Black Box Simuations Unveils Their Airbuses (Airbii?)

Black Box Simulations is working on both an Airbus A320 and A330 series of Airbuses.  They have adopted the Captain Sim release model, where they release development versions to the public ahead of the final official release.  In essence, the public becomes paying beta testers of the product before it is released.  These are known as "Prologue" versions by Black Box Simulations.  These are interesting, and it will be worth watching to see how they turn out.  My only hesitation here is that €45.00 seems really steep for a prerelease product.  I think I will just wait until it reaches a released state before I jump on board.

Could they give FlightSimLabs a run for their money on the A320?  The FSL A320 seems to be the top tier, purporting to offer a PMDG-level experience of flying an Airbus.  But with the public clamoring for anything better than the old Wilco Airbus products, BBS might have a niche for themselves if they beat FSL to market.

It is worth noting that BBS is the successor company to Phoenix Simulation Software, which has a very bad reputation in the flight sim community due to the sudden way they closed up shop and left many customers out in the cold.  I was not personally affected by this at the time, but I know there are many lingering hard feelings toward PSS - and by extension, BBS.  Let's hope BBS has improved in this respect.

PMDG Showing Off The 777

PMDG has been very low key about their upcoming 777 for the most part, but there are signs that this is beginning to change.  Robert Randazzo has been giving a nice preview of the 777 model - with some very intricately modeled features - in a couple of threads over at AVSIM:

  PMDG 777 External Model Preview #1 of 2

  PMDG 777 External Model Preview #2 of 2

He has promised an in-depth look at the flight deck soon, too.

Usually, when we get to this point with a PMDG product in development, we are within a few months or so out from a release.  No timetable has been officially given by Robert yet, and for all we know, he might just unexpectedly spring it on us one day.  But we are getting very, very close.  This will no doubt be an exciting complement to the NGX for long-haul operations.

PMDG has also been showing off some 777 liveries over at their Facebook page lately, as well.

Elsewhere, at the recent FANCON gathering, Robert also had some interesting things to say about the future of flight simulation, among other topics.  Enjoy!

Majestic Dash-8 Q400 Released

Majestic Software recently released the Pilot edition of their highly-anticipated Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 turboprop for FSX, on sale from JustFlight or simMarket for around US $60.

I snagged this one right away, and let me just say that I really like it so far.  While the price is a bit on the high side, it is totally justified in this case.  Majestic has gone all out with a PMDG-like simulation of a Q400.  I am having a lot of fun with this one, as the Q400 is a regular feature in the skies here in the Pacific Northwest with Horizon Air (now branded as Alaska Airlines).  I will be doing a mini-review of the Q400 very soon, I promise!

L-1011s from Captain Sim and JustFlight

Captain Sim recently released the latest offering in its line of classic jetliners: the L-1011 external model.

While there is a part of me that is really intrigued by this - and I really love the idea of the L-1011 in FSX, I am still rather underwhelmed by their 737 and 727 products, among others.  The 737 still has a number of bugs in particular that I wish Captain Sim would hurry up and fix before moving on to other products.  I will be watching it with some interest, but I think I will be reticent to jump in until Captain Sim improves their reputation for quality first - or offers another €9.99 sale..

Elsewhere, JustFlight also has an L-1011 out.  Reviews on AVSIM indicate that it is not particularly realistic, much more like a CLS product.

Too bad in some ways - the TriStar was a grand old plane, and she deserves a top-notch simulation in FSX.  Hopefully Captain Sim will deliver.

Let's Spin This Thing Back Up!

All right, so I know the blog has been in the virtual equivalent of mothball storage in the desert for a while.  I just had too many RL things going on over the last several months to keep up with it.  However, there have been a number of exciting developments in the flight sim world recently, so let's pull this thing out of storage and see if she still flies!  :-)

Happy 2013 Everyone!

Wow, has it been this long since I updated this blog?  Very sorry about that.  Been busy with work, kids, life, etc.  I keep planning to pop back over here for a quick update, and something else seems to get in the way first.  Hope everyone is having an awesome start to the new year so far.

So what's new in the flight sim world?

