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Scenery Review : EDDM - Munich by ShortFinal Designs The track record is certainly very impressive. From the mid-sized but mostly with the mega airports then ShortFinal Design (aka mister6x) is certainly a formidable scenery developer, his last release of LAX is a masterclass of the best scenery you can have in X-Plane right now. Only in one area to all of the sceneries that they compliment each other and that is all of them including mister6x's earlier freeware sceneries are all set within the boundaries of the North American continent. So the announcement that the next release would be Germany was actually a surprise, and a bigger surprise in the fact it would be EDDM - Munich, the capital of Bavaria in the southern part of the Bayern country. So the expectations went into overdrive and more so in the fact there already was a pretty decent freeware EDDM by Schaeble that has had a lot of attention over the years, but it is still basically an early X-Plane10 design and scenery... what could ShortFinal pull out of their magic hat to top that, well a lot actually because as noted this is a seriously talented developer at the very top of his game. Munich Airport EDDM is the seventh-busiest airport in Europe, handling 44.6 million passengers in 2017. It is the world's 15th-busiest airport in terms of international passenger traffic, and was the 34th-busiest airport worldwide in 2015. As of March 2018, the airport features flights to 266 destinations, making it the airport with the fifth-most destinations worldwide. Munich Airport serves as a hub for Lufthansa including Lufthansa Regional , Lufthansa Cityline and its Star Alliance partners. airport is located 28.5 km (17.7 mi) northeast of Munich near Freising and is named after former Bavarian minister-president Franz Josef Strauss who was born in Munich. The new Munich Airport commenced operation on 17 May 1992, and during one night the whole airport moved to the new site. The former original Munich-Riem Airport closed on 16 May 1992 shortly before midnight. EDDM was a 3,892 acres (1,575 ha) area green field construction and not based on any existing airport layout, which is very rare in Europe, and the only extension was of Terminal 2 Satellite which was completed in June 2003 and it was inaugurated as an exclusive facility for Lufthansa and it's Star Alliance partners. As noted EDDM is a hub for Lufthansa and Lufthansa CityLine, but Air Dolomiti and Condor are also based here. EDDM - Munich First Impressions To me the most significant thing about a new scenery is the first feel and immersion into the scenery, it is bit like being blindfolded and having the blindfold taken off at your destination and absorbing in the area around you for the first time. Does it work? does it deliver that realism, that placement of standing in the zone and seeing the viewpoint of what the scenery is actually delivering in expectation and the complete sense of being in the location that has been replicated in the simulator, but mostly in the fact there are no eye jarring views or poor details that destroys the illusion of what the scenery is trying to represent. In most cases this factor is because the developer is short-cutting in detail to save time or money... ultimately it is a false economy. So the best first aspect is to fly into the scenery in question, and not just opening the simulator on the ground to ruin the first impression effect. Certainly a long distance is a nice aspect, but time does not allow that factor, so in this case I flew in from EBBR - Brussels which is about 300 nm away, so it is from one high quality scenery to another to gauge the differences. First a few notes... One feature of ShortFinal's EDDM is that you get both "Summer" and "Winter" scenery textures, it is set up for the "TerraMaxx" system, but I used the JSGME MOD "Winter" package, which works fine... the only difference is that I have to switch the textures manually by changing the "Library" file in the sceneries main folder from the "Library_Winter" file of which I edited out the _Winter (I just labeled the current "Library" to "Library_Summer") to create the new vista. So the "Impression" section of the review is in the winter setting, and the main review is set in the summer setting, and that gives you a great contrast of between the two different seasons. Second note is for WT3 (WorldTraffic3). There are no WT3 ground routes yet provided for EDDM (and none are provided with the scenery). So I am using very old WT2 (German Airports) ground routes and they are seriously out of date from 2014, so take all the aircraft views in that context, but they work. My reasoning that even if I did a WT3 generation of the ground routes of which are completed and done in this scenery, they still would not be customized enough to still do justice to the size and scale of the airport, so here is hoping a pro WT3 master will create the required custom routings? My equipment for this service is the ToLiSS319 and the same equipment (and A320) does the real world route for Lufthansa, Cityflyer uses the EMB195. My approach is via ANOR3A from the north, and once into the circuit, it was very hard to distinguish EDDM from the whiteout countryside. This denotes two things.. one the winter textures are very good and two the scenery is well blended into the default textures. Even into the glideslope of RWY 26L the airport was still highly indistinguishable from the surrounding areas... so a bit of faith in the flightplan was required. The integration is excellent, so you don't see or or feel any boundaries between the custom and default textures to the seemless transfer between the two. The infrastructure of EDDM is to the right on this approach and it looks very, if highly realistic... Runways are really well done texture wise, with worn and wet oily touchdown zones, in later heavier stormy conditions I had the dry line more condensed into the centre for realism of a dynamic feature provided by the scenery of which I was very impressed with... ... note the runway ribbing which is excellent with the runway edge textures. EDDM is a huge airport in size, so you need some navigation charts to find your way around. More so to know which area you are parking at, as there are so many to choose from and in finding the right zone to suit both your size of aircraft and airline, so a little planning before takeoff is really required if landing here blind. The quality of the buildings are outstanding, this is apron 9 or south cargo, and with the three huge Technik maintenance hangars in the background, and more on them later. Like most airports in these parts of Europe they love their huge building advertising canvas posters, and Munich is of no exception, as Keysight, Lexus and Lufthansa are all sprawled over mostly the blank areas of carparks and buildings. Internal views are exceptional in an arrival feeling, note the moving traffic on the airport's elevated circular motorway system, mesh elevation detail is excellent and highly realistic, gone are the days of flat roads and bridges, this is as real as it gets. There are four cross motorway bridges and you have to pick the correct entry point for your terminal parking, miss it and it is very embarrassing, so again your navigation has to be right. Traffic animation is again the best I have seen, the traffic flows above and then under the bridges, note the weather worn bridge textures, and they look so good in this winter setting. Finding your gate is hard, as the long line goes on forever, You are very seriously impressed by the sheer scale of it all. The taxiway reflections are PBR active and very good, and adapt to the different weather conditions and viewpoints making the airport very dynamic. ShortFinal's EDDM comes with the SAM plugin, and EVERY single gate is covered with the features of this tool (note to have installed the latest version of SAM v1.0.5) with VDGS/Marshaller and Safedock T2-24 VDGS guidance. All terminal glass is transparent and reflective, the terminals also have internal areas as well, and the effect is highly realistic. Note the "M" Munich Airport logo, it has been applied on all items required like the airbridges, ground support equipment and buildings... Some gates have the low-rider airbridges for regional aircraft like the CRJ-200... but they haven't been yet adjusted to work with the CRJ-200, so they work in animation wise and they don't align with the CRJ, but this a SAM issue and nothing to do with ShortFinal's EDDM. A shame because it would have looked brilliant So this was one very impressive arrival that left a huge impression on this review, it was faultless and very immersive. The winter textures are seriously impressive... __________________________ Munich Airport Flughafen München IATA: MUC - ICAO: EDDM 08R/26L 4,000m (13,123ft) Concrete 08L/26R 4,000m (13,123) Concrete Elevation AMSL1,487 ft / 453 m The summer transformation is very different in feel and look. One area of airport boundaries that ShortFinal struggled slightly with a little, like at KSLC are not present here as it is a seemless intergration with the airport's surroundings, and there isn't a lot of autogen, as EDDM is 28.5 km (17.7 mi) northeast of Munich. But there is a few slight built up autogen areas around the airport to give it a lot of realism. The Germanic autogen housing and light industry works well into your favour here as well. With most sceneries of this size, you can usually pick out flat or underdeveloped areas, there is none here in the central area, but just a few flat texture buildings on the 26R/26L approaches, but that is not noticeable from the air, and minutely from the ground. EDDM Layout Because of it's clean sheet design, EDDM is not constrained like most airports into fitting in or being set out around existing older infrastructure. So the developers built the airport around an central plaza, that is both a hub, underground S-Bahn station and shopping centre all in one... outside non-airport customers are welcome and even encouraged to come here by not having the local Bavarian laws governing retail hours. This is the Munich Airport Center (sometimes shortened to MAC) and the plaza style central building is fantastically represented here, with sublime glass detail and great construction detail by ShortFinal, it is a centrepiece and important to get right into the context of the airport. Most developers relegate these sorts of buildings to the basic level, but they are supremely important to the whole feel and the overall look of the scenery. There is a Hilton attached to the MAC on the north side. Terminal 1 This is the oldest and largest terminal at Munich, and it is straight row terminal with two satellite ground level terminals centre apron that are accessed by buses. It has several zones with A–D as well as Arrivals in E. It is not only the sheer quality of design that is on show here, but this scenery detail is certainly now a level above in what you would expect from any scenery. In a overview context it looks excellent, but get up close and the words of phenomenal are then more apt... ... to highlight the fact is the sheer complexity of the designs and they are also merged in perfectly with the custom areas of the airbridge SAM plugin. This new active tool brings airports alive with custom docking, working airbridges (up to three and different airbridges are on show here) and bay guidance and all with a working menu... with more SAM features later in the review. But the really clever area is the glass... glass is the realism key to any really good scenery, and here at EDDM it is simply astounding, as you have PBR reflections, but also tinted glass and clear see-through glass as well, and all of it is perfect. This aspect allows the internals to be shown well inside out, in stairwells and internal terminal detail... but don't expect to walk internally, it is not set out to do that, but only set up as a reflection of external detail... but it is all total realism 101. The terminal's textures in walls, wear, tear and design is all very, very good as well, as is the excellent detail on the roof... landside it isn't hugely overly detailed but still enough to convey the scenery's intentions without the framerate hit. This is a masterclass of current X-Plane11 scenery development. Ground clutter is a ShortFinal speciality, and here at EDDM he does not disappoint with just enough clutter to fill out the bays with space to work around the aircraft and with the oil marks to match. There is great animated traffic and all the clutter is branded correctly to the airport, with walking animated personnel filling out all the working ramps as well... airport animated ground service vehicles are well represented as well, there is an overwhelming amount of movement, but enough you you to get that authentic working airport environment. The two satellite ground level terminals are going to be the most used if you fly mostly regional services, and they are excellent for those hop around Europe and then to return to EDDM services. Terminal 2 In a way Terminal 2 is a mirror of Terminal 1, but with the mid-field area including a larger and bigger single satellite terminal... this 2007 building is known as "Terminal 2 Satellite" but in reality it is a full terminal and exclusively for Lufthansa and Star Alliance partners. Unlike terminal one you can see the huge Terminal 2 hall behind the MAC. And unlike Terminal 1 the terminal only has two zones in G and H or North and South. The gate walkway buildings are a different style to Terminal one and more a Frankfurt modern than the older all glass construction of the other terminal. The reproduction with again the excellent glass is just well and above, even far better then excellent work that was done in Aerosoft's EDDF, the sheer detail is again immense and highly realistic. There is a side terminal called F, but it is only for restricted access and it is hidden and sited behind Terminal 2 at the northern position. Terminal 2 Satellite style is just slightly different again, but now more modern, but in keeping with the same overall feel and Gates K and L are located here. .... as David Bowie sang "it will blow your mind". Remote Parking East there are two remote parking zones. Apron 5 is to the north side (below both right), and Apron 13 to the south, but the rear of Apron 13 is used as a general aviation area (the darker area at the rear). Apron one opposite the Terminal 1 satellite gates also has a lot of stands in 171 to 196 or actually 20 parking stands with missing numbers, but still a lot of parking choices. Control Tower The EDDM control tower is nicely recreated here. Clever sliver reflective windows actually work better than would say the see through glass, design work is very good. The radar on the top is animated, so that looks authentic as well, with another radar working around the airport on a ramp tower. Tower view is set, but you get lots of obstructions in the viewpoint, but it can still work if you need the approach view. Cargo M Cargogate is also Lufthansa's Cargo München large cargo hub. The huge stands can accommodate easily any B744 or B748 cargo freighters, but also a few Lufthansa Cargo DC-11's (hint coming Rotate DC-11) The AeroGround Flughafen München GmbH building is a standout, but it is also an eye trick with just some very good detailed textures. Maintenance hangars There are three huge maintenance hangars next to the Cargo hub... In order left to right... Lufthansa CityLine Technik, old now abandoned Air Berlin and Lufthansa Technik and on the far left is an engine test bay. Hangar detail is immense with matrix framework and reflective glass, they are all beautifully designed... .... standout feature is the SAM plugin "Open Hangar" doors. Yes it works and brilliantly with double doors on the Air Berlin and Lufthansa Technik hangars and a single opening door on the CityLine Technik hangar.... The Lufthansa also has two static A320's inside, I feel a few clutter items in here to break up the huge spaces would have been the total icing on the cake.... otherwise it is totally brilliant. Rear hangar detail is also excellent with a lot of clutter with vehicles and shrubbery. Engine test bay is also first rate with a nicely designed fuel depot sitting behind, detail even on these smaller items is excellent. Munich Airport entrance The main entrance causeway into EDDM, was always a focal point to the scenery, and an important area not to be missed or not developed... that is certainly not the case here. To the south of the entrance causeway is the already mentioned cargo and maintenance areas, with a major long term carpark and the Lufthansa Flight Operations Center. This area is connected by a U-Bahn station "Besucherpark", with it's distinctive circular walkway, the LFOC is in the background. There are real custom U-Bahn trains running through and stopping at the Besucherpark station and then continue into the central part of the scenery, note the amazing detail even down to the correct rail power poles and cables... and with the complex road system and all in 3d with a lot of animated traffic. The northwest side are the main airport support facilities and offices. The area is again very highly detailed and really a quality scenery just by itself... There is the Besucherpark des Flughafen München or Visitors park with the lookout mound Besucherhügel.. and the three display Lufthansa aircraft are also all on show... Lufthansa Service Sky Chefs are based here and is the largest set of the buildings in the area... detail and clutter is overwhelmingly good. Audi AirTraining, power cooling plant, airport maintenance and there is even a Ringeltaube supermarket in there as well... ... the Stadtsparkasse München bank building is very distinctive and well recreated... with the Novotel Hotel that is faithfully reproduced just behind. The northwest area is extremely comprehensive in detail, even down to a Agip service station and cargo lorry park. So the whole scenery has so much density and objects it all becomes a bit of a overwhelmingly feeling of "just how much can you display here"... this is the airport bus maintenance facility. Environment You can add in as many objects as you want to, but that doesn't mean the scenery would work as a collective whole... this aspect is related to foliage and trees to fill in the blank areas to make the whole scenery sing (and probably dance as well). Skillful use of the foliage can create the real feel of the area, and here it is again and above the usual quality.... all areas are covered with no really blank spaces, and it all blends in well with the default surrounding foliage as well. Grass is also included and it is also very good, the lines can show here and there, but it is at least very comprehensive on all the inner field areas. Runway textures are sublime... so realistic with the required grooving and rubber soiled landing points, yes they reflect in the sun for realism, but the runways and taxiway textures are active as well, like with the snow, and they will change to a highly reflective wet look if it rains as well. As they say... "it is a beautiful thing" Lighting If there is a weakness in any scenery of this scale, it is usually here in the lighting.... But as you are already going to guess is that issue of any weakness is not going be here in ShortFinal's EDDM Munich either.... and you are going to be dead right. As the lighting is also excellent. You have only really two sets of lighting, with the landside bronze and the highly bright halogen on the aprons. All approach and taxiway lighting is excellent, you certainly won't get lost here, but there is even multicoloured taxiway - runway approach lighting which looks lovely in the wet... Airport signage is also first rate and they all reflects very realistically onto the ground surfaces. Airport entrance "M" signage is masterful... note the powerlines in the fading light. Airport carpark advertising is also spectacular with individual down spot lighting. Central core lighting is brilliant... EDDM is certainly to be high on your list for any decent night flying activities, it is one of the best ramp lighting conditions I have ever worked in... MAC is amazing! great lighting textures create an incredible feel if you want to explore the centre... ... note the lighting in the control tower, very subtle... but highly effective. We come now back to transparency and glass. Very few developers get night transparency and glass working correctly at night? they mostly end up with a bad blue or usually a grey shade that really is more detrimental than the vision they are aiming for, they usually put up with the effect because it works in the daylighting... but not here as ShortFinal has also mastered glass reflection and transparency in the dark. The