Dutch Harbor X from Aerosoft

Posted: Saturday, June 12, 2010 - 18:34
Staff reviewer Mark Kolo heads out to the Aleutian islands to take a look at Aerosoft's Dutch Harbor X. "Dutch Harbor is a relatively small fishing town located on the island of Amaknak in the volcanic Aleutian Island chain jutting out over 1000 miles into the Bearing Sea. Dutch Harbor is often described as one of the final frontiers in the US and as a boom town (the island’s year round population of 8,000 is often doubled during the days leading up to the opening of the next fishing season) due to its importance to the Alaskan fishing industry, particularly crab, and cod as documented on Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch."

"I was immediately struck by the high level of detail and sharpness of the textures that were visible from the ramp, and the intricate modeling of some smaller scenery elements (such as road signs near the airport) that would suffer or be looked over in larger airports. Unalaska Airport, also known as Dutch Harbor Airport and Tom Madsen Airport, is located in the city of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor at the foot of a small mountain on Amaknak island. The airport’s layout is dictated by the harsh surrounding terrain and has room for only a single runway (the 3900 foot runway 12/30) and two small ramps at one end of it. Dutch Harbor’s somewhat sheltered waters allow for a seaplane base to be located just across the street from the airport, and for amphibious aircraft the ability to taxi up the ramp, across the street and park in a hangar or just on the ramp."

"Dutch Harbor X covers a large part of the Aleutian Island chain, and includes not only landclass for many islands surrounding Amaknak, but also some enhanced scenery for two seaplane bases and the small towns they are located in, as well as improvements in scenery for many other small gravel airstrips in the area. Furthermore, relics from the World War II era including Quonset huts, revetments, blockhouses, and a ship are also included in Dutch Harbor X. Four other airfields are included in the scenery, though the coverage is more of small enhancements rather than actual scenery coverage."

"Dutch Harbor X comes with its own introductory mission. The included mission is a short flight in a recently repaired Goose with a copilot who has some basic knowledge of the area. The mission includes a takeoff, introduction to the area and the nontowered nature of the airport, the generally bad weather, and a water landing in Dutch Harbor followed by an optional extension to taxi up the ramp back to the airport after the splashdown."

"During the time I spent with Aerosoft's Dutch Harbor X, I was able to do the type of flying I rarely am able to in the lower 48 states where I normally fly. Between the precarious location, and terrible weather, there aren’t many airports that are as tricky as Dutch Harbor. When the wind calms down enough to fly however, you are able to enter an incredible world of custom objects and landclass that span a large part of the Aleutian island chain. There was always something new and interesting to explore in the area."

Instant Scenery 2 from Flight1

Posted: Saturday, June 12, 2010 - 5:55
Flight1 Software announces the release of Instant Scenery 2, a new scenery making tool. Instant Scenery 2 allows you to easily add 3D objects to the scenery directly inside Flight Simulator. The user interface allows you to set many parameters for every object, including heading, scale, elevation and the scenery complexity level. The scenery you create with Instant Scenery can be easily shared with other Flight Simulator users.

With Instant Scenery 2 you can now directly position and manage objects with the mouse, easily create lines of objects, create exclusion rectangles and organize models into favorites. The new Object List feature allows you to keep track of objects you placed. And the new redesigned user interface makes selecting models easier than with version 1. Instant Scenery 2 works with FSX and FS9.

For more information visit Instant Scenery Product page .

Sucre from Latin VFR

Posted: Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 5:25
Staff reviewer Benjamin van Soldt heads to South America to check out Latin VFR's version Juana Azurduy De Padilla airport, in Sucre, Bolivia. "Sucre is the capital of Bolivia, yet its administrative seat is in La Paz, and I dare say that LatinVFR’s scenery is probably the only payware scenery for Bolivia. I praise each developer that goes out there and captures real world airport in FS sceneries that would otherwise have been forgotten."

