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Bear's Cave
The world of Flight Simulators
short reviews by Steve "Bear" Cartwright
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Well it's been awhile since I've been in a position to post my bi-weekly picks, due to my having been busy with my "Bear's Baker's Dozen Picks" and such, but this week I'm catching up—all the way back to July 24th, with a total of 15 picks (5 aircraft and 10 scenery packages) that have been uploaded into the AVSIM library! So take a look, as I'm sure there's something for everyone here!
25-August-2001
Leeds/Bradford v1
by Paul Baines
leedsv1.zip
uploaded 5-Aug-2001
2,130Kb
FS2000 Scenery
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Paul Baines has given us several sceneries for the United Kingdom in the past and he continues with his latest release, the Leeds/Bradford airport. Paul has been pretty busy with giving us his many sceneries for the smaller airports in the North of England (also check on Paul's Manchester and Manchester/Barton sceneries) and he continues with the next one on his list—with a very accurate and very realistic appearing Leeds/Bradford airport. I use Paul's Manchester/Barton airport for many of my test flights and screenshots, but now he's given me another excellent screenshot location. With this scenery, Paul has added the nearby hills and with the trees placed on their crests it provides you with a very realistic country appearance as the immersion value is very high with Paul's sceneries. Outstanding!
Other suggested sceneries:
barton.zip by Paul Baines
man2001.zip by Paul Baines (check on updates)
menwith.zip by Lawrence Mann
...Bear!
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25-August-2001
USN VAQ-141 EA-6B Prowler
by Rick Sasala/Justin Lamb
ea-6bv2.zip uploaded 7-Aug-2001
1,170Kb
FS2000 Aircraft
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Rick Sasala designed this aircraft from scratch using FSDS (an excellent tool which seems to be the current rage when designing high quality FS aircraft) and Rick has done and excellent job at designing a US Navy EA-6B Prowler (the EA-6B is designated to protect surface ships and other aircraft by its radar jamming abilities).
This aircraft carries a 4-man crew and Rick has depicted them all quite well. Fully animated parts with the textures (all new by the way) having been applied by Justin Lamb. This FS aircraft also includes two (FS2000 only) airfiles; one for land operations and another for carrier operations. This is a quality upgraded version to Rick's earlier (v1) model of the EA-6B Prowler. No panel is included, but Rick did include the learjet panel and sounds. (I've been unable to locate an appropriate panel for this aircraft as of yet!)
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Rick's version 2 of the EA-6B Prowler is very well done, with all issues related to his version 1 having been corrected and I found the flight modeling to be what you would expect from a heavy aircraft capable of carrier operations. Check it out! ...Bear!
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25-August-2001
Como and Intl. Seaplane Station
by Carlo Benenti (Italy)
comoseaplane.zip
uploaded 8-Aug-2001
455Kb
FS2000 Scenery
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I've had a couple of scenery downloads previously installed for the Como Seaplane base (located in Northern Italy) and resort area, but I truly like Carlo Benenti's Como scenery the best so far! Carlo's has even gone as far as to include the beautiful Catherdral located within the Medievel Wall, surrounding the inter-city area. The scenery installation files are in both Italian and English, which is quite helpful for those of us that are language impaired – like me – and the installation of these files is straight forward and simple.
Unlike my other sceneries for this area, Carlos has added an extensive amount of custom buildings into the City and plenty of static floatplanes and sailboats in the harbor. I've removed all my older scenery addons for Como and have replaced them with Carlo's, a very cool upload! ...Bear!
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25-August-2001
Ultralight Auto Gyro Beta V1
by K. Johnson
ugyro.zip
uploaded 10-Aug-2001
341Kb
FS2000 Aircraft
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This one almost got by completely unnoticed by myself, but I'm sure glad I did download and then take this little auto-gyro for a spin, because it's a real blast to fly! This is powered flight at its absolute minimum, believe me! This little aircraft includes a fully functional panel, even in the virtual cockpit mode as well as the normal mode, but you'll probably find yourself using the virtual mode almost exclusively, as I did. The only thing missing from Mr. Johnson's auto-gyro is a 3D pilot, but it'll do as is regardless. Custom panel, working gauges in the virtual panel mode, and an excellently rendered FSDS model from the spot-view—all the earmarks of a great little aircraft!
Overall, flying this thing is a bit of a challenge, as it's not really a helicopter and it's not really a fixed-winged aircraft either, meaning that you have to develop skills somewhere in between the two. I won't even begin to hint at how many times I've crashed this thing, but it's fun anyway! ...Bear!
