Military AI Works Turns 1

Posted: Saturday, August 11, 2007 - 1:42
Today Military AI Works (MAIW) is celebrating its 1 year Anniversary since forming. Desmond Burrell of MAIW says, "time definately flies by, it's hard to believe it's been a full year since we formed our little group focused on bringing the FS9 community user friendly military AI freeware packages. We've been able to bring the community over 40 releases in our first year of existence and plan on bringing you many many more going into our second year." If you haven't visited their website, and are looking for Military AI aircraft, this might be a good place to for you to visit.

German Landmarks X SP1 Released

Posted: Saturday, August 11, 2007 - 1:35
Inside Aerosoft's support and FAQ sections you will find Service Pack 1 for German Landmarks X which solves some performance issues. You need to be logged on and to have your product registered to be able to access the update. You will be able to visit with the good folks from Aerosoft at AVSIM's 2007 Conference and Exhibition in November.

AVSIM Releases RSS Feeds

Posted: Friday, August 10, 2007 - 23:04
AVSIM is pleased to announce that today we brought online our RSS News Feeds system. There have been abortive attempts in the past by AVSIM to do this, but with Emma Bentley joining the AVSIM team as our RSS Feeds Manager, and some powerful backend systems, we are happy to provide this new service to our readership. If you are a dedicated RSS Feeds user, you can add the AVSIM RSS feed system to your system by going to here. We will be adding further feeds in the not too distant future.

FS2Crew Update For PMDG 737

Posted: Friday, August 10, 2007 - 17:27
FS2Crew announced it has released a Memory Enhancement Gauge file for its PMDG 737 Edition which may help some users who have experienced memory usage problems over long flights. For more information on this update, please visit the FS2Crew website.

A New Tutorial Website

Posted: Friday, August 10, 2007 - 3:47
V1 Rotate, is a new website for simmers who know about the basics of flying and who want to advance to complex addons. This website provides tutorials on complex add-ons that are out there and tries to provide easy-to-read-and-understand tutorials to get people used to complex startup procedures / flight management system etc... They don't specialise in any specific add-ons, they just make tutorials for different aircraft types which should work on any add-on. At the moment, they have tutorials for: Boeing 767, Boeing 737, Boeing FMC; Airbus A319/A320/A321, ATR 42/72, MCDonnell Douglas MD80, McDonnell Douglas FMC, Civa INS Nav System. They are continually expanding the site by adding 2-3 tutorials a month. All tutorials are available on the website and are also available as downloadable .pdf files. So head over the V1 Rotate and see if there is something new for you to learn.

SAAB JAS 39 "Gripen" from AlphaSim

Posted: Friday, August 10, 2007 - 3:20
Contributing reviewer Chris Kiehl takes a look at a unique fighter aircraft, AlphaSim's SAAB JAS 39 "Gripen". "The Gripen was designed for a multitude of missions for the Swedish military in the 1980’s, as an alternative for the Swedish Military over the American F-16 fighter and other similar aircraft."

"The 2D panel is a nicely detailed, all XML gauge setup. Three MFDs or Multi Functional Display panels, are located below the HUD. Three sub-panels are included, two of which are custom."

"The Gripen VC is quite nice from my point of view. I enjoy the features Alphasim added, and don’t mind it’s simplicity. On to the MFD panels. These panels are excellent, and are fully configurable and clickable from the VC. You can set each of them to show a different information screen, and each of the screens can show any of the five available screens, in any order."

"Alphasim’s exterior modeling is some of the best I’ve seen, and this model is no exception. Additionally, several load outs with external fuel tank and missiles are included, with a selection of nationality schemes to choose from. The tandem two-seater version is also included, and both models include detailed and animated pilot figures that can be removed on command."

"Flying these delta wing with canard configuration aircraft in FS is quite fun, and Alphasim seems to have a knack for doing it right. Flying the Gripen may present you with a challenge, like keeping it stable and flying a smooth pattern. This is definitely an aircraft you should practice in, and master. I enjoy flying the Gripen, and I’m thinking you will, too. It was a bit of a challenge at first, but what fun would it be if it were not?"

