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Stephen got a reaction from Cami De Bellis in Hardware Unboxing : Honeycomb Bravo Throttle
Hardware Unboxing : Honeycomb Bravo Throttle
Sadly we don't do a lot of hardware reviews on X-PlaneReviews. The reason is we don't have a lot changing in that world to cover the new equipment, but I do admit, we should do more gear reviews.
But our tools that we use are important, as they are our interaction with the Simulator on a physical level. The last review was when I bought the Saitek Pro Flight x56 Rhino HOTAS package of a Joystick and throttle, this was back late April 2017, or seven and a half years ago. That system replaced a Saitek x52 Pro Flight H.O.T.A.S. System which broke, the x56 Pro Flight is now quite worn.
On the face of it, you can't really complain about seven and a half years of heavy review work, before starting to feel the pressure of consistent wear and tear, but from the start, the x56 as noted in the above review, was plagued with the same problems that the x52 was also known for, as the metal disk would drag badly up and down the centre shaft, no matter what you did. I used (a lot) of petroleum jelly or vaseline to keep it lubricated. the x56 has the same problem, but worse in that the centre shaft here is plastic and not metal, I thought the different springs would help, but it still drags (sticks) badly even on the lightest spring, it works better with no springs, but then the stick flops around all over the place, in times of desperation (mostly for Helicopter Reviews) I will take the spring off to fly the aircraft.
But the consistent annoyance has been the x56 throttle hardware. Yes I love the solid switches, and why I kept it for so long. But a few years ago, it started to have USB issues, first with bad ghosting, then losing the data from the right side throttle lever. If you removed the USB and reinserted it, it worked, until it didn't again, even putting on the most powerful USB port, even buying a powered USB board, it consistently failed. The throttle levers were also not very effective in being draggy and heavy, even with the adjustment knob set in the lowest setting, so adjustment inputs were not very clean, messing you up trying to fly (again) Helicopters that required fine collective adjustments, or the fine ruined approach power adjustments that drove me to swear words. When the first lever started to do what the second one did a year or so ago, it was time to replace the system, enough was enough, I didn't want another full year swearing at it all the time.
The Honeycomb Bravo Throttle system is not cheap, it is $300 American Dollars, that is just the throttle alone. Honeycomb Alpha Flight Controls Yoke & Switch Panel is another US$300 for the full system, but quality comes with a price as we shall see. Another point is that if you buy the Alpha and Beta combination set together, they are very, very large units, and they take up an immense amount of desk space, unless you build a frame for them, space is also required as you still need the use of a keyboard for access to the simulator. This size issue was a consideration of why I was reluctant to buy the Bravo earlier, high price aside. I don't think I would buy the Alpha for this space use alone, I love the idea and the quality of the Yoke (if going by the Bravo) as it is very high, so would probably stay with the Joystick arrangement, if a new one later in the year.
So let us look at the Bravo Throttle...
It came in a very big, BIG cardboard box? That unboxed to another very BIG box at 46.2cm x 32.7 cm x 25.5cm at 5.5 kg
I love the quality of the packaging, it feels and looks very professional... the outer cover slipped off to reveal, yes another box... when opened, it was full of more little boxes!
The two boxes are labeled "General Aviation" and "Commercial". Lift them out and remove the foam cover to reveal the huge Throttle Assembly below. Also inside is a large connection plate and a Manual. Lower in the box are two desk clamps and a USB Cable.
The Throttle Assembly is massive and quite heavy, but all the components and boxes are of very high quality, very well made and again heavy in feel (plate/clamps). You certainly get a lot of components for your money, if it hurt at the checkout, you certainly won't feel that way with what you are delivered.
Now lets look at my old Saitek layout, the x56 Joystick and Throttle, if anything it was a very nice setup, one that I liked a lot, it didn't get in the way either when you were not flying, as the Throttle component could be pushed back and out of the way between the two keyboards.
The plate is positioned and held in position via the two clamps, very easy to do, and the clamps will take in a fair depth of the bench if you have a homemade bench. You can also use the sticky contact patch on the rear of the plate if you don't want to use the clamps, but once used (attached) then the contact patch can't be used again? note on how much the screw knobs hang down, and you can easily glaze a knee or two if you are not careful.
The Throttle Assembly is then attached to the plate via the central pin, and tightened down via two scroll wheels at the rear, once tight the unit is very locked in and solid. To note that if you want your desk space back, then you can just disconnect the cable, then loosen the rear scroll wheels and slip the Throttle assembly back off the plate, it is only a very short disconnect and removable operation. I put it safe in a wardrobe if not required. Another small note... it gets very dusty, and the Bravo is very hard to clean with the slots, so when not being used it needs to be covered.
The USB cable is then connected via the rear of the assembly to your computer. My Windows Computer is not positioned that very far away, only down the side of the desk on the floor. But the USB cable is only a meter long? very, very short for these sort of setups, it reached, but it is stretched tight across the desk, a two meter or longer cable is really required here, I don't like extension cables as they can come loose or do not connect correctly, so I found this short cable a bit odd. It is a USB-type C (to USB Type A) so a longer cable should be easy to replace.
So here is the complete Throttle Assembly set up, and those two boxes have the sets (GA and Commercial) levers inside, this is a really nice bit of kit, it looks incredible in quality and detail.
Top row on the facia are two knobs each end, left; ALT (Altitude), VS (Vertical Speed), HDG (Heading), CRS (Course) and IAS (Speed), right side is; DECR (Decrease) and INCR (Increase). Center are the seven selection rubber buttons; HDG, NAV, APR (Approach), ALT, VS and IAS. Far right is the AUTO PILOT button. lower is left the Landing Gear Toggle with three (Red/Green) lights, and lower far right is the Flap switch
There are Seven Multi-Use switches centre, and lower a very nice 14 light Annunciator panel, with; Master Warning, Engine Fire, Low Oil Pressure, Low Fuel Pressure, Anti-Ice, APU, Master Caution, Vacuum, Low Hyd Pressure, Aux Fuel Pump, Parking Brake, Low Volts and Door.
For over the lever slots you are provided with six rubber covers, that slot in to keep out the dust and to protect the contacts.
Left of the lever slots is a very nice Trim Wheel, right is a lever tensioner knob.
You have six levers, some have internal contacts, a few don't. These levers can be selected with the comprehensive range of levers provided in the "General Aviation" and "Commercial" boxes. Quality of the levers are simply outstanding, in both categories.
You just push the levers on to connect. But they can be tight to come back off, but here are also new. Standard layout on Commercial is Speedbrake lever left, Four Throttles and the Flap Lever right. Note the excellent pop-up reverse thrust levers. There is an indent to stop you going into reverse mode, but as a lot of users have complained, it's not a heavy indent, so it is quite easy to flip over it, while you are only setting the throttles back to idle, like most I wish it was a tougher stronger stop gap
The combinations are endless. Mostly with commercial you will use only two throttle levers (A320/B737/A350/B777), so you blank out the other two slots. Honeycomb recommend using the left two slots, but I hated that layout, and wanted the two levers in the centre of the pedestal, but in this position the TOGO (TakeOff - GoAround) red button on lever 1 doesn't work, but a guess says it just needs setting up, as the contacts are on the stub. Note on the third lever, you can rotate the handle to show either the number 2 or 3, just to work in this two lever arrangement as you are using lever slot 3, very clever.
We have the four lever arrangement (B747/A340/Concorde) above, but you can also set up a three throttle lever set for the TriJets (MD11F/MD11P), and this is a brilliant set up.
So this shows how versatile the system is. The Bravo can also be used with 3rd party throttle kits. Admittedly they are not cheap, as some kits cost more than the Bravo itself, but hunt around and there are cheaper options. Boeing 737 and Boeing 777 sets are excellent with gated flap runners... and Airbus A320/A380 also comes with pop-up Arming Speedbrakes. You can get a PC12 set, and even a Dash 8.
But you would need to be a seriously rich Simmer to use these custom kits, me, I'd like all of them!
The General Aviation set gives you six levers, Two Throttle, Two PROP and Two Mixture. These can be positioned to cover Single or Twin engined aircraft. If required you can set just the single Throttle and Mixture levers.
You now realise on how very clever X-Plane as a product it really is. The Settings for the Honeycomb Bravo is via the "Joystick" Menu. Here you can assign any lever, button or switch. The "Joystick" menu moves and selects the correct format for you, selecting five different categories to choose from; Switches and AutoPilot, GA Throttles, Commercial 4 Engine Throttles, Commercial 2 Engine Throttles and Other Controls.
Note, just because it says "Switches and AutoPilot", it doesn't mean that simply selecting from the XP menu that the Bravo unit will automatically work, as we shall see, it doesn't completely work that way?
But command assignments can be made for buttons, switches, reverse selections and lever lower positions in the X-Plane menu.
The work here is creating all the different lever layouts for the universal selection of aircraft. So you will at first create "User Profiles" for default settings, say "GA Single" and "GA Dual", or "4 Engine" or "2 Engine". These profiles can then be assigned to the different aircraft layouts, then refined for that particular aircraft. It is time consuming stuff, it can take days to do, to get the right profiles, then each set to be assigned to an aircraft. Note if you want the Twin throttle levers in the centre position, then you to set them up via the 4 Engine setup, to access the central 3 lever.
But even after doing this profile assignments, the Bravo system is still not completely working?
You also have to use something called a "HB Configurator Tool" (Config Tool). Were as the hardware throttle connects to your X-Plane settings, the Config Tool does the opposite in allowing X-Plane to talk to the throttle, in Annunciators and using the Autopilot switches and knobs. Thankfully when you start the HB Config Tool, it has a load of defaults that cover the basic default settings.
You can download the HB Config Tool from both HoneyComb Aeronautical (Don't Google HB Config Tool, as you won't find it there?), or use Aerosoft, this option is better for configured profiles. Once you have downloaded the software, you then run the .exe file to install the software. (Options for a MAC install is included). When installed you have the "Honeycomb Configurator" Application available to open.
Running the application, allows you to make "Profiles"... with a "Profile Editor"
.
First is "Actions"... Here you can; Create (a new profile), Activate (a current profile), Delete (a Current Profile), Change Selected Device, Open X-Plane Variable List, Download Profiles, Open Settings and Exit (Configurator)
You can select a certain button or switch and create a "Press-Event" in two modes, Buttons/Switches or LED (lighting) selections. The Config Tool is complicated to use?? with coding skills required, however there are videos to learn how to create and insert these profiles - How to use Datarefs and Commands, this is a good one as well in Configuring for X-Plane.
With the Config download, you do also get a default XP11 profile (works with XP12), so basically the system will now work, and the system is now active with RED/Green Gear Indicators, Red Annunciators and bright white Autopilot lighting. It is VERY nice!
As noted you can download "Custom Profiles" and import them into the Config via the "Actions/Settings". These can be seen and selected in the "Profiles" Tab (also need to be made active via the settings menu). You can also "create" a new Profile if required. Lower Config panel is noted the current loaded profile : Default-Throttle.
When you start up X-Plane, the Config will show the currently selected Profile for about 10 secs
So here is the Honeycomb Bravo layout, it is very different than earlier, and notice on how far outwards the Bravo levers are compared to the x56 layout. To a point I am twisting in my chair to reach back to the levers, I quickly changed my stance to hold the levers underneath, than trying to operate them from the rear, and it actually felt more cockpit realistic to do it the way real life pilots do the throttle actions the same way.
But the layout does take some getting used to I will admit. So some user notes.
Oddly my biggest complaint is not with the hardware, or even the software? Honeycomb Aeronautical have done a brilliant job in creating a very high quality product. But seriously lacking is Documentation. There is a Manual (14 pages) repeated in English, German and French. This covers basically the Installation and Setup, which is pretty straightforward anyway. There is nothing on installing or using the HB Configurator Tool? The Honeycomb Aeronautical website is not much better. Your basically on your own to set up and configure the system yourself.
Where Honeycomb could help you, they still fail badly. One, there are a series of videos on how to use Datarefs and Commands, but it is boring and not very informative, even complicated. There needs to be a section to explain (Video and Manual) on how the code is represented to use the required command.
But worse, although Honeycomb do supply default profiles, they are not very good in operation, as a lot of required profile actions are missing, worse they are still labeled "X-Plane 11", and we have moved on a lot since then folks.
They made this suite of tools, but can't be actually bothered to help you out with the basics, in reality it should be an easy drop in and use format. I can't state on how the other platforms fair from the default profiles, but default X-Plane is quite woeful. With something as complicated as the profile system, it should be far better organised. Yes I understand that with the various types of aircraft, there are a lot of different combinations of setups, but the default profiles could be far better in setting you up in the very basics. You get the feeling the programmer himself doesn't know how it works, so can't communicate that aspect in detail to you.
This tool was released in 2020, and since that period, Honeycomb have done no manual or software updates, I think with equipment of this price range, they need to come to the table, may even garner them a few extra sales, by just making their product easier to access.
Functionality
So with poor profiles you get random settings. Some aircraft give you a lot of actions in Autopilot Functions, a lot don't. However mostly on the hardware side, like with the Throttles and Levers as connected by the X-Plane settings, then they do tend to work every time, as long as you set the right configuration for that aircraft's layout.
A lot of aircraft however with the default and custom profiles will also work. but again expect limitations. When using the Autopilot, the ALT, HDG and IAS (Speed), then these selections will work fine with the adjustment knob, but the VS (Vertical Speed) and CRS (Course) don't work? a few like the IXEG B737 and Rotate MD-11 Series, you will find everything will work, but the odd MD-11 hardware settings have to be correct. All ToLiss aircraft work fine, but a few lose the VS and CRS options, but the button selections in HDG, NAV... so on, actually do work.
Almost all the Laminar default aircraft will work with the "Default Profile", as they all use the basic X-Plane datarefs, but important is that you have the correct X-Plane Profile to match that particular aircraft's layout when using it. So time spent setting up the the different X-Plane Profile configurations... Single Engine, Twin Engine, Jet Twin and Jet Four Engine configuration, so you can match them quickly to the aircraft's particular setup is the way to save yourself a lot of frustration and confusion.
That said...
If the Autopilot functions work, even with only the three ALT, HDG and IAS selections, then your in for a treat. The Honeycomb Bravo is no replacement for a dedicated Autopilot panel, but it is universally very good to cover most aircraft systems.
My first flight with the Bravo was the ToLiss A319, and "wow" this was a lot of fun to use the Honeycomb System, as the selection knob, buttons and adjustment knob works, and when it does, it gives you a very realistic Simulation. Not having to consistently move your forward view to adjust the aircraft's altitude, heading and speed, but to do it by touch and twiddling the knob is feeling like a Captain with four epaulets on your shoulders!
Also the levers are far, far better with the pressure adjustment than the x56, lovely actually, as you can find that right feel tension pressure in moving them forwards and rearwards, a longer lever travel is also a bonus for taxi speeds and the more general throttle (thrust) control.
Like noted the reverse gate detent, is just too weak to separate the forward to reverse thrust selections, so I was always notching it back up to the central position. So lever manipulation is very realistic, as noted you put your hand under the throttles to move them up, above down. But the very small reverser handles are hard to use from the side angle, but in most cases you will just push the throttle levers past the detent for full reverse thrust, and then back past the detent to disengage the reversers.
Nice gear lever, is again very authentic in feel and use, but the Speedbrake lever is tricky to use in being free flowing. I also set the first switch left as the "Arm" command, as the lever won't jack up (It can on a custom 3rd party Airbus Kits), so you use the X-Plane Command "Speedbrake retract one" or "extend one" on the switch to use that function.
I quickly got used to the Flap handle, which like the speedbrake is free moving... a lot of the aircraft you fly, have gates anyway to select the right position. But in the Airbuses, You can easily find the right selection slot (it is a feel thing, more than a visual one). I rarely use the Flap switch set higher, but only again with a Flappy switch on the aircraft, but it is handy if you want your flaps at say another detent down. But the Flappy switch can also confuse the Bravo, as if you use the Flappy switch, the Flap lever does not move itself to the correct indent, so the Honeycomb, doesn't know what to do (the flap handle will flicker on screen), so it is always best to use the Flap lever than the switch. The Trim wheel is fine in a manual mode, but you can't use it to set the Centre of Gravity takeoff setting in an airliner.
Next was the IXEG B737, not flown the -300 for awhile, but set up with a custom profile(s) (both in a custom profile and an X-Plane custom profile), this aircraft showed how good the Honeycomb Bravo really is, one flight, two flights, three flights, and I just wanted more as almost all the buttons and controls worked perfectly, it was extremely immersive!
The one that I was most excited about was the FlightFactor Boeing 777v2. FlightFactor have provided the correct HB commands for you to set the Autopilot and Switchgear (the custom commands are in the "Manual") for the Bravo. The command list is below, can take a fair while to set, but worthwhile here as virtually every knob works! So a HB Config profile is not needed. Note to Developers, please consider this option when releasing aircraft as it means you only need the one profile to set (X-Plane) for that particular aircraft. I would recommend to copy the created profile as a backup.
If you look at the commands used by FlightFactor, one set is interesting. Here the Flappy switch is reassigned as the Parking Brake (trigger), and the idea works a treat on all Jet aircraft. I have already reassigned most of the airliners to this Flappy switch to Parking Brake action, and it is a clever use of a lever that could confuse the main flap lever's actions.
So this is the point, if you do have the correct profiles, it the Honeycomb Bravo is totally brilliant, but a lot of the authenticity is missing if you don't have a working profile, as you are left with only the basics to fly with.
Summary
So let us sum up the Honeycomb Bravo Throttle System... Expensive, but you get a lot of quality hardware for your money, so I don't regret the purchase one little bit, as it is a very nice piece of kit. It takes up a lot of your desk space, and sticks outwards quite a lot from your desk, so you have to adjust your flying stance a lot to use it.
All switches, buttons, levers and controls are of top quality in feel and use. As the multiple, if extremely versatile arrangements and layouts for a wide variety of aircraft is outstanding. Lighting is also outstanding, with Gear lights, AP selection lights and red Annunciators.
It is a time consuming system to set up with two sets of profiles, and if like me flying a wide variety of aircraft, so you can spend a lot of time just in getting all the right hardware and profile combinations working together correctly. With the Saitek x56, I rarely changed settings, aircraft to aircraft, except for setting up to fly Helicopters. Certainly a static setup, refined in settings for a certain Simulation is to get the best out of the Bravo.
Biggest barrier is the poor information presented for a complex profile setup by Honeycomb, there are a few videos, but you mostly certainly require more documentation on details. Provided default profiles are poor and after four years are still noted as X-Plane 11, and far too few profiles to cover the many simulation platforms and various aircraft out there, certainly an interactive forum would be actually a good idea for a central base of information and help (currently it is Aerosoft doing the hosting). Basically it needs someone to sort out the mess and give users better information and deliver professional profiles that work. USB cable is seriously too short at 1 meter, you would need to purchase a longer cable.
If you know me well, you would know that anything that brings the real world aviation feel and interaction to create a higher level of realistic Simulation is going to make me happy. The Honeycomb Bravo Throttle can certainly deliver that aspect to your on-line flying, yes it is complicated to set up, but once configured is an amazing bit of hardware to use, and is totally recommended.
_____________
The Honeycomb Bravo Throttle can be purchased at most leading On-Line Flight Simulation stores, for around US$300, but there is always a deal out there.
Requirements
✅ PC (Windows 10/11)
• Requires a USB-A port
• Compatible with major flight simulators:
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS 2020)
• X-Plane 11 & 12
• Prepar3D (P3D)
• FSX (with some limitations)
✅ Xbox Compatibility
• Works with Xbox Series X|S only when paired with a compatible yoke (e.g., Honeycomb Alpha XPC).
Software & Drivers
• Windows Users: Install the Honeycomb software/drivers from their official website for full configurability.
• MSFS 2020 Users: Custom profiles may need to be set up in the simulator’s control settings.
• X-Plane Users: Works out of the box but may require minor configuration.
Hardware Compatibility
• Designed to integrate seamlessly with the Honeycomb Alpha Yoke.
• Works with third-party yokes and rudder pedals (e.g., Logitech, Thrustmaster, Turtle Beach).
Installation
Software needs to be downloaded in the HB Configurator Tool, available from Honeycomb & Aerosoft. Downloading the "X-Plane 11" version is the correct version for X-Plane 12.
Documents
Manual (14 pages) in English, German and French (Installation) Partner Offers
________________
Hardware Review by Stephen Dutton
7th February 2025
Copyright©2025: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Hardware Unboxing : Honeycomb Bravo Throttle
Hardware Unboxing : Honeycomb Bravo Throttle
Sadly we don't do a lot of hardware reviews on X-PlaneReviews. The reason is we don't have a lot changing in that world to cover the new equipment, but I do admit, we should do more gear reviews.
But our tools that we use are important, as they are our interaction with the Simulator on a physical level. The last review was when I bought the Saitek Pro Flight x56 Rhino HOTAS package of a Joystick and throttle, this was back late April 2017, or seven and a half years ago. That system replaced a Saitek x52 Pro Flight H.O.T.A.S. System which broke, the x56 Pro Flight is now quite worn.
On the face of it, you can't really complain about seven and a half years of heavy review work, before starting to feel the pressure of consistent wear and tear, but from the start, the x56 as noted in the above review, was plagued with the same problems that the x52 was also known for, as the metal disk would drag badly up and down the centre shaft, no matter what you did. I used (a lot) of petroleum jelly or vaseline to keep it lubricated. the x56 has the same problem, but worse in that the centre shaft here is plastic and not metal, I thought the different springs would help, but it still drags (sticks) badly even on the lightest spring, it works better with no springs, but then the stick flops around all over the place, in times of desperation (mostly for Helicopter Reviews) I will take the spring off to fly the aircraft.
But the consistent annoyance has been the x56 throttle hardware. Yes I love the solid switches, and why I kept it for so long. But a few years ago, it started to have USB issues, first with bad ghosting, then losing the data from the right side throttle lever. If you removed the USB and reinserted it, it worked, until it didn't again, even putting on the most powerful USB port, even buying a powered USB board, it consistently failed. The throttle levers were also not very effective in being draggy and heavy, even with the adjustment knob set in the lowest setting, so adjustment inputs were not very clean, messing you up trying to fly (again) Helicopters that required fine collective adjustments, or the fine ruined approach power adjustments that drove me to swear words. When the first lever started to do what the second one did a year or so ago, it was time to replace the system, enough was enough, I didn't want another full year swearing at it all the time.
The Honeycomb Bravo Throttle system is not cheap, it is $300 American Dollars, that is just the throttle alone. Honeycomb Alpha Flight Controls Yoke & Switch Panel is another US$300 for the full system, but quality comes with a price as we shall see. Another point is that if you buy the Alpha and Beta combination set together, they are very, very large units, and they take up an immense amount of desk space, unless you build a frame for them, space is also required as you still need the use of a keyboard for access to the simulator. This size issue was a consideration of why I was reluctant to buy the Bravo earlier, high price aside. I don't think I would buy the Alpha for this space use alone, I love the idea and the quality of the Yoke (if going by the Bravo) as it is very high, so would probably stay with the Joystick arrangement, if a new one later in the year.
So let us look at the Bravo Throttle...
It came in a very big, BIG cardboard box? That unboxed to another very BIG box at 46.2cm x 32.7 cm x 25.5cm at 5.5 kg
I love the quality of the packaging, it feels and looks very professional... the outer cover slipped off to reveal, yes another box... when opened, it was full of more little boxes!
The two boxes are labeled "General Aviation" and "Commercial". Lift them out and remove the foam cover to reveal the huge Throttle Assembly below. Also inside is a large connection plate and a Manual. Lower in the box are two desk clamps and a USB Cable.
The Throttle Assembly is massive and quite heavy, but all the components and boxes are of very high quality, very well made and again heavy in feel (plate/clamps). You certainly get a lot of components for your money, if it hurt at the checkout, you certainly won't feel that way with what you are delivered.
Now lets look at my old Saitek layout, the x56 Joystick and Throttle, if anything it was a very nice setup, one that I liked a lot, it didn't get in the way either when you were not flying, as the Throttle component could be pushed back and out of the way between the two keyboards.
The plate is positioned and held in position via the two clamps, very easy to do, and the clamps will take in a fair depth of the bench if you have a homemade bench. You can also use the sticky contact patch on the rear of the plate if you don't want to use the clamps, but once used (attached) then the contact patch can't be used again? note on how much the screw knobs hang down, and you can easily glaze a knee or two if you are not careful.
The Throttle Assembly is then attached to the plate via the central pin, and tightened down via two scroll wheels at the rear, once tight the unit is very locked in and solid. To note that if you want your desk space back, then you can just disconnect the cable, then loosen the rear scroll wheels and slip the Throttle assembly back off the plate, it is only a very short disconnect and removable operation. I put it safe in a wardrobe if not required. Another small note... it gets very dusty, and the Bravo is very hard to clean with the slots, so when not being used it needs to be covered.
The USB cable is then connected via the rear of the assembly to your computer. My Windows Computer is not positioned that very far away, only down the side of the desk on the floor. But the USB cable is only a meter long? very, very short for these sort of setups, it reached, but it is stretched tight across the desk, a two meter or longer cable is really required here, I don't like extension cables as they can come loose or do not connect correctly, so I found this short cable a bit odd. It is a USB-type C (to USB Type A) so a longer cable should be easy to replace.
So here is the complete Throttle Assembly set up, and those two boxes have the sets (GA and Commercial) levers inside, this is a really nice bit of kit, it looks incredible in quality and detail.
Top row on the facia are two knobs each end, left; ALT (Altitude), VS (Vertical Speed), HDG (Heading), CRS (Course) and IAS (Speed), right side is; DECR (Decrease) and INCR (Increase). Center are the seven selection rubber buttons; HDG, NAV, APR (Approach), ALT, VS and IAS. Far right is the AUTO PILOT button. lower is left the Landing Gear Toggle with three (Red/Green) lights, and lower far right is the Flap switch
There are Seven Multi-Use switches centre, and lower a very nice 14 light Annunciator panel, with; Master Warning, Engine Fire, Low Oil Pressure, Low Fuel Pressure, Anti-Ice, APU, Master Caution, Vacuum, Low Hyd Pressure, Aux Fuel Pump, Parking Brake, Low Volts and Door.
For over the lever slots you are provided with six rubber covers, that slot in to keep out the dust and to protect the contacts.
Left of the lever slots is a very nice Trim Wheel, right is a lever tensioner knob.
You have six levers, some have internal contacts, a few don't. These levers can be selected with the comprehensive range of levers provided in the "General Aviation" and "Commercial" boxes. Quality of the levers are simply outstanding, in both categories.
You just push the levers on to connect. But they can be tight to come back off, but here are also new. Standard layout on Commercial is Speedbrake lever left, Four Throttles and the Flap Lever right. Note the excellent pop-up reverse thrust levers. There is an indent to stop you going into reverse mode, but as a lot of users have complained, it's not a heavy indent, so it is quite easy to flip over it, while you are only setting the throttles back to idle, like most I wish it was a tougher stronger stop gap
The combinations are endless. Mostly with commercial you will use only two throttle levers (A320/B737/A350/B777), so you blank out the other two slots. Honeycomb recommend using the left two slots, but I hated that layout, and wanted the two levers in the centre of the pedestal, but in this position the TOGO (TakeOff - GoAround) red button on lever 1 doesn't work, but a guess says it just needs setting up, as the contacts are on the stub. Note on the third lever, you can rotate the handle to show either the number 2 or 3, just to work in this two lever arrangement as you are using lever slot 3, very clever.
We have the four lever arrangement (B747/A340/Concorde) above, but you can also set up a three throttle lever set for the TriJets (MD11F/MD11P), and this is a brilliant set up.
So this shows how versatile the system is. The Bravo can also be used with 3rd party throttle kits. Admittedly they are not cheap, as some kits cost more than the Bravo itself, but hunt around and there are cheaper options. Boeing 737 and Boeing 777 sets are excellent with gated flap runners... and Airbus A320/A380 also comes with pop-up Arming Speedbrakes. You can get a PC12 set, and even a Dash 8.
But you would need to be a seriously rich Simmer to use these custom kits, me, I'd like all of them!
The General Aviation set gives you six levers, Two Throttle, Two PROP and Two Mixture. These can be positioned to cover Single or Twin engined aircraft. If required you can set just the single Throttle and Mixture levers.
You now realise on how very clever X-Plane as a product it really is. The Settings for the Honeycomb Bravo is via the "Joystick" Menu. Here you can assign any lever, button or switch. The "Joystick" menu moves and selects the correct format for you, selecting five different categories to choose from; Switches and AutoPilot, GA Throttles, Commercial 4 Engine Throttles, Commercial 2 Engine Throttles and Other Controls.
Note, just because it says "Switches and AutoPilot", it doesn't mean that simply selecting from the XP menu that the Bravo unit will automatically work, as we shall see, it doesn't completely work that way?
But command assignments can be made for buttons, switches, reverse selections and lever lower positions in the X-Plane menu.
The work here is creating all the different lever layouts for the universal selection of aircraft. So you will at first create "User Profiles" for default settings, say "GA Single" and "GA Dual", or "4 Engine" or "2 Engine". These profiles can then be assigned to the different aircraft layouts, then refined for that particular aircraft. It is time consuming stuff, it can take days to do, to get the right profiles, then each set to be assigned to an aircraft. Note if you want the Twin throttle levers in the centre position, then you to set them up via the 4 Engine setup, to access the central 3 lever.
But even after doing this profile assignments, the Bravo system is still not completely working?
You also have to use something called a "HB Configurator Tool" (Config Tool). Were as the hardware throttle connects to your X-Plane settings, the Config Tool does the opposite in allowing X-Plane to talk to the throttle, in Annunciators and using the Autopilot switches and knobs. Thankfully when you start the HB Config Tool, it has a load of defaults that cover the basic default settings.
You can download the HB Config Tool from both HoneyComb Aeronautical (Don't Google HB Config Tool, as you won't find it there?), or use Aerosoft, this option is better for configured profiles. Once you have downloaded the software, you then run the .exe file to install the software. (Options for a MAC install is included). When installed you have the "Honeycomb Configurator" Application available to open.
Running the application, allows you to make "Profiles"... with a "Profile Editor"
.
First is "Actions"... Here you can; Create (a new profile), Activate (a current profile), Delete (a Current Profile), Change Selected Device, Open X-Plane Variable List, Download Profiles, Open Settings and Exit (Configurator)
You can select a certain button or switch and create a "Press-Event" in two modes, Buttons/Switches or LED (lighting) selections. The Config Tool is complicated to use?? with coding skills required, however there are videos to learn how to create and insert these profiles - How to use Datarefs and Commands, this is a good one as well in Configuring for X-Plane.
With the Config download, you do also get a default XP11 profile (works with XP12), so basically the system will now work, and the system is now active with RED/Green Gear Indicators, Red Annunciators and bright white Autopilot lighting. It is VERY nice!
As noted you can download "Custom Profiles" and import them into the Config via the "Actions/Settings". These can be seen and selected in the "Profiles" Tab (also need to be made active via the settings menu). You can also "create" a new Profile if required. Lower Config panel is noted the current loaded profile : Default-Throttle.
When you start up X-Plane, the Config will show the currently selected Profile for about 10 secs
So here is the Honeycomb Bravo layout, it is very different than earlier, and notice on how far outwards the Bravo levers are compared to the x56 layout. To a point I am twisting in my chair to reach back to the levers, I quickly changed my stance to hold the levers underneath, than trying to operate them from the rear, and it actually felt more cockpit realistic to do it the way real life pilots do the throttle actions the same way.
But the layout does take some getting used to I will admit. So some user notes.
Oddly my biggest complaint is not with the hardware, or even the software? Honeycomb Aeronautical have done a brilliant job in creating a very high quality product. But seriously lacking is Documentation. There is a Manual (14 pages) repeated in English, German and French. This covers basically the Installation and Setup, which is pretty straightforward anyway. There is nothing on installing or using the HB Configurator Tool? The Honeycomb Aeronautical website is not much better. Your basically on your own to set up and configure the system yourself.
Where Honeycomb could help you, they still fail badly. One, there are a series of videos on how to use Datarefs and Commands, but it is boring and not very informative, even complicated. There needs to be a section to explain (Video and Manual) on how the code is represented to use the required command.
But worse, although Honeycomb do supply default profiles, they are not very good in operation, as a lot of required profile actions are missing, worse they are still labeled "X-Plane 11", and we have moved on a lot since then folks.
They made this suite of tools, but can't be actually bothered to help you out with the basics, in reality it should be an easy drop in and use format. I can't state on how the other platforms fair from the default profiles, but default X-Plane is quite woeful. With something as complicated as the profile system, it should be far better organised. Yes I understand that with the various types of aircraft, there are a lot of different combinations of setups, but the default profiles could be far better in setting you up in the very basics. You get the feeling the programmer himself doesn't know how it works, so can't communicate that aspect in detail to you.
This tool was released in 2020, and since that period, Honeycomb have done no manual or software updates, I think with equipment of this price range, they need to come to the table, may even garner them a few extra sales, by just making their product easier to access.
Functionality
So with poor profiles you get random settings. Some aircraft give you a lot of actions in Autopilot Functions, a lot don't. However mostly on the hardware side, like with the Throttles and Levers as connected by the X-Plane settings, then they do tend to work every time, as long as you set the right configuration for that aircraft's layout.
A lot of aircraft however with the default and custom profiles will also work. but again expect limitations. When using the Autopilot, the ALT, HDG and IAS (Speed), then these selections will work fine with the adjustment knob, but the VS (Vertical Speed) and CRS (Course) don't work? a few like the IXEG B737 and Rotate MD-11 Series, you will find everything will work, but the odd MD-11 hardware settings have to be correct. All ToLiss aircraft work fine, but a few lose the VS and CRS options, but the button selections in HDG, NAV... so on, actually do work.
Almost all the Laminar default aircraft will work with the "Default Profile", as they all use the basic X-Plane datarefs, but important is that you have the correct X-Plane Profile to match that particular aircraft's layout when using it. So time spent setting up the the different X-Plane Profile configurations... Single Engine, Twin Engine, Jet Twin and Jet Four Engine configuration, so you can match them quickly to the aircraft's particular setup is the way to save yourself a lot of frustration and confusion.
That said...
If the Autopilot functions work, even with only the three ALT, HDG and IAS selections, then your in for a treat. The Honeycomb Bravo is no replacement for a dedicated Autopilot panel, but it is universally very good to cover most aircraft systems.
My first flight with the Bravo was the ToLiss A319, and "wow" this was a lot of fun to use the Honeycomb System, as the selection knob, buttons and adjustment knob works, and when it does, it gives you a very realistic Simulation. Not having to consistently move your forward view to adjust the aircraft's altitude, heading and speed, but to do it by touch and twiddling the knob is feeling like a Captain with four epaulets on your shoulders!
Also the levers are far, far better with the pressure adjustment than the x56, lovely actually, as you can find that right feel tension pressure in moving them forwards and rearwards, a longer lever travel is also a bonus for taxi speeds and the more general throttle (thrust) control.
Like noted the reverse gate detent, is just too weak to separate the forward to reverse thrust selections, so I was always notching it back up to the central position. So lever manipulation is very realistic, as noted you put your hand under the throttles to move them up, above down. But the very small reverser handles are hard to use from the side angle, but in most cases you will just push the throttle levers past the detent for full reverse thrust, and then back past the detent to disengage the reversers.
Nice gear lever, is again very authentic in feel and use, but the Speedbrake lever is tricky to use in being free flowing. I also set the first switch left as the "Arm" command, as the lever won't jack up (It can on a custom 3rd party Airbus Kits), so you use the X-Plane Command "Speedbrake retract one" or "extend one" on the switch to use that function.
I quickly got used to the Flap handle, which like the speedbrake is free moving... a lot of the aircraft you fly, have gates anyway to select the right position. But in the Airbuses, You can easily find the right selection slot (it is a feel thing, more than a visual one). I rarely use the Flap switch set higher, but only again with a Flappy switch on the aircraft, but it is handy if you want your flaps at say another detent down. But the Flappy switch can also confuse the Bravo, as if you use the Flappy switch, the Flap lever does not move itself to the correct indent, so the Honeycomb, doesn't know what to do (the flap handle will flicker on screen), so it is always best to use the Flap lever than the switch. The Trim wheel is fine in a manual mode, but you can't use it to set the Centre of Gravity takeoff setting in an airliner.
Next was the IXEG B737, not flown the -300 for awhile, but set up with a custom profile(s) (both in a custom profile and an X-Plane custom profile), this aircraft showed how good the Honeycomb Bravo really is, one flight, two flights, three flights, and I just wanted more as almost all the buttons and controls worked perfectly, it was extremely immersive!
The one that I was most excited about was the FlightFactor Boeing 777v2. FlightFactor have provided the correct HB commands for you to set the Autopilot and Switchgear (the custom commands are in the "Manual") for the Bravo. The command list is below, can take a fair while to set, but worthwhile here as virtually every knob works! So a HB Config profile is not needed. Note to Developers, please consider this option when releasing aircraft as it means you only need the one profile to set (X-Plane) for that particular aircraft. I would recommend to copy the created profile as a backup.
If you look at the commands used by FlightFactor, one set is interesting. Here the Flappy switch is reassigned as the Parking Brake (trigger), and the idea works a treat on all Jet aircraft. I have already reassigned most of the airliners to this Flappy switch to Parking Brake action, and it is a clever use of a lever that could confuse the main flap lever's actions.
So this is the point, if you do have the correct profiles, it the Honeycomb Bravo is totally brilliant, but a lot of the authenticity is missing if you don't have a working profile, as you are left with only the basics to fly with.
Summary
So let us sum up the Honeycomb Bravo Throttle System... Expensive, but you get a lot of quality hardware for your money, so I don't regret the purchase one little bit, as it is a very nice piece of kit. It takes up a lot of your desk space, and sticks outwards quite a lot from your desk, so you have to adjust your flying stance a lot to use it.
All switches, buttons, levers and controls are of top quality in feel and use. As the multiple, if extremely versatile arrangements and layouts for a wide variety of aircraft is outstanding. Lighting is also outstanding, with Gear lights, AP selection lights and red Annunciators.
It is a time consuming system to set up with two sets of profiles, and if like me flying a wide variety of aircraft, so you can spend a lot of time just in getting all the right hardware and profile combinations working together correctly. With the Saitek x56, I rarely changed settings, aircraft to aircraft, except for setting up to fly Helicopters. Certainly a static setup, refined in settings for a certain Simulation is to get the best out of the Bravo.
Biggest barrier is the poor information presented for a complex profile setup by Honeycomb, there are a few videos, but you mostly certainly require more documentation on details. Provided default profiles are poor and after four years are still noted as X-Plane 11, and far too few profiles to cover the many simulation platforms and various aircraft out there, certainly an interactive forum would be actually a good idea for a central base of information and help (currently it is Aerosoft doing the hosting). Basically it needs someone to sort out the mess and give users better information and deliver professional profiles that work. USB cable is seriously too short at 1 meter, you would need to purchase a longer cable.
If you know me well, you would know that anything that brings the real world aviation feel and interaction to create a higher level of realistic Simulation is going to make me happy. The Honeycomb Bravo Throttle can certainly deliver that aspect to your on-line flying, yes it is complicated to set up, but once configured is an amazing bit of hardware to use, and is totally recommended.
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The Honeycomb Bravo Throttle can be purchased at most leading On-Line Flight Simulation stores, for around US$300, but there is always a deal out there.
Requirements
✅ PC (Windows 10/11)
• Requires a USB-A port
• Compatible with major flight simulators:
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS 2020)
• X-Plane 11 & 12
• Prepar3D (P3D)
• FSX (with some limitations)
✅ Xbox Compatibility
• Works with Xbox Series X|S only when paired with a compatible yoke (e.g., Honeycomb Alpha XPC).
Software & Drivers
• Windows Users: Install the Honeycomb software/drivers from their official website for full configurability.
• MSFS 2020 Users: Custom profiles may need to be set up in the simulator’s control settings.
• X-Plane Users: Works out of the box but may require minor configuration.
Hardware Compatibility
• Designed to integrate seamlessly with the Honeycomb Alpha Yoke.
• Works with third-party yokes and rudder pedals (e.g., Logitech, Thrustmaster, Turtle Beach).
Installation
Software needs to be downloaded in the HB Configurator Tool, available from Honeycomb & Aerosoft. Downloading the "X-Plane 11" version is the correct version for X-Plane 12.
Documents
Manual (14 pages) in English, German and French (Installation) Partner Offers
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Hardware Review by Stephen Dutton
7th February 2025
Copyright©2025: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in NEWS! - Scenery Released : NSFA - Faleolo Intl. Airport, Samoa by Cami de Bellis
NEWS! - Scenery Released : NSFA - Faleolo Intl. Airport, Samoa by Cami de Bellis
Here is another South Pacific scenery from renowned developer Cami De Bellis. This time it is Apia, in Samoa. As with all Cami's sceneries, it is just not a collection of buildings, but a unique environment to experience and explore.
The paradisiacal and beautiful island of Samoa is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, close to American Samoa, and only a few hours flight away from Fiji, Tuvalu, Niue, Wallis and Futuna, and is connected daily with New Zealand and Australia, this scenery will take your breath away.
Features
Highly accurate scenery for NSFA- Faleolo International Airport. Over 130 custom objects all with Ambient Occlusion Terrain mesh created and modified to fix bump terrain and set and correctthe topography of Airport’s area. Individually adjusted XP12 default mesh for the airport area by Maps2XPlane (Ortho4XP-patch included) Photo real textures on buildings, vehicles, trees… Photorealistic ground textures based on a satellite image 90 cm. Detailed airport objects and GSE vehicles Custom textured taxiways, runways, and apron New Regional Terminal (Domestic) recently opened New VIP Terminal Custom surrounding buildings Custom airport lights HD High-resolution building textures – all in 2K and 4K Excellent night effects WT3 compatible Native characters created specially Ground traffic Jetways are fully operational
Faleolo International Airport (IATA: APW, ICAO: NSFA) is an airport located 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of Apia, the capital of Samoa. Until 1984, Faleolo could not accommodate jets larger than a Boeing 737. Services to the United States, Australia, or New Zealand, could only land at Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa. Since the airport's expansion, most international traffic now use Faleolo.
The airport is at an elevation of 58 feet (18 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 08/26 with an asphalt surface measuring 3,000 by 45 metres (9,843 ft × 148 ft). The Pavement Classification Number for the runway is 058FBXT.
Faleolo Tower has some jurisdiction over the airspace of American Samoa and Tonga as well as its own airspace. It is assisted by the tower at Nadi, Fiji and the whole area is under Oceanic Control from Auckland, New Zealand.
This Faleolo, Apia scenery is X-Plane 12 only
Images of Faleolo Intl. Airport, Samoa are courtesy of Cami de Bellis
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Yes! NSFA - Faleolo Intl. Airport, Samoa by Cami de Bellis is Available now from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
NSFA - Faleolo Intl. Airport, Samoa
Price Is US$17.60
Requirements
X-Plane 12 (not for XP 11)
Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1.3 GB Version 1.0 (Feb 5th 2025) Current version 1.0 (January 11th 2024) ________________
NEWS! by Stephen Dutton
6th February 2025
Copyright©2025: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Behind the Screen : January 2025
Behind the Screen : January 2025
I wrote in Behind the Screen January 2024, on how of the start of a New Year, I rebuild my X-Plane Application to a clean new version or install a new "vanilla". A major house clean out you could say ready for the new season. I have done this for about six years now, and at the end of 2024, the "2024" version was getting a bit sluggish and throwing up small errors.
So the day after New Years Day, I started the annual process, downloaded a second copy and started the rebuild of X-Plane from the ground up. It didn't take long after the Laminar download had finished, as in about two hours later I was done, mostly resetting connections to the new "2025" version in the third party applications and filing away the non running aircraft and backing it all up, ran X-Plane to check then walked away happy.
It was pretty busy over the Christmas and New Year season this year in X-Plane releases and quite a few updates, no one really took anytime off, so there was a lot to catch up on early in the new year. I had expected to restart on the 6th, but was already posting on the 3rd.
But running X-Plane (2025) it didn't feel right, in fact it was a sluggish mess, barely running in the low 20's of framerate, it was slowing down my work output, and frustrating me no end. I could not understand or see why it was not running better, the idea of a refresh IS to make the application cleaner and more efficient to use, but this version was the opposite of most of the previous years new installations. Was it me, not yet in the groove?
When you step out for a short while (I had an extra week off to visit relatives), then you need to get back into your groove, so was I just a little rusty, I don't think so, but into the first week of January 2025, I was being very distracted by a coughing, stuttering Simulator... It drove me nuts.
Secondly was my Saitek X-56 throttle was also driving me nuts as well (I was groaning about it even back in Jan 24), it was already only working on one (sticking) lever which I have now suffered for several years, ghosting was another issue, and flickering lights. "Enough" I cried and reached for my credit card, and outlaid a ridiculous sum of money (even with a sales discount) on a Honeycomb Bravo Throttle system, but more about that later.
There is nothing more distracting than something that is not working correctly, so I pulled out my earlier X-Plane 2024 version and re-rebuilt that to get it working again, so I could work. It did run, and far better than the 2025 installation, now I say, that shouldn't happen, they are supposed to be identical X-Plane installations, but both versions were quite different in the way they loaded the Simulator, and different when using it... head scratching time?
What to do next? well it was to throw away another complete day and do another X-Plane copy download, reset the applications and try again. This "2025 v2" was another reset, and thankfully it worked fine, framerate lifted and the efficiency came back, I was back in business!
But what was the cause? I got a clue a week later, because I was faced with another dilemma. Setting up a flight, all my TrafficGlobal (Just Flight) aircraft just disappeared? no reason "poof" gone! and there was suddenly no activity on the App's schedules. So here you were again downloading and installing the application, three times, and it was still as dead as a New Zealand dodo. Went to the JustFlight forums (very nice there) but after two days Simon and myself were still completely baffled on why the application absolutely refused to work? God give me a break...
When trying fixes, the first thing you do is pull out plugins, which I did, but most of my plugins are well tested over the years, but I did it anyway... nope not that. Next is you pull out your old preferences, and so I rebuilt my preferences from scratch, and suddenly as mysteriously as they went away, my TrafficGlobal schedules started working again and the airports became populated with aircraft, TG was back in business, but preferences? even Simon couldn't work that one out?
There was another preference bug. This one is associated with the weather, or "Real Weather". X-Plane was not reading the GRIP files correctly (again), and that was creating a stutter, or cycling of the framerate, again making the Simulator hard to use and feeling it was dragging itself through the mud, if "real" weather was heavy, then the Simulator was reacting to that, it was created a download preference that always gave you heavy thick weather that chewed up your framerate, even if you resorted back to a manual setting? the earlier setting still sat there and just ruined your efficiency in the background, and my guess was the cause of the poor performance of "2025 v1". You will be be very happy to know that the issue (GRIB) has been fixed in X-Plane 12.1.4. release. But how long has has that nasty bug been sitting there, ruining your flying hours, sending you mental with frustration.
But you gut feeling is what you go on. You know instinctively that the Simulator is not performing as it should, the poor framerate is part of the clue, but the "Real" weather has been one of the consistent headaches since the start of X-Plane 12, a hidden changeable variable from one Simulation to the next. Hopefully X-Plane 12.1.4 has refined "Real" weather, It feels certainly more stable, and flights are now more within the proper numbers, a test is FlyTampa's EHAM - Schiphol with it's usual heavy weather, and currently it has passed the test with flying colours.
Only with the X-Plane 12.1.4 beta update, my X-Plane Application is now working as normal, three weeks into the month. the Simulator is a complex living thing, and saved preferences can help you, or it will totally ruin your Simulation life. It is alive this code!
As noted I bought the Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Unit, to replace my Saitek X-56 Throttle. I have been loyal to Saitek or Logitech as it is now known, but I will be honest, both systems in the X52 and X56 are not what I would call reliable, a worn wire in the X52 joystick head ruining that tool, as you couldn't repair it, then the trials and tribulations of the X56. I always found the throttles too draggy (yes the friction adjustment was set low), but the lever movement was unreliable and poor when trying to fly fine movements, as I used the throttle as a Helicopter collective (set to reverse), and for the fine adjustment for throttle control on landings, then one lever gave up working, unless you pulled the USB out and reinserted it, and yes tried everything to fix it, higher voltage USB ports, even a separate USB power board, to try to give it the excessive power it consumed to keep it active. In the end I just gave up and used the single (left) lever as my overall throttle, but even then it was troublesome, flickering, unreliable data to the Simulator, drove me nuts! As a statement the X56 spring joystick is annoying as well, I use as much fine grease as I can to make it deliver smooth inputs, it's draggy on the centre column, making smooth turns and takeoff pitches jittery, and in making your skilled flying look like a 1st rate amateur. I can't replace both (Joystick and Throttle) at this point, so this over greased up tool will have to soldier on for a while.
