News

Today, Aerosoft has released Airport Stuttgart for the X Plane 11 platform. It will set you back 18.85 EUR at Simmarket.

Stuttgart airport is located in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, developed by the German Airport team and Peter Hiermeier. It’s made to look as close as possible to the real Stuttgart airport in real world. Everything – whether buildings or runways – is carefully placed to match the real airport. The ground has a photoreal texture to give you a realistic feeling.

Features:

• Uses advanced X-Plane features such as 3D spill lights
• Animated passenger boarding bridges, Safedock A-VDGSs and marshallers at all eligible gates/stands (using the freely available AutoGate plugin by Jonathan Harris)
• Complete taxiway network for use by ATC and AI aircraft
• Fully compatible with the X-Life plugin by JARDesign
• Works with the ‘Draw Parked Aircraft’ feature introduced in X-Plane 10.50
• Makes full use of the new ground service vehicles introduced in XPlane 11
• Thousands of hand-placed objects such as parked cars and streetlights
• Road network with animated traffic
• Parked cars can be turned on/off to optimize performance
• Free AutoGate plugin by Jonathan Harris for AGNIS and marshallers

To learn more take a look at Simmarket’s website and Facebook.

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FSLabs has been kind enough to show off some shots off their upcoming P3D v4 version of the A320 on their forums. But not only the A320, they have also shown off a preliminary shot of the A319. Also enclosed in this post were some details regarding new features to the aircraft.

Andy Wilson (FSLabs developer) specified some new features that we’ll be seeing in this upcoming update. The first major change is the addition of an ability to load, save and set a default panel state through the MCDU. This is a much needed feature to fix the clunky panel state loading system we see at the moment. Also included is the ability to add a SEC FLPN and FIX INFO in the FMGS with extensive work being put in to support future updates.

Andy pointed out that extensive work had gone into this update, bringing a wide range of improvements to the already excellent product. He also mentioned that it is in the final stages of beta testing, so hopefully we see a release soon!

The shots shown off by Andy include various cockpit shots from the A320 with one exterior shot of the A319.

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UK2000 have informed us that they have released an updated for Gatwick (EGKK). This airport was released just last week. The update includes several fixes for several platforms, so make sure to check it out.

Changelog

• Added GSX files for P3D install
• Fixed 6 DXT3 textures with no alpha channel (mainly for fs2004)
• Fixed FS2004 runway light problem at night
• Modified FSX/P3D AFCAD files (better radius and airlines, (thanks to Bradley for this)
• Changed FS2004 ATIS to 126.00 (FS2004 cant use real EGKK ATIS freq)
• FS2004 Taxiline now ‘on top’ of Runway markings
• FS2004 Night shadow problem on Pier 5 fixed, and square shape around lightpoles removed

Over the past few weeks, the team at QualityWings Simulations have been teasing the 787, with lots of suggesting that a release was pretty close. For example, they released a preliminary manual, allowed beta testers to show off many shots and so forth.

They originally had set themselves a deadline of “Summer 2017”, which ends (in the UK at least) Friday September 22nd. With this in mind, we had the expectation it would release around now, which was backed up with the above teases.

QualityWings Simulations have now come out and said their internal deadline of September 21st will not be achieved as they have a few open items that must be addressed before they can release. The team said they have worked ‘long hours to meet the deadline’ and that they will be ‘working their butts off to deliver the plane as soon as possible’.

Whilst no date was given, we imagine we’re talking days/weeks and not months.

When it’s out, we’ll let you know.

Over on the VATSIM forum, it has been announced which airports have made the cut for this year’s event and when the event will take place. The airports selected span across the USA, Canada and multiple European countries.

VATSIM Cross the Pond Eastbound will be held on Saturday 14th October, which is just under a month away from now. The bookings for the event will open on Saturday 30th September at 1500z. There will be 600 slots available for booking, but be quick as last CTP the slots went within 37 minutes. It is possible to fly without a slot, but expect delays as those with slots are prioritized.

The arrival and departure airports are as follows:

Departure

New York John F. Kennedy International (KJFK)
Toronto Pearson (CYYZ)
Boston (KBOS)
Washington Dulles (KIAD)
Orlando International (KMCO)

Arrival 

Amsterdam Schiphol (EHAM)
London Gatwick (EGKK)
Düsseldorf (EDDL)
Oslo Gardermoen (ENGM)
Copenhagen (EKCH)
Dublin (EIDW)

The team at Turbulent Designs have been really busy updating their current airport collection and utilities to improve upon their products. Their entire product line (TerraFlora to follow soon) has received an update to improve functionality and performance.

One of the bigger changes is removing the SimObject Display Engine from the Turbulent Terminal installer so that users of Terra Flora can use it without additional installations. Instead SODE will be included into the airport installers. Another positive change is the fact that RealFlora now blends with TerraFlora – meaning your airports will look better than ever.

You can read our reviews on both KIDA and KMBS.

