Santa Tracker

Posted: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 0:42
Aerostudios has teamed with ScreenscapeS.tv to create a Santa Tracker for the Christmas holiday! Kids will just love to watch and listen for reports of Santa on the ATCsimulator2 radarscope! This Santa Tracker will be distributed by ON DEMAND, COMCAST and Time-Warner cable networks beginning Dec. 1.

aerostudios is offering a special Christmas DVD collection by ScreenscapeS.tv that showcases the ATCsimulator2 Santa Tracker! For information about this very fun DVD collection, visit the ATCsimulator2 website.

On The Horizon - Hong Kong FSX

Posted: Monday, November 15, 2010 - 14:56
FlightSoft signs on with the U.S. giant Digital Globe Corporation the largest provider of highest quality satelite imagery on the planet for military, government, Global Media firms, and private enterprises. Digital Globe Corporation provides a lower level satelite imagery to Google in their Google Earth site on the worldwide web. This is the first flightsim scenery ever with Digital Globe Satelite Imagery ... it is a historic first in the flight simulation genre. FlightSoft's first product in a series of add-ons will be a giant title for Microsoft Flight Simulator X.

Hong Kong FSX - The Final Frontier in the History of PC Flight Simulation is a breathtaking add-on which will transform the look of FSX scenery add-ons from the "look of simulation" to its total transformation to "reality." Pat Zoffreo, President & CEO of FlightSoft, says "The product breaks new ground and will go places no firm has ever been before in the flight sim genre... the quality of the satelite imagery is of the highest standards possible for commercial use."

On The Horizon - 737

Posted: Monday, November 15, 2010 - 14:44
Captain Sim announces their upcoming Boeing 737-100/200. The -100 will be a base pack, with the -200 as an expansion pack. Keep an eye on their website for further details.

Airport Enhancer HDX from Cielosim

Posted: Sunday, November 14, 2010 - 18:15
Staff reviewer Allen Lavigne improves his airport's looks with Cielosim's Airport Enhancer HDX. "An airport texture replacement and management tool. Made from real life DSLR photographs, these are bound to enhance the airport environment. At these higher resolutions of 4096x4096, detailed surfaces and refractive wet effects are much more detailed than are the default FSX ones."

"The sets provided represent the majority of airport textures you will encounter in FSX but there are a lot they left untouched as well. For instance: dirt airfields, gravel, and cement, bituminous, and the one and only steel runway in FSX at KNJM. Granted, these are oddities, one of a kind airfields, and as such were not that necessary to enhance."

"Airport Enhancer HDX offers you textures of higher resolutions (4096 compared to 1024 for default) for your airport environments."

Porto Francisco de sa Carneiro Airport from TropicalSim

Posted: Sunday, November 14, 2010 - 17:09
Staff reviewer Marlon Carter looks at an Iberian airport from Tropical Sim, Porto Francisco de sa Carneiro Airport (LPPR). "Porto Airport is the international airport of Greater Porto, Portugal. It is located approximately six miles northwest of Porto city centre, in the municipalities of Maia, Matosinhos and Vila do Conde. The airport is currently the third busiest in the country."

"TropicalSim sceneries always tend to be simple yet very detailed and the LPPR scenery does not fall short of the standard that TropicalSim has set. The scenery focuses mainly on the airport itself and not so much on the immediate land area around it, so don’t expect to much change to the terrain."

"The main terminal of Porto airport is quite a masterpiece of architectural construction and TropicalSim has been able to replicate this for FS9/FSX. The main terminal has been modeled accurately and is up to date along with other surrounding buildings such as the control tower. At night, the scenery comes to life with subtle but adequate lighting."

"Porto Francisco de sa Carneiro Airport is a great scenery package and I think you will be happy with what you get."

