Simwings Heathrow release imminent

• • Addons, Airports, Scenery
simwings-heathrow

As a long distance destination for Pacific Airlines (AirNZ and Qantas included) Heathrow is one of those mega airports you just have to splash out on at some stage. For some time we’ve had the excellent offering from UK2000 which has recently had a major update, and now we’re spoilt for choice with the soon to be release SimWings Heathrow. The word from SimWings developer Thorston…

Now we´re getting very close. Expect a release in one or two weeks. I hope it was worth waiting :)

follow the thread here

Pacific Islands Simulation: Nagasaki airport

• • Addons, Payware, Scenery
Pacificsim-Nagasaki

The Pacific Islands Simulation guys have been hard at it lately, some real top notch releases and at a very reasonable price. Latest announcement is a new Japanese airport in the shape of Nagasaki. This one is definitely a long-haul option for Pacific simmers, and with a decent level of pay-ware either out or in the works for Japan it makes for a great simming base for a few legs. Check out the screenies and follow the action in the Pac Sim forums…

Folks, we are near the tail end of development and here’s just one shot from afar showing progress work. Note that once we complete RJFU, we will start work on the adjacent Omura (OMJ) airport. OMJ is by design, and from history, part of RJFU and was (and still is) in use before RJFU was built in 1975. In FSX, Omura is part of RJFU and has ATC services from RJFU. Runways 14/32 (RJFU) and 36/18 (OMJ) are serviced from RJFU tower. There is no ICAO code listing for Omura within FSX so don’t bother checking. In real life, Omura is currently used primarily by the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force helicopter squadro

see: http://islandsim.com

Orbx NZSI SP3 released

• • Addons, Scenery
orbx-nzsi-v3

Pretty extensive looking service pack released this week by Orbx for their NZSI New Zealand South Island payware scenery. If you don’t own this or VLC as an alternative you really must check it out. The service pack has loads of goodies, key hilights an update to the Christchurch airport, and night lighting now using the FTX Global style 3d lights.

This third patch for FTX New Zealand South Island delivers new and updated content, most notably the new night lighting system, and fixes a number of issues posted by users or discovered by our team members. It is for both the DVD and download versions of the original retail release of ORBX FTX NZSI.

Godzone FSX Hawke’s Bay preview

• • Addons, Payware, Scenery
godzone-hawkesbay

If you haven’t caught wind of Robin Corn’s awesome new project get on over to his website and check it out. Basically its a subscription based release of photo scenery + placed autogen for various parts of New Zealand. The initial release was for some south-central South Island and now there’s some preview shots following of his next region, Hawkes Bay, in the North Island. Looks fabulous…

Here’s some shots around Hawke’s Bay with FTX Oceania active, but with ‘use Orbx trees’ unticked. This gives a better appearance of the vegetation within the photoscenery area, while retaining Orbx vegetation outside the area. For those who have VLC installed, it will show the proper NZ bush textures, as well. I’m about half-way through the autogen placement for the first part of this scenery, and it really is looking nice…

Adelaide International X v2.0 (YPAD) for FSX/P3D

• • Addons, Airports, Payware, Scenery
Adelaide-YPAD

AusScene have released an update for their Scenery addon for Adelaide Airport. Looks pretty tasty and a healthy list of changes in v2. For anyone in Oz or those doing trans-tasman legs this is another nice payware destination

Version 2.0 Now On Offer which includes these updates and improvements:

Redesigned detailed Terminal, Redesigned detailed Aerobridges, High Resolution textures for the Terminal and erobridges, Animated Runway Guard Lights, New VAS Friendly Option, PAPI (RW23 and RW05) accurate representation, Adjusted PAPI RW12 and RW30, Added displaced threshold RW05, Adjusted taxiway light size, Tower view changed to new tower, Various improved textures, Optimised VAS Performance, Adjusted Taxiway Signs, Updated AFCAD

see the product page at PCAviator

Easter Island scenery for FSX

• • Scenery
easter_island

It really doesn’t get much more remote than Easter Island, and now you’ve got no excuse not to fly there with this funky looking scenery release from Carlyle Sharpe at avsim.com this week. Looks great, downloading now to have a quick play, and I guess a test flight to Chile?
Filename: easter_island.zip

This project rebuilds Easter Island / Isla de Pascua. Mataveri Intl (SCIP) is completely overhauled, and all airport objects are aligned from satellite imagery. Landclass polygons and coastlines were meticulously hand-drawn directly from satellite imagery to provide the most detailed and accurate scenery available for this region.

KLAX AFCAD tweak for FSDT scenery

• • Addons, Airports, Scenery
fsdt_klax_afcad

If you’re running the awesome FSDreamTeam Los Angeles for your long haul trans Pacific destinations, you might want to take a look at this AFCAD tweak from Sebastian Szucs that he’s just posted at Avsim. Apparently corrects a few parking codes/locations.
Filename: fsdt_klaxv2_afcad.zip

This is an AFCAD update for FsDreamteam’s Los Angeles International Airport. I have reworked the original AFCAD, so that all airlines should use the appropriate gates now, especially at the TBIT.

West Coast NZ photoreal from Doug Cunniffe

• • Freeware, Scenery
DougsGreymouth

Doug Cunniffe has released two fabulous freeware photo real scenery downloads at flightsim.com this week for the Greymouth and Haast airports on the West Coast of New Zealand. I’ve been lucky to have access some of Doug’s other Beta releases of these west coast sceneries and can tell you the placement and autogen is awesome. If you’re a fan of dropping into smaller or more remote destinations then you’ll love both of these. Well worth the download.

FSX Greymouth High Resolution Photo Real Scenery. West Coast South Island New Zealand Greymouth is a high resolution photo scenery covering a small area around the Greymouth airfield…. FSX Haast High Resolution Photo Real Scenery, west coast, South Island, New Zealand. Haast VLC is high resolution photo scenery covering a small area around the Haast airfield. The aerial imagery to make this scenery was obtained from Lands Information New Zealand under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.

search for file names: “nz_greymouth_upload.zip” and “nz_haast.zip”

Review: AusScene’s Sydney airport

• • Reviews, Scenery
ausc0509

Flightsim.com published a Bill Stack review this week of AusScene’s upgrade to their Sydney airport for FSX. There’s a fair amount of review content here and lots of screenshots and Bill ends up summing up with a fairly positive response to this update. We are sadly lacking a detailed YSSY and have been for some time so anything is welcome really, but the reader would do well to take a look at the screenshot comparison Bill provides and note that the improvements seem to be very minor. Also worth considering is the upcoming project from FlyTampa which will be more expensive of course, but also a heck of a lot more detailed.

read the review here.