simFlight.COM Flight Simulation News Source

Sky Blue Radio reports that they are “…. presenting a very special live Flight Simulator in Focus show on Saturday February 13th, 2010 at 2200z. Join Jeff ‘JT’ Turner and special guests VATSIM Board of Governors, VP of Web Services, Mike Evans and Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Development Florian Harms as they explore the future of Flight Simulation and the place of VATSIM in the continuing development of Flight Simulation and aviation in general….”. Read the rest of this entry »

FlightAware has released Version 2.0 of their popular on-line flight tracker and flight planner website. meanwhile 150.000 pilots (and flightsimmers) are members of FlightAware and have been giving input over the past year for improvements. Check out the free site here.

Bert Groner of  the largest German language flightsim magazine FS Magazin, announced the next issue being available on the streets on February 4th (and through subscription of course).When you click on ‘Read Full Story…” you can see what’s covered in this first 2010 issue. FSMagazin is cooperating with simFlight Germany through our new dedicated forums. Read the rest of this entry »

John Marshall of Astrasim Expo Ltd in the UK is going to try again to organize a UK FS show. He sent us the following press release on it : “……We are pleased to announce that Astrasim Expo is now taking bookings for Summer Sim 2010. This year’s event will take place at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford. The show takes place on the weekend of August 28th – 29th…..”. Read the rest of this entry »

Cessna has informed its (potential) customers that the delivery of their new SkyCatcher has been delayed with some 6 to 10 months. Apparently the factory in Shenyang, China, needs to be retooled after changes in the design of the aircraft have been made. The SkyCatcher (or Cessna 162) is a new Light Sport Aircraft and was involved in two spin accidents prior to the changes being made now. More info to be found at AOPA.

A promotional video for the release of SkyUnlimited Productions Texan-Harvard vol.2 for FSX. Includes two short scenarios demonstrating the use of the 5 extra add-on models that come with the three aircraft models that are included in the package. Really breath taking stuff !

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.

A brand new, on-line, commercial ‘web-zine’ has been born. Conceived, designed and ultimately produced and launched by some friends (Glenn Norman and Michelle Goodeve) and people many of us know (Hal Bryan and Mike Singer, both fromer MSFS gurus)! It is called Why Fly and is all about WHY we/you love FLYING (and aviation). “

……  Glenn and Michelle fell in love with each other—and the sky—while they were still in their teens. After getting their start as aviation writers, they’ve spent the past 25 years working as actors, screenwriters, story editors and producers on numerous TV shows. But as most of their stories were about flying, the couple decided to combine their skills and create Why Fly in partnership with their friends Hal Bryan and Mike Singer….”.

You can see the FREE initial version by going here ! I know you’ll like what you see, so get a subscription and make sure the mag takes off into a wonderful future, serving us all with great stories about flying !

Eric Majeraz aka LLH Creations has released LLH7 in his series of altiports (mountain airfields in France). LLH7 shows you the field at Alpe d’Huez, Henri Giraud, named after the famous French pilot and pioneer. Alpe d’Huez may be more familiar to you as one of the famous ‘etappes’ in the Tour de France! LLH7 is for FSX, an FS9 version is expected soon. Check out the product here. Read the rest of this entry »

Chris Palmer of Angle of Attack posted some news on his blog. If you have time to watch a 12 minute (!) video, you can get all the details here. In short it says that he is making progress on the PMDG MD11 Training (clkick on Read more for detals).  He also mentions his Aviator 90 product, which is a 90-day free FS pilot training course on video, with 45 lessons. You can sign up for the newsletter to learn when it starts. Read the rest of this entry »

IVAO “….. is proud to present the 5th Edition of “Crowded Skies” on January 9, 2010 from 1900Z onwards. This is a world wide and record breaking event on the IVAO network. The previous edition of Crowded Skies established an amazing 1941 simulatenous connections. The current edition hopes to establish a new record…”. Read the rest of this entry »

Aerosoft is putting up a few quizzes this month and the final one is up at their site now. You can still participate till the end of the year and hope to win of their nice prizes. Mathijs Kok writes “…..  This time we have three prizes, 3 free downloads for first place, 2 for second, 1 for third place. Even if you do not know all answers we advise you to send in what you got, many times in the past we seen that nobody found all answers!…”. Read more on their forum here.

