1,500th 747 comes off the production line

• • Aircraft, Aviation News
B747-1500

Wow, you gotta be impressed about this much heavy iron being pumped out of one company. The 747 has been around for a long time now but she still looks as impressive when you see one as the first time you every caught site of a jumbo.

Boeing has delivered the 1,500th 747 to come off the production line to Frankfurt, Germany-based Lufthansa. The milestone airplane is a 747-8 Intercontinental, the 14th one that Lufthansa will incorporate into its long-haul fleet. “Reaching this milestone delivery is a testament to the capabilities of the airplane and our commitment to continuous innovation,” said Eric Lindblad, 747 vice president and general manager, Boeing Commercial Airplanes

As much as I love the aircraft for some reason I just never got around to buying the payware PMDG model, just don’t seem to fly that many long haul legs, which I guess is strange for a Pacific simmer as we have plenty of long haul options :)

PCAviator Virtavia discounts

• • Sales and Specials
C-17-virtavia

If you’re into military simming with a Pacific connection and don’t already have every piece of Virtavia kit available then take a nosey at PCAviators Virtavia sale this week. Some substantial discounts with lots of airframes that have RNZAF or RAAF connections, such as: F-111, C17, Chinook, Caribou, Blackhawk, Seasprite, V-22 Osprey (seen on manoeuvres in Aussie recently) and WWII era or war-birds stuff like the Blenheim and Harvard.

see: http://www.pcaviator.com.au/store/home.php?cat=736

New CLS 742/3 repaints from ARNZ

• • Aircraft, AirNZ, Repaints
ARNZ-747

Long time modeller and expert repainter Jon Murchison of ARNZ has released a couple of lovely new repaints for the new CLS 747-2/300 for FSX. These more or less coincide with the 1.5 update recently and go with his ANZ textures released previously. Most Pacific simmers I’m sure will be well aware of his repaints, how he is so productive is anyones guess :)

see: http://www.flightsim.co.nz/repaints/aircraft/CLS/Boeing%20747-200%20HD

Alabeo PiperSport review at AirDailyX

• • Aircraft
PiperSport

Kenneth Kerr has published a great review of the Alabeo PiperSport, better known down-under as the Czech Aircraft Works (CZAW) SportCruiser. Lovely looking aircraft and lots of these on the Pacific registers so this is worth a look.

The PiperSport is my kind of aircraft! What I mean by that is this. If I could afford my own aircraft right now, it would be something like this. I sincerely believe that LSA in the USA, and in Canada Advanced ultralights, are the future of General Aviation. Sure, if you intend to take the family across the country then you might still want a Cessna, Piper, Beechcraft or modern day Cirrus, but if all you want to do is have flying fun, the lighter alternatives just cannot be beaten. In my mind LSA (Light Sport Aircraft) is Lovely, Sexy and Alluring!

souce: http://www.airdailyx.net/alabeo-cruz-pipersport/

CaptainSim 777 release v1.4

• • Addons, Aircraft
14474524401_423c43d9ea_z

CaptainSim have a business model they’ve followed a couple of times now where custom

ers are invited to buy pre release versions to fund the completion of the project. Essentially you receive a visual model with panels and systems that flesh out over subsequent releases and have bugs hopefully ironed out over time as the final release approaches.

I bought into the program for the 777 and although it has a lovely external model and what looked like a decent cockpit it wasn’t without its issues, even after the initial v1.0 release.

I’ve personally experienced ridiculous cockpit panel behaviours/responses, start-up sequences that were just random, climb-outs that were comical, LNAV and VNAV tracking that was diabolical, FMC/CDU and MCP weirdness and a whole bunch of other highly irritating stuff. This was despite following published procedures for de-installing/re-installing between releases and initialising the aircraft by placing at CS recommended starting airports and states otherwise the damned thing would lose the plot.

So you could say I wasn’t holding out much hope for this latest v1.4 release. Imagine my delight when after a cold-n-dark start-up and IFR leg from Hamilton to Wellington (yes I know, hardly typical) the ruddy thing behaved FLAWLESSLY !!!

Well… close enough…

  • pre-flight, FMC setup etc all went fine (although this was ok for me previously too)
  • start-up sequence went well, I dig the panel, it’s nicely done, good level of detail, interactions seem to be subtlety improved
  • taxi and handling are great, the thing looks good and feels big but seems to move accordingly on the tarmac
  • take-off roll and climb-out were fine, I was running a light load so was pretty sporty but not stupidly supersonic like previous releases have been for me
  • LNAV and VNAV tracking were bang on, this has been weak in the past in my experience
  • on approach to Wellington the TOD and general descent profile behaviour was bang on, really pleased with that
  • LOC capture was smooth without any wild redirection to align and GS capture and tracking went well all the way to finals
  • AP and AT off and hand flying to touch-down felt very good, responsive but still felt like a heavy aircraft as I guess it should
  • touch-down, reverser’s, spoilers, auto-brake, roll-out, and taxi-to-gate all went swimmingly

The few niggles I had weren’t show stoppers…

  • at start-up Cranking right starter resulting in left-engine start
  • C-N-D default is still to have all controls hydraulic valves isolated, you have to use the pesky guarded switches right at the back of the overhead to enable Yoke/Pedals (is this realistic? does PMDG do the same?)
  • De-selected one of the Generator drive switches and no combination of selections would re-enable it, the whole flight was fed from the other generator

Overall I’m a happy camper. After a few more legs I’m sure I’d be at the point where I could recommended this for the budget concious amongst us

Real Tonga leasing Chathams Convairs while MA60s out of action

• • Aircraft, Aviation News
Real_Tonga_MA60

Another real world item via the 3rdLevelNZ blog, this time relating to the dreaded MA60 in Tonga and an interim solution in the form of Chathams aircraft. Might be time to break out Greg Peppers CV580 for some Pacific simming :)

Real Tonga confirmed that the 50-seater Convair arrived in Tongatapu yesterday afternoon from New Zealand, and made its first flight to Vava‘u, where it remained overnight. Real Tonga’s Chief Executive, Tevita Palu said, “we are bringing in the aircraft to provide immediate back-up for our MA60 services between Tongatapu and Vava‘u.

source: http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/whats-air-chathams-convair-doing-in.html

There is a flyable MA60 AI model out there for the Sim but looks a decent payware model is unlikely given how much real world bad press these are getting lately.

New Aircraft for Fiji Airways

• • Aircraft, Aviation News
FijiAirways

As reported on Steves 3rdLevelNZ blog this week Fiji Airways have some new machines on the way. Repaints for the A330 and B738 are already out there in the striking new livery but AFAIK there isnt a skin for the ATR, must be time someone pushed one out for the Flight1 ATR/72?

Fiji Airways plans to expand its fleet size with the purchase of four new aircraft, including one A330-200, two B737-800s and two ATR72-600s by 2017.

source: http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/fleet-increase-for-fiji-airways.html

Saitek X-55 review

• • Hardware
X55

Nicely detailed review this week at SimFlight of what has to be the sexiest piece of Sim hardware for the combat fans. Sure you’ll need to save some pennies for awhile for this kit, or hope you get an especially generous xmas pressie, but I’m sure its worth it. Personally I’m more of a tube-liner pilot but am wondering how that throttle unit would go for managing twin-jets?

see: http://www.simflight.com/2014/06/25/saitek-x-55-rhino-h-o-t-s-review/