Last entry of 2009

As this years draws to a closure I am amazed by all the personal things that have happen to me and how I still managed to put in a some 970 hours and 698 landing in the flighsimulator this year! I know, maybe it is a bit too much but hey I really love this.

On the news front you can really tell that the year is soon ending. No big news to tell, no new uploads that I found very interesting so nothing much to tell.

But I'd like to point you to the 727 review below and tell you that I flown around in it a bit more and the model, sound set and panel are rally nice. I highly recommend it to you all.

If you have any interesting news don't hesitate leaving a comment about it in the comment section of any entry.

I'll return after the new year with some interesting news and reviews, hope to see you then.

Until then, a happy new year to all!

HJG Vistaliner 727

The Boeing 727 model first flew in 1963 and production continued until 1984 with a total of 1 832 aircraft being built. There is a nice video on youtube that shows the flight testing phase, you can find it here.

The aircraft started out as a compromise between the demands of United, American and Eastern airlines about what number of engines the plane would have. The design of the aircraft is somewhat unique and personally I think it is one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built but then again I think every type of aircraft is the most beautiful aircraft ever built.

If you are serious about your flightsimming you have probably come across the works of Erick Cantu. The 727 models at HJG is the work of him and what a piece of work it is. As with the models I've used before from Erick the visuals are astounding and the aircraft is a pleasure to fly. There are a number of different variations available on the site and a really large number of repaints.

There are also a large number of different panels available at the HJG website. All of them great for freeware and all of them continuously updated with the lates ones dated 19 June 2009. They are the work of Richard Probst (another fsim celebrity) and George Carty.

I haven't tested the flight dynamics as much as with example my review of the tinmouse 737-200 but I am pleased with what I have seen so far.

There always seem to be somewhat of a risk of me getting spoiled with the payware around these days but I do my best to return to the freeware scene and remember the quality related to cost aspect. A lot of the freeware around these days are better than some of the payware around.


So how does this model relate to the payware versions. I have only tried Captain Sim's 727 which is an awesome aircraft but the comparison is somewhat faulty as it comes with a panel, sound set and model. Erick's model is hardly up to par with Captain Sim and neither is Richard and George's panel but at the cost of free they are definitely worth trying out before you go and spend your money on the payware equivalent. You might actually decide on sticking with the freeware variant.

Review of the Tinmouse 737-200

The Boeing 737 first flew in 1967 but was envisioned in 1964. It is a short, narrow bodied, twin engined aircraft. It is the most successful commercial aircraft in history, even though more dc3's were built they were mostly produced for the military, not the airlines. More than 6200 aircraft have been built and delivered ranging from the originals up to the next generation version and a few business jets too.

If you are looking for some interesting information about the 737 and the first one produced I suggest looking at this video. A great information source.

There have been a couple of models before Tinmouse's and I have tried the ffx version. A nice version but it only modeled the aircraft and not the panel and sound. The Tinmouse on the other hand is a complete package with aircraft, panel and sound. And what a package it is!

Installation
Installation is pretty easy. The new 1.25 version is much easier than the earlier variants. It contains all you need and is a simple zip file that you unzip into your main fs9 library. There is one update of the gauges called 1.26 but that is pretty simple to install too, just place the .gau file in the panel folder. There are a number of different versions included, for use with the civa navigation system, with the ISG system

Panel
This is what led me to use the plane. The graphics are nice and crisp, the systems are well modeled. If any of you used the old Dreamfleet 737 which I did they remind a bit of those. If you have a pretty good understanding of the workings of the 737 the adaptation to Tinmouse's version is pretty easy. The only big difference is the Sperry autopilot system which can be a bit of a pain at first. I couldn't get the heading hold to engage but didn't switch it to the correct position.

There is a function called CWS which stands for Control Wheel Steering system and is a automatic fight system where the aircraft will hold it's bank and pitch angles. This greatly reduces the workload for the crew and this is what is used for the climb. More information can be found in this video of a flight on a 737-200 in New Zealand.

