Spring Doldrums?

Sorry I haven't posted here in a while, but things have been fairly quiet lately in the world of virtual aviation. I hope this means all our favorite aircraft developers are working hard on their next big projects! :-) Still no word on when Fly Different/Wilco is actually releasing their Piaggio Avanti II, although it is been announced on their site for a while now. I hope it will be soon, as this looks like it will be a really fun business turboprop to take out for a spin.

I finally got around to picking up Ultimate Traffic 2 last month, and so far, I really like it. Seems very realistic, without a huge hit on system resources. Last night, I was in line for Runway 28 at Dublin International (EIDW), waiting in a long queue of Ryanair 737's to takeoff. I was in the Level-D 767 simulating a charter flight to Stockholm-Arlanda (ESSA), but this really made me look forward to the upcoming PMDG 737 NGX. Would have been fun to be another Ryanair plane in the queue.

Speaking of this, I have finally gotten around to doing a substantial amount of exploring Europe lately in FSX. I guess my boredom with the USA has finally caught up with me. :-) Lately, I have developed a new appreciation for European terminal procedures, especially the STARs that practically line you right up on the runway. We do have some nice RNAV procedures at many airports here in the USA, but far too often, many terminal procedures just drop you off at a certain point, and then it's pretty much up to you and ATC to vector in for the localizer signal to do an ILS landing.

I have been mulling over my next aircraft acquisition in the meantime. There have been a few good candidates this spring, including:

• Simcheck Airbus A300
  
• Flightsim Labs Concorde-X
• QualityWings 757 series

The problem I have is that all these developers are relatively new to the scene, and I'm often very cautious of initial releases until I find out for sure if the quality is there. Though I will admit, I have been known to overlook this policy for certain developers like PMDG that have a strong reputation of quality and support after the initial release. However, with these, I had decided to hold off a bit and wait for a service pack or two to come out before I decide to jump in.

I took another look at the QualityWings 757 recently now that its SP1 has come out, and I have to say, I have become very impressed with how it is looking. So much so, that it will probably be my next acquisition. SP1 fixes a lot of bugs in the initial release, and adds full support for Navigraph updates for its FMS. I suspect the QW 757 is probably a lot like the Wilco 737 series -- good enough, but not a spectacular PMDG-type simulation. That is OK. I do like the features I am seeing on it, though -- including all the major 757 variants. I am reasonably happy with the Captain Sim 757, although it only simulates the old-style 757 glass displays (among others) -- a reasonable design decision, to be sure. However, the QW 757 does simulate the newer LCD retrofit displays, which delivers an experience very similar to the Level-D 767 -- things like a speedtape, for example. I think there is enough difference from the CS 757 to make it rather interesting. The price (US $45) isn't too bad, either. I will post a mini-review here in the near future.

Lastly, I just wanted to give a mention to the recent Afriquiyah Airlines A332 crash in Libya this week. Condolences and prayers for all those affected by this tragedy -- especially the young Dutch boy who appears to be the sole survivor. He will have a long and difficult road ahead of him.