Attention TrainSim Fans

Posted: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 - 0:44
The Class 153 DMU and Totham route have now been released for download. The Class 153 DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) is a common sight around the UK, picking up and delivering many thousands of passengers every day of the year. Being a self-contained unit with an under-slung diesel engine it has no need for a separate locomotive and is therefore economical in operation.

Designed specifically for RailWorks 2, Totham is an all-new UK route of around 30 miles in total length, giving you a great range of tasks and a variety of interesting places to visit. Included with the route are seven custom built scenarios; five of these use the default RailWorks 2 stock. Totham is designed to give you the best of all rail simulation worlds, with halts and stations for intense passenger services and Intermodal container and freight depot marshalling yards for freight operations.

A Freeware Airport from FSAddon Europe

Posted: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 - 0:30
FSAddon Europe has released Dario Bortot's freeware Belluno Airport for FSX. "Dario designed this first version of the airport some time ago and is now working on a commercial version which will be a much more detailed version. But the released freeware airport is a great starting place to start your flights over our DolomitiX series of sceneries in the area."

Aspen EFD from Friendly Panels

Posted: Sunday, April 10, 2011 - 17:24
Senior staff reviewer Bert Pieke looks at a new glass cockpit in his Beechcraft Baron with Friendly Panels' Aspen EFD. "What is particularly interesting about these gauges is that they fit into the existing 3 inch holes in the cockpit panel that are left behind when you rip out the original steam gauges that are typically mounted in a GA aircraft. The installation is straightforward, and indeed, you end up with two new Baron models, one equipped with a Bendix KLN GPS and one equipped with a Garmin 530."

"Friendly Panels have done a nice job of modifying the default Baron with not only the new gauges, but also a removable yoke. This makes it easier to see the switches and is a welcome modification. Also, the engine gauges have been replaced with more readable units. Compared to the standard steam gauges, the EFD panel gives you a wealth of information, complete with moving map. The panel also has a GPS (Garmin or KLN) installed, so you can program and follow GPS flight plans."

4 More Just Planes/World Air Routes DVDs

Posted: Saturday, April 9, 2011 - 19:08
Staff reviewer Marlon Carter continues his series of educational DVDs from Just Planes/World Air Routes. This time it's BWIA, Fine Air, Air Tahiti and Austrian.

Great UK Air Race Event

Posted: Saturday, April 9, 2011 - 17:05
Joe Lawford the owner of Mutley's Hangar has announced the launch of the Great UK Air Race! Also known as MEBAR - Mutleys' Easter Bunny Air Rally 2011. This event forms part of the wider Global event initiated by Bluegrass Airlines who have already completed the first in the series The Great Australian Air Rally (GAAR).

This event is based around the south coast of England, briefly venturing into the Channel Islands, Isles of Scilly, Wales then back to the home of Mutley's Hangar, EGHI Southampton aka Mutley Field. The event tests the piloting skills of the GA pilot to complete a suite of 4 flights in a time closest to a reference time for their aircraft. The cunning thing is, the pilot is not advised of his target time but will be judged against a formulation based on a test flight time they submitted as part of their registration for the event.

Registration is free. The event is planned to run over the Easter weekend with registrations closing on 23:59 UTC Good Friday 22 April 2011. For anyone going away for the Easter weekend there is plenty of time to ly the 4 flights the following week and still submit PIREPs within the time frame. With generous sponsorship from DC-2 UIVER project and Earth Simulations there will be a raffle of prizes for all pilots completing the the 4 flights. Also, a special prize for best FS9 screen shot and best FSX screen shot posted in the dedicated MEBAR forums hosted on Mutleys' Hangar.

New at the Avsim Store: Carenado B58 Baron for FSX

Posted: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 - 18:18
The B58 Baron is the latest release by Carenado. Like all their new FSX models it features a highly detailed virtual cockpit in a friendly FPS environment. Get the B58 Baron here. You can also order other models by Carenado here.

Visit the Avsim Store today.

