A few trends in the comments re: Peter’s A321 are worth noting. Some people really have no need for procedures SIMs (and the accompanying higher price) – at all – while others see the point and appreciate the effort going into such files. A thought passed through the cobwebs – surely not original but worth hashing about one more time: why not make a “lite” version? Fewer procedures included, less overall complexity, almost a VFR flyer for half-hour pilots? If it sold for 29.95 instead of 50 buckaroos, would you buy it?
Another comment worth passing along now: what about framerates? Well, on Godzilla they’re excellent. I mean way up there, even with settings dialed way up. FLightTime56 will have more to say on the issue, however, so let’s hear what he has to say before drawing any conclusions.
A couple of new and revised files to take note of late this weekend, but first, some news:
- The Pilot’s Bill of Rights legislation recently passed by the Senate would implement changes in Federal Aviation Administration policy if it becomes law. The bill would give pilots more equitable treatment if they are confronted with any enforcement actions from the FAA. The FAA would be required to archive information from towers and flight service stations and make the information available to pilots facing FAA denial or revocation of certificate. General Aviation News/Capital Comments blog
- A new system is being developed to eliminate complicated checkouts for rental airplanes in order to save pilots time, money — and encourage them to fly more often. OpenAirplane aims to create universal standards for checkout procedures and implement them at flight schools and rental-aircraft providers nationwide. Once pilots have completed a checkout at one OpenAirplane participant, they would be given the green light at other locations. AIN Online
- The fly-in breakfast at Monmouth Municipal Airport in Illinois on Independence Day attracted more than 100 planes and 1,300 spectators. Visitors gathered to enjoy pancakes, watch planes fly onto the runways and network with other people in the community. The money raised from the breakfast helps fund the airport, which is owned and operated by the city.Daily Review Atlas (Monmouth, Ill.)
- A new partnership between Purdue University and nonprofit Able Flight is giving people with disabilities a chance to become pilots. Through scholarships from Able Flight, six men earned their sports pilot license this year after six weeks of flight and ground training. “Piloting was something I never saw myself doing, but the opportunity presented itself, and I took advantage of it,” said Wesley Major, who is paralyzed from the waist down because of a motorcycle accident. “I didn’t have a passion for flight until I got here, and now I absolutely love it.” Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Ind.)
For days, giant sunspot AR1515 has looked capable of producing a really strong explosion. On July 6th it finally did. Late Friday, the sunspot’s magnetic canopy erupted, producing a brief but potent X1.1-class solar flare. The explosion hurled a CME into space and sparked a solar proton storm around Earth.
Now let’s check some paint.
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Darius Alexander (wow, what a name…I bet he’d have confused the heck out of a bunch of Macedonians a few years back) released this nice Korean for Heinz’s Dreamliner. I like it, too, and think you might, as well.
As usual with this ACF the LIT tail is a little washed out, but overall another excellent effort.
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‘blumenmann’ has released another commercial airport / WED effort this weekend, this for EDDL + Düsseldorf, and it’s similar to his Bremen released late last week…because it’s built entirely of scenery library objects and in WED 1.2.
Fidelity to the real airport is generally reasonable, but given the constraints imposed by library objects there’s just no way we’re going to find anything that looks like what’s on the ground, as you can see below:
I’d love to see an AeroSOFT version of this terminal, complete with monorail, but this is a worthy placeholder until such a project comes along.
There are good static aircraft as well as some ground clutter on the ramps…
…but once again it’s the night lighting that carries the day!
Roads in the area go under the airport via tunnels in places, and OSM just doesn’t handle this very well…at least in XP…where negative values just don’t compute.
The results don’t look impressive, yet this isn’t blumenmann’s fault – at all – but I’m not sure how a reasonable fix could be implemented. It does, however, seem once again that buildings could be sited along the ramps a little better.
Anyway, this one works, and well – especially at night. I think it’s worth having along for the time being.
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‘frede’s’ KBTR has been revised, and I’m finding more detail all over the place the more I poke around!
I’m going to keep an eye on revisions for this file, and closely. This is turning into a real good looking project, and framerates are still quite good too. Again, this is a “must have” effort.
So, that’s all she wrote for now. We’ll be along with more early in the week, and thanks for coming along. We’ll see you then. – Chip
