Tailboom's Corner The world outside your plane short reviews by Craig 'Tailboom' Snyder 22-Jan-01 Santiam Junction State Airport, Oregon by Richard Goldstein santiam.zip uploaded on 14-Jan-01 456kb FS2000 Something in this scenery just really moves me. Dunno exactly what, whether it's the rather unique color of the dirt runway. The rustic look of the buildings. Perhaps the expanse of this scenery, whatever, I'm liking this place alot! Notice that there are dirt trails leading off into the woods, lots of fun for some low and slow snoopin. Speaking of which, this is a real airport, I know because on my picture taking session I got quite lost and had to bring up FSNav to find my way back. Sometimes I just love it when that happens. It gave me a chance to see how lovely this whole area is. I just thought of the word that describes this scenery... Majestic, yup that's it. This airport is surrounded by trees and high terrain and according to the author handles about 100 operations per year. Nothing like a little isolation, eh? Wait just a minute, hold the phone, STOP the presses! Didn't that Hijack'n, Geronimo jump'n DB Cooper land somewhere round here? Hmmm, mayhaps he had this airport in mind as a part of his getaway. Maybe a cub sit'n here wait'n for him. I'll C'ya, I'm gonna snoop round here somemore... hehe ...t'BOOM 22-Jan-01 Cloud Textures for FS2000 by Bob Shubinsky 8bclouds.zip uploaded 17-Jan-01 2,472kb FS2000 Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it! Nobody 'cept our good Dr Bob!! I say 'our' because he frequents the AVSIM forums, and we're mighty glad for that. So how did Bob change the weather? Well, he took the 16bit cloud textures and turned them into 8bit textures. The effect is simply phenomenal, those with low to mid level systems will feel like they either have a new machine or that 2K is a whole new sim, OR BOTH. Best part is that there is no difference in the way the clouds look. I was amazed. Clouds are extremely important for realism. In fact they have been a top subject in the sim vs. sim wars. And indeed may have been one of the deciding factors for some simmers in choosing a sim. In my own experience, I've never been able to use clouds much, in fact lowering visibility to 5 mi or so was the only way to run 2K for a year and a half. And while that is acceptable for low and slow flying—and can even enhance some sceneries—it's no way to fly the big birds at high altitude. So Bob's cloud texture manipulation makes 2K a whole new sim for me, and for that a great big THANX!! Go get 'em, you'll like 'em. ...t'BOOM 22-Jan-01 Cessna 152 CC-KAA V1.0 by Maurico Illane - Paint Marcelo Canovas - Model & Gauge Raul Acevedo - FDE Jean-Pierre Langer, Paul Beardsley - Original Photo View c152cckaa.zip uploaded 17-Jan-01 3,323kb FS2000 ZOT!!! Zinged by the time-machine once again. Much stronger than I have been in recent memory. One look at this plane, and I'm 16 again walking, very quickly, out to a rather ragged looking C-150. My instructor is behind and to my left and as I start to duck under the wing and open the door of '79-Tango, a yellow and white ancient-of-days 150, my instructor Ron says, "no not that one, I've got the keys for '43Gulf." Whew, even to this neophyte '43G looks a lot happier than '79-T. Yup much nicer, prop spinner, wheel fairings. In fact this 152 CC-KAA is almost a twin of '43G, and looks just as 'happy'. Maybe a strange term for an airplane, but you didn't see how 'sad' '79T looked... hehe. As you have no doubt noticed, the level of realism in FS'dom is just astounding. So many top notch developers, and these guys are on the same level as any of them. This is a work-a-day 152, earning a 'meager' living (and hours) for instructors, and licenses for their students. You probably won't see "beautiful" as one of the descriptions of this plane. But REAL is one of em. From the slightly oil stained fuselage to the fuel stains around the filler caps, this is just about as real as it gets. Some FS details: it comes with a great panel, night lit gauges, a self install program that worked perfectly in my case, and it does use the 2K 182 default sounds. Much documentation about this design group is also included, I liked this a lot, as they are new to me. Included also are some teasers of upcoming projects ...tasty indeed!! Go, ... D/L ... enjoy ...t'BOOM 22-Jan-01 Santa Ana, Orange County John Wayne Airport (KSNA) by Shehryar Ansari (Shez) sna2000.zip uploaded 18-Jan-01 3,757kb FS2000 Lets see, Denver United Training Center, 19 (I think it was 19) Coast Guard Stations located in the NE USA. And now the 'DUKE', John Wayne Airport. And all these are recent uploads. What in the world does Shez do in his spare time, hehe. All I can say is Thank YOU Shez for all of your hard work. I'll let ya'll in on a secret, when I write these reviews I'm not concerned with what you think of me or my writing. The important thing is that you get a feeling that you want to take a look at the item being reviewed. Not with worn out adjectives, but with word pictures, and information about the subject. I was absolutely dazzled, and amazed by this work. And very glad to be in a helicopter so I could just hover and slowly spin around and take it all in. And go to specific areas for a look see. For instance the entrance to the airport, leading to the parking levels. I had never seen the airport before and I was impressed by the way it is put together. Quite an economy of space. This airport is smack-dab in the middle of one of the busiest terminal areas in the world, and no surprise, this is one of the busiest airports in the world. And it is designed to portray that. Part 2 of this scenery are the static planes that would occupy such a busy airport. More on the second part elsewhere. Also be sure to look for a couple of texture 'fixes'. I feel this review is somewhat inadequate, this is such a fascinating and immersive scenery that it is difficult to put into words how great it is. If you don't feel like checking it out, I've failed. And if so check out the pics and let them speak the thousand words I didn't find... C'ya in the forums. ...t'BOOM [Editor's Note: Scenery Reviewer Craig Wyzik will post a full review shortly.] 22-Jan-01 Santa Ana Orange County John Wayne Airport Static Scenery by Shehryar Ansari (Shez) snast2k.zip uploaded 18-Jan-01 1,351Kb FS2000 This is the biggie, this is the file that may bring yer cpu to its knees. This is part 2 of KSNA scenery by Shez. Since he built one of the busiest airorts in one of the busiest terminal areas he HAD to fill it chock full-o-planes... hehe... ya gotta see this!! Every kind of and size of plane is included in this file. Absoluely brings this airport to life. If you think yer system can handle it, add these static planes, make sure the sliders are at MAX and then get to work with FSTraffic. Not only here at KSNA but at the surrounding airports in the LA basin. Now there are some hours of work but what a sight when yer done!! But back to the here and now. As mentioned this is a cpu hog, but Shez has helped us out. There are some options available to help yer system deal with this scenery. One, you can remove individual bgl files to eliminate some of the load on yer system. Or change the 'dynamic scenery' setting in FS for relief. As kind of an indicator my mid level PIII 733 let me fly a copter around to take these pics, but was not at all happy about it and neither was I. I had all the bgl files installed and the sliders to the max, but for daily use I would have to compromise one way or another. You of course know your machine's limitations best but I would suggest the full install and then test it with your kind of flying. Hmmm, wonder who brokers NASA's old puters, I've gotta see this MAXED OUT!!!... C'ya in the forums. ...t'BOOM Tell A Friend About these Reviews!   Standard Disclaimer These reviews above are a subjective assessment of the work of the authors. There is no connection between the product author and the reviewer, and we feel this review is unbiased and truly reflects the performance of the product in the simming environment. This disclaimer is posted here in order provide you with background information on the reviewer and connections that may exist between him/her and the contributing party. © 2001 - AVSIM Online All Rights Reserved