PRE-Flight Adds New Models

Posted: Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 12:41
PRE-Flight RC Flight Simulator announced today that they have added new helicopter models for their popular simulator. The Walkera Edition presents eleven different variations of the Walkera 4#3, 5#10 and the 5G6. For more information and download instructions, visit preflightsim today.

VRoute Announcement

Posted: Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 12:35
VRoute announced today an extension of their vroute premium software. This new update includes over 15,000 real-life charts for more than 3000 airports in the USA and Australia. The charts are organized by airports and chart types for easy access. These new charts are available in PDF format for easy printing. Visit the folks at VRoute today to learn more about these exciting new features.

IVAO Magazine Available

Posted: Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 2:38
IVAO announced today that the third edition of their popular news magazine is available for download. The "IVAO Virtual Sky" features articles on flying, Air Traffic Control, and interviews with notable figures in the flight simulation community. Offering something for any flight enthusiast, visit IVAO to download your free copy today.

Digital Aviations' Fokker 70/100 - Redux

Posted: Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 17:53
Staff reviewer Etienne Martin takes a closer, more in-depth updated (SP1) look at the Fokker 70/100 from Digital Aviation which is available from Flight 1.

"The Digital Aviation Fokker 70/100 package provides an excellent glass cockpit experience in a regional aircraft package. The choice of a Fokker aircraft is intriguing and uncommon. While the VC is missed, the 2D panel system is robust and one of the better implementations on the market today. All major systems are modeled in depth including options like the weather and terrain radar. A multi-crew capability is also included in the package."

"I found that DA’s simulation in its SP1 form, delivers an engaging an immersive experience in manual or automatic flight modes. The Fokker 70/100 continues DA’s reputation for delivering in-depth treatments of the aircraft they model."

FS2Crew Expansion Pack

Posted: Friday, October 24, 2008 - 18:12
FS2Crew has released its new companion product/expansion pack for the PMDG MD-11 aircraft: FS2Crew: PMDG MD-11 Edition. Designed in close consultation with real-world MD-11 First Officer David Bartoli, its new companion product adds a virtual First Officer, Cabin and Ground crew to the PMDG MD-11 Aircraft. FS2Crew for the MD-11 features an updated interface system, and it ships with a US voice set with an international voice set for the ground crew positions. Visit FS2Crew for full details .

Aerosoft Releases F-16 Fighting Falcon X.

Posted: Friday, October 24, 2008 - 1:36
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multirole jet fighter build by General Dynamics for the US Air Force. The lightweight fighter became the ubiquities fighter as it was exported to 25 nations and a record breaking production of over 4,400 aircraft. Updated every decade it remains the basic fighter for nations worldwide. Apart from being a very serious fighter it remains about the most enjoyable aircraft to fly with the superb maneuverability and power that allows vertical climbs. Visibility is unparalleled in the frameless bubble canopy. This enjoyment remains fully intact in FSX.

The Aerosoft version includes the most used versions in the highest possible detail. With close to half a million vertices it most likely is the most detailed aircraft ever designed for FSX. The realism of this product is great that parts of the product are sold to professional users and is used in the first stages of training of pilots in 3 countries. Where other internally developed aircraft try to merge all existing models into one 'universal' model, the F-16 was designed with pure realism in mind, down to the smallest detail each of the 21 models is as the real aircraft patrols the skies. In FSX the F-16 is a joy to fly, with the controllability of a light aircraft and capable of altitudes of 50.000 feet and speeds exceeding Mach1. It is extremely agile yet easy to control (it will fly where you point the nose) it allows you to explore the environment of FSX like never before.

MITRE, VATSIM Compare FMC Systems

Posted: Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 18:56
The Virtual Air Traffic Network VATSIM and the real world MITRE Corporation recently held an online fly-in to help simulate the "continuous decent approach" into Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. As part of this endeavor, MITRE collected and compared the simulation to Real-world flight plans; comparing the FMC systems.

A report of this simulation has now been made public via MITRE and VATSIM. Frank Sogandares writes, "Comparison of real-world (RW) and VATSIM FMS. MITRE flew several MSFS simulators through an RNAV procedure under consideration in MIA and compared the results with real world (RW) flights of the same procedure. These are preliminary results; more details are in preparation for an aviation journal."

For more information, visit the VATSIM forum write up about this event, or visit MITRE for a direct download pdf file of the report. (warning, second link is a DIRECT PDF LINK)

FranceVFR - Toussus-le-Noble Scenery Review

Posted: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - 20:35
Avsim Staff Reviewer Vybhava Srinivasan has been testing out the FranceVFR scenery Toussus-le-Noble. Vybhava says: " This is a municipality in the French county of Yvelines and the region Île-de-France. The airport is about 10 miles south-westwards from Paris, near Versailles.