The Honeycomb Bravo is a nice bit of kit, but it is a complex system. If you set it up for just one type of equipment, say a twin-engine aircraft, then it is not bad to quickly use. But there are the various choices even for a "Twin", an Airbus A320 setup, doesn't quite fit a B737 setup, then a A350, and the biggie, the FlightFactor B777v2.
All close but not exactly the same layout, then the Dash 8 (FlyJSim) has twin throttles and twin mixtures, then it gets complicated with the gate for reverse and cutoff positions. Single engine aircraft can all be set up in various ways, like the excellent Thranda PC12, this machine has a mixture and throttle combined, and a separate PROP lever, then a Cessna can have two knobs or three, then the standard layout, Throttle, PROP and Mixture,then moving up you can have three throttles for the Rotate MD-11P and MD11F (brilliant BTW), and then the big four engine layouts, ToLiss A340 and Felis B742, again slightly different configurations are required to make it work correctly. I haven't yet sorted a Helicopter layout, with throttle and collective, or even say a V-22, with moving rotors.
The problem is that basically most aircraft require their own personal profile, yes a lot do overlap, but X-Plane has a very wide range of aircraft to absorb and configure. It takes time, and the physical adjustment to the various different layouts is quite different in use. Very good mind you.
But this was the easy part as you are familiar with the X-Plane settings. You also have to use something called a "HB Configurator Tool" (Config Tool). Were as the hardware throttle connects to your X-Plane settings, the Config Tool does the opposite in allowing X-Plane to talk to the throttle, in annunciators and using the Autopilot switches and knobs. Thankfully when you start the HB Config Tool, it has a load of defaults that cover the basic default settings (Thank God), but if you want to do a custom set up, then the App is quite complicated to understand and use. I have all the basics working that I need, but you need a university degree in coding to use it?
The upshot of all this... is time. And just setting up basic throttle and lever layouts, for at the moment I have done about twelve aircraft which is slow work, plus every aircraft that I want to use, requires now it's own setup profile, talk about time consuming. Then flying that aircraft to see if the profile is working correctly. Adjustment to the protruding throttles is also a very different scenario than what I am used to, but make no mistake, the HB Throttle system is brilliant to use, but also very, very different than the HOTAS arrangement I am used to.
In most cases a budding pilot will use the HB Throttle in a usually a single setup to the aircraft of their choice, for me, I'm a reviewer, and cover a very wide range of aircraft and systems... I will be doing an "Unboxing Review" of the Honeycomb Bravo Throttle soon, well as soon as I work out a few of the custom HB Config settings...
So is January becoming a reset month and creating annual issues to be solved in resetting the X-Plane Simulator and all it's problems, now with trying to sort out new hardware. it's made for an interesting month, if with a lot of frustration and working through the issues, you have gotta love the simplicity of Simulation.
As you can see on the header, I did an interview with Dominic Smith. I am not one to exult my myself, and more so would just like to work in the background. But showing and revealing the people behind the scenes of the X-Plane.Org and X-PlaneReviews is very revealing of how much the X-Plane.Org is important to Simulation, and people behind the scenes that make it all tick, of which I think is overdue. It was revealing to myself as well, my life and in the way I have a habit of always working too much!
Welcome to 2025, see you all next month.
Stephen Dutton
1st February 2025
Copyright©2025 X-Plane Reviews
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Stephen got a reaction from hi_nihaozaoan in Aircraft Review : Airbus A380-842 XP12 by Peters Aircraft
Aircraft Review : Airbus A380-842 XP12 by Peters Aircraft
The Airbus A380 is a very large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner in service. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was announced in 1990 to challenge the dominance of the Boeing 747 in the long-haul market.
I am first going to acknowledge that the Airbus A380 is an absolutely monumental aircraft. I personally have a lot of adulation for the machine. I think it has had a lot of unwarranted negative statements about it, but getting close to one, and flying on a A380 (four times to date), it is a brilliant addition to aviation. What the A380 achieves is not being recognised, and only then will its impact on aviation be it's lasting legacy when it is gone. So I am a little biased here in this review towards the aircraft, any A380 to fly in X-Plane 12 is going to fill my reasoning, it is the biggest and hardest long-haul machine to fly, or to fly correctly.
There has been three A380's in X-Plane, Riviere's A380 is the most known, but I never really liked it, as the performance was shocking. There was another freeware, but that design was even worse in it's cardboard quality. There was an announcement back in April 2024 by X-Works that they were indeed developing a payware A380, but that project is still very much in it's infancy... the last payware A380 was from Peter Hager, or Peters Aircraft. Originally an X-Plane 10 era release, but the aircraft has then fell into a long decline, and since X-Plane 12's introduction it was grounded by the dysfunctional FMC and the lighting in being totally outdated and also non-functional.
Well that A380 aircraft is back, in an upgraded X-Plane 12 wrapper. This A380 XP12 is not a completely new development, it is basically the same one, and it is still Planemaker based, in that it makes the origins in the year 2013. Can a 11 year old design compete with the same today?
Outwardly it is different. The external model has been totally remodeled and now has 8K textures, it shows with the XP12 shine and the better detail, you can now read the textures as well, instead of the earlier ziggy buzzy lo-res images.
The Airbus A380 wing is a work of art. I have a 1-300 model of the A380 to marvel at the shape and design, it was built only 5 miles away from where I was born, my family relatives built that wing... this area again has been remodeled, and it looks excellent in the bulky midsection and the hanging shape and design. Flaps are well done, and the leading edge foils are also well modeled.
The engines here are the Trent 900 Rolls Royce engines of 70,000 to 80,000 pounds-force (lbf), only Qantas flies the A380-842 variant, pods are well done as is the rear exhaust cones and internal fans, the 900 has a fan diameter is approximately 116 inches (294.6 cm).... Only the inner engines (2 and 3) have reverser doors and all four engines have internal integrated drive generators (IDG).
Noticeable however is the Planemaker gap between the fan and the cowling, once seen it is very hard to unsee it. Other variants on the A388 are the A380-841 Engine Alliance GP7200 - Trent RR 970 engines and the A380-861 Rolls-Royce Trent 970 engines, which serves other airlines including the biggest 125 aircraft fleet operator Emirates (uses both 861 & 842 variants). These other variants will becoming soon to the same package, as will those engine option operators.
Four bogie gear is also remodeled, they now has more and quite intricate detail and better textures, the tyres are good, but are too shiny for me.
And the rear set of bogies will now turn with the nosewheel, as on the real A380.
There is no cabin, no opening doors or even any external elements? and is completely created in Planemaker... you could call it a pure X-Plane aircraft design. Externally though it does not look out of place in X-Plane 12, the mass of the Airbus just dominates the space around it.
My flight today is YSSY (Sydney) to WSSS (Singapore) or QF01, the oldest sectional route on the "Kangaroo Route" to London, QF02 does the return route LON-SIN-SYD.
The actual cockpit is the originally the same, looked brilliant a decade ago, still has that same punch today, but let us be clear, the functionality needs a fair bit of work to bring it up to current standards, as a lot of the switches don't work, and some are even doing the wrong action, some doing two actions in one (lighting). There is no First Officer interaction either, or any menus in here.
The cockpit does feel great, but there are still far too many light gaps? even some shining through the OHP and mostly the lower floor and rear bulkhead, even through the OHP... it shows of an age back then... Seats are blocky/minecraft in design, worse is the very lo-res purple carpet, that needs replacing ASAP. Airbus joystick controller is well done, but not animated, this was all first rate detail back then, sort of holds up.
All that power at your disposal via such petit throttles, note only the twin inboard thrust reverser levers.
One area that has (thankfully) had attention are the instrument graphics, they used to be terribly crappy lo-res to use, even hard to read... now they are all bright and crystal clear...
The main item that grounded the XP10/11 Peters Aircraft A380 was the outdated FMC (Flight Management Computer), it just didn't work anymore? The fix in here is quite surprising, just insert in the X-Plane generic FMC. It shouldn't work, but it does as it gives you access to routes, AIRWAYS, SID and STARS and DEP/ARR Approaches, and it pops out as well for ease of use. So it is not an Airbus FMGS installation, certainly not the later A350/A380 style FMGS.
So route setup via the standard FMC is very easy, I admit not very Airbusy, but it is functional to use with STEP to plan awkward waypoints. Maybe Peters Aircraft should switch to the default A330 FMC, it might fit in better here? What is Airbusy is the PERF setup. Again not highly detailed, but you can at least add in the numbers you want for six PERF options; T.O (TakeOff), CLB (Climb), CRZ (Cruise), DES (Descend), APPR (Approach) and GA (Go Around).
T.O... You can set the FL (Flight Level), Speed Bugs (V1, VR, V2) and either TOGA or FLEX... FLEX is recommended and is set at +45c, Flaps 1 or 2 and that gives you the THS FOR trim setting, Thrust Reduction and Acceleration altitudes can also be set. Finally you can set the Transitional Altitude, and that sets the EQ Acceleration altitude.
Other options include Cost Index (CI) and .M speed, Descent .M/knts speed, Trans, Managed Speed... I haven't filled out the APPR tab, because I usually do that at around 100 nm before the approach to get the correct weather numbers. But OAT and QNH, either BARO or RADIO Minimums, and Trans Altitude are available You can choose between (landing ) CONF 3 or FULL flap, VAPP speed (VREF + Wind Correction), the landing speeds are then shown. GA (Go Around) speeds are also available as is the Thrust Reduction height.
Weight and Fuel load is done via the X-Plane "Weight & Balance" menu, basic... Only set the "Total" fuel and don't use the individual tank sliders, then the system will set up the correct tankage for you, same with the trim as we shall see. The only other parameter to be set is the payload.
The SYD-SIN route is quite short for the A380 as this sector is a 3484 nm and 8.0 hours flying time. The Airbus A380 can do a 8,000 nm (14,800 km) range, so the tankage here is only 110,721 kg, of a gross weight TOW 437,914 kg. The A380 can therefore be far, far heavier on T.O if flying a Pacific or Europe/Asia run and that is were your "Heavy" skills comes in and the challenge of flying the Super Jumbo.
Pushback... and then we can start the engines. APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) has to be running, and you select on the OHP, the APUBLEED (it is locked to Auto), then select IGN START (Engine Mode Selector) on the ENG START switch.
You start an inner engine first (2 or 3) for the pneumatics, environmental and IDG power, then the other inner engine (say 3), then engines 1 then 4.
Basically when N2 reaches around 20-25%, you can move to the next engine in the sequence, the full startup procedure is very well done as the engine goes through it's start cycle to a configured N2 55%, the lower SD (System Display) gives you more information on the vitals. Engine start up sounds are actually excellent, yes the Hager A380 doesn't have every dynamic range, but the sounds were, and are still very good, and you can (slightly) hear them from the cockpit, as your sited a long way from the noise, and it is quite muffled as well, externally they are actually very good. Your powered up and ready to go...
It is VERY important to set the T.O TRIM THS correctly. The position (usually around 39.5%) is set out on the lower right PFD, you will need to align the white line within the purple rectangle, certainly don't be out of the green rectangle range. The A380 is HEAVY so if the trim is out, then your not going to fly... anywhere!
This brings us to a slightly controversial feature... When you let off the park brake, your view will shift? to seat down. You can adjust the view up and down to see through the cockpit window but otherwise it feels frozen. You are now connected to the nosewheel steering, so if you turn the nosewheel, then your view moves left or right as well?
If you want out of this viewing tool, then press on the "Taxi" camera on the instrument panel, and your views go back to normal...
In "Taxi" mode you get a double view (tail and nosewheel) to navigate the taxiways, it is very good actually... the same camera view can be put on the SD, but it doesn't cancel out the dynamic steering views... The dynamic view has several parameters to having it (auto) switched ON... if the aircraft is on the ground, taxi camera is OFF, parking brake is OFF, and the aircraft is NOT in T.O mode and if in ROLL OUT mode, with when the ground speed is below 30kn.
Note that make sure you have the "Taxi" mode switched on when using push back... one you can see the pushback truck doing it's job, cool, but also that with the pushback tool turning and rattling the nosewheel, it affects the view by shaking it and turning your angle weirdly.
But on the taxiway the "Taxi" image is great for following (holding) the centre line, and it shows your current taxi speed as well. The A380 doesn't taxi... it just rumbles along very nicely.
34L north track... this is were I have an issue with the feature view tool, if you turn the "Taxi" off you get shakes through the steering as you move it? so you can't read the instruments.... "Taxi" on then you still can't read the instruments to take off? It needs a full kill switch!
The T.O distance depends of course on weight, airport altitude, runway conditions, but the average TO run is around 9,800 feet (3,000 meters) of runway for takeoff. So you can only use certain runways, same with using only certain taxiways with it's A380 size.... Up those four petite throttles and your moving. There is no CHRONO button (PFD)? to start? that aspect is needed, but the CHR panel does work.
Your moving, but the Airbus won't leap off the line, or move fast... it is a strange aircraft in this respect, as everything goes into a slow motion aspect, that wing is very efficient, best in the business as it produces huge lift, so you sort of glide into the air with no dramas.
300,000 lbs of combined thrust, gives you the power you need, certainly at this lighter weight... again the climb rate is between 2,000 fpm and 3,000 fpm depending on the load factors, but 2,000 fpm is always a good yardstick. Gear up and Flaps to position 1
Watch that complex undercarriage store itself up in the aircraft, a feat of engineering. You can check the gear condition via the lower SD display.
All Airbus developers have found a different way to imitate the Airbus button logic... The Peters Aircraft way is for in pressing the knob, is to pull it out, or Manual operation, there is a hotspot rear above the knob (green) to push in for the Auto operation. If there is a dot on the display it is noted as being in the auto setting...
The original FBW or Fly-By-Wire is used in here. FBW takes pilot inputs, which are converted into electronic signals that are sent to flight control computers. These computers then process the inputs and send commands to the aircraft’s control surfaces. Also is it's flight envelope protection (LAWS) of Normal Law and Alternate Law. The system prevents the aircraft from exceeding operational limits, such as stall, over-speed, and over-G, enhancing overall safety.
The FBW in Hager's A380 is a very good one, mainly because it was created by Mr X-Plane Airbus himself or Torsten Liesk of ToLiSS. So you have the quality feel and handing of Airbus Aircraft. So the A380 here handles and flies really well, and the system has been here refined for X-Plane 12 dynamics. So the Airbus systems and logic is very high, good a decade ago, still very good today.
As noted I am under halve the range weight, so I have a lot options to climb up to my cruise altitude, in fact almost straight up to the assigned altitude. But if you are at MTOW (Maximum Takeoff Weight) then the A380 will handle very differently, not only in the initial climb, but climbing to altitude. If at MTOW, I usually climb first to about 30,000 ft, then step up the altitude to the final Cruise altitude in 2,000ft segments over 500 nm, burning off fuel and weight. It is all about efficiency
Being a long-haul, you will settle in for the "Long Haul"... You can monitor the A380 via the excellent SD information, and overall you have 12 different options to observe; Engines, Bleed, Cabin Pressure, APU, Cond (Environment), Doors, Elec AC, Elec DC, Fuel, Hydraulics, Wheel, F/CTL (Flight Controls) and Video or Camera.
The FMC two Progress pages are now accessible as well, unlike the original...
Long-Haulers love their toys... here you can drop the front window blinds by pressing the "HotSpot" centre window, also you can pop out the worktable with a built in (non-working) keyboard.
Performance is surprisingly very good, within and counting the same numbers as you follow the route in SimBrief, you have to make allowances for winds, which are quite heavy at the cruise altitude, but I found it was impressive and being within a 100 kg of fuel. Being a four engined aircraft... it is the lamentable situation that the aircraft is not super efficient like the A350 or B787, it costs money to run, but it's substantial running costs are out weighed by it's immense load factors, and that the passengers adore the machine. On the right routes (a bit like Concorde) it is highly regarded, even profitable. Worse is the fact that there is nothing to replace the A380 with, as the Boeing 777X is years away, even then how are you going to replace a 100+ fleet.
You can get the most out of the A380, because the documentation from Peter Hager is excellent. Not only a deep manual (78 Pages), but there are also two detailed route tutorials. They are all the original manuals, but updated where needed for this XP12 release.
In the late afternoon sunshine, Bali, Indonesia shines below. Yes the A380 is now flying in a more realistic 3d world, X-Plane 12 can create a very different atmosphere from the one I first flew this aircraft in X-Plane 10, that cardboard look and feel is now well gone, replaced by the dynamics of the latest version of the Simulator... it's impressive, because it is.
Now approaching the STAR of UGEB1B for the approach into Changi, Singapore at dusk... it is a pretty time to arrive. Even using the older style of liveries, the Airbus looks very nice in the low light.
Cockpit lighting is basic... all instrument displays are adjustable, as is the integral lighting for OHP and Pedestal. There are three STORM settings, Bright-Med-Off, that gives you the three moods in the cockpit...
The Med STORM lighting setting is fine for most night operations, including the approach and landing, it's dull enough to see everything, but not too bright to distract you. There are no spot lights or any other siding lighting in here, but it's not too bad actually in feel.
The external lighting has been upgraded to X-Plane 12, it looks good with the bloom effects, but misses the earlier better lighting that shone in the daylight, which I loved. The NAV WING, RWY Turnoff and LOGO are all under one (both) switches (NAV-LOGO), so you can't have the separated detailed lighting. STROBE, BEACON and LAND are thankfully separated, a shame as it could have been good if all the assigned switches had worked. The A380 has a brilliant lighting set up, six landing and twin wing lights will bring the aircraft alive at night.
Turning into the 20R approach, you have to set up the ILS Landing Frequency... It's complicated here by the various ways you can insert the ILS Frequency... There are options on the three RMP (Radio Management Panel), but also on the Co-Pilot MFD, it is also on the FMC Radio setting... so actually which one do you use? You have to switch the NAV setting from VHF to NAV to insert the ILS Frequency as noted in the manual... only it does not work? the only option I could get the Frequency to work with, was on the First Officer MFD lower insert 108.90 MHz
It's tricky to get right as you have to be almost on top of the glideslope before the ILS Freq will be accepted (it bounces back to the other Freq), if accepted it is then shown in the PFD when you press the LS button right EFIS Control Panel, and it shows you the ILS name "ICH" Freq and distance to the runway... Only now can you select the APPR button to lOC in the localiser
It's all still very old school, and even frustrating to use effectively, as there is no set the frequency and be ready for landing deal here.
Approach speed (Vref) is around 145 knts (FULL Flap), the A380 can be really slow on a landing approach, again you get that slow-motion effect, that gives you time to adjust before landing. In finals you can adjust down to below the 140 knt threshold...
You get all the "LOUD" callouts 2,000, 1000, 500... but there is nothing like the thrill of landing a "Heavy" after a long flight, your nerves and muscles are tight, your focused on controlling this massive machine down onto that runway. "Retard, Retard"...
Once the AP1 clicks off, you flare the A380 slightly, so the rear bogies touch cleanly at around 130 knts. Once the nosewheel is down, you can then activate the thrust reversers, only engines 2 and 3, but it is enough to slow the bulk of the A380 down... lighting on the ground is very good, even with the landing lights on or off.
On the roll out you have to be aware of the steering view coming activating again, and it can come in with the thud! So you quickly turn on the "Taxi" camera again to get your views back... not a big fan to be honest.
There are two liveries provided with this RR Trent engine choice, the earlier 2016, and the current 2024 livery.
Summary
The Airbus A380 is a very large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner in service.
The origins of this Airbus A380 are over a decade old, back in the X-Plane 10 era, and the core design here is Planemaker based. The externals have however been fully redone for XP12 including quality 8K textures. So it looks very nice. The cockpit is basically the same as the earlier aircraft (XP11), but there has been added in new functionality and systems. The same original Torsten Liesk (ToLISS) plugin is still used but upgraded to X-Plane 12 dynamics, as has the overall aircraft performance (spot on). The solution to the broken FMC, was to replace it with the X-Plane default FMC, the intergration is clever and it works in giving functionality to the systems, but the A330 FMS would have have been a better more airbus style optional choice. Lighting is hampered by the switchgear, but the sounds if not dynamic are still excellent.
The nosewheel guided camera is a good idea, but doesn't work that well in practice, as it changes you view at critical times of the takeoff and landing roll out, it buggers up the pushback tool as well. There are no static objects, or menus here, not even a cabin. light holes in the engines, OHP and cockpit can't be unseen, but they are all related to the Planemaker foundations.
Flying a A380 is always a great sensation, it is a mega sized aircraft with a mega sized reputation. I am very familiar with the Peter's Aircraft A380, so fell back into the aircraft very easily, yes it is a bit of a nostalgia journey and it is great to have the aircraft flying again. Coming soon are all the different engine options and the airlines that fly them, unlike the old separated different variant purchases, and that aspect alone will put a lot of value into the package.
It's an Airbus A380 in X-Plane 12, long haul and X-Plane 12 dynamics together... a great combination!
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The Airbus A380 XP12 by Peter Hager scenery is Available now from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Airbus A380 XP12
Price Is US$59.90, You Save:$10.00(14%)
Retail Price:$69.90 Requirements
X-Plane 12 (not for XP11)
Windows, MAC or Linux
8 GB+ VRAM Recommended
Download Size: 172 MB
Current version: 1.0 July 11th 2024)
Installed in your X-Plane Aircraft folder 168Mb. Installation 305Mb, Authorization is required by inserting a licence txt in the aircraft folder. Documents __TUTORIAL FLIGHT PLANS
1 LFBO ILS.fms 2 LFBO RNV.fms 3 LFBOEDHI.fm _A388 ReadMe.rtf
A380_manual.pdf
Design by Peter Hagar
Support forum: Peter Hagar A380 XP12 _____________________
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.1.1.
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- YSSY - FlyTampa Sydney (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$28.00
___________________________
Review by Stephen Dutton
22nd July 2024
Copyright©2024: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Interview : X-Plane.Org - Stephen Dutton the Man behind X-PlaneReviews
Interview : X-Plane.Org - Stephen Dutton the Man behind X-PlaneReviews
Conducted by Dominic Smith
Introduction
Stephen Dutton is the man behind X-PlaneReviews, one of the Org's most trusted review sites. Over the years, Stephen’s passion for X-Plane, combined with his eye for detail and extensive experience, has made him a key figure in the world of flight simulation.
In this interview, we learn more about Stephen’s fascinating journey, the origins of X-PlaneReviews, and the challenges of running a review site. We also explore how his work, as part of the X-Plane.Org team, has contributed to the growth of the community and its developers.
Stephen, to start, could you tell us about your history with aviation and your background in business?
I was born about two miles from the now Airbus Hawarden complex outside Chester UK, so I’m Welsh, and most of my family have or are still working at Airbus, but back then it was Hawker Siddeley Aviation building the HS 125, so you were aware of the industry, and family were always talking about their work. I would have probably gone there, but my father had a serious accident, and we moved to Blackpool.
My best friend at school was the first aviation nut I encountered, I visited his home and there was literally hundreds of model aircraft hanging from the ceiling and covering every space in the front living room, so we went spotting, Speke in Liverpool and Ringway at Manchester, watching turboprops (Viscounts, HS 748) and early jets (BAC one-eleven, Tridents). Martin wanted to go into the RAF, but was not accepted, and actually he later ended up working for Airbus at Hawarden!
At the same time my father became a chef at Heathrow in the hotel off season, so I would spend the winter holidays at the London airport, this was the late sixties, early 70’s, the B747 services had just started and Concorde was doing service trials, but my eyes were always on the Vickers VC10’s, the most beautiful machine ever flown, but you still had the dozens of 707’s, DC-8’s, Caravelle’s, more Tridents, all trafficking around you, and you had a lot of airport access back then, until the Middle East high-jackings.
But I was never going to be a pilot. I had a tonsil operation at six that went wrong by pulling a nerve in my neck, I was left deaf and slightly blind on the left side, so I would never pass a medical, certainly not back then, but maybe I would actually pass today. So, an aviation or Service career was never possible.
My father then moved to Australia in the early seventies, so my career was riding the technological waves from the late 70’s to mid-2000’s.
So I never worked for anyone else, but ran businesses that started with renting Video Recorders, opening the first Video Store, Video Cameras, then went pro into AV (Audio Visual) in supplying conventions and tradeshows with video projectors and pro monitors stacked together. I then moved into the first computer Video editing work with the just opened Qld Film Studios at Coomera, then moved into creating and developing DVDs for distribution. This aspect required a lot of graphic work, so anything visual, imaginative was my forte, then streaming came along… so, I was then looking at Digital Signage (my email is still dirdigital when I registered it), or the big video display signage that are very common now, anyway my doctor told me that if I didn’t stop working 15-hour days I would be dead in a year, today it’s what you would call a career change.
What was the first flight sim you used, and when did you start using it?
Microsoft put out an Apple Mac version of Flight Simulator in eighty-six, so I suppose I used it around eighty-eight. I was confronted with VOR’s, ILS, NDB’s, Waypoints, it was 2d (or even 1d if you think back) just a horizon and sky, very basic but it taught me the basics with a little desktop joystick. Then later I tried Fly2 in the early 2000’s, which was far better, still got it somewhere.
So, around 2008, I went to a RAAF Open day at Amberley, by Brisbane, and there was a group of Simulation pilots flying F16’s in frames with keyboards strapped to the top and bottom, joysticks and rudder pedals, it was totally brilliant, and I thought “Yeah I want to do that”.
When was the first time you tried X-Plane, and what drew you to it?
Again, it was because X-Plane was an Apple Mac Flight Simulator, I had never used Windows at that point in 2009, as I hated Bill Gates for stealing the idea from Steve Jobs (who stole it from Xerox). Being in graphics the Mac was always far superior for graphic manipulation and video editing, I went to study art and had to use the Windows in a classroom, hated it even more, usually took the assignments home and redid them in a fraction of the time on the Mac, they printed out better as well with a colour-laser printer.
Now I use Windows as my main X-Plane computer, for one Windows 10 went towards the Apple graphic model, secondly Windows are far more easily updated internally and is essential for running plugins, but the site and graphic work is still completed on a Mac, connected to the Windows. So, I had a new Mac Mini at the time and X-Plane would run quite well on that in X-Plane 9, and it was a load of fun.
And why did you choose X-Plane over MSFS or other flight simulators?
I quickly realised that MSFS was not great at the aerodynamics, plus the old, dated code restrictions that came with it like with 3gb file sizes. Whereas as X-Plane felt and acted more like in what a real aircraft would fly (The famous blade element theory) as I am big on authenticity, I wasn’t interested in MSFS.
What inspired you to start X-PlaneReviews.com, and how has being part of the Org team helped you in running the site?
Starting X-PlaneReviews wasn’t my idea. Like anything, when I do something I’m all in, and at the time around 2009 review sites were pretty average. I quickly became the third person in with Chip and Simon W at X+Sim+Reviews as it was the best one around at the time, mostly at first to clean it up graphic wise, make the site look more modern, then I was soon doing reviews. And I found I was very good at it, and learning fastIt was a crazy, mad place and a lot of fun. Then, life took its toll as Simon left and Chip faced significant challenges, and the site eventually fell apart. But it was a very good and entertaining site.
I was then recruited by Aerosoft for their own new ASN Review Site, it was badly put together and badly run, very restricting creatively, not very innovative, so I left well before Aerosoft also gave up ASN and shut it down. I went on to what you would now call “Gardening Leave” for six months in the wilderness, but I really missed being part of that side of the X-Plane world, then I got an email from Nicolas Taureau, of the X-Plane.Org.
He asked me if I wanted to run a review site and helped me set it up by allowing me access to the Org Store product and setting up the IPB site format, so basically X-PlaneReviews is his idea. Like everything, most X-Plane users don’t see the background work and the help the .Org does for the Simulator and in attracting new talent, but this massive support should be acknowledged in the history and growth of X-Plane, it also gave me a new career, and it’s nearly twelve years since that initial August start that X-PlaneReviews have been active.
Running a review site sounds like a lot of work. What’s been the biggest challenge for you in keeping X-PlaneReviews going, and how has being part of the Org supported your efforts?
If you want a successful site on the internet, then consistency is the most important aspect in achieving that goal, always being there and posting regularly is important, it can also mean a lot of work and effort, mostly time, and time is your enemy in reviewing. So, running a site is very demanding, it takes up a lot of your time, even personal time, and so you must be very careful in not to burn out.
You’ve reviewed countless products over the years. What’s your process when putting a review together, and are there specific things you always look out for?
The other issue is trying to keep content interesting, as in most cases you are in reality doing the same review over and over again. Thankfully a lot of the content has a new feature or highlights, say a new FMS system or something to focus the review on, or the feature list. Another point is to teach users on in how to use these complicated new features, so I combine the review with a tutorial as part of the process, again study and actually in mostly working it all out to simplify the transition for new users or even people not associated with aviation, in a format they can understand and can then easily use the technical information. This aspect is important, as when I started in X-Plane I found a lot of the systems confusing or finding it hard to find the information in on how to use it. I never forgot this aspect, so I see myself as a teacher as well as a reviewer.
What’s something you wish more people knew about X-PlaneReviews or the Org team’s efforts in keeping the community engaged?
It is the behind-the-scenes efforts. Feedback and testing of the new products, now more so as a lot of developers have dropped alpha testing, throwing betas out there, now the later fixing is the opposite of refining the product before it goes on sale. I tend to drive developers mad in finding things early, then, them saying “oh I don’t see that issue”, then three weeks after the release saying, “Okay I found that and fixed it”. The Org is a huge support system for developers, and that aspect is critically important, as the developers are at the heart of the Simulator, a lot of users contribute to X-Plane, but quality developers are the soul of the Simulator, they move it forward and keep us wanting the clever products they deliver.
Again X-PlaneReviews I will note is the central balance, our aim is to deliver the best product for users and at a value price so the feedback going both ways is critical in achieving this. But it is very important that the developers are rewarded for the huge amount of work they put in, it is an important balance, if developers are found wanting in loss for their work, they will move on or leave to do something that rewards their skills better.
As part of the Org team, how do you see the community’s role in helping platforms like ours continue to thrive, especially with the flight sim market becoming more competitive?
The core and heart of X-Plane is the experimental aspect, and the Org is the engine room that allows users to say tinker, adjust, try ideas and create great tools for other users, it is a share environment, and a community project that we all do together, and we must continue to attract such people and their talents.
Allow them to thrive in a good accommodating atmosphere, at the heart it is great community that I have been very proud to have been associated with as we all share the same spirit.
Was there a particular moment in X-Plane’s history or development where you felt it picked up a gear? Maybe something that had a direct impact on how you saw the sim or how you approached writing your reviews?
You basically react to the X-Plane Simulator itself, as it goes through its version changes. X-Plane 10 was the most significant release, it brought in big ground texture changes, 3d cockpits, FMS Systems and the most significant was the introduction of plugins to give aircraft developers freedom from the restricting Plane Maker system, X-Plane 11 built on that foundation, refining it, also bringing in the Vulkan/Metal changes. X-Plane 12 is certainly another huge breakthrough, but those original ground textures are now feeling their age.
The flight sim world has changed a lot over the years. How do you think X-Plane has evolved, and what excites you most about where it’s headed?
X-Plane has always been an innovator in Simulation, it is a very wide platform as well covering the Windows, Apple and Unix systems, so you are not restricted only to Windows, like with MSFS. That allows for a much wider scope and a vastly different user base. But it is in its consistent forward innovation that has been keeping the Simulator relevant, it is also very adaptable to new ideas, and can implement those ideas quicker, can adjust to those changes better. The Vulkan/Metal changes were extremely important to move X-Plane forward into the future, as everything new will be built on and supported by that APL platform. But it was a deep surgical operation to install it, one we can only now move on from, so I do expect X-Plane to move forward, as it lost a lot of its pace with that coding transformation, but you can now see that quicker forward building momentum returning.
With Laminar Research starting their own store and forum, how do you think the X-Plane community can continue to thrive in the future?
This is a tricky situation. As we have seen, the X-Plane.Org is a huge support network for users and developers, it also supports itself financially by the Org Store. I don’t think that on the surface Laminar Research has thought through the situation enough by just following the Microsoft model in using a built-in store. Even to damage a very successful central support hub could even be seen as even careless, I can understand it, and why, but X-Plane’s foundation is built on Laminar managing the Simulator’s technical side, and the Org supporting the big user base.
That said, the one biggest challenge facing X-Plane at this point is growth. If anything, MSFS 2020 has shown that there is a very big user base out there that is interested in Simulation, and X-Plane will need to tap into that huge market to grow, as its user base has been flatlined for a few years. So, the future should all be about growth, building, even doubling that user base and welcoming new pilots to the platform, this aspect will benefit everyone and the Simulator itself.
What advice would you give to new users looking to get more involved in the X-Plane.Org community and become a true part of it?
I was like most new users when I started in X-Plane, I devoured hard drives and hard drives of free content, most of that content is still all loaded on platters in the cupboard, and I rarely use it. I was even blocked on my first day for over downloading, so the Org shut me down quick smart.
What I found is there are two tiers of X-Plane, the what I call the “Low Res” X-Plane built on default aircraft and tons of free downloads, and “Hi Res”. This is a simpler X-Plane built on Quality Aircraft+Quality Scenery+ and a few clever Plugins. My X-Plane folder is a fraction of the size of what I used in the first two or so years of the Simulator. But my quality of Simulation is very high, I have invested to have the best and rarely now download free stuff unless required for a review.
So yes, I invest a lot back into my Simulation, or as I see it in returning benefits to the developers in what they deliver in quality product. This aspect helps everyone. (note, reviewing aircraft is earning it, in testing and refining the product, so it is not actually free).
When you’re not reviewing, what other hobbies or interests keep you busy?
Most hobbies have usually turned into my main life’s work, X-Plane is a good example of that. I’m older now, so time off is usually resting, I have always loved Film, and the production of Film, and had the experience of being a part of that process for a few years, but I feel film as a medium is struggling, lost its narrative in Special Effects, so I rarely go to the cinema now, note I say Film not Movie, as it is now more an entertainment medium, not an ideas or creative medium anymore, but I do have a big DVD collection to watch none-streaming films. Travel of course, anything that will get me on a seat on an aircraft or a berth on a ship and I am happy, I’m also a trained Travel Consultant, so I am very good at building up travel arrangements and ideas. In my off time, I’m also still flying my Boeing 747’s from London to Singapore, but in vastly different conditions and circumstances than in X-Plane 9, the tools and detail you have available today in X-Plane 12 is sensational.
Finally what advice would you give to someone looking to get more involved in the X-Plane.Org community and become a true part of it, and what do you think makes the Org community stand out in this often-crowded environment?
The beauty of the X-Plane.Org community is that anyone, from a 10-year-old to a 90-year-old can be a part of it, help each other, and we all grow together as basically a big family. The advice is also there as Simulation is also very complex, the Community admin, and experienced users (old timers) will help you with your problems, and mostly sort out your issues, and the support base is massive as is the huge amount of content available. But overall, it is the respect we give each other, treat each other for the support of one another that has made it one of the best online communities, and one we are proud to say the one we are also committed to.
Now you know the man behind the reviews and the incredible dedication he brings to the X-Plane community. Stephen, I know firsthand how busy you are, so thank you for taking the time to do this.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun!
______________________________
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Stephen got a reaction from Dominic Smith in Interview : X-Plane.Org - Stephen Dutton the Man behind X-PlaneReviews
Interview : X-Plane.Org - Stephen Dutton the Man behind X-PlaneReviews
Conducted by Dominic Smith
Introduction
Stephen Dutton is the man behind X-PlaneReviews, one of the Org's most trusted review sites. Over the years, Stephen’s passion for X-Plane, combined with his eye for detail and extensive experience, has made him a key figure in the world of flight simulation.
In this interview, we learn more about Stephen’s fascinating journey, the origins of X-PlaneReviews, and the challenges of running a review site. We also explore how his work, as part of the X-Plane.Org team, has contributed to the growth of the community and its developers.
Stephen, to start, could you tell us about your history with aviation and your background in business?
I was born about two miles from the now Airbus Hawarden complex outside Chester UK, so I’m Welsh, and most of my family have or are still working at Airbus, but back then it was Hawker Siddeley Aviation building the HS 125, so you were aware of the industry, and family were always talking about their work. I would have probably gone there, but my father had a serious accident, and we moved to Blackpool.
My best friend at school was the first aviation nut I encountered, I visited his home and there was literally hundreds of model aircraft hanging from the ceiling and covering every space in the front living room, so we went spotting, Speke in Liverpool and Ringway at Manchester, watching turboprops (Viscounts, HS 748) and early jets (BAC one-eleven, Tridents). Martin wanted to go into the RAF, but was not accepted, and actually he later ended up working for Airbus at Hawarden!
At the same time my father became a chef at Heathrow in the hotel off season, so I would spend the winter holidays at the London airport, this was the late sixties, early 70’s, the B747 services had just started and Concorde was doing service trials, but my eyes were always on the Vickers VC10’s, the most beautiful machine ever flown, but you still had the dozens of 707’s, DC-8’s, Caravelle’s, more Tridents, all trafficking around you, and you had a lot of airport access back then, until the Middle East high-jackings.
But I was never going to be a pilot. I had a tonsil operation at six that went wrong by pulling a nerve in my neck, I was left deaf and slightly blind on the left side, so I would never pass a medical, certainly not back then, but maybe I would actually pass today. So, an aviation or Service career was never possible.
My father then moved to Australia in the early seventies, so my career was riding the technological waves from the late 70’s to mid-2000’s.
So I never worked for anyone else, but ran businesses that started with renting Video Recorders, opening the first Video Store, Video Cameras, then went pro into AV (Audio Visual) in supplying conventions and tradeshows with video projectors and pro monitors stacked together. I then moved into the first computer Video editing work with the just opened Qld Film Studios at Coomera, then moved into creating and developing DVDs for distribution. This aspect required a lot of graphic work, so anything visual, imaginative was my forte, then streaming came along… so, I was then looking at Digital Signage (my email is still dirdigital when I registered it), or the big video display signage that are very common now, anyway my doctor told me that if I didn’t stop working 15-hour days I would be dead in a year, today it’s what you would call a career change.
What was the first flight sim you used, and when did you start using it?
Microsoft put out an Apple Mac version of Flight Simulator in eighty-six, so I suppose I used it around eighty-eight. I was confronted with VOR’s, ILS, NDB’s, Waypoints, it was 2d (or even 1d if you think back) just a horizon and sky, very basic but it taught me the basics with a little desktop joystick. Then later I tried Fly2 in the early 2000’s, which was far better, still got it somewhere.
So, around 2008, I went to a RAAF Open day at Amberley, by Brisbane, and there was a group of Simulation pilots flying F16’s in frames with keyboards strapped to the top and bottom, joysticks and rudder pedals, it was totally brilliant, and I thought “Yeah I want to do that”.
When was the first time you tried X-Plane, and what drew you to it?
Again, it was because X-Plane was an Apple Mac Flight Simulator, I had never used Windows at that point in 2009, as I hated Bill Gates for stealing the idea from Steve Jobs (who stole it from Xerox). Being in graphics the Mac was always far superior for graphic manipulation and video editing, I went to study art and had to use the Windows in a classroom, hated it even more, usually took the assignments home and redid them in a fraction of the time on the Mac, they printed out better as well with a colour-laser printer.
Now I use Windows as my main X-Plane computer, for one Windows 10 went towards the Apple graphic model, secondly Windows are far more easily updated internally and is essential for running plugins, but the site and graphic work is still completed on a Mac, connected to the Windows. So, I had a new Mac Mini at the time and X-Plane would run quite well on that in X-Plane 9, and it was a load of fun.
And why did you choose X-Plane over MSFS or other flight simulators?
I quickly realised that MSFS was not great at the aerodynamics, plus the old, dated code restrictions that came with it like with 3gb file sizes. Whereas as X-Plane felt and acted more like in what a real aircraft would fly (The famous blade element theory) as I am big on authenticity, I wasn’t interested in MSFS.
What inspired you to start X-PlaneReviews.com, and how has being part of the Org team helped you in running the site?
Starting X-PlaneReviews wasn’t my idea. Like anything, when I do something I’m all in, and at the time around 2009 review sites were pretty average. I quickly became the third person in with Chip and Simon W at X+Sim+Reviews as it was the best one around at the time, mostly at first to clean it up graphic wise, make the site look more modern, then I was soon doing reviews. And I found I was very good at it, and learning fastIt was a crazy, mad place and a lot of fun. Then, life took its toll as Simon left and Chip faced significant challenges, and the site eventually fell apart. But it was a very good and entertaining site.
I was then recruited by Aerosoft for their own new ASN Review Site, it was badly put together and badly run, very restricting creatively, not very innovative, so I left well before Aerosoft also gave up ASN and shut it down. I went on to what you would now call “Gardening Leave” for six months in the wilderness, but I really missed being part of that side of the X-Plane world, then I got an email from Nicolas Taureau, of the X-Plane.Org.
He asked me if I wanted to run a review site and helped me set it up by allowing me access to the Org Store product and setting up the IPB site format, so basically X-PlaneReviews is his idea. Like everything, most X-Plane users don’t see the background work and the help the .Org does for the Simulator and in attracting new talent, but this massive support should be acknowledged in the history and growth of X-Plane, it also gave me a new career, and it’s nearly twelve years since that initial August start that X-PlaneReviews have been active.
Running a review site sounds like a lot of work. What’s been the biggest challenge for you in keeping X-PlaneReviews going, and how has being part of the Org supported your efforts?
If you want a successful site on the internet, then consistency is the most important aspect in achieving that goal, always being there and posting regularly is important, it can also mean a lot of work and effort, mostly time, and time is your enemy in reviewing. So, running a site is very demanding, it takes up a lot of your time, even personal time, and so you must be very careful in not to burn out.
You’ve reviewed countless products over the years. What’s your process when putting a review together, and are there specific things you always look out for?
The other issue is trying to keep content interesting, as in most cases you are in reality doing the same review over and over again. Thankfully a lot of the content has a new feature or highlights, say a new FMS system or something to focus the review on, or the feature list. Another point is to teach users on in how to use these complicated new features, so I combine the review with a tutorial as part of the process, again study and actually in mostly working it all out to simplify the transition for new users or even people not associated with aviation, in a format they can understand and can then easily use the technical information. This aspect is important, as when I started in X-Plane I found a lot of the systems confusing or finding it hard to find the information in on how to use it. I never forgot this aspect, so I see myself as a teacher as well as a reviewer.
What’s something you wish more people knew about X-PlaneReviews or the Org team’s efforts in keeping the community engaged?
It is the behind-the-scenes efforts. Feedback and testing of the new products, now more so as a lot of developers have dropped alpha testing, throwing betas out there, now the later fixing is the opposite of refining the product before it goes on sale. I tend to drive developers mad in finding things early, then, them saying “oh I don’t see that issue”, then three weeks after the release saying, “Okay I found that and fixed it”. The Org is a huge support system for developers, and that aspect is critically important, as the developers are at the heart of the Simulator, a lot of users contribute to X-Plane, but quality developers are the soul of the Simulator, they move it forward and keep us wanting the clever products they deliver.
Again X-PlaneReviews I will note is the central balance, our aim is to deliver the best product for users and at a value price so the feedback going both ways is critical in achieving this. But it is very important that the developers are rewarded for the huge amount of work they put in, it is an important balance, if developers are found wanting in loss for their work, they will move on or leave to do something that rewards their skills better.
As part of the Org team, how do you see the community’s role in helping platforms like ours continue to thrive, especially with the flight sim market becoming more competitive?
The core and heart of X-Plane is the experimental aspect, and the Org is the engine room that allows users to say tinker, adjust, try ideas and create great tools for other users, it is a share environment, and a community project that we all do together, and we must continue to attract such people and their talents.
Allow them to thrive in a good accommodating atmosphere, at the heart it is great community that I have been very proud to have been associated with as we all share the same spirit.
Was there a particular moment in X-Plane’s history or development where you felt it picked up a gear? Maybe something that had a direct impact on how you saw the sim or how you approached writing your reviews?
You basically react to the X-Plane Simulator itself, as it goes through its version changes. X-Plane 10 was the most significant release, it brought in big ground texture changes, 3d cockpits, FMS Systems and the most significant was the introduction of plugins to give aircraft developers freedom from the restricting Plane Maker system, X-Plane 11 built on that foundation, refining it, also bringing in the Vulkan/Metal changes. X-Plane 12 is certainly another huge breakthrough, but those original ground textures are now feeling their age.
The flight sim world has changed a lot over the years. How do you think X-Plane has evolved, and what excites you most about where it’s headed?
X-Plane has always been an innovator in Simulation, it is a very wide platform as well covering the Windows, Apple and Unix systems, so you are not restricted only to Windows, like with MSFS. That allows for a much wider scope and a vastly different user base. But it is in its consistent forward innovation that has been keeping the Simulator relevant, it is also very adaptable to new ideas, and can implement those ideas quicker, can adjust to those changes better. The Vulkan/Metal changes were extremely important to move X-Plane forward into the future, as everything new will be built on and supported by that APL platform. But it was a deep surgical operation to install it, one we can only now move on from, so I do expect X-Plane to move forward, as it lost a lot of its pace with that coding transformation, but you can now see that quicker forward building momentum returning.
With Laminar Research starting their own store and forum, how do you think the X-Plane community can continue to thrive in the future?
This is a tricky situation. As we have seen, the X-Plane.Org is a huge support network for users and developers, it also supports itself financially by the Org Store. I don’t think that on the surface Laminar Research has thought through the situation enough by just following the Microsoft model in using a built-in store. Even to damage a very successful central support hub could even be seen as even careless, I can understand it, and why, but X-Plane’s foundation is built on Laminar managing the Simulator’s technical side, and the Org supporting the big user base.
That said, the one biggest challenge facing X-Plane at this point is growth. If anything, MSFS 2020 has shown that there is a very big user base out there that is interested in Simulation, and X-Plane will need to tap into that huge market to grow, as its user base has been flatlined for a few years. So, the future should all be about growth, building, even doubling that user base and welcoming new pilots to the platform, this aspect will benefit everyone and the Simulator itself.
What advice would you give to new users looking to get more involved in the X-Plane.Org community and become a true part of it?
I was like most new users when I started in X-Plane, I devoured hard drives and hard drives of free content, most of that content is still all loaded on platters in the cupboard, and I rarely use it. I was even blocked on my first day for over downloading, so the Org shut me down quick smart.
What I found is there are two tiers of X-Plane, the what I call the “Low Res” X-Plane built on default aircraft and tons of free downloads, and “Hi Res”. This is a simpler X-Plane built on Quality Aircraft+Quality Scenery+ and a few clever Plugins. My X-Plane folder is a fraction of the size of what I used in the first two or so years of the Simulator. But my quality of Simulation is very high, I have invested to have the best and rarely now download free stuff unless required for a review.
So yes, I invest a lot back into my Simulation, or as I see it in returning benefits to the developers in what they deliver in quality product. This aspect helps everyone. (note, reviewing aircraft is earning it, in testing and refining the product, so it is not actually free).
When you’re not reviewing, what other hobbies or interests keep you busy?
Most hobbies have usually turned into my main life’s work, X-Plane is a good example of that. I’m older now, so time off is usually resting, I have always loved Film, and the production of Film, and had the experience of being a part of that process for a few years, but I feel film as a medium is struggling, lost its narrative in Special Effects, so I rarely go to the cinema now, note I say Film not Movie, as it is now more an entertainment medium, not an ideas or creative medium anymore, but I do have a big DVD collection to watch none-streaming films. Travel of course, anything that will get me on a seat on an aircraft or a berth on a ship and I am happy, I’m also a trained Travel Consultant, so I am very good at building up travel arrangements and ideas. In my off time, I’m also still flying my Boeing 747’s from London to Singapore, but in vastly different conditions and circumstances than in X-Plane 9, the tools and detail you have available today in X-Plane 12 is sensational.
Finally what advice would you give to someone looking to get more involved in the X-Plane.Org community and become a true part of it, and what do you think makes the Org community stand out in this often-crowded environment?
