Weather, Fog and a Cool View

 

Sometimes, the less than ideal weather that causes that voice in the back of your brain to scream, “don’t fly! don’t fly!”, really is the best weather to fly in.  Not only for entertainment purposes, but also because it can make you a better pilot.

I recently took the SSG 747-8f out for a spin around the Seattle area.  The Cargolux beast took to the air from Everett/Paine Field and quickly became consumed in fog.  Flying IFR was great on the ascent, but changed to chase view in X-Plane to capture the above image.  Sorta of reminds me of jaws coming out of the deep blue sea.  Without the tail, the sexy, curvaceous fuselage really pops.

Happy Flying!

 

A Cessna 182RG Turbo for X-Plane

Surprises are always great unless they involve death or car crashes.  Luckily for the X-Plane community, this post doesn’t have anything to do with death or car crashes.  That means good news for the general aviation crowd running X-Plane (9 or 10 works).

The great news is the .Org (X-Plane.org) purchased from Shade Tree Micro Aviation (STMA, checkout their awesome DHC-3 Otter!) their Cessna Skylane Turbo RG model and have made it free to their members.  Whenever a former payware aircraft goes freeware, you have to take a step back and bring your expectations down a level.   In this case, they don’t have to come down too far.

STMA’s Cessna SkyLane 182RG for X-Plane

 

I took the Skylane out for a test flight from Three Forks, MT to Bozeman, MT and have to say my expectations were beyond met.  Granted this is an older model and you can tell it is more of X-Plane 8.6 refinement, but the panel, virtual cockpit, flight dynamics, and overall package are superb.   While perhaps lower in quality compared to Carenado’s payware, the overall package delivered here for free sets it apart.

The modeled interior is a welcoming place to spend a few hours.  While the refinement will likely be hard for some to get over, the fact is that the interior is there.  Seating for four, door handles, and yokes have been fully modeled.  While I was a bit disappointed with the 2D-like panel in the virtual cockpit, you have to remind yourself that everything you need is there; light switches, HSI, altimeter, throttles, etc.

Hey, it has a back seat!

The Skylane Turbo packs a bunch with over 200-hp and a cruise speed of 150+ knots.  The retractable gear is also fully animated and its just cool to watch it fold back into the stowed position with this model.    The flight dynamics are “reactive” yet forgiving.  True to the X-Plane feel, you have to fly this plane or set the auto pilot.

Power and speed in a compact package, the SkyLane Turbo is a great companion.

Perhaps one of the best features is the return you get in frame rates.  Running this model on X-Plane 9.70 on my old 2007 iMac with settings cranked fairly high, I was able to get 45+ fps, easy.  That means more processor power for the world around you.

< Cessna SkyLane Turbo 182RG for X-Plane  >

So, if you haven’t already skipped to this part (who reads these posts anyway?), you can download the model over at the .Org.  Just make sure to say a thank you to Shade Tree Micro Aviation and the .Org while you are over there.

 

Carenado’s Cessna 337H

Carenado sneaks up on you at times and just screams in your ear, scaring you half to death.  Well, not quite, but seeing the release of their Cessna C337H for X-Plane was a big surprise.   Now this means that I have yet another awesome aircraft to buy…   Who knew running a flight simulator blog could get so expensive??

< Carenado’s Cessna C337H page >

Anyway, you X-Plane Cessna fanatics better get over to their store and buy it.

Poll: Which Flight Simulator Do You Fly Most?

With an upcoming series of posts that touch on multiple flight simulator products, please share which flight simulator that you fly the most?

Poll closes Friday, November 2nd at Noon PST!

Decisions on Flight Simulator: A Multipart Series

Here at ARoMO, I am not only intrigued by the awesome aircraft that our community creates, both payware and freeware, but I am also intrigued by the choices we have.

As a multi post series, I would like to discuss some of the larger decisions made when we sit down in front of our computers and click on the icon of our favorite simulator.   In fact, the very choice of which simulator to fly in is the first of a series of critical decisions we make, hence Part One, the Simulator.  If you are like me and have FS2000, FS2004, FSX, P3D, X-Plane 9, and X-Plane 10 sitting on your hard drive, how do you decided which one to use?  So, this is Part One, choosing the simulator.

