Historic Jetliners Group Update

Posted: Saturday, September 1, 2007 - 18:31
Presenting one of the largest updates by the Historic Jetliners Group (HJG). Rich in authentic classic jetliner nostalgia for FS this HJG website update comprises of a great selection of new textures covering the following world geographic regions and aircraft types :- Asia is represented by an extremly rare B707-120 from Thailand. The African states feature strongly with B707-320C's from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, along with B707-320B and B707-420 aircraft from Mauritius. South America is equally well represented with B707-320C, B720-B, and rare DC8-50F aircraft from Colombia, a spectacularly liveried Chillean B707-320B, a very rare B707-420 featuring the 1960 delivery scheme of a major Brazillian airline, and a selection of other interesting Brazillian B707-320C's of 1980's vintage. A B707-320C freighter and a rare short tail B707-420 aircraft operated by a major German carrier, along with an even more rare B707-420 operated by a lesser known tourist/charter company make up HJG's European selection within this update. North America is well represented by release of the first of a beautiful selection of period liveries featuring B707-320B, B707-320C, and B720-B aircraft operated by a major Mid West based US airline, some rare early model B707-320B's which flew for a major classic US international operator, and release of the first of a small selection of superb "FOTOREAL" natural metal textures for B707/720 aircraft operated a major US trancontinental carrier.

Among more unusual items featured within this update is the CV880 which became a private VIP transport for entertainer Elvis PRESLEY, released in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of "THE KING's" passing. All of HJG's civil B707/720 and military B707/C135 Aircraft Base Packs have been updated. HJG is also pleased to announce release of its updated B707 TYPE panels and gauges. All of these files have been further enhanced with 5 new panels (featuring a more modern 1970 era configuration) added .... for a total of some 16 individual/different B707 TYPE panels. HJG have released a brand new military E3-D SENTRY model (CFM56 turbofan powered version) supported by both panel, sounds, and a selection of high quality comemorative RAF liveries. All this and much more is now available for "FREE" download.

'Junkers 'W' Fleet Collection'

Posted: Friday, August 31, 2007 - 19:31
New from the design studios of Lionheart Creations Ltd. is the 'Junkers 'W' Fleet Collection'. This is a high detail, comprehensive package based on the world renowned Junkers W-33 and W-34. Back in the late 1920's, these planes began to fill the skies of the world, setting new records in aviation and impressing the world with their reliability and durability. Being able to handle the extreme elements of both severe heat and extreme cold climate regions due to its 'Dura-Luminum' corrugated metal allow skins, these aircraft were soon seen all over Europe and the world, from Berlin to London, from Moscow to Stockholm, from Paris to Iran, and even the jungles of South America, and the vast territories of Canada.

This package comes with 17 model platforms, a large amount of various high resolution texture packs that yield 39 different, selectable model variations, 2 totally different instrument panels, a huge amount of various animations such as vent windows, appearing parts, appearing cargo, animated passengers, and many other neat features. The soundpacks that come with this package are extremely realistic and will truly enhance the flight experience. For more information and screenshots, please go to The Lionheart Creations website.

Reader Choice Awards

Posted: Friday, August 31, 2007 - 18:41
AVSIM is pleased to announce that we have opened up the nomination process for this year's Reader Choice Awards. The Reader Choice Awards are given to those freeware and commercial products and add-ons nominated for and voted on by the flight simulation community. Awards are given in a variety of categories, and the process starts with the sim community nominating those products or add-ons that will be voted on in prior to the FANCON in Seattle this year. Those who win the Reader Choice Award are presented a trophy at the event. But in order for a product to be voted on, it first needs to be nominated by you! If you would like to submit a nomination for this year's RCA, please post your nomination here. Please read the rules carefully before you submit your nomination!

AIRAC 0709 Now At Navigraph

Posted: Friday, August 31, 2007 - 17:57
AIRAC Cycle 0709 is now available in the FMS Data section of the Navigraph website. Each cycle costs subscribers 20 credits, independent on the number of addons/downloads you make during that cycle. According to Navigraph, the Project Magenta downloads are currently missing due to a compatibility issue and they will be uploaded as soon as it is resolved.

