Stephen

News! - Coming - Sound Pack Upgrade : CRJ200 v2.0 by BlueSkyStar

 

There is a new v2.0 sound pack coming for the JRollon CRJ200. This already brilliant add-on sound package has had now even more refinement with these dynamic audio areas:

 

-New external/internal logic dependent on closed/open doors.
-New cleaner avionics sounds internal/external
-Avionics bay sound remastered
-Aft bay sounds, equipment.
-New braking, vibration sounds
-New hydraulic sounds
-New bleed/pack turbine sounds
-New wind
-New realistic sound settings, easy to use
-New APU logic
-All systems sound now will sound in compliance with open or closed entrance door.

 

The version is already in beta testing and so the v2.0 release will not be to far away.

 

X-PlaneReviews did a comprehensive review of the CRJ200 sound package here:

Aircraft Addons : CRJ-200 JRollon - Sound Packs by Blue Sky Star Simulations

 

These brilliant sound packs have to be heard to believe how great they are...  total immersion. You can buy the package here and then upgrade to the v2.0 when it is released. The JRollon CRJ200 is required separately to use this package:

 

BSS CRJ-200 Sound Expansion Pack

  BSS CRJ-200 Sound Expansion Pack

 

Noted as well that the JARDesign A320neo/A330 series are also in line for coming upgrades, and these include:

 

JAR A320 IAE
JAR A320 Main sounds (systems)
JAR A320 CFM

JAR A330 GE, Trent and PW

______________________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

9th September 2016

Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: X-PlaneReviews 2016

 

 

News! - 10.50 goes Final! by Laminar Research

 

X-Plane's latest version has gone final in v10.50. The X-Plane application will now prompt you to auto-update the next time you run to run the installer. Steam users for 10.50 should get the update in a day or so.

 

The full 10.50  release notes are here, and X-PlaneReviews did a full summary of what is included in the new version here:

X-Plane Version 10.50: What is new

 

No doubt that it has been a busy place at the Laminar Research over the last few months but that is going to be nothing compared to a complete new X-Plane version coming soon later in the year. But for now, X-Plane 10.50 is good and final...

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

9th September 2016

Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: X-PlaneReviews 2016

 

Aircraft Update : F/A 18-F "Rhino" Super Hornet 1.2 by Colimata

 

The F/A F18-F "Rhino" has had an upgrade to version 1.2. There are a few bug fixes and overall it is general cleanup to match the X-Plane 10.50 release.

 

 

Full Changelog is here:

 

5 hours ago, Guest oceansong said:

Beautiful scenery- also used the library installer to update my scenery files. LOWI does not display static aircraft, which I can easily add, but was just wondering if these are not included with scenery package?

 

Blue skies!

 

No JustSim don't provide static aircraft. Times are a-changing in X-Plane as most new sceneries required the statics to be placed, but now with the new 10.50 static system which LOWI has installed correctly then they appear if the checkbox is checked on. Only downside is that the aircraft are not regional, so you get American aircraft at European airports, like at LOWI which I am not crazy about. My preference is still World Traffic as you can select the regional operators and that works best for me. SD

 

Behind the Screen : August 2016

 

August felt like an eternity, it went on and on, but a lot of flying and good flying can be done waiting for eternity to end.

 

After my average earlier forays into X-Plane beta 10.50, it was time to see if it was as good as it should be. The result was a full review of the updated version in X-Plane Version 10.50: What is new and the results were surprising in the end in that how refined it all felt. The most significant thing that came out of the review was in how much extra value you got from Laminar Research in more than they had originally promised at the release of the 10.00 version. Value you certainly got from the simulator, and a lot of refinement in the process.

 

In saying that though, you have to make a significant investment in hardware to unleash all that power, yes X-Plane will run on a machine even now a few years old, but to get the full effects you have to have a pretty big graphic card (4gb minimum) and high chip processing power to feel the great and the very good.

 

 The requirements in the end in the jump from X-Plane9 to X-Plane10 were very high and in that many still swear by X-Plane9 being still the best as to convince themselves that their 2007 era computer is still at the forefront of computer technology, no offence and nobody more than me understands the costs involved in upgrading the hardware to meet the requirements that modern simulators demand, now X-Plane11 is just around the corner and do you want to miss out on those great new features as well, it will be like running X-Plane8 expecting it to be like X-Plane10.

 

One thing I think will be helpful though (and no I don't have any sort of X-Plane11 beta version) is that the upgrade gap won't be the chasm that it was between XP9 and XP10 to X-Plane11. All those updated scenery features and processor gobbling clouds won't be coming this time, and the new startup and menu layouts will actually be more efficient and better than the system we have now. Ditto the new "Physically Based Rendering" or "PBR"  which again was noted as very efficient by Laminar, so if you do have a pretty reasonable running system now, then you should be fine with X-Plane11.

 

But August was really all about the flying. And it started straight out of the blocks with Mike's Aircraft huge DC-8 release. This is where the gap between the professional and the personal feelings show in simulation. In the review you have to be very clear headed and note the short comings of the aircraft, that is where you (the customer) can make a clear well informed decision if you want to own the aircraft, and any review has a second objective as well and that is directed at the developer of the areas they can improve their hard work to advance not only their aircraft or sceneries to a higher level. Criticism is not throwing the knives at you but wanting the product to be as good as it really can be for everyone to share in what is a great aircraft or scenery.

 

The DC-8 really fell into that category, it is by and large a redeveloped earlier X-Plane aircraft from the start anyway. But the really exciting thing about these redeveloped aircraft is the fact that these aircraft that won't have the full developer team treatment and high price factors thrown at them, can also be available with also great features and quality and a very good price.

 

But in simulation, strange aircraft and even incomplete ones can be your favorite for flying as much as the huge complex JARDesign's and Flightfactor's that are pushing the boundaries of brilliant simulation frontiers in your flying life. Sometimes it is nice not to have all that huge amount of setting up and flying parameters that certainly do reward you with amazing experiences, but to just fly simply for the sake of enjoying what simulation does offer in simple flying pleasures.

 

In other words I love these aircraft, for all their imperfections (not like the DC-8 is not great because it is) but for the sheer reward they deliver. So the quirky can fly alongside the great, and in my top ten list many of these aircraft do provide as much of my flying time as the expected top of any list in X-Plane can do as well. We also have our personal preferences, a list which is interesting is also really nothing like I would have expected it to be when I entered X-Plane, so there is a big surprise there. The real test is that the aircraft on anyone's top ten list is that it is a stayer, it is there years after it is acquired and so you are not flashed by the next best thing.

 

Then I finally got around to reviewing the latest Carenado twin in the PA-31 Navajo. If there is love at first flight then I believe in it. It was the most perfect Carenado yet, but I did find the VOR-NDB pointer instrument hard to use on the other side of the panel. In small increments Carenado keep on bringing the quality bar a little higher and and all round it was a total class act. But strangely I find the small things that should be a common past features missing in the rain effects and baggage, these are scratch your head moments, small things yes, but noticeable here...  But overall the Navajo will certainly now coming into my Top Ten list and will get some serious flying hours under it's new role.

 

With that I have decided to do a full "Top Ten" list of the aircraft I use and why they are in that list. And no doubt I could open that out to a "Top Thirty" list of aircraft and still want more to be included, but the "Top Ten" are the ones that usually fill either a role in reviewing of most just for the pleasure of flying. Most important point to make is the list is not a reflection of the quality of the aircraft but by the sheer pleasure and reward that they give in return.

 

X-PlaneReviews "Top Ten"

 

1. Carenado F33A Bonanza

 

 

The crazy thing about my relationship with the F33A was that I bought it for my birthday and never flew it much for two years? Then it clicked, and it became an totally invaluable tool for learning VOR - NDB based flights, then with the honing of the basics of flying in circuits, landings and general flying training. Never ever fails in how it brings out the best in X-Plane for me, but those really excellent navigation instruments and their layout makes the aircraft a technical flyer the best there is. To switch off with a "flight to somewhere" on a Sunday afternoon the Bonanza is always my perfect aircraft of choice, flying back to base or an early morning start always brings out the best of this great little gem of a GA.

 

2. Carenado B200 KingAir

 

 

A powerful big Twin is always desirable, but this B200 is the best of them all. It can cover huge distances (Living in Australia that helps a lot) but it is also the practical side of learning how to fly a big twin really well, the practise of single engine failures and landings can really hone your skills, but it is it is the B200's multi-airport runway hopping abilities will have me scouring the outback for small towns with baked runways. Overall my preferred Twin.

 

3. Carenado Caravan C208B

 

 

Another Carenado!..  Yes I love my Caravan, it is a commuter machine par excellence. Island hopping of just getting the customers from a lonely airstrip to the larger regional airport, nothing comes close to the Caravan. It sounds glorious! with that higher-powered PT6A-114A engine, gives you goosebumps. But this a great aircraft to fly no matter what the weather and the optional cargo version gives you a great variation on the same routes.

 

4. Flightfactor/VMAX Boeing 777 Extended

 

 

No aircraft clocks up more nautical mileage on my computer than the FF Boeing 777 Cargo. I follow the Formula One circus around the world and the B777F is my cargo-hauler of choice. Flying the aircraft a lot will get you almost intimate with every nook and cranny of its flying abilities and the aircraft always delivers in pure satisfaction return from block to block.

 

5. Rotate MD-88

 

 

Challenging but extremely rewarding is the MD-88. I watched hundreds of YouTube of MD Series video's and I wanted to fly the "MadDog". No doubt Rotate's MD-88 had a difficult birth in X-Plane, but it still delivered one really great aircraft to use and fly. Now very sorted the MD-88 is my regional hub and spoke hopper of choice. Oh and it looks absolutely amazing as well.

 

6. Carenado Beech 1900D

 

 

The big Beech demanded a powerful computer or just did not agree with the way my iMac processed it. But I loved it and now with the powerful Windows giving the 1900D a big tailwind, it really came into its own. A great short regional flyer par excellence.

 

7. FlyJSim Boeing 737 Series

 

 

"Retro Rules Ok" The B727 was my entrance into continental VOR flying and lots of maps and notes to go from the east to west coast airports. The B727 is a total drama queen and it is quite hard to fly, but highly rewarding when you get it totally right. This bird really delivers, and recent upgrade to "Study" made the Tri-Jet even better but I really miss a cabin view and opening doors, if they don't come soon it may fall out of this list.

 

8. JRollon CRJ200

 

 

The JRollon CRJ200 was another birthday present that sat undisturbed for years until it became active. This classic X-Plane aircraft is a very hard aircraft to fly really good, and I couldn't fly it very well at all. Over the years and (lots of) practise have brought us together as my flying abilities caught up to the aircraft's quirks and now we make sweet love together. The recently released excellent BSS sound package transformed the aircraft yet again... old! never, still really great and the best regional.

 

9. JARDesign Airbus A320neo

 

 

I fly on JQ A320's more than any other aircraft around Australia, so familiarity with the aircraft is very high. JARDesign's version is very good, very immersive as a simulation, but two external factors lifted it higher this year. One JARDesign's excellent Ground Handling Deluxe add an extra dimension on the ground, and another the BSS Sound package lifted the A320 beyond great in the air. So why isn't the A320 higher in this list. Mostly it takes a lot of time between turnaround times to reprogramme the aircraft for the next sector, no route saving just loses you too much time and overall the aircraft needs a freshen update.

 

10. The Avroliner Project Avro RJ100

 

More of an national cause than just an aircraft. The Avroliner project keeps on going on, but the Avro is a great aircraft to fly right. There is a lot of love here and it goes both way from the developer and myself. Quirky, and endearing, you get great flights out of flying around the country, another one for that lazy Sunday afternoon when you just want to fly somewhere. And yes it is still available on the X-Plane.OrgStore in the RJ 85 variant.

 

_________________________________________________________

 

There is a pattern to these aircraft and that they are mostly regional in their abilities. No doubt the FlightFactor B757/767/A350 and also the JARDesign A330 are brilliant and yes I fly them a lot, but I don't have the time that is required to set them up and fly them on a more constant basis.

 

I came into X-Plane for long-haul flying, but as the list shows I don't do as much of that anymore or as much as I would like to do. As noted it is more of a time thing than a "I have moved on from that" feeling, but to not help in the cause are two aircraft that were very high on the top ten list that have fallen badly from grace.

 

One is the default X-Plane Boeing 747-400. This is an aircraft flew a lot as I came into X-Plane to fly the Jumbo Jet. I love 747's but this aircraft is now without any update for years and it is now just crappy really in today's quality environment. A recent flight from London To New York confirmed the worse and I was bitterly disappointed that the 10.50 update didn't include the aircraft.

 

Second Is Peter Hagers A380. The huge A380 is a magnificent beast, and challenging to fly really well because of the sheer weight and size of the aircraft. I really love the A380, but years of neglect means the aircraft is now feeling very, very tired, my versions are hopelessly out of date. A another recent troubled flight to Rio De Janerio will mean it will be hangared until it has a new airworthy certificate...  sad.

 

Another aircraft that just doesn't just make the list that was a firm favorite is the EADT x737. Nothing wrong with the brilliant v5 update, but the FMC is a tale of woe and the framerate required is high, don't think I don't fly or use the x737 as it is magnificent and I fly it a lot.

 

Last but not least the top ten list shows the latest is not the best. Most if not all are quite old and have been released for quite some time. But great updates and revisions have kept them relevant, and this list can change at anytime with the Navajo and DC-8 now firmly getting more flying time.

 

In tribute to...

 

Joseph Frederick "Joe" Sutter (March 21, 1921 – August 30, 2016)

 

One of the Immortals

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Stephen Dutton

7th September 2016

Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews

 

 

 

 

News! - X-Plane11 : Announcement coming 8th October!

 

Laminar Research have announced a date 8th October 2016 that they will announce in a big presentation in the UK at the 2016 Flight Sim Expo at the Royal Air Force Museum in Cosford, England...   "A big announcement!" 

 

Both Austin Meyer and Ben Supnik are both scheduled to give personal presentations on the "big announcement" which for all and sundry will mean the launch of the next version of X-Plane in "X-Plane11" Excited...  you should be.

 

So that concludes the announcement of the "big announcement!"

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

2nd September 2016

Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: X-PlaneReviews 2016

 

 

Aircraft Update : Epic Victory v2.0 by Aerobask

 

Aerobask has done a significant upgrade to their Epic Victory Light Jet. This is version v2.0 and it comes with a very clever new interface feature called "Skyview Touch" and we will go over that system in detail in a moment.

 

 

First a small recap on this light jet. The Eclipse 500 and the Honda Jet with this Victory single engined Pratt & Whitney Canada PW600, Very Light Jet (VLJ) were created for a market in air taxi services that never came to pass. But that should not take the quality away from this very clever and even brilliant design of a very small private jet from Epic Aircraft Company of Oregon in the United States of America.

