Stephen

News! - G1000 GPS from Carenado first images Carenado has published its first images of its Garmin G1000 GA gps system for X-Plane. Yes finally we will have a full avionics suite of the G1000 in Careando aircraft. Carenado have noted that they won't release the G1000 suite unless it was the best G1000 avionics pack for X-Plane and no time reference was noted in that "It will take as long as it takes" So any release (The aircraft here in the release images is the "Skylane") is going to be an event... The Stationair is also a noted G1000 user and so is the Cessna Caravan Executive series... yes please. Images are courtesy of Carenado© Developer site : Carenado.com Stephen Dutton Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: 24th July 2015

I think it is a bug on the aircraft (JARDesign) not a store issue... the view you have is to stop anyone copying the files.

Yes I have had that!, I means the aircraft is not registered, It does not matter if you have the correct key, try reloading the aircraft from the download file or ask for a new active key.

News! - More UHD Mesh regional Scenery tiles released There are now a new sets of additional regions UHD Mesh to be enjoyed. They are: Northern Washington state (west of the already existing Montana UHD region)Canadian Rockies (between 49N and 55N ... from the Pacific to the plains around Calgary - quite a big area )Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden)Pyrenees in EuropeThey are all using - just like before - 30m / 1sec resolution data (either from Viewfinderpanoramas / NED or SRTM) and much higher resolution triangle mesh to be able to use all that detailed data. One "difference" is, that the new regions are based on newer Openstreetmap data (from around end of April 2015). Alpilotx notes : "Important: Because of this, the "UHD Mesh Scenery v1" Scenery is very heavy on hardware resources and will only run smoothly on modern, higher end PCs. Its very important - before even considering a download - to have at least 16 GBytes of RAM and a modern / powerful GPU! Especially when activating the new, "extended DSF" feature in X-Pane 10.40, the RAM requirement might double!" For more information then go to the X-Plane Scenery site : Alpilotx.net Stephen Dutton X-Plane Reviews© 23rd July 2015

No your not going crazy unless you try to taxi and park the aircraft

News! - Digital download is available for X-Plane Now you can download the full X-Plane simulator online. Not required anymore is the DVD pack and to insert a DVD (Disk 1) or USB - Unlock key to run the simulator. The digital download is the same app as the DVD version… it just comes with a unlock-CODE (product key number) instead of an unlock-DISC. The X-Plane Simulator software is available Mac, Windows, and Linux. X-Plane will still cost the same at US$59.99 same as the DVD package but less the postage costs. But you have to factor in the download cost of the 60GB download of the default mesh scenery, you however don't have to download the scenery in one go, but on an as need to install basis. But you will need to download a basic starter set of scenery to fly in X-Plane. You can use your digital download product key to add scenery to X-Plane at any time by re-running the installer, picking “Add and Remove Scenery” and entering your digital download product key; you will need an internet connection to get additional scenery from the Laminar Research server. If you already use X-Plane10, you can get the product key number to replace the DVD and USB lock codes, which makes X-Plane10 easier to use without lugging around a disk drive or having a USB clogging up a slot. Full information here : X-Plane Digital Download Stephen Dutton Copyright : 22nd July 2015 X-Plane Reviews

I don't fly online in Vatsim, but I can't see why not? try the X-Plane.Org B777 support forum. SD http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?s=2c841fa5f578a8f5f994f1eabf8535cd&showforum=152

Do you use a Saitek system? It is a known problem on those joysticks. Yes I had that problem and have referred it to Carenado, note it on the X-Plane.Org Thread. http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?s=cdc9ae51c5d0d9ea8992415dd9303c90&showforum=106

Laminar Research releases beta 10.40b6 Beta 10.40b6 is now available on your X-Plane Installers. The beta 10.40b6 is not really a beta update at all except for a few small fixes (below), but an update to allow the new X-Plane Digital Download to be active in the simulator. 10.40b6 notes are: Fixes for Beta 6 Screen saver disabled on Linux – user contributed code.Restored exporting parts as objects one-at-a-time in Plane-Maker.Improved time to load Quick Flight dialog box.Removed bogus OpenGL driver warnings on OS X that were scaring users.Run the installer and have the beta checkbox ticked to update to 10.40b6 (Steam users cannot update betas). X-Plane Developers Blog : http://developer.x-plane.com/ X-Plane Reviews : 21st July 2015

FSWidgets GMapHD for Mac and EFB for Mac have been updated with the main focus being significant changes to the User Interface (UI) to support the gorgeous Retina Mac screen. Several Mac models now sport a Retina Display (iMac 27", Macbook Pro and the new ultra-thin Macbook) so the need for interface elements to use sharp graphics becX-Plane.Org - FS Widgetsomes much more apparent. The apps now include images and icons in standard resolution (for non-retina Macs) and crisp high-resolution (@2x) images. Mac OS X automatically loads the correct asset depending on the screen resolution and the results are astounding if you have a Retina Mac. These new versions are now also signed with our Mac Developer ID to support the Mac OS X Gatekeeper protection when set to "Mac App Store and identified developers". The refreshed UI was also applied to standard resolution screens so these updates are for everyone, and of course they are free for all registered users. Full details and screenshots for each product available here: iGMapHD for MacEFB for MacX-Plane.Org Thread: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=87625 X-Plane Reviews : 21st July 2015