For more information, fly direct to the Navigraph website.

AlphaSim's Heinkel He-111 Released

Posted: Friday, August 31, 2007 - 17:44
The iconic Luftwaffe bomber has arrived at AlphaSim. The three models demonstrate some common payload setups with droppable bombs and torpedos, the four texture sets are magnificent artwork in their own right, depicting two green camo variants as well as a North Africa scheme and a beautifully-weathered Russian Campaign Winter scheme. The modelling continues on the inside with a captivating VC, complete with an amazing array of mousable levers and accurate period gauges. As usual, a full-FSX standard model is the best way to see this creation, all features (bumps, shads & blooms) are there. Custom effects provide lots of startup smoke (and VC rain & exhaust trails in FS9) and the custom-made Petersen soundset add the final touch. Flight dynamics are accurate, so expect realistic behaviour in all regimes. All in all, a 'Premier Range' model which belongs in the collection of any serious MSFS WW2 fan. For FSX and FS2004 only. Complete details and screenshots are available at the AlphaSim website.

Overland Finalizes Japanese Airports

Posted: Friday, August 31, 2007 - 16:33
Overland has released the final version in its Minna No Kukou Boxed Series for FS2002 and FS2004.

Minna No Kukou 4, the final volume in the series features newly built airports, Chubu International (RJGG) and Kobe (RJBE), which were omitted from FS2002 and FS2004. Other airports included in this package are New Chitose (RJCC), Sapporo (RJCO), Kushiro (RJCK), Obihiro (RJCB), Toyama (RJNT), Okayama (RJOB), Tokushima (RJOS), and Saga (RJFS).

According to Overland, this Gmax scenery package contains detailed airports with approximately four square miles of photo realistic ground textures around each field. The "All Japanese Airports Series" contains the PDF version of the Aeronautical Information Publication Japan (AIP Japan), instrument approach charts, visual landing charts, and standard instrument departure charts.

For more information and screenshots of this product, "follow me" to the Overland product page.

Scotland From Scotflight

Posted: Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 16:31
Scotflight announces Scotflight for FSX: Highlands & Islands. An all-new scenery for Scotland featuring 27 detailed airports and airfields and a host of other features to bring the landscape in this remote and beautiful part of the world to life.

The scenery also includes a new, more detailed coastline for the whole of Scotland. The 27 airports/airfields featured are: Unst, Scatsta, Lerwick, Sumburgh, Fair Isle, Kirkwall, Flotta, Wick, Dornoch, Dingwall/Knockbain Farm, Inverness, Insch/Garioch Aero Club, Aboyne/Deeside Flying Club, Feshiebridge/Cairngorm Gliding Club, Strathallan, Plockton, Oban/North Connel, Glenforsa/Isle of Mull, Broadford/Isle of Skye, Stornoway, Benbecula, Barra, Isle of Coll, Colonsay, Tiree, Islay, Jura, and St Kilda (heliport).

Other features include oil terminals, castles, bridges, towns, ferry ports, marinas, mountain railway, moving road traffic, ships, ferries, boats and yachts, sea routes, lochs, canals, extensive sandy beaches and much more.

Scotflight for FSX - Highlands & Islands is available now via download and can be ordered securely online from Visual Flight.

Maddog Gets A Checklist Manager

Posted: Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 16:27
The SEA Development Group are proud to announce to their customers that the CheckList Manager for the MADDOG 2006 is now available. All customers can download it, free of charge, from the SEA website.

Navigraph News, Server Issues

Posted: Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 14:20
In a newsletter provided by Navigraph, they have reported some issues with their support server. Navigraph writes, "We have had some problems with a malfunctioning spam filter in our e-mail support system. If you have sent an e-mail to support{at}navigraph.com more than a week ago, AND you have not yet received an automatic response containing a ticket ID number, please resend the e-mail as the problem should now be resolved."

Navigraph has also released their AIRAC 0709 cycle, which is available now at the Navigraph site.