• I picked up several new add-ons this fall: the QualityWings BAe146/AvroRJ, the Coolsky DC-9, the Captain Sim 737 Captain, and the Captain Sim 777 Captain.  I'll post mini-reviews in time, but here is a quick summary: I like the Avro, I love the DC-9, the CS 737 needs some work, and the CS 777 is still a work-in-progress, although it is actually in a decently flyable state.
• PMDG head honcho Robert Randazzo gave the fans a nice status update on the state of various projects over at PMDG.  They are trucking right along on the 777, and it is being modeled in amazing detail.  It will be to the 777 what the NGX is to the 737 NG series.  PMDG is starting to shift some developer resources onto other projects, which is a good sign that they are starting to enter the homestretch.  Beta may begin very soon.  Other projects (such as the DC-6B) have been essentially back-burnered so that resources could be prioritized for 777 development, but we may see more activity on those fronts again soon.  Robert says the next service pack for the NGX (including the next expansion plane) is essentially ready, but they have been sitting on it for a while so that they could roll some changes arising from 777 development into the NGX as well.  I think this has the potential to be a huge year for PMDG, once the 777 is out the door.  Wouldn't be surprised if we will be adding the 777 to our virtual hangars by this summer, although there are no guarantees...PMDG will roll it out only when it's ready.  Apparently the 747X 2.0 is going to be really sweet, too.  Another interesting nugget: PMDG is still working on porting one of their projects to X-Plane.  If they do that, I may finally have to consider giving X-Plane a serious look.
• Coolsky is readying a SP1 update for their DC-9, containing mostly bugfixes.  Let me say it again: this plane is awesome.  If you are looking for a great classic jetliner to tool around in, and you don't want to endure all the headaches of trying to fix Captain Sim's broken flight models (with their 727 and 737 in particular), then this is the plane for you.  Get thee over to Flight1 and purchase the DC-9 post-haste.
• Aerosoft has released the Airbus X Extended.  Scuttlebutt on AVSIM suggests that this is a better Airbus than the old Wilco Airbus series, although it lacks the depth of a full PMDG-style simulation.  As for me, I am still holding out for the FlightSimLabs Airbus A320 series, which is promised to be a full PMDG-style treatment of the Airbus.  Rumor has it that the FSL 'bus is in the paint shop now - maybe we will get to fly her in 2013 as well?  That would be an absolute treat!
• And not to be outdone, the Majestic Software guys have been methodically working away at their Dash-8 Q400 for FSX.  They have even released a cool trailer video, and it is looking really nice.  There are even some rumors out there that we may see this one as early as Q1 2013 - stay tuned!
• Elsewhere, Aerosoft/DA is still plugging away at their CRJ.  I'm still really looking forward to this one, but development has been rather inconsistent, so it's hard to say when it will hit the streets.  Maybe 2013 will be the year for the CRJ after all!
• And unfortunately, no news on the Level-D 757.  (Or, as Chevy Chase once said, "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.")

I took the PMDG 747X (current version) out for a long spin from KSEA to RCTP last week, and it actually worked flawlessly.  I completed the flight in just over 12 hours.  I guess having FSUIPC installed to override FSX's wacky weather model (especially for winds) makes a big difference here after all.

Still tooling around in the PMDG NGX a lot, too.  It is my go-to plane for most short-haul flights, as it is so well done.  I really, really like it a lot, and it's been out for two years now.

I'm also toying with the idea of getting a SSD drive for my main FSX rig sometime in 2013, and migrating FSX over to that.  I have heard others say that the performance of FSX is in another league when run off a SSD drive.  Can't complain too much about my current setup, but I think I would like to give it a shot.

What are you guys flying these days?  What are you most looking forward to in 2013?

Still Here...

I made some upgrades to my main FSX rig this summer, and things did not go exactly according to plan.  It took me a while to get everything sorted out, but I am pretty happy with the result now.  I finally got around to upgrading the OS from Windows Vista to Windows 7, and although the difference isn't terribly dramatic, flying in Win 7 generally seems a bit smoother to me.  I also upgraded from 4 GB to 20 GB of memory, by adding two 8 GB memory sticks to the existing two 2 GB sticks.  In my view, I think this has made the greatest impact on FSX performance for me now.  I realize FSX is a 32-bit application, but with all the external add-ons and such running on my system alongside FSX, it barely slows down anymore.

QualityWings recently released their Ultimate 146 Collection for FSX, and I picked it up last week.  It's not perfect, but I have enjoyed tooling around in it here and there so far.  I will post a mini-review soon.

In other news, I visited the Museum of Flight in Seattle again this past weekend - one of my all-time favorite museums, up there with the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.  Definitely a must-see for any airplane geek in the Seattle area.

Elsewhere, Coolsky looks like they are getting achingly close to pushing their DC-9 out the door.  I am really excited about this one - it looks beautiful, and will be a fun plane to learn.

