Rail Sim - Class 60 Released

Posted: Friday, July 17, 2009 - 0:37
Just Trains announces thier latest add-on for Rail Sim and RailWorks. The Class 60 locomotives can be used to haul heavy freight in any RailWorks or Rail Simulator route, and this add-on includes a set of scenarios for you to drive on some of the default RailWorks and Rail Simulator routes.

Class 60 is supplied in 10 authentic liveries and is modelled with exacting attention to detail, all the way down to small features such as grills and vents. The realistic cab features accurately modelled and correctly placed controls, and you can even use the windscreen wipers and move the individual window sunblinds up and down to aid visibility when the sun is low in the sky. The distinctive sounds of the Class 60 were recorded from the real locomotive and include the unique engine start-up sounds and horn.

ATC Simulator 2 Update

Posted: Thursday, July 16, 2009 - 15:18
ARTS-IIIA widescreen support for ATC Simultor 2 now available for download for existing ATCsimulator2 customers, both Standard and Professional Editions. This update provides support for running the ARTS-IIIa mode on widescreen monitors. The following modes are now supported; 1280x800, 1440x900 and 1680x1050. Normal (96 dpi) and Large (120 dpi) font modes are required.

All existing 4:3 aspect screen modes are still supported. Until now, STARS was the only mode available on widescreen monitors. Adapting ARTS-IIIa for widescreen monitors helps to preserve the nostalgia associated with this legacy air traffic simulation. For more information and/or to update, visit ATC Simulator 2.

Latest News From Just Flight

Posted: Thursday, July 16, 2009 - 14:59
PA-34 200T Seneca II for FSX - This new Carenado aircraft is available in two and three-blade propeller versions and with three different paint schemes. The Seneca II looks absolutely wonderful, and Carenado, as always, have made full use of the amazing graphics capabilities of FSX! The Seneca II features external and internal dynamic shadows, a host of further superb graphics features, good frame rates, digital stereo sounds recorded from the actual aircraft, realistic light effects on gauges, gauge night lighting effects, built-in zoom gauges and much more.

Flying Club Duchess and SP - A demo (59.1Mb) of the Flying Club Duchess is now available for you to try. A Service Pack (13.4Mb) for the Duchess is also available, and should be installed by both FSX and FS2004 users.The SP makes several updates to the aircraft, mainly to the cockpit instruments.

Air Hauler Update - The Air Hauler Service Pack has now been updated to Version 3.6 (applicable to both the Boxed and Download versions). The main feature of this update is the new Air Hauler Radar, which shows all pilots (not AI) who are currently flying in Air Hauler. Data available includes their aircraft, position, speed and the cargo on board, with the last five position points also mapped. Any time you are flying in Air Hauler, the program can now upload your position to the Air Hauler website, although you can disable this function in the Options menu if you prefer. You can access the radar at any time.

757 Captain - FS2004 SP - The FS2004 Service Pack (Update 2.1) for Captain Sim's 757 Captain is now available. The full list of fixes and updates is a long one.

Boeing 737-900ER X2 from Ariane Design

Posted: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 - 2:31
Get ready for some reading as staff reviewer Alan Bradbury give an in-depth (and I mean in-depth) review of Ariane Design's Boeing 737-900ER X2. "Ariane is a hot topic amongst simmers for sure, but those of you who followed the recent thread on Avsim’s forums will know that I decided to try and cut through all the rumors and hearsay, in order to find out just what the truth is, and more importantly, to answer the question; just how good is Ariane’s FSX 737 NG?"

"With the base package for the Ariane 737-900ER, you get two texture schemes, these being the current Boeing Commercial Aircraft (BCA) multi-toned blue livery, and an ‘unpainted’ look, which shows off the various components and materials used in the construction of modern aircraft to good effect."

"All the various details such as pitot tubes, antennas, static wicks, vortex generators and all the other ‘sticky out bits’ you’d find on a real 900ER are present and correct, and all in the correct locations. Even obscure stuff like the vortex generators under the slats and in front of the APU air intake and the rear fuselage turbulators are millimeter-perfect. Inside the Ariane 737, the audio and visual treats continue. Right away you can see that the virtual cockpit is something pretty special on this model, and not just in terms of looks, it’s great on frame rates too. This is just as well to be honest, because it’s the only cockpit you get."

This is just a taste of the review's contents as Alan takes on a complete flight from a cold dark cockpit, through take off, in flight, landing and putting this bird to bed. In the end he says, "The simple truth is that I really like Ariane's 737-900ER for all the positive things it has, which may indeed be a ‘glass half full’ way of looking at things. Nevertheless, that’s how I feel about it." Be prepared for a long read as this review is as detailed as they come.

