VOLUME 15 ISSUE 5 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011

USA $7.95 CANADA $9.95 AUSTRALIA $9.85 (INC. GST) A PC AVIATOR PUBLICATION

RING ADVENTURE OF FIRE FLIGHT

FEEL THE HEAT!

CPM. V15I5

Imagine.... being able to pick and choose any areas of the world that you want to fly in photo-real detail with Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Imagine.... being able order those parts of the world, here and now, for less than 1 cent per square mile. Imagine.... being able to download that area immediately after purchase, installing it and then flying that scenery within the hour. Imagine.... that technology being available right here and now.... Well, you no longer need to imagine... it is here and now... and its MegaSceneryEarth! Go To The MegaSceneryEarth Website Right Now To Start Choosing Your Favorite Places To Fly In HyperReal Detail!

Choose=>Buy=>Download=>Fly!

www.megasceneryearth.com
2009 PC Aviator Inc. Aerosoft Australia Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

FTX Central Rocky Mountains

Bush Flying Goes Gold In The Midwest With This New Orbx Region Title!
TX Central Rocky Mountains (CRM) is the first of a series of US Interior West regions extending the ORBX NA BLUE regions to the east and south. CRM is a vast region covering parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming with key cities including Yakima, Boise, Idaho Falls, Helena, Billings, and Jackson. You will experience varied and beautiful landscapes with custom seasonal ground textures based on current aerial photograps taken over the region. Spectacular locations, such as the Columbia Plateau, Hells Canyon, Craters of the Moon National Monument, the Salmon River and Sawtooth Mountains, the Montana Prairies, and Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, all are depicted in great detail in Flight Simulator X. Expand your FTX collection now! Publisher: Orbx Simulation Systems ITEM CODE FTXCRM Title Media US Price Aust. Price FTX Central Rocky Mountains DVD FSX USD$44.95 AUD$40.95 inc GST T I T L E

Harrier Jump Jet

The Iconic Fighter Of The Falklands Era War Makes A Return To Flight Simulator!

he total VSTOL experience with stunning liveries and the most accurate and detailed model ever. The first Harrier took to the air in October 1961. The unique vectored thrust engine and nozzle arrangement remained basically unchanged throughout the life of the type right through to the final versions. The first production types were designated GR1 and were delivered to RAF squadrons as attack fighter-bombers in mid-1967. Features: Fully detailed, accurate exteriors depicting the famous GR3 (RAF) and FRS1 (RN) from the Falklands War period; Fully featured Virtual Cockpit with illuminated HUD and 3D gauges including engine set and tank selectors, navigation gauges, radios and weapons loadouts. Fuel dump function is also included; A unique flight model has been developed for this aircraft which allows highly realistic simulation of the vertical takeoff and landing VTOL characteristics of the Harrier. Want something different? This is it! FSX Media DVD US Price Aust. Price USD$34.95 AUD$47.95 inc GST

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Publisher: Wilco Publishing ITEM CODE WFHJJ Title Harrier Jump Jet

iFly 737NG for FSX

Advanced Airliner Simulation!

Flight Replicas Cub

Includes The J-3, PA-11 & L-4 Models

he iFly Jets: The 737NG is a super sophisticated and complete 737NG addon for Microsoft Flight Simulator X. High accuracy simulation of the cockpit and systems, along with features such as ground support and push back, make this a premier expansion for FSX. The product has been tested by real NG pilots to help maintain the accuracy required for this simulation. This product offers quite an extensive fleet covering the NG range. This includes the 737NG 600, 700, 800, and 900, plus the BBJ, BBJ2, and BBJ3. There are several variations among this fleet that you can customize via the configuration manager, including jet engine types, and wingtips. The features and simulation of systems on offer here are far too numerous to explain or list here. Check out our website for further details and to order online! Since the PMDG 737NGX wont see boxed version for quite a while yet, this is the next best 737 in boxed format available for FSX... Grab it! FSX Title Media DVD US Price $59.95 Aust. Price AUD$64.95 inc GST

he ultimate Cub collection for Flight Simulator X - one of the most popular and best known aircraft simulated in exquisite detail! Includes 17 different aircraft models including PA-11, J-3 and L-4 all with multiple paint schemes and tyre, float and ski options! The Cub variations in this package were in production between 1937 and 1949 and have proved so popular and endearing that not only are many of the originals still flying, but there are many close imitations in kit form still being produced today! This authentic simulation features 34 variations of the J-3, PA-11 and L-4 Cub paints and configurations, including the limited edition 'Flitfire' with RAF roundels. The J-3 and PA-11 are fitted with wheels, float and ski undercarriage, the L-4 'Grasshopper' civilian paint with wheels and the military paints have wheeled plus float variants. An essential add-on for any bush pilot that needs to get in and out of short airstrips. FSX Title Flight Replicas Cub Media DVD US Price Aust. Price USD$49.95 AUD$59.95 inc GST ITEM CODE F1CUB

Publisher: Flight 1 ITEM CODE F1FLY737NGX iFly 737NG for FSX

Publisher: Flight 1

Airbus Series Evolution Volume 1

The Evolution Series Takes To The Skies And Is More Realistic Than Ever Before...

Airbus Series Evolution Volume 2

The Evolution Series Takes To The Skies And Is More Realistic Than Ever Before...

Publisher: Wilco Publishing ITEM CODE WFABEVO1 Title Airbus Evolution Series 1 Media DVD US Price

FSX/FS2004 Aust. Price

Publisher: Wilco Publishing ITEM CODE WFABEVO2 Title Airbus Evolution Series 2 Media DVD US Price

FSX/FS2004 Aust. Price

USD$59.95 AUD$69.95 inc GST

USD$45.95 AUD$56.95 inc GST

DCS: A-10C Warthog

Standalone Modern Air Combat Sim!

Flight Sim Mega Pack

Three Top Titles In One Tantalizing Box!

he feared tank busting A-10C returns to your PC screens in this new, modern standalone combat simulation that is winning praise from serious jet combat pilots right around the globe. Expect the action to be hot, and the realism to be high with this new title in the Digital Combat Simulator line! It has been a few years since combat simmers have experienced a modern fixed wing aircraft combat simulator like the DCS A-10C title, but now the wait is over, the Warthog is here! The A-10C has participated in operations over Iraq and Afghanistan and proved to be a precise and effective weapon in the "War on Terrorism". Its advanced equipment has greatly reduced the number of "friendly fire" incidents thanks largely to the Situational Awareness Datalink (SADL) and the ability to better identify targets with using the Litening II AT targeting pod. The features and simulation of systems on offer here are far too numerous to explain or list here. Check out our website for further details and to order online! Standalone Aust. Price AUD$69.95 inc GST

hree of Just Flight's Best Selling Titles All In The One Package At A Special Bundle Price! Included in this special package are the following three add-ons: World Airports 3: North America - Featuring airports in North America, WAP3 for FSX/FS2004 brings you a selection of top-quality highly accurate airports, each featuring thousands of superbly detailed objects which have been accurately placed with the aid of pin-point satellite photography. 757 Captain - Is a true technical masterpiece. It comes in 757-200 and 757-300 and 757 freighter variants with an impressive selection of different airline liveries and engine variants. If you want the finest 757 for your simulatod fleet then look no further. C130 Hercules - Is undoubtedly the most sophisticated recreation of a military aircraft to grace the simulated skies, and is fully licensed by Lockheed Martin and the Royal Air Force. Staggering graphics and a suberb array of detailed animations are mated to an accurate flight model. ITEM CODE JFFSMP Title Flight Sim Mega Pack Media DVD US Price FSX/FS2004 Aust. Price

Publisher: The Fighter Collection ITEM CODE DCSA10 Title DCS: A-10C Warthog Media DVD US Price N/A

Publisher: Just Flight

USD$49.95 AUD$63.95 inc GST

omplete boxed disc version including including all the features from Airbus Series Vol.1 Deluxe + Evolution. Aircraft included: Airbus A318-A319-ACJ-A320-A321 and the latest Evolution technological improvements. Developed by highly qualified programmers, with the help of active professional pilots, this addon is a major technological break-thru of the famous Airbus suite. Airbus Series Evolution is today's most advanced, most realistic, most complete Airbus simulation for Microsoft Flight Simulator (X/2004). Lots of new functionalities have been implemented. They unveil the modern technology and embarked systems typical to the Airbus philosophy... The name says it all; it's an Evolution!

omplete version including including all the features from Airbus Series Vol.2 + Evolution. Aircraft included : Airbus A330-200, A330-300, A340-300, A340-600, A330-300 MRTT and the latest Evolution technological improvements. Airbus Series Evolution is for anyone eager to discover the fascinating world of Fly-By-Wire technology as well as Airbus high-end systems. Whatever your knowledge level is - beginner or expert - the user's manual will teach you step by step all systems and procedures. The three operating modes - beginner intermediate - expert - allow you to take control of your aircraft in three different ways: engines running, ready for take-off, or cold and dark on the apron.

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PMDG 737-600/700 800/900 Series

The Famous PMDG 737 Models For FS9
erosoft are re-releasing the top-selling PMDG 737 series addons for Flight SImulator 2004 in one boxed edition! Four versions of the famous 737 in one package! Enjoy the PMDG 737 airplanes for the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. You can choose -between the versions 600, 700, 800 and 900. The PMDG 737 is a highly realistic reproduction of Boeings New Generation Glass Cockpit Aircraft series. Features: Accurate scaled and shape Boeing 737 version 600, 700, 800 and 900 with Gmax exterior models. Complete TCAS2 System included with the versions 800 and 900 4 different main panel perspectives with complete FMC and EFIS controls. Publisher: Aerosoft Germany ITEM CODE ASPMDG737 Title Media US Price PMDG 737-600/700/800/900 DVD FS2004 Aust. Price

Regional Jet - CRJ

Still The Best CRJ Package For FS9/FSX!

he CRJ is the most successful regional aircraft program in history. Only larger jet transports such as the Boeing jet family and the Airbus A320 family have been delivered in such numbers. If you're a frequent traveller and have flown from a major hub to a smaller satellite airport, you've most likely been a passenger in the CRJ. Now here's your chance to finally get behind the actual controls of this exciting-to-fly regional jet with Flight Simulator X (and FS2004). CRJ is another high-quality jet from the team at Wilco Publishing and Feelthere. General Features: 3 aircraft: CRJ-200, CRJ-700 and CRJ-900; International liveries including Delta Airlines, United & America West Express; Fully featured 2D panels; 3D Virtual cockpit and cabin; Comprehensive manuals, Quick Flight, Check Lists etc. TWO EXCLUSIVE BONUS VIDEOS INCLUDED: 1) 30-Minute Video Of The Canadair Regional Jet (offered by Just Planes Videos); 2) 20-Minute CRJ-200 Tutorial Video. FSX/FS2004 Media CD-ROM US Price Aust. Price USD$29.95 AUD$39.95 inc GST

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Publisher: Wilco Publishing ITEM CODE CRJX Title Regional Jet Vol.1 CRJ

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USD$35.99 AUD$49.95 inc GST

Hong Kong City & Kai Tak Airport

Fly The Legendary Kai Tak IGS-13 Over-City Runway Approach!
iscover one of the most challenging approaches in aviation history! This multiple awarded scenery of the Kai-Tak airport and the city of Hong Kong has been recreated by the famous FlyTampa developmet team and brings back the REAL Kait-Tak airport in stunning details for FSX and FS2004. Hong Kong city scenery consisting of mesh, landclass, photoground and Thousands of custom buildings. Kai-Tak International (VHHX, closed 1998) airport scenery. Highly detailed curved Checkerboard approach. 2 Heliports (Peninsula Hotel rooftop, Shun-Tak Ferry heliport). Animated AI-Ships including Hong Kong's Starferry, junkers, barges etc. Custom animated car traffic & FSX-traffic throughout the city. Publisher: Aerosoft Germany ITEM CODE ASKAITAK Title Hong Kong City & Kai Tak Media DVD US Price FSX/FS2004 Aust. Price

SimPlates X
Digital IFR Approach And Navigation Charts For Any Flight Simulation Program!

imPlates X is a collection of IFR approach (and other) charts and a worldwide airport/facility directory aimed at the serious flight simulation enthusiast. This latest edition (SimPlates 2000 and 2004 came before) features over 30,000 REAL WORLD IFR PLATES - far more plates and at a higher quality than ever before. Over 30,000 real-world IFR plates, including approach plates, SIDs/ STARs, Airport Diagrams, and more. Approach types include ILS, VOR, VOR/DME, NDB, LLZ, SDF, GPS, TACAN, Helicopter, Visual, and more. Superb coverage: includes virtually every IFR plate for the USA and plates for hundreds of countries worldwide. Complete, integrated worldwide airport/ facilities directory. Features useful information on the vast majority of the world's airports. For the USA, a complete list of preferred routing tables is included, so you can plan your virtual flights just like the pros do! MANY SIMS Aust. Price

Publisher: Dauntless Aviation ITEM CODE SIMPLX Title Simplates X Media DVD US Price

USD$34.95 AUD$49.95 inc GST

USD$44.95 AUD$49.95 inc GST

Flight Simulator X Gold

Is It Time To Make The Switch?

BN-2 Islander
One Of 2010's Best Aircraft Add-ons!

omputer hardware seems to have finally caught up with Flight Simulator X. Is it time to make the switch? We think so! Flight Simulator X Gold Edition with FSX Acceleration Expansion provides the best all-around flight simulation yet! Microsoft Flight Simulator X offers virtual pilots a global flying environment with over 24 aircraft to fly right from the default hangar, and thousands of add-on products to further expand the simulator. Need to fly somewhere? Nearly every public airport in the world is modelled and available in FSX, and you can fly to them in an environment which is capable of delivering real world weather patterns downloaded directly and constantly updated from the internet! Fly exciting missions that bring fun back to flight, or fly over the high resolution terrain of the Himalyas or American Rockies. The FSX Acceleration add-on offers Red Bull-style air racing, navy carrier operations, and improved simulator performance with its integrated FSX improvements. Make the switch today! ITEM CODE FSXGOLD Title Flight Simulator X Gold Ed. Media DVD US Price Standalone Aust. Price

eveloped over two years with the help of real-world Islander pilots and operators, this exciting simulated version is a full-featured FSX release, including technologies such as cockpit self-shadowing, HDR bloom effects, and bump mapping and DX10 compatible external and internal visuals. Whether you want to operate simulated inter-island transport, feeder airliner flights or just simply have fun in this all-purpose aircraft, the Islander is certain to put a smile on your face. Short field performance - Big on features This BN-2 Islander simulation is extensively based a real world example with assistance from Great Barrier X-Press Airlines, Auckland, New Zealand - fitted with 2x Lycoming O-540 260hp engines. We've included two exterior model variants for both early and late nose profile (BN-2A and BN-2B) Islanders, with related lighting accessories all beautifully represented with a total of 13 paint-schemes. FSX Title BN-2 Islander Media CD-ROM US Price Aust. Price USD$39.95 AUD$49.95 inc GST

Publisher: Microsoft

Publisher: Flight 1 ITEM CODE F1BN2

USD$49.95 AUD$64.95 inc GST

FTX Pacific Northwest

Begin Or Continue Your FTX Experience!

FTX Australia SP4 DVD

Now With Service Pack 4 Integrated!
TX Australia SP4 DVD scenery package for Australia is fast becoming our number one selling add-on of all time for Flight Simulator X. It's the must-have expansion for Aussies! FTX is the Full Terrain Experience, and is the culmination of over five years of research and development by local Melbourne company, Orbx Simulation Systems. FTX will completely transform how the entire country of Australia looks like in Flight Simulator X, and only occupies 12GB of hard drive space and performs equal and in some cases better than default FSX. Experience the beautiful lush landscapes of Tasmania and the Eastern seaboard of Australia. In stark contrast, the red centre of Australia is displayed in earthy red and orange tones with FTX Australia SP4 DVD. Custom tree and house textures add the final touch to the custom landclass mapping so you can finally get rid of that repeating texture tile view out the window of your default FSX Australian scenery! FSX Publisher: Orbx Simulation Systems ITEM CODE FTXAUSSP4 Title FTX Australia SP4 DVD Media DVD US Price Aust. Price FSX USD$99.95 AUD$93.95 inc GST

ver twelve months in the making, the FTX Pacific Northwest region is truly a stunning achievement which combines all the elements of the much celebrated FTX AU region series, but goes much further. To PNW we have amped the quality of the ground textures to the next level, and sourced them from pristine imagery to create beautifully crisp terrain even at ground level. Going further, we've added photoreal areas above the tree line to many mountains, glaciers, lava flows, as well as including photoreal Seattle CBD, the ports of Tacoma and Olympia, KPAE, Bonneville Dam and many other POI's. Additionally we have created brand new autogen textures, hand-crafted every square mile of landclass, included full moving traffic, 3D night lighting and much more! The icing on the cake? Over 400 airports in the region have been upgraded with custom buildings and objects, elevation corrections and other details. Highly recommended!

Publisher: Orbx Simulation Systems ITEM CODE FTXNAPNW Title FTX Pacific Northwest Media DVD US Price Aust. Price

USD$44.95 AUD$38.95 inc GST

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Saitek ProFlight Yoke System

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Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals

New Combat-Tough Pedals
nspired by pedal designs found in modern fighter aircraft such as the F16 or F35, the Rudder Pedals are constructed from a highly robust Di-cast alloy, providing durability and authenticity for the most demanding of aspiring pilots. Independent left and right brake axis allows for greater accuracy and precision when performing braking maneuvers. Self-centering rudder axis works in conjunction with a user configurable dampening adjuster, allowing users to define levels of pressure required to operate rudder controls. The new Saitek ProFlight Combat Rudder Pedals offer the following features: Independent left and right brake axis. Rudder axis which is self-centering and features adjustable dampening. Adjustable foot pedal angle to suit all styles of flying. High quality, part metal construction for durability and extended life. USB connection and compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP (all versions). Saiteks powerful Saitek Smart Technology (SST) programming software allows gamers to configure their controls to suit their preferred gaming style, and to save the configurations as personal profiles. Note: Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals can be matched with any USB joystick/yoke from any manufacturer! Manufacturer: Saitek Industries

Yoke And Throttles In One Box!

he Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System is highly engineered to meet the exacting needs of the true flight simulation enthusiast. Stainless steel shaft, ergonomic controls, integrated chronograph and separate throttle quadrant ensure a smooth, accurate and totally realistic flying experience. Yoke Features: Durable Stainless Steel shaft with precision bearings gives smooth and predictable elevator and aileron control; Used with the supplied SST Programming software, integrated mode switch trebles the number of controls you have at your fingertips; Accurately time each leg of your flight plan with the integrated chronograph; Use the integrated USB Hub to easily connect other parts of the Saitek Pro Flight range of products, such as additional Pro Flight Throttle Quadrant or Pro Flight Instrument Panel (both sold separately) 14 buttons POV Hat Switch 3-position Mode Switch Elevator and Aileron Axes on Yoke. Check our website product page for full yoke feature list! Throttle Quadrant Features: 3 axis levers add more options for control in your favourite flight simulation; 3 two-way rocker switches add further controls to your simulation setup; Quadrant can be mounted either on top or in front of your desk, pilot or co-pilot side so that the controls are always where you want them. 3 axis levers 6 buttons. For enhanced realism, PC Aviator recommends adding a set of quality rudder pedals to your Saitek ProFlight Yoke System. Both the Saitek and CH Products Rudder Pedals will work fine with this setup. Manufacturer: Saitek Industries ITEM CODE STKPFYKUSB Title Port US Price Aust. Price Saitek ProFlight Yoke System USB USD$149.95 AU$259.95 inc GST

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ITEM CODE STKCOMRUD

Title

Port

US Price

Aust. Price

Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals USB

USD$199.95 AU$249.95 inc GST

TrackIR 5 Professional
Incredible Real Time Head Tracking Controls Your Sim Viewpoint!

Flight Sound X Adapter

The PC Adapter For Aviation Headsets!

yper accurate, fully adjustable, and only three square inches in size - TrackIR 5 is the one piece of kit that discriminating gamers crave. TrackIR Changes Everything! Take advantage of our 6 DOF head tracking technology, which links your actual movement in three-dimensional space to your in-game view! Your increased situational awareness will make you the most feared competitor around. In dogfights, you'll be impossible to shake. In white-knuckle races, you'll be impossible to pass. In tactical combat, you'll be impossible to flank. Discover the TrackIR advantage. Put Your Head in the Game! Package Includes: TrackIR 5 (with USB cable). TrackClip (reflective tracking clip - not pro). TrackIR Software (download). TrackIR Users Manual (view). Quick Start Guide (view PDF). Clamshell retail package.

he Flight Sound X adapter is a high quality USB sound card, custom-made for General Aviation Headsets. Functional - Use your own aviation headset for flight simulation training scenarios... Versatile - Get added duty from your headset by using it with programmes like Skype and TeamSpeak... Realistic - Bring the realism of your virtual flight environment to unprecedented levels... So Easy - Just plug and play... and youre ready to go! FEATURES: Uses standard GA headset connectors (PJ-068 and PJ-055B) USB 1.1 and 2.0 compatible. Supports headset impedances of 100 to 600 Ohms Supports Mono and Stereo Headsets Electret, dynamic and powered dynamic mic compatible Zero delay voice feedback/sidetone feature Compact, robust, anodised aluminium enclosure Output frequency response (20Hz-20KHz) Size: 65mm(L), 55mm(W), 25mm(D) Weight: 100g Recommended by PC Aviator staff.

Manufacturer: NaturalPoint ITEM CODE TRKIR5PRO Title TrackIR 5 Head Tracker Port USB US Price Aust. Price USD$149.95 AU$224.95 inc GST

Manufacturer: Flight Sounds ITEM CODE FSNDX Title Flight Sound X Adapter Port USB US Price Aust. Price USD$79.95 AUD$89.95 inc GST

Wings of Prey
Incredible, Immersive WWII Air Combat

Rise of Flight: Iron Cross Edition

Chock Full Of New Features!

Publisher: 777 Studios ITEM CODE WOPREY Title Wings of Prey Media DVD US Price

Standalone Aust. Price

Publisher: 777 Studios ITEM CODE ROFIC Title Rise of Flight: Iron Cross Ed. Media DVD US Price

Standalone Aust. Price

USD$44.95 AUD$64.95 inc GST

USD$49.95 AUD$64.95 inc GST

GoFlight MCP-Pro
Take Control Of Your Airliner Avionics With GoFlight Modules!
he GF-MCP Pro features a Boeing 737-style panel with full control complement. The GF-MCP Pro enables full simulation of a Boeing 737 MCP . The GF-MCP Pro is also compatible with built-in FS2004 & FSX aircraft and most freeware or commercially available add-on aircraft. Measures 16.25 wide x 2.7 high. The GF-MCP Pro connects to a USB port on your computer. Includes all software for compatibility with Microsoft Flight Simulator X/2004 and Project Magenta. Independent Captain and F/O COURSE knob and display Independent Captain and F/O Flight Director on/off toggles with indicator Autothrottle on/off toggle with indicator Autothrottle N1 and SPEED buttons C/O button for SPD display selection of IAS or MACH SPEED Knob and display HEADING knob and display with integrated HDG HOLD push function HDG SEL button VNAV and LNAV buttons ALTITUDE knob and display VOR LOC, APP, ALT HOLD and ALT INTV buttons VERTICAL SPEED wheel control and display V/S button A/P CMD A, CWS A, CMD B, and CWS B buttons DISENGAGE control bar. The MCP Pro is designed to closely resemble the look and function of the Boeing 737NG aircrafts MCP (Mode Control Panel) in color, control layout, and dimensions. The real-world 737NG MCP is a complex piece of equipment with many displays, knobs, and switches. Its purpose is to give the pilot control of all the various modes of autoflight that are managed by the aircrafts multiple on-board autopilots and autothrottle systems. Manufacturer: GoFlight Inc. ITEM CODE GF-MCPPRO Title GoFlight MCP Pro Port USB US Price Aust. Price USD$499.95 AU$599.95 inc GST

PMDG 747-400 X
Time-Tested Jumbo Add-on For FSX

his add-on package is widely regarded as the best jumbo add-on currently available, and is the ultimate challenge in captaining a classic heavy jet airplane! When FSX pilots look for a detailed Juimbo Jet add-on for their sim, a large percentage of them end up buying the PMDG model. But be warned, this isn't an easy aircraft to fly all by yourself! Only hardened jet pilots should attempt to master this massive aircraft in Flight SImulator alone! Complete Avionics - Sharp vector graphic cockpit displays matching their real world counterparts, all EICAS functions and lower displays working interactively with the aircraft's systems, and also displaying three engine variants (RR, GE, PW) Aircraft / Cockpit Systems Functionality at the highest accuracy, programmed after engineering schematics to ensure everything behaves like on the real plane; 747400F specific pneumatics systems are correctly modeled and the stabilizer tanks have been removed. FSX Media DVD US Price Aust. Price USD$59.95 AUD$74.95 inc GST

Publisher: Aerosoft Germany ITEM CODE Title PMDG747FSX PMDG 747-400 X

ings of Prey is based around the large-scale aerial combat and ground military operations of World War II. Players can participate in some of the wars most famous battles piloting fighters, battle planes and bombers across a range of thrilling missions. There are six theatres of war to engage in The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Ardennes, Berlin, Sicily and Korsun' representing the main airborne battles of World War II in Europe. Wings of Prey also boasts an all new damage effects engine as well as advanced environmental visuals enriching the game play. Wings of Prey features hundreds of airplanes taking part in air battles. The unique environmental engine also produces highly detailed, realistic landscapes that allow players to see breathtaking ground support actions. Authentic World War atmosphere: Cutting edge technologies with highly detailed visuals bring the epic battles to life. Tested and rated highly by the staff at PC Aviator!

he award-winning WWI flight-sim Rise Of Flight is back and it's bigger and better than ever with Rise of Flight: Iron Cross Edition! Rise Of Flight: Iron Cross Edition comes chock full of new features, exclusive content and numerous game play improvements. Rise Of Flight: Iron Cross Edition brings intense WWI aerial combat to your computer like never before with enhanced graphics, new modes of gameplay, new campaigns, new terrain, new special effects and twice the flyable planes! It has never been a better time to pick up the most realistic WWI flight sim ever created and take to the virtual skies! Do you have what it takes to be an ace? You can fly eight legendary WWI fighter places alongside or against over a dozen other beautifully rendered aircraft including scouts, fighter, bombers and recon planes. Fly the Spad XIII, Fokker D.VII, Albatross D.Va, Nieuport 28, SE.5a, Pfalz D.IIIa, Sopwith Camel and deadly Fokker Dr.1 into aerial combat over the western front.

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The PC Aviator Instant Download Store!

