X-Plane Gateway

the x-plane links portal

X-Plane v9.00 Released!

After one of the most extensive beta periods in quite some time, xp9 logo X-Plane v9.00 has been released by Austin. If you have been sitting on the side wating for the beta period to end, the time for download and purchase has arrived. Here at the Gateway, it's unanimous, this is probably the best version since 7.63. Framerates are excellent, the Global Scenery and Water enhancements, are just spectacular. You can read about all of the features here.

You will need the Updated Installer 2.01 for this release, and you can see the entire list of fixes / features improvements and download the release candidate here.

Europe V9.1.0 Scenery released

Andras Fabian has released his updated European Forests for X-Plane 9. His latest bog osting states "With X-Plane 9 came some exciting new features, but also a new Global Scenery - with native forests included - which made it necessary to re-cut the complete Europe Forests scenery. Partially repositioned road/railroads and even more the new, more detailed, and in wast numbers included building objects were the main reason. In the meantime, Alber Laubi (my artwork specialist) completely overhauled the tree texture set and also perfectioned their positioning via the forest definition files. After all, I have to say, that it was worth the effort, and the screenshots tell the same story."

He continues... "Many of you might now also ask, why to bother with our trees, when there is already a native forest included with the new Global Scenery. Well, the answer is simple. The Global Forests - as I call them - are much more general in their nature. This is true for their far smaller diversity (for example like distinguishing between conifers in Finland and Greece) but also for their much rougher placement/detail (the reason for this is, that they are based on much coarser data than what CORINE provides). To have a better idea, I tried to compare some airports for yourself via screenshots . Maybe they help you to better assess the difference."

You can download the European update, Europe v8, and USA East forests here.

Over 75 Liveries Now Available For B757-200

The XPFW group has announced the release of over 75 liveries for the B757-200 recently introduced to the public. The example in this post is an outstanding paint by zxplane a member of X-Plane.es in Spain.

The is a rendition of the Privilege Style B757-200 EC-HDS. Privilege Style's mission is to provide executive class and private air service to corporations, sports teams and others who need to move a large group of people in luxury class.

Other fine examples include, UPS, ATA, USAF, and the list goes on. Treat yourself to these fine repaints here. Remember, XPFW group requires resgistration to access the download area, however the repaints are free.

American Airlines Virtual Launches Service

American Airlines Virtual has begun operations as of January 1st 2008. From James Thompson the founder - "This has been a closed project that we have been working on for about 2 months right now, and finally we have completed our work on it, there are a few things left to work on such as aircraft permissions and sorting out who will be hub managers, but we have decided to release it."

Here at AAV we have two goals, two have a fun time being pilots and flying for a great US carrier, and to be close to real as possible, yet still maintain an environment that is not too serious and not too goofy. As you can see we have a type rating system, and that is how we will be doing our training.

We have full automated PIREP systems, and a good fun staff, I hope that you will find our VA a fun one to join, and one that you will stick with for a long time, if you have any questions, or concerns, please, give me an e-mail found under the “Pilot Resources” section of the website.

Mirage 2000 Project Update

The Mirage 2000C Project reports that they have released version 1.0.4. A summary of the upated features include:

- External cockpit tune up. We add the 3D animation rafale pilot from Bertrand A. (Rafale Aircraft and PARIS scenery builder)

- We can now open/close the glass cockpit
- 3D animation of the AB nozzle (open or close, it depends if AB is on or off) you can watch a video Here

- A new plugin: at this time, it's only a slat animation. This animation is the same as the real plane, with the same law. BUT, it's for the moment an only visual animation, because the dataref "slat" is not writable in 8.64.

FJCC - UFMC Project

Javier Cortes reports that his Universal FMC for X-Plane is nearing the release stage. The LATERAL NAVIGATION is fully a custom autopilot included with the FMC. The FLARE and ROLLOUT are also custom autopilot included with the FMC. Javier provides a short explanation of how the FMC works with the autopilot:

"FLARE is to get smooth landing, changing the pitch to decrease the vertical Speed in the touchdown.
ROLLOUT is to get the right runway heading during the touchdown and runway running. This is a very great help in high crosswinds landings. The THROTTLE is fully controlled by the FMC if you select so in the config file.The rest of the autopilot functions are from X-plane, smartly managed by the UFMC".

-Vertical Speeds are automatically calculated and now are variable with the altitude also, as the real ones.
-Complete SID and STAR and can be updated to newer AIRACS
-Speed is automatically reduced to the Speed transition at the transition altitude (usually 250 knots and 10.000 feet, but you can change it in the UFMC VNAV PAGES).

You can see the current published Features List on his website.

VATSIM and MITRE Join Forces

The Board of Governors are very pleased to announce that VATSIM and MITRE's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) have joined together to conduct aviation systems research using the VATSIM network as a test environment for proof of concept and hypothesis testing of new ATC solutions.

In the near future VATSIM members will be asked to participate in CAASD designed events in an effort to evaluate new concepts in ATC operations. This program is the direct result of the exacting standards required to fly and control on VATSIM and is a direct tribute to your tireless efforts to simulate as real as it gets.

Congratulations to all those members out there that have made the reputation VATSIM has built over the years as the serious simulation platform. Your hard work has been recognized.

Avroliner Project Site Update

Andreas Benjamin has updated his Avroliner Project website. Currently featuring aircraft for v7 and v8, a recent posting on his site mentions that work for planes compatible with v9 is already underway.

The new site is clean, professional and extremely easy to navigate. Flying the Avro series has always been a pleasure, as Andreas always provides top shelf panels and liveries, for every release.

