So, you all thought I went into hibernation I bet? Well, close to it my friends, but the truth is I've been out flying in Flight Simulator just simply for my own pleasure, no file testing, no reviews, no screenshots, just pure flying for the pure enjoyment of it! Because of several reasons, all personal, I've not been able to provide the weekly Bear Picks, as I did in the past, but I've been trying to come up with a way to do them and continue to provide this service to you our readers. We did attempt a shot at limiting my picks to just aircraft, but even that wasn't going to work out, due to the very limited time I have for downloading, testing, and then writing the reviews.
In what I think is a workable format that I can provide, within the severely limited time constraints I have, I'm going to be listing the most popular files (downloads) from a given week and then I'm going to pick one or two additional files, from that same week, that I feel are worthy of notice that many of you may have missed. Although most of my picks will be aircraft intended for FS, I'm sure that on occasion I may choose a scenery, panel, or utility file as well.
To start off, I'm going to be going back into January and give you three weeks worth of picks to bring us up to a couple of weeks ago. My weekly posting of picks will always be two weeks behind, to give each file a chance to be counted, so that I can choose the obviously most popular and the ones that appear to have been overlooked.
January 19-25 Though the two most popular aircraft downloads this week were the N22 Nomad by OK Designs n22_nomad.zip and the Lockheed C-141B by Jose Olliver c-141b-2k2.zip. (Click on any of these file names for their Library descriptions and to download.) There were 3 other aircraft that, based on their very low download count, a lot of you may have missed!
Either of these two aircraft are a real joy to fly in FS, but it seems that many of you are unaware of Tibor Kókai's excellent design work on the Czaechoslovakian sports-training plane, the Zlin 526! These pair of Zlins are patterned after the popular aircraft used in sports flying, flight training, and glider towage across Eastern Europe. Tibor's design are geared to take advantage of FS2002, with his photorealistic 2D panel, dynamic 3D virtual cockpit, rotating tires, authentic prop, sliding canopy, custom sounds, and lighting-smoke effects!
The custom designed panel includes gauges from Jiri Masnik and Jiri Brozek, with Jiri Chvatal handling (sic) the flight dynamics! The basic model and aircraft textures were all Tibor's. I really like these FS aircraft and flying them from the virtual cockpit with the canopy open is very realistic and a lot of fun! Go back into the AVSIM library and give either of these aircraft a try, they're a real hoot to fly! ...Bear!
Zenair CH 801 V3.0 Frankly, I'm quite surprised by how few of you noticed Brian's latest version of his homebuilt Zenith 801 STOL aircraft! Listed as version 3, Brian has really outdone himself with this one! Having designed it using FSDS2, this great little FS bush aircraft now features reflective textures, custom 2D panel (by Ian Grant), and a really outstanding dynamic 3D virtual cockpit. If you desire flying a 4-passenger aircraft that you can cruise up to almost 140 knots, but can land, stop, and takeoff again in just under 500 feet, then this is the aircraft for you!
If I were to make up a list of the 10 FS aircraft I fly the most in Flight Simulator, Brian's Zenith 801 has always been firmly planted on that list, but with his latest version, it has moved up into my favorite 5 listing! I love this aircraft! Outstanding work once again from Brian Gladden! (I also suspect that this aircraft's virtual pilot is patterned after Brian, as he sports a very similar beard as the real-life Brian does?) ...Bear!
A few weeks prior, Steven, Fred, and Aaron uploaded their wheeled-ski-float version of the DHC-2 Beaver and todate they have garnished several thousand downloads, but for some reason their latest version of the Beaver, an amphibian, seems to have been overlooked by quite a large number of people. Having completely redesigned their earlier version of the Beaver, using FSDS2, these boys have now made it not only an amphibian, but they have included vastly improved texturing (32bit) and having added that dynamic shine effect, they have made their Beaver really quite realistic looking from an external view. This single download also includes 6 different paint schemes (Nightwolf Air Service, Payette Air Charter, Alaskan Bush Charters, HELIJET, Neptune Aviation, and Bush Flying Unlimited). ...Bear!
January 26 - February 1 During the week of January 26th to February 1, there were an usually low number of original aircraft uploaded, but the few that were, were all doosies! Two of them racked up some very impressive downloads numbers; first there was John L. Woodward's Lake Renegade lake.zip and then there was the 1962 Beech Debonair by Geoffrey Applegate, James Eden, Reality Xp b33.zip, which garnered over 17,000 downloads. In addition to the two beautiful FS aircraft I just mentioned, there were two others that only tallied up a few hundred downloads that are worthy of a look see by everyone. Check them out here!
Astra Westwind II Designed with Gmax, Peter Brun has designed up a rather impressive business jet with his Astra Westwind II (originally this was a Jet Commander design). Delivered in 2 paint schemes (patterned after 2 real-world aircraft), Peter's design has reflective textures, opening passenger door, night-lighting, and of course the full gamut of animated parts (including operating clam-shell reversers). Aaron Swindle and his Soundworks have once again provided an outstanding set of sounds while Mario Coelho took care of the interior workings (panel, cockpit views, and airfile, plus he took care of the custom exterior painting demands).
I really do like the version painted in Lider Tours livery and even though it lacks a 3D virtual panel, I'm quite surprised that the download count on this aircraft barely made it to 1400! You may want to backtrack the AVSIM library and pull this one up and take it for a quick spin around the block. ...Bear!