effects here highlight the detail inside the terminals. Only area is the internals of the Terminal 1 boarding structures that are not lit internally, you get away with it because the SAM airbridges don't have or can't have any internal lighting either... so it is a compromise. The wet PBR effects at night or in creative lighting can be simply extraordinary, you are now "living the dream". Note the colourful reflections around the Lufthansa flying crane and not only on the wall behind the logo, but on the ground as well (bottom right). Mostly all airport buildings are covered, a few on the outer could be a little more detailed brighter.... .... but otherwise the transition from the aprons to the field is highly realistic, note the excellent lighting on the overpass bridges. Summary There is a very crucial difference between a very good X-Plane scenery developer and a maestro. Any good developer can develop the objects, create the right ground textures and build a quality scenery. But a maestro has something very different in that they understand the deep fundamentals and the effects of the simulator at their disposal. This is usually the biggest downfall of any crossover FightSim scenery developer, it looked perfect in FSX/P3D but the scenery looks flat and average in X-Plane for not taking advantage of the tools available or built into the simulator. We already knew that ShortFinal Design was or is one of the really high quality developers with usually with every release in breaking barriers and upping the ante higher and higher. His LAX was excellent, but again the level in this EDDM Munich scenery has been raised far higher... again. Not only for the really outstanding framework and terminal construction, quality textures, insane clutter and overwhelming detail, SAM plugin interaction, but also in the sheer scale of it all... this is a mega scenery in size, but it has the detail of a small regional airport, but more so in the use of X-Plane's dynamic features, with PBR glass and reflections (a highlight), reflective surfaces in buildings, runways and taxiways, wet and snow effects and the best X-Plane lighting dynamics you can get... in other words you get every single dynamic option that the simulator delivers in active here, in reality this EDDM is a showcase for X-Plane11 as much as a working scenery, and all is provided in both winter and summer season textures. On top of the physical benefits of EDDM there are two more? One is the sheer efficiency of the scenery on your computer, for it's size it is mega light on framerate... but note it is still a big airport with an insane object count, but you don't feel that on your computer or in use. LAX was just as good, but it had the disadvantage of having a huge amount of autogen surrounding it, here that is not the case... so it flies. ... secondly is that price of US$26.95, yes that price is only a single meal price in a restaurant, but this is a scenery you will dine on for years in its sheer quality and use, in other words it is totally excellent value. So how to sum this EDDM - Munich scenery all up? you can't really, as "It just blows your mind". ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! EDDM - Munich by ShortFinal Designs is now Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : EDDM - Munich Airport Price Is US$26.95 Features Ultra-High Definition Airport Accurate models for all buildings with baked ambient occlusion Dynamic reflections on objects and ground textures Custom high resolution ground textures HDR night lighting High resolution photo scenery (30cm/px) Randomly placed static aircraft, can be toggled off in the X-Plane settings Animated Airport Animated airport vehicles (using GroundTraffic by Jonathan Harris) Custom animated jetways and DGS (using the SAM plugin) Taxi network and gate assignments WorldTraffic 3 and X-Life ready Weather Support Summer and winter version Weather effects on the ground for rain and snow Performance optimized WT3: Ground routes are set in the scenery and the scenery will generate a set of routes (very slowly). No really good custom routes are yet available. I used for the review an very old set of WT2 (German Airports) ground routes. and custom adjustment would certainly help... but overall WT3 works. A side note that there is an odd area of the WT3 aircraft passing over the overpass bridges, they don't? as both animated traffic in the underpasses don't work with the overpass? Hopefully a solution will be found. Requirements: X-Plane 11 4Gb VRAM Minimum. 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Download size: 875Mb Current version and review version: 1.0 (January 31st 2019) The jetways in the scenery use SAM instead of AutoGate. https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/49066-sam-scenery-animation-manager/ SAM requires v1.0.5 to work. MisterX Library can be installed to get a larger selection of static aircraft (optional). Installation Download scenery file size is download 854.43mb and with the full installation installed in your custom scenery folder as there are two install folders: ShortFinal - EDDM - Munich Airport (1.39gb) z - ShortFinal - EDDM - Mesh (27.2mb) Total scenery Install is : 1.42gb The developers note you need to adjust the X-Plane "scenery_packs.INI" so the loading order is correct... and that the "z - ShortFinal - EDDM - Mesh" is below the Airport and overlay files. Ortho "Ortho4XP Patch" is also provided to cover the changes to Ortho4XP mesh "library_Winter" text document is supplied in the main scenery folder the current "library" text document is the "Summer" textures. Documents Two manuals are provided in both German and English. Manual - ENG Manual - GER ______________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 1st February 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.30 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe plugin : US$19.95 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 : BetterPushBack - Free : SAM Plugin - Free Scenery or Aircraft ToLiSS319 (A319) by ToLiSS (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$69.00
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News! - Aircraft Released : Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXc by FlyingIron Any reference to the Battle of Britain and you automatically think of Boris Johnson!... oh sorry, not Brexit, but the other Battle of Britain and against basically the same foes... Lately the British don't have what advantage they had back then in the thirties with just the perfect fighter for cutting up the European Schumpeterian democracy... But in X-Plane we now do with the release of FlyingIron's Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXc, this is FlyingIron's second release after the Republic P-47N Thunderbolt, which in my eyes was the most ugliest aircraft to ever fly. Which is one thing you could never hold against the Spitfire, as this lovely creation was the ballerina against the rheumatoid negroitis (google it). Variants and the feature list is long : Spitfire Mk IX comes with 4 variants: Spitfire LF Mk IX (Merlin 66) Spitfire LF Mk IX with clipped wings (Merlin 66) Spitfire HF Mk IX (Merlin 70) Spitfire HF Mk IX with clipped wings (Merlin 70) Art & Sound Ultra-realistic 3D Cockpit Model that is used for SimPit recreations of the Spitfire (provided by Heritage Flight Simulations) Incredibly detailed modelling & texturing, both in and out of the cockpit FMOD Sound Design with 50+ Custom Sounds Dynamic multi-sounds to increase immersion & avoid repetition 10 Liveries included Animated 3D Pilot Flight Model Highly detailed & realistic simulation of the Spitfire Mk IX, performance matched to be within a few % of real-world data in all aspects of flight Custom simulation of the differential braking system & ground handling Tested by a team of real-world pilots to ensure accuracy & realism Simulation of unique Spitfire quirks, such as the need for nose-down trim on take-off and many, many more. Realistic spin & stall behavior for aerobatic flying Complex Engine Simulation Code-enhanced simulation of both the Merlin 66 & Merlin 70 engines, with the ability to switch between the two in-cockpit Complete custom simulation of the 2-stage supercharger of the Merlin engines Realistic operating limits, enforced by dynamic failures Systems Modelling Complete fuel systems simulation Realistic navigation systems simulation Emergency systems modeled Simulation of the original preset-radio system, as well as an optional cockpit-integrated modern radio system Complete oxygen systems modelling External Tank systems realistically modeled Particle FX Engine exhaust flash/flame FX Engine over-prime flameout FX Heat-Blur FX Dynamic Smoke FX Ultra-realistic canopy rain FX (powered by Skiselkov’s Rain Library) VR/GUI Box GUI Panel is VR-ready & integrated into the cockpit for maximum immersion (optional – can be hidden) Ability to switch between engine types, toggle ground elements and optional cockpit elements. Autopilot feature for long-distance flights Extra Features Static Elements modeled (Chocks, Tie-downs & GPU) Functional & adjustable RAF Reflector Gunsight (optional) Optional cockpit-integrated 3D GPS (Garmin 530) Functional weapons & controls (Guns & Bombs) Optional landing light But the manual isn't completed yet? which makes for a first look around and even a first flight a bit of a head scratcher?... the brake handle anyone? so I will just show you some nice pictures of all the nice things you don't know what to do with yet... X-Plane 11.30+ Requirements: Windows, Mac or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimum - 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 1.0 (January 29th 2019) Download Size: 1.3 Gb Requirements are of a large download (1.3gb) but you do get both the archetypal round tip, and those speedy clipped wing variants.... .... just the thing for Boris to go over there and straffle those uncompromising Euro buffoons "eh"... Overall excellent... Now available at the X-Plane.OrgStrore! ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the Spitfire Mk IX by FlyingIron is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Spitfire Mk IX Price is US$34.95 ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 30th January 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews
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I understand where that point of view is coming from. I had also sticker shock when I saw the price, but the fact is the more I progressed within the review then the more of the price was the less and less the focus of the aircraft, I expected the same result at the end of the review that I had felt at the start, but that was very far from the fact. The so called "gadgetry" was not the point either, but for the actual simulation of the aircraft and the realism that the developers are aiming for... to reduce the SP-30 to say a $25-$30 aircraft would have made it bland, so the point is that the blandness would have quickly consigned it to the same lost aircraft folder as the rest of the same style of $25 aircraft, so in a way that is more of a waste of your money, and more so than the $45 dollar aircraft that you will actually fly consistently and with a far more growing and rewarding simulation... I found this excellent video of the SP-30... watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdB3SiiaGg The point is that having flown the aircraft and then watching that video, you could feel the perfect synchronicity between the real and simulation, so the more you fly this SP-30 then the more you understand the dynamics at work from the developers, and to a point that is what you pay for... It is also worth the look of the poor passenger in the video, in being totally absolutely terrified in being cramped into the aircraft as his look and nervousness is absolutely priceless.
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I am going to state this is with this Everest scenery? It really doesn't as any framerate differences are in fact negligible in the fact the scenery is self contained with zero autogen that could pull down the framerate. If the question is about 11.30 framerate to 11.28 or 11.30r1 then I find absolutely very little change depending on your graphic settings
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Aircraft Review : Spectr-Aero SP-30 by Mad Flight Studio I expected when coming into the X-Plane simulator to want the experience of flying aircraft that was notable to my desires, mostly the big long haul designs that had been in my life from an very early age, say the Boeing 747, B707, VC10 and Concorde, but even the everyday machines like the DC-9, B727 and the Trident (Yes I grew up in the sixties). To a point X-Plane has filled out that desire, but there is in reality still no high quality B747, except for the B748, but it is an an aircraft I can't relate to. But the real surprise of the simulator have been the real odd-balls, the quirky machines and not the mainstream of aviation. What you find is a sort of really basic flying machine, but the rewards are quite substantial... the problem is that most users won't even consider such an utilitarian aircraft like this Spectr-Aero SP-30, and mainly it is because they can't relate to it, worse when it is going to cost nearly US$45. First did you actually know of the Spectr-Aero SP-30, which is a Russian built and basically a flying toobox with an engine stuck out on the front, as utilitarian goes it is an aircraft that is about as basic as you could basically get.... so Russian!, so Soviet, a flying farm tractor. But the SP-30 isn't actually Russian but Canadian, as the aircraft is based on the Zenith STOL CH 701 that is a kit aircraft from Canadian aeronautical engineer Chris Heintz through his Midland, Ontario based company, Zenair. Both aircraft are powered by the same engine as well in the Rotax 912 ULX four-cylinder liquid-cooled piston engine, 100 hp (73 kW)... a tiddler of a powerplant, with an engine output to match... you would think that this odd, queer little aircraft is about as far away as your dreams can allow, but the surprise is, it is simply brilliant. First thing to understand is that the Russian design team behind the aircraft is quite substantial with fourteen people contributing to the design and all aspects of the aircraft, including Sergei Mironov who is already a well known X-Plane developer and Mark Kirichenko who are the two main principle developers. And so when you fly and use the aircraft you see, feel and understand the amount of work that has gone into the machine in bringing it to X-Plane... it is all quite unique. The detailing is quite if sensational, and we are already used to being blown away by extreme detailing, but the construction and modeling here on this SP-30 is absolutely top rate.... The aircraft is built to the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association of Canada (LAMAC) design standard DS 10141, in its native country of Canada the CH 701 can be built and flown as a basic ultralight, advanced ultralight or amateur-built or it can be flown under microlight or ultralight rules in several other countries also. American pilots may fly the CH 701 under Light-sport Aircraft rules or as an experimental amateur-built design, those are the regulations for the CH 701, but as the SP-30 is a carbon-copy of that aircraft then I suppose it would come under the same safety standards and rules. Circlips and plastic ties abound, but they are all also highly realistically done, obviously the nuts and bolts and the riveting of the aircraft are all on show and near perfection... note the cables coming out of the pitot tube and into both the wing and wing tubing structure. ... the aircraft only comes with those mid-sized Tundra tyres, the Zenith came also with floats, but that option is not available here. Instrument panel is quite basic, but it hides a few say Russian quirks... Instruments are glorious, beautifully built and with lovely reflecting glass, the highlight is the delicious Avia ACS-1 Clock. Instrument layout is left to right top row... Speed Indicator, Variometer (Vertical Speed), Altimeter, Oil Temperature, CHT (Cylinder Head Temperature) and Avia ACS-1 Clock. Lower row... is RPM counter, Turn Coordinator, Elevator Trim (Electric), Oil Pressure, Fuel Pressure, FlightLine FL-760 radio and VDO hour indicator. Note the duel throttle handles and the left high set mixture knob. Fuel gauge (20 US Gal (76 L)) is far left panel and Ammeter is far right. Note design detail of the built in GNS 430, as you get the full unit slung under the panel, the full Bendix/King KT76A transponder is fastened up the same way. Switchgear is lower row and some organ stops do the various venting on the top. As mentioned there are a few quirks, there is no parking brake? so you use the chocks... the braking action is only via the X-Plane regular braking action, via the lever on the pilot's stick, which is very well done and authentic. Fuel shutoff valve is far right on the lower panel, and the flap handle is on the pilot side lower left, with 0 - 7º -15º settings. Under the instrument panel and the rudders come with active cable controls are excellent, and realistic... rear shelf has headphones that really work as well, select them and the sound will lower from a major racket to a lesser racket, there is a bag that sits here as well... the aircraft menu is situated on the shelf as well and you select it via the handle, and then swoops around for a VR input (or hovers in front of your face), a cockpit light is situated on the above frame. The menu board is well done with two conversion charts for "Height" and "Pressure", below are five tickboxes or menu selections. They include "Plane Condition" save or not (It will save the aircraft's last state of wear and tear condition), Instrument units in Metric or Imperial, Cockpit language in either English or Russian.... note with the Instrument unit change then some of the actual instruments facias change as well. .... Pilots shown on External view and "Plane Shake" or aircraft vibrations completes the internal clipboard. You would note there are no static elements on the menu? To activate the static elements you touch them directly.... but there is a trick! You can only access static items by using the internal view externally, personally I love this idea, and it is sort of the same idea that AirfoilLabs use with their C172, but using this system, it does give you more freedom of movement. Two tricks, one use the shift key to move quicker, and two use a set smartkey to move outside quicker... see more later... but make sure the door is open to move externally, otherwise you will hit the boundary layer. Static elements include... Chocks, wing and tail tie-downs, pitot cover and propeller cover. The propeller can be turned by hand as well if you use the circle manipulator on one of the props, for the cover then press the centre of the spinner. Position your view above the engine bay and you will get a second menu external clipboard! Click on the engine cover (arrow) to reveal the Rotax 912 engine! and yes it is absolutely perfect... on the clipboard as you use the aircraft there will appear items that need servicing? and this is what you have to do... You can change the oil (arrowed), air filters and fuel filter, clean the spark plugs.... ... change the oil via first taking off the cap, then lifting out the dipstick... the oil canister appears and you can then top up the oil. If any areas of the engine need servicing then you do that on the clipboard, shown in red, but I found that it didn't fix the starter motor without a X-Plane restart, even the X-Plane failures didn't rectify the issue, and I found this annoying as I couldn't start the aircraft without a complete desktop restart (reloading the aircraft didn't work), other items that needed attention worked fine. You do perform maintenance in a certain strict servicing order that is laid out in the manual, say drop out the dark dirty oil, before you add in the new fresher and lighter oil, and that sort of stuff... again it is all very and highly realistic and you get your hands dirty. The clipboard allows you also to set the aircraft weights, via two passengers in either 75kg or 45kg weights with the 75kg represented as men and the 45kg weight as women. A baggage weight is represented by a nice leather bag on the rear shelf. The "Chemicals" cylinder holds the spraying chemicals and the spraying boom can be activated by pressing an area under the aircraft. Two other selections on the clipboard allows you to select the prop pitch of Max: 5200 rpm, Mid: 5600 rpm and Min: 5800 rpm... I set it at mid-pitch and a 5600 rpm limit. There also is the "Control Surface Visualization" with normal or defective? whatever that is? Like the airfoilLab and REP packs