Stephen

I checked my version and the SID/STARs work fine and I have updated recently up to AIRAC cycle 2008... the SSG B748i does have an odd navdata arrangement, it overall uses the X-Plane navdata, but there is an on board the aircraft version as well version noted as cycle 1707, there is an installer in the NavData installers folder.... I think you can update this by downloading it from Navigraph

I never saw any H Pads? and there were non noted either, so I don't think so, most H Pads are situated on the fringe of KLAS

Scenery Review : KLAS - LasVegas by FlyTampa One person and one person alone created the Las Vegas we know today, that desert gambling paradise that shines in everything that is "Sin City", and would send any woke person into hysteria of everything that is wrong or from another perspective right with the western developed world. First thoughts would shout "Frank Sinatra" and his in famous "Rat Pack" and the mob investment. But crooner Frankie and his pals where present in the early late fifties and early Sixies and by the late sixies Las Vegas was already feeling like a doom town, almost broke and empty with the glory days that were already noted and lost. But an icon of the 50's came to town to resurrect his own career, the artist needed Las Vegas as much as the town needed him and so a deal was made at the still being built International Hotel for a four-week summer engagement in 1969, the whole thing was a gamble, the new and the largest hotel at the time was off the famous strip and also away from the older downtown area, but everything came together to create history, and it put Las Vegas back on to the top of the entertainment map, and to start one of the biggest roll of the dices building extravaganzas ever known and it created the current LAS VEGAS as the vacation hot spot of all time. The artist was Elvis Presley and he would go on to perform a total of 636 shows at the hotel from 1969 to 1976, with every single show sold out. Many would argue the Sinatra was the icon of Las Vegas and not Presley, but the fact that Presley attracted the huge family market (mostly the mothers) that changed the perspective of the town moving to more a expanded outlet and to cover the wider family base and their financial income, the International soon became the Hilton also then brought in another large demographic with the conventions, as the Las Vegas Convention Centre (CES!) was built adjoining the hotel, Elvis, Conventions, Buffets and gambling then all came together as one and created a modern desert mecca that has ruled now for fifty years... "Viva Las Vegas". Las Vegas in X-Plane has mostly been dominated by one scenery (plus a few default icons from Laminar) in the Tom Curtis "Glitter Gulch" package that was in 2013 certainly the best of the Las Vegas sceneries. I remember that review very well, the actual scenery for the time was sensational, but X-Plane in comparison itself struggled to create a plausible scenario. In reality it should have been easy as Las Vegas is set basically deep in a sort of extensive crater, so you only had to replicate the inner environs, but it failed very badly as the autogen failed, the addon ortho-photo didn't match up either, and so it was all a weird looking setup... with this lovely glowing central custom scenery basically surrounded by "ugggh". I did several tutorials on how to at least try to make it all workable, but the whole situation never really worked. And so here we are with the latest Las Vegas scenery from FlyTampa and has X-Plane overcome it's weaknesses to create a plausible "Sin City", to note that this scenery is not just the airport or McCarren Field, but also the layout of Las Vegas itself as they are both literally interwoven and linked together, we will however start with McCarren Field first. McCarran International Airport IATA: LAS - ICAO: KLAS - FAA LID: LAS 01L/19R - 8,985ft (2,739m) Concrete (ILS 01L) 01R/19L - 9,775ft (2,979m) Concrete 8L/26R - 14,510ft (4,423m) Asphalt (ILS 25R) 8R/26L - 10,526ft (3,208m) Concrete (ILS 25L) Elevation AMSL 2,181 ft / 665 m In reality KLAS is split into two terminal areas and the runway setup is interesting, with the two main runways 8L/26R - 1R/19L with 8R/26L - 1L/19R as secondary (smaller) runways. The interesting part is that all three converage at the single one point and when departing you can hold from both sides of the taxiways F and D with also taxiway E between the the two left runways. There are two terminals in Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, but the D gates of Terminal 1 are placed directly in front of Terminal 3 so could that facility be noted as Terminal 2, well no as Terminal 2 was the old Terminal 3, it sorta makes sense. Terminal 1 Terminal 1 is split into three very different sections of Concourses A, B, C and D. The original 1963 design are the two concourses with both the A and B round satellite gates. These branch concourse satellite gates are anchored in the middle by a central arrival hall that was inspired by the TWA Flight Center that was designed for Trans World Airlines by Eero Saarinen and Associates at JFK, New York. Sixteen A gates noted as "North" and Seventeen "South" B gates are mixed numbered, the system used at LAS is not the usual U.S. style in airline terminal branding and allocation. AS at McCarran it uses the Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) system, becoming the first airport in the country to do so as with the multiple airlines now serving the McCarran airport and so it became inefficient to have separate facilities for each airline. CUTE allows for shared use of ticket counters and gates and any airline can overflow to inactive facilities during peak periods. So there are no Delta, AA or even Southwest allocated terminals. The FlyTampa detailing is very good here, but the harsh desert lighting can make it all look a little washed out Glass is again very good and very realistic with PBR (reflective) coatings and are see through, overall the modeling is very good to excellent and all comes with detailed textures. If you demand that absolute detail quality then it is there in close up, but you have to get in close to absorb it. Internal terminal details are excellent, but only in Lo-Res. All areas are completed with seating, vending machines and the in-famous Vegas Slot-Machines in every satellite waiting area... The concourses can be explored as well with like at FlyTampa's Copenhagen Kastrup, you can look around and follow the internal detail. The SAM - Scenery Animation Manager system is installed here and as usual it is very good, noted that there are no marshaller or VDGS (there is VDGS guidance at T3) at the gate so you have to position the aircraft at the right parking bar, and the changing green to blue SAM marker is a help? The airbridge extensions at some gates are simply excellent. Airbridge wear and tear (in other words rusting) is really good and for some sheer detailing then note the lovely inner airbridge lighting and walkways, some airbridges on the joining to the main terminal section are however a bit gappy, and not set too close to match correctly. The C Gates extension and the first line of the people mover system was opened in 1987 and branches off the Central terminal building and Concourse B The design of C Gates extension is very different from the earlier layout and really just a very big concourse with great colour and concrete aspect, and the long thin internal layout is also well covered if in Lo-Res. Gates C1 - C25 are in a clockwise allocation. D Gates The separate northeast wing of the D Gates opened in April 2005, along with a 160 feet (49 m) apron movement tower at the center of the X style concourse. Gates are 1 - 59 in no particular order, just grouped around each concourse. Gates D21/D22 were converted into the only 3-jetway gate at McCarran; this was done to provide a proper accommodation area for the double-decker Airbus A380, but there is only a single airbridge here at that D21 gate? Again a very different design and from a distance D Gates looks bland, but the huge detail is there up close, with nice glass and modern cladding. The apron tower is excellent in design and is festooned with antenna and lovely detail Central hub arrival hall is excellent with really good internal detail with palm trees and a "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. All internal areas are walkaround and are all well detailed. Terminal 1 landside is dominated by two massive and garlish coloured carparks completed in 1991... it has to be bad to be garlish in Las Vegas? Automated People movers are the Green line, connecting Terminal 1 with C Gates, Blue line, connecting Terminal 1 with D Gates and the Red line, connecting Terminal 3 with D Gates, all tracks are completed and the trains are animated in the scenery. Terminal 3 Terminal 3 opened on June 27, 2012.The project was announced in January 2001 as a way to accommodate rapid growth in passenger traffic, The Terminal 3 cost $2.4 billion to build and is one of the largest public works projects in Nevada and it replaced Terminal 2 or the Charter/International Terminal, and in providing more international gates and a larger U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility. With seven domestic gates, the terminal also eases congestion at Terminal 1. Again you need to get in close to see the detail, in which it is very good... again great glass and cladding, gates also have VDGS guidance. Central offset arrival hall is well done. Landside has a lot of detail, including concierge arrival desks and signage, but let down by some really average lo-res road textures. Internally Terminal 3 is as good as you would expect it to be, in being highly detailed and walkable. Glass reflections are also excellent in the right lighting conditions. Control Tower In May 2011 construction began on a new air traffic control tower. The tower is 352 feet (107 m) tall and replaced a shorter tower that only opened in 1983, it was later demolished. The tower replication here is excellent, with a lot of detailing even on the ground based buildings, the tower podium has that aluminium cladding that is very well reproduced for realism, tower glass is of course also very good. Tower view is correct, but has aerials and other roof mounted detail in the viewpoint, but most approaches are clear of the obstacles. Cargo and East There is a good cargo centre over to the east of the terminals. With six AC7 parking bays, but you could fit a small regional freighter in the non-marked bay. Overall it is very good with some nice branded cargo clutter, UPS, AA Cargo, Southwest Cargo and FedEx are all branded... .... cargo landside is pretty averages with just a few FedEx trucks to fill out a bland carpark, could have been better... The McCarran Marketplace shopping Mall behind Cargo is very well represented, but the hugely washed out Lo-Res textures are really, really average and spoils (destroys) the overall effect of the area. General Aviation and West The western boundary is the main area along Taxiway H and parallel to Rwy 01L/19R covers the fixed base operators and private jets. And they are all very well represented here. Split into four regions: General Aviation South, Customs/AECOM, EG & G Ramp and General Aviation North. General Aviation North has two main facilities, with Atlantic Aviation LAS and JSX (JetSuiteX) being the main tenants, and Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters also run from here, the rest of GAN is mostly hangarage. There is a lot of detail which to be honest is required in this GA section to make it all realistic, and it does very well.... There is a lot of money to be made in poker machines in Vegas, just look at their flashy facility. Infrastructure and government defense contractor AECOM have a large facility here with a customs section as well. Las Vegas Sands Corp Hangar is also a large presence, their personal aircraft are even larger!... god the money in Vegas! Gulfstream have a servicing base and Sundance Helicopters service the huge joyflight tour market that is available in Vegas, Grand Canyon flights start around US$440 - $2000, lunch is thrown in free! General Aviation South gives you a lot of GA parking space (note the Harley Davidson Motor Cycle dealership), and the Signature Flight Support LAS is well represented. Far south of the GAS area is Maverick Helicopters... the "most bad-ass tour in Vegas!" Overall this western boundary area is very well done, but again on the landside it is all very weak in the ground textures. NV-171 Central to the scenery is the NV-171 highway, also known in this section as the "McCarran Airport Connector" the highway cuts right through the centre of the scenery and separates the two main terminal aprons. The intersections and roadways are well done and are very realistic when seen from the aircraft while taxiing... ... NV-171 eventually turns into Paradise Road and one of the main entrances to (the old Vegas), along the Paradise Road section there are loads of well done billboards promoting Vegas attractions, all are well done and with great features presented. Overall all the infrastructure set out around McCarran is really good and gives the the airport that filled in feel, as early Las Vegas sceneries just mostly ended at the boundary of the airport itself, but here it is very well filled out for quite a distance with nondescript infrastructure. The trick with really good scenery are not the actual airports or building related to the area, but on how well the surroundings are completed to compliment the visual aspect and FlyTampa certainly cover these outer nondescript areas very well. Ground Textures I really loved the ground textures at FlyTampa's Copenhagen and I am not disappointed here either. They are first rate. LAS is about 95% concrete, so there is very little asphalt here, but it is done very well with the different types of concrete surfaces all being used, from ribbed to stoney and the concrete slabs are well defined. Dirt, oil and rubber markings are again excellent in the detail, you just can't fault them, only note is that there is no 3d grass? which is a shame as it was very good at EKCH, the point is that nothing would really grow in the rarefied air of the Nevada desert, but it would have been still nice to even some half-dead flowering. All surfaces are PBR active with effective burnt-in ambient occlusion, the surfaces are simply gorgeous in the right lighting conditions that brings out all the surface effects, sadly it doesn't rain much out here, so heavy rainfalls don't happen that much to get the most effective conditions to use them. Viva Las Vegas Any Las Vegas scenery is as much about the actual Vegas city vista as just about the airport, both are situated absolutely side by side and morph directly into each other, the Vegas skyline is iconic as well, so you can't simply have a Las Vegas scenery without a comprehensive Vegas city as part of the package. In reality there are two Las Vegas, the older original 50/60's "Downtown" and the more current "The Strip". Most Las Vegas scenery developers only do the "Strip" but that is a mistake as the "Downtown" is from a VFR point of view is just as important. Here in FlyTampa's version both have been recreated and it looks excellent. Downtown or DTLV is Vegas. Based around Fremont Street and the long animated roofed Fremont Street Experience, this is still the core of gambling in Vegas. You have a sort of boxy representation of DTLV, just basic boxes with textures plastered over them, it works but overall it feels a bit old fashioned in a scenery design approach, the very poor washed out ground textures really don't help out at all here, they could have made it at least interesting, but it actually ages the scenery by default? You can pick out the Fremont Street long awning, but the actual individual casinos are a bit of a challenge, as a note the original Golden Nugget is now part of the Fremont Street Experience. The World Market Place building does however stand out, overall it sorta works. The Strat Hotel, Casino and SkyPod (formerly the Stratosphere) is situated in the centre low section between DTLV and "The Strip". The 1,149 ft (350.2 m) Stratosphere Tower is the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States, and the second-tallest in the Western Hemisphere, surpassed only by the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario. Detail of the Strat is very good with the nice observation glass levels done really well. The International/Hilton/Westgate Hotel is well represented, when built in 1969 it was a huge distance from DTLV, but now is just part of the skyline... ... the monolithic Las Vegas Convention Centre that is next to the Westgate is well represented and the monorail connecting both the hotel and Convention Centre to the Strip is really nicely animated as well.... and yes "Elvis has not yet left the Building!". Now we are getting into the main "Strip" of Vegas... Several first are what as known as off strip in "Circus Circus" and the garlish Trump Tower. "The Strip" refers only to the stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that is roughly between Sahara Avenue and Russell Road, a distance of 4.2 miles (6.8 km), but that boundary was overrun decades ago. Because of high land prices in DTLV, most wanting to develop mega resorts went for the out of town for the cheaper desert blocks, The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-o-Dice Club in 1931, but the first casino-resort on what is currently the Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened with 63 rooms on April 3, 1941 (and was destroyed by a fire in 1960). Its success spawned a second hotel on what would become the Strip, the Hotel Last Frontier in 1942 and the first mega casino was Caesars Palace which was established in 1966. Since then it has been the biggest or the most outlandish building race every year. The Wynn and Encore are excellent, and note the amazing reflections. Venetian, Harrahs and Mirage Casino with it's well done forecourt are really good... ... Linq, High Roller and the Flamingo are on the east side and the colossal Caesars Palace is also well represented opposite... ... Bellagio and it's dancing fountains that are animated and the water is well done and next is Bally's opposite, Bally's was originally the first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino which opened in 1973 with 2,084 rooms. And at the time, this was one of the largest hotels in the world by the number of rooms. Paris and it's huge replica Eiffel Tower and decorated balloon is perfect. Planet Hollywood, Hilton Vacations and the second MGM Grand Hotel that opened in 1993 are well produced here with loads of flashing animated advertising, in fact the whole strip has loads of these flashy moving and neon signs that give the area a real extravaganza feel. New York, New York is excellent with great detailing, and the Tropicana opposite shows it's earlier 1957 strip design really well. The most famous casino on the lower strip is the Luxor, after the same in ancient Thebes in Egypt. The pyramid-shaped 30 stories high resort has an all metal-and-glass exterior. The Great Sphinx of Giza and the Obelisk are all recreated in detail. Note again the excellent glass reflections... ... the huge Mandalay Bay which has 3,209 hotel rooms looks striking in it's gold covering, and again the reflections are simply excellent. The Delano Las Vegas (adjacent building) is also represented... Final note is on the "High Roller" 550-foot tall (167.6 m), 520-foot (158.5 m) diameter giant Ferris wheel behind the Ling casino. You simply can't count every casino or attraction here in this scenery package, but it is very comprehensive in the city's detail... Las Vegas is mostly noted as not only a gambling city, but also an all nighter alive experience, so we will cover the lighting with Las Vegas first and not McCarran Airport. Update v1.1 In only a week after their original release, then FlyTampa have already published an update to v1.1. In this review the major criticism is on the really washed out textures and that is what has been updated in v1.1. Still lo-Res, and they still don't have any significant ground detail, but the aerial view is certainly better. FlyTampa have not replaced all the ground textures and the line (arrowed below right) is highly visible and you can see easily the difference between the new and the older resolution. Not a complete fix, but better. Lighting One look at the night environment with FlyTampa's Las Vegas and only one word comes to mind... WOW! The interesting aspect is not actually the Las Vegas skyline itself, as we have had a lot of those, but it is the huge fill of lighting in the valley as it spreads out from the colourful centre, but anchors it at the same time... this is what any arrival cityscape should look like in a simulator and an aim for Laminar Research to deliver, it works and it works here magnificently. KLAS - McCarran Airport is almost lost in a sea of light, but that is a good thing and not a negative. The Luxor Sky Beam is the strongest beam of light in the world, it uses curved mirrors to collect the light from 39 xenon lamps and focus them into one intense narrow beam of 42.3 billion candela, well done here but it is a little thick and globby at some graphic setting resolutions, but can be a direction marker of Las Vegas from miles out, which is interesting considering the crater ridges hide the interior city. The old garlish and more modern stylish hotel/casinos can look swish and be brought forward in the different night lighting, one is the CityCenter Las Vegas complex of hotels. Complex, movement, striking, colourful and simply out there... everything that Las Vegas should be and it is here at night, it is sin city in it's full flamboyant mode, and FlyTampa have done a brilliant job in recreating it all. Very good finer lighting details makes work, even non-strip buildings have great detailed lighting and not just the main icons, that is again important to recreate the full scale of the scenery. DTLV looks better as well as the dark hides the washed out ground textures, so it works and adds in colour to North Las Vegas. Off strip casinos and resorts have not been forgotten either... the detail is simply amazing. US Airways had been operating two banks of flights to and from McCarran in the middle of the night.The operation had made US Airways the second-busiest carrier at McCarran, providing over 100 daily round-trip flights, but USAir is now gone, however that does not stop McCarran from being one of the most busiest airports in the US at night, and why not, as after dark would simply be the best time to arrive in Vegas. McCarran just looks simply sensational at night... Aprons are well lit and lovely to work on and note the nice reflective sheen, although the remote holding points are a bit patchy. External and internal terminal views are excellent and quite extensive. Airport environs are very good as well, even the fuel depot is nicely lit... carparks, advertising signage are all really good, but the west GA area can be a bit hit and miss patchy in lighting. One really good aspect is the minute detail of lighting with the off airport environs, mostly to the south, here office buildings are really nicely lit and with lit branding shows real eye for detail, this inconsequential detailing is so very important and really well done here. Approach, field lighting and navigation signage is all very good, but at night you will need an airport chart to navigate around the complex set of taxiways. Overall the lighting here in FlyTampa's Las Vegas is overwhelming in detail... but that is also what you pay for. ____________________ Summary There has been always a load of icons including the default Laminar Research to represent Sin City Las Vegas, but most are just that in being a small collection of brightly coloured buildings in the darkness... the Tom Curtis "Glitter Gulch" 2013 package was the really only great scenery that did the area any justice, but this scenery is now old and even then did not overcome the poor autogen layouts surrounding it. And so here comes FlyTampa, obviously the scenery is part of the original 2017 FlightSim Las Vegas, but add in the X-Plane dynamics in effects and it lifts the scenery (mostly in incredible reflections) to a whole new level. The scenery for it's scale is highly detailed, all the main attractions, hotels, casinos and the off strip, Downtown and most of the glitterati is modeled in this scenery and very impressive it all really is. The only real distraction is the very poor washed out ortho-photo low-res ground textures, maybe a decision on the framerate aspect, but you lose a lot of that ground realism detailing via VFR flight from the air.... and they are really quite bad in the areas that should be full of visual detail. Somewhere in here is KLAS - McCarran Airport, but this aviation aspect is not let down either, as the great terminal modeling continues with good internal detail that makes it as interesting on the outside as it is inside, glass is excellent a realistically see through and so are the external building textures with great PBR and burnt-in ambient occlusion textures. SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) is featured here but a lot of the gates don't have the marshallers, VDGS is however sited on Terminal 3. Animations are good from the inter-terminal automated people movers and clever detailed monorails in the city, ground traffic is fine but not overwhelming as is the clutter, again landside is let down by the poor photo textures. Lighting is excellent as it really needed to be here, but great reflections and an immense sets of set and moving animations creates a wonderful realistic day and night vista to enjoy above the average. McCarran Airport lighting is also excellent as well with great apron lighting and even good internal detail lighting, only side field and holding areas are a bit hit and miss patchy in their lighting. A note on framerate... with all this complex detail then when set at high-resolution graphic setting it obviously hammers your framerate down, that is using OpenGL, in Vulkan (beta) you do get a lot of relief, but it is still a heavy draw and the distance detail is blurred (B16), but mostly the scenery can find a balance between use and quality detail considering the complexity and the dense autogen here. 4GB VRAM is minimum but really a 8GB VRAM requirement is needed. FlyTampa have been one of the crossover FlightSim developers that uses the X-Plane dynamics to their fullest, while merging the best detail from the other platforms, so like their Copenhagen XP that was simply also brilliant, again here with Las Vegas XP they deliver another exceptional scenery for X-Plane, but now how many more will we get if they go away and focus only on FS2020, that would be a tragedy for X-Plane, but also very real possibility as the market in X-Plane is also very small... But for now we can "Viva Las Vegas" all we want, and do so in a great scenery "Bright light city gonna set my soul, Gonna set my soul on fire, Got a whole lot of money that's ready to burn, So get those stakes up higher.... Viva Las Vegas!, Viva Las Vegas!" _____________________________________ Yes! KLAS - Las Vegas by FlyTampa is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : FlyTampa Las Vegas XP Price is US$32.00 Features: Las Vegas McCarran International (KLAS) Airport Addon Airport modeled with PBR materials Detailed internal terminal modeling Animated service vehicles and airport shuttle Dynamic airport lighting Las Vegas city and all landmarks included Las Vegas city animations with advanced visual effects Custom library of animated city vehicles Hand-placed vegetation, and 3D lighting 3D bridges Animated Las Vegas monorail High Resolution surrounding Photo Scenery with custom mesh SAM Animated Jetways and Docking Guidance system (SAM plugin required) WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are not provided and a generation is required, and overall the airport generation functions perfectly. Traffic Global runs fine Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows or Mac (not compatible with Linux) 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB VRAM Recommended Current and updated Review Version : 1.1 (1st August 2020) Installation You download an Installer, that you then set the X-Plane install address and then insert your email address and the authorization key... the installer will then do the rest (Internet connection is required and fast if possible). Install is five folders set in order: FlyTampa_LasVegas_0_city FlyTampa_LasVegas_0_airport FlyTampa_LasVegas_0_overlays FlyTampa_LasVegas_1_overlays FlyTampa_LasVegas_2_Photoreal FlyTampa_LasVegas_3_Mesh The order above has to be correct to get the right loading of the scenery Total scenery installation is a huge big : 5.71gb SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 is required for this scenery Ground Traffic The Ground Traffic plugin does work in v11.50 (Vulkan). Documents One extensive manual in English with notes (8 pages) but no charts FlyTampa-LasVegas.pdf _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 29th July 2020 Copyright©2020 : 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 - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1TB SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.41 - tested v11.50.b16 (fine but buzzy textures at a distance) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Traffic Global (Just Flight) US$52.99 Scenery or Aircraft - Default Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Reserch