"The manual says we get the airport, photo scenery for an area of 300 square kilometers and mesh scenery to complement both. Therefore, this is a complete scenery package that gives you everything to enjoy this airport. The airport is tiny. There is one runway, a rather small terminal building, some small warehouses and a BP petrol station. I like the details, the texturing and the modeling of the buildings."

"You can say many things about the textures found in this package. Some probably find it too blurry in some areas, while for others it’s just fine. What you can’t say is that the detail of the textures used for the apron, taxiways and runway is bad. They are very sharp and they look very good. Tiny cracks and holes are spread over the apron and give a wonderful sense of a used, South American airport."

"SLSU is unique because of various parameters. The elevation of the airport is over 9000 feet. The runway is sloped. It looks like they poured concrete over a hill and called it a runway! The approach is occluded by hills right before the runway, and at the other end there is a valley. So, either you crash onto the hill, or you fall into the abyss. The runway is 9000 feet long, meaning you can land somewhat bigger planes here than, for example, at Lula, another airport with a sloped runway."

Benjamin includes an interview with LatinVFR's developer Ricardo, who goes into the intricaies of this airports and why it was developed as it is. Benjamin concludes the Latin VFR Sucre review with, "the scenery gives you a nicely detailed airport with some unique characters that you’ll hardly find in our FS World, like the geographic (and cultural) location, the sloped runway and the lack of ILS. Together with that we get some nice mesh and photo scenery to complement the airport scenery and provide a very nice visual experience on approach to this airport. I truly recommend this airport. It looks good, it’s extremely entertaining and fun to operate in and out of."

Flight Control Replay Released

Posted: Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - 15:55
FLIGHT CONTROL REPLAY is a new product that permits you to record and replay a flight in Microsoft FSX and Microsoft ESP.
Flight Control Replay's main features include the capacity to record a flight of unlimited length, fast forward & backward and users can choose a sample rate for the recorded flight.
For a look at the complete feature set and requirements visit the FLIGHT CONTROL REPLAY product page .

MAP! Network Edition Released

Posted: Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - 14:43
Network Edition will run on computers within a local network. The FS computer will act a host and a separate one connected to the host computer will act as a client and will dislpay MAP! on this second computer.

Just like the cabin screens in a real airliner's passenger cabin MAP! will display the track of your flight. In addition, a sequence of screens shows a variety of flight information such as elapsed and remaining time, distance, altitude, wind information, and temperature (to name just a few).

MAP! by feelThere is compatible with FS9 and FSX (your purchase includes both installers) and works with all default and add-on airplanes and helicopters.

Free Tool From DBS Studio

Posted: Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - 2:03
DBS Recent Aircraft tool for Flight Simulator 2004. An easy way to select recently used aircraft without tedious selection through simulator menu "Manufacturer", "Model", "Variation" etc.

Orbiter 2010 Released

Posted: Tuesday, June 8, 2010 - 13:55
Orbiter Space Flight Simulator, 2010 Edition has been released to the public . Orbiter 2010 enables users to experience the challenges and views of space flight in real time from a pilot's perspective. Orbiter aims at both realism and immersion, and demonstrates that even complex physical concepts can be fun to learn. During the nearly four years of development since the previous release, a range of features have been introduced to make the space flight experience for users even more exciting.

AITT2 For FS2004 Updated

Posted: Monday, June 7, 2010 - 14:48
AITT2 For FS2004 is an AI Flight Monitor for Flight Simulator, the updated version now comes with ambient sound and flight announcements using a MS-SAPI 5.x compliant voice engine. AITT2 for FS2004 now brings airport flight announcements to you for an enhanced FS environment, the update is free for registered users.

TOPCAT from TOPCAT Sim

Posted: Sunday, June 6, 2010 - 18:47
Staff reviewer Marlon Carter takes all the guesswork out of performance calculations with TOPCAT Sim's Take-Off and Landing Performance Calculation Tool.