Aircraft Review : Diamond Star DA40 by Alabeo Single engine aircraft with four seats that has excellent performance is the most fought out category for the General Aviation market. To be successful you have to deliver an aircraft that is capable in delivering exceptional results and with low flying service costs. For many in this market it is known as a Sport's Cruiser. Diamond Aircraft of Austria hit the mother lode with the introduction of the DA20 Katana two-seater sports that first flew in 1991. It was a no-brainer to enlarge the aircraft to four seats and add in more performance and with that you have the Star DA40 which is powered by initially as the DA-40-180 and powered by a fuel injected Textron Lycoming IO-360 M1A engine. The certification route was a bit messy in first there was the Rotax 914-powered prototype DA40-V1, registered OE-VPC, which first flew on the 5 November 1997 and that aircraft was followed by a second prototype DA40-V2 (registered OE-VPE) which was powered by a Continental IO-240. In 1998 a third prototype DA40-V3 flew powered by a Lycoming IO-360 engine (our version). Four more test aircraft were produced followed by the first production aircraft in 2000. JAR23 certification of the IO-360 production variant was obtained in October 2000. In 2002 the production of the Lycoming-engined variant was moved to Canada and the Austrian factory concentrated on diesel-engined variants. But performance for an aircraft of this size is very good in with the: Cruise speed: 150 knots (173 mph, 279 km/h) - Range: 720 nm (828 mi, 1,341 km) - Service ceiling: 16,400 ft (5,000 m) - Rate of climb: 1,120 ft/min (5.69 m/s); and a Power/mass: 0.06802 hp/lb (110 W/kg). But the DA40's most claim to fame is that the aircraft has accumulated a very low accident record, particularly with regard to stall and spin accidents. Its overall and fatal accident rates are one eighth that of the general aviation fleet and include no stall-related accidents. The level of safe operation is attributed to its high aspect ratio wing, low wing loading and benign flight characteristics. The DA40 has shown to have a fatal accident rate of only 0.35/100,000 hours, which the lowest in US general aviation and considerably better than the Cirrus SR20 and SR22 with a combined fatal accident rate of 1.6/100,000 hours, despite its built in full aircraft parachute system. By comparison, the Cessna 172 has a fatal accident rate of 0.45/100,000 hours. Alabeo Diamond Star DA40 In X-Plane their is no doubt there going to be comparisions to Aerobask's excellent DA42 Twin Star. But in reality it is an altogether different aircraft, because for one the DA42 has two engines but secondly it is also an all glass cockpit. So the DA40 from Alabeo is a more basic machine than menu driven DA42 and that if you like a more standard (if slightly older) approach to flight may find this aircraft more to their needs. The composite smooth style makes the aircraft look smaller than it actually is. The DA40 is a full four-seater aircraft, but a highly modern design. The standard of quality from the Carenado/Alabeo design houses are as expected excellent, we can always become a bit non-plussed about the quality of aircraft available today for X-Plane, quality is well up to the usual high standards from wheel fairings to the long sweeping wings, the top fuselage antenna to the intricate door latches, and everything comparable to real world DA40s. The reflections, shading and light sourcs on the exterior of the aircraft are excellent. Menus are standard Carenado/Alabeo. You have two tags lower left of your screen one ( O ) is "Options" and the other is ( C ) for Views. ( O ) Options menu consist of include the opening and closing of the doors in "Pilot Door", "Passenger Door" and are backed up by 'Shift + ' key options. You have the choice of being able to toggle the reflections of the instruments and windows as well and the "Static Elements" in wheel chocks and cones which are excellent. Extra features include the option to have open wheels or fairings, which are so good I left them on as the aircraft looks really naked without them. You can now also select your livery from the menu as well, which is a great speedy way of getting the right livery quickly. There are two versions of manipulators for scroll or ordinary mice action, when the scroll feature is on it will illuminate the item to be activated, I use a standard (apple) one click mouse so it doesn't work for me, so I turn "scroll off". ( C ) views are the second menu options. In Views you can select ten different types of views in the upper menu, which is very handy in moving inside or outside of the aircraft and looking at different aspects of the panel equipment. Other adjustments here include your "Point of View" and sound "Volume". Internal Exceptional interiors are always welcome, and this leather tanned cockpit is very, very welcoming. Beautifully done, detailing is exquisite as early Alabeo cockpits where once darkest of murky dark, but now they are perfectly lit... nice. With no power the panel is a very basic flying machine with basic instruments, nothing a cadet could not handle. Turn on the battery and the panel has a more modernistic approach. Dials and screens are highly detailed and very readable with simply excellent realistic reflections. The centre long pedestal has the basic levers you need in up top: Cabin Heat, Defrost and two position brake. Lower central is the: Throttle, Propeller and Mixture (Rich/Lean) and a three way fuel selector. Rear is your (large) trim wheel, Hobbs counter and audio headset inputs, which are also very realistic. The panel is really that in being a surprise, just basic instruments and not two (or three) large menu driven screens across your view. The lovely rudder pedals are (moving) cable connected and they in some respects completes the cockpit's very gliderish look with those joysticks sticking out of the front of the seats and the hooded panel. The glareshield top surround drops down with the large front canopy (rear passenger door is only on the left) and this is so well done. The pilot left gets all the instruments with the standard six instruments ( Airspeed Indicator, Attitude Indicator or Artificial Horizon, Altimeter, Turn Coordinator and Vertical Speed Indicator) are all very large and easily readable with VOR OBS and NDB direction dials. lower panel is a selection of rocker switches that cover the - Pitot, Landing (landing lights), Taxi, Position, Nav Lights, Strobe, And a key turn starter switch. ESS Bus, Avionic Master, Fuel pump and Main Power in Master and Instrument. Three position flaps (Up, speed 108 KAS and 61 KAS) a very large compass is situated on top of the glareshield. Equipment is provided by the central avionics stack is from top GMA 340 Audio radio, two Garmin GNS430 GPS (Comm1/VOR1- Comm2/VOR2) which are the X-Plane 10.30 default, There also an Bendix King KN-62A TSO VOR 2 Navigation Receiver and a Bendix King ADF KR 87 and at the bottom is an excellent Bendix King KX 165A autopliot. Right of the autopilot is a Garmin GTX 327 Transponder with Clock. The highlight of the panel is the large Vision Microsystems VM 1000 Engine Instrument system which displays engine parameters in an analog sweep and digital readout for: Tachometer, Manifold Pressure, EGT/CHT, Fuel Flow and Pressure, Oil Temperature and Pressure, Voltage and Amperage. The lower buttons don't work. The display is highly effective and looks great on the panel, below in the same design is a digital Fuel level display. Far right on the panel is large clock. A quirk is the knob on the ADF KR 87 does not work? You change the ADF frequency by the actual numbers (right) with arrows, it is slightly awkward but works, but maybe the knob manipulators encroach on each others territory, so it works but it is not real world realistic. Flying the Diamond DA40 Fuel in and pumps on and a turn of the key, a hit of the starter. The engine does not catch straight away, in the fact you tend to check if everything is on? yes the pumps are on, mixture is rich? turn again... hold it... keep holding it. Ahh... then the engine catches and fires. The VM 1000 engine rev's are very easy on the eye (its pretty hard not to notice the bright display) and easy to keep the rev's in the right zone while taxiing. The undercarriage is very stork like you feel you are on three sticks and sitting high up. "will they break?" of course they won't but they do flex quite a lot. As the revolutions rise on the VM 1000 you are going to bring in the power really slowly and gradually until you have enough straight line speed, and then there is case of keeping smooth and in a straight line. The aircraft is of course extremely light (all aircraft aim to be as possible) but we are really light here. 60knts and you can be airborne. At that 60knt point you are thinking you are certainly going faster, you're buzzing and vibrating to keep the aircraft central and straight. Then a slight pull of the joystick and you're now really airborne, and surprisingly climbing and still collecting speed. You have 210 hp (157 kW) at your disposal from an engine that is quite an old design from 1955. You can climb and turn with an amazing pitch of around 1000fpm, you use all that but it is at your whim, and you settle for around 650fpm at 90knts. That is mostly to refinement of those long thin wide wings and slippery body, there is no doubt how efficient this airframe really is through the air. Once in the air you are very conscious of one thing... space. There is a real openness of no obstruction of view but a feeling of flying in a goldfish bowl. Then there is the noise? The sounds are as to be expected very good, from startup to high throttle in flight. But it sounds like you are flying a very large lawnmower, noisy is not the word, deafening is definitely the word. And no doubt in the real DA40 I suspect that headphones are mandatory? but as you find a cruise speed at about 125knts you tend to get used to it and even flow with the rhythm, and to the point that you can certainly start to cover some serious distance with that 720nm range at your disposal. There is a slight pull from the engine that pulls the aircraft to the right, which is to be expected with a powerful engine (In this case) and a light-frame, more bodies in the seats (add weight) and full fuel tanks do dampen the effect a little. The aircraft looks better in the air than on the ground, the DA20 looked odd even stumpy, but the DA40 is about right with that longer cabin. Design wise you can't fault it as the aircraft reflects the light very well (body and glass) and Alabeo have perfected the chrome spinner on the nose to perfection, and Joe the average pilot is the standard placement with great animation moves (or bad glances). for detailing note the walk grips on the wing root, they are really expertly well done. Lighting Lighting is good but nothing to write home about. One knob adjusts the dial/Instrument lighting and another knob adjusts the twin over head spot lighting. Between them you can easily find a nice ambience of light and working outside view. External is quite dark, Nav (position), Strobe and one landing and one taxi light in the left wing. Landing After a spin around Cape Cod, Massachusetts good olde USA, It was time to head back to KMVY and Martha's Vineyard Airport. The Bendix King KX 165A autopliot is a nice thing to have and it is very easy and effective to use. Easy to adjust the pitch and target (Arm) a new altitude you can adjust your pitch on the fly to what you want. The Bendix King KN-62A TSO VOR 2 Navigation Receiver was a bit of a "funny bugger". I tried several VOR frequencies from the start of the flight but they didn't work? Then suddenly it was working? But you have to admire those beautiful slender wings with lovely swept uptakes at the tips, it is a very nice looking aircraft from certain angles. My first manual landing was quite easy. Your speed range is 60knts to 85knts on approach and an easy 200fpm descent, so I kept it around 65knts and skipped down on to the runway, My second approach under the ILS was not? I made the mistake of relying on the beam to lower my speed to around 55knts. The aircraft felt good there, but when we were released at the end of the beam you sorta flew on and I made the mistake of lowering the throttle. I came down and with a thud and a then spring back upwards again from that (too) flexible undercarriage and again came earthwards with another thud and a dent in my flying skills. Try that one again... Third try I found out what you had to do right. As your speed is quite low anyway, then dropping the flaps doesn't really affect your descent, yes to have to compensate for the drop in speed for the extra drag, but otherwise it is quite smooth. 65Knts is a nice speed on the ILS slope (300fpm descent), Alabeo by the way gives you a full set of "DA40 performance" tables and "Reference" notes that gives you weight to speed references. The trick is when you come off the ILS slope and your first instinct is to lower the lower to settle on the runway, but it doesn't work like that as noted above. The best way is power down to the runway by using the same speed (65knts) and keeping the descent rate in check, and only slightly pitching smoothly up at the last minute to a perfect landing and then closing the throttle. It works but of course your going to land a bit long. ("So what are you going to do then, Take points off me!") I didn't even touch the brakes until the speed was way down either in letting the friction do all the work for me. As when on the takeoff roll your energies are focused on keeping the aircraft straight, It is more difficult than it looks, but not impossible, just focus and be smooth as the aircraft hates sudden movements. It is the lightness and almost ultralight in feel and you have to treat it as much. So overall the aircraft is a bit of a contradiction. It is a roomy four passenger aircraft with a ton of power but flies and feels like a smaller very light machine, your aim is to find that balance between the two. Liveries There is one blank livery and five designs. All are very nice but basic, the UK G registered livery is the best and colourful. Summary Alabeo's of Alabeo's past are now quite different. They are full working machines with most of the features and extras that you used to get with the original Carenado releases, even the quality is now at the same level and all the good for all of that. The DA40 looks and feels like a local flier, but how many local flying GA aircraft can carry four people 720 nm... that's not bad, but the DA40 is not fast, fast either at a cruise speed around 150knts. Flying wise it is and feels vulnerable on the ground and getting from it and returning to it (It is quite safe) but very competent in the air, and easy to fly and highly efficient as well. It is debatable to want the standard glass panel cockpit, but the olde style dial and gauge panel is a nice easier option without all those myriad of menus and screen visual overkill, it makes flying easier and actually more efficient... But to one's own. Quality is excellent in every area, from the detailing to modeling and reflections. It is certainly up to the standard of quality we expect and get today from X-Plane. Final word really comes down to how you would fly it and not quality or cost or features as the aircraft has all of that. If you love flying modern aircraft over middle range distances with a great view of the world outside, then you won't find a better aircraft to swoon away a Sunday afternoon, it is noisy as noted, but there is fun in the noise and fun is the word here... The Diamond Star DA40 is a real fun aircraft. The Diamond Star DA40 by Alabeo is available from the New X-Plane.Org Store here : Alabeo Diamond DA40 And is priced at only US$26.95 _____________________________________________________________________________________ Installation : Download file size is 160.70mb to your X-Plane - GA Aircraft Folder. Installed file size is 251.50mb Notes: None Documents : Four documents that covers performance tables and references, normal and emergency procedures. Manuals for the KFC225 Autopilot and X-Plane default GNS430 GPS. Requirements : X-Plane 10.30 (or higher) - Windows XP-Vista-7-8 (or higher) or MAC OS 10.6 (or higher) or Linux - Pentium 2 GHz - 4GB RAM - 1GB Video card - 240MB available hard disk space Current version: Initial Release Developer Support Site : http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showforum=106 (Carenado - Alabeo Support .Org) _____________________________________________________________________________________ Fully featured and including: Vision Microsystems VM 1000 Engine Instrument Two Default X-Plane 10 GNS430 Volumetric side view prop effect High quality 3D model and textures. Blank texture for creating your own designs. Accurately reproduced flight characteristics 64-bit compatible. Plugin-enhanced FPS-optimized model. SuperManipulator scroll wheel support Aircraft Details • Crew: one pilot; • Capacity: three passengers; • Length: 26 ft 5 in (8.1 m); • Wingspan: 39 ft 2 in (11.9 m); • Height: 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m); • Wing area: 145.3 ft² (13.5 m²); • Empty weight: 1,755 lb (795 kg); • Loaded weight: 2,645 lb (1,198 kg); • Useful load: 890 lb (403 kg); • Max. takeoff weight: 2,645 lb (1,198 kg); and • Powerplant: 1 × Lycoming IO-360-M1A air-cooled, 4-cylinder horizontally-opposed piston engine, 180 hp (134 kW). _____________________________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 18th July 2015 Copyright©2015: X-Plane Reviews Review System Specifications: Computer System: - 2.66 Ghz Intel Core i5 iMac 27”- 9 Gb 1067 Mhz DDR3 - ATI Radeon HD 6970M 2048 mb- Seagate 512gb SSD Software: - Mac OS Yosemite 10.10.1 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.35 (final) Addons - Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Scenery or Aircraft - KMVY - Martha's Vineyard 4.5 by dkm (http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=27251) - Free

The Carenado/Alabeo Diamond DA40 now available at the X-Plane.OrgStore and is priced at US$26.95 Go Here - http://store.x-plane.org/Alabeo-Diamond-DA40_p_400.htmlThe DA40 Diamond Star is a four-seat, single engine, light aircraft constructed from composite materials. Built in both Austria and Canada, it was developed as a four-seat version of the earlier DA20 by Diamond Aircraft Industries. FeaturesVision Microsystems VM 1000 Engine InstrumentTwo Default X-Plane 10 GNS430Volumetric side view prop effectHigh quality 3D model and textures.Blank texture for creating your own designs.Accurately reproduced flight characteristics64-bit compatible.Plugin-enhancedFPS-optimized model.SuperManipulator scroll wheel support16th July 2015 Copyright©X-Plane-Reviews

