Happy Holidays to All

Posted: Sunday, December 24, 2006 - 15:55
The AVSIM staff would like to wish all of our readers, friends and advertisers, happy holidays! Each year, we look back and are amazed at the growth of the AVSIM community. Over the last ten years we have made countless friends around the world and truly appreciate your continued patronage of AVSIM. To all simmers around the world, may your new year be full of peace and prosperity. Please do have a happy holiday!

Free Upgrade For Condor Soaring

Posted: Sunday, December 24, 2006 - 2:26
Patch 10 for Condor The Competition Soaring Simulator is now available as a free upgrade. The main new features are : a more realistic winch launch that works also in multiplayer, a new Zlin 226 tow plane, an improved dual core processors compatibility, a tweaked flight model for better stall feedback, a new flutter model, an option to print flight plan, a support for 3rd party instrument using UDP outpout and motion platforms, and much more.

You can download Patch 10 at the Condor Soaring website.

A Free Gift From A Fan

Posted: Sunday, December 24, 2006 - 2:19
AVSIM reader and sim fan Bruce Blaney asked if AVSIM would be interested in posting a "freebie" for other simmers to use. I said "Pass it along and we'll see if it might be of use to our other readers." It turned out to be his own personal "Pilot's Operating Handbook". I was in awe that Bruce would offer up this nice piece of work for our readers to use, and I hope that you will enjoy Bruce's "gift" to us all. Bruce says, "feel free to edit it to your own personal liking" and I ask that if you pass this on to another simmer who is not an AVSIM reader, please give Bruce credit where credit is due.

Bruce introduces his POH with, "I have been working on this project for over 2 years now. The original version started with just 4 pages, and as I came across the great information available around the internet and in books, I started arranging it in a more cohesive fashion, and in an order that made sense while flying… now it's many pages! Hopefully, now, instead of trying to remember where you saw something pertaining to a particular phase of flight such as a Rule of Thumb for Descent, it will now be in the appropriate section of the Personal POH, or you can plug a new one in where you think it belongs. Please feel free to change it in any way."

Skydecks 737NG Panel Reviewed

Posted: Sunday, December 24, 2006 - 1:42
New staff reviewer David Rogers kicks off his first review with Skydecks 737NG Panel. "According to the Sky-Decks team, you get a high quality 737NG Panel with all new gauges for the most realistic flight simulation experience. Sky-Deck also provides within the download, a freeware 737 aircraft already configured and set-up to use this Panel."

"We are clearly dealing with a fine looking panel. Clicking the appropriate sim icon brings up the overhead panel. And what an overhead this is! The rest of the sub panels are similarly accessed from the sim icons and reveal equally pleasant renditions of their counterparts from the real plane. An initial look around the main panel, and especially the MCP (Mode Control Panel), reveals my first area of disappointment in the Sky-Decks Panel - the functionality and realism of the overhead panel is not extended to the MCP, Autopilot, or FMA (flight mode annunciations), shown on the Primary Flying Display."

"An area of realism that does mirror the actual NG aircraft is the fact that you can choose to fly with Boeing’s Full or Compact layouts for the Primary Flying and Navigation Displays. On loading an aircraft that uses the panel, you are presented with a pop-up option box where the selection is made." David summarizes this add-on with, "The Sky-Decks 737NG Panel gives the virtual flyer a stunning looking panel to fly from, along with some nice touches such as an announcement panel and highly functional overhead. Main panel functionality is not on par with the most advanced complex simulations but as an upgrade from the default FS2004 airliner panels, or for use with freeware models, this add-on packs a punch and represents good value for money."

Aerosoft's AES Expands

Posted: Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 16:20
Aerosoft announces more airports, some for free, for their Airport Enhancement Services. These airports are added:

Simwings: LEPA (Palma de Mallorca), LEBL (Barcelona, LEMH (Mahon), LEIB (Ibiza)

German Airports : EDDS (Stuttgart), EDDH (Hamburg), EDDW (Bremen),EDDL (Dusseldorf), EDLH (Moenchengladbach)

FlyTampa : LOWW (Vienna)

Visit Aerosoft's product page for more information.

MS to Ship FS Deluxe Next Week

Posted: Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 14:33
Shawn Firminger, Aces Studio Manager for Microsoft, has informed us that the FSX Deluxe copies intended for the AVSIM Conference attendees will be shipped and should arrive at AVSIM's fulfillment center next week. If that happens as planned, AVSIM will in turn ship out those units to qualifying participants of the Convention starting on January 2nd. You can read more about this here along with an update from Brett Schnepf, FSX Community Manager.

CaptainSim Releases Space Shuttle

Posted: Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 8:47
CaptainSim has released their Space Shuttle. What you will find in this release is all the OV-series Orbiters. It features amongst other things a high resolution 2D commander panel, VC, hud, 33 custom modeled animations and a payload bay. For more information please visit the CaptainSim website.

RealAirSimulations Releases SF260 For FSX

Posted: Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 8:41
RealAir Simulations has just released the Marchetti SF260 for FSX. This model includes both full and upgrade versions. The release sports a complete -from the ground up- re-design of the graphics, gauges, panels, flight model, sounds and effects to enable the SF260 to take advantage of all of FSX's new features. This includes stereo sound effects, true 3d gauges an improved spin and side slip, highly detailed bump mapped wings and multiple panel views amongst other things. For more information please visit the RealAirSimulations homepage.

CLS Releases FSX Patch For A340

Posted: Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 8:36
Commercial Level Simulations has released the FSX patch for the A340-500/600. The patch is free for current customers and is available via the Commercial Level Simulations homepage.

