Bear's Cave The world of Flight Simulators short reviews by Steve "Bear" Cartwright 5-July-2001 Lufthansa 737-300 & Panel by Paul Brand lufthansa7373.zip uploaded 26-June-2001 4,790/65Kb FS2000 Aircraft & panel This aircraft was designed by Mauricio Vanscoit and then with the textures reworked by Paul Brand, plus Paul applied his skills at designing what is one of my favorite panels for a Boeing 737. Though the cockpit sideviews and gauges are from Richard Probst, the main panel bmp and design is entirely Paul's! Externally this aircraft looks very good as it carries that "in-service" look with its Lufthansa livery textures, plus it sports highly detailed landing gear and the expected scrape marks on the flaps and speed brakes. The FDE is done very well, now I know it's been a while since I've flown United's full-motion simulator for the 737, but I got a strong feeling of this FS aircraft exhibiting many of the characteristics of that simulator! I like flying it very much! The panel is probably my favorite part, even if it's the 1st officer's side of the cockpit! The bitmap for the panel is taken from a photograph from a real 737-300 and though it is a bit fuzzy at night, it generally is quick excellent, especially with my 3D card (GeForce2 32mb) I'm running with my system. Paul has also added a set of clickable buttons for getting the radios, throttle-quadrant, and his design of the overhead panel to drop-down, quite handy actually! I've given this aircraft/panel package my stamp of approval because all the elements to meet my criteria are there, good eye-appeal on the externals, a very good FDE, and an equally good and quite interesting panel! I highly recommend you give this aircraft download a try on your hard drive, as it's earned a permanent spot on mine! ...Bear! 5-July-2001 Project Airbus A300-600St Beluga by Project Airbus pa306st4.zip uploaded 27-June-2001 2,840Kb FS2000 Aircraft When attempting to think of the most unusual aircraft ever conceived, the A300-600ST Beluga Airbus most certainly fits that description! Thomas Ruth, Trevor Slack, Nick Wu, and Patrick Saint-Dizier make up the Project Airbus Group and their first release is the Airbus Beluga—and it's a real duzy! This freeware aircraft lacks custom sounds or a panel at this time; regardless though, the flight dynamics and the external appearance are both equally outstanding! Looking at this aircraft from just the eye-appeal perspective affords one the experience of viewing near perfection in the accuracy and artistic ability of the Project Airbus Group! From the gear animation (including rolling wheels), pilot's head that turn with the rudder, tilting gear bogies, thrust-reversers, and working forward cargo hatch (by shutting down of either engine, the forward fuselage section opens up to reveal a fully textured cargo bay area). There is even a RAT (emergency Ram Air Turbine) that deploys in-flight if the engines shut-down; amazing! If you haven't downloaded Project Airbus' "Beluga" yet, give it a shot, you won't be disappointed! ...Bear! 5-July-2001 MiG-21SMT "Fishbed-K" by Kirk Olsson mig-21smt.zip uploaded 29-June-2001 838Kb FS2000 Aircraft Kirk Olsson has done it again with his latest release, the MiG-21 SMT long-range interceptor (NATO designated "Fishbed")! As with Kirk's last release (C-17 Globemaster III), this MiG-21 sports very sharply detailed photorealistic external texturing. With fully animated gear, gear doors, speed-brakes, flaps, the pilot's head, and nose wheel this aircraft is a screenshot waiting to happen. Obviously I haven't flown a real MiG-21 nor have I ever even spoke with anyone who has, but based on what I have read or have seen during interviews with MiG-21 experienced pilots, this FS Aircraft seems to fly very near to the real thing as to what I would expect. At least it exhibits some of the characteristics that have been noted by those real pilots, such as the need for a lot of speed during landing or its twitchiness over MACH 1.0 and such. Cruising at FL320 with MACH .97 on the ole' mach-meter this aircraft is as steady as a rock, but as you approach MACH 2.0 this FS Aircraft does exhibit a bit of directional instability. Actual pilots of the MiG-21 SMT have also noted a similar experience and most engineers have concluded that this characteristic is caused by the hump backed fuselage shape (behind the pilot's head) where the extended range fuel is contained. Whatever the case, Kirk Olsson has duplicated this characteristic handling in his FS version. Since the time that I downloaded this aircraft I have logged about 12 hours of flight time and probably 30+ landings—frankly this is truly one of my favorite all time aircraft to fly. Its performance is extraordinary, and even though it's a bit tricky on approach, with experience you'll be greasing your landings with this aircraft in no time. ...Bear! 5-July-2001 Douglas C-124C USAF Oklahoma Air Guard Reg. Nr. 0-20998 by FS Design Workshop Berlin c124oag.zip uploaded 1-July-2001 1,390Kb FS2000 Aircraft   Arik Hohmeyer has completed his first project as head of the "FS Design Workshop Berlin" and his first effort is quite good! This aircraft's design and textures were put together by Arik, with Dave McQueen providing the FDE (some modification by Chris Grabow), parts animation by Chris Grabow, aircraft data research by Alf Werner & Hans Hermann. The Douglas C-124C was actually an aircraft based on the old C-74 Globemaster (designed at the end of World War II) and this FS model represents an aircraft that was operated out of the Berlin-Tempelhof Airport in the early 