simFlight.COM Flight Simulation News Source

Every once in a while you stumble on a Wordpress Blog that is just that little bit more interesting than the average. Neptunus Lex is one of those. Today’s blog post shows a wonderful photo of a Raptor, taken by a Navy sonar operator no less ! The comments underneath are interesting also…. for military aviation enthusiasts, that is. There’s more interesting stuff on that blog, so have fun !

Just Planes has released yet another series of real aviation videos on simMarket. This time they’ll take you along with Air Europe in their B777’s and B767’s, in Air France flights with the Airbus A330-200 and last but not least with Cougar Air from Stansted, flying their ’souped-up’ Boeing 727’s to various holiday destinations. You can find many more of Just Planes’ videos on simMarket, covering a wide range of airline companies and arcraft.

Associated Press reports that “…..A French investigator says Air France Flight 447 did not break up in flight but plunged vertically into the Atlantic Ocean. Alain Bouillard, leading the investigation into the June 1 crash for the French accident investigation agency BEA, also says life vests found among the wreckage of the plane were not inflated.

All 228 people aboard the plane were killed when it plunged into the ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Bouillard said at a news conference outside Paris on Thursday that the search for the plane’s black boxes has been extended by 10 days and will continue through July 10……”.  More news here.

Here’s something taken from a blog I found….. the blog of James Wiebe from Wichita to be exact. “…. Wichita, Kansas-based aviation enthusiast and entrepreneur James Wiebe and his wife, Kathy, have acquired the production rights to a previously designed aircraft, the Kitfox Lite, and formed a new business entity, Belite Aircraft, to market it. The airplane will incorporate stronger, lighter carbon fiber components that will allow it to easily meet Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 103 weight requirements.

The Wiebes, who previously developed and marketed digital forensic computer storage devices as the founders of Wichita-based enterprise, WiebeTech LLC, acquired the tooling, existing parts and manufacturing rights to the aircraft in March of 2009. As a condition of the transaction, they agreed to re-brand the airplane to prevent any confusion with the larger, two-place light sport Kitfox that shares many of the same design features but is owned by another company. Kitfox has recorded more than 4,500 kit sales since its introduction 25 years ago…..”.

Exciting to see new aircraft compaies being born, follow it here!

It’s that time of the year again that aviation lovers’ hearts start pounding faster. Oshkosh is nearing and opening its doors on July 27th ! EAA Air Venture is the world’s largest air ‘meet’ in the world, set up as a fly-in for experimental aircraft builders, but grown out to be much more. This year will even see the mighty Airbus 380 there ! If you have a chance to visit, don’t skip it !! Read all about it here!

Here’s an interesting project (AND website) for those of you who believe the world needs to get greener FAST but who also are avid aviation enthusiasts. I know looking at the sky in our beloved Alps hideout that aviation is NOT doing well in that area, clouding the clear skies rapidly with gases and vapour trails, poluting our planet more than we’d want. This Swiss project is one of many to try and do something about it: meet the Solar Impulse Project!

In a new DVD from Just Planes you can see how Euro Atlantic Airways, based at Lisbon Airport, operates worldwide charter flights as well as services for many other airlines. “…… STP Airways is the new airline of Sao Tome and Principe, an Island off the coast of Africa. In this program you will fly in the cockpit of the Boeing 757 roundtrip from Lisbon to Sao Tome as you cross Africa and land on the tiny island off the coast of Gabon.

On the Boeing 767-300 you will follow one of the many sub-services Euro Atlantic operates for airlines all over the world, in this case Jetairfly of Belgium and 4 flights between Brussels and Tenerife…..’.

Available from simMarket now.

WWW is all about bi-planes, NEW ones! Did you know you can still buy the Golden Age type bi-planes that we all know from old movies and clips of black-and-white film? At Waco Classical Aircraft Corporation they’ve now developed a new model. It comes with a larger, 300-hp Jacobs R755-A2 radial engine. Other than that… it is still pretty much, well, a Waco ! They have a really fun website, set up in the style of a diary of a pilot who just discovered the airplane and its makers. Have a look here !

Here’s an interesting tidbit of news from our AOPA news source. Brad Frederick, a pilot from Michigan, coughed up the money to help reopen an abandoned, overgrown field that was closed down back in 2004. Since then the airport has been improved and is now being used to promote the history and cultural heritage of the area. The airfield is known as Prickett-Grooms Airfield (6Y9) and is in full swing again today. Frederick’s motto is: ‘If you mow it, they’ll come!’ The airfields website is here.

Although the majority of respondents to our little poll on the right seem to NOT like Facebook (and other such programs) there is more and more information being distributed via it. One of the Facebook ‘groups’ is that of the Flying Heritage Collection, posting interesting photos and titbits of information regarding our main interest: aviation!

“……The Japanese counterpart to the Allies’ Zinc Chromate anti-corrosion paint was called Aotake. Careful study of the FHC’s Mitsubishi A6M3-22 Zero and Nakajima Ki-43 Oscar fighters, reveals the bright color pigment in the wheel wells, on interior panels, and spanning internal bulkheads. The covering is a semi-transparent varnish that looks like the blue green metallic sheen of a scarab beetle. The unusual color was added to help assure that the coat was applied thoroughly. Aotake drives restorers (and model airplane builders) crazy because its hue and shade seems to change depending on the number of coats, age of the paint, when and where the paint was applied, and surface it has been applied to. Currently, the Zero and Oscar sit side by side in the FHC’s hangar, giving one the rare opportunity to compare their different shades of Aotake paint….”.

Check out the photoalbums here if you dare !

‘Bush pilots’, whether real or ’sim’ all know the Twin Otter aircraft series. Aerosoft made a nice rendition of one not so long ago. Unfortunately production was stopped in the late ’80’s. But now there’s good news, because Viking has bought the certification from Bombardier some time ago and has now started building NEW Twin Otters. Check out this YouTube interview!

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Via AOPA we found an article from the Wall Street Journal regarding the problems with new GPS satellites. According to the article the US Air Force says “….. a new GPS satellite built by Lockheed Martin Corp. is accurate only to about 20 feet, rather than the normal standard of two feet. The satellite’s new civilian frequency is seen as crucial to next-generation air traffic control, but it appears to interfere with other signals, degrading their accuracy. Officials fear similar problems could occur with 12 additional satellites currently being built by Boeing Co., and additional testing could further delay the project…..”. Not such a problem for our simulated flights, but NOT good for our real-world endeavors that rely more and more on GPS these days. Full article here.

Here’s an interesting video from the endless YouTube resource…. A Saab Viggen with a pilot who forgot his sandwiches at home…. These aircraft are designed to work from small airfields and roads even and can do amazing things. Not only make U-turns all by themselves, but also very short take-offs…. enjoy !

The pilot of this Beaver, trying to take off from Lake Spenard, Anchorage, Alaska, shows us that sailing a boat and flying a plane are two distinctly different things. Things go incredibly wrong for the poor guy….. AND the poor Beaver ! Nobody got hurt in the accident, although the camera man had a somewhat late reaction. The NTSB is investigating the incident.

Browsing the internet searching for something, I happened upon a site in Thailand that explains the workings of helicopter flight. Since there are new people to our hobby, and to aviation indeed,  all the time, maybe worth mentioning this site here. It has some nice explaining pictures and covers the major points of controlling a helicopter. Check it out here.