RealScenery

My jaw just drops when I see your work, Goran and Theo! That Saab will look great flying over Reno, Oahu, or anywhere in northern California!

Man, if she would just mention us on her show, Simon, we could retire tomorrow. She's made a lot of multi-millionaires over the years! ;D

Gotta be careful with the drinks in the cockpit! :-[ ************************************** A United Airlines flight from Chicago to Germany was forced to make an emergency landing in Canada after a pilot spilled coffee on the plane's radio equipment. UA Flight 940 was carrying 241 passengers on Monday when the 777-200's communication and navigation equipment malfunctioned, prompting the flight crew to land just before 10:00 p.m. local time Monday at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. While the airline refused to confirm that spilled coffee triggered the problem, the detail was noted by the Aviation Herald, a website that logs incidents on commercial flights based on flight data and incident reports. NAV Canada reported that the crew advised of communication problems, and then reported they had navigation problems as well. The crew cycled through the transponder codes for unlawful interference and loss of communication. It said that the FAA reported after contact with the company, that the pilot in command had spilled coffee over the radio equipment which interfered with the communication equipment. He inadvertently sent an unlawful interference code, then changed to loss of communication code. A replacement 777-200 was sent to pick up the passengers and take them back to Chicago, where they were set to board another flight for Frankfurt on Tuesday. Posted on http://www.myfoxny.com

Excellent, Simon! Be thankful for what we have and what's coming, rather than complaining about what we don't have!

Rushdude, I think you answered your own question - learn about how these advanced avionic systems work before the CRJ is released. You don't just get in and use them, you have to spend a lot of study time understanding their capabilities, functionality, limitations, and role in the cockpit. Now go shoot some ILS approaches in a well-equipped GA aircraft. That's flying, my friend! ;D

All of the X-Aviation projects are very time-intensive. If you have a project with a long development cycle, like the CRJ, you can consider doing these things: 1. Add more developers. 2. Remove functionality. 3. Extend the delivery date. 4. Put the project on hold. 5. Scrap the project. Each development team has to make a decision as to how they will approach their project. Simply adding more people can often add more time to a project due to the overhead of coordinating everyone's activities - kind of like getting concensus from a group gets harder as more and more people are involved... They could remove functionality. Should the CRJ have a bunch of avionics that don't work? Should they just be dumb placeholders that will be developed "sometime in the future?" Ask yourselves this question. Is this really what you want? Sure, you might have a few fun flight hours, but you will soon tire of not being able to fly the aircraft as it should be flown. We already have complaints about this in other high-quality aircraft in reading these, and other, forums. Should scenery images not be processed to look as good as possible? Nothing more will take away from the immersive simulator experience when you have unrealistic scenery or non-functioning avionics. Is this a game or a simulator? Let the complaints begin if you release a product, especially payware, with these deficiencies. The release date can also be extended. If there is no reason in which a hard deadline has to be met, the team can elect to keep working until it's done; that is the case with the CRJ. That is the development team's choice as to how they are approaching this project. You already know from reading the CRJ forums, that this aircraft will be a benchmark in many ways. Much of the development time in a project, aircraft or scenery, involves detailed work and coding where there just isn't anything new to show eventhough the project is moving forward. I suspect the CRJ has been in this mode, and will remain so, for sometime. You can see what the cockpit looks like, but after several months of coding and back-end work, the new screenshot will oten look exactly the same. The only difference is that the avionics now work, whereas several months before, they did not. The flaps and landing gear now animate, whereas several months before, they did not, yet they still look the same. The decision has been made to release when all functionality has been implemented. I'm sure we'll all really be glad we waited (patiently or not) when that release date comes! If you get impatient, just be glad that numbers 4 or 5 above haven't been announced in this forum!!!

With RealScenery Enhanced packages now being released, I created a quick-reference guide to the differences between the older, legacy, scenery and the new Enhanced scenery. The screenshot galleries on RealScenery.com and X-Aviation.com will show you many examples of these new improvements. You'll find flying with this new scenery is an incredible experience!

Wow - you'll be over Reno in a heartbeat with that plane, Simon! Assuming you're asking a serious question, ;D those are irrigation pivots; huge irrigation systems that have a pivot in the center of a circular field. Here's a shot from the state of Washington scenery: You'll see a lot more of these in the NorCal scenery, too.

Enjoy our latest HD movies of RealScenery Enhanced - Reno/Carson City HR. [vimeo]17627999[/vimeo] [tt] [/tt] [vimeo]17719293[/vimeo]

Here is an overview map of the Reno / Carson City scenery area. These two cities are the main urban areas within the scenery area and are located in the west/southwest portion of the scenery package. There are many other small towns and rural airports with beautiful scenery of the Nevada desert if you choose to fly away from the cities. Keep in mind that this scenery covers 3700 square miles / 9600 square kilometers; much more than just the two cities. From the X-Plane 10 blog, Videos: Reno video #1 Reno video #2 Screenshot gallery: Gallery There is a high-resolution aeronautical chart included with the scenery. The overview map below shows the location of Reno and Carson City as well as many other topographic features. The south and west sides of the scenery match seamlessly to the NorCal scenery.

Thanks for the great comments, djt! I'm really glad that you're enjoying the scenery. You're right, REX is a very nice add-on, especially with photo scenery packages like Reno. The C152 is a great plane for taking it all in, too! If you get the chance, please leave a review on the X-Aviation Reno page here. I'm sure others would enjoy seeing your comments. Have fun flying Reno!

That was fun! Feel like I've been at the air races after watching that! Lots of high speed, low altitude night flying.

