simFlight.COM Flight Simulation News Source

Designer Cornel Grigoriu of Dreamfactorystudio is working on Mega Airport Amsterdam Schiphol and just sent the German simFlight team his ‘gold version’ of it for preview. Schiphol (for FS2004 for now) should pop up at Aerosoft’s shop within the next few days. If your curious, then have a look on the German simFlight forum here.

The guys from the German-language FlightXPress magazine report that their February 2010 issue is available now. Topics covered can be found on theor web site here.

If you’re into hearing your models then you may want to get yourself this TSS pack featuring the sound of the Airbus. “….  TSS Airbus CFM56-5B Soundpack for FSX is an all new soundpack, with all new high quality recordings. With this soundpack,we have captured all the best soundmoments and put them together to combine a truly stunning representation of the CFM56-5B engine….”. Available on simMarket for FSX and FS2004.

Scott Philips of Just Flight reports that “…… A lot of people have been patiently waiting for us to supply the Service pack for Constellation Professional, well good news, it’s now available from our website. The Service Pack (27.5Mb) is now available and provides a number of fixes for the software. Users of both the Download and the Boxed versions should install this Service Pack. There is also a Service Pack (37.3Mb) available for Expansion Pack A and another one (65.5Mb) for Expansion Pack B. All users of the Expansion Packs should install these updates. Visit the Support section of the website for a list of all the fixes in the Pack.

In a package titled ‘Jagdgeschwader 73 Steinhoff’ (which stands for Squadron 73) you will find the Eurofighter, Mig-29 and Phantom jets. Unfortunately the description of the product page was largely lost in the translation to English, but the pictures sure help  understand what’s included. You can see them all here at simMarket. Seperate packages for FSX and FS9.

Halycon Media has repackaged yet another bunch of existing FS add-ons and made them available for the German market. Titles include Razbam’s EA-6B Prowler, his F-102 Delta Dagger and the Mig 29 from AFS Design. Many Halycon titles are available through the simMarket on-line shop and you can find them all here.

Scott Philips of Just Flight writes us “….. This is just a quick message to let you know that the brilliant 767 200/300 Series is now on sale from Just Flight. This is another F-Lite product and comes from the most respected developer, Commercial Level Simulations.  We have the product by boxed and by download, with separate FSX and FS2004 download versions for those who just want the one version….”. More info here.

‘MSK Productions’ presents the “….. first Pakistani airport scenery of Jinnah International Airport for MS FS2004. Jinnah International airport is Pakistan’s largest international and domestic airport. It is located in Karachi, Sindh, and its passenger terminal is also commonly known as the Jinnah Terminal. The airport is named after Crown attorney/statesman Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and its first Governor General, who was popularly known as the Quaid-e-Azam (“Great Leader”)….”. Available now from simMarket.

Chris Palmer of Angle of Attack reports that he “…… is excited to bring you Aviator90: 90 days, 45 lessons, all free. Aviator90 is a basic virtual flight training by video. Please visit our blog at to learn more about this project!…..”

Gary Simmons reports that his “….. UK2000 Scenery announces the release of ‘Manchester Xtreme’ for FSX and FS2004. Made to a high level of detail and accuracy but still maintaining a friendly frame rate, this scenery is the finest version ever made. Manchester Airport (UK) is one of the busiest airports in the country. Today nearly 20 million passengers use Manchester and this is expected to rise to 42 million by 2015….”. Manchester Xtreme is available from simMarket here. Read the rest of this entry »

On the whole, there are two places in the flight simming world that are all but forgotten: Europe and the Caribbean. Aerosoft has made loads of sceneries for Europe, and also has been doing stuff for the Caribbean. However, there are other developers out there, too, that, when hearing the name, are linked to those sunny beaches, clear, light-blue water and small airports. One of these is Tropicalsim.

Tropicalsim is a developer of airports that lie in the sunniest regions of our earth. Many of them are in the Caribbean, but they also did airports for Portugal and Brazil, for example. In this review, I will take you to the Netherlands, though. “But isn’t that in Europe?” you ask. Yes, it is, but the Netherlands consist of more than just that tiny country in Western Europe. There are three islands in the Caribbean that also belong to the Netherlands: Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. These three islands are known as the “ABC islands”. However, what you’d probably expect, is not true: Aruba is, since 1986, no longer part of “the Netherlands Antilles” (to which Bonaire and Curacao do belong, together with St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius). These three islands can be purchased as one pack from Simmarket, and it is this pack I will be reviewing. Read the rest of this entry »

DBS Studio have released an update for their DBS Airport GPS, making it version 1.2 now. Changes include an “…… updated database engine (preventing a failure on some configurations) and an updated user interface…”. More details can be found on their website. You can download the FSX update here and the FS2004 update here.