Socata TB-9 Tampico Martin Strong is no secret to those that frequent the AVSIM library, as Martin has uploaded several very well designed FS aircraft and a list of repaints as long as my arm. With Martin's latest you'll find a rather nice example of the Socata TB-9 Tampico painted in several schemes of which most are centered around the Thai Civil Aviation Training Center in Hua Hin, Thailand.
Martin's Socata is full-featured having, fully animated components, custom panel (2D), dynamic 3D virtual panel-cockpit, and reflective textures (with just a hint of that dynamic shimmer).
This is a nicely designed 2-place flight trainer that is easy to fly and affords pretty good views from the virtual cockpit. The only thing I found missing was the lack of a visible pilot from the spot view, which is not particularly important, it is just that most of us have gotten use to seeing a pilot in our aircraft when viewed from the outside.
At just barely 900 downloads, I'm sure there are more of you out there that would find this aircraft interesting and worthy of installing on your system, so why not check it out? ...Bear!
February 2 - 8
The first week of February we saw several outstanding aircraft uploaded into the library, including Al Kaiser's long awaited Boeing 307 and its a beaut', b307.zip. (I've got my eye out for his, hopefully, soon to be released Voyager!) It also seems that very few of you missed it either, as Al's B307 was the top download of the week! Another very popular FS aircraft during the first week of February was Barney Bigard's beautifully painted MiG-29 Fulcrum mig29_v3.zip. Even with these very well designed and popular aircraft, there were some real surprises from several other authors that most of you went past during your new file search (easy to do when there are over 50 files uploaded daily). Check out what else I found from the first week of February:
Canadian Air Force DHC-6 Twin Otter CC-138 With the aircraft model and panel-interior designed by Eric Dantes (Mauricio Illanes did the exterior textures) we have ourselves easily the best designed FS example of the DHC-6 Twin Otter yet (freeware or payware) and I'm pretty sure Eric's series of DHC-6s will put him on our (AVSIM) list of consideration for Maury Pratt's annual Bravo-Zulu Award as well.
Available as a tundra wheeled, ski equipped, float, or amphibian, you have several choices and you will not be disappointed. As good as these aircraft are from an external view, it is the panels (2D and fully dynamic 3D virtual) that really sets this aircraft apart from the crowd. Custom interior-panel lighting (even in the 3D mode) with a fully rendering interior (passenger seats and doors). All panel functions are available in the virtual mode (by the way of pop-up windows) and this is one aircraft I am sure, as I'm sure the majority of you would agree, will find that flying from the 3D virtual cockpit is preferred with these aircraft over the 2D panel mode.
I did note three areas of questions though, one; even though this aircraft is fully animated it did lack opening passenger doors, two; the 3D virtual panel gauges were a tiny bit fuzzy with my old video card (GeForce2 MX), and three; this aircraft and 3D panel are a bit frame rate hungry, but most of that can be associated to my having only 256MB ram and that old GeForce2 video card along with my little AMD 1.3Ghz processor.
Considering how popular Twin-Turboprop aircraft are with everyone, I was very surprised by the low number of downloads this aircraft series logged. I have to assume that the majority of you simply was unaware of just how good these aircraft are! ...Bear!
P-38 "Triple Play" Lockheed P-38F, G & H I'm always a sucker for a good Warbird, but when someone designs a complete package of the quality David C. Copley has put together for all of us, with his P-38, it just pleases me to no end! This single download includes three specific texture sets (all from real-world aircraft) including the restored "Glacier Girl" P-38! Designed using FSDS2, David has included everything; custom sound files (taken from the real Glacier Girl), 2D panel, dynamic 3D virtual panel-cockpit, fully animated components (control surfaces, fowler flaps, gear-suspension, rolling wheels, cooling vents, swiveling canopy, etc..), and a slightly reflective exterior texturing.
The flight modeling is very, very good and I found this FS aircraft to be fighter-like responsive, yet smooth and deliberate in its motions. I think everyone should be quite satisfied as to David's work on the airfile.
The absolute best thing about this aircraft is the one thing I can't show you, as the sound files are the best of the best, when it comes to duplicating the sound of a P-38! Smooth and harmonic at high throttle settings—with a bit of roughness at near idle—I just love these sounds! You've got to check it out everyone! ...Bear!
Piaggio Avanti P180 Inter Originally designed for FS2000 using FSDS Pro (version 1), Massimo Taccoli has upgraded his prior design for use in FS2002. Adding lighting effects and reflective textures, then having Mario Coelho improve on the flight dynamics and add a new 2D panel (now with full cockpit views). Coming in the single livery of Mozambique Airlines, the Piaggio Avanti P180 is the fastest civilian turboprop in the world, in current production, that can top 400 knots at 27,000 feet ASL.
I have always liked Massimo's P180s and it is nice to have it converted over for FS2002, but there was at least one minor-major error with this upload and that is the sounds from Aaron Swindle. Now this problem is not the error of Aaron, but an error on the part of either Massimo or Mario on their choice of sound files from Aaron, as the files they've included are for a big twin recip and the P180 is a turboprop! It is easy to just go ahead an alias in the default KingAir sounds, but Aaron has some really terrific sound files for Turboprops that I would like to see updated for this download. In addition this FS aircraft does have a virtual cockpit, but the roughed out panel does not have dynamic gauges.
If you would like a very fast and sexy business type turboprop, then the Piaggio Avanti P180 should be your first choice and Massimo Taccoli's Avanti is one of the best you'll find, you'll just have to get the proper sounds installed then you will be good to go! ...Bear!
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