Unofficial 767 Pilot In Command Site Opens

Posted: Sunday, February 25, 2001 - 11:59
Ben Alexander-Brown has setup a fansite dedicated to Wilco's Pilot In Command. The site has a file area guestbook and forum as well as Ben's Flight Log where he uploads all the flights he has performed along with screenshots to accompany the flight. You can visit Ben's Pilot In Command website here.

Project 747 Returns

Posted: Sunday, February 25, 2001 - 11:42
Melvin Rafi has informed AVSIM Online that he has updated his Project 747. The newest version of his aircraft add-on beta VII has an all new tilting gear truck, the landing lights have been reapplied as well as a reduction in polygons from 10000 to 8500 which should allow for slightly better framerates. The file will only be available for a short period of time. To learn more about Melvin's 747 project visit his message board here, or you can download his newest 747 from his homepage here.

PSS Screenshot Contest Update

Posted: Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 18:20
The PSS Screenshot Contest now has more than 300 entries and is growing by the day with only 4 days left to enter. All enteries must be received by Midnight GMT Feb 28, 2000 With 9 prizes in 3 categories, this is your chance to acquire a complete set of the 747 or the 777 aircraft. Make sure to get your entry in. Remember the aircraft pictures must be of the PSS aircraft which include their 747, 777, Bonanza, SR71 or SU-27. Also no more than two (2) entries in each category per reader. Just click on the logo in the right column for more information and mail your entries to contest@avsim.com.

Dreamfleet Releases More Screenshots

Posted: Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 16:55
The Dreamfleet 2000 team have released some more screenshots of their upcoming Boeing 737 Package. The screenshots released show the overhead panel with label lighting and flood lighting on, as well as a screenshot of the aircraft's Automated Flight Announcement System. This system is remodelled in a panel of its own, and will allow users to play up to 12 different captain's announcements to the passengers at a push of a button. The AFAS also has the option to record your own messages with the push of a button. In addition to these, there are 8 flight attendent announcements which will play automatically. These can also be re-recorded to your liking. You can get more information as well as a look at the screenshots by clicking here.

Jetfighter IV Review

Posted: Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 16:32
In his latest review, Avsim Staff Reviewer Robert Whitwell takes a look at Mission Studio's next installment in their Jetfighter series, appropriately titled Jetfighter IV. Robert opens up the review by saying "If you like to blow things up and shoot planes down, then this is a combat flight sim for you. This sim gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "going downtown". This time downtown is San Francisco, and no building, structure or ship in the harbour is safe from destruction by friend or foe. But it's not just about air to ground combat, the aerial sorties are numerous. Whether they are one on one or flight against flight." Continue reading Robert's review by clicking here

More Fly! II Details

Posted: Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 5:22
Gathering of Developers has released new details and information about the upcoming Terminal Reality's Fly! II. FLY! II will feature new and expanded 3D models, aircraft, elevation scenery and higher resolution images. Like its predecessor, FLY! II will feature a global flight area, worldwide digital elevation terrain model, photo-realistic terrain imagery, and high fidelity cockpit and avionics systems, detailed to each aircraft's original configuration. FLY! II will also include more points of interest, improved visual effects, dynamic environments and thorough tutorials, instructions and assistance for beginners. Here are just a few of the new features that will make it into Fly!II:

Crisper, Clearer Photorealistic Detail

TerraSene Imagery emulates the accuracy and detail of satellite imagery (30 meter per pixel resolution) currently used in computer games, but the computer imaging offers superior visuals equivalent to a 7.5 meter per pixel resolution image.

Increased Visibility Range

Fly!II's Visibility Range (60 miles) is five times greater than in Fly!2K, offering a more realistic representation of what real world pilots experience at high altitudes.

High Accuracy Altitude/Elevation Modeling

Fly!II's Elevation Mesh is four times greater than in FLY!/Fly!2K, allowing for different levels on terrain and a realistic depiction of the jagged topography of actual mountains.

All-New Visual Effects

Fly!II serves up a host of new eye candy through effects that take advantage of DirectX8 compatibility, including bump-mapped clouds, water effects (reflection, shimmer), smoke, contrails, heat shimmer, prop wash (Bell 407), prop and landing gear damage.

Terminal Reality and Gathering of Developers will continue to provide updates on FLY! II until the simulation lands in stores in late March.

