The news for flight simulation these days is coming fast and furious right now and we’ve got lots of updates to report on. Just Flight have upgraded their F28 with a new patch and so have iniBuilds with a big update to their A350. Ugra Media have uploaded new DCS: Cold War Germany images, AzurPoly have revealed a new combat aircraft project for MSFS, and SimWorks Studios have laid out a launch plan for the GA-8 AirVan.
Just Flight updates the F28 to V2.1
The Version 2 release of the Just Flight F28 has just seen an update that incorporates some fixes to the recently re-released airliner. The change log indicates that they have fixed the pilot character clipping through the fuselage, fixed a skid control test issue, improved the temperature control of engine TGT at high outside air temperature, fixed state saving logic, improved anti-icing logic and more.
The update is being rolled out to the marketplace right now and those who own it through the Just Flight website can download the update now.
Check out the F28 Professional change log here.
More Ugra Media videos show off DCS: Germany
The folks at Ugra Media are providing quite a selection of videos showcasing the DCS: Germany map and its details. These tend to be focused on various areas including airports and notable landmarks and cities. The airports are filled with period appropriate aircraft with a lot of parked 727s which is fun to see while the landmarks all seem to be quite accurate to the period too.
Check some of these out such as these Hanover airport tours.
Or check out the GDR Tank Range and East German airport complete with parked IL-76 and more!
There’s also Gatow airbase…
…and Mount Teufelsberg.
Or this Willys base tour.
There are so many more on the Ugra Media YouTube channel.
A350 is now at v1.0.6 plus a new developer stream
iniBuilds have been continuing to issue updates for their A350 airliner project released earlier in the year to both much fanfare and some agitation. The project has suffered from some stability issues, particularly until MSFS 2024, however successive updates have addressed many issues and v1.0.6 brings more updates.
Stability, various systems, art, and sound improvements have been made in a lengthy changelog.
The team are also adding a new Autosave function to the aircraft. They say that the custom autosave is intended to keep your flight progress secure. You can automatically save the flight at various intervals or manually save and leave the simulator with the ability to return to your flight later on.
Should you need to end a flight early, the autosave system ensures you can rejoin it later exactly where you left off. Every detail of the aircraft’s state is preserved, including system variables and position data, thanks to a robust implementation using binary file writing/reading and SimConnect for flight control and position recovery. Notably, this system bypasses the default SimConnect situation save/load functions to maintain full control and fidelity of the aircraft’s systems.
This should help with long flights saving you from both the annoying WASM crash issues as well as making long distance flights more doable in multiple sittings if required.
Meanwhile, iniBuilds hosted a developer stream with several of their team on the presentation talking primarily about the A350. There’s interesting commentary in there about refining the aircraft, the A350’s flight handling straight from the mouth of an A350 type rated pilot, GSX integration news and more.
There’s also a discussion of roadmap for the product with more features coming. Those features include additional ECAM logic, new cabin scenarios, an API for the EFB, and the ULR version of the A350 with enhanced range.
Coming in June, the team report that they have another A350 related product on the way that will be announced at FSExpo. They also have an unannounced airliner project in the works (one would assume it was the previously teased L-1011) which will probably shift towards the end of the summer.
Good to see updates rolling!
Dassault Rafale revealed for AzurPoly
Hot on the launch of the Jaguar for Microsoft Flight Simulator, AzurPoly have turned their attention to another well known French combat aircraft – the Dassault Rafale!
Little is known about their project right now but the reveal is quite similar to the Jaguar’s and I’m sure over time we’ll learn about what they intend to model and how much of the still highly classified jet they are able to do.
With extreme agility and a Mach 1.8 top speed with March 1.4 supercruise, this should be quite a fun jet to fly. And yes… I’d love to see it in DCS too!
Follow AzurPoly for more updates!
SimWorks Airvan update
Finally, SimWorks Studios reports that they have nearly completed their GA-8 Airvan project and are readying it for release. They say it is feature complete and are currently writing manuals while the avionics team implements the tablet. The tablet will have manuals, checklists and options.
The aircraft is due for release in MSFS 2020 first with that happening in the second half of April. Meanwhile, the MSFS 2024 version will follow a few weeks after. They also report that the aircraft is coming to Career mode. Here’s what was said:
With FS24, we have finally broken through the wall of Career mode and the FS24 Airvan is expected to come career-ready out-of-the-box! We do have some problems with the failure module, though, as the new sim comes with its own failure system. Our tablet will allow you to turn off our failures, so that half is done. We need to work out how to disable the default failures in “Free flight” mode, or whether you will have to disable them yourself using the Assistance menu -which shouldn’t affect them in career mode.
Stormbirds 
Leave a comment