Admiral Kuznetsov & Su33 from AlphaSim

Posted: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 3:49
Staff reviewer Fred Clark goes ballistic from the flight deck with AlphSim's Admiral Kuznetsov and the Su33 Naval Flanker.

"The first flight put things into perspective. I had always thought that Alphasim made ‘out of the box’ aircraft. Ones that you can just pick up and fly. And to a certain extent I was right. The frame rates of both the scenery and the aircraft seem to reflect those of simple add-ons. With Alphasim there wasn’t any drop, and even when flying through the worst weather toward the carrier, the frame rates remained at the amount I had locked them to."

"The aircraft will easily climb to 45000 ft at max takeoff weight of 72,750 lbs, and on initial climb will still build airspeed as you power through 10000 feet. It tends to struggle a bit as you reach the colder altitudes, but you will be well clear of ground fire by then. To many potential Flanker buyers, the real selling point of this aircraft will be its amazing maneuverability, and its ability to do post-stall maneuvers. This includes tail slides and back flips. Alphasim say in the manual: “The Su 33 is capable of all advanced acrobatics and can perform post-stall maneuvers”. I found this to be true for the majority of flight. Its claim to be stable in slow flight was certainly not a lie and when crawling along you will not be in fear of loosing control."

"The admiral Kuznetsov Scenery does not come with working arrestor cables, and doesn’t come with working catapults. The latter is actually accurate, however for owners of Abacus’s Flight Deck 4, both can be added using the supplied files. Because of the lack of arrestor cables, the tail hook is ineffective and another means of slowing down is needed. The breaks are therefore more powerful on the model to compensate. This can result in very bumpy landings though, which can spoil the perfect approach you worked so hard to make."

"Overall, I am extremely impressed with the panel. It is fully capable of IFR flight, although if you are using the autopilot you might want to keep speeds low, as the turning circle for 30 degrees of bank will grow much bigger at mach 1 and you can easily overshoot waypoints. As far as I could make out, all gauges were custom made for the model."

Landing back onboard, Fred comments, "I have certainly enjoyed my time in this aircraft. The addition of the carrier certainly adds for a flying challenge and getting the aircraft down on deck safely will take more than a few hours of practice. All in all, a big thumbs up to Alphasim for producing the Admiral Kuznetsov and the Su33 Flanker."

Sky Simulations MD-11 Update

Posted: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - 18:00
In a news submission sent to Avsim today, Sky Simulations proudly released Service Pack 2 for the Mc Donnell Douglas MD-11, One of the primary needs for this update was fixing the Fuel system, it is now fully operational on any PC. The addition included an upgraded Elevator trim indicator, Rising Ground indicator and many other improvements, For more information and to download this update please visit the , Sky Simulations website

Wings Over Europe , Vietnam & Korea Update

Posted: Monday, May 28, 2007 - 22:52
RazBam are proud to announce the release of their new product range for combat flight simulation , These titles replace the stock terrain in wings over Europe, Vietnam and Korea with high resolution photoreal terrain taken from actual aerial photography of the regions. The press release goes on to say now the Terrain is as good as the Aircraft! This Photoreal terrain LOOKS BETTER than FSX or any other Flight Sim, and you can enjoy fluid air to air, air to ground and air to sea warfare available in Wings Over Europe, just like Microsoft Fight Simulator with realistic guns, missiles and bombs.You can find out more about this product with a visit to Wings Over Europe Vietnam & Korea Terrain Product Info

2007 AVSIM Conference and Exhibition

Posted: Sunday, May 27, 2007 - 1:44
It's been just over a week since we announced the opening of the registration for the 2007 Conference and Exhibition to be held at the Bellevue Hilton (Seattle) from Friday, November 9th through Sunday, November 11th.

The registrations are starting to trickle in and the vendors are excited about coming back to the west coast, especially with having Microsoft onboard again. The total package cost is $145, the same as last year, this gets you in to all of the social events as well as the vendor display area and the white paper sessions. If you are local and plan on a day pass (actually a weekend pass) to view the displays and vendors, then it's $15.00. This would be a perfect way to introduce the budding simmer to see what the excitement is all about. You can pre-register for the day pass or walk-in and pay at the door.

