Stephen

NEWS! - Add-on : PiperSport Expansion Pack - XP12 With Carenado not updating or even really having no involvement with X-Plane over the last three years, then what happens to all that hanger full of aircraft that was at last count 45 Aircraft, and with some very beloved machines which are in there to lose with the transition over to the X-Plane 12 Simulator? And you wouldn't you also like your Carenado/Alabeo aircraft to fly in X-Plane 12 as well? Well here is an interesting one. With Carenado not responsive, NHAdrian has created an expansion package that will remove the older non-working files and replace them with new X-Plane 12 files for the Alabeo PiperSport... and the results are quite spectacular! Product features Accurate flight model tuned for XP12 latest features Accurate engine and systems modelling Fully operational avionics and circuit breakers system Realistic BRS system with custom physics to match real behavior Animated crew and bags with show/hide animations according to weight configuration Full FMOD sound package 4K revamped high-definition PBR textures Missing cockpit objects replaced Many cockpit items re-modelled New volumetric external- and cockpit light system XP12 rain effect implemented Full VR compatible Detailed flight manual included New stunning livery by Nhadrian Plain white livery for painters The quality and detail is simply off the planet... is this really an old faded Carenado/Alabeo aircraft? It flies like it looks with the X-Plane 12 dynamics, and I spent a fair while tumbling around in the sky with glee with this Sports aircraft. There is a clever installer supplied to do the conversion process, but you will need the original Alabeo PiperSport to install the package. Go try it now, and you will be as amazed as I was on the quality conversion... okay that is one Carenado/Alabeo aircraft down, only 44 to GO! Designed by NHAdrian - Popular Freeware developer and co-designer of the L-200 Morava. Designer of the Acro Racer Support forum for the Pipersport Expansion Pack ________________ Yes! the PiperSport Expansion Pack - XP12 by NHAdrian is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : PiperSport Expansion Pack - XP12 Price is US$14.90 Requirements Alabeo PiperSport is required . This is an add-on pack. It will not run by itself. X-Plane 12 (not compatible with XP11) Windows. Mac or Linux: Mac or Linux user need to run the .exe installer in Wine 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 467 MB Current Version : 1.0 (September 29th 2022) ________________ News by Stephen Dutton 30th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Right Reserved.

NEWS! - AD Simulations updates CRJ 700 and CRJ 900 to X-Plane 12 Both the DeltaWing / AD Simulations CRJ Series aircraft are now usable in X-Plane 12. With the CRJ 900 you can get a "Skunkcraft" configuration file to up date via the Skunkcraft updater and just add the cfg into the main CRJ 900 aircraft folder. I couldn't however find the same config file for the CRJ 700?, so you need to do a new download directly from the X-Plane.OrgStore. Notable is that both aircraft for X-Plane 12 can both be also now downloaded from the X-Plane.OrgStore. It is also still a good idea to run the Skunkworks Beta on both aircraft to get the latest updated files. There has been no additional changes to the aircraft. Note this is just a patch phase and not a fully configured X-Plane 12 aircraft for the currently running X-Plane 12 Beta. Still both CRJs look excellent in the new X-Plane 12 version, cockpits are a bit dark though? Both CRJ aircraft can be purchased through the X-Plane.OrgStore, details below. _____________________ Yes! the CRJ-700 by AD Simulations/Delta Wing is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : CRJ-700 Price is US$49.95 Rquirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 (both versions available) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 893 MB Current version: XP11: 1.2.0 (July 3rd 2022) XP12 beta; September 26th 2022 Yes! the CRJ-900 by AD Simulations/Delta Wing is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : CRJ-900 Price is US$49.95 Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 (both versions available) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.1 GB Current version: XP11: 1.2.0 (July 3rd 2022) XP12 beta; September 26th 2022 ________________ News by Stephen Dutton 28th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Right Reserved.

NEWS! - Rotate updates MD-11 to X-Plane 12 v1.5.0 Now you can fly the Rotate MD-11 in X-Plane 12! Rotate has done an update to allow you to fly the "The Diva" in glorious X-Plane 12. Note that to do the update via the "Skunkcraft" updater you have to download a patch... found here: MD-11 v1.05 for testing 1.0.0 You have to replace the enclosed files, then run the updater, I found I had to run it through twice to do a full install, install size is 65.16 MB? Note this is a Beta patch, not a full X-Plane 12 aircraft file, changes can still happen as can you find bugs in the simulation. This is v1.5.0 and the changelog includes.. - Compatibility with X-Plane 12. - Tuned AFS guidance at low speeds during early climb. - Fixed guidance error during ALIGN phase in some runways. - Tuned GPWS TERRAIN mode to avoid false positives. - Fixed INITIALIZE CRZ ALT alert during descent. - Fixed false positives resulting in ALT ERROR AT XXX. - Fixed DIR TO transition calculation. - Fixed glitch in ATS servos when advancing for TO. - Tuned TAS/IAS values following X-Plane calibration at low speeds. - Fixed altitude capture overshoot at high vertical speeds. - Fixed heading mode blinking during takeoff roll. - Fixed AFS cancel when using native trim commands. - Fixed unwanted navaid symbols in ND. - Fixed bug in Vapp. - Fixed Weather Radar not showing in the ND. - Fixed typo in the overhead panel. The bird looks really pretty in X-Plane 12 A full MEGA X-PlaneReviews review on the Rotate MD-11 is here : Aircraft Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 by Rotate _____________________ Yes! the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 v1.4.0 by Rotate is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Rotate MD-11 Price is US$83.95 Requirements X-Plane 11 or X-Plane 12 (xp12 available via the beta channel of the updater) Windows 8 or newer (64b), Mac OSX 10.12 or newer, Linux Ubuntu 64b 18.04 or newer. 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM recommended Current version: 1.04 (Aug 20th 2022) XP12 Beta : Sep 26th 2022 Update to v1.5.0 is via the Skunkcrafts updater with the patch ________________ News by Stephen Dutton 27th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Right Reserved.