Tricky one... but you press the glass PFD (Primary Flight Display) and it changes to the analog dials 🙂

Scenery Review : KRAL - Riverside Municipal by Rising Dawn Three years ago a small studio released KHAF or Half Moon Bay, for X-Plane an airport is on the coast just over on the peninsula and 18 miles (30 km) south from downtown San Francisco. This was Peter Suranyi's KHAF - Eddie Andreini Sr. Airfield. Usually you do a review and then move on from a scenery, but somehow this little gem of an airfield stuck. In time X-PlaneReviews would do about 40% of our General Aviation reviews from this very airfield, so there was something certainly very special about this high quailty scenery, the extra wide and long runway also helped out in the cause. The XPR review is here; Scenery Review : KHAF - Half Moon Bay by Rising Dawn Studios Great stuff so what is next from Rising Dawn? The airport announced was Riverside Municipal in Los Angles, great! when will we have that....? Well it was a three year wait, a long three year wait but now here KRAL - Riverside is finally released, and it was well worth the extended wait. My first fear was the position of KRAL (or Riverside Arlington Airport originally) as it is set in the large LA basin. The worry is that the LA basin is flat wide and very congested, so if you like your autogen at maximum (like I do) it creates issues in that this area is one of the worst (or best) considering the layout of the extended autogen. Then add in the multiple major airports and KLAX - Los Angeles situated in the middle of all that and it will all grind your framerate down to close to a stutter... But in reality KRAL- Riverside is quite a way out from the central LA zone as it at located about 55 miles (89 km) east of downtown Los Angeles, so although you still have a lot of autogen around you, you thankfully don't get the major LA framerate hit out here either. Riverside is off the San Bernardino Valley in the Moreno Valley in an area known as the Inland Empire. The first runway 9/27 was paved about 1956 and Bonanza Air Lines appeared soon after; until 1969 it and successor Air West flew DC-3s and Fairchild F-27s to LAX, Las Vegas, Palm Springs and beyond. But otherwise KRAL is an industrial aviation hub focused on General Aviation, US DOT FAA administration, loads of pilot training academies and the airport has also been home to Civil Air Patrol Squadron 5 since 2005. KRAL - Riverside Municipal First impressions is on how well the custom scenery is embedded into the surrounding default X-Plane mesh, in parts from low angles it is actually hard to see the scenery from the complex autogen surrounding the field, but in a good way. Riverside Municipal Airport IATA: RAL - ICAO: KRAL - FAA LID: RAL 9/27 - 5,401ft (1,646m) Asphalt 16/34 - 2,850ft (869m) Asphalt H1 - 60-18 Asphalt Elevation AMSL 819 ft/250 m The central focus of RAL is the iconic terminal or really a departure/arrival building and administration facility. The modeling and detail here is excellent, and so highly realistic you can feel the building from a real life point of view (which is the main objective of any good scenery). There is a great blend of materials, terra-cotta roofing shells to wooden set beams and the brickwork in between, it is all here in great detail. Businesses in the building are also well noted with the "Airport Cafe" and "AvTech" FAA/FCC Exams Testing Center are both represented. Glass and reflections are excellent as is the rooftop detail with animated air-conditioning units. Internally the terminal is very detailed as well and with excellent views out, this opacity is very hard to do and most developers get this glass aspect quite wrong... not here as it is simply perfect. One very important aspect of scenery like this is the "walkaround" factor and is it feasible. Here at RAL that believability factor is actually extremely high in exploring the details and the various areas in a "walkaround" context, in other words you can be transported to the airport and actually explore around as if you are at the airport. Half Moon was like that, but there was however little to explore there, but here you could explore around to your hearts content. The scenery is highly dynamic as well... The trees actually move depending on the wind speed, this aspect didn't quite work at KHAF, but the idea has been refined here and it is far, far more realistic... well done. There are birds that twitter and move around on the powerlines and one bird will actually fly around the airport!... quite brilliant, another brilliant dynamic are the carparks... .... overnight and in the early light the carparks are nearly empty, but as the day goes on the carparks will fill up, later in the day they will empty out again until it is again quite empty again, all so very realistic and extremely clever and you have to admire the idea. The same feature also uses people, in the day the airport is busy, but then they all go home at night. There are loads of these dynamic ideas in this scenery than make it a very lively and interactive scenery, we will note more of them as we go along. Riverside Aero Service Second focus area is the "Riverside Aero Service" area, Hangar cum offices cover RAS "JetCity" and "Wilco West Aviation" and the detail is very, very good including a fuel service point. Part of the RAS area is the biggest hanger at RAL... There was a similar hanger at KHAF, but it was quite small, in fact my baby Bonanza F33A could barely fit in there, but in here there is a huge amount of space and easily enough for a private jet to taxi straight in... so the hanger is far more highly usable. The overhead skylights are very authentic and realistic in that inside the hangar can be seen, and here is a lot of small hangar internal details to keep your lovely aircraft nice and airworthy. Also in hangar on the right forward wall is a digital clock that works, another working circular clock is on the veranda of the RAS offices. This hangar is again like KHAF in that it is also highly modifiable to your tastes. Note my lovely logo! There are five choices in Rust (default), Blue, Dark, Red and White for the hangar beams, and choices of ten flags and twelve aircraft posters... .... a photoshop file is provided to make up your own poster or image in 2048x1024 (good high-Def!) in the .png format, you then just replace the object (texture) file... as noted our X-PlaneReviews logo came up brilliantly with great quality and excellent cloth detail. All choices are kept in a separate folder in the KRAL scenery called "RDS_KRAL_CUSTOM" for ease of access and changes. Control Tower and CBU B727F The control tower is the slab sided design that reflected the mail beacon era that is the predominant ATIS at small airfields across the U.S., there is another at Louisville’s Bowman Field (KLOU)and the tower design has been faithfully reproduced here at KRAL... Tower View is excellent as all approaches are well positioned and clear. Sited next to the Control Tower is a FedEx Express donated Boeing 727-200F to California Riverside Baptist University for its aviation science program. The aircraft is on permanent display at the airport and will provide a working laboratory for aviation science students. The aircraft, N266FE (cn 21672/1538), is a Boeing 727-233/Adv(F). Again the activity of the day is noted with students around the aircraft in the daylight, then the aircraft is closed up at night. Between the RAS area and the tower is another section is the Civil Air Patrol Squadron 5 Search and Rescue base, and part of the hangar is used by the "True Kolors Aero Paints" company... A provided livery pack that can be downloaded from the X-Plane.Org that cover three aircraft with the default LR C172SP and two DC-3 aircraft with the C172SP with three liveries of AlohaOne, AOA Flightschool and Riverside Baptist University noted here... there is another well positioned AG AvGas fuel service point out front of the CAP facility. Other noted facilities that are also reproduced here at RAL US Dept of Transportation FAA have two office facilities here in the "Flight Standards District Office and "Flight Service Station" note the "Phillips 85 AvGas fuel service point out front on the apron and they are both set on the corner of 09/27- 16/34 runways. Riverside Aero Academy, and Precision Aerial Photography, Riverside Rotor Specialists, AOA Pilot Training and Socal Aviation Services Inc... .... with the biggest tenant being the Commemorative Air Force with a nice D-Day branded C47 sitting out front. At the threshold of Rwy 16 on the eastern side is the Riverside Police Department Aviation Division facility, and funny enough there was a load of SanFran Police cars parked up in storage at KHAF.... coincidence? There is a lot of GA hangar parking in the garage type (north) and the barn style (south) again very similar to the styles at KHAF, and the small detailing is outstanding. Off field and there is a lot of infrastructure to compliment the airfield. Mostly storage and warehousing which is very close to the actual layout... ... the infrastructure is excellent and so is the photo-ortho textures. Here we have the balance between lo-res photo textures and good detail, and the balance works very well, better is the hidden boundaries of the ortho-photo into the default mesh in giving you a perfect transition from the custom to default mesh... can it be done better, I don't think so. The textures are compatible with ORBX SouthCal as well. A major landmark is the "Riverside Energy Resource Center" or as we usually call them "a power station"! There is a twirling output of smoke from one of the tall funnels which is debatable if it looks authentic or not in it's 3d form? I got used to it in time, so in this case it is a tick to the yes, but it is debatable? Overall the surrounding Riverside detail is excellent with most major areas covered with the Arlington Ave Business Park, Rutland Park Community, Doolittle Ave Industrial Park, SmartStore Self Storage, Boise Building Materials and Water Treatment plant all noted. Ground Textures I loved the worn and realistic ground textures at KHAF, and they are as good here... cracked, weathered and all the various surfaces are all very well done, can you ask for more... not really... ... the surfaces are also PBR reflective (wet) and has burnt-in ambient occlusion and finely detailed as well for light rain realism.... airfield detail is very good with the decommissioned Riverside (RAL) VOR and the various field weather stations, a note that there are a few "Easter Eggs from the "Back to the Future" films also hidden around in the scenery, if you know all three films then look out for the clues... Grass is 3d authentic in that it is the same wild flower flora as at the real KRAL, looks good as well. And the "Wheels" sign at Riverside is also done, in a note to students to "put your wheels down" it is very scary in a way that would be pilots needed to be reminded of an important aircraft operation? Activities There is always the thoughts and ideas on how to use any scenery, a route to one destination or return is mostly the option we take, but I like to do scenic tours or short connector flights from small fields to the bigger airports. That aspect is taken to the extreme here with a full 12 month calendar full of various ideas and activities for you to do... clever and totally brilliant in the same breath. Several activities are actually interactive, the biggest is the "Riverside Airshow" on the 11th July... most of the year KRAL's activity is perfectly normal but set your calendar to the 11th July and "whola!" there is now a full airshow day in progress! Pride of place is a huge C-17 Globemaster, but most aircraft on show here are warbirds. The "Battle of Midway" ride is actually animated (very realistic) and there are even drones flying around... and floating balloons! You can take a personal part in the proceedings by doing a few flypast routines, then parking up you aircraft to show it off in the space provided, like I did here with VSkyLabs C-47, again the authentic livery is provided as the "D-Day Doll" via the livery download. Another activity is the Rocket Launch, Set out at Vandenburg AFB in October, you can make your way out there (180nm) to KLPC Lompoc, blast-off is around 18:21:30 local time, but the loading of fuel and gantry retraction all happens before the final countdown.... .... it is all very well done, and two more is on the 13th April is the StratosLaunch at KMHV - Mojave Air and Space Port and some strange objects flying over Barstow by the HECTOR VOR, all very X-Files and all very "Da dum de do" that brings out all your Mulder and Scully fetish. Best not to do them all in the one year and there are far too many to cover in detail here, but I think it would be clever to print out the pdf and use it as real. Lighting You are expecting the lighting at KRAL-Riverside to be good, and your not disappointed here either... but to note the airport is not really a night time hub of activity, so the lighting is going to be more regional than LAX metropolis. Runway lighting is good, but it comes with no centre line or taxi lighting as there is none here. Runway 27 has a Visual Approach Slope Indicator and Runway 34 has a Precision Approach Path Indicator. ILS is on Rwy 09 (110.90-IRAL). Aprons are nicely lit but not overly so, this is not a night time working airport, most lighting is set out over the (now empty) carparks and it is well done. Focus is on the detail here and not on the overall context and it is all very good... Hangars are well lit from within and the lit signage is excellent. But it is in the minute that it works the best, nicely formed downlights, hung building lights and great detail like the AG AvGas sign that flickers, with a poor worn out bulb... love it. The ground navigation signs are also the same designs as at KHAF, as they reflect nicely on the surrounding grass to give off that realistic glow. Los Angeles There is a supplemental package called "RDS_LA_LP" package that will give you a sightseeing tour of Los Angeles. L.A. always did not have a good scenery pack (there was a very odd early version) in X-Plane and so this is a very welcome addition... You leave KRAL and track almost directly west 265º... ... and soon the murky silhouettes of downtown L.A. will appear out of the smog... Big LAX lies just ahead and to your left, and note the immense amount of autogen around you that needs a fair amount of processing power to compute this never ending L.A. expansive layout... at least you now have a decent L. A. Downtown now to make it a worthwhile approach or departure into LAX. Highlight is the Santa Monica Pier that has an animated Roller Coaster, Big Wheel and swing boat, and the pier is lit up pretty like a funpark at night. As a side note the X-Plane autogen does a great job of recreating Santa Monica as a realistic suburb, combining medium and large objects that is totally convincing of the area. Another major landmark is the iconic "HOLLYWOOD" sign... nicely done in that the letters are not just set straight but disjointed out as they really are. The HOLLYWOOD sign looks great at night and also represented is the Griffith Observatory... L.A. Dodgers Stadium and Staples/LA Convention Centre L. A. Downtown is not bad... outwardly the surrounding autogen does a great job, but close up it is fenced out... Nightlighting contrasts badly with the excellent Laminar autogen building lighting, blocky and totally grey it is not that convincing... Only in context does it all work. Another landmark provided is the Vincent Thomas Bridge in the Los Angles port (not the Long Beach port), it feels a little non-realistic in these surroundings as the port itself is not realised, there are however a few cranes and fuel depots to fill it out... but in reality it is a VFR landmark only. _______________________ Summary KHAF or Half Moon Bay was Rising Moon Studio's first scenery release for X-Plane and very good it was with some clever ideas and great detailing. Here is the the follow up to Half Moon Bay with KRAL - Riverside Municipal Airport and if you loved KHAF then this new edition if three years in the making is just as clever and as highly detailed. The airport RAL is home for a large SouthCal General Aviation community, US DOT FAA administration and has loads of pilot training academies. So KRAL is a perfect base to explore the Los Angeles basin. Modeling and texturing here is excellent, not only in the actual buildings and hangars on the airport, but in the expansive infrastructure surrounding the field. Detailing is also top notch if the highlight of the scenery as the whole airport is easily "Walkaround" in detail and for exploring all the contents in close-proximity. Internal detail as inside the terminal and the hangars are also easily accessed in creating a perfect environmental escape of realism. More clever are the dynamic elements that make it an active scenery... movement of time changes the carparks and density of people in the scenery, the clocks work in real-time as well. Birds flutter on wires and fly around and even drones will take to the air, trees will also move to the strength of the wind speed. Personal interaction can change the hangar beams in colour, set a flag or an image on a drop down banner and provided liveries can match the scenery for the X-Plane C172SP and the vSkyLabs or AWXD DC-3/C-47. A provided year activity calendar gives you clever ideas on what to do around the year at the airport, but the highlight is the yearly "Riverside Airshow" on the 11th July in that it changes the scenery into an epic show day, again interaction is very good as you can be a star of your very own airshow displays, a UFO encounter, Rocket launch and a StratosLaunch are also clever interaction activities. A provided L.A. City pack includes downtown L.A., Santa Monica Pier, Hollywood sign, L.A. Dodgers Stadium and Staples/LA Convention Centre. Ground textures are also very good, runway and taxiway layouts are realistic with built in PBR reflective and burnt-in ambient occlusion, navigation lighting is also reflective on ground surfaces. 3d grass is area compatible and the photo-ortho finds the balance between the lo-res and quality ground detail. Lighting is good with high detail, but don't expect LAX lighting at this regional outpost. Negatives, very few, but there are a few small areas in the ortho-photo the autogen is not visible, LA city tower lighting is basic, smoke is well... different if 3d solid. There is huge value here at KRAL-Riverside, not only for the excellent airport reproduction, but with the sheer dynamic interaction and provided action with this package... above all like with Rising Dawn's excellent and in my case highly used KHAF-Half Moon Bay it is a scenery to love and be used to it's very capable attractions... Rising Dawn certainly is noted for high quality scenery, but all comes with with a high gratification as well... an easy five stars! _____________________________________ Yes! KRAL - Riverside Municipal by Rising Dawn is currently available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : KRAL Riverside Municipal Price is US$24.99 Features LA Object Pack Customizable Hangar Live Aiprort Loads of animations, including vents, pitot covers, birds and vegetation Attention to details 3D effect Dry grass Taxilights that illimunates the world around them PBR textures Virtual annual Riverside Airshow Activity Calendar with 100+ Activities Easte Eggs Your Own hangar ORBX TE SoCal compatibility and more (read manual for more details) WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are provided in the Custom Folder and overall the airport generation functions perfectly, but not much action. Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac and Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.2 GB Current and Review version: 1.0 (July 19th 2020) Installation Download scenery file size is installed in your custom scenery folder 1.11Gb RD_KRAL_1.0 Los Angeles pack is 81Mb RDS_LA_LP_1.0 Five folders cover the full installation including: RDS_KRAL_Custom RDS_KRAL_Airport RDS_KRAL_Activities RDS_KRAL_Ortho RDS_LA_LP Total scenery installation is 4.32Gb A "RDS Livery Pack 1.0.0" can be downloaded at the X-Plane.Org, it includes liveries for the Laminar Research' default C-172, the Vskylabs C-47, and the Aeroworx C-47. Documents A Highly detailed Activity Calendar and comprehensive manual are both provided RDS_KRAL_Activity_Calendar RDS_KRAL_Manual_1_0 ______________________________________________________________________   Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 23rd July 2020 Copyright©2020 : 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 - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1Tb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.41 and tested in v11.50b15 (fine) Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini  Plugins: None Scenery or Aircraft - Bonanza F33A XP11 by Carenado (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$26.95