I
D S f you like the idea of being able to order your flight sim add-ons online, be able to download them as soon as your order is processed and then be flying within minutes then you should check out the PC Aviator Flight Sim Instant Download Store. How It Works Simply browse the online catalog at either our USA or Australian stores and add which products you wish to purchase to your cart. When ready to checkout, simply enter your credit card information or pay with Paypal and as soon as your payment is approved and your order complete, you'll be e-mailed a download link to download your software. Then you can install your software and begin using it in minutes! USA Integrated Download Store - www.pcaviator.com/store Australian Integrated Download Store - www.pcaviator.com.au/store

Ant's Airplanes Drifter

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FSX

his particular aircraft is a virtual nuts and bolts recreation of the real world aircraft 25-455! The Drifter 582 ultralight is a two seat, wire braced, tail dragger aircraft and represents the ultimate plane for low and slow flying in FSX. The Austflight Drifter is an extensively modified version of the original Maxair Drifter. A Brolga 4 blade prop is powered by a Rotax 582 engine which is mounted behind the pilot and passenger and allows the aircraft to cruise at 65kts with great short field performance. File Size 84 Mb Publisher Anthony Lynch US Price USD$19.95

SKU DL-AADRIFT

Title Ant's Airplanes Drifter

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C-17 Globemaster
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FSX/FS2004

Carenado C-340 II
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FSX

rea 51 Simulations bring the USAF primarily heavy lift aircraft to FSX and FS2004. The C-17 is used for rapid airlift of troops and cargo to main operating bases or forward operating bases throughout the world. Features: Built for FSX and FS2004 engines; Very High Detail Exterior and Interior; Photoreal Texture Sets (US and Royal Airforce, Qatar Airways); Parachute Effect; 2D Panel; Sound Set; Clickable Switches; Photoshop PSD Files for custom texturing included. File Size 74 Mb Publisher US Price

arenado's latest masterpiece is the Cessna 340 in HD Series detail for Flight Simulator X! Features HD quality textures (2048 x 2048) - Four different paint schemes plus a blank texture 3D gauges Customizable panel for controlling windows transparency, 3D Knobs and static elements such as wheel chokes, pitot cover and sights prop - Original HQ digital stereo sounds recorded directly from the real aircraft Custom Bendix/King Weather Radar and original 2 original GNS 430 and much more! File Size 103 Mb Publisher US Price

SKU

Title

SKU

Title

DL-A51C17

C-17 Globemaster

Area51 Sims

USD$29.95

DL-CAC340X

Carenado C-340 II

Carenado

USD$34.95

Cessna 210 Centurion II

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FSX

Wings of Power 3: Spitfire

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FSX

arenado continue the rollout of quality GA aircraft with the CT210M Centurion II for FSX. Features include: HD quality textures (2048 x 2048); 3D gauges; Original HQ digital stereo sounds recorded directly from the real aircraft; Carenado GNS530 and GNS430 installed; KFC225 autopilot; Customizable panel for controlling windows transparency, instrument reflections and static elements such as wheel chocks, pitot cover and sights props. Pop upT210M Centurion manual with checklista and more. File Size 123 Mb Publisher US Price

he Supermarine Spitfire is one of the truly legendary aircraft, not just of World War II, but of all time. This aircraft features all of the latest advances in "Absolute Realism" flight modeling, including engine management and airspeed gage error. We have introduced a new aspect of realism by incorporating the airspeed indicator error factor into the pilot's airspeed indicator. Here the spitfire gets the A2A Simulations royal treatment! A must-have add-on. File Size 143 Mb Publisher

SKU

Title

SKU

Title

US Price

DL-CAC210X

Cessna CT210M Centuiron II

Carenado

USD$34.95

DL-SWSP3

Wings of Power 3: Spitfire

A2A Simulations

USD$29.95

Cessna 152 II For X-Plane

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X-PLANE

Airwolf

FSX/FS2004

ooking for a nice new trainer aircraft for the X-Plane flight simulator? Look no further! Features: Polygon optimized model - Interactive virtual cockpit - Full moving parts - Realistic lights: Navigation lights, beacons, landing lights - 3D modeled pilot and cockpit area - Many details as: pitot pressure chamber, antennas, chocks, pitot tube cover - Realistic textures and original paint designs - Realistic light effects on gauges - Similar behavior compared to the real airplane - Real weight and balance. File Size 63 Mb Publisher US Price

FS-design brings a excellent rendition of the famous supersonic helicopter AIRWOLF from the 1980's television hit series! The original series AIRWOLF is an American television series that ran from 1984 to 1987. It was about the sophisticated spy high-tech military helicopter, code named AIRWOLF, and took their team along on various missions. There was a lot of espionage going on and the theme of the Cold War ran throughout the series. This add-on brings it all back to life! File Size 22 Mb Publisher US Price

SKU

Title

SKU

Title

DL-CA152XPL Cessna 152 II for X-Plane

Carenado

USD$22.95

DL-AFSAWX

Airwolf

AFS Design

USD$24.95

Approaching Innsbruck
E

FSX/FS2004

DC-3 Legends of Flight

T

FSX

D A O L N
SKU Title File Size 540 Mb Publisher US Price SKU Title File Size 176 Mb Publisher US Price

Eurofighter Typhoon
K

FSX/FS2004

Bonanza V35B V-Tail

A

FSX

ick in the Afterburner on the Typhoon and experience the adrenaline rush! Aircraft features: Animations: tail hook, parabrake, air refueling pipe, chassis; Lights: formation, strobe, beacon, navigation and landing; Engine control switch: 2 starters, 2 fuel closed switches; Plus: master switch, electrical switch;Effects: afterburner, cockpit lighting, reflective surfaces, mirrors; Stable flight model with auto trim. Many repaints are also included with the download. Time to kick the tires? File Size 72 Mb Publisher US Price

nother fine quality light aircraft from the hangar of Carenado, one of PC Aviator's favorite sim aircraft developers! The V35B V-Tail aircraft is compatible with Flight Simulator X and comes with loads of features, including an original GNS 430 navigation system included. Two models are available in the package, with and without tip tanks. Aircraft is very easy on frame rates and features Carenado's usual high quality, and highly functional custom flight deck panel. File Size 63 Mb Publisher US Price

DL-AFSTYPH

Eurofighter Typhoon

AFS Design

USD$24.95

DL-CAV35BX

Bonanza V35B V-Tail

Carenado

USD$24.95

Traffic X

FSX

DeHavilland C-7 Caribou

F

FSX/FS2004

raffic X is the latest generation of the hugely popular Traffic series of AI traffic programs from Just Flight, and is the new benchmark for Artificial Intelligence traffic expansions. New aircraft, more traffic - Traffic X employs completely reworked and updated aircraft for FSX with new and more detailed high-quality airline liveries. Traffic X includes 99 individual aircraft models with numerous airline liveries and paint schemes giving more than 1,700 individual aircraft. File Size 532 Mb Publisher US Price

rom Virtavia comes the C-7 Caribou, a popular military transport aircraft with short-field operational characteristics and FIVE high-detail texture sets; Highly-detailed and authentic virtual cockpit with many animations and mousable controls; Fuselage interior included; Authentic all-xml 2D panel, custom pop-ups for autopilot, radios and electrics; Simulated Caribou soundset; Animated side doors and rear door with ramp; Highly authentic flight model with checklist. File Size 50 Mb Publisher Virtavia US Price

SKU

Title

SKU

Title

DL-JFTRAFX

Traffic X

Just Flight

USD$34.95

DL-ALC7

DeHavilland C-7 Caribou

USD$22.95

The Ultimate 757 Collection

T

FSX/FS2004

C208B Grand Caravan HD

F

FSX

he Ultimate 757 Collection is the most extensive 757 package ever created for Flight Simulator! There is truly something for everyone. Every 757 ever to come off the line from Boeing has been reproduced for your enjoyment. And with Mid-Level systems programming, we've simplified the simming experience while providing you the look and feel that makes the Boeing 757 such a special airplane to fly. One purchase gets you both Microsoft Flight Simulators 2004 and Flight Simulator X versions of the 757. File Size 198 Mb Publisher Quality Wings US Price USD$44.95

orget the default FSX Caravan model, this is the one you will WANT to have in your virtual hangar! Hi Definition quality textures (2048 x 2048) - Five different paint schemes plus a blank texture. Customizable panel for controlling seat configuration, windows transparency, 3D Knobs, Cargo Pod, Doors opening. Original HQ digital stereo sounds. Custom Bendix/King Weather Radar and original GNS 430 - Pop up C208B Grand Caravan manual with normal and emergency checklist - Tested by real pilots. File Size 99 Mb Publisher Carenado US Price USD$34.95

SKU DL-QW757

Title The Ultimate 757 Collection

SKU DL-CAC208B

Title C208B Grand Caravan

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Title

SKU

Title

T A

W N

L O

DL-APPINNS

Approaching Innsbruck

Aerosoft Germany USD$29.95

DL-JFDC3EXP DC-3 Expansion Pack

Just Flight

USD$15.30

D S

xperience Innsbruck airport, one of the most challenging airports in Europe. Every building is recreated with great attention to detail and realism and is placed on high definition areal images in the great Alpine landscape. Features: Detailed representation of the airports placed on high resolution areal images; Includes scenery on the approach and departure routes; Seasonal and night textures; Dynamic vehicle traffic on the airport; Fully compatible with all AI traffic add-ons.

his Expansion Pack features additional aircraft for Just Flights DC-3 Legends of Flight addon - seven classic DC-3 airliner liveries, three C-47 aircraft, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Dakota 'Pegasus' and the 'Spooky' AC-47 Gunship. This Expansion Pack also gives you the ability to tow the Waco glider! Many Just Flight boxed products are now available as downloads from both USA and Australian PC Aviator Instant Download Stores. Check out our range today!

From the EDITOR

WELCOME TO THE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER ISSUE! Where did the year go? I cant believe 2011 is now entering its final months. Incredible to say the least! I guess I must have been extremely busy this year, and thinking back I certainly was, and continue to be. The good news is that I have probably spent more hours behind the yoke and joystick this year than any other in the last five years, so that probably accounts for a lot of that time that seems to have mysteriously disappeared in 2011, and hopefully you guys are in the same situation there! This year my flight sim escapades (in the sim) have taken me all around Australia, throughout Italy and lower Europe, into the Southern, Central and Northern Rocky Mountains in the USA, up through parts of Asia, and even into Africa on occasion. My latest sim flying adventures have been in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and these have been very enjoyable too. I even had time to write about these in one form or another in this issue. Its a very interesting place to fly and I would encourage you all to give it a go. Im looking forward to continuing my flight adventures. I would love to explore the Himalayan region in more detail, and up into Russia as I have never really ventured into those parts previously in any version of Flight Simulator. Antarctica too would be interesting, but there has not really been any really good add-ons to make it worthwhile before. It looks like Aerosoft is going to change that very soon though which is exciting. What I would really like to hear from our loyal readers this issue is where YOUR favorite flying location is and why? If you have a particular favorite airport that offers something unique, or perhaps you discovered something different or spectacular in a part of the virtual world that you think few others may have seen before I want to know about it! Send me your favorite locations and flight sim stories to editor@computerpilot.com Enjoy this issue of Computer Pilot Magazine. I look forward to your company for many more issues to come!

Publisher: Robert Ferraro Editor: Dean Bielanowski Editorial Assistant: Roger Curtiss Layout & Design: Tony Liatos - Rectier Graphics Contributors In This Issue: Dean Bielanowski, Harold Zimmer, Doug Horton, John Lattanzio, Roger Curtiss, Ken Hall, Gene Davis, John Achor, Mike Ray, Iain Emms. Subscription Managers: Australia: Dean Bielanowski USA: Mark Jakubowski

Dean Bielanowski Editor

Editorial Submissions: Please address editorial matter to The Editor at editor@computerpilot.com or to the ofce closest to you listed at the bottom of this page. Advertising Inquiries: PC Aviator Inc. Phone: 843-716-1616. Email: advertising@computerpilot.com Website: www.computerpilot.com General E-Mail: info@computerpilot.com US Distribution: Ingram Periodicals, International Periodical Distributors, Media Solutions Printed By: The RL Bryan Company (USA). Disclaimer: Any information, advice, maps, charts, tables and other information published in this magazine is exclusively for use with PC ight simulations. The publisher does not accept any liability for any accident or incident arising from any information conveyed or implied in this publication. Copyright: Copyright 2011 The PC Aviator Pty Ltd Incorporating PC Aviator Inc. All rights reserved. None of the information in this magazine may be reproduced in any form or stored via any electronic means without the express permission of the publisher. Cover Price: USA: $7.95. Australia: $9.85*. Canada: $9.95. Subscriptions: Computer Pilot is published bi-monthly Australian Annual Subscriptions: AUD$39.95 Phone: (07) 3149 3096 US Annual Subscriptions: USD$24.95 Phone: 1-800-664-0033 Other International Subscriptions Asia/Pacic Region: Ph: +61-7-3149-3096 Rest Of The World: Ph: +1-843-716-1616 or visit www.computerpilot.com ISSN: 1324-7336 Published by: PC Aviator The Flight Simulation Company Australian Office: The PC Aviator Pty Ltd PO Box 109 Rochedale South, QLD, 4123 Ph: 07 3149 3096 U.S. Office: PC Aviator Inc 1485 Colts Neck Road, LORIS, SC 29569-6775 Ph: 843-716-1616 Fax: 1-843-716-1619 * Recommended Retail Price only Computer Pilot is an international magazine, proudly published in Australia. Printed in the United States of America.

by visiting the Computer Pilot web site at www.computerpilot.com

As well as features for first time visitors, the web site is designed with our readers in mind. For subscribers Renew your subscriptions on-line Notify us of address changes Join our electronic mailinglist SubscriberNews General services include: Direct links to web sites mentioned in our on-line article Free monthly desktop calendar wallpapers featuring both quality flight sim screenshots and real world aviation photographs! On-line competitions Computer Pilot Interactive Much more

Supplement your reading in Computer Pilot Magazine

Bookmark our web site and visit it frequently. It will enhance your reading of Computer Pilot Magazine.

http://www.computerpilot.com
Publications Mail Agreement #: 40720082 Customer #: 7056038 Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: PC Aviator, inc., PO BOX 296, Loris, SC 29569, U.S.A. Computer Pilot Volume 15 Issue 5, September/October 2011 (ISSN 1324-7336) is published bi-monthly by PC Aviator, inc., 1485 Colts Neck Road, Loris, SC 29569-6775. Periodicals postage is paid at Loris, SC and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 1485 Colts Neck Road, Loris, SC 29569

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CONCO N TOENNTESNTS C NTE T TS

16
ALL THE LATEST NEWS AND NEW

NEWS AND NEW RELEASES

RELEASES SINCE OUR LAST ISSU E.

31. CARENADO PIPER ARCHER II FOR X-PLANE 46. JUST PLANES PENAIR DVD 48. HOTSEAT PILOTPRO CHASSIS 49. ANTS AIRPLANES DRIFTER 32. WILCO AIRBUS EVOLUTION SERIES 1 AND 2 38. AEROSOFT DA20-100 KATA NA 4X

MINI REVIEWS

MAXI REVIEWS

38

20 THE FLIGHT SIM ROUN D TABLE WELCOME TO THE

FLIGHT SIMULATO SIM EXPERTS TO GIVE THEIR EXPE R ROUND TABLE! HERE WE GATHER OUR FLIGHT RT OR PERSONAL OPINION ON THE FLIGHT SIM NEWS ITEMS, PROD UCT ANNOUNCEMENTS, AND ANSW LATEST HOT TOPICS, QUESTIONS THAT ARE JUST BEGG ERS TO THOSE SIM ING TO BE ASKED! THIS ISSUE WE WELCOME SCENERY DESIGNER KEN HALL TO THE ROU ND TABLE.

26 READY FOR MICROSOF T FLIGHT? EXCEPT FOR THE VERY

44 BENCHMARKING THE INSTRUMENT PANEL SAITEK PROFLIGHT

SPARSE INFORMATION AVAILABL E ONLINE, WE DONT KNOW MUC ABOUT FLIGHT AND ITLL LIKEL H Y BE SEVERAL MORE MONTHS UNTIL WE KNOW ACTUAL DETAILS. MEANWHILE, WE HAV E A FEW GUESSES THAT CAN BE USED TO GAUGE THE READINESS OF COMPUTER HARD WARE FOR THE NEW PROGRAM .

I RECENTLY HAD THE OPPORTUN ITY TO EVALUATE THE PERFORM AN INTERESTING ADD-ON HAR ANCE IMPACT OF DWARE PRODUCT, AND THAT EXPERIENCE PROVIDES A GREAT CASE STUDY OF HOW EASY IT IS TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT ON FSX PERFORMANCE WITH STANDAR DIZED TESTING.

52 APPROACHES TO DUTCH HARBOR ITS REMOTENESS IN

49

64 I LEARNED ABOUT FLY ING FROM THAT PART 8 AIR FLOW TO THE ENGINE WAS TOUCHY. WE WERE WAR

THE ALEUTIAN ISLAND CHAIN NATURALLY MAKES THIS AIRPORT INTERESTING, BUT IT CAN ALSO BE CHALLENGING TOO, ESPECIAL LY IN POOR WEATHER. WE SHOW YOU HOW TO FLY THE TWO PUBLISHED APPROACHES INTO DUTCH HARBOR THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO GET DOW N ON THE GROUND IN ONE PIEC E EVERY TIME.

67 I LEARNED ABOUT FLY ING FROM THAT PART 9 THE UNITED STATES GOVERNM ENT WAS ON A COST CUTT

NED IN GROUND SCHOOL THAT LOW AIRSPEED AND HIGH PITCH ANGLE COULD CAUSE COMPRES SOR STALLS - THEY DID. I WAS LEVELLING OFF AT ALTIT UDE WHEN THE AIRSPEED DRO PPED CRITICALLY LOW AND THE RESULTING COMPRESSOR STALL SOUNDED AND FELT LIKE SOMEONE WITH A SLEDGE HAMMER WAS RAPIDLY SLAMMING THE AIRCRAFT JUST UNDER MY FEET

ING BINGE IN THE LATE 1950S. THAT WAS THE IMPETUS TO CLOS E BASES INCLUDING MY FIRST PERMANENT ASSIGNMENT - FOSTER AIR FORCE BASE AT VICT ORIA TEXAS, USA. ALONG WITH THE CLOSING, THE USAF DECIDED IT WAS OVERSTOCKED WITH FIGHTER PILOTS. BEING THE NEWEST ARRIVAL, I WAS CHOPPED EARLY...

74 THE RING OF FIRE TO UR WELL BE STAR

80 FILE FRAGMENTATION WH TO KNOW ABOUT IT, AND Y EVERY SIMMER NEEDS HOW TO FIX IT! FRAGMENTATION WHAT

TING IN WASHINGTON STATE, USA FOR THE TOUR, IN THE BEAU NORTHWEST. WELL TRAVEL BY TIFUL PACIFIC VARIOUS AIRCRAFT AROUND THIS RING, AND SEE SOME VERY SPECTACULAR SCENERY. ILL ALSO CLUE YOU IN AS TO THE AVAILABILITY OF SCENERY PACKAGES, BOTH FREEWARE AND PAYWARE, THAT WOULD ENHA NCE THE REGIONS AND AIRPORTS AND STRIPS THAT WE WILL BE FLYING INTO.

74

88 A GLOSSARY OF TERMS - REDUX DUE TO THE POPULARI

IS IT? WHY IS DEFRAGMENTATION IMPORTAN SIMMERS, WHY SHOULD WE EVEN CARE? WELL, SINCE A GREAT DEAL T, AND AS FLIGHT WITH FLIGHT SIM PERFORMANC OF US ARE OBSESSED E AND MAKING THINGS RUN AS SMOOTHLY AND AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, THIS FACTOR ALON E DEMANDS WE CARE ABOUT HOW OUR HARD DRIVES ARE PERFORMING, BECAUSE THESE DRIVES ARE THE VERY BOOK THAT OUR PC HARDWARE READ TO PRODUCE THE STORY WE S EXPERIENCE EVERY SECOND IN OUR VIRTUAL AVIATION WORLD.

TY OF THE GLOSSARY OF TERM S ARTICLE IN OUR LAST ISSUE, IS BACK WITH AN EXPANDED SECO MIKE RAY ND PART THAT EXPLAINS MOR E OF THOSE FUNNY 3- AND 4-LETTER AND MORE-LETTER WOR DS THAT STILL BAFFLE BOTH NEW FLIGHT SIMMERS. PREPARE TO AND MORE EXPERIENCED TAKE NOTES AND LEARN FROM THE CAPTAIN HIMSELF.

REGULAR FEATURES: 60 HORTONS HINTS FOR FSX TIPS TO MAKE 70 FLIGHT SIM DOCTOR 97 INBOX
YOUR LETTERS AND COMMEN TS.

THE MOST OF YOUR FSX EXPERIEN CE!

LEARN HOW TO CURE COMMON FLIGHT SIM CONDITIONS.

ORBX OFFERS NEW REGION AND MORE NEW AIRPORTS

Orbx are continuing their efforts to produce both region packages for the USA and airport packages both in the Northwest of the USA and in Australia. Their latest round of releases includes the region pack covering the Central Rocky Mountains of the USA and airport packs featuring Essendon (YMEN) in Australia, Fall City in the USA as well as Diamond Point airport in the USA which has just been released in boxed disc format and is described below by the developers.

COMET JETLINER FOR FSX AND FS2004

Just Flight are offering up an aircraft that has previously not been seen in Flight Simulator X or Flight Simulator 2004, not to this higher level of detail anyway... Its the Comet Jetliner, one of the worlds first jet passenger airliners.

This simulation provides an extremely accurate rendition of the DH 106 Comet 4C, the definitive Comet variant, presented here in nine liveries. The extraordinarily detailed virtual cockpit features include fully equipped pilot and co-pilot panels, an engineers station with every conceivable control, switch and gauge modeled, and a navigators station incorporating all the equipment needed for authentic navigation operations.

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Among the other features which make this the ultimate simulation of this aircraft are highly accurate flight dynamics, full navigation and night lighting, hundreds of accurate external animations, and a detailed cabin area with stewardess in attendance - Comet Jetliner brings you the complete and authentic and accurate experience of flying British aviations most iconic jetliner!

A polished diamond. Orbx master designers Andreas Hegi and Heiko Glatthorn have really pulled out all the stops for the FSX remake of an old favorite, 2WA1 Diamond Point, also featuring WA45 Olympic Field nearby. With stunning coastlines, beaches, cliffs and an offshore island, this place not only makes for a challenging landing but has just about the most delightful GA circuit area ever featured in FSX. The details are absolutely insane, from the animated PeopleFlow characters, extreme levels of grass and vegetation and a huge amount of custom modeled hangars, buildings, houses and clutter with the famous Hegi touch. So you get two airports in one, beautiful night lighting, perfectly placed autogen, five seasons and loads of detail. What is NOT to like about this place? Ground imagery at 30cm per pixel Fully custom modeled airport and houses FSX gmax poly runway, aprons and lights Beautiful coastal location Includes PeopleFlow animated characters Atmospheric night lighting at airport and village Dense vegetation options for amazing realism TextureFlow optimised and excellent FPS Includes custom GA AI Traffic movements Includes FREE bonus WA45 Olympic field Expert 5 seasons color matched imagery Made by the YHBA/1S2/3W5/KORS team! The Diamond Point, Fall City and Essendon fields will all retail for around the AUD$32.95 mark and are available in boxed version from PC Aviator Australia and PC Aviator USA - www.pcaviator.com.au/store and www.pcaviator.com/store and other selected resellers.

Features overview: Dedicated FSX design Highly detailed exterior model High quality interactive 3D Virtual Cockpit (VC) Nine highly-detailed super-resolution liveries Accurate animations High quality sound set Very accurate flight model At time of writing, only the download version was available but a boxed version will soon follow, and there is a separate version for FS2004 pilots as well so just about all Microsoft simmers will be able to get their hands on the Comet Jetliner to relive the classic days of jet passenger transport. The Comet Jetliner has a list price of US$38.80.

X-PLANE GETS A DETAILED CESSNA 172N

Thanks to Carenado, one of the leaders in developing light aircraft for the Microsoft Flight Simulator platform, X-Plane 9.6+ users will finally get the chance to fly a very good and highly detailed Cessna 172 model in their sim. Based on the popular and best-selling C172N for FSX and FS2004, the X-Plane version offers most all of the same features, including:

GOFLIGHTS NEW TRIM WHEEL AND THROTTLE QUADRANT CLAMPS

GoFlight produce some of the best flight deck hardware modules available today that fit the general consumer price range and market. They are continuing to create new lines that expand on their existing products to add new features. Two of these productions are the new airliner-style trim wheel, and the Throttle Quadrant clamp.

The new Trim Wheel features: Plug and Play Sturdy, metal construction No need to buy another throttle; Trim Wheel simply slides onto the side of your existing throttle. Large, realistic wheel Adjustable sensitivity Built-in USB drive The NEW GoFlight Trim Wheel Add-On (GF-TWA) is a modular and easy-to-install accessory that attaches quickly to the GoFlight Technologies Throttle Quadrant (GF-TQ6). Polygon optimized model Interactive virtual cockpit Full moving parts: Ailerons, elevators, rudders, flaps, rolling wheels Animated sections such as: doors, pilots window, copilot seat, sun visor and fresh air control Realistic lights: Navigation lights, beacons, landing lights 3D modeled pilot and cockpit area Many details, such as: pitot pressure chamber, antennas, chocks, pitot tube cover Custom panel and gauges Realistic textures and original paint designs Realistic light effects on gauges Similar behavior compared to the real airplane Real weight and balance Included in the package: 6 paint schemes, 1 Blank texture; 2 regular models: with and without fairings, 1 ski model, 1 float model; Normal and Emergency Checklist for regular, ski and float models (PDF); Quick Reference document for regular, ski and float models (PDF); Recommended settings document. Realistic flight training in X-Plane just went up a level with this new Carenado offering. It can be yours for a touch under US$26 and is available widely via Instant Download from all reputable flight sim retailers worldwide. The unit can be installed in seconds and is of the highest quality materials. Large and easy to use, the GF-TWAs heavy wheel has a unique feel so that you are not searching while making those dangerous approaches. This GF-TWA Trim Wheel Add-On is a device that was designed to alleviate the perceived control surface pressure during various phases of flight. Like a real pilot, you can now trim your aircraft so that you do not have to fight the stick to keep your plane flying safely. The new TQ clamp which provides a method of clamping GoFlights existing throttle quadrant to a desktop features: Attaches to any desk or tabletop Very heavy metal construction Provides sturdy action in flight Fully adjustable and moveable

Using a very simple bracket mounting system, you can now mount your throttle to any flat surface that you like, in seconds! Perfect for small spaces or custom cockpit builders. Using heavy metal construction, the GF-TQC, yet again, allows flight simulation enthusiasts the ability to create their ideal home cockpit. For further information, call your favorite GoFlight dealer, or check www.goflightinc.com direct in the USA.

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Radeon HD6990M A Winner for Notebooks

There are a growing number of simmers and gamers using their latest notebook and laptop computers solely for these purposes. Up until recently, many of them just didnt have the grunt and power to offer a decent and fluid simming experience. In the last 12 months, however, mobile computer technology has dramatically improved and mobile CPUs and GPUs are now faster than ever before, and a lot of new generation notebooks are now faster than many of the desktop computers a lot of us are using.

KEFLAVIK X FOR FSX / FS2004 NOW AVAILABLE

If you have ever wanted to fly into Iceland, but never had a really yo just justifiable reason to do so, this new airport scenery package from Aerosoft might well be that reason you are looking for. The new Keflavik X airport upgrade is compatible with both FS2004 and FSX and offers simmers a high-detail representation of Icelands only international airport.

Iceland is truly one of the most astonishing and unique places of this planet. Fire, ice and gushers engrave the scenery and the force of the elements is present all over the island. The biggest volcanic island of the world attracts many tourists throughout the year. The only international airport of Iceland is Keflavik Airport, 50 km to the southwest of the capital Reykjavik.

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This airport is of great importance as it also functions as a military airfield. The modern architecture of the civil terminal is a true eyecatcher. Our airport model has been created true to the original and is an ideal add-on for our scenery, Iceland X.

Driving the move toward mobile simming is the rapid advancement of graphics chip technology and ATI have again surged to the lead in this market, stealing the grip from nVidia with their HD6990M Graphics Processing Unit. Dismantle the enemy with deadly efficiency with uncompromising graphics and intense gaming performance with DirectX 11 Evolved technology. Get outstanding tessellation performance, advanced DirectCompute support, Shader Model 5, texture compression and OpenCL support for true-to-life, high-definition game play you deserve. Take complete control of the action with a view from all angles with AMD Eyefinity technology. Supercharge your applications and experience unprecedented digital video quality with AMD App Acceleration. Getreal. Get Radeon in your system. Reality rules. Get unmatched realism, mach speed and blistering performance with DirectX 11 support. Expand your peripheral vision with AMD Eyefinity technology for ultra-immersive game play. Harness the power of two GPUs with AMD CrossFireX technology - 2GB of ultra-fast GDDR5 memory, 1.6 teraFlops of compute power, 1120 stream processors times 2 unleash epic domination. Get up close and personal with AMD HD3D technology and play your favorite games and movies in Stereoscopic 3D. Plow through media rich applications at super-fast speeds with AMD App Acceleration. Since we know that the graphics card is the second most important part of a computer when it comes to flight simming (assuming you have at least 4Gb RAM), and often now the most expensive component of a system, ensuring you invest in a good one is paramount to endperformance. The previous limitations in notebook hardware are slowly becoming non-existent in terms of performance and many notebooks now closely rival their desktop counterparts. The question now is, how long will it be before nVidia counters ATI with their latest and greatest next generation GPU? You can find ATI online at www.amd.com

Features: Absolutely newly created scenery for FSX and FS2004 Detailed display of the airport and surrounding, including prominent objects Photorealistic ground textures based on actual aerial imagery with high resolution (0.5m/pixel) All buildings and airport institutions included Photoreal textures on buildings, vehicles etc. Original NAV aids (ILS,VOR/DME,NDB,ATIS) Complete taxi- and runway signs Astonishing night textures Individual adaption for all seasons Weather and snow effects included (e.g. snow capped roofs on buildings in winter) AI compatible Compatible with Airport Enhancement Services -- sold separately (from AES-Version 2.13) Superb frame rates Manual in English and German, plus charts Keflavik X is available direct from Aerosoft or from authorized Aerosoft download resellers and retails for 17.95 Euros (or equivalent). Grab your winter attire, make sure you know the location of the pitot heat and anti-ice switches in your flight deck, then head to Iceland!

STUTTGART X BOXED RELEASE

Aerosoft Germany are offering up more European scenery titles, and Stuttgart X is one of the latest to be offered in boxed version for both FSX and FS2004. The first airport of German Airports 1 is now ready for departure in Microsoft Flight Simulator. In good tradition, the award winning German Airports team provides this scenery of Stuttgart airport in a stunning quality. This add-on of Stuttgart airport represents the latest status of development of the real airport. The buildings, the layout of the runways and taxiways as well as the navaids are exactly as they are in reality. Numerous new buildings and the newly built exhibition center right next to the airport have also been included.

Features: Detailed representation of the airport and close surroundings, incl. important objects High resolution photorealistic ground textures, based on aerial images Authentic 3D models of all airport buildings and facilities Aicraft Parking and Information System (APIS) Including all navaids (ILS,VOR/DME,NDB,ATIS) Amazing night effects Fully acurate runway and taxiway lights Dynamic vehicles on the aprons and motorways by AESLite Many scenery effects Seasonal ground textures FSX and FS2004 version included Complete manual (German, English) with additional information about the airport Original airport charts Stuttgart X retails for US$23.99 for the boxed version and is available from all good flight sim retailers worldwide. Aerosoft can be found online at www.aerosoft.com

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The Flight Sim Round Table

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20

elcome to the Flight Simulator Round Table! Here we gather our flight sim experts to give their expert or personal opinion on the latest hot topics, flight sim news items, product announcements, and answers to those sim questions that are just begging to be asked!

CPM. V15I5

Our panel of flight simulator experts:

Dean Bielanowski - Dean Bielanowski is a former RN with 17 years of flight sim experience

He started with Flight Sim 4.0 and has developed scenery for earlier versions of the Microsoft Flight Simulator product. He is also a widely-published author and has been the full-time Editor of Computer Pilot Magazine since the later issues of Volume 4 onward. He mostly enjoys small GA to medium turboprop/jet flying and currently uses Flight Simulator X predominantly, but also flies X-Plane and various combat simulators as time permits!

John Lattanzio - John Lattanzio is a Nuclear Astrophysicist

who has been flying simulators since about 1987 or 88 when he was working at Livermore Labs in California. They gave staff a PC to enable them to work from home. The first thing he did was go and buy a flight simulator! He started with Chuck Yeagers simulator, and has used every version of MSFS since, as well as most of its competitors. He likes flying almost all planes.

Roger Curtiss - Roger Curtiss is a retired police detective

who began simming with

Microsoft Flight Simulator 95 and has continued with every progression since. He has been involved with the SATCO/VATSIM online ATC network since 1998 as a pilot, controller, network supervisor, VATUSA official and is now a member of the VATSIM Board of Governors. He enjoys participation on the network as a controller and virtual airline pilot with many hours logged, primarily flying the PMDG 737 series.

Harold Zimmer - Harold Farmboyzim Zimmer is a former Sergeant

in the United States Army and a retired Mortician. His first experience with flight simulation was with Graphsims F/A-18 Hornet, Korea. He has been involved in flight simulation for over fifteen years, operates his own web site, Farmboyzims Flight Sims, and writes for Computer Pilot Magazine and AVSIM.com. He uses both FS9 and FSX. Hes an amateur aircraft developer and scenery creator. He has flown a real-world DC3 and a Cessna 172.

Doug Horton - Doug Horton is a retired U.S. Naval Submarine Officer and consulting engineer

with 21

years of flight sim experience. In an effort to get real, he attained a private pilot certificate and instrument rating 10 years ago, and hes a partner in a well-equipped Cessna 182. He flies near-matching models in both FSX and X-Plane, though mostly in FSX. He writes the Hortons Hints column for every issue of Computer Pilot, along with other features.

Ken Hall - Ken Hall is a long time flight sim enthusiast and electronics technician

who has previously held a recreational pilot license and flew ultralights and composite aircraft (Sapphire) around the Upper Hunter Valley in NSW. His real world flying highlight was a circumnavigation of the state of Queensland, all VFR, including many unique stopovers and landing locations like beaches, paddocks and outside the original QANTAS hangar in Longreach. He has been a Microsoft Flight Simmer since the earliest versions, and has developed add-on scenery for the latest X version.