Complete details can be found on the Conference Registration Page including information on booking your hotel. The guaranteed hotel rate is $129/night. Plan your fall vacation time now as you won't want to miss out on our 2007 Conference and Exhibition.

DC-10 Collection Now Out

Posted: Saturday, May 26, 2007 - 4:23
The DC-10 Collection for FS2004 and FSX is now available from Just Flight. It is available both on DVD-ROM and as a 302Mb Download.

Featuring 38 high-quality global liveries spread over 15 model variations, the DC-10 is the latest release in their F-Lite range, and has been designed by the experts at CLS (Commercial Level Simulations) to be both very high in quality and yet easy to operate. Also included as a bonus in this package are the USAF KC-10A Extender and Royal Dutch Air Force KDC-10A air-to-air refuelling tankers with animated fuel drogues and boom!

The F-Lite range is designed to provide aircraft that are not only extremely high in detail and visually impressive but also less demanding to fly than complex procedural simulators.

BluePrint Simulations Releases KIAD

Posted: Saturday, May 26, 2007 - 3:59
BluePrint Simulations is pleased to announce the release of KIAD, The Washington Dulles International Airport scenery add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator. As usual, the scenery is available in two versions.

Blueprint Simulations states, "The FS2004 version pushes the limit of detail and accuracy without sacrificing performance and incorporates numerous changes and improvement projects currently underway at Dulles. The models in the FSX version were built from the ground up using tools provided in the FSX SDK. Both versions include highly detailed custom-made models of all major buildings on the field. High resolution textures applied to all models were customized for each version. Reflective effects that were only available for aircraft models in previous versions have now been implemented in FSX scenery models."

Complete details can be found at the Blueprint Simulations website.

TweakFS Releases Freeware Aircraft CFG Editor

Posted: Saturday, May 26, 2007 - 3:50

TweakFS has just added a new utility to its growing collection of freeware tools for FSX. This latest release is a simple, no-fills editor for direct editing of FSX Aircraft.CFG files.

It is designed for when you want to make quick changes to a particular Aircraft.CFG file and avoids the need for searching for it as it automatically recognizes the FSX SimObjects folder via the Windows Registry. It displays all of the Aircraft.CFG file sections in an easy-to-navigate tree menu structure.

To download a copy please see the TweakFS Freeware Tools banner.

CYAM Released By CanUk

Posted: Saturday, May 26, 2007 - 3:45
CanUk, in association with Flight Ontario, has released CYAM (Sault Ste. Marie) Airport for FS2004.
Other CanUk sceneries are available in the Avsim Library or you can visit CanUk's website

New GoFlight modules on final approach to Avsim Store

Posted: Friday, May 25, 2007 - 22:46

Check out the two new GoFlight modules arriving in a few weeks in the Avsim Store.
The Single Engine Control Module (SECM) gives you direct control over aircraft lighting, cowl-flaps, fuel pump, carb heat, and other items. The new Throttle-Prop-Mixture (TPM) module finally gives those Cessna and Bonanza pilots the push/pull controls controls for their power levers. Get your preorder in today at the Avsim Store.

Cincinnati from ImagineSim

Posted: Friday, May 25, 2007 - 3:06
Senior staff reviewer Alexis Esguerra tours ImagineSim's Cincinnati-North Kentucky International Airport. "Famed moonwalker Neil Armstrong once referred to the ICAO code of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky as meaning “Cincinnati Very Good”. It has consistently rated quite highly in numerous independent customer surveys over the years, serves as Delta Airlines second largest hub, and currently runs better than 500 flights per day."

"The airport itself is brought to current standards in both FS9 and FSX; updated to reflect the appearance of the airport circa late-2006. Three terminals along with three concourses, forming the basic meat and potatoes of the airport, are present; as are the numerous outlying tenant and airport structures and aircraft plots. The scenery also includes the basic set of aircraft (big surprise that the majority are in Delta colors), ground equipment, and the occasional ramper hanging out on the tarmac, adding the general populated feel to the field. Standard flair of animated jet bridges, guidance signs, marshallers, and ground traffic are present (the first three at specific locations), either further lending some credence to the operational appearance of the field, or helping the virtual pilot get to where he/she needs to go."