The beauty of the X-Plane.Org community is that anyone, from a 10-year-old to a 90-year-old can be a part of it, help each other, and we all grow together as basically a big family. The advice is also there as Simulation is also very complex, the Community admin, and experienced users (old timers) will help you with your problems, and mostly sort out your issues, and the support base is massive as is the huge amount of content available. But overall, it is the respect we give each other, treat each other for the support of one another that has made it one of the best online communities, and one we are proud to say the one we are also committed to.
Now you know the man behind the reviews and the incredible dedication he brings to the X-Plane community. Stephen, I know firsthand how busy you are, so thank you for taking the time to do this.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun!
______________________________
-
Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Scenery Review : LZTT – Poprad-Tatry Airport, Slovakia by Chudoba Designs and Flying Partners
Scenery Review : LZTT – Poprad-Tatry Airport, Slovakia by Chudoba Designs and Flying Partners
In the hub and spoke system, were as a "Hub" is a major airport, usually associated with a city, to the "Spoke" or a small regional Airport that is an interesting destination. Most Simulation users usually stay on the "Hub to Hub" main line of the connections of the airline system, but I like the differences that a large Hub to a small Spoke destination, mainly to explore places you would never usually go to, or to "go off the beaten path" so to speak. Chudoba do a lot of these excellent Hub & Spoke sceneries. This is such a spoke regional airport, or destination in LZTT - Poprad-Tatry Airport that is in Slovakia.
Poprad is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatra Mountains, famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. The largest town of the Spiš region and the largest of all towns in the vicinity of the High Tatra Mountains in both Slovakia and Poland, Poprad is the tenth largest city in Slovakia, with a population of approximately 50,000.
The Poprad-Tatry Airport is interesting because of it is one of the highest elevations in Central Europe, at 718 m, which is 150 m higher than Innsbruck Airport in Austria, but 989 m lower than Samedan Airport in Switzerland. So you will have to calculate carefully your landing altitude and not to create a large hole in the ground.
This is a destination more popular than you would think, as even Wizz Air and Ryanair connect out here to bring in the holiday makers to these excellent resorts, it is cheap skiing compared to the heavily used French and Swiss resorts.
As noted Chudoba Designs does a lot of these interesting sort of niche sceneries like; Göteborg Landvetter Sweden, Brno-Tuřany in the Czech Republic, Bratislava Airport and even Marsa Alam, which is one of the most visited tourist airports in Egypt. Here with Poprad there is local connection with another another developer in Flying Partners Slovakia, an established MSFS 2020 developer.
It is only a short hop from Vienna to Poprad, so there is no need to climb any higher that 26,000ft, before descending down to the resort town, as it is only 170 nautical miles between the two Airports (You could drive there really). Equipment? the A319 from ToLiss, the baby bus, perfect for the short route.
Arrival is via EPEDA3D, into runway 27 (ILS- 110.1 TT), there is no ILS on the other end of the 8,530 ft (2,600m) runway (09)...
Poprad–Tatry Airport
Letisko Poprad-Tatry
09/27 - 8,530ft (2,600m) - Concrete
07R/25L- 2,493ft (760m) - Grass
07L/25R - 2,493ft (760m) - Grass
Elevation AMSL2,356 ft / 718 m
First view is just of a single runway, and with no airport infrastructure to be seen, "did I load in the scenery folder right?" yes I did, but all the way down there, the landscape looks oddly empty from your height. On final approach it is still the same dilemma, just a runway, nothing else?
In the 27 approach your in a valley, the High Tatra Mountains to the East, and the Low Tatras to the West. Poprad township is to your left as you approach the 27 threshold...
... 09/27 is a long, looong runway, you feel the length, but I still missed the first turn cutout to the left.
There are four turnaround cuts on the left side of the runway, I snag the second from the top, but it is still a long taxi back.
Once rotated into the southern direction, finally you can see the terminal area, set deep into the trees to your right. The single long taxiway A is a tight turn into, you have to get it right, even with this small Baby Bus.
Once on the apron, there are four parking slots, all twist the aircraft around to be mostly parallel with the terminal.
The Poprad-Tatry Airport was originally built in 1938, and it's age is still reflected in the buildings, certainly Poprad-Tatry has been modernised, well several times with terminal additions, but the original airport layout feel is still here.
That long 8,500 ft 09/27 runway dominates any view, and the intergration of the scenery to the surrounding X-Plane default is very good, using the fence line as the boundary. The two grass runways 07R/27L and 07L/27R are well intergrated as well, if hard to see when in use.
As noted the original terminal still stands as built for the World Championships in classic skiing at Štrbské Pleso in February 1970, the administration and built in control tower, built at the same time as the terminal is still also represented at the airport.
The central terminal is well done, but there is a sort of FlightSim feel about the building. In the modeling and graphics, but it works really well in context despite it's origins. There are no internal details.
There has been two terminal upgrades, in 2008, Poprad–Tatry Airport extended its arrival terminal and (also, upgraded the lighting approach system for runway 27), Then later, on January 31, 2014, a new departure hall was inaugurated, meeting all Schengen requirements, with construction costs totaling nearly €2.62 million. Both are well defined in the scenery.
Both sections are separated, and fully detailed internally... first Arrivals. There are two arrival zones, Red and Black. Separated for International and Schengen.
Departures is twice the size and more detailed.
So the newer extension terminal is highly detailed and with great quality detail at that.
The 70's Control Tower and Administration building is very authentic, there is also a built in Fire Station and an original hangar as part of the complex. You also have excellent quality X-Plane 12 active trees as part of the fauna.
Tower detail is excellent, with a basic internal control layout.
Air Transport Europe (ATE), established in 1991, is a Slovakian aviation company that has a big presence at Poprad. The company specializes in helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS), particularly in the High Tatras region, and offers various aerial work services, including logging, liming, construction, and agricultural operations. ATE use the biggest hangar here and have an administration building set behind.
Modeling and textures also have that FlightSim look and feel, but it is well done and feels nicely authentic. ATE operates a flight school offering specialized helicopter training programs. Their courses include type rating for Agusta A109 K2 and Bell 429 helicopters, as well as a Type Rating Instructor (TRI(H)) course. There is a secondary Flight School on the north apron called JetAge, and a secondary hangar opposite. Note the BMW X5, it is the only animated vehicle in the scenery, but it is well done, in doing rounds of the facilities.
If you look very carefully, a few of the buildings are not quite properly connected to the ground (Floating), it is not a distraction, but it is visible, like with the ATE Admin building.
Landside is small, and basically just one carparking area, but it well designed and filled with nice detail, highlight is the great signage.
Ground textures are good, very good. Great variations in textures, from the stoney asphalt (correct scale), rubber touch marks, to concrete and other hard surfaces. Cracks, oil repair or asphalt cement mixed with petroleum solvents to fix cracks and wear and tear damage is really well done... as is the wear and tear surfaces, only slight is the very straight lines on the surfaces edges, a shame as everything else here is so very good. Lineage wear and tear is top notch as well, very realistic.
The grass runways are well done, but the wild tuffs of grass, don't quite work in context.
X-Plane 12 dynamics are of course developed into the textures. PBR reflections and normal maps are dynamic with burnt-in ambient occlusion which are all active... snow conditions are very good being this high in altitude.
Lighting is very good, but again a mixture of the old and new, or with antiquated FlightSim or X-Plane 12 effects. Runway approach lighting is top rate with RAIL on the 27 approach, but be aware there is no centreline lighting, neither on the Runway or the Taxiway A.
Outwardly Poprad-Tatry looks great...
... but the older modeling has the dreaded FS greyed out windows, the newer modeling is modern and fine, unfortunately the old overwhelms the new.
The ramps are however excellent for night operations, great beam throw and nicely well lit.
Notable is that in downloading Chudoba scenery, they use a third party system to Authorise and Download the scenery. When you purchase the scenery you are given a Authorisation key and then are directed to the Chudorba Design (Antileak) website. You paste in the authorisation code, then select the "LZTT – Poprad-Tatry Airport" scenery, then the site will check your credentials and verify your purchase... then to install you then press "Download" to do the installation of the product.
Summary
This is another (hub &) spoke airport by Chudoba Designs in association with Flying Partners Slovakia. Set deep in the Slovakian Tatra Mountains is LZTT – Poprad-Tatry Airport, positioned by Poprad, a city in northern Slovakia. A single runway airport that services the ski fields of this exclusive area.
Modeling is a mixture of old FlightSim and new X-Plane 12, and the combination works very well to create an original authentic scenery. There is both old (70's) terminals and administration/control tower and new terminal (2008). Excellent lighting though is offset by older buildings ex FlightSim windows, that look very dated and now misplaced. Great textures and X-Plane 12 trees and fauna create dynamic seasons and weather, signage is very good, but only a single animated BMW X5, that rides around the airport.
Overall Poprad-Tatry is great experience, a great high altitude destination that is authentic, Ryanair and Wizz Airlines service the airport, and at a value price of only a below US$20 price, even currently discounted to US$12.95, so a winner for your Eastern European collection, verdict, far better than I thought it would be!
👍 Great eastern European authentic scenery, great combination of old and new styles, excellent lighting and textures/signage
👎 Old fashioned FlightSim night windows
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Yes! - the LZTT – Poprad-Tatry Airport, Slovakia by Chudoba Designs and is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
LZTT – Poprad-Tatry Airport
Price is US$12.49 You Save:$7.50(38%)
Retail Price:$19.99
Requirements
X-Plane 12 Only (not for XP11) Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB VRAM Recommended Current Version : 1.0 (January 9th 2025) Download for LZTT – Poprad-Tatry Airport is 3.24Gb. The download and Authorisation is done via Chudoba Designs own application, called Antileak, you get an automatic referral to the site. Install is different for X-Plane 11 (STEP 2) as you have to install a different "Earth nav data" (Provided) file... You install only one folder;
LZTT_ChudobaDesign-FlyingPartners Provided is both X-Plane 12 and X-Plane 11 versions of the scenery, plus the Chudoba "Library", not required if you already own a Chudoba Scenery.
Full Installation is 1.05Gb in your Custom Scenery Folder. (only X-Plane 12 was installed)
Documentation:
no documentation ___________________________
Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton
27th January 2025
Copyright©2025: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.1.3
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- Airbus A319 XP12 by Toliss (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$89.99
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in NEWS! - Laminar Research releases X-Plane 12.1.4 beta
NEWS! - Laminar Research releases X-Plane 12.1.4 beta
Laminar Research have released a new version of X-Plane in v12.1.4 in Beta form. It quite a visual based update, with a load of new ideas, new objects and features.
The headline feature is "FlightLessons", with Austin Meyer. Personally I don't know if Austin Meyer is the best person to be shouting at you while learning to fly, but there you go. There are four beginner flight lessons in the Cirrus SR22...
The four lessons consist of; Lesson 01 - Cirrus Intro, Lesson 02 - Basic Handling, Lesson 03 - Advanced Handling and Lesson 04 - Cirrus Landing.
Survive that, and you can uprate to the bigger Lancair Evolution, with another three lessons, including; Lesson 5 - Evolution Intro, Lesson 06 - Emergencies and finally Lesson 07 - Cross Country
Give it a try!
Second feature is a really interesting one... a Physics-Based Camera
It has two modes;
Physics-based camera for internal views (optional) Hand-held camera for external views (optional)
The internal called "G-Loaded Camera" is basically a "shake" camera to add in movement in the cockpit, there are of course a few of those reality plugins, but this one looks and feels very much smoother in operation, creating Turbulence, Shaking, and Ground Movements in G effects. The External "Hand Held Camera" is not a walkaround mode, but rather a shaking of the aircraft externally (Shift -C). There was another addition not mentioned in the notes of a "Lock geographically" this freezes the view to the location. All three new modes are in the X-Plane/Banner/View Menu.
There has also been a "Safe Mode" added. For situations where X-Plane crashes due of a plugin. This can also be activated manually by holding the CTRL key during startup, or by using a new startup scripts located in (X-Plane/Support) folder. Now you won’t have to go through the tedious process of removing addons one at a time to isolate crashes.
X-Plane has returned to the parts of Southern Germany, Northern Italy, and Austria, which is now (again) the demo area from Portland, with Salzburg being the location for the new flight lessons.
With the returned demo area, then Salzburg LOWS Airport scenery is also in having a significant update, with the Red Bull hangars and Salzburg Castle now available.
Second Scenery update is for Barra Airport (Port-adhair Bharraigh).
Barra Airport is a short-runway airport (or STOLport) situated in the wide shallow bay of Traigh Mhòr at the northern tip of the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The airport is unique, believed to be the only one in the world where scheduled flights use a tidal beach as the runway.
The correct runway choice is critical, with delicate wind and tidal conditions...
Laminar have made the Tide indicator and Windsock fully active to help with your takeoff or landing choices.
The Garmin G1000 has had more attention, with a Search and Rescue (SAR function to allow specialised flight paths when being involved in search and rescue operation).
There has been added a huge amount of New Library Objects, there are a fair few additions, including Snow and De-Icing Equipment...
Firefighting Scenarios and Ambulances
Trucks
All vehicle styles are however very biased to American vehicles, not much in worldly variations?
Airside and Airport Operations
But overall it is all very good visual quality stock for the Simulator.
Gateway Airports and since the last update in v12.1.3, with this update 1,481 Gateway airports have been refreshed.
Fixes and Enhancements
General
New Joystick profiles for the VKB S-TECS Throttle Mini Adjusted magnetic pole in X-Plane to match real world data Fixed an error when resizing the windows using a Wayland session on Linux AI aircraft will obey STAR altitude restrictions when on final (XPD-16285) Fixed an error when changing audio devices in the sound settings page (XPD-16365) Glider Tow crashes when activating TCAS Override (XPD-16422) Aircraft
Cessna 172 SP - Improved the climb and idle performance to better match those of the real airplane Grumman F-14 Tomcat New manual on how to operate the F-14 Tomcat ATC
Entering an airport in the flight-plan as waypoint will no longer override the destination airport We’ve updated the voice pack to include additional aircraft manufacturers and models Don’t allow read-back before the message has been fully heard (XPD-163479) Pilot voice says “Ukraine International” instead of “international” at ENGM (XPD-16405) Many additional fixes and smaller enhancements Scenery
Added some “Warning Jet Blast Signs” at Princess Juliana International Airport (IATA: SXM, ICAO: TNCM) Systems
General
Fixed KDAB ILS7L.HANAV when flying a slow aircraft, such as the Cessna 172 Boeing 737 autopilot turns to north upon capturing LOC instead of inbound course when flying the ILS32R at EDDK (XPD-16462) Garmin G1000 Pressing the small FMS knob on the MFD will no longer have an effect while being on the map display (XPD-16433) FMS Fixed stutters when calculation the mach change-over altitude Weather
Improved the display of wind directions in the weather map Many improvements around the METAR reader, especially the handling of GRIB data: Sea-state group is recognised and ignored in METAR ‘M’ for ‘Missing’ is recognised and ignored in automated METAR More robust parsing of QFE No-data groups are handled fully. This should fix many cases of incorrect temperatures/wind/vis/QNH etc. where the METAR contains slashes. Previously these would leave the default – ISA – settings in place. Many more METARs should be read fully, instead of partially or not at all Zulu time is read and used to affect how much influence each METAR has on the current weather. This means you can no longer simply read the current/prior METARs and assume they will be equally weighted. Tops on CU/CB should no longer have a chance of being several thousand feet higher than reported in the GRIB METAR reporting CB no longer sets all cloud layers to CB CB chance is read from GRIB files and used to affect CU/CB classification Cloud layer blending over time for the same station changed to use the same method as elsewhere Cell blending changed to have smoother transitions Web API
Added support for calling commands using the Web API
As noted the Weather has had more attention, Those GRIB files are still not perfected. I had a bad stutter or framerate cycling on the "real" weather download, I am hoping this aspect has been fixed in this v12.1.4b update.
Overall it is a another significant update from Laminar Research, the first for 2025.
Enjoy!
You can update to X-Plane v12.1.4 beta now via the built in X-Plane Installer application, just select "Update X-Plane" and make sure the "beta" selection box is ticked. It is a 5.2 Gb Installation.
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NEWS! by Stephen Dutton
25th January 2025
Copyright©2025: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Scenery Review : KSFB - Orlando Sanford Intl Airport, USA by Taimodels
Scenery Review : KSFB - Orlando Sanford Intl Airport, USA by Taimodels
In central Florida USA, Orlando is a tourist mecca. The focus is of course the mega complexes of Disney World, but also situated here are Universal's Studios, Seaworld and Legoland, if you want more, there is also Fun Spot America, Icon Park and my favorite Gatorland.
The central hub for Orlando is MCO or Orlando International Airport set south of the city, central is ORL or Orlando Executive, a great base for General Aviation and Biz Jets... but there is one more airport, basically little known and positioned 27 miles north of Orlando City in SFB Orlando Sanford International Airport.
Orlando Sanford was originally built as Naval Air Station Sanford and was opened November 3, 1942, now 82 years ago . It was a Master Jet Base for carrier-based attack and reconnaissance aircraft, and was used by the U.S. Navy until 1969. The airport is currently owned and operated by the Sanford Airport Authority.
The majority of SFB's passenger traffic has been domestic; this is mostly attributable to the entrance of Las Vegas–based Allegiant Air, for which Sanford is a focus city. But it was also popular with Thomson Airways (now TUI Airways), that began operating routes from UK airports. This was the largest international airline at the airport having served eight destinations around the UK. However, in November 2019, TUI Airways announced that from 2022, it would switch their Orlando operations from Sanford to Melbourne Orlando International Airport including the daily flights to/from those 8 British airports. This will bring their operations nearer to Port Canaveral where TUI Cruises will operate from in coming years. As a package holiday company this brings passengers closer to their cruises, although it has angered many TUI passengers who fly with the company to visit Orlando for Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort.
This is another scenery release by Taimodels, an odd choice, but Taimodels have done these small regional based sceneries in the past, mainly YBCS Cairns and EGCC Manchester, so Sanford fits right in there between the usual mega airports from this prolific developer.
Orlando Sanford International Airport
IATA: SFB - ICAO: KSFB - FAA LID: SFB
9C/27C - 3,578ft (1,091m) - Asphalt
9L/27R - 11,002ft (3,353m) - Asphalt
9R/27L - 5,839ft (1,780m) - Asphalt
18/36 - 6,002ft (1,829m) - Asphalt/concrete
Elevation AMSL55 ft / 17 m
Taimodels Sanford intergration with the X-Plane scenery is relatively very good, the custom textures are slightly noticeable, but not glaringly so, they could have however been better matched (more darker/greener) but overall you wouldn't notice the differences. Because of the multiple runway setup, the taxiway system is a bit complicated, yes 9L/27R is relatively straight forward, but otherwise charts are required for the complex navigation.
Sanford's runway layout is relative to it's Military origins. Four runways that allow independent operations on each. The 9L/27R Main 11,000 ft runway north, the 9R/27L 5,800 ft medium strip south...
... 18/36 6,000ft Cross, and the tiny in the front of the terminal area 5,800 ft 9C/27C strip.
So you have a great choice of runway here depending on the equipment you are flying, from very light aircraft, standard GA, twins, commuter, regional and of course main line services.
Terminals
There are two Terminals at SFB, the older Terminal A and the newer Terminal B, the terminals are defined by the three concourses.
Terminal A
Terminal A was built as part of the airport’s efforts to support growing passenger traffic in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It primarily served domestic charter and leisure travelers. In the 1990 with the rise of charter and budget airlines, Sanford Airport grew in popularity as an alternative to Orlando International Airport (MCO). Terminal A was expanded to accommodate this increased demand especially with the arrival of Allegiant Air with an additional concourse and gates, and improved passenger facilities, later the second concourse was absorbed by Terminal B.
The original terminal became a hub for international charter flights, particularly from the UK and Europe, operated by airlines like TUI Airways and Icelandair. Gates 10 to 16 are set on the single west concourse.
Externally all the terminal buildings here are a bit nondescript, or even plain, but the excellent panel detail is there if you get in close enough, and nicely done it is, the ground clutter is also well done, but only generic, and not airline or airport branded.
I couldn't activate the Airbridges, neither by X-Plane's Ground Handling, or OpenSAM, and no animated traffic is highly noticeable.
Terminal A Landside however is highly detailed, the arrival drop-off zones are really well done. But like Taimodels HEAC Cairo, the bolder colours don't work (SFB in reality is more of a softer blue). The heavy blue and white brings out the model side, more than a realism feel.
But you can't say it not well done because it is... the detail continues inside, as all the internal areas are well detailed and modeled.
Highlight here is the NAS Sanford Memorial, that is located in the terminal, it comes with restored PV-1 Ventura Bomber sitting on the roof of the museum. Basically you can walk in all the interior areas and move out to all the three concourses. All check-in and waiting areas are extensively detailed, and shows the high standard required today in detail for Simulation Airport Scenery.
Again missing are animations and people, so as it is really well done by Taimodels, it also feels a bit empty of life.
Terminal B
Terminal B was constructed in the early 90's for more expansion of the International charter capacity. And over time Terminal B underwent several more expansions and renovations to keep up with demand. This included adding the additional gates, improving baggage handling systems, and upgrading passenger facilities. In 2010, SFB Terminal B underwent several more modernization efforts to update and expand, with more new gates (four) with a newly constructed concourse that was added to the east. This improved passenger waiting areas, better baggage handling systems, and enhanced retail and more food options were also added. Gates 1 to 4 are on the new (east) concourse, and gates 5 to 9 are on the central concourse.
As with Terminal A, Terminal B has the same excellent Landside Arrivals and internal terminal detail...
The new eastern Terminal B extension is also well and nicely detailed, although oddly the airbridges are all set very low on the building, and don't actually connect correctly to the concourse floor? this low airbridge aspect is relevant to all the concourses?
________________
Landside
There are loads of carparks, rental zones, and one large multi-story carpark at SFB. loads of 3d cars are set on asphalt that is in areas a little to large in scale, but overall the vista works very well. Also the terminal and road signage is excellent.
The ex-Military base creates a problem for developers in the vast areas you have to cover. Away from the terminals, it is a huge swathes of open aprons to be filled only by General Aviation and Business Jet facilities. This can also create a emptiness to the scenery. Part solution is that if you are running Traffic Global is to put all the sliders to full, and even the GA sections. And it does help in creating a more working environment. Annoying missing though are GA refueling points, I can't find one if I wanted to drop in to SFB to refuel the aircraft, so a big omission there.
Overall Taimodels have made a good fist of filling in this huge area, in there are hundreds of small buildings and hangars, and a fuel depot mid-western section. Another help is the business signage from Million Air, CE Avionics, L3Harris Flight School which all does a great job.
There are no specalised cargo facilities here at KSFB, but a few of the larger hangars are used for freight operations. Around the field are pockets of infrastructure. North of 9L/27R are Allegiant Air maintenance facilities, and Constant Aviation. To the far west is the IAA Orlando North auto auction facility.
South of 9L/27R eastern section is an excellent aircraft breakers yard, the Fire Station and a Helicopter facility with 5 pads. South on 9R/27L is a large GA storage area, with the various aircraft lockups.
Control Tower
The Sanford Control Tower is a basic field tower, it operates daily from 6:30 AM to 11:00 PM local time. During these hours, air traffic controllers manage airport operations including takeoffs and landings. When the tower is closed, the airspace reverts to Class G, and pilots should use the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) on 120.3 MHz for communications. Modeling and detail of the tower is excellent, including the internal detail.
There is the NAS Sanford Memorial Park, which is located at the entrance of Orlando Sanford International Airport on Red Cleveland Boulevard, which commemorates the history of Naval Air Station (NAS) Sanford. Established in 1942, the restored RA-5C Vigilante aircraft, the last type of aircraft to operate from NAS Sanford is on display, and the memorial is represented here in the scenery.
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Ground Textures
There is a very wide variety of textures to represent the 82 year airbase, and all the variations are well covered here by Taimodels.
The lineage is a bit too new and bold, but the complex signage layouts are all represented. Ramp areas are really well done as well, with the various concrete variations, but in the GA areas (old base aprons) from a distance however, the repeat patterns come out strongly.
X-Plane 12 dynamics are of course developed into the textures. PBR reflections and normal maps are dynamic with burnt-in ambient occlusion which are all active... I don't really expect Chicago whiteout conditions this far down in Florida, but I do expect tropical thunder storms effects to be really good.
Field textures are the custom photo scaled but again work well in context, bushes on these stoney textures can come off worse in this instance, not really a fan of this idea.
There is fencing, but they are oddly missing around 9L/27R, the burnt in lines are there, but no actual fences?
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Lighting
All runway lighting is standard X-Plane 12 ICAO definition, so you can't fault that, and all runways are well lit on any approach.
Apron terminal area parking has an yellowish glow, very different? but it works in the darkness down on the ramps.
Landside arrivals is well lit in contrast to the airside, it's quite bright and oddly it all works.
Internally it is a bit hit or miss, some areas are well lit, other areas are half bright...
In the GA areas, the overhead lighting is again yellowish, but there is a lot of down-lighting and fill lights with lit signage, some open hangars are lit inside, and are useful for night parking.
To sum up, the lighting like the Sanford Airport scenery is far better than it all seems at a first impression... as the slogan says;
We Are SFB
Simple Faster Better
Summary
Orlando in Florida, southern USA has three supporting airports in, MCO or Orlando International Airport set south of the city, central is ORL or Orlando Executive, a great base for General Aviation and Biz Jets... but there is one more airport, basically little known and positioned 27 miles north of Orlando City in SFB Orlando Sanford International Airport. Formally Naval Air Station Sanford and was opened November 3, 1942, now 82 years ago . It was a Master Jet Base for carrier-based attack and reconnaissance aircraft, and was used by the U.S. Navy until 1969.
Again this is another regional airport from Taimodels, also known for their mega sceneries like OMDB Dubai and HECS Cairo. Note this is an X-Plane 12 scenery only.
Taimodels have become a force in creating X-Plane Simulator sceneries, and KSFB Sanford is no exception. outwardly SFB looks spread out and empty, but this is a scenery to explore, and at the more intimate level the terminal detail and fixtures are very good, certainly the fully recreated internal areas with the NAS Museum, although the colouring is a bit brash. In landside and very wide areas of the airport's spread out infrastructure, it is all very well reproduced, the highlight however is the selection of various independent runways, that cover all types of aircraft, from commercial, regional, commuter, Biz Jets, General Aviation and even very light aircraft. Sanford was a former NAS Station, with all the relative elements here that are still intact.
But there are no animated vehicles and traffic or people to bring the scenery alive, so it can come across as a little empty and cold, the airbridges are also placed wrong and don't work either, and the missing GA Fuel refueling points are a waste of in the way you could use the scenery in VOR cross-country flying... and that is a shame because there is a huge amount to like here, even the lighting surprises you on how effective it is at night... at this sub US$20 price, is SFB Orlando Sanford International Airport a hidden gem?
👍 Great selection of various runways, well modeled with excellent interiors, versatile uses for all different equipment, great signage and runway/taxiway textures.
👎 No ground or traffic animations makes the airport a bit lifeless, non-working and badly placed airbridges, missing fence work and GA refueling points.
__________________________
The KSFB - Orlando Sanford Intl Airport, USA by Taimodels is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store
KSFB - Orlando Sanford Intl Airport, USA
Priced at US$19.50
Requirements
X-Plane 12 (not for XP11) Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 875 MB Current version : 1.0 (December 31st 2024) Installation
Installation of KSFB - Orlando Sanford Intl Airport, USA is done via download of 871 Mb...
There is just one folder to install
Taimodels-KSFB-Orlando-Sanford With a total installation size of 1.78 Gb.
There are no Documents provided by Taimodels
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Review System Specifications
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.1.3
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- None -
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Scenery Review by Stephen Dutton
17th January 2025
Copyright©2025: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from flightwusel in NEWS! - Plugin Updated : AviTab 0.0.5 Browser by TheRamon
NEWS! - Plugin Updated : AviTab 0.0.5 Browser by TheRamon
One of the greatest tools in X-Plane is the AviTab Tablet. It is universally accepted, and wildly used throughout the Simulator. Here is an extra addon that gives the AviTab more functionality by inserting a "Browser" in the tablet, it has also been updated to v0.0.5.
You simply download and insert the avitab-browser-0.0.5-XP12 file and add it into your X-Plane/Resources/Plugins folder (The original AviTab Plugin must also be present).
On startup you now have in AviTab an extra icon called "Browser", just click on it, and yes you have instant access to the World-Wide-Web.
It really works fine, but a couple of notes. You need to adjust the tablets screen a little darker, as the browser is brighter than the other AviTab options, second, is that scrolling around the pages is a little slow, either by the navigation bars or by the scroll wheel, otherwise it is very good and very handy if you require information in flight, well worth added into your toolbox.
This is an update to v0.0.5, the update includes new features;
A few features of the plugin:
Configurable using .ini file Custom homepage A statusbar integration with up to five handy 'hotkey' websites Flightplan downloading from SimBrief directly to Output/FMS Plans Local browser cache (for login credentials, cookies and stuff) Geolocation support (your location comes from the sim, of course) Works with EVERY AviTab airplane or helicopter
Handy here is that you can now download flightplans plans directly from SimBrief to your Output/FMS folder via the tablet.
What's New in Version 0.0.5
Released 8 hours ago
The plugin is now available on Linux (XP12), Mac and Windows. Added a new configuration value: scroll_speed Added a new configuration value: user_agent The tablet will now dim automatically with AviTab's brightness controls Improved the browser's start-up time and responsiveness Fixed an issue where certain artifacts would occur when drawing shapes Fixed an issue where Simbrief (or any Cloudflare protected site) was bringing the browser into an infinite loop
It is all very good, and a great addition to your cockpit toolkit. Just download from the X-Plane.Org
The AviTab Browser by TheRamon is now available for download from the X-Plane.Org here.
AviTab Browser: A web browser addon for the AviTab plugin 0.0.5
Free of course
Minimum requirements:
AviTab plugin X-Plane 11.50+ or X-Plane 12 Linux (X-Plane 12 only), Mac, Windows Texture settings must be set to High or Maximum for the best results. The browser may otherwise appear pixelated. ______________________
NEWS! by Stephen Dutton
10th January 2025
Copyright©2025: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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Stephen got a reaction from hi_nihaozaoan in NEWS! - AirfoilLabs announces development of the Boeing 737 MAX
NEWS! - AirfoilLabs announces development of the Boeing 737 MAX
The one thing about X-Plane development is that you have to expect surprises. This is a very big surprise in that AirFoilLabs have announced the development of the Boeing 737 MAX for the X-Plane Simulator.
The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) and competes with the Airbus A320neo family. The series was announced in August 2011, first flown in January 2016, and certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in March 2017. The first 737 MAX delivered to a customer was a MAX 8 to Malindo Air, which accepted and began operating the aircraft in May 2017.
The last announcement was that the developer was creating a Douglas DC-3, but that project has now been put on ice. And the change to the higher prime category of airliners is another big step for this usually General Aviation focused developer, with the Cessna 172NG Analog and Digital versions and the King Air 350, the Skyhawk 172SP is also available for X-Plane 11.
Details that there is a separate dedicated 3D design house in creating the 3D modeling (AirFoilLabs are pretty good anyway), and the systems and technical side is very detailed, in other words the 737 MAX will be very deep, but will probably also use the AirFoilLab JET plugin system. Note the new "AirFoilLabs" logo.
There is a lot of commitment being floating around with statements of:
And...
And notable frequent updates of the 737 MAX development's progress has already started...
Early modeling has already progressed to texturing.... mostly here on the Overhead Panel.
And there is a video of the early flight tests...
Notes include:
Flight Model Development: In parallel with our 3D work, we've successfully implemented the base X-Plane flight model for the 737 MAX. This foundation will allow us to:
Fine-tune basic flight characteristics Test preliminary ground handling behavior Verify weight and balance configurations Begin initial performance correlations
Obviously it is a very exciting development, but there is still a long way to go. And no notes on if the release aircraft will be a 8 or 9 variant.
X-PlaneReviews will of course follow the 737 MAX development and report on any significant updates... overall though the news is very exciting for X-Plane users, and...
"Why should FlightSimulator get all the fun!"
X-Plane will soon have it's very own Boeing 737 MAX
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NEWS! by Stephen Dutton
9th November 2024
Copyright©2024: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Aircraft Review : Diamond DA20 SV by Aerobask
Aircraft Review : Diamond DA20 SV by Aerobask
I don't think you would do this in real life? however in a Simulator you can get away with this sort of scenario, it allows you to do things that would put yourself and any passengers in mortal danger. Downloading "real" weather for the south of England created a vortex of horrible winter low cloud and freezing weather, but I was willing to give it a go, it was "real" in an artificial way, if that comment makes sense. Your taking off (blind here), then bouncing, shaking your way though a very low cloud base with layers of thick and icy fog, 23 knt winds, and your not in a safe heavy aircraft either with the power to pierce your way through the murk... stupid is, is that your flying a very light, low powered, very thin skinned, single-engine aircraft designed primarily for training and recreational flying... the Diamond DA20 SV.
Strange way to start a review you would think? well this DA20 has two letters after it's name in SV. Now SV stands for "Synthetic Vision" or in this case Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS), so your up here trying to stay alive for a reason... or to give it a go!
The Aerobask Diamond DA20 SV has in it's biggest feature the Synthetic Vision SkyView Touch, this Dynon Avionics tool can allow you to use the avionics to see through such murk and fly more safely, the layout is very similar to the Garmin G1000 avionics in a two display panel arrangement.
Both of the display panels pop-out for ease of use, or if you want to insert them in a home-built setup, both displays can be scaled, and moved anywhere on your screen for convenience. (press SkyView Touch logo to pop-out, but have to press the same again to close, or use your right click mouse option)
Both displays will mirror each other, or you can switch left for right or vice-versa. Separate panels will show PFD (Primary Flight Display), EMS (Engine Monitoring System) and/or MAP/Navigation. You can switch each panel around the display screen to suit your personal preferences.
You can also have either the standard lower EHSI (Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator), or a G-Meter.
The SVS system can provide a clear virtual image of terrain, obstacles, and the runway environment, helping pilots navigate safely, in this case through the murk outside.
Overlaid over the Synthetic Vision are the usual flight instruments, Speed and Altitude tapes, V/S (Vertical Speed) tape, Bank Angle and Slip Angle, Turn Coordinator and FD (Flight Director), Pitch as part of the Artificial Horizon. Notable is the in-built AOA (Angle of Attack) indicator, wind strength and direction is lower left display. EHSI has two background points for NAV 1 and GPS, and built in Compass, Heading and Course. You can directly interact with the NAV/GPS, HDG and CRS and BARO settings via your scroll wheel.
You can turn off the Synthetic Vision if required, and you also have a built in TAWS (Terrain Awareness and Warning System). It is an advanced avionics system designed to use a enhancement mode that Includes both predictive terrain warnings and additional situational awareness features.
Also available is a SIX-PACK instrument pack, covering the essential; AIRSPEED, ARTIFICIAL HORIZON, ALTITUDE, TURN COORDINATOR, HEADING (EHSI) and V/S VERTICAL SPEED, and you can give the SIX-PACK a blank grey background if required.
MAP/NAV
The Dynon Avionics are very similar to Garmin's G1000 setup, differences are quite small, only the navigation is slightly (slightly) different.
But a full suite of tools you have here. MAP position can be HDG UP, TRK (Track) and NTH (North), and you can centre the aircraft in the MAP. Other options include; scrollable moving map, and you can select your navaid/fix/airport directly from click on map.
You can have three backgrounds, TERRAIN (default), SLATE and GREEN
There is an AviTab provided with the DA20, but you can also access Navigrapth charts directly in the Dynon as well (Subscription Required). Select your Airport, then select CHARTS from the menu... and all your APT, DEP, ARR, APP and REF (Reference) charts will load directly into the display.
You can ZOOM IN/OUT, ROTATE, FIT and even FILL the display with the selected charts, it's all very good.
It's all a nice bit of kit, really well done by Aerobask, and to their usual high-class standard of intergration. This SV system was first introduced on the Aerobask Shark UL, but now available here in the new X-Plane 12 only DA20
Still climbing! now passing through 4,000 ft, looking for the cloud tops...
Then finally (5,000ft) there is a bit of blue sky... finally we are up there in the fresher air.
The Diamond DV20/DA20 Katana is an Austrian-designed two-seat general aviation light aircraft. Developed and manufactured by Diamond Aircraft, it was originally produced in Austria as the DV20.
The DV20 shares many features from the earlier Diamond HK36 Super Dimona. It was introduced to service during 1993. During the 1990s, production of the type was commenced at a new facility in Canada in order to meet demand for the type within the North American market. The Canadian-produced aircraft are designated as the DA20. It has been a relative success on the market, having sold in excess of 1,000 aircraft by 2008 and multiple improved variants of the DA20 have been developed. Additionally, it has been further developed into the four-seat Diamond DA40 Diamond Star.
The DV20, while owing much of its design and sharing many features of the Dimona, had several major differences as well. In particular, it has a reduced wingspan, was equipped with flaps, and made use of a tricycle landing gear arrangement. The Katana has also been developed with a philosophy of offering aircraft that weren't equivalent in terms of performance to any major existing product from competing manufacturers, consciously avoiding instances of direct head-to-head competition. In 1991, the Katana conducted its maiden flight; during May 1993, the type received certification in 1993, the Katana was first displayed to the general public at the Paris Air Show that year.
The Katana has several distinctive features, including its all-composite construction, low-mounted wing, T-tail arrangement, and a castoring nosewheel. All models make use of a composite airframe which is constructed of glass and carbon-fiber reinforced plastic. The one-piece fuselage has removable wings, which assists with transportation and servicing activities. The wings themselves have transparent plexiglas panels present so that key control elements can be readily inspected without disassembly. The airframe is complete with a sleek finish across the entirety of its exterior, which serves to eliminate corrosion and rivets in order to lower maintenance requirements.
The DA-20 Katana is as noted a variation of the earlier two-seater Diamond HK36 Super Dimona, but that aircraft is a motor-glider, longer wings, less power and not a general use everyday aircraft of which the DA-20 is. The Eclipse version of the Katana comes with rear windows for better visibility, and is powered by a 125 hp (93 kW) Continental IO-240-B engine.
Being a very small light Sporty aircraft it is all feet and light touch stick. The DA-20 is VERY responsive, but clean in its manoeuvres, almost aerobatic in feel. Flying notes include...
"The wings have washout, which causes the wing roots to stall in advance of the wingtips, which has the effect of the ailerons being fully effective well after the onset of a primary stall condition. Other unfavourable flight conditions are often guarded against, such as a wing drop, which may be produced only as a consequence of prolonged and excessive elevator application during a steep climbing turn, and can be rectified by the relaxation of back pressure. The control forces across all regimes are however very well-balanced, which reportedly reduces the frequency to which trimming of the control surfaces may need to be performed." The aspect of having basically glider wings on a General Aviation aircraft is felt, so sitting reclining, the Eclipse/SV has a sort of glider aspect feel about it.
So basically you use those long thin wings to your advantage, feel the currents and use the fine stick inputs to ride the waves of the air, smooth turns and curves to change direction, then just go with the flow of the aircraft, it's fun, lots of fun, pure airmanship.
The aerodynamics have been done here by the very experienced X-Aerodynamics, so their very good and up to the current X-Plane 12 standards, so the Diamond DA20 will just fly like being in a beautiful summer's afternoon, you can stay up here for ever, well until you run low on fuel, even then you could sort of glide down.
Looking around the cockpit for the AUTOPILOT, and you won't find it on the display panel... it's built into the Dynon Avionics avionics.
It's very menu driven though, a bit complex to use at first, but once sorted and worked out the AP is actually quite easy to use and navigate, just spend a little time first before to study the (Menu) layouts.
You can activate the AP (Autopilot) and the FD (Flight Director) from the AUTOPILOT menu button... more options include ROLL and PITCH.
ROLL gives you the basically the Heading (HDG), or TRK, NAV (Flightplan) and APPROACH options...
PITCH gives you the vertical options in; VS (vertical Speed), IAS (Speed), ALT HOLD, VNAV, and NOSE DN (Down) or NOSE UP selections.
Secondary controls are upper Mid-Panel, with left HDG/TRK, BARO (adjustment) and ALT (Altitude). Right is the AP/FD selection, HDG, TRK, ALT, VS top row, and SRC, NAV, VNAV and IAS lower row, UP, DN and LEVEL selection is to the far right. So there are loads of different ways you can adjust the AP functions, via the panel or directly on the displays.
The instrument panel itself is quite straight forward. The Dynon System dominates, with set in between a GMA 345 Radio and Garmin GNS 530 (the GNS 530 pops-out for convenience), and all the upper and lower Circuit Breakers/Fuses are active. Left is an electronic trim, and a ESI-500 or Electronic Standby Instrument unit, that consolidates multiple readings into a single compact display, it also pops out for ease of use.
Autopilot and lighting switchgear is left, Ignition switch, Fuel Primer Pitot Heat, GEN/BAT, Avionics Master and Fuel Pump right, then the three stage flaps (UP 0º - Takeoff 15º - Landing 30º). Lower are six levers; Heating Controls (two), PARK BRAKE, ALTERNATE, POWER (Throttle) and MIXTURE.
Control columns sit between your legs (well done here as the base is lovely and flexible), basic rudder pedals, top off with a red FUEL cock.
In the side pocket (left side) is the stored AviTab that sits on the right hand side window, click to open. It is a full AviTab tool (Plugin required), with the same Navigraph Charts if you have the subscription. The Aerobask general menu is also available on the tablet. Other options can include; Third party integration:
default Laminar GNS530 integration automatic integration of RXP GNT750 (Windows only, needs separate license) automatic integration of TDS GTNXi Pro (Windows only, needs separate license)
Interior fit-out is the usual Aerobask high-quality. Twin Seats with Orange (that colour again!) inserts and Tan surrounds, seat stitching is a glorious bright blue, perfect seatbelts. The rest of the cabin is all very nicely trimmed, with great quality materials.
Note if you click on the lovely headphones, the sounds will be more muffled, and there is a very nice overnight bag in the baggage area behind the seats. Overall internally the DA20 it is as good as you ever expected.
Sounds you ask? well they come from the best, Daniela Rodriguez Careri, and a great range and quality they are with doppler, distance attenuation and flyby effects in a FMOD2 environment, and yes the Continental IO-240-B engine buzzes and rattles under idle, if that annoys you with the great wind effects, then put on the headphones to lessen the din.
Lighting on and in the Diamond is very basic... inside there are only two selections, a knob to adjust the brightness of the Dynon Displays, and a single overhead light, centre roof above your head to illuminate the instruments. Note the lovely canopy reflections (can be turned off).
Externally there are the left wing Landing and Taxi lights, Position (Navigation) and Strobe wing tips, no tail or beacon here. There is the "Pulse" feature, that pulses the landing and taxi lights in sequence.
As the weather has cleared a little, so it is time to head home...
... first is to drop down to 1,500 ft as I home in on Southampton's (EGHI) Rwy 02, there is no ILS on this southern approach, so you use the RNP ((Required Navigation Performance) approach chart. The wind has thankfully dropped to 4 knts, but the DA20 still bounces around, it shows the frame's lightness, it's a tough construction, but very light weight never the less, with a max 760 kg (1,676 lbs) for Takeoff, and an Empty Weight of 470 kg (1,035 lbs).
Cruise speed is around 256 km/h (159 mph, 138 kn), with a Range of 1,013 km (629 mi, 547 nmi) with a 30 minute reserve, and quite a high Service Ceiling at 4,000 m (13,120 ft). In reality you would never fly that high, but using the glider capabilities, it is however allowable to climb and slightly soar back down.
I drop again quickly to 600 ft (no overspeed with the correct throttle reduced!) now at 77 knts for my approach...
Flaps full down for landing (30º), I didn't get a lot of flap lift as I dropped each stage straight to Full, that does depend on your speed of course, but at just under 60 knts was fine. Flaps and hinge detail is excellent from Aerobask.
The DA20 is a high T-Tail aircraft, so you have to watch a loss of lift as the main wings cover the tail from certain angles (you drop quickly), but there is also a secondary effect of those long thin wings. I have only a 4 knt crosswind, and still the Diamond shakes to the effects of that wide wing, great for gliders, but difficult with too much variable lift for a powered aircraft.
As I go over the boundary fence, the Diamond is jigging around, speed is now 55 knts, but I am still well under control of the aircraft, it's moving around under me, but I can counteract the forces easily, it's not in control of me, but the other way around.
Note the runway graphic in the Synthetic Vision, to help during poor opacity vision. By the way, notice the Dynon MAP going red when landing, it is the TAWS in noting the landmass is becoming closer, of which it is, it goes green/normal again on landing.
It was never going to be an easy clean landing, I found a lot of last minute ground effect didn't help either, you need to stay calm and collected and to use your experience and skills to get to the moment of the flare...
... then only a slight flare will do it, then drop the speed to 54 knts at touch, stall speed is a smidge lower at 48 knts...
Landing is the easy part, stopping is a lot harder? your nose wheel is a castor, free! so you have to be very deft on the toe-brakes to keep the Diamond straight on the centreline, it can be done with a bit of practise, but you have to be careful, and controlling right down to a slow taxi speed in not losing the DA20. I did it all nicely, yes, so I'm pretty happy with that landing.
That was the easy bit? now the tricky bit... getting to the GA area?
As you well read readers know that I am not a big fan of taildraggers, worse I'm terrified of castoring nose wheels, tricky buggers as they are.
The pro's say it's all in the light touch of the toe-brakes to bring the rear into line, that does work with a long tail behind you, but what of a loose wheel sitting just right there in front of you? Aerobask do provide assistance in a lock to the yaw, or "Free castor(ing) nose wheel", that said it is still a little tricky to use. You tend to use the joystick yaw as you would a Boeing 737, that aspect does not work here? in this case just very slight nudges left or right is all that is required...
... my return to the hard stand was this time very different from the Jackrabbiting of my first attempt, a calm approach to the tiller and only those miniscule touches left or right, it works, although you are never going to get a perfect straight line, oh, and keep the taxi speed right down to slow... and you will be fine.
It is a single canopy that opens upwards, turn the handle, then push it open from the top... There are two pilots and a passenger.
You can choose between a male pilot and female passenger, two females with a female pilot, or a single male or female pilot. Only the male pilot's head moving left/right is animated. But the quality people are very lifelike and realistic.
Canopy design and glass is first rate, smooooooth and comes with great reflections.
You will find nothing to fault at all here. Aerobask have being doing this exceptional modeling and design for nearly a decade, it's about as close to perfection as you could imagine, everything is perfect, and yes all very smooooooth with this composite modern construction.
Menu
The Aerobask Menu is on the X-Plane banner menu "Diamond DA20 SV by Aerobask". It can also be accessed by the AviTab tablet.
The Menu is the standard Aerobask menu layout, with four tabs; Ground, Options, Sounds and About.
Ground: the first tab "Ground" gives you your FOB (Fuel on Board), and you can select kgs/Lbs and Gal in the single tank (25 gallons (95 liters)), lower is your Livery selection (we will cover the liveries soon). A StartStick 15Ah External Power Unit (EPU) plugs in lower left.
Right panel covers a few basic static elements (engine inlet covers, pitot cover, chocks left rear wheel and a single cone) and the operation of the rear pilot in; Male Pilot - Always Visible, Installed Outside only or Not Installed.
Options: Covers the MAIN, in Instrument Pop-ups, Reflections, Aircraft (Free Castor nose wheel), Navigraph Charts (subscription and switching to either Day or Night charts) and Breaker Reliability. There is the added option for Systems, with the "enable lua.JIT complier (default is ON).
All main instruments options are covered, for both the; MAIN and ESI-500, SKYVIEW #1 and SKYVIEW #2
Almost all options cover the instruments PopUp options, and background choices.
Sounds: This tab covers all your sound options in eight sliders, Master, External, Internal, Pilot, CoPilot, Radios, Environmental and User Interface. There is the global options to Enable Sounds and Enable Speech.
Liveries
There are seven liveries with varied world registrations, and a base white for the painters.
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Summary
This is an all new X-Plane 12 only aircraft release from Aerobask in the Diamond DA20 SV...
A typical Aerobask modern composite design, the DA 20 is a beautiful if very light handling aircraft with the authentic representation of the SV "Synthetic Vision" or Dynon "SkyView Touch" avionics package, a sort of mega Garmin G1000 styled display. Other represented custom instruments is the ESI-500 backup instruments.
