Real Environment Xtreme Bundle

Posted: Thursday, December 23, 2010 - 23:42
Real Environment Simulations is pleased to announce a special release bundle of REX + OverDrive for FSX and REX + OverDrive for FS2004.

This includes both versions of REX + OverDrive for FSX and FS2004, all bundled on a 16GB USB Flash Drive, boldly imprinted with the REX logo. This ensures a simple, no-hassle install with no activation or serial number requirements.

Ultimate Traffic 2 Winter 2010 Schedule Released

Posted: Thursday, December 23, 2010 - 23:07
Flight One Software is happy to announce that the Ultimate Traffic 2 Winter 2010 Schedule is now available. The schedule update includes a snapshot of daily/weekly air traffic for the Winter 2010/2011 Season.

Ultimate Traffic 2 provides Microsoft Flight Simulator X users the definitive answer to their AI Traffic needs. The project is a culmination of over three years of research and development. UT2 takes advantage of the latest in AI technology, with the goal to provide the most complete and realistic real-world airline flights worldwide. The add-on offers new levels of AI Traffic design, and revolutionizes the FSX skies.

Flight Tracker from Chanticleer Software

Posted: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 20:26
Staff reviewer Arjun Murthy keeps a record of his simming experience with Chanticleer Software's Flight Tracker. "The program enables you to record some of the important data that happens in each flight through its extensive ACARS feature and creates a log of these flights so you can look back on your performance at any time."

"The ACARS Tracker feature is the face of this program. The layout is so simple that you may find many things even before reading the manual. Some of the items include the Date, Aircraft Type, ZFW, Origin ICAO/Name, Flight timings, Weights, Fuel amount, Distance, various Speeds, Takeoff N Settings, Weather and Vertical Speed at Touchdown."

"The Flight log feature is the “other half” to this program. All the flights can be logged and the information displayed in numerous formats. The data from each flight can be individually viewed and edited."

"Flight Tracker performs its tasks with significant detail and the developers have ensured that the level of accuracy is raised, especially by adding editing options to the users. The data can be viewed in many simplistic formats and your total statistics can be viewed very easily."

Vector Land Class Updated To V 1.0

Posted: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 15:16
The Vector Land Class team is proud to announce that V1.0.0 of their New Zealand VLC is now available for download to existing customers. Main features include: removal of airfield polygons from data to avoid conflicts with existing airports and work with upcoming VLC airports, inclusion of Great Barrier Island , better terrain elevations near airports and more port areas in the south Island.

Gloster Gladiator Ski Version for FSX

Posted: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 14:41
Icarusgold has announced the release of the famous Gloster Gladiator Ski Version for FSX. Gladiator Mk.II's fighting career was the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union. The Finnish Gladiator Mk.II fought on the front line the longest, until the middle of 1943. In North Africa the Gladiator Mk.II served until the end of 1942. Other Mk.IIs were used as messenger and weather reconnaissance planes until 1944. To secure take-off and landing in snowy regions most these fighters were equipped with skis.

The product features FSX Native SDK model, detailed model, dynamic virtual cockpit, fully animated vintage Pilot, 10 skins, three dynamic winter war sceneries with battle sound and explosion effects.

For more information visit Product Page.

FlyTampa "Reboots" Tampa International

Posted: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 9:24
FlyTampa has released a complete make-over of their original Tampa International Airport (KTPA). This scenery has been re-built from ground up specifically for FSX and back-ported to FS9. Features include extended surrounding Photo Scenery with hand-placed Autogen and numerous custom Buildings and Landmarks such as Raymond James Football Stadium, Sunshine Skyway bridge and more. The airport comes with high- resolution Ground Textures, Volumetric Grass, pre- rendered Shadowing on airport buildings and other structures, custom Reflection and Specular mapping, 3D Taxiway bridge, animated Trams, custom Road Traffic and much more.

For more information visit FlyTampa's website.

Sceneries from Xscena

Posted: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 - 11:19
Xscena, developer for South America scenery have released scenery of Sao Paulo region with six airports and 420 heliports and Archipelago Fernando de Noronha. These sceneries are compatible with X-plane and FSX.