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Question 1 - What is your single most preferred Flight Simulator or X-Plane airport to operate in and out of, and why?

Dean Bielanowski: Naturally my choice will also be of one of my local airfields here in Australia, but it isnt the one just down the road. Rather, its about 700 miles south and is an airstrip located in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Katoomba airstrip (YKAT) is located on the top of a hill, so to speak, the next peak across from the town that bears its name. The scenery used here is the OZx Australia scenery packages. I am not sure which individual from that group actually designed the airstrip, but it is well made, and retains its small airstrip charm. There are only a few buildings located there and two intersecting grass runways. These both slope downward toward the east/southeast. Throw in some animated flocks of birds, a few static objects here and there and of course the views from atop the range and you have a fairly unique but beautiful small airstrip to operate in and out of. Flying at dawn or dusk makes the experience even more special given the surrounding geography. Well worth checking out. Ken Hall: Very hard to pick just one, but if I have to then Warnervale, NSW. Reason being that it was where I learned to fly. I still remember going solo from than narrow strip of bitumen, and the Orbx rendition is just as I remembered it, A very simple airport but so full of atmosphere. Coming in on short finals over the brickworks, all the memories flood back. I can even replicate my first solo nav from there up the Hunter Valley. I guess what makes the place is its attention to the little details. I can get out of the aircraft at any one of the above strips and just spend time enjoying the atmosphere. Its an airstrip that fits in so well and encompasses an area of terrain that I am familiar with. I cant find a single fault with it. Its as close to flying in the real world that Ive yet experienced in FSX.

Doug Horton: I prefer operating out of Chicago Aurora Municipal Airport (KARR), from which I fly a Cessna 182S Skylane with four other partners. Though the default FSX scenery for this airport is adequate, I have installed a completely accurate, photo-realistic model of this airport, based on ground level and aerial photos Ive taken, along with images available on free sources such as the Birdseye views in Bing maps. Ill keep the designer of my custom scenery anonymous for now, but what I did was notice an FSX user who periodically posts free, detailed scenery of small airports, and I asked him politely if he would work with me to design scenery for KARR. The result is amazingly accurate, and Ive saved a flight with a starting position on the apron adjacent to my partnership hangar. Harold Zimmer: Thats an easy one! Juneau, Alaska. It is a great place to jump off for some exploration of beautiful terrain, glaciers, and many challenging, small, backwoods airstrips are just sitting there ready for you to try to land on them, hopefully missing trees or cliffs! This area has so many freeware and payware add-ons available that there is just no room to list them all, but the one freeware scenery enhancement I highly recommend is Holger Sandmanns Glacier Bay V2 Scenery Pack. The changes this package will make to your default scenery is amazing, to say the least. John Lattanzio: Unfair question! Depends if I am in an airliner or an ultra-light! I love flying into Innsbruck - it still presents a challenge years after I learned how to do it. Busy airports in bad weather are fun, too, if you are in an airliner. LAX is pretty at night. I like coming through the hills on the coast and then the right turn along the coast to land in Cairns. On the other hand, the Orbx scenery for small airports is so nice that this sort of low and slow VFR flying is attracting my attention more and more! I love Coffs Harbour for example. There are many of these airports available now, often close together, so that you can hop from one to another, with beautiful scenery all the way and a real home town feel to the airfields themselves. Highly recommended! Roger Curtiss: Lately, KLAX has been my airport of choice for a couple of reasons 1) I have an excellent Blueprint Simulations scenery for that airport accurately depicting the terminal, gate and maneuvering areas. 2) Being a US West Coast resident and online flyer, KLAX usually has a significant amount of traffic during the hours I tend to fly and the VATSIM controllers there are top notch which makes it an interesting place to fly. 3) There are quite a few major city airports within one to two flight hours to/from KLAX, and the Southern California area is scenically beautiful to traverse.

Question 2 - Given the rise of electronic media, do you prefer to source and read your flight sim books, magazines or any other general content via an electronic screen, or via traditional print copy? And why?
Doug Horton: I read daily news online, but I like a traditional printed copy for overview reading of articles, as I can read the printed copy during leisure time at home and on business trips. My favorite time to catch up on reading is during commercial airline trips. I often find hard copy printed text too small for my older eyes, in spite of up to date reading glasses, so I appreciate having a parallel electronic copy, when possible, such as provided to Computer Pilot subscribers for every issue. This allows me to increase the text size, and importantly, increase the size of photos, which are often shown too small in print. When reading online, I appreciate when authors provide Click to enlarge images on web pages. John Lattanzio: I always prefer print. Its just so much more versatile, easier to hold, and you can also throw it at people without having to pay a fortune for a replacement! Roger Curtiss: I still prefer printed material as I do not utilize a laptop or notebook computer so it takes no effort to pick up a book or magazine and take it with me to peruse at any time or during a meal. I like flipping through pages rather than scrolling and find it easier to save printed articles instead of trying to sort them as electronic files.

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Dean Bielanowski: Seeing as I look at a computer screen for ten hours a day (often much more), the last thing I want to do is read anything I find enjoyable on that same screen, or any other electronic screen for that matter. Printed books, magazines or newspapers are right there, ready to grab, without need for cords, batteries or other technological paraphernalia consuming your reading time. I think print material is also easier to read, a little gentler on the eyes and somehow more engrossing. Plus, believe it or not, its generally faster to flick pages in a book than it is to do the same on a screen (at least it is for me). Give me a printed book any day. Harold Zimmer: I always have like the Hard Copy for anything from magazines to manuals. I believe whole heartedly in saving trees by using less paper, but there are some things that are best read in hand. Besides, what would I take to the Reading Room to pass the timea Newspaper? I think not! On a serious note though, for my own personal use, I find it handier to access information (for example, flight manuals/information) that is in hand while flying the simulators. Ken Hall: Two such different ways to keep in touch with whats going on the Internet and flight sim forums are where I go to keep in touch with things on a daily basis. This method is instant, its complete with opinions from all levels of simmers, and as a result I feel I get a pretty well balanced view on things. I generally start the day browsing the forums. If I need something more specific I can do a search. There are some amazing websites available. Just recently Ive been using SkyVector for flight planning. Ill open up Google Earth, pick out where I want to fly, type in the airport codes, click a button, and up comes my flight plan. I can then alter it by a simple click and drag on a leg of that plan and connect it with a nearby VOR and it gives me the radials to fly on screen. So much information at the click of a mouse! However when I just want to enjoy basking in an article written by someone who has a passion for their flying, then print is the only way to go. Detailed How-Tos and step-by-step tutorials where I can just read part or all in one go are a must in print form as you can easily re-read the content over and over until it sinks in. No bookmarking web pages, and no need to read the whole thing in one hit before you lose the web page or your browser crashes. So, some content for me is best in print, other content I enjoy more in digital.

John Lattanzio: All of these depend on how much time I have. I sometimes just set up real world weather and fly between two places I do not know, to keep me on my toes! Sometimes I will deliberately challenge myself with some very poor weather. I often use Plan-G to plan a route, especially if I am exploring new scenery. That way I get to cover most of the geographic features from the map, and I just use that route as a guide for, essentially, VFR flying. Harold Zimmer: Flying in the Virtual World has the advantage of being flexible enough to fit your mood, at whatever time you sit down for a flight. For my GA Low and slow flying, I choose areas that are scenic and challenging, or that Im simply curious about. I dont always have a particular destination, but always try to land somewhere and not hit the esc key! More often than not, I will have a destination planned, with a route that will take me there in a way that I will be able to see the country. Commercial flying always takes more planning, and thats OK since the name of the game with the Heavies is Planning and Preparation. For the weather, I always check out what the real world weather has to offer by firing up WeatherMakerRx, which manages the weather settings in an excellent manner. If its just too nasty out, and Im not feeling like fighting the elements, Ill go with clouds set from 3/8 to 5/8, just because I like them! Roger Curtiss: Most of my flying is online and for virtual airlines so a big part of the process is dictated by where I left the airplane at the conclusion of my previous flight. I also must adhere to the available routes published by the VA. I then check to see if ATC is up and running in the area of my possible destinations and factor in how much time I have available to devote to a session. If I am online weather is always real world. Those criteria greatly influence everything that follows. I have a basic series of actions I use that are explained in an article I wrote (12 Steps to Flight Sim Addiction) which appeared in the last issue. Dean Bielanowski: For me the process is highly variable and it usually works in the reverse manner to the process the original question suggests. I first decide where to fly. That choice often dictates what type of aircraft I fly. The type of aircraft might dictate the type of weather, although I most often use real world weather, so part of the process is to check local weather first before I select the aircraft to fly. No point taking a Katana or Tomahawk into a raging storm its just not safe! I like using real world weather because it can really make each flight unique. Adding a better weather engine package like REX2 (Real Environment Xtreme 2) further diversifies the experience. Once I have that all figured out, Ill refine the route for the flight. Initially Ill have an idea of where I want to fly, but it regularly gets changed when I come to actually planning it due to the other factors mentioned here (aircraft type, weather etc). I enjoy navigating old style using VORs and NDBs where possible and the standard FSX flight planner can suffice for planning these trips. There are better flight planning software packages out there, and some even web-based which provide more options and features if needed. The goal of all these decisions is to end up creating not just a flight, but an experience, and one that is as unique as the one flown before it. If you can change things up often, you will enjoy your sim flying a whole lot more, guaranteed.

Question 3 - Explain briefly how you set up your own flight simulator flying sessions in regard to pre-flight planning, setting weather conditions, how you decide where to fly, and when, and in what, and why you make these choices?
Doug Horton: My flight simulator sessions are of three principal types: (a) AI aircraft spotting at FSX airports with high quality add-on scenery, particularly including airports I visit for travel; (b) replaying real flights Ive taken as a commercial airline passenger, using real flight plans I obtain from www.flightaware.com; and (c) pre-flying in FSX, real flights Im planning to fly in my partnership Cessna 182. For these sessions I fly the FS2004 default Cessna 182 copied to FSX and customized to match my real control panel, and I often practice likely instrument approaches with aid of the Reality XP Garmin GNS 530W add-on instrument. I look up real weather for flight planning, and I fly FSX with real weather updates enabled.

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Ken Hall: It depends on where I want to fly, which airports to fly to and from, and the distance involved etc. So if I feel like a beat up of the strip at a small scenic airport, Ill just load up the Spitfire, select early morning or evening time frames and choose a quick weather theme that suits. If Im doing things properly with a flight plan Ill first work out the planned route then pick a suitable aircraft. Lately for my North American runs Ive been using the Beech Bonanza. Im familiar with all the autopilot bells and whistles and radios and it gets along at a good rate so I can visit a reasonable number of strips in a reasonable time. For these types of flights I will take the time to set the weather manually, just how I want it. Recently Ive been setting a layer of thunderstorms at about 3000-6000ft, one eighth density, and an upper layer of cirrus from 12,000 to 16,000. Then, most important is the visibility. Just the right amount of haze makes it look more real (usually 10 miles up to 1500ft; 20 miles up to 3500ft; 30 miles up to 5000ft). Other times Ill dial up real world weather and just take what comes my way. This can be very challenging if the conditions are simulated accurately. We have a sim that caters for so many varieties of flying that theres something special in it for everyone!

Dean Bielanowski: Id like to see more attention paid to diversifying scenery in the sim. As it stands now, at least with FSX, you could be flying in western China or in Africa, and you may not be able to tell the difference. You could be flying in the middle of Europe, or somewhere in Malaysia and may not be able to tell the difference. What I am getting at is the need to have ground texture sets specific to the various major regions of the world, have autogen buildings and objects better represent the countries of the world. You should be able to tell, or at least have a fair idea of where you may be just by looking at the architecture and style of the autogen objects. Give the virtual countries a visual flavor that uniquely defines those parts of the globe, just like the obvious uniqueness they exhibit in the real world. Ken Hall: Well, Im a visual kind of guy, so upping the ability to create more immersion graphically is something Id like to see. As hardware gets faster, hard drives larger and faster, and graphics cards become even more powerful, FSX developers are having their hands untied to a degree. More things are becoming possible and there are some very creative guys out there pushing the boundaries. But near the top of the list would have to be more realistic cloud shadows imagine the screenshots. Waterways also need upgrading. Right now the best representations of water/lakes/rivers is via the use of photo-real textures, but often these extend only so far and you are back to the ugly default stuff. Looking not too far into the future, these are not unreal expectations. Maybe as a light-hearted wish, the addition of the smells of Jet AI at the big airports would make my day. I love the smell of Jet A1 in the morning.

Question 4 - If there was one single thing you could change with your preferred flight simulation program, what would it be and why?
Harold Zimmer: I consider that a tough question, actually. My preferred program is still FS9, as my system handles it extremely well and its tuned up to the point that suits me just fine. Add-ons are easily installed for the most part, FS rarely crashes, and start-up for the hobby is fairly priced. About the only thing I think that I would consider changing, is having Microsoft offer MSFS 2004 to the market again, as not everyone has Super Computers. My own is over 5 years old. I think it would make the availability of the hobby open to a wider range of computer owners. Doug Horton: My preferred flight simulation program is FSX, and we know that a successor program is in the works. From information and screenshots at www.microsoft.com/games/flight, it appears the program will be an evolutionary update of FSX, though Im hoping the team is able to rework the program to ease computer requirements and update the underlying code to take better advantage of multi-core and multi-threaded capabilities of continuously improving and moderately priced processors and graphics cards. In my continuing series of articles about benchmarking FSX, Ive demonstrated how it is currently possible to achieve FSX performance with processors with higher core speeds and significantly lower prices than just two years ago. John Lattanzio: I think it has to be improvements in the scenery. It may be impractical, but very high resolution textures everywhere is what we need to fool the mind into believing we are really there. Related to this is the tendency for buildings to pop into view - especially true for autogen. I find this really annoying - a moving edge to the highly detailed region is always visible to me and rather annoying. Roger Curtiss: I prefer flying with a 2D panel and most of my hours are logged in a PMDG 737 but with a single screen monitor configuration (hopefully about to change in the near future) that entails a good deal of view changing while taxiing and in flight so ideally I would like to be able to use TrackIR in that mode.

Question 5 - Have you ever created, or considered creating a freeware or payware add-on for your flight simulator? If so, in which area would you focus and why. If not, are there any reasons why you havent considered it?
Doug Horton: Through the years, Ive been a great fan of users being able to customize airport and facilities data through so-called AFCAD programs. At one point, I was contributing files to an online group that provided library service for these files. I discontinued this effort because the group did not adopt FSX standards for their files, and it was rare to hear from any users adopting my contributions. In lieu of this effort, Ive offered testing, comments, and suggestions to many add-on program developers, including a current effort thats developing a professionally-operated ATC system for both FSX and XPlane, and a group of volunteers who are providing specifications and organization of flight simulation training for future pilots. John Lattanzio: I would love to get some missions together that reflect the wonderful work done by the Royal Flying Doctors Service in Australia. These guys fly mostly Kingair and Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, often landing on dusty strips illuminated by headlights or a few kerosene fires. They take emergency cases, accident victims, and routine medical flights every day, from remote outback Australia to large hospitals, and everything in between. The challenges they face would make some great missions!

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Dean Bielanowski: Back in the days of FS95 and FS98 I created some scenery for my home town of Brisbane, Australia. I worked alongside a few other local designers at the time and we produced a reasonably good scenery package, although it was never fully finished. It was tough back then to create a scenery package. A lot of hand coding was involved. These days it is much easier as most of the processes are automated to some degree. I am not planning on creating any major payware scenery at the moment (time is in short supply) but who knows what might prevail in the future. If I was to create something, it would likely be scenery, and likely be in the areas I prefer to fly. Ken Hall: I have been creating scenery for FSX about 2-3 years now and must admit it is addictive. My first strip was for Ozx in my local area of Tasmania, It was a strip I had discovered while fixing a satellite dish for a customer. He had the most beautiful setting at the base of Mt Roland. I had ducks swimming in the dams, horses in the paddocks; the whole place was a postcard. I am very fortunate to start designing at a time when the software and techniques have been streamlined somewhat from earlier days which make the job very much easier. But there is a learning curve and its best to start with something simple. Understand the process and as you get comfortable with that level keep challenging yourself to find ways to do it better. I think all up Ive created 50 or so freeware strips, each one getting just that bit more attention to detail as I progressed. For Moruya (YMRY) I even modelled an old Shell tanker (just the tanker), no engine or cabin, chocked up on stilts. It was parked behind one of the hangars with grass growing up through the tyres. A variety of other clutter was added to give the airport a lived in look. 3D grasses and satellite dishes on the roof of the terminal building were additional extras added that change the look and feel of the airport. You end up falling in love with the airport youre trying to replicate. It becomes your home base for a while, then you move on to the next challenge. There certainly is something very special about flying into a strip youve helped to create. No wonder when I started this journey my fellow developers greeted me with a well known phrase in this industry; Welcome to the DARK SIDE. It can become an obsession, but a wonderful one at that.

Roger Curtiss: I have had the germ of an idea for a few years now of creating a payware add-on with an emphasis on airport operations. It would emulate the role of either an airport manager, fixed base operator, or airline station agent with responsibilities for providing and scheduling many aspects of airport services- terminal rent, aircraft servicing, landing fees, airfield maintenance, inclement weather operations (de-icing and snow removal), gate scheduling, personnel costs, etc. It remains only an idea mainly because I lack the programming knowledge and skills to implement it and do not know what it would cost to produce and market such a program. Harold Zimmer: Yes, I have created a few models for FS9. The first and only model I created and uploaded for others is the Curtis Sparrowhawk of the airship USS Macon fame. It can be found at AVSIM with the file name of curtiss_sparrowhawk.zip. I love the old biplanes and being able to create them is even more satisfying than making a plastic model of the aircraft! I utilize Abacus Flight Design Studio 3.5, which is actually quite easy to use Im surprised there are not more amateur developers out there like there used to be a few years ago. I am also using the same utility on making a Fishing Lodge and surrounding scenery for a yet to be determined location. I felt it was important to know what goes into making these products if I was going to review them. Having this basic knowledge makes me appreciate the developers and their products even more!

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BY DOUG HORTON

xcept for the information available at www.Microsoft.com/Games/Flight, we dont know much about Flight and itll likely be several more months until we obtain ner details. Meanwhile, we have a few guesses that can be used to gauge the readiness of computer hardware for the new program. Many of us learned that our hardware was marginal for operating FSX with high scenery, autogen, AI trafc, and other demanding settings. In consideration of the new program, we might wonder if our operating systems, graphics cards, and processors are ready for Microsoft Flight?

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REVIEW
This article anticipates that Flight will be programmed for DirectX version 11 and we provide some methods you can use to see if your system supports this feature. The principal improvement provided by DX 11 is a feature called tessellation, and this article introduces a free, breathtaking visual benchmarking program, which with a simple keystroke, toggles tessellation on and off, as illustrated below with comparative screen images. For your visual system to test well, its important to operate with the fastest processor (CPU) you can reasonably afford, possibly including overclocking of the processor by you or the system builder. In the May-June issue, in my article titled, Benchmarking FSX: New Components for Budget Computer Builds, I tested and recommended an inexpensive processor and other hardware that produced FSX framerate performance previously attainable only with components costing three to four times as much. To see where you stand in terms of hardware performance, as tested with FSX until Flight is released, we revisit the simple benchmarking procedure available with the free FSXMark07 application.

DXDIAG1.JPG ON THE DXDIAG SYSTEM TAB, THE HIGHLIGHTED LINE INDICATES THE DIRECTX VERSION OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM IS DIRECTX 11.

DirectX 11
DirectX is a suite of multimedia technologies required by many Windows games. If your computer doesnt have the matching or latest version of DirectX installed (the product box or user guide should tell you which one you need), your game might not work properly. According to Microsoft: Windows 7 includes a new version of DirectX, the software behind the eye-popping 3-D visuals and immersive sound effects found in many of todays PC games. DirectX 11 includes numerous improvements. Its designed to be more efcient, leverage the power of todays multi-core processors, and provide support for sophisticated shading and texturing techniques such as tessellation. The result: smoother 3-D animation, and graphics more lifelike and nuanced than ever before. Key features of DirectX 11 include:

Recall as in past versions of Windows, you dont necessarily need the latest version of Windows to operate with the latest version of DirectX, as runtime versions are downloadable from Microsoft.

DXDIAG2.JPG

Tessellation Tessellation is implemented on the GPU to calculate a smoother curved surface resulting in more graphically detailed images, including more lifelike objects in the gaming worlds. Multi-Threading The ability to scale across multi-core CPUs will enable developers to take greater advantage of the power within multi-core CPUs. This results in faster framerates for games, while still supporting increased visual detailing. DirectCompute Developers can utilize the power of discrete graphics cards to accelerate both gaming and non-gaming applications. This improves graphics, while also enabling players to accelerate everyday tasks, like video editing, with Windows 7.

ON THE DXDIAG DISPLAY TAB, THE HIGHLIGHTED LINE INDICATES THE DIRECTX VERSION OF THE INSTALLED GRAPHICS CARD.

On the DxDiag System and Display tabs shown in the accompanying image, you can see that the example computer system supports DirectX 11, but the installed GeForce GTX 260 graphics card only supports DirectX version 10, which is shown in the highlighted box DDI Version 10. In general, NVIDIAbased graphics cards support DX 11 beginning with the 400 series, continuing with the 500 series. AMD-based graphics cards support DX 11 beginning with the 5000 series, continuing with the 6000 series.

Heaven Benchmark 2.5

We dont know for sure, but its highly likely that Flight will be programmed to support DirectX 11, and its also likely that many users do not have graphics cards that will support all the features of this new technology, particularly tessellation. To tell if your Windows installation and graphics card mutually support DirectX 11, press the Windows Start button and enter in the Run or Search box DXDIAG and run this utility thats included with Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7. Once the rst window opens, you can choose to run the 64-bit version if you have a 64-bit version of Windows. If youre interested in trying out a DX9, DX10, or DX11 graphics card to see how its performing, visit http://unigine.com/products/ heaven/. This link takes you to information and a download link for Unigine Corp.s Heaven Benchmark 2.5, which uses the Unigine real-time 3D engine. According to its developers, this utility reveals the enchanting magic of oating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. By the way, I had to look up steampunk on Wikipedia.org to understand its meaning. Give it a try if you dont know the meaning. 27

comparative screen images, tessellation is toggled OFF in the left column and ON in the right column. Sample Heaven Benchmark textures include cobblestones, stone walls, the spiny dragon sculpture, and terra cotta roof tiles.

Tessellation OFF

Tessellation ON

UNIGINE1.JPG SCREENSHOT FROM HEAVEN BENCHMARK 2.5 COURTESY OF UNIGINE CORP .

Heaven Benchmark 2.5 features include: Support of DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0 Heavy GPU load Comprehensive use of tessellation technology Advanced ambient occlusion Dynamic global illumination Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds of high physical delity Simulation of day-night shift and changing light conditions Dynamic sky with light scattering Interactive experience with y/walk-through modes Support of NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFire technologies Stereo 3D modes: anaglyph, separate images, 3D Vision, and iZ3D

Here are comparative Heaven DX 11 benchmarks for the sampling of DX 11 graphics cards and system memory tested. The benchmark improves slightly with the GTX 460 compared to the HD 6850, and perhaps because of the graphical intensity of the Heaven benchmark video, the GTX 480 adds measurably to performance, though whether more advanced or expensive graphics cards make a quantitative or qualitative difference with MS Flight is yet to be determined. Its also interesting to see the signicant difference in the underlying wire frame models for the cobblestone walkway with tessellation toggled OFF and ON. Graphics Card Memory Heaven DX11 Benchmark Score HD 6850 HD 6850 GTX 460 GTX 460 GTX 480 2 x 4 GB Vengeance 2 x 2 GB Dominator 2 x 4 GB Vengeance 2 x 2 GB Dominator 2 x 4 GB Vengeance 459 460 478 480 611 Framerate 18.2 18.2 19.0 19.1 24.2

Tessellation OFF

Tessellation ON

To demonstrate whether the tested system is fully compliant with DirectX 11s tessellation feature, you can toggle tessellation OFF or ON with the F3 key in Heaven Benchmark. If you dont see a change in objects, youre probably not seeing tessellation because your system does not support DX 11. You can also remove the textures from all objects in the Heaven Benchmark and see the underlying wire frames. This is done by toggling the F2 key, combined with toggling tessellation with the F3 key. Youll see many more wires with tessellation enabled, which explains why tessellation provides more contoured and seemingly 3D objects. In the accompanying

What are wire frame models? When in doubt, consult www.Wikipedia.org: A wire frame model is a visual presentation of a three dimensional or physical object used in 3D computer graphics. It is created by specifying each edge of the physical object where two mathematically continuous smooth surfaces meet, or by connecting an objects constituent vertices using straight lines or curves. The object is projected onto the computer screen by drawing lines at the location of each edge. Using a wire frame model allows visualization of the underlying design structure of a 3D model . CPM. V15I5

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REVIEW
Benchmarking with FSXMark07
There are many FSX performance claims posted on assorted ight simulator forums. Nearly all of these claims are based on user observations in relation to changing computer hardware components and FSX settings, but most are what engineers and statisticians call anecdotal. They tell a story, but not the complete story, and often not an accurate story. Yes, users see a certain framerate and make certain conclusions. But is it the framerate while paused, or in ight? If in ight, where does the ight take place, whats the track, and what sceneries are being used? What weather is selected? Which aircraft is being used? 2D control panel or Virtual Cockpit? What AI aircraft are in range? What are the overall FSX display settings? The list of variables is long, and in most cases, standardized settings and test methods are not used, so the results are usually not causal, repeatable, nor reproducible. By way of denitions, causal in a statistical context means that an observed effect or measurable result is due solely to one independent change in a variable, such as hardware or settings, with all other factors held constant. Many times, observed effects are coincident, not causal, such as, It rained yesterday and I won the lottery! Coincident yes, causal no! Repeatable means that a tester obtains similar results with repeated tests, for the same test conditions, such that results vary less than a specied amount, such as 5%. This is related to statistical variance, but its not quite the same. Reproducible means that other testers obtain the same results as the initial tester, using identical hardware and settings, again, within a specied variation. What follows is a description of a proven method for benchmarking FSX framerate performance with standardized settings, to provide causal and repeatable results. Take the time to read the description, installation instructions, how to run tests, and how to view logged results. Installation can be completed in less than 10 minutes after downloading two les, and once installed, testing is as easy as starting FSX with the saved benchmarking ight, conrming settings once per session, running at least three ve-minute test ights, and then reviewing results. Test Description. The best means of accurately benchmarking FSX framerate performance is using the free FSXMark07 package, developed by user Gary Dunne, which includes the necessary FSX les and simple instructions, which are summarized below. The free FRAPS utility is used for framerate tracking and logging. With FSX, standardized testing with FSXMark07 means: The FSXMark07 test ight begins paused, north of downtown Seattle, and after unpausing FSX, the ight continues toward the downtown area, turns to y over Boeing Field and SeaTac airports, and then it heads toward the Auburn airport, with Mt. Rainier visible in the distance. The ight provides a great variety of scenery, terrain, and clouds, with a modest amount of AI aircraft and boat trafc. The test ight aircraft is the default Bombardier CRJ 700, and it ies at 1500 feet MSL at 250 knots as FRAPS counts frames over a ve-minute period. The test ight is then repeated at least two more times, to ensure results are consistent. After at least three test ights, the simple average of the FRAPS-recorded framerates is calculated. Pinning the le FSXMark07.t to the taskbar simplies reloading the ight for the next trial. Installation. Download FSXMark07.zip from www.avsim.com, read the instructions, download FRAPS from www.fraps.com, install as directed, and make the FRAPS settings recommended in the FSXMark07 instructions. For the FSXMark07 procedure, installation includes extracting the FSXMark07.t, .plan, .wx, and .fssave les to the users C:\Users\ (username)\Documents (or My Documents)\Flight Simulator X Files\ folder. Similarly, the FSXMark07 - Global High.CFG le should be extracted to the same location. Note: though an FSXMark07 - Max.CFG le is provided, it is not used, because its settings are too aggressive. FRAPS installation is from an executable le, and after installing, run FRAPS. On its setting interface, ensure the following settings are made:

On the General tab, check Start Fraps minimized and FRAPS window always on top. On the 99 FPS tab, designate a location for saving the benchmark results les, such as the Benchmarks folder under the FRAPS folder; set Benchmarking Hotkey to P, check MinMaxAvg for le to save, and set Stop benchmark automatically after... to 300 seconds (5 minutes). Also, enter None for Overlay Hotkey, ensure the upper right corner is selected on the Overlay Corner image, Hide overlay is not checked, and Only update overlay once a second is not checked. Ignore the Movies and Screenshots tabs.

Only one variable is changed at a time, such as one hardware component or one FSX conguration setting. A standard conguration is provided by loading a specied *.cfg le to modify the users FSX.cfg le, and then making one or two other changes, as suggested below. If scenery, terrain, land class, or airport and facilities data (AFCAD les), or other les are added to FSX in the Scenery Library, they are disabled for the test area, which with FSXMark07 is the Seattle, Washington, USA area. A selected default aircraft ies a set route, on autopilot, on autothrottle, at the same altitude and airspeed, with other conditions (or states) set in specied *.t, *.fssave, and *.pln les. Weather is set in a specied *.wx le FRAPS is used to track and log framerate data for ve minutes for each test.

Experience conrms that adding one more conguration change provides less variation in results. On the FSX menu bar, select Options, Settings, Display, Graphics tab, and then check the box for Preview DX 10. A warning box will pop up to prompt restarting FSX after making this setting. With Preview DX 10 enabled, FSX runs from a parallel code path instead of its DX 9 code path. If this change is not selected, the results from every rst test ight after starting FSX will be lower than from subsequent test ights. One other small detail, if a widescreen display is being used, its best to manually edit the FSX.cfg le to properly display the control panel and outside scenery. To do this, nd and modify in the [Display] section, or enter if not there, the parameter line WideViewAspect=True, and then save the FSX.cfg le. This change needs to be made when FSX is not running. When users compare results, they should specify their respective display resolutions and whether the display is widescreen or not, along with a listing of principal hardware components.

