Dornier Do-27 from Digital Aviation

Posted: Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 6:44
Sr staff reviewer Bert Pieke takes a look at a vintage GA aircraft from Digital Aviation, the Dornier Do-27. "The Dornier Do-27 is somewhat of a collector’s airplane and has a cult-like following by its owners. It was used by various air forces for tasks such as liaison, aerial photography, air ambulance, or as a light cargo aircraft. It is also popular as a civilian plane."

"Although the configuration panel has an option to include a 2D panel, this aircraft was designed to be flown from the virtual cockpit (VC)," reports Bert, "The VC is in one word: stunning – it really re-creates this vintage aircraft with custom gauges, levers, and lots of interior detail. The exterior model is nicely detailed, with different features for the A and B model, and textures that show the wear and tear of a vintage airplane."

"This plane does not need a lot of runway to get airborne, while you are still deciding if it needs some forward pressure to get the tail wheel off the ground, it lifts off and you are airborne. The plane is flown by hand, no autopilot here, but responds nicely to control inputs and trims out fine after reducing the engine revolutions to a more comfortable level."

Bert concludes the Dornier Do-27 review with, "For vintage aircraft enthusiasts, this is a “must have” add-on. This plane will also work nicely for bush pilots, as it was designed to take off and land at small, remote airstrips. Overall, this is a welcome addition to FS9, which I would recommend highly to any aspiring GA pilot."

Exciting News From FlightDeck Solutions

Posted: Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 21:57
FlightDeck Solutions is pleased to offer a free web based conference on Saturday, November 25th starting at 12:00(EST)/17:00(UTC). Showcasing their latest technology and cost effective solutions, FDS plans to review numerous products and live demonstrations within the allotted hour. Enthusiasts of all skill levels will also have the opportunity to understand this popular hobby and ask questions of the entire FDS team at the conclusion of the event.

Registration for this event can be accessed from the FlightDeck Solutions Event webpage. Once registered, you will be provided with the location and ‘webinar’ ID that will give you access for the visual portion of the conference. For audio, FDS will be utilizing a new high speed conferencing tool from Skype™ which allows for a free worldwide audio connection over the internet. Access from any conventional landline or cell phone is also available in Canada, the United States, and in Europe (long distance charge may apply for a non-internet based connection). Audio bridge information will also be made available upon registration.

Patches From CLS Coming Your Way

Posted: Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 20:54
In a news release recieved early this morning CLS has just released FSX patches to four of their products. Making it possible for everyone to enjoy their products in FS9 as well as in FSX! The patches for the A300-600R, Beluga, A310 series and the 3-Airbus Pack are listed at our service packs webpage. Also listed is the FSX patch for our F117A NightHawk. The patches for the A340-500/600, Business Jet and Garmin avionics are due to be released in the upcoming weeks. Go get your patch now at Commercial Level Simulation.

CanUk Has Released CYYC For FS2004

Posted: Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 20:49
CYYC (Calgary International Airport) for FS2004 was created in GMAX the scenery features custom buildings, custom ground textures and night-lighting, animated airport vehicles and a complete landclass project. Stop on by CanUk Scenery for this new addition to CanUk Scenery's Canadian Airport Library.

FSPilot from Scientific Networks

Posted: Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 3:14
Staff reviewer Jeff Skyluk puts everything on Autopilot as he looks at a shareware product from Scientific Networks, FSPilot. "FSPilot is an enhanced "universal autopilot" for virtually every aircraft, including third-party add-ons, and especially including helicopters, that FS2004 supports. FSPilot also includes a digital moving-map EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrument System), a flight planner, and some extra goodies like an .MP3 player and a Snapshot photo tool."

Jeff reports that FSPilot is crammed with interesting items. Here is a list of features in FSPilot: Universal Autopilot, Helicopter Autopilot, Does not require FSUIPC, Time compression, EFIS/Navigation Screen, Low Altitude Flight, Google Earth Interface, Auto Approach, Automated Flight Plans, Inverted Autopilot, Microsoft Access Database Interface, Audio Cues, and Screen Shot capability. You can read about these features in detail within the review.