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25-August-2001
Teesside Airport
by Don Alexander
egnv21.zip
uploaded 11-Aug-2001
1,930Kb
FS2000 Scenery
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Teesside is another, yet somewhat larger airport than most of its neighbors up in the Northern section of England. Given that Microsoft had rendered (with some accuracy too) the correct runway with surrounding taxiways and even to some of the buildings with the default Teesside, Don Alexander has given us a much improved version. From the near photorealistic runway approaches, taxiways, and many of the out-buildings to the perimeter fences, tree lines, and apartment buildings Don has done an outstanding job.
This airport scenery combined with the many scenery downloads for other airports in this area (Manchester, Barton, and Leeds are all a short distance away) can make flight simming in this area just that much more enjoyable. This is another scenery package that I highly recommend and I hope to see much more from Mr. Alexander in the future. ...Bear!
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26-August-2001
Tacoma Narrows Airport (TIW), Tacoma, Washington
by Bob Bernstein
tacoma.zip
uploaded 11-Aug-2001
3,970Kb
FS2000 Scenery
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Another very outstanding airport design coming from the hand of Bob Bernstein (all of Bob's sceneries are airports located in the western Washington State area, so far) and it seems with every new upload, Bob's small airport design skill continues to improve. The Tacoma-Narrows Airport is located just near the infamous Tacoma-Narrows bridge, which gained some notoriety in 1940 when a miss-engineered bridge collapsed during a wind-storm. That earlier bridge was called "Galloping Gurdie"!
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So far Bob has given us: Bowerton, Elma, Monroe, Harvey, and the Pierce County (Thun) airports, using photorealistic textures and always with some new building design innovation. Bob's latest night-lighting textures are greatly improved over most that I've seen and do provide some truly real-world like experiences and some really great dusk time screenshots. As with Richard Goldstein (Flying M, Escalante, and Hurricane airports, among others), Bob Bernstein has, so far, restricted his designs to the smaller airports (which I like to fly into much more than the larger-crowded airports anyway), so I'm of the opinion that anything that Bob Bernstein does is a must have scenery and that opinion continues with his Tacoma-Narrows Airport design! ...Bear!
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26-August-2001
Princess Juliana International Airport v.1.0
by Chris Kilroy & Thomas Lorentzen
sxm2001.zip
uploaded 12-Aug-2001
6,110Kb
FS2000 Scenery
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The Princess Juliana International Airport is located on the island of St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles (Caribbean) and has what is arguably the most photographed runway approach in all the world. Chris Kilroy and Thomas Lorentzen have rendered this airport using a combination of rendered 3D objects, static aircraft, photorealistic ground/water textures, and mesh scenery. If this all sounds a little less than frame rate friendly, your impressions are correct; but I found the frame rates, on my system (AMD 1.2Ghz & 512mb ram), to be more than acceptable and they never fell below the 15 fps mark or so. You do have to install some exclude files and flatten switches and this scenery is best viewed with Lennart Arvidsson's summer textures, but I found it to be easy to install and quite acceptable with the default textures as well!
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This scenery, along with Thomas Kwong's Kai Tak (Hong Kong) airport scenery, have easily prompted the highest number of posted screenshots in the AVSIM screenshot forum and I would imagine this trend will continue! With the landing gear of the large jetliners, on short final approach, barely more than 100 feet above the beautiful beaches of St Maarten, this scenery package provides some challenging approaches. Even for the accomplished flight simmer! ...Bear!
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26-August-2001
Photorealistic LGAT 2001
by Panos Georgotas
lgat2001.zip
uploaded 15-Aug-2001
11,900Kb
FS2000 Scenery
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Due to the opening of the Eleutherios Venizelos Airport in Athens, Greece, the Athens Hellenikon International Airport was closed to commercial traffic on the 28th of March of 2001. Panos Georgotas has now released his version of the once crowded Hellenikon airport (LGAT) and I found it to be very outstanding and obviously something that required many hours to develop.
With photorealistic building textures, many different airport 3D airport objects, nearby city buildings, a boatyard, and even a local sports stadium, Panos Georgotas has designed an airport that's very close to the real-thing (based on photographs I've seen).
The one truly outstanding item that Panos has created though are the grass textures for this airport. They (these textures) look really great and now I'm trying to figure out how to use them for all my airports! (check out my screenshots here and you'll see what I mean) Nice work Panos! ...Bear!
