Bear's Cave The world of Flight Simulators short reviews by Steve "Bear" Cartwright 04-Feb-2001 Welcome to Midway Field, Icy Bay, Alaska! by Don Moser icy_bay.zip uploaded 29-Jan-2001 852Kb FS2000 Icy Bay, Alaska is another in a long line of Bush Sceneries from Don Moser (Alaska by Don) and it is just a little different than what Don has normally done. Different only in that I have so many Alaska bush sceneries installed that I can most often simply look at a scenery and I can, more often than not, tell you who designed it. I really like this particular scenery and besides the paved runway, trees, static aircraft, and other typical scenery items, there's also the campground/ranger park about a mile or two away, with a small dirt strip, cabins, and a lookout tower (fire lookout tower I assume)! This scenery includes some items or little touches that Don normally hasn't included in his sceneries before, updated static aircraft macros from Fred Banting and the like... I really like this! Icy Bay is a real location and in fact is the main air field supplying the area's needs for a good 50 to 100 mile radius or so, plus there is General Aviation repair available in addition to the airfreight hanger. Icy Bay is located about 50 or 60 miles West/Northwest of Yakutat, Alaska or roughly midway between Juneau and Valdez! Which may sound like a good morning's hop for that hot cup of coffee or something, but you might consider bringing along a thermos. If you start your flight from either Valdez (160 miles Northwest) or Juneau (210 miles Southeast) it's about a 2 hour trip or better in a SuperCub... hehehe! It seems that everytime I've asked for directions, when I've been in Alaska, the answer was always, oh it's only about a 1,000 miles that way to Nome, or it's only about a 1,000 miles this way to Valdez...? Alaska is a big state and a lot of fun flying in, but having these excellent bush sceneries from Don really adds to flying there... thanks Don! ...Bear! 5-Feb-2001 Learjet 35A V1 by Andrew Farnaby / Rob Young fly!learjet35a.zip uploaded 31-Jan-2001 647Kb FLY! Well, Andrew Farnaby, Rob Young, and Peter Sidoli have done it again with their latest upload of what has to be of my all-time personal favorite aircraft, the Learjet Model 35A! I've always thought that the Learjet models 21 through 35 are what comes to most people's mind when they hear the name Learjet—and Andrew Farnaby has outdone himself with this aircraft! Overall the external appearance is quite striking; from the near photorealistic landing gear to the chromeplated engine air inlets, Andrew has created a new favorite among the posters in the Screenshot forum! All of the 3D modeling and texturing was handled by Andrew Farnaby, with the flight modeling from Rob Young and once again, Peter Sidoli provided the flight testing and it's obvious that Peter has done this before! This aircraft (version 1) uses the default Hawker Panel, but we'll forgive them this, besides that's an excellent panel regardless! I'm sure that all the FLY users have already downloaded this really beautiful aircraft, but in the event you've been away on the planet Mars or something, get on over to the AVSIM library and download this aircraft today, you'll be very pleased! ...Bear! 04-Feb-2001 Taku Lodge, Alaska by Joe Watson Taku.zip uploaded 30-Jan-2001 1,320Kb FS2000 I've researched my bush scenery files for Joe's name and I don't believe that I've had the opportunity to enjoy any prior work he may have done; so if this is his first work, then I'm very impressed! Heck anyways, I'm impressed even if this was his 100th scenery addon! Joe has included several very interesting touches with his scenery, including a dockside hanger and fuel pumps for float planes, interesting nightlighting, a radio tower with the appropriate red flashing beacon, multi-unit cabins, and several static aircraft. For all of you flying wheeled bush planes, Joe suggests that you use the open road out back of the Lodge, but be careful of those that are there for the local pub an may have had one too many of the local brewskis'! The Taku Lodge really does exist, but Joe admits that he has fictionalized it somewhat by being free with his additions (call it poetic license, if you will) and frankly I think this is okay! Makes for a much more interesting place to visit. Taku Lodge is located about 22 miles Northeast (heading of 42º) from the Juneau International