News! - KPHX Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl Airport now available at the X-Plane.OrgStore KPHX is detailed airport for X-Plane by Nimbus Simulation Studios (formerly called Butnaru) and can now be purchased at the X-Plane.OrgStore for US$16.95 here : http://store.x-plane.org/KPHX-Phoenix-Sky-Harbor-International_p_399.html Accurate rendition of KPHX100+ gatesDetailed terminal and jetways.Static aircraftHigh Definition TexturesCustom HD ground texturesOrthophotoslight effects with HDR on and offAnimated Airport Moving vehicles and peopleUsing Jonathan Harris's Ground Traffic plugin

Alabeo have released the DA40 for X-Plane! Price is US$26.95 Features Vision Microsystems VM 1000 Engine Instrument Two Default X-Plane 10 GNS430 Volumetric side view prop effect High quality 3D model and textures. Blank texture for creating your own designs. Accurately reproduced flight characteristics 64-bit compatible. Plugin-enhanced FPS-optimized model. SuperManipulator scroll wheel support For More information then go here : http://www.carenado.com/CarSite/Portal/index.php?accion=product&correl=153

Scenery Update : KLAS Glitter Gulch 1.5 by Tom Curtis Tom Curtis (Scenery4Xplane) is back with another update to KLAS - Glitter Gulch with version 1.5, which takes in the area of Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in the United States. (google maps ©) In the earlier updates of Glitter Gulch the focus was on Las Vegas itself with... 1) McCarran International Airport (IATA: LAS, ICAO: KLAS) (v1.0) 2) Las Vegas cityscape (extended in v1.3) 3) Henderson Exeutive Airport (IATA: HSH, ICAO: KHND) (1.2) then 4) Nellis AFB (ICAO: KLSV) (v1.4) This 1.5 update focuses on the aviation tourism aspects of flights associated with the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon... with airports: 5) KBVU - Boulder City Muni 6) 1G4 - Grand Canyon West And the scenery of The Hoover Dam, Tillman Bridge with the Grand Canyon Skywalk tourism facilities. KBVU airport at Boulder City (I'll note it here as BCM) is the main central departure airport for all scenic flights (fixed wing and rotary) for the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam sightseeing. Papillon/Grand Canyon Helicopters, Scenic/Grand Canyon Airlines, Las Vegas Helicopters and Sky Dive Las Vegas are all based here and between them conduct over 100 passenger tours to the Grand Canyon every day of the year, in other words... a lot. For X-Plane aviation this is also one of the very best areas to fly, in either just General Aviation looking at the sights to the grind of tourism flights of maybe four of five flights a day. I personally love this grind of flying, crazy yes but good discipline in you are constantly going over the same routes over and over again and working the routes down to a fine art. The area is immensely challenging as well in the fact that running out of Boulder City Muni (I used Henderson before KBVU) you are faced with a huge elevation change in leaving BCM or when returning, so that is hard climbing out and a deep descent on returning. Add in the mix with very few Nav-Aids (there is a VOR at BCM) and you have to get all approaches correct, and it is harder than it looks with mountain ranges all around your aircraft, you need to plan, but also fly really well to VFR (Visual Flight Rules). It is also highly challenging, but that is why I come here so often. Overall the scenery like most of Tom Curtis's work is very light on your frame-rate. I'm not running the HD meshes here that are available for this area (I like to keep the simulator basic for the reviews) but that would certainly add in another great dimension to the area as they are noted to be very good. So we will start out at the base camp of KBVU - Boulder City Muni. Note KBVU is assigned BVU by the FAA and BLD by the IATA. KBVU - Boulder City Muni KBVU - Boulder City Muni 9L/27R 2,166 660 Asphalt 9R/27L 4,803 1,464 Asphalt 15/33 3,852 1,174 Asphalt Elevation AMSL 2,203 ft / 671 m Like most airports around the area BCM has a lot of aircraft storage, and this bookends the airport with hangar storage in the east and ramp parking in the west that also has two very large BFE/FBO maintenance hangars for servicing the large fleets of rotary and fixed wing aircraft or are used for undercover parking. In the centre there is the tourism operators terminals and ramps. Supplied is the STMA (Shade Tree Micro Aviation) plugin system that will open and close the hangar doors and various objects, but as construction goes the hangars are really well reproduced here and are as close to the original hangars as possible. The tourism operators run BCM... west to east they cover a significant part of the main ramp areas.... First off is Skydive Las Vegas. Then Papillon. The largest operator (or the most successful) is Grand Canyon Airlines/Helicopters, with the most flashiest building. Then Scenic... And finally a Chevron petroleum building. There are lots of small offices and buildings and GA aircraft parking in off airport areas. Altogether the BCM ramps and the arrival sides are comprehensive in the detail and very realistic. Yes it is all very good and on the ground you feel the excitement of leaving for one of the tours of one of the great wonders of the world. Only negative is that a few of the static aircraft are a little basic and the textures are a bit wishy-washy here and there even though my render resolution settings are set at "very high"? Hoover Dam and Tillman Bridge Tourist flights to the Hoover Dam and the road Tillman Bridge are usually around 15min flight time (cost is by the way US$124.00 and they may even throw in a wedding... this Las Vegas after all) and they use mostly the EC-130 machines. Tom Curtis provides in a separate folder liveries for the RotorSim EC135 Helicopter (the old version? but the livery still works on the EC-135 v3 I fly here with a little editing), X-Hanger's DH-6 Twin Otter (Grand Canyon/Scenic), old versions of the DH-6, (Grand Canyon/Scenic) and F16-C Fighting Falcon (for use with Nellis AFB). It is a relatively easy flight, and you don't even need any navigational help... just follow the electricity pylons. As they all go either one way to Las Vegas or the other way to the power source at the Hoover Dam. If fact there is one set of power lines you can follow to get there... and a completely different set of lines more to the north to bring you directly back to Boulder City, it is just easy peasy. Tom Curtis has done a great job on this American Icon and you get the real drop in the water level from Lake Mead as well (which by the way is well worth its own tour). The Tillman Bridge is also right and centre and I am sure you will land for a few quick photos before flying back the KBVU. So I was very impressed. There are two main tourist centres for the Grand Canyon reachable by air (we are talking fixed-wing here) South Rim and North Rim. The closest is the South Rim complex and Grand Canyon Skywalk that is owned and operated by the Hualapai Indian Tribe. The airport servicing the tourist attaction is 1G4 - Grand Canyon West which is located directly on the south rim of the Grand Canyon approximately 60 miles east of Boulder City. And 4 miles off the departure end of Runway 35, is the Grand Canyon Skywalk. 1G4 - Grand Canyon West As noted it is not really a long distance 1G4 at just over 50nm (52nm) but you have to climb and get altitude as quickly as you can to get over a range. KBVU around it has a few green patches as golf courses and playing fields that are placed there as part of the scenery by Tom Curtis. From the air they work quite well but are fuzzy close up. I climbed to 8300ft (ASL) and pushed the power out to 140knts to cover the ground as quickly as I could make the Caravan go. The views are amazing. Great flying in abundance. Grand Canyon West - 1G4 IATA: GCW – ICAO: none – FAA LID: 1G4 17/35 5,058ft (1,542m) Asphalt Elevation AMSL 4,825 ft / 1,471 m Over the top of the plateau and your height is reduced very quickly and you only have to drop about 1500ft to be in the right landing altitude. Any visual or navigation markers are hard to see up here? I had the runway course set, but there is nothing really to line up with except using a couple of crevasses that are part of the Canyon as an visual approach cue, the actual approach to RWY 35 is very tricky as well. Here there is long slope that finishes just prior to the threshold, and you want to lift the nose because you are heading in at the wrong angle and do so and your then floating too high and too fast. I have not once yet touched down close to the start of the runway but mostly a third of the way down... Its just tricky to get right. If getting up to and landing at 1G4 was hard enough, I found it really hard to line up to when returning to KBVU. For any visual cues on my second run of the day I created a GPS route on the GNS430 to give me better bearings, many expert pilots would scoff at such band aid flying, but it is harder than it looks, or you will easily fly into a range just trying to find the runway with the wind in your face. So up here (and down at Boulder City Muni) until you are totally familiar with the areas you will need some planning or guidance. 