New Wilco/FeelThere Releases

Posted: Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 4:25
Wilco Publishing and FeelThere.com announce their latest releases. The 777, ‘The Modern Airliner Collection’ featuring the world’s largest twinjet and the LEGACY ‘The Luxurious Aircraft Collection’ featuring Embraer’s first class business jet.

Both of these packages are available for FS-X on CD and they include an FS2004 compatible version. For complete details visit the Wilco Publishing Website.

Review Editor's Home Airfield Updated

Posted: Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 3:59
Right after Don Grovestine has released his new CYYJ (2007) (available in the library here) Jon Patch and Holger Sandmann have released a new version of the popular Victoria, Canada scenery, filename vicenh06.zip.

In addition to the shorelines, terrain, landclass, busy AI (boat, heli, ship, etc.), mesh and detailed Ogden Point scenery of the previous version, this newest version, entitled Victoria+, adds an automated installer configurator by Ken Peters, detailed models of famous landmarks, 7 new small airfields with sloping runways, 7 new heliports, and 7 new floatplane bases, and a myriad of fixes and improvements. This piece of freeware is Ultimate Terrain compatible.

Historic Jetliners Group, Updates

Posted: Friday, December 22, 2006 - 16:05
The Historic Jetliners Group has completed a few updates on their site. Mark Cranston writes, "Finally completed this month is the long and progressive transition of all remaining HJG B707-320, -320B, -320C, & -420 repaints from the old Version 5 to Gary CARLSON's new "VERSION 6" B707 models."

HJG's virtual flight line of military C-135's have also been expanded with the release of new P&W fanjet powered C-135C & N models, along with new NKC-135 & RC-135 models in both P&W fanjet and CFM turbofan form .... all faithfully reproduced with appropriate bumps, bulges, and other electronic protrusions/distortions .... represented in a variety of USAF service liveries. A number of new B707/B720 & DC8 repaints representing some beautiful classic airliner subjects from Caribbean, European, Middle Eastern, and North & South American regions have also been released. With much more to talk about, check out the HJG Website.

Abacus Releases Easy GPS For FSX

Posted: Friday, December 22, 2006 - 15:58
Abacus Has released an update for its EZ-GPS Software. Now compatible with Flight Simulator-X, features include: requires only a small footprint in your cockpit view, installs instantly to use with any aircraft - either FSX or FS2004, links to Autopilot to control heading and/or altitude, fly Direct to any airport, waypoint, VOR, etc, fly to any Nearest airport, fly any FSX or FS2004 flight plan, display flight plan and waypoint information. For more information and a free demo, visit the Abacus EX-GPS site.

WidevieW-X Available

Posted: Friday, December 22, 2006 - 15:50
WidevieW X v.1.5 for FSX is available. WidevieW can be used to create cockpits with panoramic scenery view, through multiple monitors on networked computers. There is no limit on how many PCs can be linked together, and each of them can be configured to show scenery, maps or Spot Plane & Tower view. View angles can be easily customized, to get perfectly matching images between the monitors. Version 1.5 has dynamic view reorientation on the clients when the view angle changes on server, improved spot plane support on clients and other minor improvements. For more details, please visit The Wideview Site.

TweakFS Releases Free Registry Utility For FSX

Posted: Friday, December 22, 2006 - 15:31
TweakFS has just released a new FSX version of its popular Registry repair tool. Many FS add-ons and their installers rely on knowing the path to the FSX installation folder as reported in the Windows Registry. The FSX Registry entry can be deleted or invalidated for various reasons which in some cases may prevent an add-on from installing or working correctly. For folks not comfortable editing the Registry directly, the FSX Registry Utility avoids the need to reinstall FSX and allows you to analyze and easily restore the FSX folder path in the Registry. Developers may also find it handy for testing purposes. To download a copy please see the Freeware Tools section at TweakFS

Cloud 9 Working Hard Before The Holidays

Posted: Friday, December 22, 2006 - 15:14
In a news release received early this morning Cloud 9 announces that they have updated their Xclass for Canada and have continued their global landclass coverage to also include Central and South America. Also released today is their third livery pack for the F-4 Phantom aircraft for FS9. Head on over to Cloud 9 for your update and purchase information.

Shockwave Releases P-51D Mustang

Posted: Thursday, December 21, 2006 - 5:49
Shockwave announces their latest "solo" release, the P-51D Mustang. Shockwave reports, "The Wings of Power P-51D Mustang was created with a process called "Absolute Realism". The flight model was very carefully researched. We interviewed many pilots who flew the P-51D, two of them double aces. We took our own orientation flights in existing P-51D aircraft to get a true feel for how these marvelous aircraft sound and fly in real life. And we used the actual pilot's training manual and technical orders to ensure our procedures and performance matched the real thing as closely as possible."

A complete, in depth and detailed report on this latest release is available at the Shockwave website.

Warsaw Photo Scenery Update

Posted: Thursday, December 21, 2006 - 5:38
Simdesign has released AutogenPack for their recently produced Warsaw Photo Scenery. This first release upgrades all vegetation (tree) areas within the base scenery of Warsaw, Poland.

The AutogenPack is available for free download at the Simdesign website.

Flight1 Teams With Konstantin Kukushkin

Posted: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 - 13:26
Flight1 has announced that Konstantin Kukushkin has joined the Flight1 1 team. Konstantin is the author of numerous well-known flight simulator add-ons and has also worked behind the scenes for several publishers for many years. He will be developing a series of innovative products for Flight1. His newest product is FSDiscover!, a sightseeing guide, a navigation tool and a simple flight planner for FSX and FS2004, available from the Flight1 website. He will also be working on a product called "Instant Scenery", "Instant Scenery" is a tool for adding 3D objects to Flight Simulator scenery and is expected to become available in early 2007.

My Traffic X lands in Avsim Store

Posted: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 15:41
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