another beautiful plane becomes available. There was a post a couple weeks ago the Bill Lyons was about to release something nice, but nothing since, so I visited the Golden Eagles site and, out comes the credit card, for a vintage Ryan STA Sportster set with scenery and flights. I will try to attach a screenshot to give you the impetus to check out their site. Just had a couple of flights, but this is right up with the most beautiful and nice flying vintage planes. No autopilot or fancy electronics, but a faithful recreation of one of the niftiest planes of the thirties. By the way, the title line suggests that I have more planes than I can maintain familiarity with--but maybe that's not bad--always nice to renew old friendships!

Is that one of those unmanned planes? I see no pilot aboard. Unless he's hunkered down to stay warm

The / key will put pilots in the seat of that plane. Bill Lyons once again did a beautiful job on that one.Dave Spurlock

Amen, Dave, and thanks for the tip. As I said, it's hard to get and remain familiar with all the great planes that're out there.

Isn't that a fantastic plane? I've had it for a few weeks now, and I just love it! I think Bill Lyons is edging toward being my absolute favorite designer. It's not just the beauty of the models and the great VCs, it's the subjects he chooses! Maybe I'm an old f**t, but wow, this is the era of plane that really turns me on!

Bill, I agree--it could be an age thing, but the planes that I first fell in love with were those that I saw overhead and at airports when I was maybe 8-10 years old, about 1948-50. I'll never forget the first plane ride I had in a Cessna 120 or the first floatplane ride in a Stinson Voyager. At that time, the old planes of the late 30's were still around and even then were exciting sights and sounds. When I was about 12, I had a brief ride in a war surplus BT-13--sat in the rear cockpit with my dad--on take-off roll the old, broken instrument panel banged around a good 2 inch shake, but the plane got us up and down again real fine--what fun it was! I agree, Bill Lyons (and team)has really added romance to MSFS.

Wow, how refreshing to see some posts that don't start and end in "dude" =] Maybe we should start a forum for the over 30 crowd. But yes, Bill and Lynn's latest Classics package is a tough one to beat in terms of value and quality. And they have got to be some of the most creative designers for FS.Todd

Hi All,Add me to the list of Bill Lyons' fans. Actually, I believe both he and his wife Lynn are responsible for the Ryan.It's truly a fantastic plane with a beautiful VC, excellent air file and great exterior graphics as well. Make sure you look for the many DETAILS they've designed into the plane. Also, check out the reflections on the fuselage. Also, look at the speed boat (17mph) and the views you get going around New York City (Manhatten), Miami and other areas. Check out the beautiful interior of the lower deck of the boat. It really makes you think you are on the real boat!I can't say enough good stuff about the Ryan Sta package and the wonderful work that the Lyons' have put into the package.You may want to check out some of Bill's previous freeware creations as they are also excellent. I can't think of any other way to say it - excellent! One of my favorites is the Fleet Canuck. Also, the Cessna Bobcat and so on and so on.....Howard

It's great to see how many people appreciate Bill's excellent planes! I've been flying his planes since FS98 and Golden Wings and it's amazing how far they've come![TABLE BORDER=0][tr][td]

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