News archive 2007-1
June
30, 2007
- FlLIGHTPLANS: Summer flightplans for the Romanian Tarom are available on AVSIM
- SCENERY: Freeware Valencia airport can be downloaded on AVSIM
June 28, 2007 - Filling up the Scandinavian skies - FLIGHTPLANS
Summer flightplans by Johan Clausen for Cimber Air and Barents Airlink and by Joachim Gustavsson for Next Jet and Norwegian Air Shuttle are available on AVSIM.
June 26, 2007 - Scenery: New ALICANTE airport
A new freeware Alicante airport by Miguel Angel Perez Soria is available on AVSIM.
Patch now available. (july 5)
June 18, 2007 - And still more FLIGHTPLANS
Summer 2007 flightplans of Nordic Airways, TUIfly Nordic, My Travel UK and My Travel Airways can be downloaded on AVSIM. The last 2 flightplans are in fact different. My Travel is composed of a British part (UK) and a Scandinavian part.
June 12, 2007
... IT POORS FLIGHTPLANS ON AVSIM
Jamie Brooks develivers on AVSIM the summer 2007 flightplans for: British Jet, Eurocypria, FlyJet, Skywings, Air Malta Charter, Uzbekistan Airways and Thoma Cook Belgium and also European Air Charter and Astraeus.
Johan Clausen gives us on AVSIM some Scandinavian flightplans: Danish Air transport, Copenhagen Air Taxi and Air Norway.
June 11, 2007
- SCENERY: Freeware COLOGNE-BONN airport
A freeware version of the Cologne-Bonn airport by Georg Aubele is availble on AVSIM. Don't forget to download also the patch.
- PACKAGES: AIR FRANCE and AIR BOSNIA
Two WOAI-packages Air France and Air Bosnia are available on AVSIM.
- AIRPORT ENHANCED SERVICES (AES)
The number of airports where you can use AES is constantly increasing. This nice addon can now also be used for free on the default Nürnberg (EDDN) airport and the freeware airport of Salzburg (LOWS) by Johannes Kimla. Worth trying!
June 9, 2007 - PACKAGE: Icelandair
Package with summer 2007 flightplans and AI aircraft of Icelandair is available on ProjectAi. Icelandair is a company from Iceland flying various B757's. More about Icelandair here.
June 3, 2007
- ... AND IT KEEPS RAINING FLIGHTPLANS: Sterling, Primera Air and Luxair
Summer 2007 flightplans of Sterling, Primera Air and Luxair are available on AVSIM.
Primera Air from the Islandic Primair Travel Group is a charter company in Zweden. Sterling and Luxair are well-known companies from Denmark and Luxembourg respectively.
- SCENERY: RHODOS DIAGORAS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
The Greek Airports Project group has developed the Diagoras Intl. airport of Rodos. It can be downloaded on AVSIM.
June 2, 2007 - FLIGHTPLANS: FlyWhoosh and City Airline
Summer 2007 flightplans of FlyWhoosh and City Airline by Marc Marijnissen are available on AVSIM.
FlyWoosh belongs to the Polisch White Eagle Aviation and flies with ATR between Dundee, Belfast and Birmingham.
City Airline is a Swedish company, based in Göteborg. They fly to different European cities with Embraer 135 en 145.May 31, 2007 - PERPIGNAN AIRPORT
At AVSIM a freeware Perpignan (LFMP) airport is available. According to the author, Dave Griff, this is no perfection, but a serious improvement with respect to the FS default one.
May 29, 2007
- CONTRADICTIONS IN PRICES
A few messages ago I mentioned how addons became more expensive by (ab)using the exchange rates. At JustFlight serious inconsistencies in the prices shoot up. For instance, de purchase of two pieces in pounds or euros are a little more expensive than the separate purchase and much more cheaper in dollars (see here). Also for the double purchase it is very strange that the price for the Mustang is nearly the same in dollars as in euros (see here). They should better be clear (and honest) and stick with one currency. I have mailed them pointing to this problem, but, as expected, I didn't get any answer.