Focus here is on the"SkyView Touch", this is a comprehensive version with full authentic details that replicates the real Dynon package, there is also a built in Navigraph charts feature, full hard point Dynon switchgear panels (two), and the side canopy AviTab with built in menus, the four tab menu is also available via clickpoints. Exterior modeling is to perfection, and the Interior is perfectly designed with full carbon-composites and materials.
The Diamond DA20 also known as the Katana /Eclipse comes with rear windows for better visibility, and is powered by a 125 hp (93 kW) Continental IO-240-B engine. It is based on the powered glider Diamond HK36 Super Dimona, supped up here, with a lot more power, but still retains those long thin wings and aerodynamics. It is very light, tricky on the ground with a castor front wheel, but great to fly.
Overall another seriously nice package that Aerobask do so well, and yes a great quality and a value investment for hours of enjoyable flying with all the mod-cons.... brilliant!
👍 That excellent Aerobask quality in design, modeling and aerodynamics, excellent Dynon Avionics, quality sounds, great to fly, loads of fun.
👎 Tricky castor wheel needs patience, requires skills for takeoffs and landings
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Yes! the Diamond DA20 SV by Aerobask is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Diamond DA20 SV by Aerobask
Price is US$34.95
Requirements
X-Plane 12 (not for XP11) Windows, Mac (even native M1, M2 Macs) or Linux 8 GB+ VRAM recommended Current version: 12.0r1 (January 7th 2024) ________________
Installation and documents: the download for the DA20 SV is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder.
Full Installation is 700Mb
Authorisation is required, and a restart. Updates are via Skunkcraft Updater.
AviTab Plugin is required for this aircraft
Documents supplied are:
Aerobask DA20 SV POH.pdf DA20 SV - Checklist Normal.pdf DA20 SV - Emergency Procedures.pdf README - XP12 aircraft installation.pdf
There are a huge amount of Documentation provided here, with a complete POH, Checklist, Emergency Procedures and a guide for installation.
All updates are via the new Skunkcrafts 3.0 Updater
Designed by Aerobask
Support forum for the Diamond DA20 SV _____________________
Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
8th January 2025
Copyright©2025: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.1.3
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- EGHI - Southampton Airport by PilotPlus+(X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$19.95
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in X-Plane v12.1.3 goes Final!
X-Plane v12.1.3 goes Final!
Hello and welcome to a New Year 2025!
To start off the year Laminar has gone final with the latest X-Plane release of v12.1.3... and it comes with a fresh new intro image, hands up all those who hated the Cirrus SR22 brooding horrible start to your X-Plane Application, we are now back to the Boeing 737-800, cheers to all that.
The focus of the v12.1.3 update is on the ATC (Airtraffic Control) with a load of ATC fixes and the important SID/STAR routing. A great change is the Separate Sound devices for aircraft AUDIO and ATC audio, as it now allows you to have aircraft sounds on the desk speakers, and also the ATC on your headphones!
Loads of Weather improvements (NEXRAD recalibration, METAR/GRIB rework, altitude jump fix) and new small scenery addition in KJRB Downtown Manhattan Heliport. The inclusion now of a X-Plane Identity (which a new login system for X-Plane and a stepping stone to the XP Store), some A330 Autopilot improvements and UI (User Interface) changes.
Issues with sudden altitude and pressure changes during mid flight have also been resolved. Additionally, improvements have been made to cloud visualization and interpreting METAR information and wind data. Errors related to the NEXRAD display for document number G1000 have also been addressed.
The User Interface also got attention...
Active runways are now shown in green (grey are non-active), embedded Taxi-routes can now also be toggled ON/OFF
Parking ramp selections now have stand data in, name, type, purpose, size class and equipment.
New was the X-Plane Identity
it added an option to create an account and to link your current license to it
The account is shown on the top right of your "Main Menu" page. I will note that if you update your X-Plane Application, you have to also update the X-Plane Identity as well, it is just a resign-in to make the account active.
The full list of changes can be found on X-Plane.com. or X-PlaneReviews full v12.1.3 details are here.
I didn't expect v12.1.3 to be a long beta, since it's release mid-November 24, in running only a few weeks before going to RC (Release Candidate) releases, I was pretty correct here, but there was also AMD graphic cards and Improved stability for NVIDIA Graphic Cards (Device Loss Errors) added in as well, and both were consistently addressed through the v12.1.3 beta and RC periods for future stability.
Linux dependency issues had to be dropped in support for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Please consider updating to a newer release of Ubuntu if you are still on version 20.04 LTS, as it ships with quite a few outdated libraries.
Notable is that X-Plane is celebrating a "30 Years" anniversary in 2025 (1995), and obviously Laminar are going to shout about it a lot in 2025, which is a great thing in the long history of the X-Plane Simulator.
Laminar Research comments of the year... "New updates crammed full of content, new faces to the Laminar Research team and more friends in our community. Some interesting announcements from Montreal and Vegas, and a few secrets we have not yet revealed..."
I don't know if to be excited or scared about that last comment?
Laminar also noted that next coming... "12.1.4 will be a minor release called 'The Flightlessons Update.'
Welcome to the New Year 2025, X-Plane style!
___________________________
NEWS! by Stephen Dutton
2nd January 2025
Copyright©2025: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Alpeggio in Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC-12 DGS by Thranda Design
Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC-12 DGS by Thranda Design
The most successful General Aviation aircraft in the X-Plane Simulator has been the Cessna Caravan, in two forms, first by Carenado, then by Thranda Design. The second most successful aircraft, again by Carenado was the Pilatus PC-12, and there is a link between the two aircraft.
Both aircraft use the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine, a small gas turbine engine for Turboprops, that drives the propeller through a reduction gearbox. So it is a very smooth engine with a high power output of 1,200 shp. A bit of trivia, the PT6A engine is actually installed in reverse, with the output connected to the reduction gearbox, then directly to the five-blade, constant-speed, full-feathering, reversible-pitch propeller. So basically you are facing the front of the Turboprop engine.
The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft known for its versatility, reliability, and performance. Manufactured by the Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, the PC-12 is widely used for business aviation, medical evacuation, cargo transport, and special missions. It is one of the most popular turboprop aircraft in its class.
Like the Cessna Caravan before it, here now is the Pilatus PC-12 from Thranda Design, an aircraft that is always at the top of any serious users Simulation wishlist. The Carenado offering was very good, but honestly I never bonded with it, it was a small thing in the instrument lighting, clunky to fly and it didn't look very realistic, and a couple of other peculiarities. Also X-Plane has come a long way since that Carenado release in April 2015, so here is the PC-12 reimagined by Thranda Design in it's DGS ((Dynamic Generation Series) form.
The concept for the PC-12 was initiated in the 1980s, following the success of Pilatus’s PC-6 Porter and PC-7/PC-9 trainer aircraft. This was to be a slightly larger aircraft, and Pilatus aimed to create a pressurized, single-engine turboprop aircraft capable of combining passenger, cargo, and utility roles into a single platform. The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine was chosen for its reliability and efficiency, and the maiden flight was achieved on May 31, 1991. Its nickname, the “Swiss Army Knife of Aviation.”
The prototype was technically closer in design to the PC-12/41, which was the initial production variant. In 1996, Pilatus upgraded the PC-12 to the PC-12/45 model, increasing the MTOW to 9,920 pounds (4,500 kilograms) without any major structural changes. This version became the standard production model and replaced the PC-12/41, and became known as the PC-12 Standard. This Thranda aircraft is based on the PC-12/47, another slight gain in takeoff weight of 10,450 pounds (4,740 kgs), the performance stays the same even with the higher MTOW.
Thranda Design are already known for their quality and extensive list of features, so you are already expecting a very good looking Pilatus PC-12, but what was not expected... was how really good this PC-12 really is in the flesh. Maybe we just remember the older aged Careando PC-12, anyway this aircraft just leaps off the screen in quality and detail.... it is without doubt the best looking Thranda aircraft yet.
Modeling is absolutely first rate, nothing even to nit-pick over here, as all the essential detailing is masterly covered. Every detail from vents, latches, aerials and beacons are all covered. Note the beautiful exhaust horns and lovely chrome spinner.
The wings have a straight leading edge with a slightly tapered shape towards the wingtip, and the trailing edge is also tapered, giving the wing a sleek appearance and delivering improving aerodynamics. Then they also only have a moderate sweep angle, the wings are not highly swept back, but angled enough to help with high-speed stability and fuel efficiency. You could call it a modern clean wing.
Notable is the right wing bulge, which contains a radar antenna, part of the onboard weather detection system. The system is used to detect precipitation, turbulence, and other weather-related hazards. The curved winglets are really nicely done, the earlier PC-12s had the more squared off wingtips.
Flaps are four positions (0º - 15º - 20º - 40º)... 15º is used for takeoff, and the PC-12 is considered as a STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) aircraft, as the 40º setting allows steeper approaches and shorter landings. Flap detail internally is excellent, as the flap tracks are all very aerodynamically pronounced.
Nosewheel is a simple strut leg, fitted with durable, multi-ply tires. Rear gear is trailing-link, and the landing gear is specially designed to handle operations on unpaved, gravel, or grass strips, also reduce debris damage during takeoff and landing. The Landing gear and airframe components are also upgraded for durability under heavier loads in the heavier 12/47 we have here.
Quality and detail of the wheel and strut assembly is expertly done, and all three wheels have built in taxi and landing lights.
Glass is very good, tinted on the main cockpit windows, and all the glass comes with nice reflections (that can be turned off).
External Static Elements
The Thranda PC-12 has a nice selection of external Static Elements, including; Chocks (rear wheels), Engine inlet and exhaust covers, Tags, Pitot covers, Tiedowns and a support stand. GPU (Ground Power Unit), and both opening doors (forward and large rear left cargo door).
Cabin
Up into the aircraft....
.... the cabin layout is in an "Executive" style of only six seats, with the forward seats set in a "Club" style. In a commuter or charter cabin configuration, you can have installed in here 10 seats (single-pilot). Forward area has a very nice mahogany wood grain on the wardrobe and small buffet.
The passenger seats are excellent, HUGE, cushy, with lovely ripples showing off the leather, the orange headrests are a nice touch as well (in Executive cabins Orange seems to be the current trend lately), the rear of the seat also can be laid back. There are two (animated) tables, one with the set of left club seats, and another on the single left rear seat.
Fine (lovely) window shades are also all individually animated...
... Lighting and Air-Vent fixtures are exquisite, animated as well for movement, to turn on you press the centre of the lamp. Rear cargo hold is covered by a lovely blue netting with chrome rings, everything is done in here with a fine eye for detail.
Cockpit
Through the slight gap and your in the very tight cockpit, it looks small and it feels very intimate.
Although not a full glass cockpit with big display panels, it still feels very modern by it's layout and instruments. Extremely well done here, it has a great look and comes with a realistic avionic feel by Thranda Design.
The seats are set right up against the bulkhead highlighting the small space, they are very nice with their sheepskin covers, and the armrests can all be lifted and hidden away behind the seat.
Control yokes are excellent and realistically worn, and come with Electric Trim, PTT (working Push-To-Talk) button, and also a disconnect AP (Autopilot) button, you can hide the yokes individually, via the hot-spot on the rear.
Main electrical and lighting overhead panel (OHP) is still marginally obstructed by the pull down shades, so you have to move them to access certain parts of the switchgear, I found to move the shades right out of the way to the side, because they became quite annoying every time you wanted to access the lighting switch gear.
The armrests hide the throttle which in turn hides the condition/feather lever (in one) of which you use a lot, thankfully the armrests can be moved up here to get access. There are more rocker lighting switches for panel, cockpit and cabin lighting on the rear of the pedestal with four extra adjustment knobs, The flap selection lever is of 0º - 15º - 30º and 40º of flap, and the flap indicator is positioned in the very top left of the pilots panel.
Honestly you won't find this layout much different from the Carenado PC-12 version, you even have the same rudder pedal adjustment, via the nice winder.
Power on... and voltages will change with any power selections! On the OHP many of the switches have a double function as in the first right switch turns the item on and you then select the choice by the second switch for two selections. It is very easy to use once you understand the functionality.
Earlier generation PC-12s had either the Honeywell Primus Apex or Bendix/King Avionics. Here it is the Bendix/King KFC 325 Digital/Electronic Flight Control System panel (EFIS). The EFIS takes in two of the six standard flight instruments in the upper "EADI" ((Electronic Attitude Director Indicator) and the lower "EHSI" (Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator).
The others are the Airspeed, Altitude, Vertical Speed (V/S) and RMI (Radio Magnetic Indicator). There is a backup CDI (Course deviation indicator) but that is also built into the EFIS and two other backup instruments in another Artificial Horizon and Altitude dials and AFD direction finder. Co-Pilot's side is the same EFIS standard six layout without the backup dials.
Center panel top under the extensive deep glareshield is the excellent Benedix/King KFC 325 Digital/Electronic Flight Control System (EFIS) and the autopilot panel pops out. Next to the autopilot is the GARMIN GMA 340 Radio Comms Panel. Your ADF unit is the standard KR 87T50 Bendex/King ADF receiver. Note the large Radar Altimeter far right lower.
The KFC 325 is in four sections, EADI/EHSI, VVI (KAS297C), Autopilot Panel (KMC 321) and EFSI Select Panel. The centrally positioned EFIS Select Panel has a lot of features, with Course, DH (Decision Height) and ADF (1-2) / VOR (1-2) pointers built into the EFIS display. You can also switch from the HSI to ARC mode view as well.
The focal point of any PC-12 is the central EIS (Engine Indication System) which complements the EHSI by offering an integrated view of flight data and engine performance on the MFD. It displays; Torque, ITT (Inter-Turbine Temperature), Ng (Gas Generator Speed), Np (Propeller RPM), OAT, Fuel - Quantity x 2, FL(ow) H(our), Used and ENDUR (Endurance). GEN 1/GEN 2 Voltage and Current (Amperage), Date and Time. Engine Oil Temperature and Pressure. The EIS can also be tested. It pops out here as a window, can be scaled and moved anywhere on the screen.
In fact any instrument can be popped out, scaled and moved under the DGS system.
48 visible Annunciator lights cover Caution and Warning alerts, the panel pops out and you can test the system and the OHP annunciator lights via the button far left top on the OHP.
This Instrument layout does not cover all of the DGS options, that aspect is covered in the menus. But this layout would be considered the PC-12 default setup.
There are banks of Fuses/Circuit Beakers on each side wall panel, and every one is active and can be used.
Menu/Tablet
Since the last Thranda release of the PC-6 Turbo Porter, included was a new feature of built in EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) or Tablet and combined also with the menu.
The iPad/Tablet can be used in the aircraft. There is a brown circular patch on the window, if you press the hot-spot, then the IPad/Tablet will appear, if you press the rear sucker cup, then it will also disappear... and the same tablet is also attached to the right hand side window.
The iPad/Tablet can be tilt adjusted via the top edge, but not too far in movement as the window's glass gets in the way, but there is also far more movement in here than with the PC-6 installation.
Menu layout is the same as the PC-6 with 13 icons to choose from; Aircraft Options, Weight & Balance, INSTR Options, Panel Editor, Static Liveries, DYNAFEEL, Log Book, Checklist, Ground Handling, Dynamic Liveries, Flight Computer, Equipment and AviTab... at the bottom is a "Brightness" slider 0% to 100%.
The side Arrow window tab is still there, and so it still does have the same pop-up menu for external use.
Aircraft Options
This page menu is also changed from the earlier Thranda "General" selection, but the options and the layout stays the same, the layout is still as highly detailed and as very comprehensive as before in the General tab.
Three selections cover group items, but any one item via "Click Spots" can be individually selected or hidden via the aircraft graphic.
"ALL COVERS" will select engine inlet/outlet covers and pitot cover, "ALL TIE-DOWNS" for propeller and wing tie-downs and "ALL DOORS" for the main cabin door and the rear Cargo door, sadly there is no PT6A engine reveal like on the PC-6, however the engine can be set into two modes... SIMPLIFIED or REALISTIC
In Simplified mode the engine will automatically limit the engine to remain below the maximum torque of 47.3 psi. In Realistic mode it will be up to the pilot to avoid exceeding the engine limitations. The propeller gearbox or propeller shaft can break if the torque limit is exceeded by a certain margin, resulting in engine failure and smoke in the cabin (the smoke can be cleared by pulling the firewall air shutoff control closed).
Other Aircraft Options menu selections cover; Window and Instrument Panel Reflections on/off, Startup Running on/off, GPU (Ground Power Unit), Chocks and Brakes on/off. There is a Steering SIMPIFIED or REALISTIC, but the PC-12 is not a taildragger, (this option locks the tailwheel) so an odd addition? All EXT - External Lights can be switched on and off as can ALL INT - Internal lights. The individual lights can also be accessed on the aircraft graphic.
The Electric Tug on the nosewheel, movement is controlled via your joystick and rudder pedals (yaw).
Weight & Balance
The PC-12 has the same intricate great "Weight and Balance" menu as earlier Thanda aircraft. Weights are in both Lbs and Kgs, which can be selected via the toggle...
Pilot, passengers and cargo can all be set for their individual weights (scroll), and the CofG (Centre of Gravity) parameters are all shown on a graph and with a marker on the aircraft of it's physical CofG, when done you can SAVE the configuration and later reload it.
INSTR Options
Next menu item is your "Instrument Option" menu page. There are four options available; GPS #1 Popup (GNS 530), GPS #2 Popup (GNS 430), KFC 325 Autopilot Popup, all again are scalable. And there is also the option to change the Baro Units from mb to inhg.
Panel Editor
"Panel Editor"... is part of the Thranda featured "Dynamic Generation Series", More about the DGS Series
The Thranda PC-12 can be highly customised in two areas to suit your taste. First in Dynamic Panel, as there is no default instrument setup, in the Pilatus as you can customise the panel to suit your own flying preferences. In the iPad/Tablet configuration the screen space is now far larger than the old "Panel" Menu. This is good, because as some of the small access zones in the menu before tended to overlap each over, so you always found yourself adjusting (scrolling) the wrong item.
Top row of options are 2 different panel backgrounds, here in KFC 325 or G1000 with three display screens. (Note all options can be mouse scrolled). There are other panel options of which we can see later.
The "Dynamic" in the panel is another featured DGS. Besides having different custom panel configurations, you can also customise the instrument panel by selecting "ENABLE 3D PANEL EDIT MODE". This will highlight the available instruments you can change in green.
Selecting an instrument via the "INDIV INST" (Individual Instrument) and "ACTIVE INSTRUMENT", it will highlight the instrument you want to say, move to another place or to adjust items position on the Instrument Panel... There is however a slightly different adjustment system now in being used here, arrows in a cross.
They will now allow you to adjust the depth (in/out), angle up/down or left/right, besides using the smaller white arrows to move the item around the panel in again up/down or left/right.
You can also add in tools and instrument features of 52 different items, and these items also includes the Aspen EFD 1000 avionics.
Alpine Avionics Evolution
Part of the options available is the EFD 1000 which is a self-contained multifunction digital display that is divided into a Primary Flight Display (PFD) in the top half, and an Electric Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI) in the lower half. As EDF 1000 systems go it is not a highly featured system, with the GPSS, MAP, 360 and Menu functions all not simulated, but the display does pop-out... It works of course with the KFC 325 Autopilot.
Basically you can also start with a completely blank panel and then create your own unique or personal instrument layout... and can have up to, or can save 14 different panel layouts (presets), and with the Reality GTN 750 as shown here.
Static Liveries
There are nine provided liveries, one extra is noted as "DYNAMICLIVERYRESOURCES", this is the space on the menu for the custom DGS livery for ease of selection. A dedicated NGX and Pilatus House is also included.
"ZZTEMPLATELIVERY" liveries is now missing as the DGS system has been more refined, it is now more smoother and the long wait pause times have been reduced.
You can adjust the "Dirt" 0% to 100% by scrolling the number... for a clean or dirty aircraft.
DYNAFEEL
"DynaFeel" is a system that dynamically adjusts the rate at which the controls deflect, in Pitch, Roll and Yaw. It is based on airspeed and how much the control's are deflected. This means the controls will feel light and responsive at low speeds and with some small deflections, but will get progressively heavier as the airspeed increases.
Logbook
This is one feature adopted from the JustFlight Menu. This Icon will just show the X-Plane Logbook window.
Checklist
A 35 page checklist is very comprehensive set in the iPad/Tablet. Navigation is via the lower left/right arrows, or you can scroll the pages via the centre box bottom. The Checklist will also pop-out into a scalable window, to make the list available anywhere in the cockpit.... You tick off the list one-by-one (green), but there is no default to clear the list in one click?
Ground Handling
This option just views the X-Plane default "Ground Handling" window. if you prefer that tool over the Thranda electric tug.
Dynamic Liveries
Earlier we saw the available "Static Liveries". Here you can actually design your own livery and save the livery.
You have a menu to select on the right that can colour a certain part of the aircraft, like the Roof, Wing, Tail or Wing tips. Select which one you want and then adjust (scroll) the RGB colours for that area. Other options include changing the Registration of the aircraft and putting the "Pilatus" logo under the cockpit window. It looks hard but you can easily design a very nice livery in about twenty minutes...
... when done you can "Save" (Add) the livery and then "APPLY" it to the aircraft. When you apply the livery the screen will then freeze for a few minutes, and then go a bit weird? as the DGS processes the livery. The results are however excellent.
A note... if the created livery does not appear correctly? Then go to the Static Liveries and select "Apply", then go back to the created Dynamic Livery and do it again, this time it should create the livery you wanted.
A feature is the (Quick) selection of Dirt via percentage selections you can adjust the amount of Dirt, Scratches and Dirt Int on the aircraft (0%-255%) and apply it instantly. So you can have either a pristine or a very grubby aircraft with just a twirl of the numbers. Also changes can can be made to the Metal or Rough surfaces, this can be applied to any of the liveries. Note you can apply the same Dirt and Scratches onto any of the Static Liveries directly via that particular menu.
There are 31 pre-installed Dynamic liveries to choose from, and you can save as many custom ideas as you want (within reason).
Flight Computer
Another new feature from the JustFlight menu. This shows you your current aircraft data including; OAT, GS (Ground Speed), Endurance, Range, NMPG/SMPG, Altitude, TAS (speed), Fuel Flow, Fuel Used, Headwind (knts) and Crosswind (Knts). Both units in Metric or Imperial are also available.... and you can reset the fuel burn.
Equipment
Under the "Equipment" Icon you have several items as external options, these items were originally under the MISC tab. There are two "Equipment" options, Recog (Recognition) Lights. This option makes the outer under wing lights "pulse" or not.
You can select either a "Female" Pilot (Mrs Klaue) or a "Male" Pilot (Mr Klaue)
AviTab
AviTab is a PDF viewer, Airport info, METAR info and ILS frequencies information tool, it also has a moving map that supports online maps and offline maps, Navigraph integration in that you can link your Navigraph account and see the charts right in the cockpit. In the PC-12 the Avitab is available in both the 3D tablet and a scalable pop-out window.
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Internal Lighting
I was not very taken with the PC-12 Carenado lighting, it looked over saturated and not very realistic, it was the X-Plane 10/11 era as well, and in not having any of the the X-Plane 12 dynamics. So I was expecting a big leap forward by Thranda, and I wasn't disappointed.
It looks amazing... the X-Plane 12 dynamics really shine in here (pun intended). Everything is controlled via the lighting panel rear console.
Four Rocker switches have double selections, two have three selections (DOME & Cabin FLOOD). Advisory has DIM and NORM. The four lighting knobs of which three are for the panel lighting work nicely as well. PHL (Panel) has three knob options to reduce the text lighting for either side pilot and the centre console.
Fourth knob adjusts the lower flood lighting, including the nicely lit side panels and glareshield lighting. All can be turned off for takeoff and landing minimum glare lighting.
Three way DOME (OFF-50%-100%) switch activates the twin overhead cockpit spots.
Overall the internal cockpit lighting is a nice bit of kit and very flexible to your tastes.
In the cabin, you again have the FLOOD (OFF-50%-100%) selection via the main two lighting strips, and 12 clickable individual READING spot lights that can be focused around. The Reading lights are tricky to switch on via their small central hotspots, but the ALL ON internal lights option is on the menu.
External Lighting
There are five forward lights in; Taxi and Landing lights on each wheel, and two RECOG (Recognition) lights that can be set to PULSE. WING/ICE light (left side), Strobe, Beacon, Tail Lights and Navigation lights make up an impressive external lighting.
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Flying the PC-12/47
This is a three airport flight, Wrangell PAWG to Petersburg PAPG then on to Sitka Rocky Gutierrez PASI, all three airport sceneries are by NorthernSky Studios Scenery, and they with others also cover this whole "Inside Passage" area of Alaska.
I did the same flight way back when with the Carenado PC-12, so I wanted to revisit the flight in X-Plane 12. So after setting up the aircraft, power on, Baro done, Fuel pumps on, lights set, blinds moved out of the way... it was time to start the P&W PT6A powerplant... SimpleSimon, Just put the CONDITION lever to "Flight Idle" (once started you bring it back to "Ground Idle"), "Starter" on, then just press the IGNITION button...
... then the Engine Management System (EMS) does all the work, this aircraft also has the Electronic Propeller and Engine Control System (EPECS). EPECS is an advanced engine management system integrated into the PC-12/47’s Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67P engine very similar to FADAC, offering several benefits to simplify engine and propeller management while improving performance and reliability. It uses a single-lever power control that simplifies pilot workload by integrating propeller RPM and engine power into the one control lever.
It takes a fair while for the engine to whine (that wonderful familiar PT6A start), and then the turbine speeds up to ignition, then the aircraft comes to life. It's a procedure I love every time I start the PC-12, the startup sounds are quite brilliant as well as Thranda are excellent in sound management. When all the engine parameters are settled, off goes the park brake...
... like the Carenado PC-12 it taxis fast, so you need a bit of footwork to keep to a slower taxi speed, bringing back the CONDITION lever to "Ground Idle" helps a little, but it's still a little too fast for me.
Steers nice, but the high cowling makes the centreline of the runway hard to see, so you taxi a bit to the right to follow it.
No flightplan here, it's only 31 nautical miles (NM) straight north from Wrangell Airport (PAWG) to Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport (PAPG), I have done it 50 times or more, so no guidance is required.
This is my second time in the Thranda PC-12/47 from PAWG to PAPG. The first was a very messy flight test flight, the PC-12 was impossible to fly cleanly? Because there is a "Trick" to flying the PC-12... As the PT6A puts out 1,200 SHP through a single-prop, it produces horrible asymmetric thrust, a pain on takeoff, hell on landing. The trick is to set the rudder trim to the far right (green zone) to counteract the forces, you may need to set an X-Plane key COMMAND to adjust the rudder trim this far right or use the Autotrim.
It looks odd this far an angle, but it works beautifully were it counts. Flap selection can be either 15º for a Normal Takeoff, or 30º for a Short/Soft Field Takeoff... I select 30º to test the STOL effect.
Power up with the single throttle T-Bar lever, and the PC-12 pulls quickly away at a 3995 Kg TOW, 4740 Kg is MTOW... speed builds quickly, but Wrangell's RWY 28 is seriously bumpy, so the trailing link gear and your rudder control are both working overtime...
At just under 100 kts I hit a massive bump mid-way down the runway, and the PC-12 literally bounces straight into the air without moving the stick? I'm now flying...
It is the STOL effect at work, but I catch the moment, and pull the PC-12 into a climb of just over 1,200 fpm, Max Climb is 1,920 fpm, and the average is climb out is usually around 1,500 fpm, but I'm not going very high with the short distance to PAPG.
Kadin Island is directly ahead of you, so you do a slight roll to the right as you climb out out of RWY 28 PAPG, this Thranda PC-12 is excellent for feel and feedback, you are instantly in touch with the machine, be as one from the start.
I top out at 3,400 ft, to pass both Kadin Island (left) and then Dry Island (right), then reset my altitude to 3,000ft.
The PC-12 looks sublime in the fading light of the day, this is only a short hop between PAWG and PAPG, but I'm enjoying it immensely, if you feel this good, it must be good. I am now seeing why this aircraft is so revered.
PC-12 Service ceiling is around 9,150 m (30,000 ft), with a Power/mass of 3.7 kg/shp (8.2 lb/shp), you have big Range with 0 passengers (Ferry) it's 3,389 km (1,830 nm), full Range with 9 passengers is 2,804 km (1,753 mi) (1,513 nm). From now on it will be a long slow descent into Petersburg.
You head directly towards the right hand coastline, before angling slowly around Frederick's Point and into PAPG, but this is not the official route into RWY 23, as both LDA (Landing Distance Available) and the RNV approaches demand you arrive only from the Northeast. It is also a tight twist in the final moments into RWY 23.
I'm loving this long wide sweeping curve into Petersburg, losing 300 fpm in height, flaps already at 30º, with a speed of 80 kts, it is a slow and graceful approach.
Gear down and the focus is totally on finding the hidden threshold of RWY 23. Gear sounds are excellent, a very slight "thump", "thump" and "thump"...
... from the 700 ft approach down to 500 ft, I'm ready for finals, grinning from ear to ear with a quick glace at the moving shiny water, loving this.
I was as low a speed as 72 kts as I flared the nose, almost stall speed (67 knts), but I felt a lot of wing support, and only a small drift down, yes I am feeling totally in control, again be aware of the offset rudder trim, and it is again to be set in the green zone, if not you will pull badly to the left on landing, it's nasty believe me. Touch was right on stall... 70 kts. Yes the PT6A will do an extremely powerful reverse thrust (reversible-pitch propeller) here and has that amazing Cessna Caravan howl, but PAPG 05/23 has a long 6400 ft runway, so the RT was not needed here.
Clean up the PC-12 and head to the terminal area, I'm getting more used to the taxi, but it still feels a little fast, most Thranda's are, fast in the taxi.
Move into the parking place, and turn off the PT6A-67P by the CONDITION lever, and the wail, like the Cessna Caravan wail, while the engine winds down is so familiar... yes I love it all.
Early the next morning it was a longer and higher flight out to Sitka. 10,000 ft is only nearly a third the altitude PC-12 can fly high to, at 30,000 ft with pressurization, but FL010 is a nice if perfect altitude to take in one of the greatest flying areas in the world, Alaska's "Inside Passage".
The trick of the PC-12 is that it is a Turboprop that thinks it is a Light Jet, it flies smooth like a jet, has loads of power, and as noted can even fly higher than most small jets, this executive cabin arrangement adds in to the same role.
The KFC 325 autopilot panel pops out and can be scaled, moved, which is very handy...
... but the EFSI Select Panel is awkward to use in the centre of the instrument panel, with the heading knob the furthest away from you, a pop-up panel for this Select panel would be really handy.
The VVI (KAS297C) is tricky to use if your not familiar with it, the tuning button will switch between Altitude (setting) and V/S (Vertical Speed).
So you set the altitude, then ARM it via the lower button, but where it is odd is that the indicator ARM light goes out and not on when you arm the altitude, which makes it confusing? The V/S is activated by the top button, when you have selected the vertical speed + or -
The PC-12 is excellent in this cruise mode, just a smudge over 200 kts is fast enough. The ride in the back is not bad either.
BIORKA ISLAND VORTAC (113.80 BKA) (SITKA) is the official way into PASI from the south, east or west, via a long circuit track.
You pass waypoints KOYEG, then JETUT, a hard 90º turn to HEXAP situated on the start of the ILS 108.90 ISIT, which takes you into Sitka's SIT Rwy 11.
I align the aircraft with the ILS beam to find the runway, hidden in the bright low morning light... the PC-12 is now configured for landing, flaps a full 40º, gear down, trim set (don't forget the rudder trim?), so my approach speed is again a very low 72 knts.
You forget how good X-Plane 12 is now, brilliant water, bright cascading sunlight... love it.
I am also now very familiar on the how to do approaches in the PC-12, as slow as you dare go, adjust the throttle to finely keep you airborne, just like landing in slow motion.
You always need that high flare to rub off the final speed to almost a stall, then glide your way in... this time I used the powerful reverse thrust, the sounds go up! noisy, but brilliant, and the speed drops off very quickly. Note the CONDITION lever to "Ground Idle"), you have to look at the lever being set correctly from the side, looking straight down it is not aligned correctly.
And I am now back in Sitka again, and it is so different to the old Carenado days, a far, far better PC-12, and a far better scenery around me.... X-Plane 12 delivers as well, so a great combo all round...
... it brings back big memories, but more so this flight has created new one, better ones, than those days that behind us that should now be forgotten, via X-Plane 12, and the excellent Pilatus PC-12.
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Summary
The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft known for its versatility, reliability, and performance. Manufactured by the Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, the PC-12 is widely used for business aviation, medical evacuation, cargo transport, and special missions. It is one of the most popular turboprop aircraft in its class.
The Carenado Cessna Caravan was one of the biggest X-Plane GA sellers, the Carenado PC-12 was not far behind, mostly because of that unique and powerful PT6A turbine engine. Thranda's PC-12 now follows their earlier released Cessna Caravan for X-Plane 12,.
Daniel Klaue needs no introduction if you have been in X-Plane for a period of time, he is certainly one of the most innovative, and one of the most talented developers out there that, a person that is very highly regarded within the X-Plane Simulator.
This PC-12 is a Dan Klaue aircraft, and so you expect tons of ideas and clever features, and certainly the Thanda designs PC-12 does not disappoint in that department. Modeling and detail is absolutely first rate, this is an excellent Pilatus aircraft with a lovely design and high quality. This is a first release in X-Plane 12, and not a conversion from X-Plane 11, it's all new, new.
X-Plane 12 textures in 8k (four times the higher resolution than before) it shows of course, but without the framerate hit. The EFB... Electronic Flight Bag, or the Thranda Tablet is still basically all new as introduced on the PC6, with now with 13 options, and all the pop-out windows are scalable. Flying Dynamics are also completely dynamic for XP12, as is the better LED lighting. Advanced FMOD (2)-based sound system is extensive for XP12, and all of course recorded from a real PC-12 and it's PT6 engine,
The innovative menu system "Dynamic Generation Series", in you can create your own instrument panel layout or layouts as up to 14 different layouts of 44 instruments and avionics can be saved with 6 default layouts including a Aspen EFD 1000 with here the KFC 325 autopilot, and the panel is also RealityXP GNS 530W/430W or GTN 750/650 Touch with 3D bezels ready. A huge selection of 32 liveries is still complimented with a feature to create your own colour scheme and livery, then you can save them as well. This aircraft is X-Plane 12 only.
Overall you get a huge feature list with a great value price for X-Plane 12, so this is absolutely the perfect PC-12 you always dreamed of. The PC-12 was very much requested, and here it is now available in this very high quality package... so what more can you ask for!
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Yes! the Pilatus PC-12 DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Pilatus PC-12 DGS Series XP12
Price is US$44.95
Requirements
Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB VRAM Recommended Download Size: 4.1 GB - Download via the Skunkcraft Updater Current version 1.0 (December 19th 2024) Limited Time Offer: If you own the Carenado PC12 XP11, you can get $10 off this model. Discount will automatically be applied at checkout. Offer ends January 15th 2025 or sooner. We reserve the right to terminate this offer at any time _____________________
Installation and documents: Download is 4.05Gb and the aircraft is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder.
Installation key is required on start up and is supplied with the purchased download file. Full installation is 7.46Gb (heavy)
SkunkCrafts Updater works with the Thranda PC-12, so instant updates are always available.
Documents supplied are:
Thranda Pilatus PC12 Manual XP12.pdf PILATUS PC12 PERFORMANCE.pdf X-Plane G430 Manual.pdf X-Plane G530 Manual.pdf
A Blank Livery (PNG) of four files are provided for painting. Checklists, setting and loads of Performance graphs are provided in the various manuals
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Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD - Bose Quiet Comfort QC35 Headphones
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane Version 12.0.1.3
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99
Scenery or Aircraft
- PAWG - Wrangell Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$16.95
- PAPG - Petersburg James Johnson Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$12.00
- PASI - Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$15.00
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Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
21st December 2024
Copyright©2024 : X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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Stephen got a reaction from Gabwb in Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC-12 DGS by Thranda Design
Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC-12 DGS by Thranda Design
The most successful General Aviation aircraft in the X-Plane Simulator has been the Cessna Caravan, in two forms, first by Carenado, then by Thranda Design. The second most successful aircraft, again by Carenado was the Pilatus PC-12, and there is a link between the two aircraft.
Both aircraft use the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine, a small gas turbine engine for Turboprops, that drives the propeller through a reduction gearbox. So it is a very smooth engine with a high power output of 1,200 shp. A bit of trivia, the PT6A engine is actually installed in reverse, with the output connected to the reduction gearbox, then directly to the five-blade, constant-speed, full-feathering, reversible-pitch propeller. So basically you are facing the front of the Turboprop engine.
The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft known for its versatility, reliability, and performance. Manufactured by the Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, the PC-12 is widely used for business aviation, medical evacuation, cargo transport, and special missions. It is one of the most popular turboprop aircraft in its class.
Like the Cessna Caravan before it, here now is the Pilatus PC-12 from Thranda Design, an aircraft that is always at the top of any serious users Simulation wishlist. The Carenado offering was very good, but honestly I never bonded with it, it was a small thing in the instrument lighting, clunky to fly and it didn't look very realistic, and a couple of other peculiarities. Also X-Plane has come a long way since that Carenado release in April 2015, so here is the PC-12 reimagined by Thranda Design in it's DGS ((Dynamic Generation Series) form.
The concept for the PC-12 was initiated in the 1980s, following the success of Pilatus’s PC-6 Porter and PC-7/PC-9 trainer aircraft. This was to be a slightly larger aircraft, and Pilatus aimed to create a pressurized, single-engine turboprop aircraft capable of combining passenger, cargo, and utility roles into a single platform. The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine was chosen for its reliability and efficiency, and the maiden flight was achieved on May 31, 1991. Its nickname, the “Swiss Army Knife of Aviation.”
The prototype was technically closer in design to the PC-12/41, which was the initial production variant. In 1996, Pilatus upgraded the PC-12 to the PC-12/45 model, increasing the MTOW to 9,920 pounds (4,500 kilograms) without any major structural changes. This version became the standard production model and replaced the PC-12/41, and became known as the PC-12 Standard. This Thranda aircraft is based on the PC-12/47, another slight gain in takeoff weight of 10,450 pounds (4,740 kgs), the performance stays the same even with the higher MTOW.
Thranda Design are already known for their quality and extensive list of features, so you are already expecting a very good looking Pilatus PC-12, but what was not expected... was how really good this PC-12 really is in the flesh. Maybe we just remember the older aged Careando PC-12, anyway this aircraft just leaps off the screen in quality and detail.... it is without doubt the best looking Thranda aircraft yet.
Modeling is absolutely first rate, nothing even to nit-pick over here, as all the essential detailing is masterly covered. Every detail from vents, latches, aerials and beacons are all covered. Note the beautiful exhaust horns and lovely chrome spinner.
The wings have a straight leading edge with a slightly tapered shape towards the wingtip, and the trailing edge is also tapered, giving the wing a sleek appearance and delivering improving aerodynamics. Then they also only have a moderate sweep angle, the wings are not highly swept back, but angled enough to help with high-speed stability and fuel efficiency. You could call it a modern clean wing.
Notable is the right wing bulge, which contains a radar antenna, part of the onboard weather detection system. The system is used to detect precipitation, turbulence, and other weather-related hazards. The curved winglets are really nicely done, the earlier PC-12s had the more squared off wingtips.
Flaps are four positions (0º - 15º - 20º - 40º)... 15º is used for takeoff, and the PC-12 is considered as a STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) aircraft, as the 40º setting allows steeper approaches and shorter landings. Flap detail internally is excellent, as the flap tracks are all very aerodynamically pronounced.
Nosewheel is a simple strut leg, fitted with durable, multi-ply tires. Rear gear is trailing-link, and the landing gear is specially designed to handle operations on unpaved, gravel, or grass strips, also reduce debris damage during takeoff and landing. The Landing gear and airframe components are also upgraded for durability under heavier loads in the heavier 12/47 we have here.
Quality and detail of the wheel and strut assembly is expertly done, and all three wheels have built in taxi and landing lights.
Glass is very good, tinted on the main cockpit windows, and all the glass comes with nice reflections (that can be turned off).
External Static Elements
The Thranda PC-12 has a nice selection of external Static Elements, including; Chocks (rear wheels), Engine inlet and exhaust covers, Tags, Pitot covers, Tiedowns and a support stand. GPU (Ground Power Unit), and both opening doors (forward and large rear left cargo door).
Cabin
Up into the aircraft....
.... the cabin layout is in an "Executive" style of only six seats, with the forward seats set in a "Club" style. In a commuter or charter cabin configuration, you can have installed in here 10 seats (single-pilot). Forward area has a very nice mahogany wood grain on the wardrobe and small buffet.
The passenger seats are excellent, HUGE, cushy, with lovely ripples showing off the leather, the orange headrests are a nice touch as well (in Executive cabins Orange seems to be the current trend lately), the rear of the seat also can be laid back. There are two (animated) tables, one with the set of left club seats, and another on the single left rear seat.
Fine (lovely) window shades are also all individually animated...
... Lighting and Air-Vent fixtures are exquisite, animated as well for movement, to turn on you press the centre of the lamp. Rear cargo hold is covered by a lovely blue netting with chrome rings, everything is done in here with a fine eye for detail.
Cockpit
Through the slight gap and your in the very tight cockpit, it looks small and it feels very intimate.
Although not a full glass cockpit with big display panels, it still feels very modern by it's layout and instruments. Extremely well done here, it has a great look and comes with a realistic avionic feel by Thranda Design.
The seats are set right up against the bulkhead highlighting the small space, they are very nice with their sheepskin covers, and the armrests can all be lifted and hidden away behind the seat.
Control yokes are excellent and realistically worn, and come with Electric Trim, PTT (working Push-To-Talk) button, and also a disconnect AP (Autopilot) button, you can hide the yokes individually, via the hot-spot on the rear.
Main electrical and lighting overhead panel (OHP) is still marginally obstructed by the pull down shades, so you have to move them to access certain parts of the switchgear, I found to move the shades right out of the way to the side, because they became quite annoying every time you wanted to access the lighting switch gear.
The armrests hide the throttle which in turn hides the condition/feather lever (in one) of which you use a lot, thankfully the armrests can be moved up here to get access. There are more rocker lighting switches for panel, cockpit and cabin lighting on the rear of the pedestal with four extra adjustment knobs, The flap selection lever is of 0º - 15º - 30º and 40º of flap, and the flap indicator is positioned in the very top left of the pilots panel.
Honestly you won't find this layout much different from the Carenado PC-12 version, you even have the same rudder pedal adjustment, via the nice winder.
Power on... and voltages will change with any power selections! On the OHP many of the switches have a double function as in the first right switch turns the item on and you then select the choice by the second switch for two selections. It is very easy to use once you understand the functionality.
Earlier generation PC-12s had either the Honeywell Primus Apex or Bendix/King Avionics. Here it is the Bendix/King KFC 325 Digital/Electronic Flight Control System panel (EFIS). The EFIS takes in two of the six standard flight instruments in the upper "EADI" ((Electronic Attitude Director Indicator) and the lower "EHSI" (Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator).
The others are the Airspeed, Altitude, Vertical Speed (V/S) and RMI (Radio Magnetic Indicator). There is a backup CDI (Course deviation indicator) but that is also built into the EFIS and two other backup instruments in another Artificial Horizon and Altitude dials and AFD direction finder. Co-Pilot's side is the same EFIS standard six layout without the backup dials.
Center panel top under the extensive deep glareshield is the excellent Benedix/King KFC 325 Digital/Electronic Flight Control System (EFIS) and the autopilot panel pops out. Next to the autopilot is the GARMIN GMA 340 Radio Comms Panel. Your ADF unit is the standard KR 87T50 Bendex/King ADF receiver. Note the large Radar Altimeter far right lower.
The KFC 325 is in four sections, EADI/EHSI, VVI (KAS297C), Autopilot Panel (KMC 321) and EFSI Select Panel. The centrally positioned EFIS Select Panel has a lot of features, with Course, DH (Decision Height) and ADF (1-2) / VOR (1-2) pointers built into the EFIS display. You can also switch from the HSI to ARC mode view as well.
The focal point of any PC-12 is the central EIS (Engine Indication System) which complements the EHSI by offering an integrated view of flight data and engine performance on the MFD. It displays; Torque, ITT (Inter-Turbine Temperature), Ng (Gas Generator Speed), Np (Propeller RPM), OAT, Fuel - Quantity x 2, FL(ow) H(our), Used and ENDUR (Endurance). GEN 1/GEN 2 Voltage and Current (Amperage), Date and Time. Engine Oil Temperature and Pressure. The EIS can also be tested. It pops out here as a window, can be scaled and moved anywhere on the screen.
In fact any instrument can be popped out, scaled and moved under the DGS system.
48 visible Annunciator lights cover Caution and Warning alerts, the panel pops out and you can test the system and the OHP annunciator lights via the button far left top on the OHP.
This Instrument layout does not cover all of the DGS options, that aspect is covered in the menus. But this layout would be considered the PC-12 default setup.
There are banks of Fuses/Circuit Beakers on each side wall panel, and every one is active and can be used.
Menu/Tablet
Since the last Thranda release of the PC-6 Turbo Porter, included was a new feature of built in EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) or Tablet and combined also with the menu.
The iPad/Tablet can be used in the aircraft. There is a brown circular patch on the window, if you press the hot-spot, then the IPad/Tablet will appear, if you press the rear sucker cup, then it will also disappear... and the same tablet is also attached to the right hand side window.
The iPad/Tablet can be tilt adjusted via the top edge, but not too far in movement as the window's glass gets in the way, but there is also far more movement in here than with the PC-6 installation.
Menu layout is the same as the PC-6 with 13 icons to choose from; Aircraft Options, Weight & Balance, INSTR Options, Panel Editor, Static Liveries, DYNAFEEL, Log Book, Checklist, Ground Handling, Dynamic Liveries, Flight Computer, Equipment and AviTab... at the bottom is a "Brightness" slider 0% to 100%.
The side Arrow window tab is still there, and so it still does have the same pop-up menu for external use.
Aircraft Options
This page menu is also changed from the earlier Thranda "General" selection, but the options and the layout stays the same, the layout is still as highly detailed and as very comprehensive as before in the General tab.
Three selections cover group items, but any one item via "Click Spots" can be individually selected or hidden via the aircraft graphic.
"ALL COVERS" will select engine inlet/outlet covers and pitot cover, "ALL TIE-DOWNS" for propeller and wing tie-downs and "ALL DOORS" for the main cabin door and the rear Cargo door, sadly there is no PT6A engine reveal like on the PC-6, however the engine can be set into two modes... SIMPLIFIED or REALISTIC
In Simplified mode the engine will automatically limit the engine to remain below the maximum torque of 47.3 psi. In Realistic mode it will be up to the pilot to avoid exceeding the engine limitations. The propeller gearbox or propeller shaft can break if the torque limit is exceeded by a certain margin, resulting in engine failure and smoke in the cabin (the smoke can be cleared by pulling the firewall air shutoff control closed).
Other Aircraft Options menu selections cover; Window and Instrument Panel Reflections on/off, Startup Running on/off, GPU (Ground Power Unit), Chocks and Brakes on/off. There is a Steering SIMPIFIED or REALISTIC, but the PC-12 is not a taildragger, (this option locks the tailwheel) so an odd addition? All EXT - External Lights can be switched on and off as can ALL INT - Internal lights. The individual lights can also be accessed on the aircraft graphic.
The Electric Tug on the nosewheel, movement is controlled via your joystick and rudder pedals (yaw).
Weight & Balance
The PC-12 has the same intricate great "Weight and Balance" menu as earlier Thanda aircraft. Weights are in both Lbs and Kgs, which can be selected via the toggle...
Pilot, passengers and cargo can all be set for their individual weights (scroll), and the CofG (Centre of Gravity) parameters are all shown on a graph and with a marker on the aircraft of it's physical CofG, when done you can SAVE the configuration and later reload it.
INSTR Options
Next menu item is your "Instrument Option" menu page. There are four options available; GPS #1 Popup (GNS 530), GPS #2 Popup (GNS 430), KFC 325 Autopilot Popup, all again are scalable. And there is also the option to change the Baro Units from mb to inhg.
