Month: May 2017

News: Prepar3D 64-bit is Coming Finally

| Tom Tsui

Lockheed Martin has just announced that Prepar3D v4 will be public released on May 30.  And finally it is 64-bit.

The company says that the new version will completely change the simulation landscape with a comprehensive baseline update to a 64-bit architecture.   Higher resolution visuals, more objects, increased data precision, larger scenarios, and improved performance are now all possible at levels never seen before in the product’s history.

No information about whether we current users need to pay for the update or not.   The company says more details Continue reading →

428: FSW First Impression – Part 2

| Tom Tsui

by Michael Basler

Here are good news.  I just tested SPAD.neXt with FSW support and was positively surprised.  My Prepar3d C182 profile (which, of course doesn’t have a counterpart in FSW) works excellently with the FSW Piper.   This includes notably Tom’s gauges.   Some of them are of course not appropriate for the Piper, but the values are all displayed and even the Flaps indicator moves.

I find this great news.  Continue reading →

Cockpit: Shawn Carrier (KMGY, USA)

| Tom Tsui

Followings are a picture chronology of how Shawn Carrier who turned pieces of wood into his home cockpit.   Actually he submitted the pictures to me back in April.   But due to my forgetfulness, the images were not posted until now.

Builder: Shawn Carrier
Location: Miamisburg, Ohio, USA
ICAO: KMGY – Dayton Wright Brothers Airport

Continue reading →

427: FSW First Impression

| Tom Tsui

by Colin Moir

Followings are comments originally sent by Colin regarding the early access of the Flight Sim World (FSW).   As it is generally covering many aspects of the product, I am posting it as a full piece instead.  BTW, sorry to hear that Colin had a bad fall at home while doing DIY recently.  Hope him get well soon.

Installed FSW last night too, can’t complain about the price (free) as I’d already bought Flight School … a nice gesture from them, but I’m sure future DLC is where Dovetail expect to make money from this title, it all seems a bit raw just now and that’s expected because its early access … really like the windscreen rain effects, this reminds me of the old Flight Unlimited 2 from Looking Glass, if they can get the effect to change as the Aircraft travels faster I think they will have nailed this visual effect. Continue reading →

News: Flight Sim World Now Available

| Tom Tsui

Whether you are entitled for a free copy of the Flight Sim World on Steam, it is just available for download now.   It comes with over 15 GB of contents.  Still need time to explore how it performs comparing to the previous Flight School and FSX.   Anyway, facing with more and more competition, P3D should be more aggressive and go 64-bit asap.

By the way, my system will be down in the next couple of days due to room rearrangement.   May not reply to emails and questions at all.

First Impression:
 Continue reading →

Cockpit: Beaverpilot (CNN5, Canada)

| Tom Tsui

Below is the de Havilland Beaver simulator by Beaverpilot in Canada.  He believes it is the first DHC-2 model to scale as far as he knows.   What we see below is about 8 years of his work with some time off.   No doubt, it’s amazing.

Builder: Beaverpilot
Location: Northeastern Ontario, Canada
ICAO: CYCN, CNN5 waterdrome

Continue reading →

426: Compass Compass

| Tom Tsui

Following the X-Plane C172SP, the Cessna Shared Compass for FSX/P3D aircraft has also upgraded with similar changes to allow the exclusion of OMI markers and NAV/GPS indicators.   In addition, a new version specifically customized for the A2A aircraft is also released.
   
Although these three Wet Compasses look similar in appearances, they do have differences in many ways from each other.   For example, there is no “BOTH” communication option on A2A and X-Plane.  The sound buttons, OMI markers and NAV/GPS indicators are also responding differently according to the status of the battery and avionics switches.

The main purpose of making all these similar but different versions available (which applies to all my other gauges) is to Continue reading →

425: X-Plane FIP Gauges Updated

| Tom Tsui

The partly released X-Plane C172SP gauges have just been updated to version R2.  Apart from minor bug fixes, codes of gauges have been revised and optimized to better simulate the response on the aircraft.

In addition, the wet compass is split into two versions to allow users to choose to include or to exclude the OMI markers and NAV/GPS indicators.

Furthermore, the ADF gauge is now added to the list, which counts to 5 gauges in total.

Regarding the remaining six gauges for the X-Plane C172SP, Continue reading →

424: My Cockpit Rev #02 – Hold Short

| Tom Tsui

Even though many of the new hardware I ordered, such as the MFG Crosswind Rudders, are arriving these days, the progress of my rebuilding, unfortunately, has come to a halt due to the waiting for the outside racks.

Out of expectation, the same happens to my new computer installation as well even on the software side.

Nevertheless, I can’t help getting a grin on my face as the performance of it right out of the box is already double Continue reading →