For more information visit Xscena.

FSXFollow Releases Version 1.4

Posted: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 - 11:12
FSXFollow is an add-on that saves valuable screen real-estate on your desktop by using your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to display your aircrafts current position. The add-on connects to FSX, FS2004 or X-Plane to a PC Client provided free. The Map supports drag to pan and pinch to zoom and you can follow your flight on the go. The developers of FSXFollow have now released Version 1.4. This versions improves connection stability.

For more information visit FSXFollow's website.

Benitex Int'l Airport SCEL From Latin VFR

Posted: Sunday, December 19, 2010 - 19:11
Staff reviewer Benjamin van Soldt heads to South America to land at LatinVFR's Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, SCEL. "I have enjoyed hours of flying around the Andes in a smallish turboprop, landing at airfields on these mountains. It seems that now we do have a nice, big airport to fly to in this long and terribly thin South American country; for now LatinVFR has released Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, SCEL, at Santiago de Chile, Chile’s capital."

"The terminal is relatively well modeled on the aircraft side, but on the passenger side it really is extremely basic. The textures appear crisp and look very good, also from close up. The photoscenery on the ground, however, is blurry and has some noticeable edges where you can see how they have been “cut” to fit them into the scenery. LatinVFR is going to revise this and issue a patch sometime soon to address this."

"The gates and jetways in general look good. The quality of the texturing is really very good, but the modeling doesn’t seem to be as precise as it could have been. I quite like how the gates generally look, despite the flattish jetway looks. Texturing, however, is great. I love how crisp the textures are. The ATC tower looks exceedingly good; it’s well modeling and the texturing is great."

"How does the airport look at night? It looks good, albeit with what I think may be a problem; the taxiway lights are very hard to see. You’d expect the normal blue and green lights, but the blue lights are nowhere to be seen and the green lights are very dim. The strange thing is that this isn’t very far from reality."

"Not only the airport itself features in this scenery: also a bit of the surroundings have been covered with photoreal ground scenery. The covered area is 125 square kilometers, and features (and I quote) “thousands of hand placed autogen”. I really like the surrounding photoscenery and it certainly adds to the entire experience of flying into this airport. SCEL is compatible with AES. If you are interested in South America and Chile, this is an airport I recommend you to get, with the knowledge that the biggest issues will soon be fixed."

FlightSim Greenland's Nerlerit Inaat BGCO

Posted: Sunday, December 19, 2010 - 14:45
FlightSim Greenland has released the latest free addition to their growing collection of airports and terrain mesh covering Greenland, Nerlerit Inaat is located in eastern Greenland and serves the town of Ittoqqortoormiit, approximately 40 km (25 mi) to the south-east. The airport can serve STOL aircraft. A Bell 222 helicopter of Air Greenland is permanently housed at the airport, linking it with Ittoqqortoormiit Heliport. The helicopter also provides search and rescue capabilities within the surrounding area, and can be chartered for transport.
The release includes revised mesh made from ASTER GDEM data. an area covering more than 13,000 Sq. miles with Ittoqqortoormiit Helistop (BGSC) and Mestersvig Airport (BGMV) added. The coastline and islands are reworked for this release as well as redefined land class for the area, visit FlightSim Greenland for details and download.

Tecnam Sierra LSA From Ant's Airplanes

Posted: Saturday, December 18, 2010 - 19:00
Staff reviewer Aidan Sandri looks at a relatively unknown developer of GA add-ons, Ant's Airplanes and their Tecnam Siera LSA. "The Tecnam Sierra LSA has a two seat configuration, low wings and is a light aircraft powered by a Rotax 912 ULS engine with maximum power of up to 5800 rpm. It has a cruise speed of 119 knots (5250 rpm) and climbs at 1200 ft/min. Though it is not an aerobatic aircraft, it has crisp control response and excellent take off, climb and turn performance. The Sierra LSA has a range of over 600nm."

