Yesterday was jam packed with Microsoft Flight Simulator news. World Update XI came out with a ton of enhancements and points of interest added to Canada! Carenado released yet another local legend with the Cessna 195 Businessliner, and there’s a marketplace sale underway too.

World update Canada, eh!

I’ve long hoped that a World Update would eventually be released to enhance parts of Canada and it has arrived! Asobo reports via the their developer blog that the update includes updated geospatial data, digital elevation models, new satellite imagery, and aerial photography. Twelve urban regions have also been enhanced and those are:

• Halifax
• Sherbrooke
• Abbotsford
• Saskatoon
• Toronto
• Montreal
• Regina
• Calgary
• Victoria
• St. Catharines
• Laval
• Vancouver

Five airports have received the handcrafted treatment:

• CYBD – Bella Coola Airport
• CYCG – Castlegar Airport
• CYDA – Dawson City Airport
• CYDF – Deer Lake Airport
• CYFB – Iqaluit International Airport

And there are nine new scenarios including three bushtrips:

• Three bush trips (Vancouver Island, Newfoundland, and the Canadian Rockies)
• Three landing challenges (Castlegar, Barkerville, and Calgary)
• Three discovery flights (Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto).

And there’s also 87 points of interest added from bridges, to lighthouses to sports complexes and more.

The official trailer did get pulled down (I’m using a third party for the above embed) presumably because a couple of captions are wrong. Billy Bishop island airport was called Pearson airport and they swapped Calgary for Edmonton. Oops! I presume an updated version will be available soon.

See the announcement here!

A new local legend

The new local legend is the Cessna 195 Businessliner which is the latest to have been created by Carenado in their partnership with Asobo. The 195 is a classic post-war Cessna and the only in their line-up to be fitted with a radial engine. Intended to ferry corporate executives from factory to factory, this is another one of those aircraft that would in the modern day be flown by a business jet.

The aircraft has a wingspan of 36 feet, a maximum altitude of 18,300 feet, and a cruise speed of 140 knots. It can reach 695 nautical miles.

According to Jorg Neumann, the local legend for Canada was meant to be the DHC-2 Beaver from MilViz. However, that is now coming for free in November with the 40th Anniversary update so we have this Cessna instead. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t have much Canadian specific heritage, but it does look very cool and I suspect I will be putting this one in my hangar.

It’s available in the Marketplace for $19.99 USD. Check out the announcement here.

Marketplace sale

A variety of airports, a couple of scenery enhancements and one aircraft, are on sale in the marketplace with 66% off starting yesterday and lasting for six days – putting the end date on Wednesday Oct 5.

Here’s the list:

• CAH3 Courtenay Airpark
• CAK3 Delta Heritage Airport
• CNC3 Brampton-Caledon Airport
• CYAM Sault Ste. Marie Airport
• CYAZ Tofino/Long Beach Airport
• CYBD Bella Coola Airport
• CYHZ Halifax Stanfield International Airport
• CYKZ Toronto Buttonville Municipal Airport
• CYLW Kelowna International Airport
• CYOO Oshawa Executive Airport
• CYOW Ottawa International Airport
• CYQM Greater Moncton Airport
• CYQR Regina International Airport
• CYQT Thunder Bay International Airport
• CYTS Timmins Victor M. Power Airport
• CYTZ Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport
• CYVR Vancouver International Airport
• CYVR Vancouver International Airport
• CYWG James Armstrong Richardson Intl Airport
• CYXE Saskatoon John G. Diefenbaker Intl Airport
• CYXU London International Airport
• CYYU Kapuskasing Airport
• DHC-6 Twin Otter
• FS Birds – Canada East
• FS Birds – Canada West
• Niagara Falls Night Enhanced
• Toronto Night Enhanced
• Vancouver Night Enhanced
• Winnipeg Night Enhanced
• Zenith CH701 STOL

Read more about the sale here.

A developer update too

This week’s developer update has been overshadowed by the plethora of other content released. Still, it is worth noting as the roadmap reminds us that there’s a lot coming down the road. Two new feature discovery series are coming up at the end of October. There’s a 40th anniversary vignette that’s also planned sometime around October 31st.

The other big item is the 40th anniversary edition slated for release sometime around the week of November 7th. That update, also known as Sim Update 11, is going to be packed with new features, updates, and includes the series first bundled high fidelity airliner, a couple of helicopters, gliders, and historic aircraft. A trailer and more vignettes are planned as well.

A lot to look forward to with Microsoft Flight Simulator now 2-years out from its initial release and celebrating its 40th anniversary as a product. Read the developer diary right here.