Galway Airport Update

Posted: Monday, February 15, 2010 - 18:24
Galway airport from Roussillon Aero Simulation has been updated, taxiways, parking and buildings at EICM on the west coast of Ireland have been revised and are available as Freeware from Roussillon Aero Simulation.

New MyCockpit Podcasts

Posted: Monday, February 15, 2010 - 18:15
Mycockpit.org, the worlds largest community for home cockpit builders is proud to announce two new Podcasts in association with FSBreak, "Tips And Discussions" 2nd Edition and "Builder Of The Month" for February 2010 can be found at Mycockpit.org.

New Review - Real Environment Xtreme 2004

Posted: Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 20:46
Staff reviewer Philip Wilson changes his Flight Sim world with Real Environment Xtreme for FS2004. As mentioned in the manual, "REX is a full weather environment creation, display, and manipulation program which includes a robust selection of beautiful user or automatically selectable sky, cloud themes and other environment textures, real world and custom weather generators, and real time weather reporting & updating."

"There are currently no other environmental products on the market which even come close to the level of quality and professionalism REX brings to FS2004. For many, FS9 is their only flight simulation option due to the steep system requirements for FSX."

"If you fall into that category, I highly recommend this Gold Star product as it will give you breathtaking and realistic environmental textures, exceeding even the stock FSX textures in beauty and realism."

FSD International Cirrus Vision Service Release

Posted: Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 15:03
FlightSim Developers International have prepared a Service Pack for their latest release the Cirrus Vision “Personal Jet” . The SP revises elements in the custom Garmin G1000 and full Windows 7 64 bit support for avionics systems .
Current owners are invited to briefly hanger their “VLJ" and download the 2.5 MB SP for install into the aircrafts Avionics Systems , the full installer is also updated to current specification and is available from the FlightSim Developers International Homepage .

SkyUnlimited Productions Texans Volume 2

Posted: Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 20:57
SkyUnlimited is proud to announce the release of the Texans Volume 2 Flight Experience Pack, an entire flight experience including new aircraft, vehicles, and artillery.

Players can practice landing on the carrier USS Monterey in the SNJ-4C or take a Jeep for a drive around their favorite airbase, in addition, a controllable 105mm Howitzer is included with animated gunners and the ability to fire, players can also fire smoke rockets from the LT-6G or control the USS Monterey in multiplayer for their friends to land on.

An AI version of the Monterey is also included for single player landings. Also included are some locator files that can be used to make movies with FS-Recorder. All Extras have virtual cockpits and animations. The Carrier even has an LSO that can be controlled.

For complete details visit SkyUnlimited .

Luxembourg Airports from Aerosoft

Posted: Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 18:50
Staff reviewer Benjamin van Soldt stays home in Europe to explore Aerosoft's Luxembourg Airports. "Luxembourg Airports: a remake of Luxembourg for FSX. It’s the biggest region Aerosoft has set out to replicate (biggest landmass, anyway), and it includes all (three) airports, a lot of landmarks, mesh, and around the airports some nice photoreal ground textures."

"Findel international Airport, which I’ll call by its IATA code hereafter: ELLX (Same goes for the other two, smaller airports). This is not a big airport, and it’s probably one of the smaller international airports in the world. What it does have, is a huge cargo center. The modeling of the cargo centers is good. The textures are very sharp, even from close up, and there is quite a lot of detail. Even if the buildings themselves are not extremely detailed, there is a slew of tiny objects in the form of trucks, cars, baggage loaders, you name it. There is a lot to see, and it is all nicely modeled and textured."

"Luxemburg Airports also contains two more, very small airports. They might not be good enough to land a Boeing 737 at (these are grass strip, VFR airfields), but they have a lot of atmosphere. ELNT: It is a tiny, but it is very charming. It is nothing more than a grass strip, but look how airport buildings are built along the road. Even the aircraft are simply parked along the road. I think it looks great."

