Boeing Contest – 'A New Dream Takes Wing'

Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - 18:42
Reader Jason LaRue reminds us that Boeing is having a contest to name their new airplane here. Jason suggests, "Vote Stratoclimber!"

PSS Avro Vulcan Review

Posted: Monday, May 19, 2003 - 20:18
AVSIM Online Sr. Staff Reviewer David Slavens is in awe of Phoenix Software Simulations' commercial Avro Vulcan for FS2002. Dave remarks, "What PSS has done is to recreate one of the most beautiful bombers and aircraft of all time. It looks great, flies great, and eye candy abounds, yet you can still fly this as a sim. She lacks nothing except maybe to be overshadowed by her real life counterpart when the restored aircraft finally does fly. For some reason my gut is telling me she will. For 20 pounds you have nothing to loose and everything to gain." Read David's review here.

Henschel 75 Released

Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003 - 22:46
For all you military buffs out there, you'll be happy to know that Icarus Golden Age has released their Gmax FS2002 version of the WWII era Henschel 75, FS2002 only Gmax model. This package comes with a virtual cockpit that has working gauges, moving pilot head and arms and full animation. You can get more information by clicking under the Jet Age link on the Icarus website available here.

London-Melbourne Race of 1934 Diary Available

Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003 - 19:57
Rob Cappers, the webmaster of AVSIM Hosted DC2 website, informs us about latest additions to the site. Here's what he says: "I would like to bring to your attention an interesting addition to the Douglas DC2 website. I was granted the publication of the original diary, written by one of the passengers on board the DC2 Uiver, during the famous London-Melbourne race in 1934. It is interesting reading, reflecting the experience on board the plane, from the view of passenger Mr. R.J. Domenie. You can also download the Douglas DC2 for FS2k and an update for FS2k2 from this site, and recreate the race in Flightsimulator. Also new American Classics DC2 liveries are available from this site. Remember, No DC3 without the DC2 ;-)". You can reach the website here.

Eaglesoft Releases Beechjet 400A

Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003 - 19:14
Eaglesoft Development Group today announced the release of their latest FS2002 project the Beechjet 400A. Created in gmax, featuring full panel, virtual cockpit and detailed flight model it is now available directly from here.

Erickson S-64E AirCrane Helicopter Now Available

Posted: Sunday, May 18, 2003 - 1:17
Following on from the earlier annoncement, the Erickson S-64E AirCrane Helicopter is now available for you to download. Head over to the Hovercontrol website here to try it out for yourself.

VATSIM Appoints New North American Regional Director

Posted: Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 19:10
Following a recent vote by the VATSIM Board of Governors, we are happy to announce that Chris McCarthy has been appointed to the position of Regional Director for the North American region.

Chris brings a wealth of experience to this position. He joined SATCO in 1998, and has continued to demonstrate a commendable dedication to the hobby of virtual ATC. Previously Deputy Director of VATUSA, Chris is looking forward to continuing where the previous RD, Tom Schroeder (now Vice President of Operations), left off, and also hopes to implement some new ideas. We would like to congratulate Chris, and wish him the best of luck in his new position.

FS 2004 Screen Shots

Posted: Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 16:34
AVSIM has received a Press Copy of FS2004 and is now posting screen shots of the sim that is due to be released at the end of July. You can go to the Screen Shots Forum and view these shots. We will be posting different categories of shots throughout today. Currently, there are some aircraft and scenery shots available, with more coming as we can produce them. Click on Forums in the above menu and go to the Screen Shot forum for a look.

RCS Panels Replies

Posted: Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 14:19
In a statement posted on his website, Roy Chaffin has replied to the statements made in the MAAM press release regarding the development of the B25. The statement begins, "Many untrue and libellous accusations have been made against me directly, and the RCS Panels team by implication, on the web over recent weeks. To attempt to put the record straight I am issuing this statement.

It is not intended to be a full repudiation of the so-called ‘evidence’."

To read the full statement click here.

FS2002 Erickson S-64E AirCrane Helicopter

Posted: Saturday, May 17, 2003 - 12:45
Scheduled Release: Saturday Night (USA) May 17th 2003

Jordan Moore on behalf of Hovercontrol is pleased to announce that the long awaited Aircrane project is on schedule for its initial release Saturday Night, May 17th, 2003. Produced with the permission and technical support of Erickson Aircrane, this high-quality add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator is sure to be a great addition to the avid flight simmer's virtual hangar. 4 Months in making, hundreds of hours of detailed development and programming time have been invested into this freeware release. This release will bring together a mixture of new highly realistic functionality, as well as the features our hobby has grown accustomed to.