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disappear within a few seconds. Do not touch the mouse or keyboard, as doing so will reduce the framerate. Enjoy the scenery during the ve-minute ight until you see the framerate display reappear with a momentary red box around the average framerate number. Not to worry if you miss seeing this number, because FRAPS calculates and stores the framerate results les in the designated Benchmarks folder.
(30BENCHENDADJ.JPG)

FRAPS INTERFACE GENERAL TAB SETTINGS FOR FSXMARK07

VIEW AFTER FIVE MINUTES OF BENCHMARKING FLIGHT, WITH MT. RAINIER IN DISTANCE LEFT OF CENTER

After a test ight is complete and the FRAPS framerate display has reappeared, theres a quick means of starting another ight. Without hitting the P key, reload the ight from the FSX menu, or copy and use a shortcut on your desktop to C:\Users\(username)\Documents\ Flight Simulator X Files\FSXMark07.FLT. This action should reload the ight while keeping FSX and FRAPS coordinated, and the yellow FRAPS display should be visible after reloading.
FRAPS INTERFACE 99FPS TAB SETTINGS FOR FSXMARK07

Benchmarking Procedure. Start FSX and go to menu Options, Settings, Save, to rename and save your current FSX conguration le, which allows loading the saved conguration le after benchmarking is completed. Next, go to Options, Settings, and Load the FSXMark07 - Global High.CFG le, which will modify 38 parameters in the FSX. cfg le. Also, ensure that the Preview DirectX 10 box is checked in Options, Settings, Display, Graphics tab, and for uniformity with other test results, select Anisotropic ltering and Anti-aliasing, as these settings are not part of the FSXMark07 - Global High.CFG le modications.

Benchmarking Results. The accompanying image shows sample results displayed in a table, from a typical FSX (date and time stamp) minmaxavg.csv le, which can most simply be viewed in Windows Explorer. Open the Preview pane, and you can view the contents of the *.csv les one at a time without opening the les. If desired, you can copy sets of results to a spreadsheet and plot results in relation to computer and FSX settings. Again, running at least three trials is recommended for each hardware or settings change. If any test has a result thats not within 5% of the other results, run at least one more trial, and then take the average of all results.

RESULTS.JPG SAMPLE FRAPS RESULTS FROM ONE FSX BENCHMARKING RUN

(30BENCHSTARTADJ.JPG) VIEW AT BEGINNING OF BENCHMARKING FLIGHT

Cautionary Notes. Occasionally, FSX and FRAPS can become unsynchronized between ights or use of Pause commands, with FRAPS continuing to count framerates and generating invalid summary les, so if necessary after the ight is reloaded, stop and restart FRAPS such that you see the yellow framerate number as the ight is paused at the start. If you nd FRAPS results les with less than 300 seconds shown (less than 300000 milliseconds in the *.csv le), these are from these unsynchronized pauses, and they should be deleted. Finally, other computer programs and underlying services can affect framerate results. Its best to run FSXMark07 benchmarking after a fresh reboot, and with background processes disabled, such as antivirus, le indexing, and other programs that may cause le reading and writing during benchmarking. Remember that FSX is CPU-bound and the objective is to provide full CPU resources to running FSX. CPM. V15I5

Open and minimize the FRAPS interface, and note the yellow framerate display in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Important: click your mouse on the FSX screen to bring it in focus, wait about ve seconds for the mouse cursor image to disappear, and then press the P key to simultaneously un-pause, start the benchmark ight and FRAPS framerate logging, after which FRAPS will momentarily display a green box and the yellow framerate display will 30

REVIEW

MINI-REVIEW

ANTS AIRPLANES: DRIFTER 582

BY GENE DAVIS
ust recently I have noticed more and more Ultralight traffic above my house as summer progresses and I couldnt help but think what a cool way that would be to see the Oregon Coastline! I immediately had flashbacks to the Quadcity Challenger that Bill Lyons did for FS9 and wondered what was available, if anything, for FSX. Low and behold, almost the next day, I get a request to write a short review on the Drifter from Ants Airplanes! The Drifter 582 Ultralight from Ants Airplanes (modeled by Anthony Lynch) is, to put it mildly, a work of art as so much detail has gone into its design. The Drifter package comes as a two-seater with both a wheeled version and a float plane version available for the one price. There are over 10 different liveries, and it includes a custom designed radio and GPS unit, an authentic sound set, and its own comprehensive load manager that runs separate from FSX offering many features and options. The cockpit is made up of a basic set of instruments along with the custom GPS and Radio unit. The radio unit can be configured via the manager to add your own preset Nav frequencies for whatever area in which you choose to fly. The external model relies heavily on detail and leaves little left to the imagination. Most impressive is the detail that went into the design of the engine. it is beautifully modeled and is so detailed you can actually make out its individual parts. This package also includes both new and used models, so if you are flying an older one it will show the effects of weathering and age. It also includes a wide array of eye candy such as pilot and passenger animations, tie-downs, pitot covers, and wheel chocks. For one of my first flights I decided to fly out of a little grass airstrip called Wakonda Beach just a few miles north of my house. I have been told by pilots that it is a difficult airfield because of its size and close proximity to many trees but I have seen 172s and 152s land there before. The warnings proved to carry weight! As I climbed out of Wakonda and turned to the west my Drifter caught a blast of wind off the Pacific Ocean that sent it into a quick left turn and it started to stall. The Drifters modeled buffeting effect is quite noticeable here and acts in a realistic manner. After a short flight south over a couple campgrounds and onto Yachats I turned the Drifter back towards Wakonda and dropped her in amongst the trees and wildlife. Overall, the control was excellent and the small craft, though forgiving, is a challenge to learn how to fly. The Drifter is certainly a much nicer bird to fly than the default Ultralight included in FSX, and it makes the ideal short hop

aircraft, low-level tourer, or the perfect aircraft to attempt landing at very short or obstruction-heavy airstrips which larger birds would have trouble handling. Anthony Lynch has certainly created one of the best payware Ultralights made yet for the FSX platform and it is very well priced at just AUD$19.95 for the instant download (no boxed version exists). You can purchase the Drifter from PC Aviator Australia www.pcaviator.com.au/store or from PC Aviator USA www.pcaviator.com/store FIVE MINUTES WITH ANTHONY LYNCH, DEVELOPER OF THE ANTS AIRPLANES DRIFTER Computer Pilot: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you got involved in aviation and flight simulation? Anthony Lynch: I started flight simming in 2006 using FS9. After a year or so I started creating my own scenery of Australian airports for FS9 and eventually ended up contributing to the VistaOZ project at that time. In 2008, a new computer allowed me to upgrade to FSX and I set about converting the airfields I had created for FS9 to FSX and I eventually released about 30 airfields for FSX. Towards the end of 2009 I thought I would try my hand at making an aircraft and so created the freeware Tiger Moth which was released around the start of 2010. My first commercial aircraft, the Sierra LSA, was released in late 2010. Computer Pilot: What inspired you to create the Drifter aircraft over any others you were considering building? Anthony Lynch: In the end it was a favor I owed someone. The owner of Drifter 25-455 had taken some photos of Boonah airfield for some scenery I was making and to repay him I made his Drifter in FSX. Ultralight aircraft seem to have been forgotten by many developers as well as simmers. Due to the excellent field of view I think the Drifter is a fantastic aircraft to enjoy some of the smaller, highly detailed sceneries that are being released lately. Computer Pilot: What references to the real aircraft did you have and how did they help you create the FSX model? Anthony Lynch: The owner allowed me to photograph the Drifter and record the engine noises of his aircraft.

Without this sort of access to an aircraft it can be hard to create a really detailed model. I needed to take hundreds of photographs of the aircraft and usually at all sorts of odd angles and perspectives. The owner is also a keen flight simmer and he was able to provide invaluable feedback on the flight dynamics and characteristics of his aircraft. Computer Pilot: Are there any special features found in the Drifter model (real or virtual) that are not commonplace in other aircraft? If so, can you elaborate on these? Also, are there any hidden Easter Eggs or undocumented secret features? Anthony Lynch: One thing I have never seen on any other FSX aircraft is the yaw string. This is a small piece of string taped to the front of the windshield and helps indicate if the aircraft is slipping. Yaw strings are common on real ultralights and gliders, probably because they are a lot cheaper and lighter than a dedicated turn/slip indicator gauge. Computer Pilot: Are you planning on creating more aircraft in the future? If so, can you hint at what aircraft they may be, or at least which type of aircraft you would like to build in the future. Anthony Lynch: I am definitely planning on developing more general aviation and kit aircraft in the future. I often receive emails from people with suggestions for what aircraft they would like to see but usually I require access to the aircraft to make an accurate model which can limit the type of aircraft I can create. Computer Pilot: You have also created freeware scenery in the past. Do you plan on building more? Do you prefer creating aircraft or scenery add-ons. Anthony Lynch: I still do the occasional airfield scenery. In fact, Im actually working on a small Victorian airport right now which I hope to be completing shortly. Scenery certainly takes a lot less time to do than aircraft and it is a lot easier on the old grey matter too. Sometimes when making an aircraft with a to-do list that is pages long, it can feel like you will never finish it! Computer Pilot: And lastly... Do red planes go faster? Anthony Lynch: Only if they have a white stripe down the side. Put two stripes on and youre really flying! Thanks to Anthony Lynch for taking the time to provide some insight into his current and future projects.

31

AirbusBUNDLE Evolution Series Vol.1 + Vol.2

BY HAROLD FARMBOYZIM ZIMMER
ilco Publishing and the development team at feelThere, have produced another fine representation of a commercial aircraft within their Pilot in Command (PIC) series of models. I had the opportunity to review the 737 PIC add-on for MSFS 2004 some time ago and still have that model loaded up and seeing some air time once in a while. Wilco has bundled up their Airbus Series Evolution Volume 1 and Volume 2 into

one product that you can enjoy. Developers, working in conjunction with professional pilots for technical advice, have developed the Airbus Series Evolution, which they claim is one of the most advanced and realistic Airbus simulations thus far for the Microsoft flight simulator series, both MS2004 and FSX. Before we start looking at what Wilco has in store for all you Airbus drivers, lets take a quick look at Airbus Industries, and who they are.

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CPM. V15I5

ONE OF MANY LIVERIES AVAILABLE CLEAN AND EASY TO USE PANEL

WING VIEW

WELL PAINTED

Roger Bteille was appointed technical director of the A300 program. Henri Ziegler, president of Sud Aviation, was later named general manager of what would become Airbus Industries and a German politician, Franz-Josef Strauss, was made chairman of the supervisory board. These men were to become known as the fathers of Airbus, along with a man whose skills Bteille recognized at once: Felix Kracht, a young German engineer, who had been working for Nord Aviation but was about to join the German Airbus group as head of sales and marketing. Kracht took on the role of production director.
AIRCRAFT!

A History Lesson
Quite a few deals have been made at air shows around the world, both in the military circles as well as the commercial branches of aviation. So it was with the beginnings of Airbus Industries. Talks had already been initiated between a consortium of European countries as to the feasibility of a joint program to help strengthen ties amongst them and to boost the economic and technological development of the countries involved. In May of 1969, at the Paris air show in France, the French transport minister, Jean Chamant, along with the German minister of economics, Karl Schiller, sat in the cabin mock-up of an aircraft that would take commercial aviation in a new direction, both in development as well as in business. Later, they signed an agreement that would launch the A300 program. This aircraft would be the worlds first wide body, twin engine passenger jet. The Germans, French, British, and Dutch were all involved. It had been decided that to go up against the United States companies, such as Boeing, it would be to their advantage to team up in this endeavor. America held about 80% of the world market at the time, and Airbus was hoping for at least 25% of the world market. Many well known individuals from companies all across Europe were recruited to get this fledgling company moving.

Passenger aircraft include the A320, A330, A340, A350 XWB & A380 family. Various Corporate Jets, Freighter aircraft (The A330200F, A380F and Beluga), along with Military variations, i.e. the A400M, are the aircraft that make up Airbus Industries fleet of aircraft. They are, by now, familiar sights at just about all major airports around the world. A venture that was undertaken by the company that is worth mentioning is the giant A380, which had its own rocky road to follow, until the day came when this behemoth of an aircraft took to the sky, with folks watching in jaw dropping amazement. Airbus Industries has facilities around the world and employs tens of thousands of workers, and has been able to hold its own in the aviation market. They have contributed significant advancements to aviation technology in the development of Airbus models. One of these developments was to make all aircraft relatively the same, so that cross training for pilots could be kept short and sweet, and the benefits of maintenance are self explanatory. Each of the aircrafts avionics are, for the most part, identical. This is a big plus for you, the simmer as well as the pilotsa little less to learn, but a wide variety of aircraft to fly! Very early on, in the days of that first A300, yokes were initially used, but you will find that joysticks for both pilot and co-pilot are used in all models now. The models also use the modern fly-by-wire technology, first used in military aircraft.

33

LUFTHANSA LIVERY FUNCTIONAL CENTER PEDESTAL

THE AIRBUS IS A GOOD LOOKING AIRCRAFT

Back to the Product

Downloading and installation went smoothly, but there are some steps that are necessary to activate your product on-lineafter purchasing, you will quickly receive an email with information pertaining to your purchase. This will include a download link for the product, along with a registration key and code. Print it out or save it to a document, as you will need this for the initial and any further installations. You are allowed a limited number of downloads of the product, then you must request a new download key, for security purposes. Installation sizes were between 700 to 900 Mb, depending on the package and installation to FS9 or FSX. Set-up times did not take very long, around ten minutes or so. No liveries are installed except for the base Airbus Industries Livery. You can download from a considerable selection of liveries for both FS9 and FSX from the Wilco site. I found this very convenient as it sped up installation times and allowed me to choose the liveries I wanted to be installed, saving a bit of room on the hard drive. Installation of the liveries is as simple as a few mouse clicks.

A plethora of PDF documents await youeverything from Pilots Notes to Sample Flights, to Aircraft Data Sheets. All are well written, easy to read and understand, and very comprehensive. Within these documents you will find all the necessary information that will allow even the beginner (with practice, of course!) to fly any and all of the Airbus family of aircraft in this package, or for that matter, any decent model of an Airbus wherever you may find it. I found the reading to be interesting, and for the most part, printer/ink friendly. Those ink cartridges are expensive! All of my comments regarding this product will apply to both the FS9 and FSX packages, unless otherwise noted. So, with that, lets take a look at the outside of these models, and then work our way indoors. The exterior modeling of this series of aircraft models are all very well done, presenting a realistic look from the outside, both up close and personal, and from a distance. Smooth lines and well defined fixtures and objects are created with an eye toward detail and authenticity. Exterior control surfaces operate in a smooth and realistic manner. Even while under the control of the auto-pilot, you will find that you have control over the rudder, which is a realistic control detail with these models. Exterior lights lit up surfaces of the aircraft nicely, and all navigation, landing, strobe lights, etc, looked good and functioned properly.

34

CPM. V15I5

VC VIEW OF CO-PILOT AREA

A318

THE BIG BOY A340-600

A330-300 MRTT

The interior of the aircraft really reflects the simplicity of the Airbus design philosophy. An uncluttered panel waits to come alive with surprisingly easy operation of the avionics systems. This also depends on what start-up mode you have chosen that is available to customize your flying experience. Cold and dark, engines running and ready to go are the three choices you have to begin your flights. A Configuration Utility, Load Manager, as well as a Fuel Planner are included in this product to allow you the opportunity to set up the model according to your skill level. The interior textures look good while panning about in the VC mode, but my attention was caught by the panel. You have many different views to choose from with the FSX installation, as that sim is more versatile in this area, The panels of the Airbus, as stated earlier, are all identical in just about all aspects. The developers have done an excellent job creating the panels/textures and avionics for these models. All gauges function and refresh smoothly and are easily seen and read. I especially like the three pop-up screens from the panel, (PFD, ND, and the E/WD) offering us older guys an easier view of whats going on. They are well placed when brought forth, and do not obscure any of the upper EFIS panel functions. RealityXP has provided weather radar that functions very well, but must be set at distances of more than ten miles in order to function. It is displayed on your Navigation Display, with other information still readable on the display. You are provided with a fully functional Head Up Display (HUD), from which you can fly the entire flight without difficulty. This is a great addition to commercial aircraft.

Lighting and reflections added to the realistic look of the exteriors on the aircraft, and for the Screenshot enthusiasts out there, you could have a field day with how these models look, with your chosen livery. All of the paints that I downloaded and installed were excellent in appearance, with some showing some very nicely weathered effects upon their surfaces. Throughout various times of the day and evening hours, the aircraft displayed just the right amount of lighting and reflections, in regards to the time. I know that how a model looks is very important, but with these larger birds, I think the issues that most folks are interested in would be how the model handles and the performance of the avionics, along with what avionics are available with the model. I dont think that you pilots of the Heavies are going to be disappointed in this area. In wrapping up our walkaround, I was very impressed with how all the models were made and the large amount of quality liveries available.

35

EXTERIOR NIGHT LIGHTING REALISTIC

PANEL LIGHTING MAKES THE JOB EASIER AT NIGHT!

ONE OF MY FAVORITES VIRGIN ATLANTIC LIVERY

The MCDU is highly functional and fairly easy to operate. Importing your flight plan from MSFS is easily done. SID/STARs are available to choose, depending on the airport. I advise that you take the tutorial that will guide you through the programming of the MCDU, if you are not familiar with it. I dont believe this is a system that you can fake your way through. There are certain sequences and functions that need to be performed in a prescribed manner for the aircraft to be controlled by this system. It is worth noting that the MCDU, although similar in function to those found in Boeing (FMC), or other aircraft, does have its own particular way of handling the flight. Mike Ray has written some excellent articles on this subject. You should get a pretty good understanding of what it takes to operate an Airbus utilizing this system. Having flown mostly Boeings of various sizes, I found that learning to use the panel and the avionics of the Airbus was not only fun, but not that difficult a task, if you already know the basics. With the documentation provided in this package, this product would be a good choice for novice simmers who have an interest in the Heavies, as the documentation, if read completely, will make you a pretty fair Airbus jockey!

The functionality of the panels and the amount of switches, buttons, and knobs that actually work are very impressive indeed, allowing an even deeper immersion into the realism of operating these aircraft. The addition of the RealityXP weather radar, along with a highly functional HUD do an excellent job of topping off this office. The Pilot in Command brand statement is one that I now find analogous with very realistic. Overall, an impressive cockpit layout, with the panel and functions getting a huge thumbs up! The interior of the cockpit, i.e. seats, floors, etc. were done well, but I believe the emphasis of this model really went into how it operated and the flight dynamics of the aircraft. Compared to other Payware, as well as Freeware Airbus models that are available for the virtual pilot, the aircraft in this package rank very high in how they handle in various conditions. I was impressed with how smooth the aircraft maneuvered, even while under manual control, which is not a mode of flying the Airbus does often. Use of the MCDU handled the flights with no problems. A quick word on choosing SID/STARs for the airports you useit is really handy to have some sort of chart for a reference so that you can choose an appropriate departure or approach that fits well with your flight plan. I randomly chose a SID (Standard Instrument Departure) and found my aircraft doubling back on its path, just a few miles out, not really fitting in well with what I intended! Lesson learned for this GA frequent flyer!

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CPM. V15I5

FSX MODEL WITH WING TIP EFFECTS

WHERES THE CO-PILOT?

GREAT LOOKING CONTROL SURFACES

ONE OF MAN Y

FSX VIEWS AV AILABLE

Loads of development improvements have gone into this current product of the Airbus Evolution Series. Among them is an updated Flight Management System database. Through a partnership with Navigraph, the latest navigation database (December 2010) is provided with Airbus Series Evolution. This database is up-to-date and contains much more information than the database originally provided with the Airbus Series. It is updated every month; and can continue to be updated by visiting Navigraph at http://www.navigraph.com. There is a fee for this service. Youll notice a window pop up before a planned flight that tells you your AIRAC cycle is out of date and the flight plan wont be loaded. Dont panic, as you can import your flight plan easily with the MCDU. Updating the database would probably rectify this dialog box, but I have found it does not detract from my sim experience. You folks that are flying for Virtual Airlines would probably be interested in this option however.

Wilco/feelTheres bundled package consists of the Airbus A318A319-ACJ-A320-A321 (Vol. 1) and Airbus A330-200, A330-300, A340-300, A340-600, A330-300 MRTT (Vol. 2). I have found that this product holds true to their Pilot in Command Series of models, with attention to the authenticity of not only how the model looks, but how the aircraft model performs, and the functionality of the available avionics on board. I most certainly think this is a worthy set of aircraft models for any Airbus fan out there. If you want to fly the Airbus, and have never done so before, this would be a good product for you, although it would certainly help if you had some basic knowledge of how to fly the heavy, commercial aircraft. But theres nothing like practice and learning something new. Its a medium learning curve with this product, and youll have fun learning along the way. There is quite a bit more detailed information over at www. wilcopub.com on this product, and it would be worth a visit after reading this review, as I could not possibly write all that has been done with this model, mostly in the technical and avionics departments. The Airbus Evolution products are split over two boxed editions or two downloads with the inclusions for each as mentioned above. They are available via download or boxed version from popular flight sim retailers around the world. The starting price is 49.95 Euros for each boxed version. Have a great flight! Farmboyzim

37

Diamond KATANA 4X
BY DEAN BIELANOWSKI

eing the type of virtual pilot that more often than not enjoys flying low and slow and taking in the sights of our virtual FSX world along the way, an aircraft like the new Diamond DA20-100 Katana 4X model from Aerosoft is likely to catch my attention and it sure did. I was a fan of a previous Katana model from the same publisher so it was good to see what the new version offered.

Im not going to directly compare any previous versions or models to this one. They were made many years apart and technological advances in PC hardware and collective knowledge in FSX aircraft design has come a long way in recent years, allowing better performing and more realistic aircraft and systems to be developed a direct comparison would not be a fair comparison, so Ill look at this package assuming nothing was available before it.

38

CPM. V15I5

REVIEW

The Katana!
A Katana is a traditional Japanese fighting sword, with a sleek, narrow blade and air piercing qualities. Perhaps the Diamond Aircraft company, manufacturers of the real DA20-100 Katana aircraft utilized that name as it well-describes the shape and style of this aircraft. The DA20-100 model is essentially an upgrade on previous DV20 and DA20 Katana designs. The major improvement was the addition of a larger engine and many other small enhancements and refurbishments to suit the European market. The engine in this model is a 100HP Rotax 912S3 type. Interestingly, the official Diamond Aircraft website now lists different model 125HP engines in their real DA20 line, however, there are probably many options available to the prospective buyer. The Katana is a small 2-seat aircraft designed mostly for training and private use only. It has a service ceiling of not much more than 13,000 feet, cruises at just under 140 knots and has a range of just under 550 nautical miles. Its low stall speed of 45 knots with full flaps allows it to get into smaller and tighter airfields, although its climb rate is just 1,000 ft/min at sea level, so be wary if attempting takeoff at altitude with a need to clear obstacles quickly!

4X
The 4X in the product title does actually mean something useful. What 4X refers to, basically, is the number of advanced options available in managing and flying the aircraft. The 4X menu is available within the simulator and offers, you guessed it, four different options. These 4X options turn the package into not just an aircraft-only package, but a full simulation of owning and flying the Katana. It brings aircraft management to a new level of importance, as you manage many aspects of the aircraft pre- and post-flight. Ill explain each of these systems now in a bit more detail.

PreFlight
This menu offers numerous options related to the pre-flight phase of flying. On the graphical menu, you can set the pre-flight condition of the aircraft visually in the sim, i.e. set the aircraft to show tire chocks, tie-downs, engine cover removed and so-on. Although this is only a visual option, it is nice to see. You can start your flight with these visual options turned on, which also means you have to manually remove the chocks and tie downs via the menu. While not the same as doing it in the real world, this way at least makes you think of having to perform the tasks in the sim, adding to the realism. Dont forget you have to remove the pitot cover too before flight, and clear any tools or fluid trays away from the aircraft.

Installation
I am reviewing the download version, which is the only version available at time of writing. After downloading I executed the setup program to install the product. Just follow the instructions on screen. You will need to register the product with your supplied serial number online before the aircraft can be completely installed and used in FSX. Oh yes, it is compatible with FSX only. Once that is all taken care of, you can load up FSX and look for the aircraft in your FSX aircraft menu. There are a number of liveries installed with the package and most look great! Choose one that appeals to you and lets start flying! Not so fast, Captain! Well I wish it was that easy to just jump in and go, and while it can be with this package, the real differences between this aircraft add-on and many others would be missed if you just jumped into the pilots seat and took off into the blue yonder and did nothing else. No, the exciting part of this aircraft needs to be described first before we leave terra firma

THE 4X MENU SCREEN

VISUALLY, THE EXTERNAL MODEL LOOKS CLEAN, AND EVERYTHING IS THERE!

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Next you have to check your fuel quantity and condition. Here you can actually fill your tanks with a petrol pump-type display that ticks over to indicate cost and quantity as you go. The good part is that you can set your own petrol price (if only you could do that in the real world!). You have to remove the tank cap, insert the hose and then hold down the mouse button to start pumping gas. Then you need to drain any water from the fuel using another part of the custom fuel menu, and finally you can check estimated quantity on board with a simulated dipstick. Awesome!

Maintenance
There are three sub-menus to the Maintenance section, and again these are only accessible when the aircraft is parked on the ground. Firstly in the Equipment submenu you have the option of using either the default FSX Garmin GPS500, or switching to the Reality XP Garmin GNS530. The Reality XP system must be purchased separately direct from Reality XP to be able to switch this mode, but you can perform that switch if you have this accessory Garmin gauge without the need to manually modify your aircraft.cfg file. The second option in this submenu allows you to fit or remove wheel fairings. With wheel fairings on, drag is reduced and the aircraft has a higher top speed and cruise speed. However, if you are planning to land at a few bush strips or on rough terrain or rough surfaces, then its best to remove them as they are quite prone to damage on anything but asphalt. Just click each fairing and wait a few seconds for each wheel fairing to be either removed or replaced according to your needs.

JUST WINGING IT IN THE KATANA AT DAWN!

MANUALLY PUMPING GAS INTO THE TANK PRE-FLIGHT!

Oils and fluids also need to be checked and levels maintained. A separate interface screen here is available and you can choose oil type to use and check levels or drain existing oil too. Other Pre-flight options include a towbar that allows you to move your aircraft out of a hangar or turn it around on the ground, as well as a walk-around check menu to ensure everything is checked prior to start-up, and you can also set payload and manually adjust trim tabs on the aircraft with the relevant menu and mouse drags. This type of pre-flight complexity has not been seen before in any GA aircraft for Flight Simulator X. Oh, I did forget one more thing You have to actually CLEAN your aircraft as well. You have a sponge and bucket and have to do some scrubbing to get the dirt off and make your aircraft look like its well cared for. There is even a vacuum to clean the interior as well There goes your Saturday morning! These Pre-Flight menus and options are only available to you while your aircraft is parked on the ground. Once the engine is started and parking brakes released, the menus will no longer work.

THE KATANA IS ALL TAIL AND CABIN!

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SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE MENUS OPEN, HERE SHOWING NO DAMAGE TO ANYTHING YET.

Katana3 Katana5

NOTE THE RED AND YELLOW BOXES SHOWING THESE ITEMS NEED REPAIR OR REPLACEMENT.

WITHOUT REGULAR MAINTENANCE PERFORMED, YOU CAN EXPECT FAILURES AND RELATED DAMAGE.

Instructor
If you are familiar with how FSX can be used in Instructor mode, then The Katanas Instructor mode operates in a similar fashion. With two connected computers, and the Katana set to Instructor mode, the Instructor can see vital aircraft stats of the Pilot flying on the second computer. In addition, the Instructor has the option to fail any major system at any time, adjust the engine condition, and also alter some deeper options only available with the Katana 4X, like modifying oil and coolant levels to induce failures. The instructor can alter many parts of the fuel system on the fly on the connected Katana aircraft being flown by the pilot including failing pumps or reducing their reliability, reducing fuel content or flicking the switch on the fuel shutoff valve. The electrical system can also be tampered with to a complex degree, as can the avionics. There is far too much detail to mention everything here, but if you are fond of using instructor modes in FSX, then the included system with the Katana 4X is like the default system on steroids!

The Workshop submenu will allow an inspection to be undertaken on your aircraft. This takes a minute or two to complete (trying to simulate a real time frame although very quick) and once completed, any sub-systems requiring repair or replacement will be highlighted in either yellow or red. Because the package simulates normal wear and tear, and damage caused by rough handling of the aircraft, an inspection should be carried out regularly, and any damage or wear addressed so as to not cause issues during your future flights. As can be seen by the accompanying screenshot, quite a lot of systems are modelled for wear and tear and damage. There is no damage shown as this shot was taken with less than 1 hour of flight time under my belt. You can service or replace parts or systems by clicking the appropriate icon located next to the relevant item. Like with the inspection phase, repair or replacement takes actual time and is indicated by a progress bar when you undertake that task. Additionally, only one item can be repaired or replaced at a time, adding to the realism. The Service submenu operates in a similar way to the Maintenance menu/section. Again, perform an initial inspection to identify problems or parts requiring maintenance or repair. Of particular note and difference here is the battery. This has to be recharged if indicating low voltage, and while you can interrupt the charge cycle at any time, it will have the effect of not fully recharging the battery, so be sure to check this at regular intervals so you are not stuck at an airport with a flat cell (although it is easy to replace the battery with a button click in the sim or recharging it only takes 20 seconds). Other noticeable additions here are the options to install an Inlet Baffle for operating in cold temperatures or to uninstall it in warm conditions and change the Oil Filter, or at least check it regularly.

Settings
In the settings menu you have access to more global settings which will affect how the aircraft is operated. The Operation Mode can be switched to REALISTIC (default setting) which means poor operation of the aircraft will have consequences (it keeps data!) and aircraft maintenance must be performed as described above. In SIMPLE mode there is no wear or damage simulated and the aircraft is presented in an as new condition before each flight but flight systems still require correct handling. INSTRUCTOR mode is as described above. In the Initiation Mode section you choose the state of your aircraft on initial load up. Options are AUTOMATIC (simplest with most everything on and ready to go), COLD AND DARK which is just what the name implies (nothing on), or PARKED which puts the aircraft in a full parked state which will require checking of all systems and fluid levels before flight. Naturally, the PARKED condition is the most realistic but the other options are there if you are short on time, or patience!

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The Controls section allows you to set how the flaps are handled (whether by specialised hardware with FSUIPC) or in the standard manner in FSX with keyboard or joystick commands. In the Avionics section you can choose to have Simple or Realistic COM/NAV control (again depending on compatibility with any existing panel hardware you might have) and the same for the TRANSPONDER. There are further options for custom lighting and sounds which can be enabled or disabled according to your needs. The last section in the settings handles VIBRATIONS. This is a visual effect which really ups the ante on realism. You can quickly enable/disable all vibration effects or selectively enable/disable Engine or Environment effects separately. Keep them all on I say! From the effect of engine start-up to the shaking of the gauge needles during flight, the vibration effects are very good and really go a long way to improving realism.