"It brings into a single application all of the calculations required to plan for safe and repeatable take-offs and landings. TOPCAT will provide you, the captain, with Load Sheets, Take-Off and Landing performance analysis, Individual Runway Tables including all relevant speeds (V1, VR and V2), optimum thrust and flaps configurations, de-rated and assumed/flex temperatures and stop margins."

"At first glance I thought that this program would be very complicated to use. After reading the entire manual I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would be able to use this tool as it was intended. The documentation is very thorough and it leaves no gray areas or any aspect of the program unexplained. The developers of this program have obviously put a lot into it and they deserve thumbs up for their efforts. Many simmers are already using this program and have all commented that it is an extremely useful tool in flight planning."

"The TOPCAT tool for me has been the missing link in having that true to life flying experience. If you are a hardcore simmer who enjoys all aspects of flying, including the preflight paper work and calculations then this program is a must have."

Sea Fury from SimFlight 3D

Posted: Saturday, June 5, 2010 - 18:16
Staff reviewer Philip Wilson looks at a WWII warbird that some of you might have seen at the Reno Air races. SimFlight3D's Sea Fury. "The Hawker Fury was an evolutionary successor to the successful Hawker Typhoon and Tempest fighters and fighter-bombers of World War II. In 1943, the design was modified to meet a Royal Navy request (N.7/43) for a carrier-based fighter. Boulton-Paul Aircraft was to make the conversion while Hawker continued work on the Air Force design."

"The Sea Fury modeling is fairly accurate and any shortcomings in this area are relatively minor. What you will not see is cutting edge high resolution modeling, and for performance this works out great. The textures of both aircraft are “photo realistic”, and are somewhat of a mixed bag."

"The cockpit is all military. No fancy leather seats here, just grey metal surfaces and man sized controls. Most features are modeled and include a working tail wheel lock, stick mounted push to talk button (activates the ATC dialog window), and map window to name a few. The cockpit uses the same “photo textures” as the rest of the aircraft but they don’t look too bad in the small confined cockpit. The aircraft is easily flown from the VC."

"The SimFlight 3D Sea Fury is fun to fly, and there are differences in the “feel” of the aircraft across the performance envelope, but it’s akin to selecting the “easy” flight model. The flight model is for the casual flyer and not the hard core group."

"The SimFlight 3D Sea Fury comes in below the current crop of FSX releases in quality and flight dynamics. For the casual armchair military pilot types, it’s a great, fun to fly aircraft."

Updates from Multi Crew experience

Posted: Saturday, June 5, 2010 - 5:01
FS++ team has announced the release of V2.2 of "Multi Crew experience" (MCE)for FS2004 and FSX.

With the latest release, you can assign a "character" to the co-pilot.Choose from "Professional" for a formal business like interaction or "Casual" for a more buddy like attitude. Also with latest release, also allows owners of Go-flight hardware modules integration with native FS ATC on VFR flights. Although this feature is still works in progress and will be fine tuned following input from a wider audience.

MCE is a voice control for Microsoft flight simulator , with features added every 2 to 3 months, and made available as updates. MCE also allows voice interaction with Radar Contact(another ATC add-on).

For more information visit their Product Page.

HD Environment 2010 Version 1.2 Released

Posted: Saturday, June 5, 2010 - 4:56
SceneryPRO Software has released the HD Environment 2010 version 1.2. This release includes reworked High-Definition Sky, Ground and Water textures for sharper graphics as well as other enhancements to improve framerates.

For more information visit the SceneryPRO Homepage .

FS2Crew Fly The Maddog - Redux

Posted: Saturday, June 5, 2010 - 1:21
Staff reviewer Eduardo Ocampo takes another look at FS2Crew's utility for the MD-80 but this time for FSX. "Up until recently, all of our virtual flying had to be done by ourselves. This, depending on the type of airplane we’d fly each time, would create moments of stress, chaos, mayhem and at times, unexpected manoeuvres from our aircraft that caught us with our guards down and with little altitude and speed to orthodoxly correct the situation and land our airplanes “safely”. I guarantee you know why that word is between quotations. However, at least with the MadDog (and several other airplanes), those days are behind us now. As stated in FS2Crew’s website, flying jetliners by yourself is not the way it’s done."

