Though it has been noticeably slow over the previous two weeks (last couple of weeks of February), the first full week of March we saw a number of quality files enter the AVSIM library—and based on the number of downloads counted, few of you missed the big ones. First there were a couple of very nice Convairs, a CV-240 (240aal.zip) and a very nice CV-340 (340fal.zip) developed in Gmax by Gregg Pepper and friends; a fairly popular Boeing B1B bomber designed by the I³D Project Team (b1b.zip); another Antonov AN-22 (antonov_an-22.zip) from Dimitri Samborski; and finally a very popular Stemme Motor Glider (stemme.zip) from Alan Kaiser.
On the scenery side, the Irish Flight Sim Design group released version 1.0 of their Irish Scenery package (ifsdv10.zip) which clocked an amazing 5,000+ downloads in two weeks. This brings up a suggestion that I have for a few of you scenery designers, as I did find a couple of uploaded sceneries (one for the United Kingdom and the other for Australia) that showed great promise, based on their supplied jpgs. Unfortunately, because these sceneries were for airports or airfields not supported by the default FS2002 menu, I was unable to find them after installation. It would have been nice if the authors had included, at the very least, the coordinates (longitude & latitude) in their readme file, but none could be found. It's unfortunate because I can only guess at the amount of work that goes into designing a well thought out scenery, so its disappointing to all (the original author and those that have downloaded their work) that it can't be found so that it can be enjoyed.
Even considering that there were a number of aircraft files that were very popular this week, I did manage to find a couple of files that apparently need to be pointed out:
March 2-March 8 (Click on any of these file names for their Library descriptions and to download.)
Totaling to date just barely 1,500 downloads was this very nicely done Mudry CAP-10B, using Gmax, by Vincent Daudon. The Mudry is a 2-seat (side by side) French aerobatic plane and I found Vincent's version to be above average in all respects. The single download includes 3 different liveries and it also has a Jean Pierre Langer designed 3D virtual cockpit-panel (dynamic). All the new standard features (reflective textures, animated parts, opening canopy, and smoke) are included and I found that the FDE is also very reasonably designed (Vincent also did the airfile). If you're looking for another aerobatic aircraft from a lesser known manufacturer, check out Vincent Daudon's French Mudry CAP-10B! ...Bear!
BAe 146-200/300 "QT" Quiet Trader Jon Murchison has thrown his hat in to the ring of FS aircraft designers with these very nicely designed cargo versions of the BAe146/RJ100 aircraft. One file (1462qt.zip) is of the BAe 146-200 and the other file (1463qt.zip) is of the BAe 146-300—and each has fully reflective textures with the dynamic shine, plus fully animated components, wheels, rolling tires, flaps, spoilers (spoilers that only deploy once you're on the ground), opening passenger door (the stairway slides out, unfolds, then rotates to the ground as it should). Jon has also included a special scenery depicting the loading of cargo (after shutting the engines down, strike the "G" or gear key and the add-on scenery appears). Also included are some rather unique night-lighting effects including a fully rendered interior just inside the open passenger door. Jon has included a (very) basic panel, but a quick search in the AVSIM library should find you the appropriate replacement. At just over 550 downloads for one file and a little over 900 for the other these are far less than I would have expected for either of these aircraft. Go back and take a look at these very well designed and interesting BAe 146s of Jon Murchison's. ...Bear!
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