Tre Cime From Real Earth Dolomiti X Series

Posted: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 - 13:44
The Tre Cime are a famous landmark in the Italian Alps (Dolomiti Region) and faithfully reproduced by the Real Earth team using a new technique. This is not a ‘mesh’ product but rather an ’3D object’ embedded in customized landscape that is very performance-friendly and provides a new ‘waypoint’ for your alpine flights in Europe.

Additional locations available later this year will link Tre Cime to other places like Auronzo, the famous Matterhorn and new airfields Belluno and Cortina d'Ampezzoin. The new Dolomiti X Series products are available exclusively from the FSAddon Publishing webshop .

X-Plane Pilatus PC-12/47 By Shade Tree Micro Aviation

Posted: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 - 1:39
AVSIM fan Ted G approached us and asked if he could write a review of a product he loves and have it published in our reviews section. So who are we to turn away a budding reviewer and exposure to another great X-Plane title. Ted introduces us to Shade Tree Micro Aviation's Pilatus PC-12/47 for X-Plane.

"The PC-12 is a single-engine high performance turboprop aircraft. In researching this review I discovered that the initial development of the PC-12 program by Pilatus was a direct response to the popularity and success of the Cessna 208B. As a little historical nugget, the launch customer for the aircraft was the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia."

"Visually the PC-12 looks a Corvette to the pickup-truck style C208B. Sheer performance by the PC-12 matches the looks and the 12/47 (also known as the NG) version offers up-to-date avionics, improved flight handling, crew cockpit comfort improvements, a handy left side full-size cargo door, and a significant boost to MTOW."

"In Shade Tree Micro Aviation we find an already existing product base with a communicative, involved, and responsive development team. Little gems included in the package (the STMA preference window and remote control to name a couple), and a frankly excellent value for money offering in the form of the PC-12/47 airplane."

Aviation MS Releases MMUN

Posted: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 - 0:38
Cancun does not need an introduction as it is one of the most well known holiday destinations in the world. Cancun is the second most important Airport in Mexico, but is the biggest on international passenger movement.

Features: An a fantastic Cancun representation with all surrounding areas, airport, city, Hotel Zone, Isla Mujeres and much more. High resolution re-digitalized photoreal textures. Fully operational 3D Taxiway Bridge. A lot of animations. Maximum optimization for best performance. Custom autogen.

CLS 767 SP4 Released

Posted: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 - 0:22
Commercial Level Simulations has released SP4 for the Boeing 767 series. The service pack is now available from the their downloads section. For those having problems with the B767 in multiplayer, this service pack will fix these issues as well.

Spitfire with Accu-Sim from A2A Simulations

Posted: Sunday, April 3, 2011 - 17:03
Staff reviewer Aidan Sandri and Senior reviewer David Wilson-Okamura collaberate on a look at A2A Simulations' Supermarine Spitfire with Accu-Sim.

While there are at least 3 payware versions of the Spitfire out there, why do we need a fourth? The reviewers agree that this is one version of the warbird you must have in your hangar. While the older versions are still creditable, A2A has surpassed the competition in sound, exterior modeling, flight modeling and the virtual cockpit.

Flight Gear Release Two New Aircraft

Posted: Sunday, April 3, 2011 - 14:11
FlightGear have added two new aircraft to the hanger, the venerable Lockheed Model L.10 Electra and MBB/Kawasaki BK 117. FlightGear is a flight-simulator created by volunteers, released as an open-source GPL software and is available for Free download .

FlightGear includes a current database of over 20,000 real airports, scenery is available for almost the entire globe and new scenery can be downloaded automatically while you fly. The FlightGear News Letter is updated monthly and brings the latest releases and development notes.

