It's pretty impressive when a developer can take an already good aircraft and turn it into something truly special, but I gotta tell you, the brand new 'touch-enabled' Skyviews in the Aerobask Victory and E1000 make already great releases into what I can only call sublime. The aircraft themselves are already very well done, but the new avionics are very impressive to say the least.

 

This is the first time I've ever used anything in XP that comes close to the GTN units I have in P3D/FSX. Entering a flight plan is a simple point and click affair, choosing SIDS, STARS, approaches, etc. View waypoint info, send frequencies to radios on a click, type in heading / course via on-screen keypad, it's pretty darn nice and really an accomplishment. I have no idea how close they are to a real Dynon Skyview unit, but they sure work smoothly, and for usability they are simply so sweet to use.

 

I think a new bar has been set. Sadly, it's going to make it tough to fly any of my X-Plane G1000 equipped aircraft. I feel bad, since I know there's certain developers that have worked so hard on their G1000 implementations, but this is comparable to the GTN's in FSX & P3D - once you fly them, you never want to go back to anything else.

 

My current flight in the E1000, that's cruising along in the background as I'm typing this:

 

 

 

 

 

but this is comparable to the GTN's in FSX & P3D

 

Then you'll be probably more than happy when Aerobask release their new Panthera version -- this will have these Dynons plus a pretty good GTN (including terrain view!):

 

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/33177-kmic-minnesota-usa/

 

 

 

I feel bad, since I know there's certain developers that have worked so hard on their G1000 implementations, but this is comparable to the GTN's in FSX & P3D - once you fly them, you never want to go back to anything else.

 

You don't need to feel bad (except you regret the money). There's always progress made, products get old and replaced by new ones, and products show the capabilities of a developer at a given time. That's okay.

 

To be honest, I think even the real G1000 feels old by now and clumsy to use (well, it always was...) -- the G2000 is much nicer, because it incorporates a lot of the GTN technology and UI.

 

 

Then you'll be probably more than happy when Aerobask release their new Panthera version

 

Yep, that's actually the only Aerobask aircraft I don't own, so I'm following it's development with interest.  It would be nice if the terrain feature made it into the Skyview units themselves, but as they already have a bit of a noticeable performance impact, I'm okay without. It'd be highly fictional, but I'd love these Skyviews in the DA42 as well. I know they've indicated that it's not happening, but I can always hope. :smile:

 

That flight I took the pic of went without a hitch, absolutely flawless. The new E1000, especially with those improved 'touch' Skyviews, is just so nice to fly. Will take the same flight in the Victory tonight.

 

 

 

To be honest, I think even the real G1000 feels old by now and clumsy to use (well, it always was...) -- the G2000 is much nicer, because it incorporates a lot of the GTN technology and UI.

 

That's kind of what I was trying to angle towards. Although I feel bad that there's aircraft that are going to be ignored (I don't think I have yet to ever regret a X-Plane purchase), the main reason for ignoring them isn't primarily due to developers, it's due to the fact that the technology being modeled is just so much nicer to use.  It's the same reason why going from RXP GNS units to the Flight1 GTN units in FSX was so much of a step up - they're still an extremely accurate 1:1 model of the real units functionality, it's just the the real world units are so much easier to use.

There are some oddities for SID/STAR though - you have to select an approach to select a STAR. It's common in the US to only have a STAR and no approach , or not know it till later.

 

But I think they are working on that issue.

 

Also I don't think you can select just an approach without selecting a STAR. Would be nice to get an IAP at airports without STARS.

Also I don't think you can select just an approach without selecting a STAR. Would be nice to get an IAP at airports without STARS.

 

Yep, you can. You just select a 'final' and choose "NONE" on the next screen, or even "NONE" on both of the next screens. Just to test, as I'm typing, I was able to successfully create a flight plan to an airport with IAP's, but no STAR's. The SELECT STAR screen just had "NONE" as the only option. 

 

It's pretty flexible, but yes, as you noted, you do end up selecting the STAR after the approach. But for hacks like me, I don't mind picking my approach in advance, since I don't generally use RW weather in X-Plane. :wink:

 

The one thing I'd really like to have, however, is a 'step-through' of the waypoints, displaying each on on the map in turn.

Alright, thanks for the tips, I'll have to go back to XP and check it out.  (As for now I just bought the Sibwings AN-2 installed in P3D and I'm having a blast with all the metric gauges lol)