Here we are into another week of my Picks and the files from this week's bushel of uploads contained some real gems.
February 9-15 The top downloads of that week for FS aircraft include the gMAX designed Grumman F-14B Tomcat, f14bv103.zip by Dino Cattaneo and Jeff Dobbing with over 4,500 downloads, and the Dash 8Q-300 Aircraft Package by Oleksiy Frolov/Thomas Herger, dh8-1004.zip which racked up an impressive 7,500 downloads. (Click on any of these file names for their Library descriptions and to download.)
With the scenery designs, there were 4 files that everyone seems to have noticed; Chris Arrington's Airport Environment Upgrade aeupgrade3.zip with 7,500 downloads. Arne Sundsbo, Kjell Arild Bersaas, and Jan Roar Roed offer up their version 8 Norway airport series norway8a.zip at 2,000 downloads so far; then there was Gary V's 3rd version of the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport uuee003.zip at 2,200 downloads; and finally David Jimenez Lynch and Jose M Barruezo's Madrid-Barajas International Airport scenery barajas2002.zip which has totaled up 2,500 downloads to date.
Among these popular downloads though, I did find an aircraft and a couple of scenery packs that are actually very interesting (none of which have earned much more than 4 or 5 hundred downloads each) that are my picks for the week of February 9th thru 15th, 2003:
Being as this year is the 100th anniversary of "First Flight" is seems appropriate to see more and more of those aircraft types developed for FS; that is, aircraft types that are of historic significance appear in the FS libraries. Massimo Taccoli has been developing many wonderful designs for some time now and almost always of Italian design, but this is one of his first to cover the very early Italian designs with his Savoia Marchetti SM55 flying boat. Historically speaking, this is one of those aircraft that seems to have gotten lost in history, because the first really important flights it made were in 1927—the year that Charles Lindbergh made his solo trip across the Atlantic—but two months prior to Lindy's flight, Italian Royal Air Force Colonel Francesco De Pinedo landed in New Orleans and became the first foreign pilot flying a foreign aircraft to land on US soil (March of 1927).
Massimo's designed his version of the SM55 using FSDS2 and includes two suppurate liveries, Capt. Nannini colors and that of the 1933 Marshall Italo Balbo colors (repainted by Luigi Speroni) and each model includes the choice of two panels (one is called an "adventure panel" and the other the "standard panel". Each model also has a fairly well designed dynamic 3D virtual panel-cockpit.
I would suggest trying out other sound files, as Massimo has used the default Cessna sounds with his SM55s, which I'm sure are nowhere near the true sounds of this flying boat being as it was originally powered by opposed mounted V12 engines.
Having barely achieved 900 downloads, I'm sure there are many more of you out there that would find Massimo's design well worth the download and this is truly one aircraft that is very important to Italian Aviation History! ...Bear!
Off-Shore Oil & Gas Platforms Steve Chase is obviously a helicopter nut and he has been uploading some really terrific off-shore oil-gas platforms that one can use to practice your skills with the many add-on helos available.
All of these platform add-ons are located between 40 and 60 miles north or northeast of Humberside Airport, England and each platform takes advantage of the special effects available in FS2002. There are visible and animated smoke or gas flares at many of the sites and you do get an additional bonus in that these 5 files each contain additional platforms listed as satellites.
Recently, I've been really spending some time with FS helos and I found that Steve Chase's off-shore rigs provide a real challenge for us non-helo pilots that are attempting to improve our skills with rotary winged aircraft! Either there are very few helo pilots (FS) out there or there are few of you that noticed Steve's excellent designs, because none of these files have reached 600 downloads as of yet!
So, you think you've mastered the art of flying a helo in FS? How about the challenge of landing on a platform where if you miss you have a 200 meter fall into the North Atlantic Sea! Once you get it mastered, try adding rain, poor visibility, and wind as this will duplicate the real-world conditions of this area! Excellent job Steve! ...Bear!
Maine Coastal Islands If flying in the Northeast US is something you are in a habit of doing, you just may want to check out Tom Constantine's scenery upgrade to 6 different airfields in the State of Maine. Tom has improved the scenery at the island airports of: The Islands (57B), Stonington (93B), Watson (ME40), Witherspoon (ME41), Mary Talbot Mem (ME55), and Banks Field (ME84).
Keeping it simple, Tom has added custom hangers, new taxiways, static aircraft, and various airport items or equipment which add much to the visual appearance of these smaller airports when landing at any of them.
I've stated many times that I do enjoy the idea of improving an airport-airfield's appearance by keeping the changes simple, yet breaking from that generic MS appearance that the majority of uncontrolled airports look like in Flight Simulator. There may be 22,000+ airports in FS2002, but 21,500 of them look blandly like each other! Tom's scenery add-on deserves more than the 535 downloads he's received so far. ...Bear!
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