"FSPilot has a lot of features to try out. Most of them apply to what I would consider two broad categories of autopilot function: things you can do in real-time and under time-compression, and things you can do to program the autopilot in advance of the flight. FSPilot is genuinely fun for the whole family, and educational for all ages in the worlds of simulated aviation and programming."

Jeff summarizes FSPilot with, "FSPilot is a shareware utility for MSFS that provides a unique "universal autopilot" that is capable of completely controlling just about every aircraft that has been designed for Flight Simulator, including fixed-wing aircraft (propeller-driven planes and jets), helicopters, and commercial and free-ware add-ons. FSPilot also provides a programmable flight planner and a one-click navigation system that allows for setting and following waypoints on the fly. FSPilot provides control over your aircraft at time compression settings well beyond what MSFS is capable of, so that it is easy to simulate long-haul flights in a short simulation session. You can even use FSPilot to perform fully automated landings. You do not require FSUIPC to use FSPilot."

FS2Crew Releases Cessna 172 FSX Edition

Posted: Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 0:32
A press release recently submitted to Avsim stating that FS2Crew is please to announce that its popular Cessna 172 edition is now available for FSX. The 172 Edition was re-written from scratch just for FSX and features the latest FS2Crew interface system and other new features, such as random failures modeling. A discount coupon is available for pre-existing FS2Crew owners. Please stop by the FS2Crew website for more inforamtion on the FS2Crew: Cessna 172 FSX Edition.

Aerosoft Releases Budapest Scenery

Posted: Friday, November 17, 2006 - 14:51
Aerosoft is happy to announce the release of Budapest 2007. This scenery of Ferihegy International Airport, created by Andras Kozma is the latest in the Mega airport series. Budapest features: highly detailed taxiway and runway layout, with high definition textures, fully compatible with standard and third party AI-Traffic, full winter textures, full night textures, includes high density mesh of surrounding areas, includes full photographic ground texture of Budapest (so on your approaches you will get a good chance to see the layout of the city), high level of animated car and bus traffic on airport, full and detailed lighting, very high number of objects on tarmac, and optimization on every view angle so frame rates are stable and high.

For more information, visit the Aerosoft website.

Just Flight VFR Real Scenery – London Released

Posted: Friday, November 17, 2006 - 14:00
Just Flight is pleased to announce the release of the first instalment of its highly anticipated VFR Real Scenery series for Flight Simulator X. VFR Real Scenery – London is now available to download direct from Just Flight's website. At just under 1Gb it’s quite a sizeable download but this is understandable because it contains over 1200 square miles of detailed photographic scenery of the London area. The entire region within the M25 is included as well as customised night lighting and individually applied water textures.

Simflyer's Starts The "Series X" Product Line

Posted: Friday, November 17, 2006 - 2:33
The all-new GNS-SX is now available! This avionics suite features over a dozen different gauges -- some in multiple configurations -- including both the GNS530 and GNS430 units, which have been completely re-designed using the latest XML programming techniques making them fully functional in FSX while maintaining backwards compatibility with FS2004. Also included in the GNS-SX Avionics Suite are multiple audio panels, transponders the S-Tec55X and S-Tec30 Autopilots, Garmin VOR Heads and much more. Needless to say, the new gauges are extremely frame rate friendly in both the FS9 and FSX platforms. You can get more information on this product and others at the SimFlyer website.

AVSIM News Needs You!

Posted: Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 21:32
AVSIM.com is growing and we need your help! The News Crew needs to fill 2 more slots to assist our volunteers with daily news postings and file download updates on the front page. Most news editors will be required to be "on duty" for 2-4 days a month, with each "duty day" requiring an average of 30 minutes to an hour of your time.

If you think you have what it takes to join the AVSIM News crew, send us an email to jbinner@avsim.com Please include any related news-editing experience, time zone you live in, and give us an example of a current aviation simulation story. Be creative, be grammatically correct, and most importantly check your spelling! The AVSIM team has 2 slots to fill.