you can directly test the flying control surfaces for movement. In most cases your feature list is usually at this point about completed, but not here with the SP-30... you have to also drain off the water from the fuel tank. You do this by putting a stool under the aircraft and clicking the drain pipe (arrowed) until the measure tube is about half-full. But you are still not finished yet as to now you have refill the aircraft with fuel, and to do that you have to click on to the fuel cap... this will give you a red 44 Gal drum of fuel to load into the aircraft, It is tricky to see both the fuel gauge and the drum, so it is best to set up a "Quick View" to switch between the two views, it is also shown on the clipboard in a yellow tank, but you can't see the drum aft of the wing? To pump in the fuel you turn the handle, and it is back-breaking work, and especially if the tank is nearly empty, but I simply absolutely loved it, as it was realism 101. You have to turn on the electrical master switch to see the gauge, so watch out for the battery drain if you forget to turn it off after doing the refueling. A full tank of fuel is 20 US Gal (76 L). But there is more work to do If you decide to use the spray gear, as then, that tank has to be now filled as well? The chemical tank cap is right front and again touch the cap to remove it... here you now get a blue filled 44 Gal drum of chemicals It is possible here to turn the handle and see the loading of the chemicals into the tank on the clipboard, that is shown via a blue tank on the sheet... ... but you will find that as you fill up the lower chemical tank, as you are also putting on a lot more weight on to the aircraft... Max gross is 495 kg, and if you are using the spray gear, then be light on the fuel, take out the heavy bag, throw out your passenger, and I even had to change the pilot for a Female of 53 kg weight (She is on a diet) to get under that 495 kg gross weight limit, and all that information is also shown on the clipboard. As noted with my fuel loading I used a little of the battery change, so a recharge was required on the service sheet, and if you are flying in extreme colder climates, like Russia or Canada, then there is a portable heater that plugs into the lower part of the engine to keep it warm, or to warm it ready to start. So the feature list set out here is very comprehensive and extremely realistic... and we haven't even started the aircraft or even got it off the ground yet? Spectr-Aero SP-30 Like loading and servicing the Spectr-Aero SP-30, then even when starting the aircraft is a bit of a palaver.. or a strict set of instructions to get it all right, or to simply not break the aircraft and then start all that servicing palaver all over again... you don't want to do all that lot again do you... no. There is provided a step by step set of engine starting instructions in the manual, but I recommend on printing the instructions out as you will need them handy every time you redo the start sequence, as to get it wrong (and it is very easy to do) and your then simply back to square one, or in having a broken engine... the SP-30 is a very, very fragile little critter. First open the fuel shutoff valve lever (Right rear footwell), and then set the throttle to idle... Battery on, and circuit breaker to on (ALL), this switch is hard to find next to the FL-760 radio... With the throttle closed you build up the oil pressure to 2 bar, by turning the engine over for about 10 secs, then the fuel pump switch ON to build up fuel pressure to 4 bar... Then both twin ignition switches to on (up) and the throttle to 1/4... the MIxture knob is then pulled out, but that is really counter to using the usual mixture knob setting, as you still use this same position to turn off the engine as well? so that aspect is very confusing... You have to know that the mixture on start up is automatic, and as the engine starts it will regulate the mixture automatically (knob will go in)... but it is very confusing at the start. Then hit the Starter button after grabbing the brake handle... and then if your planets align, the gods are very kind to you, or even if you are going to have a good day... then the plane will rock violently and either start... or not start? One or the other? If extremely lucky with a powered up violent shaking Rotax running then turn on the avionics with the radio, transponder and lovely custom set GNS 430... Annoyingly there are no short cuts? A restart via the X-Plane menu or with an X-Plane restart and with the engine now running, the aircraft completely resets all your hard work done on setting up the fuel, chemicals, doors, passengers, weights, baro settings the lot... it is very painful, and also a short of a major shortcoming if you just want to set up and fly, after doing a lot of these resets it took a bit off the shine off the aircraft, you don't mind resetting say the baro or the radios, but losing the weight, fuel and passenger baggage settings is a bit infuriating after doing it all again and again five or six times... and you can't re-access the external clipboard either to do so when the engine is running? So it is constantly back to the bottom of the snakes and ladders reset ladder. Don't leave the aircraft in idle for longer than 5 min either unless you want to change all the spark plugs and most importantly control the Oil pressure and Oil Temperature via the oil and Radiator flap knobs to keep them both in the green zones, this is the same in flight as well and very importantly, unless you want and or to create an engine fail. There is a lot to remember and things to do actively to keep the SP-30 either in the air or running. Sounds are of the real Rotax engine, and they are LOUD, really loud with the doors open and the headphones off, the SP-30 shakes like demon as well (you can turn that effect off) but for authenticity then the whole sound set is extremely realistic and dynamic... Another feature is that if you are in extreme cold or heat (like I am in Australia) then the cockpit will fog up... to clear the dense foggy windows then just open the doors, the demisting is extremely realistic. Flying the Sp-30 is both complex, but rewarding. One thing to note is that the aircraft is very removed from the X-Plane standard settings and usual controls like with the above clipboard settings, so everything is inside the aircraft and not via anything with the simulator settings, this can be good for absolute realism, but also a negative if it starts to interfere with a good simulation... that is your prerogative and feel with the aircraft. So the point is that if you do get it all PERFECTLY set and corrected, then you will fly, and enjoy the huge experience... but there are no errors for judgement in here, in absolutely zero... and this can then cause a bit of frustration and even to the point of giving the simulation away. Can you have one without the other? In the developers eyes probably no, as they seek to create a perfection in realism, but from a user point of view then that extreme can be too extreme in no give even in basic errors. It is like in the real world if you have a fouled sparkplug, and you get out and fix it, then the fuel you have already put in the aircraft, the 3 kg bag, and even the passenger sitting patiently in his seat are still all there ready and waiting when you get back in to restart the aircraft, in this case it isn't so, as they have all been wiped away to start again, so is that actually realistic, well no? You can't even reset the aircraft to a default position to clear up all the built up errors either... in other words it takes all the fun out of the simulation. In the flying aspect, if you get all those setup and settings correct then the SP-30 is very and a highly rewarding aircraft to fly. Power up and the roar of the Rotax fills the air, depending on the weight the little SP-30 will either sprint off the handbrake hold, or casually start to move and build up speed. 60 knts, is the usual slight back pitch to flight time, and the aircraft is a dream in flight with a huge amount of control feedback. Climb is steady, but in reality you don't really care either, because this is real fun with a capital F, with brilliant feel and those lovely input changes to the controls. Climb rate is an amazing 1000 fpm, but unless empty or having the spraygear attached you would never use that... 600 fpm to 700 fpm is perfect. There is a huge advantage to set up the electric trim as soon as you can get a level flight... centre takeoff trim is noted by a double LED selection, to balance out you need to go up the display by pressing the top part of the rocker switch... the problem is that the switch does not adjust correctly to your inputs? even with accounting for the slow movement of the adjuster? so you are finding yourself poking or clicking at the switch in frustration on maybe up to three times to get the adjuster to actually move to about the second LED marker from the top, so adjusting it finely becomes a slow and annoying process, same with resetting the trim back down to the neutral position? Get the SP-30 trimmed and settled at around 130 knts and it is a lovely little aircraft to now skim across the landscape as only a lightweight frame aircraft can, with the aircraft shaking and a huge wind noise making it all fiercely realistic. Sorry there is no autopilot, as you are the only pilot. But watch those temperatures like a hawk with oil pressure 2–5 bar; oil temperature 90–110°С (maximum 50–130°С) and cylinder heads temperature of around 50-130°С, so if they go out of those greens then start praying... so control the organ stops with care, same with the visible cowl flap and the engine is kept sweet around 4200–5200 RPM. Open the doors in flight to get the full exposure experience.... the whole cockpit feels open to the elements, but this is flying through the air at it's very best.... and with the noise to match. Maximum speed is 93 mph (149 km/h; 81 kn) at sea level, range is an amazing 372 mi (323 nmi; 599 km) and your ceiling is another amazing 12,000 ft (3,700 m). The partical effects and 11.30 dynamics are adjusted here, but the Rotax is not the most climate friendly engine in the skies. Approach speeds are around 75 km/h, which gives you a great platform for surveying the area. Flap extension (if you could call it that) is very draggy even at the 7º point and extremely draggy at the full 15º, but the aircraft is very stable and quite nice to manoeuvre and adjust to line up with the runway... ... only aspect to be aware of is the wind as you are basically flying a kite, you can't fly the SP-30 above 120 kp/h anyway, but even small gusts are highly noticeable in an ultralight, but adjustable. A single nose light is all you get... I would have rather had preferred the real world lighting on the SP-30, which are two lights and mounted on each left and right wing support. Final approach is at the 60 km/h mark at the end of the green zone, a little more throttle off to around 50 km/h and you glide down slowly to the runway, but still watch out for those wind gusts. Stall speed is set at 30 mph (48 km/h; 26 kn) and get it wrong and the picture is not pretty with bent undercarriage, flat tyres and a nose wheel strut deep into the inside of the Rotax. Open the doors for the fresh air and feel for the sense of freedom on the ground, but when parked the Rotax stops with a sudden violent clonk. Lighting The SP-30 is not really an aircraft to fly at night, I doubt the rules would allow it to anyway... the instrument panel is not backlit either but there is an overhead light that does illuminate the instruments if you are running for home in the dark.. the lovely Avia clock however is beautiful, and the GNS 430 looks nice in the dark as well. Externally there is that single nose light, but it is pretty useless and blobby as well, the navigation, strobe lights are well done as are the two red beacons, with one under the fuselage and one on the tail. Liveries There are seven liveries of which are in reality all the same theme and Russian, but some are a different colour and one is the blank white. All are very high quality, but you wished for one or two that could have been a bit more creative as some CH-70's were quite different to zany, there is provided a paintkit, so... Summary Extremely eccentric is this Spectr-Aero SP-30 that is based on the Canadian Zenith CH 701, but classed as a ultralight or VLA. Rugged and Russian to it's look and feel, it is an exciting aircraft to fly, certainly with the immersion factor here that is realistically deep. The feature list is spellbounding and simply huge and you also get a huge interaction with all the required elements like the real realistic Rotax engine servicing, fuel and chemical manual loading, great selection of passengers, bags and weights... static elements like chocks tie-downs, covers, misty windows and clever VR (Virtual Reality) interaction... the list is endless and it is all very good and highly interactive. The recreation of the SP-30 is minutely detailed, certainly one of the best in this category, and the aircraft feels alive in use, movement and real world sound, it should do as it took two full years and a room full of Russians to create it... in all it is almost the absolute perfect simulation... almost. The clever idea to use the internal view to access the external elements is without a very good one and should be copied by other developers, but I think it also creates a problem. The separation of the internal and external means that if you can't start the engine or just want to get into the SP-30 for a flight, you are simply left into a strange position. Any settings made on a previous flight are always wiped and so if you spend twenty minutes or so refueling, checking the water in the fuel tank, setting up the passenger and baggage weights or setting up the spraying gear (note that there was no aerial spraying section in this review as I gave up), then if the damn engine won't start or you simply make a slight mistake in starting procedure, or simply just want to go flying... then all your past work is dunk and gone with no global settings? You are then caught between resetting it all again, for it to only fail again, and after a few constant rounds of that you are ready to throw in the towel, Using the setting of "Save aircraft" just builds up past aircraft wear and tear to the point you are again grounded, switch off "save aircraft" as it only saves the wear and tear elements and you get back the other issues, and you are at the mercy of again going around in circles... The SP-30 needs simply a global setting, to reload all of your last setup or to save your last setup if you are leaving the simulator or restarting within the simulator, and a simple reset to basic aircraft settings to clear out all the wear and tear, if like in this review in that any service area is buggy? (the X-Plane failure system doesn't work here). You basically in the end give up a fly without all the options in place. So an overview is that you have an absolutely totally perfect simulation of a extremely interesting and magical aircraft to fly, but it is overly frustrating to use because of one simple area... no doubt to the developers they can't see the issues, but we didn't create it or build it either... so we need to meet somewhere in the middle to get the best out of their amazing work or go like the developers slightly mad.... it is however.... Absolutely Highly Recommended! _______________________________ The Spectr-Aero SP-30 by Mad Flight Studio is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Spectr-Aero SP-30 Priced at US$44.99 Main features: Dynamic model, handing characteristics, systems controlled and tested by real world pilots and engineers. Full 3D manual ground service propeller covers Pitot cover parking ties parking chocks control surface check fueling (gasoline and chemicals) fuel drain check outside engine heater chemical works equipment Full 3D manual engine service propeller manual rotation oil level check oil change oil filter change air filter change fuel filter change spark plugs change prop pitch selection (from service menu) a lot of failure repairs (from service menu) IFR flying adaptation GNS transponder slip and turn indicator navigation lights landing light cockpit light Realistic gauge operation Custom radiostation FL-760 (with AUX connection simulation) Custom fuel system Custom oil system Custom engine operation A lot of custom failures Custom shake and G-effect (compatible with TrackIR and view-effect plug-ins) Custom 3D sounds (over 170 real sounds) Custom windshield effects (rain, ice, mist) Custom particle effects Fully VR compatible (without additional plug-ins) High Quality PBR textures High accuracy interior and exterior 3D models High accuracy fully animated aircraft 3D ground service and general options menu Two Language manuals and aircraft menus (Russian/English) Two cockpit languages (Russian/English) Two gauge options (Metric/Imperial) Layered paintkit included Requirements X-Plane 11.30 and higher Windows, Mac OSX, Linux 64bit 2Gb VRAM Video Card (4GB+ VRAM Recommended) Current version and Review Version : 1.0 (January 24th 2018) Installation and documents: Download for the Spectr-Aero SP-30 is 749.35mb and the unzipped file deposited in the aircraft "General Aviation" X-Plane folder at 1.30gb. Documentation: Manual (26 pages) is excellent and covers all aspects of servicing and flying the aircraft. Manuals are in both English and Russian as is the instrument and clipboard languages (note the clipboard language has to be changed manually via a supplied image file) SP-30_manual_En.pdf SP-30_manual_Ru.pdf Paintkit and the language pack is also supplied. ______________________________________________________________________ Aircraft review by Stephen Dutton 27th January 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.30 (v11.30 is required for this aircraft) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft - YBNA - Ballina Byron Gateway Airport 1.0 by Stricko 101 (X-Plane.Org) - Free