"The Alphasim Gripen performs quite nicely in every regard, except one. With the VC HUD disabled via a simple switch in the 2D or VC on the panel below the HUD, the frame rates are excellent. However, enabling the HUD does reduce the frame rates rather noticeably in all views. Other than that one small performance issue, the plane performed smoothly throughout my tests."

Chris concludes his review of the SAAB JAS 39 "Gripen" with, "I greatly enjoyed the privilege of flying another of Alphasim’s masterfully crafted modern aircraft. FSX users will be happy to hear that the aircraft is fully FSX ready. Alphasim seems to improve things each time I see one of their aircraft. If you’re a SAAB fan, or just a collector of really intriguing modern fighters, get this package."

An X-Plane Aircraft Source

Posted: Friday, August 10, 2007 - 1:22
Peter's Aircraft presents a collection of aircraft models for the X-Plane® flight simulator. Most are payware, some are freeware. He focuses on Airbus, Lockheed military transports, and the Aero Commander family. These models are built after authentic documents (FCOM) and partially by using flight recorder data. The panels are realistic, as is the flight model. If you are a flyer of the X-Plane simulator and are looking to add to your hanger, head over to Peter's Hanger and check out what he has to offer.

Aerosoft Releases Hawaii Dillingham X

Posted: Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 18:37
Aerosoft announced today that Hawaii Dillingham X is now available for Flight Simulator X.

According to the press release, "Hawaii Dillingham X is a small airfield and even the best PR writer could not call it an important airfield. But the stunning location (is) arguably one of the best glider fields worldwide." The product was designed specifically for FSX, and features several design features to improve realism, including 3D human figures.

For more information, please visit the Aerosoft Website.

An Update from AirSimmer

Posted: Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 2:01
The official website for the AirSimmer line of Airbus-related add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator (FSX and FS9
compatible) has been updated with new screenshots and their latest product information. The AirSimmer Support Forum is now open to the public, giving simmers an opportunity to speak directly with the AirSimmer Team who are standing by to answer questions regarding their A320 product features and capabilities. For all the details including screenshots, visit the AirSimmer website. You can also visit their booth at the 2007 AVSIM Conference and Exhibition in Seattle, Washington 9-11 November.

Fun on Four Wheels!

Posted: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - 11:30
Maybe the idea of driving a "Follow Me" car round an airport doesn't do it for you? Maybe you want something with four wheels and no wings, but a bit faster than the pushback tug? Feelthere may have just the thing for you, with their Live for Speed "Ultimate Racing Simulator".

Described as a "serious racing simulator. No arcade modes, no steering aids - YOU have to do the driving", you can race against the AI but the real fun is to be found online, in multiplayer mode.

To find out more, head down the back straight, through the chicane, and into the Feelthere Website.

Bear's "Ultimate Big Boy" List

Posted: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - 9:37
Fans of Steve (Bear) Cartwright's many past reviews for AVSIM will enjoy his excellent mini-reviews of a number of "heavies" in the AVSIM Screen Shots Forum.

With brief descriptions and highlights of each model, they are richly illustrated with screen shots. The two separate sets of reviews can be found here and here.

Ultimate Terrain X USA Version 1.1 Released

Posted: Wednesday, August 8, 2007 - 9:07
Scenery Solutions have released the version 1.1 patch to their Ultimate Terrain X USA product. They state that all reported issues using their enhancement request tracker have been implemented or at least addressed. Of the 69 reported requests:

44 enhancements/fixes were implemented
20 requests were either out of scope, not reproducible, or not a problem.
4 requests were put on hold or will be covered in a separate future product.

Additionally, a new "block housing" landclass texture has been added to the Ultimate Terrain X series. This texture will be used for downtown areas where tall residential buildings with common walls are present. In version 1.1, this texture is now used for much of the downtown New York City area.

For a screenshot of the "block housing" texture, and link to the download, visit the Ultimate Terrain Forum here.