AlphaSim Goes Luftwaffe

Posted: Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 14:14
AlphaSim is proud to announce the release of their Heinkel He111. Three models demonstrate some common payload setups with droppable bombs and torpedos. Four texture sets are also included, depicting two green camo variants as well as a North Africa scheme and a weathered Russian Campaign Winter scheme. The modeling continues on the inside with a virtual cockpit included, complete with an array of mousable levers and accurate period gauges.

A full-FSX standard model is the best way to see this creation, all features (bumps, shads & blooms) are there. Custom effects provide lots of startup smoke (and v-c rain & exhaust trails in FS9) and the custom-made Petersen sound set add the final touch. Screenshots can be viewed on the AlphaSim News page.

Flight1 Releases Free FSX Repaint Manager

Posted: Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 1:26
Flight One Software has officially released its FSX Repaint Manager. This free tool will allow you to easily package and install almost any repaint for FSX. If you are a repainter, simply use this tool to distribute your repaint. If you are an end user, you simply use this tool to install the repaint. It is designed to work with almost any aircraft.

It is best to think of this tool as a packager and unpackager that either retrieves or makes all necessary changes to your aircraft configurations (aircraft.cfg files), as well as package and unpackage all the required textures and files (BMP or DDS files for example). This makes distribution of repaints very easy, and it makes the installation of new repaints a simple 2 or 3 click process. This tool is available in Flight1's Free File Library.

Relief For Vista Users?

Posted: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 13:56
Relief may be on the way for Microsoft Flight Simulator users running under Vista, who have been hitting OOM (Out Of Memory) problems. There is now a Microsoft fix which, it is claimed, will relieve the pressure on virtual memory that has led to OOM's.

Phil Taylor, our representative-in-residence from Microsoft, has highlighted this fix in his Blog and his advice to Vista users is "Run, don't walk to this download"!

Wx500 Weather Radar for FSX

Posted: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 1:58
Reality XP announces the release of the Award Winning Wx500 Weather Radar for FSX. "With today's announcement of latest FSX product, we are officially ushering in a new era in true next-generation simulation" said Jean-Luc Dupiot "The award winning Wx500 Weather Radar features powerful technologies and capabilities that have never been brought together in our products before”.

The Wx500 for FSX features an entirely new graphic engine for Flight Simulator with ultra high-res images in 32 bits next-gen graphics and enhanced radar simulation engine. Completely rewritten from scratch with the latest Reality XP C++ Gauge SDK, developed for the Airliner XP Airbus, it offers sharper, better, life-like visuals which are simply not possible to achieve with the default Flight Simulator SDK! Now compatible with both Win XP and Vista, the new Wx500 for FSX can be found at the Reality XP website.

2nd Update From SceneryTech Released

Posted: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 1:48
SceneryTech has released the second update to their North America Landclass scenery, bringing it to v1.2. This update includes the revamped urban extents algorithm that was first featured in the previously released Europe Landclass, and fixes virtually every reported issue since the product's launch. More information can be found at the SceneryTech website.

feelThere Goes Real World

Posted: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - 2:42
The Belgian Defense Force's 15th Wing Air Transport now uses the feelThere ERJ Pilot In Command for teaching their pilots flight deck preparations. This airplane is available for download at the feelThere website and on CD at the Wilco Publishing website.

Comet Spotted On The Horizon

Posted: Monday, August 27, 2007 - 21:03
No, it's not Haley's, but close! David Maltby has released an updated version of the De Havilland DH106 Comet 4. This classic jet airliner now has a fully functional Virtual Cockpit and improved flight dynamics. Visit DM Flight Sim for more information & downloads.

Calling All News Writers!

Posted: Monday, August 27, 2007 - 1:37
Attention aspiring writers! AVSIM wants you! AVSIM.com online is looking for a few good people to write our news! Ever wanted the chance to give back to your flight sim brothers and sisters? Now is your chance!

We'd like to see what you can do! Find a news-worthy flight simulation story. Format it and write it the way you think it should be written and send it in! Along with your story tell us a little bit about yourself and why you think you'd be a good person for the job.