1G4 - Grand Canyon West airport is located 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Peach Springs, in Mohave County, Arizona. If there was anywhere that looks like an extended parking lot for aircraft then 1G4 is it... There are more landing pads here than what the U.S. Marines will ever need, even on a war footing! If you want to try your skills at picking and choosing landing approaches you will have a field day, personally I think you could fly here over a week and still not have to land in the same place twice. So for vertical flight then this is your home away from home. But 1G$ Is what it is, which is a tourism processing centre, "ship, em in and ship them out" and take the cash out of them in the process. But as a perspective of flying in a simulator then 1G4 is an excellent destination. Tom Curtis has done an excellent scenery here and very well done it is too and authentic. I love the good clean parking areas and most are marked for the type of aircraft they represent (B1900, B205... ) and great refueling positions if you are working or passing through. The reason for 1G4's existence is east by 4 miles.... Grand Canyon Skywalk Hualapai Indian tribe have created a tourism attraction called the Grand Canyon Skywalk at Grand Canyon West. That is situated at 4,770 ft (1,450 m) and the elevation of the Colorado River in the base of the canyon as 1,160 ft (350 m) below. Skywalk width is 65 feet (20 m). The Skywalk length extending out from the post supports closest to the canyon wall is 70 feet (21 m). The outer and inner 32-inch-wide (810 mm) by 72-inch-deep (1,800 mm) bridge box beams are supported by eight 32-by-32-inch (810 mm × 810 mm) box posts having four posts on each side of the visitor’s center, once completed. The eight posts are anchored in pairs into four large concrete footings that are in turn anchored to the bedrock by ninety-six 2 1⁄2-inch-diameter (64 mm) high strength steel threaded rod rock anchors grouted 46 feet (14 m) deep into the rock. Naturally there has been a lot of vocal action from environmental groups and former National Park officials, who have expressed concerns about the project's obtrusiveness in the natural environment, considering it a defacement of a national treasure. The skywalk attracts a reported 370,000 visitors out of 5 Million that visits the Grand Canyon National Park every year. Already more plans are for a complex to include a museum, movie theater, VIP lounge, gift shop, and several restaurants including a high-end restaurant called The Skywalk Café which is a catalyst for a more larger 9,000-acre (36 km2) development to be called Grand Canyon West; it would open up a 100-mile (160 km) stretch along the canyon's South Rim and include hotels, restaurants, a golf course, casinos, and a cable to ferry visitors from the canyon rim to the Colorado River... In other words a mini Las Vegas in the Canyon. (wikipedia) From an environmental point of view we don't have those issues in a simulator, so we can enjoy Tom Curtis's work with abandon. And here is another great visual addon to our flying, interactive as well as there is a large helicopter pad to use there as well. Overall the building and design is excellent and no doubt perfect for low swoops to entertain the crowds below, it is a great landmark as well as we will see. KGCN - Grand Canyon National Park Airport Grand Canyon National Park Airport IATA: GCN – ICAO: KGCN – FAA LID: GCN 3/21 8,999ft (2,743m) Asphalt Elevation AMSL 6,609 ft / 2,014 m Officially this scenery is not part of Tom Curtis's Glitter Gulch package, but well worth installing to have the full dynamic of flying around the Grand Canyon National Park area. Since its release a few years ago KGCN has been on my route list quite heavily as it is perfectly positioned for flights over the canyon and certainly far better now with connections to Tom Curtis's Boulder City scenery and 1G4. The airport is at Tusayan, Arizona which is part of the Grand Canyon village (South Rim) or main the township for the Canyon(s). You need a slightly bigger machine to get there and the 1900D was perfect for the job. A more powerful machine can climb far faster and easier than the C208B. It does not take long to reach 12,000ft and power over the Canyon. In the distance is Tom Curtis's Las Vegas buildings and they certainly stand out even from this point of view. Very quickly you also cover the ground over the Grand Canyon Skywalk and 1G4 Grand Canyon West, so you can see the significant contribution it makes to this area for flying. A reason for this flight is to again note the sensational scenery you fly through around here, it draws you back many, many times and is never boring to fly over. Myb's KGCN scenery is excellent and was "final scenery #3" in the WED Contest. Here I completed three "go and return" flights from KBVU to KGCN and still could have filled in a few more round trips... but you wouldn't now be reading this if I had. Also part of the "Glitter Gulch" package is: KLAS - McCarran International Airport Sin City (Las Vegas) KHND - Henderson Executive Airport KLSV - Nellis AFB Summary Tom Curtis's sceneries have always been great investments. You get not just only the airports (and usually a lot of them) but all the other small things like bridges or significant landmarks that makes these sceneries a whole package, and that is what they are... The complete package. The sceneries are also a work in progress, not when you purchase the scenery is it installed and completed, but there is always another upgrade coming and in "Glitter Gulch's' case this is the fifth updated, so they just get better and better. So for value they are simply excellent. Any negatives? not a lot. Some static aircraft are a bit poor in the object and texture quality and the under lying photo plates can be a little jarring and washed out even in high render resolution settings, but the building textures are usually first rate. This update of the package is as noted focused on the "Aviation Tourism" aspect of the Las Vegas area. It gives you the bases to fly from and the icons of the Hoover Dam and Tillman Bridge with the Grand Canyon Skywalk to fly over or deliver tourists (and their money) in rotary or fixed-wing form. Yes I loved it, mainly because I already love flying around this area, but this update really opens up that aspect even more than ever. Great Package, Great Value and Great flying... so what more do you want. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Features Yes! the "Glitter Gulch" scenery by Scenery4xp (Tom Curtis) is now Available from the X-Plane.OrgStore : KLAS - GLITTER GULCH Price is US$24.95 If you already have purchased Scenery4XP "Glitter Gulch" then the v1.5 update is free. Just go to your account on the X-Plane .Org Store and check into your account for the v1.4 download. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Features This scenery pack includes faithful reproductions of the following airports: KLAS - McCarran International Airport KHND - Henderson Executive Airport KLSV - Nellis AFB KBVN - Boulder City Muni 1G4 - Grand Canyon West Traffic animated on the KLAS Airport Autogates to Concourses C, D and E at KLAS 24 Las Vegas Skyline buildings and a Ferris Wheel Hoover Dam and Tillman Bridge Grand Canyon Skywalk ____________________________________________________________________________________ Installation : Download is 169.10meg to an expanded 395.60meg that is required to be inserted into your "Custom Scenery" Folder. Notes: Any older "Glitter Gulch area sceneries must be removed In another folder are the plugins that are required for the animations in the scenery in "AutoGate" and "CustomSBDatarefs004" and HANGER OPS ( Courtesy of Shade Tree Micro Aviation ) which animates various hanger doors and other objects. These items are to be inserted into the Resources/Plugins folder in X-Plane unless you have the latest versions already installed. All details are supplied in the OPEN ME! Folder. Documents : Supplied are all the plugins for the effects animations and livery textures for RotorSim EC135 Helicopter (the old version? but the livery still works on the EC-135 v3 I fly here with a little editing), X-Hanger's DH-6 Twin Otter (Grand Canyon/Scenic), old versions of the DH-6, (Grand Canyon/Scenic) and the F16-C Fighting Falcon (for use with Nellis AFB). Requirements : Windows XP, MAC, Linux - X-Plane 10.30+ (any edition). 32 and 64bit compatible - 4GB RAM/512 MB VRAM (1GB VRAM Recommended) Current version: 1.5 (last updated July 7th 2015) Developer Support Site : http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showforum=123 _____________________________________________________________________________________ Update Review by Stephen Dutton 14th July 2015 Copyright©2015: X-Plane Reviews Review System Specifications: Computer System: - 2.66 Ghz Intel Core i5 iMac 27”- 9 Gb 1067 Mhz DDR3 - ATI Radeon HD 6970M 2048 mb- Seagate 512gb SSD Software: - Mac OS Yosemite 10.10.1 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.35 (final) Addons - Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Scenery or Aircraft - KGCN - Grand Canyon National Park Airport by MYB (http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=19688) - Free - Cessna 208B Grand Caravan by Carenado (http://store.x-plane.org/C208B-Grand-Caravan-HD-Series_p_148.html) - US$29.95 - Beechcraft B1900 by Carenado (http://store.x-plane.org/B1900-HD-Series_p_323.html) - US$34.95