- PACKAGE: EasyJet and FLIIGHTPLANS: Icelandair and Iceland Express
Package with summer 2007 flightplans of EasyJet is avalable on ProjectAi. Summer 2007 flightplans of Icelandair and Iceland Express by Marc Marijnissen can be downloaded at AVSIM.
May 23, 2007
- FLIGHTPLANS: Air Finland
Summer 2007 flightplans of Air Finland (not Finnair) available on AVSIM. Aircraft textures of the Aardvark B757-200 rr are included.
- ADDONS MORE EXPENSIVE ?
The last time we can notice that the difference between the USdollar and the Euro leads to hidden price raises. At SimWare some American hardware products are priced the same as in the US except that it is here in Euros and in the US in dollars. PMDG, well-known for its beautiful aircraft, simply changed in March the dollar sign into the Euro sign evoking in this way a price raise of 30% (see e.g. here). Let us hope that this will not become a general trend.
More forum discussions (about PMDG) here.
May 22, 2007 - FLIGHTPLANS: Estonian, Helvetic and Air Caledonia
Summer 2007 flightplans of Estonian Air, Helvetic and Air Calédonie Intl. are available on AVSIM.
May 12, 2007- FLIGHTPLANS: Lufthansa Air France, Eurowings en Privatair
Summer 2007 flightplans of Luftansa, Air France, Eurowings and Privatair composed by Daan Callaerts (dustEagle's AI traffic) are available on AVSIM.
May 6, 2007- FLIGHTPLANS: Darwin Airlines
Summer flightplans 2007 of Darwin Airlines (Swiss regional) and Adria are available on AVSIM (see resp. here and here)
May 5, 2007 - PACKAGE: Iberia
Iberia AI summer 2007 -complete package by World of AI to download on AVSIM.April 22, 2007 - AI Airbus 380
Do you want to see A380 in your AI traffic? The AI A380 basic model created by Mehlin Reiner (ai_a380.zip) can be downloaded on AVSIM. You should also download the updated mdl file (update_ai_a380.zip). Further, you can get the present flightplans on AVSIM (a380_routeproving.zip). You find the necessary repaints by Holger Bachert in the file ai_a380_airbus_series.zip. To see an A380 taking off you can set your FS for instance in EDDF (Frankfurt) on a Thursday morning around 9.30 am (GMT).April 21, 2007 - FLIGHTPLANS: VLM
The summer 2007 flightplans and the new AI aircraft for VLM (Vlaamse Luchtvaartmaatschappij) are available. The textures for the new VLM Bea 146-300 (Avro) can be found on AVSIM (fmai_bae_146-300_vlm.zip). Those of the Fokker 50 in new colors can be obtained from Project AI. The flightplans can be downloaded at Marijnissen's AI Traffic.
April 20, 2007
- BH-AIRLINES and MOLDAVIAN
Project AI has just released two new packages: BH-Airlines (Bosnia Hercegovina) and Moldavian airlines. However, the flightplans are still those of previous winter. To be downloaded at ProjectAI.
- SMALLER GREEK AIRPORTS
The "Greek Airports Project" (GAP) is specialized in making the smaller Greek airports and is therefore complementary to the Hellas Scenery Project. Recently the airport of Hios (LGHI) has been launched. This airport and a lot of other GAP airports can be downloaded at AVSIM.
April 16, 2007 - FSX - THE STATE OF ART
Each time Micrsoft launches a new version of Flight Simulator a lot of negative comments readily appear in the forums. This is often due to a kind of aloofness of moving to the new version for which also the add-ons have to be patched or upgrated. The problem is that each time new or expanded engines are introduced in FS which renders the game not backward compatible in many aspects. Moreover, one has nearly to buy each time a new PC if one wants to run the new version smoothly. But, if you read the comments on the internet, there have never been so many expressions as "disgusted", "crap", "worthless", ... used as in the comments on FSX. Microsoft aimed to realize an extreme realism, but, this is heavily at the expense of processor time, graphics processing time and memory use. Moreover, many were disappointed about not taking profit of dual core possibility in so far that Microsoft promises now to do something about this. Further there are still complaints about essential bugs. I think that it has to rain updates and patches in order to make FSX still successful.