 

The aircraft seats five including the pilot, but the Victory is very small modern aircraft and it is very easy to operate and fly, just like....  well a taxi.

 

Aerobask Epic Victory 2.0

The design of this Epic Victory from Aerobask is excellent, and for his latest designs Stephane Buon has teamed up with Lionel Zamouth to create some very interesting and clever systems in the aircraft.

 

Externally and Internally v2.0 does not look that much different from the release version back in February this year.

 

 

The aircraft still looks amazing and comes with a good selection of menus and features.

 

 

For a full detailed description of all these items and features then read X-PlaneReview's full release review:  Epic Victory Light Jet by Aerobask

 

If you do read over the original release review you will notice the time and difficulty in setting up the aircraft and flightplans via the button menu system...  that all changes here in v2.0.

 

"Skyview Touch"

The first view of the Victory's v2.0 cockpit and panels if you are familiar with the aircraft will not look that much different, and it all looks the same as if any changes had not taken place at all...

 

 

But if you touch any of the panels of the Dynon Avionics Skyview to pop them out like on the release version it won't work that way now...

 

 

Now you touch on the aircraft symbol in the centre of each display for them to now pop-up. You do the same thing to close them. The radio and Autopilot panels pop-up the old way and you press the centre of the panel's (glass) screen to make them disappear again.

 

One of the really hard things to do in simulation is to create an interface that allows you to touch on the items on (in this case the display panels) and also the built in X-Plane button and knob commands. The question is always are you in say a keyboard position of typing directly into the interface or in the other standard interface and not get confused of which mode you are actually in. It is harder to create this input mode without confusing the situation than you think it is...  So here is a solution from Aerobask to that interface dilemma.

 

Instead of working your way through the tree and branch methods of digital menus (complex and time consuming) you can here select directly on the item that you want to change, and with each selection change it will go and show in the menu bar the actual menu item as well.

 

Navigation Pointers

 

 

Three pointers cover LOC 1 (NAV1), VOR 2 (NAV 2) and Skyview (GPS) and all three pointers can be set in what display you want in two boxes. The larger top box is the active one for VOR 1 (NAV 1) ILS and Skyview (GPS) connect with the NAV on the autopilot, and so with a click you can have what you want in an instant. Here it is shown as the Skyview (GPS lock) and VOR 2 (NAV 2) pointer direction.

 

Direct input

 

 

The touch screen allows for direct input. Say you want to set your CRS (Course) position for RWY 27. CRS has to be on LOC 1 to move, then press the CRS area bottom right of the heading dial. This pops up a panel that is noted in Orange as "Keyboard Inactive".

 

 

Press the pop-up panel and it turns "Keyboard Active" and then you can type in or use the panel keyboard to enter the CRS 270 number, press ENT to enter the data and click away the panel. It looks more laborious step by step than it actual is using it, as in reality it is very intuitive and you do the inputs very quickly as the panel is there and then done...  with the seemless join between the X-Plane environment and the keyboard input being smooth and not noticeable at all, and it all feel like one single interface. But if you do linger in the "Active" zone you are of course still cut off from the X-Plane interface. Overall the interface is very good and easily adaptable.

 

There are several other zones that can be changed on the PFD (Primary Flight Display) panel besides the CRS. You can also change the heading, Speed (IAS), Altitude, MDA (ft) and the Barometer.

 

Heading/North

 

 

A direct click on the yellow arrow (top left) can change the MAP orientation from North to Heading easily.

 

There are three buttons in the MAP section for NRST (Nearest), INFO and FPL (Flightplan) at the bottom of the MFD (Mulifunction Display). These buttons were on the original release version, but the difference now is that you can input the data directly.

 

NRST (Nearest)

 

 

First is NRST. Here is all the data for APT (Airports), VOR, DME, NDB and FIX waypoints. Double click on a selection and you get a menu of options...

 

Here are the Airport selections in Airport information data, RWYS, and airport COMM frequencies and the selections can be inputted either into the radios or GPS system for flightplan building. Information provided is detailed and clear to read.

 

 

If you want area selections of waypoints in VOR, DME, NDB or FIX then there are the direct selections of them as well.

 

INFO (Information)

 

Middle button (INFO) brings up information on selected items for Airports, VOR, DME, NDB or FIX's and again you have the options to input the data into the system. Best of all is the search system that will give you global, local and direct waypoint information by the way you search.

 

 

Waypoint information is very good with the DIRECT function to that waypoint available.

 

 

Searches are easy with either keyboard or mouse inputs, again the colour "Inactive" or "Active" of the keyboard shows you your status.

 

FPL (Flightplan)

 

The power of the "Touch" system is shown best with the FPL or creating a flightplan. Loading or creating a flightplan is quick, easy and you have a lot of information at your disposal.

 

Press the third tab FPL...

 

 

Press on the FPL panel and it will ask you for a waypoint... First one is your departure airport, in this case KRSW. If you reclick on the inserted airport you get a menu covering...  Your departure (SID), Inserting another waypoint or remove a waypoint (selected). You can show info on that waypoint or go DIRECT or activate a certain leg of the flightplan. You can reverse the finished flight plan, delete to end or totally delete the route

 

 

Pressing the "Insert Departure" line will allow you to set your departure runway, SID (Standard Instrument Departure), and TRAN (Transition) and that is your departure complete.

 

 

Route waypoints includes also airways which makes the system versatile, but I am not using an airway here. All waypoints entered have the correct logo's associated with them for easy identifying of the item in APT, VOR, DME, NDB.

 

On arrival you insert the "Arrival" airport waypoint. Then click to get the selection of arrival runway, then the STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Route) and it's TRAN (Transition) point.

 

 

Smooth, quick and easy and the flightplan is complete.  Saving with keyboard text is fast and Loading in flightplans is so easy and very quick than going down them one item at a time.

 

 

The system is very good, the only note is that it is restricted to the MAP's range and you don't have a "step" function and joining up the route to the STAR is out of sight, and any editing to make this seemless arrival is not available. So you may have to do it enroute when the MAP limit comes on the screen.

 

 

But this is a full FMS system and not just a knockoff of the X-Plane default GPS although based on the GNS. It is powerful but more importantly very elegant in that it is versatile in that it is easy to change runways or SID and STAR's and not screw the route up and have to re-edit it all. For a small aircraft it is a full FMS in scale as you have with the heavy aircraft.

 

Flight

 

 

I took the Victory for a quick flight from KLAL to KRSW to feel the new "Touch" system in action.

 

Setting up the aircraft is quick and easy. All COMM's are done via the touch screen or if you want to change it directly in the menu then just touch the frequency on the PFD screen banner and the flightplan is loaded.

 

I like the loading menu with the fuel load, then loading the passengers and luggage with the correct weights when on board. A child selection is very good. All aboard and you have a full aircraft.

 

 

 

Loads of power even with a full load on board. The Victory tracks nicely, but this is still a VLJ, and a slight crosswind can easily catch you out.

 

 

Sounds are excellent with that fine jet whine and whistle and you do feel jet powered and ready to fly high and head south.

 

 

Lots of options now on how you interact with the aircraft. Top banner menu, lower button menu or straight to the Autopilot panel as well.

 

 

A great feature is the altitude marker of when you will reach your set altitude, another feature from the heavies, but very desirable.

 

 

Want to set the IAS speed, then just click on the speed zone on the PFD and in the pop-up set the speed you require and ENT. Setting is also set on the AP (IAS).

 

The TCAS is now also active and the button is on the lighting panel, I am not running any X-Plane A.I. aircraft, so they don't show here.

 

 

Waypoint information is in active real time, you can go DIRECT TO as well if you want to. Setting up the COMM's (below) for arrival is easy, by using the menu, a click will insert the frequency into the PFD bannner and the radio set, options include both active and standby COMM 1 and 2

 

 

You get instant MAP alignment in either North or Heading which is great for landing patterns.

 

 

 

One thing you do feel, is the aircraft even in this low v2.0 release is now very polished, and does everything very well in every aspect of the flight envelope. Everything has been refined and tested. So very quickly you can fly it well and the new interaction only heightens that appeal. 

 

 

Approach and landing at KRSW was too perfection, but you have to watch the track carefully on the runway and keep the aircraft tightly on the straight ahead. It will quickly wander and worse don't hit the brakes until the speed has run out...   and that could take up a fair bit of tarmac as you have no other aids on slowing the aircraft down, so you roll on forever.

 

 

Parking up and unloading is a breeze with the good menus, pilot refuses to come out though, even when the aircraft is cold and shutdown.

 

Liveries

You already receive seven great liveries with the original release. With v2.0 you get another Five that are numbered from 979 to 983. All are extremely high quality and diversely well created in design.

 

 

Summary

 

Outwardly the v2.0 looks almost the same as the original release, but as we have gone through this review the aircraft is now nothing but. It is a total interface redesign, but there is also lot of fight dynamic and improvements right through the aircraft, in many cases not by much, but that real solid professional feel is right there.

 

And professional is the word about that interactive interface. It is seemless in operation that is hard to describe on a page unless you actually use it and it goes a long way in getting around the complexity of the glass panel tree and branch menu operation. In other words it make changes very easy and you have so much information at your disposal and it is all usable information that can be easily inserted into the system. The system is deep as well with not only waypoints but airways as well, SID, STARS and transitions and runway changes on the go and all in one elegant package that is a great feature to have on any aircraft, never mind a VLJ.

 

So a great upgrade and a useful one as well to the Epic Victory, great value and a great aircraft to fly, for a more visual view of the new "touch" system then look over this video with the system in operation...

 

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

Yes! the Epic Victoryv 2.0 by Aerobask is NOW available from the new X-Plane.Org Store here :

 

Epic Victory 2.0

Price is US$29.95

If you already have purchased the Aerobask Epic Victory then go to your X-Plane.OrgStore account login and upgrade to v2.0

The free Akoya Seaplane deal is still available with your purchase.

 

features include:

Awesome version 2.0

• SkyView Touch - Similated Skyview with easy to use TouchScreen
• SID - STAR  and Airways. They can be entered with ease thanks to the new Skyview Touch
• TCAS

Aerobask Quality 3D Model

• High quality 3D model throughout
• Flight model defined according to the specifications of public data. Fun to fly.
• Ultra-High Resolution textures. 4K, Ambient Occlusion, Specular, Normal mapping and night lightning.
• Fully functional and animated Virtual 3D cockpit.
• Panoramic windshield with reflections, rain and icing effects.
• Ground Power Unit

First ever modeled Skyview for X-Plane

• 3 EFIS  Skyview 
• Extensive custom logic to simulate  the real Skyview
  • Custom MAPs & FMS
  • Flight Plans Management
  • Transponder
  • AutoPilot and radio 
• All EFIS can be displayed in Pop-up view

Other Systems

• EIS MVP50, 2 Garmin GNC255, 1 STEC5000 Autopilot, ADL110B weather radar, TCAS and vocal alerts.
• Can also be viewed as Pop-up windows

Dynamic Menus

• Options Menu
• Fuel & weight management
• GPU

Custom 3D Sounds

• Engine, gear, flaps, door, vocal alert, callout.
• Enhanced 3D sound engine using SASL functions.

 

Requirements:

X-Plane 10.42+ - Running in 64bit mode
Windows 7+. Mac OSC 10.7+, Linux - 64bit Operating System
2Gb VRAM Minimum

Current version: 2.0.14 (Last updated Sep 3rd 2016)

Aircraft Update - Coming! : Challenger C300 10.50 by DDen

 

DDen has announced that his Challenger 300 Private Jet will have a 10.50 makeover. The developer always does a quick update to his aircraft once the latest X-Plane version goes final, but there are a few nice extra tweak's coming along here as well.

 

 

The upgrade will have an upgraded version of DDen's excellent "Reflections Plugin", the one now is very good, but a little too over shiny.  

 

Those amazing cabin and cockpit textures will get even better with new techniques in textures and lighting...

 

 

Internal natural cabin light with overhead lighting off is improved (nice)

 

 

Cockpit gets the same treatment and a better feel...

 

...  textures are improved for better resolution at lower levels.

 

 

The flight model will have a tune-up as well...  DDen's updates are usually very quick, and to keep informed on the progress of the update then go to the 10.50 dev page here:

 

Update for 10.50+ in the works on the X-Plane.Org.

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

1st September 2016

Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: X-PlaneReviews 2016

 

 

News! - Scenery Released! - LOWI - Innsbruck Airport by JustSim

 

 

Here is another Austrian Airport from JustSim. Already there has been LOWS - Saltzberg and LOWL- Linz and now the largest airport deep in the Tyrol is available.

 

LOWI is unique because of it's position low in a valley and any approach to the airport is very difficult and technically up there with the best.

 

 

This scenery comes with an optional pack of OSM 3d object scenery. which is a fully populated Innsbruck city! and the autogen covers a whole 1.1 degree square density. The images shown here is with the 3d object scenery installed.

 

 

 

 

Features Include:

• Custom runway , taxiway and airport lights.
• Shading and occlusion (texture baking) effects on terminal and other airport buildings
• High resolution photo scenery near airport and city.
• High resolution ground textures / Custom runway textures
• High resolution building textures.
• Runway reflection effect.
• Animated  Marshallers. (AutoGate plugin by Marginal)
• Animated custom ground vehicles. (GroundTraffic plugin by Marginal)
• World Traffic compatible.
• X-Life traffic compatible.
• Optimized for excellent performance.

 

 

Night lighting is very good, even exceptional with really good lit building textures.

 

 

 

Requirements are:

X-Plane 10.50+ (any edition)
Windows, Mac, Linux

2Gb+ VRAM Video Card is highly Recommended!
1.5Gb HD Space Available (download size 1.1Gb)

 

Note! in that the download is quite hefty with the included OSM 3d objects at over 1.3gb and that the airport was created in X-Plane 10.50, and you will have to upgrade to the 10.50 version to use it.

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

 

The LOWI - Innsbruck Airport by JustSim is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here :

LOWI - Innsbruck Airport

 

Price is US$18.00

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

30th August 2016

Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: X-PlaneReviews 2016

 

 

On 26/08/2016 at 4:18 PM, Guest Mr.Boeing said:

I just bought the 777 Worldliner and although it looks very beautiful i find the flight model to be a bit strange. I don't know about you guys but whenever I'm landing the will sway to the left and right even with no wind. I don't know if some things wrong on my end or that just the flight model. Ps I Am comparing this with the PMDG 777-200/300

 

No that does not sound right? I fly the B777 Worldliner a lot (mostly Freighter variant) and I don't get that... Are you using the 10.50RC, as that would be the only differential. Some aircraft do, do that though...  it could be an X-Plane quirk in that it doesn't take account of the wheel contact friction, I have complained about it for years. SD

News! - Aircraft Update : Boeing 767-300ER 1.1.12 by FlightFactor/Steptosky

 

FlightFactor_aero and SteptoSky have released an update for the Boeing 767. This v1.1.12 is mostly a bug and refine update, but there is a few special new features.