You usually keep the same key, but it has to be reactivated because it is a different aircraft, so yes you need to have it reactivated. It is a simple thing to do. In reality it is just checking you are still the original purchaser of that aircraft. SD

Either the key code is wrong or the key has not been activated? Go back to where you bought it from and ask them to activate the key. SD

That's great, these aircraft have to be installed correctly because of their complexity and or that makes them a bit messy and buggy? A reinstall is always a good idea, It is also a good idea to keep a version that is working correctly in the aircraft folder if you upgrade, that lets you double-check if it is the "aircraft", the "update" or X-Plane itself that is wrong, if the original still works fine you know it is not the aircraft and X-Plane at least. SD

Are you getting this issue with the G1000 with other aircraft, my point is that is a global (X-Plane) issue or a B777 issue?, it is odd because the X-Plane default G1000 should not effect the FF B777 plug in? so something is wrong? Are you up to date with the current 10.35 X-Plane version? If not you may have to contack flightfactor or try the Dev thread on the X-Plane.ORG... http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?s=f80ae2048e8653a4a78767219bae9c57&showforum=152

You can turn off any failures in the tab menu. Also make sure you start directly from the desktop and don't move the aircraft with the local map or airport placement and try that... SD

Aircraft Review - Embraer EMB -110 Bandeirante by Dreamfoil Creations Dreamfoil Creations are better known for their excellent Helicopters than a Twin-Engined commuter aircraft but here you have one in the Embraer EMB -110 Bandeirante (Pioneer), but in respect the aircraft was created by Lidimar Santos and not Conex but he was still expertly part of the team in adding the Dreamfoil Creations Plugins, SmartMenu and DreamEngine. Also in another aspect you could follow the development of the aircraft on the X-Plane.Org development page since early 2014. In most cases you would usually drop into the Dev page every now and again and see the latest work, but it was a sudden and total surprise when it was suddenly released early June 2015. The first thought was that... "Is it Ready?" It was and an even bigger surprise was how very complete it was, more so is that how good it actually is as well. So surprise here comes in many different forms, adding to the fact on how quickly the aircraft became an X-Plane favorite of one of the really (really) good commuter aircraft (which is a very crowded and loved market) available for the simulator. History The EMB-110 Bandeirante was the first aircraft built by Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica or Embraer as we now know the Brazilian aerospace company that started out building Piper Aircraft light planes under license. Piper had first put together knock-down kits in their US factory for Embraer to assemble and market in Brazil and Latin America. The EMB 110 was designed by the French engineer Max Holste following the specifications of the IPD-6504 program set out by the Brazilian Ministry of Aeronautics in 1965.And the goal was to create a general purpose aircraft, suitable for both civilian and military roles with a low operational cost and high reliability. The first prototype, with the military designation YC-95, was flown on 26 October 1968 and two other prototypes were built and were known as the EMB 100. By 1969 an order was placed for 80 production aircraft, by now known as EMB 110 Bandeirante, for the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) with the now newly formed aircraft company Embraer. The EMB - 110 was very successful, but the ambitious company quickly ceased further development of the EMB 110 which was halted by the manufacturer in order to shift focus to the larger, faster, and pressurized 30-seat EMB 120 Brasilia, but still over the next 21 years Embraer built 494 aircraft in numerous configurations for a variety of roles. Embraer EMB -110 by Dreamfoil The first thing that you are aware of when first encountering the EMB -110 is the quality. The aircraft is certainly in Carenado territory in style, feel and design. It has a quality air all around it. And that will certainly create a love at first sight (not flight). It is not a Carenado of course but the detailing and execution of the high quality work is highly visible. This is quite obviously if you look at the aircraft the best design for a 15-20 passenger commuter machine you could develop and build, and yet you would be hard pressed to recognise one at your local airfield unlike a Twin-Otter that is far more famous and fills out more airline fleets. Maybe Embraer should have developed the aircraft more and then realised its full market potential. Once familiar then the aircraft tends to appear everywhere, I have found four around me here in Queensland, Australia that I never knew existed, so there you go. And there is now some smug boasting in noting that "That is a Bandeirante" to your fellow observers in knowing the aircraft's better status. For this review we are flying the EMB -110 from the south coast of New Zealand and Invercargill (NZNV) to Dunedin (NZDN) and then on to Christchurch (NZCH) in a commuter connection role. My first impressions are that the aircraft is powered down, tagged up and waiting my preparation and ready for flight. Approaching the machine I really love the aircraft, the Bandeirante looks a workhorse and ready to do a day's (or week's) work. Unlocking the aircraft is one of the best solutions yet and a DreamFoil Creation feature. You have a set of small arrows on the door locks that opens the doors... The rear large cargo door lock is not on the actual door but on the door switching panel behind (and you can spend ten minutes banging on the cargo door like an idiot like I did in trying to find it?), but no doubt well done. You can access the door menu from the inside as well if you need to. Secondary ground "Static Elements" are very good with engine inlet/exhaust covers, rear support bar and wheel chocks. Again you can press each arrow marker to make them appear or disappear, or press on the nose for the full menu which you can again select each element separately or use the "Remove All" or "Add All" selections. Static elements sorted it was time to climb aboard. Note the great set of stairs, great animation as well. Internally in the cabin it is an impressive fitout. Realistic seating for 19 passengers give off that worn leather look, although the single seats look a little narrrow? Rear of the bulkhead is the rear cargo area with excellent netting but no luggage or cargo. A sample image of the side wall paneling gives you the quality of the cabin design, panels/window surrounds are perfect, signs and passenger air feeders are beautifully created in detail, so the cabin is perfectly realised. A step up to the cockpit entrance and you are spellbounded! Good, great amazing or just brilliant as any statement says how brilliant this is. It is good in every respect, get down low and look at the detailing under the crew's seats, the pedestal the detail everywhere is overwhelming. The panel itself is again fabulously created, perfectly realised in every aspect... almost real. There is so much detail to take it can easily be overwhelming. We have had so much great cockpit design lately and the Carenado PC12 (Pilatus PC12 HD Series) comes to mind, but here again X-Plane and Dreamfoil Creation delivers a great experience. The contrasting cream/beige cockpit formed fittings is excellent, with minute detailing as small as clips on the edge of the overhead panel holding it on to the roof. More setup options are available with the internal menu (disk) system when you click the top of the central glareshield clickzone. Anyone who has flown any of Dreamfoil's other aircraft will be very familiar with this circular disc selection system called Smartmenu. Going counterclockwise the top one is the "SmartLivery" selection. Here you can rotate through all the liveries and easily select the one you require, the livery is shown in the centre of the disk... Next is the set views that includes positions of the: Pilot, Co-Pilot, Console, Overhead, Passengers, PostCam, Passenger 1, Passenger 2, Baggage Compartment and Tail Cam... all are excellent. The aircraft comes with Dreamfoil's excellent sound DreamEngine which includes over +50 sounds, Doppler Effect and Atmospheric Attenuation, Realistic turboprop sounds with real-time propeller dynamic and relative sustain effect for startup and shutdown. You can adjust the volumes here on the menu disk to your specific liking. FDV ,,,,,, . Your GPU (external power) can be selected here (You can also use the lower point on the battery switch on the "Overhead" panel) and the Stability options allow you to adjust the aircraft's % in Pitch, Roll and Yaw. Finally here is the internal, external (static element) selection menu. The menu system is very easy to use, The aircraft's version is also noted, but here it is only shown as v1.0 when this is the current v1.3 release. Panel With the external GPU connected you can turn on the power flow. On the overhead panel (OHP) the green source button light comes on, but you can check the actual voltage via the button "Battery Voltage" by the voltage gauge, the gauge is a double needle for AC/DC so it is highlighted here to see the voltage. Power on you can then bring the aircraft to life, panel lighting switchgear is across the top of the OHP. And the lighting adjustment dials are (hidden) behind the yokes in three dials on the Pilot's side and one on the Co-Pilot's side. Note the excellent rudder pedal construction, brilliantly done and even the rear looped cables are animated and move with the rudder pedal alignment. With the power on and the aircraft feels more active. In this pilot view position the forward view is beyond fabulous in that those deep porthole style front windows actually enhance the closed cockpit feeling, you can understand why flyers took very quickly to the aircraft, it is a great experience just sitting in the aircraft... Like most dial/gauge driven cockpits (sometimes known as "clockwork") they can look easily very complicated and complex. But when you break them down they are quite easy to fly and understand. Left to right across the panel, we will start with the pilots station. As for the flying instruments placed they are quite basic. The standard six: Altimeter, Speed, Heading Indicator or RMI, V/S (Vertical/Speed) and Horizontal Horizon are all well represented with the ADF and VOR directional points in the heading indicator and a CDI "Course deviation indicator". The rate of turn indicator is also set out below, all these set seven instruments are duplicated on the Co-Pilot's panel station. There is a bigger CDI on the far left of the pilot's panel and analog clock at the top. Brake and pump pressure (PSI) are noted low down. Undercarriage and Flap indicator is central and Cabin Temperature is on the Co-Pilot's lower panel. The central panel is divided up into sections. Left (magenta) are the twin sets of engine dials and gauges, from the top is: Engine Temp ºC, Torque(lb-ft), RPM% (Nh), RPM% (Ng), Oil Temp ºC, Oil Pressure PSI and ºC. Middle (yellow) is the exquisite radio panel consisting of mostly Collins sets for Comm 1/VOR1-Comm 2/VOR2, ATC Transponder, VOR 2 directional radio and ADF radio. In the middle of the stack is a basic lovely Trimble Navigation TNL 2100 GPS. The VOR 2 panel can be quite stiff to switch (In fact I didn't think it worked) but you can turn the knobs to get it to show your distance and speed... very nice it is, I loved it (when I got it to work). Right centre panel is a Benedix/King WX weather radar set (tube style) which is also a great unit, with a warning annunciator panel below. The aircraft comes with a full Air Conditioner simulation system that is very effective and usable with the Air-Con panel situated down left of the Co-Pilot on the lower panel. The fuel panel is a thing of beauty by itself!, gorgeous in design with gauges for fuel flow (top), Fuel Pressure PSI, and usable fuel lbs x 2 below. Main, Aux tank switches and crossfeed. There is a "Foxbaro" fuel used counter at the top that can reset to zero on startup, so you know the perfect quantity of fuel consumed... Which is great for telling the airport controller that you have used X amount of your fuel while waiting for clearance. Fuse panels sit on both side cockpit panels with radio switches. The cut-out windows open and the arm rests can be stowed upwards. The pedestal is quite basic, but beautifully crafted. Main twin-levers for throttle, Prop and Condition. The aircraft has a "beta" mode, that can be used as reverse thrust, a lot of developers haven't separated the two items yet, but the "beta" mode is still changing. Three trim knobs are good and easy to use, and central pedestal is an Autopilot (AP) panel. The AP is quite basic in mostly hold modes and a dial for turns and thumb wheel for pitch. But it is the position that makes it hard to use. Carenado uses a pop-out panel with their AP in this position and you really miss that feature here? You mostly have to set up a viewpoint that shows both the AP and the instruments to use both, so it is a little like flying the aircraft while face down on the floor with your legs situated back in the passenger cabin while looking over the pedestal? There is an "De-Icing" panel right top of the OHP that we will see in operation while flying. So the cockpit looks complex but it is in reality quite easy to use, the main point is the way you interact with the aircraft, and that is in a wonderful way. Switches are big, functional and lights large (usualy green) and glow... It is a great place to be. Startup Ready to go!, passengers in and luggage loaded and the aircraft is secured. Beacon and Nav lights on, fuel pumps on... I have 2,800lbs of fuel on board to make the distance to Christchurch and not to refuel at Dunedin. On the OHP I set the AC BUS Bar switches on, Inertial Separation switches to on (condition levers to up) and to start is a simple switch up of the "Start" switch. The turbo-whine starts up outside of one of the Pratt & Whitney PT6A-34 turboprop engines (Same as in the King Airs, PC12 and Twin-Otters) and each engine gives you 783 eshp and 750 shp. Throw another switch and you get another whine from the second engine and the start-up procedure is fully automatic. The Ng RPM will settle down at idle around 52%, and the excellent as mentioned DreamEngine sounds will give you the full voice from whine startup to idle revolution power. If you are connected up to a sound system (like I am) then be prepared to feel the turbo power on the hairs on the back of your neck. It is great stuff. Once the engines are running you can then switch down both "Start" switches to "Interruption" and turn on both G1 and G2 engine generators, Then close down the external GPU... I locked in the VOR 2 (Invercargill "NV" 116.80) more for a distance completed note than direction, and the ADF "Berridale" NDB (394) as a direction pointer. You can choose which ADF/VOR needle you want by the buttons below the RMI. The ADF does not show yet as it is not