Instructor Station v1.51 Released

Posted: Sunday, November 14, 2010 - 16:29
New features in this release include: Flight Freeze button: puts the aircraft in a frozen flight mode - the aircraft will not change its position, but will fly. This allows to stabilize the aircraft in the selected position before an approach. Tracker Window has been improved, several bugs fixed. Environment "reset WXR input" function added. More events are logged in the message window (Performance tab): gear up/down, flaps position, spoilers position/armed, etc. All these events will now be extracted to Google Earth (kml file) and shown graphically.

This utility is meant to assist PC simmers and Home Cockpit Builders using Microsoft Flight Simulator (mainly FS2004). Also many features are available for Project Magenta users (pmSystems, Glass Cockpit, etc.). Compatible with all types of aircraft! The "Instructor Station" allows you to set your aircraft on an approach to a runway of your choice under any weather conditions, start-up and shutdown your network computers (fully customizable), program or set an aircraft systems failure at any moment, calculate the amount of fuel required for your trip and load it to the aircraft, record the performance of your flight (landings, take-offs, etc.) and plot it graphically, and many other things.

Electronic Flight Bag v1.2.0 Released

Posted: Friday, November 12, 2010 - 22:57
AivlaSoft GmbH announces a new update to their award-winning utility Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) for Microsoft FSX. EFB version 1.2.0 incorporates many enhancements to existing charting, route planning, and checklist facilities - while adding three major new features: "vertical view" Approach Profile Charts, a Flight Information System, and airport METAR decoding. AivlaSoft continues to support its customers by providing this major update free of charge.

AivlaSoft GmbH's Electronic Flight Bag provides flight-simulator pilots with route planning, flightlog recording, checklist management, and chart viewing functions for professional flight planning and situational awareness capabilities.
Dividing the typical flight into specific segments - Origin Ground, Departure, Enroute, Arrival, Approach, and Destination Ground, EFB is able to provide segment-specific checklists and SID / STAR / Approach charts taken from dedicated Navigraph FMS data. (AIRAC 1003 is provided for free with EFB.)

EFB 1.2.0 is available for immediate download from as a cumulative update for current owners . For those who have not yet tried EFB, a fully-functional 30-day trial version can be downloaded then converted to a registered version by simple purchase of a license key.

New Downloadable Content for RailWorks 2

Posted: Friday, November 12, 2010 - 22:34
Railsimulator.com Ltd announces the release of three new add-on modules for RailWorks 2 Train Simulator. The historical Ohio Steel - Dover Division route, which includes 18 scenarios, launches today. Set in Ohio during the heyday of steel production, the busy Ohio Steel - Dover Division industrial route includes no less than 15 scenarios and 3 free roam scenarios, giving you plenty of work to do as you learn your way around the route. With steel, coal, fuel and other goods to be moved between the yards, mills and factories up and down the line, Ohio Steel - Dover Division offers many hours of entertainment. Users who purchase via Steam, will get the Norfolk Southern SD40-2 Highnose locomotive included for free!

Additionally, the legendary Flying Scotsman steam locomotive is available now, and the EMD SD70ACe diesel locomotive will launch on the 19th. The Flying Scotsman has become a legend of the rail world. Destined for fame from the very beginning, the locomotive entered service in 1923 as the figurehead of the Kings Cross to Edinburgh express service, and has since broken numerous records including being the first steam locomotive to top 100mph, way back in 1934. The RailWorks 2 add-on was designed with special assistance from the UK National Railway Museum.

By popular demand, the EMD SD70ACe diesel locomotive will be available for RailWorks 2 Train Simulator later this month. Since 1992 more than 4,000 of these powerful diesel locomotives have been produced by General Motors and can be found hard at work across the length and breadth of the United States and beyond. The RailSimulator.com SD70ACe will include two Union Pacific color schemes, accurately recreated controls and instruments, and much more.

All add-on content for RailWorks 2 as well as the starter set is available via download on Steam, and current RailWorks owners will get the update free.