"The immersion you get with this add-on is amazing, as you get to interact with ground crew, cabin crew and a first officer. I’d recommend this software to those who seriously consider becoming a pilot (or those who are in the process of) as this program teaches a couple of things that they usually don’t teach at flight school. Once you try this software from FS2Crew , you are going to want to have one of these for each aircraft you fly in FS. It really is a remarkable invention and an incredibly different angle for flight simulator."

PRE-Flight RC Now In The Avsim Store

Posted: Friday, June 4, 2010 - 15:09
Transcendental Technologies would like to announce that PRE-Flight Blade Edition is now available in the AVSIM Store.
PRE-Flight RC Flight Simulator uses a powerful Physics and Rendering Engine to allow super-accurate simulation of all types of aircraft. Whether you're a beginner, advanced user, or aircraft designer, you'll find PRE-Flight Blade Edition is all you need.
This version of PRE-Flight allows you to use your joystick, game controller, or even your keyboard to fly Radio-Controlled Planes, Helicopters, Gliders, Jets, Blimps, Rockets, and other RC aircraft.

TropicalSim SAEZ Buenos Aires

Posted: Friday, June 4, 2010 - 14:55
TropicalSim has announced the release of Buenos Aires Ezeiza SAEZ airport for both FS9 and FSX.
This highly detailed scenery renders the airport in it current state with construction and expansion of the facilities and infrastructure.
Visit the TropicalSim Homepage for a look at this new release.

Discover Europe & Pole to Pole from 1st Class Simulations

Posted: Friday, June 4, 2010 - 2:15
Senior staff reviewer Angelique van Campen takes a look at 2 titles from 1st Class Simulations: Discover Europe and Pole to Pole.

"Discover Europe gives you a total of 64 flights stretching the length and breadth of Europe. We visit the northernmost city of Europe at Hammerfest and travel all the way south to Istanbul on the border of Asia. The journey takes us on a clockwise route through Europe, visiting more than 30 countries!"

"Pole to Pole software offers in total 52 flights providing in excess of 20,000 miles of flying. The journey starts close to the North Pole and finishes at Palmer Base, deep in the southern polar regions of Antarctica. The entire trip will take approximately 300 hours to complete with the included Aero Commander 680."

"Discover Europe comes with the Piper PA-20 Pacer; a simple single engine prop aircraft, christened as G-EURO. It comes with a 2D and Virtual Cockpit, it's a tail dragger type and it offers a simple Auto Pilot, which is not a bad idea for all those legs to fly. As far as I can see some default instruments are used, so it's not entirely handmade. The VC is not of the Carenado quality, but still good enough."

"In Pole to Pole, the Aero Commander AC680 comes in two flavors. One for ice skating and one used on a roller coaster. Seriously ... one model offers skis, which allows you to land on ice while the other model is just an ordinary version with a nose and main wheels."

"With Discover Europe and Pole to Pole, the software only offers the Piper PA-20 Pacer and the Aero Commander AC680 aircraft and lots of flight plans and different manuals which offer the flight simmer background information on where to fly to, and what he/she can see on the way. Flight plans that helps you fly the prepared Discover Europe tour and the Pole to Pole stretches. No scenery enhancer files are installed, no additional airport scenery is implemented, no new or different clouds models are introduced ... nothing of that! Ok, it's handy to have in total 114 flights available for you, which cover a total distance of more than 30,000 miles, which means months to fly."

P-36 Hawk from Vertigo Studios

Posted: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - 2:58
Virtual pilots can now fly the P-36 Hawk within the skies of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X following the release by UK based Vertigo Studios of their 3rd WWII fighter.