in range. Off the brakes and a small push of power with the throttles gets the aircraft moving. You tell the passengers to belt up and stub out the cigarettes, which is old fashioned now as not many airlines allow smoking on domestic routes, but the cabin signs are highly effective. If you pull back the throttle you get the "beta" lights on both engines for taxiing, tt works but be careful not to go into full reverse pitch. Flying the Pioneer Flaps 25%, brakes off and throttle up... The Bandeirante will track the runway very well, but when you lift off around 135knts with that 1500shp power pulling you upwards but with the thrust going slightly sideways the aircraft will very quickly roll right, if you are not prepared for that slip to the right you are very quickly going off the departing runway centre line. So you are working the rudder and yoke to keep the aircraft in a nice straight line while holding a 5º-7º pitch. The first time the slip will easily catch you out but after a few runs to adjust to it and love the feel of this lively machine in your hands. Rolling to a new heading needs a firm hand but it is easier than you think it would be, and you need flaps up (or 0º) before you are out of the slow (white zone) at 148knts. Speed is then set at 91% Nh. The pitch can be a bit wavy from 500fpm to 500fpm if you don't keep a firm hand on it, but the aircraft will climb nicely with control... and remember I am quite heavy with 9 passengers and a full load of fuel. The EMB -110 is a great looking aircraft in the air, so well modeled by DreamFoil Creations and is very realistic. I really like the design. The only odd thing is the nose as from certain viewpoints it looks inverted and the nose square and flat? It is an optical illusion of course but noticeable. As noted the Autopilot is hard to use by its placement. A switch turns it on (a nice touch) but you have to make sure your heading is spot on unless you get a thunk when selecting HDG. You don't need to hit the V/S thumb-wheel because when you turn the AP on it will hold the pitch anyway, just press the ALT when you have reached your altitude. My first impressions of the first release Bandeirante were not that great in the turn. I found the aircraft badly pitched up and down... ... when in a higher speed turn, either in manual hands-on-mode but far worse in AP mode, and sometimes a 1000ft or more each way... In fact I hated it. I inquired from a few other flyers if I was wrong? Most of the replies were "it was great", "perfect mate" but I still wasn't happy with it? I found a bit of yoke pushing and pulling (In auto mode?) would soften the turn, but deep down I doubted the real aircraft could really fly like this without the passengers bouncing off the ceiling. For the pitch issue and a few other minor bugs Dreamfoil Creations have issued two patches, Patch 1.3 fixed the pitch issue perfectly and the aircraft flies quite normally now in high speed turns. You still need sometimes a slight to and fro nudge on the yoke to keep the aircraft tight, the trick is to keep the aircraft around the set Autopilot ALT (here 12,000ft) and if you let the aircraft gain too much height or lose height in the turn the V/S will compensate for you but in a heavy pitch fashion up or down... get it right and she flies beautifully. There is a wiper feature that creates a rain drop effect the windscreen, then when the wipers are working you get this gap in the windscreen to squint through, as you gather speed the rain fades away. I love struggling into airports with wet limited visibility, so it works for fine here for me. Dunedin (NZDN) Flying up the southern east coast of New Zealand with the great HD mesh (X-Plane 10 UHD Mesh Scenery gave you an exceptional experience, but it was now time for our first stop. NZDN is set deep in a valley that is hard to approach, easier from the south but far harder from the north to RWY 21 as you have to hold an altitude and then drop down and in before the range. There is a slight gap to go though on a heading directly to the approach NDB MOSGIEL (MI 358) its tight but doable. The EMB -110 does not help you in this regard. The speed zone in the slower approach speeds is quite limited with a range of only between 145knts to 120knts (or the white zone on the airspeed dial) that is only 25knts to play with, Over the 145knts or closer to 150knts and the aircraft will visibly show you it is not happy by rising the nose and drop below that 120knts and the aircraft will very quickly lose altitude or even stall? With such a small margin of speed to use, lowering the flaps is a tricky business to get a smooth flow and keep your descent without any sudden lift, so it is a balance of throttle input and speed to keep the aircraft in the right margin. Too much throttle and you can't descend, too little and you lose height... so its a real tricky dicky one. This is also highlighted on an ILS approach. Usually when you catch the beams you drop your speed a little to compensate for the extra descent speed, but here if you get your speed to low... even by a slight amount, you are going off the vertical beam and descending to quickly. So in this context landings can be challenging, and sometimes you can usually be flying quite fast when going over the fence. Flap and undercarriage design and animation is excellent, great detail and beautifully created. The main gear track is quite wide so you have to make sure your landings are quite level, or if not the aircraft will bounce on one wheel (tip the wing up) and then the other before both settle down. If you carry too much speed into the flare (very easy to do) then you have to watch you don't pull back the throttle too quickly and lose lift, so "easy goes" until the Embraer settles. There are a few notes that the wing on the the aircraft is not very flexible, and I can believe that. So in lower speeds the aircraft is certainly challenging, but that is what simulation is about and if all aircraft were just easy it wouldn't be fun... would it. But study and understand the aircraft and you can get into the rhythm of the machine, it will take few flights to really get every motion right, but suddenly it will all come together and then the EMB -110 delivers in spades. Engine shutdown and the GPU connected for ground power... I can't sit on the ground too long because for one I have a connection to meet in Christchurch and two it is becoming dark. With X-Planes HDR feature switched on the Embraer's lighting is very good. The landing lights are very wide and spread apart so with the nose wheel taxi-light on you get a great spread and handy here to turn around with at the end of RWY21 to fly out to the south of NZDN. The panel lighting is very good as well. The adjustments give you great overhead and panel control, although it does highlight the top left pilot's panel knob "Fast Erection Vert. Ind", I'm not into smutty humour but I'm quite sure the male of our species would find the item amusing and some very handy? Now with a full passenger and luggage load but less fuel on board the aircraft feels the same as I left Invercargill only an hour or so before. The fading light highlights the design and you feel into the rhythm and enjoy the aircraft immensely as you climb to 10,000ft and turn again north along the coast. Ice Panel and Lighting The colder night air shows there could be ice around. Although in July in Northern Europe or the United States it is summer, but in New Zealand this is middle winter and it can get very cold. The "Deicing" panel is high right above the Co-Pilot on the roof, and you have deIcing options for the propellers, windshield, engine inlets and pneumatic wing boots. You can check your wings for ice with the excellent wing lighting, and otherwise the external lighting is quite basic in Nav, top and bottom Beacons, and tail light. Cockpit lighting is controlled by four rotary dials, three on the pilot's side and one on the Co-Pilot's. It is excellent at night, fully adjustable and you can turn off the overhead lighting on the OHP. No doubt a very nice place to work in. There are map reading lights each side, but they didn't work? HDR lighting switched off does not mean an inferior night flying experience (above), in fact it is very good and certainly in the approach phase if you have the cockpit lighting switched off, to many it may even be a better option and a big frame-rate gain. There are main overhead lights and two set each side above the pilots and rear. In the cabin it is excellent, but not everyone get a light over their seat. They are more there for embarking or disembarking the aircraft. In the darker light the aircraft is quite dark, and can be hard to see except for the external lights. Christchurch (NZCH) Soon the lights of New Zealand's biggest southern city are spread out in front of the Embraer. Arrival at NZCH is via RWY20 so that means like at Dunendin I have to track more north to NDB WOODEND (OD 262) to turn directly around for a direct reverse approach to the airport. I used the RWY20 ILS (IHW 110.30) because I want to be safe in the darkness. It was very dark out there, but I was nice and snug in here and enjoying the dark cockpit, I turned the passenger cabin lights off (no door!) with just the "fasten your seatbelts" and "no smoking" signs red glow to keep the rear seated travellers alert. It was again tricky under the ILS to keep on the beam, I hated the idea of being too low and hitting the ground before being over the runway so I was extra vigilant on the throttle and speed to hold those CDI markers as central as I could. Otherwise I was tuning in well with the aircraft. Once down those wide lights gave me a good path to the terminal, and because my domestic ramp position was in semi-darkness the wing iceing lighting proved very good to show the path to the terminal entrance. Note the excellent lighting on the undercarriage when the aircraft is on the ground, which is great for night inspections. Liveries There are eight liveries with the aircraft in six commercial and two South American military FAB/FAC, and all are very high HD quality, but the range is quite small for such an aircraft. In a small way that limits your choices of where and how to fly the aircraft (There are no European Liveries for example, but there is now a nice "Jersey European" on the X-Plane.Org) Summary In reality the verdict is already out on the Embraer EMB - 110 Bandeirante. As already many fliers have taken the aircraft to true classic status and a must have in any hangar, and it is not very hard to see why. The quality is overwhelming, certainly in the Carenado class in every area. In many respects if you let someone fly the aircraft the first words would be "Carenado have done it again!" only the Bandeirante is not from that great company. It also shows the depth of Dreamfoil Creation's talent and skill as well, with the combination of the best features in menu's, external animations and their great sound system of the 3d reality DreamEngine effects. In moving into a new realm with an aircraft Dreamfoil Creations has created a masterpiece that is a pure immersion in a classic commuter aircraft, in other words Dreamfoil Creations have done a brilliant job. It is a very challenging aircraft to fly, make no mistake about that and certainly at slower speeds. But with aircraft like these it is the skill set and learning to master the machine that is part of the reason that aviation is so attractive. To fly the Bandeirante well is like going for your masters degree, and once held it can open up the door to experiences that gives you the feedback to understand how good you can actually be behind a set of controls. Don't expect to get there overnight either, it will take time and effort to discover the full breadth (or heights) of where you can go with this aircraft and I will get back to you in a few years to still tell you how great it is. No doubt this aircraft has been one of the great surprises of the year in 2015, by the way it was released and how good it is and at a price just below US$30 it is absolutely excellent value as well... I could go on.... but I want to now just fly it again it is that good, so I will. _____________________________________________________________________ The Dreamfoil Creations Embraer EMB -110 Bandeirante is available from the New X-Plane.Org Store here : Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante And is priced at only US$29.95 Current version is v1.3 The release version was v1.0 but there has been several updates or patches since the release. The latest patch (to date) is v1.3 which is available here: patch 1.3 b2 The X-Plane.Org Store version is the correct updated version, just go to your X-Plane.OrgStore account and update. If you have not updated from the original release version (1.0) I Strongly recommend to update the patch or redownload the current version. _____________________________________________________________________ Installation : Download file size is 324.90mb to your X-Plane - Aircraft Folder. Installed file size is 468.50mb Notes: The Aircraft comes with two aircraft (.acf) files in the standard "EMB110" and the "EMB110WD" The standard is without dihedral and the WD version has 10º diehdral in the elevator. Documents : Four documents that cover a main Pilot's manual (13 pages), real Embraer performance tables and normal, emergency procedures. Requirements : Windows XP, MAC, Linux - X-Plane 10.30+ (any edition). 32 and 64bit compatible - Pentium 3 GHz+ - 1Gb VRAM Recommended Current version: 1.30 (last update June 15th 2015) Developer Support Site : Embraer 110 by Dreamfoil Creations .Org Support _____________________________________________________________________________________ Fully featured and including: Two versions: without dihedral and with 10º diehdral in the elevator. Cabin, Cockpit and Instruments lights available with great effects. Full simulation of all switches Hydraulic simulation Hotstart simulation for manual startup Caps for turbine inlet, outlet and pitot GPU (Ground Power Unit) available Air Conditioner simulation Prop Disc effects feature 3D holographic side view, which changes depending on prop settings Fully articulated and animated sun visors Very accurate flight characteristics. Windshield rain effects: rain drops move realistically in accordance with airspeed, get cleared by wipers, and repopulate after wipers are shut off. Wx radar simulation Sounds: Over +50 sounds included Doppler Effect and Atmospheric Attenuation Realistic TurboProp sounds with real-time propeller dynamics Relative Sustain effect for startup and shutdown _____________________________________________________________________________________ Review by Stephen Dutton 10th July 2015 Copyright©2015: X-Plane Reviews Review System Specifications: Computer System: - 2.66 Ghz Intel Core i5 iMac 27”- 9 Gb 1067 Mhz DDR3 - ATI Radeon HD 6970M 2048 mb- Seagate 512gb SSD Software: - Mac OS Yosemite 10.10.1 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.35 (final) Addons - Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Scenery or Aircraft - NZNV - Invercargill Airport by Royaloak (X-Plane.Org) - Free - NZDN - Dunedin 1.1 by tdg (X-Plane.Org) - Free - NZCH - Christchurch New Zealand International Airport (ISDG) by Chris K (X-Plane.Org) - Free