1970s. Even though this aircraft is shy a panel and/or custom sounds, I believe it is worth a look see for all you propeller heads out there! Arik recommends a DC-4/DC-6 panel for now (same for the sounds as well), but it is their intent at FS-Design-Workshop-Berlin to start work on designing a custom panel here shortly. ...Bear!     6-July-2001 Toussus-Le-Noble LFPN (France) by S. Michaux lfpn2k.zip; uploaded 2-July-2001 701Kb FS2000 Scenery S. Michaux has applied his skills at rendering the Toussus-le-Noble airport (LFPN) located just on the outskirts of Paris, France and his results are quite well done. Mr. Michaux's readme file is almost entirely in French and my French reading skills are very poor at best, but it is quite obvious that he has followed true to the real airport in almost all respects—as he has provided airport photographs for you to compare his work. The custom designed buildings and surrounding area all have custom photorealistic textures and frankly look precisely like the buildings and area depicted in the actual photographs. There are a number of static aircraft, unique hangers, corrected taxiways (over MS), and custom runway textures. Very simple in its application, yet highly accurate as compared to the photographs of the Toussus-Le-Noble airport. All the while this scenery should maintain a good frame rate on your system. If you're into collecting excellent & accurate airport sceneries for France, then you don't want to pass this one up. ...Bear! 6-July-2001 SIAI-Marchetti SM1019 by Massimo Taccoli sm1019.zip; uploaded uploaded 3-July-2001 2,750Kb FS2000 Aircraft, panel & sounds Massimo Taccoli has taken his excellent FS aircraft model, the Cessna OE-1 "Bird-dog", and converted it over to a Siai-Marchetti SM1019. Ironically this is exactly how the original SM1019s were built; that is, the conversion of Cessna OE-1s by installing a single Allison-250 turboprop engine rated at 400shp. Eighty of these FAC & Liason aircraft were built for the Italian Army between 1972 and 1979; and even though they (the original) were based on the Cessna OE-1s, they were obviously heavily modified to accommodate the Allison turboprop engine. In addition, hardpoints were added to allow the installation of up to 500lbs of ordinance. Massimo's FS version of the SM1019 is extraordinary and has all that we have come to expect from him—beautiful exterior texturing, fully animated parts (even including rolling wheels/tires), custom panel, and one of the best sound packages (modified by Aaron R. Swindle) I can think of. The sound of this FS aircraft is a 3-way cross between a Cessna, a Pilatus PC-6, and a North American P-51—truly unique. This FS Aircraft, panel, sound package is more than deserving of my "Bear Approved" stamp! ...Bear! 6-July-2001 Maule M-7, M-7-235C Orion by Steven Grant maule_float.zip; uploaded 29-June-2001 m7235.zip; uploaded 4-July-2001 1,075/716Kb FS2000 Aircraft & panel A couple of weeks ago Steven Grant uploaded his original version of the Maule M-7 (with tri-cycle landing gear) and now he has completed his package with the M-7-235C Orion (taildragger) and the M-7 Float versions of this very popular STOL aircraft. The real Maule's are an excellent step up from the Piper SuperCubs. Due to their (the Maules) 5 seat capacity and greater speed (cruise at 145+ knots), they've proven safe and are quite capable of handling the rough & tumble action of "Bush" flying in Canada, the Great Northwest, or Alaska. Steve's FS aircraft are FSDS designed, with fully animated parts (even includes rolling wheels/tires), realistic texturing, and a custom panel. All of these aircraft would be a nice addition to your hard drive and I highly recommend them! (Be sure to thoroughly read the installation instructions for the Float version of the Maule Super Rocket, otherwise your sounds will be inoperative!) ...Bear! 6-July-2001 Arkansas Ozarks Mesh - Heber Springs Plus by Skip's Scenery for FS2k (Skip M.) ar_oz_hz.zip; uploaded 5-July-2001 2,020Kb FS2000Scenery Skip's Scenery for FS2K has given us the Grand Tetons and Yosemite National Park mesh scenery in the past and now Skip has turned his skills toward the Heber-Springs Muni airport in Arkansas! Now, for this scenery to work properly, you must have the Arkansas Ozark Mesh (Ar_Ozm1.zip & Ar_Ozm2.zip) installed along with Gerrish Gray's tree textures (trees_Ou.zip), but the end result is fantastic! Besides the photorealistic airport textures for the buildings, taxiways, and those excellent Gerrish Gray 3D trees, Skip has also included the dams on Beaver, Bull Shoals, Norfork, and Greers Ferry lakes. Plus he has corrected Microsoft's floating lake problem in this area. Overall this scenery is approaching the realistic appearance of Richard Goldstein's "Flying M" Ranch scenery and it all comes with my highest recommendation. The only thing I found missing were any static or dynamic aircraft to make this scenery complete (you may notice the static and dynamic aircraft in my screenshots here and those were added by me using FSTraffic). This is a fascinating scenery download and Skip has done an outstanding job with it - again! ...Bear!   Tell A Friend About these Reviews!   Standard Disclaimer These mini-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 these reviews are unbiased and truly reflects the performance of the product in the simming environment. This disclaimer is posted here in order provide you with background information on the reviewer and connections that may exist between him/her and the contributing party. © 2001 - AVSIM Online All Rights Reserved