The 737 Classic Project

Posted: Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 5:14
Matthew Driscoll is proud to announce the commencement of the Boeing 737 Classic Project for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000. Matthew says the project was created in light of the enormous achievement of the Boeing 737 classic series of aircraft. Being the world's most ubiquitous airliner, a tribute to its success was needed in the flight simulation community. Our first project will be the most popular of the 737 classic series, the Boeing 737-200 model. You can get more information, including some very preliminary screenshots by clicking here.

Hispasim - La Gomera Island

Posted: Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 2:32
HispaSim has released its new scenery, La Gomera Island. This new scenery features a 10 seconds of resolution mesh terrain without interpolation. The Island's airport has been made according to ICAO anex 14 and AIP-AENA. With a lot of valleys and mountains, this recent scenery offers an excellent place to visit. For more information, visit HispaSim.

TerraBuilder 2.0 Beta Released

Posted: Friday, February 23, 2001 - 21:56
Misho Katulic, the author of TerraBuilder today announced the following: "Latest update to TerraBuilder, Photorealistic mesh scenery designer for MS Flight Simulator series, is now available. The newest 1.97.04 (v 2.0 Beta) version comes in two versions LITE (freeware) and PRO (shareware). Lite version introduces new scenery library functions for easy management and installation of FS2000 scenery, including support for flatten and exclude switches. Also, MS's Terrain SDK is now supported through easy-to-use front-end interface. PRO version, in addition to all features found in LITE version, introduces powerful new Project Cloning and Project Grouping features that are geared towards fast and efficient production of large scale, far-visible photorealistic scenery for FS2000." More information is available here.

A Word About "Contrails"

Posted: Friday, February 23, 2001 - 21:46
We've picked up the pace with Contrails opinion articles, leading off with today’s new installment, "This Conspiracy Thing..." by AVSIM Online Publisher Tom Allensworth. So that you, and especially readers new to AVSIM won’t miss previous articles in the series, we’ve added a new feature, Contrails Archives. You’ll find these here.

SATUSA Nor'easter Flyin

Posted: Friday, February 23, 2001 - 21:40
On Sunday Feb. 25th, three SATUSA ARTCC's will be hosting one of the biggest flyin's ever! This flyin named THE NOR'EASTER will take place with a combined effort of the New York, Boston, and Washington DC Centers. Flyin times are 1400-2000 Local (1900-0100Z). Pilots are encouraged to make flight reservations and best controllers from each artcc will be there. More information can be found here.

Sybex Posts CFS2 Strategy Update

Posted: Friday, February 23, 2001 - 21:35
Sybex today announced an exclusive, online-only update for Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2 - Sybex Official Strategies & Secrets strategy guide. The update includes late-breaking changes to the game, changes to the flight model, and important tips and hints on how to create your own CFS2 missions using the Mission Builder feature. For more information click here.

Free Online U.S. NOAA Approach Plates

Posted: Friday, February 23, 2001 - 18:33
Need an approach plate for a U.S. destination airport? How about a facility diagram for those complicated taxiways? SIDs and STARs? If you haven't seen it yet check out Echo Flight's great free service which allows you to view online, save, and print all of the above for U.S. airports from scanned NOAA images. Here's the link - Echo Flight. Thanks and a big tip of the hat to reader "Tally Ho" who turned us on to this site in a recent AVSIM forum message. AVSIM Forums - the place to be for all your simming info needs!

Real Airports Now Shipping

Posted: Friday, February 23, 2001 - 16:27
Just Flight announced today that Real Airports for FS200 and featuring London Gatwick, Houston George Bush Intercontinental, Zurich Kloten, Rio de Janeiro Galeao, Milan Malpensa, Cologne/Bonn Konrad Adenauer and Paris Orly is now shipping. THe Just Flight press release goes on to say, "...Over 6 man-years of work have created hundreds of new buildings, runways and taxiways, all with high resolution texturing providing the most impressive scenery yet for Flight Simulator. As well as the stunning airports, Real Airports provides incredible static scenery, dynamic aircraft and ground vehicles, operating docking arms and gate guidance boards, spectacular night lighting effects and exciting new ATC adventures. As a bonus to compliment Real Airports, there are five flyable Airbus aircraft included too." Real Airports carries a retail price of £29.99 in the UK and equivalent pricing in other countries. It will be available from a wide variety of retail outlets or you can buy it direct from Just Flight with their money-back guarantee. For full details to pre-order and view the screen shots visit Just Flight. As with all Just Flight products, Atlanta-based Flight One will be representing Real Airports in the USA, so if you're resident in the Americas, please visit them at www.flight1.com.