Panel Editor
"Panel Editor"... is part of the Thranda featured "Dynamic Generation Series", More about the DGS Series
The Thranda PC-12 can be highly customised in two areas to suit your taste. First in Dynamic Panel, as there is no default instrument setup, in the Pilatus as you can customise the panel to suit your own flying preferences. In the iPad/Tablet configuration the screen space is now far larger than the old "Panel" Menu. This is good, because as some of the small access zones in the menu before tended to overlap each over, so you always found yourself adjusting (scrolling) the wrong item.
Top row of options are 2 different panel backgrounds, here in KFC 325 or G1000 with three display screens. (Note all options can be mouse scrolled). There are other panel options of which we can see later.
The "Dynamic" in the panel is another featured DGS. Besides having different custom panel configurations, you can also customise the instrument panel by selecting "ENABLE 3D PANEL EDIT MODE". This will highlight the available instruments you can change in green.
Selecting an instrument via the "INDIV INST" (Individual Instrument) and "ACTIVE INSTRUMENT", it will highlight the instrument you want to say, move to another place or to adjust items position on the Instrument Panel... There is however a slightly different adjustment system now in being used here, arrows in a cross.
They will now allow you to adjust the depth (in/out), angle up/down or left/right, besides using the smaller white arrows to move the item around the panel in again up/down or left/right.
You can also add in tools and instrument features of 52 different items, and these items also includes the Aspen EFD 1000 avionics.
Alpine Avionics Evolution
Part of the options available is the EFD 1000 which is a self-contained multifunction digital display that is divided into a Primary Flight Display (PFD) in the top half, and an Electric Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI) in the lower half. As EDF 1000 systems go it is not a highly featured system, with the GPSS, MAP, 360 and Menu functions all not simulated, but the display does pop-out... It works of course with the KFC 325 Autopilot.
Basically you can also start with a completely blank panel and then create your own unique or personal instrument layout... and can have up to, or can save 14 different panel layouts (presets), and with the Reality GTN 750 as shown here.
Static Liveries
There are nine provided liveries, one extra is noted as "DYNAMICLIVERYRESOURCES", this is the space on the menu for the custom DGS livery for ease of selection. A dedicated NGX and Pilatus House is also included.
"ZZTEMPLATELIVERY" liveries is now missing as the DGS system has been more refined, it is now more smoother and the long wait pause times have been reduced.
You can adjust the "Dirt" 0% to 100% by scrolling the number... for a clean or dirty aircraft.
DYNAFEEL
"DynaFeel" is a system that dynamically adjusts the rate at which the controls deflect, in Pitch, Roll and Yaw. It is based on airspeed and how much the control's are deflected. This means the controls will feel light and responsive at low speeds and with some small deflections, but will get progressively heavier as the airspeed increases.
Logbook
This is one feature adopted from the JustFlight Menu. This Icon will just show the X-Plane Logbook window.
Checklist
A 35 page checklist is very comprehensive set in the iPad/Tablet. Navigation is via the lower left/right arrows, or you can scroll the pages via the centre box bottom. The Checklist will also pop-out into a scalable window, to make the list available anywhere in the cockpit.... You tick off the list one-by-one (green), but there is no default to clear the list in one click?
Ground Handling
This option just views the X-Plane default "Ground Handling" window. if you prefer that tool over the Thranda electric tug.
Dynamic Liveries
Earlier we saw the available "Static Liveries". Here you can actually design your own livery and save the livery.
You have a menu to select on the right that can colour a certain part of the aircraft, like the Roof, Wing, Tail or Wing tips. Select which one you want and then adjust (scroll) the RGB colours for that area. Other options include changing the Registration of the aircraft and putting the "Pilatus" logo under the cockpit window. It looks hard but you can easily design a very nice livery in about twenty minutes...
... when done you can "Save" (Add) the livery and then "APPLY" it to the aircraft. When you apply the livery the screen will then freeze for a few minutes, and then go a bit weird? as the DGS processes the livery. The results are however excellent.
A note... if the created livery does not appear correctly? Then go to the Static Liveries and select "Apply", then go back to the created Dynamic Livery and do it again, this time it should create the livery you wanted.
A feature is the (Quick) selection of Dirt via percentage selections you can adjust the amount of Dirt, Scratches and Dirt Int on the aircraft (0%-255%) and apply it instantly. So you can have either a pristine or a very grubby aircraft with just a twirl of the numbers. Also changes can can be made to the Metal or Rough surfaces, this can be applied to any of the liveries. Note you can apply the same Dirt and Scratches onto any of the Static Liveries directly via that particular menu.
There are 31 pre-installed Dynamic liveries to choose from, and you can save as many custom ideas as you want (within reason).
Flight Computer
Another new feature from the JustFlight menu. This shows you your current aircraft data including; OAT, GS (Ground Speed), Endurance, Range, NMPG/SMPG, Altitude, TAS (speed), Fuel Flow, Fuel Used, Headwind (knts) and Crosswind (Knts). Both units in Metric or Imperial are also available.... and you can reset the fuel burn.
Equipment
Under the "Equipment" Icon you have several items as external options, these items were originally under the MISC tab. There are two "Equipment" options, Recog (Recognition) Lights. This option makes the outer under wing lights "pulse" or not.
You can select either a "Female" Pilot (Mrs Klaue) or a "Male" Pilot (Mr Klaue)
AviTab
AviTab is a PDF viewer, Airport info, METAR info and ILS frequencies information tool, it also has a moving map that supports online maps and offline maps, Navigraph integration in that you can link your Navigraph account and see the charts right in the cockpit. In the PC-12 the Avitab is available in both the 3D tablet and a scalable pop-out window.
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Internal Lighting
I was not very taken with the PC-12 Carenado lighting, it looked over saturated and not very realistic, it was the X-Plane 10/11 era as well, and in not having any of the the X-Plane 12 dynamics. So I was expecting a big leap forward by Thranda, and I wasn't disappointed.
It looks amazing... the X-Plane 12 dynamics really shine in here (pun intended). Everything is controlled via the lighting panel rear console.
Four Rocker switches have double selections, two have three selections (DOME & Cabin FLOOD). Advisory has DIM and NORM. The four lighting knobs of which three are for the panel lighting work nicely as well. PHL (Panel) has three knob options to reduce the text lighting for either side pilot and the centre console.
Fourth knob adjusts the lower flood lighting, including the nicely lit side panels and glareshield lighting. All can be turned off for takeoff and landing minimum glare lighting.
Three way DOME (OFF-50%-100%) switch activates the twin overhead cockpit spots.
Overall the internal cockpit lighting is a nice bit of kit and very flexible to your tastes.
In the cabin, you again have the FLOOD (OFF-50%-100%) selection via the main two lighting strips, and 12 clickable individual READING spot lights that can be focused around. The Reading lights are tricky to switch on via their small central hotspots, but the ALL ON internal lights option is on the menu.
External Lighting
There are five forward lights in; Taxi and Landing lights on each wheel, and two RECOG (Recognition) lights that can be set to PULSE. WING/ICE light (left side), Strobe, Beacon, Tail Lights and Navigation lights make up an impressive external lighting.
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Flying the PC-12/47
This is a three airport flight, Wrangell PAWG to Petersburg PAPG then on to Sitka Rocky Gutierrez PASI, all three airport sceneries are by NorthernSky Studios Scenery, and they with others also cover this whole "Inside Passage" area of Alaska.
I did the same flight way back when with the Carenado PC-12, so I wanted to revisit the flight in X-Plane 12. So after setting up the aircraft, power on, Baro done, Fuel pumps on, lights set, blinds moved out of the way... it was time to start the P&W PT6A powerplant... SimpleSimon, Just put the CONDITION lever to "Flight Idle" (once started you bring it back to "Ground Idle"), "Starter" on, then just press the IGNITION button...
... then the Engine Management System (EMS) does all the work, this aircraft also has the Electronic Propeller and Engine Control System (EPECS). EPECS is an advanced engine management system integrated into the PC-12/47’s Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67P engine very similar to FADAC, offering several benefits to simplify engine and propeller management while improving performance and reliability. It uses a single-lever power control that simplifies pilot workload by integrating propeller RPM and engine power into the one control lever.
It takes a fair while for the engine to whine (that wonderful familiar PT6A start), and then the turbine speeds up to ignition, then the aircraft comes to life. It's a procedure I love every time I start the PC-12, the startup sounds are quite brilliant as well as Thranda are excellent in sound management. When all the engine parameters are settled, off goes the park brake...
... like the Carenado PC-12 it taxis fast, so you need a bit of footwork to keep to a slower taxi speed, bringing back the CONDITION lever to "Ground Idle" helps a little, but it's still a little too fast for me.
Steers nice, but the high cowling makes the centreline of the runway hard to see, so you taxi a bit to the right to follow it.
No flightplan here, it's only 31 nautical miles (NM) straight north from Wrangell Airport (PAWG) to Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport (PAPG), I have done it 50 times or more, so no guidance is required.
This is my second time in the Thranda PC-12/47 from PAWG to PAPG. The first was a very messy flight test flight, the PC-12 was impossible to fly cleanly? Because there is a "Trick" to flying the PC-12... As the PT6A puts out 1,200 SHP through a single-prop, it produces horrible asymmetric thrust, a pain on takeoff, hell on landing. The trick is to set the rudder trim to the far right (green zone) to counteract the forces, you may need to set an X-Plane key COMMAND to adjust the rudder trim this far right or use the Autotrim.
It looks odd this far an angle, but it works beautifully were it counts. Flap selection can be either 15º for a Normal Takeoff, or 30º for a Short/Soft Field Takeoff... I select 30º to test the STOL effect.
Power up with the single throttle T-Bar lever, and the PC-12 pulls quickly away at a 3995 Kg TOW, 4740 Kg is MTOW... speed builds quickly, but Wrangell's RWY 28 is seriously bumpy, so the trailing link gear and your rudder control are both working overtime...
At just under 100 kts I hit a massive bump mid-way down the runway, and the PC-12 literally bounces straight into the air without moving the stick? I'm now flying...
It is the STOL effect at work, but I catch the moment, and pull the PC-12 into a climb of just over 1,200 fpm, Max Climb is 1,920 fpm, and the average is climb out is usually around 1,500 fpm, but I'm not going very high with the short distance to PAPG.
Kadin Island is directly ahead of you, so you do a slight roll to the right as you climb out out of RWY 28 PAPG, this Thranda PC-12 is excellent for feel and feedback, you are instantly in touch with the machine, be as one from the start.
I top out at 3,400 ft, to pass both Kadin Island (left) and then Dry Island (right), then reset my altitude to 3,000ft.
The PC-12 looks sublime in the fading light of the day, this is only a short hop between PAWG and PAPG, but I'm enjoying it immensely, if you feel this good, it must be good. I am now seeing why this aircraft is so revered.
PC-12 Service ceiling is around 9,150 m (30,000 ft), with a Power/mass of 3.7 kg/shp (8.2 lb/shp), you have big Range with 0 passengers (Ferry) it's 3,389 km (1,830 nm), full Range with 9 passengers is 2,804 km (1,753 mi) (1,513 nm). From now on it will be a long slow descent into Petersburg.
You head directly towards the right hand coastline, before angling slowly around Frederick's Point and into PAPG, but this is not the official route into RWY 23, as both LDA (Landing Distance Available) and the RNV approaches demand you arrive only from the Northeast. It is also a tight twist in the final moments into RWY 23.
I'm loving this long wide sweeping curve into Petersburg, losing 300 fpm in height, flaps already at 30º, with a speed of 80 kts, it is a slow and graceful approach.
Gear down and the focus is totally on finding the hidden threshold of RWY 23. Gear sounds are excellent, a very slight "thump", "thump" and "thump"...
... from the 700 ft approach down to 500 ft, I'm ready for finals, grinning from ear to ear with a quick glace at the moving shiny water, loving this.
I was as low a speed as 72 kts as I flared the nose, almost stall speed (67 knts), but I felt a lot of wing support, and only a small drift down, yes I am feeling totally in control, again be aware of the offset rudder trim, and it is again to be set in the green zone, if not you will pull badly to the left on landing, it's nasty believe me. Touch was right on stall... 70 kts. Yes the PT6A will do an extremely powerful reverse thrust (reversible-pitch propeller) here and has that amazing Cessna Caravan howl, but PAPG 05/23 has a long 6400 ft runway, so the RT was not needed here.
Clean up the PC-12 and head to the terminal area, I'm getting more used to the taxi, but it still feels a little fast, most Thranda's are, fast in the taxi.
Move into the parking place, and turn off the PT6A-67P by the CONDITION lever, and the wail, like the Cessna Caravan wail, while the engine winds down is so familiar... yes I love it all.
Early the next morning it was a longer and higher flight out to Sitka. 10,000 ft is only nearly a third the altitude PC-12 can fly high to, at 30,000 ft with pressurization, but FL010 is a nice if perfect altitude to take in one of the greatest flying areas in the world, Alaska's "Inside Passage".
The trick of the PC-12 is that it is a Turboprop that thinks it is a Light Jet, it flies smooth like a jet, has loads of power, and as noted can even fly higher than most small jets, this executive cabin arrangement adds in to the same role.
The KFC 325 autopilot panel pops out and can be scaled, moved, which is very handy...
... but the EFSI Select Panel is awkward to use in the centre of the instrument panel, with the heading knob the furthest away from you, a pop-up panel for this Select panel would be really handy.
The VVI (KAS297C) is tricky to use if your not familiar with it, the tuning button will switch between Altitude (setting) and V/S (Vertical Speed).
So you set the altitude, then ARM it via the lower button, but where it is odd is that the indicator ARM light goes out and not on when you arm the altitude, which makes it confusing? The V/S is activated by the top button, when you have selected the vertical speed + or -
The PC-12 is excellent in this cruise mode, just a smudge over 200 kts is fast enough. The ride in the back is not bad either.
BIORKA ISLAND VORTAC (113.80 BKA) (SITKA) is the official way into PASI from the south, east or west, via a long circuit track.
You pass waypoints KOYEG, then JETUT, a hard 90º turn to HEXAP situated on the start of the ILS 108.90 ISIT, which takes you into Sitka's SIT Rwy 11.
I align the aircraft with the ILS beam to find the runway, hidden in the bright low morning light... the PC-12 is now configured for landing, flaps a full 40º, gear down, trim set (don't forget the rudder trim?), so my approach speed is again a very low 72 knts.
You forget how good X-Plane 12 is now, brilliant water, bright cascading sunlight... love it.
I am also now very familiar on the how to do approaches in the PC-12, as slow as you dare go, adjust the throttle to finely keep you airborne, just like landing in slow motion.
You always need that high flare to rub off the final speed to almost a stall, then glide your way in... this time I used the powerful reverse thrust, the sounds go up! noisy, but brilliant, and the speed drops off very quickly. Note the CONDITION lever to "Ground Idle"), you have to look at the lever being set correctly from the side, looking straight down it is not aligned correctly.
And I am now back in Sitka again, and it is so different to the old Carenado days, a far, far better PC-12, and a far better scenery around me.... X-Plane 12 delivers as well, so a great combo all round...
... it brings back big memories, but more so this flight has created new one, better ones, than those days that behind us that should now be forgotten, via X-Plane 12, and the excellent Pilatus PC-12.
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Summary
The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft known for its versatility, reliability, and performance. Manufactured by the Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, the PC-12 is widely used for business aviation, medical evacuation, cargo transport, and special missions. It is one of the most popular turboprop aircraft in its class.
The Carenado Cessna Caravan was one of the biggest X-Plane GA sellers, the Carenado PC-12 was not far behind, mostly because of that unique and powerful PT6A turbine engine. Thranda's PC-12 now follows their earlier released Cessna Caravan for X-Plane 12,.
Daniel Klaue needs no introduction if you have been in X-Plane for a period of time, he is certainly one of the most innovative, and one of the most talented developers out there that, a person that is very highly regarded within the X-Plane Simulator.
This PC-12 is a Dan Klaue aircraft, and so you expect tons of ideas and clever features, and certainly the Thanda designs PC-12 does not disappoint in that department. Modeling and detail is absolutely first rate, this is an excellent Pilatus aircraft with a lovely design and high quality. This is a first release in X-Plane 12, and not a conversion from X-Plane 11, it's all new, new.
X-Plane 12 textures in 8k (four times the higher resolution than before) it shows of course, but without the framerate hit. The EFB... Electronic Flight Bag, or the Thranda Tablet is still basically all new as introduced on the PC6, with now with 13 options, and all the pop-out windows are scalable. Flying Dynamics are also completely dynamic for XP12, as is the better LED lighting. Advanced FMOD (2)-based sound system is extensive for XP12, and all of course recorded from a real PC-12 and it's PT6 engine,
The innovative menu system "Dynamic Generation Series", in you can create your own instrument panel layout or layouts as up to 14 different layouts of 44 instruments and avionics can be saved with 6 default layouts including a Aspen EFD 1000 with here the KFC 325 autopilot, and the panel is also RealityXP GNS 530W/430W or GTN 750/650 Touch with 3D bezels ready. A huge selection of 32 liveries is still complimented with a feature to create your own colour scheme and livery, then you can save them as well. This aircraft is X-Plane 12 only.
Overall you get a huge feature list with a great value price for X-Plane 12, so this is absolutely the perfect PC-12 you always dreamed of. The PC-12 was very much requested, and here it is now available in this very high quality package... so what more can you ask for!
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Yes! the Pilatus PC-12 DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Pilatus PC-12 DGS Series XP12
Price is US$44.95
Requirements
Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB VRAM Recommended Download Size: 4.1 GB - Download via the Skunkcraft Updater Current version 1.0 (December 19th 2024) Limited Time Offer: If you own the Carenado PC12 XP11, you can get $10 off this model. Discount will automatically be applied at checkout. Offer ends January 15th 2025 or sooner. We reserve the right to terminate this offer at any time _____________________
Installation and documents: Download is 4.05Gb and the aircraft is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder.
Installation key is required on start up and is supplied with the purchased download file. Full installation is 7.46Gb (heavy)
SkunkCrafts Updater works with the Thranda PC-12, so instant updates are always available.
Documents supplied are:
Thranda Pilatus PC12 Manual XP12.pdf PILATUS PC12 PERFORMANCE.pdf X-Plane G430 Manual.pdf X-Plane G530 Manual.pdf
A Blank Livery (PNG) of four files are provided for painting. Checklists, setting and loads of Performance graphs are provided in the various manuals
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Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD - Bose Quiet Comfort QC35 Headphones
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane Version 12.0.1.3
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99
Scenery or Aircraft
- PAWG - Wrangell Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$16.95
- PAPG - Petersburg James Johnson Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$12.00
- PASI - Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$15.00
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Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
21st December 2024
Copyright©2024 : X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC-12 DGS by Thranda Design
Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC-12 DGS by Thranda Design
The most successful General Aviation aircraft in the X-Plane Simulator has been the Cessna Caravan, in two forms, first by Carenado, then by Thranda Design. The second most successful aircraft, again by Carenado was the Pilatus PC-12, and there is a link between the two aircraft.
Both aircraft use the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine, a small gas turbine engine for Turboprops, that drives the propeller through a reduction gearbox. So it is a very smooth engine with a high power output of 1,200 shp. A bit of trivia, the PT6A engine is actually installed in reverse, with the output connected to the reduction gearbox, then directly to the five-blade, constant-speed, full-feathering, reversible-pitch propeller. So basically you are facing the front of the Turboprop engine.
The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft known for its versatility, reliability, and performance. Manufactured by the Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, the PC-12 is widely used for business aviation, medical evacuation, cargo transport, and special missions. It is one of the most popular turboprop aircraft in its class.
Like the Cessna Caravan before it, here now is the Pilatus PC-12 from Thranda Design, an aircraft that is always at the top of any serious users Simulation wishlist. The Carenado offering was very good, but honestly I never bonded with it, it was a small thing in the instrument lighting, clunky to fly and it didn't look very realistic, and a couple of other peculiarities. Also X-Plane has come a long way since that Carenado release in April 2015, so here is the PC-12 reimagined by Thranda Design in it's DGS ((Dynamic Generation Series) form.
The concept for the PC-12 was initiated in the 1980s, following the success of Pilatus’s PC-6 Porter and PC-7/PC-9 trainer aircraft. This was to be a slightly larger aircraft, and Pilatus aimed to create a pressurized, single-engine turboprop aircraft capable of combining passenger, cargo, and utility roles into a single platform. The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engine was chosen for its reliability and efficiency, and the maiden flight was achieved on May 31, 1991. Its nickname, the “Swiss Army Knife of Aviation.”
The prototype was technically closer in design to the PC-12/41, which was the initial production variant. In 1996, Pilatus upgraded the PC-12 to the PC-12/45 model, increasing the MTOW to 9,920 pounds (4,500 kilograms) without any major structural changes. This version became the standard production model and replaced the PC-12/41, and became known as the PC-12 Standard. This Thranda aircraft is based on the PC-12/47, another slight gain in takeoff weight of 10,450 pounds (4,740 kgs), the performance stays the same even with the higher MTOW.
Thranda Design are already known for their quality and extensive list of features, so you are already expecting a very good looking Pilatus PC-12, but what was not expected... was how really good this PC-12 really is in the flesh. Maybe we just remember the older aged Careando PC-12, anyway this aircraft just leaps off the screen in quality and detail.... it is without doubt the best looking Thranda aircraft yet.
Modeling is absolutely first rate, nothing even to nit-pick over here, as all the essential detailing is masterly covered. Every detail from vents, latches, aerials and beacons are all covered. Note the beautiful exhaust horns and lovely chrome spinner.
The wings have a straight leading edge with a slightly tapered shape towards the wingtip, and the trailing edge is also tapered, giving the wing a sleek appearance and delivering improving aerodynamics. Then they also only have a moderate sweep angle, the wings are not highly swept back, but angled enough to help with high-speed stability and fuel efficiency. You could call it a modern clean wing.
Notable is the right wing bulge, which contains a radar antenna, part of the onboard weather detection system. The system is used to detect precipitation, turbulence, and other weather-related hazards. The curved winglets are really nicely done, the earlier PC-12s had the more squared off wingtips.
Flaps are four positions (0º - 15º - 20º - 40º)... 15º is used for takeoff, and the PC-12 is considered as a STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) aircraft, as the 40º setting allows steeper approaches and shorter landings. Flap detail internally is excellent, as the flap tracks are all very aerodynamically pronounced.
Nosewheel is a simple strut leg, fitted with durable, multi-ply tires. Rear gear is trailing-link, and the landing gear is specially designed to handle operations on unpaved, gravel, or grass strips, also reduce debris damage during takeoff and landing. The Landing gear and airframe components are also upgraded for durability under heavier loads in the heavier 12/47 we have here.
Quality and detail of the wheel and strut assembly is expertly done, and all three wheels have built in taxi and landing lights.
Glass is very good, tinted on the main cockpit windows, and all the glass comes with nice reflections (that can be turned off).
External Static Elements
The Thranda PC-12 has a nice selection of external Static Elements, including; Chocks (rear wheels), Engine inlet and exhaust covers, Tags, Pitot covers, Tiedowns and a support stand. GPU (Ground Power Unit), and both opening doors (forward and large rear left cargo door).
Cabin
Up into the aircraft....
.... the cabin layout is in an "Executive" style of only six seats, with the forward seats set in a "Club" style. In a commuter or charter cabin configuration, you can have installed in here 10 seats (single-pilot). Forward area has a very nice mahogany wood grain on the wardrobe and small buffet.
The passenger seats are excellent, HUGE, cushy, with lovely ripples showing off the leather, the orange headrests are a nice touch as well (in Executive cabins Orange seems to be the current trend lately), the rear of the seat also can be laid back. There are two (animated) tables, one with the set of left club seats, and another on the single left rear seat.
Fine (lovely) window shades are also all individually animated...
... Lighting and Air-Vent fixtures are exquisite, animated as well for movement, to turn on you press the centre of the lamp. Rear cargo hold is covered by a lovely blue netting with chrome rings, everything is done in here with a fine eye for detail.
Cockpit
Through the slight gap and your in the very tight cockpit, it looks small and it feels very intimate.
Although not a full glass cockpit with big display panels, it still feels very modern by it's layout and instruments. Extremely well done here, it has a great look and comes with a realistic avionic feel by Thranda Design.
The seats are set right up against the bulkhead highlighting the small space, they are very nice with their sheepskin covers, and the armrests can all be lifted and hidden away behind the seat.
Control yokes are excellent and realistically worn, and come with Electric Trim, PTT (working Push-To-Talk) button, and also a disconnect AP (Autopilot) button, you can hide the yokes individually, via the hot-spot on the rear.
Main electrical and lighting overhead panel (OHP) is still marginally obstructed by the pull down shades, so you have to move them to access certain parts of the switchgear, I found to move the shades right out of the way to the side, because they became quite annoying every time you wanted to access the lighting switch gear.
The armrests hide the throttle which in turn hides the condition/feather lever (in one) of which you use a lot, thankfully the armrests can be moved up here to get access. There are more rocker lighting switches for panel, cockpit and cabin lighting on the rear of the pedestal with four extra adjustment knobs, The flap selection lever is of 0º - 15º - 30º and 40º of flap, and the flap indicator is positioned in the very top left of the pilots panel.
Honestly you won't find this layout much different from the Carenado PC-12 version, you even have the same rudder pedal adjustment, via the nice winder.
Power on... and voltages will change with any power selections! On the OHP many of the switches have a double function as in the first right switch turns the item on and you then select the choice by the second switch for two selections. It is very easy to use once you understand the functionality.
Earlier generation PC-12s had either the Honeywell Primus Apex or Bendix/King Avionics. Here it is the Bendix/King KFC 325 Digital/Electronic Flight Control System panel (EFIS). The EFIS takes in two of the six standard flight instruments in the upper "EADI" ((Electronic Attitude Director Indicator) and the lower "EHSI" (Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator).
The others are the Airspeed, Altitude, Vertical Speed (V/S) and RMI (Radio Magnetic Indicator). There is a backup CDI (Course deviation indicator) but that is also built into the EFIS and two other backup instruments in another Artificial Horizon and Altitude dials and AFD direction finder. Co-Pilot's side is the same EFIS standard six layout without the backup dials.
Center panel top under the extensive deep glareshield is the excellent Benedix/King KFC 325 Digital/Electronic Flight Control System (EFIS) and the autopilot panel pops out. Next to the autopilot is the GARMIN GMA 340 Radio Comms Panel. Your ADF unit is the standard KR 87T50 Bendex/King ADF receiver. Note the large Radar Altimeter far right lower.
The KFC 325 is in four sections, EADI/EHSI, VVI (KAS297C), Autopilot Panel (KMC 321) and EFSI Select Panel. The centrally positioned EFIS Select Panel has a lot of features, with Course, DH (Decision Height) and ADF (1-2) / VOR (1-2) pointers built into the EFIS display. You can also switch from the HSI to ARC mode view as well.
The focal point of any PC-12 is the central EIS (Engine Indication System) which complements the EHSI by offering an integrated view of flight data and engine performance on the MFD. It displays; Torque, ITT (Inter-Turbine Temperature), Ng (Gas Generator Speed), Np (Propeller RPM), OAT, Fuel - Quantity x 2, FL(ow) H(our), Used and ENDUR (Endurance). GEN 1/GEN 2 Voltage and Current (Amperage), Date and Time. Engine Oil Temperature and Pressure. The EIS can also be tested. It pops out here as a window, can be scaled and moved anywhere on the screen.
In fact any instrument can be popped out, scaled and moved under the DGS system.
48 visible Annunciator lights cover Caution and Warning alerts, the panel pops out and you can test the system and the OHP annunciator lights via the button far left top on the OHP.
This Instrument layout does not cover all of the DGS options, that aspect is covered in the menus. But this layout would be considered the PC-12 default setup.
There are banks of Fuses/Circuit Beakers on each side wall panel, and every one is active and can be used.
Menu/Tablet
Since the last Thranda release of the PC-6 Turbo Porter, included was a new feature of built in EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) or Tablet and combined also with the menu.
The iPad/Tablet can be used in the aircraft. There is a brown circular patch on the window, if you press the hot-spot, then the IPad/Tablet will appear, if you press the rear sucker cup, then it will also disappear... and the same tablet is also attached to the right hand side window.
The iPad/Tablet can be tilt adjusted via the top edge, but not too far in movement as the window's glass gets in the way, but there is also far more movement in here than with the PC-6 installation.
Menu layout is the same as the PC-6 with 13 icons to choose from; Aircraft Options, Weight & Balance, INSTR Options, Panel Editor, Static Liveries, DYNAFEEL, Log Book, Checklist, Ground Handling, Dynamic Liveries, Flight Computer, Equipment and AviTab... at the bottom is a "Brightness" slider 0% to 100%.
The side Arrow window tab is still there, and so it still does have the same pop-up menu for external use.
Aircraft Options
This page menu is also changed from the earlier Thranda "General" selection, but the options and the layout stays the same, the layout is still as highly detailed and as very comprehensive as before in the General tab.
Three selections cover group items, but any one item via "Click Spots" can be individually selected or hidden via the aircraft graphic.
"ALL COVERS" will select engine inlet/outlet covers and pitot cover, "ALL TIE-DOWNS" for propeller and wing tie-downs and "ALL DOORS" for the main cabin door and the rear Cargo door, sadly there is no PT6A engine reveal like on the PC-6, however the engine can be set into two modes... SIMPLIFIED or REALISTIC
In Simplified mode the engine will automatically limit the engine to remain below the maximum torque of 47.3 psi. In Realistic mode it will be up to the pilot to avoid exceeding the engine limitations. The propeller gearbox or propeller shaft can break if the torque limit is exceeded by a certain margin, resulting in engine failure and smoke in the cabin (the smoke can be cleared by pulling the firewall air shutoff control closed).
Other Aircraft Options menu selections cover; Window and Instrument Panel Reflections on/off, Startup Running on/off, GPU (Ground Power Unit), Chocks and Brakes on/off. There is a Steering SIMPIFIED or REALISTIC, but the PC-12 is not a taildragger, (this option locks the tailwheel) so an odd addition? All EXT - External Lights can be switched on and off as can ALL INT - Internal lights. The individual lights can also be accessed on the aircraft graphic.
The Electric Tug on the nosewheel, movement is controlled via your joystick and rudder pedals (yaw).
Weight & Balance
The PC-12 has the same intricate great "Weight and Balance" menu as earlier Thanda aircraft. Weights are in both Lbs and Kgs, which can be selected via the toggle...
Pilot, passengers and cargo can all be set for their individual weights (scroll), and the CofG (Centre of Gravity) parameters are all shown on a graph and with a marker on the aircraft of it's physical CofG, when done you can SAVE the configuration and later reload it.
INSTR Options
Next menu item is your "Instrument Option" menu page. There are four options available; GPS #1 Popup (GNS 530), GPS #2 Popup (GNS 430), KFC 325 Autopilot Popup, all again are scalable. And there is also the option to change the Baro Units from mb to inhg.
Panel Editor
"Panel Editor"... is part of the Thranda featured "Dynamic Generation Series", More about the DGS Series
The Thranda PC-12 can be highly customised in two areas to suit your taste. First in Dynamic Panel, as there is no default instrument setup, in the Pilatus as you can customise the panel to suit your own flying preferences. In the iPad/Tablet configuration the screen space is now far larger than the old "Panel" Menu. This is good, because as some of the small access zones in the menu before tended to overlap each over, so you always found yourself adjusting (scrolling) the wrong item.
Top row of options are 2 different panel backgrounds, here in KFC 325 or G1000 with three display screens. (Note all options can be mouse scrolled). There are other panel options of which we can see later.
The "Dynamic" in the panel is another featured DGS. Besides having different custom panel configurations, you can also customise the instrument panel by selecting "ENABLE 3D PANEL EDIT MODE". This will highlight the available instruments you can change in green.
Selecting an instrument via the "INDIV INST" (Individual Instrument) and "ACTIVE INSTRUMENT", it will highlight the instrument you want to say, move to another place or to adjust items position on the Instrument Panel... There is however a slightly different adjustment system now in being used here, arrows in a cross.
They will now allow you to adjust the depth (in/out), angle up/down or left/right, besides using the smaller white arrows to move the item around the panel in again up/down or left/right.
You can also add in tools and instrument features of 52 different items, and these items also includes the Aspen EFD 1000 avionics.
Alpine Avionics Evolution
Part of the options available is the EFD 1000 which is a self-contained multifunction digital display that is divided into a Primary Flight Display (PFD) in the top half, and an Electric Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI) in the lower half. As EDF 1000 systems go it is not a highly featured system, with the GPSS, MAP, 360 and Menu functions all not simulated, but the display does pop-out... It works of course with the KFC 325 Autopilot.
Basically you can also start with a completely blank panel and then create your own unique or personal instrument layout... and can have up to, or can save 14 different panel layouts (presets), and with the Reality GTN 750 as shown here.
Static Liveries
There are nine provided liveries, one extra is noted as "DYNAMICLIVERYRESOURCES", this is the space on the menu for the custom DGS livery for ease of selection. A dedicated NGX and Pilatus House is also included.
"ZZTEMPLATELIVERY" liveries is now missing as the DGS system has been more refined, it is now more smoother and the long wait pause times have been reduced.
You can adjust the "Dirt" 0% to 100% by scrolling the number... for a clean or dirty aircraft.
DYNAFEEL
"DynaFeel" is a system that dynamically adjusts the rate at which the controls deflect, in Pitch, Roll and Yaw. It is based on airspeed and how much the control's are deflected. This means the controls will feel light and responsive at low speeds and with some small deflections, but will get progressively heavier as the airspeed increases.
Logbook
This is one feature adopted from the JustFlight Menu. This Icon will just show the X-Plane Logbook window.
Checklist
A 35 page checklist is very comprehensive set in the iPad/Tablet. Navigation is via the lower left/right arrows, or you can scroll the pages via the centre box bottom. The Checklist will also pop-out into a scalable window, to make the list available anywhere in the cockpit.... You tick off the list one-by-one (green), but there is no default to clear the list in one click?
Ground Handling
This option just views the X-Plane default "Ground Handling" window. if you prefer that tool over the Thranda electric tug.
Dynamic Liveries
Earlier we saw the available "Static Liveries". Here you can actually design your own livery and save the livery.
You have a menu to select on the right that can colour a certain part of the aircraft, like the Roof, Wing, Tail or Wing tips. Select which one you want and then adjust (scroll) the RGB colours for that area. Other options include changing the Registration of the aircraft and putting the "Pilatus" logo under the cockpit window. It looks hard but you can easily design a very nice livery in about twenty minutes...
... when done you can "Save" (Add) the livery and then "APPLY" it to the aircraft. When you apply the livery the screen will then freeze for a few minutes, and then go a bit weird? as the DGS processes the livery. The results are however excellent.
A note... if the created livery does not appear correctly? Then go to the Static Liveries and select "Apply", then go back to the created Dynamic Livery and do it again, this time it should create the livery you wanted.
A feature is the (Quick) selection of Dirt via percentage selections you can adjust the amount of Dirt, Scratches and Dirt Int on the aircraft (0%-255%) and apply it instantly. So you can have either a pristine or a very grubby aircraft with just a twirl of the numbers. Also changes can can be made to the Metal or Rough surfaces, this can be applied to any of the liveries. Note you can apply the same Dirt and Scratches onto any of the Static Liveries directly via that particular menu.
There are 31 pre-installed Dynamic liveries to choose from, and you can save as many custom ideas as you want (within reason).
Flight Computer
Another new feature from the JustFlight menu. This shows you your current aircraft data including; OAT, GS (Ground Speed), Endurance, Range, NMPG/SMPG, Altitude, TAS (speed), Fuel Flow, Fuel Used, Headwind (knts) and Crosswind (Knts). Both units in Metric or Imperial are also available.... and you can reset the fuel burn.
Equipment
Under the "Equipment" Icon you have several items as external options, these items were originally under the MISC tab. There are two "Equipment" options, Recog (Recognition) Lights. This option makes the outer under wing lights "pulse" or not.
You can select either a "Female" Pilot (Mrs Klaue) or a "Male" Pilot (Mr Klaue)
AviTab
AviTab is a PDF viewer, Airport info, METAR info and ILS frequencies information tool, it also has a moving map that supports online maps and offline maps, Navigraph integration in that you can link your Navigraph account and see the charts right in the cockpit. In the PC-12 the Avitab is available in both the 3D tablet and a scalable pop-out window.
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Internal Lighting
I was not very taken with the PC-12 Carenado lighting, it looked over saturated and not very realistic, it was the X-Plane 10/11 era as well, and in not having any of the the X-Plane 12 dynamics. So I was expecting a big leap forward by Thranda, and I wasn't disappointed.
It looks amazing... the X-Plane 12 dynamics really shine in here (pun intended). Everything is controlled via the lighting panel rear console.
Four Rocker switches have double selections, two have three selections (DOME & Cabin FLOOD). Advisory has DIM and NORM. The four lighting knobs of which three are for the panel lighting work nicely as well. PHL (Panel) has three knob options to reduce the text lighting for either side pilot and the centre console.
Fourth knob adjusts the lower flood lighting, including the nicely lit side panels and glareshield lighting. All can be turned off for takeoff and landing minimum glare lighting.
Three way DOME (OFF-50%-100%) switch activates the twin overhead cockpit spots.
Overall the internal cockpit lighting is a nice bit of kit and very flexible to your tastes.
In the cabin, you again have the FLOOD (OFF-50%-100%) selection via the main two lighting strips, and 12 clickable individual READING spot lights that can be focused around. The Reading lights are tricky to switch on via their small central hotspots, but the ALL ON internal lights option is on the menu.
External Lighting
There are five forward lights in; Taxi and Landing lights on each wheel, and two RECOG (Recognition) lights that can be set to PULSE. WING/ICE light (left side), Strobe, Beacon, Tail Lights and Navigation lights make up an impressive external lighting.
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Flying the PC-12/47
This is a three airport flight, Wrangell PAWG to Petersburg PAPG then on to Sitka Rocky Gutierrez PASI, all three airport sceneries are by NorthernSky Studios Scenery, and they with others also cover this whole "Inside Passage" area of Alaska.
I did the same flight way back when with the Carenado PC-12, so I wanted to revisit the flight in X-Plane 12. So after setting up the aircraft, power on, Baro done, Fuel pumps on, lights set, blinds moved out of the way... it was time to start the P&W PT6A powerplant... SimpleSimon, Just put the CONDITION lever to "Flight Idle" (once started you bring it back to "Ground Idle"), "Starter" on, then just press the IGNITION button...
... then the Engine Management System (EMS) does all the work, this aircraft also has the Electronic Propeller and Engine Control System (EPECS). EPECS is an advanced engine management system integrated into the PC-12/47’s Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67P engine very similar to FADAC, offering several benefits to simplify engine and propeller management while improving performance and reliability. It uses a single-lever power control that simplifies pilot workload by integrating propeller RPM and engine power into the one control lever.
It takes a fair while for the engine to whine (that wonderful familiar PT6A start), and then the turbine speeds up to ignition, then the aircraft comes to life. It's a procedure I love every time I start the PC-12, the startup sounds are quite brilliant as well as Thranda are excellent in sound management. When all the engine parameters are settled, off goes the park brake...
... like the Carenado PC-12 it taxis fast, so you need a bit of footwork to keep to a slower taxi speed, bringing back the CONDITION lever to "Ground Idle" helps a little, but it's still a little too fast for me.
Steers nice, but the high cowling makes the centreline of the runway hard to see, so you taxi a bit to the right to follow it.
No flightplan here, it's only 31 nautical miles (NM) straight north from Wrangell Airport (PAWG) to Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport (PAPG), I have done it 50 times or more, so no guidance is required.
This is my second time in the Thranda PC-12/47 from PAWG to PAPG. The first was a very messy flight test flight, the PC-12 was impossible to fly cleanly? Because there is a "Trick" to flying the PC-12... As the PT6A puts out 1,200 SHP through a single-prop, it produces horrible asymmetric thrust, a pain on takeoff, hell on landing. The trick is to set the rudder trim to the far right (green zone) to counteract the forces, you may need to set an X-Plane key COMMAND to adjust the rudder trim this far right or use the Autotrim.
It looks odd this far an angle, but it works beautifully were it counts. Flap selection can be either 15º for a Normal Takeoff, or 30º for a Short/Soft Field Takeoff... I select 30º to test the STOL effect.
Power up with the single throttle T-Bar lever, and the PC-12 pulls quickly away at a 3995 Kg TOW, 4740 Kg is MTOW... speed builds quickly, but Wrangell's RWY 28 is seriously bumpy, so the trailing link gear and your rudder control are both working overtime...
At just under 100 kts I hit a massive bump mid-way down the runway, and the PC-12 literally bounces straight into the air without moving the stick? I'm now flying...
It is the STOL effect at work, but I catch the moment, and pull the PC-12 into a climb of just over 1,200 fpm, Max Climb is 1,920 fpm, and the average is climb out is usually around 1,500 fpm, but I'm not going very high with the short distance to PAPG.
Kadin Island is directly ahead of you, so you do a slight roll to the right as you climb out out of RWY 28 PAPG, this Thranda PC-12 is excellent for feel and feedback, you are instantly in touch with the machine, be as one from the start.
I top out at 3,400 ft, to pass both Kadin Island (left) and then Dry Island (right), then reset my altitude to 3,000ft.
The PC-12 looks sublime in the fading light of the day, this is only a short hop between PAWG and PAPG, but I'm enjoying it immensely, if you feel this good, it must be good. I am now seeing why this aircraft is so revered.
PC-12 Service ceiling is around 9,150 m (30,000 ft), with a Power/mass of 3.7 kg/shp (8.2 lb/shp), you have big Range with 0 passengers (Ferry) it's 3,389 km (1,830 nm), full Range with 9 passengers is 2,804 km (1,753 mi) (1,513 nm). From now on it will be a long slow descent into Petersburg.
You head directly towards the right hand coastline, before angling slowly around Frederick's Point and into PAPG, but this is not the official route into RWY 23, as both LDA (Landing Distance Available) and the RNV approaches demand you arrive only from the Northeast. It is also a tight twist in the final moments into RWY 23.
I'm loving this long wide sweeping curve into Petersburg, losing 300 fpm in height, flaps already at 30º, with a speed of 80 kts, it is a slow and graceful approach.
Gear down and the focus is totally on finding the hidden threshold of RWY 23. Gear sounds are excellent, a very slight "thump", "thump" and "thump"...
... from the 700 ft approach down to 500 ft, I'm ready for finals, grinning from ear to ear with a quick glace at the moving shiny water, loving this.
I was as low a speed as 72 kts as I flared the nose, almost stall speed (67 knts), but I felt a lot of wing support, and only a small drift down, yes I am feeling totally in control, again be aware of the offset rudder trim, and it is again to be set in the green zone, if not you will pull badly to the left on landing, it's nasty believe me. Touch was right on stall... 70 kts. Yes the PT6A will do an extremely powerful reverse thrust (reversible-pitch propeller) here and has that amazing Cessna Caravan howl, but PAPG 05/23 has a long 6400 ft runway, so the RT was not needed here.
Clean up the PC-12 and head to the terminal area, I'm getting more used to the taxi, but it still feels a little fast, most Thranda's are, fast in the taxi.
Move into the parking place, and turn off the PT6A-67P by the CONDITION lever, and the wail, like the Cessna Caravan wail, while the engine winds down is so familiar... yes I love it all.
Early the next morning it was a longer and higher flight out to Sitka. 10,000 ft is only nearly a third the altitude PC-12 can fly high to, at 30,000 ft with pressurization, but FL010 is a nice if perfect altitude to take in one of the greatest flying areas in the world, Alaska's "Inside Passage".
The trick of the PC-12 is that it is a Turboprop that thinks it is a Light Jet, it flies smooth like a jet, has loads of power, and as noted can even fly higher than most small jets, this executive cabin arrangement adds in to the same role.
The KFC 325 autopilot panel pops out and can be scaled, moved, which is very handy...
... but the EFSI Select Panel is awkward to use in the centre of the instrument panel, with the heading knob the furthest away from you, a pop-up panel for this Select panel would be really handy.
The VVI (KAS297C) is tricky to use if your not familiar with it, the tuning button will switch between Altitude (setting) and V/S (Vertical Speed).
So you set the altitude, then ARM it via the lower button, but where it is odd is that the indicator ARM light goes out and not on when you arm the altitude, which makes it confusing? The V/S is activated by the top button, when you have selected the vertical speed + or -
The PC-12 is excellent in this cruise mode, just a smudge over 200 kts is fast enough. The ride in the back is not bad either.
BIORKA ISLAND VORTAC (113.80 BKA) (SITKA) is the official way into PASI from the south, east or west, via a long circuit track.
You pass waypoints KOYEG, then JETUT, a hard 90º turn to HEXAP situated on the start of the ILS 108.90 ISIT, which takes you into Sitka's SIT Rwy 11.
I align the aircraft with the ILS beam to find the runway, hidden in the bright low morning light... the PC-12 is now configured for landing, flaps a full 40º, gear down, trim set (don't forget the rudder trim?), so my approach speed is again a very low 72 knts.
You forget how good X-Plane 12 is now, brilliant water, bright cascading sunlight... love it.
I am also now very familiar on the how to do approaches in the PC-12, as slow as you dare go, adjust the throttle to finely keep you airborne, just like landing in slow motion.
You always need that high flare to rub off the final speed to almost a stall, then glide your way in... this time I used the powerful reverse thrust, the sounds go up! noisy, but brilliant, and the speed drops off very quickly. Note the CONDITION lever to "Ground Idle"), you have to look at the lever being set correctly from the side, looking straight down it is not aligned correctly.
And I am now back in Sitka again, and it is so different to the old Carenado days, a far, far better PC-12, and a far better scenery around me.... X-Plane 12 delivers as well, so a great combo all round...
... it brings back big memories, but more so this flight has created new one, better ones, than those days that behind us that should now be forgotten, via X-Plane 12, and the excellent Pilatus PC-12.
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Summary
The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine, turboprop aircraft known for its versatility, reliability, and performance. Manufactured by the Swiss company Pilatus Aircraft Ltd, the PC-12 is widely used for business aviation, medical evacuation, cargo transport, and special missions. It is one of the most popular turboprop aircraft in its class.
The Carenado Cessna Caravan was one of the biggest X-Plane GA sellers, the Carenado PC-12 was not far behind, mostly because of that unique and powerful PT6A turbine engine. Thranda's PC-12 now follows their earlier released Cessna Caravan for X-Plane 12,.
Daniel Klaue needs no introduction if you have been in X-Plane for a period of time, he is certainly one of the most innovative, and one of the most talented developers out there that, a person that is very highly regarded within the X-Plane Simulator.
This PC-12 is a Dan Klaue aircraft, and so you expect tons of ideas and clever features, and certainly the Thanda designs PC-12 does not disappoint in that department. Modeling and detail is absolutely first rate, this is an excellent Pilatus aircraft with a lovely design and high quality. This is a first release in X-Plane 12, and not a conversion from X-Plane 11, it's all new, new.
X-Plane 12 textures in 8k (four times the higher resolution than before) it shows of course, but without the framerate hit. The EFB... Electronic Flight Bag, or the Thranda Tablet is still basically all new as introduced on the PC6, with now with 13 options, and all the pop-out windows are scalable. Flying Dynamics are also completely dynamic for XP12, as is the better LED lighting. Advanced FMOD (2)-based sound system is extensive for XP12, and all of course recorded from a real PC-12 and it's PT6 engine,
The innovative menu system "Dynamic Generation Series", in you can create your own instrument panel layout or layouts as up to 14 different layouts of 44 instruments and avionics can be saved with 6 default layouts including a Aspen EFD 1000 with here the KFC 325 autopilot, and the panel is also RealityXP GNS 530W/430W or GTN 750/650 Touch with 3D bezels ready. A huge selection of 32 liveries is still complimented with a feature to create your own colour scheme and livery, then you can save them as well. This aircraft is X-Plane 12 only.
Overall you get a huge feature list with a great value price for X-Plane 12, so this is absolutely the perfect PC-12 you always dreamed of. The PC-12 was very much requested, and here it is now available in this very high quality package... so what more can you ask for!
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Yes! the Pilatus PC-12 DGS Series XP12 by Thranda Design is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
Pilatus PC-12 DGS Series XP12
Price is US$44.95
Requirements
Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB VRAM Recommended Download Size: 4.1 GB - Download via the Skunkcraft Updater Current version 1.0 (December 19th 2024) Limited Time Offer: If you own the Carenado PC12 XP11, you can get $10 off this model. Discount will automatically be applied at checkout. Offer ends January 15th 2025 or sooner. We reserve the right to terminate this offer at any time _____________________
Installation and documents: Download is 4.05Gb and the aircraft is deposited in the "General Aviation" X-Plane folder.