Aircraft Update : Airbus A350-900 XWB Advanced v1.6 by FlightFactor/SteptoSky Since the earliest days you mostly saw FlightFactor Aero as a Boeing developer, there was the Boeing 777, then the Boeing 757 and then the Boeing 767... then out of the blue came an Airbus in the Airbus A350-900 XWB. But right from the first version of this aircraft it never felt... well very Airbus? Where as all the Boeings felt and flew like Boeings. Since the A350 FlightFactor went on to do another Airbus in the A320 Ultimate, which DOES feel like an Airbus and is still the best Airbus in X-Plane. But the FlightFactor A350XWB was a really odd aircraft from the start? Excellent on the external, the A350 always looked very nice in X-Plane. The clever six display layout with X input system is also really clever and is well done (early versions were however extremely buggy) and the airbus system depth is very good. So overall it should have been perfect for me as I like to fly Airbuses more than Boeings... but I never ever really fell in love with FlightFactor's A350XWB? Which is really odd because Long-Haul is still my favorite form of flying and also the A350 XWB is the latest of the New-Gen aircraft and X-Plane is very short of Long-Haul airlines and certainly of the New-Gen class. The FlightFactor A350 should of very easily ticked off every box for me, but in all honestly it left me cold and I rarely flew the aircraft, even the last time departing Barcelona I even stopped mid-flight (I very rarely abandon flights) because I was really not liking it at all? Why? well that is a good question... the first one in the most obvious. The FF A350 didn't have SID/STARs and the FMS was in reality the default FMS undercover. And this missing aspect really was the biggest complaint, but to be fair the A350XWB FMS (Flight Management Systems) is quite complicated and very different in input from either a Boeing and even another Airbus as only the bigger A380 has the same input and navigation system. Poor Sounds didn't help either and they were really awful, and the cockpit textures were weird in a non-Airbus way, and the aircraft always felt buggy, it never seemed to come together as a whole or as a linear simulation, it was an aircraft you simply couldn't love. The news of a v2.0 of the FlightFactor A350 was very welcome, but it became confusing in the light that the next update in v1.6.0 would be next and also include the infamous missing SID/STAR intergration, my guessing (wrongly) would that the SID/STAR intergration would only happen with the full new version of v2.0 (In selling the new version of the aircraft)... The surprise is that the SID/STAR is in this update v1.6.0 version, so that will be a free update, the better news is that the FMS is now really, really good... far better than I expected and to the point even brilliant. Nothing wrong with the way the A350 XWB looks, but this is still the v1.0 aircraft and in a few areas the v1.0 has a few niggles, the wings do have flex, but in a weird stiff flexy way, so the wing flex still looks old and outdated, and the cabin is still also old and very dated as well. A worthwhile download is the new Lufthansa A350 livery by fscabral as the cabin textures have been redone and the results seriously lift the cabin from the really drab to the really nice... and yes this cabin layout should be the default. Note in that the cabin lighting is controlled from the EFB (OIS/AIRPLANE/CABIN settings), lighting and sound settings settings are currently off at default. Ground support still has those cold war Russian vehicles, and you shake your head why as all the FlightFactor Boeings now have the updated western styled vehicles. But thankfully where it counts in the air the A350 XWB still looks very nice. Airbus 350 XWB v1.6 We will come to the big event in a moment, but first unlike other areas of the A350 the cockpit has had a very nice spruce up of the textures. The original cockpit textures were a darker Airbus blue with some wear around the edges, but somehow it didn't feel right in context as the A350 is the most modern of the Airbus fleet? These textures are now in a far lighter blue/grey Airbussy feel and are far better to the current state of a A350 XWB. The panels are still very left side pilot focused, with the right position more fixed with no display cycle active, the far right display is also fixed to a users guide page. The range and baro adjustments however do work, so it is not impossible to fly from the right seat as you can flip the FMS screen to the right middle display setting, but with no access to the menu sections unless again you move the menu selection to the middle screen. Glareshield textures are lovely, modern and very nice. Gone are the wheat coloured seats to be replaced by a very not corporate look of "stars"? A very unusual choice, but they do look better than the wheat seats with far more cloth and ripple detail.. FMS - Flight Management System The most important and the most welcome aspect of this v1.6 update is the intergration of SID/STARS into the FMS navigation, not only is SID/STAR routing now available, but it is also in how well the system has actually been done here is the biggest factor. Pilot left station is very good with most items and displays active and interactive. FlightFactor recreated the X pointer system for use on A350 displays and although very buggy in the early days (the X pointer would stray badly out of the display limits) it is now a very robust system that works well. There are two drop down menus tight together top left of the MFD (Multi-Functional Display). Top one selects your FMS route (Sorry there is still only one FMS1 route available) and below to start a new route then select INIT from the lower menu. If you are used to the usual FMS via a left or right button input key, then you will have to adjust to this different pointer system. There are a few rules to know... one is that everything is via an input and menu selection, so you select the box with the X pointer (arrowed below left)... ... put the X pointer over the box you want to input into and you get a green dash line and a flashing cursor, the display then also becomes "KEYBOARD FOCUSED" for direct key input... Type in your data, in this case Nairobi Airport "HKJK", but most IMPORTANT is to re-click to lock the data in! This is usually placed over the very first letter in the box with the pointer, if the "Keyboard Focus" line goes out and the input text sets a little to the right... then it is correctly inputted (locked in). Add in your INIT details... Flight Number, From (HKJK) to (EGLL) Alternative (EGCC) and Cruise FL (Flight Level) and Cruise (CRZ) Temp ºC. DEP and ARR locations set it is now time to do the flightplan, you access the flightplan via the "ACTIVE" menu and select F-PLN. Now comes the new SID (Standard Instrument Departures) selection... Press the departure airport (HKJK) and up comes a menu, select on the menu "DEPARTURE". Drop down menus give selection for RWY (Runway), SID and TRANS.... ... in my case it is RWY 24, SID "IBRA3D" and TRANS "KAMAS", all selections are then shown in the above Selected Departure box. Go back to the F-PLN and the SID departure route (waypoints) are now completed. Next waypoint (WPT) or AIRWAY is inserted in a similar way. Just select the last waypoint and select via thew menu either "INSERT NEXT WPT" or "AIRWAYS". For to "Insert Next Wpt" you select the selection box and insert the waypoint name (TUFTE) and make sure you click to insert, and you don't use the AIRWAY selection to add in the next WPT. For Airways then select AIRWAYS and add in the AIRWAY and the TO selections and like all FMS systems you can add in as many airways as you require. In every flightplan you get "DISCONTINUITY" breaks... to remove you just select the Discontinuity selection and then select "DELETE" from the menu. STAR (Standard Terminal ARrival) is the same procedure as the SID selection, select the arrival airport, then ARRIVAL from the menu and then use the menus to fill in the arrival data... ... the drop down menus select RWY, APPR (Approach), VIA, STAR (shown) and TRANS. All selections are shown in the upper box like with the SID selections. All changes and selections are only TEMPY or Temporary in yellow and insert via INSERT TEMPY, or backstep by ERASE TEMPY... .... and at any time while constructing the route you can make it active (Green) to see your progress on the PFD... The final full Flightplan is shown with diversions of which you can scroll up or down.... brilliant! It takes a little while to adjust to this pointer system, but it is quite easy to do once you are used to it. Overall the FMS is very versatile in creating route flightplans and I found it very refined and not buggy at all, which is very good thing with long route insertion flightplans like from Nairobi to London. Other FMS details are important as well... OIS (Onboard Information System ) Aircraft AIRPLANE/PASSENGERS gives you the A350 weights, and the AIRPLANE/PERF CALCULATOR gives you TO Performance and vSpeeds. ... and the calculated data is then transferred to the PERF (performance) page and the very important FUEL & LOAD page in the FMS... You can save your flightplan via the INIT page under "RTE SAVE", but the interesting aspect is that you have three choices of save, 1. the FULL complete flightplan, 2. SID or 3. STAR, so this makes it a very versatile system... .... the route is confusingly saved in your standard X-Plane FMS folder but not in the alphabetical order, but under a (*) moniker at the very bottom, which means a lot of scrolling. Quicker access is to use the "Filter" box lower right which reduces the flightplans to the chosen ICAO label. Wind pages have been added and it noted is that Alterative Flightplans are also now available, but I couldn't find a second flightplan? All in all it is a very extensive and detailed upgrade to the FMS in the A350XWB, I absolutely love it, yes there is more you want like a second FMS for the First Officer, but overall it is a fantastic working system... not perfect but far better than we had before. _______________________ There are no notes that the sounds have had attention in v1.6, but they certainly sound far better to me? Cockpit hum and wind noise is very good for a long haul flight and the exterior sounds far better as well, more distant in the background now is that really annoying "tring, ring" from the engines, it is still there but now highly subdued... thank god, the annoying Purser to Captain "Dings" are still as bad as ever, finding the issue is made hard by the language spoken in a gobble... usually it is the cabin that is TOO hot or TOO cold "but mister if the damn engines are switched off I can't heat or cool the cabin can I?... so go away", or the cabin lights are down, but it is really, really annoying... If any aircraft requires a specialist addon sound pack it is the A350 XWB. Contrails and and particles have now been added as well, the APU hums and breathes out exhaust air, and in the air the aircraft looks great. Another new menu page on the OIS is the "JOYSTICK ACTIONS" menu and noted to make the aircraft compatible with the new Thrustmaster TCA Airbus Throttle Quadrant. The new hardware offering from Thrustmaster, part of its new TCA Range is due to release in late September this year. This covers your joystick "Deadband" area (centre), throttle detent location and "MCT Detent" (Maximum Continuous Thrust) location. All the settings of course are for fine tuning your hardware joystick and throttle systems, but one selection is quite important... "REV ON SAME AXIS" will set your throttles with a "Beta' reverse detent. fine in some cases but horrible with my Saitek X56 Rhino setup as it set the idle position to reverse thrust, you can turn the action OFF here (arrowed below left). Radios are now 8.33 (as X-Plane11 went to this earlier). The 8.33 kHz channel spacing adds two additional channels for every 25 kHz channel. This is to overcome the frequency congestion in the medium to long term by providing more channels. Navigation ILS, VOR and ADF frequencies are under the "NAV" button, but you still have the default FMS at the rear of the pedestal and it's radio channels if you want a easier way to access any of the frequency settings or route information. _______________________ Summary Although noted as a "Advanced" version of the Airbus A350XWB, the Flightfactor version never really hit the mark in delivering a totally realistic simulation, and so in that aspect I was never yearned for the aircraft and rarely flew it, which is a shame because we need really good long haul and next generation aircraft in the X-Plane simulator. But now with this new v1.6 version of the A350XWB we have a game changer. The missing SID/STAR intergration that was missing is now part of this extensive Flight Management System. A difficult system to replicate because of it's unusual pointer and menu based input applications. But this intergration has been a huge success here in creating a master simulation of this unique Airbus FMS. Most FMS areas are now covered, but you will never ever cover everything as it is simply too complex, but the aircraft in reality should lose it's "Advanced" moniker and be now named a "Professional" aircraft because of the depth of the systems here... the only area missing is the right hand seat interaction to the OIS (Onboard Information System). A few areas have also been cleaned up including the cockpit textures which are more Airbus grey and lighter in tone and new seat (star) coverings. Over the updates the A350XWB has had a lot of behind the scenes work done and not actually noted officially, but you certainly feel in this version a far more co-ordinated and less buggy aircraft to fly, the FMS especially is really well coded and quite bug free in being versatile for corrections and data changes, a far cry from the original interface and flying conditions. So now it works, in almost every area and if not absolutely perfect the A350XWB starts to live up to it's quality standing as a very good if now excellent simulation. Over many hard flights (most Long Haul) it is an excellent aircraft to enjoy, the v1.6 update maybe on reflection small, but the aircraft has become something else than just a pretty aircraft to look at, it now a very realistic flying simulation as well. Once the outcast, the Airbus A350-900XWB can now be seen in the same context as the other aircraft from FlightFactor. A brilliant update that in the long wait users deserved... Not perfect but a free update with these enhancements will bring a lot of smiles to a lot of users faces, if you don't have the A350XWB from FlightFactor, but love long distance flying, maybe it is now time to take the plunge and enjoy this amazing aircraft. _____________________________________________ The Airbus A350-900 XWB Advanced v1.6 from FlightFactor is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store: Airbus A350 XWB Advanced Price is currently US$ 64.95 Livery packs at US$10 for ten liveries are available here: A350 Liveries Include: North America, Oceania, Africa & Middle East, Asia, Atlantic, Europe 1, Europe 2 and Pacific. If you already have purchased the A350 XWB from FlightFactor then go to your account at the X-PlaneStore and update to v1.6 Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows - Mac - Linux - 64bit Operating System Required 4Gb+ VRAM Minimum, 8Gb+ VRAM Minimum. Release Review : Aircraft Review : Airbus A350 XWB Advanced by FlightFactor Support forum : FlightFactor A350 XWB _____________________________________________________________________________________ Update and Tutorial by Stephen Dutton 18th July 2020 Copyright©2020: X-PlaneReviews