 

 

The main new features are:

• *new click system, with lots of new options for cockpit interaction 
• many FMS and AP improvements  
• new cockpit tooltip system 
• a lot of additions to the many 
• new glow effects
• updater (still in beta)

 

First new feature is the "tooltip"

 

 

On the iPad menu under Cockpit Interactions (General/Cokpt Interaction) there is a new selection called "tooltips". You can select right, left or hover mouse clicks (or off) to show what the item you have selected is and what it does...  handy.

 

Second feature is the lovely new glow effects.

 

The highlight here is the FMC panel to show off the effects to their full advantage.

 

 

 

Developers have spent years trying to make text and lettering clearer in the cockpit and now they want to make them blurry again...  but with a reason.

 

It is to show the depth of the glass in the instrument and the internal text reflection on that depth of glass. It is a amazingly lifelike and another step forward in realism in the cockpit...

 

 

In the darker cockpit environment the new glow effects are simply amazing, beautiful.

 

 

The glow effects are also used on the instrument lighting reflections. Most notable is the artificial horizon reflection that changes and glows with the instrument's activity.

 

Full 1.1.12 changelog is:

 

- added kg/lb option
- fixed some CTDs during STAR/APP setup
- fixed some drawing artifacts on Intel HD Graphics
- fixed CTD when you enter awy/wpt on the rte pages without entered dep/dest
- added logic for checking airac cycle of the co-routes
- reworked AT&AP
- AP: reworked AT&AP modes switching/engaging/disconnection logic(for example: you can engage CMD without engaged FD), closer to real life
- AP: reworked AT&AP modes internal logic( for example: ALT_HOLD modes now correct reacts to changing baro setting), closer to real life
- AP: added new AT sub modes: SPD_LIM, SPD_FLAPS, ALPHA
- AP: added new AP sub mode: ALT_CAP
- AP: added several configurable AP options
- AP: and other changes
- improved the fast&slow indication for old style eadi.
- reworked the click system, implemented new modes of cockpit inteaction with many options
- added in-cockpit clickzone tips from the manual
- added the ability to manipulate objects in several ways with options 
- fixed RTO disarm bugs
- added a menu page for detail volume options for each group of sounds
- added a menu page with cockpit inteaction options
- added a page with detailed lighting effects options
- added a new glow special effect
- improved flightmodel with more precice CG bahaviour 
- fixed a bug with mach on MCP
- fixed a bug with tail light
- added an autosave option to the menu
- fixed the throttle block RTO issue
- fixed an issue with idle throttle blocking 
- added GA and disconnect switches to the throttle and the yokes 
- change the behavour of the plane when flying with open doors 
- change the APU logic to depend on main bat as per manual 
- added covers to the engines
- added an option for more red (old type) digital displays 
- fixed cargo door text issue
- some fixes for RESET MCP ALT message logic.
- fixed wrong track indication on the ND during moving back (pushback for example).
- added missing RTE COPY function to the PIP variant of the FMC.
- fixed co-route loading bug with duplicates of waypoints.
- fixed displaying the assumed temp in wrong conditions.
- fixed staby instruments' electical dependencies
- added support for unnamed oceanic points even if the nav database doesn't include those points.
- made it so the menu autosave option includes all the airplane specific data as well as the defaults   

 

Check out X-PlaneReviews full comprehensive release review of the Flightfactor_aero/SteptoSky Boeing 767:

 

Aircraft Review : Boeing 767-300ER Professional by VMAX and Flight Factor

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

 

Yes! the Boeing 767-300ER Professional by VMAX and FlightFactor is NOW! Available from the new X-Plane.Org Store here :

 

Boeing 767-300ER Professional

 

Price is US$64.95

 

If you have already purchased any of the above Boeing 767-300ER Professional aircraft then go to your X-Plane.OrgStore account, log in, and download ver 1.1.12, check under the "Requirements" tab if the aircraft is the updated version and it should be noted like this "Current Version: 1.1.12 (last updated August 24th 2016)"...

 

Requirements:

X-Plane 10.40+ (any edition) running in 64bit mode.

Windows 7+, Mac OS 10.9+ or Linux 14.04 LTS or compatible. 64bit mode

1Gb VRAM Video Card Minimum. 2Gb+ VRAM Recommended. 3Gb+ VRAM Preferred

 

FlightFactor Developer Support : FlightFactor 767 Professional

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

25th August 2016

Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: X-PlaneReviews 2016

 

 

 

Aircraft Review - PA31 Navajo HD Series from Carenado

 

I am flying directly west from Brisbane, Queensland towards the great dividing ranges that protects the coastal areas from the red dirt interior of Australia. My transport is the latest from Carenado in the PA-31 Navajo. A small Twin-Engined cargo or 5 to 7 passenger feeder aircraft from the late sixties.

 

 

The dividing range is not very high, more a line on a beach than the tall high mountains like the Rockies or the Alps. So six thousand feet is more than high enough to clear them easily. But you feel comforted up here, cocooned in your own world, it is a smoothed out world that is created by the billowing clouds around you.  The PA-31 purrs along with those two 310 hp (231 kW) Lycoming TIO-540-A turbocharged engines in their "tiger shark" cowlings which are pulling you effortlessly through the air at just under 200knts.

 

The Navajo's cockpit is a nice place to be, no glass or G1000 thingamajig's here, just dials and gauges like in the olden days.

I have a reason to be going west out here, well two actually. One is a group of investors on board that want to...  well invest money. The other is my destination, in an interesting airport called Wellcamp Airport.

 

Wellcamp Airport has an interesting history, it is 145km west of Brisbane and is just situated 15km outside of Toowoomba on the Darling Downs. The airport is brand new, venture more than a service by a wealthy family in the Wagners that made a fortune in construction products, quarries and concreting. Toowoomba already has an airport, but mostly in a regional domestic capacity and the Wagner's wanted a bigger one, Toowoomba Council said "no" and so they built their own, a huge one right in the middle of nowhere really and called it Brisbane West!... cheeky buggers.

 

Point is no one today build's their own airports on this scale, is it a brave statement on the future or a folly of rich people doing things because other people see more sense in the idea than they do. The great thing of going around government bureaucracy and 100 million dollars is that things can get done very quickly in the way that construction was started in April 2013, and everything was completed by October 2014 with the first regular Qantas service being on the 17th November 2014 in connecting with Sydney Airport.

 

And here is Wellcamp on my starboard wing thanks to fhvanhal and his excellent "YBWW Brisbane West Wellcamp" scenery (link is at the bottom of the review).

 

 

YBWW Wellcamp is hard to find and line up to the 12/30 single runway in this open landscape, so you have to do a little homework before you leave.

 

 

But the runway once found is huge...  a mammoth 2870 m long by 45 m wide, and easily capable of handling aircraft to Boeing 747 size. The airport is rated at Code E, and has already been visited by a Cathay Pacific B748F freighter. To save an eon of time taxiing I floated a little down the runway before settling down and taxiing to the modern terminal area to unload my greedy investors. 

 

 

I have wait a while before taking them back to Brisbane, so let us have a look at the Navajo.

 

 

Like a bewitched teenager it was lust at first sight with the Navajo. A beautiful aircraft created out of the smaller PA-31 Twin Comanche and an early relative of the PA-31-350 Chieftain, PA-31T1 Cheyenne and the PA-31P-350 Mojave.  The aircraft first flew on the 30th September 1964 and deliveries started in March 1967, production by Piper ran till 1984 and altogether 3942 Navajo's were built... and many if most are still flying.

 

 

You would think that design and high quality construction had peaked a few years ago on Carenado aircraft, but they just keep on pushing the boundaries higher with every release. Highlights are many, but those propeller spinners are excellent, engine internals peak out of the tiger shark cowlings above and below the wing through the air vents. Tie-downs, antennas and all sorts of fuselage detailing is very good. Engine vents and wing light assembly is sublime as is the small metal airflow lip on the wing/engine join. All screws and riveting is par-excellence and note the one and only wiper for the pilot.

 

 

 

Undercarriage assemblies are almost perfection, and they all come with great realistic animation when moving. Note the great glass work in the landing taxi lights (wing light is excellent as well) and all the glass work and reflections on the fuselage. You can almost touch the realism of the paintwork....  it is all so good...  great.

 

Menus

 

Carenado provide you with three tabbed menus on the left lower screen. A ) is for the pop-up Autopilot panel.  B ) Is the standard Carenado views, Field of View and Volume panel. And C ) is the Options panel.

 

Options gives you Window and Instrument reflections, passenger, luggage and nose door animations. Static elements finally you can change the livery on the bottom of the panel.

 

All are certainly great options. but we don't have the old Carenado features of luggage in the front compartment and in the large rear cargo area, and you really miss them here as the areas feel very empty. Static elements are odd as well. You can have your wheel chocks but only with the aircraft hand puller on the nose? What if you just want to chock the aircraft until you fly again.  No engine inlet or tags either but you do get wing cones.

 

We will look at pop-up autopilot when we are flying again.

 

Cabin

 

 

Quality cabin is luxury defined. Four seats in a club layout with spot overhead lighting. The rear cargo entrance area does feel a little large and empty with the cargo door open as well, so overall you feel you are missing a few seats or one on the right rear...

 

Lovely wooden paneling behind the pilots gives the aircraft an expensive feel, overall the internal fit-out is excellent with excellent leather and deep wool pile carpets.

 

Cockpit

 

 

Power off and the panel looks dark but highly detailed, instrument reflections are superb. Overhead is a molded roof with set in switchgear and three dials.

 

 

Power on and the whole feel and character of the cockpit changes. Two high panel set red down-lights cast a colourful glow over the instruments. On the roof the two fuel gauges are angled lit as is the amp gauge internally. Highlights are the two over-head blue lighting units with one in the cockpit and one over the entrance door. The bulbs are internally beautifully recreated and when switched on they both cast a blue glow over each area.

 

Panel and Instruments

 

 

The instrument layout on the Navajo is a little haphazard and can be confusing if you swap over piloting positions. Yes both stations have the standard six layout instruments. but even these are not set out in the same order in both areas.

 

Airspeed Indicator and the Attitude Indicator are both in the same position top left and right with the Turn Coordinator and Vertical Speed Indicators set directly below. But the Artificial Horizon and Heading Dials are different instruments with the pilot's set centre of the panel and the co-pilot's set more correctly in the standard six layout. The co-pilots Artificial Horizon is adjustable but the pilot's is not. The pilot's Heading Dial has a built in Course Deviation Bar (CDI) and can be set to the course angle and heading change knob. but the co-pilot's only has a rotary heading adjustment.  And that is the commonality between the panels.

 

On the pilot's side there are also instruments for radar height, localizer indicator and ADF pointer. There is a very nice EDM 760 digital readout and an analogue clock.

 

On the co-pilot's panel besides the standard six you get only one instrument in the VOR/ADF pointers. Very nice but in the wrong place for me as I use the VOR/ADF pointers a lot for airport or runway alignment, and being right over the other side of the aircraft's panel for me makes it useless...  unless I fly in the right hand seat.

 

The rest of the right side panel are gauges for pressures in gyro, fuel, oil and cylinder head/oil temperatures. Oxygen supply is set out below.

 

Centre panel has at the top a very nice set of annunciators and below are four dials that covers both engines, Manifold Pressure, RPM, EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) and engine fuel flow.

 

Equipment stack is very good. Standard issue Garmin 347 audio panel is top left with the X-Plane Garmin GN350 GPS system below. Then there are a set of three Bendix/King units in one KR87 TSO ADF unit that is hard to adjust, and two KR 64 VOR/DME speed and range sets.

 

Right stack includes a Bendix/King KX 165 TSO Comm/Nav (VOR2) tuner and a Garmin GTX 320 transponder. The weather radar is a Bendix/King and comes with a manual that notes you can adjust the range and radar angle, but I couldn't do any adjustments accept to turn it on, test and adjust the brightness.

 

 

Lower panel switchgear is minimal except for the landing gear lever and position display as most switchgear items are on the roof. The wiper switch is great with a three way action in park (which is actually intermittent) slow and fast. Side panels are excellent with nice fuse panels, there is (Goodrich) Prop-Ice amp gauge that works when you turn on the de-icing...  a nice touch.

 

 

Centre pedestal is excellent. All twin-engine levers are well done as are the three trim wheels and knob, all have great position marks that are easily noted. Built in Autopilot is mostly use with the pop-up, but the pedestal panel is not too hard to use either if you want to. The "Cowl Flap" switches are low down (one each under the engines), but the position indicators are great to use  

 

 

The roof rocker switchgear is great. Upper panel has, ground fan, seat and no smoking switches. left panel has lighting switches and right panel has pitot/windshield heating and anti-ice switches with the main Amp gauge central.

 

Lower left are four magneto switches and engine left/right starter switch. Lower right are two left/right fuel pump switches and the Hobbs meter.

 

Center lower are the two fuel tank gauges and four rotary knobs for the panel and overhead lighting. A note is that at night the switch gear is mostly not illuminated and can be hard to use, the in built X-Plane torch feature is the only way to use them...

 

Flying the Navajo

 

 

My investors are back and so it is time to load them up and head back to Brissy...  Sorry Brisbane.  Putting the mixture levers right forward and hitting the start switch does not fire up the engine?  You have to give each engine a little bit of throttle (each engine separately) before it will catch and fire and only when they have a bit of heat in them can you back them down to idle and the volumetric side view prop effect3 feature is visible as well. Open the small window and the engine noise powers into the cabin. Carenado sounds are really first rate and Carenado have done a completely new sound architecture on the PA-31, it as 360º movement will give you a dynamic range and totally realistic sound, internally and externally, and they are noted as HQ digital stereo sounds that are recorded directly from the real Navajo...  they sound about right.

 

 

The Navajo idle taxiing speed is great to perfect as well, a little extra throttle to get you moving and then back to idle will give you the right speed.

It is bye, bye Wellcamp and fhvanhal has certainly done a great job. There is a few far too many animated vehicles though, and enough police cars to fill out the Blues Brothers movie, but otherwise it is excellent scenery.

 

 

The sound change from idle to full power is very, very good, but save (your best takeoff) and do a replay of your takeoff roll and watch the excellent undercarriage animation flexibility, it does show on how far X-Plane in sheer detail has really come...  watch the wheel struts as they absorb the bumps on the runway and as the aircraft gains its lift with the airflow, just amazing.