Aircraft Review - Cessna U206G Stationair DGS series by Thranda Design Only a few months ago (April 2022) Thanda Design released their version of the Cessna 208 Grand Caravan. It was an interesting release for many reasons. It was a slight departure from their usual rugged utility aircraft series, the Caravan is of course still a working machine, but more tuned to light freight and passenger transfers and tourism... than rugged bush work. More so was the fact that the Cessna Caravan was the all time most successful aircraft sold by Carenado, which meant that Thranda was also moving into Carenado type territory and creating a product that was a very much esteemed by anyone that flew it. This latest U206G release goes more deeper into the earlier Carenado territory, this is really a General Aviation aircraft par excellence from the Cessna 205, 206, and 207 family, all known primarily as the Stationair (and marketed variously as the Super Skywagon, Skywagon and Super Skylane). A family that was originally developed from the popular retractable-gear Cessna 210. The family line combination of a powerful engine, rugged construction and a large cabin has made these aircraft popular bush planes. Cessna describes the 206 as "the sport-utility vehicle of the air." These airplanes are also used for aerial photography, skydiving and other utility purposes. Fitting in perfectly for Thranda's vision. The U206 was originally known as the “Super Skywagon”. From 1970 it was named the “Stationair”, a contraction of “Station Wagon of the Air”, which is a good description of the aircraft's intended role. Sub-variants were designated U206 to U206G. The “U” designation indicated “utility” and this model was equipped with a pilot side door and large clamshell rear door serving the back two rows of seats, allowing easy loading of oversized cargo. The C206G has six seats, is powered by a Continental IO-520-F of 300 hp (224 kW), with a gross weight of 3,600 lb (1,633 kg) landplane, 3,500 lb (1,588 kg) seaplane and was certified on 21 June 1976. Notable is that the Cessna U206G is also the first aircraft from Thranda that is available for X-Plane 12, an X-Plane 11 version is also part of the package if you want to stay over there. But you would be crazy not to as we shall see. Also to note the aircraft being released into the Beta phase of X-Plane 12 (I'm using Beta B4 here), so there may be a few elements or changes until X-Plane 12 goes final. Make no mistake... looking at the Thranda U206G in the virtual flesh in X-Plane 12 is a moment. The instant point that says new era and uber realism. Yes I have given out accolades and breezy breathless descriptions of overwhelming quality and detail in the past. But this is now X-Plane 12 and it comes with all of X-Plane wizzbang dynamics, one image says it all. Look at it, or LOOK at this image... the realism is simply off this world, as you feel the reality of the aircraft, you want to touch it, rub your hands all over that smooth cowling... ... at this point I don't even want to fly the Cessna, but to just absorb it, be with it.... God it's so good. Quality of course has always been around aircraft like this, but X-Plane 12's dynamic lighting creates a very different aspect to the aircraft, certainly one that has been created for the better newer dynamics. Paneling is perfect, panel screws and the extensive riveting is all so perfect, but so is the perfect shaping of the machine as this is peerless modeling. It's filthy as well, dirty, grubby, bloody perfect. Around the shapely rear and under the elevators and I could bore you for ages with accolades. The sheen however on panels is just "beautiful". Glass is excellent as well... there is lovely staining and wear through the glass that gives it all a very realistic look, and notable is the highlighting of the excellent and the same detail that was on the Caravan, it all also gives you a hint of how great the Thranda X-Plane 12 Caravan will be as well, it was great in X-Plane 11 so it should be absolutely brilliant in X-Plane 12. The undercarriage is a Tri-Cycle arrangement with the small rears on sprung arms. Again grotty and dirty, worn and torn, this U206 has had a hard life. Basic braking system on the U206 consists of a single disc, which has a hydraulically actuated brake on each main landing gear wheel. The single nose wheel has the chrome hydraulic centre leg, and again grubby in appearance The Continental IO-520-F of 300 hp (224 kW) is fully modeled here, you can't actually interact with it but the detail is excellent to observe. There are only actually two doors. Well one pilot door and the rear twin-clamshell doors. All are opened by their latches. Clever is that with the clamshell doors if you close the front door first the rear won't close, unless you reopen the earlier door, a nice detail. Cabin The StationAir is a six seater aircraft in three rows. With each row of seating slighly smaller than the one in front. I'm also going to call it, as X-Plane 12's lighting makes it very dark in here, Ben Subnic says it's correct, but I find it just simply too dark to be really realistic. Cabin materials are very light grey upper with a dark blue lower, and the seat inserts are a blue tartan, very smart and it comes with a more modern feel than an earlier model. Oddly the cabin feels very early Carenado, so if you like those styled cabins you will love it in here, of which I do. Cabin roof detail is glorious, strips of metal, hung seatbelts, lighting fittings are all well done. Instrument Panel Again you will find the instrument panel very dark, nearly a black hole and with a grey background here. Worn glareshield is nicely tired with grubby edges that you will want to run your fingers along. Lower panel has a very nice wooden finish that in the right light looks very exclusive but also feels a little dated for a modern cabin. Highlight here are the square block "STATIONAIR" yokes, very authentic and yes they are excellent. You can hide one or both yokes to your own setup for the day, but they cover a lot of the lower switchgear. Oddly there is no radio contact switch on the yoke? Put on the power and it helps to see the instrument panel. You get lit dials and instruments and reflecting red down lighting that looks very nice, this is a very quality made instrument panel (note I later found the optional light posts that did a better panel lighting fill job). Flying instruments (Standard Six), and no flying instruments for the right seat, lower panel has power and starting switch, internal lighting knobs and external lighting rocker switches. Centre are the three push-pull knobs for Throttle, Propeller and MIxture. Tall centre console has both Rudder and Pitch Trim wheels and Cowl Flap lever, on the floor is the fuel tank switch (44.0 GAL per tank). All side cubbys and in-wing air-vents work, as do both the side windows open. Menu Thranda's Menus are very feature rich and highly detailed. There is a popout TAB under the arrow, that can be (mouse) scrolled to hide it, that is if you don't like these sort of items crowding your screen (I don't). The Menu system includes the "Dynamic Generation Series" or DGS, a Thranda speciality feature that takes full advantage of X-Plane's flexibility for in-sim, real-time modifications. As noted the "Menu" Tab (arrow) is far left middle of your screen, this will activate the Pop-Out Menu... The Menu has seven menu tabs in; GENERAL, LIVERY, WEIGHT/BAL, CAMERA, AUDIO/SLEW, PANEL and MISC (Miscellaneous) Menu - General The menu "General" sections covers quite a lot of options, the layout is highly detailed and very comprehensive. General menu selections cover; Electric Tug, Window and Instrument Panel Reflections on/off, Startup Running on/off, GPU on/off, Cargo Pod on/off, Chocks and Brakes on/off. Three selections placed right cover group items, but any one item can be also accessed via "Click Spots" and can be individually selected or hidden via the aircraft graphic. "ALL COVERS" will select engine inlet/outlet covers and pitot cover, "ALL TIE-DOWNS" for rear fuselage and wing tie-downs and "ALL DOORS" for both the cockpit door and rear cabin doors. All EXT - External Lights can be switched on and off as can the ALL INT - Internal lights. The "Electric Tug" that can be used to move the aircraft around on the ground via your joystick (left,right-forward,backwards). Static Items include Engine Inlet covers, Pitot covers and Tie-Downs Cargo pod is nicely detailed and comes with a single opening door, you can also add in baggage. There is built in "Checklist" (lower right menu, arrowed). And very good it is. But also now back here in the red, or the checked green choices you used on the other Thranda aircraft, and not the single white on the Caravan. You can have checklist pop-up or in a window mode and thankfully move it, and scale it even from the very small to the very large. The two lower arrows give navigation around the checklist pages. The action detail and hints in the lists are simply excellent and the checklist is fully detailed from Pre-Flight to Shutdown. And to reset, it is done at the end by switching green back to red. Menu - Liveries Second Menu option is "liveries", there are two options here with the first being "PAINTED LIVERIES". There are altogether 11 liveries or two blank and nine designs and all are of extremely high quality and creative flare with the package. Thranda house is default. Dynamic Liveries Not happy with any of those designs, then why not create your own livery! With their earlier releases of their Kodiak and with the PC-6, PZL-104 and Caravan. Then Thranda introduced a clever feature of a way to design your own livery. This is done by switching from PAINTED LIVERIES to DYNAMIC LIVERIES top. Two liveries are "Dynamic" in resources (White)... another New feature is the (Quick) selection of Dirt (Ext) Externally, Scratches and Dirt (Int) Internally. Via three percentage selections you can adjust the amount of Dirt, Scratches and Dirt Int on the aircraft (0%-255%) and apply it instantly.So you can have either a pristine or a very grubby aircraft with just a twirl of the numbers. This can be applied to any of the liveries. You have a menu to select on the right that can colour a certain part of the aircraft, like the Roof, Wing, Tail or Wing tips. Select which one you want and then adjust the RGB colours for that certain area, it looks hard but you can easily design a very nice livery in about twenty minutes... the selections of Dirt (Ext), Scratches and Dirt (Int). Metal(ness) and surface Rough(ness) can also be added or adjusted as seen earlier... When done you can "SAVE" or ADD the livery and then "APPLY" it to the aircraft. The conversion takes a few minutes, but the results are excellent and in your own design... There are already 30 preselected selections in their various designs, all are very good, and like noted you can add in your own version to the list. New to the Dynamic Livery application is ERA options in "Modern' or "Classic". Of course taste is optional... Menu - Weight/Bal The StationAir also has a great Weight and Balance menu. Lbs and Kgs which can be selected and changed via the toggle Lbs/Kgs (arrowed). The Cargo Pod can be added or removed via the toggle top centre. This then adds in the Cargo Pod weight options on the right. Fuel can be added and the amounts are then shown and are adjustable as well in the menu (above). Pilot, passengers and cargo can all be set for individual weights all selected via a scrollwheel... and then all of the CofG (Centre of Gravity) parameters are all shown on a graph, go too far or too heavy and the CofG goes red. When done you can Save the Configuration and then later re-load it, or press Load to add in the set weights. Add weight into the cargo pod and baggage will fill the lower container. There is the selection of all seats, four seats or two seats (front) and a large space in the rear. Selection is via a X on the box for that seat that you want to remove from the rear cabin. But obviously there is a compromise? If you want a full passenger and baggage load, then you can't have full fuel tanks, as the excess weight takes you over the weight and the CofG limits. For six passengers (with maybe a bag thrown in) then can you have your full tanks and the range and not go into the red. You can really pile a lot into the rear two sections and all the baggage is of very high quality. Adding in passenger weight gives you a pilot (Daniel Klaue) and in the co-pilot seat his wife. There are no rear passengers and both are nicely actively in body and head animated to the controls. Note... if you turn off the aircraft's electrical power or add the chocks to the wheels, then they will both disappear. Menu - Camera There is a camera feature under the menu "Camera" selection. The left side of the panel is the "Walkaround" views, just pick the dot viewpoint you want to see to rotate around the aircraft. To the right is the default views can be selected via a menu, or press the keypad to select the view. The FoV or Field of View is adjustable via a slider. Menu - Audio/Slew Sound can be adjusted via the sound menu. There are seven slider selections with: Master, Aircraft External, Aircraft Internal, CoPilot, Radios, Environmental and User Interface. One other sound setting is on the Flap panel... As noted, on the right and left of the panel you get the audio simulation of an active noise canceling headset, which is seen as wearing a headset. Sound quality is beyond excellent as it is a built in audio mixer, so you can individually control the audio channels in real-time and you can adjust the volumes while hearing them play. Slew mode allows you to manually move the aircraft around in a disconnected X-Plane space. It functions by temporarily overriding the various aerodynamic and physical forces on the X-Plane settings, it is to allow the user to reposition the plane as desired. This feature is however highly touchy and it is mostly used with the floats option (not yet on the StationAir, but on the Caravan, Thranda Beaver and PC-6). Menu - PANEL The sixth "PANEL" Tab option allows you to adjust or change the instruments and dials. First feature here is a new one to Thanda's Dynamic Panel... you can now add in or takeaway the panel "Light Posts". (hint nice on) Scroll the "Panel Preset" number (arrowed) to see the extra six preset layouts (seven choices in all). Sometimes to restart you have to click to "Apply the Settings" for the GPS units. Customising the panel to your own personal layout is just as easy. Just select the "3D EDIT PANEL MODE" (arrowed) that gives you access to all of the 53 individual instruments and avionic units... There some great options including Aspen EFD 1000, S-TEC 55x Autopilot, Angle of Attack gauge and so on... For those that find instruments are not to their liking in say, "I wish I could move that altitude meter just a bit more to the left", then here you can simply adjust that instrument, or even swap the instruments around the panel to your liking. Here I have moved the MAN PRESS/FUEL FLOW gauge over to the right side... because I can. You can even adjust the brightness of the instrument. Optional is to select the type of GPS unit you want GNS 530/430. When done you can "ADD" (or Duplicate) in a new "Preset", and then "SAVE" that new layout Preset (Preset /6). So basically you can start off with a completely blank instrument panel and then create your own unique or personal instrument layout if you have the time and patience... and you can have up to or save 14 different instrument layouts. It is however very important to restart X-Plane to lock in the new instrumentation layout before flying. Currently the optional "Panel Background" choice is not available on the StationAir, like it was on other Thranda DGS systems Panel features include; Bendix King KFC-225, and the noted Aspen EFD 1000, KR 87 ADF Radio, Garmin GMA 340, Garmin GTX325 Mode C Transponder, BendixKing IN-182A Weather Radar and the usual GNS 430/530 PS/Nav/Comm units. And there is a special 3d bezel for the insert of a RealityXp GTN 750 unit if you own that add on. The EFD 1000 which is a self-contained multifunction digital display that is divided into a Primary Flight Display (PFD) in the top half, and an Electric Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI) in the lower half. As EDF 1000 systems go it is not as highly featured with the GPSS, MAP, 360 and Menu functions all not simulated... all the lower NAV1/NAV2/GPS selections are however available, as is the TPS (Tapes) see/hide option with the MIN (Minimums) selectable as well. and the PFD can be reversed with the EHSI. The EFD 1000 here can be used with the KFC225 Autopilot. Menu - MISC The Misc (Miscellaneous) page has four panels that cover Fairings ,Tundra, Cargo Pod (again) Windows and DynaFeel. Fairings covers all three wheels, but are not coloured. Available are both Regular and Tundra wheel sizes, as are the rear Mud Flaps Side windows come in two options, Flat and Bubble. "DynaFeel" on the right is a system that dynamically adjusts the rate at which the controls deflect. It is based on airspeed and how much the control is deflected. This means the controls will feel light and responsive at low speeds and with small deflections, but will get progressively heavier as the airspeed increases. Links to both the Support forum for the U206 Stationair by Thranda and to download the built-in Skunkcrafts Updater are also provided _____________________ Flying the Cessna U206G Stationair A lot of users love the twiddly, hard starting, fuel flooding aircraft. Not me sorry, as I want to fly and not be immersed in frustration. If you do the wrong thing trying to start start the U206G, then obviously it won't start. But set the throttle to idle, mixture full up and hit the starter key the Stationair will quickly and easily come to life. Sounds are very good, but also slightly odd. Internally the Continental IO-520-F sounds very good, but externally you get a very "Knock, knock", sound like clapping two coconuts together, is that realistic? Maybe so at low idle and it does get better with the revolutions increasing, but still knocks can be heard over the roar. You have to pull the external sound down to 30% slider to be realistic as it is far too loud at the correct setting? Park brake goes off in the "thunk", and give the U206G a bit of throttle and away you go... my weight is very light here at only 1238 kg, just a pilot and a bag in the back with only 90 kg of fuel in each wing tank (180 kg). You can very easily find that really lovely taxi speed here with a bit of adjustment of the mixture and throttle settings. Note you can now adjust all the pilot and passenger weights and cargo in the newer X-Plane 12 Weights & Balances/Fuel menu. Very quickly you really love the X-Plane 12 dynamics and the refined aircraft condition. With the set mixture then speed adjustment by the throttle can be very fine in adjusting up and down your throttle, so the Stationair is really excellent on the ground. Mixture now full in for take-off, off go the foot-brakes and up the throttle for some power... the engine roars... ... being light the the U206G moves quickly away from the line on EIKY - Kerry's Rwy 08... zoom! your moving and putting the throttle up more and your gathering even more speed quickly, you feel the power and the U206G moves along at quite a clip. There is not much pull to the left either and the aircraft is easy to sit on the centre white lines, so at 90 knts you pull back on the yoke and your easily flying... Sounds are much more improved at full power, I love them a lot as get this great throaty roar. Climb rate is basically 1,000 ft per minute, but I found a little more pitch as the power allowed you to do that without losing speed (again depending on the weight). Your view to the side is highly restricted by the low window, so you feel encased in the aircraft. But there is no doubt about the environmental differences of X-Plane 12 and it's spectacular lighting effects. These images show on how different X-Plane 12 is from the earlier versions of the Simulator. I think the scenery is far more detailed as well as regional Ireland comes across very well and nicely detailed. I'm pretty impressed by the cloud shadows and reflected on the ground as well, but can't see the same on the aircraft? First up to Shannon VOR (SHA - 113.30 MHz)... and soon Shannon comes into view. With earlier circuit flying I found the Strationair from Thranda "putty in my hands". Instantly you know that THIS aircraft is bloody brilliant to fly, trim is easily adjustable and the aircraft will just go where you want it too, bank cleanly, twist, turn, slightly up, slightly down... it's a beautiful thing when it works so well like this. Obviously Thranda have got the X-Plane 12 physics perfectly right. Now over Shannon it is a 67º turn to Dublin and a reset of VOR 2 and the Dublin (DUB - 114.90) which comes up on the VOR pointer that shows I'm on the right track. Sit back and just admire the Stationair in the new dynamic X-Plane 12 lighting, it is absolutely brilliant, but this is still a beta, so expect a bit more adjustment to come. U206G specifications are; Maximum speed 174 mph (280 km/h, 151 kn) at sea level, a Cruise speed of 163 mph (262 km/h, 142 kn) at 6,200 ft (1,900 m) (75% power), a Range of 840 mi (1,350 km, 730 nmi) at 6,500 ft (2,000 m) (max fuel, 45 min reserves) with a Service ceiling of 15,700 ft (4,800 m) Popups are good and clear, obviously there are more than what I am using here. The more you fly in X-Plane 12 the more impressive it gets. Lighting There are the four panel adjustment knobs, but you really need the panel "Light Posts" on to get a really nice panel effect. It is a pretty panel and as usual highly adjustable. There are actually two red glow arrangements. One built into the upper glareshield and a second front to of the window on the roof. A single large light mid-cabin lights up the rear. Externally it is pretty basic lighting... Front in the nose are both landing and taxi lights, navigation and strobe lights on the wingtips, plus a white tail light and up on the top of tail is a red beacon light. Cleared for Dublin's EIDW Rwy 16, I go into a circuit going north, then east. Notable is that the chunky yokes cover the important VOR 2 pointer low down on the left. I think it is an instrument I will have to move... because I can with the DGS System. Final turn puts me on the 159º approach heading. Unusually I am using the APP tool to line up to Rwy 16. There is a slight hill in front of the runway that can hide the runway from a distance... but it a good test of the system as well. A Course Deviation Indicator (CDI) is right in your eyesight and a very hand tool in this position for gauging not only the runway angle, but the ILS cone as well, even if you are landing manually. Flaps here are UP - 10º - 20º (lower right). There is not too much lift from each flap selection, as long as your speeds are mostly consistent with point you select the next phase down and you should end up with an approach speed of say around 70 knts. You had better have the correct approach speed set if you are going to drop the APP A/P and are going over to manual control to land. Wrong and speed set too low will make the aircraft severely drop (as it should) so you need to give it a little bit of a higher power to keep the air going over machine to stay up, once settled in a manual flight you then adjust the approach speed back to resume your descent. Notable here was the westerly wind that caught me out every time, even though I was ready for it? but I soon had the aircraft corrected. Because the U206G is nicely docile in these sort of conditions you can handle them quite easily... Lower the speed under 60 knts (Stall is 63 mph (101 km/h, 55 kn) (flaps down) and a nice slight flare and your down. The Stationair doesn't squirm a lot under braking, which is nice, and loses speed easily. The point to make here overall is the excellent handling characteristics are really so very good. This is a perfect trainer aircraft for realistic training because of these essential traits, it's excellent to fly as well. Summary Earlier this year Thranda Designs released the Cessna 208 Grand Caravan. Here is the U206G Stationair, which you could say is a sort of follow up to the Caravan, after Thranda's earlier more rugged utility aircraft Series. In the name the U206G, means "U" for utility, and "G" for the version including six seats and this aircraft is powered by a Continental IO-520-F of 300 hp (224 kW). Thranda Design are one of the best developers in X-Plane, their history and quality is legendary. So that quality build and detailing is always going to be significant from the start, and so it here... exceptional. In every area and detail, modeling, fine details, glass and the interior materials. Feature list is very high (clever) adaptable cabin seating and baggage options with the required lower Cargo Pod also available. Tundra Tyres, Mud Flaps, Checklists, Wheel Fairing and flat or bubble windows are all here. The Amphibian, Float, Skis versions and even the usual G1000 Avionics will come later in an add on package as per usual by Thranda. Menus are also excellent with menu tabs in; GENERAL, LIVERY, WEIGHT/BAL, CAMERA, AUDIO/SLEW, PANEL and MISC (Miscellaneous), that covers all the options and including sound, weights and balances also including graphs, walk-around and camera options and general static elements including chocks, pitot covers, removable engine cover (with detailed IO-520-F ) and tie-downs. Thranda always comes with a high range of clever and unique features to give the user a lot of personal options. Known as "Dynamic Generation Series" or DGS, this is a Thranda speciality feature that takes full advantage of X-Plane's flexibility for in-sim, real-time modifications. Here you can change the actual livery to your own designs, but build the instrument panel to your own liking as well, including options of the Aspen EFD 1000 glass instrument and a special 3d bezel for the insert of a RealityXp GTN 750 unit if you own that add on. One thing I will note early in this summary is that the biggest feature on this aircraft actually is not from Thranda. It is the new version X-Plane 12. The new lighting and feel of X-Plane 12 brings the aircraft to life in a very different and more realistic way, but notable here in this beta is that internal lighting is also very dark as is in parts of the external lighting, expect those areas to be refined as we run through the beta phase X-Plane 12 dynamics are simply sensational here and a level above in feel and handling, but notable is the sound package, in being very rattly lower and loopy higher revolutions, it's not bad, but like with the Caravan could be a bit better. So it's a Thranda and that is a sale right there and done. But this is also the first Thranda created and developed significantly for X-Plane 12, a new era in simulation and from what I have experienced it is a massive leap forward in real life dynamics and visual appeal. A total winner in every department... and totally recommended. _______________________________ Yes! the Cessna U206G Stationair DGS series by Thranda Design is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here: Cessna U206G Stationair DGS series Price is US$39.95 Requirements X-Plane 12 (still beta at this stage) or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum. 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.9 GB Current version 1.0 (September 17th 2022) Special features: FULLY configurable 3D instrument panel. Over 50 instruments to choose from! (Including Aspen EFD 1000, and support for RealityXP 650 and GTN750) Move any instrument to any location on the panel, or even between pilot and copilot's panel! Comes with 6 panel presets, but can easily be expanded by moving instruments around, using a simple and intuitive interface. Enable or disable lighting posts per instrument. Lighting is fully 3D, and dynamically move along with the instruments, as you configure the panel. Ability to assign a lighting index to individual instruments, to allow different lighting knobs to be assigned on a per-instrument basis. Save your own presets, and even share them with the community! Almost every instrument can be popped up or popped out as a 2D floating window! They can be placed on other monitors as well. Instruments can be moved in 3D directly, on a 2D pop-up preview window, or by numerical entry for precise placement. GNS430 and 530 can be swapped out, but a restart of the plane is required, as 430s and 530s are mutually exclusive in terms of compatibility in X-Plane Dynamic livery editor (like in the Kodiak, the Beaver, the Wilga, the Caravan, and the Pilatus PC-6) Full PBR control! Create stunning metallic liveries, or matte, sand-blasted look in mere seconds! Additional control over dirt/scratches, adjustable in real-time to dial in the exact desired amount of wear and tear. Create "virtual" liveries, based on two basic common design layouts (Modern and Classic), and assign any colour to any available paint segment. Quickly create preview of livery in real-time, using intuitive controls. Previews include visualization of metallic materials and dirt overlays. Apply selected livery in real-time, right in the sim, without the need to even touch a 3rd party image editor! Option to change the tail number in real-time, or disable it altogether. (Enter a "space" instead of a callsign number to create a blank tail number.) Easily and quickly create dozens of paint schemes in-sim! Also includes 9 traditionally painted liveries, all visible in a convenient pre-selection preview window. Uses SkunkCrafts Updater. Option to participate in Beta program, via checkbox in SkunkCrafts Updater. Excellent hi-res PBR realistic materials, featuring true-to-life plate deformation and to-the-rivet precision. Fully modelled Continental IO-520-F engine. Feature-rich elegant fly-out menu with the following features: Electric tug, with in-panel controls to move forward/backward at the desired speed, and steer proportionally Control over chocks, individual tie-downs, covers, internal lights, external lights, etc. Option to enable/disable Cargo Pod, with realistically simulated weight, momentum, rotational inertia, and drag characteristics. Option to start up running (all systems ready), or cold-and-dark, for realistic startup procedures, directly from this fly-out menu. Control landing lights, strobes, beacon, and nav lights via fly-out menu Detailed weight and balance manager with visual chart, individual passenger seat weight control, Lbs/KG unit toggle, CG control, external tank control, and the option to save and load configuration. Control individual seat positions, or hide them altogether, to create a hybrid passenger/cargo version. When seats are hidden, cargo fills the space when weight is added via the fly-out menu. Multiple camera snap points, above and beyond what's available by default in X-Plane, so you can perform your walk around checks. Adjust your camera's Field of View without having to go to an X-plane menu, allowing for real-time adjustments. Audio mixer: individually control audio channels in real-time, so you can adjust volumes while hearing them play. Slew control: move your plane around the world, temporarily bypassing flight physics. Includes ground mode and air mode. Dynamic panel control page, with a separate view for the entire panel layout preview, or a per-instrument view, allowing for fine-tuning of instrument position, as well as copy-paste function to quickly replace instruments. Options for landing gear: Tundra tires, mud flaps, wheel pants (fairings) Option to enable bubble windows for pilot and copilot side windows. DynaFeel panel: Dial in precisely how you with for the controls to react as a function of speed. Flight dynamics and systems: Detailed and accurate flight dynamics and weight and balance with the help of multiple real-world active Stationair pilots. This not only gives this aircraft the proper "feel", but also accurate takeoff, climb, cruise, and landing performance. The U206 Stationair is a well-behaved airplane and a very stable IFR platform. Tie-downs and chocks actually keep the plane from moving, even in high winds. DynaFeel: controls that simulate how strongly the control surfaces are affected by oncoming air, and how much strength would be needed to overcome these forces. Advanced FMOD-based sound system: High fidelity, multi-track sounds with smooth, finely tuned transitions (actually having calculated the precise beat frequency for each section, to minimize "muddy" transition sounds), and amazing atmospheric effects. Individual volume control over different aspects of the sound experience, adjustable in real-time (while listening to the sounds) Different sounds for front of plane than for back of plane Panning around the plane in exterior view yields awesome 3D audio effects, including "blade slapping" sound when view is perpendicular to prop Individual buttons and switches in the cockpit each have their own unique sound. Engine has typical cool-down ticking sound, based on engine temperature. Sounds actually give you clues as to what's happening under the hood. Outside wind intensity is affected by slip and AoA. (The more the surface area of the fuselage is hit by oncoming wind, the louder the sounds ___________________________________ Installation and documents: download for the Thranda_C206. is 1.92Gb and the aircraft is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder. Full Installation is 2.05Gb Documents supplied are: Changelog.txt Thranda Graphics Settings XP11.pdf Thranda Joystick Settings.pdf Thranda U206G Manual.pdf U206G Performance Charts.pdf X-Plane G430 Manual.pdf X-Plane G530 Manual.pdf There are a huge amount of Documentation provided here, not only for the Thranda U206G including performance charts, reference guides, but also X-Plane/hardware settings and custom and default avionics. All updates are via built-in Skunkcrafts Updater Support forum for the U206 Stationair by Thranda _____________________ Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton 27th September 2022 Copyright©2022: X-Plane Reviews Review System Specifications:  Computer System: Windows - S1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU / 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo M2 2TB SSD - Sound : Yamaha Speakers YST-M200SP Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 12.00B4 (This is a beta review). Plugins: raffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99 Scenery or Aircraft -EILY - Kerry Ireland by Boundless -EIDW - Airport Dublin V2 by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.95 (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) All Rights Reserved

NEWS! - KSYR - Syracuse Hancock International updated to X-Plane 12 The excellent KSYR - Syracuse Hancock International Airport by Vertical Simulations (VerticalSim) has been updated to X-Plane 12. Syracuse Hancock International Airport is a joint civilian-military airport near Syracuse, NY. An ex US Army Air Corps field used during WWII. This airport features a scenic approach into rural upstate NY. Details include. X-Plane 12 version available Switched custom trees for XP12 default 3D placeholder trees Reduced light parameters by half to correct for XP12 lighting Exported with WED V2.5 with XP12 target Airline assignment fix: AYA->AAY (Allegiant) Removed 2D grass Added weather/ice-snow effects Added airline names to gate Note images shown here are X-Plane 11 NOT X-Plane 12, as they haven't been updated yet. Both X-Plane 11 and X-Plane 12 versions are now available for dowload, so you get both versions in the KSYR package. The free SAM plugin is required for this airport to work. You can get it here SAM3 Suite. Images are courtesy of VerticalSim __________________ Yes!... KSYR - Syracuse Hancock International XP12 by VerticalSim is now Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : KSYR - Syracuse Hancock International Price is US$19.99 Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.7 GB Version XP12 - September 21st 2022 ___________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 22nd September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

