Back Again

Ugh. Sorry about the unplanned hiatus. Lots of outside things came up with work, life, the universe, everything, you name it. I had thought quite a few times about posting here, then got busy doing something else.

So what's new in the flight sim world since I last posted?

• feelThere released their MAP! add-on. They are selling this directly; not in conjunction with Wilco as with many of their other products. MAP! looks reminiscent of the LCD data displays feelThere uses in the virtual cabin of their Cessna add-on, with an additional mapping feature. It looks cute, but it's not really at the top of my list of must-have add-ons right now.
  
  
• Wilco announced Tilt Rotor, the latest in their luxury airliners collection. This was the add-on they had the guessing contest about back in the summer. Unfortunately for me, I guessed wrong. At any rate, this looks like a rather interesting, unique bird. I may look into it a few months down the road.
  
  
• Wilco also announced Aviation & Mission for the 737 PIC add-on. This one adds some new missions with challenging real-world situations involving the 737. Step-by-step training for 737 novices is also included as well. This one could be interesting, but I'll wait and see.
  
  
• PMDG released their MD-11 add-on for FSX, with the FS9 version forthcoming. I am extremely excited about this one. In fact, I just picked it up for my birthday last week. I have been having a lot of fun flying this one, and I will do a mini-review soon. Now I know €59.99 (around U.S. $75) is a lot of dough to fork over, but this is definitely top-notch as far as add-ons go. Thank goodness that the exchange rates for the U.S. dollar are a bit more favorable now than they were this summer.
  
  
• feelThere released the v1.6 update for their E-Jets add-on. Seems to be another relatively minor fix. I flew around some more in the E-Jets before I picked up the MD-11. I am beginning to really get the hang of it. Nice plane for simulating regional routes.

Outside of the flight sim world, it looks like fuel prices have taken a nice dive over the last several months. Ordinarily this would be good news for the airlines; however these are far from ordinary times. With the economy in shambles, fewer people will be flying, which means that the airlines will still have a tough go of it.

More service cuts at Austin Bergstrom International Airport (my old home airport) were recently announced:

• Delta Connection (Comair) ends service to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky on January 5. Not a big surprise, as Delta is in the process of scaling back Cincinnati in a big way. I would not be at all surprised to see Cincinnati eventually downgraded to focus city status in favor of the former Northwest hub in Detroit.
  
  
• Northwest Airlink (Pinnacle Airlines) -- now Delta, I guess -- is ending service to Indianapolis on January 5. No big surprise here. I never really saw much obvious need for this route in the first place. If American couldn't make Austin to Seattle work (two high-tech hubs), then Austin to Indy was a definite head-scratcher.

On the other hand, things are fairly stable at Portland International Airport. JetBlue launched service on E190 jets to Long Beach back in October. Alaska recently announced service to Long Beach as well, beginning February 8. Clearly this is a defensive move by Alaska to defend against JetBlue gaining a foothold at PDX.

OK, I promise not to wait so long before posting next time!