P3D

Honeycomb Aeronautical, a company that is currently developing an all-new yoke and throttle solution for the simulation market, has released updated previews of their soon to be released Alpha Flight Yoke and its companion heavy dual mounting system.

This system will help keep the yoke in place when in use better than previous mounting methods, and should ensure a smoother and more sturdy feeling. Many attendees of Cosford last year noted that the yoke felt loosely attached to the table, so this is a welcome addition to the product.

Additionally, Honeycomb gave updated renders of their yoke, which indicate the product is ever closer to release.

Honeycomb has not confirmed the release date of the yoke and throttle yet, simply teasing instead that the product is closer to launch than ever before, though we should know a final release date before the product actually releases. Honeycomb did, however, announce that they would be attending and demonstrating their products at the following simulation expos and conferences:

• Sun N Fun (Lakeland, FL – April 2nd – 7th)

• Aero Friedrichshafen (Friedrichshafen, DE – (April 10th – 13th)

• FlightSimExpo (Orlando, FL – June 7th – 9th)

• Airventure (Oshkosh, WI – July 22nd – 28th)

• FS Weekend (Lelystad, NL – Dates to be confirmed)

You can view the full post as well as the community reaction over at Honeycomb Aeronautical’s Facebook page.

November was supposed to be a relatively calm month. Some releases to be expected, some updates here and there, and the big Black Friday sale. However, that should have been about it. It almost sounded too good to be true. And if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

In all fairness, I might be slightly exaggerating. November started out quite calm with relatively few big news items. Halfway through the month, we saw QualityWings’ surprise release of the Ultimate 146. This was pretty big news and some members of the community got into rather heated arguments in our comment section. Is the price worth it? Should it have been free for previous owners? What’s happening on the Ultimate 787 front? In the end, nobody seemed to be able to find a consensus on these topics.

After the Ultimate 146 news we had a rather calm Black Friday. Nobody rushed to be first in line at any of the digital stores because, well, they are digital. And nobody rushed to even get in line to begin with at FlightSimStore. We probably could have suspected this and see it coming for a bit, but because they were so uncommunicative and keeping up the appearance that everything was “fine”, it still came as a bit of a surprise. It’s sad to see them go. I have been a customer there for quite a few years, and I’m losing access to a fair amount of products. However, there is no excuse for the things they have done. Not paying developers and running off with money is never a good idea. Let’s hope justice catches up with them sooner or later.

But, by far, the biggest news was the Prepar3D v4.4 surprise announcement. With PBR.