Features Included:

- Animated Dynamic Virtual Cockpit
- Accurate/Detailed Aircraft Paint and Markings
- Realistic Fuel Load, Fuel Flow, and Weight Levels
- Pilot Managed External Load Weight (in the cockpit)
- Multiple External Load Options
- Fire Fight Simplex Water Pump and Drop
- 2 Realistic and Separate Modes of Water Pick-Up
- Left and Right side Pilot Stations with Full Panels
- Animated Gear Struts, Linkages, and Shock
Compression
- Easy on Frame Rates!
- Easy on Load Times!
- Main Instrument Blow-up Zoom
- Accurate, Detailed, Paint and Rotor Markings
- Animated LongLine Winch
- Animated Functional Pond Snorkel, Sea Snorkel
- Accurate, Stereo, High Definition Aircrane Sound
- Performance Specs Accurate to Real-World
- Animated Wheels (no sinking) with Brakes.
- Lights
- Specific Check Lists and Reference Kneeboard Cards
- Animated Water Drop Effects
- Auto-Hover with Altitude Select

For those of you who are avid helicopter flyers this is going to be one you will want in your hanger. To read more about this much awaited product visit the Hovercontrol website here.

PSS Pushes Scholarship Over the Top

Posted: Friday, May 16, 2003 - 20:53
We are very pleased to announce that by increasing thier contribution from $1,000 to $2,000, PSS has pushed the Richard Harvey Scholarship over the top of the essential $10,000 threshold. In doing so, PSS' expanded contribution makes the Richard Harvey Scholarship a self-sustaining one that will, at a minimum, provide a deserving student a $500 scholarship every year at Embry Riddle University. AVSIM is very grateful to PSS, VMax, Radar Contact, and the hundreds of the individual flight simulation community members who have contributed to this worthy cause. AVSIM will continue to run this scholarship program in order to raise more money, allowing a greater scholarship in Richard's name in the years to come. Please contribute as you can. You can view the scholarship details here.

Eurowings Professional – ATR42 / 72 Announced

Posted: Friday, May 16, 2003 - 17:10
Aerosoft, Flight1 Software and the Eurowings Professional Developer Team today announced ATR42/72 commuter aircraft standalone project, taken from the “Eurowings Professional” package, redone and released for FS2002. It contains a complete simulation of ATR42–300, ATR42-500, ATR72–200, ATR72–212 and ATR72–500 as well as ATR72–200 freight and ATR72–200/72 with 72 seats. Aircraft models have been designed using FSDS2 and feature reflections, opening doors and landing lights in addition to other details. Flight model was prepared and created with help and support by real life ATR captains in Eurowings airline.

Various panel displays in the cockpit will run smoother and are more readable due to the modern vector–gauge technology with subpixel rendering and anti-aliasing. Some other features include the option of choosing a digital VSI including TCAS in all of the aircrafts, realistic cockpit announcements by the co-pilot, in three different accents, real sound recorded in real aircraft and more. With the help and support by ATR captains of Eurowings AG these aircraft have realistic flight dynamics. The package is scheduled for release next week and brings 7 different types and 22 liveries. Additionally, Load Editor, Cockpit Configurator, Livery Installer and route database EW planner are also included. More information will be available directly from www.aerosoft.com.

New Members Join MAAM-SIM Team

Posted: Friday, May 16, 2003 - 13:27
Mid Atlantic Air Museum Simulations, "The R4D Team", is pleased to announce the addition of two well-known developers Bill Womack and Mike Hambly to join Bill Rambow, Jan Visser, Fred Banting, and Rob Young. The team, which consists entirely of volunteers, developed the award-winning R4D-6 and B-25J 'Briefing Time' add-on aircraft packages to benefit the museum's restoration programs. Now, MAAM-SIM has added two more specialists to its ranks, just in time for the museum's 2003 World War II Weekend preparations.

Bill Womack, who will fill the role of scenery designer, has actually been working with the team for some time, as you'll see by the following screen-shots of the MAAM / KRDG scenery, now under development. When a call was put out for a scenery designer, Bill applied and built the MAAM Hangar as his audition piece.

The second new member is another one of the stars of FS development. In case you are not one of the more experienced simmers in our community, Mike Hambly offered his services to MAAM-SIM a few days ago and it took all five of us only enough time for the unanimous and enthusiastic affirmatives to arrive in the mailbox before we accepted with great pleasure.

To read the full press release and see the images click here.

FlightSim Flight Deck Offer for VAs Announced

Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 20:49
Scott Campbell of FlightSim Flight Deck announces the VA Member Program for ACLoader. Scott says, "When your Virtual Airline participates in this program, your members can purchase ACLoader at a discount. You benefit from ACLoader's financial reporting system, and every flight being different with different loads and balances. Your members further benefit by purchasing ACLoader at a lower cost. It's a good deal for you and your members." For more information, please visit the Flight Deck website.