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26-August-2001
Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport (MWC)
by Steve Gonwa
mwc01.zip
uploaded 16-Aug-2001
1,283Kb
FS2000 Scenery
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Steve has given us his excellent example of the General Mitchell International Airport (MKE) in Milwaukee, WI and he continues here with the Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport (MWC) located a short distance from MKE!
Like his earlier airport renderings, Steve has stuck to offering a very realistic appearing airport with photorealistic building textures, runway/taxiway improvements, and a compliment of static aircraft. So if flying in the Milwaukee area is your cup of tea, then download Steve's work here and then plan a stop at Steve's "Lawrence J. Timmerman" airport and maybe you might want to get a cup of coffee over at the "Skyroom" bar and restaurant while you're there! ...Bear!
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26-August-2001
OA-10/A-10 Thunderbolt II
by Kirk Olsson
a-10.zip
uploaded 17th August 2001
a-10_warthog.zip
uploaded 17th August 2001
1,674kb/1,838kb
FS2000 Aircraft
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Kirk Olsson has given all of us some of the most realistic appearing aircraft (mostly military types) that are available as freeware—and he continues now with a very realistic appearing A-10! Officially called the "Thunderbolt II" by the USAF, this aircraft has gained the nickname of "Warthog" by its pilots, but the Iraqi ground forces during the Gulf War called it the "Devil's Cross" due to the high-pitched shrill of its twin TurboFan engines and it's cross-like appearance when turning back on a target!
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Originally designed as a "Cold War" warrior to help balance the tank number superiority that the Soviets/East Germans held over the West, the A-10 Warthog is a highly developed close support aircraft or "tank-killer" if you will! The A-10, lacking in advanced avionics and computer systems, has more akin to a World War II attack aircraft than it does to a modern jet fighter; and this aircraft was slated for the boneyard back in 1990, right when the Gulf War broke out. The A-10, in combat for the first time, proved its value when A-10s, flying over the sands of Kuwait, literally destroyed enemy armor at will. Between its Maverick missiles and its highly formidable 30mm gatling gun (with a fire rate approaching 100 rounds per second of its uranium enriched 30mm anti-armor cannon shells) many Iraqi tank crews simply abandoned their armor and ran into the desert night when they heard the turbofan shrill of the A-10s overhead.
Kirk has uploaded two versions of the A-10, one lacking any weapons stores and with new appearing texturing, and a second version (a-10_warthog.zip) that includes weapons and more weathered appearing external textures. Personally I take my Warthogs loaded for bear (no pun intended)! As always, Kirk did not provide a custom panel or custom sounds, but an internet search of the common FS libraries should reveal both! ...Bear!
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27-August-2001
General Mitchell International Airport (MKE)
by Steve Gonwa
mke01v1.zip
uploaded 17-Aug-2001
1,983Kb
FS2000 Scenery
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Steve Gonwa has provided two excellent airport sceneries (the other is Lawrence Timmerman Airport also in the Milwaukee area) and his example of the General Mitchell International Airport is outstanding. Steve originally uploaded this file into the AVSIM library back in March of this year, but he has seen fit to re-introduce this outstanding airport scenery package once again.
Steve's airport design places the terminal and hangers accurately, runways and taxiways are corrected, with over 200 taxiway signs, and the correct aircraft liveries (static aircraft) are placed at their respective gates. Overall this is a top-notch airport scenery add-on and I highly recommend you take a look, install this scenery, then spend an afternoon exploring its many outstanding features! Excellent work Steve, keep them coming! ...Bear!
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27-August-2001
Wilderness Cabin Bush Scenery
by Naji Chehabeddine
wildcab.zip
uploaded 21-Aug-2001
1,490Kb
FS2000 Scenery
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This is Naji's very first attempt at designing FS2000 scenery and frankly I'm quite impressed and surprised he's (Naji) never done this before. Located just south of the Brooks Range (Northern Alaska mountain range for all you flatlanders out there), the Wilderness Cabin has a medium sized lake (that generally freezes in winter), evergreen trees scattered about, a 1,300 foot dirt runway, and a number of hunter/adventurer lodges on the shore of the small lake there!
Naji used those very unique tree macros of Gerrish Gray that rotate as you change your viewing angle and are very realistic appearing. One of the things that took a bit for me to notice was that Naji applied a large number of trees, but in a very random way (much like how nature is) and he also spread them out over a much larger area, giving one much better immersion into the sim when landing there.