 

 

Those Lycoming TIO-540-A 310 hp (231 kW) engines are really powerful and you need to bring them in gradually and smoothly, building more and more speed with the slow forward throttle movement, rotation is around 110knts and the climb rate is officially 1,445 ft/min, you can easily keep it around 1,200 ft/min as you climb away and hold speed. 

 

 

Turn coordination is great, you bank with ease and with total control...  this is a nice aircraft to fly manually. Which way do I go to Brissy?  "Oh the pointers are over there right on the other side of the panel!"

 

Two notes though. The Navajo can be a bit of a handful even in a bit of a crosswind and more so on the runway on taking off or landing, so you have to have your wit's about you if you are above a blowing 5knts. Another was I had a few flicks of the aircraft flickering quickly, I am running for the first time here 10.50 in the RC2 setting, so It could be that, but I don't get these flicks with other aircraft in the same settings and the weather is set at calm?

 

 

Range for this Navajo is 1,011nmi (1,875 km (1,165 mi)) and the ceiling is a mighty 26,300 ft (8,015 m). Top speed is 227 knts (420 km/h (260 mph)) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m) and the Cruise speed is around 207 knts (383 km/h (238 mph)) with an econ cruise is best at 20,000 ft (6,100 m). Here I was just under the standard 200knt zone at 7,000ft and it felt quite right.

 

Note those lovely spinners!, look great in flight.

 

 

In the air you get a great look at those under engine vents, note the detailed internals.

 

 

The drop down blinds have built in light reflection that looks authentic with the roof lighting... nice touch.

 

 

The sight of Moreton Bay and lots of water means I am over Brissy. So a heading north over Mt Cootha (those television station antenna's are seen from all over the city) is required as I am using the smaller regional cross runway of 16/32 at YBBN.

 

 

You have to release the ALT (Altitude) hold before you can descend, I tried to hit the DN button for ages (idiot) before I caught on.

 

 

A final turn over Redcliffe set me up for the approach to RWY16. I found the flaps were best to control the final descent speed into the final approach, as this aircraft can go in too fast unless you do. You can easily fly over the boundary line at 100kts, but your speed aim is more 85kts for a more controlled landing, stall speed is 63kts so you don't have too much room for error.

 

 

 

That landing speed is crucial as you don't have any reverse thrust, so slowing down requires a bit of space before touching the brakes.

 

 

And like noted the PA-31 can be twitchy with a bit of wind from any direction.  As my investors piled into a waiting limo for the ride back to the city, I gave myself a little bit of a smile...  as I was certainly the one who got the best deal of the day...  The Navajo!

 

 

Lighting

 

Lighting is controlled by those four knobs on the roof panel and the two blue (one cockpit and one left over the door in the cabin) overhead units.

 

 

Highly adjustable (for a GA) you can easily find the nice environment for night flying. Overhead Switchgear however is as noted hard to find in the dark...

 

I found a sweet spot for landing in using the overhead blue lighting and a little glow from the instruments to be perfect. 

 

 

Cabin has four individual seat spot lights... very nice.

 

 

But you need them all out and just the over door blue light on for landing or for taking off in the dark.

 

Externally you have a landing and taxi light on the front wheel strut, and a wing light on the starboard side. The navigation lights and both strobe and position lights (both selectable) and the position lights work very well in the approach and on the ground. The high tail beacon just stays on all the time, and the white spinners do glow a little in the dark?

 

 

The lighting spread on approach or on the ground is very good...

 

 

Liveries

 

One blank and six liveries are provided...  One mustard with yellow, red and black stripes, then five white base liveries with Blue Stripes, Blue/Gold, Red and Stripes, Blue/Gold Stripes and Green Stripes. All are 4k HD high-quality (4096 x 4096) 350 pixel / meter texture liveries...

 

 

Summary

 

I can easily be bias here with the Carenado PA-31 Navajo, as it easily went straight on to my active flight-line along side of my beloved Bonanza F33A, Caravan C208B, Beech B1900D and CT206H Stationair, and that is against an already stiff competition in the twin-engined category with the C404 Titan coming to mind...  and it is cheaper as well, only mostly by US$2.50 but still cheaper.

 

So I quickly loved the aircraft, and it is totally great from the start...  but it is not completely absolutely perfect.

 

The most glaring omission is there are no rain or fog effects? These are staple Carenado features now, and the PA-31 would be great with that single wiper thrashing through a storm filled night searching for a runway. The other things are purely cosmetic, the empty spaces could be filled with another Carenado staple in luggage and it does feel a bit too empty at the rear. No tiger shark" cowling covers or tags?  And is the weather radar correct and is the manual wrong, or vice-versa and I will just have to fly that right seat to find my way home with the placement of the VOR and ADF pointers (there is a ADF on the left side panel but not together to line up a runway).

 

The Navajo is tricky to fly in winds, but the power and lovely flying feel is excellent, in quality it is above and beyond in detail and it is another if slight step towards to total nirvana. Sounds are very good as well.

 

So the Carenado PA-31 Navajo ticks every box, in almost every area that you would want... even the value for money one. It is that good, even great and certainly a far, far better investment than an airport west of Toowoomba in the middle of nowhere.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________  

 

The PA31 Navajo HD Series from Carenado is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here :

 

PA-31 Navajo HD Series

 

Your Price: $32.95  

 

 

Requirements:

Windows 7+ (64 bit) or MAC OS 10.8 (or higher) or Linux - 64bit Operating System

X-Plane10.40 + (any edition) - 64bit mode

3 GHz processor - 8GB RAM - 1Gb+ VRAM - 2Gb VRAM Recommended

Windows users: Please ensure that you have all the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables downloaded and installed.

Current version: 1.1 (last updated June 24th 2016)

_____________________________________________________________________________________  

Installation and documents:

Download for the PA31 Navajo HD Series is 394mb and the unzipped file is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder at 440.60mb.

Key authorisation and a restart is required.

 

There is Normal and Emergency procedures (checklists), excellent sets of performance tables and weather radar manual.

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Review by Stephen Dutton

26th August 2016

Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews

 

Review System Specifications:

Computer System: Windows  - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD 

Software:   - Windows 10 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.45 and also used in X-Plane v10.50RC

Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose  Soundlink Mini

 

Scenery or Aircraft

- YBWW - Brisbane West Wellcamp 1.1 By fhvanhal (X-Plane.Org) - Free

- YBBN - Brisbane Airport 1.0 by tgd - (X-Plane.Org) - Free

 

 

7 hours ago, Guest denwatson said:

I was disappointed that there is no HUD on this aircraft.  Am I missing something? Can it be added? 

 

By design the Challenger 300 is quite old, but updates have kept it flying well so to speak. The developer is completing an Bombardier Global 6000 and that includes a full FMS. It was noted than once the Bombardier Global 6000 is completed the Challenger 300 will have an upgrade, so ask and you my get the HUD...  SD

News! - Free payware - Embraer E-170 E-Jet by SSG

 

With the complete new update of Supercritical Simulation Group's (SSG) E-170 Embraer's E-Jet to "Evolution" status. The original E-170 version has been released with the X-Plane.Org for a free download!

 

 

 

Features 

• All knobs, buttons and actuators in the same place as the real one 
• can be performed  NORMAL operations "do verify" and "Read and DO" checklists.
• Cold Start and Gate to Gate NORMAL procedures
• Virtual 3D cockpit
• Custom  sounds
• Full external model 3D designed
• Custom aural sounds
• External lightning reflections - Custom lights

Custom systems

• Almost all systems are simulated
• Custom FADEC logic and thrust limits
• Synoptic systems pages
• Custom MCDU console with :
  • XP default FMS, Radio, and Custom SSG FADEC system
  • Enhanced for the UFMC
• Plane preferences menu

 

9 different schemes included in the package

 

 

Note: This version is NOT the current E-170 "Evolution" that X-PlaneReviews reviewed here....  Embraer E-Jet 170LR Evolution by SSG

 

But the older original release version.

 

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

 

The Embraer E-170 by Supercritical Simulation Group is now available for a "free" download from the X-Plane.Org:

Embraer E-170 E-Jet by SSG

 

Download size is 226.90mb

 

sponsored by the X-Plane.Org

______________________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

23rd August 2016

Copyright©X-Plane Reviews: X-PlaneReviews 2016

 

 

 

X-Plane Version 10.50: What is new

 

Laminar Research has released version 10.50 of X-Plane. In this article we are going to explore what was part of the 10.50 release and the changes that are relevant to the simulator.

 

Closing of the door

Version 10.50 is more relevant than most X-Plane updates in the fact it could be the last version of series 10 of the simulator. Certainly there will be increment releases still coming in the 10.50 timeline and maybe even up to v10.55 or even v10.56, but otherwise the development stops here in what is this series version of the simulator. So did Laminar Research set out to achieve its goals and what do we now have in the original promises on the release 24th November 2011 of this current X-Plane version 10 or did they fall short.

 

My personal view is that Laminar certainly delivered on all the promises and a lot more on top for extra measure, so you certainly got your money's worth (in time) and you did get the constant revisions that make the simulator relevant and they delivered great value. Some areas are still not quite perfect, but in most areas the simulator is a huge and even massive step away from its v10.00 origins.

 

In reality X-Plane10 was a game changer for Laminar Research, and even in hindsight it was a precarious gamble to lift the simulator from its basic hobby based background and foundation, to be a more worldly product in that could be even be the "best" Flight Simulator system on the market, and even live up to founder's Austin Meyers boasts that X-Plane could mix it with the big boys.

All that risk was based on if X-Plane10 could deliver on its promises, but those risks were based on solid foundations and very good developmental ideas. 

 

So what where the X-Plane10 promises...

 

• Better Weather
• A "Plausible" World with autogenerated scenery
• Global Lighting system (HDR)
• Detailed Terrain with accurate altitude data
• Detailed roads
• ATC - Air Traffic Control

 

In almost all cases the v10.50 update touches on all of the above, so we will answer the final verdict on the promises as we detail the v10.50 update in detail.

 

Startup

v10.50 brings you a new startup screen, with white bands and the loading information that goes right across your screen.

 

 

 

But don't get used to it as it is only a temporary layout and the X-Plane11 startup will be totally different. It feels brighter (on a big monitor) and more basic than the older blue box for information version, there is possibly a reason for a change this late in the version run, but I really can't see why?

 

Updated default simulator aircraft

Throughout the X-Plane10 run the default aircraft that comes with the simulator have had a few revisions and updates. The biggest revision was two years ago in v10.30 when Laminar Research added in the Garmin 430/530 gps system.  This was an extra major feature not promised or charged for and no doubt it had a lot of developmental cost, it is now our main gps system and proud of it we all are. Another item that affected default aircraft was X-Plane moving to 64-bit and away from the 32-bit 2-4 GB memory restrictions. Again another v10 bonus that leapfrogged the simulator forward by a huge step, but then most aircraft that used plugins had to be adjusted over to the 64-bit format.

 

Two default aircraft have had a big workover in v10.50 in the King Air C90B and the Beechcraft Baron 58 (the Cessna 172SP has already had a big upgrade a few years ago).

 

Beechcraft Baron 58

 

 

The revised aircraft are now easily payware quality. Great detail and with very few bugs, they fly great especially this lovely Baron 58. They are however no Carenado level of quality and features and you notice the missing menus, VOR distance and better sounds.... but they are free after all.

 

 

Outwardly the aircraft looks the same as the earlier version when you first get into the aircraft, but your eyes deceive you.

 

 

Put the Baron 58 aircraft side by side (v10.30 to the left and v10.50 to the right) and the detail differences are absolutely huge in quality (look at the door frames and rivet work in the engine cowlings), instruments are cleaner and clearer as well. So there has been a complete overhaul of the design.

 

King Air C90B

 

The chances are the King Air C90B was your first serious aircraft for doing professional VOR flying. The Boeing 747-400 had limitations once you cleared away the wow factor, and the tiddler 172SP didn't have any speed. So when you came into X-Plane the C90B it was where you learnt to manually fly, navigate and get in that first longer serious flight. I did, and the memories still linger.

 

 

 

 

The revision throws in more quality and the refinement is very high, again up there with payware money. Only things that are not up to scratch are the low idle sounds, and too much power for taxiing. Even if you pull back the mixture to idle and almost feather the propellers, you are still constantly on the brakes to slow the C90B down, on hold and ready to take-off with the levers all forward...  it is like holding back a pack of rabid dogs.

 

Global aircraft enhancements in 10.50 include better prop disc visuals and they now work correctly in the replay mode, auto-pilot can now hold a basic rate of turn, elevator deflection in trim has been refined, stall warnings are now more realistic and the crash limit has been reduced from 20g to 10g. Finally developers can insert datarefs to adjust the volume on the radios, this means different volumes for different radio channels and thankfully there will be no over loud shouting anymore in your ears. 

 

On both of these aircraft the deal feels more towards X-Plane11 than X-Plane10. Get them ready and get them up too scratch and that has certainly been done here, but the surprise here is the default and the icon of X-Plane10 in the Boeing 747-400, there has been no update there and that is the aircraft really needs the attention after nearly five years flying, and surprising also because it is by far the most flown default aircraft in X-Plane by 5% of all flights in the simulator...  I'll shake my head on that one.

 

ATC - Air Traffic Control and A.I. Artificial Intelligence

The X-Plane ATC system feature has been a difficult one since day one of X-Plane10. To a point it was put into the Laminar "too hard" basket for years until the feature had to finally have the much required attention or be dropped for a third party plugin version.

 

A big part of the X-Plane ATC is the "Artificial Intelligence" or A.I. feature and as they are both very closely interlinked and so we will look at them together.

 

My earlier periods of interaction with the ATC are mostly consisted of multiple swear words and mostly I never used the ATC. A period of the personal challenge of mastering the ATC did result in a truce between the feature and myself, but the famous "you are off course!" alert showed that overall the bugs were too notable to be worth the more grey and the less hair than I have now.

 

At its core the ATC - Air Traffic Control is very clever and even very good, but it is also hopelessly complicated and very buggy. No doubt a third party plugin like X-Life could do the whole idea better (the interface is excellent), but the ATC was an X-Plane10 debut feature and it had to made to work at least at a reasonable level.

 

To a point I think that Laminar have succeeded with the ATC in v10.50, and no doubt it is still very basic, however it does work well with a few tips and hints.

 

 

There are no changes to the "Flight Plan" input panel. But the route codes can still be tricky to input. I found sometimes if you cut and pasted in the route it wouldn't accept it and at other times it worked fine. To be sure if it refuses to file then add in a few waypoints and then press return to activate the flight plan, if accepted then go back and input more waypoints and so on...