Installation key is required on start up and is supplied with the purchased download file. Full installation is 7.46Gb (heavy)
SkunkCrafts Updater works with the Thranda PC-12, so instant updates are always available.
Documents supplied are:
Thranda Pilatus PC12 Manual XP12.pdf PILATUS PC12 PERFORMANCE.pdf X-Plane G430 Manual.pdf X-Plane G530 Manual.pdf
A Blank Livery (PNG) of four files are provided for painting. Checklists, setting and loads of Performance graphs are provided in the various manuals
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Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD - Bose Quiet Comfort QC35 Headphones
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane Version 12.0.1.3
Plugins: JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00 : RK Apps XPRealistic v2 - US$34.99
Scenery or Aircraft
- PAWG - Wrangell Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$16.95
- PAPG - Petersburg James Johnson Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$12.00
- PASI - Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, Alaska by NorthernSkyStudio (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$15.00
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Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
21st December 2024
Copyright©2024 : X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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Stephen got a reaction from copacetic4 in Behind the Screen : Year in Review 2024
Behind the Screen : Year in Review 2024
Rereading back through my Behind the Screen edition in November 2023, I was obviously not a happy bunny. Frustrated after a long development year, that had gone backwards AND forwards, and at even one point the simulator hadn't even worked at all... I was a bit of all over it. Someone suggested I go on holiday, so I did, for two weeks around the Pacific on a very nice cruise ship in February. It summed up the year I wanted to forget.
Laminar Research had also reached the same conclusion in 2023, with the Vulkan/Metal API transition also causing their own long term frustration, it coincided with the climbing high pressure outside from the MSFS 2020 juggernaut, the powers that be in South Carolina knew that something had to change and quickly, the price of X-Plane changed first, then later came a complete reset.
Laminar Research
The first X-Plane release came very, very early in 2024, 4th January in fact, with the release v12.09. This was a small global scenery update. In that the scenery had been re-rendered with slight improvements, but for the users it was a 86Gb download. Although Laminar had already announced that there would be a new X-Plane release numbering system for 2024. Then there was also the major shock at the X-Plane Simulator Developer's conference in Montreal 4th of February 2024, that the Simulator was getting built in Store like with Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2020/24.
The sudden announcement did not at all unite the developers to the Laminar cause, in fact it totally divided the conference, and in itself created a rolling discontent amongst the attendees, certainly when the news hit the forums, then all sorts of comments came out. The problem stems from the fact that the X-Plane.OrgStore provides the support for the X-Plane.Org, this X-PlaneReviews site depends on the .OrgStore for review product as well, so moving the monetary support from the .Org to Laminar's store would seriously upset the current delicate balance in the Simulator. Obviously a reaction to MSFS, but could the change do more damage to X-Plane than do actual good? like they say, "don't takeaway the hands that feeds you". To date the Laminar Store has currently still not gone live, and is still in development, so that aspect will have a big bearing on 2025.
The X-Plane's reset came with the release of the new numbering system release of v12.1.0 in mid-May. It also came with a fancy introduction page of new features, including a focus on Graphics with; Cloud shadows on water, Bloom lighting effects and finally RCAS (Robust Contrast Adaptive Sharpening), more changes included Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) Improvements for the badly needed anti-aliasing improvements, and the MSAA resolution is now photometrically correct. The results were sensational, and it was the reset that X-Plane had badly needed.
The June 21-23, FlightExpo 2024 in Las Vegas was only a few weeks later... there was a spring in the Laminar Research step, but the seminar was only 14 min long, not the usual hour or so. But they did produce a worthy presentation with both Austin and Ben (Supnik) both in attendance this year. Although MSFS had already announced FS2024 a year before, they again paraded out a long list of features that started to feel implausible, a lot again stolen from X-Plane. But the conference was a great success for Laminar, and in fact over 80% of the attendees were running X-Plane from boxes, as Microsoft couldn't stream well from the conference center.
Websockets was installed, and also announced as coming is "Synthetic Vision" for the G1000, with features of Terrain/Water, Obstacles, Navigation Aids and better performance. It all looks very comprehensive, plus weather radar is also coming. But the default G1000 was the main avionic focus for upgrades this year in avionics.
The next X-Plane update released 18th July was a minor one in v12.1.1. Basically it was a revision of the Graphics Core Engine to improve stability, this was then followed by v12.1.2 or the "Caribbean Update"... which almost a direct ripoff of MSFS "World Updates", which showed us again of where now the mindset of Laminar Research is going, and to what market the X-Plane Simulator is in wanting to in being pitched to. But it was again a very successful update with heavy ships, five leisure watercraft, including Austin Meyer being chased by sharks... to highlight the Caribbean release, three airports and destinations were also included; Princess Juliana International Airport at Sint Maarten, Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport on the island of Saba and the famous short sloping runway at Gustaf II Airport on the island of Saint Barthélemy, or St. Barth’s. At this point you really felt the X-Plane 12 v2.0 reset feeling, X-Plane was very smooth and reliable, with great features and refinements being added consistently.
November 15, 2024 saw the release of v12.1.3, currently the last for the year with a massive update for the ATC (Air Traffic Control), Sounds, more weather improvements, A.I. Aircraft, MAP changes and the introduction of an X-Plane Identity (relating to the store). On the Oct 31, 2024, Ben Supnik (X-Plane head developer) gave an excellent idea of the future X-Plane roadmap, mostly set around the NGS (New Generation Scenery) that is currently in development, and it is the most important factor if Laminar want to compete with Microsoft in Flight Simulation. The results should be excellent, but a release date is still not announced, but it really did end the year of a major high for Laminar Research after the disastrous 2023, it was a truly excellent return to form, and a solid and reliable Simulator to boot... they really did good this 2024 year, but that Store announcement looms over the Simulator like a black cloud?
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2022/2024
First is "Why is this here in an X-Plane site?". Because it is a reference between the Simulators, and the gap between them still grew immensely wide over the year 2024. As the barrage continued, and the anticipation grew over the release of MSFS 2024, it started to get all a bit frantic, in hype and expectations.
Obviously there were gazillions of weekly and monthly Development Updates from Asobo Studios, and aircraft and scenery releases were piling on to the platform everyday... is it sustainable? MSFS 2020 started the year with World Update XVI of the Caribbean (Surely not!), followed by Southwest Germany in April, City Update VII European Cities II came in late May. On June 9th Microsoft announced the "Take to the Skies" on November 19th 2024 as the release date of MSFS2024, that was reinforced by a 95 minutes talkathon and Q&A comment period at the Las Vegas Expo late June, again a lot of more expanded features were announced for the MSFS 2024 release, would all this actually work? To coincide with the Vegas Expo, Asobo released City update Vlll Las Vegas (Laminar put their name on the Las Vegas strip!).
City Update lX Northeastern United States came late July, also in July came the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow, so another World Update XVII for the United Kingdom and Ireland regions to coincide was released. World update XVIII came in the middle of August for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. There was an Aircraft and Avionics Update 3 released 1st October... but from then on the focus for Microsoft/Asobo was on the release of MSFS 2024.
Default Aircraft released for FS2020 in 2024, were the Bell 47J Ranger, Dornier Do 31, C.7 Skyvan, Douglas C-47D Skytrain & Waco CG-4A, Curtiss C-46 Commando, Westland Scout & Wasp, Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor and the Boeing 707-320C.
The release on November 19th 2024 of the new wonderkind Microsoft version 2024, was probably one of the worst releases of any Simulator platform, and that even includes X-Plane. To say it was a huge is debacle is an understatement. Millions tried to log on and stream, mostly for everyone it didn't work, then the servers crashed. After a few days you could get access, but users were then finding then that most areas were not either loading or working at all to their satisfaction, plus the huge restrictions on actually getting access. FS 2024 is now working, but MSFS 2024 will take well into the New Year to be anything if a reliable Simulator, I noted the MSFS year as an "Overreach" and called that statement out mid-year.
Trends of the year
The X-Plane 11 to 12 transitions petered out about mid-year. These aircraft are a blessing and curse. A blessing is in that you get your favorite aircraft upgraded for X-Plane 12. But also a curse in that they take developers away from new projects, so there isn't really a lot of new aircraft coming to market (2023 was horrible for new releases). At this point most if all of the transitions are now done, including the huge vSkyLabs catalogue. The scenery transitions still have a longer way to go, but Aerosoft have been finally busy also in getting through the long list. Nice has been the introduction of lately new developers in both aircraft and scenery to the scene.
The other trend of converting old X-Plane 11 aircraft (mostly Carenado) to X-Plane 12 has been vibrant as well, so a lot of loved Simulations should survive to X-Plane 12, as was the Ortho4XP crowd. As noted above, Laminar Research reset their year in a more modern Flight Sim feel and look, and overall that experience has delivered great benefits, also quicker and faster updates saw changes to the X-Plane face, these aspects were long overdue.
Aircraft
We knew coming into 2024 that FlightFactor Aero would dominate the year with their colossal Boeing 777-200 V2 Ultimate, and deep and massive it was. But the release was slightly dulled by the launch process. First with long and an invitation only Alpha access, then and still currently the B777V2 it is still in a public release Beta access. It is a standard bearer machine for the X-Plane Simulator, even for Simulation itself. But dense it is, actually not in the flying aspect, which is sensational, but in the long list of features and the biggest EFB Tablet you could struggle to manage. So it is study aircraft of deep immersion... I am expecting the B777F Freighter to be the next variant from FlightFactor.
Flight Procedures Simulation released the Embraer E-190 as a follow on from the excellent E-195 of 2023, again a great price to feature ratio.
In July Peters Aircraft upgraded the Airbus A380-842 to X-Plane12, a hybrid of old planemaker and a new fuselage. it was nice to have the A380 back, but it's age factor is still built in there, restricting the Airbus for what it could be. Later in the year the other A380 engine versions were released for free as part of the same package.
The sensational E-Jet Family was updated to v1.1.0 by X-Crafts (the older E-Jets are now available for free). v1.1.0 was an excellent update with a focus on the VNAV aspects, with a clever "Autotune" system that detects and automates the systems for a ILS landing. So the Auto Speeds and Altitude (VNAV) are now all fully functional. Still one of the very best X-Plane 12 releases. But the X-Crafts ERJ Series didn't arrive in 2024, but X-Crafts did note recently the Lineage 1000 was coming very, very soon.
We thought the Rotate Passenger version of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F Freighter would be just another added variant, how wrong could you be? It was (still is) one of the most sensational releases of the year, and highlighted the huge amount of changes done to both the MD-11F and the newer MD-11P over the years since the X-Plane 11 MD-11 release, certainly a highlight of the year, and actually my favorite release 2024!
Concorde FXP by Colimata went to v3.50, with an upgraded CIVA V2, created especially for the aircraft, there was some nice updates as well, including the dynamics to X-Plane 12. FlyJSim were very quiet during the year with just one small update for the DashQ, and still no sign of the Boeing 732 Twinjet or B727 Series for X-Plane 12?
I was actually disappointed that ToLiss chose the A330neo as their next project, but the results was a sensational aircraft with a huge amount of features. Once you got in there, it was very hard to move on, as you wanted more and more of this exceptionally high standard Simulation. Late in the year (Dec) ToLiss did a very nice set of updates for the A319, A320neo, A321 and A340-600 of a few features in the A330neo.
At the end of the year it was a solid one for airliners, and the outlook for 2025 is already exciting, There is a Boeing 707 coming from Nimbus, A Boeing 737 MAX from AirfoilLabs, and a cargo aircraft from Felis with the B747-200F, and Flight Procedures made a note of a new B748 (V3) and even (maybe) a B747-400, ERJ Series, and Flightfactor could even deliver a Dreamliner, so there is a big year coming up.
General Aviation
Once the thriving heat of X-Plane, the General Aviation sector is still feeling the loss of Carenado. A few of the usual suspects were notably absent this year like vFlyAir with only one small update. Most releases were still basically transition aircraft from X-Plane 11, in so again slowing down any new releases as well.
The Beechcraft Duchess Model 76 by JustFlight/Thranda brought the aircraft back to X-Plane 12, as usual a thoroughly nice upgrade, the PA28R Piper Arrow III followed in July, and the Cessna 152 came out later in the year as did the PA-28R Turbo Arrow III / IV all from the JustFlight stable. The Beechcraft Bonanza G36, the G1000 variant, was released after Easter by PAE Addons, again a new developer for the X-Plane Simulator.
In early April vSkyLabs released a most unusual machine, the Junkers A50 Junior S-LSA, a 1920's inspired modern take on this iconic aircraft, it was far more fun that it had any right to be. Another revision to X-Plane 12 was the Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter from Thranda Design in May, it came with a new menu and large 8K textures. vFlyAir's only contribution to the year was the transition Cherokee 140, their original design updated for X-Plane 12.
A new developer entrant was with a PA24-250 Comanche by InDepthSimulations. It was basic, but has loads of potential for future designs. SimSolutions did an updates to their Diamond DA-40NG updated to v1.2.2 in April, with X-Hangar updating the Diamond Katana DA20 C1 and Cessna 404 Titan.
vSkyLabs were moving their way through their very large collection and updating the aircraft to X-Plane 12, there were loads of updates from mid-year, first the boat like Polaris AM-FIB, the Aeros-2 Ultralight Trike, then the sensational CT/4E Airtrainer from New Zealand, the Phoenix Air U15 S-LSA , ICON - A5, Tensor 60 and the Tecnam P2006T v9.1 a twin-engined Italian machine and finally the Aeroprakt A22-LS in October.
PA44-180 Piper Seminole for X-Plane 12 by AeroSphere came out in August, and later in the year Ted Cook released the Stinson 108 Package for XP12. STMA also upgraded their Sherpa K650T Turbine Bush Plane to X-Plane 12.
The GA year wrapped up with Thranda Design releasing their best yet, and a totally new aircraft in the Pilatus PC-12, a highlight of the year and Aerobask released their DA-20NG.
Business Aircraft
AKD Studios had done a nice up date to the GulfStream 550 very early in the year, but then released the bigger G650/650ER GulfStream in early November, both aircraft are now parallel in design and features. X-Hangar updated their G550 in November as well. AirSim3D did two updates for the Citation C-560XL in July and October, but is now moving on to a new project.
Classic Aircraft
X-Hangar did several updates to the DHC-5 Buffalo, early and late in the year, the DHC4 C-7A Caribou had the same, two updates early and late, and both aircraft benefited from the attention. In February we had one of the most unusual releases with another new developer entrant for the Aircruiser 66-75 by Hangar 23, a shed of an aircraft, it quickly had the Float version added only weeks after, a strange machine that was impossible not to dislike, you were captivated by the design and on how you flew it. The North American T-6G Texan by Khamsin & Philip Ubben was another gem, if hard to land, but X-Plane 12 shined through. vSkylabs did X-Plane 12 an update to the SR-71 "Thunderbird" to version v2.0, it is a bullet of an aircraft, and the weird He-162 Project also had an update to v3.0.5.
Helicopters
Overall after the previous years, Helicopters were basically quiet in 2024, but in there were two exceptional releases. The first early in February was the JRX Design Bell 407 v1.30 now with CINEFLEX, a quality machine. The second was even more exceptional from X-Trident, in the AgustaWestland AW109SP in May, overwhelmingly brilliant the AW109SP set a higher standard for any new designs in X-Plane 12. vSkylabs updated four aircraft in 2024, the Guimbal Cabri G2, Robinson R66 Turbine and the Revolution Mini-500 and even a “Gyroplane”. The HSF Eurocopter EC130 B4 v1.4 had only one small update, as did the K-1200 K-MAX XP12 by STMA. Dreamfoil Creations were very quiet all year?
Military
X-Hangar updated their C-130 Hercules to X-Plane 12, but it is still a bit too basic for me, the "Herk" deserves better. One of the most outstanding releases of the year for the military was the excellent Leonardo Aermacchi M-346 AJT by Deltawing Simulations, this aircraft just ooozed X-Plane 12 in all of it's glory, a review that is still not forgotten.
AoA (Angle of Attack) had a very busy year, the T-7A Red Hawk, T-6A Texan II and the F-22A Raptor all had big updates, but the highlight from AoA was the amazing V-22 Osprey Tilitrotor, now a very mature Simulation, and a very versatile machine.
Scenery
2024 in scenery followed on from 2023, the biggest scenery story of the year was still AutoOrtho (Ortho4XP) or streaming ortho imagery. Some bright spark wanted to recreate the Microsoft ortho steaming system in X-Plane. To a point it is still very successful, but a fast internet connection and a powerful computer is required. The trick is downloading the tiles as you need them, not storing the tiles on your computer, but I'm not a fan of flat photo images, or certainly not jerky simulations. To add on top, another success this year still has been SIM HEAVENS X-World scenery Series. It will be interesting on how the coming NGS from Laminar will change this factor, not much I think as most are welded tightly into this very inefficient way of doing visual textures. Notable is that NGS will use DSS "Direct Scene Snapshot", to replace DSF, but both will run in parallel for a while, as DSS scenery won't work with DSF.
Again MSFS 2020, delivered a gazillion of scenery that nobody wants, but they did a very clever idea of Vertical Obstacles, that X-Plane in some form should adopt, the idea is to fill in real world obstacles in the landscapes. Obviously MSFS 2024 takes the scenery idea to almost insanity, the only issue is you can't stream it all through a tight internet straw.
For X-Plane the scenery developers had a very tough year, income was almost next to nothing and few dropped out, that said, the scenery releases were very good, to excellent considering the conditions, did we get a lot of cross-platform conversions from FS to XP? not really, but a few crossed over.
Aerosoft kicked off the year with Airport Zürich XP12 on the 4th Jan, as with barely no updates since X-Plane 12 was released 14 months earlier, most Aerosoft stock was looking old in X-Plane 12, but as the we moved through the year they finally got into gear... Dortmund XP, Society Islands XPTahiti & Windward Islands was next to compliment the earlier Leeward Island package, and that was just the thing for a South Pacific cruise. Next was Airport Newcastle XP, then a double update in June with Airport Stuttgart XP and Airport Istanbul XP, then Helgoland, XP Kassel XP in August, and Vitoria-Foronda XP and Greater Moncton International XP in November, so it was a big year of updates, missing still though is Norway's Bergen XP, a badly needed new scenery from Aerosoft?
VerticalSim had a busy year updating as well, first was KONT Ontario, then KMYR Myrtle Beach, KBOI Boise Air Terminal and finally KSRQ Sarasota Bradenton International. FS Designs kicked off the year with KJAX Jacksonville, KPNS Pensacola, and KPAO Palo Alto Intl
Skytitude delivered a lot of scenery this year with KGNV Gainesville, Everglades Airpark, KTLH Tallahassee and an excellent RSW Southwest Florida International Airport to replace the dated Aerosoft version.
LICD- Lampedusa Airport and Linosa Island, Italy by Cami de Bellis was released in January, and a couple of updates followed. LIMJ - Ligurian COAST Totally Insane", was an amalgamated package of LIMJ - Genova COMPLETE 5 - The Revolution" from BCSceneries, same scenery, but updated to X-Plane 12.
Nimbus Studios released a very, very impressive New York JFK, then followed that up with another impressive KCLT Charlotte Douglas in June with another update for KCLT later in the year. FunnerFlight also released an updated XP12 JFK, plus another massive update to the KSAN - San Diego - Naval scenery, huge is not an underestimation of this scenery.
By Taimodels standards they had a quiet year in only two releases, first was a lukewarm EGCC- Manchester International, but the second scenery was a big missing element finally in X-Plane... HECA Cairo International, Egypt XP12! and yes I love it. Fly Tampa pop-in to X-Plane every once a while, but when they do, they blow you totally away, this time it was FlyTampa Sydney, just brilliant. Another Australian scenery came from Orbx, with another long wanted scenery for X-Plane in YSSY Melbourne.
X-Codr Design was not really visible in X-Plane in 2024 except for a small update to KDEN (v2.1), instead he was now doing MSFS sceneries, one we have lost to the other? Another big X-Plane Scenery developer MIA is Short Final Designs, he delivered with only KSJC San Jose International Airport as a release for the year, he has now gone to Laminar Research, so it will be interesting for 2025 in what the maestro will deliver there.
Chudoba Designs released Bratislava International Airport for X-Plane 12, an interesting Chudoba scenery is RKPC Jeju International Airport in Korea, a review I couldn't get around to, maybe 2025? ESGG Göteborg Landvetter Airport was released in April, and last but not least was LKTB Brno-Turany Airport in the Czech Republic, all solid sceneries at great prices.
Drzewiecki Design have upgraded their renamed "Washington DC" scenery to "KDCA Washington Airport & City XP12", but otherwise they were another that have moved on to MSFS for scenery, and a lot of old DD scenery is feeling their age. An odd scenery was vSkyLabs Airbases: Base-8, a testing ground for your flying abilities.
New developers to the X-Plane scenery mostly focused on small airport sceneries, like crossover FX3D with a load of French sceneries, including LFKF Figari, LFKC Calvi, LFKT Corte, LFMQ Castellet, LFMR Barcelonnette, LFNS GAP-Tallard, LFNC Mont-Dauphin Saint-Crépin Airport and LFNS Sisteron, an impressive list... KXNA Northwest Arkansas National Airport by TearWear Designs was another new face. There was a neat three Venezuelan Airports package for X-Plane 12 by Positive Climb Design. DarkBlue Scenery released RJGG Chubu, and RJBB, both in Japan.
NorthernSky were also a little slower this year, but still delivered outstanding scenery at a budget price, including; PAPG Petersburg - Alaska, PHOG Kahului Airport and PHHN Hana, PHNY Lanai, PHJH Kapalua all in Hawaii, and last the sensational PASI Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, Alaska.
There were no landscape sceneries released in 2024, except maybe for St. Vincent and the Grenadines by 3DReal... Maps2XP and Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini didn't release any landscapes in 2024.
In context, although a fair few of the above sceneries were transitions from X-Plane 11, overall for scenery releases it was a very good year, actually unexpected in the volume delivered.
Sound Packs
A mention... BSS BlueStarSky released the BSS A321 Reloaded CFM pack, but that was about it, but Mango Studios had a great year, there was a lot to choose from, not only the great sound packages for; ToLiss A319 Sound Pack, IXEG 737 Sound Pack, GLF 550/650 Sound Pack, Toliss A330 sound pack, but the neat little engine mod conversions as well; PW2000 Engine - FF 757, PW4000 Engine - FF B767, ToLiss A340 Trent 556 Engine Mod, but my favorite was the excellent MD80 Series IAE V2500 Engine mod, with later added the P&W JT8D-200 + IAE V2500 engine sound package. There were a few new REP "Reality Expansion packages", including the Thranda DH2 Beaver, PT-6 Porter and the PA28 Arrow lll.
Plugins
I will state upfront that I am not a huge plugin connoisseur, so I only run what I call essential plugins in my simulator, running the VRAM profiler (Menu/Developer) can give you the horrors of on how much these little monstrous tools can gobble up your framerate and their overall efficiency, I take out as many of these laggards as possible.
The Skunkcrafts Standalone Updater Client v3.0. became the standalone tool for updating X-Plane aircraft in 2023, efficient, clever and fast, and it still rules big in 2024 as every developer bar FlightFactor now uses it. openSAM replaced the nasty SAM 3, it is a basic tool, but gets around the issue. There was a few organiser tools released, one just for X-Plane's scenery, and xOrganizer that covered the whole simulator.
WebFMC had a few updates through the year to cater for new releases, but really not many other changes, BetterPushBack had the same, but overall needs a revision (adjustable volume anyone). Traffic Global had a few updates (0199 and 0217), but not much new was really done except to make it reliable, the clever tool was the "Regent Traffic" updates, complicated to install, but it brought a huge amount of new airlines and services to TG, it is well worth checking out.
Stick and Rudder updated both X-Camera and X-Keypad, but the maturing X-ATC Chatter v1.7.2 became my cockpit friend this year.
Navigraph was again the king of the tools, now highly intergrated with SimBrief, they are now simply essential tools for the Simulator, SimBrief became the defacto (auto) flightplanning tool inside the cockpit. Navigraph added in Annotations, ATC Sectors and Expanded Airport Data to Charts 8 in 2024.
X-PlaneReviews
X-PlaneReviews passed eleven years of providing quality and detailed reviews for the X-Plane Simulator. And in this year 2024 we have delivered even more consistent reviews and NEWS! than any year before.
The team has grown as well... besides the dynamic Dominic Smith and his lovely wife Felicity, who also contributes immensely to the X-Plane.Org Weekly Roundups and Developer Interviews, is a major contributor in X-PlaneReviews as well, plus the extra talented reviewers of Alan Ashforth (alpeggio), Peter Allnutt, Dennis Powell, Nick Garlick, Stéphane Tolédo-Paul (Tieman68), David York (datadave), Stuart McGregor (Scottish Wings), DrishalMAC2, Michael Hayward, Jack Thompson and Joshua Moore, all genuine talented and contributors to not only X-PlaneReviews, but to X-Plane in general. I am personally signing off a little earlier this year to have a family Christmas in another Australian State, but Dominic will do some more reviews right up to the festive season, and a big new Christmas release review is still yet to be released from me.
Always a thank you to the exciting work by the tireless developers that give us all this incredible product to fly and use, as they and X-Plane has come a long way and created leaps in quality and complexity in the last few years, certainly with the jump to X-Plane 12, and to a point I was always very proud of the work they have produced, it is world class if not the very best in simulation product ever produced, and this year better than ever in systems and quality detail, and they are all top notch and very clever. To the X-Plane.OrgStore who supports this site with review products, service and updates, a really big thanks to Nicolas Taureau, as this site just also would not function without that outstanding support.
This aspect shows that X-Plane as a Simulator is alive and well after a fair few years of disruptive development, X-Plane 12 is now (thankfully) maturing towards the central part of its evolution cycle, and as well noted throughout this "End of the Year" edition it has had a transformation (or would you call it a reset?) this year in 2024. My outlook optimism for 2025 is at an all time high, my gut says X-Plane as a Simulator has turned a corner, and it can only get better from here, but X-Plane as a Simulator also has to now grow as well, expand vigorously in 2025.
Certainly the central community is very active and very collaborative in creating dynamics that is expanding the Simulator, but growing in all the different areas is just as important, not just the core, numbers must grow in 2025, new additions in not only the software and hardware, but developers and active users, it is people, the time to grow... and move forward.
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We will finish off with the X-PlaneReviews famous best of the year awards… So I will now list my Best of the Year 2024🏅
(note the awards are given to only products I have seen and tested and so the only ones I can vouch for)
Overall Best of the Year : A very hard choice this year, as there are four outstanding entrants, FlightFactor Boeing 777v2, X-Tridents AW109SP, Rotate's MD-11 Passenger and the TolIss A330neo , all deserving 🏅 🏅🏅
Best Aircraft : FlightFactor B777v2.🏅🏅
A look into the future of X-Plane 12 quality and design, it delivers on a huge scale.
Honorable Mention : Rotate's MD-11 Passenger is just brilliant, as is the ToLiss A330neo
Best General Aviation Aircraft : Pilatus PC-12 by Thranda Design
Thranda Design are behind a lot of X-Plane aircraft besides their own creations, but the PC-12 brings back to the X-Plane Simulator a brilliant aircraft done well.
Honorable Mentions : vSkyLabs, for their huge and unique catalogue of aircraft and machines, they just keep on coming.
Best Classic Aircraft : North American T-6G Texan by Khamsin & Philip Ubben
This is what happens when you put two extremely talented developers together, Khamsin & Philip Ubben create history, or at least a part of it in the T-6G Texan.
Honorable Mention : What can you say about flying a shed, the Aircruiser 66-75 by Hangar 23 was certainly unique, fun as well.
Best Business Aircraft : AKD Studios G650/650ER GulfStream
Not perfect, but development this whole year has been very steady and consistent from this talented Polish developer, next year 2025 this category will be tighter with the promised X-Crafts Lineage 1000 and maybe even the Aerobask Falcon 6X anyone, now years late.
Best Military : Leonardo Aermacchi M-346 AJT by Deltawing Simulations 🏅
With some releases you see the future, the amazing M-346 AJT showed off the wonders of X-Plane 12, nice aircraft to fly as well.
Honorable Mention : AoA again with another huge improvement over the original, the V-22 Osprey was great to fly, also a very versatile dynamic Simulation as well, I loved it.
Best Helicopter : AgustaWestland AW109SP by X-Trident 🏅🏅🏅
A no brainer on choice for the best helicopter of the year, again a projection into the future of Simulation, brilliant avionics are well worth mastering.
Honorable Mentions : JRX Designs Bell 407 was very good as well, the best of the bunch currently, except for the above AW.
Best Landscape Scenery : Society Islands XPTahiti & Windward Islands by Maps2XP (Aerosoft)
Does this broad scenery count as a Landscape scenery? It sort's of covers a large area of the South Pacific, well detailed as well, so yes.
Best Airport Scenery : YSSY Sydney Fly Tampa 🏅🏅
A study on how to do perfect scenery, Fly Tampa always deliver, but more so here, a giant.
Honorable Mention : Taimodels on delivering HECA Cairo, and Nimbus had a great year with JFK and Charlotte.
Best Plugin(s) : Skunkcrafts Standalone Updater Client 🏅
A plugin... it was, but also still the biggest standout tool of the year, now for the second year in a row and grown, it's so fast!
Special Mention(s) : Navigraph for their excellent navigation tools, and seriously clever new additions, and for openSAM, fixing a major problem.
Person(s) of the Year : Marko Mamula
The developer that just seemed to be everywhere in 2024, but in delivering the X-Plane 12 future we deserve, talented, and tons more to come in 2025.
Best Moment of the year 2024 : Leaving Schiphol (EHAM) in a heavy morning weather to arrive at a sandstorm dusk in Cairo (HECA), Simulation at it's very, very best.
Worst Moment(s) of the Year 2024 : Laminar Research is doing their own store, the ramifications are dangerous, and will it cost jobs in X-Plane, you could even lose the X-Plane.Org... forever!
Biggest distraction of 2024 : ... The dark cloud of the X-Plane Store.
Biggest overall feeling of 2024 : Another tough hard year, but the outlook at the end of this brutal year was a revolution of a new and better X-Plane Simulator, shame the Laminar store will ruin all the good work.
Personal Favorites of 2024 : Any ToLiSS (the save system allows ultimate flexibility) again, but my standout aircraft of the year is the amazing Rotate MD-11 Passenger, unbelievable Simulation, seriously addictive was that wide-body aircraft... I just loved it.
Routes... Barcelona, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Roma, Cairo, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Tel Aviv, London Heathrow and Dulles, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Notable is that with the newer scenery, Cairo, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore finally came on-line in 2024.
That is X-PlaneReviews for 2024, and we will be back after a very much needed recovery and the review site returns again early into the New Year on the 7th January 2025.
So Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year 2025
Stephen Dutton
14th December 2024
Copyright:X-PlaneReviews 2024
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Behind the Screen : Year in Review 2024
Behind the Screen : Year in Review 2024
Rereading back through my Behind the Screen edition in November 2023, I was obviously not a happy bunny. Frustrated after a long development year, that had gone backwards AND forwards, and at even one point the simulator hadn't even worked at all... I was a bit of all over it. Someone suggested I go on holiday, so I did, for two weeks around the Pacific on a very nice cruise ship in February. It summed up the year I wanted to forget.
Laminar Research had also reached the same conclusion in 2023, with the Vulkan/Metal API transition also causing their own long term frustration, it coincided with the climbing high pressure outside from the MSFS 2020 juggernaut, the powers that be in South Carolina knew that something had to change and quickly, the price of X-Plane changed first, then later came a complete reset.
Laminar Research
The first X-Plane release came very, very early in 2024, 4th January in fact, with the release v12.09. This was a small global scenery update. In that the scenery had been re-rendered with slight improvements, but for the users it was a 86Gb download. Although Laminar had already announced that there would be a new X-Plane release numbering system for 2024. Then there was also the major shock at the X-Plane Simulator Developer's conference in Montreal 4th of February 2024, that the Simulator was getting built in Store like with Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2020/24.
The sudden announcement did not at all unite the developers to the Laminar cause, in fact it totally divided the conference, and in itself created a rolling discontent amongst the attendees, certainly when the news hit the forums, then all sorts of comments came out. The problem stems from the fact that the X-Plane.OrgStore provides the support for the X-Plane.Org, this X-PlaneReviews site depends on the .OrgStore for review product as well, so moving the monetary support from the .Org to Laminar's store would seriously upset the current delicate balance in the Simulator. Obviously a reaction to MSFS, but could the change do more damage to X-Plane than do actual good? like they say, "don't takeaway the hands that feeds you". To date the Laminar Store has currently still not gone live, and is still in development, so that aspect will have a big bearing on 2025.
The X-Plane's reset came with the release of the new numbering system release of v12.1.0 in mid-May. It also came with a fancy introduction page of new features, including a focus on Graphics with; Cloud shadows on water, Bloom lighting effects and finally RCAS (Robust Contrast Adaptive Sharpening), more changes included Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA) Improvements for the badly needed anti-aliasing improvements, and the MSAA resolution is now photometrically correct. The results were sensational, and it was the reset that X-Plane had badly needed.
The June 21-23, FlightExpo 2024 in Las Vegas was only a few weeks later... there was a spring in the Laminar Research step, but the seminar was only 14 min long, not the usual hour or so. But they did produce a worthy presentation with both Austin and Ben (Supnik) both in attendance this year. Although MSFS had already announced FS2024 a year before, they again paraded out a long list of features that started to feel implausible, a lot again stolen from X-Plane. But the conference was a great success for Laminar, and in fact over 80% of the attendees were running X-Plane from boxes, as Microsoft couldn't stream well from the conference center.
Websockets was installed, and also announced as coming is "Synthetic Vision" for the G1000, with features of Terrain/Water, Obstacles, Navigation Aids and better performance. It all looks very comprehensive, plus weather radar is also coming. But the default G1000 was the main avionic focus for upgrades this year in avionics.
The next X-Plane update released 18th July was a minor one in v12.1.1. Basically it was a revision of the Graphics Core Engine to improve stability, this was then followed by v12.1.2 or the "Caribbean Update"... which almost a direct ripoff of MSFS "World Updates", which showed us again of where now the mindset of Laminar Research is going, and to what market the X-Plane Simulator is in wanting to in being pitched to. But it was again a very successful update with heavy ships, five leisure watercraft, including Austin Meyer being chased by sharks... to highlight the Caribbean release, three airports and destinations were also included; Princess Juliana International Airport at Sint Maarten, Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport on the island of Saba and the famous short sloping runway at Gustaf II Airport on the island of Saint Barthélemy, or St. Barth’s. At this point you really felt the X-Plane 12 v2.0 reset feeling, X-Plane was very smooth and reliable, with great features and refinements being added consistently.
November 15, 2024 saw the release of v12.1.3, currently the last for the year with a massive update for the ATC (Air Traffic Control), Sounds, more weather improvements, A.I. Aircraft, MAP changes and the introduction of an X-Plane Identity (relating to the store). On the Oct 31, 2024, Ben Supnik (X-Plane head developer) gave an excellent idea of the future X-Plane roadmap, mostly set around the NGS (New Generation Scenery) that is currently in development, and it is the most important factor if Laminar want to compete with Microsoft in Flight Simulation. The results should be excellent, but a release date is still not announced, but it really did end the year of a major high for Laminar Research after the disastrous 2023, it was a truly excellent return to form, and a solid and reliable Simulator to boot... they really did good this 2024 year, but that Store announcement looms over the Simulator like a black cloud?
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2022/2024
First is "Why is this here in an X-Plane site?". Because it is a reference between the Simulators, and the gap between them still grew immensely wide over the year 2024. As the barrage continued, and the anticipation grew over the release of MSFS 2024, it started to get all a bit frantic, in hype and expectations.
Obviously there were gazillions of weekly and monthly Development Updates from Asobo Studios, and aircraft and scenery releases were piling on to the platform everyday... is it sustainable? MSFS 2020 started the year with World Update XVI of the Caribbean (Surely not!), followed by Southwest Germany in April, City Update VII European Cities II came in late May. On June 9th Microsoft announced the "Take to the Skies" on November 19th 2024 as the release date of MSFS2024, that was reinforced by a 95 minutes talkathon and Q&A comment period at the Las Vegas Expo late June, again a lot of more expanded features were announced for the MSFS 2024 release, would all this actually work? To coincide with the Vegas Expo, Asobo released City update Vlll Las Vegas (Laminar put their name on the Las Vegas strip!).
City Update lX Northeastern United States came late July, also in July came the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow, so another World Update XVII for the United Kingdom and Ireland regions to coincide was released. World update XVIII came in the middle of August for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. There was an Aircraft and Avionics Update 3 released 1st October... but from then on the focus for Microsoft/Asobo was on the release of MSFS 2024.
Default Aircraft released for FS2020 in 2024, were the Bell 47J Ranger, Dornier Do 31, C.7 Skyvan, Douglas C-47D Skytrain & Waco CG-4A, Curtiss C-46 Commando, Westland Scout & Wasp, Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor and the Boeing 707-320C.
The release on November 19th 2024 of the new wonderkind Microsoft version 2024, was probably one of the worst releases of any Simulator platform, and that even includes X-Plane. To say it was a huge is debacle is an understatement. Millions tried to log on and stream, mostly for everyone it didn't work, then the servers crashed. After a few days you could get access, but users were then finding then that most areas were not either loading or working at all to their satisfaction, plus the huge restrictions on actually getting access. FS 2024 is now working, but MSFS 2024 will take well into the New Year to be anything if a reliable Simulator, I noted the MSFS year as an "Overreach" and called that statement out mid-year.
Trends of the year
The X-Plane 11 to 12 transitions petered out about mid-year. These aircraft are a blessing and curse. A blessing is in that you get your favorite aircraft upgraded for X-Plane 12. But also a curse in that they take developers away from new projects, so there isn't really a lot of new aircraft coming to market (2023 was horrible for new releases). At this point most if all of the transitions are now done, including the huge vSkyLabs catalogue. The scenery transitions still have a longer way to go, but Aerosoft have been finally busy also in getting through the long list. Nice has been the introduction of lately new developers in both aircraft and scenery to the scene.
The other trend of converting old X-Plane 11 aircraft (mostly Carenado) to X-Plane 12 has been vibrant as well, so a lot of loved Simulations should survive to X-Plane 12, as was the Ortho4XP crowd. As noted above, Laminar Research reset their year in a more modern Flight Sim feel and look, and overall that experience has delivered great benefits, also quicker and faster updates saw changes to the X-Plane face, these aspects were long overdue.
Aircraft
We knew coming into 2024 that FlightFactor Aero would dominate the year with their colossal Boeing 777-200 V2 Ultimate, and deep and massive it was. But the release was slightly dulled by the launch process. First with long and an invitation only Alpha access, then and still currently the B777V2 it is still in a public release Beta access. It is a standard bearer machine for the X-Plane Simulator, even for Simulation itself. But dense it is, actually not in the flying aspect, which is sensational, but in the long list of features and the biggest EFB Tablet you could struggle to manage. So it is study aircraft of deep immersion... I am expecting the B777F Freighter to be the next variant from FlightFactor.
Flight Procedures Simulation released the Embraer E-190 as a follow on from the excellent E-195 of 2023, again a great price to feature ratio.
In July Peters Aircraft upgraded the Airbus A380-842 to X-Plane12, a hybrid of old planemaker and a new fuselage. it was nice to have the A380 back, but it's age factor is still built in there, restricting the Airbus for what it could be. Later in the year the other A380 engine versions were released for free as part of the same package.
The sensational E-Jet Family was updated to v1.1.0 by X-Crafts (the older E-Jets are now available for free). v1.1.0 was an excellent update with a focus on the VNAV aspects, with a clever "Autotune" system that detects and automates the systems for a ILS landing. So the Auto Speeds and Altitude (VNAV) are now all fully functional. Still one of the very best X-Plane 12 releases. But the X-Crafts ERJ Series didn't arrive in 2024, but X-Crafts did note recently the Lineage 1000 was coming very, very soon.
We thought the Rotate Passenger version of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F Freighter would be just another added variant, how wrong could you be? It was (still is) one of the most sensational releases of the year, and highlighted the huge amount of changes done to both the MD-11F and the newer MD-11P over the years since the X-Plane 11 MD-11 release, certainly a highlight of the year, and actually my favorite release 2024!
Concorde FXP by Colimata went to v3.50, with an upgraded CIVA V2, created especially for the aircraft, there was some nice updates as well, including the dynamics to X-Plane 12. FlyJSim were very quiet during the year with just one small update for the DashQ, and still no sign of the Boeing 732 Twinjet or B727 Series for X-Plane 12?
I was actually disappointed that ToLiss chose the A330neo as their next project, but the results was a sensational aircraft with a huge amount of features. Once you got in there, it was very hard to move on, as you wanted more and more of this exceptionally high standard Simulation. Late in the year (Dec) ToLiss did a very nice set of updates for the A319, A320neo, A321 and A340-600 of a few features in the A330neo.
At the end of the year it was a solid one for airliners, and the outlook for 2025 is already exciting, There is a Boeing 707 coming from Nimbus, A Boeing 737 MAX from AirfoilLabs, and a cargo aircraft from Felis with the B747-200F, and Flight Procedures made a note of a new B748 (V3) and even (maybe) a B747-400, ERJ Series, and Flightfactor could even deliver a Dreamliner, so there is a big year coming up.
General Aviation
Once the thriving heat of X-Plane, the General Aviation sector is still feeling the loss of Carenado. A few of the usual suspects were notably absent this year like vFlyAir with only one small update. Most releases were still basically transition aircraft from X-Plane 11, in so again slowing down any new releases as well.
The Beechcraft Duchess Model 76 by JustFlight/Thranda brought the aircraft back to X-Plane 12, as usual a thoroughly nice upgrade, the PA28R Piper Arrow III followed in July, and the Cessna 152 came out later in the year as did the PA-28R Turbo Arrow III / IV all from the JustFlight stable. The Beechcraft Bonanza G36, the G1000 variant, was released after Easter by PAE Addons, again a new developer for the X-Plane Simulator.
In early April vSkyLabs released a most unusual machine, the Junkers A50 Junior S-LSA, a 1920's inspired modern take on this iconic aircraft, it was far more fun that it had any right to be. Another revision to X-Plane 12 was the Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter from Thranda Design in May, it came with a new menu and large 8K textures. vFlyAir's only contribution to the year was the transition Cherokee 140, their original design updated for X-Plane 12.
A new developer entrant was with a PA24-250 Comanche by InDepthSimulations. It was basic, but has loads of potential for future designs. SimSolutions did an updates to their Diamond DA-40NG updated to v1.2.2 in April, with X-Hangar updating the Diamond Katana DA20 C1 and Cessna 404 Titan.
vSkyLabs were moving their way through their very large collection and updating the aircraft to X-Plane 12, there were loads of updates from mid-year, first the boat like Polaris AM-FIB, the Aeros-2 Ultralight Trike, then the sensational CT/4E Airtrainer from New Zealand, the Phoenix Air U15 S-LSA , ICON - A5, Tensor 60 and the Tecnam P2006T v9.1 a twin-engined Italian machine and finally the Aeroprakt A22-LS in October.
PA44-180 Piper Seminole for X-Plane 12 by AeroSphere came out in August, and later in the year Ted Cook released the Stinson 108 Package for XP12. STMA also upgraded their Sherpa K650T Turbine Bush Plane to X-Plane 12.
The GA year wrapped up with Thranda Design releasing their best yet, and a totally new aircraft in the Pilatus PC-12, a highlight of the year and Aerobask released their DA-20NG.
Business Aircraft
AKD Studios had done a nice up date to the GulfStream 550 very early in the year, but then released the bigger G650/650ER GulfStream in early November, both aircraft are now parallel in design and features. X-Hangar updated their G550 in November as well. AirSim3D did two updates for the Citation C-560XL in July and October, but is now moving on to a new project.
Classic Aircraft
X-Hangar did several updates to the DHC-5 Buffalo, early and late in the year, the DHC4 C-7A Caribou had the same, two updates early and late, and both aircraft benefited from the attention. In February we had one of the most unusual releases with another new developer entrant for the Aircruiser 66-75 by Hangar 23, a shed of an aircraft, it quickly had the Float version added only weeks after, a strange machine that was impossible not to dislike, you were captivated by the design and on how you flew it. The North American T-6G Texan by Khamsin & Philip Ubben was another gem, if hard to land, but X-Plane 12 shined through. vSkylabs did X-Plane 12 an update to the SR-71 "Thunderbird" to version v2.0, it is a bullet of an aircraft, and the weird He-162 Project also had an update to v3.0.5.
Helicopters
Overall after the previous years, Helicopters were basically quiet in 2024, but in there were two exceptional releases. The first early in February was the JRX Design Bell 407 v1.30 now with CINEFLEX, a quality machine. The second was even more exceptional from X-Trident, in the AgustaWestland AW109SP in May, overwhelmingly brilliant the AW109SP set a higher standard for any new designs in X-Plane 12. vSkylabs updated four aircraft in 2024, the Guimbal Cabri G2, Robinson R66 Turbine and the Revolution Mini-500 and even a “Gyroplane”. The HSF Eurocopter EC130 B4 v1.4 had only one small update, as did the K-1200 K-MAX XP12 by STMA. Dreamfoil Creations were very quiet all year?
Military
X-Hangar updated their C-130 Hercules to X-Plane 12, but it is still a bit too basic for me, the "Herk" deserves better. One of the most outstanding releases of the year for the military was the excellent Leonardo Aermacchi M-346 AJT by Deltawing Simulations, this aircraft just ooozed X-Plane 12 in all of it's glory, a review that is still not forgotten.
AoA (Angle of Attack) had a very busy year, the T-7A Red Hawk, T-6A Texan II and the F-22A Raptor all had big updates, but the highlight from AoA was the amazing V-22 Osprey Tilitrotor, now a very mature Simulation, and a very versatile machine.
Scenery
2024 in scenery followed on from 2023, the biggest scenery story of the year was still AutoOrtho (Ortho4XP) or streaming ortho imagery. Some bright spark wanted to recreate the Microsoft ortho steaming system in X-Plane. To a point it is still very successful, but a fast internet connection and a powerful computer is required. The trick is downloading the tiles as you need them, not storing the tiles on your computer, but I'm not a fan of flat photo images, or certainly not jerky simulations. To add on top, another success this year still has been SIM HEAVENS X-World scenery Series. It will be interesting on how the coming NGS from Laminar will change this factor, not much I think as most are welded tightly into this very inefficient way of doing visual textures. Notable is that NGS will use DSS "Direct Scene Snapshot", to replace DSF, but both will run in parallel for a while, as DSS scenery won't work with DSF.
Again MSFS 2020, delivered a gazillion of scenery that nobody wants, but they did a very clever idea of Vertical Obstacles, that X-Plane in some form should adopt, the idea is to fill in real world obstacles in the landscapes. Obviously MSFS 2024 takes the scenery idea to almost insanity, the only issue is you can't stream it all through a tight internet straw.
For X-Plane the scenery developers had a very tough year, income was almost next to nothing and few dropped out, that said, the scenery releases were very good, to excellent considering the conditions, did we get a lot of cross-platform conversions from FS to XP? not really, but a few crossed over.
Aerosoft kicked off the year with Airport Zürich XP12 on the 4th Jan, as with barely no updates since X-Plane 12 was released 14 months earlier, most Aerosoft stock was looking old in X-Plane 12, but as the we moved through the year they finally got into gear... Dortmund XP, Society Islands XPTahiti & Windward Islands was next to compliment the earlier Leeward Island package, and that was just the thing for a South Pacific cruise. Next was Airport Newcastle XP, then a double update in June with Airport Stuttgart XP and Airport Istanbul XP, then Helgoland, XP Kassel XP in August, and Vitoria-Foronda XP and Greater Moncton International XP in November, so it was a big year of updates, missing still though is Norway's Bergen XP, a badly needed new scenery from Aerosoft?
VerticalSim had a busy year updating as well, first was KONT Ontario, then KMYR Myrtle Beach, KBOI Boise Air Terminal and finally KSRQ Sarasota Bradenton International. FS Designs kicked off the year with KJAX Jacksonville, KPNS Pensacola, and KPAO Palo Alto Intl
Skytitude delivered a lot of scenery this year with KGNV Gainesville, Everglades Airpark, KTLH Tallahassee and an excellent RSW Southwest Florida International Airport to replace the dated Aerosoft version.