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News! - Sound Update! - BSS updated v1.3 A320 Ultimate sound pack Blue Sky Star Simulation's have released an v1.3 update pack for the FlightFactor Airbus 320-314 Ultimate... Personally I wasn't too taken with the release version of BSS - Blue Sky Star Simulation's sound pack, it actually felt dull after the JARDesign version, of which I though was magnificent. I expected at least the same sort of immersion from BSS in the A320U, but it just didn't deliver... and more confusing is the fact that it is basically the same aircraft and almost the same engine in the CFM56-5 to the A320U CFM56-5B4? I haven't yet tested the new version... but here are the changelog notes: General Changes Heat blur/contrails now are working New wind system Empennage wind Mid wing and engine nacelle wind Nose wind All electric contactors remade E&E bay transformers sound PTU distance fixed inlet/extractor sounds Blower resets Advanced settings for Switching/Levers/buttons etc Avionics caused loud speaker pop (when off and on) PAX volume, noise off outside ambiance when front door is open ground roll/brake sounds Air conditioning/packs improved Avionic vent sounds improved Avionic start beep Avionic start bus power high freq. noise CFM56 overhaul blades windmill sounds complete outside engine sounds all 360 degrees with start/stop sounds (full remade) jet blast sounds hitting fuselage while aircraft is on the ground with max power, disappears when aircraft leaving the ground effect. Intake rush sounds (smart), depending on thrust input Engine spool-down goal, low thrust, spooling down famous CFM sound. Custom high thrust that causes engine to whine more at around 70-80% N1 which fades away with more air into cowling and gets replaced by steady "saw" sound. N2 Core sounds All engine sounds inside change every 3 seats, like they suppose to, basically every PAX seat has its own authentic sound of engine. Jet blast rumble (back) Reverse sounds CFM buzzsaw fixed volume. Remember that X-Plane11.30 has now N1 and N2 differential outputs, and the notes very much take those new dynamic actions into account. The FlightFactor Airbus A320 Ultimate BSS Sound Package is available now from the X-Plane.OrgStore... and too update to version v1.30 then go to your X-Plane.OrgStore account and download the new version... install is the same. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the Blue Sky Star Simulation Sound Packages is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : BSS Flight Factor A320 Ultimate Sound Pack Price is US$19.98 (Yes! you do need the FlightFactor A320 Ultimate aircraft and it is Required for the use of this sound pack US$89.95) ______________________________________________________________________ Blue Sky Star Developer Site : Blue Sky Star Simulations Blue Sky Star Developer Facebook : Blue Sky Star Simulations News by Stephen Dutton 16th January 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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News! - Announcement : PA28-181 Archer lll by Just Flight - Thranda In the same vein as their Piper Arrow and Turbo Arrow, the next release from Just Flight is the PA28-181 Archer lll... This aircraft fits into the Piper PA28 family with first the earlier Cherokee, then the Arrow and next in line was then the Archer variant which had a five inch fuselage extension, wing span increase, larger horizontal tail, gross weight increase over the Arrow, it will also be a analog gauge aircraft as this version is the Archer lll that first flew in the mid-nineties, it is the current Archer LX and DX that have the G1000 avionics suite, the aircraft is visually different because of the iconic Archer round engine inlets. So here are some nice pictures... Features: Accurately modelled PA-28-181 Archer III, built using real-world aircraft plans and comprehensive photography of the real aircraft Numerous animations including multi-animation passenger door that, when open, responds to G-forces and air resistance, baggage door, cockpit window and sun visors Ground equipment including chocks and tie-downs HD textures are used to produce the highest possible texture clarity PBR (Physically Based Rendering) materials with real-time environment reflections for superb quality and realism Detailed normal mapping for down-to-the-rivet precision of aircraft features Cockpit A truly 3D virtual cockpit right down to accurately modelled seat belts and screw heads - every instrument is constructed fully in 3D with smooth animations Cockpit textures feature wear and tear based on reference photos taken in the real aircraft to produce an authentic environment Interactive engine start checklist that responds to user inputs and sim variables Interactive checklists for every stage of flight Aircraft configuration system that will allow you to choose between 'cold & dark' or 'ready for take-off' (if aircraft is stationary on the ground) Fully functional and comprehensive IFR capable avionics fit including: - KMA 24 audio selector - Fully featured X-Plane-native GNS530 (supports procedures out of the box, and supports Navigraph and Aerosoft custom nav databases) - GNC 255 COM/NAV 2 radio - KN 62 DME unit which can display information from NAV 1 or NAV 2 - S-TEC autopilot with lateral hold modes (HDG, NAV, APR, REV) and vertical modes (ALT, VS) - TT31 transponder - KR 87 ADF - Traffic-Watch ATD-300 traffic awareness unit - Strikefinder stormscope - HSI and ADF gauges - Support for RealityXP GTN750 (sold separately, Windows only) Interactive logbook panel for logging your flight details (X-Plane native) Flight computer panel with useful information such as fuel burn, endurance, speed and wind speed/direction GoodWay compatible Ability to change barometric units from InHg to MB in altimeter adjustment Option to activate flashlight from within pop-up window, to aid in those pitch-black cold and dark starts at night Pop-up autopilot window Option to remove window and instrument reflection effects Animated toe brakes Functional throttle quadrant tensioning system Radio knob animations routed through plugin logic, for optimum movement fidelity and sound synchronisation Aircraft systems Custom-coded fuel system, including the option of automatic fuel tank switching for use on those long distance cross-country flights (this option is remembered for future flights) Custom-coded electrical system with functional circuit breakers, avionics power circuit and emergency bus controls. Circuit breaker logic is linked to X-Plane's internal failure logic, so if the plane is set to fail a certain electrical component after a certain number of hours, the circuit breaker for that element will pop out. Realistic landing gear with slow/fast tyre rotation animation (blurry when rotating fast), precise shock absorber animation and wheel chocks and tie-downs Functioning carburettor and primer controls Dedicated interactive engine pop-up window displaying values such as fuel tank weights and imbalance, fuel pressure, oil pressure, oil temperature, battery charge (with quick charge option), and information about spark plug fouling and vapour lock condition Simulated vapour lock condition, with warning pop-up and suggested actions Simulated spark plug fouling condition, with indication of percentage of fouling Lighting system includes separate lighting control for gauges (via rheostat) Functional electric trim control on yoke Simulated fan and vent system with realistic blower sounds (linked to circuit breaker logic and electrical system for realism) Custom external light logic with custom strobe light pattern and custom light halos for added realism Realistic and accurate flight dynamics based on real-world performance and handling data, and input from PA-28 pilots Authentic sound set, generated using X-Plane's state-of-the-art FMOD sound system Custom sounds for switches, doors, warnings and more, featuring accurate location placement of sounds in the stereo spectrum, 3D audio effects, atmospheric effects, adaptive Doppler, exterior sounds spill in when window or door(s) are opened, different sound characteristics depending on viewing angle etc. Comprehensive manual with panel guide and performance data PSD Paint Kit included so you can create your own paint schemes Dedicated pop-up window for sound mixing, allowing for individual adjustment of the volume of exterior sounds, in-cockpit sounds and various effects Custom weight and balance manager window The Archer III is supplied with ten liveries from the UK, USA, Canada, France, Australia and Germany: G-CIFY (UK) G-CCHL (UK) N6092U (USA) D-EFVC (Germany) PH-AED (Netherlands) C-GUXL (Canada) HB-PPN (Switzerland) EC-JQO (Spain) VH-PPR (Australia) F-GNCH (France) All earlier Just Flight GA aircraft and the Arrow are priced around US$42.00, so I would expect the same... release is noted by Just Flight as "coming Soon!" JustFlight are here: JustFlight Should be on the X-Plane.OrgStore very soon... Images and text are courtesy of Just Flight ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 24th January 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews
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News! - Incoming! : Saab 340 by Carenado Release is getting close for Carenado's next big regional aircraft for X-Plane11... the Saab 340 is a niche aircraft for commuter and regional hub and spoke operations, but that niche with Beechcraft B1900 is very tight market. Interestingly the Beech 1900 is not actually directly competitive with the S340 because the B1900 has only 19 seat to the Saab's 36, but they do the same sort of routings... After the huge success of the last major new design of the excellent Citation Jet then Carenado has "runs on the board" with the S340. No doubt most will compare the new S340 with the Leading Edge version, but although the Leading Edge aircraft has had a lot of updates throughout the years, it is now overall a far older design. Carenado have released some newer images to view over... Expect GTN 750 integration, full custom real world S340 FMOD sound, HD quality pro textures (4096 x 4096), also expect also 9 HD liveries and 1 HD Blank livery. The FSX/P3D version is priced at US$44.95, so I expect that price to be current for X-Plane as well.... release, well soon, but I would say later next week. Images and text are courtesy of Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 23rd January 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews
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Aircraft Update : Aerostar 601P v1.4 by Avia 71 Avia71 has updated the Aerostar 601P to X-Plane 11.30 and v1.4.2 One of the most intriguing aircraft released last year was the Aerostar 601P by Avia71, and a vastly underestimated aircraft was my consensus at the end of the year. If you read the release review, there was a still few little areas that were needing a little attention, but nothing more or nothing less of a newly released aircraft and general X-Plane updates. Aircraft Review : Piper Aerostar 601P by Avia71 Since that review there has been twelve updates which can be accessed by the Skunkcrafts updater (I recommend in using the latest v2.2 version). The last of the twelve updates v1.4 was specifically for two areas... X-Plane 11.30 and VR (Virtual Reality) compatibility. I don't have VR to show you the effects of those changes, but here are the notes with now all the commands are VR compatible and there are now (better) 3D menus and start ignition in VR is now more accessible. First changed (3d) menu is the tab version that has been moved from the left side "71" to a VR clickspot on the centre magnetic compass. The menu is basically the same as with the original tab version and scalable, except for the option now to have the passengers visual in the cabin or not. The original "Documents" holder lower left footwell pocket is in the same place but it is now also VR activated, but more so it has been changed to use the Aerobask system of navigation. but more importantly it is now moveable and scalable for use. The original was totally useless, in it's tiny fixed distant position... The three menus noted are Charts, Cheklists (sic) and Miscellaneous... The charts uses the Aerobask system to break down the charts into categories, whereas the Miscellaneous selection can cover separate documents. It does feel like it is still a WIP, but the navigation is very good, and it is very quick in getting the documents from the files (png), which are held in a folder called "CUSTOM DOCS". Checklists are now available twice, as above in the tab menu and now here in the Documents holder, in reality they are both the same, it just depends on which view or look you like but the Doc version has a better navigation... Aircraft now also has Reality XP GTN 750 panel integration as well. PBR Lighting There has been attention in update 1.4 to the aircraft instrument panel and lighting. The Speed dial was not very clear, complex and very hard to read, but now it is far better in some circumstances... noteably as the behind the instrument lighting has also had attention (it is supposed to be brighter) but somehow there feels there is still something not right with the PBR and the way it interacts with the internal part of the aircraft... If the lighting conditions are a certain way favorable to the panel, then it lights up fine, but in most lighting conditions it is deathly dark? and you can't read most of the instruments? Even with the new lighting adjustments they are still very dull.... Even in mixed conditions the digital readouts are almost blank (arrowed left), but put some light on the digital readout panel and it looks bright and fine and easily readable (arrowed right).... isn't that supposed to be the other way around? So the cockpit and cabin in most conditions is a very dark place to fly in. 11.30 and performance With X-Plane 11.30 a big part of this update covers the X-Plane 11.30 new features, but also the dynamics of 11.30. And they are all in this case quite significant. In the review I found a few areas of the aircraft's performance a little off, but the reset to 11.30 has fixed most of those niggles. When taxiing the aircraft had really no idle position, so as you unlocked the brakes and you would instantly taxi or power forward... ... now if you unlock the brakes the 601P will sit nicely until you add in more power and you also now need a fair bit of throttle to get the aircraft moving forward, so you now feel the weight of the aircraft in the thrust requirement, so taxiing is now far, far better and for also not in wearing out your brakes all the time. The mixture levers have also (thankfully) had attention, in that now you can move the levers easily as before it was an odd manipulator that moved them for you, as it was almost impossible to then set the mixture correctly, now it is perfect. Another quirk that has been refined was that nasty bad right bank when you took off or landed... it was a weird one and even odder on a twin-engined aircraft that you should be able to cancel that sort of thrust imbalance out with your throttle settings.. it is slightly still there, but certainly not as hard and the noticeable banking as it was before. So moving to the 11.30 dynamics by my feeling has greatly improved the aircraft in all phases, and that was a sort of refinement missing in the original. The Aerostar came with a turbo-charged engine... so now the engine is turbo-normalized, and the main consequence is that the turbo-compressor Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensors are limited to 29.92 inches pressure. Still on air pressures you can now also change from inHg to QNH by pressing the Altimeter pressure window. The 601P already had an authentic cabin pressure system... ... in 11.30 the focus was on oxygen pressure, most notable to masks (crew and passengers) but point here is oxygen pressure and the more refined way the smaller oxygen pressures are pressurised and used by the aircraft's systems, so this makes the 601P's custom pressurized system more realistic. Avio71 has also taken advantage of the new 11.30 icing features that uses the leading edge inflatable boot de-ice system. The new feature will show authentic icing in that ice accumulates on the wing, and then the inflatable boots blasts the ice off in irregular intervals. Amperage will only be consumed from the assigned electrical system (the same sources and datarefs as the electric and thermal surface heat) when the compressor is actually running, so it will only generate amp spikes of boot actions instead of a continuous load. The new SASL 3.3 is also now used on the aircraft. SASL 3.3 in reality is only for X-Plane11, and so it is not trying to bridge a gap now between different X-Plane versions, most notably XP10 (so the 601P is now only a XP11 aircraft)... this was causing many issues and mostly with authorization reactivations and pop-out windows hence the new menus above. SASL 3.3 is also forward looking for the new coming Vulkan/Metal API's The FMOD sound was also updated, but mostly the adjustments are just minor tweeks. Summary The Aerostar 601P is certainly one of the more really interesting aircraft in X-Plane, but interesting in a really different aircraft to explore and enjoy, it is also for the skilled but also want to stretch their skills to something unique. So a mainstream Cessna or Piper it isn't, but then the real life counterpart aircraft was also very much the same. Although this update review notes this update as v1.4, the actual stream of updates since the release of the Aerostar back in July has been comprehensive, this release is for mostly VR (Virtual Reality) and X-Plane final 11.30 compatibility. The VR aspect is mostly new menus (SASL 3.3) and better interactivity with touch zones and VR manipulators. It was good on release, but the constant refining including back structure like the latest SASL 3.3 is now giving the aircraft a more mature feel, certainly in the areas of performance and in using the X-Plane11.30 dynamic features of which here are highlighted by the better oxygen and Icing systems, but the handling is also now vast improved as well, on the ground as well in the air, so the main feel I get back is that a lot of those original quirks (except for PBR and exterior and interior panel lighting) have now been mostly addressed. At the head of this review I noted words like intriguing and vastly underestimated, and that sums up this Aerostar 601P, I will add in "interesting" as well, so check it out as it is still currently at a sub-US$30 sale price, and a worth addition to your collection... Highly Recommended. ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the Piper Aerostar 601P v1.4 by Avia71 is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Aerostar 601P Price is US$34.95 (sale price is US$29.95! A Great deal for a US$35 aircraft) Features Ultra High Definition Model 4K Textures throughout Full PBR High quality 3D model Optimized for X-Plane 11 FMOD custom sounds Fully VR compatible Reality-XP's GTN 750 integrated (when available) Features Fully functional 3D cockpit Custom menu containing checklists, weight management, cabin altitude calculator, maintenance, stats, options Custom instruments Custom pressurization system Custom animations Disengageable system for saving parameters between flights Customizable documents holder (read your charts, checklists... in flight) Custom fuel feeding system Complete set of original checklists 7 liveries + paintkit Auto-Updater Keep your aircraft up-to-date with SkunkCrafts auto-updater Easy to use (nothing to do, really) As usual, updates will be free of charge for customers Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac, or Linux 2Gb VRAM Minimum, 4Gb+ VRAM Recommended Review version 1.4.2 Installation Download of the Aerostar 601P is 392.35mb and it is installed in your General Aviation Folder as a 551mb folder. This aircraft uses the SkunkCrafts auto-updater for updates, v2.2 version is recommended Full Changelog attached changelog.txt _____________________________________________________________________________________ Update Review by Stephen Dutton 22nd January 2019 Copyright©2019: X-PlaneReviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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Aircraft Review : Cessna 172SP SkyHawk XP11 by Carenado As the Cessna 172SP is overwhelmingly the most popular general aviation aircraft in the world with 44,000+ built since 1955, you can expect then that X-Plane or any other simulator for that matter, has too represent the aircraft on their platform... In X-Plane there are quite a few, first and foremost is the default version from Laminar Research in both the analog and G1000 versions, plus the REP (Reality Expansion Pack) for this aircraft from SimCoders. AirFoilLabs also have a very deep version with the same sort of REP pack built in... and so did Carenado with their C172N Skyhawk II. So you have quite a choice of the same sort of C172 design, certainly the Laminar version has an enormous advantage in that it is delivered as part of the simulator and is free. So here Carenado have released the X-Plane11 (and 11.30 compatible) version, but it isn't anything like the earlier C172N. For one the new version is totally rebuilt even redesigned from the ground up and also changed with the (Garmin) G1000 avionics suite, and oddly enough it is the same Laminar system that is installed as the default aircraft. The analog dial version is now gone, as so also has the dual wheel/float versions... it is to say really that the original aircraft has been replaced with a more modern single version of the aircraft. I don't know if the older analog version will still be ongoing and in the future available, but currently it is still displayed on the X-Plane.OrgStore. Obviously it is an XP10 aircraft but the aircraft will still fly fine in XP11, but this aircraft doesn't take advantage of the XP11 features. So if you prefer the analog version, then the AirfoilLab version is your best choice, but it is deathly slow.... even with a tail wind! Cessna 172SP SkyHawk XP11 Obviously the point of this review is why pay for an aircraft when there is a pretty good free version, and it is a very fair point. Because at it's heart the C172Sp is a pretty basic aircraft in the first place. So it is hard to distinguish the differences, but they are there, you just have to look for them. I have always looked at aircraft of the genre in that you don't just buy them just to fly. You are in a way more of taking an ownership of them, certainly when it comes to vFlyteAir aircraft... it is a personal thing. More so if you actually fly a C172, or even more so if you want to fly a C172... or even have done so in the past the significance of ownership is going to be a factor in wanting the aircraft. So authenticity is then the main factor here in any purchase in to be as real as the same Cessna is in real life, and that is more important an aspect than what you think it is... more so if you want to spend your flying hours mostly restricted to only a few types of aircraft of which a real world or as a past life pilot would only do so. In that aspect then again the AirfoilLab's version would tick a lot of boxes. But as you get closer to the new Carenado version, something else again strikes you on how again the game has moved forward... to the normal eye this C172SP all looks the same outwardly, but it isn't... Outwardly developers have always wanted to create aircraft panels with detail, perfect rivets, screws