"In Luxembourg Airports, not only are the airports modeled, but also some landmarks and landclass and mesh add-ons have been included. So, flying over Luxembourg City we come across some nice spots. The night textures are very good, and I enjoyed looking at them."

"Think carefully about what Luxembourg Airports is. It is a (sort of) “mega airport release” (namely, ELLX), combined with an extra add-on that includes Luxembourg landmarks for people who like to fly VFR. So, essentially, this product gives both heavy metal guys and VFR guys a nice environment to fly in."

ScotflightFSX Version 2.1

Posted: Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 14:48
ScotflightFSX Version 2.1 is now available for customers old and new. ScotflightFSx includes over 50 enhanced airfields all over Scotland, together with many well known landmarks, a replacement coastline, detailed roads and localised Landclass. This latest version adds a significant number of extra features, including replacement ferry traffic, to the Western Isles area of Scotland. An optional version is available which will give full compatibility for customers using the photographic scenery product from Horizon Simulations covering Scotland's Western Isles. A free update for this new version is available to our existing customers. Full details of our new version can be found at Scotflight Scenery. Check out the Interactive Map for locations and screenshots of the many airfields and features.

CLS 767 Flight Tutorial

Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010 - 19:31
Commercial Level Simulations have just released a free Flight Tutorial for use with their Boeing 767, the flight tutorial can be downloaded from the CLS Homepage .

Captain Sim Updates

Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010 - 14:44
Captain Sim announces a repaint kit for their B-52 Buff is now available. They have also released a Free demo version of their 767 Captain.

Just Flight Updates

Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010 - 14:41
Major Air Hauler Update - users of Air Hauler are in for a real treat. Updates and support from the Developer have been crucial to the success of Air Hauler and today they offer a real treat to all owners of this ground-breaking product. They have released a major new update.

Two excellent new features (that were earmarked for the sequel) are included in this latest Service Pack, which they recommend all users instantly install. There's now a chatroom on the Radar Screen page which will let you keep in touch with all the other AirHaulics flying throughout the world. Also included in this new Service Pack is Twitter integration - if you're subscribed to Twitter, you can now receive tweets from the AI pilots working for you! The update contains more! Improvements have been made to the Radar display altitude and speeds, the job generation system, fuel loading, map printing and the way your AI pilots are displayed on maps.

767-200/300 Expansion Pack released - Today also sees the release of an Expansion Pack for the recently released 767-200/300 Series F-Lite expansion. This excellent additional pack adds extra content to 767-200/300 Series, providing cargo, tanker, AWACS and winglet versions in a variety of liveries. There's one pack for FSX and one for FSX to keep things simple.

DBS Airport GPS Updated To v1.3

Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010 - 14:33
DBS Airport GPS - is the new way to navigate while taxiing in airport! Now, driving in any airport is like to drive your car on the streets with your favorite Car GPS! Run GPS and follow by route from gate to runway. Touchdown and taxiing by GPS route to any parking!

DBS Airport GPS shows top-down view of the airport map. Map could be dragged by mouse and zoomed by mouse wheel. A route path is calculated from current aircraft position to runway, parking, gate, helipad. Details about the product and all the updated features in v1.3 can be found on the DBS website.

Airline History Museum Tri Star Rescue

Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010 - 2:35
The Airline History Museum in Kansas City Missouri has obtained one of the last three operational L-1011s from the 250 (pronounced "ell-ten-eleven") built by Lockheed Between 1968 and 1984 for the museum's permanent collection to preserve this distinctive part of our aviation heritage.

There is now a fundraising drive headed by several individuals "outside" of the AHM to save the L-1011 engines, there is a very limited window of opportunity to accomplish this, the AHM been made aware as of Thursday, February 11th that to save the engines the funds need to be raised by Monday morning, February 15th, or it is doubtful that they will be able to keep them.

Estimates for the repairs are in the range of $41,000 , additional or unused funds will go the educational program, there is a very limited amount of time to raise the money , Avsim will do what we can to help it happen , join us in the effort by visiting the Airline History Museum website and providing them the opportunity to preserve the Tri Star intact and operational .