This product is a detailed model which replicates the fighter that was to precede many of the more famous aircraft of the war. Because of the pre- war exports, the P-36 not only flew with the US pursuit groups and British Commonwealth forces, and the French, it flew with swastikas with the Finnish air force. These paint schemes are included within the package. A paint kit is also available to download so we can expect many free repaints to become available.

The developer adds "...Anyone who downloads the free Manual will immediately see that Project Manager Dean Greasley and his small dedicated team have been determined to take the level of detail with the model and its texturing to a new benchmark. Pilot, chocks and a canopy cover can be selected via a pop up menu. Not only has the virtual cockpit been covered in splendid detail, the usually unseen (and un-modelled) rear fuselage area is seen with pre selected view points. The access hatch can be opened and closed using a click point. Yet this extra detail only has very minimal impact on frame rates within the game even on low spec PCs...."

The product is available only for FSX including SP1, SP2 and Acceleration.

For more information visit Vertigo Studios.

Twin Oaks from Orbx

Posted: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 - 1:54
Staff reviewer Philip Wilson looks at a small airport from Bill Womack that fits in with Orbx's Pacific Northwest, the Twin Oaks Airport. "Weekdays are quiet at Twin Oaks, with only a handful of operations—mostly student pilots taking instruction from one of the several CFI’s based here. But on weekends when the weather cooperates, the place is alive with the buzz of aircraft engines as hordes of weekend pilots flock to the field.

For pilots looking to explore the Pacific Northwest, Twin Oaks is an ideal base. The rocky Oregon coast lies just beyond the mountains to the west. Eastward, past Portland, is the entrance to the Columbia Gorge, where the broad Columbia river cuts a gash through the Cascades. Mt. Hood is nearby, as is the humped dome of Mt. St. Helens. Even in a slow plane, there’s a wide variety of stunning vistas within reach of the airport."

"The airport and immediate vicinity is highly detailed at 30cm and the surrounding area comes in at an impressive 1m. Scenery and ground textures are fantastic as is the mesh which gives you the rolling hills and various elevations around the airfield. You are limited to one runway for takeoff. While on the ground, when you call up the FSX ATC dialog box, your only option for takeoff is runway 20. This is also true at the real airport as runway 20 is downhill. I’m glad to see it was the same in FSX."

"It is clearly stated in the user guide, you MUST set your mesh resolution to 2m. This may also lower the FPS on some systems. The manual states: 2m is mandatory for this airport scenery to correctly display Bill's unique multi-elevation mesh at the airport. Setting it to 5m or higher will result in less defined slopes and elevations around the airport."

"Bill Womack has exceeded my every expectation with this scenery package. The picturesque Stark’s Twin Oaks airport itself is fantastic, but when you combine the fact it’s also the worlds first multi-elevation airport, the package is simply amazing. Given that this airfield is only a short flight from the Oregon coast as well as Portland and numerous small airports, it makes the perfect base for all your virtual GA flights."

New Version of Airport Wizard

Posted: Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - 6:37
FlightSimTools.com has released the Airport Wizard version 1.02. Airport Wizard is a simple tool for easily improving the look of airports in FSX and FS9. It allows adding illuminated aprons, improved taxiway lines and 3D taxiway lights to airport with a few clicks. The new version now allows changing the color and appearance of taxiway lines and also corrects a few problems.

For more information visit Product Page.

Carenado Releases the C185F Skywagon For FS9

Posted: Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - 1:25
Carenado has released the long awaited and much requested C185F SKYWAGON for FS2009. This aircraft comes with a polygon optimized model, Friendly FPS and original HQ digital stereo sounds recorded from the original aircraft. The eyescandies include: wheel chokes, bag & package, pitot cover, sights prop and tiedown ropes. The C185F has four different paint schemes and 4 models: with and without fairings, side windows on both sides and two & three blades prop.