"The exterior model for the Sierra LSA is fantastic and represents what the real aircraft looks like. There is a control panel which can be loaded within FSX which allows you to choose whether you wish to have the nose wheel fairings, wheel covers and other choices like the wheel chocks, tie down ropes and the pitot tube covers once the aircraft is completely shut down. All the flaps, elevators, rudders and canopy work as they should in real life."

"The Virtual Cockpit is no let down in quality. Everything in the Virtual Cockpit is clickable or modeled in 3D. There is no 2D cockpit included with this add-on. The night lighting included in the Virtual Cockpit is very well done, hence making it easy for the simmer to navigate their way around it without struggling to see what their instruments say."

"Although the Sierra LSA is not cleared to fly aerobatics, the flying dynamics represented in this aircraft allow you to do so by performing the odd barrel roll, or doing a very sharp turn. If you're a student at a flight school learning to fly a Sierra LSA, then this aircraft should have enough complexity to help you become a better pilot and to practice the proper procedures."

"The Tecnam Sierra LSA is perfect for a small flight, say a cross country flight across New Zealand or the Northern Rockies. The 3D Gauges are to die for, the sounds are to die for, the rain effects are to die for, but most importantly, the overall aircraft is to fantastic! There is no reason why any simmer should not have this little baby in their hangar."

Paris Orly from Aerosoft

Posted: Saturday, December 18, 2010 - 1:12
Staff reviewer Gary Yip heads to Europe to check out Paris's "other" airport...Orly, as presented by Aerosoft. "Paris Orly airport is France’s second busiest airport and in terms of domestic flights, the busiest."

"Orly airport operates with 3 main runways and 2 main terminals. It also boasts a freight terminal and a large maintenance complex to the north. The south terminal (Terminal Sud) is the smaller of the 2 passenger terminals, however it incorporates 38 aircraft stands, many of which are connected by an air bridge."

"I found that I encountered a rather large performance penalty flying in and around the airport. Where with other larger airports within the Aerosoft range such as Barcelona X, Madrid and Paris CDG my typical frame rates end up hovering around the 20-25 mark with a complex aircraft add-on such as the PMDG 747 operating. A patch has recently been released to bring the version up to 1.04 for FS9 which promises better performance. I am happy to announce that the performance issues have now been rectified."

"The quality can be expected to be high and there is no doubt that they have not compromised this value with the release of Paris Orly X. Stunningly modeled landside areas have become a trademark of the X series of scenery add-ons by Aerosoft and the attention to detail within the car parks, roads and terminal drop off areas is incredible. One advantage of being an Aerosoft product is that is comes AES prepared straight out of the box. I will now choose to go to Orly instead of the vastly complex and land hogging Charles de Gaulle."

FSFlyingSchool X-Plane - C172 Edition

Posted: Saturday, December 18, 2010 - 0:08
FSInventions announces the expansion of their product line with a new version of their Award Winning FSFlyingSchool.
FSFlyingSchool has been helping thousands of both real and simulator pilots fly in simulated skies for the past 4 years. Now, their team of virtual instructors are available to X-Plane pilots.

Starting with the X-Plane Cessna 172, FSFlyingSchool for X-Plane brings dozens of the acclaimed features that pilots have been enjoying and learning from to the X-Plane platform.

The product also contains a free demo of the new Voice Command Pack for FSFlyingSchool for X-Plane. To find out more, watch movies, download free demo, etc, visit the FSFlyingSchool Website.

FSDiscover! V1.2 Released

Posted: Saturday, December 18, 2010 - 0:02
Flight One Software is pleased to announce a new version of their popular VFR product. FSDiscover! is a Flight Simulator sightseeing guide, a navigation tool, and a simple flight planner, all in one single product for FSX and FS2004. FSDiscover! is preloaded with over 3.6 million geographic names from all over the world. There are also 1900 specialized points of interest for FSX, and 600 specialized points of interest for FS2004, including all the "Easter eggs" and unique landmark buildings within these simulators.

Some of the geographic features that will be identified include: Mountains, Streams, Valleys, Beaches, Rapids, Parks, Lakes, Islands, Harbors, Glaciers, Forests, Waterfalls, Canals, Bridges, Dams, and much more!