Mesh Europe Vol. 1 Released

Posted: Friday, November 12, 2010 - 22:27
France VFR is happy to announce its latest release of the new NEXT MESH Europe Part 1 for download. This new NEXT Mesh Europe is produced in a high resolution of 4.75 m/pixel for FSX and 19 m for FS2004 that is positioned as a large cradle around France containing the following countries: South England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, East and South of Germany, Switzerland, Western Austria, Northern Italy, Sardinia Island, Balearic Islands and Northern Spain.

Multi Crew Experience (MCE) Updated

Posted: Friday, November 12, 2010 - 14:40
The latest implementation of Multi Crew Experience (MCE) allows full voice control with PMDG 747 (both FSX and FS9 versions). Finally, and thanks largely to hard work done over the years to implement their own interface to the simulator, they are able to bring voice control to the beast. Until now it was deemed impossible task.

Besides the PMDG B747, MCE also works well with the Level-D B767 and many, many more third party aircraft add-ons, not to mention the default ones.It's also the only add-on that permits voice interaction with native ATC and Radar Contact ATC. By that they mean proper interaction and not just taking chances on the ATC menu by sending keyboard key commands. A free fully working time limited Demo is also available.

On The Horizon

Posted: Friday, November 12, 2010 - 14:26
ASDE-X for FSX is nearing release to allow the use of ASDE-X capability using the air traffic tower mode in FSX Deluxe. ASDE-X (Airport Situational Display Enhancement) allows for a top-down view of the airport to assist in providing air traffic management of ground traffic taxiing, departing and arriving, when acting as the tower controller in multiplayer mode. This add-on also is a great tool to use to simply watch AI traffic from the tower perspective. The first release will include 6 airports with many airport collections to follow. For a preview of this addon in action, check out the video. This FSX add-on was inspired by ASDE-X technology currently in use at over 30 airports in the U.S.

FSWidgets GMap For Android

Posted: Friday, November 12, 2010 - 14:09
FSWidgets announces the release of GMap Android Edition. GMap turns your Android phone or Android tablet into a moving map for your favorite desktop flight simulator. The application can connect to FSX, FS2004 or X-Plane 9 (Windows, Mac and Linux), giving you a wireless hand-held moving map display to aid navigation, with six custom map styles providing world-wide coverage.

FriendlyPanels Cessna Caravan 675 Executive

Posted: Friday, November 12, 2010 - 13:46
FriendlyPanels announces the release of their new Cessna Caravan 675 Executive ASPEN EFD1000/500 navigation equipment FOR FSX.
Two Cessna Caravan 675 and 675 Amphibian Aircraft Executive Versions with three liveries for each aircraft, a complete VC with 2D panel including -ASPEN EFD 1000/500 AND GARMIN GNS430 NAVIGATION INSTRUMENTS.
Visit the Friendly Panels Website for a look at their latest release.

English Electric Canberra

Posted: Thursday, November 11, 2010 - 13:44
Flying Stations have released their English Electric Canberra pack for FS9. Features include a great Virtual cockpit, pop up 2D panels and fantastic external models with authentic paint schemes. Visit their homepage for details and download of the English Electric Canberra. The Canberra B2 pack is a Freeware "taster" pack.

Carenado V35B Bonanza For FSX

Posted: Thursday, November 11, 2010 - 13:32
Carenado has released the V35B Bonanza for FSX in two versions, with and without tip tanks. Original HQ digital stereo sound recorded from the original aircraft – Customizable panel for controlling, windows transparency, 3D Knobs and Eye candy (wheel chokes, pitot cover and sights prop) – Original V35 cockpit with leather seats and custom wood inserts on interior wall panel. PDF documents: Normal and emergency procedures, check list, GNS430 User Guide, AVSS manual and VC diagram.

A4 Pacific from Just Trains

Posted: Thursday, November 11, 2010 - 0:53
Senior staff reviewer Gene Davis looks at another RailSim/Railworks release from Just Trains, the A4 Pacific class engine. "The A4 Pacific was introduced in 1935 as a streamlined version of the 4-6-2 steam engine and was built for the London and North Eastern Railways and saw service up until the early 60’s with the introduction of diesel engines."