Toussus-le-Noble Airport is a major General Aviation airfield hosting on-demand air transport companies, aviation schools and many private aircrafts ranging from Cessna 152 to Citation 500. The small town airport has two runways (3300 ft each), one is equipped for night flight and "all-weather" approaches. This photorealistic scenery is extremely detailed, with 3D building objects and also packed with realistic road traffic and autogen. The scenery also includes VFR landmarks. The quality of work in and around the airport is amazing.

So let’s now sit back and explore this latest release from FranceVFR ‘Airport Toussus-le-Noble’.

Avsim Store Redesign & new products

Posted: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - 16:19
ADVERTISEMENT: The Avsim Store has been totally redesigned with an easier-to-use interface and many other new features, making it easier to order your favorite flight simulation products. Best of all... the store is being upgraded with all new and exciting products from the best publishers and FS manufacturers in the business. Dozens of new products will be added over the next few weeks. Visit the new Avsim Store today.

5th Annual FlightSim Demos

Posted: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - 14:23
Flight Simulation New Brunswick (Canada) will be hosting their 5th Annual Public Demonstrations on Sat 25 Oct at Staples in Saint John and Future Shop in Moncton on Sat Nov 8. These are always successful events and proviced an opportunity for the general public, as well as new and experieinced simmers, to get a first hand look at virtual flight and ATC thanks to VatCan and members of FlightSim New Brunswick.

Over the past years, thousands of spectators have taken advantage of this opportuity to witness the demonstrations which has led to the expanding popularity of FlightSim as a hobby. If you are going to be in the areas mentioned above, bring a friend along and virtually visit the local airports (CYSJ CYFC and CYQM) and participate in this event.

Scotflight RAF Collection

Posted: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - 1:22
Scotflight are pleased to announce the availability of a new version of their RAF Collection for FS2004 and FSX, a highly detailed scenery package for the three remaining active RAF Bases in Scotland, namely RAF Kinloss, RAF Leuchars and RAF Lossiemouth.

The product contains two distinct dedicated scenery packages, one for FS2004 and one for FSX, each with their own installer. The FSX version is fully compatible with all versions of FSX. All three airfields have been enhanced from the original version, with significant reworking of existing buildings and additions of new buildings plus other extra detailing at all three airfields. It is also now possible to easily exclude the static aircraft, if desired, for greater compatibility with 3rd party AI airfield traffic. Scotflight has also noted some freeeware aircraft to make the most of this scenery package.

Cessna U206G Stationair (FSX) from Carenado

Posted: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 - 2:19
Senior staff reviewer David Wilson-Okamura takes the FSX version of Carenado's Cessna U206G Stationair out for a test flight. "The Cessna 206 was introduced in 1964 as the “Super Skywagon.” It was supposed to be the station wagon of the air: a family-size vehicle, suitable for carrying cargo as well as people. In 1970, Cessna renamed it the “Stationair,” and that is the name it still carries."

"Carenado’s Stationair comes in three different models, with two variations for each model: Standard, with wheel pants and without; Cargo pod, with wheel pants and without; and Amphibian, configured either for bush flying or for extreme sports. The Stationair gauges look about thirty years older than the default gauges -- which is about right, given the age of the planes being modeled -- and they’re noticeably crisper. This is a fun plane for VFR, but it’s also a solid platform for IFR."

"The cabin behind the cockpit is outfitted with red seats; in the cargo version, you can click on these and the passenger seating will be replaced with crates. There are also three exits that can be opened and closed separately: the front cockpit door, the rear cabin door, and (in the cargo version) a pod door under the plane, which opens to reveal more crates and boxes."

"Judging from the .air file’s date stamp, 9 November 2005, the Stationair’s flight model does not seem to have been updated. Engine performance and fuel consumption have been calibrated to match the numbers in the pilot’s operating handbook (POH). Frame rates are at least as good as the default Caravan, even though the model is more detailed."

Putting Carenado's Cessna U206G Stationair back into the hangar, David comments, "From the developer’s point of view, this probably counts as an overhaul, because the model had to be recreated using new tools. From a customer’s point of view, the changes will seem incremental. All of the old repaints are usable, the engine sound is still full, and the frame rates are still high."