 

 

Two new items added into the ATC interface has highly reduced the work load. The first one was in v10.45 actually at my request and that was a reply to the ATC controller was done with just another return key click. The problem was that before this every time you had to use the mouse or cursor to click on the reply or repeat the instruction back to the ATC. this meant taking your attention and hands away from flying the aircraft to do that instruction, and repeat that operation five or ten times early in the flight and it would mean mostly you would fail in your timing or keeping up with the constant ATC instructions, it was mind numbingly hard to do, and even the real pilots only have to press the radio button on the yoke to activate the radio and not manually use a pointer.

 

Now if the instruction is highlighted you just press return to reply the instruction and in a high work load period it works really well, however the instruction is not always highlighted and you still have to use the pointer to do so...  but overall it works very well.

 

Another ATC change is the with the pop-up "Nearby Air Traffic Controllers" frequency inserter panel that added in v10.40. On the panel there is now a checkbox to allow to "autotune" in the next correct frequency you require. This is a huge time saver as some radio panels can be awkward to get to. A note though is that the pop-up panel still has to be opened to reset the next frequency. I use a key command toggle (A) to open and close the ATC panel in two quick keystrokes to do the action.

You can debate if these aids are cheating? Should you do all these instructions manually like you in an aircraft environment? My answer is that in a basic GA then you should not need the aids, but in a standard larger two crew aircraft then in most real time cases the pilot not flying does all the radio work, and in this scenario then yes the aids are valid.

 

 

The optional taxiway arrows are a great idea, but they do totally depend on if the airport scenery ATC routes and taxiway flows are correct. In most cases you just don't know? In many cases most scenery payware developers do note the ATC work has been done, but in most if not all cases it is a lottery ticket. Laminar Research note they can't enforce all global airport sceneries to have conforming routes because it is a skills area were as many of the scenery developers are very good but many are not, but I feel it should be a heavy standard in passing the scenery for distribution or give us a tool or note that the scenery is certified with the correct layouts. I think this aspect is one of the biggest drawbacks to the ATC, A.I. aircraft and the taxiway arrow features in working effectively.

 

The number of A.I. aircraft assigned in your aircraft/situations/other aircraft menu can have a big bearing on your flight. If you set a high number of say 15 to the 20 limit, then the wait and hold times are long until your turn comes around. Ditto the amount of ATC commentary going on in your ears and not only on the ground but certainly in the air, but you may like this high ATC commentary activity (until it goes wrong). I found about five to six was better if you want a quieter flight. Another issue with the constant high number of calls is that your last instruction soon zips up the screen and disappears, so if you forgot your last instruction or heading change then you are in trouble, I have asked Laminar for a "request" command to do just that, there is the "report last transmission" already on there but It doesn't show when you really need it.

 

The ATC still currently has bugs that I will note but will probably be addressed quickly.

 

 

ATC will clear you for takeoff and then in an instant then clear another aircraft to land? You can go now or wait until the runway is clear... the second issue is that I set the A.I. aircraft to be mostly single aisle aircraft in the B737 or A320 categories and the ATC wanted them to fly at FL400 or Forty Thousand feet (climb and maintain FL 400), when they didn't the ATC kept on asking them to so, over and mind-numbingly over again in the shades of the nasty "you are off course!" coming back around again.

 

A tip is to follow this mantra...  reply, action then change. First is to reply to the instruction, then do the action (heading or V/S) and doing both quickly will keep the ATC off your back, but it is a bit backward in the way you usually fly. If you are given the instruction to go to a heading and then changing to an altitude, there is a lot of work to be done. So in most cases the ATC is quickly on your back as you are still going through all the motions.

 

 

The problem one is the change in altitude and your normal sequence is to change the altitude counter and then hit the V/S button and do the pitch change, but that path course is too long. The only way (at this point) around the ATC is to adjust the heading, activate the V/S and pitch to get the aircraft to start the climb or descend and then finally set the altitude counter, which is not very realistic. But the system demands that the both actions are noted quickly, but with practise or skill you can allow yourself to set the altitude earlier and be ready if you are good at it. Checking out the A.I. airport circuits on the local map can also prepare you for what heading and landing direction the ATC is going to give you can also help with ATC timing.

 

Overall the ATC is now quite to very good. It does allow for mistakes and will align you up ready to continue with your programmed (GNS) flightplan. The controllers are still very, very impatient and are still asking "are you still there?" And you really need a bit more time between the instructions and the actions. But with practise and a rhythm you can finally turn the ATC into fun and it is not the huge headache it was.

 

A.I. Aircraft

The A.I. aircraft feature in X-Plane has been given attention as well. They should now fly and land more realistically. The A.I. parking at gates has had a big workover as well in not only making sure they appear but are also more highly randomised, they now also load by their correct category as well in say heavy or regional aircraft. You can select to have have the parked aircraft appear or not via a tickbox on the Render Options "Stuff to Draw" panel.

 

 

But like I mentioned is that the A.I. aircraft totally rely on the airports ground routes to operate correctly. If they don't then they still behave badly as noted while doing this review.

 

 

More times it was wrong than right, they still taxi too fast through terminal areas and the odd aircraft still plummets to the ground in the distance. Here it is parking in a carpark and queuing up at an empty airport. When it works A.I. it is very good...  but in most cases the hidden disjointed WED airport routing lets it all down.

 

Autogen

Autogen or automatically drawn objects has had a fair amount of attention with v10.50. One of the big features of X-Plane10 was the "Plausible" World concept, it is clever and highly realistic in terms of using your computer's rendering system resources to recreate a realistic world to fly around in. In parts I have found the views unnervingly very realistic, but in other areas wanting.

 

In 10.50 two areas have been covered. One, is the earlier original autogen has been tightened up with mostly the actual ground areas around the objects (houses) to make them fit in better.

 

 

From the air the autogen does look more complete, but too many of those open spaces still remain. My object settings are "Too Many" here, and set just under the extreme setting that you really need but that setting uses just too much framerate.

 

The second and new feature is that the autogen now has tall buildings again, but only in limited regions.

 

 

This is Memphis, Tennessee and the overall the cityscape was impressive.

 

 

Buildings are highly realistic, original but use only the U.S. data for the scenery... In English that means for now it only work in the U.S. But in reality it is in the other parts of the world that X-Plane really needs this feature and not the U.S., but it is very good.

 

 

I found though that the tall building autogen fades away very quickly? A few miles out and they are skeletons, and by the time I was flying over Elvis Presley's Graceland the cityscape had gone?  In reality they should be visible (with the right visibility setting) for quite a distance to make it realistic, because there is nothing like seeing a cityscape from the airport when you have just landed, taking off or overflying the city, so it is at this point all a bit wasted unless you do low GA passes. 

 

So the autogen is still a little way off the completeness mark. It is five years since it was introduced, and it does work, but still very patchy and mostly still focused on the U.S. but the full total potential of the feature is certainly in there. If anything in X-Plane11 is that Laminar should throw a lot more resources at the autogen art, but then again I said that four years ago.

Weapon System

X-Plane is noted as an aircraft simulator and Laminar Research are very anti-war. So fighting aircraft and killing things in the simulator has been usually relegated over to the game industry rather than simulation.

But the gaming industry is a huge business and war focused simulators are very popular in their appeal in mustering our basic (if male) instincts that goes a long way back to slaying mammoths.

 

So Laminar have added in a lot of weapon system functions into v10.50.

 

Weapon selection is now better with flashing selected armaments. You can now also steer or aim in a direction a gun, even with a second joystick can be added in to do the delivery job. Unguided bombs and rocket numbers have been added with up to 24 bombs and 99.999 rockets!  that is if you can carry that heavy load.

Air to ground bombs and missiles can now be laser or GPS guided to their targets. Either by a gun/bomb steering with a joystick axis or by locking in on a target and then firing letting the bombs or missiles go to their assigned target, and all can be set via your on-board aircraft situation display monitor.

 

In the upgraded weapons package is another feature that could be used also by other aircraft developers. This is a new on board aircraft "Camera" feature that can be steered (again by a second joystick) and zoomed with my guess a joystick top-hat, key or similar adjustment.

 

There are at this point no aircraft with these new features, but I don't doubt they will appear very quickly on up-dated or new versions of military aircraft.

Weather

Austin Meyer's "little puffs" have been the most contentional and has created the most angst of all the X-Plane10 features. Clever and there is no doubt about that, but they have been the one feature that has ripped the heart out of X-Plane by the sheer amount of processing power they require to create those zillion million "little puffs" that makes up the weather system of the simulator.

 

The problem is most computers can't cope, and if you had like I did an average processing machine, you were mostly reduced to very light cloud formations no matter where you flew. And even with the mega graphic monster I use now, that frame rate will still halve just running the weather with just good and average settings, but go dark and stormy and so does your framerate.

 

 

All though the X-Plane10 development cycle it has been for Laminar a war to get the framerate down by refining the "puff" system. To a point they have been successful, but the amount of time and resources it has taken, has also meant that other weather features like different cloud formations, anvil storms, 3D volumetric cloud layers and crepuscular rays have not been forthcoming and making most users have had to seek out third party products to fill in the gap.

 

One area that has been covered was downloading high wind data (in v10.40). This area has had more refinement in 10.50 but I was not a big fan as I see it as a little buggy. As I fly a lot of long haul (or long flights) I have found the high winds quite unrealistic and mostly always in the high 80's or 100knt ranges? In some cases when the new download comes in, I have had the aircraft almost at a stand still at full power at 37,000ft until I adjust the setting down a little to continue my flight...  If that high wind angle comes from a side wind, your dead.

 

 

Wind data is now displayed on your local map. There are three new tickboxes on the top right of the panel with:

 

• NEXRAD
• wind 12k
• wind 34k

 

NEXRAD will show you your current weather or cloud situation, and the wind direction and speed is now shown on the map profile as well. The 34k selection will over-ride every thing, so you have to disable it to get the 12k selection. I noticed that the 34k selection covers the high-altitude box layer and the 12k covers the mid-altitude box layer and wondered why there was no setting for the low-altitude box layer?

 

As the weather data is now loaded from two sources in; METAR and global NOAA data for the high winds. There is the option in 10.50 to download both loads of data in one operation on the X-Plane startup panel.

 

 

 

Main refinements to the clouds in 10.50 are the stratus clouds which look better from above, Strobe lights in the clouds are set now to only happen when completely in the clouds, and they don't also affect the scenery at night when turned on, and the break-out to visual at the cloud bases now works very well.

 

 

Laminar Research have worked hard on X-Plane10's weather. Translucent clouds and better fog have created a better and more realistic look when flying through cloud masses and you don't now get that constant jumping to the hard grey screen of blankness and a runaway framerate.

 

I flew the DC-8 after completing the review in tracking back in the newer 10.50RC1 from KDFW to KATL in a more heavy weather and HDR night flight (both don't look good in reviews) and was very impressed on the smoothness of the simulator and the better cloud processing that has been done. So there is definitely an improvement and a bonus small framerate gain from the changes.

 

 

Terrain and global airports

One of the main advantages of X-Plane is that anything in every area can be refined and updated. It is astounding that how far back it is to the original X-Plane10 release and what you actually received in the boxed package...  If you take a moment and think about it, it was quite basic.

 

X-Plane global scenery is provided on those nine CD's that you get when you buy X-Plane and in most cases you would have to wait for a new X-Plane version to update the scenery in those discs. But the internet and download speeds have come a long way in those five years as well, and Laminar Research through the work of alpilotx has been very generous in providing updated scenery HD (High-Definition) mesh to replace the more populous and most scenic flying areas of the world of those original scenery tiles (files)...   with these more high density and crowded data tiles to give the simulator a more realistic view. They don't cover all the areas, but certainly the most important ones.

 

How X-Plane11 will be distributed will be interesting and will these HD files be included with the packages, or will there be a totally new way to buy and distribute the simulator? I don't use much HD replacement scenery for the reviews because to get an real accurate account of the scenery and the framerate, I keep the simulator pretty close to the basic specifications, but they are a worthwhile if very large download expansion of X-Plane.

 

Global Airports

X-Plane10 also came with a set of tools (named Lego) that allowed you in blocks (hence the name) to create airports quickly and easily for the X-Plane simulator. Some developers have become masters of these tools and most notably they are tdg, Mister6x and relicroy in their prolific output and quality.

 

To build these global "lego" airports the original WED (World EDitor) application has gone in X-Plane10 from being a basic airport ground layout tool, to a full complete airport scenery building application. 

Originally most "lego" airports were just posted up for download on the X-Plane.Org. But mid-way through the X-Plane10 cycle Laminar Research created a "Global Airport" library called the "X-Plane Scenery Gateway" to not only catalogue the scenery, but to in updates also insert these airport sceneries as default airports and creating for any new or current user of the simulator a vast set of built in variety of destinations.

 

To date 7,092 global sceneries have been created and 5,191 of them have been created with 3d objects by 1,862 scenery artists.

 

To a point the "gateway" was created to offset the criticism that X-Plane was poor in the scenery area for most new or current users. It is a fair comment, but one of the big features and certainly the shear number of sceneries now available, in not only the "gateway" and "payware" created scenery that has been one of the biggest changes and introduced the total transformation to X-Plane10 from its introduction.

 

Since X-Plane 10.45 there has been 626 new 3-D gateway airports added, and 147 more airports was added in with 10.50, with 718 sceneries having also being updated.

 

There was to be another large batch of airports to be inserted before 10.50 goes final, but they have been withheld because WED 1.5 is not ready. But they will be inserted with 10.51. (see post here).

 

Key selection changes

With every X-Plane version update the minor changes can be hidden. The Joystick & Equipment, key and button menu selection is a case in point.

 

One item I change a lot is with the way I have to switch on my joystick (trigger button) the "Thrust Reversers" into two different modes. For the heavies I use the trigger to open the doors (Toggle Thrust Reversers) before putting up the throttle for the reverse thrust. In a regional propeller aircraft the same reverse effect is done by "Hold Reverse Thrust at Max", and so you have to change between each setting to get the right action on landing.

 

 

 

Before both selections where set out together above one another, but in 10.50 they are not. Now they are separated quite a distance from each other, but they also now have new selections on each action for each separate engine, with up to eight engines that can be individually selected via button or key selections. So in 10.50 there is more variety and more menu functionality available, but check that your settings are correct and their new place settings on the menu.