and panel fit. But the realism factor can be a wide margin from flat panels with drawn rivets to the intricate detail... detailing. Careando have here gone that next step further in this aspect. Carenado panels were always very good, and highly detailed. But with a new process they are now taking the quality to another level and using the PBR materials to even a higher level than ever before, and with a better framerate to boot as well. Yes this process has been on most Carenado aircraft on all of their XP11 releases, but not to this newer level as 11.30 pushes the game out further. Note the shape of the tail-fin metal in the light, it is curved or bending as the metal shapes into being pulled or stretched across the aircraft's inner frame, the trick here is that the warping of the surface in an inner dent movement reflects that construction aspect as well as panel fit and outward bulges. Riveting is now not only the quality rivets, but it is in the dent itself it is as they create the fastening movement into the actual metal to more show realism... ... what is far more remarkable about these images, is that they are created in the X-Plane quality texture setting of "Maximum" and not in the top notch setting of "Maximum (no compression)" either. And as we will see the quality of this sort of detail at this setting is set out right throughout the aircraft, so in other words "you can have your cake (In lower quality settings) and eat it as well (with high sharp quality detail graphics). On an odd note though, the lighting wicks are now not animated and don't flicker in the wind, like they used to do on all Carenado aircraft. So all the detail is simply absolutely top notch, and as a highly realistic Cessna that you can almost touch... With the 11.30 new dynamic features you get of course particle effects, but to note that there is a difference between the effects in 11.30 and the actually adjusted effects in X-Plane11.30 as shown here... the C172SP was late in release in waiting for Laminar to go 11.30 final, but with that case then you get the effects, and the correctly adjusted ones by the developer now included... more on the 11.30 performance aspect later. The C172SO is a tiddler of an aircraft, so these effects are going to be minimal. However the hot exhaust is well done, you also get the odd small contrail off the wings and the wheel housings, wet conditions also brings flumes of spray off the propeller thrust, and all give the C172SP a bit more dynamic realism, but the point is that these new particle effects are finely adjusted for this aircraft, and not just with the switch over factor in using 11.30... and there is a difference. You get in the options the choice of the aerodynamic fairings, or the plain open wheels. Strut and assembly wheel detail is of course excellent. Cabin The internal cabin is all new, and reflects the more later variant of the C172 than an early model... nice soft leather seating with lovely dark grey plain weave inserts have the same materials reflected on the cabin walls..... One piece molded roof with fittings gives this standard C172 a more executive feel than a bare bones trainer.... note again the high quality and the sharpness of the detail.... with the quality texture setting that is still not at the full Max setting... ... but you can still see every single screw, every mesh screen and you can easily read any of the many notices set around the panel and cabin in sharp detail. Glass is marked or worn, but the excellent internal reflections deliver that realism required, and for once the reflections are not set as overwhelming... but perfect. Instrument Panel Although the instrument panel surround and to a point the instrument layout itself, it is exactly the same as any other C172 panel. The sharpness of everything is again very clear and realistic when laid out on that nice dark grey background, but also in a very clean if delivering a slightly new aircraft feel. The Garmin G1000 avionics suite does dominate the panel in selection and style. Both Yokes as per usual can be hidden or visual. From the outset the G1000 suite does not look exactly like the Laminar default version, because there have been some visual minor tweeks. It is the same system, but with the artificial horizon on the PFD (Primary Flight Display) being more authentic with the slight central zone being more lighter (brighter) than around the edges, If you remember (or it still is) the default G1000 system is still a very dark brown lower and hard blue upper horizon, which I never ever really liked... this version is excellent, but I will note the display lightness (non adjustable) in that the displays can be slightly dark at different lighting angles, but again it does look far, far more professional than the default G1000... it is branded as Garmin as well instead of G1000. The displays pop-out, but again they are different, in here using the X-Plane11 window layout than just the straight display pop out? You may not like this version as you have to adjust the blank background areas to fit neatly around the display screen, the default version is just as tricky as the G1000 panel can be pulled out of it's scale and shape, but it does look better without the top tabs... but there is a reason for this new pop-out change, as you can now also pop the window out now as a computer window to separate the displays from the simulator, and that is obviously for home cockpit builders or second monitor screens. Most are now very familiar with the default G1000 system, but it does still have a lot of depth. Standard speed and altitude ribbons with built in vertical speed are really good with the rate of turn indicator and all set within the huge Artificial Horizon with built in FD (Flight Director) pointers, as is the radio and autopilot settings in the top banner. Insert (MAP) is switchable and with a good range, but I rarely us it, and all this with those new background graphics... and all together this layout set out in this PFD in actually helps in to making this G1000 feel more realistic All lower keys access ALERTS, NRST, TMR/REF (Timer) and of course the Wind strength and direction with comes with three settings, and the same three switchable DME/GPS/VOR1/2 backgrounds with all their points shown are on the heading rose dial. I earlier found these menu driven systems quite confusing, but is now far more used to them, but however at times you can still get lost in overriding key settings. Two set items are the AP (Autopilot) buttons are down the PFD left panel side as well as the MFD (Multi Function Display), and it is surprising that most G1000 layouts don't do this, but habit means I still use the MFD buttons (the yoke covers some of the buttons on the left). Another item thankfully missing on the PFD is the engine monitor system display, again it crowds up the artificial horizon if set hard in place. On the MFD There has been some quiet additions that rounds the system out more. It feels now far more comprehensive. Engine readout covers RPM, Fuel Flow GPH (Gal per hour), Oil Pressure and Temperature, EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature ) and Vacuum. Fuel quantity is for both tanks. Lower is the Electrical Bus Volts M and E and Battery amps M and E. System switchover (data) covers top RPM, Oil Pressure and Temp. Fuel Calculations show Fuel Flow GPH, GAL USED, GAL REM (Remain) and can be reset. Lower is the same Electrical Bus Volts and Battery amps. All flight plans can be tedious to input, but they do then give you the data feedback. Any imported flightplans do work fine, but you miss out on the detail You can select either Narrow or Wide in the flightplan screen layout, I prefer the wide (unless I need the large navigation map) as it gives you a lot of detailed info on the display. The default G1000 always gave you more detail and airport information than most custom G1000 systems.... .... Terrain and coloured terrain elevations are all in the package, but overall there are far too many settings and uses for this review. Carenado do provide a full G1000 Manual (Laminar) in the set of documents with the aircraft, it is a long read (133 pages) but if you want to completely master the G1000 avionics system, then it is worth all the effort and time. Lower instrument panel is a basic C172 layout... Switchgear dominates, with main power and avionic switches upper left, panel lighting adjustment and external lighting switches below. Center are three backup analog dials that cover Speed, Artificial Horizon and Altitude. Lower panel is the starter switch, fuses, throttle and mixture levers... far right is the three stage flaps lever with UP - 10º - 20º - FULL positions with a nice graphic showing the flap extraction speeds. Two knobs cover cabin heat and cooling... One switch is interesting as it is noted as "Cabin PWR 12V" that has an outlet on the lower centre console panel, and a higher set switch that is the "Standby Batt" Standby Battery switch. Lower is the park brake handle left, rotating pitch trim wheel, and fuel selector on the floor. Fuel selection can left or right tanks or both, but there is a pull knob to shut off the fuel supply (in red). Menus The standard two Carenado menu tabs are on the left lower screen with selections: C ) Is for the standard Carenado with ten preselected Views, Field of View and Volume panel but included are now two views for each of the new G1000 displays. And O ) which is the Options panel. Options include Window and Instrument reflections. The Static elements provided and here they are still quite basic with only two cones, manual electric aircraft puller, engine inlet and flag pitot covers, but no chocks? The wheel "Fairing" selection is here as well. Door animations include both pilot and co-pilot doors and a small baggage door left rear (behind the rear seats). The twin highly realistic (and new) animated pilots do disappear when you activate the static elements. This classic Carenado menu system has been in operation for ages, and yes it is tested and true. But I am starting to find it a bit limiting compared now with other GA aircraft offerings of the same category. It is in the flexibility that you miss. If say you have the static options on then you get everything including the ugly puller, as there is no flexibility to say to just have the chocks, or the tie-downs or even the pilots off/on as it is simply all or nothing? Flying the C172SP XP11 If you had read my last review of the Faroe Islands. I did a twin hop from Gatwick (EGKK), and so my return flights it was my intention to go back via Sumburgh on the Shetland Island, because I had simply not been there for a long time. The aircraft in the review was FJS Q400, but I thought why not go back to Scotland (via EGPB) in the C172SP... which is really a dangerous thought with the Faroes being right in the middle of a weather hell on earth with the mid-winter North Atlantic at it's seasonal worse, it wasn't a choice I had a matter in? But low and behold the day (mid-January) was a lovely and with a brightly shining morning with a light 3knts breeze... good enough to give the C172 tiddler a chance of doing the open water crossing to the Shetland Isles... Fuel was 133kgs (as noted by SimBrief), but the actual block fuel was only 49kg for the actual trip, but 53kg extra was needed for any diversion? At least it gave you a security blanket. Pre-flight checks done and the 133kgs of fuel loaded, it was time to warm up the engine. You have to have the "Stby Batt" armed (for the extra heave to start the engine) and set the fuel selection to both tanks.. it took about 4 min running to get the Lycoming O-320-D2J (160 hp (119 kW) at 2700 rpm) up to the right temperatures. 11.30 has more functionality with carb icing and fuel flow with icing... but in the C172 you don't have a lot of control over that. So you have to be aware of the engine instruments to watch out for any inconsistencies, so this is not the review to convey or review those 11.30 changes, anyway a twin-prop would be a better aircraft to observe and document the effects. A bit of throttle and you instantly realise you don't need that usual Carenado high forward movement here to turn the aircraft, as the 172SP will turn almost as soon as you are moving, it all feels smoother as well. Note the PFD display, dull in the shade but perfect in the bright light. You still can't use wide movements to steer the Cessna, just slight intricate motions to keep it straight, again it does feel far smoother. Line up on RWY12 and a last check around the instruments. You still need that Carenado very slow throttle adjustment as you add in the power, as the C172SP will still pull heavily to the right under the prop thrust, you go from a little right rudder to a lot of right rudder to again a little right rudder as the speed builds, it can be still quite slippery almost yawing if you push in the power too hard, but there is an enormous amount of feel being fed back to you and far more than before... personally I like it a lot, the 11.30 dynamics are certainly better in this Cessna, but I am still doubting if Laminar have still got the ground friction numbers right, more time and different aircraft will build up that theory, but my first feel is no. 550fpm is the climb out rate and the aircraft feels sprightly for the 1160 kg all up weight. Handling... very impressive and responsive, I love the feel of the aircraft, as it feels about perfect. I am climbing up to 3000ft, then trimming the aircraft out which is easy (and to do the adjustment) and getting the aircraft stable. You only have a pitch trim, so you have to watch any drift to the left or right, but in reality, however when once trimmed out you can adjust even any direction with slight single finger movements of corrections... lovely. The flightplan takes the aircraft over the main island of Streymoy, but I want to go around the headland before joining up to the plan, it gives you a bit of a better sightseeing view as well... it is lovely up here in the crisp clean morning light. Once clear of the headland, I made a beeline for the flightplan line... Once on the right track I decided to climb up to 5,000ft, up out of any low cloud. SimBrief noted to stay at 3,000ft, but 5,000ft felt like the better option. Climb was at 450fpm, with the mixture high in not losing any speed, once I got up to the altitude I leaned the aircraft out and settled in for the long passage. In reality this is a very simply aircraft, certainly to fly, but that does not mean that you are getting a very dull experience in return, in fact it is quite the opposite as the aircraft is certainly very realistic to fly, but the feedback and even the depth of the G1000 instruments are as deep or as light as you want them to be... MFD is very versatile, with many map configurations and layouts... ... from full navigation screens to both narrow and wide flightplan views... note leaning the fuel to find the right balance is a bit of an art, but if you find the right point of just on the white band on the RPM you will find the rest of the fuel flow and engine temperatures will fall into place, depending of course on the weather conditions. Topo, Terrain and airways can all be shown and used... One odd thing is that the standard manipulators on the panel are different to the pop-out hand pointers? The hand pointers can be hard to use until you work out where the active areas are? Lower panel is a red button labeled "DISPLAY BACKUP" this changes the displays as if one display goes wonky, or blank... They change into an emergency "get you home" mode, with a black background and PFD instruments on the MFD, and the engine display comes on in the PFD, if you like this style then it is yours to use, but access to the panels are restricted.... it is only a get you home tool. Sounds Sounds are FMOD and come with the usual 360º doppler effect. They are of course very good, but the C172 does not come with a huge range of sounds, the bonus is of course they all sound really good, as they don't have those bad repetitive or droning phases that drive you so batso or annoy you. all in all the sounds covered the full spectrum that you want and you enjoy the aural experience. The Shetlands are now large on the map, so it is time to lower the altitude, and set below the cloud cover are the islands... when descending you have to work the throttle with a bit of feel and precision, so as to not let the speed runway as you descend and then rethrottle perfectly when you arrive at your altitude so as you don't lose too much speed... all management. I go to manual and fly neatly around the headland, Sumburgh's RWY 09 is quite tricky for an approach as it is snuggly positioned well back into a corner... .... at least the weather is good, it is a hard and even a dangerous approach in bad weather, which is usually most of the time up here. I am finding the manoeuvrability of the C172SP really nice, you get a certain flow that you enjoy the movements. I do find a big difference though between the older and newer 11.30 dynamics, and I will be honest I will have to adjust my flying skills to the new feel and flow, it does feel sensational though but requires more thought and yoke and rudder inputs, I have landed the C172 several times now, but I still don't think I perfected the feel, this is certainly not the aircraft but the changes in the aerodynamic performance, it feels though really great... My old style approaches are now landing me too high and too long? speed is correct under flap FULL, but the C172SP just won't descend or slightly floats in the final section of flight.... I feel I need to be more braver on the lower throttle speed. 60knts-58knts is the balance speed, go too high and you float, but go below and you start to stall (Stall is a low 40 knts).... tricky but fun. The numbers worked for you as well which shows that the simulation of the aircraft was excellent... I used in fuel 53 kg (SimBrief noted 49 kgs) but that was at 3,000ft and not 5,000ft, so my guessing with the extra climb and engine warm up is that the fuel use was on the number. It will be interesting too look back at this review when I have flown a few more types of aircraft that have been processed in the new 11.30 dynamics, but let me stress this isn't the Carenado C172SP here or even X-Plane itself, but me in adjusting to the new feel and dynamics, overall it is excellent, far more smoother to your inputs and I didn't get or feel that huge downward pull of the X-Plane landing phase... and maybe that is the answer in my landing hesitation in the fact I am always ready to counter that negative landing effect, and maybe it is now in 11.30 not as overwhelmingly strong a force as it was before? Night Lighting Internal and panel lighting is quite basic, but very good. You can get the right amount of lighting, but still have very good vision out of the windscreen at night, although the reflections can be strong... here again those slightly dull G1000 displays work to your advantage, and are not over bright in your face... very nice. There are two adjustable (map) lights in the roof over the front seats that illuminates the two front seats and the rear is illuminated by a single on/off switch overhead light. Externally again it is basic... navigation lights, tail beacon and twin in left wing lights for taxi and landing (SP version and above), for once they all feel nicely adjusted. The strobes are bright and sharp, but if you like your replays then fly with them switched off as they are static over bright and don't flash? Liveries You get the standard Carenado livery set with a white blank, then five all American registered designs. Quality as noted is extremely high (4K 4096x4096) resolution, but the designs are all a basic wave or flame on a white background airframe design... so overall they all come out a little boring, Carenado needs to get a little more creative, and add in a few more variations. Summary Don't even compare this Cessna 172SP to any other Carenado (or Alabeo) C172's, as for one it is all brand new from the ground up, effectively a new aircraft, the odd thing is it doesn't look it, until you really look at it's amazing skin and highly detailed design. The interior is all new and modern as well, and of course it comes with the latest Garmin G1000 avionics suite, but again even that default system has had some nice tweeks to make it feel all very non-default in look and feel. The 11.30 enhancements are also the a nice top layer of a very nice all rounded cake, as the C172 flies like a dream and so overall it is quite a nice if perfect little aircraft. But I will note the Carenado brand as a whole as it is in some ways related to this aircraft. No doubt any earlier Carenado aircraft were very high in the list of quality and design, and to a point they had that exclusive mantle to themselves. But Carenado have been around now for a few years, even in X-Plane, and make no doubt in many areas like the sheer quality on show here with is amazing C172SP. You are however now still starting and in getting the feeling that in areas Carenado are becoming too stiff in their packages. Notably in the menu's and features, and that many features that were also standard are now slowly disappearing, like here with the loss of the animated wing edge wicks or chocks, so overall the Carenado's are starting to feel quite basic and not as feature filled as before, and no doubt the opposition are closing in fast and delivering what Carenado don't, the Weights and Balance menu's, separate static elements, active fuses, and not only in supplying a few boring liveries and even a manual to work out the instruments... you sort of get the idea. So the main aspect of this review is why buy the same type of aircraft that is essentially available for free, and comes also built in with X-Plane, but believe it or not there is a significant difference. I'll come back to that ownership feel. Yes the Laminar C172SP is a nice aircraft, but it is quite basic and to be honest it doesn't have any intimate feel about it, not only in the flying aspect, but as an aircraft as a whole... fly this Careando version and you feel like you have signed the purchase papers for it, you will want to run your hands down it's flanks and say "it is all mine"... all MINE and "I love my little C172" and that it is a significant feeling to actually own it, and keep it in your life for the rest of X-Plane11 and even pay to have it all back again for X-Plane12. In other words it is perfect, in a Carenado sort of way... and you will fly it around for hours and hours of absolute joy and maximum simulation, and that is far better deal instead of being stuck in a boring default bland Cessna, even if it is free... Highly Recommended. _______________________________ The C172SP Skyhawk XP11 by Carenado is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : C172SP Skyhawk XP11 Priced at US$32.95 Special Features Designed and Optimized for X-Plane 11 Fully VR compatible Full PBR (Superb material shines and reflections) Updated X-Plane default G1000 Features Specially designed engine dynamics for X-Plane 11. Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards Ground handling adapted for XP11 ground physics Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries Goodway Compatible Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy Requirements X-Plane 11 X-Plane 11.30 is also required for this aircraft Windows, Mac or Linux 2GB VRAM Minimum - 4Gb+ VRAM Recommended Download size: 410Mb Current and Review Version : 1.1 (January 16th 2019) Installation and documents: Download for the C172SP Skyhawk is 390mb and the unzipped file deposited in the aircraft "General Aviation" X-Plane folder at 461.40mb. Documentation: Overall Carenado provide a lot of documents, including the full Laminar Research G1000 operations manual. C172SP G1000 Normal Procedures PDF C172SP G1000 Emergency Procedures PDF C172SP G1000 Performance tables PDF C172SP G1000 Reference PDF Recommended Settings X-PLANE 11 PDF ______________________________________________________________________ Aircraft review by Stephen Dutton 19th January 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.30 (v11.30 is required for this aircraft) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 Scenery or Aircraft - Faroe Islands XP by Aerosoft - Maps2XPlane (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$45.99 - EGPB - Sumburgh Airport - EGPB 1.0.0 by Relicroy (X-Plane.org) - Free - X-Plane was converted to the "Winter Textures" by xflyer by the JSGME MOD
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News! - imminent Release! : Epic E1000 - G1000 by Aerobask Aerobask are rounding off their beta testing of the Epic E1000 with the new default G1000 system in place. This was a nice aircraft before but believe it or not this is now an oldish aircraft, coming out originally from Aerobask way back in March 2015... Review: Aircraft Review : Epic E1000 by Aerobask So this will be the full new X-Plane11 version and my guess a 11.30 adjusted aircraft as well.... Aerobask have issued a few images. It will be interesting to see what 11.30 features and ideas have been brought to this already really interesting aircraft.. No date, but expect very soon, price will be I am expecting to be around the mid-thirties. Images and text are courtesy of Aerobask ______________________________________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 17th January 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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11.30 notice! : Non working aircraft and upgrades Most users were flummoxed when they did their X-Plane 11.30 upgrade into finding a lot of their aircraft don't work? Mainly the FlightFactor A320 U and a few others... First be aware that updating to 11.30 will create a different set of rules for the aircraft behaviour. And unlike the earlier days of X-Plane many developers now side on the defense of caution than putting out upgrade fixes before X-Plane goes final with a new version. It does totally bewilder me that users expect everything to running as per the older version when upgrading to a newer more advanced version? The aircraft and in some cases even sceneries need to be upgraded to the newer rules before operating as normal. AND DON"T go back to 11.28 as you will just totally confuse the simulator with both 11.30 and 11.28 rules.. stay in 11.30 and you will quickly resolve most of the issues. So yes there are aircraft not currently viable with X-Plane 11.30, and yes they won't work either, but note that developers will update very quickly to resolve the issues, as already there has been a flurry of updates from Aerobask, FJS and Magknight. So currently check your updaters regularly and keep an eye on the X-Plane.OrgStore for version changes. I recommend to update to Skunkcraft's Updater v2.2 and run the updater currently to reset your current upgrades to 11.30. The FlightFactor A320 U is a different case because the aircraft does not run under the X-Plane simulator specifications but under a CEF or Chromium Framework. So the issues are completely different and won't be resolved quickly, but I will note that Flightfactor are working to resolve all the issues , but I am as so flummoxed that they didn't start early as well when the aircraft was in RC (Release Candidate)? but to wait for a total final release... as most developers seems to have started their update changes earlier... A "storm in a tea cup" and with this comment it is basically yes on the 11.30 release, in a week or so it will all be forgotten... ______________________________________________________________________ Notice by Stephen Dutton 16th January 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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Scenery Review : Faroe Islands XP by Aerosoft - Maps2XPlane Sited almost directly between Norway and Iceland, and 200 miles (320 km) north-northwest off the coast of Scotland is the Faroe Islands. This archipelago area of 18 islands is about 540 square miles (1,400 km2) with a general population of 50,322 and is part of the 1814 Treaty of Kiel that granted Denmark control over the islands, along with the two other Norwegian island possessions of Greenland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands have been a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark since 1948. In world terms these islands are absolutely nowheresville, and buffeted by the strong winds of the North Atlantic on one side and the cold arctic winds of the Norwegian Sea with a climate that is classifed as subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc) or very windy, wet, cloudy, and cool. Temperatures are usually average to above freezing throughout the year, and it is all so desolate and windswept that there are the only two images that comes to mind when thinking of these groups of windswept rocks, so why would you want to really go there?... then why not, because the Faroe Islands are perfect for everything we love to do in flying simulators. It is a remote destination, it is very challenging flying wise and it is somewhere very different to explore... Faroe has got it all in three and plus with a great name like "Vágar!" that is very Viking in origin, and that makes it all sound like a brilliant destination. (Apple Maps) I will note from the off that the scenery is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde, but a very clever one but also hence the requirement of a large download (1.5gb) and the install (2.35gb) of which in reality supply two sets of the same terrain mesh and textures... one for summer and one for winter. They switch depending on the time of the year, so if you want the summer textures then set your calendar to July or August, if you want the winter then set the date to December or January, the best way to switch is via the reload scenery selection in the developers X-Plane menu, also the "Runways Follow Terrain Contours" checkbox needs to be on. As it is currently January at this time of the review my settings are set in the winter mode, but I will show both seasons. First Impressions I started services to the Faroe's with a twin hop... one from EGKK (Gatwick) to EGPH (Edinburgh) and then the second service on to EKVG (Vágar). I am flying FJS Sim's Dash Q400, so I figured I needed an extra service to sharpen up my skills in that I haven't flown the Dashy for a few months and that the approach to EKVG was going to need all of my skills ready and fine tuned for a interesting landing, and certainly my foresight was well founded. Being the dead of winter it was certainly very cold up at FL220 (22,00ft) and the Dashy needed the de-icing switched on to cover the -38º cold air, It was already on my mind what conditions I would have to face when I got to the Faroe's as Scotland was already at it's freezing drizzly best. 40nm out and the start of descent and it didn't look any better as the cloud cover was thick and far to the horizon, once under it was as expected seriously murky... Approach was from the south into EKVG RWY30, there are no VOR stations on Vagar (the island) but only two NDB frequencies in (VAGAR - 348 VG) and (MYGGENAES - 337 MY) close to the airport (there are overall four NDB stations). Both runways have ILS approach systems with RWY 30 (110.30 MF) and RWY 12 (109.10 SF) but to note that RWY 12's ILS is offset to 111º. So with the conditions I picked RWY30. In the murk I finally saw the canyon terrain as you thread your way up the Hestfjørður between the southern part of Streymoy the main island of the Faroes and smaller Hestur Island on the east, on the tracking you go slightly west and the chart notes not to go lower than 4,000ft, with reason. I didn't and went down to 2000ft to help with the visibility to my bad... The next island after Hestur is Koltur and it is all mountain peak and it made it's presence known very quickly within the murk... I judged the height, but it was still very close with the terrain warnings raining over me, next time I will stick with the 4,000ft limit. Once past Koltur then Vagar Airport is directly in front of you on Vagar Island, but again still don't start descending as the terrain is still quite high on the left.... and spectacular it is! and more of a warning if you want to do a short approach and cut around through Vagafjørður to avoid Koltur Island, as you still need that height judgement on the approach. If you have the tools then use them, and ILS glideslope into RWY30 is a good guide, but be very aware if you want then switch over early to do the manual landing phase, as with switching off the Autopilot can then put you in a very tricky place as the side crosswinds across the Vagafjørður are savagely ferocious... I held on, but it could have also gone all seriously wrong and right down to the threshold, as I really had my hands full just keeping the aircraft tracking the centre approach lighting correctly... the charts are noted with a lot of cautions! Just to note this is midday in Vagar as daylight in January from sunrise at 9.41am to sunset at 3.26pm as that is barely six hours of daylight, and it is mostly dull even then. Both runway approaches have RAIL guidance, but to note the runway 12/30 1,799m (5,902ft) on approach looks very short, it isn't but sloped, but I would call it more curved at both ends... Maps2XPlane have done a great job getting it very exact to the the original gradients. Both ends of the 12/30 runway have turnaround areas, but they are both quite small, so watch the tight turning for say a B737/A320... the taxiway in is central runway, so it is a fair taxi back to the turn entrance... the Vágar airport looks however extremely authentic that was created by Albert Ràfols, so I am certainly getting a quality feelback to the scenery, it feels a little like the old Truscenery Tampere-Pirkkala airport, but not quite as detailed. Aerosoft in their manual noted to turn on the "draw parked aircraft" selection in the X-Plane menu, but what appeared was not what I expected, but a Hawaiian A330??? I though that Aerosoft had their own static aircraft library? They do, and obviously it doesn't work... so the HA A330 was quickly banished. I parked at stand 4 in front of the newer opened 17th June 2014 terminal, with the older one to the left and a small cargo facility to the right (Stand 5). Stands 1 and 2 are both turn around stands as 3, 4 and 5 are nose in parking and there are three helicopter pads are available directly in front of the main apron (one has a static aircraft). So the first impressions are overwhelmingly great even if you can't actually see much of the scenery, and even more so with the difficult conditions raging around me, but I would expect that at this time of the year as it is possibly normal, but with the winter effects running it certainly was very realistic in creating that extreme environment (note the weather was created by xEnviro). EKVG - Vágar Airport The airport was built by British Royal Engineers during World War II on the island of Vágar. The site was chosen mainly because it was hard to see from the surrounding waters and the area was hidden from any potential guns of a German warship. The first aircraft landed here in Autumn 1942. Also British engineers had similarly first built Reykjavík Airport in Iceland in 1940, then known as RAF Reykjavik, following the British Occupation of Iceland. After the war, Vágar airfield was abandoned and left unused until 1963 when it was reopened as a civilian airport at the initiative of two Sørvágur residents, Hugo Fjørðoy and Lars Larsen. The two worked with the Icelandic airline Icelandair which began the scheduled flights to Bergan, Copenhagen and Glasgow using a DC-3 aircraft (Just think flying around here in a DC-3! good god). In 1964 a separate airline, Faroe Airways, operated flights, The company ceased operating on 28 September 1967. In 1971, Icelandair was then operating Boeing 727-100 jetliners into the airport with weekly nonstop services to Glasgow and Reykjavik. In 1988, Atlantic Airways was formed and flying British Aerospace BAe 146-200 jet services nonstop to Copenhagen. Until 2004 Maersk Air also operated flights into the airport. Maersk Air flew Boeing 737-500 jetliners into the airport with services to Copenhagen, with aircraft's short airfield performance of the British Aerospace BAe 146-200 which was the best type until the runway was extended on 3rd December 2011. Atlantic Airways is now the only Faroe airline with one A320-200 and two A319.100's. SAS also started a Copenhagen service in March 2016. Vágar Airport Vága Floghavn IATA: FAE - ICAO: EKVG 12/30 1,799m (5,902ft) - Asphalt Elevation AMSL 280 ft / 85 m As a landscape the setting for Vágar Airport is breathtaking, certainly in the winter setting. Note both approach lighting pylons that are in brilliant detail. Airport and terminal layout and is exceptional by Albert Ràfols, you have the detail and weathering for authenticity and for the perfect local Faroe ambience. Basically there are three areas, the long rear Cargo/New Terminal/Old Terminal area, the forward Control Tower and built-in fire station and the only large airport maintenance hanger which is also a base for Atlantic Airways. There is a great contrast between the two terminals, with the glass and steel of the new building and the old wooden timber feel of the original 1963 terminal, note the original hut style "Customs" hall. There is really great lattice work on the modern terminal landside and all the glass and surfaces are reflective and PBR active... ... carpark detail is also first rate with great ground textures and markings, with the excellently detailed covered walkways and the quality 3d static vehicles. Only notable omission is the no active ramp vehicle traffic, but the point is that EKVG is not going to be really buzzy busy airport, so I think that aspect would work more against the scenery than for it. The hanger/base for Atlantic Airways is visually the standout, mainly because of it's yellow colour scheme, but it looks very authentic, shame the doors don't open, SAM style. Control Tower - Fire Station The distinctive control tower is really well recreated, as two levels cover the approach and ramp activities... there is a static S&R helicopter on standby out front... No poking out the door with any Fire Engines, but again I think that is again for the better here, as with the static vehicles in there is enough, but not an overwhelming feeling of clutter... in other words perfect. Tower view is set perfectly... with the setting just above the aerials and with that you get a full complete 180º unobstructed view of both the approaches (on a clear day). Helicopter Pads Besides the main airport at Vágar there are also eight helipads that are spread out all over the islands as in most cases it is only by air that is the main way (or the only way) to navigate the islands, all have this great infrastructure or buildings built around the pads and as they are not just plonked straight in there as most scenery developers usually do... the Heliport at Tórshavn is the standout (below left). Runway textures All textures and ground elements of the runway confines and surfaces are excellent, there are also perfect ground surfaces that looks realistic with weathered wear. note the authentic snow sticks for taxiway edge navigation.... all surfaces are also reflective and fully PBR active, nice. Faroe Islands The scenery is not just a focus on the airport, but on the whole archipelago area of the18 islands that makes up the Faroe chain. Provided is high resolution HD terrain mesh that is extremely detailed. There is 1.400 km² of Faroe area to be explored and all are in high quality mesh landscapes, yes it is all very highly impressive, and highly realistic as well. As the only thing missing are the puffins on the craggy cliff faces. Faroe settlements, villages and townships are dotted totally throughout the scenery on all islands with connecting active traffic (unless on the outer islands)... ... with the township of Sørvágur which is on the approach to RWY 12... ... and Sandavágur that is on the right on the approach into RWY 30... note the fishing circles. And the village is voted the most famous village in the country, and also best voted as a traveling experience and highlighted by the beautiful red-roofed Church has a distinctive architecture that was built in 1917. This point highlights the only real adverse area of the Faroe scenery. There are yes the distinctive Faroe architecture in houses and dwellings but not much else... as the distinctive churches are also critically missing, as say there also is neither any industrial buildings in sheds or warehouses... not even the fishing boats on which that the Faroe economy depends on? Which brings us the capital of Faroe in Tórshavn. Overall Tórshavn is very disappointing in context with the very high quality of the rest of the scenery. The capital is just more of the same of a lot of Faroe housing with no port? or any commercial infrastructure or buildings visible either? There is no ferry in the harbour or really anything at all... The capital has a lovely fishing village feel with coloured housing surrounding the port (very Dutch) with the distinctive buildings on the entrance to the port... you are not expecting a complete recreation of the capital here, but you do expect something to sort of represent it? Summer Seasonal Textures Switching to the summer season in Faroe is visually extremely dynamic, it is almost a completely different style and feel of scenery. I debated on which seasonal scenery was the best season to represent the