A huge favorite mine is the Avro RJ-100 Quiet Trader. I frequently fly regional FedEx and UPS routes with that particular aircraft. The plane certainly lives up to it's reputation as a quiet, powerful, easy to fly platform into midsize and small airfields. Downloads are free, however registration is required. Put away the heavy metal, and service those "fly-over" cities and towns with this great collection of aircraft!

x737 v3 Preview

The x737 project recently released a preview movie of the progress that continues on the new object based aircraft (v3) to be released sometime in 2008. The movie shows the progress they have achived with wing-flex both on the ground and in the air.

While there has been a recent update to the Plug-In, Benedikt and Pierre tell us not to expect the new plane until sometime around mid 2008.

View the movie. Broadband recommended.

ITA Overlay LIDR

The ITA Overlay group of airports has been updated to include LIDR Ravenna. Ravenna is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The city is inland, but is connected to the Adriatic Sea by a canal. Ravenna once served as the seat of the Western Roman Empire and later the Ostrogothic kingdom.

It is presently the capital of the province of Ravenna. At 652.89 km² (252.08 sq mi), Ravenna is the second-largest comune in land area in Italy, although it is only a little more than half the size of the largest, Rome. The runway 8/26 is 3937 ft X 98ft. with an asphalt surface. The scenery features several hangars, tower, terminal rest area with swimming pool.

A great little destination to fly to on a Sunday morning. Requires X-Plane 8.30 or greater. Available for free download here.

XPFW Releases 757-200 For v8

Morten Melhuus reports that the long awaited Boeing 757-200 that has been in closed beta for over 6 months, is now final for v8. The XPFW site states "we have decided to continue beta testing in XP version 9, and make the v8 aircraft public".

In our opinion, this is another aircraft everyone should have in the hangar. The plug-in controlled plane features spinning fan blades, working thrust reversers, animated APU door, 3D cockpit (optional), and amazing detail work on the gear.

The default Continental Airlines livery is stunning, and the additional repaints that have been created by beta testers are equally as good. No doubt about it, This is one of the "sexiest" airliners ever to take to the skies. If you are not a member of the XPFW site, you will need to register for the free download. Requires X-Plane 8.60 or greater.

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Peregrine Creates PlaneMaker Wiki

Peregrine a long time X-Plane aircraft builder and contributor has created an X-Plane PlaneMaker wiki as a resource for the plane builders in the community. He points out "there never has seemed to be a really thorough manual on X-Plane and PlaneMaker, and more importantly, there always seem to be little hidden tricks and details, that aren't documented anywhere, that one only learns through trial-and-error, or talking to just the right person here at the Org".

Such a true statement. Forum threads are often hard to follow, especially as they get pushed down the line by the latest posting. Sometimes searching a subject will return so many choices that it's daunting to pick through the treads for the info you are look for. We here at X-Plane Gateway applaud this effort, and hope the community will support the PlaneMaker Wiki. It's long overdue!

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Inside Passage Updated For v9

Tom Curtis has updated his Inside Passage Scenery package to include support for X-Plane v9. If you have been on the fence about purchasing this payware scenery, we can tell you that it is a stunning example of the type of scenery that can be created for X-Plane now. Certainly Tom's skills are extremely advanced. Most of us old timers are familiar with his SoCal6 and Socal7 packages that probably still rank today as the #1 download of all time for X-Plane scenery.

Inside Passage features over 70 custom airports and seaplane bases covering an area of nearly 30,000 square miles! The buildings are beautiful, custom ships steam across the water, highly detailed airports and signage, and a few other cool surprises. Updates are available to registered users on the XPFW Group forums. You will need your password that was included with your purchase to gain access.

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OverlayEditor Adds Support For v9

xp9 logo Jonathan Harris has added support for version 9 in his latest release of OverlayEditor. Now at v2.0, OverlayEditor has become the de facto tool for those who wish to edit their airports in X-Plane 8 and 9. Many of our older users remember WorldEditor which is no longer available in X-Plane.

Jonathan also offers another favorite tool on his site, FS2XPLANE. This tool allows those who own a copy of scenery used in other flight simulators to convert it for use in X-Plane. There are a number of links that are beginning to pop in the X-Plane community that have custom scenery files that have been converted, with permission of the original authors. We will post those links in our scenery section on a regular basis.

Jonathan has great tutorials on his site, and leads the discussion on his tools here.

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Featured Project: DH-106 Comet

x737 Guy Montagu-Pollock has announced that he is in the advanced stages of development on the De Havilland DH-106 Comet. DE HAVILLAND was an extraordinary company. What made it special was the modest, dedicated leadership of its founder, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, and his board. They treated everyone generously, regardless of position, and encouraged communication at all levels.

Where many companies welded their order books to the military, de Havilland had their own view about the future of commercial aviation. They made their own decisions, and didn't’t wait for the government to tell them what to do. From the outset, they championed recreational flying, business use, and light transports – all the Moths and Dragons – earning a reputation for elegant, light-weight, aerodynamic designs with higher performance than mere engine output suggested. This would prepare the ground for the record breaking DH-88 Comet, and the legendary Mosquito.

On his website, Guy states "Considerable effort has gone into aerodynamics: the original aerofoils were identified, and plots of lift and drag were calculated for the appropriate Reynolds numbers. Initially, the data was translated directly into the necessary ACF files. Later, the curves were re-drawn as accurately as possible using “Airfoil Maker”, because it proved easier to make adjustments. These adjustments were very small, and were made with reference to engineers and pilots accounts of the effects of changes to the leading edge of the wing during the real aircraft’s test and development process."