San Andres & Providencia from Latin VFR

Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010 - 1:45
Staff reviewer Philip Wilson Hewads to South America to visit Latin VFR's San Andres and Providencia airports. "Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport, also known as Sesquicentenario International Airport, is an international airport located on the San Andrés Island, Colombia. The airport serves the cities of San Andrés and San Luis, but also commercially serves the nearby island of Providencia; all being major vacation spots for South and Central American tourists."

"The runway and taxiway textures are wonderful. The use of photo textures for the surrounding areas, although better than some of their other products, still leave a lot to be desired. The building textures are a mix of great and not so great. Several other LatinVFR titles have superb night lighting and this one falls somewhere below their other work. I feel it could have been better, but it’s not as bad as other products I’ve tested."

"In addition to Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport (SKSP), you also have Providencia airport. The jewel here is the ramp textures at the terminal and the sign describing the airport."

Electronic Flight Bag from Aivlasoft

Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 2:01
Staff reviewer Eduardo Ocampo modernizes his work environment by adding Aivlasoft's Electronic Flight Bag. "The flight bag is the aviation equivalent of a constructor’s tool box. Turns out the smart people at Aivlasoft noticed that there was not an add-on for MSFS that fulfilled the needs of the dedicated simmers that enjoy flying the virtual skies with all sorts of resources: detailed flight planners, airport and route charts, NOTAM’s, checklists, flight following tables, etc. The result? Aivlasoft’s Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), a software that provides everything you could possibly need to make your flights better planned and executed."

"To provide the information, this software is composed of two major pieces: The Data Provider and the Display Unit. The Data Provider is the core of the EFB since it acts as a CPU. It is linked to FSX and makes the connection between it and the Display Unit. Every command you make in the Display Unit is sent to the Data Provider which will “look” through FSX to respond to your initial command. The Display Unit is the user interface. From here you will work with the different functions the EFB has to offer and it’s both the starting and the ending point for every request you make to the EFB system."

Eduardo goes on to break down each section of these 2 components. He concludes his look at the Electronic Flight Bag with, "from head to toe, a flight planning tool! Definitely something every dedicated simmer should have in his/her arsenal of software. Despite all of its functions, the EFB is easy to use and has a simplistic approach; very user-friendly. The charts are definitely the strongest point of this software, although its other functions are equally powerful and useful. If you enjoy a planned flight in your sim with all the proper tools at hand, you will find this software tailor made for you."

Simcheck Airbus A300B4-200 Released

Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 1:09
Aerosoft has released the Simcheck Airbus A300B4-200 today as a download (box to follow). Not the most sexy of aircraft these days, the A300 is still the mainstay of many airlines.

It's sturdy, easy to maintain and not too expensive to operate. There was no good FSX version but Simcheck just filled that gap with a complex and demanding simulation of this aircraft. The feature list is long and impressive and shows a very complete product, with for example extensive objects shown on the ground. Special care has been taken to simulate the flight behavior that later became the characteristic of Airbus aircraft. Showing the focus on the systems there are 2D panels next to the fully functional virtual cockpit. Animations and sounds are as expected, very high end, to match the whole product.

Clearly Aerosoft aims for the high end simmer with this product but if you can stand the hours with the manual, this is one old bird that you will enjoy.

AirNav FS Live Traffic 3 for FSX.

Posted: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 0:43
AirNav Systems announces the release of AirNav FS Live Traffic 3, the new version of the award winning Microsoft Flight Simulator X addon. AirNav FS Live Traffic X allows any Flight Simulator enthusiast to fly in real-time with real world traffic inside Microsoft Flight Simulator - the new version adds the possibility of doing it Worldwide as traffic from US, Europe and other regions is now included.

FS Live Traffic 3 feeds Microsoft Flight Simulator traffic engine with data from our FAA Server Connection and Worldwide ADS-B network. This results in up to 8000 real flights flying with you, Live! Hundreds of airlines models and liveries included by default. The application is available in 3 editions: - For North American Users: US Edition - For European Users: Europe Edition and a Worldwide Edition. New users are encouraged to use coupon code ANFS25PCT when they purchase the product.