Aircraft Update : Boeing 777 Worldliner Pro/Extended v1.8 by FlightFactor/VMax FlightFactor/VMax have updated their excellent Boeing 777 Series Pro and Extended versions to v1.8. This update is basically revolves around the cockpit and not many changes to the flight or external sections of the aircraft. This aircraft is quite mature now (as I have noted in other updates) but the odd tweak now and again does not hurt the design. There was a lot of discussion around the cockpit textures since the release of the aircraft, most notable was that they were average or poor. Personally I couldn't see the argument to the point of how notably the textures of being that bad, not perfect I admit as were the gaping holes in the windshield. Even a 3rd party redid the whole lot of textures to which again I couldn't see the really big significant difference? and it was worse on your framerate. But everyone was happy, and what we need in X-Plane is happiness. So FlightFactor/VMax has redone the cockpit textures and cleaned up a lot of the knobs and switchgear and the right hand side MFD can now be used. At first it doesn't look much different (because it is so familiar) but after a short period of flying the aircraft you do notice how much more sharper and cleaner everything is, notice the active lighting on the buttons and you can see how much more realistic they are, and some areas are based on the textures used by the 3rd party (pumper) that was significant in the redefining of the cockpit textures. The side (autopilot) eyebrow/glareshield form is much more better as well, and finally you can't finally see the outside scenery through the main instrument panel (top under the glareshield) so your eyes are picking off the changes all over the place and overall it looks far better. There has been far more changes here than meets the eyes, but most will be overlooked as we are very used to most of it. The older night textures looked like this... They have gone from a yellowish glow to a greenish glow, but the newer upper images version does look more restrained and more natural. Spot light lighting is also improved as you can see behind the pilot's chairs, these lights are well up and behind and buried in the rear of the cockpit. Side airport map panel looks better as well for quality and readability. There is now also new mouse wheel support (Microsoft C++ redistributable 2013 is required for this to work) for Windows users. Another change is that now you click the actual speedbrake lever and not the area by the side of the lever. For me this is welcome because you actually had to move you point of view to arm the speedbrakes, a small thing but nice... I also found you can now see the Co (company) route to load it into the FMC system. That will save you having to go to the aircraft file and delving through the plugins folders to remember what route "Co" name you saved it under, a nice time saver. There is no doubt the Boeing 777 philosophy in this being a great aircraft for simulation in X-Plane. FlightFactor/VMax have been very good in the updates and keeping the aircraft as one of the best for deep simulation and incredible systems that give you a real understanding and feel of what the Boeing 777 is as an aircraft. I will just re-note the packages in the Boeing 777 Series. Boeing 777-200 LR - (Boeing Worldliner Professional) Boeing 777-200 ER - (Extended Pack - With PW4090 engines) Boeing 777-300 ER - (Extended Pack) Boeing 777-200 F - (Extended Pack) 777- 200LR 777-200ER The -200ER is significant because the Pratt&Whitney PW4090 engines are noticeably smaller than those giant GE90-115B turbofans on the -200LR. PW4090 GE90-115B 777-300ER The B777-300ER is a 33ft stretch over the standard Boeing 777. Now one of the most common B777 version with 721 ordered and only 250 aircraft left to be delivered, you will see plenty of these at your major local hub. 777-200F (Cargo) The excellent 777-200F comes with a huge side loading cargo door, great for all the haulers... The v1.8 update covers all versions including the Professional and Extended packages. Summary No doubt any update is a good update and again this is a good one, the greenish texture colour is debatable but far better than the ghastly yellow hues. Some areas that should have been addressed, like the over animated wingflex and still none opening front doors? and still you have no-accessible second officer separate FMC (input) unlike what you have on the FF B757 and that is surprising considering how long the aircraft has been released. But this is a great aircraft, extensive systems machine designed to work like the thing with an accurate flight model. It is certainly a classic in X-Plane and one of the top ten in the simulator. Yes get the Boeing 777, in fact get all of the versions in the extended package you will be wanting nothing. Full changelog: 1.8.0 change log (all X-Plane 10.30+ 64bit) - added mouse wheel option - added new panel 3d and textures (based partially on pumper's add-on) - added right side mirror control and MFD screen manegment - changed the way the speedbrakes are armed - click on the lever Note: starting from v1.8.0 FMS version and model version might differ. This is done for the convenience of the customer which does NOT need to update this libraries and redisributables. _____________________________________________________________________________________ The 1.8 update is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Price is US$59.95 - Boeing 777 Worldliner Professional Price is US$84.95 - Boeing 777 Worldliner Professional - Extended Pack - Designed by FlightFactor (Philipp and Ramzzess) and produced by VMAX The 1.8 update is free to all users that have purchased the Boeing 777 (Pro and Ext) Series. Just go to to your X-Plane.Org Store account and log-in to download. Features: Fully Functional FMS - Plan your routes like a real pilot Custom designed Flight Management Computer, integrated with other plane systems Custom programmed LNAV logic for terminal procedures Custom designed Navigation Display Tterminal procedure database with RNAV approaches and transitions VNAV managed climbs and descends Takeoff and approach speed calculation Custom autopilot modes for autoland Optimum cruise performance and step climb calculation True-to-life radio navigation with procedural-, route-, and navigation support auto-tuning Custom programmed FMC navigation using GPS-, radio- or inertial navigation with individual position errors and management of actual and required navigation performance Magnetic, true and polar grid course reference Alternate airports, diversion and arrival management Ground proximity warning system using real sounds FMC can be used on external touchscreen or tablet, optimized for the new iPad Excellent 3D modeling: Amazing virtual cockpit with crisp details - Dynamic reflections Custom 3D sounds and Announcements Add-ons: Push-back truck, Fuel Truck, Passenger bus and Emergency slides ... On-Screen Menus: Configuration and loading menu, Quick Zoom new in v1.80: Superb night lighting in cockpit. see cockpit pictures at night _____________________________________________________________________________________ Developer Site: facebook Dev Thread : X-Plane.org _____________________________________________________________________________________ Technical Requirements: Windows XP , Vista, 7 / 8/ 10 (32 or 64 bits) or MAC OS 10.7 (or higher), Linux Ubuntu 14.04LTS or compatible (older versions are not supported) X-Plane 10.30+. 32 or 64 bit (64bit recommended) 4GB RAM/512 MB VRAM (1GB VRAM Recommended)- 1Gb available hard disk space Current version : 1.80 (last updated June 23rd 2015) Update Review By Stephen Dutton 27th June 2014 Copyright©2015: X-Plane Reviews

