CraigyW

Gee there really are some bitter people out there. Some are experimenting and commenting and asking for advice which is great. Thats what the forum is for. But then you have people like Murden. Thanks for wasting my time with your rubbish posts

The reason why so many compare to the NGX is because thats the benchmark of simulation they expect from any addon, irrespective of price. The other issue is, some seem to think that all aircraft are flown like the Boeing 737 and get annoyed when they can't fly the Airbus like the Boeing. So instead of taking the time to learn the aircraft, they throw their toys out of the pram and say it is rubbish and say 'I will delete it' and wait for the FSL version. Surely, if you can't fly the AS Airbus because you don't understand the systems then you are hardly going to be able to fly the FSL version. What a strange world we live in!!! lol Craig

Some of the posts on here just make me laugh. The extended was released 2 days ago and people are complaining that it is full of bugs, calling the addon in essence rubbish and comparing it to the NGX. When the NGX was released people had lots of problems and PMDG worked through the issues. Now we have a very mature addon so you would expect things to perform well. So comparing both products at the moment is disingenuous. As for blurry VCs, Coolsky's DC9 copped a lot of flack as well but it appears the issue was related to individuals system settings. The last point I will make is that the extended is aimed at a different simming market than the FSL version and PMDG offerings. So if you want to immerse yourself totally in the aircraft with system failures etc, then the extended is not for you. The product price reflects this. My 2 cents for what it's worth Craig

Enrique, If you look at the Aerosoft product page under system requirements, it states 'Control unit (joystick) with throttle and rudder control'. Don't know when it was added but it is there now. Also it was made very clear in the preview forum that you must have a throttle. But I guess given the importance, maybe it should be in bold print at the top as a warning. Craig

It's interesting how we all judge products. I bought the Wilco airbus evolution series and thought the VC was so poor that I permanently parked it in the hangar. I look at the quality of the extended VC and I am seriously impressed. PMDG have created some fantastic aircraft vc wise such as the the MD11 and the B737. While the system depth doesn't match PMDG, I think what Aerosoft has created for the middle of the road simmer is awesome. And I am sure the FSL version will meet the needs of the full system nerds

I use simwings Heathrow and have never had any problems. So I am very happy. I have UK2000 Newcastle and I think it is very average. But I will prob purchase the Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol sceneries in the current sale

Does it really matter what real world routes are flown. Fly your own and enjoy the flight. At the end of the day, does it really matter what livery is on the airframe? I fly to all sorts of places with aircraft in Qantas livery. Its the flight itself that interests me not whether Qantas flies there or not

Doorstep, I disagree on the ILS landing. There is no problem doing a visual landing without the ILS. If you work on a 3 deg approach path, 300ft per mile can easily be flown manually or with the autopilot

Whats with the strobe on the top of the tail?

ytzpilot, taxi distances aren't that far really. Sydney's runways are setup just fine. The prevaiing winds favour 16/34. As for the new melbourne runway, taxi time is based around runway config. For a 27L dep 27R arr, the longest distance to taxi would be from the Qantas domestic terminal. Looking at the distance, it would be a 5-10 min taxi, and certainly shorter than the taxi distance to 34 as previously highlighted by another poster

Hi Stephen, This issue now has me really interested and when I have time I will chase it up. Your comment about NOAA got me thinking and my hypothesis is that only those airfields that RPT destinations are reported to NOAA. 85 airfields in the database suggests that or it could be linked to those airfields with an instrument approach. Anyway, I will let you know if I manage to find out. Re TAFs. TAFS are produced centrally when there is not a Met office established at the airport. For example in Australia, the Sydney office will produce TAFS for the airfields in its area of responsibility but METARS are produce automatically from ground equipment in the majority of locations. Of course a TAF is a forecast for 6 to 12 hours and so it is difficult to interpolate to produce a guesstimate of the weather at a point in time within the forecast especially when say there is a prob 30 of rain for example. Craig

It has to be in the correct format as the format is an international standard. So maybe OPUS can't read and process the empty fields identified by the forward slashes. There is no point contacting Airservices, they don't own or control the data. You need to talk to BOM. Craig

Generally METARS are only available for airfields which have RPT operations or instrument approaches, and the majority are automatically generated. Those airfields which don't have METARS will have a either a TAF or you can use the area forecast to determine what the weather is likely to be. Craig

Wunala Dreaming http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=93534 Craig

The actual runway lights at night are usually at about 30% luminosity and so you don't pick them up until between 5 and 10 miles from the airfield. What you may pick up sooner is the high intensity approach lighting and strobe but the intensity depends on the weather conditions. What you are most likely to pick up early is the aerodrome beacon. When flying into an airfield in a built up area at night, the airport will usually be darker then the surroundings. The PAPI intensity is also reduced at night. Craig

I use vroute all over the world. www.vroute.net Craig

Sounds like the instruction is - 7 miles from the outer marker, turn left 310 deg to intercept the localiser for the ILS Craig

Hi Dimitri Thanks for letting me know. Craig

How does ORBX Cairns affect frames? Is it as bad as Brisbane and Melbourne? I would like to fly in Oz but if the sceneries are frame rate unfriendly, I will stick to flying everywhere else. Craig

ahhh ok, for some reason I thought it was the complete new slogan. Live and learn lol

Looks good John. The only problem is the new slogan is 'Spirit of Australians' Craig

Good pickup on the time of the AS metar time. I read it as 2350z!!! So much for attention to detail on my part lol Craig

Metars are an observation at that particular time, whether it is a human observation of an electronic one. Winds can reduce over the period of 30mins in my experience but I was curious so I looked in to. I don't know where Opus or HiFi get the metars to generate the weather. But this is what I found; Opus 2320 LOWW 052320Z 29013G23KT 260V320 9999 FEW035 SCT180 09/03 Q1009 NOSIG NOAA database LOWW 060020Z 28016KT 9999 FEW040 08/03 Q1009 NOSIG LOWW 052350Z 28017G32KT 9999 FEW035 09/03 Q1009 NOSIG LOWW 052320Z 29013G23KT 260V320 9999 FEW035 SCT180 09/03 Q1009 NOSIG LOWW 052250Z 28012KT 9999 FEW035 SCT180 09/03 Q1008 NOSIG So it would be in interesting to know how AS came up with the values they were using. Even the TAF doesn't use that wind value. Craig

Re the A321 with sharklets. If I remember correctly, Mathijs said that it won't be in the initial release because he would have to use the modeller from the twin otter project. So rather than slow that project down, it would be done for SP release.

Does it happen with all aircraft?