Flight Dreams Releases MetricFS

Posted: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - 16:34
Flight Dreams, announces the release of "metricFS v1.0.0". metricFS is a utility that you can use to observe and measure metrics from Microsoft’s Flight Simulator series and VATSIM network.

Some of the benefits of this utility include:

1. Monitor flight’s data.
2. Be a virtual tourist by observing real life pictures and info based on the aircraft’s route.
3. Organize events for VA or vACC by using the Benchmarks. (Air races, Landing competitions, VFR tours e.t.c).
4. assist in Pilot exams either as a VA or vACC.
5. Monitor and record traffic during events.
6. Monitor friends online.

For more information visit Flight Dreams Website.

New Sky Blue Radio Guests

Posted: Sunday, February 7, 2010 - 17:29
Sky Blue Radio is presenting a very special live Flight Simulator in Focus show on Saturday February 13th, 2010 at 2200z Join Jeff 'JT' Turner and special guests VATSIM Board of Governors, VP of Web Services, Mike Evans and Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Development Florian Harms as they explore the future of Flight Simulation and the place of VATSIM in the continuing development of Flight Simulation and aviation in general.

Listeners will also have a chance to put their questions and/or comments to either Mike or Florian via the Sky Blue Radio website. If you have a question you would like to send in now for the show then please email your question with your name and location to fsinfocus (at) skyblueradio (dot) com Tune in with Wee Tune Beastie in your cockpit com2 radio on 123.45, through the Sky Blue Radio website or through the Sky Blue Radio link in the Vroute software.

FS Global 2010 X from Pilot's

Posted: Saturday, February 6, 2010 - 21:52
Staff reviewer Etienne Martin transforms the world with Pilot's FS Global 2010 X. "FS Global 2010 X is a worldwide terrain mesh product for Flight Simulator 2004 / FSX. It adds 20 gigabytes of high resolution terrain elevation data to augment the fidelity of the virtual landscape features."

"Like its predecessor, FS Global 2010 adds detail to the visible (above water) landscape features such as mountain ranges, fjords, peaks, gorges and other geographical points of visual interest. The product includes coverage the entire world (based on available data) in one package."

"During flight, I noticed my hard disk was getting a workout, especially as I was flying low with a fast aircraft – a visual experience that simply cannot be passed up with this product. Of course, that always gives the hard drive a workout, FSG or not. I didn’t see any difference in FPS between FSX scenery only and FSG 2010 only. All I can say is that FSG was transparent to the FPS on my test system and didn’t register the type of FPS hit I see with certain aircraft or scenery add-ons."

"FS Global 2010 X is an improvement over its predecessor in many areas. Using recently improved data sources means more areas of coverage worldwide, most notably at latitudes nearing the poles were good data sources were unavailable before, or areas where improve source data is now available. A clear benefit of FSG 2010 is its all inclusive nature. No purchase of separate continents or area necessary, you get it all. I find it a solid and complete product, and FS Global brings the flight simulator experience ever closer to the real thing."

FS2Crew for Maddog 2008

Posted: Saturday, February 6, 2010 - 14:02
FS2Crew for the Leonardo Maddog 2008 is now available, the Maddog version of FS2Crew is a realistic airline crew simulation that uses voice control and is probably one of the most technically accurate FS2Crew's we've ever done.

Bryan York of FS2Crew writes: We have a real-world Maddog FO on staff, and he was very active during the development to ensure all the nuances of the Maddog were captured from the perspective of multi-crew flying in a SOP driven environment. In addition to offering a large international voice set for the First Officer position -US, UK, Finnish, German, Dutch, Irish, Spanish and French- we also have the very first female First Officer voice in an FS2Crew product. She's French. Moreover, two of our voice artists (Finnish and United States) are real-world Maddog pilots.

All Leonardo Maddog pilot are cleared via direct to FS2Crew's Homepage .