Tailboom's Corner The world outside your plane short reviews by Craig 'Tailboom' Snyder Guest reviewer this week is Steve 'Bear' Cartwright [Editor's Note: Steve Cartwright is again filling in for Tailboom this week. And this week we again feature files for Fly! as well as for FS2000] 24-Dec-00 Executive Airlines DHC6-300S Twin Otter by Premier Aircraft Design dh6exe2k.zip uploaded 20-Dec-00 116Kb FS2000 24-Dec-00 Dehavilland DHC6 Panel by Gen. Marcello Lugari DHC6v21.zip uploaded 18-Dec-00 1,398Kb FS2000 Pro Only This is a 2 for 1 review, as it just so happens that on the 18th Gen. Marcello Lugari (Rome, Italy) uploaded his DHC6 Twin Otter panel and then on the 20th, Premier Aircraft Design (Barry Blaisdell / Bob May / Jens Borgstroem), uploaded their latest DHC6-300S Twin Otter aircraft! This is a perfect marriage of two very excellent freeware uploads and I felt it was appropriate that I review them together! The panel is designed using an original bitmap supplied by Svein Holbos and by the application of several gauges from a variety of authors. This panel does attempt to hold true to the original aircraft in its general overall layout, but it is also simple and straight-forward. General Lugari kept his design simple and highly useful for those wishing for a panel for flying and not necessarily for cockpit management (no startup procedure, systems panel, or engineer's panel). The night lighting effects are unique, simple, the gauges are highly readable, yet still very realistic in appearance. My first flight with this panel/aircraft combination was from Reno/Tahoe International to SFO (San Francisco, CA) with a ILS approach (autopilot) into SFO with only 2 miles of visibility and rain! The autopilot was steady and true, with a very constant track of the glideslope and runway centerline, though I had thrown in a 10kt crosswind....hmmm very nice. The Premier Aircraft Design DHC6-300S Twin Otter has fully animated parts (nose wheel, flaps, rudder, etc.), with very high quality texturing, particularly with the corrugated flaps. Many of the recent aircraft uploads for FS2000 have been with textures that are sharp and crisp in appearance, and Premier Aircraft Design has continued this practice with their DHC6. From all spot view angles this aircraft is very realistic and nice appearing and it's a screenshot looking to happen. Flying this aircraft is equally as satisfying as it looks, which is very nice—though not surprising and what we've come to expect from the fellows over at PAD! The trim is not overly sensitive, the roll/yaw inputs are very good, in other words it's basically a really nice aircraft to fly! My first landing (SFO on an ILS approach) was smooth and right on target (my older brother, who was leaning over my shoulder, has been with United Airlines for over 35 years and he too found this FS aircraft to be very easy to fly and quite docile in it's flight characteristics). With the total number of uploads last week (76 in all), this two file combination package was easily overlooked, but I highly recommend that you take a look, you just might like this panel/aircraft combination! ...Bear 24-Dec-00 Terrascene2 by How In The World, Inc ts2.zip uploaded 20-Dec-00 30,433Kb FLY! 24-Dec-00 Terrascene2 Main Textures by How In The World, Inc ts2tex-main-pc.zip uploaded 20-Dec-00 99,800Kb FLY! 24-Dec-00 TS2 Texture Library by How In The World, Inc ts2tex-vol2-pc.zip uploaded 20-Dec-00 42,931Kb FLY! Well, unless you've been sleeping under a sand pit or you've been held against your will by extraterrestials on their spaceship, I've no doubt you've already downloaded and installed the latest version of Terrascene by Todd Klaus over at How In The World, Inc. In the event you've really been held captive by extraterrestials, I will give you a brief review of the improvements made with this, the 2nd version of the excellent scenery rendering program "Terrascene"! Scenery rendered with the first version of Terrascene, though very good and highly accurate, lacked some of the subtlies necessary for complete immersion into flying in FLY. The lack of corrected ground shadows, for example, that were missing in Terrascene, as to the position of the Sun and so forth. Well Terrascene2 has now corrected this oversight and scenery rendered using this latest from How In The World, Inc. (Todd Klaus to be more accurate) has shading or shadows that follow the Sun's position in the sky! The relief shading is based on 30-meter DEMs and the position of the Sun. Plus they've added a far more realistic snow coverage texture which also includes the spring thaw. The 3-D shading can be applied to anything, like roads, rivers, rails, or whatever you wish. . In addition, Terrascene2 downloads the USGS data automatically, then automatically renders the scenery, you then launch your Fly! editor and create the EPD. A while later your scenery is complete and ready to install into your Fly! sim! Now, I must admit, I've not downloaded this obviously tremendous program, but I've chatted with several who have, and their posted screenshots in the screenshot forum are testimony to how easy and how good this program really is! This updated program with the improved texture library has resulted in some of the best scenery I've yet seen for any flight sim! If the file size leads you away from downloading this program, then I would suggest you check out the AVSIM screenshot forum and take a look at the screenshots being posted after scenery rendering with Terrascene2... that I'm sure will convince you! "Two Thumbs (paws) up... way way UP on this upload!" ...Bear 24-Dec-00 