In this panel/model the autopilot system doesn't have a altitude hold so all you can do is set a warning for the correct altitude and when you reach that reduce you climb/descent rate and us the altitude hold function on the autopilot. There is also no autothrottle which means you have to set the power setting by hand according ot the charts or to the small engine computer which is on one of the sub panels. A fun way of doing things that differs significantly from the modern fly-by-wire systems with autothrottle.

Sound
The sound set is really good. Not having heard a real 737-200 anytime though it is hard for me too judge the feel of it in comparison to the real thing. I like the number of other sounds than the engine sound like the flap sound, the trim sound and such.


Flight dynamics
It is a pure pleasure to fly either with the CWS engaged or just by hand. I can't find a bad thing to say about it even though some reports in the forums complain about it being instable after disconnecting the autopilot I did not find this however. One of the great things about the dynamics is the taxi. This baby is a ease to taxi around the tarmac compared to some other models.

Visual model
The visual model is great, the textures are nice, both the ones included in the package and the many repaints you can download.

Fuel and flap settings
The one thing I do want to mention is that you have to add the fuel through the FS9 menu. Other addons like fspassangers can not modify the amount of fuel which led me to a few occasions of fuel starvation because I though I hade added the fuel through fspassengers and I hadn't. The flaps also have to be modified using the flap lever on the panel and can't be altered with assigned keys. At first this is really annoying but you soon get the hang of it.

I should mention one other thing and that is that the model is very accurate, I flew into Seattle and forgot to retract the flaps before I shut the aircraft down and ended up having to restart one engine to get the flaps retracted.

Overall this is a great freeware package with a large number of users and the authors do a great job keeping it up-to-date. It is a bit of a hassle at first but once you get the hang of it it is definitely worth the effort. This is a given in my hangar!

Precisionmanuals

Link: http://www.precisionmanuals.com/

I have a number of the PMDG products installed on my computer, the Beech 1900 D and C, the 737NG series. Although the opinions on the 737NG series are somewhat mixed I love it and have spent numerous hours flying around in it. The Beech 1900 is a great addon too.

Most recent the MD11 and J41 has yielded success for the developer. I haven't tried them myself as I think the MD11 is a bit steep in price and the J41 is for FSX, which I don't own but they are, from what I hear a couple of really solid releases.

Updated version of Norway

Link: www.flightsim.com

I am a huge fan of the Norway06 and Norway07 series and it has always been one of the first things I put into my flightsim after a reinstall. Here is an updated version for Norway07. This one is dated 22th of December this year and I am eager to install it to see if there is any differences to be noticed.

I have flown extensively in Norway the last month and I have missed an updated version on a couple of occasions.

Canadair CL215

Link: www.flightsim.com

Massimo Taccoli, Michael Gerard and Dennis Seeley has put their effort into this very interesting looking model of the Canadair CL215 aircraft which is used around the world as a real workhorse. It is used for fire fighting, oil spill control etc.

I am looking forward to taking this beautiful plane out for a spin and testing the flight dynamics, panel and sound set.

New FS9 Bell 210 Helicopter on the scene

Link: http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=142044&CatID=fs2004heli

There is a new helicopter on the scene. It's made by George A.Arana, Jordan Moore, Nobu Aki, Nate Rosentrauch, Stephen Chase, Thomas Roehl, James Edmond, Shawn Lund and Brian McIntyre and I am looking forward to taking it for a spin.

Of course we know a bunch of these guys from the hovercontrol community so this will be a very interesting release.

Tinmouse Boeing 737-200

Link: http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=141045

The first time I tried the Tinmouse 737-200 I liked the graphics but I could not get to terms with the functionality of the panel. I gave up shortly only to return to it about three months later, this time not giving up so easy. I came to terms with it and loved it. I adopted the panel so I could use it with the ISG avionics suite and it was so great to fly.

The current version is up to 1.26 (even though the link above is to the 1.25 version, the 1.26 version is an update with gauges). You can find more information in the tinmouse forums.