Awesome pics, Sir Simon! ;D Assuming you're flying with real weather? Reno has been getting a lot of clouds from the same storm systems that have been causing all the rain and flooding in southern California. I love BKN/OVC screenshots! Thanks for posting these! Looks like you're having fun and found a great combo with the mentor. That's a very appropriate aircraft to fly since the famous Reno Air Races are held there and attract a lot of highly modified warbirds. http://www.airrace.org/graphics/photooftheday/091910_large.jpg'>http://www.airrace.org/graphics/photooftheday/091910_large.jpg As a fan of GT, the air races are the world's fastest motorsport! http://www.airrace.org These air races are held at none other than Reno-Stead field!

Hey Simon, Thanks for the quick review! Glad you were impressed with the scenery and the downloading/installation experience. We've worked really hard to get both the scenery and the delivery the best they can be for our customers. X-Aviation has built a delivery system that is the best there is in the flight-sim world, both in terms of high-speed, high-capacity servers, and a very easy installation experience. For those that haven't read the review yet, here are some of my favorite quotes: I just wanted to clarify some of the background that went into making the night textures. The night textures are definitely the best out there for X-Plane within a large scenery package. Due to how X-Plane 9 renders the images, especially in the distance, these night textures are the best balance of size and distance visibility. They were also designed to give the best appearance over a range of altitudes. We spent a few months developing both the software and the correct output to provide the best experience when flying at dusk/night at different altitudes and visibilities. Changing the size of the lighting often reduces the quality of the lighting in the distance. I really wanted to make you feel like you were flying over a large metropolitan area when at altitude, as well as still being able to see subtle details and smaller towns in the distance. This really adds to the immersion of the sim. The lighting also matches the roads perfectly, and also includes many subtle color variations just as you would find when flying over a real city. A well-known scenery vendor on the MSFS side has night textures that don't even come close to these, and their alignment with the actual roads in the imagery is off in many places by a considerable distance. Everyone will have a slightly different opinion of the textures, both day and night, but I think we've achieved about the best that can be done with a scenery package within X-Plane 9. Are these the same as the default X-Plane textures? No. However, I think once you start flying with them regularly, you'll like them better. I also want to mention that all of the water features showing X-Plane water, were digitized by hand to match the shorelines in the imagery exactly. No more jaggy shorelines that don't match the underlying imagery! As you mentioned, even though it's one degree2, it's really a huge area. I still find myself exploring up close. You never know what's around that next hill! The Reno-Stead airport is my favorite, on the north end of the city of Reno. Thanks for your many positive comments. I really enjoyed reading it. Have fun flying! Eric

Get ready for Reno!

Hi Manny, You can expect Oahu, Hawaii and Northern California to follow soon after Reno. Several months and several people have been involved in building both the scenery and the incredible back-end infrastructure to support the new enhanced scenery products. The high-end servers and the new downloading and installation technology are just as impressive as the scenery. Now that this delivery technology is complete, future scenery packages can be released very soon after their completion. I want to thank everyone who has waited so patiently (and some not-so-patiently) for them to be released. Stay tuned to this forum, RealScenery.com, or X-Aviation.com for the announcement of the Reno scenery. Hold your breath! We're really that close now! Eric

This is a great screenshot, John. Low visibility, MVFR flights like this are my favorite ones to see.

The Reno/Carson City, Nevada scenery videos have been reposted. They have been adjusted for better streaming. Also, the MP4 download link on Vimeo now works for the iPhone (the best way to watch videos, IMO)!

Hi Keith, Congratulations on this new ATC system. This should be great for real pilots or serious simmers! I spent a lot of time on the site and also the forums. Nice to see that there are a lot of forum posts already considered this is the opening day of beta! Best of luck getting this going. Looks like you're off to a great start! For those interested, I've posted links to some of the videos that are on the PilotEdge forums. They are fun to watch and give a good overview of what the environment is like. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Here is another video of PilotEdge in the Precision Flight Controls booth at the AOPA Summit in Long Beach, CA.

Now here's something you don't read about everyday... The co-pilot of an Air India Express 737 sent the jetliner into a terrifying 7,000-foot plunge in May when he accidentally hit the control column while adjusting his seat, investigators report. According to the report from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the co-pilot panicked and was unable to execute the proper procedures as the jetliner dropped from 37,000 feet at a 26-degree angle. The plane and its 113 passengers were saved when the pilot, who’d gone on a bathroom break, used an emergency code to get into the locked cockpit, jumped back into his seat and grabbed the controls to bring the plummeting plane out of its dive. The aircraft would have broken apart if the descent had continued, the aviation agency report said. The aircraft was not damaged and no one was injured, the report said. After the pilot, 39, regained control of the plane, he told passengers, who were in the middle of a meal when the jet plunged, that the plane had “went through an air pocket and that is why there was a rapid descent,” according to the report. The aviation agency report concluded that the 25-year-old co-pilot had not been trained in the specific scenario the jet encountered and “probably had no clue to tackle this kind of emergency.” Neither the pilot nor co-pilot were named in the report. The Air India Express flight was en route from Dubai to Pune, India when the incident occurred.

I think RealScenery customers will be very happy this season!

The sequel to the Reno / Carson City video is now online. For the best experience, download the MP4 file, then watch it on your Mac or PC!

My apologies to those that couldn't stream the videos previously. Now you can get out the popcorn! Official Reno & Carson City scenery video now available! This Reno video is HD and also available on the iPhone/iPad. You can also visit the Vimeo site here and download the video to watch locally on your own computer. I think you'll find it's well worth it. Enjoy!

We do have a pricing model, but I'll defer to X-Aviation as to when it is announced. There will be separate pricing for the individual scenery areas. I think you'll find the scenery an incredible value for the money, whether you buy the entire package or specific areas. Hope this helps.

No problems, David. Expect all of the RealScenery packages out by the holidays! Eric