Air New Zealand 787-900 handover ceremony

• • Aircraft, AirNZ, Aviation News
787_seattle

Quite the hoo hah in Seattle with the formal handover of the brand spanking new 787-900 to Air New Zealand staff. There was even a band on hand to help with the celebrations. Gonna be great to see this machine operating across the Tasman in coming months, I may even have to get p to Auckland to see an arrival some time

Air New Zealand became the first airline to take delivery of the Boeing 787-9 at an event attended by the world’s media in the United States today. More than 1,000 Boeing employees joined the airline’s representatives, VIP guests and media from as far away as New Zealand, Australia, China and Japan to celebrate the handover of the aircraft at the Future of Flight museum near Seattle.

See the press release pics and videos on the AirNZ flying social page

Diamond DA40 released by Alabeo

• • Addons, Aircraft, FSX, P3D, Payware
AlabeoDiamondDA40

Yet another drop dead gorgeous release from the Alabaeo guys, this time the single-engined Diamond DA40. Popular with private GA owners and training companies around the world, there are a few of these on the Pacific registers so repaint options abound. I never tired of these Alabeo releases, or the Carenado stuff for that matter. Sure sometimes they cop some flack for candy over systems trade-offs but they just look so darned good its hard to criticise.

Features: Vision Microsystems VM 1000 Engine Instrument, Superb material shines and reflections, Volumetric side view prop effect, Gauges reflections, Windows scratches and Blades shines, High quality 3D model and textures, Blank texture for creating your own designs, Realistic behavior

Checkout the Alabeo product page for more info

Airline2Sim Majestic Dash 8 Q400 Cadet Training

• • Aircraft
airline2sim-majestic-dash8-q400

Wow, what’s not to like about this deal. 50% off the Airline2Sim HD video training for the Majestic Dash8 400. You’ll need a decent bandwidth cap to suck the 12GB of files down-under but I’m sure it’s worthwhile. Has had some good reviews, and for anyone who likes to fly the QantasLink Dash8 routes this must be compulsory viewing surely. All I need to do is get around to actually buy the Majestic product itself :)

This package includes over 8 hours of HD video training for the Majestic Software Dash 8 Q400. if you’re serious about learning how to master this stunning aircraft, this is as real as it gets. The developers of these videos put a REAL, rated and current Dash 8 Q400 pilot from a major UK airline into the training pilot seat inside Flight Simulator so you can learn every switch and button inside the flight deck, watch how to fly the aircraft with full airline procedures, checklists and flows, all under instruction from a pilot who flies the Q400 for a living

see sale page at JustFlight

No Engine, No Problem (787 video)

• • Aircraft
B789-engine-out-video

Nice short mini doco here at Boeing.com on the Engine Out testing being performed on the 787-900.

In this testing, air crews intentionally force the airplane to take off with significantly reduced engine thrust. “We do the testing to simulate a take off where if an engine were to fail… we provide the speeds for the line pilots so that they can safely either continue to take off or reject the takeoff,” said 787-9 Senior Project Pilot Mike Bryan.

see original post

Sharklets for the Project Airbus A32x

• • Aircraft
TCXshark

Good news for Bus fans, and especially for those who don’t fancy forking out for a payware model. Project airbus have released some work in progress shots of their A32X series complete with winglets/sharklets (ala some of the Jetstar and AirNZ models)

Here is a sneakpeak of an update for the A32X series.. And yes.. The whole series will have sharklets. From A318 to A321 More previews will come in this topic! First out is two A321’s.. Still WIP

see: http://talk.pafs.wf/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2981

CT4 A/B Trainer

• • Aircraft, Millitary
AirTourer

PC Aviator Australia have added a bunch more titles to the current extensive sale going on with this new title in particular having a close tie to NZ and Australia. The mighty wee CT4 Airtrainer. I owned the previous FS9 version and also recently picked up the FSX model as available here which includes a general revamp and some new liveries. This is a great wee aircraft and so much fun to fly in the sim. Also be a great multiplayer machine should you fancy doing some formation flying.

The New Zealand CT-4A Airtrainer can trace its ancestry from the Australian Victa Airtourer, designed by Henry Millicer in the 1950s. The Millicer Airtourer, powered by a 65 hp Continental engine, first flew on 31 March 1959, and the production rights were then purchased by Victa Consolidated Industries.

see the sale page here

A320 NEO options for flightsim

• • Aircraft
A320-NEO

Given the NEO has only recently rolled out the hangar door it’s pretty cool to think we can already fly a simulated version right now. There are two options available to the simmer at present, no doubt these will receive service packs over time once the real world performance figures and cosmetic details settle in as the aircraft approaches delivery and enters service with clients. All of these are running a CFM56 engine but the initial production release of the NEO appears to be a P&W powered machine so re-engining is on the cards too.

The other players potentially with NEOs in the works I assume will be Blackbox Simulations and their AirbusXtreme and the FlightSimLabs A320 which has yet to see the light of day but promises to be nicely done given their track record.

Airbus’ first A320neo reaches completion

• • Aircraft, Aviation News
A320_NEO_REVEAL

Good news for Airbus PR wise (despite the recent A350 cancellations) as the first NEO rolls out the hangar door. Looks like the machine is set to start test flights in September. Air New Zealand recently announced an order for 13 new NEOs which will be serving on trans-Tasman routes so we’ll see them soon enough down-under as well.

The assembly of Airbus’ first A320neo has been completed following painting of the aircraft and the mounting of Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM engines. MSN6101, which will be the first A320neo to fly, will soon start its ground tests to prepare for first flight

see the Airbus press release

Razbam EMB120 WIP shots

• • Aircraft
Razbam-EMB120

Latest work in progress shots of the Razbam Embraer 120, a lovely looking turbo-prop and ideally suited for short-haul stuff in the Pacific. Not an aircraft that’s been on the NZ register as far as I know but a bunch have appeared in Australia over the years. Really looking forward to this one as had a couple of real-world legs in them in California a few years ago.

see: https://www.facebook.com/RazbamSims

 

United Island Hopper across the Pacific

• • Aircraft, Aviation News, Flights
UnitedIslandHopper

Fascinating article on Airchive.com this week about a trans Pacific Ocean route serviced by United (formerly a Continental service) all the way from Los Angeles to Guam via the Marshal Islands and a few other planned and un-planned stop-overs along the way. The entire route spent on 737s with connecting options at the Guam end of things onwards to South East Asia, China and Japan. Sounds like a bit of a marathon but most Simmers I imagine would be happy to endure it in real life. Heck, I think I’ll have a crack at it in the PMDG this weekend :)

How about flying on a 737-800 across the Pacific Ocean, westward from Honolulu to the tiny spits of sand which make up the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. It is a 15ish hour travel day which could be completed in 7 on the nonstop to Guam. But for the people living and working on these remote atolls, the United Island Hopper represents their primary connection to the outside world. It is one of the last true “milk run” flights operating in the world

read the entire article here