"Which one is better, FS9, or FSX? At first glance, I might’ve said neither; ImagineSim did use the same textures for both renditions, so when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. In many respects, both FS9 and FSX get a badly needed shot in the arm from the installation of KCVG. Be you a die-hard FS9 user, or a hardcore FSX user, KCVG has something in store for you."

Wrapping up this tour of ImagineSim's Cincinnati, Alexis comments, "When boiled down to its essentials, I found that KCVG performed as advertised. After all, it is a scenery package that was designed to bring its subject to a whole new level of realism, and from what I saw, there’s no question that it did so. Given its merits, KCVG stands well on it’s own two feet, both FS9 and FSX."

FScene4X Asia Now Available!

Posted: Thursday, May 24, 2007 - 19:27

FScene just released their latest scenery enhancement for FSX, FScene4X Asia. This release includes over 3000 new textures, and replaces all four seasons. This new package takes advantage of the improvements that FSX offers to deliver realistic textures with adjusted autogen, all without affecting performance.

Ruud Faber explained that "If you still wish to use FS2004... the complete set for use in FS9 is included as a bonus", which includes 1700 new textures at no additional cost.

More information about FScene4X Asia can be found on the FScene website here

Alphasim Releases CF-105 Arrow

Posted: Thursday, May 24, 2007 - 18:58
AlphaSim announced today that their latest military release, the CF-105 Arrow is now available for both FS9 and FSX. The product features a working bomb bay with swing-out AA missiles, dynamic crew hatches, spoilers and afterburner petals. It also includes a thunderous soundset, and a package of special effects that include smoke, vortices and vapor flashovers.

For more information, or to purchase the Arrow, visit the AlphaSim website by clicking here .

Microsoft and AVSIM Issue Joint Statement - FANCON!

Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 23:10
The Microsoft Flight Simulator Team and AVSIM Online are pleased to announce the co-sponsoring of what may well be this year's largest Flight Simulation gathering! "The goal of our partnership is to provide a venue that will host an unprecedented number of Flight Sim add-on and hardware vendors," says Brett Schnepf, Community and Partner Development Manager for the Microsoft ACES Studio. We want to give FANCON attendees the widest possible range of add-ons and hardware to check out. In other words: many shiny objects to play with!"

The AVSIM Flight Simulation Fan Convention and Exhibition (FANCON 2007) will start Friday afternoon November 9th with the traditional informal AVSIM FANCON social. The event will continue on Saturday with exhibitions, white paper sessions, and the Saturday night Awards Banquet. The Awards Banquet will include a special key note speaker, as well as the traditional AVSIM Bravo Zulu and Reader's Choice award presentations. Sunday will see more exhibitions and white papers.

Flight simulation enthusiasts from around the world will be in attendance, so here's your chance to finally meet the people behind all those voices and forum posts. Register for this memorable event today!

ACLoader 4.3 Released!

Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 1:22
Scott Campbell of FlightSim Flight Deck has announced the release of ACLoader: Aircraft Loader & Revenue, version 4.3. Scott goes on to say: "With a new Flight Simulator comes an update of the popular program. ACLoader is used to load and balance any airliner, cargo or GA aircraft for FS2002, FS2004-ACOF and FSX. Version 4.3 has been updated to work with FSX and has some other fixes to 4.2. Weight, balance and fuel use have been better calculated."

Older features have been enhanced and updated. An updated manual has also been written. This update is free to version 4 owners. To get more information about ACLoader 4.3, please visit the ACLoader website.

New Delco Carousel IV-A INS Gauge

Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 1:18
Version 1.50 of the Delco Carousel IV-A Inertial Navigation System Gauges for Microsoft Flight Simulator X, 2004 and 2002 are now available for download. There are numerous improvements and additions to this guage, and it is now possible to save INS state and reload it at a later time, making possible to split a flight into two or more FS sessions. For more information about this gauge, visit the Simufly website.