This new version is surely not a progress for simulator pilots as I am. Indeed, the essential AI and ATC show nearly no improvements. On the contrary, Micrsosft turned FS more into a real game by adding missions. But, the game aspect is completely lost because FSX is considered as the most framerate-eating game on the market (see here). The payware add-on market tries to keep up with the new version, but the freeware add-ons are for the moment rather scarce and are limited to some repaints, and that because most people stick with FS9. The future will tell us if FSX will be still meet the expectations.
April 14, 2007 - FREEWARE THE NETHERLANDS 2000
The makers of the well-known Netherlands 2000 scenery announces that the latest tests for the new version 3.0 will be performed during the next weeks. This version will still only work in FS2004. Later on they will investigate if it can be converted for use in FSX. More here.
April 14, 2007 - FREEWARE SPANISH AIRPORTS
On the Spanish VatSim site you can download a lot of freeware airports (FS9). It is worth while for those who want to expand Spain freely.
April 14, 2007 - NEW WEBSITE LAY-OUT
It was time that the look of my website became somewhat more modern and being adopted to the usual screen resolutions. The Eastern days formed the perfect occasion to create the new pages. The site still needs here and there some improvements and adjustments. I hope already that you like the new lay-out.
I hope to bring more regularly new information about Flight simulation and its add-ons with respect to European scenery, airports, flights, etc. But, don't forget, this is a one-man powered site.March 29, 2007 - SOME INTERESTING SITES FOR AI
The world of flightsim is changing very fast and sites come and go. With respect to AI aircraft and flightplans the following sites with freeware downloads are at the moment of interest:
AI Aircraft:
ProjectAI (nearly all aircraft) - AI Aardvark (Boeing - DC/MD - Embraer - Tupolev) - Evolve AI (DC10- AIirbus - Embraer) - JBAI (Dornier - Dassault - some GA) - AIS-AI (ARNZ) - Skycolor (various repaints) - FS Repaints (various repaints) - World of AI (various aircraft liveries in packages) - AI-Repaints (various repaints)- Premier (Dash - Beech- CRJ) - California Classics (various vintage aircraft) - DMflightsim (British vintage models) - AVSIM (see AI aircraft and repaints library) - MAIW (Military packages) - UltimateGA (GA aircraft) - HTAI Models (GA aircraft) - Boris (repaints) - Russian AII Traffic system - The Fruit Stand (Boeing 777)
Flightplans:
ProjectAI (lots of old and new flightplans - packages) - World of AI (packages) - FS Alliance - DustEagle - Peficad - AVSIM (see AI flightplans library) - UltimateGA (GAflightplans) - Boris (cargo)
Look also HERE
March 20, 2007 - AIRPORT ENHANCED SERVICES
Beginning this year Aerosoft launched AES for FS9. This add-on brings a lot of realism around your airplane like animated jetways, pushback truck, catering car, marshalls, "follow me" car, etc. One of the designers behind this product is Oliver Pabst. Those who know him from his freeware Bremen airport know to what he is capable. Unfortunately, the use of AES is limited to a number of commercial airports (Simwings, German Airports, Fly Tampa), but the list gradually becomes longer. AES is not a freeware product. You can download freely the product for which you get AES on a few minor airports. You need further to buy a 10 credit package for € 14.95 which enables you to activate other airports. Small airports need 1 credit, but it goes easily up to 3 credits for large airports. It is a nice add-on for those who like more realism. However, when you have many commercial airports you will be readily tempted to buy lots of credits.
You can find the product here. Read also Ian Pearson's review on Simflight.
Jan 3, 2007 - NEW FREEWARE HEATHROW SCENERY
FRAME-RATE-FRIENDLY (FRF) Studio (William Morgan) has made a new freeware version of Heathrow for FS2004. It can be downloaded on AVSIM (eggl.zip). You need to download also the file heathrow_building_works.zip (Matthew Ministry). This is certainly a big improvement in comparison with the default Heathrow. However, with lots of AI traffic the scenery becomes not so "frame-rate-friendly".