SimTube's Viewpoint Committee Wants You

Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - 6:13
Cason Farmer of SimTube states, "The Viewpoint Committee's main purpose is to gather ideas regarding certain issues, problems, or ideas that we have regarding SimTube and our operations. We feel that putting our trust in you and opening our ears to the community will ensure us a path to success and many open doors. We want to serve you, so you now have the say to help make it happen!"

The Viewpoint Committee is a very interactive experience, consisting of live meetings with the core SimTube staff - the decision makers. We are constantly thinking of and about ideas and problems within SimTube, and are always mindful of any suggestions that are available. You now have the full ability to make things happen. We invite anyone and everyone to sign-up for the committee via the Viewpoint website. We are looking for unbiased, opinionated individuals who are VOIP capable, and familiar with Teamspeak. Once we have enough committee members, we will promptly schedule our first proper meeting, minutes being taken. so, head on over to the Viewpoint website and take a look around. Dont forget to sign up! SimTube wants you to share your Viewpoint!

FreeTrack V2 Released

Posted: Monday, August 6, 2007 - 13:03
Freetrack is compatible with a majority of games using this technology. It makes it possible to control your point of view in a video game or simulator with small head movements. To operate properly Freetrack needs markers in order to represent the position of your head in space, these markers located on a cap for Single Point and 4 Points Cap modes or on a clip fastened to your headset for 3 Points Clip mode are Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)detected by your webcam, they allow the Freetrack software to convert your head movements in data flow which can be used by your game/simulator. For a look at this software visit the Freetrack website

France VFR Releases FlightPyrenees

Posted: Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 23:19
France VFR is proud to announce our new photoreal scenery from the FlightSeries collection, FlightPyrenees. The BasePack and AutogenPack are now available and cover the Eastern part of French Pyrenees (about 16 000 km sqr.) with photorealistic textures. Each of the default airport plateforms on the scenery have been reworked in order to closely fit the phototexture with precisely aligned taxiways, buildings, and objects, greatly enhancing these from the standard Flight Simulator 2004.

BASEPACK product - Textures made from aerial photography IGN (National Geographical Institute) and not satellite imagery, are retreated for an optimal visual rendition in Flight Simulator®.
- Ground textures are summer only.
- High resolution (LOD10) custom mesh for the whole region treated.
- Custom autogen for the coastline and major airports (the entire autogen coverage is commercialized in another product package : the AutogenPack).
- Most lakes and rivers have been entirely cut out and reworked with bodies of landable water, including a systematic mesh treatment (LWM: land and water mask) nearby banks in order to avoid sloping water effects.
- 18 airports and helipads are integrated. These airports have been optimized to fit perfectly the photoscenery : precise taxiway and apron positioning, replaced buildings and hangars, windsocks, towers, etc.
- All the airports’ surroundings have been treated in order to remove the ‘cliff’ effect caused by the altitude differences between a precise mesh and the ‘flat’ Flight Simulator runways.
- Precise geo-referenced texture positioning, ensuring a maximal compatibility with scenery add-ons for this region.
- Process development fully conform to the Microsoft SDK, ensuring a maximal compatibility with future versions of Flight Simulator.
- Open BasePack concept, allowing an easy integration of scenery add-ons from other editors.
- Comprehensive maps and flight documentation for all the included airports in PDF format (22 VAC VFR approaches and airport diagrams.)

AUTOGENPACK product - Autogen coverage (Trees, houses, buildings…) over the whole Pyrenees Oriental area (about 16000 km2).
- Specific autogen textures provided for each region of the Pyrenees area.
- Night texture provided for each specific autogen texture.

For detailed information including screenshots and videos, change your heading to the FranceVFR website.

Dispatch Planner III from David Baty

Posted: Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 18:14
Staff reviewer Josh Szkoda sits patiently in the cockpit awaiting the paperwork that he'll receive from David Baty's Dispatch Planner III. "Dispatch Planner 3 is your virtual dispatch agent, and it really couldn’t be made any simpler."