You can download all updates from your Turbulent Designs account download page here: https://www.turbulentdesigns.co.uk/my-account/downloads/

I’ve listed the complete list of changes below which I sourced from their website.

Turbulent Terminal v2.2.0
Documentation button added for all products
SimObject Display Engine installer removed
Minor bug fixes

KIDA Idaho Falls Regional Airport v1.2.0
RealFlora now blends with TerraFlora
Coverage area added to documentation/e-manual
Approach lighting fixed
Minor bug fixes

KMBS International Airport v1.2.0
RealFlora now blends with TerraFlora
Coverage area added to documentation/e-manual
Minor bug fixes

L35 Big Bear City Airport v1.2.0
RealFlora now blends with TerraFlora
Coverage area added to documentation/e-manual
Minor bug fixes

2O3 Angwin Parrett Field v1.2.0
RealFlora now blends with TerraFlora
Coverage area added to documentation/e-manual
Minor bug fixes

MK-Studios has updated their latest scenery (Fuerteventura, GCFV) to version 1.01. This update comes with a few additions and fixes for the scenery that users will be happy to see. Below this post you can find a full changelog of this update.

Furthermore, they gave a bit of an insight in what they will be working on in the future. Pretty soon users will be able to make use of MK-Studios’ own download service; completely free of charge with no download limitations.

There will also be a configurator tool coming later this year. This tool will check for updates automatically and download them for you.

France VFR has released their PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) volume 1 scenery for P3D v4. The company looks set to release the rest of their sceneries for P3D v4 soon.

This product provides an accurate, photo real rendition of the French Riviera. Perfect for all types of flying, whether that’s VFR or flying over at cruise in a jetliner.

If you already own the FSX version then you qualify for a 50% discount price. To aquire this discount you need to contact France VFR support here with proof of purchase. It can be purchased for 34.90 EUR and is an 8.5 GB download from their website.

Features of this scenery:

• Ground textures of 1 meter / pixel resolution from revised IGN aerial photos for optimal visual rendering under Prepar3D® 64bit (summer only).
• Mesh (relief) specific high-definition 4.75 meters real (LOD13).
• Lakes and rivers integrally delineated with navigable water.
• Management of the transparency of the seabed on the entire stage.
• Semi-detailed airports and aerodrome including correction of “platform” effects.
• Obstacles and VFR reference points modeled on the entire scene including the official SIA database (antennas, pylons, water towers, wind turbines, various constructions).
• Hundreds of thousands of remarkable objects and buildings integrated into the environment (churches, power stations, silos, castles, industrial tanks, bridges, tolls, cranes, boats, streetlights, road signs).
• Integration of 3D Automation® technology allowing the modeling of several million buildings and realistic vegetation zones adapted to the region.
• Extremely dense and realistic plant cover optimized by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) rendering module.
• Autogen complementary buildings including specific and optimized 3D variants.
• Geo-referenced calibration ensures maximum compatibility with future add-ons installed in the same zone.
• Development process 100% compliant with Lockheed Martin® SDK specifications, ensuring maximum compatibility when new versions arrive.

For more check out France VFR’s website and Facebook.

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Just Flight has announced that they will be bringing their popular PA-28R Arrow III to X-Plane 11. Seemingly they are looking to cover all the bases, with this product already in FSX, P3D and Flight Sim World.

Just Flight have combined with Thranda Design to bring this product to X-Plane 11, using a real PA-28R Arrow III to make sure that the aircraft comes up to scratch with real life standards.  Having flown this aircraft myself in P3D v4 and in real life, I can confirm that it’s up to scratch with how the real aircraft should perform.

This product in X-Plane 11 will include an accurate flight model and 4K resolution textures.

The aircraft is looking close to completion judging by the screenshots on Just Flight’s website. On release, it will be available for a price of £27.99.

After some preview images a few weeks back, Orbx has delivered on updating Stockholm Arlanda to 1.20, bringing a whole host of new features.

As originally stated, the new update brings brand new autogen which performs much better than the earlier version as well as being much more accurate. In addition, there’s new vehicles and objects as well as animated traffic.

Since release, the airport has undergone some changes, which the new update also addresses. Expect to find new high-res textures for the terminals and reflecting windows, except on T5A/B which has been done to a basic level.

There’s a number of other improvements as well, but you can read the full change list for Stockholm Arlanda below.

• New autogen – Completely redone which is more accurate and has much better performance than previous.
• Animated traffic bringing the airport to life
• New vehicles and objects and other general improvements
• New terminals – fresh high-res textures for the terminals and reflecting windows. All terminals except T5A/B also has a basic interior to create some depth in the windows
• Wake-board spot – added the water ramps and club house in the lake on 19L approach
• Improved ground textures – re-textured parts of the ground textures, mainly for P3D, with higher resolution, spec-maps and reflecting oil-spills.
• Service tunnels  south of T3 and east of T5 have been added

You can download the patch via FTX Central V3 for free.