Palma de Mallorca, Spain by Oliver Pabst lepa2k10.zipuploaded 21-Dec-00 1,569Kb FS2000 The International airport at Palma de Mallorca is another key stop-over in the Mediterranean Sea, just East of Spain on the island of Mallorca. Mallorca is roughly halfway between Barcelona (Spain), to the north and Algiers (Algeria in Northern Africa) to the south. As usual, MS merely applied simple runways and a few scattered generic buildings, but Oliver upgraded all of this with a realistic airport terminal, plus moving gates, static aircraft, new concrete textures, runway tire marks, and somee really wonderful taxiway markers and striping (check my screenshot here for the runway markings, they're really quite good). In Oliver's readme file, he explains that this scenery package is a Beta-1 version and expects to have updates available soon (after the first of next year I assume). Also there was added another upload file, a version 1.1 update which includes moving airport buses. The readme file is listed in both Spanish and in English for the convenience of the user, though installation is pretty straight-forward and does not require any exclude files or flatten switches. The night lighting is another area that Oliver has applied a somewhat different technique as compared to what most often found with the 3rd party sceneries, as the concrete has a much more realistic appearance under the brightness of the tramac lights—including oil soaked concrete areas at the aircraft parking locations. This scenery is, in Oliver's own words, strickly a Beta release, but regardless it's a very good addon to your scenery library! ...Bear 24-Dec-2000 Soviet Air Force AN-22 "Antei", version 2.0 by Marcel Ritzema an22mil2.zip uploaded 21-Dec-00 216Kb FS2000 This week I choose 3 aircraft and ironically all 3 are turboprops, but when it comes to size the Antonov AN-22 is the grand-daddy of them all! At a MTOW (Maximum Take-Off Weight) of 225,000 kg of which 80,000 kg (extreme conditions) is payload... well this is truly an amazing aircraft! In 1965 the Soviet Air Force introduced the world's largest turboprop aircraft ever built, the Antonov AN-22 "Antei". Within two years of its introduction this aircraft had set no less than 14 payload to height speed records, and of the only 68 built several are still flying today, mostly with western air cargo companies. Marcel's flight model tends to a very stable, docile, yet in another sense a difficult FS aircraft to fly correctly. You have to plan and think your intentions well ahead of time when dealing with an aircraft of this size and weight—as I would assume you must do with the real thing. Along with the HC-130H Hercules from Barry and Jens, this FS aircraft will remain permanently on my harddrive! My test flight with this aircraft was from Valdez to Anchorage and I had thrown in some pretty bad weather conditions, including 2 mile visibility and a 10kt crosswind (nighttime) while landing. Very interesting flight and I noted that my shirt was marked with sweat stains after my landing (a successful landing I might add) at Anchorage—this is getting too real! This FS aircraft sports custom texturing, camouflage paint, animated parts, including counter-rotating propellers, plus FS2000 night lighting. The sounds and panel are all FS2000 default, but a search in AVSIM's library should reveal the correct downloads, though I do prefer the 4-engine "heavy" default panel Marcel provides over many of the photorealistic panels I've seen for this aircraft. I highly recommend this aircraft, though you might wish to use a flight jumpsuit when flying it...! ...Bear 24-Dec-00 US Coast Guard Lockheed HC-130H Hercules by Barry Blaisdell Flight/Jens Borgstroem, Technical Advisor: Dave Gilespie hc130_2K.zip uploaded 24-Dec-00 166Kb FS2000 As part of a small "Christmas" package or gift to all of us flight simmers, Barry Blaisdell and Jens Borgstroem have provided an extraordinary example of a Lockheed HC-130H Hercules aircraft. Being the very first (I believe) HC-130H "Herc" Hercules specifically designed for FS2000, this aircraft has been very much anticipated and the wait was well worth it. This aircraft includes opening rear cargo door, fully animated parts, with FS2000 night lighting. Barry provided the paint and flight dynamics work, while Jens collaborated on tweaking the flight model in FS2000. Though this aircraft does not include a custom panel or sounds (default FS2000), a short trip to the AVSIM library should afford you the downloads to complete this very excellent upload! This FS aircraft is non-fictional and represents the HC-130H Hercules USCG designated "1706" and is one of six such aircraft based at the Kodiak USCG Air Station in Kodiak, Alaska. Dave Gilespie, a Flight Engineer on this particular aircraft, provides a short readme file on what it's like to fly this aircraft on one of it's patrols out of the USCG Air Station in all kinds of weather in the far north. In addition to Dave Gilespie, Tony Cortes (Lieutenant, USCG Kodiak, Alaska) providing the test flying of Barry and Jens' work! Other readme files also tell of true stories and adventures flying from this very remote part of the world, including one involving the loss of a propeller and subsequent emergency landing at Cold Bay, Alaska! If you're serious about your flight simming and heavy turboprop aircraft are of interest to you, then this aircraft is a must have! Thanks Barry & Jens, and may you both have a joyous holiday season as well! ...Bear 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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