simFlight.COM Flight Simulation News Source

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.

We’ve all been waiting for this one and now it is released! “……Flight One Software, in cooperation with Scenery Solutions, is excited to bring you a brand new type of product for FSX. Ultimate Alaska X provides a new era of scenery design that sim pilots can explore and experience in Flight Simulator X.

Alaska is one of the world’s most unique scenic locations, and it is an excellent place for flight simmers to enjoy the beauty of VFR flight. With Ultimate Alaska X, you will have the most complete rendering of Alaska to date. It provides a ground up redesign of nearly every scenery aspect in Alaska. This includes more accurate water, roads, railroads, urban modeling, mesh, detailed glaciers, repositioned airports, and more….”. Read the rest of this entry »

At long last Carenado’s bush plane, the Cessna C-185F Skywagon is now also available from simMarket! This one is built for FSX only, supports SP2/Acceleration and DX10. Included are four different paint schemes and 4 models: with and without fairings, side windows on both sides and two & three blades prop. The Skywagon is one of the most sturdy planes used in the Alaskan bush and elsewhere in the world andhas been much anticipated by virtual bush pilots. The ideal companion to for instance FSAddon’s Tongass Fjords !

FS Dreamscapes has now started publishing their new series of mesh for FSX (high resolution elevation terrain mesh based on NEXTMap ProMesh data from Intermap Technologies). NEXTMap ProMesh is a new high-quality 4.75m terrain mesh product, aimed at providing the best quality mesh to flight simmers. Available now on simMarket for Texas, Main, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Louisiana, and many other States. Also for a range of European countries !

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.

Quick Summary: This is quite a good set of powerboats (aka as speed boats) and it brings something different to FSX, in that you can now explore the scenery at sea level, and you can “fly” without ever leaving the ground (or water).  The boats are well modelled; they look very nice in the Sim and have little effect on performance.  The sounds are good, typical of a powerboat of this genre.  Although there are 3 models and 10 variants the cockpit instruments do not vary very much, but thet are comprehensive for a power boat.  They seem to have unique instruments as well as using the default GPS and GA radio stack.  The instructions on how to configure and pilot the boats are comprehensive and need to be followed to ensure success.  For something totally different you can’t go beyond these boats. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Jeff Smith of Flight1 sent us information regarding their upcoming screenshot contest. “….. To celebrate the one year anniversary of the Cessna Citation Mustang for Flight Simulator X, Flight1 will be holding a screenshot contest for Mustang pilots during the month of February.   Registered forum users can submit their best screenshot to the Flight1 Cessna Citation Mustang Screenshots and Videos forum…..”. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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 »

FS Recorder reports that “….. Beta 3 of FS Recorder 2.0 is now available for download. Due to a memory leak in the previous betas of the FSX version I urge all FSX users of beta 1/2 to update to beta 3! For details and download links visit here….”.

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 »

After their earlier 412, Cera have now released the Bell 212 version. “…. This is a medium helicopter with a powertrain powered by two engines Pratt & Whitney PT6T-3B, with semi-rigid main rotor, two blades rotor systems. Manufactured by Bell Helicopter Textron for civilian or military use, first flew in 1968. In 1970 entered the service of the U.S. Marine Corps as the UH-1N. Thanks to power reserves of Twin-Turbine Engine, the Bell 212 is one of the best utility helicopters worldwide….”. The helo is available in the simMarket shop of course.

Carenado reports that they “….. released the awaited and much requested C185F Skywagonfor FSX. As always, high quality designed aircraft, polygon optimized model, friendly FPS and a control window new feature for controlling eye candy (wheel chocks, bag & package, pitot cover, sights prop and tie down ropes)….”. Read the rest of this entry »

Flight1 reports about their AI traffic tool “….. After extensive testing and input from customers, Flight One Software has released Ultimate Traffic 2 Service Pack 1.   The update includes several enhancements to the user interface, feature upgrades, and optimizes how the program behaves in Flight Simulator X itself. ….”.  UT is available here at simMarket. 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 »