Aerosoft's Mathijs Kok Interviewed

Posted: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 - 14:47
This Wednesday (15th) fsBreak will interview Aerosoft's Mathijs Kok, head of development and their download store. The big question of Aerosoft developing a new FLIGHT SIM is clarified. It will be packed full of interesting behind the curtain stuff. The interview was taped live with him from his home in the South of France. Tune in to fsBreak to hear the interview.

Tacoma Narrows Airport Released

Posted: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 - 1:00
Flyscenery.org releases their long awaited freeware Tacoma Narrows Airport. This is a general aviation airfield located west of the city of Tacoma, Washington. Brought to life in FS2004, FlyScenery uses custom texture sets including photorealistic base and actual 3D grass. All buildings are faithfully modeled to a realistic feeling of actually being there. This is the first of many new sceneries FlyScenery will be making.

TweakFPS for FSX 2.0 Released

Posted: Monday, July 13, 2009 - 15:51
TweakFS has released a significant update for TweakFPS for FSX, the FSX.CFG file utility and Scenery Mode switching tool. Version 2.0 adds a new page with the ability to manage an unlimited number of custom or "advanced" FSX.CFG parameters (e.g. BufferPools).

Various enhancements such as fully editable tooltip pop-up hints that store personal notes on the range of each setting plus a major re-design of the user interface continue to make TweakFPS, now in its fifth year, a safe environment in which to make changes to the much hallowed and oft searched-for FSX.CFG file.

This 2.0 release is free for registered users of any previous 1.x versions and a reduced-price upgrade is available for FS2004 editions users. More information and a free 30-day demo can be obtained at TweakFPS .

Elemental Software Solutions FS Elemental

Posted: Monday, July 13, 2009 - 15:38
Elemental Software Solutions is please to announce the next-gen texture solution package, FS Elemental Intense Pack, an extraordinary and complete environment enhancement dedicated to Flight Simulator 2004. With one click, you can revive your current Microsoft flight simulator environment .

Sky colors change with the seasons accordingly and cloud formations are beautifully rendered with stunning lifelike realism, the sun appears brighter the more it's focused upon. At dawn and dusk, land masses and cloudscapes are blanketed by beautiful matching colors and the bottom of cloud formations appear darker as the sky darkens, and lightens accordingly in brighter atmospheric conditions.

For more information visit Elemental Software Solutions .

Perfect Flight FSX Missions Eurowings CRJ-700

Posted: Monday, July 13, 2009 - 15:08
Perfect Flight has just released another product in its FSX MISSIONS series, the Eurowings CRJ700 captain gives you 15 flights in your assignment. These missions have been created to give you more realistic flight experience simulate a multi-crew environment with interactive briefing and checklist, Speed restriction, Cabin Announcement, Speeds Call, 80 Knt,V1, Vr, V2, flaps, gear, GPWS, Radar Altimeter and much more.

All pre-saved Flights use real weather and a realistic flight plan and are provided in the armed GPS gauges, flights replicate real scheduled Eurowings routes and covers major German and European Airports: Basle-Mulhouse, Frankfurt, Munster Osnabruck, Munich, Birmingham, Dusseldorf, Budapest Ferihegy, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Prague Ruzyne, Stuttgart, Hannover and Zurich.

Also included is a Pilot Logbook in PDF format that you can print and use in conjunction with Missions, for more info about this new product, please direct your heading to Perfect Flight .

Mission Antarctica - McMurdo

Posted: Monday, July 13, 2009 - 14:39
Flight Immersion have released their new scenery plus mission pack for FSX. "Mission Antarctica - McMurdo" features McMurdo Station scenery as well as three other small encampments for you to locate and fly to. See if you can find the Halvorsen Marine Observation Encampment and if you do, you'll see the whales surfacing! As well as the scenery, the pack contains two FSX Missions that will have sweat forming on your brow. These missions contain lot's of audio, ATIS, instructions, and given Antarctica's wild conditions, the possibility of the odd aircraft systems failure.

Las Vegas McCarran from FSDreamteam

Posted: Sunday, July 12, 2009 - 17:57
Staff reviewer Jon Murchison goes for broke with his look at FSDreamteam's Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. "McCarran International, or as ICAO refers to it KLAS, is the latest release from FSDreamteam. I was also intrigued by two innovative new features that take advantage of the Couatl engine FSDreamteam have developed that allows a high degree of interaction between FSX and FSDreamteam add-ons. In this case Park Me™ and YouControl™."

"KLAS covers a large area with three unique terminal buildings as well as cargo and private operators. From the start it was clear the quality I have associated with FSDreamteam’s previous releases continued with a high resolution photoreal base the scenery sits on. The runways, taxiway areas and gate ramps all use higher resolution textures so are crisp and clearly defined with taxi signs and 3D lights guiding aircraft around the facilities during the day and night. On the ramp areas additional ‘dirtying’ has been done at the gates and shadow effects have been added around the building bases and scenery objects."