LICD- Lampedusa Airport and Linosa Island, Italy by Cami de Bellis was released in January, and a couple of updates followed. LIMJ - Ligurian COAST Totally Insane", was an amalgamated package of LIMJ - Genova COMPLETE 5 - The Revolution" from BCSceneries, same scenery, but updated to X-Plane 12.
Nimbus Studios released a very, very impressive New York JFK, then followed that up with another impressive KCLT Charlotte Douglas in June with another update for KCLT later in the year. FunnerFlight also released an updated XP12 JFK, plus another massive update to the KSAN - San Diego - Naval scenery, huge is not an underestimation of this scenery.
By Taimodels standards they had a quiet year in only two releases, first was a lukewarm EGCC- Manchester International, but the second scenery was a big missing element finally in X-Plane... HECA Cairo International, Egypt XP12! and yes I love it. Fly Tampa pop-in to X-Plane every once a while, but when they do, they blow you totally away, this time it was FlyTampa Sydney, just brilliant. Another Australian scenery came from Orbx, with another long wanted scenery for X-Plane in YSSY Melbourne.
X-Codr Design was not really visible in X-Plane in 2024 except for a small update to KDEN (v2.1), instead he was now doing MSFS sceneries, one we have lost to the other? Another big X-Plane Scenery developer MIA is Short Final Designs, he delivered with only KSJC San Jose International Airport as a release for the year, he has now gone to Laminar Research, so it will be interesting for 2025 in what the maestro will deliver there.
Chudoba Designs released Bratislava International Airport for X-Plane 12, an interesting Chudoba scenery is RKPC Jeju International Airport in Korea, a review I couldn't get around to, maybe 2025? ESGG Göteborg Landvetter Airport was released in April, and last but not least was LKTB Brno-Turany Airport in the Czech Republic, all solid sceneries at great prices.
Drzewiecki Design have upgraded their renamed "Washington DC" scenery to "KDCA Washington Airport & City XP12", but otherwise they were another that have moved on to MSFS for scenery, and a lot of old DD scenery is feeling their age. An odd scenery was vSkyLabs Airbases: Base-8, a testing ground for your flying abilities.
New developers to the X-Plane scenery mostly focused on small airport sceneries, like crossover FX3D with a load of French sceneries, including LFKF Figari, LFKC Calvi, LFKT Corte, LFMQ Castellet, LFMR Barcelonnette, LFNS GAP-Tallard, LFNC Mont-Dauphin Saint-Crépin Airport and LFNS Sisteron, an impressive list... KXNA Northwest Arkansas National Airport by TearWear Designs was another new face. There was a neat three Venezuelan Airports package for X-Plane 12 by Positive Climb Design. DarkBlue Scenery released RJGG Chubu, and RJBB, both in Japan.
NorthernSky were also a little slower this year, but still delivered outstanding scenery at a budget price, including; PAPG Petersburg - Alaska, PHOG Kahului Airport and PHHN Hana, PHNY Lanai, PHJH Kapalua all in Hawaii, and last the sensational PASI Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport, Alaska.
There were no landscape sceneries released in 2024, except maybe for St. Vincent and the Grenadines by 3DReal... Maps2XP and Frank Dainese and Fabio Bellini didn't release any landscapes in 2024.
In context, although a fair few of the above sceneries were transitions from X-Plane 11, overall for scenery releases it was a very good year, actually unexpected in the volume delivered.
Sound Packs
A mention... BSS BlueStarSky released the BSS A321 Reloaded CFM pack, but that was about it, but Mango Studios had a great year, there was a lot to choose from, not only the great sound packages for; ToLiss A319 Sound Pack, IXEG 737 Sound Pack, GLF 550/650 Sound Pack, Toliss A330 sound pack, but the neat little engine mod conversions as well; PW2000 Engine - FF 757, PW4000 Engine - FF B767, ToLiss A340 Trent 556 Engine Mod, but my favorite was the excellent MD80 Series IAE V2500 Engine mod, with later added the P&W JT8D-200 + IAE V2500 engine sound package. There were a few new REP "Reality Expansion packages", including the Thranda DH2 Beaver, PT-6 Porter and the PA28 Arrow lll.
Plugins
I will state upfront that I am not a huge plugin connoisseur, so I only run what I call essential plugins in my simulator, running the VRAM profiler (Menu/Developer) can give you the horrors of on how much these little monstrous tools can gobble up your framerate and their overall efficiency, I take out as many of these laggards as possible.
The Skunkcrafts Standalone Updater Client v3.0. became the standalone tool for updating X-Plane aircraft in 2023, efficient, clever and fast, and it still rules big in 2024 as every developer bar FlightFactor now uses it. openSAM replaced the nasty SAM 3, it is a basic tool, but gets around the issue. There was a few organiser tools released, one just for X-Plane's scenery, and xOrganizer that covered the whole simulator.
WebFMC had a few updates through the year to cater for new releases, but really not many other changes, BetterPushBack had the same, but overall needs a revision (adjustable volume anyone). Traffic Global had a few updates (0199 and 0217), but not much new was really done except to make it reliable, the clever tool was the "Regent Traffic" updates, complicated to install, but it brought a huge amount of new airlines and services to TG, it is well worth checking out.
Stick and Rudder updated both X-Camera and X-Keypad, but the maturing X-ATC Chatter v1.7.2 became my cockpit friend this year.
Navigraph was again the king of the tools, now highly intergrated with SimBrief, they are now simply essential tools for the Simulator, SimBrief became the defacto (auto) flightplanning tool inside the cockpit. Navigraph added in Annotations, ATC Sectors and Expanded Airport Data to Charts 8 in 2024.
X-PlaneReviews
X-PlaneReviews passed eleven years of providing quality and detailed reviews for the X-Plane Simulator. And in this year 2024 we have delivered even more consistent reviews and NEWS! than any year before.
The team has grown as well... besides the dynamic Dominic Smith and his lovely wife Felicity, who also contributes immensely to the X-Plane.Org Weekly Roundups and Developer Interviews, is a major contributor in X-PlaneReviews as well, plus the extra talented reviewers of Alan Ashforth (alpeggio), Peter Allnutt, Dennis Powell, Nick Garlick, Stéphane Tolédo-Paul (Tieman68), David York (datadave), Stuart McGregor (Scottish Wings), DrishalMAC2, Michael Hayward, Jack Thompson and Joshua Moore, all genuine talented and contributors to not only X-PlaneReviews, but to X-Plane in general. I am personally signing off a little earlier this year to have a family Christmas in another Australian State, but Dominic will do some more reviews right up to the festive season, and a big new Christmas release review is still yet to be released from me.
Always a thank you to the exciting work by the tireless developers that give us all this incredible product to fly and use, as they and X-Plane has come a long way and created leaps in quality and complexity in the last few years, certainly with the jump to X-Plane 12, and to a point I was always very proud of the work they have produced, it is world class if not the very best in simulation product ever produced, and this year better than ever in systems and quality detail, and they are all top notch and very clever. To the X-Plane.OrgStore who supports this site with review products, service and updates, a really big thanks to Nicolas Taureau, as this site just also would not function without that outstanding support.
This aspect shows that X-Plane as a Simulator is alive and well after a fair few years of disruptive development, X-Plane 12 is now (thankfully) maturing towards the central part of its evolution cycle, and as well noted throughout this "End of the Year" edition it has had a transformation (or would you call it a reset?) this year in 2024. My outlook optimism for 2025 is at an all time high, my gut says X-Plane as a Simulator has turned a corner, and it can only get better from here, but X-Plane as a Simulator also has to now grow as well, expand vigorously in 2025.
Certainly the central community is very active and very collaborative in creating dynamics that is expanding the Simulator, but growing in all the different areas is just as important, not just the core, numbers must grow in 2025, new additions in not only the software and hardware, but developers and active users, it is people, the time to grow... and move forward.
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We will finish off with the X-PlaneReviews famous best of the year awards… So I will now list my Best of the Year 2024🏅
(note the awards are given to only products I have seen and tested and so the only ones I can vouch for)
Overall Best of the Year : A very hard choice this year, as there are four outstanding entrants, FlightFactor Boeing 777v2, X-Tridents AW109SP, Rotate's MD-11 Passenger and the TolIss A330neo , all deserving 🏅 🏅🏅
Best Aircraft : FlightFactor B777v2.🏅🏅
A look into the future of X-Plane 12 quality and design, it delivers on a huge scale.
Honorable Mention : Rotate's MD-11 Passenger is just brilliant, as is the ToLiss A330neo
Best General Aviation Aircraft : Pilatus PC-12 by Thranda Design
Thranda Design are behind a lot of X-Plane aircraft besides their own creations, but the PC-12 brings back to the X-Plane Simulator a brilliant aircraft done well.
Honorable Mentions : vSkyLabs, for their huge and unique catalogue of aircraft and machines, they just keep on coming.
Best Classic Aircraft : North American T-6G Texan by Khamsin & Philip Ubben
This is what happens when you put two extremely talented developers together, Khamsin & Philip Ubben create history, or at least a part of it in the T-6G Texan.
Honorable Mention : What can you say about flying a shed, the Aircruiser 66-75 by Hangar 23 was certainly unique, fun as well.
Best Business Aircraft : AKD Studios G650/650ER GulfStream
Not perfect, but development this whole year has been very steady and consistent from this talented Polish developer, next year 2025 this category will be tighter with the promised X-Crafts Lineage 1000 and maybe even the Aerobask Falcon 6X anyone, now years late.
Best Military : Leonardo Aermacchi M-346 AJT by Deltawing Simulations 🏅
With some releases you see the future, the amazing M-346 AJT showed off the wonders of X-Plane 12, nice aircraft to fly as well.
Honorable Mention : AoA again with another huge improvement over the original, the V-22 Osprey was great to fly, also a very versatile dynamic Simulation as well, I loved it.
Best Helicopter : AgustaWestland AW109SP by X-Trident 🏅🏅🏅
A no brainer on choice for the best helicopter of the year, again a projection into the future of Simulation, brilliant avionics are well worth mastering.
Honorable Mentions : JRX Designs Bell 407 was very good as well, the best of the bunch currently, except for the above AW.
Best Landscape Scenery : Society Islands XPTahiti & Windward Islands by Maps2XP (Aerosoft)
Does this broad scenery count as a Landscape scenery? It sort's of covers a large area of the South Pacific, well detailed as well, so yes.
Best Airport Scenery : YSSY Sydney Fly Tampa 🏅🏅
A study on how to do perfect scenery, Fly Tampa always deliver, but more so here, a giant.
Honorable Mention : Taimodels on delivering HECA Cairo, and Nimbus had a great year with JFK and Charlotte.
Best Plugin(s) : Skunkcrafts Standalone Updater Client 🏅
A plugin... it was, but also still the biggest standout tool of the year, now for the second year in a row and grown, it's so fast!
Special Mention(s) : Navigraph for their excellent navigation tools, and seriously clever new additions, and for openSAM, fixing a major problem.
Person(s) of the Year : Marko Mamula
The developer that just seemed to be everywhere in 2024, but in delivering the X-Plane 12 future we deserve, talented, and tons more to come in 2025.
Best Moment of the year 2024 : Leaving Schiphol (EHAM) in a heavy morning weather to arrive at a sandstorm dusk in Cairo (HECA), Simulation at it's very, very best.
Worst Moment(s) of the Year 2024 : Laminar Research is doing their own store, the ramifications are dangerous, and will it cost jobs in X-Plane, you could even lose the X-Plane.Org... forever!
Biggest distraction of 2024 : ... The dark cloud of the X-Plane Store.
Biggest overall feeling of 2024 : Another tough hard year, but the outlook at the end of this brutal year was a revolution of a new and better X-Plane Simulator, shame the Laminar store will ruin all the good work.
Personal Favorites of 2024 : Any ToLiSS (the save system allows ultimate flexibility) again, but my standout aircraft of the year is the amazing Rotate MD-11 Passenger, unbelievable Simulation, seriously addictive was that wide-body aircraft... I just loved it.
Routes... Barcelona, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Roma, Cairo, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Tel Aviv, London Heathrow and Dulles, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Notable is that with the newer scenery, Cairo, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore finally came on-line in 2024.
That is X-PlaneReviews for 2024, and we will be back after a very much needed recovery and the review site returns again early into the New Year on the 7th January 2025.
So Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year 2025
Stephen Dutton
14th December 2024
Copyright:X-PlaneReviews 2024
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Aircraft Review - V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor XP12
Aircraft Review - V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor XP12
Is it a helicopter or an aircraft? that is usually the first question asked about the V-22 Osprey. It's formal title is "Tiltrotor", so you would say helicopter with those massive three blades per side, but the machine can also convert to a forward flying aerodynamic winged aircraft, and then flies in that same configuration as a normal aircraft. It doesn't fly like a helicopter either with no collective to bite the air or cyclic... it is a strange machine.
The failure of Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 during the Iran hostage crisis underscored that there were military roles for which neither conventional helicopters nor fixed-wing transport aircraft were well-suited. The United States Department of Defense (DoD) initiated a program to develop an innovative transport aircraft with long-range, high-speed, and vertical-takeoff capabilities, and the Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) program officially began in 1981. A partnership between Bell Helicopter and Boeing Helicopters was awarded a development contract in 1983 for the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft.
The story starts with the Bell XV-3 (Bell 200), an American tiltrotor aircraft developed by Bell Helicopter for a joint research program between the United States Air Force and the United States Army in order to explore convertiplane technologies in the middle 1950's. The XV-3 featured an engine mounted in the fuselage with driveshafts transferring power outwards to two-bladed rotor assemblies mounted on the wingtips. But flutter and that the driveshafts was carrying power from the fuselage out to the wingtip rotors, along with the gearbox and tilting mechanisms at the wingtips, they found that the concept had substantial loads placed upon them and were very heavy, as they were transferring large amounts of power and torque long distances for an aircraft power transmission system.
Another XV-15 experimental aircraft introduced a major design concept advance. instead of engines in the fuselage, the XV-15 moved the engines out to the rotating wingtip pods, directly coupled to the rotors. The normal path for power was now directly from the engine into a speed-reduction gearbox and into the rotor/propeller without any long shafts being involved. There was still a driveshaft along the wings for emergency use to transfer power to the opposite rotor in case of engine failure, but that shaft did not normally carry any power loads, allowing the overall system to be lighter.
The success of the XV-15 created the concept of an American multi-use, tiltrotor military transport and cargo aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft. The V-22 is operated by the United States and Japan, and is not only a new aircraft design, but a new type of aircraft that entered service in the 2000s.
The first of six prototypes first flew on 19 March 1989 in the helicopter mode and on 14 September 1989 in a fixed-wing mode. The third and fourth prototypes successfully completed the first sea trials on USS Wasp in December 1990.
The V-22 however has had a mixed safety record, marked by several high-profile accidents, especially in its early years of testing and deployment. While the aircraft has since become an integral part of military operations, its development and operational use have been frequently marred by crashes that has raised always questions about its safety and design.
This X-Plane 12 version of the V-22 Osprey is from Angle of Attack (AoA) Simulations, mostly AoA aircraft are military designs like the F-22A Raptor and F-35B Lightning ll and T-7A Red Hawk. The original V-22 Osprey for X-Plane 11 was released March 2018.
Honestly X-PlaneReviews never reviewed the AOA XP11 version of the V-22. We looked at it at the time and followed it's development, but it was a very quirky aircraft with a few quibbles that needed more development (okay a lot more), these aspects now have been all done, and this is the X-Plane 12 release of the Osprey, it's an aircraft now presented in a far more completed mature form.
It certainly looks the part. If anything else the V-22 Osprey is a very dramatic looking aircraft, feels odd, with those huge rotors suspended in the air, and not at all like most helicopters (okay maybe a Chinook). Its a transport machine, so more in the C-130 Hercules vein, with a couple engines lopped off, and the inner engines turned skywards.
Modeling and design by AoA is very good, certainly not in the ultra X-Trident category of their high standard of finesse quality department, but the V-22 still looks very well done even impressive in X-Plane 12.
Fuselage is very modern military, with nice normal raised rivets to show the construction. Panels are mostly drawn on here, but it's still well done.
A lot of the developer's attention has gone towards those two Rolls-Royce AE 1107C-Liberty turboshaft engines, specially designed for the Osprey, and their complex nacelles. Blades are 38 feet (11.58 meters) long per rotor, they are are a carbon fiber and epoxy resin composite blade, built for strength, durability, and weight reduction.
Detail of the exposed areas of the pod and wing are really very well done, with all the inner tilt hydraulics and mechanism are well detailed.
The wing is also really well detailed with ribbing and laminar flow aerodynamics.
Cockpit glass is a bit thin, the (light) reflections are there, but not pronounced, and there are no scratches or rainbow glass effects.
The undercarriage is a bit basic, just the piston and extension guide, no plumbing or hydraulics to be seen.
There are animations on the V-22, manually they are accessed by ↕︎ arrows... the front right door opens, first in an observer top door open position, the secondly the lower drop down walk up stairs.
Also the main rear ramp, again two positions, half (for dropping loads), and also a full down ramp.
There is also separate pop-out menu found on the X-Plane banner/Plugins Menu called "Options". (Support tab is the AoA email address)
All the external door animations are on the graphic top, plus engine/pitot covers and tags (very nice), refueling probe, and under belly load hooks.
Also on the pop-out menu is the selection of the four different variants, and each version has its own unique internal (fuel) configuration and external distinguishing elements.
US Marine Corp MV-22B (default) USAF SOCOM (Special Operations Command) CV-22B US Navy CMV-22B COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) Japan Self Defense Force MV-22J
Inside the V-22 it is quite cavernous at 20ft long, 5 feet wide and 6 ft high, and has a workable 430 cubic feet.
The V-22 internal cargo area detail is impressive from AoA, really well done, there is also the option to add in four Marines from the menu, two forward right and two rear left... however another option for a full load of Marines would have been nice though.
The internal door to the cockpit can also be opened with the top or lower sections moved separately.
Into the cockpit... the instrument layout is very jet fighter military, with four Multi-Functional Displays (MFD) and one large Control Display Unit (CDU) center.
There are some really nice Marine pilots, and they will swap seat positions depending on which seat you use, if you don't want one or both, then just click their helmets, and they will disappear, and the helmet(s) are hung on the side of the OHP (Overhead Panel)
There is the third crew member in the Flight Engineer in the rear center seat, selected via the Menu, all crew members are very realistic and relatable to their roles.
Although this a menu driven aircraft, overall there is mostly also automated processes to relieve the pilots of high workloads, so both the upper OHP and lower center console are both quite sparse in their layouts and are easy to use. hint the wipers are noted as W/W on the console keyboards.
On power up, the backup instruments are activated first, then the primary instruments via the OHP "Avionics" switch.
Each MFD display has 22 soft keys. The five across the top are “T” keys. The two at the bottom are Caution/Advisory and Acknowledge keys. The remaining 14; seven on the left (L1-7) and seven on the right (R1-7) are all page dependent.
"T" keys include HVR (Hover Trim Key) or VSD (Vertical Situation Display) and Rotor Position Indicator (RPI) are to the left , NAV, FLIR (Forward-Looking Infrared), STAT (Status) and SYST (System)
Blue-sky Attitude Direction Indicator (ADI) on the upper half of the display and a 170 degree HSI style compass card is shown on the lower half. The Blue-sky can be turned off, mostly with the VID (Camera) Function. TACAN, Nav2 VOR/ILS or GPS are selectable on the NAV
HVR shows you your vertical position to the ground (In the hover mode).
NAV will also show the standard X-Plane map, but you can also use the pop-out the G1000 MAP panel and it's tools besides the HSI.
VSD (Vertical Situation Display), is a version of the PFD without the compass card. FLIR is a camera (view) that does not have any flight information on it.
STAT shows you the various system status in; FUEL, FCS (Flight Control System), ENG (Engine), ICE and ELEC (Electrical)
SYST (System) has engine parameters and a full menu of options.
There is also a built in PREFLIGHT "Checklist" and Flightplan Planner.
As with most military aircraft there a load of various menus and options, far too many to list here, however AoA do provide two very good comprehensive manuals in a detailed User Guide and 68 page Cockpit Display Guide.
The Control Display Unit’s (CDU) primary display mode is the Engine Instrument Crew Alerting System page, with dedicated Copilot and Pilot keyboards which are located below the CDU. Above are the backup Instruments that generalise the V-22s systems and PFD (Primary Flight Display). Traffic Collision Advisory System display and the CDU menus can be swapped LtoR for both pilots.
The glareshield holds the Flight Control System (FCS) Autopilot, and the NAC (Nacelle) control from AUTO to MAN modes, both glareshield ends has the Remote (Radio) Frequency Indicators (RFI) that display Com1 radio Active and Standby frequencies. The SEL key will flip the active and standby frequencies around each other.
Maintenance Mode
One great feature is the folding of the Rotors and Wing for Carrier operations. To use the feature however is a bit of a trick to get access to the "BLADE FOLD/WING STOW selections on the pop-out Menu. The way to switch it on however requires a specific set of settings...
Flaps have to be up (stowed), Power and APU has to be on for the hydraulics to do the operation... Then you go to the SYST and the MAINT MODE (R-7). The AUTO NAC (FCS) has to be set in MAN Mode and finally selecting BFWS or "Blade Fold and Wing Stow system" (R-4)... then wallah, the BFWS popup Menu should now be active.
First operation is to FEATHER / UNFEATHER the blades...
... Then FOLD / UNFOLD the Blades, then you TILT / UNTILT the Nacelles to the forward position...
... Finally you can then rotate the wing assembly to the STOW / UNSTOW position.
Yes it is a great feature and done really well here by AoA, in it being very authentic to the real BFWS system.
On the OHP the Radio Panel is available in flight, but the panel itself is inert, in Engine shutdown mode or the Rotor Brake on, it coverts into systems situation panel, noting which systems are active.
AviTab is available on the Menu... (Note: Plugin is required and the latest v0.7.1 version). It is positioned only on the right side of the cockpit, as in the V-22 the Primary Pilot is in the right hand seat, like with a Helicopter pilot, not like a fixed-wing left seat position.
Both side windows can be opened (Animated) via hot-spots.
Internal Lighting
I hope you like GREEN? as it is very green in here, as everything is bathed in the Military night mode colour. Looks brilliant though.
You can adjust the CKPT DOME main lighting as well as the SECONDARY lighting, on the Secondary switch their are two more options for NVG NORMAL, and DAY/NIGHT. Primary Lighting (Three knobs) will adjust the instrument panel and each pilot side lighting. The essential backup CDU goes white instead of green, and this is particularly well done.
External Lighting
There are two Landing lights built into the nose, also Navigation lights (known here as "Position") each nacelle and white rear. Two Beacon lights are set under fuselage and left upper tail light.
There are two sets of "Formation" lights, also call SLIME lights, used to help identify friendly aircraft, particularly during formation flying or carrier operations at night, usually made of phosphorescent or electroluminescent materials, which emit a soft greenish-yellow glow. The main body strips are on the nacelles, upper wing and tail, but there is also the exciting option of also the separate selection of "Prop Tips" Slime lights, which looks amazing in flight with those massive rotors.
Flying the V-22 Osprey
Starting the Osprey is quite easy, as most of the start procedures are automated. Power (Battery) on and APU started, then set to RUN/ENGAGE to provide system power... to start the engines, then you just move the Fuel Levers to CRANK, Then START/LEFT ENGINE then finally FLY.... simple!
Both rotors will turn together as they are cross-frame connected, but only the left engine is actually running...
There is a second start option for an "AUTO START". This is on the pop-up Menu (top) and the aircraft has to be in the Cold/Dark state to activate the feature. Press the button "AUTO START ENGINES" and start the sequence that will go though the full start up procedures, showing you the checklist phases by text boxes lower screen. It is fully automated including the view movements.
Once the "AUTO START sequence is finished, you go out of the mode via switching the "Timer" back to time (ACK) on any MFD as noted on the last text message.
The last Pop-Up menu option is the "WEIGHT & BALANCE", this brings up the standard X-Plane "Weight & Balance" Menu to set up your aircraft preferences.
To control the angle of the nacelles, you need to set keyboard command key or a throttle hardware switch to tilt the nacelles DOWN and back UP again. (see X-Plane in sim Settings drop down menu, Joystick or Keyboard tab, locate and assign “vector or sweep forward” and “vector or sweep aft”), I used the F11 and F12 keys. There is a manual nacelle adjuster wheel, it is on the TCL or "Throttle Control Lever", but it is a little tricky to use looking forward while flying.
The Nacelle Tilt Angle Indicator (NTAI) angle display is set upper left on the PFD... 90º is straight up, 97º is backwards, and on the ground you are restricted to the (red) boundary of 60º because of those huge rotors.
So is flying the V-22 Osprey the same as taking off in a Helicopter, well no, as for one there is no collective, just a throttle lever (TCL) to create the downward thrust. It is a heavy machine as well, here set at 21260 kg at Takeoff. So the V-22 does not react like a light Helicopter, or a drone for that matter, but it is closer to takeoff like a (very heavy) drone, more than a Heli. Flaps are totally automated, and move to the correct position for that phase of the flight, so there is no need to mess with the flap lever.
TCL up (slowly) 90º nacelle position and the V-22 rises off the ground... any joystick inputs forward, backwards, left or right, even very small movements will take you in that direction, this HOVER mode.
Press the rudder pedal down left or right and the Osprey will rotate in that direction, so low flight manoeuvres are quite easy, Helicopterish without that massive tailrotor pressure thrust.
You can move forwards just by moving the stick slightly forward, but remember to keep the power on so the V-22 doesn't lose height as you start to gain speed, it's not going to be fast in this mode, so you move the nacelles now forward to 60º...
You require more TCL, but your also moving forwards into a transition phase very quickly, and already moving at a speed of 100 kts+
The Osprey is extremely nice to fly, being heavy, it feels solid unlike a shaking Helicopter...
There is another if quicker way to get airborne. “Jumps” are short rolling takeoffs with the nacelles rotated down just forward of the vertical. With the nacelles at 85, 80 or 75 degrees these takeoffs are called “Jump 85”, “Jump 80” or “Jump 75”. The aircraft rolls forward only a few tens of feet before getting airborne.
In practise you let the park brake off and increase the TCL power...
As you increase the power, you move forward only a short distance before literally "Jumping" bouncing quickly into the air, this could easily be done on a carrier, no problems... and your now flying.
The technique to accelerate the aircraft into forward flight is to “bump” the nacelles forward and down using the “thumb wheel” on the inside of the TCL. (or keyboard command), as expected the ground limitation boundary is now gone in the air.
The transition to forward flight is to configure the aircraft to the wings without losing height, so you move the nacelles slowly forward, but you have to be careful, as when past 30º, the nacelles will quickly rotate to 0º. You need to quickly give a little backstick and add in more power, if not the V-22 will lose height or dip very quickly, but once transitioned, you can reduce the TCL a little and you are now at around 240 kts forward speed.
Notice the nose dip? you soon recover from it, the trick is to do transition more slowly and explore this change of flight parameters.
But boy, the Osprey really accelerates forward once configured. The V-22 has a maximum speed 316 knots (363 mph or 584 km/h) in Airplane mode, and a Cruise Speed of 241 knots (277 mph or 446 km/h) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m). Typically your speed is in the 110-120 knots range in the hover or transition phase.
Combat Radius is around 390 nautical miles (450 miles or 720 km) with internal fuel and a standard payload. And the Ferry Range is 2,100 nautical miles (2,400 miles or 3,889 km) with auxiliary fuel tanks. Service Ceiling is 25,000 ft (7,620 m) with a standard load.
And you cover ground very quickly, very different from a Helicopter.
And you are very aware of those massive blades only feet away from the cockpit.
Autopilot is very simple to use. Select the Heading (HDG), and Altitude and just press the activation button below your selection, to go climb or descend, deactivate the ALT (Altitude) and adjust the V/S (Vertical Speed), it will reset the ALT when it achieves the set new altitude.
One thing I did find in the HDG and set ALT. that the V-22 tended to slightly roll left and right? a slight touch of the joystick to counter the movement usually centered it, but it would get slightly annoying if going a distance. Another factor is that in airplane mode the V-22 doesn't turn very well, on the AP or manually, even with a fair bit of rudder to push the nose around, yes you can do a crazy 45º turn, but it still takes a fair circle to achieve the full turn manoeuvre, so you have to forward plan out any tight (wide) turns to accommodate the Osprey.
The "VID" Video or “Synthetic Vision” is excellent, with a great visual of the landscape outside, you can easily fly by the instruments or in a head down mode with the amount of detail shown here.
Other AoA features include "Roll to See" where in the mode, the view is rolled to the angle of the aircraft.
The second is "Target Track", were as the plug-in code takes command of the pilot point of view camera in order to point the camera at a selected AI plane and follow it, keeping it in view at all times while it is in your aircraft’s forward hemisphere.
Other features include Air-to Air Refuelling, 2D or 3D cockpit modes, one is a locked view, the other free. And the V-22 supports the default X-Plane slung load system. You just choose a slung load object and weight in the weight and balance menu. Navigate to the payloads folder and select one of the available OBJ files.
Now is the transition phase in reverse... The Osprey loves it's speed, so you have to pull the TCL quite a way back before you lose speed. Tricky is that the NTAI does not show until you go under 220 kts, then you still have rub off speed before it will allow you rotate the nacelles at around 198 kts.
A slight nose up atitude will slightly rub off the speed, but when you reach 50º up angle then the speed passes away a lot quicker.
So you are now losing height and losing speed... 75º is a very nice approach speed of around 55 knts, but be aware of like in a Helicopter there is that very ineffective "Transitional Lift" zone, so you have to be very, very aware of your thrust, as the point of aerodynamic lift is replaced by thrust lift, yes you can sink, and quite quickly, but the slight annoyance is as you move the nacelles to 80º the upward thrust comes in with a bang, the trick is finding a perfect transitional balance (thrust) between the two phases.
But that 80º position is a sweet spot, the nacelles are far enough forward to keep you moving in the approach... a creeping forward momentum.
... any moment you go to the straight up (90º) the Tiltrotor stops in it's tracks...
I tried the MFD HVR feature... but to a point it didn't work as I expected? one was the VID was still a forward view, I expected it to be pointing downwards to show you underneath the Osprey, second, although you had a movement counter 1.2.3 - -1. -2. -3 if you went backwards or forwards, the crosshairs didn't move as much as it did on the AW-109... so it's not much help in that repect.
Time to go down, unlike a Helicopter the V-22 is quite easy to hold in the hover, just gentle stick movements will correct your position...
... one great bonus you have, is that if the nacelles are put to 97º the Osprey will fly in reverse, or act like an airbrake on approach...
These adjustable powerplants give you an amazing amount of control, and it is far easier than your Helicopter control, if done in a different way. So low hovers and a quiet touch landing is very easily done, no twitching or fighting the tail yaw like with a Helicopter. On the ground there is the there is an option on the menu pop-up to "Brake with Stick", or pull back on the stick to brake the aircraft (you can release the brakes as well) when taxiing or slowing down with a rolling landing, I never used this, as I use the foot pedals, but you can use in on say a vertical landing to stop the aircraft moving, handy on a Carrier ship.
The V-22 Osprey is an amazing machine, but challenging to fly? no not really like in a Helicopter sense, but unique to itself is the best statement you could make... overall I love it immensely.
There are no liveries with the package, but there are few you can download... CV-22B SOCOM and VMX-22 "Metallic", and the latest is the CMV-22B "Titans" livery, which is very nice.
________________
Summary
Is it a helicopter or an aircraft is usually the first question asked about the V-22 Osprey. It's formal title is "Tiltrotor", so you would say helicopter with those massive three blades per side, but the machine can also convert to a forward flying aerodynamic winged aircraft, and then flies in that same forward configuration as a normal aircraft. So a bit of both.
The success of the XV-15 created the concept of an American multi-use, tiltrotor military transport and cargo aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft
This X-Plane 12 only version of the V-22 Osprey is from Angle of Attack (AoA) Simulations, mostly AoA aircraft are military designs like the F-22A Raptor and F-35B Lightning ll and T-7A Red Hawk. The original V-22 Osprey for X-Plane 11 was released March 2018.
The original AoA for X-Plane 11 felt a little under developed, but that was a long time ago (in X-Plane sense) and here it has been completely reworked and upgraded to X-Plane 12, basically it is a different aircraft in now being very matured and far more wholesome.
It needs to be because the V-22 role requires really good handing and dynamics to experience the "Tiltrotor" actions, thankfully that aspect is very well delivered here, it is a very unique flying experience and comes with excellent simulator pilot intergration.
Modeling, design and detail is really good, certainly in the cargo and highly detailed cockpit, and looks far better in X-Plane 12 than XP11, and not for the obvious reasons, it just feels overall far more complete and refined. Great animations for doors external and internal, pilots including Flight Engineer and Marines in the rear, carry hooks (yes you can sling loads), refueling probe, a clever realistic Blade Fold/Wing Stow animation, and Autostart feature, standard (XP) Weight and Balance menu. Standard AoA features like Roll to See and Target Track are also included, there are also four menu selectable V-22 variants. Lighting and Sounds are also top notch.
The V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor is unique, and the Angle of Attack X-Plane 12 version gives an excellent immersion into this incredible aircraft. The V-22 is unique to fly as well, and more accessible than a Helicopter, so you can fly vertical flight, and fast horizontal flight, so the Osprey combines the two skills.
The V-22 becomes very, very addictive, mainly because it's flight envelope is so wide, takeoff vertically, "Jump" into the air, and still do carrier operations, the Osprey has it all, I loved it, addictive... Highly Recommended!
______________________
The V-22 Osprey XP12 by AOA Simulations is now available from the X-Plane.Org Store:
V-22 Osprey XP12
Priced at US$55.00
Currently US$44.00 You Save:$11.00(20%)
Requirements
X-Plane 12 (not for XP11)
Windows , Mac (M1/M2 Supported), Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 495 MB Current version: 1.03 (December 3rd 2024) This aircraft is noted as a new version, to date there are no upgrade deals from the X-Plane 11 version, but that may change. ________________
Installation and documents: download for the V-22 Osprey is 446Mb and the aircraft is deposited in the "Military" X-Plane folder.
Full Installation is 645MBb
AviTab Plugin is required for this aircraft (latest v0.7.1 version)
Documents supplied are:
1-V-22 User Guide.pdf (41 Pages) 2-V-22 Cockpit Display Reference.pdf (68 Pages) 3-Enter GPS Waypoint.pdf 4-Osprey Start Checklist.pdf V-22 1.0 notes.pdf V-22 copyright.txt
Documentation consists of a User guide (41 Pages), and the excellent Cockpit Reference guide (61 Pages), also provided is a Checklist (pdf) and Notes
Designed by Fabrice Kauffmann and David Austin of AOA Simulations Support forum for the V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor _____________________
Update Review by Stephen Dutton
6th December 2024
Copyright©2024: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD. Bose Quietcomfort Headphones
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.1.2
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- KTCM - McChord AFB - Seattle - Boeing Country 10.5 by Tom Curtis (Sorry not now available)
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
-
Stephen got a reaction from flightwusel in Behind the Screen : November 2024
Behind the Screen : November 2024
To most Simulator users it is the flying dynamics and the reproduction of iconic aircraft that is their general focus. To relive, train or learn on how to fly a broad spectrum of aviation's greatest developments. From airliners past and present, General Aviation aircraft, Military, Helicopters and even the weird and wonderful contraptions that can fly through the air. But the environment that you fly in is important as well, and yes "I'm Talking about scenery again".
"Oh god I really wish this guy would move on from this", I can hear the groans from here, the foreheads banging on the desktops.
But it is important as X-Plane is in a critical stage of it's development, it is the biggest issue right now, and an important one to get right. There are other areas that need development in X-Plane, certainly Multi-player functionality and Multi-Threading are major priorities, but even Laminar Research are focusing very heavily on what they call "New Generation Scenery", and over the last few months, trickles of what NGS is now coming out.
And it is an interesting debate, and one that could make X-Plane a prime simulator. There is no doubt that the environment is the Microsoft Flight Simulator's 2020, and now 2024 is a main focus, you can't really call it a flying simulator, it just has planes and helicopters in it, but this is a gaming platform, full of experiences... even now a career if you want one. That is fine, but the biggest attraction and one of which Microsoft promotes is this significant aspect of the environment... and this is where it does get interesting.
If you want X-Plane to grow as a Simulator, then you have to embrace the fact that the environment around your aircraft is a major attraction to people who want to use a Simulator. But this aspect always has been X-Plane's biggest imperfection. Since the start of my Simulation involvement, the default scenery has been, well mostly.... crap.
I'm not talking about some of the excellent add-on scenery produced for the X-Plane Simulator, I'm talking about the basics here, and why X-Plane does not have a bigger audience, and some, if most will say, "Well we like it that way", fine, but that way will mean the decrease of investment, not only by user participation, but by the essential developers moving on to better conditions. I'm not going to go all depressed on you again, because actually X-Plane in development has had a very successful year, but the simulator has also lost a lot of talented talent that we couldn't afford to lose, worse it's not attracting talent either, whether you like it or not X-Plane has reached a milestone, that could flip it simply one way or the other. From one perspective it looks absolutely fine if you keep to the basics and use default Global Airports, and yes things at this point are far better than it was 12 months ago. But that crucial line is now more in important than ever, if X-Plane does not grow, and quite significantly over the next few years it will become only a marginal player in Simulation.
And we have to be realistic, in that the default Global scenery has always been a hindrance, limiting the expansion of the simulator. The change from X-Plane 9 to X-Plane 10 was a significant step forward, but except for the new excellent trees in X-Plane 12 there has been no progress for over a decade, were as every other component of the Simulator has had significant upgrades, all the way throughout X-Plane 11 and to XP12. Basically we still have the same two tier autogen and tile mapping, and although the mountainous frameworks are very good, at a ground level the basic low-res ground textures are basically the same as they have been for years. Add in the poor insertion of custom scenery, and those horrible wide green spaces between the default and custom elements on the mesh, and I still cringe every time I land at Tampa, Florida, with those wide green spaces were buildings should be, so I never ever really liked it for realism.
Worse is if you are flying over empty spaces, say the American Kansas west, plains or worse African Sahara, or in my case over Australia, the repetitive patterns (landclass) were all there to see, for hours on end, and those Saharan landscapes are horrible and actually won't fit into any custom scenery, yes there are always options, but this default aspect is not at all good.
I did a demonstration flight in a helicopter hardware simulator with a particularly large audience, it all looked totally brilliant until I landed on those washed out lo-res chunks of textures, I was actually embarrassed of the scene, this was supposed to be a professional simulator, here broadcasting to a crowd that were interested in buying pro hardware, but I could see the reality of X-Plane's weaknesses, and maybe at that moment it has been my overwhelming focus of being on a sort of crusade to fix the "Scenery Problem".
Ben Supnik joined Laminar Research to do the very original scenery for X-Plane 6 with the introduction of DSF (Direct Scenery Format) in XP8, and which also introduced global terrain data. Then Supnik created what you could call the 2nd Gen Scenery for X-Plane 10, this version introduced two other clever elements in using both Autogen to place buildings to the modeling of global terrain data and the OpenStreetMap (OSM) data to provide immersive and realistic landscapes. Remember this was 2011, and at that time is was an extremely big step forward. But OSM had limitations, as you were restricted to it's coverage, so in areas like Africa, South America, and certainly in non-western zones like China, suddenly the lights went out and all the buildings disappeared. Yes Laminar added in more autogen, taller buildings and small industrial areas, but overall it stayed very limited for over a decade, with only a few icons added in extra. alpilotx did do a more Hi-Res version of the original XP10 texture tiles, but he left X-Plane in 2016, since then there has been nothing.
These two areas are currently expanded in X-Plane by replacing the default autogen by using 3d buildings like in SimHeaven's X-World series, again the limitation is that it relies on the same OSM data as the default scenery. Secondly is the addon to use photorealistic terrain using satellite imagery, known as "Ortho" and the Ortho4XP tool. Believers standby these two tools to replace what X-Plane does not provide, but they do take a huge amount of your processing power and storage, overall they are not a perfect solution to the worldwide scenery issues.
Now Supnik is faced with his biggest challenge yet, to recreate the scenery system for a modern Simulator, and that aspect is harder than what you think. It's the "World" and not just the small play area that is recreated in Games of say around 30nm. In that small game area, it is quite easy to recreate sensational scenery for the characters, but when you have the massive expansive world to recreate, then this huge scale has so many different aspects to recreate. Okay I may be over hard on X-Plane scenery for what it currently does, as to a point it does recreate the world quite well, but a decade on the game has now shifted (no pun intended).
Although lauded, Microsoft's approach to scenery has it's limitations as well. For landclass it is very good, shapeshifting the world in all it's elements, but it has one massive deficiency, it is when you get close to the ground. The major issue is ground distortion, plus any buildings, but mostly bridges that have space below that are sheared in physically into the ground. If you are flying at a 1,000ft it is not a very realistic scenario, and this is an important aspect of VFR flying, yes the correct buildings are there, but basically they are all generated shapes.
X-Plane's approach in this case for VFR is actually better, but not expanded out to cover major detailed areas. So how do you fix this. The Ortho believers think their approach is the best, but Ortho is not great either, as in many areas the buildings are only burnt in, leaving flat photographic images. But at the same 1,000ft point of view the Ortho works best, as it looks photographically realistic, the problem here though is when you get close to the ground, because the flat photo plate and the island looking 3d buildings, again doesn't look realistic.
Like myself Ben Supnik does not like Ortho, his argument like mine is the burn effects, trees, buildings will always have shadows, cars are burnt into the roads and so on, so with the daily time scale of moving light it doesn't work. His work is to try to find a compromise between the Ortho detail, but with not the absolute photo effects errors, so like with our current ground textures it is the best compromise in realism.
So what new scenery aspects are coming? well better ground textures means new "Terrain Rendering". Laminar wants to cram in more and more stuff on a tile, make it more dense with data. So overall it looks like what Laminar are working on is a completely new and different approach in creating better ground detail, as at the moment the current DSF is not scalable, but NGS or also known as "Direct Scene Snapshot" (DSS) is highly scalable, also highly streamable, plus has better and faster loading properties.
But DSS will at first only be an alternative to DSF, as if it replaced DSF, it would render most of the current Custom Scenery library obsolete. One other feature of DSS is that it will allow for Ortho images to be streamed directly into the Simulator if users still want to use that point of view, The interesting aspect of this "Tile Streaming", is the "streaming" is currently a reference in how the data gets into the sim engine. But will that "Streaming" be local (in the computer), or externally like Microsoft does?
Well a bit of both. X-Plane Mobile is actually already a streaming Simulator, so X-Plane desktop is probably going to go the same way with cloud streaming (Amazon's AWS), but with the cache to download the areas that you want to fly in off-line. Instead of downloading the current large DSF tiles with data, the streaming DSS files will be far smaller, but broken up into immediate high data quality visuals, but lower res (data) for far distance visuals.
The trick is that Laminar are trying to do is have the best of both worlds, the photo aspect of Orthos, but without the problems of the format (flat and burn ins), so the idea is with these smaller DSS tiles is that they will also be non-repeating, or have no Landclass category, meaning that a single image will be in the future just not repeated over and over to represent the area (my pet hate), but to represent the photo aspects without the photograph, so you will get the best of both worlds, great ground detailing, without the shadows and minute that affects Ortho images, plus the tiles will perfectly reflect the area they represent. Is this the mythical solution?
The biggest challenge however is filling the world in. X-Plane will still use the autogen model, but probably expanded. The biggest success over the decade was SFD's (ShortFinal Designs) excellent SFD Global, that took the current duel (USA/European) autogen modeling and added in more regions to it around the world, so yes you can currently see Middle-eastern housing in Dubai, and Japanese housing in Japan, and Australia housing in Australia.
Justin Kissling (mister-x, SFD) was already working on an expanded v2 of SFD Global, but has since been recruited by Laminar Research, this certainly means that SFD Global v2 will now be the default in X-Plane, plus in a far more expanded form, but what of those towns and cities?
This is still the biggest challenge facing X-Plane as a realistic VFR Simulator. I always like the autogen spread, with central custom city objects as a great way of doing this in a realistic scenario. In payware efforts were cities have been reproduced; New York, Washington, Seattle, London, Paris, even the excellent Orbx Brisbane and Detroit are excellent examples, the idea works well, the trick is to expand it worldwide to cover most if not if all major population centers. The problem is with custom city scenery is that it is very time-consuming to recreate, building by unique building, and annoyingly these city packages don't repay well for the developer's time consuming task. This is an area that could be redefined, could the new tools of A.I. build our custom cities for us? takeaway the overwhelming task of creating custom scenery... ten years ago this aspect was not possible, but it now may be realistic.
Ben Supnik notes that the new NGS scenery will be released is stages, and not completely all at once, so access will be available sooner than later, then the development will stretch out over time like with the Vulkan/Metal roadmap, so this a long term project more than the next X-Plane version journey, but certainly the NGS is coming more sooner than later, hopefully in 2025.
If done right, the above NGS development has the potential to revolutionise X-Plane as a Prime Simulator, it's an interesting take in that it is using all the best elements, and is discarding the negative ones, it will also make the Simulator even more efficient, but also in delivering an excess of a more visual detailing and a realistic environment for us to fly in. If you understand the concept, you will find it very exciting on what it can achieve... it is a vision of the future of realism in Simulation.
As usual there will be no December "Behind the Screen" 2024 issue, but our full yearly round up of the year 2024 review is to be published on 13th December 2024, so watch out for that.
Stephen Dutton
4th December 2024
Copyright©2023 X-Plane Reviews
-
Stephen got a reaction from Alpeggio in Behind the Screen : November 2024
Behind the Screen : November 2024
To most Simulator users it is the flying dynamics and the reproduction of iconic aircraft that is their general focus. To relive, train or learn on how to fly a broad spectrum of aviation's greatest developments. From airliners past and present, General Aviation aircraft, Military, Helicopters and even the weird and wonderful contraptions that can fly through the air. But the environment that you fly in is important as well, and yes "I'm Talking about scenery again".
"Oh god I really wish this guy would move on from this", I can hear the groans from here, the foreheads banging on the desktops.
But it is important as X-Plane is in a critical stage of it's development, it is the biggest issue right now, and an important one to get right. There are other areas that need development in X-Plane, certainly Multi-player functionality and Multi-Threading are major priorities, but even Laminar Research are focusing very heavily on what they call "New Generation Scenery", and over the last few months, trickles of what NGS is now coming out.
And it is an interesting debate, and one that could make X-Plane a prime simulator. There is no doubt that the environment is the Microsoft Flight Simulator's 2020, and now 2024 is a main focus, you can't really call it a flying simulator, it just has planes and helicopters in it, but this is a gaming platform, full of experiences... even now a career if you want one. That is fine, but the biggest attraction and one of which Microsoft promotes is this significant aspect of the environment... and this is where it does get interesting.
If you want X-Plane to grow as a Simulator, then you have to embrace the fact that the environment around your aircraft is a major attraction to people who want to use a Simulator. But this aspect always has been X-Plane's biggest imperfection. Since the start of my Simulation involvement, the default scenery has been, well mostly.... crap.
I'm not talking about some of the excellent add-on scenery produced for the X-Plane Simulator, I'm talking about the basics here, and why X-Plane does not have a bigger audience, and some, if most will say, "Well we like it that way", fine, but that way will mean the decrease of investment, not only by user participation, but by the essential developers moving on to better conditions. I'm not going to go all depressed on you again, because actually X-Plane in development has had a very successful year, but the simulator has also lost a lot of talented talent that we couldn't afford to lose, worse it's not attracting talent either, whether you like it or not X-Plane has reached a milestone, that could flip it simply one way or the other. From one perspective it looks absolutely fine if you keep to the basics and use default Global Airports, and yes things at this point are far better than it was 12 months ago. But that crucial line is now more in important than ever, if X-Plane does not grow, and quite significantly over the next few years it will become only a marginal player in Simulation.
And we have to be realistic, in that the default Global scenery has always been a hindrance, limiting the expansion of the simulator. The change from X-Plane 9 to X-Plane 10 was a significant step forward, but except for the new excellent trees in X-Plane 12 there has been no progress for over a decade, were as every other component of the Simulator has had significant upgrades, all the way throughout X-Plane 11 and to XP12. Basically we still have the same two tier autogen and tile mapping, and although the mountainous frameworks are very good, at a ground level the basic low-res ground textures are basically the same as they have been for years. Add in the poor insertion of custom scenery, and those horrible wide green spaces between the default and custom elements on the mesh, and I still cringe every time I land at Tampa, Florida, with those wide green spaces were buildings should be, so I never ever really liked it for realism.