Archived news
- FlLIGHTPLANS: Summer flightplans for the Romanian Tarom are available on AVSIM
- SCENERY: Freeware Valencia airport can be downloaded on AVSIM
June 28, 2007 - Filling up the Scandinavian skies - FLIGHTPLANS
Summer flightplans by Johan Clausen for Cimber Air and Barents Airlink and by Joachim Gustavsson for Next Jet and Norwegian Air Shuttle are available on AVSIM.
June 26, 2007 - Scenery: New ALICANTE airport
A new freeware Alicante airport by Miguel Angel Perez Soria is available on AVSIM.
Patch now available. (july 5)
June 18, 2007 - And still more FLIGHTPLANS
Summer 2007 flightplans of Nordic Airways, TUIfly Nordic, My Travel UK and My Travel Airways can be downloaded on AVSIM. The last 2 flightplans are in fact different. My Travel is composed of a British part (UK) and a Scandinavian part.
June 12, 2007
... IT POORS FLIGHTPLANS ON AVSIM
Jamie Brooks develivers on AVSIM the summer 2007 flightplans for: British Jet, Eurocypria, FlyJet, Skywings, Air Malta Charter, Uzbekistan Airways and Thoma Cook Belgium and also European Air Charter and Astraeus.
Johan Clausen gives us on AVSIM some Scandinavian flightplans: Danish Air transport, Copenhagen Air Taxi and Air Norway.
June 11, 2007
- SCENERY: Freeware COLOGNE-BONN airport
A freeware version of the Cologne-Bonn airport by Georg Aubele is availble on AVSIM. Don't forget to download also the patch.
- PACKAGES: AIR FRANCE and AIR BOSNIA
Two WOAI-packages Air France and Air Bosnia are available on AVSIM.
- AIRPORT ENHANCED SERVICES (AES)
The number of airports where you can use AES is constantly increasing. This nice addon can now also be used for free on the default Nürnberg (EDDN) airport and the freeware airport of Salzburg (LOWS) by Johannes Kimla. Worth trying!
June 9, 2007 - PACKAGE: Icelandair
Package with summer 2007 flightplans and AI aircraft of Icelandair is available on ProjectAi. Icelandair is a company from Iceland flying various B757's. More about Icelandair here.
June 3, 2007
- ... AND IT KEEPS RAINING FLIGHTPLANS: Sterling, Primera Air and Luxair
Summer 2007 flightplans of Sterling, Primera Air and Luxair are available on AVSIM.
Primera Air from the Islandic Primair Travel Group is a charter company in Zweden. Sterling and Luxair are well-known companies from Denmark and Luxembourg respectively.
- SCENERY: RHODOS DIAGORAS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
The Greek Airports Project group has developed the Diagoras Intl. airport of Rodos. It can be downloaded on AVSIM.
June 2, 2007 - FLIGHTPLANS: FlyWhoosh and City Airline
Summer 2007 flightplans of FlyWhoosh and City Airline by Marc Marijnissen are available on AVSIM.
FlyWoosh belongs to the Polisch White Eagle Aviation and flies with ATR between Dundee, Belfast and Birmingham.
City Airline is a Swedish company, based in Göteborg. They fly to different European cities with Embraer 135 en 145.May 31, 2007 - PERPIGNAN AIRPORT
At AVSIM a freeware Perpignan (LFMP) airport is available. According to the author, Dave Griff, this is no perfection, but a serious improvement with respect to the FS default one.
May 29, 2007
- CONTRADICTIONS IN PRICES
A few messages ago I mentioned how addons became more expensive by (ab)using the exchange rates. At JustFlight serious inconsistencies in the prices shoot up. For instance, de purchase of two pieces in pounds or euros are a little more expensive than the separate purchase and much more cheaper in dollars (see here). Also for the double purchase it is very strange that the price for the Mustang is nearly the same in dollars as in euros (see here). They should better be clear (and honest) and stick with one currency. I have mailed them pointing to this problem, but, as expected, I didn't get any answer.