It is dangerous now to have a diarrhea and stay in a plane’s lavatory for too long. A passenger was dragged from the stool  and arrested by crew and fellow passengers last Sunday, because he stayed on the lavatory for an hour!  Truth be told, this was on a flight from Northwest Airlines from Amsterdam to Detroit and the man was a Nigerian….. like the would-be terrorist that was apprehended a few days earlier on the same flight! Note to self: better stay with flight simulation or just take the car!

Lindle Romero writes “…. I would like to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year! 2009 was a great year and we saw lots of transition at VAFlash.com.  The site was brought back from the brink of extinction partly because of the generosity of the J.A, the founder and former owner of VAFlash. We also have partnered with many new and older VAs alike and continue to give the flightsim community the very latest news in the virtual airline arena…”. Since it is simFlight’s policy to NOT post any VA news, VAFlash is a good alternative for such news that we recommend with pleasure.

China does a lot more than manufacture cheap toys, as you may have gathered by now. “….. China will deliver eight domestically designed private business aircraft to Laos next year, in its latest effort to find a niche in the international aviation market.
The Xiaoying 500, or “Eaglet 500,” passed dynamic tests of seat and restraint systems Monday, indicating the first China-made light aircraft had met international standards and was ready for export, said sources with the designer in Xi’an, capital of northwestern Shaanxi Province….”. Read the entire press release here.

The designer and developer of the famous Learjet has died at the age of 81, December 14th. For those of you interested to learn more about this interesting man, who many considered as a pioneer of the business jets, Bill Lear wrote a biography entitled “Fly Fast … Sin Boldly; Flying, Spying and Surviving”. You can find it on his blog.

DC-3’s birthday this week. It flew first time on December 17th 1935 in southern California and will turn 75 next year. There will be a major celebration at Oshkosh 2010, organized by the EAA, to that fact. It will include special programming throughout the Oshkosh event to honor this very special aircraft that managed to stay around for so long ! Read more about it here.

Two gentlemen who form the Classic Jet Sims group have modeled a highly detailed ‘Starfighter’ for X-Plane, including the ability to drop ordnance and shoot out the pilot in his ejector seat. It also features the brake chute, and more importantly appears to have a lot of special flightmodel features included. Read all about it on their web page here.

…… or maybe not, after all. FSAddon Publishing reports that the release of the ‘Lizzie’ is on schedule. “…. Our long-awaited Westland Lysander, the WW2 SOE ’spy taxi’, is basically ready. We’re working on the manuals and ‘missions’ now and expect to have it all fixed before the Holidays. The official title of the package has been established too, and we’ll market it as ‘Lysander Special Operations’. The really good latest news is that thanks to Jan Kees Blom and Chuck Jodry we’ll be able to not only deliver the black ‘Shuttleworth’ version, but also a few other liveries and even a version without the extra tank. And no… no bombs. Check out the latest screenshots below!’…”. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of you will have known my good friend Jun Kazama, in many forums known as ‘Gallopinggoose’.

I am sad to tell you that Jun passed away on December 3rd, a victim of cancer.

Our heartfelt condolences go to his dear wife Fumie first and foremost.

But also to all of his many friends all over the world, whom he charmed with his enthusiasm and Internet presence. Jun was part of many Internet communities and forums and always present in our Beta Teams. He was a virtual bush pilot, made wonderful videos and connected many Japanese simmers to the rest of the world.

I know from our conversations that Jun strongly believed in us coming back in another form after passing away. That means we’ll meet again. Maybe, as Jun once said, as the eagles we both loved so much.

Rest in peace, my friend, until we meet again.