Worse is if you are flying over empty spaces, say the American Kansas west, plains or worse African Sahara, or in my case over Australia, the repetitive patterns (landclass) were all there to see, for hours on end, and those Saharan landscapes are horrible and actually won't fit into any custom scenery, yes there are always options, but this default aspect is not at all good.
I did a demonstration flight in a helicopter hardware simulator with a particularly large audience, it all looked totally brilliant until I landed on those washed out lo-res chunks of textures, I was actually embarrassed of the scene, this was supposed to be a professional simulator, here broadcasting to a crowd that were interested in buying pro hardware, but I could see the reality of X-Plane's weaknesses, and maybe at that moment it has been my overwhelming focus of being on a sort of crusade to fix the "Scenery Problem".
Ben Supnik joined Laminar Research to do the very original scenery for X-Plane 6 with the introduction of DSF (Direct Scenery Format) in XP8, and which also introduced global terrain data. Then Supnik created what you could call the 2nd Gen Scenery for X-Plane 10, this version introduced two other clever elements in using both Autogen to place buildings to the modeling of global terrain data and the OpenStreetMap (OSM) data to provide immersive and realistic landscapes. Remember this was 2011, and at that time is was an extremely big step forward. But OSM had limitations, as you were restricted to it's coverage, so in areas like Africa, South America, and certainly in non-western zones like China, suddenly the lights went out and all the buildings disappeared. Yes Laminar added in more autogen, taller buildings and small industrial areas, but overall it stayed very limited for over a decade, with only a few icons added in extra. alpilotx did do a more Hi-Res version of the original XP10 texture tiles, but he left X-Plane in 2016, since then there has been nothing.
These two areas are currently expanded in X-Plane by replacing the default autogen by using 3d buildings like in SimHeaven's X-World series, again the limitation is that it relies on the same OSM data as the default scenery. Secondly is the addon to use photorealistic terrain using satellite imagery, known as "Ortho" and the Ortho4XP tool. Believers standby these two tools to replace what X-Plane does not provide, but they do take a huge amount of your processing power and storage, overall they are not a perfect solution to the worldwide scenery issues.
Now Supnik is faced with his biggest challenge yet, to recreate the scenery system for a modern Simulator, and that aspect is harder than what you think. It's the "World" and not just the small play area that is recreated in Games of say around 30nm. In that small game area, it is quite easy to recreate sensational scenery for the characters, but when you have the massive expansive world to recreate, then this huge scale has so many different aspects to recreate. Okay I may be over hard on X-Plane scenery for what it currently does, as to a point it does recreate the world quite well, but a decade on the game has now shifted (no pun intended).
Although lauded, Microsoft's approach to scenery has it's limitations as well. For landclass it is very good, shapeshifting the world in all it's elements, but it has one massive deficiency, it is when you get close to the ground. The major issue is ground distortion, plus any buildings, but mostly bridges that have space below that are sheared in physically into the ground. If you are flying at a 1,000ft it is not a very realistic scenario, and this is an important aspect of VFR flying, yes the correct buildings are there, but basically they are all generated shapes.
X-Plane's approach in this case for VFR is actually better, but not expanded out to cover major detailed areas. So how do you fix this. The Ortho believers think their approach is the best, but Ortho is not great either, as in many areas the buildings are only burnt in, leaving flat photographic images. But at the same 1,000ft point of view the Ortho works best, as it looks photographically realistic, the problem here though is when you get close to the ground, because the flat photo plate and the island looking 3d buildings, again doesn't look realistic.
Like myself Ben Supnik does not like Ortho, his argument like mine is the burn effects, trees, buildings will always have shadows, cars are burnt into the roads and so on, so with the daily time scale of moving light it doesn't work. His work is to try to find a compromise between the Ortho detail, but with not the absolute photo effects errors, so like with our current ground textures it is the best compromise in realism.
So what new scenery aspects are coming? well better ground textures means new "Terrain Rendering". Laminar wants to cram in more and more stuff on a tile, make it more dense with data. So overall it looks like what Laminar are working on is a completely new and different approach in creating better ground detail, as at the moment the current DSF is not scalable, but NGS or also known as "Direct Scene Snapshot" (DSS) is highly scalable, also highly streamable, plus has better and faster loading properties.
But DSS will at first only be an alternative to DSF, as if it replaced DSF, it would render most of the current Custom Scenery library obsolete. One other feature of DSS is that it will allow for Ortho images to be streamed directly into the Simulator if users still want to use that point of view, The interesting aspect of this "Tile Streaming", is the "streaming" is currently a reference in how the data gets into the sim engine. But will that "Streaming" be local (in the computer), or externally like Microsoft does?
Well a bit of both. X-Plane Mobile is actually already a streaming Simulator, so X-Plane desktop is probably going to go the same way with cloud streaming (Amazon's AWS), but with the cache to download the areas that you want to fly in off-line. Instead of downloading the current large DSF tiles with data, the streaming DSS files will be far smaller, but broken up into immediate high data quality visuals, but lower res (data) for far distance visuals.
The trick is that Laminar are trying to do is have the best of both worlds, the photo aspect of Orthos, but without the problems of the format (flat and burn ins), so the idea is with these smaller DSS tiles is that they will also be non-repeating, or have no Landclass category, meaning that a single image will be in the future just not repeated over and over to represent the area (my pet hate), but to represent the photo aspects without the photograph, so you will get the best of both worlds, great ground detailing, without the shadows and minute that affects Ortho images, plus the tiles will perfectly reflect the area they represent. Is this the mythical solution?
The biggest challenge however is filling the world in. X-Plane will still use the autogen model, but probably expanded. The biggest success over the decade was SFD's (ShortFinal Designs) excellent SFD Global, that took the current duel (USA/European) autogen modeling and added in more regions to it around the world, so yes you can currently see Middle-eastern housing in Dubai, and Japanese housing in Japan, and Australia housing in Australia.
Justin Kissling (mister-x, SFD) was already working on an expanded v2 of SFD Global, but has since been recruited by Laminar Research, this certainly means that SFD Global v2 will now be the default in X-Plane, plus in a far more expanded form, but what of those towns and cities?
This is still the biggest challenge facing X-Plane as a realistic VFR Simulator. I always like the autogen spread, with central custom city objects as a great way of doing this in a realistic scenario. In payware efforts were cities have been reproduced; New York, Washington, Seattle, London, Paris, even the excellent Orbx Brisbane and Detroit are excellent examples, the idea works well, the trick is to expand it worldwide to cover most if not if all major population centers. The problem is with custom city scenery is that it is very time-consuming to recreate, building by unique building, and annoyingly these city packages don't repay well for the developer's time consuming task. This is an area that could be redefined, could the new tools of A.I. build our custom cities for us? takeaway the overwhelming task of creating custom scenery... ten years ago this aspect was not possible, but it now may be realistic.
Ben Supnik notes that the new NGS scenery will be released is stages, and not completely all at once, so access will be available sooner than later, then the development will stretch out over time like with the Vulkan/Metal roadmap, so this a long term project more than the next X-Plane version journey, but certainly the NGS is coming more sooner than later, hopefully in 2025.
If done right, the above NGS development has the potential to revolutionise X-Plane as a Prime Simulator, it's an interesting take in that it is using all the best elements, and is discarding the negative ones, it will also make the Simulator even more efficient, but also in delivering an excess of a more visual detailing and a realistic environment for us to fly in. If you understand the concept, you will find it very exciting on what it can achieve... it is a vision of the future of realism in Simulation.
As usual there will be no December "Behind the Screen" 2024 issue, but our full yearly round up of the year 2024 review is to be published on 13th December 2024, so watch out for that.
Stephen Dutton
4th December 2024
Copyright©2023 X-Plane Reviews
-
Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in NEWS! - Scenery Released : KPAO - Palo Alto Intl Airport by FSDesigns
NEWS! - Scenery Released : KPAO - Palo Alto Intl Airport by FSDesigns
FSDesigns have released the Northern Californian airport of Palo Alto International Airport in collaboration with CieloSim.
Palo Alto Airport is a general aviation airport in the city of Palo Alto in Santa Clara County, California, United States, near the southern end of San Francisco Bay on the western shore. Facilities at this busy towered airport include a staffed terminal and multiple repair shops with, Advantage Aviation (Cessna & Beechcraft Authorized Service Center), WVAS Inc. dba Aero Works (Diamond Authorized Service Center), Rossi Aircraft, and Peninsula Avionics.
The airport is also home to a number of flying clubs (in order of establishment): Stanford Flying Club (est. 1930),[3] West Valley Flying Club (est. 1973), Sundance Flying Club (est. 2006), and Advantage Aviation Flying Club. The airport is located within one-half mile of U.S. Route 101.
Note... If the airport has a customs office or is designated as a port of entry, it can accommodate international arrivals for private or charter flights, making it technically international or noted having as Customs and Border Protection Facilities, but in reality Palo Alto does not have International Airline services.
Key Features
3D Vegetation Accurate up-to-date ground textures Realistic PBR textures Weather maps for 12 features Realistic hand-placed night lighting High resolution orthoimagery Highly optimized for FPS Added dirt, grime, and details
So just how do you fly "quietly"?
Palo Alto Airport has one approach to runway 31. The RNAV (GPS) approach to runway 31 has 460' MDA/1-mi visibility minimum for category A approaches. The VOR approach has been decommissioned.
Images are courtesy of FS Designs...
KPAO is priced at an extremely low price at US$8.99, and now available at the X-Plane.OrgStore.
_____________________________________
Yes! - KPAO - Palo Alto Intl Airport by FS Designs is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here :
KPAO - Palo Alto Intl Airport
Price is US$8.99
Requirements
X-Plane 12 Windows, Mac or Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended
Download Size: 200MB Current version: 1.0 (Dec 2nd 2024) ___________________________
News by Stephen Dutton
3rd December 2024
Copyright©2024: X-Plane Reviews
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Behind the Screen : November 2024
Behind the Screen : November 2024
To most Simulator users it is the flying dynamics and the reproduction of iconic aircraft that is their general focus. To relive, train or learn on how to fly a broad spectrum of aviation's greatest developments. From airliners past and present, General Aviation aircraft, Military, Helicopters and even the weird and wonderful contraptions that can fly through the air. But the environment that you fly in is important as well, and yes "I'm Talking about scenery again".
"Oh god I really wish this guy would move on from this", I can hear the groans from here, the foreheads banging on the desktops.
But it is important as X-Plane is in a critical stage of it's development, it is the biggest issue right now, and an important one to get right. There are other areas that need development in X-Plane, certainly Multi-player functionality and Multi-Threading are major priorities, but even Laminar Research are focusing very heavily on what they call "New Generation Scenery", and over the last few months, trickles of what NGS is now coming out.
And it is an interesting debate, and one that could make X-Plane a prime simulator. There is no doubt that the environment is the Microsoft Flight Simulator's 2020, and now 2024 is a main focus, you can't really call it a flying simulator, it just has planes and helicopters in it, but this is a gaming platform, full of experiences... even now a career if you want one. That is fine, but the biggest attraction and one of which Microsoft promotes is this significant aspect of the environment... and this is where it does get interesting.
If you want X-Plane to grow as a Simulator, then you have to embrace the fact that the environment around your aircraft is a major attraction to people who want to use a Simulator. But this aspect always has been X-Plane's biggest imperfection. Since the start of my Simulation involvement, the default scenery has been, well mostly.... crap.
I'm not talking about some of the excellent add-on scenery produced for the X-Plane Simulator, I'm talking about the basics here, and why X-Plane does not have a bigger audience, and some, if most will say, "Well we like it that way", fine, but that way will mean the decrease of investment, not only by user participation, but by the essential developers moving on to better conditions. I'm not going to go all depressed on you again, because actually X-Plane in development has had a very successful year, but the simulator has also lost a lot of talented talent that we couldn't afford to lose, worse it's not attracting talent either, whether you like it or not X-Plane has reached a milestone, that could flip it simply one way or the other. From one perspective it looks absolutely fine if you keep to the basics and use default Global Airports, and yes things at this point are far better than it was 12 months ago. But that crucial line is now more in important than ever, if X-Plane does not grow, and quite significantly over the next few years it will become only a marginal player in Simulation.
And we have to be realistic, in that the default Global scenery has always been a hindrance, limiting the expansion of the simulator. The change from X-Plane 9 to X-Plane 10 was a significant step forward, but except for the new excellent trees in X-Plane 12 there has been no progress for over a decade, were as every other component of the Simulator has had significant upgrades, all the way throughout X-Plane 11 and to XP12. Basically we still have the same two tier autogen and tile mapping, and although the mountainous frameworks are very good, at a ground level the basic low-res ground textures are basically the same as they have been for years. Add in the poor insertion of custom scenery, and those horrible wide green spaces between the default and custom elements on the mesh, and I still cringe every time I land at Tampa, Florida, with those wide green spaces were buildings should be, so I never ever really liked it for realism.
Worse is if you are flying over empty spaces, say the American Kansas west, plains or worse African Sahara, or in my case over Australia, the repetitive patterns (landclass) were all there to see, for hours on end, and those Saharan landscapes are horrible and actually won't fit into any custom scenery, yes there are always options, but this default aspect is not at all good.
I did a demonstration flight in a helicopter hardware simulator with a particularly large audience, it all looked totally brilliant until I landed on those washed out lo-res chunks of textures, I was actually embarrassed of the scene, this was supposed to be a professional simulator, here broadcasting to a crowd that were interested in buying pro hardware, but I could see the reality of X-Plane's weaknesses, and maybe at that moment it has been my overwhelming focus of being on a sort of crusade to fix the "Scenery Problem".
Ben Supnik joined Laminar Research to do the very original scenery for X-Plane 6 with the introduction of DSF (Direct Scenery Format) in XP8, and which also introduced global terrain data. Then Supnik created what you could call the 2nd Gen Scenery for X-Plane 10, this version introduced two other clever elements in using both Autogen to place buildings to the modeling of global terrain data and the OpenStreetMap (OSM) data to provide immersive and realistic landscapes. Remember this was 2011, and at that time is was an extremely big step forward. But OSM had limitations, as you were restricted to it's coverage, so in areas like Africa, South America, and certainly in non-western zones like China, suddenly the lights went out and all the buildings disappeared. Yes Laminar added in more autogen, taller buildings and small industrial areas, but overall it stayed very limited for over a decade, with only a few icons added in extra. alpilotx did do a more Hi-Res version of the original XP10 texture tiles, but he left X-Plane in 2016, since then there has been nothing.
These two areas are currently expanded in X-Plane by replacing the default autogen by using 3d buildings like in SimHeaven's X-World series, again the limitation is that it relies on the same OSM data as the default scenery. Secondly is the addon to use photorealistic terrain using satellite imagery, known as "Ortho" and the Ortho4XP tool. Believers standby these two tools to replace what X-Plane does not provide, but they do take a huge amount of your processing power and storage, overall they are not a perfect solution to the worldwide scenery issues.
Now Supnik is faced with his biggest challenge yet, to recreate the scenery system for a modern Simulator, and that aspect is harder than what you think. It's the "World" and not just the small play area that is recreated in Games of say around 30nm. In that small game area, it is quite easy to recreate sensational scenery for the characters, but when you have the massive expansive world to recreate, then this huge scale has so many different aspects to recreate. Okay I may be over hard on X-Plane scenery for what it currently does, as to a point it does recreate the world quite well, but a decade on the game has now shifted (no pun intended).
Although lauded, Microsoft's approach to scenery has it's limitations as well. For landclass it is very good, shapeshifting the world in all it's elements, but it has one massive deficiency, it is when you get close to the ground. The major issue is ground distortion, plus any buildings, but mostly bridges that have space below that are sheared in physically into the ground. If you are flying at a 1,000ft it is not a very realistic scenario, and this is an important aspect of VFR flying, yes the correct buildings are there, but basically they are all generated shapes.
X-Plane's approach in this case for VFR is actually better, but not expanded out to cover major detailed areas. So how do you fix this. The Ortho believers think their approach is the best, but Ortho is not great either, as in many areas the buildings are only burnt in, leaving flat photographic images. But at the same 1,000ft point of view the Ortho works best, as it looks photographically realistic, the problem here though is when you get close to the ground, because the flat photo plate and the island looking 3d buildings, again doesn't look realistic.
Like myself Ben Supnik does not like Ortho, his argument like mine is the burn effects, trees, buildings will always have shadows, cars are burnt into the roads and so on, so with the daily time scale of moving light it doesn't work. His work is to try to find a compromise between the Ortho detail, but with not the absolute photo effects errors, so like with our current ground textures it is the best compromise in realism.
So what new scenery aspects are coming? well better ground textures means new "Terrain Rendering". Laminar wants to cram in more and more stuff on a tile, make it more dense with data. So overall it looks like what Laminar are working on is a completely new and different approach in creating better ground detail, as at the moment the current DSF is not scalable, but NGS or also known as "Direct Scene Snapshot" (DSS) is highly scalable, also highly streamable, plus has better and faster loading properties.
But DSS will at first only be an alternative to DSF, as if it replaced DSF, it would render most of the current Custom Scenery library obsolete. One other feature of DSS is that it will allow for Ortho images to be streamed directly into the Simulator if users still want to use that point of view, The interesting aspect of this "Tile Streaming", is the "streaming" is currently a reference in how the data gets into the sim engine. But will that "Streaming" be local (in the computer), or externally like Microsoft does?
Well a bit of both. X-Plane Mobile is actually already a streaming Simulator, so X-Plane desktop is probably going to go the same way with cloud streaming (Amazon's AWS), but with the cache to download the areas that you want to fly in off-line. Instead of downloading the current large DSF tiles with data, the streaming DSS files will be far smaller, but broken up into immediate high data quality visuals, but lower res (data) for far distance visuals.
The trick is that Laminar are trying to do is have the best of both worlds, the photo aspect of Orthos, but without the problems of the format (flat and burn ins), so the idea is with these smaller DSS tiles is that they will also be non-repeating, or have no Landclass category, meaning that a single image will be in the future just not repeated over and over to represent the area (my pet hate), but to represent the photo aspects without the photograph, so you will get the best of both worlds, great ground detailing, without the shadows and minute that affects Ortho images, plus the tiles will perfectly reflect the area they represent. Is this the mythical solution?
The biggest challenge however is filling the world in. X-Plane will still use the autogen model, but probably expanded. The biggest success over the decade was SFD's (ShortFinal Designs) excellent SFD Global, that took the current duel (USA/European) autogen modeling and added in more regions to it around the world, so yes you can currently see Middle-eastern housing in Dubai, and Japanese housing in Japan, and Australia housing in Australia.
Justin Kissling (mister-x, SFD) was already working on an expanded v2 of SFD Global, but has since been recruited by Laminar Research, this certainly means that SFD Global v2 will now be the default in X-Plane, plus in a far more expanded form, but what of those towns and cities?
This is still the biggest challenge facing X-Plane as a realistic VFR Simulator. I always like the autogen spread, with central custom city objects as a great way of doing this in a realistic scenario. In payware efforts were cities have been reproduced; New York, Washington, Seattle, London, Paris, even the excellent Orbx Brisbane and Detroit are excellent examples, the idea works well, the trick is to expand it worldwide to cover most if not if all major population centers. The problem is with custom city scenery is that it is very time-consuming to recreate, building by unique building, and annoyingly these city packages don't repay well for the developer's time consuming task. This is an area that could be redefined, could the new tools of A.I. build our custom cities for us? takeaway the overwhelming task of creating custom scenery... ten years ago this aspect was not possible, but it now may be realistic.
Ben Supnik notes that the new NGS scenery will be released is stages, and not completely all at once, so access will be available sooner than later, then the development will stretch out over time like with the Vulkan/Metal roadmap, so this a long term project more than the next X-Plane version journey, but certainly the NGS is coming more sooner than later, hopefully in 2025.
If done right, the above NGS development has the potential to revolutionise X-Plane as a Prime Simulator, it's an interesting take in that it is using all the best elements, and is discarding the negative ones, it will also make the Simulator even more efficient, but also in delivering an excess of a more visual detailing and a realistic environment for us to fly in. If you understand the concept, you will find it very exciting on what it can achieve... it is a vision of the future of realism in Simulation.
As usual there will be no December "Behind the Screen" 2024 issue, but our full yearly round up of the year 2024 review is to be published on 13th December 2024, so watch out for that.
Stephen Dutton
4th December 2024
Copyright©2023 X-Plane Reviews
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Stephen got a reaction from Kiwiflyer in Aircraft Review : Gulfstream 650/650ER by AKD Studios
Aircraft Review : Gulfstream 650/650ER by AKD Studios
In the world of privilege, those whom are superior to us mere mortals, then the word "Gulfstream" is their daily transport. These private jets are the upper echelon of status, and the bigger, faster and the longer range of these niche machines, then the higher the status.
AKD Design released X-Plane's Gulfstream G550 a couple of years ago in late 2022, the best dedicated Gulfstream for the X-Plane Simulator. Here is the release of the GLF 650, with including the GLF 650ER - Extended Range variant. The Gulfstream series is a complicated one, as the G600/G700/G800 Series was built upon the last series of G500/G550 Series, and those aircraft evolved out of the Gulfstream V as the GV-SP.
So is the GLF 650 the biggest and fastest? not quite, as I said Gulfstreams are complicated and don't follow in order. The GLF 650 has a 7,000 nm range and a maximum speed of Mach 0.925 with 18 passengers, The GLF 700 Series has a 7,500 mn Range for 19 passengers in a longer cabin of 56ft. The GLF 800 is a hybrid of the two, it has the shorter (GLF 650) cabin at 46ft, but the more modern engines and the newer wing to cover a 8,000mn range, carrying 15-19 passengers.
So the GLF 800 is best suited for the longest routes, while the GLF 700 maximizes cabin space for ultra-luxurious travel. The GLF 650 remains an excellent option for those who need luxury with substantial, but slightly less, range.
But then the GLF 650ER spices it all up a little with the GLF 700, as it can cover the same 7,500nm range, so you can connect even more distant city pairs, such as Los Angeles to Melbourne or Hong Kong to New York nonstop. Otherwise the G650 and G650ER are basically the same aircraft except in one area, in that the G650ER holds more fuel and has a higher MTOW to support the extended range.
But first just a couple of more statistics. If you have invested in the AKD GLF 550, then what is the difference between GLF 650? (noted here is the original G550 release).
Unexpectedly the cabin is actually smaller in 46ft 10 inch (G550 50ft 1 inch), height is only one single inch higher. The range between them is 7,000nm to the G550 6,750nm, but speed is the same at Mach 0.85, the engine is different with the Rolls-Royce BR725 engines, with a maximum thrust of 16,900 lbf (75.2 kN). The BR725 50 inch (130 cm) fan with 24 swept blades is 2 in (5.1 cm) larger, and 4 dB quieter than the BR710 on the GLF 550.
Overall the GLF 650 offers more cabin space, larger panoramic windows, and a lower cabin altitude (4,100 feet at high altitude) for enhanced comfort and reduced jet lag, so it is a step up in luxury, speed, and comfort from the GLF550.
Both the G550 and G650 fly the same, feel the same actually, but the G650 does have a better initial climb rate of 4,000 fpm, compared to the G550 3,600 fpm, then both can climb easily at 2,000-3,000 fpm over 30,000ft to a ceiling of 51,000ft. They are impressive machines.
The G650 cabin fit-out is different, more beige than the earlier G550 cream, the wood is changed from Teak to Walnut (a bit of a lighter wood). Chairs are actually smaller and more squarer than the wide G550 seating, but were as the G550 has abundant space, here the layout is far more better conceived, more realistic by design. With four forward club, twin club seats around a table, single club behind and only one sofa on the right rear.
The lovely buffet with popup (animated) monitor, that shows the in-flight map is also better positioned mid-cabin. walnut highlights show the non-smoking/Seatbelt signs, and the front galley is very nice, with a marble worktop.
There are two areas rear, first door is the washroom/toilet, rear is the large baggage area, with nets, a case, and the lower cargo hatch works for loading in the bags externally.
I wasn't crazy about the G550 windows, they are better(ish) here, but not in an advanced way, still don't have any animated blinds either, I expected a step up here?
From the X-Plane "Flight Configuration" menu you have the choice of both the GLF 650, and the GLF 650ER (Extended Range). So they are presented as separate aircraft.
Externally the two G550 and G650 aircraft are not much if anything different, you would be pushed to separate them. Modeling wise they are very good, but certainly not in that high ultra realism factor we can now expect from X-Plane 12.
The small issues are just that in being small, like the nosewheel lights (when off) and landing lights are not textured, or are blank. Not a good look at this level, and after two years, both G550 and G650 lighting should have been textured by now.
Window surrounds are Lo-Res, but nice tinted glass. Problematic cabin windows does actually have glass, but it is extremely thin and not really reflective, so it all looks a bit holey... required is say a window tint or scratches to highlight the glass? There are two (male and female) pilots flying the aircraft, and quality pilots they are, but they are not animated.
G650 has a highly swept high aspect ratio wing with a 36-degree sweep angle, which reduces drag and enables high-speed, gives you an efficient cruise, the wing incorporates composite materials for strength and to reduce weight. Lean and mean here, lovely curve is right up to the well done blended winglets.
The G650 uses a Honeywell RE220(G) Auxiliary Power Unit, it provides high electrical power output and bleed air to the aircraft. The RE220(G) is hidden away in the lower tail, but you can hear it running. Distinctive Gulfstream tail (high bulky forward) is well done, and looks realistic. The G650 rear section and tail is quite different from the G550, cleaner and without air vents, but well done here.
BR725 engine pods are better than the AKD average G550 versions. Better fan detail is also all new, as is the rear exhaust detail. But I wasn't impressed by the poor internal fit, that showed in the surrounds of too much daylight?
Reverser action is very basic, just a set of cans and no real detail.
The nosewheel is exquisitely crafted, an amazing amount of small detail, down to strut, hydraulics, links and nuts, but the noted missing lighting glass still makes it feel all slightly unfinished?
Twin rear assemblies are trailing link, a normal gear arrangement on these executive jets. Again all the modeling and detail is first rate. Here better than the G550, that was quite bland/unfinished. Inner gear doors however are wafer thin, and not very realistic, but the animation is excellent. As are the nice rubber tyres and quality inner wheel rims.
Static Elements
Externally you have a set of Static Elements, including pitot tags, chocks (all wheels) and two AKD logoed GPUs (Ground Power Units). Both the main entrance forward door and baggage hatch are nicely animated to open and close.
Cockpit
The cockpit (no seperation doors on Gulfstreams) makes it feel very exposed to the passengers.
Inside the layout and feel is the Gulstream same, but different... if that makes sense? You quickly understand the Gulfstream layout, but the feel in here is far lighter in beige, than the overall dark grey of the G550, it is helped by the very nice orange head and armrests on the seats.
Wall panels have the diamond patterned luxury feel as on the G650, but the "GulfStream" logo on the rear of the centre console is missing?
Seats are the same, but slightly modified in they now have armrests, but oddly only the inner rests are animated? Outwardly they look great, but on closer inspection they are quite lumpy and hard in detail, seats are locked into place as well. Note the hanging rear jumpseat, shame it is not animated....
Yokes are slightly different from the G550, in the centre paper clip holder is missing, but look better. PTT (Push To Talk) works, but not the electric trim? You can hide both yokes via pressing the instrument panel behind. Note the nice rudder pedals.
Throttle quadrant is also the same, but again different... the handles on the G550 were chrome, here they are anodised, and note the "very" small AutoThrust (working) disconnect button.
Power on... and you get a startup/alignment sequence. There are three options here; Real, Short or Instant alignment, but the full procedure is worth watching.
Flight Deck
The Gulfstream integrated flight deck is based on the Honeywell's Primus Epic integrated avionics system. There are four huge 14-inch displays Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display (AMLCD) that use the Next Generation Flight Management System (NGFMS). Basically they breakdown to the two external PFD (Primary Flight Displays), and the two inner MFD (Muliti-Functional Displays). Note, this is NOT the "Symmetry Flight Deck", that has Touchscreens and Side-Stick controllers.
The G550 uses the "PlaneView" Cockpit series, were as the G650 uses the upgraded "PlaneView II" system with the Cursor Control Devices (CCD), Predictive Landing Performance System (PLPS) and HUD "Dual Head-Up Display Option"... not included here on the PlaneView ll are the Synthetic Vision System (SVS), Enhanced Vision System (EVS) and Automatic Emergency Descent Mode (EDM).
But provided however is a single pilot HUD, it works, but looks very dated to the latest Laminar Research default HUD, I expect it will be updated in an update.
The panel layout is basically the same as the G550, but there is a slight difference with the Gulfstream specific glareshield "Switch Panel Unit" (SPU) on the G650 and G700 series. There is an added element of the SMC or "Standby Multifunction Controller" that shows the backup instruments in the SPU, it is activated by the "STANDBY" button under the SPU selection buttons...
... if the SMC is switched off you get the Aircraft's registration number (a nice handy touch), and the usual SPU menu selections.
The SPU is basically a simple push-button controller and it is easy to access and set, the menus are shown on the SPU Display.
Selections include; PFD, MAP, SENSOR, FLT REF, TEST, CHKLIST - SYSTEM, 1/6 - 2/3, TRS, NAV, HUD. By my estimation about 70% of the SPU system is currently only working? but this is a very deep system.
Upper left buttons select the system area you want to access, and the right display has selection buttons to access the item, it is complex, but simple in the same instance. Once you work out where each selection is (or have a printed guide) then the system is easy to use.
Here you can select 2/3 of the PFD (or have the engine or data readouts left 3rd of the screen) or use FULL which gives you the full basic flight instruments Artificial Horizon top and the Horizontal Situation Indicator lower. Artificial Horizon, Speed and Altitude tapes, Bank roll scale and roll pointer, Vertical Speed markers, Pitch markers, ILS bars and AOA (Angle of Attack) guide.
There are 3 HSI selections with 120/180/360º options.
The left panel systems is separated into two sections selected from the Switch Panel Unit, in DU 1 "Upper" and "Lower".
These selections can be changed to show other system items, including; AC/DC Power, APU/Bleed, Brakes, ECS/Press (Environmental), Eng Start, FLT Controls and traffic. Selections are done by pressing the corresponding button to the line. NEXT gives you more options; <Cameras, CAS (Crew Alerting System), Checklist, Comp (Comprehensive) Eng, Pri (Primary) Eng, Sec (Secondary) Eng and Waypoint List... RETURN takes you back to the first menu order.
These menu options are available on all four DU units. The other two DUs are set in the two centre displays DU 2 (Lower) and DU3 (Lower).
You have also in the central DU 3 and DU 4 displays, both have built in menus for MAP/Navigation. Provided are; Map Data, Aircraft Centre (Heading or Plan modes), Hdg, Prev, Next (waypoints), World and Map which is also on the systems menu
Left menu allows you to show Map data (Airports, VORs, NDBs...). The right menu shows aircraft diagrams for; AC Power, DC Power, Doors, Fuel, Hydraulic, MAP, CMC, ECS/Press, FLT Controls, Summary. And either DU 3 or 4 displays can be used via both menus.
The diagram layouts are more detailed than the G550, plus the camera is now in colour.
DU 3 upper right has an Engine Readout panel including N1 (Fan Speed), N2 (Core Speed) EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature), Fuel Flow, ITT (Interstage Turbine Temperature), Oil Pressure and Temperature, hydraulic Pressure, Fuel Temps and Fuel Quantity. DU 4 has an upper left panel for the Crew Alerting System (CAS), and lower left is the excellent built in checklist with navigation selections.
True to the G650 system, menu navigation is via a three pronged PlaneView II CCD cursor (arrowed)
All four DUs (Display Units) will pop-out via the X-Plane Banner Menu "GLF 650ER AKD XP12".
The G650 CAS or "Crew Alerting System" is excellent as it categorises alerts into four levels: Warning (red), Caution (Yellow), Advisory (Blue), and Status (White). Can also be labeled as the Centralised Warning Panel (CWP) on the DU4.
• Warnings represent immediate action items (e.g., engine fire) and are often associated with aural alerts.
• Cautions indicate conditions that require attention but aren’t immediately critical.
• Advisories provide information that may affect the flight but generally do not require immediate action.
• Status messages give general information or notifications on system states.
Flight Management System (FMS), originally in the AKD GLF 550 it had the standard Laminar default FMS, and very basic it was... But here in the G650 we have a more dedicated FMS, it's still a sort of hybrid, so it is not totally authentic to the Honeywell Primus Epic installed in a G650, it however is quite good and far, far better in detail and data than the default installation. All three MCDU units pop-out via the banner menu "GLF 650ER AKD XP12".
The IDENT and NAV INDEX are very authentic, but you can still insert a standard X-Plane .fms route from X-Plane. Manual entry of the flightplan is also possible, even with Co-Ords
DEPARTURE (SID) and ARRIVAL (STAR) are also available and can be tuned and ACTIVATED to your preferences.
So Flightplan creation and editing is very quick and easy, basically you load in your .fms flightplan, add in the DEP and ARR procedures and your done!
You can check the Flightplan (PLAN) by going to the Switch Panel Unit and selecting MAP, then NORTH to activate the PLAN mode.
Then press PREV or NEXT to navigate the Flightplan...
If the need be, you can also finely adjust the MAP screen via tabs, top, bottom and both sides via the CCD cursor directly on the DU Display.
There are also three PROG (Progress) pages with a significant amount of route and flight data.
The Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS) is positioned in the glareshield contained each end by each Switch Panel Unit (SPU) system, and the WARNING panel is far left and right.
AFCS is dual system, fail-operational, for both the Autopilot (AP) and the Auto Throttle (AT) subsystems. This is accomplished by hosting each system in a different modular avionics unit with two lanes in separate processors. The purpose of the AFCS is to provide Flight Director (FD), AP yaw damper and trim functions. The autoflight system receives computed lateral (roll) and vertical (pitch) steering commands from the FD system for the autopilot and for display on the Primary Flight Display (PFD). In the event the AP is disengaged the pilot can manually fly the steering commands presented on the PFD. The AP and AT systems make up the subsystems of the autoflight system. Layout and use is identical to the GLF 550.
Overhead Panel (OHP) is really well set out and easy to use. Digital numbers are all used in the readouts. Systems covered are; the Electrical system with all its buses, Full Fire Protection system, the full Hydraulic system, Gulfstream Fuel system and APU system and start up timing.
The main twin-throttles and rear reverser levers are as noted now an anodised, design, look nice, nice to use. Set each side are the standard Air-brake and Flap levers UP-10-20 (T/O and APP) - 39º (Down). Rear pedestal is all electric trims and MCDU 3, nicely done is the use of a FMS frame to hold the Radio settings, a simple but clever way of doing it.
Although the MCDU 3 holds the RADIO frequencies, the Radio controls are on both side panels with the lighting controls.
There are EFB/Tablets available for both the Pilot and First Officer, both can be separately accessed via the Banner Menu "GLF 650ER AKD XP12". As a note there is one other Menu option on the Banner Menu, this is the "IRS instant Align", to do a quick system alignment.
There are nine menu tabs; Fuel Payload, GND (Ground), AviTab, Flight Plan, PERF (Performance) Calculator, Settings, Checklists and Audio Volume and Cabin Lights. Most of the EFB layout is the same as the earlier G550, but there are a few differences.
FUEL : Here you can set your fuel load (Kgs and Lbs), Set Cargo, Set Payload, Passengers, and even the passenger weight. The changes are shown in fuel load, GW (Gross Weight) and ZFW (Zero Fuel Weight. Three options are also available; Reset Data, Set, and Insert Simbrief Data. You can now load in your Simbrief data directly into the Fuel/Weight page, but have to press SET to align the Fuel and Payload weights (which is a little slow?) an instant load would be nice. You can scroll or Add + or Minus - any number to your liking (like extra fuel)
When loaded you can then load your passengers by pressing "Boarding". Pressing "bring Passengers from terminal" will activate a very nice Mercedes bus, then load the passengers into the aircraft, when the bus will drive away, the opposite to deplane, or "Take passengers to terminal" is the reverse operation.
This activity has had a lot of refinement over the last two years, earlier it was a Tesla 3 car, a scale too big, and the process was chunky, but this is now really well done, if waiting for the bus to arrive is a bit (okay a lot) slow.
GND : There are a few options on the "Ground Handling Page" which are the Static Elements. Of which there is the GPU (Ground Power Unit) AC, but also noted a DC Unit, Main door and Main Door Lights, Chocks, Cargo Door... on the Static Elements Page there is; front L/G covers, Captain and F/O pitot covers, and Main L/G covers. Open ALL Doors and Close ALL Doors options are also available
AviTab : AviTab (Plugin Required) is available and a nice to have.
Flight Plan : This tab option is new from the G550, but the former METAR tab is now merged with the Flight Planning.
Again you can "Inport Data from Simbrief" (Import Simbrief) to load in the current generated Brief, Flightplan and Fuel/Weights, then you can SET FUEL/PAYLOAD directly into the MCDU. This will set up the Departure and Approach speeds.
NOTE: I couldn't find the Simbrief Profiles for the GLF 650? So the developer has provided two, one for each variant G650 and the G650ER, both are listed below, and are required as a custom G550 version won't work or be correct to the G650 performance.
And four PERFORMANCE INIT pages... parts of the PREF are not yet completed, it looks like the VNAV section.
PERF (Performance) Calculator : There is a two page comprehensive performance calculator that can take data from the FUEL and METAR pages and fill in the required data, including : (Takeoff) DATA, AIRPORT INFO, TAKEOFF SPEEDS, FLAP LIMITS, (Landing) DATA, AIRPORT INFO, LANDING SPEEDS and FLAP SPEEDS.
SETTINGS : In settings you can set the various aircraft options, including; IRS Alignment (Time) - Real/Short/Instant, Refuel (Time) Real/Short/Instant, Simbrief User ID, Pause on TOD (Top of Descent), EFB Units (Kg/Lbs), Aircraft Temp units (Cº/Fº), Aircraft Weight Units (Kg/Lbs), Sync (Baro), Nosewheel (Roll/Yaw/Tiller) and EFB Brightness. Second page includes (advanced); Tail Rego, Use Kill Objects, Disable LuaJIT, Static Elements on Startup and Main Door open on Startup.
CHECKLIST : The checklist has been simplified, in that you now can't check off (green) items, otherwise navigation is still easy and the lists are through.
SOUND : Sound panel is currently quite basic, with sliders for (Master) Volume, Exterior Volume, Interior Volume, Co-Pilot Volume and Radio
Volume.
CABIN LIGHTS : There are two pages of "Cabin Lighting" settings, the overhead lights, and diverse lighting. All can be either selected individually, or use the "Turn ON All lights' (Turn OFF also) to shortcut the cabin lighting, all can be adjusted for BRIGHTNESS via the sliders.
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Lighting
The AKD G550 when released in lighting was a bit hit and miss, but a lot of development has completely changed this aspect. The Cockpit lighting has about 12 adjustment knobs, and now all of them work, and they cover basically every area. From Instrument dropdown, OHP, Centre Console, pilots side panels, yoke lights and overall cockpit lights. The vestibule area behind the cockpit is especially well done.
As you know I like a certain cockpit sterile low lighting feel for takeoff and and landing, it is perfectly available here, but I will note was quite fiddly to get it right, not something you can adjust quickly? A neat feature is the text lighting on the yokes, high adjustment gives you white text, low adjustment the same orange text as the OHD and side panels.
Cabin
Cabin lighting is just sensational. We have seen the options, and the selections are upper and lower downlights, and the separate seat lighting. Again with all the adjustments, there are load of different cabin variations you can create. Bathroom and Baggage areas are excellent. Even with the cabin lighting off, and the vestibule lighting on, it looks and feels nice and comfy.
External lighting
The external lighting has been refined as well. It covers both landing lights with a "Pulse" option, nosewheel taxi lights, Navigation and Beacon/Strobe, tail lights, ICE/Wing and gear bay lights...
Landing lights are still a bit over bright for my tastes, but otherwise very good... the forward cabin door also has built in lighting, looks excellent.
A few GLF 650 flight notes
I'm not crazy about the tight tiller, jiggly is more like it, and it is hard to taxi straight, the rudder pedals don't give you a lot of turning movement either, so the GLF 650 is a bit of a beast to taxi.
You need to "Arm" the ground spoilers when you get to the runway, if not they stickup, but this will also give you a "Ground Spolier Unarmed" Caution until you get there.
It is very easy to not to set the A/T (AutoThrust) were you get the "A/T not in Hold" Caution. The "Arm" selector is hidden on the left of the AFCS, the best way to find the hot-spot is to switch on the "View/Show Instrument Click Regions"
Power up and your gone... with a combined thrust of 33,800 lbf from the BR725s.
.... T/O flap is set at a high 20º, so you need to retract the flap to 10º almost immediately on leaving the runway, same with the retracting the gear to get yourself cleaned up as soon as possible.
Then the Gulfstream will climb like no tomorrow at a 4000 fpm climbout, but 3,500 fpm is far more realistic.
Remember the FMS selection is selected via the NAV button on the SPU... There is custom LNAV and VNAV. Climb, cruise and descend management with altitude and speed restrictions, and even RNAV Approaches are available.
You have a massive, almost Concorde ceiling at 51,000ft with this Gulfstream, so those impressive climb numbers are required, and you can reach that FL510 altitude at around 25 minutes under optimal conditions. At the really short 309nm distance between Luxembourg and Biggin Hill, FL320 is also still available, so we are not certainly pushing the GLF 650 anywhere near it's impressive credentials...
You have to love this... a Gulfstream and X-Plane 12, Heaven.
Sounds are particularly good, with a 3D sound engine with stereo dynamics, lovely wind and control surfaces sounds that are different in the cabin than the flightdeck, the cockpit ambient sounds are excellent with no loops or repetitive droning and the systems have custom alerts. There are custom PA Sounds in Polish and English, but I couldn't find were you activated them... overall the aural package is very good.
There are only two liveries in the package, N650GY and SP-TOP, but there is a paint-kit included. There is also a dedicated AKD GLF650 liveries page here: Liveries for the GLF650, with loads of choices.
Other features include a custom GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System), TCAS (Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System) and a very good custom Pressurization, Oxygen and Air Conditioning system, again required for that high altitude. You can go down as fast as you can go up!
You can descend at 3,000 to 4,000 feet per minute (fpm) during normal descent phases, but even 5,000 fpm is possible, though this is generally reserved for emergency situations. The passengers get quite a ride...
The aircraft has a very good "Autotune" for both the ILS and local VOR frequencies (115.10 BIG), so if you need to do a manual ILS or VOR tuning, then it must be turned off via the Radio page, if not the frequencies are locked in.
There is a bit of a trick to landing the G650, it is to get the most minimal speed you can for landing, if not it is a bit of a handful on the tarmac.
Whatever you can get away with you will accept, here it is a noted 136 knts approach, but closer to the runway I am down as low as 127 knts, and still airborne.... you just keep lowering and nudging the throttle rearwards as you get closer and closer to the threshold.
Then hold that final flare and let the Gulfstream sink as smoothly as you can...
... and touch!
Then hit the "Cans" and you will find the reverse thrust is very effective, thankfully as you require a runway landing distance of approximately 3,000 feet (914 meters) under ideal conditions (at sea level, standard temperature, and no wind) when fully loaded.
Biggin Hill 03/21 is only 5925ft (1806m) so it is quite tight if you leave the landing too late. And the G650 can be a bit tricky on those final moments and when down on the hard-stuff, hence that slow landing speed.... so it requires skill, in the takeoff and landing phases.
But this is a very nice genuine Gulfstream dream machine.
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Summary
In world of the elite, then the word of Gulfstream is the biggest token you can play in this upper exclusive club. The Gulfstream 650 has a 7,000 nm range and a maximum speed of Mach 0.925 with 18 passengers, Gulfstream 650ER however spices it all up a little with the GLF 700, as it can cover the same 7,500nm range, so you can connect even more distant city pairs. G650ER holds more fuel and has a higher MTOW to support the extended range. This aircraft is a major global trotting machine with both oceanic and transcontinental in range, it can fly high as well to an almost sub-orbital 51,000ft.
AKD Design released X-Plane's Gulfstream G550 a couple of years ago in late 2022, the best dedicated Gulfstream for the X-Plane Simulator. Here is the release of the GLF 650, with also includes the GLF 650ER - Extended Range variant in this package.
The Gulfstream G550 was a first time project by AKD Studios and obviously they had to pick an extremely complex aircraft to start with. So we found at the time the G550 was a bit underdeveloped, but to be fair, AKD has been one of the most prolific developers, with delivering almost monthly, even weekly sometimes in updates. So the development of the not only the original G550, but also the features of the G650 are now all excellent.
Impressive in Gulfstream systems, the GLF 550 and this G650 are comprehensive and are excellent in operation, including the excellent Gulfstream "Display controllers" (menus) and all DUIs are covered by a four display screen arrangement based on the Honeywell's Primus Epic integrated avionics system, notable is that this is not the Symmetry Flight Deck in the GLF 650, but the "PlaneView II" system with the Cursor Control Devices, and that aspect is well done here. Also custom CAS (warnings), Ice and rain protection system (X-Plane 12), IRS system and a full (menu) Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), also notable is the FMS (Flight Management System) is now also custom, GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System), TCAS (Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System and a custom Pressurization, Oxygen and Air Conditioning system... it's an impressive list.
Modeling is now very good but your not going to get the extreme X-Plane 12 Ultra quality here, a lot has been refined and updated over the two years, but a few niggles still remain... those cabin windows are still average and still have no blinds, the non-texturing of the main and taxi lighting is actually now becoming bewildering, and internal engine detail has too much light gaps from certain angles.
But the cockpit and cabin lighting is excellent and highly adjustable, sounds are very good as well, the cabin layout is better here than the G550, and cockpit seats have very nice orange highlights.
Personally I absolutely love these Gulfstreams from AKD Studios. X-Plane has always wanted really excellent transoceanic Private Jets for decades, and here they are available to X-Plane users, the G650 is also available in X-Plane 11. The price for the G560 is a little higher than the earlier released G550, but you get a lot for your investment, however if you own the GLF550 by AKD, you can get this GLF650 for a 25% off the price. Either way for your money you get a lot of aircraft with it's Gulfstream related systems and extensive list of features... Highly recommended.
X-PlaneReviews has also published the AKD Designs interview by Dominic Smith (Also on the X-Plane.Org) to get a background on this interesting developer.
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The Gulfstream 650/650ER by AKD Studio is NOW available here at the X-Plane.OrgStore
GLF650 - Ultimate Business Jet by AKD Studio
Price is US$44.95
Requirements
X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11
Windows, Mac (even native M1, M2,etc Macs) or Linux 8 GB+ VRAM Recommended Download Size: 1 GB
Current version : 1.01 (November 4th 2024) PS: If you own the GLF550 by AKD, you can get this GLF650 for a 25%. Discount will automatically be applied at checkout as long as you use the same account. Download for the Gulfstream 650 by AKD Studio is 1.03GB
And the final install in X-Plane Aircraft folder with the above loaded liveries is; 1.82gb. Authorisation is required.
The AviTab plugin is also required to use this aircraft, and it is deposited in your X-Plane Plugins folder.
Simbrief Profiles: GLF650ER: https://dispatch.simbrief.com/airframes/share/256234_1726736252301 GLF650: https://dispatch.simbrief.com/airframes/share/256234_1722423236448 Documents
GLF650 by AKD Studio - MCDU Manual.pdf GLF650 by AKD Studio Introduction.pdf GLF650_AKD_Checklist.pdf Support.txt
Designed by AKD Studios Support forum for the GLF650
Liveries for the GLF650
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Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton
15th November 2024
Copyright©2024: X-Plane Reviews
Review System Specifications:
Windows - 12th Gen IS1700 Core i7 12700K 12 Core 3.60 GHz CPU - 64bit -32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - PNY GeForce RTX 3080 10GB XLR8 - Samsung 970 EVO+ 2TB SSD. Bose Quietcomfort Headphones
Software: - Windows 11 Pro - X-Plane 12.1.2
Plugins: Traffic Global - JustFlight-Traffic (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$52.99 : Global SFD plugin US$30.00
Scenery or Aircraft
- ELLX - Luxembourg Findel Airport v2.1 by JustSim (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$19.95
- EGKB - Biggin Hill (XP10) 1.3 by Chars (X-Plane.Org) - Free
(Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) All Rights Reserved