airport, just under some rather steep and dramatic cliffs. Joe also explains in his readme file that his scenery is designed with Eddie Denney's Alaska Mesh scenery installed and he doesn't know if it will work properly with the default mesh and I don't know either! This scenery does include some exclude and/or flatten switches, but this should be old hat to anyone that's installed scenery before. So head on over to AVSIM's library and download this scenery asap! Nice work Joe! ...Bear! 04-Feb-2001 Qantas, Airbus A380 by Camil Valiquette 380qf_l3.zip uploaded 1-Feb-2001 213Kb FS2000 Of the real old-timers (sorry Camil, don't mean to imply that you're old or getting old..., I mean old-timers in the flightsim community) has been Camil Valiquette and his work has always been extraordinary! As a true pioneer in the development of the latest heavies from either Boeing or Airbus, it's always Camil that's been first on the draw at making them available as freeware to all of us flight simmers out there. The first Airbus A380 has yet to be delivered (or has only just been delivered) and here's Camil and his A380 in Qantas livery uploaded already and with his latest in ideas as to lighting too! To the best of my knowledge, it was Camil that first introduced the tail splash (night lighting), then it was the fuselage splash, and now with his L3 series of ProMax aircraft, it's the light reflection of the cabin windows onto the top of the wing! Now, I've heard some comment that Camil's aircraft lack some of the super detail (as with many of the latest commerical FS aircraft), mostly involving the landing gear, but while flying these aircraft they are very authentic appearing and quite sharp in their detail when airborne—plus his download files are of a very reasonable size! Don't let the file size fool you though, as Camil's aircraft are always very good looking and crisp appearing! Where Camil is really deserving of credit is with his airfiles, as Camil just quietly develops his aircraft—always with the latest paints and new ideas in lighting and such—but his real skill is at developing the airfiles for his creations! I have read many a review of his aircraft and it's the airfile that always gets everyone's attention... they're very very good! If flying the heavies are your thing, then this latest from Camil is a must have! Yeah Camil, you did it again, another winner! ...Bear! 05-Feb-2001 Delta Boeing 727-200 Advanced by B Alicea/K Trinkle/G Carlson delta7272oc.zip uploaded 3-Feb-2001 983Kb FS2000 I'm personally somewhat prone to always like anything in the Delta Air Lines livery, but regardless of that fact, this is a truly beautiful example of the Boeing 727-200! This aircraft is the result of the combined skills of some rather talented individuals: Original AFX and paint, Kevin Trinkle; Updated paint & textures, Bill Alicea and Gary Carlson; Base Textures, Kevin Trinkle, Michael Pickney, and Steve Kempf; and the FDE, Sam Chin! This aircraft was developed with FSDS Pro and includes all the latest in FS2K night lighting, transparent cockpit, tail-skid, Krueger flaps, slats, fully animated landing gear & doors, 3D gear bays, and switchable landing lights! This aircraft also includes highly accurate 512 x 512 bitmap textures, making for some near photographic like screenshots. Sam Chin is practically a legend for his airfiles, so you can guess how well it flies!!! I've already put probably 3 or 4 hours into flying this specific aircraft and chances are it will most likely be one of my regulars (considering I have approximately 700 aircraft loaded into my sim, this says alot about how much I like this particular aircraft)! This aircraft uses the FS default 3-engine heavy-jet panel, but a quick search in the various site libraries should afford you a high quality panel designed specifically for the Boeing 727 (Paul Golding has a very good 727 panel, though it's designed for FS98, and then there's Richard Probst/Chris Arrington of whom have an excellent 727 panel with an available update file that converts it for use in FS2000; either panel is an excellent choice)! Well, enough talk, I'm going to hop in my copy of the Delta Air Lines 727-200 and make a quick flight over to Phoenix maybe; I suggest you do the same! Check this one out from our library! ...Bear! 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. 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