Space Shuttle Mission 2007™ SP 2.20 Released

Posted: Monday, October 20, 2008 - 1:09
Space Shuttle Mission 2007 received today a new Service Pack which includes: New Mission - STS-98; New SPEC 96 GPC SM mode for RMS LIM management; Virtual Cockpit enhancements; Performance tuning; and Adjustments across all missions.

STS-98 started with the liftoff of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on Feb 7th, 2001. The mission's highlight was the delivery and installation of the USA Destiny Lab at the International Space Station. Mission Specialists Tom Jones and Robert Curbeam conducted three space walks during the mission totaling nearly 20 hours of Extra Vehicular Activity. The Destiny lab is at the center of scientific exploration aboard the orbiting outpost, and sports a first for ISS: a special optical glass window through which the crew can look outside and take high quality pictures of Earth. STS-98 concluded with an uneventful Atlantis landing at Edwards AFB on February 20th, 2001.

In the best SSM2007 tradition, the budding astronauts will experience first-hand the historical liftoff, On-Orbit ops including the Destiny lab deployment and installation, Extra Vehicular Activities, Deorbit, Reentry and manually Landing the Shuttle at the Edwards AFB. The Space Shuttle Mission 2007™ is available in downloadable format at the SSM2007 official website. The latest Demo can also be downloaded freely at the same website.

FlightSimTools Releases Texture Doctor

Posted: Monday, October 20, 2008 - 0:53
Easily manage and convert your Flight Simulator textures with Texture Doctor from FlightSimTools. Texture Doctor is an easy to use tool for inspecting Flight Simulator textures and converting them between various formats. It supports FS2004 and FSX.

Texture Doctor is a must have for every serious flight simmer. Texture Doctor uses the ImageTool program found in the Flight Simulator SDK. If you have FSX Deluxe edition, the SDK is already included and installed. If you are using FS2004 or FSX Standard edition, please download and install the FS2004 Terrain SDK which contains ImageTool. Note that Texture Doctor does not support the DDS format when used with the FS2004 SDK.

There are many reasons to convert textures into a different format. If you have legacy textures in the BMP or R8 format, converting them into DXT1 or DXT3 can both improve the image quality (greatly reduces jitter) and performance (the compressed texture takes less graphics memory and is natively supported by nearly all graphics cards). You may want to convert a texture back into the BMP format, edit it with your favorite graphics editor and convert it back into the original format. Different graphics cards have varying performance with different texture formats. You may achieve better performance by converting the textures to another format.

With FSX, you may be able to achieve better performance by converting textures to the corresponding DDS formats. In this case, remember not to share the converted textures with any FS2004 users, because they would no longer work with FS2004. Texture Doctor makes it very easy to convert textures, so you can simply experiment. Using the built-in restore function, you can always go back to the original textures if you don't like the results.

Geographical VFR tool for FSX

Posted: Monday, October 20, 2008 - 0:45
FSDreamTeam is pleased to announce the release a new utility for FSX, that will change your VFR flights forever! XPOI, Points of Interest for FSX, is a Geographical information tool that displays Points of Interest around the airplane, using styled 3D graphical icons. The product uses an always updated online database with more than 8 million of POIs and it adds WIkipedia support as well, to give you in depth informations of places around your location, in multiple languages.

Other useful features are a search engine integrated in FSX, a full-screen compatible mini-browser to read Wikipedia articles while flying, easy to use menus to access the data without having to stop the flight, autopilot integration and Warp-to-a-point. With its World-wide coverage, XPOI will give you a new perspective on VFR flying on FSX. Flying over unknown areas, you will never get lost again with XPOI!

Free Gift From FSInsider And Just Flight

Posted: Sunday, October 19, 2008 - 19:44
Yep, you read that right, FSInsider and Just Flight have teamed up to bring you a free aircraft for FsX. The Cessna 152 features a realistic flight model, detailed aircraft model and textures, authentic sounds, and a virtual cockpit. This free download even includes a manual in .pdf format. All you need to do to get this great free gift is visit the gang at FSInsider and sign up for their newsletter, and best of all, the newsletter is free too. So don't delay and visit FSInsider today.

Fokker 100/70 from Flight 1/Digital Aviation

Posted: Saturday, October 18, 2008 - 1:58
Staff reviewer Daniel Johnson kicks off his first review for AVSIM with a look at the Fokker 100/70 developed by Digital Aviation and distributed by Flight 1. "The development of the Fokker 100 began in 1981, when collaboration attempts failed with McDonnell Douglas."