Translation: Hello, I have Navigraph FMS I would like to add Navigraph Charts. But on the Navigraph site I cannot subscribe although I already have an account. Can you help me please Thank you! The charts are in another section of the Navigraph site... Navigraph Charts, you have to sign into your account to access them, then the chart access opens up.go down to the.... See the airport and chart listing for a complete listing. Translation: Les cartes se trouvent dans une autre section du site Navigraph ... Cartes Navigraph, vous devez vous connecter à votre compte pour y accéder, puis l'accès aux cartes s'ouvre. liste complète.

Scenery Review : Western Dolomites 3D by Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini This is the fourth of five sceneries that will cover the Dolomite Mountain Ranges in the eastern north of Italy. This new area covers the Western area and Val Gardena adjoining both the Cortina - Cadore and Belluno areas. Here are the four regions... with Drei Zinnen National Park in red, Cortina-Cadore in yellow and Belluno in purple and this new Western section is in orange. The areas covered include the Alto-Adige (Sud-Tirol) region and the large valleys of Badia, Gardena, Fassa and Funes. I rightly predicted in the review of the Belluno scenery of the next section would be the area west of Marmolada (3,343m) or Queen of the Dolomites, and so this aspect has now been completed in this Western scenery. So we will cover the area from the same base in Alleghe and take the same initial route around the Marmolada and Pala Group of ranges and then down the long Fassa Valley. Obviously these Belluno areas (or the third "Belluno" scenery) are required to cover both sides of the valleys as they fill out the eastern aspects and now these new Western aspects are on the other side. Images shown here cover both installed packages. Alleghe to Cembra Our first route is basically flown fully down the Val de Fassa, Val di Fiemme and Val de Cembra valleys and all valleys are in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol district. Departure from Alleghe is still stunning under the backdrop of the Monte Civetta, you fly a short distance north and then do a tight turn to the west down the Val Pettorina, and at the end of the valley is the eastern side of Marmolada. A flip north again while climbing hard from 3,500ft to 6,500ft to circle the base of Marmolada until you reach Lago di Fedaia, and once over the lake you suddenly realise ahead it is very different forward view from the last flight down here with just the installed Belluno scenery... now more peaks fill the windscreen that were certainly not there before? A turn (and a slight drop in altitude) into the Val de Fassa itself and around the next bend reveals the Sassolungo Group directly ahead which we will come to in a minute, as up to the north first on the left is the dramatic Sella Group... The main peak of the Stella Group is Piz Boè at (3,151m), other peaks in the massif are the Cima Pisciadù (2,985m), the Boèseekofel (2,910m) and the four Sellatürme (2,696m), Sass Pordoi (2,952m) and the Brunecker Turm (2,495m) peaks. A nice detail is the Rifugio Piz Boè with a cross and a huge board. We will see more of the Stella formations in the northern pass in the Covara section of the review. Now we are in the Fassa Valley itself and the Sassolungo Group (Italian) or Langkofel Group is next and again on the right... compare the very basic default version from the Belluno review (below) to the added vista of the newer Western section (below right), you can see the huge even massive differences in the same visual aspect. The formations of the Sassolungo massif are very Dolomiti in design... There is some brilliant detail here, the 3D models are obtained from DEM (digital elevation models) and transformed into 3D objects as if they were buildings, with hundreds of thousands of triangles. In the transition from DEM to 3D object (obj), which is also mandatory to obtain an object compatible with X-Plane. in this Gruppe you can clearly see that amazing detail. Summits in the Group are clockwise, Langkofel (3,181m), Langkofelkarspitze (2825m), Grohmannspitze (3081m), Fünffingerspitze (2996m), Grohmannspitze (3,126m), Innerkofler turm (3081m), Zahnkofel (3000m) and Plattkofel (2,969m). Overall the gruppe is extremely impressive. Another bend in the Val de Fassa and another glorious range comes into view... This is the Rosengarten group or Catinaccio Group (Italian) One peculiarity of the Rosengarten is the pink shade, owing to the presence of the mineral dolomite, which takes in the sunset and "glows", as celebrated in the Bozner Bergsteigerlied. Meaning "Rose garden" in German, the name refers to the legend of King Laurin and his Rose Garden. The highest peak is the Kesselkogel (3,002m) above sea level. Other peaks include, Rosengartenspitze (2,981m), Vajolet-Türme (2,813m), Laurinswand (Croda di Re Laurino) - (2,813m), Tscheiner-Spitze (Cima Sforcella) (2,813m), Rotwand (Roda di Vaèl) (2,806m) and theTeufelswand (Croda Davoi) (2,727m). All the main villages in the Fassa Valley are represented, and set below the Rosengarten are both Pozza di Fassa and Vigo di Fassa as an example... ... not to forget that the eastern side of the Fassa has been changed as well, although part of the Belluno scenery the sides of the valley and the cablecar networks can now also be seen or completed. And again the contrast must be made between the old Belluno review and the now filled in valley of the Fassa. Next on the right is the most western high mountains in the Dolomites of the Latemar Range. This mountain range is characterised by its form of a horseshoe, open towards east. It has got two subgoups: one a north group which includes the peaks from the Cima Poppe (2,460m) to Mt. Torre dei Muss (2,402m), whereas the mountains of the second group tower up round Mt. Agnello (2,358 m). Set between both the Rosengarten and Latemar massifs is the ski resort of Carezza Karersee, and the iconic view of the Latemar formations from the Lago di Carezza, and both are represented here. Still following the Fassa Valley I now reach Predazzo and where last time in the Belluno review I took a hard left and went back deep into the Belluno scenery down the Val Paneveggio, to the Pala Group that can be seen on the left... Past Predazzo we are now in the Val di Fiemme valley, and the landscape spreads out more as you fly south, but there is still a lot to explore flying down this long area, you can of course fly up these valleys from the south and go from low to high... ... villages covered are Ziano di Fiemme, Panchià, Tesero and Cavalese. The Chiesa Santa Maria Assunta at Cavalese as is the Stadio del Ghiaccio (Ice Hockey stadium) have both been replicated. The town was also the site of the Cavalese cable car disaster in 1998, when a US aircraft tore down the cable-car connecting the town to the nearby Cermis mountain during a training exercise, killing 20 people. Next is the exquisite Lago di Stramentizzo... ... the villages of Capriana, Segonzano and then finally Cembra high up on the right, which is our stopping point here as it is the most far southwest H Pad - HELCE in all of the Dolomite sceneries. The Western Package does go on further for a few valley turns to the very start of the Val di Fiemme at Ceola... all in all there is a huge amount of distance to explore down these two significant Fiemme and Fassa valleys. Cortina-Cadore to Covara In distance this route is quite short, more so is that most of the route flown here is also mostly in the Cortina-Cadore package, but the point of view from Cortina is important. Departure is from Cortina's LIDI airport, then we track south down the Cadore Valley until over Cortina then turn westwards... .... as per usual you then have climb high up and over the Passo Falzarego, the Cinque Torri is on the right, but directly ahead is a new formation that was not there before... the Sass de Stria. The Sass de Stria is directly in front of the famous Lagazuoi (2,835m), and a nice combination they make... but beyond is a bigger vista that is the western Dolomites. To my left is the Cortina - Cadare formations of the Cimi Di Fanes, Conturines and P.ta South and that spectacular Fanes group scenic rim... this was earlier the most western point of these Dolomite packages, but now the Fanes have been pushed back well into the overall area as it now goes far more out west... in the far distance is the Kleiner Peitlerkofel or Sas de Pütia which in the new package is now also modeled in detail. It is really weird as nothing to my left was actually here before? it was simply a blank canvas, but now it is a full dynamic vista. Far left is the Sassolungo Group that we have already covered, centre is the Puez-Geisler Nature Park, Odle di Eores and far right is Kleiner Peitlerkofel, set deep in the valley between the Sassolungo Group and the Puez-Geisler Nature Park is our destination Covara. The entrance is at La Villa Stern into the Val Badia as part of the Alta Badia region. The large peak right is the dominating Sassongher (2,665m), and the Piz Boè is direct ahead above the end of the valley... This south facing range of the Puez-Geisler Nature Park is the Puez Group, with (R-L) Mt. Sassongher, Col Pradat (2038m), Sass da Ciampac (2667m)... Cir Group - Große Cirspitze - Grande Cir (2579m), Piccola Cir (2520 m), Kleine Cirspitze - Cir V (2538m), Sas dal Fuech (2025 m) and the Piz de Do Parëi (1973m). In the cradle of Val Badia is Covara and there is an airstrip XLIDO - Val Badia... it is tricky to find, but look to the west when entering the township... XLIDO - Val Badia's grass runway 08/26 is only 400m, and totally useless from the western approach and even very tight from the west, so it would need skill to land there... also there is a H Pad HECRV positioned here as well, the H Pad is right next to some nice airport buildings. Directly ahead to the west is part of the famous Gardena Pass 2,136 m (7,008 ft) ASL and the pass connects Covara to Sëlva on the west side, of which we will fly around to later... above you is the towering Mt. Sassongher. Covara to Sëlva Departing from Covara it is back out through the Val Badia and into the Funes Valley, then north. Our point of interest is now right there to our left of the Kleiner Peitlerkofel or Sas de Pütia... .... I am still bewildered on how much of the lower Fassa Valley has changed here since the I flew around here in the Cortina-Cadore scenery, the Fanes group scenic rim fits in far much better from this angle and the valleys and villages are now also modeled in creating the far better and fuller visual impact. The northern valleys are much deeper, but the ground detailing goes on to the boundary at Casies Valley. You have to climb to see the Kleiner Peitlerkofel up close, as the elevation closes in on both sides of the formations and the valley disappears... ... the Peitlerkofel (Ladin: Sas de Pütia, Italian: Sass de Putia) stands between Val Badia to the east and the Villnöß valley to the west. The massif boasts two distinct summits, the Grosser Peitler (2875m) and the Kleiner Peitler (2813m), which are divided by a deep ridge. This is a very popular mountain to climb, with the normal and easiest route being from the south. On a fine day it is common to have hundreds of people on the mountain at once. Next to the Peitlerkofel is the Odle di Eores group... ... these main peaks of the Odle di Eores are; Monte Tullen (2,654m), Wälscher Ring (2,623m), Sasso della Conca (2,590m) and Mount Confin (Ringspitze) - (2,531m). Rounding the Odle di Eores and one of the main features of the "Western Scenery" comes into view... ... this is the magnificent Puez/Odle Geisler Group which along the western boundary of the natural park that carries the same name. It is however still part of the overall Odle group with; Furchetta (3,025m) the tallest peak, others include; Sass Rigais (3,025m), Sass de Mesdi (2762m), Große Fermeda (2873m) and Kleine Fermeda (2800m) being the most significant formations. The range also backs onto the earlier Puez Group. Follow the valley out and you are back into the Casies Valley and again the boundary of the scenery, so we will do a sort of loop and take the valley back into the scenery via Tschövas and the start of the famous Val Gardena Valley... from this angle you are now looking southeast with the Rosengarten group or Catinaccio and the Latemar Range in the background, but to the right forward is the Schlern (Italian: Sciliar)... .... The Schlern dominates the villages of Seis am Schlern and Völs am Schlern, which both have been recreated in the package, and the highest summit of the formation is the Petz at (2,564m). Val Gardena Valley snakes it's way back into the core of the scenery and surprisingly there is a lot of industrial zones along here, with the villages of Tschövas and Pontives (note the H PAD HELAA) and San Pietro... ... next along a few turns if the valley are Passua and the Urtijëim, which is noteable by the distictive Parish Church of Urtijëi, which is made in neoclassical style with baroque elements in the last part of the eighteenth century and the church is represented here. A branch valley to the left at Urtijëim will take you to closer and up to the Geisler Group... ... but we take the right valley that will soon brings into view the same Geisler Group but from the eastern perspective of the sharp scaly rim. Hard to the right is again the towering Rosengarten group and a better closer perspective of the highest Kesselkogel peak. Finally around a few bends is the main commune of Sëlva, with the Puez-Odles Natural Park that begins at the edge of town, and the world-famous Sella Ronda ski carousel that passes right through the center of the township, then Sëlva is a main central tourist destination of the Val Gardena area. There is a H Pad HALSG positioned here, but it is extremely difficult to find? I hovered then using the local X-Plane Map took the right valley towards even more and more houses? Then I saw it buried tight by a Football (soccer field) on my left. At Sëlva you are situated in the centre of the "Western" section of this Dolomite scenery, and over the high pass is of course Covara. There is a huge amount of area here you can cover as this fourth part as it comprises of a territory of about 1200 sq km in the western part of the Dolomites, add in the other packages and this certainly the most densely and detailed scenery in territory in X-Plane. Separately then this Western pack certainly adds to the aspect of the Belluno pack on the eastern side, but more so the Cortina-Cadore pack on the north and fills out quite comprehensively the Fanes valley and districts. There are so many villages and communes to to note here, one north is San Vigilio deep in the Fanes. And many others we will see in the H PAD placements. Lighting Overall lighting is not the main aspect of these sceneries... there is lighting of course, but it is mainly just housing (window) and the odd street lamps to create an alpine village feel, but in this package there quite a bit of it, so every major valley is lit... Overall it looks quite authentic at night and works very nicely in recreating the valley effect, odd buildings or the main significant custom scenery objects and the many football (Soccer) fields are also well lit in the scenery. ICAO Noted Airports and H Pads There are two airports and 14 H pads in the scenery, which is significantly more here than most other provided landing areas in both the Dainese and Bellini sceneries, provided are: XLIDO - Airport - 46.5523017 011.8631166 – CORVARA XLILU - AIRPORT – 46.60488660 011.37928386 - LOCHER HECRV – HELIPORT - 46.5521658 011.8650664 – Heliport Corvara HEVF - HELIPAD - 46.6360556 011.7243997 – Val di Funes HELSM - HELIPAD - 46.6812986 011.8917434 –S.Martino Badia HEPS - HELIPAD - 46.5099770 011.7564503 – Passo Sella HPTR - HELIPAD - 46.4952058 012.0461872 - Pietralba HELAA – HELIPAD - 46.5869693 011.6304575 – Aiut Alpin HELPF –HELIPAD - 46.4267100 011.6882711 – Pozza di Fassa HELCNZ – HELIPAD -46.46993479 011.77726362- Canazei VVF HELAS – HELIPAD - 46.5406639 011.6209378 – Alpe di Siusi HELCE – HELIPAD - 46.1722710 011.2242332 – CEMBRA HEVZ – HELIPAD - 46.4081755 011.5854071 – Carezza Val d’Ega HELSG – HELIPAD - 46.5475061 011.7686336 – Selva Gardena HELRN – HELIPAD - 46.5392681 011.4559653 – Renon Arena Center HECL – HELIPAD - 46.2880779 011.4561542 – Cavalese Hospital XLIDO - Airport - COVARA As noted in the review, the field is tight and to the right on the valley entrance to Covara, but there are a few nice terminal buildings. One grass runway 08/26 400m XLILU - AIRPORT – LOCHER Lochher is noted as "a very short runway with a difficult approach for landing", no kidding, it is on a slope and not really a runway? There is a H pad set here, but not noted and the airport is set well far west away from the main scenery... it is well done though. Grass 17/35 no runway length HECRV - H Heliport Corvara The H Pad at Covara, easy access and nicely placed by the terminal buildings. HEVF - H - Val di Funes Right under the noses of both the Odle di Eores and Geisler Group, a simple H Pad with clean approaches. HELSM - H - S.Martino Badia Situated behind the hilltop castle that was first documented in 1290 as “turris in Geder” and documents the heart of the judicial Tower in Gader (the actual translation should be “Tower in Quadra”), The H Pad is a nice position to get a spectacular arrival past the now museum of the castle. The castle is well documented here. HEPS - H - Passo Sella Situated on the eastern side of Sassolungo Group, this is a nice high H Pad to get a close up of the Sasso Dolomites. The H Pad is by the ski-lift HPTR - H - Pietralba Placed at the site of the famous Pietralba hotel (a hotel has been here since 1630) the H Pad is the furfurest southwest of any H Pads, the hotel itself is well modeled and very distictive on the mountain position. HELAA - H - Aiut Alpin Noted earlier at Pontives in the Val Gardena Valley. There are a lot of challenges here with lower and roof top H Pads at the Elikos Helicopterservice base. HELPF - H – Pozza di Fassa Deep in the Fassa Valley this H Pad is situated at Pozza di Fassa, between (or below) the Rosengarten and Latemar massifs. The pad is tired worn concrete and is situated on the west side of Pozza di Fassa. HELCNZ - H - Canazei VVF Canazei is on the bend between the Stella Group and Sassolungo Group in the Fassa Valley. The approach is easy if you get it right. HELAS - H - Alpe di Siusi At Plan De Gralba, the H Pad it is not far from the Val Gardena Valley and Sëlva, tricky to find, but great views of the Rosengarten Group. HELCE - H - CEMBRA The most southern point of the scenery at Cembra and the lower Val di Fiemme valley, best approach is over the Football (soccer) field as the so called clean approach has powerlines! HEVZ - H - Carezza Val d’Ega Set in the valley between the Rosengarten and Latemar massifs is Carezza Karersee, a great flight to a pretty local. HELSG - H - Selva Gardena Our final landing pad was at Sëlva in the Gardena Valley, and the H Pad is tricky to find, as it is buried in the offshoot valley. Another Tricky approach and use the Football (soccer) field as a focus but watch the fence! HELRN - H - Renon Arena Center Situated outside the Renon Arena in Klobenstein, then this H Pad is towards the start of the Casies Valley and Bolzano, high up on the western side of the valley it can be again tricky to find. HECL - H - Cavalese Hospital Cavalese is high on the right in Val di Fiemme valley just before the Lago di Stramentizzo. The H - Pad is situated in front of the Ospedale di Cavalese. One final interesting aspect of these packages are the now significant impact on the X-Plane simulator itself. Fly north to south or vise-versa over the Alps and note those significant differences in the alpine landscape below, this image was taken at 30,000ft (FL300) going from Rome to Munich, as these Dolomite packs looked simply sensational from this high perspective. _________________________________ Summary This is the fourth of five sceneries from Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini that cover the Dolomite Mountain Ranges in the eastern north of Italy. This new area covers the western area in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region, this scenery also adjoins the Belluno- Southern Dolomites and the Cortina - Cadore region packages and the earlier Drei Zinnen National Park is which attached to the Cortina - Cadore pack. Areas recreated in this Western scenery package include: Alto-Adige (Sud-Tirol) region, the large valleys of Badia, Gardena, Fassa, Funes and there are important stations and famous tourist resorts Ortisei, Canazei, Carezza, Siusi, Castelrotto, Covara and Sëlva. All the numerous mountains and glaciers are all very highly created mesh from DEM data 3D graphics programs, and the Hi-Res textures are all in 4K resolution. The focus mountains are simply excellent in their 3D reproductions and the highlights are Sella Group, Sassolungo, Catinaccio Group, Latemar, Sciliar, Odle with the Sassongher, Schlern, Kleiner Peitlerkofel and Geisler Group as the highlights. These excellent representations of iconic mountain areas of the world are for exploration, sightseeing or just plain exploring... and you could throw in a bit of geography as well. All are very highly detailed of the areas they represent and the mountain ranges are of course the stars and the focal point. The biggest aspect of this scenery is on how it totally expands out on the earlier Belluno and Cortina-Cadore packages, the Fassa valley aspect is now filled out on both sides and the extention and changes beyound the Fanes group scenic rim, which was earlier the most western aspect is now more central into the full set of Dolomite packages. Breathtaking and immersive in the dolomite areas that now covered are simply immense, with simply also a massive choice of H Pads and routes to choose from.... next and last area to be covered is in my guess will be the east of the the Piave River Hugely popular and yes I love these amazing and hugely detailed and now extensive sceneries that can change your perspective of an iconic area and allow them to come to life in your simulation world... Highly recommended, so four down and now only one more Dolomite package to go! ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! Western Dolomites 3D - Val Gardena by Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Western Dolomites 3D - Val Gardena Price Is US$24.95 Customer who already own Dolomites 3D - Drei Zinnen Park, Cortina, Belluno can get this new scenery for $5 off. Please go to the original invoice for coupon code Features 1200 sq. Km of scenic Mountain Scenery Corvara Airport (XLIDO) and Locher-Airfield (XLILU) with14 Heliports in strategic sites. Locher Airfield is a small airport, built on a steep slope, with an underground Hangar. Particular construction difficulty because not represented in the base mesh. Many valleys: Cembra,Fiemme, Fassa, Badia, Gardena, Siusi, Ega, Funes... Over 30,000 buildings positioned, with many buildings rebuilt. 10 3D models and groups: Sella Group, Sassolungo, Catinaccio Group, Latemar, Sciliar, Odle, ... All the vegetation mapped Inserted hundreds of polygons / textures to reproduce the photo-realistic terrain Reproduced the main lift-plants, in particular the Pordoi Sass.. Reproduced all the main refuges in the area: Val Gardena, Roda di Vael, Vajolet,Principe, Alpe di Tires, Bolzano, Capanna Fassa, Boè, Contrin, Antermoia, ... Take off and landing complicated but also possible with Pilatus (see youtube video of Challenging Locher Sarentino Airfield approach) WT3/Traffic Global: Your joking of course! no, you are on your own here Requirements X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 850 MB - 1.1 GB Release and Review version 1.0 (15th July 2020) Installation Download scenery file size is download 722mb and with the full installation installed in your custom scenery folder as there are Seventeen install folders in the order below in the .INI File (included and the listing below also includes the Drei Zinnen/Cortina/Belluno packs). The "Dolomiti2_lib" library is not required if you already have it installed. SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1A_DOLOMITI_3D_Part1/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1B_AIRPORT_LIVD/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1C_CableWay_Dolomitti1/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1D_PUSTERIA_Comelico/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1E_MISURINA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1F_AURONZO/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2A_DOLOMITI_3d_Part2/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2B_AIPORT_LIDI/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2C_CableWay_Dolomiti2/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2D_CORTINA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2E_CADORE/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2F_CRODALAGO/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3A_DOLOMITI_3D_Part3/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3B_CableWay_Dolomiti3/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3C_AGORDO_ALLEGHE/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3D_BELLUNO_Piave/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3E_VAL_CORDEVOLE/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3F_VALLE_PRIMIERO/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3G_Zoldana_Fiorentina/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4A_DOLOMITI_3D_Part4/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4B_CableWay_Dolomiti4/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4C_VAL_BADIA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4D_ALPE_SIUSI/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4E_FASSA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4F_GARDENA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4G_SMARTINO/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4H_VAL_CEMBRA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4I_VAL_FIEMME/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4J_VAL_FUNES/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4K_RENON/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4L_VAL_DEGA/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4M_LocherAirfield/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D1G_Exclusions/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D2G_Exclusions/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D3H_Exclusions/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/D4N_Exclusions/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Dolomiti2_lib/ SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/MESH_DOLOMITI1/ Total scenery installation (Belluno) : 1.39gb Documents One manual with notes ______________________________________________________________________   Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 18th July 2020 Copyright©2020 : 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 - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.41 and tested in v11.50b15 (fine) Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini  Plugins: None Scenery or Aircraft - Bell 412 XP11 by X-Trident (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$35.95

