Tailboom's Corner The world outside your plane short reviews by Craig 'Tailboom' Snyder Guest reviewer this week is Steve 'Bear' Cartwright Filling in for Tailboom this week, I've chosen the following "Top 5 Picks" and have included an uploaded file for a sim other than FS2000. In keeping with our original intent of offering "our" picks of the top 5 uploads of the previous week, we will on occasion chose a file for whatever flightsim that file is intended and if that file happens to be for a flightsim other than FS2000, then that's our choice! 10-Dec-2000 Canary Island Scenery by Alfonso Bello gccc_2k1.zip uploaded 10-Dec-2000 4,438Kb FS2000 Alfonso Bello uploaded his latest version of the Canary Island Scenery including updates to the "night-lighting" as well as increased dynamic and static objects and/or aircraft. This scenery upload enhances the airports at 6 locations across the island chain, including; Tenerife North, Tenerife South, Gran Canaria, La Palma, El Hierro, and Fuerteventura. The Canary Islands are located about 150 to 200 nautical miles off the coast of Northwestern Africa and are a major stop-over for several international flights. Many around the world still remember the tragedy of the two 747s (KLM and Pan-Am) that collided on the ground in a low visibility fog, which occurred many years ago on Tenerife (I have a good friend that was a survivor of that very tragic and unfortunate accident). Microsoft's default leaves each of these 6 airports somewhat devoid of anything other than runways, with an occasional static building or two, but Alfonso and his scenery file really brings each of these airports alive with passengers waiting for their flights, moving airliners – helicopters – and general aviation aircraft, correctly and clearly marked taxiways, ships in the local harbors, and even a Navy battle group in the nearby seas. All of Alfonso's scenery is quite interesting and seems to have little or no negative effect on frame rates. His improvements with the lighting are very good and I'm particularly impressed with how his taxiway night-lighting seems to be correctly dimmed as in the real-world. So often runway and taxiway night-lighting is overly bright and unrealistic with many scenery add-ons, but Alfonso has gotten these just about perfect. Those of you making overseas flights with your favorite Boeing or Airbus livery, that make the Canary Islands one of your stop-over locations, I highly recommend you install Alfonso Bello's latest Canary Island Scenery! ...Bear 10-Dec-2000 Escenario de Santiago (Santiago Scenery) by José María Barrera Cabañas santiagolest.zip uploaded 7-Dec-2000 835Kb FS2000 Now, my Spanish is a little rusty and all of the readme files for this scenery upload are in Spanish only, but this shouldn't discourage you from taking a look at the excellent work of José María Barrera Cabañas. Mr. Cabañas has developed the airport at Santiago, Spain, paying specific attention to improvements in the night-lighting and like the scenery for the Canary Islands by Alfonso Bello, Mr. Cabañas' scenery has little or no effect on frame rates either. Mr. Cabañas used data from Jeppesen along with ASD2.1 from Abacus (see my Spanish isn't too rusty, as I was able to get that from the readme file) to design this excellent scenery package for the airport at Santiago, Spain. Nothing fancy, just a very realistic and very good improvement over the default Microsoft scenery. The airport at Santiago, Spain is located approximately 257nm on a heading of 312º from Madrid (Santiago is located in the Northwest area of Spain) and is a very good addition to the many scenery uploads (freeware) available for Spain. The night-lighting effect that Mr. Cabañas has achieved is quite similar to this week's Canary Island upload (the scenery that was my first pick). Again, if flying in the Western part of Europe is a part of your regular routine, then adding this scenery upload is very much recommended by me...! ...Bear 10-Dec-2000 Skyhawk Version 2.1a by Jan Haagdorens skyhawk2.1a.zip uploaded 9-Dec-2000 4,300Kb Flight Unlimited III Though most of my personal flight simming is dedicated strictly to either FS2000 or CFS-2, I do on occasion fly with one of my many other flight sims that I have in my possession, which includes Flight Unlimited III. The uploading of freeware aircraft for Flights Unlimited III have, unfortunately, been somewhat limited and most have occurred following the announcement by Looking Glass Studios that there will be no version IV of Flights Unlimited... hmmmm, major disappointment! Personally, I like FU3, as I liked FU2; I will keep them all and will upload aircraft as they become available—and this week's Skyhawk Version 2.1a upload by Jan Haagdorens is a real treat! Jan gives all credit for the Skyhawk to the original designer, Tom Wunder – as well he should – but Jan explains in his readme file that the default panel in Tom's