Moving inside we can find a full 3D modelled panel and interior with a high resolution. Pretty much every single knob, switch and dial can be pushed, flicked or manipulated for an active and correct response in the aircraft. Everything is custom too. I couldnt see one small piece that smelt of default which is always refreshing to see. There is one thing to note. Some of the labels on switches and knobs are not in English, but in German. If you discover this, the solution is just to find one of the other liveries/models in the list and find the ones with the English labelled panels. If you are unsure of what any of them do (whether they are in German or English), just check the systems PDF manual included in the installation (via the Windows menu tree) where full explanation is given in English as to what each of these items actually are, and what they do. Animations throughout the cabin are found in good numbers. The book sitting on the dash of the panel can be moved to the seat and back again and if you start up the engine with the canopy open, the book cover will flap open and closed appropriately. You can manipulate the air ducts to direct virtual air over your face as well. The gyros spin up and down appropriately on the instruments as expected and the needles on the engine readouts flutter and shake as previously mentioned. The Bendix/King KX125 COM/NAV radio suite is quite authentic and certainly looks the part it operates well with no issue either. Most other gauges on the panel should be familiar to almost all pilots. The bank of buttons on the right side of the panel are your circuit breakers, and the red digital readout at the top left is the outside air temp display. Again, reference to all these gauges and displays and how to use many of them are included in the documentation. Lights are nicely modelled and the night lighting in particular on the panel is worthy of note. The radio can be backlit and the panel appears to have projected light which is not overdone and unrealistic.

Visual Model
You could be mistaken into thinking this package is just some fancy utility for a Katana aircraft, but there is of course a full aircraft model too. The Katana 4X package includes a very detailed visual model of the aircraft, both inside and out. Externally, the aircraft looks real, with details down to the screw level. Most liveries included border on photorealistic (not quite there) and are based on real world aircraft. The prop and nose cone are particularly well modelled visually on the Katana. Its only a small aircraft so there is not a lot to say externally, but whats there is of a high quality. You wouldnt be disappointed in the least. The external animations of flaps, control surfaces, canopy and more is of particular note.

A STUNNING 3D RECREATION OF THE KATANA FLIGHT DECK.

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Flight Model and Flying the Katana 4X

One of my few criticisms of the panel is that it can be quite hard at times to locate the click spots to change a frequency on a radio or manipulate the GPS. Often you need to zoom in on these because the click spots are difficult to find in the normal view. This can be frustrating to alter settings during a flight and you do need to take your eye away from the external view for some time to get certain things done on the panel. You cannot enlarge any of the gauges or displays either, which adds to this problem. An issue yes how major or minor it is would likely be a very individual thing however. In general terms the flight model seems realistic for the aircraft. Moving controls surfaces results in a measured but predictable response on the airframe and attitude of the aircraft, and this is a good sign of a refined flight model. The aircraft takes a while to build up speed but it can still handle most short to medium airfields at lower altitudes with relative ease. Handling the final approach is easy, however, you do need to set up and stabilize the aircraft from some distance out as last minute flap drops can result in ballooning in altitude, especially if you are not at or near touchdown speed. The sound environment during flight is varied and in some cases strange. The fuselage creaks and you can actually hear the movements of control surfaces and their wires. In addition, recently during a flight just before touchdown I swear I experienced a bird strike! I heard this high pitched squeal and at the exact same time I got this messy mark appear on the front window (which I had to clean off later). Not sure exactly what it was (probably just the stall horn) but it looked and sounded like a bird strike to me. Nonetheless you will be in for something interesting audio-wise in the Katana. The flight model is refined enough to simulate basic spins and odd attitudes but in my opinion there is not enough in that for any serious familiarization in recovery procedures like that which is better simulated in a handful of other specific aircraft add-ons.

The Final Approach

Like in the real world, with the Katana 4X you will be spending some time maintaining your aircraft as opposed to just flying it. This certainly adds that extra dimension that most FSX aircraft do not have, but you have to be prepared to do this if you buy this add-on to get the most value out of it. Sure, you can just jump in and fly, and if you choose to do this, then the Katana model itself is very good, but you can have your cake and eat it too with the 4X expansion options on offer.

The package will not suit everyone, but if you are keen on small trainer style aircraft and are looking to get into the actual management and maintenance of the aircraft itself, then this package is well worth a look. At time of writing the Katana 4X add-on is only available via Instant Download and retails for around US$34. Check www.aerosoft.com or your favorite sim retailer for availability.

DAWN LIGHT REFLECTS OFF THE WING AND SHOWS FINER43 DETAILS.

BENCHMARKING CASE STUDY: SAITEK PRO FLIGHT INSTRUMENT PANEL

BY DOUG HORTON

continue to see numerous claims of FSX performance differences with a variety of hardware components and software solutions. With only one exception, spurred by challenging a user making a trial purchase of software that was supposed to improve FSX performance, nearly all of these claims are based on personal opinions, without confirmation by means of a readily available, free, simple, standardized method of testing FSX performance. By the way, when tested by this method, the software in question made no difference!

which with included configuration and flight files, is available for downloading in file FSXMark07.zip, from www.avsim.com. Along with FSXMark07, the free FRAPS frame counting utility is used, which is available at www.FRAPS.com. In the May/June 2011 issue of Computer Pilot, editor Dean Bielanowski reviewed the Saitek ProFlight Instrument Panel (PFIP) product. The product is made up of one or more small cubic LCDbased modules, on which FSX users can display selected aircraft gauges. Included on a mini CD with each module are drivers for displaying the basic six gauges: airspeed, attitude, altitude, and vertical speed indicators, plus turn coordinator and directional gyro. Up and down scrolling buttons on each module are used to select which gauges appear on each module. Recently, additional files have been released to enable displaying additional gauges, including horizontal situation indicator, VOR1, VOR2, ADF, primary flight display, and a four piston engine gauge on a single module. This article explains potential FSX performance impacts of operating one to eight of these modules, by measuring FSX framerate performance with the FSXMark07 benchmarking procedure. A full explanation of this procedure is found elsewhere in this issue, in my article titled, Ready for Microsoft Flight?

I recently had the opportunity to evaluate the performance impact of an interesting add-on hardware product, and that experience provides a great case study of how easy it is to evaluate the impact on FSX performance with standardized testing. As mentioned in several articles, I use Gary Dunnes free FSXMark07 test procedure,

SINGLE FLIGHT INSTRUMENT PANEL MODULE

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To evaluate this product, I was sent eight sample Saitek PFIP modules. Others have reported framerate deterioration in FSX with several modules connected and operating. I began by connecting six modules to my test computer, in the usual 6-pack gauge configuration, including airspeed, attitude, altitude, turn coordinator, HSI, and vertical speed indicator, as shown in the left three-quarters of the accompanying image. Though the link was broken on the Saitek website, I was eventually able to find a blog page with additional PFIP gauge files at www.saitek.com/uk/blog/?p=104. I then added the remaining two modules, configured for VOR1 and engine gauges, as shown on the right-hand side of the eight attached modules. Note also that driver code for a Primary Flight Display gauge is included in the supplemental files, though not listed on the blog page.

Though the first computer included a GTX 480 graphics card, and the second computer included a GTX 460 graphics card, previous testing demonstrated no difference in FSX performance among these and several other NVIDIA-based graphics cards. Results are shown on the accompanying table and graph. Beginning with one module connected, there is progressive deterioration of FSX framerate performance with each module added. Averaging the results for both computers, with a total of 36 FSXMark07 test runs, operation with one module reduces FSX framerate a bit over 3 FPS, and connecting each additional module reduces framerate a bit less than 2 fps per module. As with other add-ons to FSX, there is no free lunch, as processing is required to drive the modules.

FIP-8.JPG COLLECTION OF EIGHT SAITEK PRO FLIGHT INSTRUMENT PANEL MODULES GRAPH OF FSX PERFORMANCE TEST RESULTS FOR CUMULATIVE PFIP MODULES ADDED

Next, I conducted a series of tests on my benchmarking test computer, with an i7-975 processor overclocked to 4.0 GHz, using the FSXMark07 benchmarking procedure with its Global High configuration file loaded into FSX. All eight modules were connected to the respective test computer with individual USB cables, including connection of the seventh and eighth modules through a USB hub. I verified that all eight were operating, and then by disconnecting individual modules in turn, I then ran two trials each of FSXMark07 for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one and no modules connected. I then repeated the entire process for a second test computer, which included a second generation Intel i5-2500K processor, which was also overclocked to operate at 4.0 GHz. For both computers, I displayed FSX on a Dell 30-inch monitor operating at its maximum 2560 x 1600 resolution, providing a 16:10 aspect ratio.

For statistically oriented readers, note that results for both computers are over 90% correlated with a straight line. The result of eight modules connected is an average framerate reduction from about 48.4 to 32 FPS, or about 34%, with the particular hardware tested and FSXMark07 Global High configuration file loaded into FSX.

Comments
With a total list price of $1200 for the eight modules, or currently discounted price of $960, addition of Saitek ProFlight Instrument Panel modules is an expensive option for computer flight simulation enthusiasts. For a much smaller investment, users could purchase a separate LCD monitor for displaying the instrument panel undocked from the scenery display. One downside of the latter option is the frequent need to renew the applicable panel and subpanel windows displays with each startup of FSX. Also, I found that when I put the test computers in Windows Sleep mode, the PFIP modules didnt all awaken correctly, and I often needed to reboot Windows 7 and then restart FSX. This is likely not the fault of the PFIP modules, as Ive found this awakening from Sleep Mode to be an issue exhibited by other USB-connected devices, including yoke and rudder pedal accessories. Though the PFIPs are well made and impressively packaged, with very nice gauge design and resolution, the Saitek website claim of a stunning 5 color LCD screen is incorrect, as each FIP screen measures about 3.5 diagonal. This provides smaller gauge displays than can be displayed with many FSX instrument panels on a large monitor. Also, it was cumbersome to connect eight USB cables from the eight PFIP modules, and it would alternatively be better if it were possible to daisy chain the modules rather than requiring separate USB connections for each.

TABLE OF FSX PERFORMANCE TEST RESULTS FOR CUMULATIVE PFIP MODULES ADDED

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MINI-REVIEW

Just PlanesPENAIR DVD

BY DEAN BIELANOWSKI

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MINI-REVIEW
The Grumman Goose flight starts with a few scenes of cargo being loaded, and then we jump into the flight deck and pump the throttles (literally) to start the engines. The engines on the goose sit right next to the flight deck so its kind of noisy! The takeoff is exciting but also scary! At one point you think you will not get off the ground and overrun into the drink, but you make it (I wish the camera didnt zoom in during this however as it killed the suspense a little!). After a little flying around you get to enjoy a landing on water too and a drive up the ramp onto dry land again, all from the co-pilots seat. There are then several cabin only segments mixed in with a maintenance section showing a new Saab 340A right wing flap being installed. This section is interesting as you dont often see this part of the aviation operation in flight simulator, or in the real world for that matter. The Saab flight to Dillinghman includes some approach chart work and discussion which is of interest. Further along there are some great aerial shots of the PenAir Saab taken from a smaller aircraft flying beside. These are a real treat and not often seen in many of the Just planes DVDs. And then a Metro appears in the formation as well between the Saab and the camera plane all set against a beautiful Alaskan backdrop. This is very nice cinematography. The last three segments feature the Cessna Caravan on flights between Perryville, Chignik Bay, Chignik Lagoon, Chignik Lake and an airport aptly named King Salmon (this is one of the largest seafood producing regions in the world). The airport at Perryville is a basic strip but an interesting approach nonetheless and the unloading sequence shows just how much cargo you can fit in a 208B Caravan. The other thing this DVD shows is that PenAir aircraft see a LOT of rain in their travels. The last few flights in the Caravan offer a more tourist-guide type of flying in the area with low and slow visuals of some incredible Alaskan scenery. Overall I really enjoyed watching this DVD production. Its 186 minutes (just over 3 hours) of run time is packed full of interesting aircraft action both inside and out, and I didnt really feel any of the content was just added in to fill space or time. You can imagine how many hours of total footage the Just Planes folk record to produce a video production like this. It would certainly take some time to edit and put together. I think the best part of these DVDs is that they inspire flight simmers to go out and try flying new aircraft into new areas. After watching this production, I am now extra keen to load up some Alaskan scenery and the Dutch Harbor add-on in particular, and devote some more time to the Cessna Caravan, especially the Cargomaster version (from Carenado). I dont think there is a really good Saab 340 for FSX available yet but there is one for FS2004 that would be worth getting back into. The PenAir title displays the progression in quality that Just Planes have invested their effort in over the years, and this particular title will be no doubt played many more times in the near future, plus my kids just love watching the planes flying all over the world, and it keeps them off my back when I am trying to write articles just like this! Just Planes PenAir DVD retails for US$30 and is available from www.justplanes.com or from your local PC Aviator office.

happened to be watching one of my favorite reality TV shows the other night (Discovery Channels Deadliest Catch) and the beauty of the area of the Aleutian Islands, Dutch Harbor and the Bering Sea attracted my interest. I knew Aerosoft had released a Dutch Harbor scenery package, but I then discovered that Just Planes had released a DVD on Peninsula Airways (PenAir) which features much of this area. I had to check it out!

For those who are not aware, Just Planes creates DVD videos from the flight decks of aircraft right around the world. They have hundreds of titles available and these can be watched on any DVD player (region free). A lot of simmers enjoy the productions because they can follow along on some real world flights on the DVDs that they might have simulated in their flight sim sessions, and vice versa. I chose to review this particular title not just because it features the Aleutian Islands and surrounding area, but also because it features four types of aircraft the Caravan, Goose, Saab 340 and Metroliner Each flight segment can be selected via the main DVD menu, so you can quickly jump to a particular flight on the disc if you prefer. The DVD starts with an introduction to Peninsula Airlines by its chief pilot, and there are some interesting stories to listen to, as well as a quick overview of where the airline operates, referenced by maps and charts. The remainder of the DVD takes you aboard with a jump-seat view on eleven separate flights which I will list below. But first a few notes on the production itself. When Just Planes released their first line of flight deck DVDs many years ago, there was criticism about the sound recording. Thankfully most all new DVDs produced in recent years have a direct feed into the audio of both pilots as well as ATC so voices are much clearer with less distortion and far less influence of engine or other cabin noises on communications heard. The quality of the video itself is quite good. Its not HD or BluRay quality but its certainly better than the old VHS and pretty close to, but not quite traditional DVD quality, in my opinion. I dont think you would be disappointed with the video nonetheless. It is clear, crisp for the most part and presents a good level of brightness throughout. Usually before each of the flights, the Captain shows you around the aircraft and performs a walk-around check. Once onboard and at cruising altitude the Captain will explain some of the instruments and systems on the panel of the aircraft you are flying in. Regularly you are treated to views out the window, and then more focussed shots of the panel. Occasionally the flight might be viewed from within the cabin only. You dont have to sit through the entire length of every flight of course. Most of the boring stuff is edited out but you do get to see almost all takeoffs and landings of each flight and the unique characters of each of the flight crew keeps it interesting, as does the varied views out the window. The Cold Bay > Dutch Harbour segment is initially flown in poor weather but reveals some stunning mountain terrain enroute, along with several shots of active volcanic vents! The approach into Dutch Harbor looks spectacular and is something I will definitely be trying in the sim after seeing it in motion here. The very next segment shows some Metro and Saab 340 ops from the spotters view on the ground at Dutch Harbor, and then we jump straight into a highlight flight of the DVD, flying in the Goose!

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MINI-REVIEW

PIPER ARCHER II FOR X-PLANE

BY GENE DAVIS

ike it or not, X-Plane is a strong contender in the simulation market and when I found out that Carenado would be doing a line of aircraft for X-Plane I was ecstatic because that meant I could now be flying some of my favorite General Aviation Carenado aircraft from FSX in X-Plane and in the upcoming X-Plane 10! The PA28 from Carenado offers up some of the same quality and features offered in its MSFS version and this package costs around US$21.00 dollars for the download. It provides the purchaser with four different paint schemes, two different models (one with fairings and one without), an accurate sound set and virtual cockpit, as well as all of the eye candy on the outside you would expect with an aircraft from this publisher. The product comes via download, but lacks a simple installer. This is not a big problem and just requires the purchaser to extract a zip file and copy the files into the necessary X-Plane folders. There are adequate instructions and it is pretty straightforward, but I could see where this could be a potential problem for some who may not be familiar with unzipping products direct to folders or moving files around to correct folder locations on their hard drives. The exterior of the Piper Archer II is simply gorgeous and it shows off well in X-Plane, but when you

step into the cockpit that is where you will notice a significant difference between the FSX model and the X-Plane variant. The cockpit bitmaps are not as high quality as the ones in Flight Simulator. This is not due to the lack of effort on Carenados behalf but rather a limitation of the X-Plane system and what it can handle visually. Regardless, in X-Plane terms it is still one of the highest quality decks going around. The cockpit itself is compromised of all the necessary instruments for IFR and VFR flight and from what I could tell everything was accessible from the virtual cockpit and easy to navigate. This is the first aircraft I have flown in X-Plane that didnt overreact to user input and actually flew itself, giving me more time to look around the interior and the scenery that surrounded the plane and consuming much less time and effort trying to keep the aircraft level. The aircraft just felt right. I walked away from it with good feelings, enough said! The Piper Archer II PA28 for X-Plane from Carenado is a quality add-on. Although we have already seen it in Flight Simulator, it excels equally in the X-Plane world. Carenado has opened the door to the X-Plane crowd and I think that given time and with the soon to be released X-Plane 10, things are just going to get better and better for the X-Plane faithful! Check your local flight sim retailer for availability.

THE ARCHERS PANEL IN X-PLANE STILL LOOKS NICE!

LOOKING OUT THE RIGHT REAR QUARTER

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MINI-REVIEW

HOTSEAT PILOT PRO FLIGHT SIMULATOR CHASSIS

BY ROGER CURTISS

ve seen a few flight simulator chassis at past computer flight simulator conventions and Ill admit to being intrigued by the presumably improved experience such a product might provide. Now, years later, I was contacted by HotSeat Chassiss Jay LeBoff (www.HotSeatSim.com) in response to my series of articles related to benchmarking FSX with various hardware configurations. Jay was particularly interested in my findings related to capabilities and performance results of graphics cards used with multiple monitors. A HotSeat customer had specified the need for seven LCD displays: forward, left quarter, and right quarter views; upper panel, left and right instrument panels, and throttle quadrant. In another case, the customer specified two chassis combined, with seats and instrument displays for pilot and co-pilot. After many discussions, Jay offered to provide a sample chassis for me to assemble, try out, and review.

cartons weight, about 180 pounds with wood shipping pallet, I elected to unpack it in the garage and then carry individual items to my flight simulation man-cave in the basement of my home. Upon opening the carton, I could see the seat mounted to a sliding assembly on the lower chassis and tilted forward, as well as the pre-mounted speaker system components. The remaining components included individually foam-wrapped tubes for the upper chassis and mounting of other components, along with a box containing mounting plates, tubing connectors and couplings. Though not obvious at first, I needed to disconnect the upper chassis rectangular assembly from the two lower layers of tubes. I also removed the seat from its sliding mount so I could carry it and other components to the basement separately. It was up to me to assemble the chassis and install components. In short, Im an engineer by education and practice, and though assembly was not difficult, it was challenging, in part because the furnished mounting components allow many configurations. The horizontal tubes are fully assembled to each other, and the principal assembly step was setting the four vertical tubes in place and then installing the upper rectangular structure. The seat needed to be secured to its sliding assembly with four bolts on the lower structure. For the aesthetically minded, black, blue, red, and yellow tubes are available, while all connectors are black. The assembled chassis is not in a photogenic location, though its similar to the image above, except that the sample was provided with black tubes. The other difference is that I am not using the curved tubes and mounting plates connected to the upper slider for side displays because I dont own additional displays I might use for this purpose. Because many systems are built to specifications and are more complex than the sample, check the HotSeat website for additional photos. A large number of accessories can be ordered with the chassis or added by the owner. For my convenience, I was also provided a pre-mounted CH Products Flight

Sim Yoke and a Mini-Input keyboard with touch-pad. Both of these are options that can be ordered from HotSeat. The latter is an interesting accessory for computer flight simulation setups because of its compactness. It measures 11.4 x 8.9 x 1.1, and its available with PS2 or USB connections, in beige or black. An Internet search found that this device seems to be sold under several supplier names, but in each case, the model number includes ACK540. Neat discovery! COMMENTS The couplings are contoured to exactly match the diameters of the tubes being joined. If repositioned or removed, its likely the tube coating will be marred, though I successfully used black spray enamel to touch up a few areas where I moved couplings. After assembly, I learned that HotSeat now recommends using blue, removable masking tape between tubes and couplings. For wide-body users, note that the seat is significantly contoured, and additional seat padding may increase comfort. SUMMARY With its comfortable, movable seat, surround sound system, my 30 monitor, with yoke, pedals, and mini-keyboard, the Pilot Pro 4 chassis provides a highly immersive experience with operation of both FSX and X-Plane. It would be more immersive if I added front-quarter displays to create a wider scenery view. Assembly requires some mechanical knowledge, but for those who might be hesitant to do their own assembly, HotSeat offers shipment of factory assembled products. The chassis elements and construction are well designed and appear to be very durable. The last issue to mention is price. The chassis I tested is relatively expensive, with list price of $4,150 US. That includes the chassis, surround sound system, deluxe seat, and assorted parts for mounting other components. Users have spent a lot of money for their hobbies, and to attest to their success, HotSeat indicated that theyve sold over 2000 units to individuals, flight schools, military, and others. HotSeat offers a wide range of prices for a variety of applications, including models for airplanes, combat aircraft, helicopters, and racing cars. Military specification models are also available.

The chassis provided for this review is the Pilot Pro 4 model, furnished with a pre-installed Logitech X-540 5.1 surround sound system and various means of attaching controls and displays, including an upper support structure. Out of the box, this chassis offers many configuration options, and additional mounting means can be specified when the chassis is ordered. The accompanying image shows the base Pilot Pro 4 configuration with mounting for front and two side displays, yoke, and keyboard. The furnished, pre-mounted 5.1 surround system is also visible in this photo. Its five smaller speakers are mounted around the lower perimeter metal tubing of the chassis, and the subwoofer with power, audio input, and speaker output connections, is mounted under the seat. The seat is an upgraded model with a fabric reclining cushion. Note also that the mounts for the front quarter or side view displays are attached to a sliding mechanism for flexible positioning. The sample chassis components arrived by motor freight in a very heavy, large carton. In conjunction with the prepaid curbside delivery, the freight truck driver offered to place the carton in one stall of my garage, where it displaced my wifes car for a few hours. Because of the

PILOT PRO 4 BASE CONFIGURATION

PILOT PRO CHASSIS CONFIGURED FOR HELICOPTER OPERATION, WITH INSTRUCTOR STATION ATTACHED ABOVE AND BEHIND SEAT

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EARLY MORNING ACTION AT YBBN (BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL)

SCREENSHOT BY IAIN EMMS.

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C208B APPROACH OVER PORTLAND SCREENSHOT BY IAIN EMMS

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Approaches to Dutch Harbor

Alaska
Unalaska / Dutch Harbor
Dutch harbor is a major shing and seafood colony and has one of the largest seafood goods ports in the world. Whenever you see Alaskan King Crab on the menu of you local restaurant, there is a very high chance that crab product has come through the port of Dutch Harbor after being caught in the Bering Sea to the north. Of course many other types of crab and sh products are also caught and transferred through this port. The Airport actually has three names. Ofcially it is titled as UNALASKA (ICAO code: PADU) by the FAA which is the name you can use to nd it in your ight sim airports list, or just use PADU in the airport code box. It is most commonly called DUTCH HARBOR airport (IATA code: DUT) by the majority of pilots who y in and out of it. The State of Alaska renamed the airport in 2002 to TOM MADSEN AIRPORT in honor of a local pilot who was killed that same year.

BY DEAN BIELANOWSKI
hile writing the review for the PenAir DVD elsewhere in this issue, I mentioned that Aerosoft published a scenery add-on for Dutch Harbor (Unalaska). I later installed this addon and discovered some interesting approaches to this airport in the heart of the Aleutian Island chain. I thought it would be worth writing about these as a good ight experience for simmers, along with a little navigational work for the approach to the airport. Lets go!

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The single xed navigational aid is the DUTCH HARBOR NDB (Non-Directional Beacon) on frequency 283.0. It has a paired DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) facility accessible by NAV radio on frequency 113.90. All landings at PADU are visual landings as there is no ILS installed and most landings probably occur on Runway 12 as the approach to the opposing end (Runway 32) has much less room to maneuver. Most all approaches to Runway 12 involve a turn left on short nal once the runway is visible. This is exciting because the runway can be hidden by the mountain to the left until shortly before touchdown if you are coming in at a more acute approach entry path from the Northeast.
THE ALUETIAN ISLANDS WITH DUTCH HARBOR / UNALASKA ISLAND INSET.

It is located roughly half way along the Aleutian Island chain that extends from mainland Alaska southwest, right over to Russian territory. The rugged terrain of this region is dotted with many volcanic peaks formed by colliding tectonic plates that generated the landscape we see today over many past millions of years. Naturally, it makes for a great ight sim experience! This airport is listed as being dangerous and challenging. While the airport itself and the approach are not too dangerous in their own regard, except for the mountain that sits right next to the runway itself, what makes it dangerous is the lack of navigational aids (only one NDB), its remote location (closest paved alternate is well over 100nm away), and the fact that weather in this area often results in high winds, low visibility and plenty of nasty weather cells that generate intense rain.

THE AIRPORT AND RUNWAY ARE INVISIBLE WHEN APPROACHING FROM THE NORTHEAST, HIDING BEHIND THE HUGE ROCK TO THE LEFT, AND REMAIN INVISIBLE UNTIL NEAR SHORT FINAL!

Approach Options
There are two published navigational approaches to Runway 12 at Dutch Harbor. This rst is an NDB-A type approach and the second is a GPS-E approach. Both are still visual only approaches and hence are not available at night or when weather conditions do not allow a reasonable visibility range to identify the close surrounding mountains or spot the actual runway for landing at a fair distance. We will look at both approaches in a little more detail and then go ahead and y them. As mentioned the actual approach is not overly difcult, especially in good visual conditions, but in poor conditions, or if you are unfamiliar with the area, the mountains surrounding almost the entire airport area (except the northeast sector) can certainly come into play, dictating a navigationally-aided approach. In lower visibility or for those unfamiliar with the operating area, the GPS approach will guide you in and get you set up better on the safe entry sector to the airport. The NDB approach doesnt afford this luxury, especially since the NDB facility itself is situated right next to the runway where you are already well within the grasp of the surrounding terrain. But there are Minimum Safe Altitudes published that should see you avoid any terrain, as long as you stick to them religiously. Lets start with the NDB Approach.

PADU AIRPORT AS SHOWN WITH AEROSOFTS DUTCH HARBOR X ADDON INSTALLED IN FSX.

Airport Details:
Dutch Harbor has one runway 12/32 which is a grooved asphalt strip of 3900 feet long and 100 feet wide. It is suitable for all small GA and small-medium sized commercial prop aircraft. Some of the larger aircraft to use the eld include the Saab 340 and the Metro. It is not unknown for 737-200s to also land at Dutch Harbor. Being a major sea port, there is also a ramp to get your oatplane out of the water and up onto dry land, but it is only modelled in the Dutch Harbor X scenery add-on. A VASI light system (Visual Approach Slope Indicator) is employed but due to the proximity of the mountain and how the surrounding terrain is formed in the area, there is only a 1.4nm useable distance available in some directions. Nonetheless it will certainly help in ensuring you are on the correct decent angle during nal approach.

Unalaska/Dutch Harbor NDB-A Approach

This is the more difcult approach in terms of navigating because the chart is a little trickier to decipher if you are not familiar with reading them and there are no GPS track lines to follow. Because your ADF indicator will point to the location of the NDB, you will have a very good idea of the direction to y to the initial approach x, which is certainly the easiest part. 53

You can y this approach with either the default scenery or the Aerosoft Dutch Harbor package (obviously recommended for more realism) as the default scenery is rather bland and boring. Choose an aircraft with an easily visible ADF gauge and DME display. I chose the Carenado Bonanza but there are several default aircraft that will also suit.

NIKOLSKI IS AS IS INCLUDED IN THE DUTCH HARBOR SCENERY PACKAGE, AND IS THE CLOSEST AIRPORT WITH A HARD GRAVEL SURFACE SOUTHWEST OF DUTCH HARBOR.

The nearest airport with a hard surface runway is NIKOLSKI (Code: PAKO, but its coded IKO in the sim, or Nikolski AS) 100nm to the southwest which has a gravel runway. Set your aircraft up here as the starting point for this ight. You can set your NDB Radio to 283.0 for the DUT NDB to obtain directional guidance when it kicks in a little further along the ight and set your Nav1/2 radio to 113.90 to receive distance readings from the DME facility located at Dutch Harbour airport. Once they are set and your aircraft is properly congured for takeoff and you have performed all your checks, take off heading 044 degrees and climb to an altitude of around 8,000ft.

TAKING OFF FROM NIKOLSKI AND TURNING RIGHT TO TRACK 044 DEGREES INITIALLY. I AM FLYING THIS ROUTE WITH A FEW FRIENDS WHO ARE ALSO LEARNING THE NDB APPROACH INTO DUTCH HARBOR. THE NDB-A APPROACH PLATE FOR PADU

According to the accompanying chart, we should not descend below 7700ft within 25NM of DUTCH HARBOR on approach, veried with the DUT DME reading (this is displayed in the gure at the top right of the main chart view). MSA provides a 1000ft clearance from the highest xed obstruction/terrain in the area. Once we have arrived at the Initial Approach Fix (IAF) which is the Dutch Harbor NDB, we can descend below this point to continue the approach procedure in preparation for a landing, but we must still strictly follow procedures as outlined in the approach plate. Until you are over the top of the NDB on initial entry, you should remain at or above 7700ft. You will see with the GPS-E approach why you can descend a lot lower on the approach because the initial approach xes are located well out to sea north of PADU and clear of any obstructions, although other rules can apply to that as well depending on entry angle into the area. 54

A LITTLE FURTHER ALONG AND WE NOW HAVE THE SOUTHWESTERN ARM OF UNALASKA ISLAND OFF THE RIGHT WING. THE NDB WILL ALSO LIKELY BE IN RANGE AT THIS POINT SO TURN YOUR AIRCRAFT TO TRACK DIRECT TO THE DUT NDB.

CPM. V15I5

You will be ying the southern edge of Umnak Island navigating visually to begin with. As you approach the end of Umnak Island which should be off your left wing you will see the southern tip of Unalaska Island on the right. Keep this on your right wing for now and until the DUT NDB becomes active. When it does, which is usually before you reach the southern tip of Unalaska Island, the ADF needle should be pointing ahead of your aircraft. It is also important to verify you are reading the correct NDB by identifying (IDENT) and verifying its morse code audio signal it returns is the same as what is printed on the chart.