NEWS! - Laminar Research releases X-Plane 12 Public Beta 4! Laminar Research has released public Beta No. 4. And it is a big one folks, huge in fact! a full 2.6Gb of updates and changes. So run your X-Plane Installer. It is important to check the "Beta" tickbox" to get the update. Although the changelog is quite extensive, there is a large component we are not seeing here. Beta 4 XPD-12423 Boat wakes should replay. XPD-12513 Mismatched 3D water wake on replay. XPD-12542 Many frequency changes upon vectoring to visual approach. XPD-12628 Planemaker dialogs lag behind when dragged. XPD-12794 UTL_art_asset and other classes delete resources under lock. XPD-12825 Can get short silence at the end of some transmissions. XPD-12826 Restored joystick axis label symbols. XPD-12867 Crash checking in with area controller (after landing). XPD-12868 Better carrier ops for old planes, too! XPD-12871 When using the “show air traffic paths” option, altitudes are wrong. XPD-12873 ATC should hold FMOD’s m_continuation_group during preparation for playback. XPD-12875 Engine and transmission temperature model is incorrect and inconsistent. XPD-12886 Don’t allow a FISO to provide “request heading” or “uncertain of position”. XPD-12889 Background image in Planemaker stuck in zoom relative to geometry. XPD-12898 Request Frequency Change had inverted logic. XPD-12901 AI stuck in a loop missing final. XPD-12904 Excessive approach revectors due to route checking. XPD-12915 Crash on error exit in boat manager. XPD-12923 Liberty Island lights fixed. XPD-12925 Improvements to ground-ops window, always give feedback. XPD-12931 Initial magenta NaN pain relief. XPD-12945 VR system left handles in place after a window was popped out. XPD-12947 San Francisco Landmarks update. XPD-12949 A330 flaps not controllable by an analog joystick AXIS. XPD-12952 Thread shutdown crash. XPD-12953 Citation X FMC Causing Crash entering STAR. XPD-12955 Crash after requesting taxi to stand from hold-short point. XPD-12958 Have the taxi route stay on the actual route but still show the way back to it. XPD-12966 AI can end up in the wrong state after an approach revector. XPD-12976 Dynamic objects small update. XPD-13001 Marked X-Plane 11 as an “old key” in X-Plane 12. One update here is interesting. "XPD-13001 Marked X-Plane 11 as an “old key” in X-Plane 12". Notable has been a lot of crashes (CTD) because X-Plane 12 is not recognising the XP12 moniker (.aft file), even though it is there. So hopefully this bug has now been fixed. Users are noting far better cloud formations and even a better framerate which is good news for all ears, so it is a worthy if large update to do. You can find the ongoing beta details here: X-Plane 12.00 Release Notes For all details of the X-Plane 12 release then go here: X-Plane 12 - Next Generation X-Plane Beta release "Early Access" X-Plane 12 (Beta) is purchased directly from Laminar Research for US$59.95 and the download file size is 82 GB X-Plane 12 Price is US$59.95 _____________________ NEWS! by Stephen Dutton 22nd September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

NEWS! - CowanSim Updates 500E to X-Plane 12 After last week updating the JetRanger B3 and L3 aircraft, then this week Cowansim has now released an update to the CowanSim 500E. Note that this is a Beta update and not a final X-Plane 12 release, so expect changes or even on-going bugs as the Beta process continues. This XP12 update includes all the new features like new lighting, FMOD sounds, flight model, rain effects and more, but nothing new on the development side so there are no changelog notes.... The 500E is one of the most iconic helicopters is the world. The 500E is a light utility helicopter but a true workhorse featuring shock absorbing skid struts and a 450HP turbo-shaft engine. X-Plane 12 version Now Available ! (XP11 included as well) Features: Realistic Flight Dynamics This model has an authentic feeling while exploring the virtual world thanks to Laminar Research for developing a fantastic flight sim. 4k Physically Based Rendering Textures 4k PBR textures, or physically based rendering, provides the ability for very realistic lighting that mimics the flow of light in the real world. This model takes full advantage of X-Plane’s lighting with dynamic reflections and materials. Custom 3D Modeled Instruments Everyone loves a detailed and realistic looking cockpit. After all, that is where we spend most of our time in the sim, flying! The 3D instruments were developed to a high standard and are fully functional, with extensive custom coding to make it as realistic as possible. A Nice Cozy Cabin Sit back and relax in the cozy rear cabin and enjoy replays of your flight from a passenger’s perspective! Was it as comfortable and smooth as you thought it was from the pilot seat? This is especially interesting in VR and landing replays are the best. Paint Kit & Liveries Comes with several liveries and we also included a detailed paint kit. The kit is provided in both GIMP and Adobe® Photoshop® formats. A UV map layer included in each file allows for easy and accurate repaints. Vibrant and Detailed Night Lighting X-Plane has wonderful night lighting. The 500E project aimed to have plenty of lights, inside and out, making night flights possible. From the landing light to the cabin lighting, this helicopter really stands out at night. Animation & Sound Thousands of lines of custom code make up animations and systems. The fully immersive sound set was developed with FMOD. Sounds and animations work together with visual rotor-speed vibrational feedback, rattling, shaking and dynamic blade slap, rain effects and more. Reality XP GTN 750 Integration The Reality XP GTN 750 is fully integrated into the cockpit. Reality XP GTN 750 Touch is the genuine simulated device used by flight simulation enthusiasts navigating the virtual skies as well as real world pilots for familiarization with the device. This add-on is a payware add-on and you can purchase it here: Reality XP Free Future Updates Tested and Zeroed in by Real Pilots Remove Before Flight Accessories FMOD Fully Dynamic Sound Pack Dynamic Weight Options Functional Spot Light Functional Spray Kit Functional Cineflex Camera Pilots & Passengers Working Floats System Head Force & Shake Window Rain Effects Compatible with Vulkan API Virtual Reality Ready AviTab Integration RXP GTN 750 Integration Customizable Configurations Realistic Flight Dynamics 4K & 2K PBR Textures Custom 3D instruments 45+ Paint Jobs (liveries) Detailed Night Lighting xLua for Systems and Animation SASL v3.12.1 for Custom Plugins Images are courtesy of CowanSim Note both X-Plane 12 and X-Plane 11 versions are available of these aircraft. ________________ The CowanSim 500E is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here: CowanSim 500E Price is US$24.95 Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 570 MB Current Version: XP12- September 20th 2022 ________________ NEWS! by Stephen Dutton 21st September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

NEWS! - FlightFactor update Boeing 757/767 twins to X-Plane 12 Beta FlightFactor have updated both their Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 Professional Series to X-Plane Beta. The update is available via the X-Updater application and the "Beta" box needs to be ticked. Notable that this update comes with a big sticker "Beta" warning, as the beta program is in flux then so are the aircraft, but at least you can enjoy and currently them in X-Plane 12, Beta period or not. The Pro Avionics FPDS and Boeing 767-400 addon features also are included in the B767 package and the 757 (C32) is part of the B757 package if you have those addons. Boeing 767-400 is shown below. Boeing 767 Professional Series Update notes are extensive... and cover different versions from v1.6.0 to v1.6.2 for the Boeing 767 Pro Series; 1.6.2 - added glow effect to the FPDS displays (xp12) - fixed 3d reflections in displays (xp12) - fixed various issues with lamps (xp12) - fixed tiller animation (xp12) - fixed possible steering issue (xp12) - fixed dome light issue in cold&dark - improved AT SPD mode behaviour (xp12) - updated billboard effect for external lights (xp12) - made chart light knob as override knob (400) 1.6.1 - fixed some 3d issues, holes and etc in xp12 - fixed particles issues in xp12 - fixed some external lights issues in xp12 - fixed some rain issues in xp12 - fixed missed inner_glass.obj - fixed possible cabin pressurization issue in xp12 - fixed some displays reflection issues 1.6.0 - Now it is compatible with X-Plane 12! Use separate *_xp12.acf files for X-Plane 12 - added thumbnails for xp12 for livery packages, redownload them from the store - fixed possible going to manual nav1 during fmc autotuning - fixed air brake manipulator (400) - fixed trim indicators LIT (400) - fixed parking brake LIT (400) - fixed ckpt flood light color (ALL) Boeing 757 Professional Series Same for the Boeing 757 Pro Series but even more extensive updates; v2.6.0 to v2.6.2 2.6.2 - added glow effect to the FPDS displays (xp12) - fixed camera position for 753 (xp12) - fixed 3d reflections in displays (xp12) - fixed various issues with lamps (xp12) - fixed hovering gear (xp12) - fixed possible steering issue (xp12) - improved AT SPD mode behaviour (xp12) - updated billboard effect for external lights (xp12) 2.6.1 - fixed some 3d issues, holes and etc in xp12 - fixed particles issues in xp12 - fixed some external lights issues in xp12 - fixed possible cabin pressurization issue in xp12 - fixed landing light animation issue in xp12 2.6.0 - Now it is compatible with X-Plane 12! Use separate *_xp12.acf files for X-Plane 12 - added thumbnails for xp12 for livery packages, redownload them from the store - added glow/glare effects for FPDS display units and tune effects for other avionics variants - added a few optimizations related to displays drawing - added a little optimization related to graphics memory usage - added transition level input to descent page - fixed possible weird fuel calculation if you refuel airplane with engines running via in-sim menu - fixed possible traffic flickering on nd, at least in several conditions - fixed some interaction inconveniences in the tablet gui elements - fixed some tooltips not appearing in the tablet - fixed possible unexpected MOD header for inactive route - fixed some bugs in route activation logic, before, it can get it messed up when cancel activation of another route - fixed the issue when you cannot do direct-to via first line when an holding pattern is the active leg - fixed possible wrong TOD time displaying - fixed an issue when takeoff rwy is reset on rte page after inserting SID/RWY from departure page - fixed when clb and des restriction and transition speeds were shared in between - more correct map data sorting and cutting with map range - fixed blank charts with aircraft pos displaying enabled when aircraft is out of chart boundaries - fixed possible incorrect registering of right mouse click events under some conditions - fixed anti-aliasing slider appearance in effects configuration page for differents plane variants - fixed possible crash on startup related to specific audio capture devices configuration - fixed possible case when positions of 2D windows are not correctly restored after plane startup - fixed inverted RB color channels in Charts - fixed taxi lights fix - fixed ckpt flood light color - fixed beacon position (300) - fixed the situation when you cannot go out of direct-to sub mode on legs page - fixed possible wrong APU OIL Temp indication - fixed possible negative wind indication - fixed possible going to manual nav1 during fmc autotuning - improved usability of navigraph charts function: - made not scaled with the chart the airplane symbol - added highlighting of current chart in the list and current of pinned tabs - as a temporary solution for long-haul pilots, to help them: added cruise wind input prompt to the PERF INIT page which will be taken into account for all legs in the cruise segment - tuned min and min maneuver speeds The updates are available now to use with the current standing Series Boeing fleet of 767 and 757 aircraft. This update is free to the current owners of the 757 V2 Professional and 767 ER Professional aircraft. Extensive packages on both aircraft does create a bit of a complex buyers choice... ___________________________________ Yes! the Boeing 757-200ER - Boeing 767-300ER Professional & Extended versions and the EPDS extension by FlightFactor Aero/SteptoSky... ... is NOW! Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : One (which I will call the Avionics upgrade) is the Standard Single aircraft PRO that can be upgraded with this FPDS package to Modern Avionics Two (Extended and Global) you can also update to first from the Standard Single Aircraft to the "Extended" version that includes three versions of the B757/767 in the -200, -300 and the Freighter, and then update again to the GLOBAL version of everything in the Extended and plus the FPDS package. B767 Global Plus+ is everything in the B767 Pro Series. Boeing 757-200ER v2 Professional Price is US$72.00 (C-32 addon not available) Boeing 757-200ER v2 Professional Extended Price is US$92.00 Boeing 757-200ER v2 Professional Extended Upgrade Price is US$72.00 + US$20 Boeing 757-200ER v2 Professional Modern Avionics Price is US$72.00 + US$20 (C-32 addon not available) Boeing 757-200ER v2 Professional Global Upgrade Price is US$92.00 + US$20 Boeing 757-200ER v2 Professional Global Price is US$112.00 You must already have purchased and own the current Boeing 757-200 v2 version for any upgrades (Extended/Avionics) to the aircraft Requirements X-Plane 11.50+, A BETA version is available for X-Plane 12 Windows 7+, Mac OS 10.10+ or Linux 14.04 LTS or compatible 64 bit mode 8Gb RAM / 3Gb VRAM Minimum 16-24Gb+ RAM / 6Gb+ VRAM Recommended Boeing 767-200ER v2 Professional Price is US$72.00 Boeing 767-200ER v2 Professional Extended Price is US$92.00 Boeing 767-200ER v2 Professional Extended Upgrade Price is US$72.00 + US$20 Boeing 767-200ER v2 Professional Modern Avionics (EPDS) Price is US$72.00 + US$20 Boeing 767-200ER v2 Professional Global Price is US$112.00 Boeing 767 Global Plus Price is US$145.00 You must already have purchased and own the current Boeing 767-200 v2 version for any upgrades (Extended/Avionics) to the aircraft Requirements X-Plane 11.50+, A BETA version is available for X-Plane 12 Windows 7+, Mac OS 10.10+ or Linux 14.04 LTS or compatible, 64 bit mode 8Gb RAM / 3Gb VRAM Minimum, 16-24Gb+ RAM / 6Gb+ VRAM Recommended Last version: 2.5.4 (29.10.2021) ________________ News by Stephen Dutton 20th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Right Reserved.

NEWS! - Thranda Design releases Cessna U206G Stationair DGS series After exactly a month after it's announcement from Thranda Design. The X-Plane design house have released their latest aircraft in the Cessna U206G Stationair DGS series. The Cessna 205, 206, and 207, all known primarily as the Stationair (and marketed variously as the Super Skywagon, Skywagon and Super Skylane) are a family of single-engined, general aviation aircraft with fixed landing gear, used in commercial air service as well as for personal use. The original 1964 model was the U206, powered by a 285 hp (213 kW) Continental IO-520-A. The “U” designation indicated “utility” and this model was equipped with a pilot side door and large clamshell rear door serving the back two rows of seats, allowing easy loading of oversized cargo. This version is the six seater U206G, powered by a Continental IO-520-F of 300 hp (224 kW), with a gross weight of 3,600 lb (1,633 kg) landplane, 3,500 lb (1,588 kg) seaplane and certified on 21 June 1976. With this aircraft being a Thranda design, then you can expect every bang and whistle feature delivered on the aircraft. It also comes with the the famous DGS Series features. Thranda's "Dynamic Generation Series" takes full advantage of X-Plane's flexibility for in-sim, real-time modifications to the currently loaded plane, changes can be made live to; Customise a livery Move around instruments on the panel for different panel configurations Adjust and save weight and balance more visually, without using the X-Plane's W&B menu Seamlessly move your plane around in slew mode to position it precisely where you want it in real-time Switch between different aircraft configurations on the fly, without reloading the plane? Cargo, executive, tundra, skis, etc Use high fidelity and precision in flight dynamics, making use of X-Plane's very latest physics engine advances Ultra-realistic, multi-layered soundscapes, inside and out Our planes feature a unique Manifest system, which breaks out logic variables for you to edit for SimPit builders Full C206G Feature List; FULLY configurable 3D instrument panel. Over 50 instruments to choose from! (Including Aspen EFD 1000, and support for RealityXP 650 and GTN750) Move any instrument to any location on the panel, or even between pilot and copilot's panel! Comes with 6 panel presets, but can easily be expanded by moving instruments around, using a simple and intuitive interface. Enable or disable lighting posts per instrument. Lighting is fully 3D, and dynamically move along with the instruments, as you configure the panel. Ability to assign a lighting index to individual instruments, to allow different lighting knobs to be assigned on a per-instrument basis. Save your own presets, and even share them with the community! Almost every instrument can be popped up or popped out as a 2D floating window! They can be placed on other monitors as well. Instruments can be moved in 3D directly, on a 2D pop-up preview window, or by numerical entry for precise placement. GNS430 and 530 can be swapped out, but a restart of the plane is required, as 430s and 530s are mutually exclusive in terms of compatibility in X-Plane Dynamic livery editor (like in the Kodiak, the Beaver, the Wilga, the Caravan, and the Pilatus PC-6) Full PBR control! Create stunning metallic liveries, or matte, sand-blasted look in mere seconds! Additional control over dirt/scratches, adjustable in real-time to dial in the exact desired amount of wear and tear. Create "virtual" liveries, based on two basic common design layouts (Modern and Classic), and assign any colour to any available paint segment. Quickly create preview of livery in real-time, using intuitive controls. Previews include visualization of metallic materials and dirt overlays. Apply selected livery in real-time, right in the sim, without the need to even touch a 3rd party image editor! Option to change the tail number in real-time, or disable it altogether. (Enter a "space" instead of a callsign number to create a blank tail number.) Easily and quickly create dozens of paint schemes in-sim! Also includes 9 traditionally painted liveries, all visible in a convenient pre-selection preview window. Uses SkunkCrafts Updater. Option to participate in Beta program, via checkbox in SkunkCrafts Updater. Excellent hi-res PBR realistic materials, featuring true-to-life plate deformation and to-the-rivet precision. Fully modelled Continental IO-520-F engine. Feature-rich elegant fly-out menu with the following features: Electric tug, with in-panel controls to move forward/backward at the desired speed, and steer proportionally Control over chocks, individual tie-downs, covers, internal lights, external lights, etc. Option to enable/disable Cargo Pod, with realistically simulated weight, momentum, rotational inertia, and drag characteristics. Option to start up running (all systems ready), or cold-and-dark, for realistic startup procedures, directly from this fly-out menu. Control landing lights, strobes, beacon, and nav lights via fly-out menu Detailed weight and balance manager with visual chart, individual passenger seat weight control, Lbs/KG unit toggle, CG control, external tank control, and the option to save and load configuration. Control individual seat positions, or hide them altogether, to create a hybrid passenger/cargo version. When seats are hidden, cargo fills the space when weight is added via the fly-out menu. Multiple camera snap points, above and beyond what's available by default in X-Plane, so you can perform your walk around checks. Adjust your camera's Field of View without having to go to an X-plane menu, allowing for real-time adjustments. Audio mixer: individually control audio channels in real-time, so you can adjust volumes while hearing them play. Slew control: move your plane around the world, temporarily bypassing flight physics. Includes ground mode and air mode. Dynamic panel control page, with a separate view for the entire panel layout preview, or a per-instrument view, allowing for fine-tuning of instrument position, as well as copy-paste function to quickly replace instruments. Options for landing gear: Tundra tires, mud flaps, wheel pants (fairings) Option to enable bubble windows for pilot and copilot side windows. DynaFeel panel: Dial in precisely how you with for the controls to react as a function of speed. Flight dynamics and systems: Detailed and accurate flight dynamics and weight and balance with the help of multiple real-world active Stationair pilots. This not only gives this aircraft the proper "feel", but also accurate takeoff, climb, cruise, and landing performance. The U206 Stationair is a well-behaved airplane and a very stable IFR platform. Tie-downs and chocks actually keep the plane from moving, even in high winds. DynaFeel: controls that simulate how strongly the control surfaces are affected by oncoming air, and how much strength would be needed to overcome these forces. Advanced FMOD-based sound system: High fidelity, multi-track sounds with smooth, finely tuned transitions (actually having calculated the precise beat frequency for each section, to minimize "muddy" transition sounds), and amazing atmospheric effects. Individual volume control over different aspects of the sound experience, adjustable in real-time (while listening to the sounds) Different sounds for front of plane than for back of plane Panning around the plane in exterior view yields awesome 3D audio effects, including "blade slapping" sound when view is perpendicular to prop Individual buttons and switches in the cockpit each have their own unique sound. Engine has typical cool-down ticking sound, based on engine temperature. Sounds actually give you clues as to what's happening under the hood. Outside wind intensity is affected by slip and AoA. (The more the surface area of the fuselage is hit by oncoming wind, the louder the sounds Usually from Thranda an Amphibian variant and plain Float options mostly follow the main release by about six weeks, the extra features are also usually free. Note this Aircraft will fly in X-Plane 12, however it is noted as a "Beta" version and not an X-Plane 12 compatible aircraft. Images are courtesy of Thranda Design Support forum for the U206 Stationair by Thranda ________________ The Cessna U206G Stationair DGS series by Thranda Design is now available from the X-Plane.OrgStore!... Here: Cessna U206G Stationair DGS series Price is US$39.95 Requirements X-Plane 12 (still beta at this stage) or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum. 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.9 GB Current version 1.0 (September 17th 2022) ________________ News by Stephen Dutton 19th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Right Reserved.