wonderful work lacked something. So with this in mind, Jan worked on, using actual photographs of a panel for a Skyhawk—an improved panel including special night-lighting. Tom's original design (Skyhawk 2.0) used the default trainer panel from FU3, which was... well, how should I say this kindly... adequate, but that was about it. Tom's work on the exterior of his version of the Cessna Skyhawk is quite good and now with the addition of a MUCH improved panel from Jan, well this makes for a new favorite aircraft to use now, favorite for me that is, when flying in FU3 (I still like the Lake Renegade though). Among the many improvements Jan has accomplished, other than the panel's overall appearance, is with the addition of a "working" autopilot. In Jan's readme file he also explains how to use the autopilot to automatically set the trim, which has always been one of my pet peeves with FU3, but that little bug has been corrected with this panel. You can use the autopilot to set your trim by simply engaging the A/P for altitude and HDG hold, then turn off the A/P and your trim is set! If you have and are using FU3, then get Jan's improved upload of Tom Wunder's wonderful Cessna 172 Skyhawk for FU3, you won't be disappointed! ...Bear 10-Dec-2000 Bristow, Oklahoma by Dale Baker 3f7.zip uploaded 10-Dec-2000 947Kb FS2000 Well, this is the second time I've included one of Dale's scenery uploads as one of my picks of the week (Gundy's Airport in my prior pick) and my reasons for picking Dale's upload this time is for the same reason as last; I like having simple improvements to "real" airports! At Bristow, Oklahoma is located the "Jones Memorial Airport" which has a single 3400' asphalt runway, a couple of enclosed hangers, main office building, taxiways, ramps, aircraft turnarounds at the runway ends, and a couple of additional "T" style hangers. Dale has included all of this, plus he's placed a small number of GA static aircraft at the airport and scattered a number of trees and added shrubbery around the area. Bristow, Oklahoma is located about 35 miles Southwest of Tulsa and 64 miles Northeast of Oklahoma City and one of those sleepy country stops for when you're passing in a light aircraft or traveling by car. Generally, this particular part of America is relatively horizontal (flat) and has only some gently rolling hills (hills may be somewhat of an overstatement)! After having installed Eddie Denny's mesh scenery into my version of FS2000, I get the trees that Dale has included with this very nice little scenery package, running across the crest of the slight terrain rise to the south of the runway. This is very subtle, but it really adds to the immersion factor when flying in the area or more specifically when you're set to take-off from runway 17! This is Dale's 4th in a line of Oklahoma based small airport scenery upgrades and I hope he plans on continuing...! Nice work Dale! ...Bear 10-Dec-2000 Tsuniah Falls by Jim Faircloth tsuniah.zip uploaded 10-Dec-2000 1,214Kb FS2000 Tsuniah Lake Lodge airport is 145nm north/northwest of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (on a heading of 325º) and is included as a default airport with FS2000, but there is a great deal of room for improvement! Jim Faircloth has provided that improvement and boy….what an improvement! Tsuniah Lake itself is rather large and is located in a very remote, but a very picturesque part of British Columbia, Canada! There have been many posted screenshots of Alaska and other beautiful parts of America, but as an American I must point out the really beautiful scenery in our neighboring country of Canada! Some of the most scenic areas of the Western Hemisphere are located in British Columbia and Microsoft has done an outstanding job with FS2000 at representing this area. Like all things though, there is always room for improvement. The FS2000 default has the Tsuniah Lake Lodge airport as a single dirt (turf) strip with a single building located there, but Jim has added a multitude of surrounding trees, hangers, wildlife, dirt taxiways, and some of the most beautiful log cabins/lodges I've seen for FS2000! The cabins/lodges that Jim has included are located on the Lake's edge and in front there is a floating dock with available fuel, for all of us floatplane pilots! Jim's texturing of these cabins/lodges is quite good, with partial stone and log construction and the most unique window lighting you could hope for. Landing here at dusk, reveals the most inviting fireplace glow in the windows of these cabins and lodges... well it just looks great; this lighting gives such a feeling of coziness and warmth, considering all of the ice and snow in this area! This is now a destination you should strongly consider with your favorite bush or float plane... excellent work Jim! ...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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