Cloud9 Releases Orlando Scenery

Posted: Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 16:51
cloud9 is happy to announce the release of the Orlando International Airport scenery. Following on the top quality US airports products line started with Los Angeles and including the Washington airport, the Orlando scenery is the first Flight Simulator X native product of this series. Absolutely frame rate friendly, this new scenery includes all new features allowed by FSX beside the usual high quality of all cloud9 products. Available, as all other cloud9 products, in trial version (full features, time limited), can be freely downloaded from the product page of the cloud9 web site.

Mid-November Cheque Donations

Posted: Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 5:12
Here is the latest list of donors by Cheque to AVSIM. We'd like to thank everyone for their kind contributions.
We ask that if you send a cheque, please include your email address as well so we can confirm receipt.

HJG November Website Update

Posted: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - 22:12
This is HJG's 9th update since their reformation in April. Updates include repaints for the B707, B720, CV990, & DC8 featuring a selection of nostalgic liveries from European, Latin American, Middle Eastern & North American regions. You will also find a new and very rare B707-320 (F) freighter that has a fully animated maindeck cargo door and containers. Some other updates include a little remembered Asian operated CV990-A as well as a much sought after Canadian DC8-63. For Gary Carlson's new "VERSION 6" B707 there is a galore of repaints that have been upgraded. Last but not least HJG has released 2 brand new high quality custom soundpacks for both the CV880 & CV990 aircraft. For more information you can visit the Historic Jetliners Group website.

VFR Poland 3D Landmarks V0.21 Released

Posted: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - 22:02
The scenery for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004/X includes most of the Polish structures rising more than 300ft AGL as well as other interesting objects to be used for navigation purposes during VFR flights. The scenery includes the total number of 366 specific objects like: buildings, skyscrapers, power plants, towers, masts, chimneys with the wind smoke effects, cooling towers with the wind steam effects, animated wind turbines, tanks etc etc. All objects have been built with GMAX and is very FPS friendly. For more information visit the SimDesign website.

Piper Cheyenne from Aerosoft/Digital Aviation

Posted: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - 1:43
Sr staff reviewer Zane Gard Jr. reviews and aircraft he has real world experience on, the Piper Cheyenne as presented by Aerosoft and Digital Aviation. "I grew up flying in and around this class of aircraft so I have a very keen interest in this particular airframe and have followed the development of just about every sim version that has been released, be it freeware or payware," remarks Zane.

"This thing is drop dead gorgeous… and you don’t just get one model, you get four variations of the aircraft. You can look at these from outside for hours and you won’t find a flaw. And the night lighting is also something to behold."

"You’re just gonna love the fact that you have so many possibilities for viewing the panel from the pilot’s or copilot’s seat. If you can see a switch it works, if you see a knob it turns and actually does something. Move into the VC and you are going to wonder if you are still in the 2D panel view till you hit the hat switch to move around. This panel is reproduced in all its 3 dimensional glory for VC lovers. One of the decisions that Digital Aviation made in modeling the VC panel for the Cheyenne was to standardize the radio stack to something consistent with what you will find in reality."

"There a handful of software magicians that can capture the flight dynamics envelope of an aircraft and break it down into numbers that actually convey the sense of what a real aircraft “feels” like when flying in the sim. This is a pilot’s airplane that conveys that sense of what it is doing or about to do that makes it a joy to fly. Each of the four variants have their own specific airfiles and tweaking of their configuration files to represent what the real aircraft is capable of."

Zane sums up the Piper Cheyenne with, "In my opinion this is one of those releases that raises the bar for all aspects of aircraft simulation, exceptional visual model, exceptional panel and systems simulation, exceptional sound set, easy to use configuration manager, exceptional flight dynamics and despite all its complexity, I found it to not be a big hit on frame rates."

Captain Sim Releases 757 For FSX

Posted: Monday, November 13, 2006 - 15:01
Captain Sim has released the Boeing 757 for Flight Simulator X. For more details visit the Captain Sim Webpage.