 

For developers there are a few new datarefs:

 

• sim/operation/override/override_airport_lites  – int y boolean overrides when the airport lites go on and off.
• sim/graphics/scenery/airport_lights_on   – int y boolean Are the airport lites on? set override_airport_lites to 1 to write this.
• sim/private/controls/puff/terrain_dust_ratio – 0 is none. 1.0 is X-Plane default.
• sim/cockpit2/weapons/gun_offset_heading_ratio – float y ratio Heading offset of the gun from within its maximum heading range
• sim/cockpit2/weapons/gun_offset_pitch_ratio – float y ratio Pitch offset of the gun from within its maximum pitch range

 

Plane Maker 10.50 and WED 1.5 applications have both been updated to include the 10.50 features and known bug fixes.

 

A good simulator is a clean one...  I made some notes in the post X-Plane version 10.50 has gone release candidate 2 with "getting a clean install"  on how to get the best from the latest 10.50 update by creating a clean X-Plane application install, it is worth reading.

 

Summary

One thing that comes out of this X-Plane 10.50 version and it is certainly more noteworthy if 10.50 is the final release of X-Plane10. And that is how much the simulator has changed over the last five years.

 

In time X-Plane10 will be known as the gamechanger version of X-Plane, the one that brought the simulator to a world standard. As noted in this review in that a few areas the signature features were not completely totally refined at this point and are still a work in progress in the Weather and Autogen, but you have to admit a lot of ground was covered and changed in that 5 year period also. Exclusive features like the HDR (High-dynamic range rendering) rendering are as even now a great step forward with 64-bit memory allocation allowing the simulator to be world class and ahead of the simulation game (no pun intended). Other simulators can deliver a higher visual quality and a higher immersion, but none can do this on a global scale or with as much flexibility as X-Plane can.

 

X-Plane is certainly an investment that unlike most products delivers far more that it advertises when it is released, and this 10.50 release is mostly to tie up those original promises and get ready to move on to the next stage of the simulator's future development in X-Plane11.

 

Outwardly there is not much to see in 10.50. As most of the things noted here are mostly in the areas of refining off the original release features, bug killing and making the simulator more efficient in many areas. And for that 10.50 is a great and even brilliant upgrade, but it is low on the "wow" factor in the visual or with any special features departments. In the very end the overwhelming result is...  a really great simulator.

 

X-PlaneReviews can't cover absolutely every change or bug fix, and so those notes are avaiiable here at the Laminar Research Development pages:

 

X-Plane 10.50 Release Notes

 

X-Plane 10.50 is available now for download. Run your X-Plane installer application or download from Steam.

____________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

19th August 2016

Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews

 

 

8 hours ago, Guest Mr_McBride said:

This is the review that is linked for the Org store for this plane....but it's not much of a review. I get the feeling there is another review somewhere and that is just an update.

 

Nope, it is not a review but a news release...  The G1000 system by Alabeo has been just now updated to v3, so we are waiting for the update to be completed for the review. SD

News! - Plugin Development : Alpha Materials plugin

 

Most aspects with simulator flying is mostly always focused on the flying areas and scenery. But another exciting dimension to simulation is the way third parties can create enhancements and ideas to push the realism to higher and higher goals.

 

Plugins are mostly the way to do this, and here DDen has created a new plugin to create better shiny and chrome effects on aircraft or any X-Plane object. If you have DDen's lovely Challenger 300 private jet then in the last 10.36 update you would know and use an early version of this effect plugin.

 

 

The NG plugin idea worked of course but it was in a very early in the development cycle, so there was a few areas or angles that wasn't working (strangely in conflicts with extended scenery?) but the development has continued and the plugin can now be used on other X-Plane aircraft like the default Boeing 744.

 

  If any aircraft needs any help in looking better it is the default B748, and it does look good, doesn't it.   The plugin will be available to add into any aircraft in time, at this point you can test two aircraft for five minutes with the B744 and Cirrus.   747_material_ng.zip   cirrus_material_ng.zip   The first alpha setting controls the amount of reflections from 0% (no reflections) to 100% (chrome like reflections). Diffuse channel also controls the reflection colour (gold - bottom right).     Second texture alpha setting  controls roughness and the amount of reflection polishing. Do not use 0% alpha, it will cause artefacts, use 1% instead. 100% make it look almost plain grey, useful for lighting effects. Diffuse channel is usual normal map texture.     X-Plane 11 will have a similar shiny chrome system with what Laminar Research calls "Physically Based Rendering" or "PBR", this will allow reflective light to be just that in being reflective, but have also different properties with different conditions. Most X-Plane aircraft do to a point look quite dull, or flat in the simulator. But with the active use of PBR then they come very much more alive and look far more realistic.   Both systems are coming to create the same goal in better reflections in the X-Plane world. Both are very exciting but the DDen plugin is going to more adjustable for developers than the global version from Laminar Research, which means both will have their different roles to play in the same area. The DDen Alpha plugin is not just restricted to aircraft but any object that requires a shiny coat or finish.   You can follow the development here: Materials NG plugin - reflections for X-Plane 10.50+   Or download a development version here: Materials NG plugin alpha demo for x-plane 10.50+ 0.8A_d  

____________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

16th August 2016

Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews

 

News! - 10.50 goes RC! : X-Plane version 10.50 has gone release candidate 2

 

Laminar Research has put out the release candidate (RC) for X-Plane version 10.50. With the RC candidate there will be a version available for Steam users who can't access the beta releases. Planned end of version global airports releases has been passed over to v10.51 because WED 1.5 is not mature enough to give a pass to the default scenery.

 

Release notes:

 

Features for RC1:

• More updated nav data from Robin (default X-Plane navigation data).

Fixed for RC2:

• Updated translations for new DRM dialogs, and added TRAN() to region alerts (XPD-6209).
• Removed long function ptr type in event hook, which wasn’t safe for passing string ptrs to the XPLM in scenery hook.
• Fixed C-130 taxi and takeoff.
• Now we don’t clear avio bus bits in plane load. This should fix weird power draws on planes that incorrectly have the avio bus src unchecked but do have a load and have some kind of avio usage on the panel (XPD-6502).
• Art control timeout for run loop set to 5 ms. This prevents missing runways for users.
• Includes art fixes for King Air, Baron & KLAX scenery.

Fixed for RC1:

• Save at least one snapshot for situations and replays so we have all the data for file-open (XPD-6201).
• Slung load does not start from flight location start (XPD-6197).
• Airport search string for normal airport window is now totally separate from the map/IOS search string (XPD-6138).
• More robust fix for the crash-when-no-NICs-found (XPD-6196).
• G430 CLR button cancels procedure selection (XPD-6180).
• Can now select a new approach in G430 (XPD-6178).
• Fixed airport map overlap in GPS (XPD-6179).
• Do not zero throttle on beta if plugin has taken over (XPD-6174).
• Don’t reset previously-in-inet overrides on flight reset (XPD-6173).
• Copy-paste on windows would truncate the last selected character.
• Restored v8 aliases of transponder commands in an attempt to make PFC plugin work.
• Aerosoft nav data missing the IAF flags (XPD-5872).
• Always save user edits to navaids and fixes to the Custom Data folder (XPD-6167).
• Keep current local map type and zoom setting when the weather menu is opened (XPD-5202).
• Junction matching was using the wrong bones, causing some non-composite junctions to be ignored.  This makes slightly better variety in the autogen road intersections in cities.

 

Before you fill my comments section with words of "Where have you been, RC has been out for nearly a week?" Yes it has, and your not wrong there and that is not current news...  but RC2 is as this means that X-Plane 10.50 will go final soon.

 

Post beta heaven

 

Here are a few tips for all users on the way to get the best out of X-Plane and updates. You did use a separate X-Plane application to run the "betas" didn't you? Funny enough most users don't as they throw in the betas into their one X-Plane application and then what goes wrong, it buggers it all up and you can't run anything and your only X-Plane application is stuffed up.

 

The general aim in X-Plane is to get the best, cleanest and most efficient application you can. That means a high framerate and no crashes. This means only really good (not buggy) custom scenery, only the plugins that do work or don't crash the the system and the best aircraft you can put in there. So the biggest mistake is to keep throwing "all that amazing great stuff" into the application without using any of your thought filters. An over loaded X-Plane is not the best simulation.

 

If you get to the point of nirvana or a really great running X-Plane application then make a back up of it and save it somewhere safe.

 

Three folders in X-Plane in the "Global Scenery", "Custom Scenery", "Plugins" and "Aircraft" can be too large to save and they are not needed in the backup save, but you should still have them backed up separately anyway in case it all goes wrong for just long term backup or if your computer goes down, just remember to update them sometimes.

 

So here are the tricks...  The download X-Plane "demo" is a totally clean version of X-Plane, so if you want a new one from scratch then download the demo, start it up and reset all your basic settings, you can save your "X-Plane Keys.prf" and "X-Plane Screen Res.prf" preferences from your old application in the Output/Preferences folder and insert them into the new version Output/Preferences folder to save time resetting everything on the demo. But most times it is really good to totally redo the lot and to reset all those mixed up key preferences with better ones.  Then close X-Plane.

 

Then rotate out the demo "Global Scenery", "Custom Scenery" "plugins" and "Aircraft" folders and insert your usual working ones and you will have a nice clean brand new X-Plane application.

 

When beta's come along then just take out those huge "Global Scenery", "Custom Scenery" "plugins" and "Aircraft" folders and then duplicate the basic X-Plane application and rename it in the new version like "X-Plane1050". now you have two X-Plane applications, your really good one and your beta test one. You do have to always rotate those huge "Global Scenery", "Custom Scenery" "plugins" and "Aircraft" folders, between which X-Plane you are using, slightly annoying but at least you will still have everything at your finger tips, otherwise you only need a copy or the "Global Scenery" folder in the demo/beta version to make it work correctly if you want to keep the demo/beta version basic.

 

If the beta gets buggered up like mine did when constantly updating buggy betas, then just duplicate your clean version and do a new "X-Plane update" from the installer to bring it up to the current beta version or RC.

 

The most important thing is that if X-Plane goes final, then do this complete duplication of the clean version or download the demo and then do a complete installer update to get the best current running X-Plane application you can get. Usually after a few weeks the actual "demo" is the newer updated 10.50 or so version so you can download that completed version in one go.

 

Running a post beta dirty application is not a good idea as you are not getting all the best new benefits from the new version and will not have to keep sending bug reports to Laminar Research that are not there (in other words not to have Ben Supnik balling you out!)

 

Again backup your good but older version (10.45) (in case you ever need it, of which you will) and make the new clean (10.50) version now your primary X-Plane application and start the whole cycle over again. It is always good to have two versions running to check things (plugins mostly).

 

In most cases just throwing away your preferences will fix most issues, but a clean new X-Plane version will do total wonders for your simulation flying and get the very best from the new features and refinements of X-Plane.

_______________________________________________________________

 

Stephen Dutton

11th August 2016

Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews

 

 

X-Life is very interconnected into the X-Plane A.I. system, and that area has seen a lot of attention with the 10.50 update. So I am not expecting any changes with the plugin from JARDesign until 10.50 goes final. SD

On 06/08/2016 at 7:13 AM, Guest Linux version said:

"no Linux support at this time" - why? what about future versions of the plugin? 

 

X-Life is very much intergrated into the X-Plane A.I. system. Until 10.50 goes fine will JARDesign start an update to the plugin, then you may see more platforms addressed.

3 hours ago, Guest vince said:

Hi there,

First of all, great stuff here, sounds realy good

But just to know, are there a lot of "visual tricks" in XP that won't be compatible with a VR rendering ?

Wil it be seasy to enable / disable "incompatible" tricks when using a VR headset ?

 

Ben Supnik noted that the X-Plane VR will be refined for VR, the X-Plane we have now will not be the VR version. I have tried a VR headset with X-Plane and it is very good visually, but the challenge is with the VR to the real interface of interacting with the aircraft, but you feel very removed from the instruments and doing any movements within the aircraft like just turning a switch on. SD

 

Aircraft Review : Douglas DC-8 by Wilson's Aircraft

 

The global air transport system we take for granted today was created by basically two very similar designs in the very late fifties. History will always record that the De Havilland Comet was the first real fast turbine powered global aircraft, but the aircraft didn't create the infrastructure of the mass transport of passengers on a global scale, those aircraft were the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8. The DC-8 was always in the shadow of the pioneering 707, but in time the DC-8 lasted longer, flew faster (a test Douglas DC-8 aircraft broke the sound barrier at Mach 1.012 (660 mph/1,062 km/h) while in a controlled dive through 41,000 feet (12,497 m) the first commercial aircraft to so), and was longer in range 3,750 nmi (6,940 km) (DC8) - 2,300 nmi (4,300 km) (707) with the final DC-8-50 version would deliver 5,855 nmi (10,843 km) in range at max weight and 6,550 nmi (12,130 km) in a ferry range which is very good even by today's standards. 556 DC-8's variants were produced between 1959 and 1972 and twenty five are still flying regularly in a cargo configuration and that is 44 years after they rolled off the production line.

 

The DC-8 is not new to X-Plane, as Mike Wilson created a version 10 years ago which was an early X-Plane9® version. For its time it was a leading design and of high quality, but that would not even bear witness today. But lately Mike Wilson has not done as most developer's do in dropping away their old products, but is completely redesigning them for the current X-Plane simulation version or in Hollywood speak...  reimagine them into something better and more useful. We accept that no high-class or payware developer is going to develop these types of aircraft as the sales would not warrant the time of development, but the FlyJSim's excellent Boeing 727 Study Series does show there is a big market for these classic machines.

 

I loved his reinterpretation of the Boeing 707 Update Review : Boeing-707-320-by-Mike-Wilson with a 3d cockpit, the version was not perfect by any means but it did show the way that these iconic aircraft can be brought forward from an older X-Plane version and become useful and be highly enjoyable again. In a side note is that the B707 is getting the same upgrade as the DC-8 with new engines and wings, details are here: Big 707 update in the works.

 

This DC-8 has had a more longer gestation period compared to the other Mike Wilson aircraft that have had the redesign overhaul. With that approach it is a more complete change unlike that like with the Boeing 707, which had still the original (planemaker) wings. With this extended development period you get more than just an inserted 3d virtual cockpit by Julien Brezel who does all the excellent 3d work on these aircraft, it looks better and flies better as well, but a few original foibles do still come through as we shall see, but overall this DC-8 is very welcome to our screens.

 

Douglas DC-8 Variants

 

In the package you get three distinctive variants of the aircraft: 

 

DC-8-61 Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3 turbofan

DC-8-63 Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B turbofan

DC-8 71F Freighter CFM International CFM56-2 high-bypass turbofan

 

All aircraft are of the "Super" Series known first as the "Super Sixties" for the first two and then with the "Super 70" being only changed with the different engine variant and not with any actual "60's" airframe differences.

Outwardly all the variants don't look that different except for the different engine configurations, and the way they each have very different thrust reversing mechanisms, which are all really well done here.