Aircraft are stored in a separate "aircraft" folder, so yes you can, but one out all out is deal, personally the airports are not overcrowded, Tom Curtis defines a nice balance between a few and a lot of static. SD

And those FF versions are? Which X-Plane version are you running?

Aircraft Profile : Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle by Heinz Dzuirowitz and Michael Wilson There was once briefly a human sub-species that existed for about a decade from the late 1950's to the late 1960's and then made a smaller but lower profile appearance again before becoming extinct in the late 80's and early 90's and even David Attenborough couldn't mix with them, but his brother Richard could... They were called "Jetsetters". These over cashed and over bored people would fly off to the sun on a whim, or if a movie had to be made and mostly they loved the movie studios in Cinecittà , Rome. They had a sudden appearance of appearing at the door of an aircraft in the female form of a Gucci Handbag and dark huge black sunglasses that looked only upwards with not to look at anything in the sky but for the best camera angle. Sofia Loren, Alain Delon and best of them all Mr "La Dolce Vita" himself Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni created a "jetset" of idols that lived a life so high their feet never ever touched the ground. Their feet never touched the ground because most of the time they spent it up there... in the sky. Today it is the private jet, but in the sixties and briefly with Concorde in the late 80"s it was still commercial, if you could really call flying back then commercial? For the European of choice and the few Americans who ventured across the pond to follow Hemingway it was the Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle that was the transport of choice amongst the glitterati. In reality nothing has really changed. The rich Glitterati haven't really moved on to the latest private jet at all have they, because the sublime Caravelle was in all case and purposes a large private jet jet back then anyway. Just look at the beauty of the aircraft with its wide clean wings, rear mounted turbofans, cross T-Tail as it still looks like a prototype of any of today's latest and greatest from Dassault Falcon XXX and Bombardier Global something. But overall the Sud Aviation represented glamour and the latest and greatest. Besides Rome, Nice on the Cote d Azur south French Riviera found its niche by also accommodating these stupidly wealthy sub-species to do bodies. Any picture of sun and glamour was usually at Nice Airport as the latest set of "Jetsetters" flew in to throw their money away at the Monte Carlo Casino. And this is where we catch up with the Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle by Heinz Dzuirowitz and Michael Wilson. History The Caravelle was created on 12 October 1951, when the Comité du matériel civil (civil aircraft committee) published a specification for a medium-range aircraft, that called for an aircraft carrying 55 to 65 passengers and 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) of cargo on routes up to 2,000 km (1,100 nmi; 1,200 mi) with a cruising speed of about 600 km/h (320 kn; 370 mph). The type and number of engines were not specified. Response from the French industry was strong, with every major manufacturer sending in at least one proposal, and a total of 20 different designs were received. But the list was reduced to three on 28 March 1952 with the four-engined Avon/Marbore S.0.60, the twin-Avon Hurel-Dubois project, and the three-Avon Sud-Est X-210. At this point Rolls-Royce started offering a new version of the powerful Avon that could develop 9,000 lbf (40 kN) thrust and making the auxiliary engines on the S.O.60 and the third engine on the X-210 unnecessary. The Committee requested SNCASE re-submit the X-210 as a twin-Avon design. In doing so, they decided not to bother moving the remaining engines from their rear-mounted position; most designs placed the engines under the wing where they could be mounted on the spar for lower overall weight, but SNCASE felt the savings were not worth the effort. This turned out to be a benefit to the design, as the cabin noise was greatly reduced. On 6 July 1953 the SGACC ordered two prototypes and two static airframes for fatigue testing. Sud's design licensed several fuselage features from de Havilland, a company Sud had had dealings with for several earlier designs. The nose area and cockpit layout were both taken directly from the de Havilland Comet jet airliner, while the rest of the plane was locally designed. A distinctive design feature was the cabin windows in the shape of a curved triangle which were smaller than conventional windows but gave the same field of view downwards. The first prototype of the Caravelle (F-WHHH), christened by Madame de Gaulle, was rolled out on 21 April 1955 and flew on 27 May, powered by two British Rolls-Royce RA-26 Mk.522 with 4,536 kgf (44,480 N; 10,000 lbf) of unitary thrust and the the flight duration was 41 minutes. The second prototype flew a year later on 6 May 1956. The first prototype had a cargo door on the lower left side of the fuselage, but this was removed in the second prototype for an all-seating arrangement. The first order was from Air France in 1956, followed by SAS in 1957. It was not a French Airline but the SAS Scandinavian Airlines that was the launch customer in 1959. There was to be a Super-Caravelle; however, but this work would later be merged with similar work at Britain's Bristol Aeroplane Company to produce the Concorde. So in many respects the Caravelle was an early forerunner of the supersonic transport aircraft. In total, 282 Caravelles of all types were built (2 prototypes or pre-production aircraft and 280 production aircraft), with Sud Aviation's break-even point at around the 200 mark. Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle Sadly Heinz Dzuirowitz passed away only a short time ago () but his legacy will fly on. I am not going to suggest that his Sud Aviation Caravelle created with Mike Wilson is a fully featured, plugin driven modern aircraft because it is not, but it is something special in the way like the real aircraft it represents a time that is moving on, and it is an interesting aircraft for anyone who wants to study aircraft in its basic X-Plane form and PlaneMaker design. In that context it was one of the best to come out of that era as it is part of the start of the early 3d component designs (pedestal) and emerging special effects in like pop-up menus. The aircraft is part of the classic era in that Heinz like Mike, Jacques Brault, Riviere, STMA and Peter Hagar and many, many more found in creating aircraft with the PlaneMaker application. They made aircraft that were as wide ranging as you could guess, and yes certainly many still today create great aircraft, but as payware can only really support sales in areas of high demand, so then you are not going to get a high level full 3d object design of a Trident III or Vickers VC10 coming in the years ahead (sadly) but there are a few (average versions) in the downloads that cover these iconic aircraft. (Note: There is a Comet 4c in beta) You have a fully featured interior with an attendant (Hostie!) that will come at a push of the button with a drink, French of course and to the correct time of the clock on the wall. Early animations cover the opening of the rear stairs (but not the front door?) and the cockpit's windows open to pass through the paperwork than with today's carry on iPad electronic flight bags. The Avon's RA.29 Mk.300 series axial flow (The first) jet engine turns and belches black smoke on early turbojet designs here before they put huge windmills on the front of gearboxes to make Jet engines more efficient and powerful. They sound great as well as the aircraft has a JERA Sound System and likewise to the era before noise abatement procedures stopped aircraft from making you clasp your ears and feeling the hairs on your neck crawl with excitement of an airliner whining away from the ramp. If they are noisy then the Avon's are not that powerful in shifting the heavy metal. 9,000 lbf (40 kN) of thrust sounds a lot, the early Boeing 737's JT8D-7 was flat rated to develop 14,000lbf, but the current Boeing 737-800 Series CFM56-7B27 engine creates 27,300 lbf (121 kN) so the Avon's look positively puny compared to that. So you don't so much as power off the runway but gradually power slowly down it, thankfully the large wing gives you lift at a low (140knt-150knts) speed so you don't ride off the end of the runway and into the Mediterranean Sea. Climb is slow as well but positive and any flap is drag, so they and the detailed undercarriage have to come up as soon as possible to get a positive rate of climb of around 5º-7º. The Caravelle like the Comet before it created a new world of traveling in that was very far removed from the noisy bouncy Prop-Driven aircraft of the day. When you can in hindsight look back and wonder in our super-efficient low cost carrier world on how different the flying world was back then. Routes were empty, timetables were by the hours and not the minutes... it was all laid back and luxurious, the Golden Age of the early jet age. Although under-powered by today's standards, performance was still outstanding in a Maximum speed: 805 km/h (500 mph/435 knots) Range: 1,700 km (920 nmi/1,060 mi) and Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,370 ft). Standard climb is around 1,500fpm, and the standard noted climb to 33,000ft is over 220 miles and takes 40 mins and uses 4,400 lbs of fuel (kerosine then) cruising speed is at 7,250rpm and around 390knts with a fuel consumption of 4,400lbs per hour. I was climbing to only 22,500ft and it felt like forever at 1200fpm and down to 800fpm over 18,500ft. It is a slow climb but still gradual and I didn't need to go too high as it was only a short hop to Orly, Paris. Max speed is around m0.82 but go any faster and the real aircraft displayed an aerodynamic buffeting and so it rarely kept up that cruise speed for very long, but that speed is extremely fast if you think about it and the same as today's aircraft. In fact a Vickers VC10 still holds the fastest Atlantic crossing speed for a sub-sonic jet aircraft gate to gate from LHR - JFK and the RAF from London to the Falkland islands at a top speed of 827.55 km/h that created four FAI ratified records in 1987 (without air-refueling). The cockpit is full 3d and for the period very good. The panels are clockwork or just dials, and not a modern display panel in sight. These aircraft can be a challenge to fly if you want to do them as they were back in the 60's. FlyJSim's excellent Boeing 727 Series is one of the best for doing the retro period flying. But here you have to plan in your ADF Nav-Aids because in here you don't even have VOR - Radials to tune into, so before departure navigation and planning is everything, in other words you need your notes. Besides the usual Standard Six instruments the focus is on the pitch and climb of the aircraft in the instruments and except for the ADF that is the only navigation instrument you have. But honestly if you can fly a basic GA trainer you will feel at home in here. Everything is created out of basic PlaneMaker instruments but it does show you that how good the basic instruments in X-Plane really are. Speed is not only noted in IAS-Knots but also with a separate Mach dial and there is a radar Altimeter as well. Central left is a Oil pressure and Temp Dials and voltage meter. Center panel is the engine panel that covers both engines N1, Thrust, RPM and EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature). Center right is the Fuel Qty, and Fuel in lbs, F.F. (Fuel Flow), outside Air Pressure and Hyd Pressure. Lower panel is a clock and hydraulic quantity. The Co-Pilot get just the Standard Six instruments with Mach number and Radar Alt. The roof panel is pretty sparse because you have an engineering panel and a person behind you (remember him?). You can see the emergence of better quality 3d objects here in the well crafted pedestal, with its great Airbrake, throttle, Flap and fuel cut-off levers. Trim wheels are to the side and rear. Other good detailing highlights are the period rudder pedals and yoke, which was for the time very futuristic. If you don't want to go all early 60's period then you can sorta cheat? There is a set of pop-up menu's on the top of the panel on the pilot's side that include (left to Right) a Mini Quadrant, GPS, Radio, Autopilot, MAP and FMS. All are basic X-Plane default tools in using X-Plane navigation and autopilot functions in the aircraft (In other words if you can fly a standard X-Plane default aircraft you can use and fly the Caravelle). All Menu items are animated and easy to use... and very helpful. Panel lighting is pretty average and only an overhead light adjustment, In the cabin you can still read your magazine. At only 22,000ft France is glorious below you. The modeling looks great in this light, but it is from an another era. The sleek silver pods with the Avon's situated inside look great on a design from that age. The Airbrakes are vintage as well in that metal mesh look and stand above the wing and not as part of the assembly. Officially you can descend in a Caravelle at 5,800fpm, which sounds a little extreme. But drop the speed and lower your altitude and the aircraft will descend quite quickly (unlike going up) at around 2,300fpm, and although the Caravelle was very efficient through the air for its time period, you notice how good today's wings really are with their high computational fluid dynamics or CFD and aerodynamic flows and how different you have to adjust to fly the different eras of aviation (again the FJS B727 is very good at simulating this type of period effect). Aircraft of the period had to a point be more flexible than the commercial systems of today. Like the Boeing 727 Series the aircraft had to fly to into very short runways and be self-sufficient on the ground, hence the early on board APU and built in stairs. So landing speeds were usually very low at around 135knts (I used 155knts) and in the Caravelle's case some were fitted with a landing parachute for runways of 1,800ft in length but otherwise a landing run is around 2,160ft, Strangely you can't imagine now Easyjet or Air Berlin running an airline with parachutes flapping on every landing, but I don't doubt that Michael O'Leary of Ryanair would consider it if would lead to cheaper landing charges. But at low speed I got a left-right yaw (shimmy) when fine-tuning the low landing speeds which was slightly annoying with no crosswind, flaps are only two position and so you don't have a lot of speed to flap adjustment either. The Caravelle with all that wing area is going to give you a lot of float or ground effect but I found I could bring the aircraft down quite easily and effectively with no dramas. Thrust reverse is highly effective (and very dirty and noisy) so I didn't even have to deploy the airbrakes to rub off the speed and you found with the weight the aircraft tracked true down the centerline. A taxi round to the south (old) terminal at LFPO and the flight was completed with a shutdown. Liveries A full set of retro liveries are available including a great Alitalia and the American operator of United... X-Plane was flying in the 60's? Maybe it was on a Mainframe somewhere? Summary Early jet airliners are rare in any simulator and yet they are the most fascinating and interesting aircraft to fly (and you have to work hard to fly them without all the navigation gizmos). Heinz's SE 210 Caravelle is certainly dated by current standards but a lot of the feel and flight profiles can test you to fly an aircraft from another era in this case the early 60's, and there is not another more modern version of the Caravelle coming to X-Plane anytime soon either (If ever). For anyone interested in PlaneMaker or default X-Plane aircraft then this aircraft shows you a developer at the top of that field and what can be done and achieved with just the basic tools provided with the simulator. If you are interested and want to find simulation on aircraft like this Sud-Aviation then it can be a great immersion, try flying to meet the commercial networks and performance of the period. As these aircraft did push the performance boundaries and aviation forward in the new early era of Jet Aviation advancement, and in the process also created a whole new human sub-species in the "Jetsetter". The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle by Heinz Dzuirowitz is available from the New X-Plane.Org Store here : SE210 Caravelle and is priced at only US$17.95 and available for both X-Plane 10 and X-Plane9 (to order) Installation: File size is 65.90mb and expanded to 89.80mb to your X-Plane - "Heavy Metal" Folder. Documents: Manual, 9 Pages with Procedures. Historic Documents: Features: Easy to use Virtual cockpit Functional 3D Cockpit Pop-up panels to simulate the 2D mode Detailed and accurate panel. Includes overhead panel. Accurate flight model Highly detailed and animated 3D model Decorated cabin with passengers and attendants Detailed parts (landing gear, engines, etc) Many animations: Controls, Windows, back stairs, etc. JERA Sound System Comes with dozen of liveries! Classic Airliner cockpit look The complex cockpit of an airliner of the 60's A great mix of older and newer instruments Requirements X-Plane 10+ (any edition) (X-Plane 9 version available on demand after you place the order) Windows, Mac or Linux. 32 and 64 bit compatible 512Mb VRAM Video card Profile by Stephen Dutton 23rd June 2015 Copyright©2015: X-Plane Reviews Review System Specifications: Computer System: - 2.66 Ghz Intel Core i5 iMac 27” - 9 Gb 1067 Mhz DDR3 - ATI Radeon HD 6970M 2048 mb - Seagate 512gb SSD Software: - Mac OS Yosemite 10.10.1 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.35 (final) Addons - Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle - Bose - Soundlink Mini Scenery - LFMN - Nice Cote d Azur X - Aerosoft (default X-Plane) - LFPO - Paris Orly - Aerosoft (default X-Plane)