"By night KLAS becomes a different place and FSDreamteam have managed to create night lighting effects that are the best I have seen to date in an FSX scenery. I was immensely impressed by the way light splashes across the ramps and gets progressively darker, particularly as it reflects spill light from the terminal windows. The lighting through the terminal windows looks very realistic."

"FSDreamteam have delivered another quality add-on with KLAS. The attention to detail and quality of the scenery objects, the texturing of the runway, ramps and taxiways and photoreal base come together to create an immersive airport experience, throw in ParkMeTM and YouControlTM and you have a complete package that performs well and looks bloody great. There was nothing in this package that disappointed me. Great work FSDreamteam, keep producing work like this and you may well redefine the meaning of as real as it gets."

FS Altitude - Eastern USA Released

Posted: Sunday, July 12, 2009 - 16:28
The France VFR team is proud to announce you its fourth pane of FS Altitude representing more than 4 Millions km² from the entire East coast of USA to the Middle states as well as part of Canada. This scenery is the continuation of the previously released "Western USA" of FS Altitude.

The scenery has been entirely realised with low resolution photo-realistic textures (14.25 m/pixel) that is perfect for replacing the default textures of FSX for IFR flights from 6 000 m (20 000 feet) altitude, rendering a realistic and reliable image of the given geographical zone or continent. As FS Altitude only displays when reaching a certain level of height, below this level all previously installed add-ons remain visible. IFR flight with FS Altitude provides you complete immersion due to the widespread view and the low resolution texture.

LatinVFR Releases Cuzco X

Posted: Sunday, July 12, 2009 - 16:11
Latin VFR has released its latest version of the beautiful Peruvian city of Cuzco, which has one of the most challenging approaches in commercial aviation, compared only with Innsbruck, Madeira and Lukla.

This airport has a visibility restriction and only operates during daylight due to the requirement of a visual approach to land. The aircraft operate mainly in one direction of flight in and out of this airport, they land on runway 28 and depart on runway 10. During weather situations in which no visual approach can be made the airport is closed until the weather gets better. No pilot dares to land with an overcast sky into an airport completely surrounded by mountains and no precision guidance navaid in order to assist for the landing. Therefore all landings conducted are SOLELY visual, and strict VFR rules apply.

It is widely known to be an airport dominated by veterans of the Cuzco approach, mainly Peruvian pilots or Andean pilots that know how difficult it is to have such restrictions. This is certainly the Madeira or the Innsbruck of all Latin American airports, it would be wise to say that this one is harder due to the lack of a precision approach. And by the way, the largest aircraft permitted to operate here is a B757-200, however, anything bigger than a B737-200 needs government approval.

EUROWINGS CRJ-700 - FSX Missions

Posted: Saturday, July 11, 2009 - 16:43
FS2000.org announces their latest product in the FSX Missions series. As Eurowings CRJ700 captain you have now 15 flights in your assignment. You can now replicate real life flight operations. In fact, missions have been created to give you more realistic flight experience in a populate aeronautical world ambience. You can simulate a multi-crew enviroment with interactive briefing and checklist, Speed restriction, Cabin Announcement, Speeds Call, 80 Knt, V1, Vr, V2, flaps, gear, GPWS, Radar Altimeter, etc.

All pre-saved flights uses real weather and a realistic flight plan is provided in the armed GPS gauges. These flights replicate real sheduled Eurowings routes and covers major German and European Airports: Basle-Mulhouse, Frankfurt, Munster Osnabruck, Munich, Birmingham, Dusseldorf, Budapest Ferihegy, Paris Charles de Goulle, Prague Ruzyne, Stuttgart, Hannover and Zurich. The product also includes a Pilot LogBook in PDF format that you can print and use in conjunction with these missions.

OZx Grumman Goose HD Redux Updated To V1.20

Posted: Saturday, July 11, 2009 - 16:18
OZx reports, "as there were a few omissions in the original release, Team OZx would like to present to you a couple of things."
1. A new fullsize installer to update the stock Goose that comes with the FSX "Deluxe" version. This file is for new downloaders only.
2. An update for v1.00 to v1.20 which includes updates for the FME's, the bump map textures, the sounds and some panels in the HP versions.
3. A bonus pack to add the A2A/Shockwave Lights to the Goose, you must own the original A2A/Shockwave pack for this to work.

FS Aspen from Flight 1

Posted: Saturday, July 11, 2009 - 1:41
Staff reviewer Jason McKee does some maintenance on his aircraft's panel with Flight One's FS Aspen. "Aspen Avionics have released the Evolution Flight Display system. This system comprises of three separate gauges, The EFD 1000 PFD (which I am reviewing here) The EFD 1000 MFD and the EFD 500 MFD."

