A review of the week of April 20 - 26 has revealed another batch of popular files, particularly more aircraft from well known FS designers like Brian Gladden and Mike Stone. Brian is this week's winner, for having uploaded the most popular file, with the release of his Pilatus PC-12 at just shy of 5,000 downloads to date (pc-12_corp.zip); next up was a combined package based on Mike Stone's Super Constellation (vq1_c121.zip), and finally a scenery package of the Ben Gurion airport at Tel-Aviv by Chanan Epstein (bgn90xp.zip).
Regardless of these excellent files, I still managed to find 2 interesting bush scenery packages along with a rather outstanding FS aircraft that have had little or no activity, so check out my findings here!
April 20 – April 26 (Click on any of these file names for their Library descriptions and to download.)
A couple of weeks ago, Morton Rupp, released his bush scenery of Lake Perseverance Fishing Camp and Resort, now Morton has added Peninsula Point Pullout to his list of bush sceneries—and like his prior add-on this one is also quite well done. Morton is proving himself very adapt at designing quality bush sceneries and Peninsula Point Pullout has a couple of interesting ideas new to scenery design. One is the concrete ramp for you amphibious aircraft bush pilots to use and you will also note that the ramp parked float-only static aircraft are loaded onto wooden trailers. Morton's scenery also includes subtle night-lighting so that you can find the ramp or dock at night time.
To find Peninsula Point Pullout, just look under Ketchikan from the default airport menu and be ready with your favorite float or amphibian aircraft, because there is no airstrip, like many locations in Alaska. ...Bear!
Rocky Bay Homestead Tom Fica is one of the established regulars at designing North American bush scenery and he adds Rocky Bay Homestead to his long list of add-on sceneries. Located across the Kenai Mountains, 21 miles south of Homer, AK, Rocky Bay is positioned on the Gulf of Alaska. Ironically, it was only 3 years ago that I caught my biggest Halibut to-date, barely 5 miles off the coast directly south from Tom's fictional scenery of Rocky Bay Homestead.
Despite Tom's scenery being fictional, it is typical of this area to have farm-ranches of this nature, homesteads that are semi-self sufficient at providing for the families living there. This is particularly true of the upper end of Katchimak Bay, which is only a stone's throw from Rocky Bay (back over the Kenai Mountains) and easily reached in your favorite bush plane. Tom's scenery is simple yet very authentic appearing, including a rustic barn, corralled horses, an old tractor parked nearby, and of course a quonset-hut homestead house.
Located within a 75 miles radius of Tom's scenery is also some of the most spectacular natural scenery in all of North America, including: numerous glaciers, Kenai Fjords National Park, Harden Ice Fields, Seward, and Prince William Sound and even in FS2002 this area is quite amazing. There have been many add-on bush sceneries for most of Alaska (Alaska Peninsula, Central Alaska, Kodiak Island, and Southeast Alaska), but there has been little if anything for the Kenai Peninsula; and considering the amount of time I have spent in this area I'm very glad to see some add-on bush scenery become available for the Kenai Peninsula, thanks Tom! ...Bear!
Piaggio PD-808 v1. Just when I thought it wasn't possible to design something new for FS2002, Mario Noriega shows me how foolish that feeling is with his very outstanding design of the Piaggio PD-808, an aircraft that I must admit I am totally unfamilar with (in real-life). With all the earmarks of an FS aircraft designed with Gmax or FSDSv2, Mario claims he used neither to develop his aircraft, yet it has fully animated components, reflective textures, and dynamic sunlight reflections.
According to Mario's readme file, there were only 27 of the Piaggio PD-808s built, all eventually ending up in the Italian military as apparently there were no civilian customers interested. Mario's download file comes in 5 different paint schemes, including the bright orange-aluminum prototype colors.
This FS aircraft uses the default Lear45 for its panel and sounds and it does lack a dynamic 3D virtual panel, but it looks very good from spot view and it seems to handle quite well, without any noticeable vices in my short flights with them, so maybe someone can come up with an appropriate panel that would be fitting of this aircraft?
Meanwhile, if well designed FS aircraft are on your schedule to check out, then don't let this one slip by. ...Bear!
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