- PACKAGE: EasyJet and FLIIGHTPLANS: Icelandair and Iceland Express
Package with summer 2007 flightplans of EasyJet is avalable on ProjectAi. Summer 2007 flightplans of Icelandair and Iceland Express by Marc Marijnissen can be downloaded at AVSIM.
May 23, 2007
- FLIGHTPLANS: Air Finland
Summer 2007 flightplans of Air Finland (not Finnair) available on AVSIM. Aircraft textures of the Aardvark B757-200 rr are included.
- ADDONS MORE EXPENSIVE ?
The last time we can notice that the difference between the USdollar and the Euro leads to hidden price raises. At SimWare some American hardware products are priced the same as in the US except that it is here in Euros and in the US in dollars. PMDG, well-known for its beautiful aircraft, simply changed in March the dollar sign into the Euro sign evoking in this way a price raise of 30% (see e.g. here). Let us hope that this will not become a general trend.
More forum discussions (about PMDG) here.
May 22, 2007 - FLIGHTPLANS: Estonian, Helvetic and Air Caledonia
Summer 2007 flightplans of Estonian Air, Helvetic and Air Calédonie Intl. are available on AVSIM.
May 12, 2007- FLIGHTPLANS: Lufthansa Air France, Eurowings en Privatair
Summer 2007 flightplans of Luftansa, Air France, Eurowings and Privatair composed by Daan Callaerts (dustEagle's AI traffic) are available on AVSIM.
May 6, 2007- FLIGHTPLANS: Darwin Airlines
Summer flightplans 2007 of Darwin Airlines (Swiss regional) and Adria are available on AVSIM (see resp. here and here)
May 5, 2007 - PACKAGE: Iberia
Iberia AI summer 2007 -complete package by World of AI to download on AVSIM.April 22, 2007 - AI Airbus 380
Do you want to see A380 in your AI traffic? The AI A380 basic model created by Mehlin Reiner (ai_a380.zip) can be downloaded on AVSIM. You should also download the updated mdl file (update_ai_a380.zip). Further, you can get the present flightplans on AVSIM (a380_routeproving.zip). You find the necessary repaints by Holger Bachert in the file ai_a380_airbus_series.zip. To see an A380 taking off you can set your FS for instance in EDDF (Frankfurt) on a Thursday morning around 9.30 am (GMT).April 21, 2007 - FLIGHTPLANS: VLM
The summer 2007 flightplans and the new AI aircraft for VLM (Vlaamse Luchtvaartmaatschappij) are available. The textures for the new VLM Bea 146-300 (Avro) can be found on AVSIM (fmai_bae_146-300_vlm.zip). Those of the Fokker 50 in new colors can be obtained from Project AI. The flightplans can be downloaded at Marijnissen's AI Traffic.
April 20, 2007
- BH-AIRLINES and MOLDAVIAN
Project AI has just released two new packages: BH-Airlines (Bosnia Hercegovina) and Moldavian airlines. However, the flightplans are still those of previous winter. To be downloaded at ProjectAI.
- SMALLER GREEK AIRPORTS
The "Greek Airports Project" (GAP) is specialized in making the smaller Greek airports and is therefore complementary to the Hellas Scenery Project. Recently the airport of Hios (LGHI) has been launched. This airport and a lot of other GAP airports can be downloaded at AVSIM.
April 16, 2007 - FSX - THE STATE OF ART
Each time Micrsoft launches a new version of Flight Simulator a lot of negative comments readily appear in the forums. This is often due to a kind of aloofness of moving to the new version for which also the add-ons have to be patched or upgrated. The problem is that each time new or expanded engines are introduced in FS which renders the game not backward compatible in many aspects. Moreover, one has nearly to buy each time a new PC if one wants to run the new version smoothly. But, if you read the comments on the internet, there have never been so many expressions as "disgusted", "crap", "worthless", ... used as in the comments on FSX. Microsoft aimed to realize an extreme realism, but, this is heavily at the expense of processor time, graphics processing time and memory use. Moreover, many were disappointed about not taking profit of dual core possibility in so far that Microsoft promises now to do something about this. Further there are still complaints about essential bugs. I think that it has to rain updates and patches in order to make FSX still successful.