German Airports Selection 1 and 2 Released

Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 19:44
[Press Release] Aerosoft GmbH launched two new commercial titles for FS2002, German Airports Selection #1 and #2 covering selections from the very popular German Airports Series from Aerosoft. "The first of the two packages contains the airports of Munich, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Dresden, Paderborn (Aerosoft's home base) and as a bonus Innsbruck in Austria. The second package consists of Frankfurt, Köln, Hanover, Berlin and Stuttgart. These are 10 and 9 Mb downloads respectively and each costs 20 Euros.

"Each airport is constructed with all characteristic buildings present, and all contain many static and dynamic objects that really add to the airport's atmosphere. The scenery is fully compatible with FS2002's AI-traffic and both sets contain printed documentation in both English and German. You can find more information here.[Editor's Note: you may want to refer to these reviews by AVSIM Online's Sr. Staff Reviewer Craig Wyzik: German Airports 4 Review, German Airports 1 - Edition 2001, German Airports 2 Edition 2000 and German Airports 3 (Update).]

'Fly the B717-200' Now Available

Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 19:21
[Press Release] Perfect Flight announces that their commercial Fly The Boeing 717-200 for FS2002 is now available. "The aircraft has a virtual cockpit, virtual passenger cabin, 2D panel and an accurate external model made in GMAX.

"The package includes:
- Full moving parts including: Flaps, Rudder, Ailerons, Spoilers, Gear, Passenger Doors, Cargo hatches, Reversers, Virtual Cockpit Controls
- Full night lighting inside and out
- Strobes and beacons set to Boeing specifications
- Fully-featured B717 panel
- Full 3D Virtual Cockpit
- Very realistic Stereo Sounds
- Reflective texture mapping
- Checklists
- Liveries: House Colour, Hawaiian Air, Qantas Link, Olympic Airways, Bangkok Air, Air Tran, Midwest, Trans World Airways, Spanair, Impulse Airlines, American Airlines, Vuelamex, Turkmenistan Airlines, Aerolineas Baleares, Perfect Flight Colors
- ABL Adventure Compiler - This exclusive fature allows you to design all Adventures you want. We'are the only worldwide Company that implements the new Adventure Basic Language
- Flight Manager - A software interface to manage your flights.
- Extensive documentation and Flight Manuals"

Click this link for more information and screnshots.

Local Spanish Aerodrome Scenery Available

Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 19:07
Pedro Aviles reports that three new local Spanish aerodrome sceneries for FS2002 are available from Avion Magazine.Com. Pedro comments "Included are Madrid Cuatro Vientos, Ocana Airport and Alicante Muchamiel. These three local Spanish aerodromes are very well known to Spaniard flightsimmers: the Madrid Cuatro Vientos, a historical airport, is the main base for almost all the pilot schools in Madrid area; the Ocana airport near Madrid is a base for a lot of soaring schools in Toledo province; and the Alicante Muchamiel aerodrome is a base for private pilots and pilot schools in the south east part of Spain—very well known by hundreds of thousands of foreigners who visit the sunny beaches of Alicante in Spain." The three sceneries can be purchased from the Avion Magazine.Com website.

German Airports 4 Review

Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 0:55
Veteran scenery reviewer Craig Wyzik looks Aerosoft's commercial German Airports 4 for FS2004—which completes the series with a nice assortment of historic, large, small, and just generally interesting airports scattered across Germany. Craig comments, "It's no surprise to me that this is another outstanding scenery release from Aerosoft. I've come to expect scenery of this quality from them, and it would be shocking if German Airports 4 wasn't this good. If you like collections of highly detailed airports of all sizes, you can't do much better than GA4." Read Craig's review here.

LAGO AMX Fighter Jet Announced

Posted: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 - 23:05
LAGO today announced a new product in their line of fighter jets for MS FS2002, the AMX Fighter Jet. Here are the details from the press release: "AMX fighter Jet was conceived as a joint program between Italy and Brazil undertaken by Alenia, Aermacchi and Embraer, a surface attack aircraft for battlefield interdiction, close air support and reconnaissance missions. Needing an aircraft to replace its aging fleet of G91 and F-104 aircraft, the Italian Air Force began drawing up specifications for a light tactical attack fighter to complement the Tornado. The AMX is capable of operating at high subsonic speed and low altitude, by day or night, and if necessary, from bases with improvised runways. It features low IR signature, reduced radar cross section and the low vulnerability of structure and systems guarantee a high probability of mission success.

LAGO AMX includes 9 different liveries and various operative configurations which radically change the way you fly the plane. These configurations include: clean, nav, long range nav, Mk82 bomber, Mk84 bomber and recce with Orpheus pod." Detailed information on this release, with screenshots are available here.

Captain Sim 727 1.3 Update Released

Posted: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 - 22:56
Captain Sim today announced the release of an upgrade 1.3 to for their "Legendary 727" package. This update, only available to registered users, includes updated aircraft models with "dynamic shine" feature, updated flight model, updated fuel distribution and some other minor improvements. For more details on this check out the Captain Sim support forum here.