Simmo W

God Indi, I just did NordSchleife in the WRX in 9.24.5, first drive ther for a very long time. Bloody terrifying! I find those straights scarier than anything. About 6 mins I got really used to the grip, then by 7 my heart was pumping so hard, I started losing concentration and crashed once and left the track another. Plenty of room for improvement, but once is enuf for me today! Typical me, pics and video to come, to show the kiddies how hard it is. You did well. I'll try Tsukuba later, shorter!

kiofka's right, I was about to reply. I too wish we had an ezdok equivalent, it's fluid movement is amazing. But if u practice with cntrl-o and freeview, you can get good results, albeit with fingers all over the keyboard! Yes pilotview is very good too, especially combined with trackir. Still lots of room for improvement, especially to control speed of movement. Yes dj, u have a cool rig (or hot?) Chip is about to take delivery of his Godzilla though, 512gig of SSD hd!

This is fun, just bought the 05 WRX STI, pretty fast for stock! Will post some pics and times if I can keep it upright..actually will do so in anycase..

Lovely pics Oliver, yes I wish I was there! Ha, funny to see xplane video angles in a real plane. Try and get some swooping shots of the outside next time :-)

Cool, sounds like we agree! I'll give it a go tomorrow around Tsukuba in a similar car.Yeah, such variety in that track and not much rest time. That last corner, as ever, is so important to get right.

Good to find another fan DJ! Indi's just posted another idea re. Races. Pm me and we'll share psn names, try an online race one day. I have had my ps3 since release day, so it's ancient but can even play ps one games! Finally getting good value out of it, blurays cheaper, hd recorder, iview, etc. You're a good person to ask then- is Forza better or not? Personally I wouldn't buy a 360 just for Forza, so u must like gt5! I love it, as it's so broad. I am starting to collect every nasty 60-80s car ever built, I don't care about 2010s plastic models. I find the standard models pretty good, and they bend quite nicely. I'm only disappointed with the licence tests- far too easy to pass and unlike the earlier series, not really instructional. They've eased it up for the masses. Yes the handling is pretty spot on, you can really tell the difference b/w ff and Fr cars now. My 850hp Plymouth cuda 440 is a slight over steerer!!! I wasn't even aware of the hardcore pc racing games- just saved myself a few thousand!

Great idea Indi! As usual, logistics are the challenge, plus comparing different sim times can't possibly be perfect? If we keep it relaxed and have fun sharing screenshots/vids and experiences. I'm still pretty early on in gt5, only level 15. But can now make $100k an hr automatically, so most non-race cars are available. So we need to agree on a track. But i dont think i'm at Vettel level- more like a sleepy Webber! The world tracks it has are, with my biased opinions: Fuji Speedway boring Fuji Speedway　F Fuji Speedway GT Suzuka Circuit boring, except for esses Suzuka Circuit East Course Daytona International Speedway not bad Superspeedway – Daytona Road Course – Daytona good fun Tsukuba Circuit- weird, one of my favourites, great little corners Circuit de la Sarthe- wonderful, scary Circuit de la Sarthe 2009 No Chicane - freaking scary speed Circuit de la Sarthe 2005 Circuit de la Sarthe 2005 No Chicane Nürburgring - yup, hard but good Nürburgring Nordschleife (Time) of course classic, terrifying in anything above a Skoda Nürburgring GP/F Nürburgring 24h (Time / Weather) Nürburgring GP/D Nürburgring typeV Indianapolis Motorspeedway- all fun Superspeedway – Indy Road Course – Indy - that's the f1 track? Confusing, I keep crashing on the first turn, so fun.. Autodromo Nazionale - technically challenging Autodromo Nazionale Monza No Chicane The Top Gear Test Track- confusing, harder than it looks, especially in a combi! Laguna Seca Raceway- wonderful, love it Monaco- ditto

After the great Autobot war of 2010, where Indi and I pulled the plug on Skynet (Beta 1.5.13, cancelled indefinitely), we're going back to the old manual posting method for the Blog. I'll only post the most major items of interest, as we now know most of you stop by every now and then anyway. So just a little interview has been posted - NOT!! Yeah, I think Greg Hofer has given us all the most detailed and enthusiastic responses so far. I got lucky, the weekend he did this was a real bad weather one. We've also provided plenty of preview info for the F16C. On another note, Chip has been pulling his unfair share of the load, with my continuing illness (over the hump but there are always pot-holes that throw you off), so he's been doing many of the articles, particularly his good work with Goran and Leading Edge's updates. Thanks Chip!! This weekend's update is also huge, with coverage of Goran and Theo's work on the SAAB, updates of Jason's 152 revisions and some really effective pics of the dome lighting on the new Carenado offering. Check it out here Chip also did a great interview with 4Forces' Jason Clark. There, that's more than enough reading for a weekend!