"The settings window allows you to make selections for three different things, the unit to be used for weight, the format for how the date is to be displayed, as well as the version of Flight Sim you wish to use. DP3 connects to Flight Sim and will automatically get the Zero Fuel Weight (ZFW) of your aircraft, so when selected in the dispatch window this information can be put on the dispatch report. This is very handy for those of you who use FMC/MCDU’s. Other information will be printed on the dispatch report too, such as payload. The information is retrieved from the aircraft.cfg file when selected on the user interface."

"Filling in the dispatch report form starts off with the basics. You enter things such as your departure and arrival aerodromes, ICAO codes and your flight number. All pretty straight forward. The form then asks you for the flight plan you’ll be flying between the two airfields. The form then continues with asking the type of aircraft, its registration, planned flight level, estimated time of departure and all the other basics."

"At the top of the screen displaying your report, you have the options to print, close, some other basic things, and the impressive availability to file the flight plan with VATSIM. The dispatch report itself is a fairly professional looking document that gives all needed details, and I must say it looks not too indifferent from a real world one."

"The weather centre is simple yet effective. The weather centre asks you for both your departure and arrival airfields and allows you to enter up to four en-route alternates (RALT’s) and the standard ICAO 2 destination alternates (DALT’s). The weather centre is great for providing an all in one place for the METAR’s and definitely saves a lot of time compared to doing it manually and entering those ICAO codes."

Now that Josh has his dispatch form in hand, he sums up Dispatch Planner III with, "It definitely has potential, and I think if the dispatch report was to include things such as NOTAMS and more customization to the actual report; we could be onto a real good thing here. With this said, however, I must point out the accuracy and realism that the data contained on the dispatch report. So would I recommend Dispatch Planner III? Yes, yes I would."

AUTOGENPACK for Tatra Photo Scenery Released

Posted: Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 17:01
TPSAutogenPack v1.00 is available for free download. This release to SimDesign's scenery add-on provides autogen scenery for the whole territory covered by Tatra Photo Scenery.

FSX Planner, a Freeware Release

Posted: Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 0:21
FSX Planner is a free graphical editing tool designed to help users edit existing airports or create new ones for use within Microsoft's Flight Simulator X. The main display of FSX Planner shows a top down view of the airport. You can work on multiple airports simultaneously, each one having its own window. All of FSX Planner's editing features are intended to be accessible via a toolbar containing the various tools needed to construct or edit the airport. These range from selection tools, to specific runway or apron or taxiway tools. There are several wizards included with FSX Planner to help you through the creation process of some of the more difficult aspects of airport design, such as Taxiway Signs. These wizards provide a unique approach to simplify the creation or modification of an airport. A complete description of this tool as well as downloading instructions can be found at the FSX Planner website.

Real Sky Pro Edition Upgraded

Posted: Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 0:14
Simmers who go to Simmarket to purchase this product, they will now receive REAL SKY PRO EDITION v 1.2 for FS9. If you have previously purchased REAL SKY PRO EDITION and your download has not expired, you may re-download the FS9 version installer to acquire the updated v 1.2. If your download has expired, contact Sandon Lyon directly with proof of purchase of the REAL SKY PRO EDITION and he will personally provide you with the upgrade.

In REAL SKY PRO EDITION v 1.2, Sandon has applied newly learned techniques to 95% of the textures to enhance the skies, clouds and water for a realistic appearance in FS9. He now wants to share these newly created textures with all of his customers.

Capt Mike Ray's Tutorial - Part 7

Posted: Sunday, August 5, 2007 - 0:00
For those of you who haven't been following this series, you're missing out on a great glass cockpit tutorial by Capt Mike Ray. In this month article Captain Ray will explain how to do an ILS Cat IIIb approach. Captain Ray is explaining the procedures in a very attractive way and it is a pleasure to read. FSVisions is able to bring these, and all previous articles for free, in close cooperation with Computer Pilot and Captain Ray. You will find all 7 articles listed at the website.