There’s a lot of news trickling out over the last several days and in this round-up we’re going to catch you up on all of it. Parallel 42 and Got Friends have released new utilities, paid and free, to support you Microsoft Fight Simulator experience. Meanwhie, SimWorks Studios have a terrific new teaser video for their Airvan project. BlueBird Simulations are showing off their freighter conversion 757 and Laminar Research’s X-Plane 12.2.0 release is beginning to take form with two new screenshots. Let’s go!

Airvan coming together in teaser video

SimWorks Studios have long been working on their take on a GippsAero GA8 Airvan for Microsoft Flight Simulator. The project is coming along and it sounds like the devs are getting closer to a launch of the project.

They’ve released a series of teaser videos on their social media channels recently including this island hop video.

Got Friends release a classic livery pack and legacy weight and balance panel

A couple of interesting new bits of news coming from MSFS developers Got Friends.

First up, they’ve released a free livery pack for their recently released Savage Norden. The aircraft is available in the MSFS 2024 Premium-Deluxe Edition but thanks to the launch of the Marketplace you can now purchase it independently. To celebrate, the aircraft now has two livery packs with the newest being a Classic Livery Pack created by community member ‘twoseventyinc.’

These are a series of stripes and bolt patterns like you’d find on classic Cubs which the Zlin Norden is derived from.

The group have previously released another pack called Retro Livery Pack which has a different offering. Both are free to download from Got Friends website!

Also coming from the group is a new utility that restores the functionality of the classic Weight & Balance system. This is a great addition as the new weight and balance setup has not yet achieved parity with the old one. It’s also available for free on the Got Friends website!

New Chase Plane camera system from Parallel 42

Microsoft Flight Simulator’s camera system is a bit limited in a bunch of ways and third party developer Parallel 42 is offering a solution to that with their new Chase Plane utility.

The utility packages in a bunch of interesting features with custom camera views, smart camera views, action camera views, a physics based head view for within the cockpit, a cinematics mode, and yes…. a fly-by-camera!

Parallel 42 have more information and a tutorial video on how to use everything over on their website.

This is a paid add-on and the price is a bit on the steep side at $30 USD. With a lot of functionality baked in, it may just be the thing you were looking for.

Learn more about it over here!

BlueBird Simulations has new 757 images

BlueBird Simulations 757 project is coming along and while they haven’t released any new videos since January (really not that long ago), they have started to show off what the 757 freighter conversion looks like with a few new images released via their Facebook page.

Laminar Research show off X-Plane 12.2.0 features

Recently, Laminar Research have been starting to talk about X-Plane 12.2.0 which they consider to be a major release. They have mentioned that visuals are a big part of the update and have started to post small updates focused in on specific features.

The most recent is a showcase of their new dynamic lighting system which will better manage the dark and light areas in the sim. Notably, this should be a solve for their overly dark cockpits which have been an issue on many or even most aircraft.

Meanwhile another image shows off the latest cloud rendering and lighting technology. Getting the clouds and weather rendering to play nicely together has been a challenge for X-Plane 12, however, successive updates have improved the overall experience and the latest looks to be taking things a notch further.

Keep an eye out for more updates right over here on the company’s Facebook page or check out some of their other social media!