Features

The Stinson L-5 is typical of the type of aircraft developed during WWII for duties such as liaison, artillery spotting, photo-reconnaissance and casualty evacuation. The Aeroplane Heaven Stinson L5 for FSX and Prepar3D, published by Just Flight, comes in seven liveries. Reviewer Nigel Porter found it to be nicely presented and both fun and challenging to fly.

The Where In The World series challenge from Ron Blehm continues as readers have stepped up with a bunch of new destinations. Last month's location had some easy clues that might be overlooked and resulted in many wrong guesses. This month's challenge is to an interesting tourist destination. Can you figure out where?

Carenado is well known for creating great looking general aviation aircraft. Their Cessna 340 II has been around for years in different versions, but is now available for X-Plane 11 and brings new features like PBR materials that make the exterior really look like the metal on a real airplane. Reviewer Shawn Weigelt loved the look of plane and was satisfied with the accessible flight model.

The Piper Cherokee family of single engine GA planes has satisfied pilots' needs for years. At top of the range is the PA28R Turbo Arrow III/IV, with retractable gear are more horsepower than lesser models. Reviewer Shawn Weigelt tries out the X-Plane 11 version from Just Flight and finds the plane to be an absolute joy and one of the best "study level" add-ons available.

Newer sims like X-Plane 11 are demanding on computer hardware, and more on GPU capability than some previous flight simulators. In this tutorial, Dominic Smith goes over the various settings available in X-Plane 11. He discusses what they do and how you can use them to get acceptable performance even on a lower end computer.

Seattle Airports X is the most complete, up-to-date, affordable and performance-friendly scenery package of five airports in the Seattle metropolitan area, Washington state, USA. This product is compatible with FSX, P3D and FSW. Reviewer Augusto Ferreira liked the five included airports enough that he considers the scenery a must-have for anyone flying the Pacific Northwest. (Also see our review of the X-Plane version)

As we do each year around this time, we look back at some of our favorite reviews and repost them as "gift guides" to give you ideas for your favorite flightsimmer, or for yourself! The Transall C-160 from Flight1 and JSS Simulations comes with fully working systems including pressurization, highly detailed static elements including wheel chocks and pitot covers, 3D pilots and even a simulated discharge procedure. Reviewer Bill Stack puts the plane through its paces.

Reviewer Rohan Nair takes a look at the VMAX 777 Worldliner Professional Extended Pack, the only Boeing 777 currently available for X-Plane 11. The developers have created a number of high quality jetliners for X-Plane with this one originally being released some six years ago. The latest update does still show its age a bit but still offers a lot of features and is a decent simulator of the big jet.

In this review Michael Hayward takes a look at the second release from Orbx in their CityScene range of products, CityScene Barcelona for FSX and Prepar3D. Created by Allen Kriesman, the scenery is incredibly detailed and brings the city to life with accurate and detailed buildings (thousands of them), vegetation, roads, important landmarks and so on.