cattzeyes

29th October
While my paint shop is resting...

About two years ago I spent out and bought, at that time, a cutting edge OC'd i7,Vrap etc. PC so I could run FSX at a good pace. Worked well (still does, even though now it's no longer 'cutting edge') I like props - nothing against the heavies but at my time of life I prefer a slower pace so the next purchase was all 3 Horizon GenX photoscenery for the UK. I liked that- it was real! but flat!

Gary Summons' VFR airfields was next on the old credit card (all three eventually - downloads not credit cards ) and things started to look really nice. Tried a bit of FSX autogen with help from the SDK. OK, but I couldn't even think about how long that would take.

Then, of course, came Darren Vincents amazing Earth Simulations 'TreeScapes' Well this really transformed everything for me; at last some overall 3D trees . I discovered all sorts of other freeware stuff which really added to the realism of flying 'lo and slo' So to all those authors who freely give to the FS community I say thank you very much indeed.

I do like a bit of AI traffic - well, a lot really. So WOAI provided that for my UK airports (easy install - no work attached) as I don't often fly much further afield. AIG provide a vast array of FP's, paints etc. which I also use (Thanks again Guys) so things are looking quite busy now when making approaches in my Twotter or Islander especially after adding Gary's Xtreme series airports ( How much is this hobby costing me!!!)

Next I see PlayHorizon ( whatever they call themselves now) release GenX photoscenery for Ireland. Two parts,east and west (now also available for FS9) . I saw the reviews and to say the least not too much excitement; bit green, they said ( Emerald Isle - I thought what do you want?)

I bought 'west' and to be honest I really enjoyed my virtual flights around the west coast. Stupid as it may seem, even in this virtual world it seemed quiet, peaceful and really quite beautiful but then the real Ireland is beautiful and does have wonderful scenery. My last real life visit was into Kerry - just amazing!

Back to simming - hardly anything to add scenery wise, seemed to be the forgotten land. Eiresim did some major airports for FS default but nothing much for photoscenery. Then 'just like that' George Keogh freely made EISG (Sligo) and some autogen trees for some other smaller airports. All of sudden 'my' Ireland is coming alive and I'm loving it. Thanks must also go to George Davison for providing a long list of 'flattens' for the Ireland scenery. George K has also just released EIKN (Knock) - so it's getting even better.

For George Davisons' bgl's : http://www.geo-davison.demon.co.uk/IrishAirports.zip

For George Keoghs' Irish airports they are all at Avsim.

Only tested on FSX sp2 ,PlayHorizon GenX Ireland.

I've made a small ship route for the west of Ireland cruising from Killimer to Killybegs (using a FSX default ship). Anyone interested in trying it out ( at your own risk, of course) please email me .Click the painter logo on the home page and make the subject 'Cruise'

Regards,
Symon Long

7th January 2012

Disappointment, anger and a lot worse are some of the feelings being expressed in various FS forums about the latest official postings from Microsoft regarding..

FLIGHT

Beta testing has begun and expected release is Spring this year. Most of you reading this will, of course, be hard core simmers and know the lead up to all this thing MS call 'Flight'

To a certain degree we were hoping it would be a new version of FSX even though MS had disbanded the the Aces team responsible for their Flight Simulation programme. It turned out to be just a pipe dream - no new sim. To be fair MS never did call it a 'simulator'. That should have given us a big clue.

Having read a good number of posts from various forums the obvious let down is evident but now some of the the developers and others 'in the know' have started commenting on the situation. Seems MS want to keep a closed shop, no SDK etc. so it seems no free contributions from the community and, from what I understand, professional developers are not too keen on the terms for them to be involved either.

So, how do I see this new Flight; probably with a bit of relief as now it looks like it's a new game not a simulator which means many folk will be able to carry on producing stuff for FSX and FS9 as before. Microsoft are not targetting us 'as real as it gets' simmers, rather a new set of airplane gamers. The big draw is of course is that it will be a free download with the basics included; after that addons will be payware to MS only.

Not to be forgotten are other makers simulators; X-plane, Prepar3d and Aerofly. (others may be available). Aerosoft were also possibly planning a new simulator of which nothing seems to have been heared of recently which seems a shame. So we could be looking there for better future versions of our favourite hobby.

To sum up. Don't dismiss Flight - lets see how it looks when released and regardless of how many of you say it's of no interest I bet nearly all of you will download it and check it out.
In the words (almost) of another better known 'aviator'

"It's Flight, Sim, but not as we know it"