There is first an annoyance that the Dep_KFLL (main folder is within a double folder) as noted in the review... only Dep_KFLL needs to be deposited in the Custom scenery folder... For WorldTraffic 3 the files go into the main World Traffic folder, it is really all there in your above image? Open the WT3 folder that came with the scenery and there are three items to be inserted... The KFLL text document goes into your AirportOperations folder, and the Arrival and departure folders go into the WT3 Arrival and Departure folders in the groundroutes folder. Note insert only the Arrival... KFLL folder in the Groundroutes/Arrival folder and not the actual "Arrival" folder... note in reality if you had opened the folders in the image above it should have been easy to see which file goes where?

Confused??? what are you talking about, KLFF - Fort Lauderdale or WorldTraffic 3?

Librain plugin goes into the XP Resources/plugins folder, but it doesn't work anyway in the Beta 11.50.

You need all C++, FF do use the most obscure C++ versions, the full list is...

sounds like missing Visual C++ Redistributables....

Airport Review : KTPA Tampa International Airport by VerticalSim If you follow X-PlaneReviews you will know that we spend a lot of time in Florida or flying around Florida, mostly because it is a very interesting area to fly around. But in X-Plane there has been a very large hole in your network that is a prominent destination and that missing area is Tampa on Florida's western coastline on the Gulf. There was a few freeware versions of KTPA Tampa, but the problem is that as an airport it is a very complex infrastructure of all types of aviation, business, commerce and industrial installations, and it was really impossible to just depict the airport and make it realistic, so creating KTPA - Tampa from the outset was a huge project... but as usual someone in X-Plane is always going to take on the impossible and in this case it was VerticalSim. The project has grinded on now for over several years, and here is the result with the release of VerticalSim's KTPA Tampa International Airport and the progress has been very visual via the forums. And the first impression is overall very, very good. Tampa International (Originally Drew Field) is six miles (9.7 km) west of downtown Tampa, and it is the 28th largest airport as listed in the United States. The first thing that strikes you is that the ground textures are significantly darker than the surrounding default mesh... this is a shift to cater for the Orbx or other third party photo-ortho addon Florida textures and texture options are included with this scenery package, worse is that on some edges to give a perfect join to these textures the lines are very distinctive and even sharp cuts, besides catering to an addon, the darker textures also create a more sombre darker inner feel to the scenery overall. Tampa International Airport (TPA) IATA: TPA - ICAO: KTPA - FAA LID: TPA 10/28 - 6,999ft (2,133m) Asphalt/concrete 19L/1R - 8,300ft (2,530m) Asphalt/concrete 19R/1L - 11,002ft (3,353m) Concrete Elevation AMSL26 ft / 8 m The runway layout is interesting because you have two parallel runways 19R/01L - 19L/01R and a smaller cross runway (over 19L/01R) 10/28. Runway 19R/01L is the longest runway at KTPA at 19R/1L- 11,002ft (3,353m) long. Layout has that hub central area with spoke satellite design very similar to Orlando with trains connecting the hub and spoke system, in the business it is called Landside/Airside and the layout is very up to date and current with TPA's ground plan and details. An odd visual layout that instantly stands out is on Taxiway J? A taxiway bridge is completely not finished and sits quite awkward on the taxiway? This makes the taxiway unusable as well. On Taxiway B there is another taxi bridge, but it is completed and well done, so what gives? As noted the photo-ortho joins are quite jarring, sharp and leave blank spaces in the autogen... not pretty. Airside satellite are A, C, E and F clockwise are set out around the main central (Landside) terminal... The main central terminal has the built short term carparking and the larger second facility which is the extensive long term carparking. Extensive detailing covers the terminal roof, and all the satellites are connected by very nice animated railways, in fact the whole complex central landside zone is a complicated weave of road, rail, monorails, SkyConnect and passageways between the inner and outer areas, and it is extremely all well done and put together. Iconic 1973 Tampa Airport Marriott (with revolving restaurant!) and the air traffic control tower set at 227-foot-tall (69 m) when opened in July 1972, it was the tallest field tower in the United States at the time. Tower view is set correctly and you have a great view of all the approaches with just a few aerials in the view point. Airside modeling is very good, but missing that real grittyness and wear and tear. To be fair every Airside terminal is completely different and in a different style, and so it is a huge undertaking to make it all extremely realistic. Glass is dullish, but at least realistic. Airside A Airside C Airside E Airside F Prominent on all Airsides are the excellent SAM (Scenery Animation Manager). These active airbridges are worn and torn with great branding including Delta, Southwest, Air Canada and others. Overall it works on all the aprons. There is a huge amount of detail, so you are getting your money's worth here... Airside Sorting A building, Fire Station and remote parking (remote 46-56) detail is all very good with a lot of branded clutter to make it all work very well. Cargo facility is on taxiway J along the north side of runway 10/28, is called Drew Park Air Cargo in a throwback to the original name. The well done cargo apron has seven stands with 4-7 fronting the large FedEx depot. Cargo clutter is branded and well done. The most prominent buildings at Tampa TPA are the two huge "Airborne" Maintenance hangars situated on taxiway E along the length of of RWY 19L/01R... and big they both are. Set between the hangars is a "Maintenance Runup Bay" or engine test facility that is well represented. Far north is the airport's Fuel Depot and approach radar tower (behind) the radar is also nicely animated. Southwest and along RWY 19L/01R is the General Aviation area... more for private jets than your average Cessna as it is a large area for private jet operations, maintenance hangars and offices. Distinctive is the "Signature Aviation" fabric sail roofing, that has been well done, "Sheltar" is also represented as is the U.S. Customs office. Overall you wish for more static aircraft and vehicles to break up the large empty aprons. Infrastucture One of the more significant aspects of this VerticalSim KTPA scenery is the excellent infrastructure surrounding the actual airport confines... Southeast there is the excellent International Plaza and Bay Street shopping centre, Renaissance Tampa International Plaza Hotel, Corporate Center at International Plaza, Greenway Health, Verizon Connect and Gerdau buildings that are all well detailed and represented. Southwest is more airport infrastucture with the SkyConnect Rental Car Facility Station and TPA - Economy Parking Garage and United States Postal Service facility and are all custom made... .... and even the Fish Creek interchange has been recreated for the arrival of RWY 01L (but can also be highly viewable from RWY 01R). There is an option is to download the free VSCities - Tampa VFR 1.0.0 from the X-Plane.Org, this option includes the Downtown Tampa City buildings and cruise ships... ... and east of the airport are the Raymond James Stadium (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Baseball George M. Steinbrenner Field, as part of the option. Ground Textures The ground textures at TPA are excellent, with great concrete detail and a lot of very realistic wear and tear... ... all the textures are PBR and Baked Ambient Occlusion active and so with any rain, wet or even damp drying conditions the runways, taxiways and aprons come alive. 3d grass is also really good and shows why you need this aspect to cover over the Lo-Res photo textures... it works well when done correctly like at TPA. Lighting Overall the lighting is a bit "Hit and Miss", approaches are fine and quite good... ... but on the taxiways there is no centre green navigation lighting except for taxiways W and B? This makes most the ground movements very dark and uninteresting in the areas you need the guidance... RWY 10/28 has odd approach lighting and no centre line lights but it is only really a GA runway. Marriott Hotel has the brand logo lit and "HOPE" spelt out via lit room lighting, rooftop carparks are very well lit and look very nice. Overall the satellite Airside terminals leave me cold... as it is just a grey FSX feel that has no life or does not even look anyway close to being realistic? "Airborne" Maintenance hangars are nicely lit with dropdown lights and look nice over to the east of the central area... ... over at the International Plaza complex it is dark in the south carpark but well lit behind, this to reflect the main shopping cenre being closed at night were as the entertainment (restuarants, cinemas) are open. So overall it is good. Carparks are nicely lit and so are the optional Downtown buildings, but the cruise liners are all in darkness? and Football, Baseball fields are also a missed opportunity as they are all in darkness as well? So there feels a sort of not completed work in certain areas. ___________________ Summary Significant airports are required for any good simulator, but one major hub for Florida in Tampa International - TPA was always a black hole on the west coast of Florida. The reasons are manyfold, but the over-riding main issue is that it is a very complex airport layout to develop. TPA has a Landside/Airside arrangement or Hub and Spoke with satellite departure terminals. More so is the complex infrastructure set closely around the airport itself with Business parks and Shopping Centres close by. To make Tampa International realistic required a significant development investment and time to bring it all to reality. Vertical Simulations have took on that huge task and to a point have succeded in recreating this important Florida hub. Overall this a very comprehensive reproduction of TPA, but in areas currently it feels slightly unfinished. The main airport modeling and layout is excellent, but it is not a to a total Hi-Res standard in just being very good modeling and good textures as that extreme realism is missing here, poor lighting textures also let it down, but the excellent intergration of the SAM plugin is very good with airbridge branding, around the airport traffic animations and branded clutter are also well done. Ground runway/taxiway textures and 3d grass are excellent but again are offset by the use of the current tend of darker photo-ortho textures to match Orbx and other third party photo based texture packages... this aspect leaves you in two places with nowhere to go, darker textures that don't match the surrounding defualt mesh and for the use for only of users that invest in the addon packages, overall these photo textures are simply too dark anyway. Significant infrastructure including the International Plaza complexes and Business parks and all the southern remote carparking facilities are all really well done and add great great visual detail for any departure or arrival approach drama. An optional Tampa City package adds in downtown office towers, cruise ships and Football/Baseball stadiums, But there are still if few areas of unfinished work, a lot of objects float, missing centre taxiway lighting and a completely unfinished taxiway bridge on taxiway J is not good for an offical release, also untextured animated traffic vehicles and areas of the photo-orthos are not finished in hard straight lines and open non-autogen areas. I have personally wanted to fill in that Florida black hole that is Tampa International for a long time, and certainly this is a very worthy and extremely well done addon scenery... There is no doubt on the extreme effort and work put in here on the TPA scenery to make it the best available Tampa yet for X-Plane and in most areas it succedes very well.... so overall VerticalSim's Tampa International gets the tick from X-PlaneReviews and is recommended. ____________________________________ Yes! KTPA Tampa International Airport by VerticalSim is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : KTPA-Tampa International Airport Price is US$26.99 Features: 2020 Airport layout High-resolution textures taken with high-res cameras Surrounding Autogen Hand Placed High Resolution PBR Ground Textures Sam Custom High detailed jetways (specific per airline and airside) Compatibility with VStates Florida and ORBX True Earth Florida Freeware Downtown Tampa optional Animated car traffic, monorails, SkyConnect (using groundTraffic plugin) Thousands of handplaced tree types (palms, oaks, spruce, etc.) Baked Ambient Occlusion Animated Ground Traffic Vehicles Taxi Networks and OPS File for World Traffic 3 and Traffic Global 3D Airport Vehicles Custom Mesh Easy Installation Highly Optimized 3D Grass High-res 0.5ft/Color Graded Satellite Imagery HDR Lighting Requirements Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Release and Review Version 1.0 (June 24th 2020) WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are not provided and a generation is required, and overall the airport generation functions perfectly as the ATC routes are refined. Traffic Global v9454 runs fine Installation Download scenery file size is 1.62gb: V1.3 KTPA There are a lot of options including details for: True Earth Florida VStates Forkboy Ortho4XP VSCities - Tampa VFR 1.0.0 Tampa City addon is also available Total scenery installation is quite big : 4.62gb SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 1.0 is required for this scenery Documents One extensive manual in English with notes (8 pages) but no charts. Details of optional ortho options are noted in the manual. VS-TPA_Manual.pdf _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 10th July 2020 Copyright©2020 : 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 - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1TB SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.41 - tested v11.50.b6 (fine) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Traffic Global (Just Flight) US$52.99 Scenery or Aircraft - Default Boeing 737-800 by Laminar Reserch