HERE I HAVE JUST CROSSED OVER THE NDB AND I AM STARTING A DESCENDING TURN TO 346 DEGREES TO FLY OUTBOUND FROM THE NDB. ONCE ON THE 346 DEGREE HEADING OUTBOUND, WE CAN DESCEND TO 3700FT.

THE ADF GAUGE (BELOW THE AIRSPEED INDICATOR) IS SHOWING THE NDB STATION IS DEAD AHEAD. JUST BELOW AND TO THE RIGHT IS THE DME GAUGE WHICH IS SHOWING WE ARE CURRENTLY AT 40.7 NM FROM THE AIRPORT (ROUGHLY THIS A DIRECT MEASUREMENT FROM THE AIRCRAFT TO THE STATION).

At this point, begin a right hand turn to y outbound from the NDB station on a heading of 346 degrees. This is indicated on the racetrack on the chart printed next to the NDB station. Just below that on the chart is the vertical prole section. You can see there is a descending line with a 346 degree heading indicated coming from the NDB/DME point and pointing to a gure of 3700 which is underlined. This is an altitude height and the underline means you cannot descend below this height during the outbound leg. Fly the outbound leg for a minimum two minutes while descending from your initial approach altitude (in our cases about 8000 feet). I usually y the outbound leg for however long it takes me to descend to 3700 feet at a modest descent rate or until I reach 10NM DME outbound (depending on the airport). The chart asks us to remain within 10NM on this phase, so we will do so. At 1000 feet per minute descent, this is a minimum 4 minute descent anyway in our example and this gets you out a fair way out as it is in distance terms. Consider coming back you might have a fairly similar descent rate from 3700ft to airport altitude so everything balances itself out relatively well with the airport being just above sea level.

ALTHOUGH THE DAWN LIGHT SHADES ARE STUNNING, THOSE PUFFY CLOUDS ARE LIMITING VISIBILITY AT TIMES.

At this point you will probably also see the Makushin Volcano ahead of your aircraft and to the left in the distance. Enjoy the view for a moment but maintain your track direct to the DUT NDB (keep the ADF needle pointing directly at the 12 oclock position and you cant go wrong). Keep an eye on the DME also and be sure to maintain altitude above 7700ft as per the MSA requirement. Once the DME hits single gures and gets closer to zero, you should denitely have the airport in sight below you. As the DME gure reduces to around 1.0 - 1.5NM), the ADF needle will start to spin quickly and reverse itself as you y over top of the NDB station. Remember that the DME readout includes a vertical height component as well, so its not likely you will see the DME display drop below 1.0NM even if you are ying direct over the top of it because of the 7700ft+ altitude you are ying at.

NOTE THE ADF NEEDLE POINTING BEHIND US AND AT 6.9NM DME WE CAN NOW MAKE THE TURN LEFT TO 301 DEGREES TO PERFORM THE REQUIRED PROCEDURAL TURN AS PER THE CHART.

Once you have reached 3700 feet from your cruise altitude outbound, the approach plate indicates we must make a procedural turn left to a heading of 301 degrees. Turn left heading 301 degrees and maintain that heading for a few minutes (again this time frame or distance will depend on aircraft type as larger aircraft have a larger 55

turning radius and may require more distance to complete the next step. Once established on a heading of 301 degrees for at least a few minutes, and always checking visually for other trafc and reporting your position via appropriate Comms, make a right turn to the reciprocal heading of 121 degrees. Fly the 121 degree heading until your ADF needle is pointing to 166 degrees on the compass card that surrounds it and make the turn onto that heading of 166. You should start the turn early and anticipate it before you pass the 166 degree inbound reading on the ADF to keep better course and track direct back to the NDB station. At Dutch Harbor you dont want to be too far left of this 166 degree track back in to the airport as it creates a larger vector angle for nal approach. Its not a problem in a small aircraft but larger aircraft have less room and time to maneuver. As you are establishing or have established on the 166 degree heading back inbound to the NDB, you should nd yourself clear of any terrain around Dutch Harbour and back over the water, and so you can now leave 3700 feet and descend visually for nal approach and touchdown.

While the NDB approach itself is not overly challenging in its own right, add in some dense cloud, high winds and precipitation and something that seems very simple in theory becomes a heck of a lot more challenging in practice, but if you stick to the approach plan and follow it along, you should nd yourself safely down in Dutch Harbour and ready to go shing for some high-bounty Alaskan King Crab!

The GPS-E Approach

If you have an aircraft with a IFR GPS installed (and a database of FIXES/INTERSECTIONS included) then life can get a little easier. Because GPS doesnt rely on xed base equipment on the ground like VORs or NDBs do, it can use FIXES or INTERSECTIONS (points of reference in a database) to navigate to based on data it has for its current position. The downside of using GPS is that it cannot always be relied upon 100%, but thankfully modern aviation global positioning systems are extremely accurate and quite reliable (as long as there are enough satellites oating out in space to utilize). Nonetheless you shouldnt consider any navigational system foolproof and they should always be used with some degree of caution. GPS is popular though because once you have set up a planned route in the system, then for the most part, you just follow the plot line to navigate to your destination.

DURING THE TEST FLIGHT WE EXPERIENCED A LOT OF CLOUD REDUCING VISIBILITY (MORE EXCITEMENT, BUT MORE DANGER) SO I TOOK THIS SHOT ON ANOTHER CLEAR DAY TO SHOW WHAT YOU SHOULD SEE IF YOU ARE INBOUND ON THE NDB ON THE CORRECT 166 DEGREE HEADING. ITS ALL VISUAL FROM THIS POINT ON

In the case of a missed approach or a situation where you lose visual of the runway on nal, abort and follow the missed approach procedure as indicated on the chart. For the NDB approach, this involves maintaining the inbound 166 degree bearing and climbing to 3000ft initially then at 3000ft make a LEFT climbing turn to 4700ft and head back to the NDB where you should hold for future instruction or to contemplate your virtual pilot career (if you nd yourself making a habit of these missed approaches!).

DOWN SAFELY IN DUTCH HARBOR. LOOKING TOWARD THE TERMINAL.

THE GPS-E APPROACH CHART FOR PADU

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With reference to the accompanying GPS-E approach plate for Dutch Harbor, we can see several approach xes listed. These are the circles with the star-like appendages wrapped around them. There is one listed for MORDI which is a fair way out from the Initial Approach Fix (IAF) of ALEUT. For most aircraft this will be the initial x to use for the approach. Dial that x (ALEUT) into your IFR GPS. Hopefully it nds it! Now, depending on the GPS unit you are currently using you might also be able to enter in the following xes on the approach ahead of time, these being EYUYO, AFPIV and USUHU. Note that Minimum Safe Altitude rules also apply for the GPS approach. In this instance it is not below 7000 ft within 25NM of the USUHU x, until you have visual identication of your location and any obstacles, or you are at or near the ALEUT x. For the GPS Approach I am going to y the default FSX Cessna 172SP with the Garmin G1000 cockpit. The Garmin displays are large and easy to see and follow in this aircraft. The only way to enter the ight plan into the G1000 is to use the default FSX Flight Planner tool. Bring up the Flight Planner and enter Cold Bay (PACD) as the departure airport, and Unalaska (PADU) as the destination airport. Choose IFR as the ight plan type, and DIRECT-GPS routing option and then click the FIND ROUTE button. A straight line should be generated between PACD and PADU on the resulting map view. Using the zoom controls on the route screen, zoom into the area around our destination at PADU. Make sure you have the FIXES button turned on (GREEN) from the top menu options to the right of the zoom controls. It is the upward pointing solid triangle. With this on, and a sufcient zoom level obtained near PADU, the GPS FIXES should be visible as blue triangles. Without sufcient zoom they appear as dark dots only. You can hover the mouse over each of the triangles and it will display the x name. We want to nd the ALEUT x rst. Just reference the chart I have provided for this ight to estimate its rough location and hover the mouse over the xes in the area you think it should be. You will nd it easily. Next, click and drag the RED/MAGENTA ight path on the map view and drop it onto the ALEUT x. This should now add that x to the plan. Now on the RED/MAGENTA line showing between ALEUT and PADU, click and drag this line to drop it onto the EYUYO x.

Then do the same for the AFPIV and USUHU xes. All we are doing is matching the path of FIXES on the approach plate to the ight planner in the sim. Once that is done, it should look like the accompanying screenshot and check in the provided list that all xes are entered and in the correct order. Save your ight plan and return to your aircraft. If the sim asks if you want to be moved to the departure airport, select Yes (if you are not already loaded up there). You should nd the route you have just planned is now automatically inserted into the Garmin G1000 and is automatically activated. Press the FPL button at the lower right of the G1000 screen to view the Active Flight Plan and check the xes are entered correctly. If all is ok, continue you pre-ight and pre-takeoff checks and get airborne. If you are not familiar with how to use the G1000 system in the default FSX aircraft, go back to the main FSX menu and access the LEARNING CENTER. There is a detailed article there on using the G1000 system. I chose real world weather for my example ight, but if this is the rst time you are attempting navigation via a chart or are not familiar with the Aleutian Islands or the Dutch Harbor area, you may want to set ne conditions to keep things simple and avoid distraction.

THE FLIGHT PLAN IS PRE-LOADED INTO THE G1000 AND ACTIVATED SIMPLE!

IF YOUR FLIGHT PLANNER SCREEN LOOKS JUST LIKE THIS, YOU HAVE DONE EVERYTHING CORRECTLY.

LEAVING COLD BAY (PACD), CLIMBING ENROUTE TO DUTCH HARBOR (PADU)

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Now, for the rst part, just take off and follow the course plotted on your G1000 screen. Reach cruise altitude and sit back and enjoy the scenery for a while. Its a 145nm leg to the ALEUT FIX so there is plenty of time to enjoy the scenery. The Cessna 172SP will handle 9,000 feet OK but the cruise speed on my ight was only 95-100 knots so its a fairly long leg time-wise. Use this time to familiarize yourself more with the G1000 system. Keep an eye on your GPS as you go and also dial in the DUT DME on 113.90 as a secondary guidance measure if your aircraft has the DME option. Its not really needed when using the G1000 for this ight plan as the G1000 will provide distance calculations to each x, as well as total distance remaining on the planned route. Along the way well also review some more chart info that we will use to plan and execute the GPS approach. Lateral guidance will be provided by the GPS all the way in onto short nal where we switch to visual, so the navigating part of this approach is really quite simple.

As you get within 10-20nm of the ALEUT x, its time to consider losing some altitude so we arrive at the x at the prescribed altitude as shown on the approach plate chart. In this case we should be at or very near 2500ft when we arrive at the ALEUT x and we hold this same altitude from ALEUT through the EYUYO x and keep holding 2500ft until we reach the AFPIV x. If you are ying a larger, faster aircraft, you may need to start your descent sooner to reach 2500ft at ALEUT, depending on your cruise altitude enroute as well. At the AFPIV x we are 7.0NM from the runway touchdown point. We should now be ying a heading of 159 degrees on the approach path, be congured for landing and airspeed reduced for nal approach and you can begin a measured visual descent to reach USUHU just 2.5NM from the touchdown point. If conditions are bad and no visual of the runway is obtained by the time you reach the USUHU x, you should immediately abort the landing and make a climbing LEFT turn back up to 3000ft and set course back to the ALEUT x and hold as per the missed approach procedure indicated on the chart. Hopefully visibility will never be a problem, because you checked the weather and conditions at Dutch Harbor BEFORE you took off from Cold Bay, right? If for some reason you do nd conditions not to be possible for landing, proceed back to ALEUT and hold in right circuits until either visibility improves, or you gure out if you can make it to the next closest landing strip, which for a wheeled aircraft is another 100NM away. If you have a oatplane then you have fewer problems in nding somewhere to land.

IT MIGHT BE TRICKY TO SEE IN THIS IMAGE, BUT THE MAGENTA COLORED INFORMATION AT THE TOP OF THE LEFT PFD SCREEN SHOWS DISTANCE TO AND TRACK INFORMATION FOR THE ALEUT FIX.

If you are ying a default aircraft with the G1000, the next waypoint is listed on the primary ight display screen next to your GPS screen, up top in magenta color. This is handy as it puts that info right in your eld of view and a small GPS sub-window to the lower left of this screen also gives you a zoomedin view of your position relative to the GPS track, so you dont even need to look at the GPS screen all the time, although the GPS screen does also display vital engine readouts too which you should always keep a close eye on. Check and adjust your altimeter regularly as required as air pressure changes in these parts fairly frequently!

JUST PASSED AFPIV ENROUTE TO USUHU. VISIBILITY IS FINE SO I WILL START HEADING DOWN FOR A VISUAL APPROACH TO THE RUNWAY.

If visibility is ne at USUHU, continue descent and make a visual approach to landing at Runway 12, Dutch Harbor. There will be a slight turn left onto short nal on this route but you can offset that by making a right turn after passing USUHU to get a better visual of the runway that is hiding just over the ridge of the huge landmass right in front of you. Line up via a left turn to short nal for a smooth touchdown. Taxi to the ramp at the far end of the runway, exit right for parking and passenger terminals. Note that we ew this in a Cessna so things went quite slow and it was easy to adjust and familiarize ones self with the approach and landing. In a larger multi-engine passenger prop or business jet, things move a lot quicker and you have to really be on the money to grease the landing. Nonetheless, this remains a visual approach so you can turn right off the GPS track if visibility is good and buy you a little more time and distance to line up on the centerline for touchdown. CPM. V15I5

FIRMLY ESTABLISHED IN THE GPS APPROACH AT 2500FT.

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THE FINAL APPROACH AND LANDING INTO DUTCH HARBOUR AFTER NAVIGATING IN VIA GPS TO THE VISUAL HANDOVER.

Summing Up
So there are two different published approaches to Dutch Harbor, hopefully explained well and inspiring enough to make you want to give them a try yourself! While ying by the book may seem boring at rst, once you master the art of navigating by charts, you will quickly nd it is in fact very exciting and rewarding, plus it forces you to visit new areas of the ight sim world that you might never explore otherwise. Give it a go! 59

HORTONS HINTS for FLIGHTsimX

BY DOUG HORTON
his issue of Hortons Hints includes miscellaneous utilities related to processors, overclocking, and monitoring fan speeds and temperatures. Well also provide a hint about how those who run Reality XPs great GNS 430W and 530W instruments can export ight plans programmed into either of these add-on instruments to the FSX Flight Planner.

Intel Turbo Boost Monitor

While searching for more information on Intels Turbo Boost feature, which is included with Intels newer processors, I found a small utility called the Intel Turbo Boost Technology Monitor. You can download this free utility from http://downloadcenter.intel. com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19105. After installing and starting the software, it operates in a small window and graphically shows the processors current Turbo Boost frequency relative to core default frequency, though it seems to report slightly lower frequencies than the popular free utility CPU-Z. In my experience, you do not need to be operating an Intel-manufactured motherboard to use this utility, though the motherboard must be hosting an Intel processor.

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FSXMARK07 BENCHMARK FLIGHT, WITH TURBO BOOST MONITOR OVERLAID ON SCREEN

In the rst accompanying screen image, I ran an FSXMark07 benchmarking ight with the Turbo Boost Monitor overlaid above the control panel. The darker portion of the vertical bar shows the default core frequency of the processor, while the lighter portion shows the extent to which Turbo Boost is increasing the frequency. In this case, with modest overclocking and Turbo Boost active, the monitor shows a current processor frequency of 3.86 GHz, compared to its default core frequency of 3.33 GHz. The importance of this increase in core frequency is that weve proven for any given conguration FSX framerate performance is directly proportional to current core speed. If you right-click on the Turbo Boost Monitor window, there are selections for Always on Top; as well as Small, Medium, or Large displays. Theres also a checkbox for enabling the utility to Run at Startup. Depending on your Power settings in Windows, when the motherboard and/or processors energy saving feature turns down the processor speed in near-idle conditions, the darker blue bar diminishes and the Monitor shows the clock speed as less than the default core speed, with an adjacent green leaf Energy Saver logo. This is a neat tool that shows the smartness of the motherboard and processor in adapting to varying computing loads in consideration of the power settings, power consumed, heat generated, and the resulting core temperatures.

TURBO BOOST MONITOR WITH I7-940 PROCESSOR IDLING

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Overclocking and Testing Processors

Both AMD and Intel feature processors that are unlocked for overclocking processor speed. Several of these processors now sell for as little as 20 percent of the cost of high end processors from two years ago with the same FSX performance! To accompany these processors and graphically control and test overclocking, both AMD and Intel provide free downloadable software utility programs. In general, these utilities provide for overclocking CPU, memory and bus speeds for enhanced performance, plus they provide for monitoring voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds, some with graphs that show changes over time. AMD Overdrive. AMDs OverDrive utility allows users to tune parameters to help system stability, optimize performance, and control cooling and acoustic characteristics. There are many adjustments possible, and the accompanying image shows one section of the overall interface. Highlighted in the red boxes are the key adjustments on the Clock/Voltage tab under the Performance Control section: CPU Core Multiplier and CPV VID (core voltage). The OverDrive manual suggests increasing these values in small steps and then verifying system stability with the OverDrive Stability Test or with a third party multithreaded benchmark.

Ive had mixed success with use of the Desktop Control Centers Auto-Tuning feature. This feature sequentially increases several settings to increase the processor clock speed, and it tests combinations of ever higher settings, with frequent, automated rebooting. Unfortunately, there are built-in time delays while settings are made and stress testing is conducted without any indication that progress is continuing. Its easy in this situation to give up and interrupt the process. Invariably, if this is done, it will be necessary to reboot with default BIOS settings and restart the process. With sufcient patience, the Auto-Tuning feature will usually complete the process and it will produce and display a report of recommended maximum settings for overclocking. This report is also saved in the Logs folder under the folder containing the Desktop Control Center. Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. The Desktop Control Center has been superseded by the Extreme Tuning Utility for newer Intelmanufactured motherboards, such the DP67BG, DX58OG, and DX58SO2. The accompanying image shows the software architecture of the XTU. Note from this diagram that the utility may operate on other than Intel brand motherboards if the manufacturer includes the necessary API and BIOS elements.

AMD OVERDRIVE SCREEN FOR MULTICORE CPU ADJUSTMENTS

Intel Desktop Control Center. Intel currently provides two utilities for controlling and testing overclocking. For processors such as the two year old i7-975, operated with an Intel DX58SO motherboard Ive tested, as well as the DP55KG AND DP55SB models, the utility is called Desktop Control Center. This utility includes auto-tuning for overclocking and stress testing, along with monitoring. Most changes in settings require rebooting, but some do not. For example, for overclocking unlocked processors its often possible to increase Turbo Boost multipliers with the Desktop Control Center without rebooting. Several additional settings are viewed by clicking plus signs to open subsidiary interface displays. The main interface in the accompanying image shows an Intel i7-975 processor idling at 13% load, while its overclocked to 4.05 GHz.

XTU1.JPG DIAGRAM OF EXTREME TUNING UTILITY ARCHITECTURE

Ive found this utility to be much easier to use than the Desktop Control Center, and its particularly informative when its stress test feature is used, because it graphs individual core temperatures as the stress test proceeds. You select the total time for the stress test, and the utility will cause the processor to be loaded 100% during this time period. If the processor temperatures are stable and reasonable during the stress test with the processor loaded 100%, its highly likely that overclocked operation will endure during FSX operation, because the ve Intel processors Ive tested have never been close to 100% loaded. Yes, theyre busy performing a myriad of sequential calculations, but theyre not highly loaded. With the surprisingly capable, unlocked, four core second generation Intel i5-2500K processor, the default speed is 3.3 GHz, and the default Turbo Boost speed reaches 3.7 GHz. Using the Extreme Tuning Utility manually, I incrementally ran the processor speed up to 4.4 GHz with a proportional increase in FSX framerate performance, as veried with multiple trials of the FSXMark07 benchmarking procedure. I monitored the four core temperatures at each step, and there was only a small increase in core temperatures during these tests. Recall that my testing of this processor was conducted with a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus ($30 US) processor cooler, and fan monitoring indicated the cooler fan sped up only slightly during stress testing. CPM. V15I5

MAIN INTERFACE FOR INTELS DESKTOP CONTROL CENTER

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MANUAL TUNING INTERFACE OF EXTREME TUNING UTILITY

As an update from my article on Budget Builds in the May-June issue, the i5-2500K processor is now selling for under $200, and with it I have demonstrated 10% higher processor speed and resulting FSX framerate, compared to what I previously obtained with benchmark testing of FSX with sequential tests of the near thousand dollar (US) priced i7-975 and i7-980X processors. The i5-2500Ks big brother i7-2500K processor is selling for about $300 or less, and one reader says his system builder is providing a computer in which the i72600K processor will be overclocked by the builder to 4.8 GHz. I appreciate the improvements in the Extreme Tuning Utility, though I noticed a problem. Though the instructions and available image of the main screen show an Auto-Tuning button, the version I download did not include this feature. Based on problems Id had with the Auto-Tuning feature in the Desktop Control Center, it may be a work in progress for the Extreme Tuning Utility.

If you want to y planned routes in FSX with ATC, you need to use the FSX Flight Planner to prepare a ight plan, and the plan will show up automatically in FSX on the default Garmin GPS 500 or G1000 instruments. Because the Reality XP 430W/530W instruments are based on Garmins PC trainers for these instruments, theres no means of sending an FSX ight plan to the Reality XP instruments. Fortunately, the reverse is possible, courtesy of Reality XP, so you can export a ight plan, programmed with a Reality XP GNS 430W or 530W, into FSX for use by the built-in ATC feature as follows:

Exporting Reality XP 430W/530W Flight Plans to the FSX Flight Planner

Im a fan of Reality XPs Garmin GNS 530W add-on for FSX instrument panel, because my partnership Cessna 182S has a real GNS 530W. As other fans may know, the software behind the Reality XP GNS 530W (and 430W) is the actual PC Trainer produced and distributed freely by Garmin.

1. Program a ight plan into the Reality XP GNS 430W or 530W. 2. Use the export command a right-click over the FPL key. This will save a date/time stamped *.pln le in the same folder with your other ight and ight plan les. There will be no tips or other pop ups to conrm this action, but youll nd the le when you look for it in the next step. 3. Load this ight plan into FSX using the Flight Planners Load button. The airport pair will not display in the Flight Planner interface, but if you look at the Edit tab, youll see departure and destination airports listed. 4. In the FSX Flight Planner, specify a cruising altitude, and then Save the ight plan. Click out with OKs and youre ready to y the Reality XP 430/530W ight plan with FSX ATC.

RIGHT-CLICKING THE FPL KEY WILL EXPORT A FLIGHT PLAN TO FSX.

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More Advanced Training and My First Permanent Assignment

I LEARNED ABOUT FLYING

BY JOHN ACHOR
he F-100 Super Sabre, built by North American Aviation, was the rst U.S. ghter that could achieve supersonic speed in level ight. The opening image is that of an F-100D over the southwest United States, most likely near Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico.

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Figure 1 shows an F-100 A model. This is really a prototype since the numbers on the side of the nose read YF-100. This photo shows the drag chute, which was used to decelerate after landing.

Figure 2 is a better view of the F-100A. I ew this model while going through advanced ghter training at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada (USA). This bird had a lot of power and the afterburner that was lacking in the F-84F. That extra power got me into trouble on an Air-to-Air mission. A typical pattern for a four-ship went like this: Lead approached the tow-target plane (usually a T-33A) at the same altitude (20,000 feet) and offset to the left. The remainder of the ight ew in trail behind Lead. The pattern called for each aircraft to approach the tow-plane and when abeam begin a ninety degree right climbing turn; roll out of the turn; then reverse the turn ninety degrees to the left looking back and down to pick out the target. Now we paralleled the target path ve-thousand feet above it. This was called the perch. From there, you begin a diving S-turn, rst left and then right to roll out about thirty-degrees to the targets path and open re with the 20 mm guns. Being used to the under-powered F-84F, I was not ready for the added thrust of the Super Sabre. I was Number Three on this ight and was unable to pick up the tow plane as I approached. Number Four told me he had the tow-plane and my aircraft in sight. He called my break and I started a right climbing turn to 25,000 feet. I reversed and began looking for the target. I never did see the tow-plane or the target and the next thing I knew I was passing through 30,000 feet. I got to go home alone warning, be more attentive to the planes capabilities. The drag chute was added to the plane since nal approach and touchdown was own at 180 knots. The high airspeed was caused by a lack of aps on the plane. As a matter of fact, the developers didnt get around to adding aps until the D model. Air ow to the engine was touchy. We were warned in ground school that low airspeed and high pitch angle could cause compressor stalls they did. I was leveling off at altitude when the airspeed dropped critically low and the resulting compressor stall sounded and felt like someone with a sledge hammer was rapidly slamming the aircraft just under my feet. Better pay attention to those with experience. My rst assignment after ying school was Foster Air Force Base at Victoria, Texas (USA). I was assigned to the 452nd Fighter Day Squadron. Figure 3 is an image of the squadron patch we wore.

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

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FIGURE 4

FIGURE 3

I read the local newspaper on the weekend before I was due to report for duty on Monday. The paper announced the base was closing. Well, so much for this assignment. I did stay for two years, up to the end and was the next to last ofcer to leave the base. The only one still there was a caretaker. While at Foster AFB, I ew the F-100C. Figure 4 shows this model painted in USAF aerial demonstration team (Thunderbird) colors. Note several things in this image: in the side view of the exhaust area you can see the eyelids, which opened when in afterburner to keep excessive pressure from building up in the tailpipe; the green arrow points to the skid under the tail of the plane; next you can see a red arrow pointing to the air-refueling probe painted with red and white stripes; and the speed brakes are also visible on the belly just forward of the main gear. That slab, about the size of a barn door, gave a good pitch up when it was extended. Before we were allowed the y, we were required to watch ve landings from mobile control a small glass enclosed trailer parked near the touchdown end of the runway to see how it should go. The tail skid deployed as the wheels were lowered and was designed to prevent damage to the tail pipe in case the plane touched down with too much nose up attitude. About the third landing I witnessed, the plane came in nose high and made a three point landing both main wheels and the tail skid. The impact was so great it drove the skid up into the tail pipe. So much for condence building. I vowed Id never touch down with that much nose up attitude. This one did not happen to me, but provided a real lesson. While air-refueling, the pilot did not stop his closure rate as the probe on his plane latched into the drogue basket. As he slid forward, the refueling hose looped up and over his right wing. Then, when there was enough slack in the hose, the loop drooped over the trailing edge of the wing and the hose draped around the tail of the right hand drop tank. The pilot nally managed to extricate himself from this dilemma, but it took a great deal of time and careful maneuvering. Lesson: dont overrun the drogue basket.

Another item I pointed out in Figure 4, afterburner eyelids, played a large part in this incident. Although the F-100 was a rst line ghter, automated ejections systems were still far in the future. We needed about 1,200 feet above ground level to have a successful egress. I think this was my second ride in the F-100C, and as a newbie a chase pilot was assigned to accompany me for the ight. I was ying lead with the instructor on my right wing. We ran up the engines, released the brakes and went to afterburner. Seconds later, my chase pilot yelled something over the radio all I could understand was the word afterburner. I knew mine had lighted off and I was near rotate speed; I decided to complete the takeoff and climbed smartly to a safe ejection altitude. When I came out of afterburner, all seemed in good order, so I entered a closed pattern and landed. Later, I found out the instructor was shouting that my afterburner eyelids did not fully open on takeoff. With those eyelids partially closed, I had excessive thrust; the instructor said I walked away from him like he was in idle. I realized I was not aware enough on takeoff to identify the problem stay aware and stay ahead of the airplane. Last time, I mentioned the disappointing supersonic ride in the F-84F. On one of my early rides in the F-100C, we went to altitude, leveled off and applied full afterburner power. I watched the mach meter steadily climb until we were exceeding the speed of sound in level ight much easier than the earlier screaming dive in the F84F. My Mach Busters Club certicate still hangs on my wall. So much for my career as a ghter pilot. The Air Force decided they were overstocked on pilots and I was low man in experience. I moved on to several desk jobs before getting back to ying as a primary duty. The End

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Overstocked with fighter pilots

I LEARNED ABOUT FLYING

BY JOHN ACHOR
he United States government was on a cost cutting binge in the late 1950s. That was the impetus to close bases including my rst permanent assignment Foster Air Force Base at Victoria Texas, USA. Along with the closing, the USAF decided it was overstocked with ghter pilots. Being the newest arrival, I was chopped early.

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I spent about a year as the base procurement ofcer not what it sounds like and a lot less interesting. My ofce wrote the contracts which purchased the daily needs for the entire base. Not much ying experience here. I left Foster AFB in the rear view mirror, and headed to another Texas destination. This time I would attend Supply Ofcers School Amarillo AFB at Amarillo, Texas. The AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code) I was awarded as a supply ofcer was 6461 a coding I had deleted from my records as soon as I could. To get the four hours of ying time per month to qualify for ight pay, I ew back seat in the North American T-28 Trojan. One ight, my front-seater made arrangements with another pilot to meet for a little illegal combat ying.

My next assignment as a Supply Ofcer was to Homestead AFB, Florida (USA). By the time I arrived, a friend had died ying a T33 with base ight. In his innite wisdom, the Wing Commander decreed that staff pilots would not y the T-33; we would be assigned to a combat squadron. The combat aircraft at Homestead were the Boeing KC-97, a four piston-engine, air refueling tanker and the Boeing B-47, a six-engine jet bomber. Lucky me. I drew the B-47 which had a three-man crew. The pilot and copilot sat in tandem seats under a top-centerline canopy. The navigator sat low in the nose of the bird. Those three crew positions were the only seats on this plane. On my rst ride the Aircraft Commander (pilot) briefed me on emergency procedures: In case of a bailout, the two pilots would eject upward; the navigator ejects downward. He said, As the fourth man, your best bet is the crawl forward along the catwalk and exit through the hole the navigator leaves at the bottom of the nose. theres real encouragement. I accumulated about twelve hours crouching on the catwalk to the left and below the pilots and which ran forward and a little higher to the navigators position. It was not comfortable nor conducive to longevity in case of emergencies. At one point, the pilot actually allowed me to strap into the copilots seat. I ew straight and level for a few minutes and he told me to execute a thirty-degree banked turn. I wanted to say: Wow, is this ever exciting in my most sarcastic tone. However, I reconsidered and simply thanked him for the time in a real seat. Another year, another base. The USAF decided to move the Homestead KC-97 squadron to Massachusetts (USA). We would pick up and move more than a dozen airplanes and along the way, accumulate all the necessary equipment and supplies to operate as a self-contained unit. Our destination was Otis AFB, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. The Air Defense Command owned the base and we would be a tenant unit. There was an upside to living in an expensive summer resort destination. Being year-rounders, the restaurants recognized our year round business. In the summer, while a visitor was enjoying his $12USD lobster, we enjoyed the same meal for less than half that price. Remember, this was the early 1960s and a dollar was worth more than today. The squadron commander was looking for more pilots. I spent a short stint at another Texas base for KC-97 upgrade training. Back at Otis, I was assigned to a combat crew as copilot. I was back in the ying business well, part of the time. We typically spent a majority of our time on alert duty; twenty-four hours per day, three to seven days per week in a underground building, which we dubbed the Mole Hole, waiting for World War Three to start and hoping it wouldnt. Our next higher headquarters, 8th Air Force at Westover AFB, Massachusetts, would direct exercises for the alert crews and aircraft. Since they lived in fear of a night time taxi accident, they generally initiated training alerts in the day time, which terminated after engine start. Imagine our surprise when the Klaxon horn the alert signal blasted us awake around 2 a.m. race to planes; engine start; copy the scramble message; authenticate the message; taxi to the end of the runway. Our anxiety level shot through the roof the

JAN FIGURE 1 - T-28 TRO

We met in the air and the furball was on. The rst mistake both pilots made was to get into a Lufbery Circle. They compounded that error by pushing up the throttle to get around the circle faster and catch the other plane. After a couple of 360s, with neither gaining any advantage, I asked my pilot to give me the controls. I eased the throttle back and dropped partial aps. In less than a complete circle, I was camped on the other T-28s six-oclock position. The front seat pilots forgot the basics; going faster increases airspeed, but also increases the turn radius. By slowing, I decreased the radius of turn and gained the advantage.