"Flight1 have released the Aspen EFD1000 PFD as a separate gauge for both FS2004 and FSX, also included in the package is the Flight1Gauge Config utility and a demo version of FS Panel Studio. The latter is a very powerful panel editor, which allows you to modify your panels in any installed aircraft."

"The Flight1 Gauge Config Utility is a simple little utility that is easy to use and makes installing your Aspen gauge a breeze. The F1GCU is quite a powerful way of installing your PFD and autopilot into your aircraft’s 2D panel. Although this utility will only work on the 2D panel, if you want it installed into the VC then you will need to use the FS Panel Studio or manually modify the config files."

"The Aspen PFD and Meggitt S-Tec 55X autopilot complement each other nicely. The PFD displays all the information in an easy to read format without having to scan and decode multiple steam gauges, and the Meggitt A/P adds some nice little features and ease of use. The inclusion of the Gauge Config Utility is a great one, and makes installing this gauge a breeze. I recommend FS Aspen to anyone wanting to upgrade their GA fleet with modern glass cockpit avionics."

TweakFPS for FSX V2.0 Released

Posted: Saturday, July 11, 2009 - 0:15
TweakFS has released a significant update for TweakFPS for FSX, the FSX.CFG file utility and Scenery Mode switching tool. Version 2.0 adds a new page with the ability to manage an unlimited number of custom or "advanced" FSX.CFG parameters (e.g. BufferPools). Various enhancements such as fully editable tooltip pop-up hints that store personal notes on the range of each setting plus a major re-design of the user interface continue to make TweakFPS, now in its fifth year, a safe environment in which to make changes to the much hallowed and oft searched-for FSX.CFG file. This 2.0 release is free for registered users of any previous 1.x versions and a reduced-price upgrade is available for FS2004 editions users. More information and a free 30-day demo can be obtained at the TweakFS website.

Air Canada Joins World Air Routes

Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009 - 14:35
Air Canada becomes the 212th airline to join the World Air Routes series and 9th airline featured from the Star Alliance group. Air Canada is Canada's largest airline and the world's 9th largest passenger airline by fleet size. Currently Air Canada operates 30 Boeing 767-300ERs. This program takes you in the cockpit for one of its longest routes from Toronto to Chile & Argentina and back. From the briefing at AC Operations you will follow the crew as they prepare and execute this flight and continuously keep you informed about what they are doing.

Just Planes has been producing Aviation programs since 1991. Currently it produces 2 series : World Airports and World Air Routes which are distributed all across the world. World Air Routes series of Cockpit DVDs now features more than 200 Airlines and takes viewers on flights to nearly 800 destinations across the globe.

Vehicle Simulator from Quality Simulations

Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2009 - 20:55
Staff reviewer Peter Clemenko III sims outside the box and looks at Vehicle Simulator from Quality Simulations. "Vehicle Simulator is a combination of the Micro Flight and the Virtual Sailor simulators. It is a simulator that covers land, sea, and air."

"Most of the vehicles are simplistic. While they look decent and handle well, there isn’t much in the way of avionics. Usually with the default vehicles it’s no more than four or five switches in the cockpit. According to Ilan (the developer), more detailed avionics simulations is possible. The vehicles are more of a taste of what it can do handling wise, rather than avionics wise."

"There are volumetric clouds, caustics, and all kinds of things. One of my favorite views was driving a submarine just submerged and looking at the light rays in the water shining down, and then seeing fish swim by. You can add animals to the area, which is nice to see, however it seems they really aren’t there for anything more but looks."

Peter includes an interview with Ilan about Vehicle Simulation and concludes, "this is a remarkable piece of work, and includes so many different elements of simulation; it’s amazing this is only done by an independent developer. With the pure potential this has, I can imagine some very highly detailed vehicles in this simulator's future."

World Airports 3 from Just Flight

Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2009 - 2:13
Staff reviewer Marlon Carter looks at several North American airports presented in Just Flight's World Airports 3. "The World Airports V.3 contains airports such as :Atlanta International, Charlotte Douglas International, Cincinnati Northern Kentucky, Nassau Lynden Pindling, and San Juan Luis Munoz Marin."

"Features included in this package are custom made runways, airport vehicles, breathtaking night lighting, interactive docking, full ILS navigation and more. This package is a fantastic addition to enhance some of the many frequently used airports around the world. Having accurate surroundings certainly takes the flight-sim experience to another level no matter what aircraft you are flying. What stood out to me with these sceneries were the stunning ground textures and the docking gates."

"Just Flight's World Airports 3 is definitely worth the price. This package is a great addition for anyone who is looking for a great all-in-one package."