This new version is surely not a progress for simulator pilots as I am. Indeed, the essential AI and ATC show nearly no improvements. On the contrary, Micrsosft turned FS more into a real game by adding missions. But, the game aspect is completely lost because FSX is considered as the most framerate-eating game on the market (see here). The payware add-on market tries to keep up with the new version, but the freeware add-ons are for the moment rather scarce and are limited to some repaints, and that because most people stick with FS9. The future will tell us if FSX will be still meet the expectations.
April 14, 2007 - FREEWARE THE NETHERLANDS 2000
The makers of the well-known Netherlands 2000 scenery announces that the latest tests for the new version 3.0 will be performed during the next weeks. This version will still only work in FS2004. Later on they will investigate if it can be converted for use in FSX. More here.
April 14, 2007 - FREEWARE SPANISH AIRPORTS
On the Spanish VatSim site you can download a lot of freeware airports (FS9). It is worth while for those who want to expand Spain freely.
April 14, 2007 - NEW WEBSITE LAY-OUT
It was time that the look of my website became somewhat more modern and being adopted to the usual screen resolutions. The Eastern days formed the perfect occasion to create the new pages. The site still needs here and there some improvements and adjustments. I hope already that you like the new lay-out.
I hope to bring more regularly new information about Flight simulation and its add-ons with respect to European scenery, airports, flights, etc. But, don't forget, this is a one-man powered site.March 29, 2007 - SOME INTERESTING SITES FOR AI
The world of flightsim is changing very fast and sites come and go. With respect to AI aircraft and flightplans the following sites with freeware downloads are at the moment of interest:
AI Aircraft:
ProjectAI (nearly all aircraft) - AI Aardvark (Boeing - DC/MD - Embraer - Tupolev) - Evolve AI (DC10- AIirbus - Embraer) - JBAI (Dornier - Dassault - some GA) - AIS-AI (ARNZ) - Skycolor (various repaints) - FS Repaints (various repaints) - World of AI (various aircraft liveries in packages) - AI-Repaints (various repaints)- Premier (Dash - Beech- CRJ) - California Classics (various vintage aircraft) - DMflightsim (British vintage models) - AVSIM (see AI aircraft and repaints library) - MAIW (Military packages) - UltimateGA (GA aircraft) - HTAI Models (GA aircraft) - Boris (repaints) - Russian AII Traffic system - The Fruit Stand (Boeing 777)
Flightplans:
ProjectAI (lots of old and new flightplans - packages) - World of AI (packages) - FS Alliance - DustEagle - Peficad - AVSIM (see AI flightplans library) - UltimateGA (GAflightplans) - Boris (cargo)
Look also HERE
March 20, 2007 - AIRPORT ENHANCED SERVICES
Beginning this year Aerosoft launched AES for FS9. This add-on brings a lot of realism around your airplane like animated jetways, pushback truck, catering car, marshalls, "follow me" car, etc. One of the designers behind this product is Oliver Pabst. Those who know him from his freeware Bremen airport know to what he is capable. Unfortunately, the use of AES is limited to a number of commercial airports (Simwings, German Airports, Fly Tampa), but the list gradually becomes longer. AES is not a freeware product. You can download freely the product for which you get AES on a few minor airports. You need further to buy a 10 credit package for € 14.95 which enables you to activate other airports. Small airports need 1 credit, but it goes easily up to 3 credits for large airports. It is a nice add-on for those who like more realism. However, when you have many commercial airports you will be readily tempted to buy lots of credits.
You can find the product here. Read also Ian Pearson's review on Simflight.
Jan 3, 2007 - NEW FREEWARE HEATHROW SCENERY
FRAME-RATE-FRIENDLY (FRF) Studio (William Morgan) has made a new freeware version of Heathrow for FS2004. It can be downloaded on AVSIM (eggl.zip). You need to download also the file heathrow_building_works.zip (Matthew Ministry). This is certainly a big improvement in comparison with the default Heathrow. However, with lots of AI traffic the scenery becomes not so "frame-rate-friendly".
Archived news