Greg has mentioned completion by northern Spring for the consumer version with 3d pit

Ooh Nout, now I'm jealous! Did u get any pics? (hint). It looks metallic, is it?

Yep, no need for 2 monitors Rush

That Netherlands display livery is so striking isn't it? Nice pics. well I better get this out now then. I did a preview vid for Greg, so here it is: This features in a massive interview I've done with him, I'll post within 12 hrs. This plane should do very well, it handles like a fighter should.

"Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Fighting Falcon (Block 32) The block 32H/J aircraft currently assigned to the Thunderbirds were built in 1986 & 1987, and operated by the Thunderbirds from 1992–2008. At their retirement, they were some of the oldest operational F-16s in the Air Force." That Got me thinking- Our teensy Australian Airforce has approx 75 F18s that first started service 25 years ago! Thank the lord for thorough maintenance and skilled defense force personnel. At least we are getting some superhornets until the JSF eventually comes (I think its due the same time xplane 10 will be finished :-). )

'and the pilots left hand moves'....yeah, as well as his bladder, whoops and his career Good vid though Rush. That's why they dont overfly the crowd at airshows!

"Next to the lack of stale coffee, the funk of wet cardboard boxes all mixed with the slight aroma of fuel and oil she's pretty much spot on!" Love that description Jacoba, the voice of experience!

Yeah, what's with Cap'n boring? At least try 'Duralumin' (love my aviation alloys)

Thanks Indi, just had a heart attack seeing all these. I'll need to rename us Xspam10 at this rate.

New Poll – Best aviation movies ever! The other day, Chip and I decided to swap opinions as to the best aviation/flying/airport related movies ever made. I was surprised at the number of movies that each of ... http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/new-poll-best-aviation-movies-ever/

Possible scoop- new UK xplane photo scenery I’ve been following these chaps for ages, waiting for when their English photoscenery might be released: http://x-planescenery.co.uk/ It looks like it has, the purchasing process is live! I’ve just posted a short ... http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/possible-scoop-new-uk-xplane-photo-scenery/

Heard Around The Ramps Update Kind of a slow week around Chateau de Chaos so far, what with all our Holiday shopping finished (ahem, uh, sure thing…), but ... http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/heard-around-the-ramps-update/

New U.K. Photoscenery RC Simulations, a British flightsim company, look like they have finally released their UK photoscenery, and it looks great. Look here: https://sslrelay.com/www.rcsimulations.co.uk/sess/utn154cd3b8280dc56/shopdata/0012_Other+Flight+Sims/0020_X-Plane/product_overview.shopscript And to help us all decide, Amerrir, who is also ... http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/new-u-k-photoscenery/

Weekend Update: 3 December 2010 A little bit to cover for the weekend, so let’s jump right in: XPFR and the Ile de Sein This is an astonishing (& revised) scenery package from XPFR, and perhaps all the ... http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/weekend-update-3-december-2010/

Alert! Major A380 Revision in the delivery stage! Here is the text from Peter Hager: “Dear X-Pilot, here is the biggest update ever. The new A380 is widely independent from XP limitations, enabling authentic flight simulation at a new level, during ... http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/alert-major-a380-revision-in-the-delivery-stage/

A380 FBW Update #1 Alright ladies, let’s cut to the chase. Peter Hager has just redefined what it means to play Heavy Metal in X-Plane. Once upon a time, if you wanted a full-blown Procedures ... http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/a380-fbw-update-1/

Saab 340A Images? You betcha! We got ‘em hot & fresh right here! Got a note from the team at Leading Edge this evening. Best guess from Goran is they’re three weeks from release, so Holy Santa Claus, Batman, it looks like we’ll ... http://xplane10.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/saab-340a-images-you-betcha-we-got-em-hot-fresh-right-here/