NEWS! - X-Plane 12 now on Steam! After the online release of the "Early Access" version (download only) of the latest X-Plane version in No. 12. It is now also available for download from the Steam portal as promised by Laminar Research. Price on Steam is the same US$59.99, where customers able be able to test the platform as it progresses through the early Beta phase. The access can be found here : X-Plane12 on Steam ________________ NEWS! by Stephen Dutton 19th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

NEWS! - CowanSim Updates 206 B3 and 206 L3 to X-Plane 12 CowanSim has updated their 206 B3 JetRanger v1.2 and 206 L3 LongRanger v1.1 to X-Plane 12. Although both are aircraft are now configured to fly in the X-Plane 12 version, it is actually not the highlight of the updates. Both aircraft also now have a Stability Augmentation System (SAS) installed. SAS is an attitude-based flight control system that can be used to make flying the helicopter much easier (basically an autopilot). The SAS flight control computer controls servos for each pitch and roll axes. The system is custom modeled and coded to be as realistic as possible. Along with SAS, the system also has an autopilot with HDG, NAV, SPD, ALT and VRT modes. There are two buttons located on the cyclic that work with the system, force trim release and autopilot disconnect. 206 B3 JetRanger v1.2 Other changelog notes; B3 v1.2 Flight Model There was only one change to the flight model. A lot of pilots mentioned that the cyclic was a bit too responsive on the B3 but the L3 was fine. This was adjusted very slightly and accurately. Some sim pilots might not even notice it. What's nice is that the SAS system is available for inexperienced simmers. Hardware Throttle Calibration You can find a utility inside of the configuration manger that’s for calibrating different kinds of hardware throttles. Some hardware throttles have idle stops that work just like the real machine. They have a mechanical ring to release the throttle. Some have a switch that can be mapped to the idle stop command and some do not. Every piece of hardware out there has a different value between 0 and 1 where the stop locks into place. The virtual throttle’s idle used to always be set at .28 but now you can change that value with this feature and select whether or not to automatically release it. Instructions are in the config menu. TONS of New Paints (Liveries) Everyone can thank Julien Lebrun for consistently contributing new liveries, amazingly detailed liveries. When I say consistently I mean he has been working on them every single day, just as I have with the development side. Big thanks to him. 🙂 Sling Load Capability You can turn on this feature by going into weight and balance then selecting sling object. Inside the ?LING OBJECTS?folder you can select the item you wish to be on the end of the cable. A huge thank you to Joe Hudson for providing his modeling & textures of the kit, the hook and mechanical release on the cyclic. Doors Added the ability to remove doors individually on the 2nd page of the configuration menu. Added option for helmets on pilots Very minor FMOD updates Inlet Barrier Filters External click spots added New wire cutters Small bug fixes Minor texture updates 206 L3 LongRanger v1.1 Other changelog notes; L3 v1.1 TONS of New Paints (Liveries) Everyone can thank Julien Lebrun for consistently contributing new liveries, amazingly detailed liveries. When I say consistently I mean he has been working on them every single day, just as I have with the development side. Big thanks to him. 🙂 Very minor FMOD updates Small bug fixes Minor texture updates Note both X-Plane 12 and X-Plane 11 versions are available of these aircraft. ________________ The CowanSim 206 B3 is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here: CowanSim 206 B3 Price is US$32.95 Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 (both versions available) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 2.1 GB Current Version: XP12 - September 15th 2022 The CowanSim 206 L3 is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here: CowanSim 206 L3 Price is US$32.95 Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 (both versions available) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.7 Gb Current Version: XP12: September 15th 2022 ________________ NEWS! by Stephen Dutton 17th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

Done... thanks

Aircraft Review : Maule M-7-235B Project XP12 by vSkylabs The Maule M-7 is a family of single-engine light utility aircraft that has been manufactured in the United States since the mid-1980s. Based on the Maule M-4, the M-7 is a high-wing, strut-braced monoplane of conventional configuration, available with tailwheel or optional tricycle wheeled undercarriage and frequently used as a floatplane with twin floats. The basic M-7 has a longer cabin than its predecessors the M5 & M6, with two seats in front and a bench seat for up to three passengers behind them. The M-7 also incorporates the increased fuel tankage, Hoerner-style wingtips and four-position flaps, and the M-7 family has been produced both with piston and turboprop engines. It first flew in 1984. This review of the Maule M-7 is a landmark because the aircraft was the first officially released new aircraft for X-Plane 12. That said, it was also released into the "Beta" phase of X-Plane 12, so aspects of this review could change with the development of X-Plane 12 through it's beta run, this review is conducted in Beta b3. The vSkylab philosophy is that you are purchasing an ongoing project, so any aircraft you purchase is not fully completed or is completed to 100%, that is the deal you sign up for to get access to the aircraft and all the development is free and ongoing throughout the X-Plane 12 version. These projects are under constant development: the development road-map is including flight model refinements, enhanced systems depth, additional liveries and other improvements. First look says this is a "Bush" aircraft, big and chunky with "Tundra" tyres, it is also a STOL (Short TakeOff and Landing) machine. vSkylabs are pretty consistent in their designs. If you have purchased before you will pretty well know what to expect. You do get good if great design with a high focus on the dynamics, but there are no menus or aircraft options, and any changes to the aircraft is via "Hotspots", to find them then turn on the X-Plane View/Show Instrument Click Regions or look in the provided POH Manual. There are two variants in the package of the M-7. One above is the Tundra tyred variant, and the second is the Amphibian or Float option. There is no standard wheeled version here which is a disappointment for me, the Tundra is not as flexible in missions as you could do with a standard set up aircraft, the size of carrying such large tyres all the time looks odd and would also be a drag on your fuel, hence range. The Maule is a steel-tube, fabric-covered fuselage design, so there are no rivets in creating a flush appearance or a smooth skin. So the Maule is a very slippery smooth aircraft, even quite aerodynamic for it's bulky size. There are a few external fittings, braces, tiedowns and aerials, but basically the aircraft's design is very clean. The aircraft can be fitted with an array of engine types, all Lycoming O-540-J1A5D, IO-540-W1A5D, O-540-J3A5, IO-540-W1A5, or O-540-B4B5... Installed here is the B4B5 235 hp to a McCauley Constant Speed B3D32C414-C/G82NDA-4 (78") Propeller. External glass is good, but not spectacular. Side windows are plain (meaning very flat), but have some nice crazing and an open window hole. The two forward doors and the right double rear doors can be opened via handle "Hotspots", the internal cabin is very basic, with very basic old brown leather seats, the rear accommodation is just two flat bench seats. But it is well done. As basic as it is inside, it does feel very authentic with parts of the airframe showing and in being part of the seating and window strength supports, note the excellent seatbelts. If you go to the aircraft's (X-Plane) "Weight, Balance & Fuel" menu you can adjust the weight of the pilot, three passengers and baggage, plus the fuel load of course. I don't remember these weight adjustments before, so it could be a new feature for X-Plane 12. Setting the passenger weights will make appear passengers in the aircraft, now passengers are extremely highly realistic, but not here animated. Thankfully quality of the passengers also is very high as there is now no more ghastly stretched facial images. However the Pilot never disappears, even if the power is off or if the aircraft is cold. Instrument Panel The twin yokes are very nice, lovely shape if a simple design, with the "Maule M-7" logo centre. You can hide them via the "Hot Spot" rear (arrowed). Instrument layout is very simple and basic as well. Standard Six instrument layout left gives you Airspeed, Artificial Horizon, Altitude (top row), Turn Coordinator, Heading and V/S Vertical Speed (lower row). Far left is the VDO outside Temperature Gauge and Suction Gauge lower. Engine Start and Primer. Wings in the AH can also be adjusted. Centre are only two Avionics... Garmin GNS 430 and Garmin GTX 335 transponder (both default XP). Top left are two large dials that cover Manifold Pressure/FF Fuel Flow (left) and RPM x100 (right). Below is the Fuel Panel, and below that are the two fuel and four engine gauges that cover; Fuel (left) / Fuel (right), Cylinder Head Temp, Oil Pressure, Oil Temp and Ampere (AMPS). Notable is the very small P.S.Engineering PM3000 radio panel, which is well done. Lower centre panel are the three push/pull Throttle - Propeller - Mixture knobs. With below the aircraft's switchgear for; Power (BAT & ALT), Boost Pump, Anti-Collison, LDG Light (Landing), NAV LIght (Navigation) and Pitot Heat. Engine Start switch left and Instrument lighting brightness right. All Circuit Breakers (fuses) are non-working, but look nice. If flying the Amphibian variant. You get the Float Wheel control panel centre left, and a hooked band to lower/raise the rear float rudders. On the floor is a Flap lever (Four positions) and large pitch trim wheel, on the left wall is your Fuel Tank switch (21.5 Gal per tank) and a nicely done Fire Extinguisher right. Rudder Pedals both have "MAULE" logos. As noted there are no menus or features except for the AviTab screen that can be used on the right window (Plugin Required). ________________ Liveries Liveries (same for both Wheeled and Amphibian) Gull-Grey-Black is default. the other four are; Big Sky-Blue-Red, Dune-White-Brown, Glacier-White-Brown and Solar-Yellow-Black. Flying the Maule M-7 Starting is very simple. Power on (BAT/ALT), Mixture almost in, throttle almost a little. Lower left Fuel switch to "Both". "Boost Pump" to on, Anti-Coll (lights) on, "Pitot Heat" to on... then give the lower "Engine Primer" a few pulls (I did three), then turn the "Starter" switch to "Start", and the Lyncoming B4B5 235 hp will easily spurt into life. Be careful, as too much throttle will power the aircraft forward, tip and damage the prop. Then you have to tune the engine when warm to the lowest speed you can without stalling the engine. Although a taildragger the rear tailwheel is not a free agent. As you can thankfully control it by the Yaw adjustment in your throttle (not the pedals). Still tricky though until you get the hang of it.... The first turn went quite wide... ... but by the second turn I had tuned into the felling and had got it perfect. The aircraft does go a bit too fast for me, even at minimum mixture and idle throttle, so you still need a bit of soft braking to keep the aircraft on the centre line. But thankfully the M-7 is not a diabolical aircraft to taxi overall. I set myself up slightly to the right of the centre line so I could see it as a guide to my left with the high nose... As you start to start to roll, you notice not so much pull to the left (the M-7 is quite a heavy and bulky aircraft), but also on how quickly the tail aerodynamics start to work... once at the end of the white zone (Flaps position 1) or 100 knts, your airborne. You need a lot of power to climb out, it feels clunky because the Maule is a heavy aircraft at 2,500 lb (1,134 kg) GW even with a tube and fabric frame. Climb rate is 1,650 fpm, but you keep it under 1,000 fpm to keep the climb in check and to get some forward speed. Pulling the Flap back up to +2º helps, as notable is that the flap sits not flush with the wing but slightly up angled. As to note those bumper wheels keep on spinning around as well, unless you brake them static. The Maule M-7 is a basic flying aircraft. There are no distracting features or elements to worry about. The vSkyLab's aircraft is all about feel and pure flying. This is the point of the aircraft. You can balance it, twist it, pull it around a nice roll and the aircraft will respond perfectly. I do wonder though on how much the new X-Plan 12 dynamics make a point here, if so they are very good (I can verify that as I have already flown another similar X-Plane 12 light aircraft with the same new dynamics). In saying that I wonder if the M-7 is simply too basic. I miss more instruments, the Course and VOR 2 pointers that I use for circuit flying, and there is no autopilot if you do want to do a long up river stretch up to a camp. Notable the M-7 will trim out nicely and fly quite easily with a finger or two on the stick... but is that enough, in this case I don't think so, I think even a real bushy would find the aircraft too basic for his skills. Notable is flying with the Amphibian, as you are adding even more pendulum lower to already bulky aircraft, so you get even less speed, and more drag from that. Cruise speed around 147 mph (237 km/h, 128 kn) maximum structural cruising speed, with a never exceed speed of 182 mph (293 km/h, 158 kn), Range with standard fuel is 788 km (490 miles) and Range with auxiliary fuel is around 1,384 km (860 miles). Sounds are FMOD and actually very good, with the wide engine power range well covered, but it doesn't note if they are FMOD 1 or FMOD 2 in quality. In flight you burr along quite nicely, and as you can set your speed via your engine tone and it all works very nicely. Lighting Inside and out the lighting is pretty basic... You have just two Landing/Taxi lights set one each outer wing (LED), and Navigation Red/Green and White tail. Instrument panel is very nice and adjustable, but only one tone. Also there are several highlight lights for the front door handles and the rear baggage area, but no rear cabin lighting at all? Flying both the Amphibian (first) I found it hard to reduce speed (odd with that much drag?) but I found myself giving the aircraft too much pitch up to slow down, that I could easily fall into a stall situation. So you tend to approach in a very nose up, tail down configuration. The aim is to rub off the speed, and it is slow rubbing off the excess speed until you get within the 100 knt white band... ... once inside the white, you can dial out the four place flap almost straight to Full Down. With the flap extension down to almost to the slowest speed without much float is down around 70 knts, and this would be your final approach speed. Flaps are the "barn Door" type, as this is a STOL aircraft for operating on short strips. At this configuration the M-7 is a very stable aircraft. So you have an approach nose up feel, and then you can't see the actual runway unless you squeeze yourself left to see past the window strengthening supports, as they are right and directly on your line of sight. Approach and touchdown has to be perfectly gauged, right speed and height, then once over the threshold your bringing the nose up and adjusting the power... it is essential you get that angle of a tail down and nose up landing perfect! So gradually you let off a little throttle, say 5 knts to slowly descend to the runway at around 65 knts, reducing to 55 knts on contact... Land level and the nose will dig in and tip forward and crushing your propeller, too far back and the tailwheel hits the ground first, again bouncing you forward... (crushing your propeller) so it is right between the two positions that you have to get it right, again those balloon tyres really don't help on a hard runway? Your stall speed is 49 mph (80 km/h, 43 kn) full flaps down. Braking is tricky but not impossible, obviously easier on grass. Overall a nice modern bush pilot's aircraft. Two notes to wrap up, there is an annoying STMA auto updater that keeps coming onto the left of your screen, but handy for updating the aircraft. And the Maule is not compatible with X-Plane 11. Or can be purchased for XP11, this aircraft is for X-Plane 12 Only. ___________________ Summary The first aircraft released for X-Plane 12 was this Maule M-7, which is a family of single-engine light utility aircraft from vSkyLab's. Notable is that you purchase a vSkyLab Project that comes with conditions that this is not a completed aircraft on release, but an ongoing project. This Maule is a modern take on the bush aircraft and a STOL (Short TakeOff and Landing) machine. It is created to going out deep into the bush, landing on the rough strip then coming back out again. For this mission the M-7 is ideal. Modeling as by vSkyLab's is the usual excellent, certainly in the new X-Plane 12 environment. As you can here in the review the images in X-Plane 12 delivers a great feel and a nicer more realistic look for the aircraft. But this is a very basic aircraft with not a lot of options or features, and no menu's... In fact the only option is the AviTab (tablet) of which you need the plugin. The instrumentation although well done is basically again the Standard Six dials and aircraft's engine instruments, but also only comes with two Avionic sets. Personally I wanted a lot more or options even to fly bush. You do get two variants with the Larger "Tundra" tyres and another which would be the most popular variant in an Amphibian variant, both are well done, but again personally I would want a standard wheel version to get more versatility out of the aircraft, the "Tundras" are just too limiting for me, and make it harder to takeoff and land the aircraft, not to mention the drag. Overall what it is all about here are the excellent X-Plane 12 dynamics in the handling and feel of the aircraft, in this aspect a bush pilot will get a lot of flying out of the aircraft... for personally myself, I hope the on going project delivers a bit more in options and configurations in future, as presented here it is just a little too basic for my tastes. _______________________________ Yes! the Maule M-7-235B Project XP12 by vSkylabs is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here: Maule M-7-235B Project XP12 Price is US$32.95 Two Models in One - Both are included in this package Maule M-7 Land Maule M-7 Amphibian Requirements X-Plane 12 - Not compatible with X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 1.0 (September 6th 2022) Installation and documents: download for the Maule M-7-235B is 266Mb and is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder. The AviTab plugin is also required to use this aircraft, and it is deposited in your X-Plane Plugins folder. Full Installation is 336Mb Documents supplied are: HOW TO INSTALL VSKYLABS M-7-235 POH Two, a basic manual (26 pages) and "How to Install" pdf _____________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 20th September 2022 Copyright©2022: X-Plane Reviews Review System Specifications:  Computer System: Windows - S1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU / 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo M2 2TB SSD - Sound : Yamaha Speakers YST-M200SP Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 12 beta B3 Plugins: Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99 Scenery or Aircraft - KHAF - Half Moon Bay by Rising Dawn Studios (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$19.00 (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) All Rights Reserved

You need to ask Laminar that question?