X-Plane 10 Preview

Posted: Saturday, April 2, 2011 - 20:10
X-Plane 10 is currently in development and the AVSIM Review Staff were invited to submit questions to the X-Plane team about this much anticipated release. Fifteen questions from the review staff were answered in this Q&A session covering what items and features will be incorporated into the new release , read more in the X-Plane 10 Preview

UK2000 Scenery Release Liverpool EGGP

Posted: Saturday, April 2, 2011 - 13:54
UK2000 Scenery announces the release of 'Liverpool Xtreme' for FSX and FS2004, Liverpool's John Lennon Airport EGGP is a busy airline hub for Easyjet, Ryanair and GA Trafic. This scenery captures the airport in all its glory. Includes real images of the Liverpool airport with a high resolution 25cm base image, animations , effects, and nearly all the buidlings, extremely detailed ground markings, interactive service fleet and stunning night effects and is Frame Rate Friendly. Drop By UK2000 Scenery for a look at their latest release.

FS2Crew Update iFly 737NG To V1.3

Posted: Friday, April 1, 2011 - 17:31
FS2Crew has released V1.3 for its iFly 737NG Edition. FS2Crew's iFly 737NG Edition is an airline crew simulation "expansion pack" designed for the iFly 737NG that allows users to simulate multi-crew crew flying using real Boeing procedures. Version 1.3 makes FS2Crew compatible with iFly's newly released SP2. V1.3 is not available as a separate update. Please login to your FS2Crew account to download the main installer again. For more information, please visit the Fs2crew Website

New Terrain Mesh from FSGenesis

Posted: Friday, April 1, 2011 - 17:25
FSGenesis has released several more 30m ASTER GDEM terrain mesh products as well as the first three derived from the highly-accurate NEXTMap Europe dataset. Three more countries of the ASTER product line, Ukraine, Belarus and Libya, are now available for purchase and immediate download, for both FS2004 and FSX. As well, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain for FS2004 are now available based on the NEXTMap Europe 5m dataset.
For more information, visit the FS Genesis Hompage

Electronic Flightbag

Posted: Friday, April 1, 2011 - 15:56
FSWidgets has released a free update for all versions of their Electronic Flight Bag (FSX, FS2004 and X-Plane). In conjunction with this update a new 2.0 version of GMap (all Windows editions) has also been released. Aside from a rewrite of the mapping engine to Google Maps v3 API standards, the major update to GMap is the inclusion of support for a new line of Cloud Based Aeronautical Charts which are automatically delivered direct to GMap from the cloud and displayed seamlessly, without the need to download large chart files. A free demo WAC of Cuba/Puerto Rico is included in each copy of GMap. The new Cloud Based chart products include US WAC, US TAC, US Sectionals, Alaska WAC and Alaska Sectionals.

IL2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Released

Posted: Friday, April 1, 2011 - 0:19
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover is the latest stand-alone World War II flight sim title from 1C: Maddox Games, creators of the legendary IL-2 Sturmovik series. IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover takes place in 1940 during the pivotal aerial battle for the skies over Britain between the British RAF, the German Luftwaffe and the Italian air force.

This new sim features over a dozen flyable aircraft (fighters and bombers), 13 AI aircraft, incredible damage modelling, a new 3D engine, and interactive training. Also included are an exciting single player campaign and customisable multiplayer modes which allow for up to 128 pilots to join in huge ongoing battles.

This title is now available at either Just Flight or through Simware.

Airbus Series Evolution Vol.1 & Vol.2

Posted: Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 18:56
Wilco Publishing releases their Airbus Series X Evolution Vol.1 & Vol.2, today's most advanced Airbus simulation for Microsoft Flight Simulator is now available in download versions for Microsoft Flight Simulator X / 2004.

Features include: Complete Airbus simulation, from the short A318 to the long-haul A340-600, Advanced Weather Radar powered by RealityXP, Head Up Display to land in any visibility conditions and Major navigation and systems improvements ,

Visit the Airbus Series Evolution X Product Page for further details.

Addon Converter X version 1.05

Posted: Thursday, March 31, 2011 - 18:21
Addon Converter X version 1.05 available FlightSimTools.com announces a new update for their Addon Converter X product. The update corrects a problem with some rotating propellers and has more troubleshooting options. The update is free of charge for existing customers. Addon Converter X is a module for FSX that allows using many aircraft and scenery add-ons designed for FS2004 with FSX SP2 and Acceleration Pack, both in DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 modes. For more information and a free demo version, please visit the Addon Converter X Homepage .