I agree in that navigation signage should be as as at the airport, there was an update to P+P Gatwick but I haven't downloaded or checked it yet.

Scenery Review : HKJK - Nairobi "Jomo Kenyatta" International Airport by FSDG/Aerosoft Africa is like Australia in that you can fly for over four hours and not see anything, so after the constant buzz and cosmopolitan feel of Europe it all feels a bit empty and even flat as you grind your way towards the horizon. So in reality in the simulator is a sort of barrier to places that are far more remote out of the safety of the friendly two hour flying circle. Personally I love the emptiness as I would living in Australia, as you feel you are going somewhere different and interesting, and I can keep myself interested in many ways anyway of working my way through the hourly fuel burn figures and FIR regions. Flying time is 6h 43min over a distance of 3006 nm, but I was late departing LIRF-Rome for HKJK-Nairobi because the JARDesign A330 wouldn't load correctly, partly my fault in not flying the A330 for a long time, but also because a few bugs I had to workaround. The later 12-noon departure now meant I would now arrive at NBO-Nairobo in the dark and an hour and half late, and not at my planned twilight arrival time... This is the second Africa scenery by FSDG under the Aerosoft banner after their earlier GMMN - Casablanca back in late April. I did like GMMN overall, but I noted it as "workmanlike" as it all felt a bit production line with not a lot of finnese, but it was good to get a scenery in a different local than the usual US/European centric. HKJK - Nairobi "Jomo Kenyatta" International Airport In earlier X-Plane one of the key bland aspects was that the autogen out here in Africa was not very good, so most areas even when populated were shown as empty spaces around the airport. Views of autogen like this around Jomo Kenyatta Airport is now a saviour and welcome here even if the autogen is a bit unAfrican... .... and the sharp zig-zag tree line both sides of NBO looks like a developer lazyness idea, but it is actually really shaped like that on Google Maps. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Uwanja wa ndege wa Kimataifa wa Jomo Kenyatta IATA: NBO - ICAO: HKJK - WMO: 63740 06/24 - 4,200m (13,507ft) Asphalt Elevation AMSL: 1,624 m / 5,330 ft Only one runway at HKJK, but it is a very long one at 4,200m and 13,507ft, and to note that very high elevation, so you have to be aware of your landing altitude. Main terminal is circular like an African Apple Spaceship design... Thankfully FSDG have made a better fist of covering up the photo images in the centre of the terminal landside zone and but it is still Lo-Res, but still far more passable than the awful Casablanca landside scenery. There are two terminals. Terminal 1 which is arranged in a semi-circular orientation and is divided into four parts: 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1E are used for international arrivals and departures while terminal 1D is used for domestic departures and arrivals. Terminal 2 is used only by low cost carriers. Parking stands 4 -21 all have SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) active airbridges. 2A-2C/3A-3C T3D are all walkon/off stands. Outer circle remote stands cover J1-J9 and H1-H10. Terminal 2 is used by low cost carriers is separated on a smaller (M) apron with six M1-M6 walkon/off stands (below). This is a prefabricated terminal which opened in April 2015 and has a capacity of 2.5M passengers and was required to take the pressure off the main terminal building. This FSDG Nairobi scenery is a crossover from FSX, so in areas it it is dated, and just spruced up a little for X-Plane, and that aspect is evident in the modeling and certainly with the textures. Airside close up it is well done and it overall does have a lot of variety and detail in the modeling. In the main yellow sectioned Terminal 1A the FSX elements are highly noticeable, they look slightly aged and the windows have a flat bland look about them, it works though but only just, but you seriously notice the missing HDR feel and realism. And a lot of the design is like this, as they don't hit the mark either in matching to the photo-based textures... Clutter is mostly Swissaport branded, but a lot of the ramp vehicles are local and custom made. Traffic animations are very good, with a lot of movement and lovely rundown African buses doing the remote ramp transfers. Between large spaceship T1 and the Lo-Cost T2 is the nice Kenya Airways administration building and a very nice Control Tower... .... both are well done especially the Control Tower, but the Tower View is set deep into the T1 Terminal and is practically useless. Cargo and Airport Infrastructure Apron Two southwest is the large Cargo facility that hosts Emirates SkyCargo, Kenya Cargo and Tradewinds Logistics and all are represented. Nine cargo parking slots F1-F9 are available on Apron 2 and note the large and very visible Fuel Depot on the southwest boundary of the airport. Again like FSDG's Casablanca scenery the airport support infrastructure again to a point saves the whole scenery... situated behind the cargo zone and part of the road approach to the airport there are a lot of infrastructure buildings and administration buildings.... that covers a fairly large area. Kenya Airports Authority head office and hotel chains Sheraton/Four Flags and the Crowne Plaza are all well represented as are a lot of factories and warehousing... overall the area is a great backdrop to the airport and for the realistic departure and arrival views. Embakasi Airport (now JKIA) On Sunday 9 March 1958, Embakasi Airport (now JKIA) was opened by the last colonial governor of Kenya. This facility is situated directly across the 06/24 runway and was the forerunner of what is now currently Nairobi Airport, the further expansion of the airport to it's current layout including a new international and domestic passenger terminal building that also included the airport's first dedicated cargo and freight terminal, new taxiways and the associated aprons which were all completed in 1972. Situated here is the original Nairobi terminal, but now the area is used by the Kenya(n) Air Force and is sometimes referred to as the Old Embakasi Airport, in the scenery it seems to set out more as an aircraft storage parking area, with loads of nice static Kenyian KQ B747s, B737s and even a few ATRs. Kenya Airways have two main maintenance hangars and a third large open hanger, all are Boeing 737 size hangars which are well represented with again some nice static KQ B737 models. Ground Textures Casablanca did have nice reflective (wet) ground textures, but I don't think the HDR process has been used here at HKJK... as they look a little too ordinary. Edge and taxi lines look newly painted and don't feel very worn or realistic, at all so overall the ground textures are no better than the default X-Plane textures... No 3d grass also adds in to the blandness of acres of Lo-Res textures that needed to have been broken up, in one airport that needs 3d grass it is Nairobi. Apron and taxiways are again just passable, it works but that word always keeps on coming to mind "Workmanlike". Lighting 6h 41min after I hit the timer clock on throttles up back at Rome, I am now approaching HKJKs Rwy 06, first signs are good as the approach lighting is bright and sharp, the lights of Jomo Kenyatta Airport are to the right and they look good as well, but as I get closer to the threshold I notice there are no centre line markings? Just the width and a lot of black space between the runway parameters... not a good start. Once down and a taxiway exit with Taxiway L and then it is the long ride back down the parallel Taxiway G towards the terminal area. I needed the full A330 lighting on, on the aircraft to navigate my way around the taxiways and thankfully it is good, as it is dark down here, yes there are no taxiway green guidance lighting either... I know this IS Africa and the country can be known for basic airport lighting, but I didn't expect to be crawling around in the dark at a big installation like Nairobi International. The lighting around the huge spaceship terminal was however excellent.... my parking bay is No.7 and I really love the full apron coverage as I work the aircraft into the gate. Yes I love arriving from a dark flight at night to that bright city airport feeling at your destination. Into the bay and the marshaller pops up for the SAM system, but he is very hard to see as he is small and partly hidden by a building support. But SAM is always a great feature to have, and better still when it actually works as it does here. Note the nice reverse service road lighting... well done. Full Airport overview is that the runway boundaries are well lit and so are the terminal areas, but inbetween it is a huge blank blackhole. Overview of the main terminal has all that great lighting on the main aprons and the remote stands. Landside lighting is good as even if mostly like GMMN it that it hides the Lo-Res ground textures and another aspect between Casablanca and Nairobi is the night terminal textures are better than the daylight versions, overall they are not bad with their T1A orange glow feel. Up closer and the window textures are not too bad either, but it looks like the Africans are having a Christmas Party inside... Overall though I like it. Terminal 2 lighting is lame.... but the Cargo ramp looks great. Rear infrastructure area is quite good in a FSX way, but no detail but just coloured blocks, and no lit up Hotel or business branding is a real disappointment.... Embakasi Airport ramps are okayish, but at least you have a lot of Nairobi city lighting behind to give you for some realism. Summary FSDG or FlightSim Development Group have been doing cross over conversions of their FSX sceneries to X-Plane under the Aerosoft banner. First conversion was GMMN - Casablanca that was a basic crossover scenery. In reality the conversion of the HKJK - Nairobi has a lot in common with the Casablanca scenery in that it has the advantages of being a exotic scenery, but the same disadvantages in the conversion. FSX textures and modeling are very obvious in Nairobi XP, so that means older designs and flat textures, no X-Plane features like HDR are used to convert them to a more modern and realistic feel, and in many areas you get that model on a flat base feel. That said in context Nairobi XP is very good overall in definition, as long as you don't look too deep into the detail. Like all FSX convertion it depends on the developers understanding of the X-Plane features and dynamics. Here is is about half and half in that the lighting is overall excellent, but missing the critical runway and taxiway centre line lighting? Missing 3d grass is another dynamic loss in covering the excessive ground textures which are also a bit average and not very realistic. The tower view is also not set? Thankfully SAM (Scenery Animation Manager) active airbridges are excellent here and so is the traffic animations and good detailed clutter, so again the call is if you don't look too deep there is a lot to like here. The view is that again if FSDG was too just do a little bit more on the X-Plane dynamics these sceneries would be far more attractive and deserve the sales they could achieve. I noted in the FSDG Casablanca scenery that it was "workmanlike" and that moniker can be said for the same here in Nairobi as well, but there are a few extra points to weigh up with this African scenery. First it is African and any scenery that can add to your X-Plane routings in an exciting way is always welcome, secondly is the sub-US$15 value price and for that price set then it is a great if even overall brilliant value. Recommended? Overall yes, I like Nairobi XP, but it deserves just a little more attention to make it the really great scenery it can be. _____________________________________ Yes! Nairobi XP by Aerosoft/FSDG is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : FSDG - Nairobi XP Price is US$25.95 Features: Accurate rendition of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (HKJK) Realistic shadow and light rendition Optimized for great performance and compatibility Animated jetways (SAM plugin required) Compatible with all known add-ons including Ortho4XP Manual included WT3: WorldTraffic GroundRoutes are not provided and a generation is required, and overall the airport generation functions perfectly. Requirements: X-Plane 11 Windows or Mac (not compatible with Linux) 4Gb VRAM Minimum - 8Gb+ VRAM Recommended Download-Size Windows: 310 MB Download-Size Mac: 900 MB Current and Review Version: 1.0 (June 19th 2020) Installation Download scenery file size is with the full installation installed in your custom scenery folder with a (Windows Installer) Mac is zip FSDG-Nairobi_XP Total scenery installation is 694mb SAM Plugin - Scenery Animation Manager - Suite 2.0 is required for this scenery Documents One extensive manual in English with notes (6 pages) but no charts Manual_FSDG-Nairobi_XP.pdf _____________________________________________________________________ Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton 4th July 2020 Copyright©2020 : 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)

Well my UH-1 works and so does the aircraft for everyone else? So there is either an install issue... or my guess the authorisation key has not been done or reloaded correctly... there is nothing wrong with the product.