I'm not going to hide the fact... X-Plane 12 in now using the new version, it needs a large Graphic Card, so all focus on any upgrades totally revolves around a decent Graphic Card... that is where the money should go.

NEWS! - X-Plane 12 Third wave Upgrades, Updates and Releases As the upgrades, updates and new releases for X-Plane 12 continues, a lot of aircraft, scenery and plugins have been released to work in the new version of X-Plane. Here are all the latest... ToLiss All three ToLiSS aircraft are now available for X-Plane 12. With today the A319 and A321 now joining the earlier A340-600 on the apron. Note both the A319 and the A321 aircraft are "Upgrades", meaning a new purchase for X-Plane 12, but you do get a lot of nice new features for the low US$10.99 Upgrade Price, and both aircraft also still work in X-Plane 11. Airbus A319 XP12 Version 1.4 (September 22th 2022) Initial XP12 version release Still works in XP11 Major new features: - XP12 adaptations - Custom engine model for more realistic thrust and fuel flow values and new engine failure modes - Circuit breakers with accurate system response (Current over 100 circuit breaker available) - ACARS functionality for direct download of Simbrief plans into the active or the secondary flight plan - ACARS functionality to retrieve TO data for various runways of the departure airport - ACARS functionality to retrieve wind data from simbrief flight plan and enter them in the flight plan. - New ACP interactive screen to request ground services, change fuel or passengers without the ISCS. - EFB on captain on copilot side. (Currently featuring Avitab and weight and balance computer) - FMGS plan editing overhaul, enabling temporary flight plans also for the alternate plan - Database holds are now available (besides Pilot and computed holds previously available) - Offset function now available - Addition of new failure modes for a total of 210+ different failure modes, these include now recoverable computer failures - More than 70 new ECAM messages - Animated push buttons in the cockpit - Moving pilot seats and arm rests Minor new features: - VLS increases with speed brake deflection - Added (ETP) circle on ND to display the Equitime point - Option to control internal and external volume levels via x-plane sliders or custom ISCS sliders - Added Filtering and rate limiting for FMGS position for more realisitic ND behaviour on ADIRU init completion - Open pax doors now have an effect on the temperature in the adjacent zone - Added option to always have the display brightness rotaries starting at the 80% position, even for cold and dark start - Functional on-ground deicing via the new ACP interactive screen to avoid nasty surprises during take-offs in icing conditions - Improved pushback truck - Added fuel truck animations for slow refueling via IACP. - Added Radio Navigation and transponder failures, including associated ECAM caution messages and PFD/ND flags - Reworked EMER ELEC ECAM, ELEC ESS BUSSES ON BAT, ALL ENGINE FAIL procedure Yes! the current Airbus A319 XP12 by Toliss is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Airbus A319 XP12 by Toliss Price is US$89.99 XP11 customers should see the $10.99 Upgrade price automatically when logged in to your account at the X-Plane.OrgStore. Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Current version : 1.7 (September 13th 2022) Airbus A321 XP12 Version 1.4 (September 22th 2022) Initial XP12 version release Still works in XP11 Major new features: - XP12 adaptations - Custom engine model for more realistic thrust and fuel flow values and new engine failure modes - Circuit breakers with accurate system response (Current over 100 circuit breaker available) - ACARS functionality for direct download of Simbrief plans into the active or the secondary flight plan - ACARS functionality to retrieve TO data for various runways of the departure airport - ACARS functionality to retrieve wind data from simbrief flight plan and enter them in the flight plan. - New ACP interactive screen to request ground services, change fuel or passengers without the ISCS. - EFB on captain on copilot side. (Currently featuring Avitab and weight and balance computer) - FMGS plan editing overhaul, enabling temporary flight plans also for the alternate plan - Database holds are now available (besides Pilot and computed holds previously available) - Offset function now available - Addition of new failure modes for a total of 210+ different failure modes, these include now recoverable computer failures - More than 70 new ECAM messages - Animated push buttons in the cockpit - Moving pilot seats and arm rests Minor new features: - VLS increases with speed brake deflection - Added (ETP) circle on ND to display the Equitime point - Option to control internal and external volume levels via x-plane sliders or custom ISCS sliders - Added Filtering and rate limiting for FMGS position for more realisitic ND behaviour on ADIRU init completion - Open pax doors now have an effect on the temperature in the adjacent zone - Added option to always have the display brightness rotaries starting at the 80% position, even for cold and dark start - Functional on-ground deicing via the new ACP interactive screen to avoid nasty surprises during take-offs in icing conditions - Improved pushback truck - Added fuel truck animations for slow refueling via IACP. - Added Radio Navigation and transponder failures, including associated ECAM caution messages and PFD/ND flags - Reworked EMER ELEC ECAM, ELEC ESS BUSSES ON BAT, ALL ENGINE FAIL procedure Yes! the current Airbus A321 XP12 by Toliss is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Airbus A321 XP12 by Toliss Price is US$89.99 XP11 customers should see the $10.99 Upgrade price automatically when logged in to your account at the X-Plane.OrgStore. Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows , Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 680 MB Version 1.4 (September 13th 2022) LFPG - Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport by TaiModels Yips! After only a few days after releasing OOMS-Muscat. TaiModel's is back again with another X-Plane 12 scenery release, updated this time... and also free if you have already purchased LFPG. This is the massive LFPG - Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris. This scenery package is now available for both X-Plane 11 and X-Plane 12. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (LFPG) also known as Roissy Airport is the largest international airport in France and Europe's second-busiest airport (after London Heathrow) in terms of passenger numbers. A quick look, says this scenery is SENSATIONAL in X-Plane 12, a must have for your collection! Features Completed inside terminal 3 High detail models SAM amination jetways High quality pbr texture on object and ground High performance All gates are modeled Detailed ground Detailed tunnel and night lighting Massive Completed autogen around airport (8GB of data) Support for X-Plane 12 and 11 LFPG - Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport by TaiModels s NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here: LFPG - Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport Price is US$28.50 Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 3.7 GB Current version: 5.0 (September 13th 2022) PAYA - Yakutat Airport, Alaska by NorthernSky Studios NorthernSky Studios contine with another Alaskan airport scenery. This time it is Yakutat Airport, which is a state-owned public-use airport located 6 km southeast of the central business district of Yakutat, a city and borough in the U.S. state of Alaska and of which has no road access to the outside world. This scenery package is available for both X-Plane 11 and X-Plane 12. Features: The most detailed replica of airport buildings and vehicles High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures High resolution building textures Handplaced custom autogen buildings and forest Compatible with X-Plane 11 and 12 features (both files included) Custom mesh for the airport area (Ortho4XP) All materials created for full PBR Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on all airport buildings High-resolution building textures Custom orthophoto for the airport and surrounding areas World Traffic 3 compatible (XP11) Compatible with with Ortho4XP and default mesh PAYA - Yakutat Airport, Alaska by NorthernSky Studios is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here: PAYA - Yakutat Airport, Alaska Price is US$12.00 Requirements X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 2 GB Current version : 1.0 (September 8th 2022) Aerobask Robin DR401 CDI 155 XP12 Aerobask has released an X-Plane 12 freeware aircraft in the Robin DR401 CDI 155 XP12 The Robin DR401 is a DR400 upgraded with a glass cockpit, larger cockpit, electric trim and flaps. You can check the Robin Aircraft history -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Aircraft This model features the 155HP CDI diesel engine, with its FADEC. X-Plane 12 version now available Main features : Accurate flight model by X-Aerodynamics. FMOD High Quality sounds by Daniela RC. Integrated Laminar Garmin G1000 PFD and MFD. Functional 3D cockpit, with VR ready manipulators. 3D model with high resolution PBR textures. Simulated FADEC test and Pre Heating. Windshield reflections. Optimized to save FPS. 8 stunning liveries + a white paint. What's new for X-Plane 12 ? New lightning to match XP12 specs New windshield and glasses for XP12 rain effect Tweaked flight model The Aerobask Robin DR401 CDI 155 XP12 is available for free from the X-Plane.Org here: Aerobask Robin DR401 CDI 155 XP12 Requirement X-Plane 12.00+ Windows/Mac/Linux. 4GB+ VRAM Recommended If you like this aircraft, don't forget our recent releases : http://store.x-plane.org/Aerobask_c_151.html More information from Aerobask: http://aerobask.com/ UPDATES Boeing 747-200 Classic by Felis X-Plane 12 Felis has done a partial update to the Boeing 747-200 to X-Plane 12 to v1.1.0.8. Note this is not an upgrade to X-Plane 12, just a quick update so the aircraft will fly in the new simulator version. Note images shown here are XP11. Version 1.1.0.8 (September 12th 2022) +++ LTN added +++ Doors LIT texture is now dims, when door is open +++ "Positive rate" callout fixed +++ Altimeters rotary works 2x faster +++ added a memorial placard for Charlie Crooks - the voice of FO. R.I.P. +++ fixed corrected runway calculation for TO performance (slope) +++ icing is now limited at high altitude to be more realistic +++ NAV radio receives actual radial from the VOR and corrects it according to current heading +++ fix crab angle calculations in INS +++ corrected dots data on HSI and AP, received from FMC +++ fixed clock's mode knob +++ Weather radar antenna now synchronized with pitch to keep it leveled +++ quick fix for XP12 compatibility. Still requires a lot of work here. +++ fixed flight controls. Needs tuning, but at least they work and acf can fly in XP12 Yes! the Boeing 747-200 Classic v1.1.0.8 by Felis Planes is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Boeing 747-200 Classic Price is US$70.00 Requirements X-Plane 11 - Now with support for X-Plane 12 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.2 GB Current version : 1.1.0.8 (September 12th 2022) Chudoba Design sceneries compatible with X-Plane 12 Chudoba Sceneries have updated four of their payware sceneries to X-Plane 12, one in VCRI - Mattala Rajapaksa Intl a freeware scenery has also been updated to X-Plane 12, all four airports noted below are available at the X-Plane.OrgStore. List of updated sceneries: LKPR - Václav Havel Airport Prague https://store.x-plane.org/LKPR--Václav-Havel-Airport-Prague_p_1506.html LBBG - Burgas Airport https://store.x-plane.org/LBBG--Burgas-Airport_p_1507.html HEGN - Hurghada Intl. Airport https://store.x-plane.org/HEGN--Hurghada-International-Airport_p_1264.html HEMA - Marsa Alam Intl. Airport https://store.x-plane.org/HEMA--Marsa-Alam-International-Airport_p_1300.html HETB - Taba Intl. Airport https://store.x-plane.org/HETB--Taba-International-Airport_p_1263.html GHD -Ground Handling Deluxe v5 for X-Plane 12 The ground handing plugin from JARDesign has had an update to X-Plane 12. v.090922 + X-Plane 12 compatible + Sets auto-update add + 3D object improved Notes are; "GHD first build for XP12 is ready. Work with default A330 and B737 for free, no registration need. The same with JARDesign aircraft(s). Registred version will work with many popular X-Plane airliners. XP12 version of GHD get new auto-update system for aircraft sets (allow download new or updated set in auto mode), updated 3D objects, improved set Editor. As for now - it already include sets for XP12 versions for default A330 and B737, FF aircraft, Felis 747, Toliss A340. We will add new sets (to out server) for XP12 versions of popular aircraft(s) as soon as we will see updates". Download link http://jardesign.org/gndserv/download/G … 130922.zip Yes! Ground Handling Deluxe by JARDesign is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Ground Handling Deluxe Price is US$14.95 _________________ All for now... 14th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