JustFlight Releases Tiger Moth

Posted: Monday, November 13, 2006 - 14:59
This package includes three different Tiger Moths; RAF and RAAF trainers, civilian aircraft and the glass-canopied D.H.82C from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. Different variants of these types provide the armchair aviator with a choice of eight different aircraft. Features include: aircraft models are near-exact replicas of their real counterparts and have been authenticated by the de Havilland Moth Club and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, individual aircraft specifications such as autoslats, engine cowls or lights have been modeled, special night lighting effects in Flight Simulator X, highly accurate flight modeling replicates the correct airframe performance, stall moments and flying behaviour, the aircraft feature full virtual front and rear cockpits, opening access doors, functioning rear luggage hatch, animated engines behind animated cowling panels, animated blind flying hood, working ‘windy’ airspeed indicator, animated control wires, pilot figures and more. Comes with a paint kit for the D.H.82A so that users can repaint their own aircraft using a suitable graphics program.

For more information, visit the Just Flight Tiger Moth Page.

FSG Terrain Mesh For FSX

Posted: Saturday, November 11, 2006 - 22:41
FSGenesis is pleased to announce that the FSX world is now covered with SG terrain mesh! We recently released the very popular North America Terrain Mesh for FSX and now we have made available the highly-anticipated World Terrain Mesh for FSX. All together, there are more than 12 Gb of high-resolution terrain mesh specifically-designed for FSX now available for immediate download from the FSGenesis Store. Optional DVDs with free shipping worldwide are also available for a nominal extra charge. Of course, the default FSX terrain mesh has improved some from previous versions with the use of SRTM source data outside of the US. Europe, Japan, Australia and a small portion of the Himalayas are now covered in 76m (LOD9) default terrain. However, the FSG World Terrain Mesh for FSX improves on these areas by using Jonathan de Ferranti's more-accurate enhanced SRTM coverage to fill in the voids in SRTM coverage with real data rather than just interpolation--AND extends the 76m coverage to include Africa, South America, and a significant portion of Asia, where the default FSX terrain remains 612m resolution. And to top it all off, the European Alps are rendered in 19m, resulting in some spectacular sight-seeing. FSGenesis North America Terrain Mesh for FSX continues to one of our most popular products ever and has already become a standard "must-have" addon for simmers around the world. The new World Terrain Mesh for FSX is the perfect companion product, soon to share the "must-have" designation. For more information, visit FSGenesis.

Georender Releases Grand Teton Scenery

Posted: Saturday, November 11, 2006 - 20:39
Grand Teton is a famous and majestic mountain range south of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. This Georender photoscenery for FS9 (FSX compatible) extends far beyond the boundaries of the N.P. and is designed to blend in with the previous Yellowstone scenery. The area includes the town of Jackson, The National Elk Refuge, considerable areas of the Washakte Wilderness, Teton National Forest and Gros Ventre Range as well as big parts of the Targhee Range. Please visit Georender for screenshots and ordering information.

Stearman Model 4 from Golden Age Simulations

Posted: Saturday, November 11, 2006 - 19:31
Senior staff reviewer Gene Davis takes us back to a unique era in flying with his look at Golden Age Simulations' Stearman Model 4. "The included aircraft are the Junior Speedmail 4D, the Junior Speedmail 4E-SC1 and the Senior Speedmail, all developed in highly detailed aircraft models."

"Each aircraft is magnificently detailed and relatively easy on system performance. Walking around the different planes you will find a multitude of compartments, the traditional slew of moving parts and an animated pilot with flapping scarf. Flying the Model 4’s is a trip, with the included sound file from Aaron Swindle that brings the 300hp and 450hp engines to life in this add-on simply needs to be heard to experience it. Starting the plane on a cold morning and turning her out onto the airstrip will take you back in time as you throttle the engines forward and the Stearman Model 4 takes to the skies. It is only fitting that the aircraft package come with a scenery set that can serve your virtual airmail plane. Transported back in time you will find yourself at Durango Airmail Services in Colorado; be sure to check out the other Speedmail planes parked there as well as the vintage cars and buildings."

Read about Gene's recreation of a mail run and his description of how it must have been to fly these routes. He summarizes this review of the Stearman Model 4 with, "I immediately found a home for this package. If you have a love for this golden age of flight, then it is a must have. You really need to take a look at this one."