Send all applications to jbinner@avsim.com and we will get back to you if we select you for the spot! Who knows, you might even see your name listed on the front page along with our other staff members! Good Luck!

Wilco/Feelthere Airbus Forum "Locked"

Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 22:15
In a move which is bound to be seen as controversial, the support forum for customers of the Wilco/Feelthere Airbus has been "locked". This means that while support staff will still be able to broadcast messages to customers, customers will no longer be able to post messages for them, or to share information with each other. Customers encountering problems are being asked instead to fill out a 24-item electronic form.

As support staff explained in a message on the forum, "As we have announced it already we will lock the support forum for the Airbuses on this weekend. We will still support the product and will deal with the outstanding issues however we are kindly asking you to use the form at http://www.wilcopub.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=support_form to send us your questions or comments."

MAAM's DC-3/C-47 Revisited

Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 21:47
Contributing reviewer Chris Kiehl goes back and revisits the latest version of MAAM's DC-3/C-47. "One of the most recognizable aircraft in Aviation history, has to be the Douglas DC-3. Even people who are not into Aviation seem to recognize it, or at least remember having seen this venerable and historic aircraft at some point."

"The external model of the MAAM DC-3 looks good from nearly all distances, and all angles. I particularly like that extra attention to detail that was put in, without making the model so complex that it’s painful on the frame rates. All regular animations are included, and all seem quite seamless in their appearance. The regular eye candy is also there in the form of a very nicely done startup smoke effect; these radials just belch smoke out upon startup for a decent amount of time, just as in real life."

"The 2D panels are all photoreal representations of the actual panels and sub-panels from their DC-3. There are 8 panels, each representing either a main panel, IFR panel, or a critical systems sub-panel in the plane. These system sub-panels range from cowl flaps, hydraulics, to electrical switches and radios. The level of detail in the VC still amazes me, especially for the seemingly non-existent hit on frame rates. You can look in every direction in the VC, and you see all of the 2D photoreal picture features represented; from the fan to the heating ducts, it’s all there."

"Since MAAM owns a DC-3 from which this package is obviously based on, they recorded the real sounds from their real DC-3. The Startup sounds from the inside and out are very detailed, and seem to embody everything I’ve heard when a real radial of this type starts. Upon shutting the plane down, the life seems to drain from the engines, and all you’ll hear is a hollow, loud mechanical sound as the props and cylinders shudder to a halt."

"I have flown a couple of tail draggers, and this DC-3 does seem to follow a few general realism factors regarding tail draggers. That mentioned, it’s just a joy to fly. The in-flight characteristics such as stalls, steep turns, and side-slipping are relatively well represented. Overall, I am very impressed with the performance of the MAAM DC-3, and it will be a long lasting aircraft in my hangar for that reason alone."

Wrapping up this revisit of the MAAM DC-3/C-47, Chris comments, "Would I recommend the MAAM DC-3? Absolutely. This plane is a blast to fly, and if you’re into this historical period, it’s a grand slam. The sounds of this package are top competition for my favorite part of the package. It flies well and looks very good doing it, and you’re supporting MAAM in keeping these pieces of history flying."

KMCI Kansas City Int'l For FS2004

Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 17:17
ImagineSim have released their latest airport add-on, KMCI Kansas City Intl. It’s the first commercial specification version of this airport for FS, and is the result of over 12 hundred hours of development. Now you can plug that gap in your collection and plan in an overniter to your schedules. A new destination while you criss-cross the North American continent. Kansas City features custom made ground textures and runways, terminal, cargo and hanger buildings rendered to 5cm per pixel scale, smoothly operating jetways that dock with your aircraft's forward door with an interactive docking system to park you right on your mark, taxiways with highly realistic concrete textures, full airport taxiway and runway signage, 3D approach lighting and full ILS navigation. Also included are hundreds of airport vehicles and ground personnel, aircraft can be found parked at custom textured parking positions, all hangers, cargo and airport auxiliary buildings are modeled, there is even a perimeter fence. Complete details along with screenshots and a demo version are available at the ImagineSim website.