No it is for all versions of X-Plane11.... Well I use it 🙂

Aircraft Review : Lancair Legacy RG by Aerobask While work continues on the announced Dassault Aviation Falcon 8X, then Aerobask can still surprise us with another aircraft to fill in the immediate time. This is a Lancair Legacy, and your first thought is "well there is already a Lancair Legacy, so why do another one?". The point is first the earlier Lancair Legacy is from 2014 (yes that long ago), and that version was the FG or "Fixed Gear" version... this new version is the RG, or "Retractable Gear" and although based on the earlier version, then this new version is quite different in really the only similarities between the two aircraft is that they both have the same outer skin, otherwise they are quite different aircraft in every other area. Also in the last six years no other developer has improved and advanced their skills to the level Aerobask are at today and that is no mean feat. To note the RG version is actually the original Legacy version, the FG version came later as the Colombian Air Force ordered 25 modified Legacy FGs to be used as basic trainers. The main advantage that Aerobask have over most developers is their ability and the unique understanding of textures, not just materials, but metals, composites, glass and then ccombine that with excellent mapping skills you get something quite unique. The Lancair Legacy is also an extremely hard aircraft to get any realistic look and feel out of the design, as composites can be called "Plastic Aircraft" because the design is so clean, so plain and even to some eyes even bland. But that is not the case here as you are in the hands of masters, yes believe it or not this is still the same exterior as the FG version, but with very high quality PBR effects and great mapping creates something out of the sheer plain design, it is extremely well done. The FG had only a twin-propeller arrangement, were as here on the RG you have the more powerful Hartzell 3-bladed constant speed version and the 310 hp (231 kW) Continental IO-550 engine can be seen through the air intakes, the shape and the lovely panel fit here is excellent. The retractable three point gear design is simple but very well reproduced here, all the links and struts are perfect with even the different metals and materials that are produced and used really well here. Note the landing light on the main strut, and there is a light on each of both of the main gear struts. The Legacy came out of the design of the Lancair 320, so it is a turn of the century built and designed aircraft in kit form. Considering the 90's design the Legacy aircraft form even today is extremely modern and clean. There is not a lot of actual detailing but for a few access panels and registration plates, but it is very well done in the perfect modeling and lovely contoured shapes Glass is simple as well with a forward bubble canopy and single right/left rear windows, glass is excellent in shape, reflections and thickness. The huge canopy tilts forward for access to the two-seater cockpit... .... you have to unlatch the canopy in one of two ways. First there is a latch side rear right or use the large handle set between the seats, once unlatched you then push/touch the canopy open, same in closing... again touch the canopy then latch it, a nice detail is the slight gap between the canopy and fuselage until it is totally and securely latched down. Cockpit quality and internal detail is an Aerobask speciality and they don't disappoint here. The mixture of the choice of materials and fabrics are excellent, as is the detail to create a realistic cockpit environment, note the excellent metals (seatbelts), straps and the reproduction of the expensive headset... X-Plane 11 is visible in the door pocket, a nice touch but we haven't used DVD disks for years? Two bags are situated in the well tailored rear shelf and overall the cockpit presentation is outstanding. Although basically a kit aircraft which means that most instrument panels don't have much commonality, the layout here is what you would expect as the standard for a modern layout with a semi-glass installation with modern avionics.... again the panel presentation is exceptional with a lovely facia and perfect reflection elements. The highlight though is the use of aluminium as the centre console material and it is so realistic you can feel it's rawness and this item alone shows you the advances in materials from in the earlier FG version, rudder pedals are highly and beautifully detailed as are the rubber hand grips on the between the legs sticks.... ..... Alcantara is used for the covering of the instrument glare shield and it has been reproduced highly realistically here, again a huge attention to detail and the though use of specialist materials. Note the nice Throttle, Prop and Mixture push/pull knobs centre console. There are two very nice lifelike pilots, a male and a female... but sadly they are both not animated. Instrument Panel Power on and the avionics are powered by a separate bus and switch... turn on the bus and the AVIDYNE logo is animated to scroll up the screen... ... once powered up the EXP5000 EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrument System) is also known as the "FlightMax Entegra" The display has both a Primary Flight Display (PFD) top that combines all standard instruments (airspeed indicator, altimeter, vertical speed indicator, slip/skid indicator, attitude indicator with flight director FD) and a Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI), with selectable textual and numerical bearing information, incorporating information on wind speed, true airspeed (TAS) and ground speed (GS) are shown lower. The EXP5000 is actually a nice and simply display to use. Selections on the left use the lower knob for adjustments as does the right knob for the adjustments on the right side selections on the screen. The left selections are the more actual selections in (top to bottom) NAV - VLOC 1 & 2, GPS1 and to note the COURSE adjustment is also set here, BEARING is NAV 1, NAV 2, GPS1, IAS is Airspeed adjustment and finally is the Range/View adjustment. Right side selections are for the more aircraft's in flight adjustments in (top to bottom) Heading, Altitude, VSI (Vertical Speed) and BARO setting. Very easy and a nice simple layout to use with a lot of detail. Two digital trims surrounding the EXP5000 show AoA (Angle of Attack) left and Aileron Indicator top. And the electrical and lighting switchgear is set out below. Left panel is a CO200 digital clock and Outside Air Temperature display produced by Aerospace Logic Inc. It is a clever instrument in delivering three displays that cover 1) Clock and OAT, 2) Stopwatch/Countdown and 3) FlightTime and reminder... ... note the blue line that moves across the bottom of the display and when it reaches the left side the instrument goes back to the default clock and OAT setting. Top centre is a very nice annunciators panel that can be tested. Below is a Garmin GMA345 radio. GPS instrument is the default Garmin GNS530 or you can use the optional RXP GTN750 in the same slot. A Garmin SL70 mode C transponder is next as well as a very nice Garmin combined COM/NAVSL30 COM/NAV radio... bottom of the stack is a Avidyne DFC 90 autopilot which is both is Digital Autopilot and Flight Director FD, and obviously it is part of the EXP5000 avionics suite. Three panel and cockpit lighting adjustment knobs are top right. The right side panel is dominated by the huge VM1000C VISION MICROSYSTEMS Engine Information System. It covers all the engine parameters including Manifold Pressure, RPM, EGT (Engine Gas Temperature), TIT (Turbine Inlet Temperature), Oil (Temp/Press), Fuel (Temp/Press) and quantity in both tanks at 65 US gallons (246 litres) and electrical Voltage and Amperes. Notable is the five buttons under the VM1000C in that you can get more accessible engine and display information... left to right, (Short press) toggle Peaking Mode on/off brightness down and (Long press) switch between MAN and %HP display and brightness up, Cycle through each cylinder, Toggle Autotrack Mode on/off, switch between Gallons and Litres and finally (Short press) switch between °F and °C, (Long press) adjust night brightness. Sadly the VM1000C is now discontinued, but still well regarded as one of the best for engine system displays. To the right of the VM1000C is an MD302 backup Artificial Horizon and Speed and Altitude Tape instrument. Lower is the flap indicator and EDS-2ip oxygen management system is which is produced by MHOxygen which is fully workable in D and N modes. To note every instrument here is covered by a separate indepth instrument manual to get the very best out of these modern tools at your disposal. All are also custom designed and made for Aerobask by Lionel Zamouth. There are 32 fully functional circuit breakers (Fuses) that can be set to of various reliability in: Perfect, Realistic, Entertaining or Challenging... the range goes from no fuse actions to a lot of intermittent fuse failures depending on your nerves. All the major elements of flight displays and avionics all pop-out and are scalable for ease of use and for Home-Build cockpits. Menu The aircraft's pop-up menu can be accessed in three ways: by clicking the ‘Lancair’ icon on the panel, use the selection on the Avitab tablet or use the X-Plane menu ‘Plugins’ menu. On the menu there are four tab selections: Main Items, More Options, Sounds and About. Main Items: Covers the Co-Pilot in being installed, visible externally and visible always. The above Fuse/Breaker reliability, Instrument and Canopy Reflections on/off and to enable or disable the Librain (rain effects). Selections for the static elements of Chocks and Pitot cover are quite basic, and a battery "StartStick" that is eyewatering expensive! The Stick also acts like a GPU for ground power. Also you can refill the Legacy's oxygen supply lower right menu. Not in the actual menu but related in options is the AviTab... situated on the right side canopy the AviTab can be hidden and stored in the left side pocket. This setup is one of the better AviTab placements, not too big, but not to small either for use and the attachment detail is also an excellent detailed window sucker. More Options: covers the layout of the EXP5000, VM1000C and EDS-2ip oxygen pop-ups, again focused more for the Home-Builds as you can hide the bezel and force the proportional resizing and finally to keep the inside screen on all three instruments. You can also set the nosewheel to "Free-Castor" as on the real aircraft. Sounds: Sound adjustments cover Master, Aircraft Interior and Exterior, Co-Pilot, Radios, Environmental and the user-interface volumes. About: Listed are the collaborators that created the Lanclair Legacy. All menus are very good and nice to use, but there is not a Weight and Balance tab with CoG graph included with the aircraft? Flying the Lanclair Legacy RG Fuel on and press the lovely starter to bring the Continental IO-550 into life... I really like the avionics flicker when you push the starter, very realistic. Sounds are taken from a real Legacy RG to get that realism and they do sound very nice... all set and off goes the parking brake and your ready to roll. Power is good as you have a lot of bite to the air, but I like the throttle feel as you need a little power to move forward, but pull back on the throttle and you feel the weight pull back in again and the bite of the thrust dies and your speed slows. You would be surprised how many developers get this on then off throttle feel wrong in that you can actually feel the weight of the aircraft as you adjust the throttle. Propeller movements are also very good, the prop shows one way spinning then the effect of the reverse as you reduce the power, the effect of idle to power throttle is also very good. The cockpit feels also very open with the full bubble space around you, there are no obstacles in any view point angle at all unless you turn almost completely around and look rearwards. To taxi cleanly is a little tricky as the hockeystick feel of the front strut is very fine and you need only very slight movements to stay on the centreline, my worry was immediately apparent in the fact of keeping the aircraft straight on the takeoff roll if the steering is already shifty enough like this on the taxi? You feel a little vulnerable with the huge canopy exposure even when the threat is only an Airbus 319, so I let him go first. The nose gear anxiety was not as bad as I thought it would be, the Legacy tracked pretty straight and was no worse than the usual Carenado, but the same slow build and then higher power through the throttle trick was still required, in the air the Lanclair felt a little twichy, so you need to very smooth in the way you fly this tiddler of an aircraft, it is not in that very extreme light aircraft feel or category, but it is still quite small and light. Clean I rotated around 110 knts which is pretty fast and it took a fair amount of takeoff roll to do so, unlike the FG version you can reduce a lot of the drag with the RG and retract the gear and so it feels far faster... a nice touch is that the landing lights go off as the gear retracts. Trim is all electric, and tricky to use in this low console position... ... the trim steps quite wide as well so you don't have that finesse setting of a wheel, you can however easily find that neutral setting and balance, but you will need a key or joystick input to do so. I do like as it was set out in the earlier FG version the active AoA display on the left of the panel. I earlier expected the EXP5000 to be easy to use and it is... just select and adjust and it is a very nice system to use without any confusion... the DFC 90 autopilot is sensational as well, big buttons and it is very easy to see and use, and by pressing the "Straight & Level" button (the centre BIG BUTTON) it does what is says in setting the aircraft straight and level and holding the altitude. The pop-up panel is nice as well. Performance is really impressive... 276 mph (444 km/h, 240 kn) at 8000 feet is the cruise speed and the RG DOES feel very fast, and people are known to race them and in this form the max speed is an impressive 274 kts. Climb rate is impressive as well at 2,000 ft/min (10 m/s) and that is at full gross weight! so any lighter then 2,300 ft/min is easily attainable. Service ceiling is 18,000 ft (5,500 m) as you have oxygen and the range is 1,150 mi (1,850 km, 1,000 nmi) at 8000 feet with reserves. A note on the use of oxygen is that you need to seal the canopy via a switch on the panel before using the oxygen system, and to unseal again to open the canopy when at a lower altitude. There are fabulous if lethal airbrakes built into each wing, when activated they can pull you back with force, so use sparingly, the action is very well done. Lighting Internal lighting in the RG is excellent... there are three adjustment knobs in: Back, Hood and Ceiling. Back is short for background, which is the lighting of the switches and avionics buttons in a nice blue tone and very nice it all is too.... ... the main adjustment is "Hood" and that adjusts the amazing LED strip lighting under the glareshield... ... final lighting choice is "Ceiling" for two lights on the rear roof pointing forward to light up the forward cockpit. Externally the cockpit looks brilliant. I was very easily able to find that comfortable panel lighting condition, nice! Externally lighting is pretty basic with navigation, strobe lighting and the landing/taxi lights on the main gear struts. You power across the landscape at an incredible speed for an aircraft this small, so if you want to cover ground quickly then the Legacy RG is perfect... ... thoughts are that if you are flying under manual control is the Legacy too niggly or very nervous, the answer is really no, but you do have that aerobatic fine control feel, so inputs have to be very fine and smooth... you don't treat it like an aerobatic aircraft though, but as a super streamlined machine. I simply powered my way over Florida back to KRSW, Florida Southwest. I love the blank ILS vertical marker until it becomes active... Flaps are 0º, 10º, 20º, 30º and 40º, but the system is one of those "no you can't have that flap angle until you reach the right speed" affairs", and I felt the gap between 10º and 20º was way too wide and a bit nose high for me until it pointed down again to the flap movement. But at least you have a lot flap angle choices... approach speed 40º flap was around 80 knts. A 2 knt gust threw me left, I would have usually landed manually and caught it, but under the ILS it took me too far left as I approached Rwy 06 78 knts and then into flare around 73 knts, but it felt too slow as the Legacy was grabbed by the X-Plane gravity hand and dragged it down to the runway... .... the the wind gust and gravity pull and I was soon right over on the left side of 06, not the best sort of landing that I like, but then I was confronted by that spindly nosewheel and over-reacting the Legacy started to twist around on me, I caught it, then over reacted to the twist and then finally got the squirming under control. Not the best landing of the year, but it highlights the sort of precision and focus required to land the legacy well, certainly you have to control the approach speed better and the same... if more power in that flare mode, stall is noted at 65 mph (105 km/h, 56 kn) flaps down, but I didn't get even close to that low number? So the Legacy needs a bit of practice, but I don't remember the LG version being this nervous. A note is that I do have the "Experimental flight model" activated, but there is no notice if the selection has to be on or off?. Liveries All twelve liveries are all excellent. Although a few look the same and are of the same theme as they were with the FG version like the "Stars and Stripes", they however are all new and with more variations. The Yellow N335AJ is the default, but there is also a 2K version of the same livery. Summary Aerobask created a Lancair Legacy in 2014 in the FG (Fixed Gear) version, this latest version of the aircraft is the RG, or "Retractable Gear" version that is the main original kit-form version of the Legacy that was created out of the early and successful Lancair 320. Outwardly both the earlier FG and RG versions of the aircraft look the same. but in reality they are worlds apart in the sheer differences of the high end quality and extensive avionics of this later RG version, in truth you can't really compare them on any level except they are the same shape. Detailing quality of most Aerobask aircraft are usually off the scale in the use materials in fabrics, metals and even here Alcantara, and certainly the Legacy RG that will not disappoint even the most faddish expert in aircraft interiors, yes in realism it is simply off the scale but in a brilliant way. All avionics are also highly specialised and created. The excellent EXP5000 EFIS FlightMax Entegra system is also joined in here by a DFC 90 autopilot, VM1000C Engine information System, GMA345 radio, SL70 mode C transponder, EDS-2ip oxygen system, MD302 backup Artificial Horizon and Speed and Altitude Tape instrument and even the clock is a three mode digital selection. Sounds are recorded via a real Legacy Continental IO-550, and also the Librain (rain) and AviTab are plugin tools are included. The aircraft is fast, and even furious to fly and more speedster than aerobatic, so some skill is required to get the very best out of this airframe (Real Legacys are used for racing!). Aerobask aircraft are fully formed directly out of the box, lovely design and huge deep layers of systems and highly defined quality design, could you really ask for more.... not really, Highly Recommended. _______________________________ Yes! the Lancair Legacy RG by Aerobask is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Lancair Legacy RG Price is US$34.95 Main features: Highly detailed 3D model interior and exterior PBR 4K textures High quality FMOD sounds from Daniela Rodríguez Careri, based on custom recordings from Legacy reg. N637PG High accuracy flight model by X-Aerodynamics (tuned for experimental flight model) Real and custom 4K liveries with assorted interiors Stock but highly realistic GNS530 Native support of RXP GTN750 in replacement of GNS530+SL70 (Windows only, separate product needed) Continental IO-550 310hp engine VR ready Custom-coded SASL instruments: Avidyne EXP5000 EFIS Avidyne DFC90 Autopilot J.P. Instruments VM1000C engine management system Mountain High EDS-2ip oxygen system A.F.S. AOA Pro angle of attack indicator Garmin SL30 COM/NAV Apollo SL70 Transponder Aerospace Logic CO200 digital clock Mid-Continent MD302 Standby Attitude Module Other Features Full-mode FMOD aircraft (no legacy/default sounds) Full Continental IO-550 simulation (separate combustion, prop, starter, exhaust sounds). Accurate doppler, distance attenuation and flyby effects. Aviation headset simulation based on binaural recordings. Oxygen system sounds (mask donning, breathing for both pilot and copilot) Custom ambiance sounds (rain, skid, rolling on different surfaces, strut compression, airframe shaking). Dynamic airflow effects on extreme manoeuvres and airframe stress on high Gs. Custom radio sounds (morse, markers) Canopy airflow simulation (if you don't follow proper canopy procedures!) Based on actual recordings and references from a custom built real life Lancair Legacy. Tested intensively in VR for maximum immersion Requirements X-Plane 11 Windows, MAC or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimum - 8Gb+ VRAM Video Card Recommended Current and Review version: 11.1.20 (June 23rd 2020) Installation and documents: Download is 969mb and the aircraft is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder at 1.03gb Librain and AviTab plugins are required for use with this aircraft. Documents supplied are: Quick-Doc AOA Pro.pdf Quick-Doc CO200.pdf Quick-Doc VM1000C.pdf Quick-Doc SL70.pdf Quick-Doc SL30.pdf Legacy RG - Checklist Normal.pdf Quick-Doc EDS-2.pdf Quick-Doc DFC90.pdf N8448J notice.pdf Legacy RG Flight Manual.pdf Quick-Doc EXP5000.pdf And all the documents have extensive information on the aircraft and all the avionics _____________________________________  Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton  30th June 2020 Copyright©2020 : 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 - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1TB SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.41 and X-Plane 11.50b10 (fine in the beta, but the Librain effects don't work?) Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Traffic Global US$52.99 Scenery or Aircraft KRSW - Southwest Florida International Airport by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$24.95

I'll check it out... 🙂

You are not noting your trim? If you haven't trimmed the aircraft, then the trim will still be set in the takeoff position and the aircraft will revert back (usually to your takeoff trim setting) to the default trim setting, do you see the issue, yes she will go into a dive as the trim is set at that setting unless you adjust it correctly... while the AP is on the trim is auto.

First I am confused at your version number? v3.2... the latest current version for the F33A is v1.1? that is re-released version for XP11, my guess is you are trying to use the XP10 version in XP11, If you upgrade it also means repurchasing the F33A in XP11 standard, My little Bonanza critter is flying fine but it is the XP11 version, and I only flew it a few weeks ago and quite extensively for a review.