CLS have released their Boeing 767 package for both FS9 and FSX on simMarket. “…… The version you are looking at now, is the FS9 & FSX version. This means that you can download the FS9 version and the FSX version. This product requires internet activation, and can only be installed on 1 PC (thus on 1 PC you can install both FS9 and FSX versions!)….”. Available now at simMarket. Read the rest of this entry »

VR Simulations has reduced their FS2004 Hornet package in price. They wrote about it “…..The VRS F/A-18E Super Hornet, or “Superbug”, is the first  true 3-axis fly-by-wire combat aircraft designed for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The flight model is not “fly-by-wire-like”, it’s a dynamic, fully control-law-dependent proportional control system driving a single (ordinance independent) neutrally-statically-stable base flight model. The FBW system extends to 100% custom autopilot functions….”. Now available for Euro 24,99 (incl. VAT 29.74) at simMarket.

Like many other major developers, Robert Randazzo,  PMDG’s owner,  sees development for FSX as the way forward now, dictated by market economies. Upon some heated discussions on their support forums, he made a statement that you can read here. PMDG is not alone of course, since FSX is really taking off finally.

LatinVFR has now released their FS2004 Sao Paulo scenery. “… We bring you the first of the series “latin hub” which would relate to Latin American airports that are renowned for their importance as a hub in their respective regions. The first is Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport located in the Sao Paulo disctrict of Cumbica is Brazil’s busiest airport…..”. Available from simMarket here.
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Staff  reviewer Benjamin van Soldt digged into Feelthere’s ERJ-145 this time…. and we believe he liked it! This review contains a Question/Answer session that helps with the most common problems encountered. It also contains an interview with Feelthere.

We all know Boeing and Airbus. We all know Tupolev and Ilyushin. We all know British Aerospace and… yes, Embraer. Embraer is a Brazilian designer and manufacturer of airplanes, that for quite some time didn’t seem to make their business as big as they had wanted it to be, but this changed with the ERJ-145. This regional jetliner became a hit around the world, and many airlines have adopted it in their fleet. We see it in America and Europe, but not only there. Models are also flying around in China, for example. We can truly say the ERJ-145 family (which includes the ERJ-135 and ERJ-140) is an internationally known and used plane.

We all know PMDG and Level-D. We all know Carenado and Captain Sim. We all know Aerosoft and… yes, Feelthere too. Feelthere is a developer we know from, for example, the rather famous Wilco 737 PIC. They also did an ERJ-145, apparently it was their first aircraft to publish. It’s to be seen on the model, too: according to current standards, that plane has a very ugly virtual cockpit, although it did come with a rather nice cabin and very nice exterior model. The systems also were of good quality. However, feelthere has gone back to the drawing board to deliver us a new plane: the ERJ-145v2, a package that includes the ERJ-135, ERJ-145 and ERJ-145XR. They have teamed up with mcPhat to deliver some high quality repaints, too. I will be taking a look at this package now, and I will see if it lives up to its predecessor and maybe surpasses it even. Read the rest of this entry »

DBS Airport GPS is a new way to navigate on airports. Taxi at any airport like driving a car in the streets with your car GPS! Run the GPS and follow the indicated route from gate to runway. We mentioned it already some time ago here. DBS Airport GPS is now also available for use in FS2004. Check out simMarket here!

Carlos Pereira of Tropical Sim writes us that they are close to releasing Guarulhos Intl./SBGR, at São Paulo, Brazil. The main gateway to South America. “…… The scenery will have two independent installers, for both FS9 & FSX, and for sure this is one of our finest sceneries ever. We are working hard to release it within a few days. This is a project we have been working on for some time now. Quality level is becoming a step ahead of our last releases, like Porto/LPPR and Trieste/LIPQ…..”.

Luxembourg is our regular stop on our way to France, because they have the cheapest petrol of all of Europe. Apart from an overdose of cheap petrol pumps, they also have an airport. Luxembourg Airport, published by Aerosoft, is now on simMarket in a download version. “…… Luxembourg is, with an area of 2586 km², the second smallest country in European Union. But it houses a large amount of international institutions that create a steady stream of civil servants to and from the Duchy. For example the European Court of Justice, European Court of Auditors, European Investment Bank and the secretariat of the European Parliament….”. The download can be purchased here on simMarket. If you prefer a boxed version, click here !