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If bush flying in Canada or Alaska is something you enjoy, then I would highly recommend you add Naji Chehabeddine to your list of bush scenery designers and download his scenery, Wilderness Cabin right away!
(While writing this mini-review, I referred back to Naji's readme file and only just now noticed that he give some credit to me for his first scenery! It seems that Naji read my article "Bush Flying in North America" and this prompted him to try bush flying and then to start thinking about designing bush scenery. Thanks Naji!) ...Bear!
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27-August-2001
SkyWest Canadair Jet
by Wolfgang Kulhanek 2001
canadskyw1.zip
uploaded 22-Aug-2001
6,890Kb
FS2000 Aircraft
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With little noise or fanfare, Wolfgang Kulhanek slipped a really beautiful example of the Canadair SkyWest Jet into the AVSIM library, but it caught my eye on the day that it did! Designed with FSDS and using photorealistic external textures, Wolfgang has designed one of the best looking Canadair jets available. Equipped with fully animated parts (steerable nose gear, flaps, spoilers, rudder, landing gear, etc.) this aircraft, on my initial flights, appears to fly quite well and I experienced no negative surprises.
It was uploaded using the default panel and sounds, but an appropriate panel can be found in the AVSIM library (view suggestions below) after a brief search. I would suggest that you take a close look at Wolfgang's beautiful little aircraft and give it a spin around the block! ...Bear!
suggested panels:
fs2kcrj200pl_pnv10.zip by David Durst/Bill Alderson
rj_dlx.zip by John Schumacher
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The Europe Flight Sim Creators, consisting of Frans Vranken (Belgium), Jean-Pierre Langer (Monaco), and Arne Bartels (Germany) have put together a beautiful Cessna T210 Centurion (full package); this is not a re-paint/modification of the default 182RG, but is a total, from scratch built Cessna Centurion! This aircraft even includes a Steve Small custom airfile to complete the package and my short experience (less than 1 hour of flight time) shows that this is one of the best aircraft packages (freeware) in recent history.
The boys at Europe Flight Sim Creators have attempted to duplicate everything about a Centurion of this vintage (1985) and they have used several real-world aircraft for their modeling. Using FSDS to create the basic model and then with Oleg Davjetkin (Russian Flightsim Group) using AAA (Abacus Aircraft Animator) they've got the landing gear animated in exactly the same complicated fashion as on the real thing.
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The panel is the real advance here, because they've attempted to realistically design a panel and its systems and they've done quite well, right down to the inclusion of the typical avionics and autopilot of aircraft of this type and time-period. There are complete custom cockpit views, plus a short panel to make landings easier—it's all there!
As a toping to this outstanding aircraft, Europe Flight Sim Creators have also included a very extensive set of documents, covering the operation of everything, including the proper techniques of gear operation, ADF functions, auto-pilot operations and functions, a complete checklist, etc. Most of the supplied documents are in the PDF format, so most who download this aircraft should be able to get the most out of panel and with its limited avionics. This is a truly outstanding FS aircraft and I highly recommend it to everyone looking for a small Cessna retract that's fast, safe, and comfortable! ...Bear!
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Well, Shehryar has done it again, but now with the Long Beach Airport located in Southern California! Shehryar has provided us with several very outstanding airport add-ons, including his award winning "John Wayne-Orange County" earlier this year. Shehryar continues designing some very excellent freeware scenery add-ons and his dedication to accuracy is greatly appreciated by us all.
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The Long Beach Airport is located in the very busy Los Angeles basin terminal area and Long Beach is the Boeing (formerly the McDonnell Douglas Corporation) home of the C-17 freighter, the MD-11, and the new Boeing 717. Shez has included authentic static aircraft, taxiway markers, FBO facilities, just about everything you'll find at the real LGB airport. On this go around though, Shez has also provided a "lite" version download that is minus the static aircraft, to assist at improving frame rates for those of you with a less powerful computer. There was noted one small problem with this download and that were the crashes that occurred if you taxied too close to any of the buildings, but Shez has provided an update that fixes that problem; but you need to download the Fix Text file to assure that you install the fix correctly—or otherwise you'll continue with the crashes, even with the fix installed per the original readme file (Shehryar made a small mistake in the naming of his fix file, but the fix text file will teach you how to correct this small oversight).
As with Shehryar's last scenery (John Wayne-Orange County Airport), the Long Beach Airport scenery of his is more than deserving of my "Bear Approved" stamp! ...Bear!
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