Patch Available For Condor Simulator

Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - 1:13
Patch 11 and Plane Pack 1 are now available for Condor the Competition Soaring Simulator. The Plane Pack 1 brings 5 brand new gliders across 3 glider classes : ASG-29, Ventus-2cx, LS-10, Jantar 2b and PW-5. The Patch 11 is mainly a maintenance related update aiming at making Condor better compatible with Windows Vista operating system. The Condor Scenery Toolkit has been updated to v1.0.1 for use with the latest Condor version v1.1.1. For more information, please visit the Condor Soaring Sim website.

Majestic Software FSX Patch

Posted: Monday, May 21, 2007 - 18:28
Majestic Software would like to announce a free FSX patch for the MJC 8 Q300 is now ready and can be downloaded from the resources section HERE This patch is for the PRO and PILOT versions of the MJC 8 Q300, the patch as well will update the FMS Database. For the FS9 users there is an extra zip file published, containing just the FMS database update.

Traffic PlusPak: Military 2 / Airliner 1 from Just Flight

Posted: Monday, May 21, 2007 - 17:28
Senior staff reviewer Gene Davis makes the crowded skies even busier with Just Flight's Traffic Plus Pack - Military 2 and Jet Airliners 1. "Traffic, traffic and more traffic! When does enough become enough?"

"I use Traffic 2005, now just called Traffic, with both FS9 and FSX so if you read my last review about the Military 1 package there are some steps that have to be taken to make the AI work within FSX; FS9 is straightforward and works flawlessly!"

"The included military aircraft are: C17 Globemaster, VC10 Tanker, IL 76, Tornado F3/ADV, F-16, SU27, Euro fighter Typhoon, 2 versions of the C130, and the AS365 Dauphin Helicopter. This is a pretty good list as it adds the much needed transports to the virtual world of Traffic as well as throwing in some other varieties when it comes to fighters and such. All of the aircraft have some sort of 3D animation. I was also impressed that the fighters no longer fly alone; they fly in formation with other fighters."

"The included Jet Airliners are: Boeing 737-500, 737-600 & -700 NG and the -700 with winglets, 757-300, 777-300, 727-100, 747 SP, EMB 170/5, Tri-Star 500 and finally the MD-90. Along with liveries for already existing airlines, this package ships with 25 new airlines from all over the world. This gives the user a grand total of about 100 different aircraft to use for your AI fleet."

"The planes in these packages were created using GMAX, which ultimately gives the end user a frame rate friendly and moderately detailed aircraft to view. The aircraft themselves are not on the same level of quality as say a flyable commercial product, but they do perform well and do fit the bill when it comes to filling the virtual skies with AI planes. One could only imagine the performance hit we would have if we had our virtual skies filled with highly detailed AI aircraft."

"Do I like Just Flight's Traffic Plus Pack - Military 2 and Jet Airliners 1? Yes, they offer a lot to an already well rounded AI add-on. Whether you choose to use Traffic, or use something other than Traffic, these aircraft are very easy to implement in whatever kind of setup you are using. If you are looking for a quick and easy way to add more AI to your Flight Simulator world, this is an easy way to go about it. These two add-ons, coupled with the Traffic compiler, makes it very simple."

IVAO Releases Update, IvAp v1.9.2

Posted: Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 18:42
Announced today the IVAO Software Development Department Releases Update, IvAp v1.9.2 IVAO-Aero's Pilot Client, for FSX with Sp 1. With this new update, IvAp fully supports enhanced FSX features like cockpit sharing, missions when flying on the IVAO-AERO network.Other maintenance updates are also included, like gear position, full screen mode, improvements to weather generation, and the MTL aircraft. For more information and to download this new update, you're cleared direct to the IVAO Software Development Department.

VOZ Powered News (VPN)

Posted: Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 1:34
The VOZ team is proud to announce VOZ Powered News (VPN), an e-newsletter for Australian flight simulation users. VPN is a subscription-based newsletter for the 300,000 strong VOZ freeware user community worldwide. Each issue will contain the best snippets of information from the VOZ forums, plus interviews, tips, guides, screenshots, reviews, VA updates, flight departures and much much more. Issue one is now available and subscription is 100% free at HERE.