review... but in reality they are really completely Jekyll and Hyde in comparison. The landscape is all quite breathtaking in scale and detail... Night Lighting Overall the lighting is very good at EKVG - Vágar... with a nice contrast between the airside and the brighter landside illumination. Aprons are bright and workable, but like most developers with reflective glass the new terminal feel is a bit flat, and even dull.... ... the nice spot lighting on the lattice work terminal landside however does lift it up, as does the great lighting in the carpark. The Atlantic Airways hangar is very imposing and there is a large amount of very well done drop down spot lights on most of the buildings... .... so it is a high pass on good lighting. Summary At US$45.99 then Faroe Islands XP scenery is not cheap and that high price might put some users off in purchasing this excellent scenery... but even with that high price then there is a lot of value to take in here. As for being quality scenery Faroes XP does certainly deliver, and it is also an interesting diversity as in reality you really have two sceneries in one as there is the huge contrast between teach of the seasonal textures which are quite unique... and they both certainly deliver that "Wow" factor, as noted was my arrival in mid-January which was very dynamic and authentic, but any arrival in the summer would give you just another style of an astounding experience. And there is this huge expanse of high quality landscape to explore, either by helicopter or even with a general aviation aircraft, or say a very light aircraft (or glider) of even the Aerolite 103 style, which would allow you to soar around those magnificent cliff formations. Airport quality and detail is excellent, but Faroe has no active apron traffic, (dynamic vehicle traffic however covers all the drivable islands) but as noted it is debatable that a lot of ramp activity is actually required. Night lighting gives you a dull terminal, but otherwise it is all very good. Negatives... actually not a lot, but for the money, the oversight of not developing even a basic foundation of the Faroe capital in Tórshavn with a port, is one that should be quickly rectified, these islands are here to be explored and the area with Tórshavn in my mind is very important into delivering the full exploring island experience, a few local (colourful) churches would not go amiss either. If you read a lot of X-PlaneReviews you will know that I support that scenery value comes from the usage, or the versatility within the simulator. Even considering the remote aspect of this Faroe scenery in that context the scenery is a very worthy addition to your X-Plane simulator, certainly if you fly within the northern European context. For one the scenery is extremely challenging on approaches (certainly in poor weather conditions), but also visually it is very comprehensive and dynamic. Routing can be very interesting between Iceland, Norway, Denmark and the UK, but Atlantic Airway's do services as far away as the Mediterranean ports and SAS also do services... overall it is the huge amount of landscape that is on offer and in very high quality visually aspect as well, and that credible distinction will certainly draw you here, it is just one of those types of sceneries you could get easily addicted to like I did with Aerosoft's Keflavik Airport, and keep coming back to again and again, Faroe XP is a very worthy addition to the X-Plane landscape.... Highly Recommended! ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! Faroe Islands XP by Aerosoft - Maps2XPlane is now Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Faroe Islands XP Price Is US$45.99 Features: Realistic recreation of the complete Faroe Islands with an area of about 1.400 km² High resolution terrain mesh with various texture sets for a seasonal representation Customized local terrain details, e.g. realistically sloped runway at the Vágar Airport Detailed rendition of the Vágar Airport and the eight helipads spread over the archipelago Faroese themed autogen, navigation obstacles and dynamic traffic on the islands Hundreds of custom objects with PBR materials, 3D vegetation, night lighting WT3: Ground routes are set in the scenery and the scenery will generate a set of routes. No custom routes are yet available. Yes they work, but only in a limited capacity with only the Atlantic A319's doing all the traffic work... Many GA or Jet arrivals just disappear on landing, but the runway layout with turnarounds makes EKVG hard to navigate... a custom adjustment would certainly help... but overall WT3 works. Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimum Download size: 1.3Gb Review version v1.0 Installation Download scenery file size is download 1.5gb and with the full installation installed in your custom scenery folder as there are three install folders: Faroes4XPlane - Overlay (206.40mb) Faroes4XPlane - Airport (2.01gb) Faroes4XPlane - Terrain (311.4 gb) Total scenery Install is : 2.35gb The developers note you need to adjust the X-Plane "scenery_packs.INI" so the loading order is correct... and that the Faroes4XPlane - Terrain Mesh is below the Airport and overlay files. Documents Manual_Faroe_Islands_XP11_de-en_web (In German and English) ______________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 16th January 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.30 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe plugin : US$19.95 : WorldTraffic 3.0 Plugin - US$29.95 : BetterPushBack - Free Scenery or Aircraft - Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 by FlyJSim (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$30.00 - AW139 4.0 - By Laminar Research (default) - Free
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Aircraft Release : Airbus A320-214 Ultimate by FlightFactor Aero
Stephen replied to Stephen's topic in Airliners Reviews
FlightFactor are doing a test beta now for 11.30... I find that even the X-Updater isn't working either. Keep an eye on the news for the 11.30 update. -
News! - Plugin Update : WebFMC Pro v1.2.0 by Green Arc Studio Developer Green Arc Studio's have release version v1.2.0 of WebFMC. This release covers now more aircraft and added to the list of available is now JARDesign with the Airbus A330 (note it does require X-Plane v3.11+) and the JARDesign A320. The full list of supported available aircraft is now : he complete list of supported aircraft with version 1.2.0 is: JARDesign 330 NEW! JARDesign 320 Toliss 319 FlightFactor A320 Ultimate FlightFactor 757 Pro v2 FlightFactor 767 Pro Rotate MD-88 IXEG 737-300 EADT x737 (with x737FMC only) Zibo Mod 737-800* 737-900 Ultimate* * both aircraft will work with the demo free version. Support for Mac OS (built and tested on Mac OS Mojave). Support for Linux (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or their derivatives, 64-bit). A version (Demo Really) is available as a free plugin that you can use with the Zibo Boeing 737-800 Mod and the associated 737-900ER Ultimate. That version is available here on the X-Plane.Org: WebFMC 1.2.0 X-PlaneReviews release review is here: Plugin Review : WebFMC Pro by Green Arc Studios _____________________________________ Yes! WebFMC Pro v1.2.0 by Green Arc Studios is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : WebFMC Pro Price is US$19.99 The v1.2.0 update is free to previous purchasers of the plugin, go to your X-Plane.OrgStore account for the new version. ______________________________________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 14th January 2019 Copyright©2019 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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Laminar Research : X-Plane 11.30 Analysis On Friday 25th October 2018 (US time) Laminar Research released the next version of X-Plane11. This is version 11.30, and as per all new releases this originally was the beta test version of the simulator. You could get the test beta version via the "beta" checkbox on the X-Plane Installer app. (Steam users were excluded). The full release of X-Plane 11.30 is now (final) and is available for download (Steam users update is to follow) and you can update to 11.30 by doing an "Update X-Plane" on the Installer app. Officially on release it is version 11.30b1 or by my moniker 11.30 2.0. As this is a very significant update, and will certainly be a companion the coming Vulkan update now noted for 2019 if targeted for Q2 or mid-year which will be a noted another significant milestone for the simulator. That is a yes in performance, but the ground work for that Vulkan version is actually built into this 11.30 update and so this is in reality the really important one. As with most groundwork code you will very rarely see it, but as I noted earlier this year it is in that the whole internal structure of the simulator that is currently undergoing a total revolutionary change as it is significantly being rebuilt from the ground up or inside out, so it is just not about Vulkan/Metal we are talking about here but the whole complete internal X-Plane code structure itself that is undergoing an extensive transformation to another new era.... "Yes Jim, it is X-Plane, but not as we know it". And so in this 11.30 beta you are starting to feel it's presence, as the changes do however pop up here and there, but mostly they are still all still well hidden and buried from view. This approach can make many users think that it is only what they can see is only what has only been changed, but also a lot of this analysis can't be revealed until other parties (i.e. developers) start to use and mostly adjust their products to take advantage of the full suite available of the new features and ideas presented here, in fact it will be months long after 11.30 has gone final in that it will be then that everyone realises the large effect this version will have on X-Plane. Obviously the special effects noted below will come in all shapes and sizes and many will be totally (even stupidly) overdone, but in many ideas it will be also very clever (as X-Plane users can be) and show off how good the simulator has become. Since the release of X-Plane11 and in many respects the simulator has already changed totally beyond our original expectations, now here there is the start another level of transformation that has got even the most hardened FSX/P3D users wondering what baby they are now left with to hold on to. Internal changes 11.30 is the first installment of API (Application Programming Interface) changes that will switch from the older OpenGL API to the new Vulkan (Windows/Linux)/Metal (Mac) API's. This is to update the simulator to work far better with more modern hardware in processors and graphic cards (a graphic card moniker is really a bit outdated now? as they are more now the size of a mini-computer itself and than be rather of what the installed graphic engine producing machinery really is). Originally we expected that the new Vulcan/Metal API's to all come in together with one major update, but the introduction here shows that is not the case as the API's can be introduced in blocks of areas, and it may also serve as a good test on how X-Plane itself responds to the changes out here in complex-land before going in for the full change over API deal. You may find the API change over in not one but maybe even as many as four updates to complete the full API changeover, you could with this release to note it as the block 1 release. The area most affected in v11.30 is the shader system, so it has been completely totally Vulkanised because it won't work with the .glsl format, so it was changed early. There are huge bonuses here as well, in that the older slideshow shader system was pretty crappy anyway, slow, not very realistic and even really annoying as the light faded or increased in brightness in the significant changes from one shader to the next. The new system uses a very much larger spectrum of shades, it is also quite complex and even fully updatable. More interesting is the new shader system is now off limits to the tinkerers, so you won't be getting loads of experimental shader downloads any more, as there was a full X-Plane industry running on that side of the simulator. An interesting side point is that Laminar note the new (and very complex) shader system will get intermittent updates as the shader system can be refined or reshaded to match conditions and on the fly with updates, which is a sort of window to what to expect from all the different areas of X-Plane in the future, this new feature is one of the most important to understand, because it is the future in not only for its assembly in Vulkan but also in the way it brings in a much more different engine into the original X-Plane machine. So you are starting to see the future changes of X-Plane happening right here, and right now in this version 11.30 update... think of it more like the windows ongoing system updates than major releases. One of the biggest first impressions of beta 11.30 was how brighter it all was, and the change of the basic X-Plane background in light and colours. Besides the actual new shader system, 11.30 has had a lot of fine tuning of the PBR (Physically Based Rendering) effects as well, this is noticeable in those sudden light to dark light changes in the cockpit, that were just as (if not more) annoying as the slideshow in the dawn and dusk periods. Seriously impressive the shaders are... lighting changes are minimal and the only way to see the actual lighting shader movements now is via speeding up the simulator to fast forward. Does the PBR still pop!, unfortunately yes it does and sometimes in a dramatic annoying way, but it also shows the PBR can be fine-tuned... I just don't think this area is the focus for Laminar right now. What strikes you the most though is the sheer smoothness of the simulator, it felt almost quite crude before to what you are experiencing now. Yes you will still get pauses (as scenery loads) and the odd pause as X-Plane shifts from one tile to the other which is still a major obstacle for ultimate smoothness, but that constant shutter and stutter in flight is gone, and it now all feels far more linear. I lost 2fr -4fr frames in the changeover as my 11.30 beta download was nearly 2gb, but I expect to claw that back and far more with the full Vulkan conversion later in the year, but that minimal framerate loss is somehow eliminated because the simulator seems to be not working as hard to achieve the same results, hence the smoothness. Everything feels sharper, cleaner than before. I will note that the framerate was better in the beta 11.30b2 than b1 and more gains came in v11.30b6 (b4 and b5 were absolute duds), but it all came good again in b6 and b7... by the RCs (Release Candidates) 11.30 was excellent. The star patterns at night are back, yes they were fixed before 11.30, but now you can actually see them feel them now while traveling at night, and with the even more refined night ground patterns, it is like X-Plane9 all over again, but far better... yeah! It certainly all bodes well for the future. Particle Effects Yes the showstopper! The particle effect generator has been in development hell for as long as I can possibly remember. "It's coming" was the usual mantra in X-Plane version release after version release, but now it is finally here... was it worth the wait? Of course it was. Like a lot of areas in b11.30 it is important to understand that although the current aircraft all work with the new particle effect engine, most of the aircraft have not been adjusted to get the best of the effects just yet, which it is like when the FMOD sound engine was first introduced... so every aircraft will have to be tailored to the effects engine to get the very best out of the effects, and then some more. Because certainly many developers will want to push the boundaries on what can actually be achieved with the custom particles. It is certainly an exciting time to be in that scenario. Vortices are amazing... and a far cry from the old smoke effect. They are extraordinary at night, as you can see the trail standing rearwards in the turn, as they dissipate of where they stand, and then fade away realistically back slowly into the sky. It is in the subliminal as not the direct effects that the effect change the nature of the simulator. The engine heat blur is excellent as the haze unfocuses the background with absolute realism. You knew something was missing before, and now you realise what that "something" actually was... realism. The biggie effect was always going to be fire. X-Plane already had a sort of animated fire effect, but not the adjustable realistic effect of fire. Now here it is and it lives up to it's dramatic entrance. The are different types of (particle) emitters from smoke, haze to fire and different styles for say streaming continuous smoke or for violent explosions, other effects cover wing vortices, engine blast, tyre contact smoke and wing, engine cowl condensation. The Particle Effects will have a multitude of uses within X-Plane, but currently they are restricted to only aircraft use, and with the odd ground explosion. This has been highlighted by the issues during the beta of smoke or particles in the aircraft (cockpits!)and not the filtering out of the new elements, and more fine tuning of the contrails in certain lighting conditions are still required. But static ground objects will soon have access to the same effects which will be interesting. As a note I never really took to the old X-Plane smoking "puff, puff" chimney effect, I thought they didn't look very realistic and even looked cartoony awful. However I really like the idea more of a hazy chimney or a steam (power plant) effect than the usual and expected black puffing variety. All elements for developers (or anyone) are accessed by the new "Particle System Editor" in the "Developer" X-Plane menu and the layout and the use is very similar to the FMOD sound editor. Access to the various elements are through the particle system definition files (.pss files), which brings up an editor to create, adjust and even delete the particle elements set out in the texture menu. A full dynamic adjustment of : rate, speed, velocity, pitch, heading, size, Alpha and Lifetime (Seconds) are available via keyframes of the all these different elements. ATC Voices A surprise feature included in v11.30 was the new A.I. based ATC voices. There was a comment about these new speech tools by Chris Serio in the mid-year Q&A session, but we never expected the actual release until in 2019, or even longer. The new ATC system now builds up real commands and sentences, as was in the older current version in that the ATC as it was then built up around .wav files to say they were very stilted conversations was an underestimation. But the main problem with this system was it was totally inflexible and very limited in speech capacity. So the new way is to use a text to speech (TTS) engine that is used in Amazon Alexia and Google Voice and of which are both a development of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software. TTS can learn and be adjusted on the fly and you will be even able to contribute to the engine. So instead of the older communications of just the repetitive "X-Ray, Beta two five.. Runway five left" you can or will have "Speedbird 231, taxi cleared to runway five left"... The ATC system will learn and grow and get better as does all current TTS software working now. The system will be also able to work with a multitude of different voices and not just the current male and female choice or no choice at all. Accents in regional or national voices will be available as well as the ATC is more fully developed. Obviously the ATC voice system is still only very limited to the style and the current natural feel vocally until the full ATC system is intergrated later, but it does show that the pace of development is certainly taking place and going forward, which also means that the full ATC feature should be expected during a beta run in 2019. 