"Digital Aviation has provided two tutorial flights for you to learn all the basics in being able to successfully complete a flight without any tie ups. In the first, you will learn how to operate the aircraft under normal conditions. The next tutorial goes much deeper into explaining the different types of approaches and just being able to fly the aircraft as close to real as possible."

"The panel is just simply amazing. If you are looking for an aircraft that provides the most realism possible, look no further. Digital Aviation has modeled just about every switch that’s in the cockpit. I would say that about 95% of the panel works."

"Digital Aviation has done an amazing job in making a re-creation of the Fokker 70 and the Fokker 100 variants. The aircraft systems have been modeled to perfection and are extremely in depth. They have provided great manuals so you can really get the feel of how the real aircraft works. It has been a joy to fly and something totally different from the Boeing or Airbus."

OZx Releases FlyMexico Photoreal Freeware

Posted: Saturday, October 18, 2008 - 0:36
OZx has released the photoreal scenery of Mexico City and surroundings! For the first time, and for free, you have the opportunity to fly above a very interesting and a very big area of Mexico. The photoreal technique that has been used to realize the scenery includes animated water for all the areas, swimming pools included.... the resolution of the scenery is 1m/pixel, almost the maximum we can obtain now, and it runs with FSX SP2 only. For the moment the scenery hasn't got autogen and you can fly only in the daylight. These features will be available in the next version, but OZx are sure that you will enjoy this first version of the scenery.

F-86 Sabre From Section 8

Posted: Friday, October 17, 2008 - 17:08
Those of you who have been in the field of Flight Simulation for a while, will be familiar with Jan Visser and the projects he has worked on. In a press release today, Jan has announced the latest project he is working on. This is a freeware product based on the the F-86 Sabre.

Jan goes on to say: "Been working on it off and on for about two years with help of a couple of my FS developer friends. Hansjörg Naegele, who did all the custom gauges and additional XML programming, Rob Young taking good care of the flight dynamics, and Jan Rosenberg doing his magic in the Special FX department. During the process we got help in the flightmodel department from two retired RW pilots, Cliff Presley and Dudley Henriques, well known for his wonderful tutorials about flying 'hot props and jets' in FS.

We have called our small development team 'SECTIONF8' and this F-86E and F type Sabre is the first product of what we hope to be an ongoing project to produce just about every type and derivative that has ever been developed from the F-86, including the F-86D Sabre Dog and sea going FJ-2,3 and 4 Fury.

This initial branch of our F-86 Sabre tree is ment to be for FS9 only. A native FSX version will be in the works eventually too. The F-86 Website is now online, and in the meantime you can download the Flight Manual and Reference Document. The aircraft will be uploaded to the Avsim File Library.

Just Flight Announces Traffic X

Posted: Friday, October 17, 2008 - 14:14
Just Flight is very pleased to announce that the download version of Traffic X is now available. There is an upgrade available for existing owners of Traffic and Traffic 2005 with the DVD-ROM version (which includes a printed, colour, 40-page Spotter's Guide) forthcoming.

Traffic X includes over 1,700 different aircraft variants based on over 80 aircraft models that are designed to the highest level of detail and painted with in a dazzling variety of airline liveries from around the world. They can all be seen flying, landing, taxiing, parking and taking off at airports large and small. The aircraft featured range from small single-engine private aircraft like the C152 right up to the world's biggest airliner, the Airbus A380. You'll also see the highly advanced 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350 XWB and a huge amount of aviation traffic that falls between these extremes. There is a massive selection of commercial jet airliners, regional jets, regional turboprops, business aircraft, general aviation aircraft and helicopters and, for the first time in the Just Flight Traffic series, a whole host of multi-national military aircraft!

As well as aircraft, Traffic X also boasts a huge set of new features:
The new Traffic ControlCentre™ (TCC) program gives you full access to customise and expand your AI traffic in a comprehensive and easy-to-use way.

- ChronoTraffic™ AI time period selection feature. Every aircraft and flight can now be set to be specific to a certain period of years.

- Take the place of an aircraft spotter and watch the traffic at busy airports. Included in Traffic X (as a PDF in the download version or printed colour book in the DVD-ROM package), is the Traffic X Spotter's Guide. This is a handy reference guide that will help you indentify some of the many aircraft types that will cross the Traffic X skies.

- The all-new Follow-me car and pushback truck let you explore the airport from the ground and even guide incoming AI aircraft to their parking positions.

- Traffic X now includes a diverse selection of military aircraft.

- An all-new Traffic Radar allows you to view traffic information for each AI aircraft in range.

- Unique Custom AI sounds.