Tailboom's Corner The world outside your plane short reviews by Craig 'Tailboom' Snyder 11-Nov-00 Aviat Pitts S-2C by Mikko Maliniemi s-2cfs2k.zip uploaded 08-Nov-00 size 555kb I've crashed the aerobatic/high performance aircraft in MSFS nearly as much as I have the 206b. Perhaps you have had the same experience with them and as is human nature you (I) may have tended to say forget it and gone on to some other, 'kinder-gentler' airplane. Well if that is the case, c'mon back and grab a handfull of this sweetheart. This is the way you EXPECTED it to fly in the first place. Amazing controllability in every facet of flight!! Including LANDING, what a concept! On t/o do prepare to trim nose up, as I've noticed a tendency to settle back towards the ground if'n ya don't. Other caveats or warnings: NONE! She accepts trim easily enough and tends to hold the setting. Holds it so well in fact that when you trim her for straight and level and then roll her over,'SHAZAAM' you don't have to shove the stick forward to keep from playing LAWN DART! Hands off inverted flight is a cinch. Many factors are involved in the improved handling of this bird, not the least of which is 'Constant-Speed' ailerons. This means the roll rate at 100kts is the same as at 200kts. It's really neat; find out, download her and rev er up... t'BOOM 11-Nov-00 Alouette II Deutsche Heeresflieger by Shlomo Hakim, Repaint by Michael Vader (Pegasus Aviation Design) and Uli Ferner al2_dhfl.zip uploaded 8-Nov-00 1616kb This one 'floats my boat'! In my opinion it's the gnarliest, most aggressive looking copter in FS'dom! The original is an Aerospatiale Alouette II by Shlomo Hakim, painted in the Israeli Air Force colors. This one is a repaint of that one, but in German Army colors. The OUTSTANDING repaint done by Michael Vader and Uli Ferner. What else can I say about it's looks? First sight of it hit me like a sladge-hammer (16pounder)!! It comes with panel and sounds. The sounds from the original are my preference. Just a personal choice. Realism be hanged, they give my subwoofers a work-out. The handling is wonderful; the airfile by S Hakim has been left as is. So if you have the original IAF Alouette, expect the same excellent handling. This burly rascal does seem to have a bit of a 'glass jaw'. Some seemingly gentle landings were accompanied by the infernal MSFS CRASH! That is easily remedied with one of the FDE manipulation gizmos. If you are cyclic and collective 'challenged', the new version of FSTraffic will accept 'moving parts' aircraft and this would make some OUTSTANDING static scenery. If you want to check out the original the zipfile name is...alu_iaf2.zip Punch that into the AVSIM file library search program and you're there... t'BOOM 12-Nov-00 Hinchees Helos, Alaska by Don Moser /Alaska by Don hinchees_helos.zip uploaded 06-Nov-00 716 kb Yessir, been there, seen it. Two winters in the interior (Fairbanks) of Alaska. Darkness most the day, twilight at noon. Ice-fog. Thirty below zero will be the high temp today. And DON'T forget to plug in yer car whenever and wherever you park it. But that's the interior, even Anchorage doesn't have as severe a winter. And further toward the lower 48, around Juneau the climate is even less,...um er...'stimulating'...hehe. And if you jump in yer copter in Juneau take a heading of 142 degrees; about 45 miles away you'll find 'Hinchees Helos'. Run year round by Jeff, Ann, and Taylor. Three heli-pads available. And a 1600 foot runway if you want to take yer Cub, or 185 in for a visit. Yup these Alaskans are a hearty bunch. Mighty friendly too. Fly-in and see for yerself. Any kind of service yer 'skeeter beater' needs is available. Also INSTRUCTION available, so bring yer buddies that might want to learn the cyclic/collective shuffle. You won't find a more beautiful area to fly around in... t'BOOM 12-Nov-00 Coast Gaurd Stations-North East USA by Shehryar Ansari (Shez) coastgaurd.zip uploaded 29-Oct-00 1523kb It's a pretty good bet that if yer readin this yer gonna know the 'FEELIN'. You know, the feelin you get at that certain time of day when you get to check the upload sites for the days goodies. Well the other day, the 9th to be exact, Santa came to AVSIM and his name was SHEZ. THANKEE THANKEE THANKEE!!! Felt like I'd died and gone to heli heaven. Sixteen, count em', SIXTEEN Coast Guard stations. Wonderfully painted buildings. Office type buildings, small briefing shacks, open sided hanger-workshop type architecture. Night lit parking lots, and ramps, trees, fences. And copter and fixed wing static aircraft. I can't wait to start populatin these areas with FSTraffic. And NDBs at each station to aid navigation. WOW! Don't even think of leaving these areas without checking the night lighting, it's SPECTACULAR! On the other hand, all is not heavenly in heli-heaven. The station called Woods Hole splash/crashes. And at Bangor, when sitting in the cockpit it seems like there is a big dark wall around you, around the perimeter of the station. In spot view all looks ok though. Minor stuff, and probably easily fixed, and hey ya got fourteen others to play around in. Shez, all I can say is thanX for the effort you put into this scenery. And dear readers, be sure to enter Shez's name into the AVSIM search gizmo. There are about 24 other sceneries available. For 98' and 2K. Including the United Airlines Denver Training Center that Bear and I were raving about a few months ago. Go GET this...it's a must have and a keeper... t'BOOM   12-Nov-00 Hawaii Islands-Terrain Mesh Scenery by Raimondo Taburet hawaiitm.zip uploaded 08-Nov-00 549kb Seems odd that one of the best parts of FS98 could become one of the worst in FS2K. But that is the case regarding the Hawaiian Islands. In fact MS dropped the ball in regards to alot of the 'island' areas of FS'dom. Flat, nondescript, very basic airports, basically kinda ugly. But, HURRAY, enter, new textures, mesh terrain, and of course, third party airports. Now we're gettin somewhere! Which brings us to Raimondo's terrain mesh for Hawaii. Covers all the islands, so add yer favorite textures, some add-on airport or city scenery and Hawaii is once again paradise. Right? Nope, though you would think so. I have seen some posts in the forums saying that this wasn't very effective mesh for Hawaii. Didn't seem to work right for some. So I thought I'd install it and see what I came up with. These pics are what I have for Hawaii, and it seems quite nice on my system. I have installed some other 'terrain mesh' of Raimondo's and I've noticed it's not as severe as other mesh available. Few or no stutters, fewer pauses, and none of the re-drawing and plumping you get when looking in different directions with some other mesh sceneries. But it's also not as dramatic looking as the others. Give it a try, see what results you get—and if not satisfactory let's get some posts going to see how it can be improved. Tell A Friend About these Reviews!   Standard Disclaimer These 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 this review is unbiased and truly reflects the performance of the product in the simming environment. 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