PMDG head honcho Robert Randazzo relocated from Nevada to Virginia over the summer, and took PMDG's operations with him.  Some previews of the 777 trickled out about a month ago, and things are looking good.  Sure would love to fly this one soon, although my gut tells me not to expect anything until 2013.  That's OK, though, as the NGX has sealed itself firmly in position now as my all-time favorite FSX airliner ever.  I'm sure the 777 will eventually displace or share that distinction when it is released, but the NGX will tide me over nicely until then.

Speaking of the 777, the Captain Sim guys have also been busily working away on their 777 Captain product.  It is already out as a work-in-progress, but still lacking a lot of functionality.  I will be interested to see how it stacks up when it is fully released.  Which reminds me, I need to go check out their 737 Captain ("Baby Boeing") series sometime soon...after seeing a 737-200 cockpit up close and personal inside the Museum of Flight, I definitely want to try it out.

The FlightSimLabs guys also apparently continue to make progress on their Airbus A320 series as well.  I am really excited about this one, too!  This one seems to offer the most promise of delivering a PMDG-level simulation of the Airbus series...which admittedly, is a tough bird to model in a simulation like FSX.

I don't know that I have seen as many new product announcements from the usual suspects this year - I know a lot of this has to do with the maturing of FSX (and FS9) as a simulation platform.  High-quality examples of most popular aircraft now (or will in the near future) exist for FSX.  There are still plenty of exciting projects coming down the pipe - PMDG is apparently working on a Dash-8, DC-6, and a rewrite of the 747-400, in addition to ongoing work with the NGX expansions and the 777.  I would still love to see a high-quality CRJ - the Digital Aviation one seems to have stalled for a while, although work apparently is slowly proceeding.  There are still lots of classic airliners out there yet to be fully modelled in FSX, such as the L-1011.  X-Plane also seems to be gathering some interest from popular FSX developers, although it is too soon to tell yet whether it will fully emerge as a viable successor to FSX, which is now going on six years old.  All in all, it remains an interesting time to be involved in this little hobby of ours...

Captain Sim Releases 777 Captain To CIP Phase 2

Looks like Captain Sim is the first one out of the gate in the 777 add-on race this year.  They just released the 777 Captain (featuring full VC) to the Customer Involvement Program, Stage 2 (experimental).  This means there are likely still some issues with the product, but it is basically flyable.

It will be interesting to see what the initial impressions of this product are...my instinct tells me that they hurried this one out to beat PMDG out of the gate, but I really hope I am wrong on this.  Cost for now is €39.99, or about US $50.

(Well, I will say this much about the ongoing Euro economic crisis...at least it's making the exchange rates with the USD a bit more favorable for us here in the U.S. these days.)

Update: my initial hunch appears to be correct.  Some of the initial reviews over at AVSIM indicate that they pretty much rushed this one out the door to the CIP program.  I would advise letting this one bake a little longer before giving it a go...

Memorial Day

And I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to honor the brave men and women who have fallen in the line of duty to protect our freedoms here in the U.S. on this Memorial Day.  Thanks to them all for their service - without heroes like these, I would not have the privilege of being able to enjoy simple hobbies like flight simulation.

Captain Sim Previews 777 VC

Well, isn't this interesting?  Captain Sim has unveiled a little video of the upcoming Virtual Cockpit addition to their 777 Captain.  It looks quite nice - complete with a simulated Electronic Flight Bag.  As best as I can tell, it will be up to the user to populate it with charts, though.  Will be interesting to see how this one turns out.  Gotta give them credit, as they have done a nice job up to now.

QualityWings BAe-146 Released (Phase 1)

QualityWings has released the initial phase of their BAe-146 series today!  This release spans the newer AvroRJ series, and is for FS9 only for now.  The FSX version is in the works, and then they will work on the older BAe-146 series of the planes next.

Unfortunately I do not fly FS9, so no mini-review from me until the FSX version is out...

QualityWings is using the Flight1 eCommerce wrapper for this product, although this product does not show up at the Flight1 website at the moment..

Those of you FS9 flyers, I'm anxious to hear what you think about this product.  I've been looking forward to it for a long time.

Edit: initial impressions over at AVSIM are rather positive.  C'mon QualityWings, hurry up with the FSX version now!  :-)

Preview Video of Coolsky/McPhat DC-9

McPhat released this juicy video today:

They promise it will be out "soon" - getting excited yet?

Sky Simulations Adds Military Variants of DC-9

By popular demand, Sky Simulations has added some new military variants to their DC-9.  These include the C-9A Nightingale aeromedical and evacuation aircraft (USAF), the C-9B Skytrain II passenger/cargo transport (USN/USMC), and the VC-9C VIP transport (USAF).  All of these are available at no charge to existing Sky Simulations DC-9 customers, and are now included with new purchases.  Enjoy!