Behind the Screen : Laminar Research... X-Plane 4Ever! The Coronavirus killed a lot of normal events that post out your X-Plane year. In this case was the Expo Simulation FlightSim event that was set to be in Las Vegas in June 12-14 2020. With the event cancelled you also lost the exposure of the main yearly Laminar Research demonstration but worse was their forward announcements on the future or the roadmap of the X-Plane Simulator. The timing couldn’t be worse as the simulation community is now also getting closer to the FS2020 simulator release from Microsoft, due around the third quarter of 2020. Would the Expo have brought on a FS2020 vs Laminar Research first shot of conflict in on how each of these currently dominant simulators will be ongoing in the future of the best simulator experience, a lot of users have already made their minds up in that camp, but have they? But certainly at the Expo, would have then Laminar Research had to face up to the inevitable questions on how their roadmap going forward was compared to the coming FS2020 onslaught… we will probably now not know because the event was cancelled. But a podcast just recorded recently had X-Plane’s founder Austin Meyers finally put in the hot seat on those very future of the simulator questions and the answers were not as you would have expected, which is typical Austin Meyers. Overall, his comments on which direction and the expected confrontation with FS2020 are actually not very dissimilar to my own feelings which come as a relief and my thoughts were closer than even than I actually expected. But the results are extremely interesting and finally some sense from Laminar since their silly drunkgate debacle back in December late last year. Overall Meyers was quite upbeat about the future of X-Plane and didn’t feel the threat of the coming Microsoft product, that to a point is to be expected. But there was some extremely interesting comments on the where and in what direction X-Plane is now going to go, obviously nothing noted here is to be seen as gospel as Austin Meyers noted that everything is still “on the table” and not locked down yet, which is understandable considering the ultra-long Vulkan/metal beta program that is still in motion. But the main points put forward were still solid… There will be no photorealistic scenery mesh? An interesting one in that the new FS2020 system is built upon that very basis, Austin Meyers doesn’t like photo scenery and personally I can second that after reviewing a thousand or so airport and city sceneries and their horrible burnt in buildings, offset buildings and vehicles. So, the current detailed mesh system will be retained but totally updated from it’s initial X-Plane10 format with better autogen. It is a very big risk to do this direction, but also an interesting one, and a bunch of new Eastern-European scenery artists have been brought on board to achieve this high goal, which is something I have campaigned for simply years in that Laminar needed a much more larger art department as one or two artists even if they are talented artists are simply not going to cover that much detail in a year or even a decade. To be honest the whole mesh system was highly constrained by the processing power, but more so via OpenGL, the API was great thirty years ago, but that is a point as the it was based on a application of THIRTY years ago and the newer Vulkan/Metal API changes that game completely, and so will the systems and the detail of the mesh can be significantly more detailed with far more modern and powerful force of better processing behind it. So once the current Vulkan/Metal conversion is installed then Laminar can then move in the directions it was restrained by before. The prospect of the new direction of staying with the current mesh is certainly an interesting one to deliver than a more photo-realistic rendition of the world, and a hard one to pull off than just using Landsat photographs, but Laminar has surprised us a lot of times in the past in this aspect as well. I have even with our current mesh in place with good foliage coverage, great weather interaction and great lighting effects that this photo-realistic look and feel can already be achieved, some images coming out of X-Plane currently are already breathtakingly good, so it is not overall an impossible goal. The tough angle is the reproduction of the actual man/woman-made context in 3d cities and infrastructure, this is an advantage that Microsoft has via their Bing mapping, but I am still going to say it will be more restricted than mapping the whole actual globe and restricted to certain high-visible zones. How Laminar covers that 3d mapping equation will make or break the idea between the simulators and just creating far more Global Icons is just not going to cut that immersion realism factor. Multi-player online flight is coming soon to X-Plane-mobile (now in beta testing), but also it is a big target feature for the desktop version as well, yes we do sort of have a multi-player experience, but not in a fully connected and detailed one with a high mass appeal online presence in that everyone is totally connected together, seeing each other and interacting with each other. It is an interesting dynamic area to be explored, but personally I don't want a thousand other X-Plane users flashing around my nice approach path, but I also know that a lot of users love the interaction of others in their world and yes I would be likely to even give it a try... for a while. Austin Meyers also noted large changes to the weather, as he wants a more dynamic moving weather and a more realistic representation in what Meyer notes as “location and time”, in changing or challenging dynamics between your departure point and your arrival destination, my point would be the same aim as exciting dynamic weather changes are also important to that factor in feel and for the visual look of the simulator... we always want and need better weather. Although not actually set in stone yet is the subscription factor for the X-Plane simulator, personally this is going to be a change we will have to “subscribe” to.. as in the pun. X-Plane will go to subscription for several reasons, one the cost of $US80 to buy X-Plane and yes there are more free demo users out there than more than they will actually admit, as the cost factor against say a US$5 a monthly subscription to FS2020. But mostly it is the bigger factor for Laminar in the fact that the ongoing income is restricted to the same one off payment (although a large one initially) which is then spread out over four or five years of ongoing development, as a monthly subscription then changes that aspect in that it delivers income consistantly for Laminar and with that it was noted we may see the disappearance of the current X-Plane versions to say a subscription version of “X-Plane-Global” or as Meyers noted “X-Plane-Forever” in a subscription model. The reveals here do not cover all aspects of the future of X-Plane as a simulator as for like for still where still is our ATC system? But it does sort of give you a sort of a few glimpses of the direction X-Plane will take in the shadow of the coming release of FS2020. As Austin Meyers noted is that X-Plane as a simulator goes to the core of what the real dedicated users actually want in a simulator, in true flying dynamics and the availability to test your own theories of any aircraft you personally want to create, even established aircraft manufacturers also use the simulator to test out aerodynamic theories and that is still basically the core of what X-Plane is and still does well. Meyers does not even with it’s newer dynamics in seeing FS2020 in becoming an experimental application like X-Plane is, as ultimately FS2020 is and always will be a game based simulator more than a pure one. Yes FS2020 will move a lot of users to it’s platform, but how many will come back to X-Plane and the more deeper and fundamental basis for realism in flight, more so is the factor of doing actual personal changes to the simulator as a whole, the tinkerer will soon bore of the constricted game world of FS2020, and that is what Austin Meyer bases his beliefs on and to a point his business... but it is also what I feel also deep down. However X-Plane as a simulator still has to develop and match any competition in features and more importantly in the realism experience… in that area it still up to Laminar Research to deliver and expand their product to and match the expectations of users demands.... but now soon it will be on a monthly basis more than a multi-yearly basis. Stephen Dutton 24th June 2020 Copyright©2020 X-Plane Reviews

Aircraft Update : T-7A Red Hawk v1.1 by AOA Simulations X-PlaneReviews covered the initial release of the Angle of Attack (AOA) Simulations Boeing/Saab T-7 Red Hawk multi-purpose new generation trainer, the aircraft came out of the winner of the T-X program requirements. Overall it was a great effort in developing an aircraft that is not actually in service yet, but that is the X-Plane experience. Overall though there was a few areas that X-PlaneReviews found a little wanting (you could say rushed to market) that hid the more well done development in recreating the T-7 Red Hawk. So here is the v1.1 update and quick in the response it is to cover the unfinished and remaining areas that we found a bit wanting. The first area that was very unrefined was the most visual was in the external textures. The textures where overall very Lo-Res, in fact more X-Plane9 than X-Plane11 in look and feel, and X-Plane has come on a very long way since XP9. In the update v1.1 the textures have been thankfully upgraded. PBR effects have been added as well as better mapping, so there is now a far more thicker realism to the skin of the aircraft... the Lo-Res jaggies are still there though on the text detail, but overall the effect is far better. Some wear and tear effect has been added as well that takes away some of that model kit look, in areas the T-7A was just a bit too overall white clean, so a few dirt and oil areas has made the aircraft now feel more realistic with now there also a more detailed normal map has been added for the landing gear. I was not a big fan of the GE F404 after-burning turbofan single engine exhaust outlet and that aspect has not been changed here, but with the far better quality textures around the jetpipe, it does actually look better than it should (or used to) do, a pass now... yes I think so. There is still some exposed modeling joints that should be textured and highly visible, maybe in a fix coming in another update? There are four versions now noted for the T-7A/F7A Trainer with the additions of a Red Hawk "EFT" (External Fuel Tanks), Red Hawk "CAS" (Close Air Support) and very nice Red Hawk Navy T-7N. Red Hawk "EFT" has two under wing fuel tanks to increase the fuel load from 4,000lbs (internal) to 8,000lbs and of course the range. Red Hawk "CAS" (Close Air Support). This version has external stores that includes 4xGBU-53B, 4xAIM 9X, 1xGAU-25mm "Equalizer" centre store. Red Hawk T-7N (Navy) has also been added to v1.1, and this Naval version includes a tailhook, double nose wheel and a fixed refueling probe... ... Naval livery is super nice! and AOA also provide a A.I. (light) version of the T-7A to use for tag fighting or refueling. Your thoughts are that a few of the above items could have been incorporated into the aircraft's menus? Yes the Naval version is different enough for a full separate version, but items like fuel probes and fuel tanks would have been easier and more accessible from just a menu selection... overall there is now Four (Five with the A.I) different aircraft versions? Other updates include larger scale pilots and re-textured (mapped) ejection seats, and with the addition of an engine exhaust cover and wheel chocks in the ground equipment (menu). AViTab: The AViTab plugin is still weird as you can't hide it? Excellent for VR (Virtual Reality) but just looks odd on the seat in normal space. Manuals: Thankfully with this version there are now fully finished provided manuals, as it was hard to understand earlier on how the modern weapon system (modes) worked and even the complex Up Front Control (UFC) display needed some explanation, now provided are three guides: 1.1 User Guide.pdf 1.1 Quick Look.pdf 1.1 Quick Weapon System.pdf (28 Pages) And thankfully they are all very good, but they all should have been provided in the release version. Still super nice to Fly! Push up the throttle, pull back the stick and your flying like a bullet... easy peasy. Yes this is a very nice fast military jet to fly. There is not the total deep immersion of say the JustFlight Hawk T1/A, but it is very modern and even fun up here... Cockpit feels different? it is more polished and even shall I say... realistic! These modern displays are notorious to get any sort of feel and realism into their black and green style panels, but I now think that AOA have done a great job here... even down to (drumroll please!) fingerprints on the screens... ... very nice but the same idea on the upper UFC would benefit more than less use lower main screen, if there are already some grubby marks then it needs more "Smudge" to make them stand out, but otherwise the screens now have a true real depth to them. IFR - In Flight Refueling is not restricted just to the probe... there is now the working body version mid-top fuselage. There are now also working "cardinal" heading letters to HUD (situated above the mag heading)... ... clicking on the OAT (Outside Air Temperature), it will now switch between Fº and Cº. Keypad has now built in views, I still mostly override these presets, because that is the arrangement I prefer, but they are good to use. The T7A is absurdly easy to fly... but is it too easy that in can comfort you into a false sense of airmanship? It is an interesting question? One thing I don't like still is the switch back on AutoThrust from .M - Mach to Knots, it locks the speed in at 131 knts, and you then can't adjust your Knot speed? I really hate that factor as the only way around it is to disconnect the ATH or to fly totally manually, the 131 knt speed is the final approach speed, but you have no control of the aircraft above that set speed... the HUD "manual" ILS mode has been added here in this v1.1, but I couldn't use it, because I was locked out on the 131 knts speed for adjustment... so is it all too AUTO? to a natural pilot it just feels weird. Overall though I really do love flying this aircraft once you do adjust to the Hi-Tech systems of the aircraft, there is still a bit of unrealistic hard banking, go to altitude unrefinement in the aircraft's movements, but overall you fly this machine with a huge smile on your face and thoroughly enjoy totally the overall experience that has benefited hugely from this v1.1 update. Summary March 2020 saw the release of the Boeing/Saab T-7A Red Hawk v1.1 by AOA Simulations, the Hawk is a new-gen trainer designed for and won the T-X program requirements for this modern multirole trainer/fighter. As with all releases the T-7A was overall very good, but felt underdeveloped in a few areas, mostly with the poor textures and clean detailing. This is the updated version of the T-7A in v1.1 and overall it is a very comprehensive update. Covered in the update has been major improvements to the textures, in quality, mapping and PBR effects, there are still a few Lo-Res text areas, but overall the visual look and feel has been greatly improved, it now looks and feel more realistic than the model kit look of the release version. New textures also cover the undercarriage, ejector seats and better scaled pilots. Added has been separate versions for EFT - External Fuel Tanks, CAS-Close Air Support and a full version of the Red Hawk Navy T-7N. AOA has also provided a A.I. (light) version to use for tag fighting or refueling. The three missing manuals are also a welcome addition that cover the general overview of the T-7A but also cover a Quick Start and most importantly a guide on how to use the modern weapons system. As usual this update creates an aircraft that really should have been the release version a few months ago, but it is now certainly a far better quality and far better detailed aircraft with a now a lot of usable options, simply brilliant to fly as anyone can control an aircraft this automated, but with more skill and the maximum use of the modern avionic system details can deliver more than expected and can turn your simulation into a serious experience... now a recommended aircraft. _______________________________ The T-7A Red Hawk v1.1 by AOA Simulations is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store: T-7A Red Hawk Priced at US$36.00 Original purchasers of the AOA Red Hawk T-7A can update to v1.1 for free by going to their account at the X-Plane.OrgStore Main features T-7A advanced trainer and F-7A light fighter Highly detailed, fully animated 3D model and weapons PBR textures Advanced Features SASL 3.8 based plug-in system “Roll to See” dynamic pilot POV camera option (non-VR mode) points pilot camera based on pitch, roll and G forces "Target Track" points, locks and follows AI planes with pilot camera Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System Fly from forward or aft cockpits as student or instructor "Virtual" ground and In-Flight Refueling capability Track-IR and VR compatible AviTab tablet integration (Download AviTab plugin separately) Cockpit based on preliminary assessment of prototype T-X screen shots Head Up Display Up Front 32 points touch screen control and display panel Large format glass panel with embedded G1000 color moving map Multiple sub panel page options Dedicated engine data display Navigation Fully autopilot control thru Up Front Control panel Dual ADF GPS Nav1 & 2 VOR / ILS Low altitude, all weather Terrain Following Radar Air to air, with radar lock on AI targets Dedicated threat situational awareness cockpit display Terrain mapping radar Weapon system Master jettison switch Weapon display panel 4 x AIM-9X Infrared A2A missiles 8 x Small Diameter Bomb II's GPS aim point bombing mode Gun Pod Miscellaneous FMOD Sounds, aural warnings Particle systems effects Animated ejection sequence Ground support equipment Removable test probe (T-X prototype) Three liveries Additional liveries available free on X-Plane.org download manager Paint kit Download Quick Look PDF from our support page for a preview of the aircraft Requirements X-Plane 11 4Gb VRAM Video Card Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 447 MB Current and Review version: v1.1 (May 30th 2020) Changelog v1.1 T-7A version 1.1 changes.txt ________________________________ Update Review by Stephen Dutton  26th June 2020 Copyright©2020 : 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 - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1TB SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.41 and tested in X-Plane11.50b11 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: None Scenery or Aircraft - KRSW - Southwest Florida International Airport by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$24.95 

News! - Released : Lancair Legacy RG by Aerobask Aerobask have released a new version of the Lancair Legacy in the RG version. This not the first Lancair Legacy from Aerobask as they earlier had released a Legacy FG version. FG is "Fixed Gear" and the RG is the "Retractable Gear" version. The FG Lancair was released in 2014, so although extremely good for its time this newer version will be certainly a very Aerobask quality level version to match the current X-Plane dynamics in design and with the famous Aerobask internal detailing. Main features: Highly detailed 3D model interior and exterior PBR 4K textures High quality FMOD sounds from Daniela Rodríguez Careri, based on custom recordings from Legacy reg. N637PG High accuracy flight model by X-Aerodynamics (tuned for experimental flight model) Real and custom 4K liveries with assorted interiors Stock but highly realistic GNS530 Native support of RXP GTN750 in replacement of GNS530+SL70 (Windows only, separate product needed) Continental IO-550 310hp engine VR ready Custom-coded SASL instruments: Avidyne EXP5000 EFIS Avidyne DFC90 Autopilot J.P. Instruments VM1000C engine management system Mountain High EDS-2ip oxygen system A.F.S. AOA Pro angle of attack indicator Garmin SL30 COM/NAV Apollo SL70 Transponder Aerospace Logic CO200 digital clock Mid-Continent MD302 Standby Attitude Module Other Features Full-mode FMOD aircraft (no legacy/default sounds) Full Continental IO-550 simulation (separate combustion, prop, starter, exhaust sounds). Accurate doppler, distance attenuation and flyby effects. Aviation headset simulation based on binaural recordings. Oxygen system sounds (mask donning, breathing for both pilot and copilot) Custom ambiance sounds (rain, skid, rolling on different surfaces, strut compression, airframe shaking). Dynamic airflow effects on extreme manoeuvres and airframe stress on high Gs. Custom radio sounds (morse, markers) Canopy airflow simulation (if you don't follow proper canopy procedures!) Based on actual recordings and references from a custom built real life Lancair Legacy. Tested intensively in VR for maximum immersion Overall an excellent aircraft and also with Aerobask quality... Now available at the X-Plane.OrgStore! ______________________________________________________________________ Yes! the Lancair Legacy RG by Aerobask is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Lancair Legacy RG Price is US$34.95 Requirements X-Plane 11 Windows, MAC or Linux 4Gb VRAM Minimum - 8Gb+ VRAM Video Card Recommended Current version: 11.1.20 (June 23rd 2020) ________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 24th June 2020 Copyright©2020: X-Plane Reviews