FIGURE 2 KC-97

REFUELING A B-47

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message indicated we were about to launch our aircraft and refuel Strategic Air Command bombers loaded with nuclear weapons and headed toward their targets. It took a while for the real story to lter down to us. That night, the BMEWS (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System) a series of radar sites looking north and located across northern Canada came on line. There was a small glitch in the software controlling the scramble signal. As soon as a target came over the horizon, the signal went out. They missed the step in the software that would tell the system it should ignore targets beyond ten to twelve thousand miles away. The target coming over the horizon that night was... the moon. The KC-97 sported four R-4360 (displacement) engines and these were the largest piston engines ever built. Each consisted of four, seven-cylinder radial-engines bolted together. Consider, each cylinder uses two spark plugs. Multiply that by seven (cylinders per bank) times four (the number of banks per engine) times four (number of engines) equals 224 spark plugs per airplane. The supply ofcer in me wondered why the bean counters removed the spark plug wrench for the list of tools authorized by each crew chief. The KC-97 was the cargo/transport version of the WWII B-29 bomber and the civilian version was the Boeing 377 Stratoliner. It was a gas guzzler, and for that reason the civilian airlines gave up on it as too expensive to be competitive. By the time I was ying this plane, the G model was almost using more oil than fuel. We carried a 55 gallon drum on the lower deck so we could pump additional oil to the engine oil tanks. Other duties included: long navigation legs, temporary alert duty at Sondrestrom AB, Greenland, and caging (feathering) engines due to oil pressure problems. Sondrestrom had a minimum of 1,200 feet above ground level for a precision approach. The runway was at the bottom end of the fjord; one way to land (east) and one way to takeoff (west) no room for missed approaches. We learned to do it right or crash. This was the only multi-engine I ew where you walked outboard of the seats rather than between them to get to the pilot positions. I ew with two different Aircraft Commanders with a great deal of experience. I did my best to learn from them and emulate being a good crew commander. During a pilot training class reunion in Colorado Springs, Colorado (USA), I discovered an unusual eatery, the Solo Restaurant. The fuselage and the starboard engines of a KC-97 are outside the structure while the port wing and engines are enclosed inside the building. A small seating section was tted inside the fuselage which led to a full cockpit still in amazing condition. Even after all these years, there is life in the old girl still. It was good to see her here rather than in a scrap yard. There are several ight simulator versions of the T-28, B-47 and KC-97 available online. Next time, well move on to the KC-135A Boeing Stratotanker, which I ew in Washington state (USA) and Southeast Asia.

FIGURE 3 - KC-97 SOLO RESTAURANT

FIGURE 4 - FUSELAGE INTE RIOR

SEATING

SOLO FIGURE 5 -

COCKPIT NT - KC-97 RESTAURA

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FLIGHT SIM DOCTOR

I G H T S I M D O C I G H T S I M D O C

Helping to Cure Your Flight Sim Ailments!

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CPM. V15I5

Case Number 1 - Patient History:

Hello Flight Sim Doctor. How are you today? All situations occurred in a 747-400 flight deck. I have FSX installed on my computer now. What issue of Computer Pilot starts covering FSX? I am not impressed with FSX. At several airports, KTRI, KDFW, KLAX, KBOS for a few there are no terminal buildings where the aircraft park. There is a tower and several maintenance buildings, but NO terminal buildings. On the 747-400 flight deck, with the cursor on the clock, the time comes on and disappears after a few seconds. This makes it hard to start the second hand with the clock. FS2K2 Pro Ed. the time stayed displayed til the cursor moved away. During one check ride I sat parked on the ramp and shut-down, there was a sound of an APU running? How do I shut down the APU? Is there a placard to print out the keys to push for the various views from the flight deck to views outside whatever aircraft I am in? In FS2K2 when the landing gear handle was moved to an unsafe position a horn sounded. NO horn in FSX. I was on the ground with 747-400 engines shut-down. I moved the handle to Gear Up Position, NO Horn. During ATC contact the instructions are printed on the screen. How do I get to hear the Comms? Tom Price

3. Regarding the lack of APU switch on the default 747-400 in FSX, this one is simple there is no functioning APU switch on this aircraft. While you can see it on the overhead panel (right side), Microsoft has not made the switch functional on this aircraft, although it does seem to be functional on some other default birds, so perhaps they just forgot to code this in. 4. On the gear horn sound issue, again this horn sounds fine for me in the default 747 when I try to raise the gear while on the ground. I get quite a nice loud horn sound in fact. One thing to check is to go into your FSX sound settings via OPTIONS > SETTINGS > SOUND and make sure the volume levels for the COCKPIT setting are turned up a little. When these are at zero level the horn cannot be heard. Turn the volume up here and the sound is very audible. If still no sound after checking and raising the volume there, you may have a sound card configuration issue, or its possible your sound card/chip itself is not capable of producing multiple audio streams at once (old cards/chips had this problem). For the comms issue, again, same settings box for sound as above. But raise the volume of your VOICE setting, also ensuring there is a tick in the box to the left of each of these sliders to make them active. The VOICE setting controls the level of ATC speech in FSX. I hope that helps solve those issues Good Luck!

Case Number 2 - Patient History:

Flight Sim Doctor just a few questions I am seeking answers on as follows: Question #1 - Does FS2004 work on a Windows Vista 32-bit operating system? Question #2 - When running FSX, should I temporarily disable my internet security software and turn off my DSL modem? I had an incident a few weeks ago in which FSX stuttered and hesitated before freezing up. In addition, my internet security software encountered an error. Best Regards, Bruce Altomare

Likely Causes:
1. Missing Terminal Buildings: Scenery Density setting set too low. 2. 747 Clock Issue: Possible video card or aircraft file issue? 3. Lack of APU switch function 4. Possible low sound level settings in FSX.

The Cures:
Hi Tom, to answer your first query, content for FSX would have first been covered in the magazine around late 2006 when FSX was first released. We did have a few preview articles prior to this, but the first mega review of FSX was in December 2006 (Volume 10 Issue 12). And now, onto the answers to your flight sim ailments 1. I loaded up at KDFW in the 747-400, as well as at KTRI, both airports which I know I have NO additional scenery loaded. You are likely not getting terminal buildings showing because of a Scenery Complexity setting that is too low. I had mine set of NORMAL and a few terminal buildings showed up at each airport. I moved that to Extremely dense, and more buildings showed up, and terminals had jetways and more detail around the airport vicinity. So the number of buildings in FSX airports is related to the Scenery Complexity setting. To adjust this setting, in your FSX menu bar during a session (press and hold the ALT key if it is not visible) go to OPTIONS > SETTINGS > DISPLAY then look in the SCENERY tab and on the right side of the screen you will see the option for SCENERY COMPLEXITY. Increase that setting by moving the slider to the right to see more airport and terminal buildings at default airports in FSX. Note though that the higher the setting, the more impact you will see on FSX performance. 2. On the 747 clock issue you mention, I couldnt replicate this problem in my FSX. My clock seemed to work fine and no problem at all. If digits are there, and then they disappear, or something goes black, its possible it could be either a video card driver issue, or even a problem with some of the 747 aircraft files. Id first try updating your video card drivers, and if still no fix, in this case, try an online FS forum for help, as you would need to post a screenshot showing the exact issue. As mentioned, the clock seems to display and function fine on my FSX installation. Also make sure you have both FSX Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 loaded.

The Cures/Answers:
Hi Bruce! Thanks for forwarding your flight sim questions. Here is some advice on each. Answer #1 Yes, Flight Simulator 2004 will run on a Windows Vista 32-bit system. It runs on just about every recent version of Windows in fact. Windows XP Windows Vista and Windows 7, both 32-bit and , 64-bit operating systems will run FS2004. Windows Vista does have a reputation of perhaps being the poorest OS of the three mentioned to run a Flight Simulator package on however (issues with some add-on aircraft, slower performance running the sim on Vista than XP and 7 etc). In addition to it being able to run on Vista and other operating systems, you can also run Flight Simulator X and Flight Simulator 2004 on the same systems alongside each other if required. They operate as two independent sims and do not talk to each other, so there are virtually no conflicts. A lot of simmers do prefer to run both sims on the one system as some of their favorite aircraft add-ons may not yet be available in FSX format, or vice versa, some quality FSX add-ons are not FS2004 compatible. Answer #2 It is quite possible that both your DSL modem and internet security suite could cause performance issues with FSX. For example, if your security software starts running a virus scan automatically in the background, this process generally creates quite a load on your system memory and constantly accesses your hard disk to scan files. It will use up some CPU resources too of course. The combined effect is that FSX is now sharing the hardware alongside your security software and hence the likelihood of reduced performance (stutters, freezes etc). I know when my virus scanner

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starts an automatic scan it consumes a LOT of hardware resources. Everything else I am doing slows to a crawl and this also occurs with me in FSX too. So yes, it can be a good idea to temporarily disable your internet security suite while flying FSX, or at least disable an automatic scheduled scanning of your hard drive. Note that doing so does increase your risk of infection from websites and files, particularly if you have active connections to the internet via other programs running on your machine at the same time. Usually however, it is the virus scanning portion of most security suites that causes the mass slow down of any other software being run at the same time. You could schedule the virus scans to run at times you do not normally fly FSX, or turn off scheduled scans and perform them manually on a regular occasion. If you do get error messages from your internet security software, it is important to write them down and look them up online and try to solve the issue that caused the error. Doing so can also identify where problems are originating from and you can isolate and remove those sources to prevent future similar errors and issues. Having the DSL modem connected to the internet shouldnt have as much of an effect, but again, if that modem is currently downloading content or files from the net at the same time you are running FSX, especially if FSX is running from the same hard disk that files are being downloaded and written to, there can be some noticeable effect in FSX, because the hard disk performance is being shared across two or more processes. It is always a good idea to close down as many other applications running concurrently or in the background on your PC before running FSX. This will ensure best performance. Because you mentioned that FSX was stuttering and freezing and at the same time you received an error message in your security suite, theres a very high chance those two events are directly related. In these cases, check the error message and find out where the problem originated and fix that so it doesnt happen again! I hope this information helps!

1. AI Overclock ON (set in the ASUS BIOS) 2. CPU Ratio Settings OFF (set in the ASUS BIOS) 3. Target Framerate UNLIMITED (set in FSX itself) I changed this with: 1. AI Overclock AUTO (set in the ASUS BIOS) 2. CPU Ratio Settings AUTO (set in the ASUS BIOS) 3. Target Framerate - Set to 90 or 95, not unlimited (set in FSX itself) The problems were gone and FSX performance improved with these new settings. FSX on SSDs does not give you more frames, but for my feelings, I do not how to explain it right, it gives a more natural feeling (like when you change views or viewpoints there is little or no delay in rendering the view). With FSX on a 10,000 RPM disk I had sometimes experienced little delays when changing views. To give one example: OLD Settings: Brussels X airport from Aerosoft with the Carenado Cessna or Bonanza; no AI taxiing around frame rate was 10 to 15 fps. NEW Settings: After I changed the settings as mentioned above, using the same planes and the new B737-600 NG with wideview cockpit from iFly, I tried yesterday on the same airport taxiing around in the 2D cockpit and frame rates were 25 to 45 fps. In virtual cockpit the framerate was slightly lower at 20 to 35 fps. (All tests with REX 2 real weather). I do not why but the results are better with the new settings. My other FSX settings are as follows: Target Framerate 90 Global Texture Resolution VERY HIGH Advanced Animations CHECKED Antialiasing BILINEAR Aircraft Casts Shadows On Ground CHECKED Aircraft Landing-Lights Illuminate Ground CHECKED Level of Detail Radius - LARGE Mesh Complexity 50 Mesh Resolution 19m Texture Resolution - 60cm Water Effects - High 1.x Scenery Complexity VERY DENSE Autogen Density NORMAL Ground Scenery Shadows OFF Special Effects Detail MEDIUM Cloud Draw Distance 60mi/96km Clouds Detail DETAILED Aviation Traffic - None ; Road Vehicles 10%; Ships and Leisure Boats 0%.

FS Doctor Reader Response

Hello Doctor, I am a long time subscriber of your magazine (aged 60s and not an overclocker and certainly not an FSX Pro) and a week ago I received my copy of Computer Pilot. With my old system; Intel 3Ghz with 8Gb RAM and a 260GTX graphics card with 1Gb VRAM and Windows Vista 64 Ultimate, I did not have problems with FSX except the poor frame rates I was getting. So I built a new system with Asus P6T SE motherboard, Intel i7 960 cooled with a Corsair H50, 12 Gig Ram (6 x 2 DDR3), nVidia 480GTX Graphics 1.5Gb and Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate on an 2.5 inch 10,000 RPM disk, FSX on two SSDs. OK, I was getting high frame rates. I use FTX Australia and FTX North America scenery, and Germany VFR Series, and a lot of popular planes and airports. The issues started with something similar to Patient 3 in Volume 15 Issue 4, FS Doctor column; when I changed views and returned to F9 view my cockpit was gone, sometimes black parts in the scenery, etc. Some times after 5 minutes or some times after 30 minutes, or sometimes FSX did not start up at all or CTD (Crashed To Desktop). I asked on different forums without mentioning what system I was using, and they all answered me with system not up to date for FSX. I tried programs like Railworks, World of Subways 1 and 2 with the highest settings and had framerates of 70+ and never had a crash or any issue. My processor was set up in the BIOS of the motherboard like I read before in an article;

By the way can you tell me which traffic add-on program has the lowest impact on framerates? A long time ago I tried many of those programs and I had one that had less impact on framerates than the default FSX AI traffic, but I do not remember the name. I hope patient number 3 from last issue (and perhaps some others) will have some help from this (I read a lot of articles myself without finding a solution). Go on with your magazine its ULTIMATE. Best Greetings, Harry Aerts (from Belgium)

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The Doctors Response

Hi Harry! Thanks for your reply with information for Patient #3 from last issue. I will reply to your response by providing some additional information that will help yourself as well as other readers. Firstly, it is important to note that the AI Overclock setting in the BIOS seems specific to ASUS boards only. Other motherboard manufacturers may not have this option as named. What AI Overclock is however is a generic overclocking setting, designed to make overclocking simple for new overclockers who are not familiar with or confident in overclocking by altering FSB (front side bus) speed, multipliers or modifying voltages (can be dangerous and damaging if set incorrectly). Now, in your first lot of BIOS settings you list AI overclock as ON and CPU Ratio settings as OFF To me this means you are overclocking . based on a fixed speed percentage that should also be selectable via the BIOS. I dont know what speed that was set to. It could have been as low as 3% which is not much of an overclock really. In the second set of settings you have AI Overclock on AUTO and CPU Ratio Settings on AUTO as well. I dont claim to be an ASUS overclocking expert but perhaps with these settings the board might be determining its own variable overclocking routine based on system load or CPU temperature? If so, then the potential speed gain from these settings would likely be higher on average than a fixed percent that is available in the first BIOS settings options selected. If this is the case, the result would be a faster available CPU processing speed, and because we know FSX performance is directly and largely related to raw CPU speed primarily, this is likely why performance increased in FSX with the settings mentioned set to AUTO. Of course, reducing your Target Framerate from Unlimited to 90-95 might also make a positive difference. I would advise to set this Target Framerate even lower, much lower in fact. Set it to 30-35 and see if it makes any difference. It may not show much difference on your system as it is quite speedy but setting it lower usually results in a smoother sim experience. Again, this is not always the case and it is highly variable, but considering the human eye cannot really detect individual frames beyond about 25 fps, there is not much need to set it higher than this, although in the sim a minimum of 30fps is usually good, as this is a TARGET framerate after all, its not a definite result. Now, I noticed also some of your settings are perhaps not giving you the best visual experience in your sim. You could modify those and find a balance between excellent visual appeal and sim performance. Some options you have are degrading things visually, while others are likely hurting your performance. There is always a happy medium that can be reached, but it is based on your system hardware. Tinker a little! Be sure to SAVE your current configuration to a file (via the FSX display settings menu) first so you can always reload your current settings if you want to go back to where you started. Try these settings as suggested below on your system and see if things improve visually without hurting performance and frame rates. Note to readers that these settings are advised based on Harrys system specs above. They will not work for everyone! Suggested FSX Display Settings to try: Target Framerate 30-40 fps (only use UNLIMITED if you are using an external framerate limiting application) Global Texture Resolution VERY HIGH (important for crisp textures) Light Bloom and Lens Flare ON/OFF (to suit taste can have an effect on video performance) Advanced Animations OFF (I see pretty advanced animations anyway, even with this setting OFF?) Filtering ANISOTROPIC with Anti-aliasing ON (often the best setting to remove flickering and smooth things out while maintaining texture detail) Aircraft Casts Shadows On Ground ON/OFF (does chew up video

memory I set to OFF personally) Aircraft Casts Shadows On itself - ON/OFF (does chew up video memory I set to OFF personally) Aircraft Landing-Lights Illuminate Ground ON (for realism and practical use) Level of Detail Radius LARGE (should always be set to Large in my opinion) Mesh Complexity 80 minimum (worth having to at least 80 if you have a fast CPU) Mesh Resolution 10m (good balance between visuals and performance) Texture Resolution - 7cm (Bump this right up to 7cm for best texture resolution, particularly with FTX scenery products!) Water Effects NONE (I turn mine off as these are known to consume a lot of video card performance) Scenery Complexity NORMAL/DENSE (can change depending on performance higher settings will reduce frame rates higher settings do show more buildings and objects however) Autogen Density NORMAL (not a lot of benefit to have this maxed out in most cases and it has a BIG impact on performance if set high) Ground Scenery Shadows OFF (may look nice when on, but its a luxury most video cards can least afford and besides, I never really notice the shadows much anyway when flying) Special Effects Detail LOW/MEDIUM (set to LOW to improve performance, MEDIUM if you want fancy effects). Cloud Draw Distance 60mi/96km (definitely keep this at the lowest setting). Drawing detailed clouds 110 miles out from your aircraft is often unnecessary considering rendering of clouds is a MAJOR killer of frame rates and performance. Clouds Detail DETAILED (must be set to detailed if you want them to have volume. This will reduce performance, but the SIMPLE setting renders flat clouds good for performance, but they dont look good at all) Aviation Traffic 10-20%; Road Vehicles 15%; Ships and Leisure Boats 5%. (these options are variable but AI traffic is also a major killer of FSX framerates the sim has to calculate not only your aircraft position in the sky every millisecond, but also the same for every other AI aircraft in the sky around you. Just fly into New York, San Francisco, Heathrow or Paris with a high AI traffic setting and you will see a noticeable drop in framerates, no matter how fast your system is! But for realism sake, at least set some AI traffic, then if performance is bad, compromise by switching off or lowering the value of another setting to gain that performance hit back). On the question of which AI Traffic program is the most efficient in terms of sim performance, that I cannot answer I am afraid. I have never tried to test that to find an answer. However, Ill guesstimate that they are all probably relatively similar in performance hit. The bigger issue would be how much AI traffic you are trying to display in the sim itself (i.e. Aviation Traffic setting percentage). More AI traffic equals less frame rates. I am sure some may be better than others in this performance debate (the ones with higher frame rate hit may have more scheduled aircraft routes for any given region), but they also have to look good too. Any of the major three AI traffic titles would be suitable I suspect MyTraffic 2010, Ultimate Traffic 2, or Traffic X. I hope that helps Harry! The main thing is to play around with your FSX settings to find the balance between visual detail and sim performance that works best for you. Well, that brings us to the end of this examination. Please pay your flight sim medical fees on your way out. Oh, and take two of these miracle pills and see me again next issue. To make an appointment with the Flight Sim Doctor, please provide a patient history outlining your flight sim problem, symptoms and your system specifications and email it care of the Doctor to editor@computerpilot.com

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THE RING OF FIRE TOUR

WITH HAROLD FARMBOYZIM ZIMMER

My editor inquired whether or not anyone would be interested in picking up where Al Pelletier left off, writing Round Robin adventures. Al took a temporary break from writing probably to have more time to enjoy simming, but his articles proved to be popular amongst you readers. Its always difficult to fill someones shoes, especially after they have done such a great job for so long, but I thought Id give it a go, and see if I can interest you in some flights of my own. I have a slightly different style than Al, but charts will be available for download, and I hope the places that I introduce you to will prove not only fun, but challenging as well. I thought Id try a Grand Size flight adventure, by taking flights around the Ring of Fire (RoF). The RoF may be known to some of you, but for those that are not familiar with this phrase, it describes a ring of volcanoes and seismic activity that encircles the Pacific Plate. Well talk about the RoF a bit more throughout the articles, as I feel we should know a bit about the areas of the world we fly in, otherwise whats the point of exploring?

Well be starting in Washington State, USA for the tour, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Well travel by various aircraft around this Ring, and see some very spectacular scenery. Ill also clue you in as to the availability of scenery packages, both freeware and payware, that would enhance the regions and airports and strips that we will be flying into. For those of you that are new to the hobby of flight simming, Im going to start off slow and basic, and then progressively work in some more challenging aircraft and navigational skills. This will be a learning process for all of us, or simply a way to hone your skills further. I decided to start this little adventure in Washington for a couple of reasonsIve been to the areas personally, and the eye-candy of this area with its volcanoes (most notably Mt. St. Helens), mountains, and valleys will hopefully entice you to join me on the complete journey and enjoy the ride! Since this is the first of a series of articles (I hope!), let me explain what the concept is behind this adventure, and how the aircraft will be chosen.

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We are going to fly out of KSEA, south to intersect the TCM VOR. Then well travel onward until we sight some visual landmarks and land at the Mt. St. Helens Aero Ranch (WN10), for a brief visit and to test our skills on grass strips. This is an easy one folks! Well take off and circle Mt. St. Helens once, head out on a course that will take us by Mt. Rainier and finally, back to the Seattle area.We will land at Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT), which is better suited for our aircrafts needs. For the moment though, lets get up and at it! This trip is going to run a little over 1 hour and 30 minutes, give or take, in the Turbo Beaver, so travel times may vary depending on what you choose to fly and how much side trip exploring you do. My flight took a little over 1 hour 45 minutes.
RING OF FIRE MAP

PORTION OF THE RING OF FIRE

KSEA INFO Approaches: ILS, DME, LOC, VOR, RNAV, GPS Attendance: Attended Year-round, 7 Days a Week, All Tower: ATCT plus Terminal Radar Approach Control, 24 hrs/day, everyday, year-round ATIS Hrs: 24 / Primary Approach Control Hrs: 24 / Primary Depart. Control Hrs: 24 / Tower Hrs: 24 Elevation: 433 ft (132.0 m) (Surveyed) Location: 10 mi. S of Seattle Beacon: Present (white-green) Runways: 16C/34C, 16L/34R, 16R/34L Longest paved runway: 11901 ft

COURSE TAKEN

Each area that we will fly into will undoubtedly have some features that will be worth exploring in a leisurely fashion. Well be doing some General Aviation flying along with a healthy dose of Bush Flying, as some of these areas are pretty secluded. We will need to cover some great distances on this tour, so well be utilizing a variety of aircraft, from private jets, small and large, large prop jobs, and small GA or Bush Type aircraft. Im hoping to mix it up a bit as far as aircraft are concerned, and will also include some helicopter tourswhats a visit to a volcano if you cant hover above it? So let us begin our journey out of Seattle/Tacoma Intl, already having an aircraft there for us. The Turbo Beaver I will be using for this first flight is by Premier Aircraft Design. I am flying this flight in FS2004, with MegaScenery Pacific Northwest installed. This is going to look far different than the default terrain and mesh of FS2004, but there are hosts of scenery packages both Payware and Freeware that can be found to spice these areas up!

After getting clearance from KSEA Tower for a VFR flight, I took off (RW16L) and headed for the TCM VOR (109.60), climbing to an altitude of 12,500 feet. I wanted to make sure Id clear those mountain ranges off in the distance! I set the weather to clear with a visual distance of 50 miles, so we can see the visual flight landmarks I want you to look for. Its a little less than 20 miles to the TCM VOR from KSEA, and youll initially be passing over the southern suburban areas of Seattle. This scenery quickly starts to change into rolling hills, then the foothills, as we get closer to the mountain/volcanic ranges.

RING OF FIRE TURBO BEAVER

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Once you reach the TCM VOR, stay on its back course (336 to 340 degrees heading), or basically, stay on a 156 160 degree course. If you check the DME at about 22 miles or so out from TCM, you should have Mt. Rainier on your port wing (left). You can refer to your GPS if you wish at any time during the flight if your aircraft is equipped with one. If you want to use any available VORs or NDBs, feel free. Keeping an eye out for landmarks and recognizing the way from the air is quite fun and challenging as well. Well be doing a little bit of both. There are a couple of large lakes that run from east to west along the route to the Mt. St. Helens Aero Ranch (WN10), the first being Rifle Lake, about 40 miles or so south of the TCM VOR. You may want to start your descent around here if you want to land at WN10. About 60 miles out of TCM, you should be looking at Mt. St. Helens, again off your port wing. You should have noticed this landmark long before arriving at this point in your flight though. Your next landmark is more watertwo lakes as a matter of fact, both running east to west and right next to each other. The lake on your left (the easternmost lake) will be Yale Lake, and Lake Merwin will be on your right. The Mt. St. Helens Aero Ranch lies right in between the two lakes. Before you get directly over the lakes, turn onto a heading of 147 - 150 degrees approximately, and keep an eye out for the grass strip that is WN10. Well be landing on Runway 25. Go to the end of the runway as well be taking off from the far end, Runway 07

TOP DOWN VIEW OF STAGING AREA

KRNT

Mount St Helens Aero Ranch Cougar, WA Attendance: Attended Apr-Oct, 7 Days a Week, 0600-2200 Tower: No Elevation: 450 ft (137.2 m) (Estimated) Location: 5 mi. SW of Cougar Beacon: Present Runways: 07/25 (unpaved) (Grass) Runway length: 2600 ft

PASSING BY MT. ST. HELENS

Get up, stretch your legs, grab some coffee or a water, and lets get airborne! The rest of the trip is rather easy, yet youll be seeing some of the worlds most beautiful landscapes, considering it is a virtual world! Take off on Runway 07 and start climbing. As soon as you can, take a heading of approximately 010 degrees. This should put you on course for Mt. St. Helens. It is rather hard to miss! I decided to circle the volcano and climb to a higher altitude, to see the inside of this cauldron of fire. Youll need to climb to about 12,000 feet or so, to get a good all around view of just how immense an event this eruption was. What you will see is a cap on the top of the cone of the volcano, emitting steam occasionally (MegaScenery package specific effects).

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After circling the volcano in a counter-clockwise direction, take a bearing of 310 010 degrees. Youll be looking at Mt Rainier out in front of you. Over off your starboard (right) wing, you should see Mt. Adams in the distance. Why dont you put the sim on pause for a moment, hop outside your aircraft, and take a look at the surrounding mountains and rangesit is truly a breathtaking sight, even if it is virtual. Snap away screen shooters. An abundance of photo ops here in this region. Stay on course towards Rainer, which should not be too hard to do, as it is a dominant feature in your windscreen, on this heading.
WN10 OFF STARBOARD WING

TAKING A BREATHER AT WN10

OUR NEXT STOP

STEAM STILL PRESENT

MT. ST. HELENS

LEAVING THE MT. ST. HELENS AREA

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Once you get in the vicinity of Mt. Rainier, go ahead and tune in the SEA VOR, 116.80, and while youre at it, tune in the Renton (RNT) NDB, 353.0, as we will be landing at Renton Municipal (KRNT) on RWY 34. Off to the northeast of Mt. Rainier, there is a little airstrip called Ranger Creek (21W). This strip is roughly 70 miles from Mt. St. Helens Aero Ranch (WN10), just in case youd like to make another short stop on the way back to the Seattle area. If not, circle Rainier, come to a heading of 315 320 degrees, and watch for the VOR needle to swing. Make any course corrections you need to for the SEA VOR, and give KSEA a holler, as youll be entering Class B airspace. It certainly is a full circle of scenery on this short hop, going from city, to the mountains and volcanoes, with all of their beautiful foothills, and then back to civilization, which will be, for our purposes, KRNT.

The primary scenery enhancement for this flight is MegaScenery Pacific Northwest for MSFS 2004. These areas are covered in detail for FSX as well. I hope you enjoyed this first of what I hope are many hops around the Ring of Fire. For those that are interested, here is a brief list and description of just a few of the freeware scenery packages that are out there FSX Seattle Airport Scenery - seatac_jd.zip Size: 389,750 kb Adds the third runway that is in the real world airport, runway 16R/34L. Includes all ILS approaches for each runway and other extras. Created by J. D. Starseed. FS2004 AFCAD2 File for KSEA - ksea_afcad.zip This scenery includes accurate up-to-date parking spots with airline assignments and correct gate numbers, updated tower viewpoint, and most important, the addition of the new runway 16R/34L. Takeoffs will exclusively occur on 16L/34R, while landings will share runways 16C/34C and the new 16R/34L. Created by Alex McKnight.

Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT) Approaches: RNAV, GPS, NDB Attendance: Attended Year-round, 7 Days a Week, 0700-Dusk Tower: Air Traffic Control Tower, 13 hrs/day, everyday, yearround ATIS Hrs: 24Tower Hrs: OCT 1-APR 30 0700-2000; MAY 1-SEP 30 0700-2100 Elevation: 32 ft (9.8 m) (Surveyed) Location: NW of Renton Beacon: Present (white-green) Runways: 16/34 Runway length: 5382 ft

BACK TO THE SEATTLE AREA

Youll pick up the RNT NDB which will direct you into KRNT. I was cleared for a straight in approach for RWY 34. KRNT can be a busy airport and handles quite a bit of traffic. It is located within the airspace control of KSEA, hence the request for permission to transit the Class B airspace. KRNT offers an easy approach, with no obstacles.

OFF TOWARDS MT. RAINER

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MT. ST. HELENS AREA OF DAMAGE

FS2004 Scenery--Renton and Crater Lake - rentcrat.zip - Adds a fire department / search and rescue facility at the default Renton Airport (KRNT), Washington (WA). Also adds a paved runway and parking on the island in the middle of Crater Lake, Oregon (OR). Created by Leon Nel. FS2004 Scenery--Mount St. Helens Volcanic - sthlnash.zip Photorealistic coverage for the area of Mount Saint Helens. Created by Raimondo Taburet. FS2004 Scenery - Mt. Rainier National Park - mrnp1.zip - Based upon commercial topographic maps, the designed scenery includes every hiking trail drawn in meticulous detail including every real life switchback; every lake and small alpine pond 20 feet in diameter and over, modified landclass of alpine, forest and rock; every perennial and many intermittent creeks, all streams and rivers (many braided), glacier mapping of every glacier with custom textures and ice fields on the mountain, mapping of all rock faces and rock, moraine rock deposits, glacier outwash area, mudflows, roads, swamp and marsh areas. The aircraft for this flight is the DeHavilland Turbo Beaver from Premier Aircraft Design and is a freeware addon. Even though this is an older model, I still enjoy flying it often. Its a great aircraft for getting in and out of small grass strips, and has power enough to get a good climb rate and cruise speed. Unfortunately, as of this writing, one of PADs key members, Jean Pierre Brisard has passed away, and no plans thus far have been announced by PAD to continue producing, what I believe is some outstanding freeware. The Ring of Fire paint job is by yours truly! Im no Rembrandt, but it was fun to do using both Abacus FS Repaint and Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0. The aircraft is easily found by doing a search of any major flight sim website. Well see you in the next issue as we head north to.youll just have to wait and see! Have a great flight. ~Farmboyzim~

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UFF

BY DEAN BIELANOWSKI

ragmentation what is it? Why is defragmentation important, and as ight simmers, why should we even care? Well, since a great deal of us are obsessed with ight sim performance and making things run as smoothly and as quickly as possible, this factor alone demands we care about how our hard drives are performing, because these drives are the very book that our PC hardware reads to produce the story we experience every second in our virtual aviation world. If I havent confused you already, please allow me to try again in the next few pages, but rest assured that

by the time you nish reading this article, you should have learnt a heck of a lot about your hard drive, and the reasons why its vital to keep it in good order. Plus, youll have a bag of tips and tricks to use to not only keep your hard drive in optimum running order, but also to use to make your ight simulator load quicker than it ever has before! Note that most all the information here relates to the use of traditional hard drives, i.e. those with a spinning platter. Solid State Drives are not referenced here and this information generally does not relate to them as they use a different memory technology to store les.
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What is fragmentation?
Fragmentation of your computers hard drive is a natural phenomenon that occurs when deleted les leave empty spaces amongst your drives data. When the operating system needs to write another le back to the hard drive it generally looks for the rst available free space and writes the data to that free space. If the data to be written does not t in that space it will ll the space with data and then move onto the next free space and continue to write the data until the le is completely written the result is parts of a le scattered in a fragmented (non-contiguous) manner. The reason why this is bad in terms of hard drive read performance is that when you next open a program that uses those les that are now scattered in various parts of the hard disk, instead of having to move the read head of your hard drive (like the head on a record player) to just one spot to read the entire block of data for that le, it might have to move to 5 or 6, or even 10 or 20 different locations on the hard drive to read all the parts that make up that le. If one read (seek) cycle takes 13ms (milliseconds), as an example, ten seek cycles will take 130ms, and 20 seek cycles will take up 260ms. So a fragmented le might take 260ms to read while a non-fragmented (contiguous) le may take just 13ms. Add up hundreds or thousands of les to be read to open a program or when ying into a new scenery area in your sim, and that fragmentation amounts to a much LONGER load time on a fragmented drive which can also result in temporarily lower sim frame rates, and potentially the occurrence of micro-stutters which will ruin anyones sim experience, not to mention cause a lot of unnecessary frustration and angst!

traditional hard drives have a spin speed specication, which will usually be either 5400RPM, 7200RPM, or 10,000RPM. These drives spin their platters at one of those three speeds in rotations per minute. Higher RPM translates into faster reading of data, so a 10,000RPM drive will read a block of data (assuming it is non-fragmented / contiguous) faster than a 7200RPM or 5400RPM drive will read that same block of data. Since you have a spinning disk holding your data, naturally, the speed on the outer segments of the disk will be higher than those on the inner segments (the outer edges have to cover more ground than the inner parts in the same time period. So, relating this fact, if you want the fastest possible read times from your disk, you should place critical data on the outer edges of your hard disk where the spin speed is greatest. Thats a very basic summary of hard drive function. There are certainly other factors in play, but in terms of maximizing disk performance, these are the most important.

So, to date, we have learnt that it is of crucial importance to keep your les defragmented and contiguous (not scattered and split across your hard disk) to maintain current disk performance, and to increase performance and lower read times, we should place our most often used les, or software we want to load in the fastest possible manner, on the outer tracks/segments of the disk. Great you say, but how do I do this? Lets get into it!

Hard Drive Basics

There are just a few important aspects and features of the traditional hard drive you need to understand for all this information to become relevant. Ill sum those up right now. Firstly, your standard hard disk drive has a spinning disk (platter) onto which all your data is written, stored and read. You might have noticed that most

The Software You Need A Defragger!

When you hear someone saying they need to defrag their drive, they are referring to use of a software program that defragments their les on their hard disk. These applications are often called defraggers. There are many defraggers available on the market, and of course, Microsoft Windows has its own default defragger built in, but many of them, like the default defragger simply dont have the 81

advanced features needed to maximize the read and seek speeds your hard drive is capable of producing. I am going to use Ultimate Defrag 3 (by Disktrix Inc.) here to show you the basics of defragmenting a drive, what various defragmentation method are available and which are suited to a range of different users, and then show you how you can move les and folders to the outer edges of a drive, something which only a very few defraggers can actually do (Ultimate Defrag3 being one of the best and easiest to use in this regard). Remember, the whole aim of this article is to try and maximise the performance of your ight simulators, reduce their loading time, and hopefully prevent micro-stutters or other performance issues that can be related to hard disk access while ying. The best part of the defragmentation process, however, is that it will improve and speed up the load times of just about every software package you have on your PC. Note: Some defragmentation methods discussed here may be available in other defrag software programs, but specics are related directly to Ultimate Defrag 3, used here to demonstrate the various methods employed in the process. Please consult your defrag software manual for specic information and procedures relating to that software.

I HAVE ENLARGED THE DEGREE OF FRAGMENTATION SECTION OF THE ANALYSIS REPORT WINDOW HERE FOR EASY VIEWING. THIS DISK IS IN NEED OF DEFRAGMENTATION. NOTE THE DISK IMAGE WHICH SHOWS A FAIR DEGREE OF FREE SPACE (LIGHT GEY) IN AMONGST THE CONTIGUOUS BLOCKS (PURPLE). RED BLOCKS INDICATE FRAGMENTED FILES.

Using Your Defragger

Most all defraggers will have an Analyze function. You can use this function to analyse any or all physical hard disks installed on your PC. This function once run and completed will give you an idea of the current level of fragmentation on any given hard drive. Ideally, you want fragmentation to be as low as possible. In most cases, regular defragmentation (once a week) will help keep fragmentation at low levels. If it gets too high, your PC performance will be noticeably slower, and in some cases where fragmentation is existent at very high levels, you can start to suffer more serious complications. A low fragmentation level might be 5% or less on any drive. Anything over this is considered high. I once had a drive on an old PC years back that I didnt defragment in over 4 years, and when I rst analysed it with a defragger it showed 48% fragmentation! It is a wonder that drive survived as long as it did. I do recall it taking 5-10 minutes to load up some graphics software though I had enough time to go make a cup of coffee and be back before the splash screen disappeared and I could actually use the program. Needless to say, the rst defragmentation run on that drive took 36 hours! You will nd that with regular defragmentation of a drive, the actual time it takes to defragment will be smaller than with the rst couple runs if you havent defragmented it before. So, always rst analyse each drive in your system to give you an idea of the level of fragmentation. Once it reaches more than 5%, schedule a time to defragment it. Some drives, particularly your C:\ or the one running your operating system will suffer more fragmentation than others as more les may be moved and deleted as a natural occurrence of running software. Additionally, most defraggers will not touch any les currently in use, like your core operating system les, so your C:\ will generally be analyzed at a higher fragmentation level. As you can see in my screenshot, my C:\ is currently showing as 12.55% fragmented. This is not overly bad for that drive, probably not good either, but I should be able to get it well under 10% and closer to 6% which I would be more than happy with. Most other drives on my system have fragmentation levels at or near 0.00% for my le storage drives or below 1% for my nonoperating system drives. 82

THIS DRIVE, ONE OF MY STORAGE DRIVES, HAS NO FRAGMENTED FILES. NOTE ALSO HOW THE FILES ARE ALL GROUPED AND LOCATED ON THE OUTER EDGE OF THE DRIVE FOR FASTEST POSSIBLE SEEK/READ SPEED.

Defragmentation Methods
Most simple software defraggers will only have one or two methods of defragmenting a drive, and very little or no options to congure. Better defraggers are more exible. Again, here I am describing those options in Ultimate Defrag 3 only but other defraggers may have similar options or defrag methods that may perform similar functions.

AUTO Mode
This mode sounds like the easiest to use, and it certainly can be, but it is also very exible and in UD3 it offers the option of moving more frequently used les to outer tracks (High Performance) and less frequently used les to the inner tracks (Archive). Ultimate Defrag 3 offers a nice performance factor scale to estimate performance improvement with changes to defrag options in this mode. It is recommended to check the option for Put directories close to MFT to ensure fastest le access performance. To select defrag mode, click on the mode box in the Defragmentation Mode window on the left side of the screen. A drop-down graphical menu will pop up with all available defragmentation modes on offer. Just click on the desired mode. Once the mode is selected, to select options for that mode, click the Options button just to the right.

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If you come across an option screen that includes FragProtect, be sure to click it on. While this adds a little to the defragmentation time on initial runs, it actually helps slow the rate of fragmentation on your drive, which could save that time back on later runs in the future. Its a nice option certainly worth using.

CONSOLIDATE Mode
This is the defrag mode that most defraggers will use and is one of the more basic modes for new users to get their heads around. With repeated use it will result in faster defrag runs. Different software will have different options in regard to this mode and most defraggers will just pack all your data to the outside tracks of the platter with little regard to what files go where. So, if you have a full disk, and run Consolidate on these other defraggers, there is a good chance some of your most used files and applications may still be located on the inner tracks where performance is slowest. Better defraggers give you more options here. UD3 allows you to consolidate data to outer tracks, but at the same time retain or move the most frequently used files and folders on/to the outer tracks for best performance and move the least used or Archived files to the inner tracks where performance is not critical. You can select any percentage of frequently used and less frequently used files to move to respective parts of the disk. It is very versatile indeed. The next and nal three modes are really there for the power users that want to maximize the effectiveness of the defragmentation cycle.

A CROP OF THE UD3 SCREEN SHOWING THE LEFT SIDE MENU WITH DEFRAGMENTATION MODE WINDOW OPEN AND DEFRAG METHOD OPTIONS SELECTABLE.

FOLDER/FILENAME Mode
This will layout les on your hard drive according to Folder Name Order and then within each folder the les are sorted based upon name order. This method of ordering les on your hard drive will promote performance since les are sorted in strict order and directory look-ups are faster when in alphabetical order.

RECENCY Mode
This option gives you extensive exibility in ordering les based upon last access dates, modify dates or le creation dates and then extensive exibility in placement of these les. This method is suited perfectly for drives that may consist exclusively of data les as in a le server situation. This method is also perfect for situations where a hard drive is getting full and you want and need performance for particular les with room to grow and with fast subsequent defrags.
THE OPTIONS WINDOW FOR THE AUTO DEFRAGMENTATION MODE. NOTE THE PERFORMANCE FACTOR ESTIMATES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS DIALOG BOX.

Note that this method can take a long time to complete and is rarely warranted for ight sim users. I have never personally used it, and probably never will.

FRAGMENTED FILES ONLY Mode

This method is the quickest of the bunch, and great if you dont have the time to sit through a full defrag pass, or you dont like leaving your system on overnight or when you are away from it. While this method will leave holes in your data if all you require is a quick defragmentation of fragmented les simply use this option. UltimateDefrag will move and defrag only the fragmented les that it nds - with speed and ease. It will place the defragmented le in the rst available gap on the drive that will t each particular le. You will notice that there is only one option setting available with this mode (put directories close to MFT), simply because for the fastest defrags possible, you have to disable the more time consuming options available in the other modes. For ight simmers, I would only advise to use this mode if you dont have time to run the other modes. If time is of the essence, then this mode is better run than not defragging at all. Run this mode, and then as soon as you have time later down the track (but not too far into the future) run a Consolidate or Auto Mode to again reap the maximum benet from your hard drive.

VOLATILITY Mode
This method is a variation on Recency method and uses the concept of folder volatility or frequency of change of a folder and les within it. This method acts to compartmentalize folder and les within based on how often the contents of that folder will change. This promotes the tendency for infrequently changed les/folder to remain in place on the hard drive making subsequent defrags faster since the folders that never/rarely change, and all les within, will stay in place.

Best Use of Ultimate Defrag 3 for Flight Simmers

If you want to get the best out of running your preferred ight simulator off your traditional hard disk and want to go beyond just the Auto or Consolidate mode and make sure your sim les and folders are located on the very most outer tracks, then please read on. Make sure you are running the latest version of Ultimate Defrag 3 (version 3.0.100.39 at time of writing) to follow along below go to www.disktrix.com to obtain the latest version, or check for availability of boxed versions from your local software retailer. 83

Method 1 Moving the whole flight simulator folder to the high performance area
This is a quick and easy way to improve performance and can be used with most of the defrag modes, but stick with either CONSOLIDATE or AUTO for the sake of simplicity. 1. In Ultimate Defrag 3, click the SETTINGS button at the bottom of the left side menu. 2. Find and select the drive that contains your ight simulator and its les from the DRIVES section on the left. In my case this is X:\ 3. To the right of the DRIVES box are more options, look for the High Performance area at the top of the box, and here, turn ON the options for Fast Placement (consolidate) and next to it, turn ON FragProtect. 4. Just above these is a CUSTOM checkbox. Put a tick in that box and then the Select Files button lights up. Click Select Files.
HERE I HAVE LOCATED MY FSX FOLDER AND PLACED A TICK IN THE BOX TO SELECT IT, THEN USED THE << BUTTON TO MOVE IT TO THE LEFT HAND WINDOW. I HAVE BLURRED OUT THE OTHER FILES AND FOLDERS ON THAT DRIVE AS THEY ARE OF NO IMPORTANCE HERE.

8. Click OK on this screen and then in the main UD3 screen, make sure that particular hard drive is selected (in my example, X:\). 9. Change the Defrag mode to CONSOLIDATE and click the Options button just to the right of it. 10.On the Consolidate Options box, click ON the option for Respect high performance and then click ON the option for Complete high performance then stop. Further down, turn ON options for Put directories close to MFT, Very fast placement (if you want the process to run faster at the expense of small free spaces possibly being introduced), and FragProtect. Click OK on that screen.

I HAVE LIGHTENED THE AREAS OF INTEREST HERE TO ALLOW YOU TO FOLLOW ALONG A LITTLE EASIER

5. A new window pops up showing the folders and les on the disk drive previously selected. In my case it is showing the les and folders on my X:\ 6. Navigate via the folders views to where your ight simulator folder is located. This might be for FSX, FS2004, X-Plane or another sim. In my case it is simply the FSX folder as I customplaced my FSX installation when I originally installed it to simplify things. My FSX software is simply located at X:\FSX. 7. Put a tick in the little box next to your FS folder (whatever it may be called) and then to the left of that window is a << symbol. Click that to move the selected folder to the far left box (as shown in the screenshot). 84
TICK THE OPTIONS IN THE CONSOLIDATE SETTINGS BOX AS PER THIS SCREENSHOT.

11. Now press the START button to run the process. 12.Thats it. The FSX folder should now be moved to the outer parts of the platter where read performance is maximized, while at the same time, the les in that folder are also being defragmented and made contiguous so only one seek action is required, also reducing read times, and ultimately, load times of your simulator. CPM. V15I5

Method 2 Placing your FS folder on the very outer tracks for best performance, and keeping it there!
While Method 1 will certainly help put your FS folder on the outer tracks, if your drive hosting your FS folder is full or near full, that method may still only place those les some way in from the edge. The High Performance area could consume a large portion of the disk to begin with. The best method of ensuring your FS folder is indeed right on the outer tracks is to simply drag and drop it there. UD3 is one of the only defraggers I know that offers this drag/drop functionality to place individual les and folders anywhere you like on the surface of your disk. Enough talk, lets do it! 1. Firstly, ensure the drive your flight sim installation is installed on is selected as the current visible and active drive using the top drive listing menu. Again, for me this is X:\ (yours will likely be different). 2. Next, in the top UD3 menu bar, go to TOOLS, and then in the Tools menu click on Highlight a File. 3. A new window will open up which will show the folder contents of that selected drive, which you can navigate around. Navigate using your mouse and any relevant expansion + boxes next to folders to open that folder to show subfolders as required. Because my FSX installation is in its own folder, I have easily found it in the list, as shown in the screenshot. Click once on the folder itself to highlight it blue.

folder. Note that some les within the FSX folder may not be in the same location on the drive, depending on previous defrag methods and options used. But if you ever wanted to know where any le on your disk is actually located on the disk surface, this is how you can do it a great feature. 6. Getting back to it What we will do now is click and drag that folder (in my case the FSX folder selected) from the Highlight File window and drop it over one of the blocks on the outermost ring on the hard disk view, where performance of the spinning disk is greatest (see screenshot). You will notice on that screenshot that there is a band of les sitting in the middle of the disc. This is my FSX folder after I moved it from the high performance area on a previous action using the same folder drag and drop method. Note the grey gaps in the outer segments as a result showing that even though the FSX folder and the les it contains where near the outer sections of the disk, they were still scattered in that region because I used a more simplied High Performance le move previously. When we move the entire folder to the outer edge, all the FS les in the folder will be grouped together as shown in that inner ring of contiguous les.

CLICK AND DRAG YOUR FS FOLDER FROM THE HIGHLIGHT FILE WINDOW TO THE OUTER RING ON YOUR DISK VIEW. NOTE THAT THE ENLARGED VIEW OF THE DROP LOCATION APPEARS TO SHOW I AM DROPPING IT ON THE SECOND OR THIRD RING, BUT WHERE THE TIP OF THE MOUSE ARROW IS LOCATED IS ACTUALLY WHERE THE FILE IS DROPPED (THE MOUSE ARROW DIDNT CAPTURE IN THIS SCREENSHOT).

I HAVE SELECTED MY MAIN FSX FOLDER AND IT IS HIGHLIGHTED IN BLUE.

4. Now, with that folder highlighted, make sure you can still see your main hard disk view in the primary window. 5. OPTIONAL If you like, you can click the HIGHLIGHT button on this window at the bottom left. When you do so, your main UD3 window showing the disk and le layout will ash one of the small blocks on the disk view to show the actual location of the FSX

7. As soon as you drag the folder to the desired location (it will land wherever the tip of the mouse pointer arrow is located) and then drop it by releasing the mouse button, a new window will appear Adjust New Position. It is important to make sure you TICK the options for both Exclude this le from subsequent automatic defrags so the FS folder and les are not moved away from the outer tracks later on, and TICK Move all les and subfolders located in this folder. This second option ensures everything in your FS folder is moved to the outer tracks and not just the folder reference. While power users and those more tech savvy may want to move only the most-used parts of an FS installation to the outer edges, I am showing you how to move EVERYTHING in the FS folder here for simplicitys sake. If you use your PC for ight simming only or if your FS install is on its own drive separate to the operating system (as it is in my case), then this is a quick and easy way to guarantee best performance. 85

aircraft selection screens and others, and then the actual load time of the aircraft/scenery etc via the load counter screen before your aircraft appears ready to y). If you are also suffering micro-stutters during your sim session that are related to poor le access and slow read times from your hard disk, then these can be eliminated too with a properly defragged drive. The reduction in load time you will see with a properly defragged drive and placement of the FS les/folders to the fastest part of the drive is a direct result of the defragmenting processes as outlined above. Dont underestimate the value of a defragmented hard drive when running FSX. Grab yourself a quality defrag software (Windows default doesnt cut it if you want to see good improvements) and not only will your simulator benet from faster load times, but every other piece of software on your hard drive, including the operating system itself will show performance improvements. We have just scraped the ice really on the tech stuff of hard drives and le fragmentation and defragmentation. If you would like to see more in-depth geek-level information on this subject, shoot me an email (editor@computerpilot.com), and if I get enough interested readers, Ill produce a follow-up to this article that will explore other ways of managing your hard disk to improve your sim load times. For now, happy defragmenting! Allow UD3 to complete the move process without interruption. Depending on the size of your FS folder, this could take as little as 5 minutes, or as much as an hour, but the end result will be certainly worth the effort in reducing FS load times and ensuring you get the best possible performance from your current technology. Note also that if you drop the folder onto a location where les already exist, UD3 has to also move these les elsewhere rst so the process can take longer than if you dropped the FS folder on an area of the drive that is simply free space (grey blocks). 9. Thats it! Allow UD3 to complete the move and defrag process on your FS folder and it will now be located, in a contiguous manner, on the very outer edges of your drive. Because of the exclude option selected earlier when moving the folder, the FSX folder will not be moved from that location on subsequent automatic defrag runs. Remember that while defraggers will not really give you better performance in your simulators in actual frame rate improvements, they will certainly decrease the initial load times of the simulator (i.e. time to load FS menu screen from Windows desktop, time to load

TO ENSURE THE FSX FOLDER IS NOT MOVED AWAY FROM THE OUTER TRACKS ON FUTURE DEFRAG RUNS, TICK THE EXCLUDE OPTION AS PER THIS SCREENSHOT. WE ALSO WANT EVERYTHING IN THE FSX FOLDER MOVED, SO TICK THAT OPTION AS WELL.

8. Once you have ticked those two options above, then click on the MOVE button and the process of moving your FS folder to the chosen location on the very outer track(s) will begin.

HERES A SCREENSHOT SHOWING A NEARLY COMPLETELY DEFRAGMENTED DRIVE. IT SHOWS THAT EVEN AFTER JUST A SMALL AMOUNT OF USE, FILES HAVE A TENDENCY TO BE FRAGMENTED. HERE THERE ARE 29 FRAGMENTED FILES, WHICH IS JUST 0.01% OF THE TOTAL FILE COUNT. NOT TOO BAD AND NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. THAT LEVEL OF FRAGMENTATION WILL NOT CAUSE ANY NOTICEABLE PERFORMANCE DECREASE.

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STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP
1. Publication Title: Computer Pilot 2. Publication No.: 022-274 3. Filing Date: 25/07/2011 4. Frequency: Bi-Monthly 5. Number of issues Published Annually: 6 6. Annual Subscription Price: $24.95 7. Location of Known Office of Publication: 1485 Colts Neck Road, Loris, SC 29569 8. Location of Headquarters or General Office of Publisher: 1485 Colts Neck Road, Loris, SC 29569 9. Names and Addresses of Publisher and Editor: Publisher: Robert Ferraro, 1485 Colts Neck Road, Loris, SC 29569 Editor - Dean Bielanowski, PO Box 109, Rochedale South, QLD 4123 Australia Managing Editor: Dean Bielanowski, PO Box 109, Rochedale South, QLD 4123 Australia 10. Owner: Robert Ferraro, 1485 Colts Neck Road, Loris, SC 29569 11. N/A 12. N/A 13. Publication Name: Computer Pilot 14: Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: July 2011 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: (Column 1: Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months. Column 2: Actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to Filing date.) 16. This Statement of Ownership will be printed in the September/October 2011 issue of this publication. 17. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. 87 Robert Ferraro, Publisher, Computer Pilot. A. Total Number of Copies (Press Run) B. Paid Circulation 1. Paid requested outside-county mail subscriptions 2. Paid in-county subscriptions 3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, and counter sales, and other non-USPS paid distribution 4. Other Classes mailed through the USPS C. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation D. Free Distribution by Mail 1. Outside-County 2. Inside-County 3. Other classes mailed through the USPS 4. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail E. Total Free Distribution F. Total Distribution G. Copies Not Distributed H. Total I. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation 61 2 63 11635 848 12483 99.5% 60 2 62 11719 1281 12850 99.5% 5380 5 6187 11572 5516 6 6135 11657 Column 1 12483 Column 2 13000

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November/December 2011

The Best of 2011

We take a look at this years hottest software releases and new flight simulation hardware products, discover why they are the best, and the benefits you can get by using them in your flight simulator sessions. Will your favorite new add-on or hardware kit make the list?

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Round Robin Adventures

One of our most popular regular columns is making a comeback. Al Pelletier returns to Computer Pilot to deliver another enjoyable and challenging flight next issue. We will be flying a retro charter in the DC-9 (SAS or KLM colors for realism) ferrying ski fanatics from Stockholm to the Austrian ski slopes via Innsbruck. On the return journey back to Stockholm we will divert to Amsterdam for a little added flavor.

X-Plane 10 Behind the Scenes with Austin Meyer

In preparation for the pending release of X-Plane 10 (hopefully this year) we have got in touch with the big cheese himself, Austin Meyer, and asked him a bunch of delving questions into the new inclusions of the next X-Plane version and why he has chosen to focus on certain aspects of the sim over others to compete in the tough standalone sim market.

Have Your Say!

Many articles appearing in Computer Pilot magazine are a direct result of your emails and feedback. If you have a topic you would like us to cover, or just have some general constructive magazine feedback, let us know and we will do our best to address your request/feedback. Send your comments, article ideas or suggestions to...

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Are You Prepar3d?

Its not a spelling mistake. When Lockheed Martin purchased the rights to use the core Flight Simulator code from Microsoft after the project disbanded, they set about improving upon the core engine to add many new and exciting features, and re-named the sim to Prepar3d (Prepared). Doug Horton has the inside scoop on what could be the next big flight sim package.

Virtual Airline Selection

Roger Curtiss looks at the things to consider before you sign up to a particular virtual airline and takes a look at a specific Virtual Airline he feels offers a unique and interesting experience for virtual pilots.

Reviews
We have planned reviews of these great new flight simulation products: iFlys 737 for FSX Wilcos Harrier Jump Jet Orbxs FTX Central Rocky Mountains Just Flights Comet Jetliner And More Mini Reviews!

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Subject: Pitching some ideas

Hi Dean: Marvelous magazine... thoroughly enjoy it. Keep it up. A few of us readers are old pilots that for one reason or another have lost their wings and now have to rely on the computer to bring back the old days. As such, we know about planes, but (like in my case) very little about the computer, and much less about the magic of software so your articles on this subject are fully enlightening! I would recommend more articles that make us understand the computer and the software that makes them the way they are. I see, for instance, that next issue will bring an article on Defragmentation... this is excellent indeed. How about articles on how to hook up two (or more) screens? I dont mean the wiring only, but what do you do once the wires are connected and the screens powered up... like how do you move the video to each screen? I dont think I have seen anything on that. That sort of thing is very welcomed. And Capt. Mikes write ups are simply superb! Congrats for having him. Thanks for listening and for giving us such a great mag. Rodney Velarde Philadelphia (area) PA.

OT arde ney Vel MPUTER PIL Rod H CO ION! MONTON/EXTENS 12 WINS BSCRIPTI SU
[Hi Rodney! Thanks for your kind comments. By the time you read this, you might have already read the article on fragmentation that you mentioned. Hopefully it explained that subject for you in good detail and you are now more wiser on the topic? With regard to articles on multiple monitors, this too is a good suggestion. While it may seem simple to some, I can understand also that often us guys in the know may just take it as a given that everyone else knows the few quick steps needed to duplicate screens or extend the desktop across multiple screens. I am guilty of this at times and will try and remember that occasionally we have to go back to the very basics so we dont miss out on delivering the information that is often taken for granted. Ed]

Subject: Centerfold Screenshots How?

Editor, I gaze regularly in disbelief at some of the screenshots you show in the center of the magazine and I wonder why my sim doesnt produce the same results? How can I get my sim to display graphics of the same quality and detail as those shown in the center of each issue, and in most of the article screenshots too for that matter? If and when I might get my screens to look really good, can I then send you in a shot for the center spread? Gary J. Jennings Sydney, Australia (otherwise known as jaggies) on external lines. There is generally a very noticeable difference in quality between an aliased and an antialiased shot and this translates into print into what seems like a much wider variance. Also, print publications work at a much higher resolution of 600DPI+ whereas screenshots are always captured at 72DPI screen resolution so there is a natural tendency for anything that looks even slightly pixelated to look much worse when printed because of this difference. The actual size of the image too is important. Screenshots must always be captured at the highest possible resolution (1680 x 1050 minimum) in the sim to even have a chance at displaying well in the mag. This too is related to the DPI setting. So basically, try adjusting your anti-aliasing settings in your video cards control panel and make sure Anti-aliasing is turned on in FSX too. The other setting of importance (among many others) is Filtering. Anisotropic filtering is the most used filtering method for newer video cards, so play around with those settings. What you are trying to achieve is high resolution images, with no jaggies on lines while retaining the crispness and quality of any textures showing in the image as well. Ill try to explain this in more detail in a future article Ed]. If anyone thinks they have a top of the class image they want to submit, certainly send me a sample to editor@computerpilot.com

[Hi Gary thanks for your email. You know, the response to this could form several articles alone and I might address it actually in a future article. The number one issue I see when readers send me screenshots that are, unfortunately, not fit for the center spread (we have very high quality standards!) is the lack of anti-aliasing. This is a video card setting that smooths out lines of 3D objects to remove the stair step effect

Write To Computer Pilot INBOX

If you have something you want to share with fellow ight simulator enthusiasts, then Computer Pilot INBOX is the place to be heard. Each issue, well choose the best letter as the letter of the month and reward that reader with a prize! The easiest and quickest way to submit your letters is by e-mail to: inbox@computerpilot.com

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