X-Plane 12 - Next Generation X-Plane Beta release "Early Access" The X-Plane Flight Simulator was originally released as X-Plane 1.00 back in 1995 which is now 25 years ago. Basically every 4-5 Years Laminar Research the X-Plane's developers releases another numbered upgrade version of the Simulator, the current version is v11 (v11.53) that was released originally back in March 2017. Each release is a new version and to use it, it will have to be repurchased, the cost of X-Plane 12 is US$59.95. But the initial cost also covers all development and any new features for that full version run, up until the next version is released in the development cycle in approx 4-5 years. Notable is that the US$59.95 payment will cover both not only the access to X-Plane 12, but also the current X-Plane 11 as well, which is good value for newcomers to the X-Plane Simulator. There is a process in numbered version releases. A first release is the Alpha release, a highly developed version only for the developers and third party developers to align the Simulator into a working model. Then comes this (current) public Beta release noted as an "Early Access". The "Beta" release is a public purchase version, so everyone can now access the new Simulator and it's new features. But it's not a final release, as it is still only a development release. So if you want a fully working X-Plane Simulator then this beta release version is not for you. The Beta will go though a few numbered upgrades as the development process works out the bugs and issues, but around say vb12.9 (usually two or three months), it with then go to a RC or Release Candidate version, usually there are two or three RC's in rounding up the final bugs and issues and then finally X-Plane 12 will go "Final", as the official X-Plane 12 Release v12.00. In the case of X-Plane 11, it was released as a Beta on Nov 24th 2016, and as noted went final in Mar 2017. In reality the Beta release IS the launch of the new version we now have here, the bugs and problems aside. In most X-Plane upgrade cycles in the past it took mostly only four years between each version, so to a point X-Plane 12 is late, basically by a whole year. That late aspect will hopefully translate into a much more fully formed beta version, as the X-Plane 11 version was quite buggy for a while (four months), so this time Laminar Research have had far more significant time on it's development (the Alpha stage release was as long ago as early March 22) to make it a more efficient and stable release. If your expecting a MSFS (Microsoft Flight Simulator) clone with X-Plane 12, then that is not what it is. The background to X-Plane 12 is actually unusual from past release editions. Earlier most version releases focused on new features and major simulator changes, like X-Plane 10 was a visual overhaul, and X-Plane 11 was a system (Vulcan/Metal API) overhaul. But X-Plane 12 is more focused on fixing up already current features by making them far, far more efficient and far, far more effective assets, in other words in American jargon "Upsizing". To put this X-Plane 12 version into perspective. It is to take all the current areas that needed attention, areas that have not been refined or of what simulator users have complained about for years, and then not just fix and address these areas, but make them MEGA, "blow them out of the water" so to speak, and in reality the success of this X-Plane 12 version rests on that aspect completely. The title of this article is "New Generation", and that means everything here has be refined and revised, but it is not a completely "wipe the table clean and let's start again" sort of aspect (like Microsoft did with MSFS), as the base of the simulator has already had a huge and significant recalibration from the older OpenGL API (Application Programming Interface) to the current Vulcan/Metal API, which under X-Plane 11 created those significant changes, but also set the foundation to build a lot or to allow the fundamental changes here in X-Plane 12. We will cover only the basics here, and over time X-PlaneReviews will do a more in-depth review of the most significant areas of the new release. So everything shown here are just the first impressions of X-Plane 12 with no refinement or in depth study of the particular areas. If you are not sure if your computer will run or just want to check out this new version of X-Plane. Laminar Research provide a DEMO version to download of X-Plane 12 that covers only the Portland area, the full version requires an Authorisation Key (number) and costs US59.95. Disk Boxed sets of X-Plane 12 will be released at a later date. Laminar Research have changed the X-Plane logo for a more coloured version. Starting up Starting up X-Plane 12 is significantly far faster in loading than X-Plane 11 (obviously that depends on the aircraft and scenery configuration you choose), but I feels it is far more responsive. My current X-Plane 11 start up time is 1m 18s (xEnviro disabled), a horrible 1m 36s with xEnviro active, so being able to disconnect (or not use) xEnviro already saves me a third of my startup time. X-Plane 12 however in start-up was a blazing 51.28s, with a custom scenery and the default XP12 Boeing 737-800, pretty impressive. Start-up screen is now different in X-Plane 12... It is far brighter start to X-Plane than the night landing shot in X-Plane 11 (Highlighting the Boeing 737-800), in X-Plane 12 it is a dawn (or sunset) runway shot with the new default Airbus A330-300. Changes to the Menu The Configuration Menu screen is almost a carbon copy of the Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) Config screen in design, and far more colourful and has a far more intuitive interaction. The links are exactly the same; Resume Last Flight, New Flight, Load Saved Flight, Flight School and Settings, but oddly it feels completely different while doing exactly the same interface job. If new to the X-Plane Simulator, the start-up programme will move to a "Quick Tour" demonstration, showing you an aircraft and a short flight on how to fly it. Changes are that the default airport is now KPDX - Portland and moved on from X-Plane 11's KSEA - Seattle. The default start-up aircraft is also new and changed as well... before it was the Cessna 172SP, now it is the Cirrus SR22. The menu configuration has changed, but in reality not at all? In changed we mean the look, but basically almost every menu page is basically and almost exactly the same as before. Note there is also a "B" on the graphic to denote that this version is the "Beta", version. Resume Last Flight, just loads the last configured flight. The rest load the configuration pages for; New Flight, Load Saved Flight, Flight School and Settings. As noted the layouts are exactly the same, but the Menu itself is now a lovely translucent, and it looks extremely nice, or again very MSFS 2020 in feel. Top banner Menu is exactly the same with no changes. Flight Configuration The "Flight Configuration" Menu is the same as before but now translucent with a nice grey background. Gone is the oppressive dark blue of X-Plane 11. It is a far more brighter happier interface with more colour on the "Weather" and "Time of Day" interfaces, although the layout is actually the same. Weather is not that vastly different as expected, there is now however a huge amount of altitude levels compared to the earlier three. Time of Day is the same. Selecting your "Location" is slightly different with initially only showing the selected airport runway layout, you now have to zoom in to see the start positions. We will go to the "Settings", pages for continuity. Again you can see they are mostly still the same but with the new translucent look. In line are General (settings), Sound, Graphics, Network, Data Output, Joystick, Keyboard, and VR Hardware. On the bottom of the General Page is the "About X-Plane", tab for the current version and Credits. Two areas to look at is the General & Graphic Settings. On the General Page only one item has been removed and that is the "Runways Follow Terrain Contours" option under the Flight Model. The Graphic Page left has had more changes. "Visual Effects" is gone to be replaced by two new sliders for; Ambient Occlusion Quality (SSAO) Rendering Resolution (FSR Supersample) The rest in Texture Quality, Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering are the same. Notable is that with the size of the options, the page has now to be slided (moved) downwards to get access to the Field of View section. Changes right side includes now five sliders; Cloud Quality Shadow Quality Rendering Distance World Objects Density (replacing Number of World Objects) Vegetation Density Tickboxes changed includes "Draw Shadows on Scenery" (replaced by slider), and "Use Vulcan driver for faster rendering", as OpenGL is now not used in X-Plane 12 (note; and neither with the OpenGL plugins). Still there is the "Draw Parked Aircraft" tickbox. Accessiblity, Monitor Configuration and Visual Offsets are all still the same. The rest of the Settings pages are also the same. MAP The MAP page layout is the same except for the new feature to show "ATC Boundries", the map has also a darker tint, grey surround and feels quite more like the earlier X-Plane 9. We will look at the ATC in the Air Traffic Control section. Scenery & Mesh Let's get to the most controversial item first... Photo-Scenery or Photogrammetry. Unlike MSFS X-Plane 12 still doesn't have real world photographic base for the simulator. There are several reasons for that. The biggest is that the MSFS photo-scenery engine is two petabytes of world map data, impressive, but you can't download and store 2 Pb as even one Petabyte is equal to 1,000 Terabytes on any standard computer configuration. So in MSFS it is streamed to you as you want it or use it. But most users want (even demand) X-Plane to be "Self-Contained" on your desktop. X-Plane 12 is a bigger at a 80.6 GB download (up from 63 GB), and that will still be a significant space on your hard-drive, worse as most of us use the far faster and more efficient SSD's, still the best compromise here is 2TB (Terrabytes) SSD of which I use (it is still all the best to have the simulator core and scenery on one drive for better usage). So Laminar have gone for upsizing the current scenery, rather than replacing it with photogrammetry tiles. So the scenery tiles have had significant attention to increase their internal data (mostly OSM - Open Street Map) in giving more data depth and detail. Yes the actual tiles have been refined, not only for more efficient loading, but to save frameweight, or less usage of framerate and faster loading and also have a more denser DEM (elevation) data for more mesh detail. And this is why since the introduction of X-Plane 10 the look and mesh data has remained the same. In X-Plane 12 you will need to reload all the Default Global Scenery (a refresh of this now very old data won't be a bad idea either). Portland as noted is the new Demo default scenery, and it looks very good (below). The "Landmarks", packages have been doubled, adding in Berlin and Frankfurt, Budapest, Los Angeles, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Saint Louis and San Francisco. X-Plane Landmarks - Chicago X-Plane Landmarks - Dubai X-Plane Landmarks - Las Vegas X-Plane Landmarks - London X-Plane Landmarks - New York X-Plane Landmarks - Sydney X-Plane Landmarks - Washington DC X-Plane Landmarks - Berlin and Frankfurt X-Plane Landmarks - Budapest X-Plane Landmarks - Los Angeles X-Plane Landmarks - Paris X-Plane Landmarks - Rio De Janeiro X-Plane Landmarks - Saint Louis X-Plane Landmarks - San Francisco Grass was a debated feature, and also not included here yet in X-Plane 12 in actual 3d as it is a significant highlight in MSFS. Which personally was my biggest gripe in covering over the low-resolution mesh that was an X-Plane feel, but not a good one. You may not get grass everywhere, but there are some excellent new grass textures as part of the Global Airport toolkit, and highly realistic and impressive they look, but it is a shame they can't be used Globally. Overall it is a step in the right direction. Ground Textures have also had a huge upgrade, runways, taxiways and some very, very nice edge areas. You could call this aspect now Custom Scenery Quality textures as there is a lot of grunge and more realistic ragged edges. To a point we have had third-party custom surfaces for years, but now the default ones should be even better and more realistic globally.... Impressed. One of the big advantages of MSFS's photogrammetry is that custom scenery will fit in better than X-Plane's landscapes. Exceptional (and cheap) CityScapes are available for MSFS, but still very far and few are available for X-Plane, which I see as a considerable drawback for the Simulator, only time will tell if third party scenery developers will now deliver the same products for X-Plane 12, for those requiring their real life VFR visual aspects to their flying, then the next year or so will be vital in this area, and to a point of even for the success of X-Plane 12 as a simulator. The Autogen (that uses the internal data) is also more dense now and you have a lot, lot more of it, certainly in structures, ports, warehouses, Oil/Fuel Tanks, industrial assets, lighthouses, golf courses, tennis courts and even grave yards. Shipping, coastal areas have had the most attention. So those core X-Plane assets and mostly of all of those files sitting in your Resources folder have had a significant overhaul. So you have a new aircraft carrier in the USS Gerald R. Ford class ship and the frigate. The sailboat is new as well. Ship detail is excellent, there are more new ships in X-Plane 12, but I have to find them... then I will add them to the ones seen below. First Scenery Impressions There are no details yet on which areas have had attention. I found some areas (Los Angeles and Australia) the same as X-Plane 11, however in the United Kingdom, I found the ground textures that are quite different in look and feel, and far deeper in colour, they look impressive. This is Cornwall UK. Note the excellent and more realistic cliff faces. Mountain mesh looks more detailed, but the better lighting helps here to bring out the detail, but overall I feel there has been an improvement. But you still have to accept the poor urban scenarios, no High Industrial, and still there are the huge blank areas to spoil the (LA) landscape... ... if your looking for MSFS landscape detail for VFR flying then it isn't here, as it feels still all very same X-Plane. Many X-Plane users note that scenery or the visual aspects are not high on their lists of why they will use X-Plane 12. But I disagree. As you need a wholly realistic environment to fly in, and certainly with the attraction to MSFS. But what you see here is not I believe the complete finished visual look of X-Plane, as to change a major component (like Laminar did back in X-Plane 10) would have say "pushed the boat out too far", this is an area you could say will be still under development during the X-Plane 12 version run, so I am hoping to expect to see another big feature based on scenery development mid-version of X-Plane 12. Trees and Fauna Notable in the images above are the trees. The trees (and fauna) are now all 3d and finally real quality 3d trees are here (so no more cardboard single or cheap crossed art trees). But not only are these trees brilliantly good in detail, but they now also move with the wind and change with the seasons as the seasonal rendering is dynamic and driven by the already installed (X-Plane11 updated) shader system, to which the shaders are also controlled by local data in latitude and time. Notable as the trees are more expanded in size, they are not clustered as tightly together as in X-Plane 11, and so the earlier very dense forests are more lighter to look at. Seasons Another big change in X-Plane 12 and desired for years (even decades) is "Seasons" in; Summer, Autumn (fall), Winter and Spring. With the help of those animated trees, then they will now change with the landscape to suit the season, upside down as well. In other words if you fly from the northern to the southern hemisphere, the seasons will switch to suit the local climate. Honestly I really love taking off in one environment and landing in another completely different season and environment. By living in Australia, that aspect gets highlighted a lot if you travel overseas or vice versa. So to have that aspect highlighted in X-Plane 12 is a really big highlight for me. A main point to note is not just the change of the seasons, but the FEEL factor. Notice below the warm conditions and the cold and stark conditions are very different and highly realistic. Very Impressed. As we have already covered, it is that these various separate areas can overlap into others, as with the Trees and Seasons to work together as a whole. Weather Yes they have complained about the old three tier X-Plane Weather and Environment system for years, or even for far longer. This is of course a major feature here in X-Plane 12 and in reality the biggest change to the look and feel of the environment around you. The one thing that really blew me away when sighting MSFS for the first time was the weather engine. It is a masterpiece of coding but it is not as effective dynamically. Here X-Plane 12 will have a big advantage. The weather system in X-Plane 12 has been overhauled totally from the ground up. And instead of downloading a large number of METARs local to airports and meshing them all together. X-Plane 12 uses centrally-processed NOAA GLIB files from the Laminar Research central server which will span the globe and be using weather data moving around in real time. This change will transition the simulator from a current slice-of-time approach using hourly reports to a forward-looking method based on algorithmic predictions. This change is expected to greatly decrease the granularity of data, improve real-time meteorological information in less traditionally underserved areas, and allowing for smoother real-time weather transitions in-flight and globally, not locally, so no more nasty jumps in weather changes as your flying. I found local (Australia) conditions to be perfectly replicated, and I'm impressed by the detail and quality of the conditions I can observe visually. In previous versions of the X-Plane Simulator, clouds were rendered as 2D objects (or little puffs). So to simulate 4D effects many of these objects would be drawn together simultaneously at the huge cost of simulator performance. Let us be honest here, all Simulator weather systems are heavy on your computer hardware, meaning your graphics card and there is no difference here. X-Plane 12 has and uses volumetric clouds using Ray marching to render cloud boundaries and calculate the position and the effect of individual water droplet clusters. This is Volume Ray marching, not Ray Tracing, which is faster and far more efficient. They look amazing! Note the excellent lighting strike, it is a long way from the hapless X-Plane10 lighting strikes. GLIB files here can create three-dimensional Precipitation, Wind, Air Pressure, Turbulence, Temperature models that translates to your visual and real-time weather system, it is like having your own little perfect environmental weather system around you now, and better on your framerate as well, but I haven't yet fully tested that aspect yet. But what I do see is fully three-dimensional (towering) clouds that move and reflect as real. The changes to the X-Plane to the X-Plane "Weather Settings" page is quite significant. As you know (if you read our reviews and comments) that I was a big fan of xEnviro. But lately have not been so much. In reality there has been nothing better to replace it (I don't like messing around with core files to make something else work). So is very excited to have a weather engine that can match it in volumetric clouds and lighting effects, not to mention losing the exceeedingly slow loading times. The biggest drawback was in two areas when doing reviews, horrible framerate use (sometimes 30 fr), but worse was the non-adjustable weather conditions that consistently changed as you did the review. Both aspects now gone in X-Plane 12, did I mention the horrible startup times... The weather aspect also cover other features. One is rain. MSFS was at it's release was highly lauded over it's rain effects, so Laminar has responded to that in several ways. First are the excellent wet ground effects (puddles) in high precipitation events, this aspect has already been highly promoted by Laminar and rightly so, you will head to airports just to splish-splosh your way though these excellent puddles, but so are the other climate effects that are graded to the seasons, such as snow and ice which is just as good, and thankfully global in application. xEnviro again had the same idea for a short time, and I loved it, yes I'm very excited about these seasons and the seasonal effects and now having seen them in X-Plane 12, I'm even more excited and coming into winter it will be a must used feature for me in X-Plane 12, Another aspect was rain. We had a plugin called Librain by Saso Kiselkov, but since Vulcan/Metal was implemented it didn't work. The plugin (code) was actually taken in-house by Laminar and has now been made a default feature (Laminar should do more of making good plugins default features), but here it is refined and now far, far better than the original idea, of which Laminar are very good at. The rain spots are visible externally as well as internally (but aircraft have to be converted to use the rain feature). Water Another yearly complaint was water. To be honest I always thought that X-Plane water effects (reflections) were not too bad, except were they went into an algorithmic pattern. But what the users really wanted was water depth, not waves per se. This was very visually visible if you lived in tropical areas (I do) in that the sand and coral changes the water colours at shallow depths. Flight Sim FSX has had a basic version of this effect for years but X-Plane never did, also important was the point the water meets the land, say a beach, as in that aspect it didn't look very realistic either. And so here now both of these water features in depth and transparency are now visually active, and very effective it is as well. The transparency effect is quite exceptional, but so is the water flow in calm and heavy seas. It looks extremely realistic and yes this is a computer simulation, not real world images, a shipping simulator would be as good as a flying simulator here. Many users on release complained (they always do?) that it wasn't good enough, well it is a far better than any of my expectations, but notable was in some areas in the interaction with shoreline were some very noticeable straight lines, it's in the beta fix box. Lighting The lighting system has been totally rebuilt to now include photometrics. The engine can now handle specifying the brightness of a light source either at the individual bulb level (as is common for aircraft) or as measured from outside of the lens covering the bulb (as is common for airports). As with everything here in X-Plane 12 areas crossover (one area can affect another) so the new lighting effects will effect on how the clouds behave in looking realistic, in how the cockpit is rendered (X-Plane 11 cockpits were impossibly dark) and the overall realism of the look of the simulator. It is important to note that the lighting engine has been moved to the Vulcan/Metal API's to access the Graphic Card far more efficiently and faster. X-Plane has had HDR (High-Dynmic-Range) for a while (X-Plane 11), but not a totally full HDR (there was still a lot of LDR - Low-Dynamic-Range also mixed in there). But here we now have a FULL HDR spectrum for our visual use. Or a scene-referred workflow which is one in which we manipulate our images prior to their transformation from camera color space to display the color space. So sky brightness to ground brightness has been highly improved and set to real world brightness and reflection levels. This fine tuning and in creating highly realistic water reflections has been the core (and the time consuming) area of the main lighting task of X-Plane 12. That aspect is also transposed onto the aircraft. Internally the nasty jaggies are gone, and replaced by clean sharp shadows. Externally the aircraft shine and are lit to perfection... so much more highly improved here. Notable however is that the colours are far more saturated than in X-Plane 11, but more internally than externally?, as I had to tone them down a little. Runway and approach lighting has been fine tuned to be authentic to real world brightness levels, to the specific ICAO specifications. And it shows are the approach lighting is highly realistic. But there is a problem with the reflection artificial lighting at night, as it is well over saturated and doesn't look at all realistic... Overall night lighting levels for airports has been reduced significantly to allow for more realistic dark surroundings to runways and taxiways. The direction of airport lighting is also being considered so that airports appear more akin to an "inky black void" when viewed from airliner cruise altitude. One area I have been excited about (but noted to be coming later in b1.1), is a non-completely dark sky, so as no matter how high you fly then there is still light (bleed), but most simulators cheat by just taking the full black night as a default. In reality the real world is not like that and it will be interesting to experience this real and more realistic night sky, certainly as you you fly long haul distances. But for now, it is very, very inky black at night. ATC One area that never felt or was even realistic, and certainly compared to Flight Simulator (all variants) is the X-Plane ATC or Air Traffic Control. This was hopelessly the worst aspect of X-Plane. Fixing it was just as bad, even internal Laminar coders (including Austin himself) have taken turns to try and fix it. In the end reason finally was reached in that it needed a professional coder to try to create a decent ATC. That job went to Jim Kier of the UK, whom created the FS version of Traffic Global. Accessing the new ATC in depth will of course take a separate article, of which I intend to do. The ATC layout is light years better that X-Plane 11. With both hard a surround and translucent panels for ease of use. The panel can also be adjusted for size, from large to very small as not to interfere with your flying... One thing to stress though is that this X-Plane 12 release of the ATC is not the completely finished feature. As basically the core is required to run and effectively and to be assessed before adding in any fancy extras. Notable is that already Improved ATC Speech and Pronunciation has already been implicated as long ago as 2018 with two voices in Joey (Male) and Salli (Female), but still this fully new coded ATC is in no doubt a huge step forward for Simulation, but expect more still coming to this specialised feature in the X-Plane 12's future. Sound Oddly enough "Sound" is new to X-Plane. You may laugh, but yes we have already had sound in aircraft and in the simulator. But what we are talking about here is "Ambient", sounds or background acoustics. In the lead up to the release of X-Plane 12, the one person that impressed me the most was Laminar's sound guru Daniela Rodríguez Careri. Daniela who came aboard Laminar Research around the middle of the X-Plane 11 run. Effectively Daniela has not really had an impact until now, but all that changes here with X-Plane 12. Not only does her work lift the quality of the sounds of the complete default aircraft fleet, but also is very significant in creating for the first time in X-Plane those background ambient soundscapes. Incredibly we thought you wouldn't need them around you until they are actually there. Now they create a more realistic environmental feel to the simulator, or a real world realism. Notable is that all FMOD in X-Plane12 is now v2.0. Notable is that a lot of FMOD v1 aircraft are not translating well to v2, and will need to be upgraded to work correctly. Again many third-party addons do already provide airport soundscapes (XPRealistic and Traffic Global to name two), but these are very sledgehammer style effects that actually can become quite annoying over time. Daniela's approach is more unique, so X-Plane not only looks different but actually feels different when using it. Again rustling trees and nice airport vehicle sounds are just the start as this will be a growing soundscape thoughout the whole of the X-Plane 12 run. Systems All aircraft in the X-Plane 12 world now cast wake turbulence, this means a wing cutting through the air in X-Plane 12 leaves a vortex in the air that swirls inward over the wingtip, and sinks slowly as it dissipates energy over time. Austin Meyers has also spent a lot of time in creating new areas of aerodynamics. Covered now here in X-Plane 12 is better flow and lift for (Supersonic) Delta wings, which is based on the vortex-generation based on the PLAN-FORM of the wing for delta wings, and Entrained Flow is also now simulated. Entrained Flow is usually around a fast-moving jet of air, and when the air nearby is then grabbed and dragged along and then speeding up the air all around the aircraft, in other words a boundary layer creating a vacuum. This effect can be seen when the horizontal stabilizer is jiggling around from the thrust of the engines. Anti-Ice is more in-tune with not only the aircraft's aerodynamic surfaces, but also the systems that the aircraft uses for Anti-ice prevention that is now more highly replicated via pumps and de-icing. Aircraft trim and balance is now also different, in loading weights of passengers and cargo. Instead of one set of weights, the different weights are now calibrated via different zones for more trim realism in the zone of inertia, just like on a real aircraft. In the same vein, hydraulic systems have also been separated in X-Plane 12 so multiple hydraulic areas like the individual flight surfaces can now be powered or failed, before it was singular, not multichannel. Trim Tabs vs Clean elevators can now be also diverged, as they react differently in dynamic flight. Flight Controls can also be separated (via two joysticks, or assigning a separate system to a yoke), and then it can be switchable to the other side if required. Throttle indents (Airbus) can be now assigned and thankfully now a fully working governor is now available for helicopter control. TACAN or TACtical Air Navigation, is a VOR station beacon that is mostly used by the military as it is smaller than the larger VOR array, now X-Plane 12 has TACAN identifiers for this use. GLS or GBAS and GNSS satellite approaches are now also available in X-Plane (12), for the use of the more popular RNAV approach which is a non-precision flight path. This should add in extra realism when using modern satellite based approach paths. Notable for all new default aircraft including above, their systems have had major upgrades (which can be used via PlaneMaker for any X-Plane aircraft). Biggest change is the MAP display in that it is now scalable (so no more tiny waypoint triangles). Default Aircraft The X-Plane 12 fleet is quite different this time around. In the past you usually got a banner aircraft plus a few upgrades to the existing fleet, but that is not the case this time around. There is of course still a brand new banner aircraft in this case an Airbus in the A330-300 (the Boeing 737-800 was the banner aircraft for X-Plane 11). But overall there are now 19 aircraft and the 8 aircraft denoted here in purple are NEW. The rest coming over from X-Plane 11 have all had significant upgrades to X-Plane 12 effects, textures and avionics. Airbus A330-300 Cessna Citation X Lancair Evolution Cirrus SR22 Grumman F-14 Tomcat Robinson R22 Beta II Piper PA-18 Super Cub Van's Aircraft RV-10 Aero-Works Aerolite 103 Beechcraft Baron 58 Beechcraft King Air C90B Cirrus Vision SF50 McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II McDonnell Douglas MD-82 Schleicher ASK 21 Stinson L-5 Sentinel Boeing 737-800 Cessna 172 SP Sikorsky S-76 A330-300 The Airbus A333 is the new primary banner default aircraft for X-Plane 12. For a default aircraft it is exceptional, but currently still comes with only a basic FMS. An authentic Thales System has been announced as in the works, notably it should be installed before X-Plane 12 goes final. Cessna Citation X Most exciting in this X-Plane release is the Citation X. This is one seriously nice aircraft, and has separate control systems (left and right) and it is extremely nicely detailed. Lancair Evolution EVOT-850 This Evolution is a direct copy of (Laminar Research) Austin Meyer's personal aircraft and you also get Austin Myer's himself in the pilot's seat. It comes with a powerful Pratt & Whitney PT6A-135A turboprop aircraft engine, 750 hp (560 kW) and G1000 Avionics. Cirrus SR22 The Cirrus SR22 is a single-engine four- or five-seat composite aircraft built from 2001 by Cirrus Aircraft. It is powered by a 310 hp (231 kW) Continental IO-550-N piston engine and G1000 Avionics. Again Austin Myer's himself is in the pilot's seat, and the aircraft is very popular with "Round the World" fliers. Grumman F-14 Tomcat Yes Mr "Top Gun" himself in the F-14 Tomcat is part of the new default aircraft list. The F-14 is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. Robinson R22 The Robinson R22 is a two-seat, two-bladed, single-engine light utility helicopter manufactured by Robinson Helicopter Company. Here it comes in two versions with skids or pontoons. Piper PA-18 Super Cub The Piper PA-18 Super Cub is a two-seat, single-engine monoplane. Introduced in 1949 by Piper Aircraft. Here it comes with the larger "Bush", tyres or "Tundra" option. Van's Aircraft RV-10 The Van's Aircraft RV-10 is a four-seat, single-engine, low-wing homebuilt airplane sold in kit form by Van's Aircraft. It is the first four-seat airplane in the popular RV series. It is powered by a Lycoming O-540 six-cylinder, air-cooled aircraft engine, 260 hp (190 kW) and G1000 Avionics. The "Extra Aircraft" folder has now been retired, this included the B52G, B747-100, C-130, Columbia 400, MD KC-10, Space Shuttle and the X-15. First Impressions of X-Plane 12 This article isn't a summary or even an in-depth evaluation of the new version of the X-Plane Simulator in version v12. It is just an overview of what X-Plane 12 delivers and the changes between the versions. But I will add in here my first impressions, even though I have had only minimal time using it. My computer specifications have been listed at the bottom of the article and all notes here are with those specs. First of all I wasn't expecting a dynamic change like you got with X-Plane 10 or X-Plane 11 as noted at the head of this article. X-Plane 12 delivers what we expected with the current features ramped up to over a 100%. Performance is excellent and far better than I expected. I think we are seeing the results of the switch over to the Vulkan/Metal APIs in a far more refined way. Startup and responsiveness is overwhelmingly far better. From startup X-Plane 12 feels far more better put together and that is a considerable achievement in the event of the massive internal changes here, and that it all comes with a significant weather overhaul thrown in. Do your changes like changing aircraft and location and the speed is really astounding and smooth, we say the word refinement and it is already very good here and still so early in a Beta phase is very good news for Laminar Research. Everything works together very nicely, this simulator is very nice to use. If you read my specs, you will see I am marginal on the Graphic Card, and you do feel the extra work put on the card in X-Plane 12. So that will be a priority area to upgrade, and so you won't get away anymore with a weak graphic card. But a slight refinement is still needed with blurry textures at these medium settings which is actually a mirror to the same in the early X-Plane 11 Beta. My framerate is improved by around 20 fr, but notable as noted earlier by being able to remove the xEnviro environmental engine, so averages are around 45fr-50fr on these settings. Notable is that I haven't done any fine tuning yet, so these settings are basically out of the box... and I am a very happy simulator user. On features there are too many I really like, I couldn't even pick out a favorite. The weather, lighting and seasons (really all one big feature) are simply excellent, and far better than what I saw in the previews. The fauna and trees are excellent as well, and you don't have the expected frame rate hit from them I was expecting. But to note the lighting (mostly night lighting) still needs a lot more refinement. Dynamics are very good, and you do now have that same MSFS sheen or polish that was missing from X-Plane. Aircraft and Custom sceneries are extremely impressive if you have spent the money over the years. Seasons are brilliant with amazing snow coverage as is the static ice and water effects and even the rain is highly improved. Default aircraft fleet are all really good and now in areas even custom payware quality, so you are getting excellent value for money just there. Water is highly impressive as well, but I feel there is still more refinement required, shore edges are in some places are straight lines and the translucency is excellent, but in areas it needs another element as notable are the visual ships hulls in the water, were in real life they would be hidden by the waters reflective surface. ATC - Air Traffic Control I can't yet comment on as I haven't used it yet, but again the feature looks impressive out of the box. I like the dual interface and window adjustments and it looks easy and nice to use and you can use the "Speak" button realistically, dynamically of course I will test it out. I really love the translucent interface and menus. It looks and feels modern, but the actual interaction in settings and menus are exactly the same, so there is no learning curve there. I found a lot of aircraft don't translate evenly from X-Plane 11 to X-Plane 12. Virtually everything will have to be adjusted or configured for the new simulator version, that said, when configured they are excellent in the new environment. A lot of older X-Plane 10... if all aircraft of a certain age are now sadly redundant unless saved by developers. We knew that new mesh and the VFR (Visual Flight Rules) visual aspects would not change with X-Plane 12. But seeing it in the flesh is very disheartening. It feels old and out dated, if you don't have any custom scenery it doesn't look good at all. At any altitude above 10,000ft it is fine, below it is not. I feel that Laminar is going in the wrong direction, but with no VFR improvement for over a decade it is starting to show. Without MSFS 2020, X-Plane could have got away with this aspect, with MSFS... it just can't anymore. You need to be able to see items on the ground replicating real world infrastructure, and that aspect is seriously missing here, a few landmark packages Austin are just not going to cut it anymore. I don't want to end this overview on a negative note, as the X-Plane 12 Simulator has so many, many positive aspects. We never expected X-Plane 12 to be a MSFS killer, as X-Plane is a totally different philosophy to MSFS. And in every area it really is a major version step forward, and certainly brilliant value for what you get. X-Plane 12 looks and feels far more realistic, more real life and more dynamic, certainly a big step upwards to being a qualitysimulator... Overall I seriously love it. X-Plane 12 Minimum Requirements CPU: Intel Core i3, i5, i7, or i9 CPU with 4 or more cores, or AMD Ryzen 3, 5, 7 or 9. (Those with other CPUs should try the demo before purchasing.) Memory: 8 GB RAM Video Card: a Vulkan 1.3-capable video card from NVIDIA or AMD with at least 2 GB VRAM If your system is borderline, we encourage you to try the demo first. The full version of the simulator will perform exactly the same as the demo—neither better nor worse. X-Plane 12 Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core i5 8600k or Ryzen 5 3500 or better, or Apple Silicon Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA or AMD with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better, or similar from AMD) Supported Video Cards: NVIDIA: NVIDIA GeForce 900 or newer, driver version 510 or newer AMD: AMD Radeon RX 500 or newer, driver version Adrenaline 22.2.1or newer Supported Operating Systems: OS X: OS X 10.15 or newer (e.g. Catalina, Big Sur, or Monterey) Windows: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit Linux: Varies If you want to run on Linux, you will need to try X-Plane on your distribution to see if it is compatible. We have developers using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and newer successfully, however we don’t provide support for specific distributions. We require the proprietary driver from NVIDIA to run X-Plane. We require the Mesa drivers, version 22.0 or newer, for AMD to run X-Plane. X-Plane 12 (Beta) is purchased directly from Laminar Research for US$59.95 and the download file size is 82 GB X-Plane 12 Price is US$59.95 _____________________ X-Plane 12 Beta release overview by Stephen Dutton 12th September 2022 Copyright©2022: X-Plane Reviews 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 M2 2TB SSD - Sound : Yamaha Speakers YST-M200SP Software: - Windows 11 - X-Plane b12.00 (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) All Rights Reserved