For Part Two of this series, the airports.  I wanted to touch on how to decide where a flight a should take place.  From which airport, are there multiple legs and which arrival airport?  The very essence of the flight takes form in the decision we make here, although I don’t think this is the most critical.  In fact, the decision we make here influences the decision in part three. I will also offer some tools that can help inspire your choice of airports should you be looking for a new adventure or lacking inspiration.

For Part Three, the aircraft.  We will discuss the decision on which aircraft to fly.  From what’s available in the hangar, how do decide what your bird is for the day?  While dependent upon the size of the airports selected in part two, this decision is not as simple as walking out to your driveway, jumping in the car you own, and driving off to work or where ever.

One could argue that Part Two, Airports and Part Three, Aircraft can be flip flopped.  Sometimes the decision to fly a particular aircraft drives the decision of where to fly.  Bush planes fly in Alaska, but 747′s fly international between big airports.  But, if you want to fly a route, such as KSBA to KBZN via KDEN, that would take a regional jet or a more advanced general aviation aircraft like a Piper Malibu if you want to fly non-stop.

You can start to see some of the decisions we make every time we fire up the simulator, no matter which one it is.  My hope is that by the end of the three parts, my readers and flight simulator community at large will share their ideas on how they create their own flying journey’s across the globe.

Cessna Caravan for X-Plane

Carenado continues to expaned their X-Plane hanger by adding a modern, sophisticated and rugged Cessna, the Cessna Caravan.  Available for around $30 US and available with HD textures, this is going to be a great addition to anyone’s hanger that appreciates sophisticated ruggedness.   Check it out at their homepage…

SSG Boeing 747-8i Beta 1.1 Released

For the X-Plane pilots out there, check out the latest version of the Boeing 747-8i by Supercritical Simulations Group (SSG).

Now on version beta 1.1, the latest release improves the shape of the nose, improved wings, and various other tweaks that improve the feel and autopilot. You are required to have the beta 1.0 version prior to installing beta 1.1.

While designed for X-Plane 9.70, it will function in X-Plane with a few issues that will be addressed at a later date.

I also added SSG to the X-Plane Directory hosted here at ARoMO.

Sweetness!

<download 747-8i beta 1.0 at x-plane.org>

<download 747-8i beta 1.1 update at x-plane.org>

<Visit the SSG Forum for Support & Questions>

Update 18mar12 – SSG releases the 747-8 Freighter beta 1.0 at the .org!

<download 747-8 Freighter beta 1.1 update at x-plane.org>

Its the Weekend!

The weekend is here after a looong week!  You know what this means?

It means we jump in our private jet in X-Plane 9:

 

 

Fly somewhere cool, like St. Maarten and buzz the tower:

 

 

Then we hop off and enjoy some drinks on the beach!

 

 

Where are you going this weekend?

X-PLANE 10 IS HERE!

X-Plane 10 has been announced with the availability of a demo version and pre-order.  The long awaited, “game changing” desktop flight simulator that never really hit mainstream until the death of MSFS, is finally here.

X-Plane homepage screenshot

With advanced graphics, revised data models and a whole host of other goodies, X-Plane was worth the wait.  You can download the demo and you can pre-order your copy of 8 DVD’s, scheduled to ship December 7th. < link to X-Plane >

Oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving!

PS – Currently, the X-Plane download servers are hideously slow… my current download time is 14 hours!  I’d say start the download, celebrate Thanksgiving and hope its done by tomorrow morning.

FS Moment: Flying a Favorite

This evening I was flying Carenado’s beautiful Mooney M20J around Mooney’s home of Central Texas; Kerrville to be exact.  Not only did I spend a few years of my childhood in this area, but I have family located not far from the airport and my Grandfather worked at Mooney for a number of years.  So, flying around central Texas is sort of like going to grandma’s house.

 <livery by John Glanville> < aircraft by Carenado >

The weather made this flight fairly interesting with gusting winds, variable clouds, and high humidity.  A storm front was moving in from the north and west.  Taking off from Kerrville, already in the midst of the storm is proof of this pilot’s questionable discretion, was a little hair raising.

Once airborne and above 3,000 feet, the wind was calmer, but the visibility was close to nothing.  Good thing we are in an IFR equipped Mooney as we cruised southeast.

ATC asked us to approach from the south due to incoming traffic and clearer weather, so we paralleled downtown San Antonio, banked left over the DPS field and hooked back north.

The approach to runway 21 was tight due to traffic on the inbound. We hugged the runway tight, made our sweeping, descending turn and landed safely, despite the winds best attempts at making us crash.