FSDiscover! offers an easy-to-use map where you can see airports, points of interest, geographic features, and your flight plan. All this information can be displayed in your 3D Flight Simulator world. Labels along the terrain describe each geographic or specialized feature, and special visual flight path markings follow the terrain along your programmed flight plan. To download the product or the free demo, please visit Flight 1's FSDiscover! website.

LatinVFR Montego Bay MKJS

Posted: Friday, December 17, 2010 - 13:16
LatinVFR has released Montego Bay Jamaica MKJS. The airport in recent years has seen many important renovations and expansions, making it one of the most modern Caribbean airports today.
Features included with this second scenery of Jamaica, an area of almost 200 square kilometers with photo scenery, mesh, thousands of autogen objects hand placed and hundreds of custom objects that will make your flights in and out of Montego Bay as realistic as possible, MKJS airport with all its buildings done with accurate detail including the resorts and hotels exactly placed and created in the area near the airport.
Terrain Mesh for the entire area of North West Jamaica, High resolution ground textures for runways, taxiways, apron etc, revised land classes for surrounding photo scenery and dozens of custom apron objects (containers, vehicles, etc).. and a manual in PDF format with charts and maps.

Fokker 100 Tutorial From FlyTutorial

Posted: Friday, December 17, 2010 - 13:06
FlyTutorial have published a brand new tutorial for the Fokker 100 from Digital Aviation. This tutorial is taking you through a complete flight from Zurich Switzerland to Dinard France, from a cold and dark situation to powering off the aircraft once arrived. A 107 page PDF document of cleared instructions with screenshots that can be downloaded free from FlyTutorial.

Super Traffic Board Version 3 Now Available

Posted: Friday, December 17, 2010 - 12:37
Flying-W Simulation has announced the release of Super Traffic Board Version 3 (STB3), add-on for displaying, managing and interacting with your AI traffic. STB3 adds 16 new and updated features, these include:
- User aircraft listed on the departures and arrivals boards;
- Three incremental levels of detail, including future scheduled flights that do not yet have an AI aircraft allocated in FSX;
- Improved tools for managing FSX performance at busy airports; create just the AI traffic you wish to see;
- Enhanced UT2 Flight Interpretation Engine, faster, smaller, improved flight description accuracy;
- As you fly around the world, STB automatically updates schedule times to reflect the local time zone, and even recognizes the International Date Line;
- Allocated gate and runway distance reports;
- View the previous and next schedule flights of any AI aircraft;
- First Time Configuration Wizard gets you up and running with your favorite AI package .

For more information visit their Flying-W Simulation's website.

FSX Control Software Update

Posted: Thursday, December 16, 2010 - 13:59
Free software Update to FSX Control for iPad and iPhone version 1.1 has been released, FSXControl app turns your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch into a controller for your airplane in FSX. New in this version: Connection Stability - New look Buttons - You can adjust sensitivity for controlling your plane by tilting the device.
Control your plane using the acceleration sensors - Pause the simulation from your device - Switch views - Use Gear, Flaps, Spoilers etc , visit the FSX Control Product Page for details.

FScene Updated Europe Night Textures Released

Posted: Thursday, December 16, 2010 - 13:45
FScene released their replacement ground textures patch covering Europe, all 6 continents have been updated and with it FScene4X TotalPack, users can now add the complete revised texture sets. Visit the FScene homepage to download the update.

ASDE-X™ Officially Released

Posted: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - 23:52
If you've been waiting for a top-notch, top-down display for your air traffic pursuits, it's here. This one-of-a-kind add-on completes the toolset for the avid air traffic controller who uses FSX Deluxe Edition. This add-on is a great tool for simply viewing AI traffic, or control traffic in multiplayer mode of FSX Deluxe. This add-on allows multiple users to delegate different positions in a multiplayer setting. One can act as ground control, the other as tower, both using a common topdown application to assist them. Check in at ATC Simulator website for more information, screenshots, and ordering.