 

DC-8-61 Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3 turbofan (18,000 lbf (80 kN)

 

 

 

DC-8-63 Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B turbofan (18,000 lbf (80.07 kN) )

 

 

DC-8 71F Freighter CFM International CFM56-2 high-bypass turbofan (22,000 lbf (98 kN)

 

 

For the review I am describing and relating to the 71F Freighter CFM International CFM56-2 variant, as it is the most current of all the aircraft.

 

External

 

 

From your first glance of the DC-8 you realise this is a far more complete aircraft externally than any of the earlier Mike Wilson classic releases. Detail is very good and even in parts as good as high class payware aircraft.

 

 

But you really notice that forward progression of detailing coming out now from Mike's and Julien's work with great panel and rivet details around the fuselage. The exquisite detail around the cockpit windows is excellent and highly realistic. Those distinctive DC-8 nose air-intakes are a little camouflaged with this livery, but they are very well done.

 

 

Lovely tail section and the newer more cleaner wings on the -63 and 71F are the best of the three versions, the earlier 61 Series have too much depression on the forward edge and that fake chrome texture which looks out of date now. 

 

 

Gear detail is excellent, gone now are the days of a stick and wheels attached for landing gear. Again good design and quality textures shows again the forward progression of quality in this area.

 

 

The CFM56-2 engines look great on this airframe. In a quirk of history the original application of these engines where for the Boeing 707, but they decided to concentrate on the B747, B767/B757 series only, but that is why the DC-8 had a much more later and far longer distinguished career than the other rival. A small note that in HDR is that Engine no3 still has the engine running flow showing even though the engine is switched off.

 

All engine variants are very well done and all highlighted by those great reverser features as noted above, and the power differences are very noticeable between the ages of the aircraft.

 

The unique trailing edge "Barn Doors" style flaps are really well done in animation and operation, textures are however a little off sharpness, but they look great in operation and you will need to be aware of their huge drag on approach, you rarely use them in the "Max" position as it is noted for emergencies only so 35º was mostly always the lowest sufficient position.

 

 

There are no menus, but you do have a few external items of ground equipment.

 

 

GPU (Ground Power Unit) and stairs for front and rear doors are accessed by the engineers panel. But the GPU is on the same switch as the front stairs and so you can't use the GPU if at an airbridge? Both stairs stand back until you open the doors, and then move forward to the doorway which is a nice effect. The cargo version does not have an opening forward hatch which is a real missed opportunity, but the doors work well on the passenger version.

 

Cockpit

 

 

The virtual cockpit in the DC-8 is light years away from the original and even a hefty upward move in quality from the Boeing 707 VC. Very much in the same feel as FlyJSim's excellent Boeing 727/732 series, but don't be fooled as there is a big difference in detail and price between the two designs, but overall you are starting to get a far better working environment surrounding you to get the more realistic feel of the aircraft around you. Anyone who flies the MD-88 will see a lot of the same Douglas similarities, certainly on the pedestal, but with four engines and not two.

 

Unlike today's cockpits the DC-8 is bright and with a lot of windows, reflections are very good, but your captain's stripes can be diverting.

 

 

Main panel is very good and that long bent protrusive undercarriage lever is looking so realistic and just wanting to be used. The 3d work on the panel is very good to excellent, but the actual dial faces are quite flat and ruining the gauge depth effect, a small thing but makes it all slightly artificially noticeable.

 

 

You get the same sort of thing on the overhead panel, which is again beautifully recreated and highly switchable, but has odd long digital numbers on the VOR 1/2 and Transponder settings from something out of X-Plane 8, so why not do the same as all the perfectly recreated numbering on the rest of the panel.

 

 

The Flight Engineer's panel is a far better installation than the just imaged based Boeing 707's version, here it is a recreated a 3d version and it looks very good and realistic. But it is not that operational unlike the FJS Boeing 727 engineers panel, and again all the dials are quite flat. It is a good model of a real DC-8 panel. But I found it frustrating to use, and even if it should be and not placed all there just for show.

 

Many of the buttons do work, as does a lot of the switchgear, but in what operation I never worked out. You do get a good checklist, and a manual showing you where everything is on the boards. But how it works didn't make much sense to me. For one I can't find the on board APU (Auxiliary Power unit) start and stop switches?  Maybe the DC-8 doesn't have one which is fair enough, but then why is there a APU bleed selection to start the engines? You can set the GPU to on but it doesn't provide power and the main pilot's panel instruments go dead? as the main item not noted here is the voltage selection switch? maybe there not one of them either, then how do you set the right combination of switches to do the same job, as your guess is as good as mine. The lower fuel panel and levers is very good, but the levers are just (sadly) for show, and only the pump buttons actually work. To the left is a nice module of levers for cabin temperatures, hydraulic selections and generator selections but they are not workable either. If this panel is still a work in progress then you will accept that, if not then some information on how it works would be nice.

 

 

The main panel is actually quite basic. both pilot and first officer panel are almost identical with only the standard six instruments (Airspeed Indicator, Attitude Indicator or Artificial Horizon, Altimeter, Turn Coordinator, Heading Dial and Vertical Speed Indicator) and a clock, which is X-Plane time. There is a backup Artificial Horizon and radar height indicator but otherwise it is quite standard, a small note is there is is no Mach numbers or dial and only IAS speeds are noted unless you use the AP (autopilot). FMC is standard X-Plane fms and on the 71F the center MAP shows you the route and waypoints with zoom and selections the other variants are just a blank green weather screen. A note on the map screen is that unless you declutter the screen (hide the waypoints or airports) they will overwhelm the controls at the bottom and making them hard to use.

 

 

Centre pedestal unit is excellent and beautifully recreated. The trim levers are like on the MD-88 and work. And the lovely 4xthrottle and reverse selection levers are perfect, as is the four fuel valve levers. left is the flap selection with "Retract-10Deg-15Deg-25Deg-35Deg-Full Down (50º)" selections. Air-spoilers have three up selections and arm (down), but I read the DC-8 didn't have wing spoliers? The "arm" function goes back into the metal casing, which doesn't look good?

 

 

Unlike the FJS B727 the autopilot selection panel doesn't work, which is a shame as everything is done on the AP selection panels on the glareshield. Lower is the COMM one and two and radio selections panel with again those long blurry numbers. Aileron and rudder trim knobs are at the rear of the unit and look, work really well.

 

The glareshield autopilot is very much a period piece. When the DC-8 first flew inertia guidance systems were very much a very basic system. The CIVA (Delco Carousel IV-A Inertial Navigation System) was the mostly widespread early system and it can be used in the DC-8 (xCIVA Nav System US$10), it is not directly installed on the panel but it is usable (see notes below on how to install xCIVA).

 

You use the xCIVA by the plugin menu and click to show/hide the interface, it only can be used with nine active waypoints, but it is very authentic and a worthwhile add on if you want a real period feel.

 

 

 

The autopilot is obviously basic, but functional. The two major knobs are for "Flight Director "off/on" and Source "NAV 1- NAV 2 and FMS. There are two pods of buttons on the top of the panel which cover (left) ATHR (Autothrust), HDG (Heading), VS (Vertical Speed) and ALT (Altitude). (right) covers LOC (ILS/VOR), G/S (Glideslope) and BC (BackCourse). Other knobs cover AT (speed), Heading, Vertical Speed and altitude.

 

It looks great but the AP is slightly hard to use...  numbers are blurry, vertical speed does not show which direction in which to roll the knob, and the active areas on the large pod buttons are hopelessly small for ease of use. You get used to it, but it brings out a few bad words in heavy workload periods.

 

 

Rear of the cockpit is mostly images, but work in context with the rest of the area.

 

 

You can choose the crew you want with male or female and different clothing (suit or short sleeve shirt) by changing over the object files provided. Their heads move side to side with a change of yoke position and if they talk too much you can make them disappear via the switch on the panel.

 

Cabin

 

In the passenger version you have a full virtual cabin, it is basic but far better than nothing at all.

 

 

Window view is excellent with a great look at takeoff or landing of the complex flap system. Night cabin lighting is dreamy.

 

 

The 71F Cargo version doesn't have hard cold rollers for the freight to rest on but lovely lush royal blue carpet! 1st class all the way...  the FedEx way.

 

Flying the DC-8 71F

 

The route is a just a simple cross-country cargo run from KATL (Atlanta) to KDFW (Dallas-Fort Worth).

 

 

There is a basic startup from cold checklist, but it will take a few times to get the procedure right because the systems for startup are not your usual procedures. For pushback I used the JARDesign iTow plugin, which didn't work the way it was supposed to. Pushing rearwards was fine, but when you wanted to turn the aircraft it started to turn but then just drifted the aircraft sideways and still rearwards, my only option was to push the DC-8 right back into the opposite bay and taxi out and turn forwards. Flaps set to 15º and takeoff trim is done.

 

 

You push the thottles forward for movement and it doesn't come but then it does... Yes I am close to full gross weight, fair enough. So that is correct, but you can easily override the thrust and go too fast, and so you have to set the throttles and wait for the aircraft to catch up to you and start moving, which is quite correct. So you have to be ahead of the aircraft to be in the right thrust point for the right time in taxiing, it is slightly tricky, but you soon get a feel of the aircraft and anticipate the turns and correct taxi speed. The edge of the wipers (arrowed) centre pilot's window is excellent for being directly on the taxi line.

 

Sounds are good, not brilliant by any means, but more than than adequate. Cockpit is a long way forward of the engines, and so it is quite quiet up here, a sound adjustment panel would be nice though.

 

 

Even at full gross weight with the powerful CFM56's you can rotate around 170+10 v2 (180knts), certainly the older less powerful variants can be quite different in the roll, but you need to hold the nose down until rotate speed (no speeds bugs) and watch that long tail behind you when you pull the yoke back. 8º degrees is recommended until you get some daylight under the aircraft then 15º degrees to climb.

 

The DC-8 climbs and very nicely thank you and setting up to collect the flightplan, I found the aircraft nice (no sudden movements) to position and fly in controlled flight. Once I climbed to 5000ft (Atlanta is 1,000AMSL) I retracted the flaps and controlled the speed to 235knts.

 

The interaction with the AP can be a little clunky, worse are those very small active areas on those large buttons? that can waste time trying to activate. It feels old, but you get used to it.

 

Then the DC-8 hit the turn in the flightplan to go west...

 

 

If you want a "whoa!" moment then this is it....  the bank is high, maybe even 30º and you are looking across the cockpit and in an almost straight down view at the ground.

 

 

I don't have a problem with high banking at slow speeds, but when you get up to Mach m82 and you are doing the same banking angles then you wondering if the aircraft is going to start disintegrating up around you? Not very realistic...

 

 

Climbing and cruising in a heavy means you have to use your head in climb rates and speed, get it right and the aircraft rewards you with a smile and the DC-8 does that in spades.

 

 

You have a ceiling of 35,000 ft (11,000 m) but usually you don't use all of that, but it is a very nice place to be in up here and the aircraft is nice in cruise mode, so long routes are welcome.

 

 

As noted the Mach is set via a button by the side of the speed counter, but no Mach numbers or a dial is there to guide you. Getting ready for landing I set the radar/decision height but it wouldn't show the 200 ft marks, annoying...  but it works well when set correctly.

 

 

Usually you don't use the spoilers in flight, but can still arm them, but it cuts into the pedestal. Another feature of the DC-8 is that it is one of the few aircraft approved to use the thrust-reversers in flight. Only engines 2 and 3 can be actually be used inflight to full reverse thrust, and engines 1 and 4 can only be used when the gear is down.

 

 

Approach to Dallas-Fort Worth is from the north to RWY18L.

 

 

There are no leading edge slats on a DC-8, so you use the main flap arrangement with care. DC-8's are well known for their exciting crab (sideways) landings in crosswinds, those CFM56's are extremely low to the ground on landing so you have to get it just right.

 

 

Approach speeds can be quite low with the right flap position, and can be as low as 160knts even quite high in the approach phase.

 

 

The aircraft is stable on approach but you have to be ready if using the ILS guides in that it drops out with a force, no "auto-land" function here, this is the good olde days, throttle response is good, but stay in front of the aircraft.

 

 

I found a good "smile on the face" landing every time, you work hard in the last phases for getting it that right, but the smile says it all.

 

 

Thrust-reversers are effective, but this is an old machine by age, so allow a fair roll out before cutting off to the taxiiway. You have to again adjust the right thrust to keep the momentum going on the side taxiiways and not lose that forward motion, it is trickier than it sounds. The tail-planes stick up old X-Plane style after landing,

 

Lighting

 

 

Cockpit is a lovely retro place to be at night. Both the pilot and first officer have panel lighting that can be turned down, but the strange system is on the overhead or flood lighting.

 

 

Turn down the overhead lighting and it also fades out the main instrument lighting as well and just leaves the artificial horizon burning brightly, same deal on the engineers panel...  instrument lighting should be separate and be adjustable and not connected to the overhead? no flood lighting either.

 

 

Externally you have a few oddities as well. there is a inner-wing landing light and a rear under-wing landing light, but the under-wing light doesn't reflect, so it is useless on landing? and looks odd. The logo light is very nice, but it is connected to the taxi light and turn one off and you turn both off? so if you want your logo on in flight, the taxi light has to on as well...  odd.

 

Liveries

 

Liveries are mostly retro, but all are very good. Only notable visual item is that on the passenger 61 and 63 variants the side passenger windows are obviously too large? This was the post Comet era and side windows went small to avert the Comet reoccurrence of crack fatigue around the Comet's large side windows... here they are almost Vickers Viscount size, and don't look right. They are however the correct size on the B707.

 

DC-8-61

 

There is one blank and six brand retro liveries with the DC-8-61 variant. Brand liveries include: United (default), Eastern, Garuda, KLM, Trans Continental (cargo) and French UTA.

 

 

DC-8-63

 

The 63 Series has seven liveries: United, KLM, ATI (cargo), Japan Airlines, Quebecair and Transamerica.

 

 

DC-8-71F (Freighter)

 

The 71F Series has six liveries: ATI, Emery Worlwide, DHL, UPS new and retro and Air Canada. Missing is a FedEx livery, many will note that the DC-8 didn't fly with FedEx, but six aircraft did fly under the FedEx banner in the early nineties but were later sold on to UPS Parcel.

 

 

DC-8-61 in flight...

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Summary

 

First things to understand about this DC-8 series from Mike's Aviation is that one, the aircraft is a major update from an original old design and two, it is not a plugin (SASL) based aircraft and that is why a few of the items noted in the review are restricted, like with the lighting and so on.... so it is part old and the new designed together.