Fly! Scenery Project Tutorial Announced

Posted: Friday, February 23, 2001 - 11:06
In a message posted today in one of our forums Norman Cleesattel announced his Fly! Scenery Project Tutorial. This document describes how to create a scenery area. Examples refer to the creation of an airport. General topics covered include planning, research, management and distribution. The main part of the document are a collection of tutorials ranging from the advanced use of the Fly Editor to 3D Applications like 3D Studio and Truspace. You can download this 27MB PDF file by clicking here.

Toronto FIR Fly-in To Host The World.

Posted: Friday, February 23, 2001 - 10:42
Toronto FIR is hosting the biggest Satcan Fly-in To date with 2 Guest Nav-Canada Controllers. Also announced is a preview version of the CYYZ 2001 Scenery especially for the Fly in. Full version is currently in production by Mike Peterson, Slawko Borys and Steve Weiler. Toronto is the place to be on Saturday 24th Feb 1900Z-2300Z (1400-1800 EST). For more information click here.

AVSIM Agrees to FSMag Affiliation

Posted: Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 21:50
With our interest in getting AVSIM's content out to the greatest number of flight sim enthusiasts on the Internet as we can, we today have expanded our list of affiliations by adding FSMag to our list of approved content distributors. Mike Clark of FSMag, and we have been discussing this since the Birmingham show last year in the U.K., and finally it has come to be. FSMag provides condensed excerpts of our news, file links, and other AVSIM content in a weekly emailed newsletter to thousands of simmers around the world. Please join us in welcoming Mike and FSMag to the AVSIM family of partners and affiliates! You can access The FSMag by clicking on the banner to the right.

Three Releases from Abacus

Posted: Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 19:15
Abacus officials released a host of announcement this morning. First, they announced that Abacus flight sim add-ons will soon available in the Dutch language thanks to our partnership with Easy Computing. Easy Computing is a 10-year old company based in Brussels with sales offices in Amsterdam. "The company has excellent distribution to major computer and book stores in Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg," according to Managing Director Fernand Wiener. "Several Abacus titles are already available and other add-ons will be shipping shortly." For more information, just click here. One of the best-selling Abacus titles for CFS1 was Pacific Theatre. Now they have completed the conversion making Pacific Theatre CFS2-compatible. Abacus will begin shipping Pacific Theatre for CFS2 on March 10th. Registered users of the original version can upgrade for only $10. For more information, just click here. Abacus has also completed work for CFS2 for the World War II aircraft in their "fly before you buy" Premier Collection. The P-51 Dakota Kid, Supermarine Spitfire, F4U-5 Corsair and Messerschmitt Me262 are now available for free test flights here.

Wilco Releases Patch for PC Version of B737 for FLY!

Posted: Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 18:22
Wilco Publishing today released patch 1.2 for their B737 for FLY!. The patch includes fixes and new items: (new) autoPilot function : (new) auto-brakes/spoilers implemented, (new) auto-throttle implemented, ground handling enhanced, correct 40-degree flap position fixed, empty and fully loaded weight fixed, climb and cruise performances enhanced, anti-icing system fixed, VMO on Airspeed Indicator fixed, blurry texture problem with some video cards and "Passenger Setup" places the pilot and co-pilot in the right seats. You can download the patch for either the download version or the CD version from Wilco Publishing here.

Circumnavigate the Americas

Posted: Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 13:31
FlightSimOnline has once again announced a flight package for the aviation simulation enthusiast looking for a more structured way to see the world. The Western Hemisphere Jet Flight Series takes the jet aircraft devotee from Chile, on the Pacific coast of South America, north through Central America, and along the United States west coast before reaching the series apex at Fairbanks, Alaska. There, the pilot turns east to Montreal, before heading south down the east coast of the United States. The route then crosses the Caribbean, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and finally the series termination at Punta Arenas, Chile, on the southern tip of South America. The series covers 19,328 nautical miles with 26 stops at throughout the Western Hemisphere. The average distance of a leg is 743 nautical miles, with an average flight time of 1hr 40min for the pilot choosing the B-777. The Western Hemisphere Jet Flight Series shows off the very best of the Americas and will keep jet enthusiasts flying high for quite some time. For more information on the Western Hemisphere Jet Series, just jump over to the series web site at FlightSimOnline.