for FSX. PositionGames previously published FSXFollow, FSXControl and FSXPad.

Aeropresentation Documentary DVDs

Posted: Saturday, June 4, 2011 - 18:13
Staff reviewer Marlon Carter looks at a new company producing documentary flight DVDs, Aeropresentation. This time they are in HD.

Marlon flies with NextJet, SAS's MD-80, and Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia. "These DVDs were an absolute pleasure to watch and I think anyone who loves aviation will enjoy them. There are other companies that produce these types of DVDs but quite honestly the camera quality and the editing of these DVDs by Aero presentation is quite impressive."

FollowMe FSX Updated

Posted: Saturday, June 4, 2011 - 17:29
DBS Studio release update 1.5 for DBS FollowMe Service for FSX: Transparency processing BGL scenery files; Selecting between BGL processing and external airport database (in Settings dialog); External airport database updating directly from simulator (in Addons/FollowMe menu); Selecting between transparent interface windows and classic windows dialogs (in Settings dialog); Menu "Addons/FollowMe Window" to open main dialog window without keyboard shortcuts; Settings dialog to adjust car speed, car distance, car type, keyboard shortcut; Assigning car to airport in Settings dialog; Helicopter taxiing mode - up to 100 ft taxiing altitude; Improved scanning of AFCAD files in right order.