NEWS! - X-Plane 12 second wave updates and releases Laminar Research have already released b2 (Beta 2) of X-Plane12, and the dev notes are here, Known Bugs Incomplete or missing features in Alpha/Early Access: Master-external visual networking Water/land edges look terrible New XPLM APIs In progress features: Tuning lighting & fog LIT textures Performance VR holodeck lighting XPD-11214 Plane Maker CG/Lights/Tanks Position Markers Not Visible. XPD-12826 Joystick axis mapping symbols are missing. XPD-12879 Wake turbulence broken for 3rd party integrations. Bug Fixes Beta 2 Turned off in-app purchase temporarily. XPD-12932 Demo mode pop up text says Seattle not Portland. Beta 1 Rename of alpha 38 and Early Access launch. I found b2 to be far more stable and better than the X-Plane12b1 initial release, weird as not much is noted in the Dev notes, but it is certainly more refined? So keep that installer close as Laminar Research do further initial refinements to the new simulator version. X-Codr We noted X-Codr's Airport Enhancement Package for X-Plane 12 yesterday, Airport Enhancement Package X-Plane 12 On sale: $22.95 Price is US$$17.21 But now he has also released X-Plane 12 scenery with better effects (seasons and textures) for the new X-Plane version. KWYS - Yellowstone Airport and National Park - Price US$24.95 Telluride Regional Airport UHD - Price US$21.95 KEVV Evansville Regional Airport UHD - Price US$21.95 KMMH - Mammoth Yosemite Airport - Price US$19.95 Grand Canyon West - 1G4 - Price US$14.99 XPRealistic v2 RK-Apps have released the X-Plane 12 update of their effects application. It comes with a growing list of 40 realistic camera and sound effects, and now avialble for X-Plane12. NOTE... make sure you update to version v2.1.5, as this application has already had a bug update. XPRealistic Pro v2.1.5 by rk Apps is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : XPRealistic Pro v2.0 Your Price: US$34.99 SA 315B Lama XP12 The first custom helicopter for X-Plane 12 is Philip Ubben and Khamsin Studio's SA 315B Lama XP12. Completely redesigned flight model to reflect all XP12 changes and X-Plane 12 weather effects compatible The SA315B Lama is a light multi-role helicopter. It was developed by the French manufacturer Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale, now Airbus Helicopters) for the Indian Air Force. X-Plane 12 changes include; Completely redesigned flight model to reflect all XP12 changes and X-Plane 12 weather effects compatible and Support for the entire X-Plane 12 cycle including patches and possible updates. Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama XP12 by Philip Ubben and Khamsin Studio is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : SA 315B Lama XP12 Price is US$29.99 OOMS - Muscat International Airport, Oman by TaiModels This is the first fully new custom custom scenery for X-Plane 12 from TaiModels. Which is Muscat International Airport (IATA: MCT, ICAO: OOMS), formerly Seeb International Airport, is the main international airport in Oman and is located in Seeb, 32 km from the old city and capital Muscat within the Muscat metropolitan area. Features 4k textures High detail models SAM amination jetways High quality pbr texture on object and ground High performance Completed autogen around airport Ground traffic plugins( car and truck) Compatible with XP11 and XP12 Include weather texture in X-Plane 12 OOMS - Muscat International Airport, Oman by TaiModels is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here: OOMS - Muscat International Airport, Oman Price is US$21.00 FlightFactor A320 XP12 Extended Upgrade beta The Airbus A320 Ulimate has and Upgrade deal of US$20 to X-Plane 12. You can also purchase the Airbus A320 Ultimate in a X-Plane 12 configuration for US$89.95. This is the Ultimate A320 Simulation for X-Plane 12. The model has its own flight model and a system depth never seen before on any flight sim. The goal was to provide an experience as close to the real aircraft as possible. This XP12 version has been developed specifically for flight schools, with a list abnormals built to flight training standards. For the X-Plane 12 features, they include; New and rebuilt 3D-cockpit model Alternate law implementation Instant failure control Turbulence and intermittent aerodynamic effects FlightFactor A320 XP12 Extended Upgrade beta is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here: A320 Ultimate XP12 Extended beta Price is US$89.95 FF A320 XP12 Extended Upgrade beta Price is US$20.00 Requirements X-Plane 12 (or X-Plane 11) OS: Windows (64 bit) or Mac 10.14 (or higher) Processor (x86-64 Intel or AMD): 4-cores Intel Core I5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 2500X, Apple M1 not supported Video Card: GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 580 with 4 GB VRAM (8 GB recomended) RAM: 8Gb (16 GB highly recommended) Disk Space: 2 GB Last version: 1.5.0beta (6.09.2022) _________________ All for now... 8th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

NEWS! - X-Plane 12 Beta Early Access first developer notes It's out there folks... Laminar Research have released the X-Plane 12 Public Beta, noted as an "Early Access" via download only. The Download size is 80 GB, so I got that one spot on, but to get it up and running then drop a lot of the non-wanted scenery like Africa, Russia, China and S America, unless of course you live there. That brings it down to a 40 Gb loading, which for me took 4 hours to download. As the NDA's or legal Non-disclosure agreements came off, developers started dropping images and products, early notes include... Aerobask were quick with two announcements with first images of their coming Falcon 8x in X-Plane 12. But still no date of a release. Second was the Viper Jet eX for X-Plane 12 and noted as upcoming release of our new ViperJet, exclusively for X-Plane 12. Flight model, avionics, performances, sounds, 3D model... everything has been redesigned for XP12. Some XP12 screenshots, waiting for the features. 🙂 _____________ First X-Plane 12 aircraft for sale was from vSkyLabs with the Maule M-7-235B Project XP12 Early access version! Genuine aircraft for X-Plane v12.00 (beta). Two aircraft included (land and amphibian). Designed for X-Plane 12 cutting edge flight model environment. Superb flight dynamics with authentic performance and flight handling characteristics. Built for VR: development was tailored specifically for VR, and optimized for 2D usage. Engineered and designed as a genuine, default X-Plane 12 aircraft. The VSKYLABS projects are practically show-casing X-Plane 12, as they are stretching X-Plane default features, systems and flight model to its limits without any dependencies on complementary plugins or software...delivering a very robust simulation model, having maximum compatibility with the ever evolving X-Plane flight simulator. Yes! the Maule M-7-235B Project XP12 is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Maule M-7-235B Project XP12 Price is US$32.95 Requirements X-Plane 12 - Not compatible with X-Plane 11 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Current version: 1.0 (September 6th 2022) ToLiss has also released the X-Plane 12 version A340-600 V1.1.2 - with XP12 compatible files, notes include: We are now allowed to include the XP12 specific files, so with this version, you can power up the aircraft in the early access version of XP12 as soon as that is released. Of course, we did work on other things too, so here are a few nice new things: - ECAM action processing reworked to include overflow management and correct order of clearing items - Added Weight & Balance page to EFB (besides Avitab) - Added Radio Navigation and transponder failures, including associated ECAM caution messages and PFD/ND flags - Improved SID/STAR scrolling on departure and arrival MCDU pages The v1.1.2 X-Plane 12 version now available to download from the X-Plane.OrgStore, and already you will have the best airliner in X-Plane ready to go in X-Plane 12. Yes! the current Airbus A340-600 v1.1.2 by ToLiSS is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Airbus A340-600 by ToLiSS Price is US$89.99 Most accurate system functionality for any A340 aircraft in the flight simulation world Requirements X-Plane only - not available for MSFS Support for X-Plane 11 and now X-Plane 12 Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.2 GB Current version: 1.1.2 (September 5th 2022) ____________________ Airport Enhancement Package X-Plane 12 updated by X-Codr X-Codr has updated the "Airport Enhancement Package" to X-Plane 12 (Images shown are X-Plane 12!) Airport Enhancement Package has numerous features including: Almost all airport buildings replaced with new high quality models Majority of airport facades replaced with new high quality facades Majority of all ground clutter replaced with new high quality models All static ground vehicles replaced with new high quality models All airport objects such as runways lights, beacons, and navaids replaced with new high quality models All models feature advanced modeling techniques All models feature UHD textures between 2 and 4 pixels per inch All models feature advanced PBR normal maps for small details and realistic reflections All models feature advanced LODs to maximize detail while maintaining great performance Most models feature lite interiors to provide an added sense of depth and realism without the performance cost Legacy airport vegetation replaced with new high performance 3d vegetation to match X-Plane 12's 3d forests Marking and gravel/dirt pavement replaced with dramatically higher quality textures All ground textures feature ultra high resolution for great detail All ground textures feature realistic PBR normal maps All markings replaced with new high quality markings All ground textures feature "weather maps" to make use of X-Plane 12's weather effects system Limited Regionalization gives airports a unique feel In more rural and tropical areas more worn hangars are mixed in with the newer hangars found elsewhere winter All models match the default style as closely as possible, ensuring you see exactly what the author intended except in a much higher quality. Yes! the current Airport Enhancement Package XP12 by X-Codr is available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Airport Enhancement Package X-Plane 12 On sale: $22.95 Price is US$$17.21 Requirements X-Plane 12 and X-Plane 11 (both Packages included for the same low price) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM recommended Download Size: 2.1 GB Current Version : 1.2 (September 5th 2022) All for now... 6th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