Flight Sim Labs Shows Off A320-X Screenshots

Check them out here.

Wow - so many neat projects in the pipe.  It's a great time to be a simmer!

External Views of the PMDG 777

PMDG gave us some additional eye candy of their 777, with these screenshots of the external model.  It appears that the 777-200LR will be the initial base model, with the 777-300ER coming along later as an expansion.  Can't wait to hear more on these from the PMDG team!

GNU Aerospace: Reborn from the Ashes of ACES?

There was another recent interesting announcement in the world of flight simulation this week.  The GNU Aerospace project has been announced.  The goal of the project appears to be to create a new development paradigm for flight simulation, using the "crowd funding" model: the products will be free, but interested customers can sign up to sponsor and fund development of the product.  The initial product will be known as TestPilot, which appears to be intended to be an open source drop-in replacement for FSX.  It will be compatible with FSX add-ons, but will reimplement and update the sim engine's graphics, effects, and interfaces such as SimConnect.  It seems unclear how they are going about this - not sure whether it will be a scratch effort, or whether they will leverage existing open source projects such as GNU FlightGear.  I will have to do some more investigation into this, but it looks very interesting.

Oh, they have recruited two former ACES developers to contribute to the project, too!

Flight Sim Labs Discusses A320-X

Also today, Flight Sim Labs was due to present some additional details about their upcoming Airbus A320 series, which seems to have been tentatively dubbed the A320-X.  I cannot find any specifics about their presentation at the 10th German Flight Simulation Conference yet, which may indicate that there was not much news to tell at this point.  If I run across any details or screenshots from their presentation, I will update this post.

As a refresher, Flight Sim Labs was founded by PMDG alumnus Lefteris Kalamaris, and their first product was the highly-regarded Concorde-X.  Now they have set their sights on an apparent PMDG-level simulation of the Airbus series, which will be very interesting to watch.

UPDATE - FSL has promised to publish an update on the Airbus series as presented at the Munich conference, once everyone has returned home.  Word in the AVSIM forums from those who attended is that FSL demoed a working model of the A320 at the conference, and they expect to release it to the public sometime around November.

PMDG Makes Big Announcements Today

PMDG showed up at the 10th German Flight Simulator Conference (sponsored by Aerosoft) in Munich today, and made quite a splash.  Captain Robert Randazzo showed off some screenshots of the 777, and they look very exciting.

Now, for the best part: apparently, PMDG has been holding out on us.  The 777 is nearly ready for beta stage!  Robert expects beta testing to begin within about two months.  Apparently, it will not be long before the first PMDG 777 models begin to take flight in our virtual skies.  No details yet on pricing, or expansion models, but I will be keenly watching PMDG for more information about the 777 in the coming months.

"But wait -- there's more!"

As has been widely rumored, PMDG has also been working on a refresh of the 747X "Queen of the Skies" product as well.  It is tentatively known as the 747 2.0, and will cover both the 747-400 and 747-8 models.  The same technology and processes used to model the NGX and 777 have also been incorporated in the 747 2.0, which should make for an exciting refresh of this product.  Robert says that they expect to have the 747 2.0 out to the masses about two months after the release of the 777.

Some exciting times for PMDG fans!

CoolSky/McPhat Studios Shows Off Some DC-9 Tails

Elsewhere, CoolSky and McPhat Studios have recently been teasing us with some screenshots of several repaints (tails only) from their upcoming DC-9.  This is usually a very good sign...generally, the fact that they are doing repaints now means that most of the other major items are out of the way.  We could see a release of this one very soonish.

More Original 737 Models for Flight Simulator

I have already touched on Captain Sim's 737 Captain at great length.  In addition, there are a couple of other Original 737 products either out, or due, that look interesting:

• JustFlight is offering the 737 Professional for US $45.95.  This is apparently the first product produced by BlackBox Simulation, which is the successor to PSS.  Unfortunately, initial reports on this one from the AVSIM Forums have been underwhelming - in particular, the sounds and textures are way below par.
• A Canadian outfit known as Military Visualizations (MilViz), which is primarily known for producing military aircraft for Flight Simulator, appears to be branching out with development on a 737-200 Adv of their very own.  Screenshots and videos posted so far look very impressive.  No known timeframe exists for a release yet, but it looks like they are coming right along.

The Original 737 is definitely long overdue for a proper treatment in FS, but it looks like it is definitely getting a lot of love this year.