"The A4 Pacific comes with a slew of liveries that are all 100% authentic to that of their real world counterparts. In total there are 11 different liveries to choose from including the Mallard, Union of South Africa and the Sir Nigel Gresley. Along with the A4 engine you will also find your tender, in total there are 5 different liveries that the tender car comes in and each is 100% authentic to that of its real world design."

"Looking over the A4 for the first time is like taking a trip back in time as it is an era that has long since vanished and the wonder of steam engines have been replaced with diesel and electric. There is no question, this train just looks fast! The A4’s frame, from front to back, has been built accurately as well and includes features such as front and back lights, buffers, couplings, boiler side grab rails, core plugs, the piping for the sanders, cylinder piping, detailed ladders and steps, water filling points for the tender, animated coal levels and even rivets in the engine frame itself."

"For the steam fanatics the A4 Pacific is definitely a no brainer as it is an excellent addition to the train yard that is Rail Works and now with the release of Rail Works 2 you will find a slew of new features and controls built into Railworks 2 to use with your new A4 Pacific."

Virtual Dispatch V 0.4.0 Released

Posted: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - 13:17
Virtual Dispatch has released an update to their free flight planning utility. This version includes a new Airport Information tab with a map view for SIDs and STARs, Flight1 ATR , Wilco/FT and SimAvionics flight plan support, Visit the Virtual Dispatch homepage for details and download of their latest release.

Barcelona X from Aerosoft

Posted: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 - 1:21
New staff reviewer Gary Yip herads to spain to check out Aerosoft's Barcelona X. "Barcelona is one of the 2 major airport hubs in mainland Spain, the other being Madrid. The fact that this highly popular airport has been faithfully reproduced for flight simulator is a fitting tribute to its success and taking on the challenge is none other than the huge European giant in the flight simulation world; Aerosoft."

"What sets this scenery apart from the others though is the extraordinary detail in the parts of the scenery that you are unlikely to encounter flying around in your aircraft. The level of detail in areas such as the parking lot, landside areas and airport boundary are extremely satisfying and whilst your aircraft is busy being cleaned and refueled for your return flight, you should definitely spend a bit of time looking around the other areas of the airport."

"Naturally with an Aerosoft package, this scenery is fully compatible with the AES software that has become so popular with scenery developers all around the world. One nice feature (and one that has been a long time coming) is the ability of moving vehicles on the ground to stop and give way to your aircraft, just as it is in real life."

"I found Barcelona X to be a very true representation of the airport and a great up to date version adding the likes of the new T1 to the flight simulation world. What sets this product apart though is the high level of detail to areas of the airport otherwise forgotten by many developers out there. Adding high quality landside areas and in combination with AES lite means that it is a great, true to life product that will put a smile on your face."

Historic Airline Group Announces New Classic Airlines

Posted: Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 14:56
The Historic Airline Group has recently added two classic airlines to their group. KLM and Mohawk Airlines are now a part of HAG, offering even more classic airline flying for your enjoyment.

In Europe they have added KLM/Royal Dutch Airlines. Enjoy KLM's European routes from 1957 in a wide variety of classic aircraft like the Lockheed Constellation and Vickers Viscount. Along with BOAC and BEA, Historic Airline Group now flies to more European destinations than ever before.

In the United States, HAG has added the classic regional carrier Mohawk Airlines. Based on their 1959 operations, Mohawk Airlines operates both DC-3's and Convair 240 Cosmopolitans From Detroit to Boston and many, many small communities in between. When you fly with Mohawk you'll find colorful scenery and plenty of instrument flying. Come enjoy the challenge of flying with Mohawk.

Car Pack for DBS FollowMe FSX

Posted: Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 14:54
Any port, any plane, any place within port.. Lost while taxiing in airport? Request FollowMe.. Now! And - now with two free cars for FollowMe. Day, night, lights and strobe. Always near, always visible! Work together with DBS FollowMe service for FSX only (version 1.4.0 or above).