Virtual Flying - Qantas

For those who love to fly real routes at real times on a real schedule you will need to cross Qantas flights of your lists. The airline has been grounded due to industrial action. For up to date information visit the courier mail on http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/qantas-grounds-entire-fleet/story-e6freon6-1226180315331

happy flying (possibly with Virgin Australian now)

Opinion Time - Airbus Payware products

What is the best payware airbus addon currently on the market. From all my readings and purchasing, the wilco airbus products seem to be a clear winner , however; when airsimmers a320 product is released for FSX (I doubt it will, something dodgy has happened to the company) it would actually be incredible. At this stage only fs9 users can play around with that product.

So the current best Airbus addons in my opinion for FSX

1) wilco volumes 1 and 2
2) overland
3) aerosoft

Leave your views in the comment box

My flight - Sydney to Hong Kong PMDG 747 400 FSX

Hi all here is my first photo montage of my flight with the PMDG 747 400 QANTAS for FSX. The flight was on behalf of my virtual airline: TRANS AUSTRALIA AVIATION GROUP. Sign up to be a member of this group, they use the VAFS system which is fantastic, as well as they have many competitions and resources to browse through. Ok lets get flying !!

Departure

The preflight saw me sitting at an International gate of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (YSSY) with all required doors for preflight loading open. I entered the Aircraft at 10:00 am for a 45 min preflight. After entering everything into the FMC including weights, waypoints, winds etc it was time for push back, on schedule at 10:45 am.

Push Back

I started all four engines using the continues ignition sequence apposed to autostart. As the rain came down I was cleared to taxi to the holding point for rw16R at the northern end of the field. 

Taxi

Along the short taxi route, I ran through all the PMDG procedures which includes checking the ailerons.

Before Takeoff

All lined up with rw16R and all checks completed, it was time to push the throttles forward and get the 'Queen of the Skies' into the air.

Takeoff

Now screaming down the runway the PMDG was looking spectacular ready for rotation at around 150 knots.

"Rotate.... V2" we are now airborne. The departure from Sydney would be on a Standard Instrument Departure (SID). The SID would be the KAT3 departure which sees me via the aircraft slightly right when airborne to avoid traffic from rw16L. At 6000ft we are then cleared direct to Katoomba(KAT).

Climb

The Climb took us, firstly North, before heading North West for Asia. Clearly passing through the clouds on the departure made for some beautiful images, worthy of rewards in my books! It took nearly 20 minutes to reach our flight level of FL340.

Cruise

The cruise leg was around 8 hours and during the transition into the Northern Territory's borders I uncounted some serious turbulence, so I decided to descend down to FL 330 which seemed to do the trick.

The flight was expected to arrive into Hong Kong at around 5:30 PM local time and so I was looking forward to a nice sunset for my final descent into Hong Kong (VHHH).

Descent

How good are these shots ! As the weather report was processed by VAFS I was advised I would need to land rw07L ILS with a STAR arrival on Sabno1A. I pressed the seat belt sign, ignited the icing and prepared for a rough arrival.

Approach

Passing through FL100 the weather really did turn nasty and wasn't looking good for a smooth arrival.

Final Approach

Aligned on the ILS the visibility improved an I planned to go visual at 1000ft. The winds really dropped off which made the slight cross wind a whole lot easier to deal with.

Landing


Landing when down without a hitch and it was a beautiful 'greaser'. Flight time = 8 hours 40 min


Shutdown

I finally taxied a short distances to my gate were I was greeted by another QANTAS 747 400. All in all, my flight was logged with +5 points from VAFS for my landing and departures in the wild weather.


Thanks all for reading. I have nearly all good addons on the FSX market and if you would like me to do a montage or possibly a video of your favorite route, just leave a comment in the comment box. Cheers!

Development News-737 Pilot In Command Evolution

Wilco Publishing has just posted that an 'Evolution' style upgrade is to become available for the 737 Pilot In Command addon available for FSX and Fs2004 users. This is most likely to be very similar to the Airbus Volume 1 and 2 'Evolution' packages currently on the market.

What I suspect! 

I can see Wilco actually turning this already quite high quality product into something that competes at the top end of payware simulations. Probably not as high as the Level D 767 or the PMDG 737NGX , though I am confident that it will be somewhat better than the disappointing 'Evolution' upgrade that Wilco made for the Airbus volume 1 and 2 products. Stay tuned for further updates as they come to hand on the Wilco Publishing website.

Still to come today

I am flying my PMDG 747 400 product in FSX from Sydney to Hong kong. I have made a photo montage of the trip so when I land about 9pm Brisbane local time (GMT+10) expect a fantastic photo story of my trip

Payware development update-Majestic Simulations Q400

Hi all, I am not sure how many people have been following this update but from what i have been reading upon you wont be disappointed with this addon for FSX.


The Majestic team have been working on developing the Dash 8 Q400 product for several years now, and from their development updates, PDF's and contact I have had with them, I know this will be a simulation of quality resembling that, or greater then the PMDG 737 NGX.

Everything on this Addon is simulated and when it comes purchase time, you will have several options to choose from. The options included are for fun flyers, professionals and corporate users. Depending on you selection, you will have access to different features of the aircraft.

The Majestic team have released some screen shots of the 2D, virtual cockpit and outside spot views of the Q400 product. As soon as this comes out I will be purchasing it straight away and than will write another post detailing the Pros and Cons about the product. From what I have herd and seen now of the Q400 I believe that it will be a 5/5 addon simulation for FSX.

HUD technology now so standard amongst FSX

The PMDG 737ngx has really brought the first real HUD to the virtual skies. The advancements in technologies seen within the PMDG product has allowed more creations to take plus which include the HUD.

I believe that the HUD will be standard on all quality FSX developments in the near future. The technology can already be seen on the BBJ models of Ifly 737 , which is also a fantastic product along with the PMDG 737.

Send me your FSX HUD pictures and videos and I'll be sure to post them in a secondary HUD post.

Done

The blog is all set up lets get some posts rolling

Welcome

This is my second blog and I thought I would create a blog for all those FlightSim ENTHUSIASTS outer there. Contact me with anything you would like to add, it would be a pleasure to get some feedback