NEWS! - Laminar Research releases X-Plane 12 Public Beta! Just under 6 years ago Laminar Research released the X-Plane 11 Beta on Nov 24th 2016. Here is the next numbered version of the X-Plane Simulator in X-Plane 12. Notable this is a Beta version and a digital download called "Early Access", not the full release of X-Plane 12, so expect a development run to "Final" of around three months, however this IS a public release at the cost of US59.95, a free DEMO version is also available to test your computer configuration and to try out (briefly) the next version of X-Plane. This Early Access digital edition is ideal for people who: Want to get started using X-Plane 12 immediately Have a reliable internet connection Have a computer that meets these minimum requirements Plan to use X-Plane only in their own home (see X-Plane for Professional Use for commercial use) X-Plane 12 Early Access includes: Universal platform support (Windows, Mac with Native ARM Support and Linux) Global scenery 19 high-quality aircraft with immersive 3-D cockpits Access to X-Plane 12 and 11 Free internet updates for all versions of 12.xx Highlights in X-Plane 12 include complete system overhauls for: Weather Lighting Trees & Fauna Seasons Water ATC - Air Traffic Control Sounds Systems And 7 new default aircraft Features Tropical Water Colors Gorgeous, geographically-aware water colors. 3D Forests and Vegetation Large variety of 3D trees with variation of species, size, and seasonal effects. They even sway in the wind. Ambient Sounds The entire world now comes to life with FMOD sound – birds in the forest, cars in the cities and of course, ground service vehicles. Tower Kit Custom suite of endless control tower variation, easy to use for maximal realism. Animated Jetways Jetways move to meet your aircraft when parked at the gate. Localized ATC Procedures/Voices Air Traffic Control follow regional procedures and accents around the world. Pavement Effects Airport artists can choose from a library of pavement effects to perfectly capture the look-and-feel of airports by setting level of cracking, oil spills, pavement material, and more. Volumetric 3D Clouds Immersive clouds to fully capture the sensation of flight. Real Weather Proprietary algorithms to turn data from the real world into X-Plane weather. Wake Turbulence Powerful streams of upset air left in the atmosphere by other aircraft – just like real life. Microbursts Small, powerful downdrafts – perfectly modeled with pilot training in mind. Thermals Terrain-generated updrafts that allow gilders to gain altitude without a tow plane. Snow, Rain and Ice Accumulation Precipitation now accumulates on surfaces, freezing or thawing based on temperature. X-Plane 12 Minimum Requirements CPU: Intel Core i3, i5, i7, or i9 CPU with 4 or more cores, or AMD Ryzen 3, 5, 7 or 9. (Those with other CPUs should try the demo before purchasing.) Memory: 8 GB RAM Video Card: a Vulkan 1.3-capable video card from NVIDIA or AMD with at least 2 GB VRAM If your system is borderline, we encourage you to try the demo first. The full version of the simulator will perform exactly the same as the demo—neither better nor worse. X-Plane 12 Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core i5 8600k or Ryzen 5 3500 or better, or Apple Silicon Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA or AMD with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better, or similar from AMD) Supported Video Cards: NVIDIA: NVIDIA GeForce 900 or newer, driver version 510 or newer AMD: AMD Radeon RX 500 or newer, driver version Adrenaline 22.2.1or newer Supported Operating Systems: OS X: OS X 10.15 or newer (e.g. Catalina, Big Sur, or Monterey) Windows: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit Linux: Varies If you want to run on Linux, you will need to try X-Plane on your distribution to see if it is compatible. We have developers using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and newer successfully, however we don’t provide support for specific distributions. We require the proprietary driver from NVIDIA to run X-Plane. We require the Mesa drivers, version 22.0 or newer, for AMD to run X-Plane. X-Plane 12 (Beta) Early Access is purchased directly from Laminar Research for US$59.95 X-Plane 12 Price is US$59.95 A detailed release summary is coming very soon, so check back on the site regularly for coming X-Plane 12 updates as we delve into the exciting new chapter of the X-Plane Simulator. ____________ NEWS! by Stephen Dutton 6th September 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All rights reserved.

Behind the Screen : August 2022 You know the cartoon image. It is the one with the guy in rags that is crawling through the very hot desert to see an oasis, a few palm trees and water in the middle of nowhere... is it real or is it a mirage? It looks real but you know it could disappear or fade away in an instant.. At this point Laminar Research's X-Plane 12 beta release feels very much like that, real or not. Well it is coming and very, very soon, but you still have the feeling that any moment it could be taken out of your grasp... again, just fade away for another promised day, like NASA shooting for the moon... the point is when do you start to feel it is not worth it all? August was a desert month, reviews were very thin on the ground because all or any new releases are now so far and in-between. There are two causes for that. One is the Northern Summer holidays, or six weeks of extreme heat, no water and bush fires, again welcome to our usual Australian climate, only we are just used to it year after year, and here it just goes up in temperature a few clicks every year because of the climate change. Second is of course the long draw out drama of X-Plane 12, and it's beta release. Your a developer right, you have a big project bubbling along, but that will be only a X-Plane 12 release and slated for say the end of the year or early 2023 (yipes 2023!). The rest of your current X-Plane 11 fleet are ready and converted to X-Plane 12, but remember X-Plane 12 is still only a beta and changes could still be coming... But anyway the fleet is done and ready for the release of the next generation of the Simulator because you had a testing Alpha since early March, that will at least have you ready, well sort of. Then the X-Plane 12 development drags on and on? You can't switch to release the new project early as it is slated only for X-Plane 12, and you can't do anything anymore with the old fleet either because they are all up to date as well, so in reality you have nothing to release. So you just go to the beach! So do expect a profusion of quick releases of upgraded aircraft (that is the ones you have to pay to upgrade) because it will make quick money for the developers when the Beta is released, but it will also give you a full featured aircraft in X-Plane 12 to fly quickly. Important to note is that these upgrades are not just for the new X-Plane 12 features, but they also include updates for the next four years or so of the X-Plane 12 run, or the regular servicing of the aircraft you use... well regularly. This upgrade caper crept in at the X-Plane 11 release with a few developers taking the plunge, and considering that X-Plane 11 ran for just under 6 Years, it was in hindsight good value for your US$30 or so. But this time around with X-Plane 12 there are certainly many times the X factor in top quality aircraft and developers, as to the few that switched over from X-Plane 10 to X-Plane 11, so there will be far more to upgrade (or expense) this time around. I can see the roadmap for X-Plane 12. September means that everyone will be finally back at their desks, including the Laminar Research staff, then three clear months to work though the Beta problems for a "Final" release just before Christmas, and then you are ready for another "Happy Holiday's", it is all too well thought out really, so you really wouldn't want a spanner thrown in the works would you... I yet don't have (to this article date) X-Plane 12 (beta) because I want to see the whole complete package and installation, mostly to compare the same with X-Plane 11. The Alpha download would always be the minimum set up, and even with components missing, so you can't put them side by side. Another difference is that the loading size will this time have to include the "Global Scenery" at 61.6Gb. In X-Plane 11 you could just switch it over directly from X-Plane 10, or load in X-Plane 11 without the global tiles (Update Scenery) for a quick basic (Demo sized) up load, then move the Global Scenery folder across to the new version (along with your Custom Scenery, Aircraft and Plugin Folders). I am hoping the tiles if not changed in the landscape visuals, do have however more significant data built in (a sort of HD by alpilotx version as default), but anything better than the current 11 year old mesh? but I am not hoping for much there. Let us be clear. I'm not getting my hopes up for a significant change from X-Plane 11. Yes there will be areas of "Wow", but nothing like we had in X-Plane 11 and certainly not like the massive changes we had back in the X-Plane 10 release. In testing the XP12 Beta, Laminar (bravely) released a testing video: Ten Hours of Flight in X-Plane 12 – Timelapse Unlike images that can be creatively angled and lit, video can be very stark, the same difference between live television and film, although more modern television drama is now more quality than film. But you know what I mean, in television it has that stark feel to it. X-Plane is like that as well. I have very rarely used X-Plane in it's basic form. the one with 130 framerates, basic default aircraft and virtually never with the Global airports. It is a stark world there. But that is the one I was watching in the video. Oddly most users fly like this as well, because it is free, but it's actually not very realistic either. And flying just over Texas for ten hours is very boring as well, as there is not a lot of visual change going on here or there. So here come the comments, just from that video. "I hate those clouds!", and "It's black at night!". One THOSE clouds were run in real time in one area, so they won't change much in 10 hours, and two THOSE clouds were running in a timelapse video... "Duh". But I am going to note the night blackness. If this is the case with X-Plane 12, then I hope during the Beta run that the night environment is addressed. If correctly Laminar boasted that the lighting in X-Plane 12 was configured to real world lighting conditions, and that SHOULD include night time lighting seepage as well. So I'm with the hoards on this one, and also because more importantly to me, is that I do a lot of overnight long-haul flying. If this is the case then I would be quiet vocal about that in wanting that night lighting feature addressed and quickly. However you could note it could be just a feature currently switched off for testing. MSFS (yes I know) does have light seepage at night effects, and another reason to quickly fix it, that night lighting would be top of my Beta list Ben. So my conclusion of X-Plane 12 will be only after all my do, da's and effect tuning is done, and that will be interesting. I truly hope to drop a few plugin's as well, certainly xEnviro which has been a pain for the last year, but also a nasty framerate killer as well. But I am also wondering or fear which plugins and aircraft I will lose in the changeover process as well? Download size, I think we will soon find out, but my bet is on 80Gb more or less. Most users will say, "Oh I will fly my past aircraft in X-Plane 11 anyway". But how long will that last, a few months? I found once the new shiny, shiny one is out, then the former version is very quickly made redundant, rarely do you want to go back there or even use the old version, as you will quickly convert over to the new, better new. We'll keep you updated on what we feel is the best and worse of the release, but I know in a month it will still be basically X-Plane, and not the new MSFS as many are expecting. Thoughout August as well X-PlaneReviews lost our header animation. Invision did an update that did more damaged than solve old ones, including the image formatting, so it looked sadly broken for the whole month or was it months. Anyway it's (finally) fixed with a 3rd party plugin. Because it is a custom plugin you now have more options and features, so we will work with them and see what we can do to make access more intuitive. Also because the X-Plane 12 is coming (or now here), there is also now a dedicated X-Plane 12 thread on the banner, so for anything new and related to X-Plane 12 it will go in there. Finally we had a site failure, or server failure after a particularly nasty electrical storm on the past weekend, and "crack", and everything went down for a few hours. The X-Plane.Org went down as well for the same period. Obviously we are back, but these things still make me nervous as there is nearly a decade of work on this site, all could have gone in a puf in a single brief moment, but we have a mirrored back up don't we? We do don't we! See you all again next month Stephen Dutton 5th September 2022 Copyright©2022 X-Plane Reviews

NEWS! - Scenery Released : LEZL Sevilla, San Pablo, Spain ( Airport and City) by Virtual Design Virtual Design have released LEZL Sevilla in San Pablo, Spain. Aeropuerto de Sevilla also known as Sevilla Airport, is the sixth busiest inland airport in Spain. It is the main international airport serving Western Andalusia region in southern Spain, and it's neighbouring provinces. The airport has flight connections to 42 destinations around Europe and Northern Africa, and handled 7,544,473 passengers in 2019. It serves as a base for the low-cost carriers Vueling and Ryanair. It is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of central Seville, and some 110 kilometres (68 mi) north-east of Costa de la Luz. The scenery package includes not only the airport, but the main city buildings of Sevilla as well. The package is also Orbx Spain South compatible as well. MAIN FEATURES Extremely detailed and realistic recreation the real Airport. Ambient occlusion in main textures. (PBR) Specular maps for objects and ground poly Buildings highly detailed. Custom animated jetways .custom texture . Custom runways and Taxiways (Reflex normal map). Custom taxilines, borderlines and ground markings. HDR lighting with custom night textures. Animated walking people. Animated passengers boarding aircraft. Customized forest and vegetation 3D(Grass,Palms,plants). Custom surrounding areas. Customized models for traffic vehicles to terminal. Global Traffic compatible. Spain UHD compatible. Airport Visual System (AVS) compatible. Orbx_EU_Spain_South_TE_Airports compatible. City buildings: Helipuerto La Cartuja. Catedral de Sevilla. Plaza de España. La Giralda. Archivo General de Indias. Torre de Sevilla. Torre de la Navegación Schindler. Pabellon de la Navegacion. Torre de Triana. Plaza de toros de la Maestranza. Universidad de Sevilla. Estadio Benito Villamarín ( Real Betis) . Puente Alamillo. Hotel Alfonso XIII. Estadio de Sevilla. Estadio Olimpico De la Cartuja. Currently as an release offer... LEZL Sevilla, San Pablo, Spain ( Airport and City) is available for 40% off at US$11.99, so be quick! Images are courtesy of Virtual Design __________________ Yes!... LEZL Sevilla, San Pablo, Spain ( Airport and City) by Virtual Design is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : LEZL Sevilla, San Pablo, Spain ( Airport and City) Price is On sale US$19.90 - Now $11.99 Requirements X-Plane 11 or X-Plane 12 (when available) Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.2 GB Current version: 1.0 (September 2nd 2022 ___________________________ News! by Stephen Dutton 3rd Sept 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

NEWS! - Aircraft Update - F-16C Block 52+ Interceptor v1.5 by DeltaWing Is it REALLY worth noting a single digit increment and only two changes? In this case yes because v1.5.1 of DeltaWing's excellent F-16 Fighting Falcon + Interceptor is now available for VR or Virtual Reality, second change is the addition of a AI F16C model, or a Artificial Intelligence version of the F-16 which is secondary aircraft you can fly against in the X-Plane Simulator. Obviously having VR in this close but tight combat aircraft has to be a brilliant simulation, almost the real thing... check out the video. The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multi-role fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multi-role aircraft. Over 4,600 aircraft have been built since production was approved in 1976 The first Block 50 F-16 was delivered in late 1991; the aircraft is equipped with improved GPS/INS, and can carry an additional selection of advanced missiles: the AGM-88 HARM missile, JDAM, JSOW and WCMD. Block 50 aircraft are powered by the F110-GE-129 while the Block 52 jets use the F100-PW-229. The v1.5.1 includes these two new but highly important additions, Version 1.5.1 (September 1st 2022) -VR -AI F16C model Current Features: Custom Air to Air weapons (Aim-120, Aim-9) 8 free highly detailed real world F-16 liveries plus our house livery. (many more free to download from org) Highly detailed 3d exterior model Highly detailed 3d cockpit model Highly detailed 3d pilot figure with options for his appearance and helmet type VR capable AI Fighting Falcon Custom HUD Custom Air to Air Radar Custom selectable action camera angles. Custom JHMCS HUD Dual Custom MFD displays with pop up option Custom programmable DED Custom remove before flight objects Almost every possible animation in and out of the plane Tailhook Real sounds 4K textures Realistic startup sequence Custom particles system Custom cockpit lights Custom external lights Customised payload that includes : Optional wing smokers Optional wing fuel tanks Optional centerline fuel tank Optional centerline travel pod Optional CFT fuel tanks Support is for both X-Plane 11 and X-Plane 12 The F-16C Block 52+ Interceptor v1.5.1 can be updated by going to your X-Plane.OrgStore account and downloading version 1.5, Skunkworks updating as noted is now also available. Purchase details are set out below, and be also X-Plane12 compatible straight out of the box... exciting! _______________________________ Yes! the F-16C Block 52+ Interceptor v1.5.1 by DeltaWings is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : F-16C Block 52+ Interceptor-DeltaWing Price is US$45.00 Requirements X-Plane 11 - Support for X-Plane 12 when available Windows, Mac or Linux 4 GB VRAM Minimum - 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1 GB Current version: 1.5.1 (Sept 1st 2022) Support forum: https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/forum/585-deltawing-simulations/ https://deltawingsim.com/ ________________  NEWS! - Aircraft Update by Stephen Dutton  15th June 2022 Copyright©2022 : 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) All rights reserved

NEWS! - Scenery Release : URMM - Mineralnye Vody, Russia by Xenomorph Last year Xenomorph released a few interesting Russian airports for the X-Plane Flight Simulator, including UHSI - Iturup airport and earlier USRR - Surgut. Mineralnye Vody is a town in Stavropol Krai, Russia, located along the Kuma River and the main rail line between Rostov-on-Don in Russia and close by Baku in Azerbaijan, on the peninsular separating the Black Sea from the Caspian Sea. Mineralnye Vody Airport to which "Mineralnye Vody" literally translates to Mineral Waters is an airport in Stavropol Krai, Russia located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Mineralnye Vody. It features a civilian terminal area on its west side with 41 parking spots. The airfield houses also a Tupolev Tu-154 maintenance facility on the eastern side. Features Many custom objects (with a high degree of detail) High Definition Photo Background PBR textures of surface Static objects on the apron Animated vehicles Good FPS optimization Great night lighting Included with this X-Plane version... - New ortho - New coverage of everything: apron, taxiways, surrounding areas with PBR effects - New marking lines, as well as new parking spaces, taking into account the latest changes on the apron - Added some new models - Replaced fences - Improved vegetation with optimization of its rendering - new night lights scenery included Images are courtesy of Xenomorph __________________ Yes!... URMM - Mineralnye Vody, Russia by Xenomorph is Available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : RMM - Mineralnye Vody, Russia Price is US$14.00 Requirements X-Plane 11 - X-Plane 12 (When Available) Windows, Mac or Linux 4GB VRAM Minimum - 8GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 706 MB Current version: 1.11 (August 29th 2022) ___________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 30th August 2022 Copyright©2022: 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) All Rights Reserved

Text conversion: Dear Developer: Hi, if it is possible for the user to paint, I hope you can send me a PSD-like document so that the player can make changes to the painting. I would appreciate it if you could tell me how to make it and help!