 

Mike's Aviation Boeing-707-320-by-Mike-Wilson was in a way just a virtual cockpit and a few enhancements to make the aircraft more current to use in X-Plane a decade on from its original release. But it did show the way of what could be done with these classic aircraft if you wanted to spend some time and a create great development in making them more available to current flying.

 

This DC-8 Series has had a far more longer amount of development than the Boeing 707 and certainly that time and development does really show here, in fact certainly in areas it is really good and in many cases it is mostly excellent 3d work, that easily matches some of the better more expensive payware aircraft available...  so no doubt the DC-8 really does look good and you feel the quality cabin is a great place to spend a lot of time.

 

So it is the major point of dissecting the point of what a plugin brings to an aircraft. In systems, lighting, animations, menus, sound control and how restricting in cases is what can be fixed or refined in the current version of this DC-8. Make no doubt that if a plugin was considered then certainly the 3d work can stand up and together with complete systems and with good features these series of aircraft could be very good indeed.

 

But we have to review on what we received and fly. Overall I totally love the aircraft as it is a very manual machine to fly, but the underlying systems are quite basic and even a little muddled. If a few of the above foibles and quirks can be addressed and updated then it would be an excellent machine in its context, one area I would like to see is if the 3d instruments can be given a of depth to make the gauges more realistic as mainly that is because they are what you are working with and seeing most of the time, they are not bad mind you, but a small thing like this would go a long way in completing out the panel and engineer's station. ditto most of the numbers and radio frequencies are more less blurry, pixelated or simply the right shape. Same with the AP buttons with a active zone, and that heart racing 30º turn at m82...  all small stuff but it all goes together in making it work far better, you do adapt of course, but it should be better in the first place.

 

But for overall value you certainly get a lot for your dollar. Three different era DC-8 engine variants, all excellent, an add on pack (259mb download) with different crew options, paintkit, textures (why you need lightweight textures is beyond me with a basic high-framerate airframe like this?), checklists and manuals, 20 liveries and as all the images show the DC-8 is a really good looking aircraft and a quality one.

 

In reimageining these classic aircraft into something usable and enjoyably flyable you have to admire Wilson's Aircraft in taking on such projects, as it is not easy process in doing so. X-Plane is very demanding now, and very critical and you want value for your money. But like everything you invest in, it is also an ongoing process and the progress from the earlier Wilson aircraft like the B707-320 and Tristar to this release of the DC-8 series does show how much development has been done with the DC-8 and still deliver a great price and value. I will say unashamedly that I love these aircraft as they are challenging and simply great aircraft to fly really well. Deep down, there also still has to be that fun factor as well...  this DC-8 Series has that in spades.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

 

The DC-8 Series from Wilson's Aircraft is Available from the  X-Plane.Org Store.
 
Price is currently US$ 25.00

 

Get the - DC-8 Series - Here

 

Features:

• Flight testing by retired DC-8-63 and L-1011 pilot Andre Poirier, and DC-8-71 Captain Carlos Roldos, and DC-8-63 captain Gerhard Opel
• 42 functions on the flight engineers panel however plane can be flown with out using the flight engineers panel
•  Total of 15 high resolution liveries with a paint kit for user to make their own liveries

• Transcontinental, United, Quebec air, UPS worldwide, UPS classic, United, Eastern, KLM, ATI, Garuda Indonesian, Transamerica, Japan Airlines, DHL, , Eastern, UTA

• 3D cockpit by Julien Brezel
• One of the view (number 5) is made to be just in front of the FMC so it is easier to use it (see page 7 of the manual)
• Animation of the doors includes the animation of the corresponding stair car.
• Two choices of textures for the cockpit are provided, low definition & high definition, depending on your graphic card abilities.
• Visible hot air jet exhaust
• Animated thrust reversers and spinning fans
• Choice of 3 pilot figures, male and female. Custom slider keys can be defined in your "joystick and Equipment" menu in xplane to show/hide First officer and Flight engineer, also show/hide ground services  GPU/stairs), also front door opening, and aft door opening.
• Uses 3D lighting for both interior and exterior night textures. For the best experience, ensure that the HDR is activated in your rendering options. The rudder illuminates when taxi light is ON.
• Comprehensive user manual and full checklist including cold and dark starting based on scans that Andre sent me of his flight manual
• Airfoils were custom made by airfoil expert Peter Meinenger from x-planefreeware.net 
• Free user manual download is here: http://forjets.netfirms.com/Douglas_DC-8_manual.pdf
• Detailed pneumatic hoses underneath spoilers and flaps
• For a better use of the cockpit, 9 view presets have been added. You can slide from one to another using the number pad, or assign new keyboard keys in the “Joystick and Equipment” menu.

 

 

Requirements

X-Plane 10+ in 64bit mode
Windows, Mac, Linux in 64bit mode - 32bit not supported
512Mb VRAM Video Card

The DC-8 is not a heavy frame rate aircraft, so it should easily run on most computers, but I would recommend a minimum 1gb Graphic Card.

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Installation and documents:

Download for the DC-8 Series package is downloaded via three zip files:

DC-8-61_v1 4216 393.00mb - 447mb Installed

DC-8-63_v1 6837 403.00mb - 458mb Installed

DC-8-71F_v1 2149 449.00mb - 543mb Installed

 

...   and the unzipped files are deposited in the "Heavy Metal" X-Plane folder.

Note the download is slow, so allow time (30min) for each download.

 

There is a secondary download package consisting of:

Manuals and ADDONS - Download 291mb

CoPilots (objects to change crew)

Manuals: Checklist - Cold and Dark, Checklist - Running, DC-8 Flight Profile, DC-8 Landing Speed Chart and DC-8 Manual (20 pages)

Painkit

Textures (high and low resolution)

 

CIVA

If you own or purchase xCIVA Nav System US$10

 

It can be installed in the DC-8 in one or all three variants. The plugin is installed in a folder called "plugins" in the aircraft file (not the X-Plane plugin folder). There is NO such folder with the aircraft...  so you will need to create a "plugins" folder in each aircraft and then insert the xCIVA plugin into that folder to make it work, an operating manual is provided.

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Review by Stephen Dutton

9th August 2016

Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews

 

Review System Specifications:

Computer System: Windows  - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD 

Software:   - Windows 10 - X-Plane 10 Global ver 10.45

Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose  Soundlink Mini

Plugins: xCIVA Navigation System : JARDesign Ground Handling Deluxe plugin

 

Scenery or Aircraft

- KATL - KATL - Atlanta International by Nimbus (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$23.95

- KDFW - Dallas Fort Worth - American Country by Tom Curtis (KDFW-Dallas/Ft. Worth X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$24.95

 

 

News! - Laminar Research Promo : File a flight plan!

 

Laminar Research (and for those how don't know is the creator of X-Plane) have released a teaser promo video for....  Well X-Plane11? Has to be folks.

 

  New fonts, new look Laminar Research...  all the signs of a new age of the simulator. That Thanksgiving day 2016 release date is now starting to look very attractive...  You heard it here first.   ______________________________________________________________________  

Stephen Dutton

5th August 2016

Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews

 

 

 

Behind the Screen : July 2016

 

July carried on of where June left off, fixing scenery. As a recap I spent too much time one weekend looking for a errant object buried in the scenery that kept bringing up alert boxes and this was a payware airport. A great tip on finding these nasties came from a friendly user, thanks for that. But here I was back again at square one with another annoying scenery issue.

 

I wanted to use a long forgotten but a good scenery of Washington National or KDCA for a review, but when opening up the scenery I found there was two control towers, overlapping static aircraft and gates sticking out of buildings of where there should be none.

 

Easily fixed? Not on your brother it wasn't...

 

Pulling out all my KDCA and Washington objects out of the Custom Scenery folder left the culprit bare, it was an old 2003 era KDCA alright, but with all my KDCA's and all my Washington objects removed then why was it still visible? After an hour or so of twisting folders in and out it of X-Plane it steadfastly refused to go away, all checks with X-Planes default "Scenery Gateway"didn't result in any conflicts either...  So how to find the culprit? 

Here you have to go Sherlock and use a lot of creative thinking. But the only way really was to home in on the tile it is placed on. This was +38-078.dsf and bringing up a search of +38-078.dsf brought back a still a huge number of choices. But I had eliminated already most of the obvious and went through the rest, slowly, file by file. Annoying is the fact this KDCA or DCA scenery was not made with DCA in the file title, so a search of that region didn't work the magic either, but I finally found the offending objects and they were buried in a side addition of a Baltimore scenery, you had to go way two tiles over in the OverlayEditor just to finally find them? A quick grab of all the objects and a "delete" and "save" and the buggers were finally gone, so was another three hours of my life and that goes on the list to St Peter for when I want the time lost in this life in that I want the time back or added on to my set lifetime for wasting time on things that you shouldn't or didn't want to do in the first place, but at least KDCA is now fully workable and back in my route network, who says this X-Plane world building caper is easy.

 

July was by and large a bumper month in releases. You had a little bit of everything from a very nice helicopter in the Schweizer 300CBi from Dreamfoil Creations, and a note that Dreamfoil's next aircraft is the Hughes 500D of Magnum P.I. "Island Hoppers" fame. 

The MD-88 by Rotate is maturing nicely now as more and more features and bugs are refined in the version 1.20 Update. I note that these aircraft are an investment, and certainly the aircraft was wanting more at it's initial release. But when a developer is new to the game and certainly at this level, you have to cut them some slack, which certainly didn't happen in this case. But if the developer doesn't deliver you have every right to go apeshit and demand your moneyback, but the sign of a good and even great developer is just too deliver and learn from the experience. Even JARDesign with his early A320neo was another case of learning a vertical learning curve, but the work since has been prodigious. So as a critic we have to sum up the parts and balance the raw from the truth, as noted an aircraft and scenery is a long term investment and you have to review it that way even though the current events are saying the opposite of the fact...  Our family motto is "Keep the faith" and that is sometimes the best thing to do.

 

The annoying developers are the ones that don't learn and repeat the same mistakes ad nauseam, poring out the same small issues over and over again and wonder why they are quickly discounting to sell all their hard work, you can only play that game for so long before your reputation starts to go south. There is no point in adding in feature after feature if the basics don't work, the basic operations are what in reality simulation flying is all about.

I was very surprised on how really good the FlightFactor A350XWB was now. Like I noted in the upgrade review Airbus A350 XWB Advanced v1.3 by FlightFactor. There was far more in here than adding a gloss shine to the hull in this upgrade, and I admit the missing FMC or in Airbus speak the FMGS does certainly not put the aircraft at the level of FF's Boeing products, but there is no doubt the basics are more than ready for that next step to "professional" status, overall it was a very nice aircraft to use and fly.

 

In many of my scenery reviews I tend to note the airport's services and routes as much as its usually very good quality and infrastructure. Mostly other reviews usually only focus on the actual scenery and features. My point is that, you could have the very best scenery ever produced, but if it isn't being used it is a total waste of money. I have mentioned this before in "Behind The Screen" but it is a worthwhile point to make again.

The trick on using X-Plane to it's full value is to create a strong network of destinations and the great use of certain areas. Laminar Research's data noted that most user flights are under or around two hours or mostly between dinner and going to bed or for an afternoon's flying.

 

And that is fair enough as "Games of Thrones" is also wanting to share your personal downtime. X-Plane to a point is not a shared experience unless to get the odd "Will you turn that bl...dy sound down!" from the family or the neighbour's. On a funny side note to that, my very patient neighbour's couldn't understand why they kept on hearing a fully blown Boeing 737 at the very late hours in their bedroom and miles away from the nearest airport, they are Japanese as well to add into the confusion...   I now wear headphones after 9pm.

 

But back to valuable scenery and networks. I found to get the very best experience out of the simulator is to build up a strong if small network. All destinations are high quality scenery, routes can be refined and set for various approaches and saved for instant use. I use WorldTraffic (but X-Life is fine) and that system is refined to use the same network and again refined to get the most optimum services and aircraft. Ditto with JARDesign's Service plugin for ground services for departure and arrival, they can also be refined with the correct airport logo's or airline services. Yes you can have many of these tight but excellent networks of which you keep building and refining and even cross between them if you want to (i.e. UK-European network to the US network or US network to your Australian network and so on). This is why I wanted a better LFMN - NICE because it was in a valuable position in my UK - Italy - Spain network and the Aerosoft version was crap, and so a big hole was filled and the scenery can now be used effectively.

 

The point is that all the sceneries within the networks are used and used very often, so they no matter how much they cost they have a lot of value, and any scenery added to the network is not going to a wasted purchase or a waste of your money, and that should be your main consideration of any scenery purchase...  the amount of use you can get from that purchase. So links or routes to the scenery are important, even if it is not a major port. Effectively you can purchase a scenery just for that one position and not for a network, providing it gives you a return for your investment. That is say for local GA flying or by say a feature area like the Grand Canyon, again the main factor is how much you can use that investment in return of your purchase.

 

Aircraft are again the same thing, don't buy something you can't use...  but buy something you will use a lot and return time and time again to that cockpit, it is no use having the largest Air Force in the world if you only fly a few of it's aircraft.

 

I do like also to add variety to my flying life in replicating a real life event. As noted I follow the Formula One Racing Car circus around the world with the flyaway races (European Races are done with trucks). I have followed F1 since the middle 70's and so it has been a big part of my life, but this flying to the race destinations creates a lot of work in preparation in routes, liveries and making sure the correct scenery is in place for arrival (and departure). You are also moving every two weeks to another destination, and gives your flying a reason to go somewhere you would never usually fly normally, and Baku of Azerbaijan was a new one this year to emphasise a destination that is not only different but highly challenging to fly to.

 

Another flight in the same vein was to replicate the "TeamGB" flight from London (Heathrow) to Rio (Galeão) which was my first flight from Europe to South America, different, challenging and quite involving in preparation and then 11 hour flight itself. So as July went, it was a very busy month in X-Plane, very busy.

 

Stephen Dutton

4th August 2016

Copyright©2016: X-PlaneReviews

 

 

29 minutes ago, Guest Jymp said:

Very much looking forward to X-Plane 11, any idea on a release time frame ?, I've always been a FSX/P3D guy, but have grown weary of the putting lipstick on a pig approach of Steam & Lockheed Martin, and now Dove Tail Games, however they have improved it, especially LM but they are working with 2006 technology, it's 2016, time to advance, I will have a serious look at XP 11.

 

Traditionally Laminar Research usually releases a new version around the American Thanksgiving holiday, or late November. Those first views show the features very well advanced, so yes even later this year can be be in the time frame. Don't hold me to that as anything can go wrong with a large release, and note that even if the version is released it can be noted as really a public beta version with a few bugs in it. Mostly by the New Year it is pretty solid and Laminar Research have been far better with their releases in being much more refined than in the past...   SD