11.30 Systems and Avionics Phillipp Ringler outlined the extensive navigation and avionics coming in 11.30 in the Vegas seminar. Ringler's overhaul of the X-Plane navigation and avionic areas since becoming part of the main Laminar team have been a total revolution in detail, dynamics and data use and most notably the GNS 430/530 pair, G1000 and the native X-Plane FMS. Certainly Phillipp's unique talents has certainly totally enhanced the basic avionics of the simulator. With the main navigation elements in now place (although I do find the main FMS still a bit wanting in detail), his attention has moved on to the more cosmetic areas of the systems and most notably the Autopilot. So 11.30 comes now with brand autopilots that can installed in your GA aircraft. These include the position based units GFC-700, KFC-250/Century and the rate-based S-TEC 55, KAP-140 and the Piper Autocontrol. The autopilots come as single or dual axis and with or without altitude select and also with or without electric trim functions. The GFC-700 Autopilot is also now part of the G1000 system, which is a high-end position-based digital autopilot, and the new version is now giving the G1000 more realistic capabilities. The Piper Autocontrol Autopilot is a generic low-tech non-microprocessor autopilot, and this AP can be either rate-based or position-based and has the usual dual-axis modes, but does not have any logic for automatic mode reversions. The AP modes are obviously quite basic as all Laminar default systems are, but entirely usable and effective. Here is the S-TEC 55 (C172SP) and the KAP-140 which are the most popular and both can be set as noted with/without altitude preset. One major surprise is that the AP panels don't pop-out?.. ... as with the already branded C90 Collins APS-65 (below) it is impossible to use effectively without a pop-up panel, as the distance from the AP panel to the navigation display on this aircraft is very wide... an oversight? Airliner autopilot systems have also been upgraded as auto-throttle can now use both N1/EPR modes, Control Wheel Steering (CWS) (yoke movements to adjust pitch, mostly on older aircraft), Master FD (Flight Director) or source selection, duel and triple channel preconditions and checks (computers compare two or three channels of data and select the best option), flare and roll out guidance and a three axis DAS/Data Acquisition Systems. GPSS autopilot mode is also now available. All these AP operations are quite comprehensive but mostly hidden, but you will suddenly find you will have more options and get closer to the real world operations of flight deck autopilots once their features start to flow through to the aircraft. In 11.30 system changes the areas focused on have been for the more realistic oxygen systems and anti-ice/de-ice systems, and the propeller itself now has four different propeller failure modes of fine pitch, anti-feathering springs and the full feather position... as not on all aircraft if when the engine fails does the propeller go straight to full feather mode and auto-feather. Also included are more extensive systems to replicate the unfeathering of the propeller realistically with pumps and negative torque sensing, and also fuel-topping and overspeed governors, vacuum gyro limitations and caging is now also being available. With the release of 11.30 Phillipp Ringler is also now responsible for these system changes besides the avionics portfolio which was once the domain of Austin Meyer, so expect more extensive and thankfully more speedier changes to aircraft systems than was the case in the past. While in the realm of systems, in that X-Plane is now also 8.33kHz aware. The old 25kHz spacing has been divided by three 25/3 = 8.33333. to allow more channels to be used which will help in congested airspaces, it became mandatory in Europe as of January 2018 if you are flying in controlled airspace in Europe, as you must have now an 8.33kHz radio to meet that mandate, as you now do also in X-Plane 11.30. The panel resolution has be enlarged to 4K (4096x4096) to get rid of poor resolution text and give a better quality fascia, which is another step away from the original X-Plane standards. Flight Model Although X-Plane is known for its incredible ability to simulate real airflow and air dynamics through its “blade element theory” calculations, it is still not the full range of forces on the aircraft while flying through the air, or on the ground. The aerodynamic basics are of course correct, but in the last few years Laminar has been focusing on more detail of the more secondary forces that affect the aircraft. To that end Austin Meyer has been doing some pretty outlandish if quite bizarre experiments with a Telsla S car to get more realistic data on fuselage, wing forces (post stall), inboard wing air dynamics (the join between the wing and fuselage), propwash and helicopter downwash and tailwash is also being done via more conventional data driven calculations and a follow on from the earlier 11.10 dynamics, as with the earlier asymmetrical new airfoil formats for Reynolds numbers (fluid flow past a body in this case an aircraft). All these new calculations are now included into PlaneMaker 11.30, but you can have the choice in to either opt in out opt out of using the data. These changes are not actually for the X-Plane simulator per se, but for more comprehensive real world data of forces that can be applied to the aircraft's airfoils and wing forces, and PlaneMaker will now do a batch convert to the new settings, but also show you where your drag was not realistic. This aspect is to find a more realistic feel with say the landing and flare dynamics, and with an emphasis on post stall drag factors which are still X-Plane's main limitations, as also for better helicopter downwash and tailwash dynamics which are also currently still not totally highly realistic. My personal beef on this has been the ground friction (or grip) that seems lacking in the simulator... or in other words the weaving and poor tracking on the ground when taking off or landing as I just don't feel that rubber contact grip that I expect to be real world realistic. So has that aspect been fixed or at least refined better than the last set of changes? again personally I don't think so, but in reality the jury is still out on that aspect, it depends on if the 11.30 default aircraft have been updated to the new aerodynamic data, if so then the answer is no, but it will be extremely interesting when the developers do their own calculations... they know their numbers far better than the default aircraft developers as in reality Laminar default aircraft at their heart are quite simple, it will be the specialist developers that will refine and home the data closer to the real world conditions, so when the top payware releases come around after 11.30 goes final then that will be interesting and ralso eflected in the reviews and I will certainly be focusing hard on that aspect. Ditto for helicopters, once say a top helicopter developer like say Dreamfoil does the new 11.30 downwash and rotor dynamics will we see if the improvements are actually realistic. A side note to that is the new "joystick curves" see below... in fine tuning your hardware gear to be also more refined in their inputs. So the changes in 11.30 are actually quite extensive in these areas, but again to stress that you won't see any of these extensive benefits until the developers sort out their own flight model calculations and dynamics to match the more comprehensive flight modeling avaliable to them. Late in the beta run (RC 1) Laminar also inserted the Toe-Brake option for users that have NO hardware (i.e. Rudder Pedals) in controlling aircraft such as tail-draggers, which are notorious to control currently. Previous versions of X-Plane we had this automatic toe-brake behavior that was automatically applied based on some rules that were originally coded into X-Plane. Now aircraft authors can now explicitly control whether toe brakes are auto-applied for users without hardware, and if so, how aggressively. This control is auto-populated for older aircraft with the choices set for X-Plane 11.26 and earlier versions. Engine Improvements Austin Meyer since the start of the X-Plane 11.00 version has been focusing on more realistic engine dynamics. Earlier focus (11.26) was on turbine outputs, specifically in single turbo-turbine outputs. In 11.30 the focus is more of the same but more on the larger jet-turbine aircraft (B737/A320). Believe it or not until 11.30 both the twin-spool tracking of the n1 and n2 engine outputs was done not separately, but notably as one joined calculation. But now it is possible to select both single or twin-spool jets in Plane-Maker to really get the jet engine dynamics (output numbers) better in the spool-up and spool-down phases, and watching N2 lead the N1 output on the spool-up, or the other way around on the spool-down. And the engine output modeling has also be validated of real engine starts and throttle run-ups and shut-downs taken on a (real) Airbus A-320 for realism. (throttle input/output data was a real mess on the release of X-Plane 11.00) Specifically the area noted is the improved Jet 1 spool. Again Jet 1 spool in X-Plane is currently still very basic and the data comes actually from the earlier (now really outdated) X-Plane releases .This current model always has the N1 spinning at a ratio to N2 that was a simple power curve. This is good enough to mimic a real jet engine which was in the past sort of close, if you don’t look at how fast the various turbines spin up and down compared to each other. Jet 2 spool is also a new jet engine model for X-Plane as well with N2 is the power turbine is in the hot section, and it spins up and down as fuel is applied. and is independent of the N1 that is spun by the torque generated from N2, spinning the bypass fan. So a more accurate model, taking into account that the N2 can surge while N1 takes some time to respond, and N1 can windmill briskly even if N2 is shut down and is barely spinning. You can see where all this is going with more internal engine dynamics being realistic in the simulator, and with N1/N2 windmilling which are now more accurate as well. This new modeling should also be more specific in the cruise phase as well. There has been also focus on fine tuning and the modeling of actual dynamic pressure and the resulting Bernoulli effects in the Venturi tube itself to see when ice will form, this will give you a more realistic feedback on ice formations as the Bernoulli principle applies to the motion of air over an airplane wing, to air flow through a carburetor, to the flag flapping in the breeze, and to the low pressure systems in hurricanes. The earlier focus on PT6 turboprops still continues in 11.30, which now in the new model, of which is more accurate and very carefully matched to real PT6 performance. This uses now N2 for Ng which is more accurate, of which there is also now a new manifold pressure model for non-turbo airplanes. The new functionality now allows the simulator understand that lower back-pressure at altitude for non-turbo airplanes provides a bit more power per inch of manifold pressure... all in the quest for realism. Garrett turboprops (Honeywell TPE331) that is an fixed turbo-prop engine that is used extensively with X-Plane aircraft like with the Dornier Do 228/King Airs/Turbo-Commanders is next on the list after the PT6 for the same intensive attention. Aircraft There was a lot of noise in discussion of an F-14 (Tomcat) in pre-release notes, but the actual F-14 Laminar default aircraft didn't appear in the 11.30 release, but is that a spelling mistake? Could it be the F-4 Phantom that has had all the attention and could it all be just misleading? Including the noted F-14 above there was no new aircraft released in 11.30, but a few aircraft had some significant work done on them... obviously the Cessna 172SP was given a lot of attention to highlight most of 11.30's new features including the new S-Tec autopilot (above) and performance/tuning gains. The Boeing 737-800 is of course the showcase aircraft for X-Plane11, so besides the new performance, particle effects and new triple-channel autopilot features the aircraft also acquired something special... ... a cabin! But not just a filler cabin, but a full and very detailed cabin. And it puts even most payware cabins to shame... yes it is that good. At night the internal lighting is even better to sensational with the "Sky Interior" theme... ... even if the Austin Meyer graphic is a bit cheeky, the detailing is just as good in the excellent and realistic galleys that are also payware quality. With the internal structure in place (cabin) then you can also have opening doors as well... ... even if they are not actually attached to the aircraft? and they are hard to open in all have to manhandled directly, I am not sure if the cargo doors open? but the cargo internal 3d containers are in there, so if not now, then certainly the cargo doors will open in the future... obviously still a WIP. Boeing 747-400 has had attention as well... as neglect goes it was way on the top of the list, in fact it was totally unflyable as I found out earlier last year... which is certainly not good enough for an aircraft that is there to promote the simulator. The bug XPD-9644 "747 catches on fire in replay" said it all. In a short flight I found the 747 aircraft at least now usable. there are important elements still missing like the heading pointer on the rose navigation display, but "hey who needs that!" but a lot of the major issues have been addressed including the reverse thrust (yes you need the reverse thrust as well!)... it is flyable... maybe even usable for a long haul, I'll do a route and see how it all goes. Autogen While you have been flying around overhead, then Laminar Research has been very busy filling in your autogen. Europe got the treatment back in the v11.25 release. This is mostly to fill in Urban Industrial Autogen aspect and in 11.30 the US got the same makeover, and it is all pretty impressive, although here it is a much more dirtier and darker theme than the steel and glass of Germanic Europe. Government buildings with the old PWA Moderne 30's 40's styling, glass office towers and excellent modern residential buildings now fill a large area of your X-Plane autogen landscape... even Ben Supnic has now got his own Computer outlet chain! along side the usual US fast food outlets. Building quality is also high class and it all comes with great nightlighting detail as well East US coast New Jersey terraced housing is also now visible and it is again highly detailed. Urban industrial is now also filling in nicely those empty grey spaces, and it is all very highly detailed. And while you are flying around, then the kids can have a go on the swings. Still no churches though? I always get a little annoyed when the scenery developers cover over this expansive quality autogen for something usually quite flat and average with mostly poor orthophoto textures, why not take advantage of the already comprehensive tools the simulator delivers... you won't find better. Landmarks Dubai has been added into the landmark list with two buildings now present... The tallest (for now) building in the world with the Burj Khalifa and the sail like Burj Al Arab, but the modeling comes with no Jumeirah hotel at the rear. Both landmarks are well done, but feel a bit lonely as being the only buildings sitting in a vast landscape, no tall city Dubai autogen and only housing leaves them markedly exposed. User Interface U.I. Some fine tuning of the U.I. interface includes options to enlarge font sizes and the new layout to configure joystick curves in more detail with the option to set the joystick curves per axis., and users can also now submit joystick config files. Other items on the interface include new added sector altitudes in the VFR map. U.I. Options to enlarge the U.I. font size. You are now able to re-enabling of the notification windows that have a “don’t show this again” checkbox and the situation files can now get you close to the landmarks for quick sight seeing. X-Plane data The default simulator data has been updated its airspace to 2018 & Navigraph default data 1708. Which is out of date unless you have an account for the latest cycle (1901) 3rd Jan 19 - 31st Jan 19, but at least it isn't years old. And the total Global Airport count with 3-D scenery in the 11.30r1 release is now 8247. Summary For all its new features and tools, X-Plane 11.30 is a still a bit like an iceburg, there is a little bit sticking up out of the water, but with a lot going on in size under the surface. It will be months and even months before X-Plane users will get the full effect of the update as the developers adjust to the new tools and feature details. We also have to get used to the delay of change than the usual instant gratification of an update and that instant wow factor... like the new autogen in 11.30, it sort of creeps up on you now more than coming in an explosion and all of a sudden you realise that just how much more expansive, responsive and smoother the simulator all is, and just thinking back to even the release version of X-Plane11 you then realise how far the simulator has come in just two years, it makes X-Plane10 now feel almost arcane. And that change didn't come either with huge system or framerate set of penalties, as if you only have even still a fair 4K graphic card you will still find a lot of efficiency. This is also again the underlying factor of this 11.30 update, efficiency, but with not yet getting the full effects of the Vulcan/Metal API core changes. Yes some parts and others are now operating on Vulkan API, like the new shader system... but overall it is all still very much a Work In Progress, as noted... 11.30 is just block 1 of many components that will probably go in and keep going in right up to the X-Plane12 new version release. Highlight visually in 11.30 is of course the Particle Effects and their earth wind and fire elements. Yes it is nice to have them back and it will be interesting to see how the developers use the editor skillfully to use their maximum effect. Scenery particle effects are coming soon. ATC A.I. Voices were a nice surprise but limited until the rest of the ATC is intergrated, as is the nice finer details of new autopilots and avionics, Flight modeling has again improved upon earlier changes with even more adjustments available as has deeper engine modeling and this time focusing on larger jet engine output. Default aircraft had all the above features inserted and with that bonus cabin on the Boeing 737-800. 2018 saw the X-Plane simulator finally shake off it's "hobbist" tag and with respect... thus 11.30 update again pushes the boundaries higher and better again, but this version update is however not a final solution waiting for the next update, but part of a simulator in transition, but a transition that will build it into a far higher platform of a quality and an extremely efficient simulation platform... the words "head and Shoulders" and "above" start to come to mind. _________________________ X-PlaneReviews can't cover absolutely every change or bug fix with the version update, and so the 11.30 Release notes are available here at the Laminar Research Development pages: X-Plane 11.30 Release Notes X-Plane 11.30 is available now for download. Run your X-Plane installer application or download from Steam. ______________________________________________________________________ Analysis review by Stephen Dutton 12th January 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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News! - Aircraft Released - C172SP SkyHawk HD XP11 from Carenado Usually on announcement, then Carenado release only a week or so later. But the C172SP SkyHawk has been released exactly a month later, here is the original announcement... There are a few significant differences between the earlier XP10 version and this release. One this C172Sp XP11 is a single variant with no wheel/float/ski option (it was the N version), but it does come with the full G1000 (X-Plane default) avionics suite package. Special Features Version 1.0 Only for X-Plane 11 Fully VR compatible Full PBR (Superb material shines and reflections) Updated X-Plane default G1000 Features Specially designed engine dynamics for XP11. Flight physics optimized for XP11 standards. Ground handling adapted for XP11 ground physics. Physically Based Rendering materials and textures throughout. PBR materials authored with industry-standard software used by the film and gaming industries. Goodway Compatible. Realistic behavior compared to the real airplane. Realistic weight and balance. Tested by several pilots for maximum accuracy. Included in the package 5 HD liveries. 1 HD blank texture. C172SP G1000 Normal Procedures PDF. C172SP G1000 Emergency Procedures PDF. C172SP G1000 Performance tables PDF. C172SP G1000 Reference PDF. Recommended Settings XPLANE 11 PDF. Images and text are courtesy of Carenado Recommended System Requirements Windows XP – Vista – 7 -10 or MAC OS 10.10 (or higher) or Linux X-Plane 11 CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K at 3.5 ghz or faster. Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more. Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better or similar from AMD) 430MB available hard disk space Price is noted as ... US$32.95 Now Available from Carenado ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 8th January 2019 Copyright©2019: X-Plane Reviews