well, thanks a lot

I received a lot of compliments on my "FS2004 to Google Earth" page, and the page itself is visited by about 70/80 people a day, till now.

So I want to thank you all... And this (little" success is giving strength to a coupoe of ideas I had this days:
- make a .exe windows app that does the same, like flips, but written on .Net framework
- make a web service, that anybody can call from his app, giving the same result

And what I have to do immediately is modify the "Uploaded Plan List" page, it's too slow...

So if you are interested stay tuned for news!

FS2004 plans and Google Earth

a user of my "conversion page" (http://codexweb.atomictag.com/fplan.aspx) told me that this kind of conversion is fun also because links Microsoft AND Google... and they are not exactly friends, in this moment.

any way: I added some enhancements to the "List page", now shows also the plan generale description, and the departure and arrival description for all the (137 until now) uploaded flight plans. Moreover you can download the original Flight Plan.

bye!

flight plans on Google Earth

my page (http://codexweb.atomictag.com/FPlan.aspx) is having a good success.

many people use it to convert their plans, and then they follow it with myFSGoogleEarth (http://www.elbiah.de/flusi/)... a good idea, I'll say!

and then there is also this:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=64566, which provides an index in the US of aero sectionals that can be used as
overlay on Google Earth...

there's a world of things to do !!! :-)

fsinsider.com

Do you know http://fsinsider.com/ ?

It's a Microsoft "official" FS site. They also look for new employee... take a look at the job descriptions !!!

it's my turn to be cool... ;-)

Go to this link: http://codexweb.atomictag.com/FPlan.aspx

It's a (very simple) page I wrote, that shows a standard FS2004 flight plan (.pln format) in Google Earth!!!

Try it... and tell me if it works for you, and if you like it !

Have a good (GEarth) flight !!!

(virtually speaking) I touched Japan !

yes, I just ended a very calm and long flight from LSZH (Zurich) to RJAA (Tokio), with my JAL-branded 747-400...

my career in FTG (see previous posts) is going well!!! ;-)

p.s.: I'm developing a completely useless, but "really cool" utility for FS9... stay tuned, in a few days it should be finished.

now that's cool - number two

go here: http://www.elbiah.de/flusi/.

you'll find some "Flight Simulator Tools", not bad.

but when I saw "MyFsGoogleEarth: Link Google Earth with Flight Simulator (FS 2004, FS9)" I made a jump.

just take a look at this image (I took it from the site)



And I said: why I did not think of this before?

bah...

FSAutostart

Do you know FSAutostart?
It's a really useful windows app, freeware, that shuts down all the non-necessary apps before launching FS2004 (or any other program, you decide).
It can also restart the apps shut before, it defragment memory, and knows about windows services.

Try it, you will not uninstall it.

url: http://www.kensalter.com/fsautostart/

Alaska Fjords

Sometime ago, clicking around on AvSim, I found the Michael Vone site.
Michael in these years created some "adventures" for FS9, really weel done and challenging.

In particular I liked really a lot the "Alaska Fjords 2" adventure. Actually I liked it so much that I decided (after being authorized by Michael) to translate it in italian (I live in Milan, Italy).

From the original description: "Pilot a spectacular B737 trip through wintry Alaska fjords from Seattle to Anchorage with 4 scheduled stops, a diversion and a variety of approaches. Face variable weather, low visibility, narrow fjords, limited navaids, and night flying."

Really good, well done, a real fun to fly. You will be amazed by the level of detail of this work.

So here are a couple of links:
Michael Vone pages, on AvSim Hangar

If you are italian, and you want to download the italian translation, please drop me a line (indialimaalpha (at) gmail.com) or go to AvSim library and look for "Michael Vone Alaska" - you'll find easily the italian translation among the results.

the new 787 cockpit

http://newairplane.com/

There is an interesting virtual tour of the new 787 cockpit.

navdata and AIRACs download... bad news!!!

Take a look to this:
http://forum.navdata.at/viewtopic.php?t=56


http://www.navdata.at/ is the primary source for a lot of great add-on (both planes and other tools, like FSNavigator) to get the most updated worldwide aeronatical navigation data used by pilots.

Now that's not a good news.

PMDG 747 video

Take a look to the videos in this page:

http://www.geocities.jp/sky_b747_400/index.html

They are from a pmdg forum (http://pmdg.forumsplace.com/index.html) member, great people there!

now that's cool

Are you a Google Earth addicted, like me? and a FS one too? read the following !

Reading a forum (I think it was PMDG's) I saw a mention of an Approach Plates Tutorial. So I went for it on AvSim, and downloaded it.

If you want you can find it searching AvSim (http://www.avsim.com) for "approach plates tutorial".

In this very good document, I found this:

http://www.fsstation.com/customimages/app/sfooverlay.kmz

And that's also easy to do for other airport... you need to produce a png image, semi-transparent, north-south oriented, from an app plate ofyour choice (you can find a lot of them free on the web). Then you need exact lat long for the airport, and you have to scale the image... and make a lot of test.

The kml format is well-documented on many sites, but that's really the easy part: if you open with a text editor the sample I cited before you understand everything in a moment.

Cool!

Flying Tigers Group

Yes, I joined the Flying Tigers Group (http://www.cpavirtual.org/VirtualATP.asp).
I always wanted join a Virtual Airline, but I decided only now.

For those who don't know, FTG is a sort of mega-VA, that comprises VA like Lufthansa, Qantas, Air France, Swiss, Emirathes... etc etc.

I joined then through Lufthansa Virtual (http://www.cpavirtual.org/Lufthansa/), but the great thing is that with a single login you can fly any of the VA in the FTG.

Really fun!!! I plan to make a complete world tour, using many of the VA in FTG...

p.s.: almost forgetting, my FTG id is LH442, if you find me online somewhere... drop me a line !

jpegs...

A couple of jpegs.

Best payware aircraft? My opinion...

In these years I had the chance to fly a good number of planes, both freeware and payware.
I personally like to fly on medium and long routes, and IMHO the best products available today are:
- PMDG 747 "Queen of the sky" (http://www.precisionmanuals.com)
- Flight1 ATR-72 (http://atr.flight1.net/)
- PSS Airbus series (http://www.phoenix-simulation.co.uk/)

I know that there are come other planes comparable to the ones I listed (Level-d 767, for example, and some other "Airbuses"), but I feel at home with these, and actually I'm using only these.

The last plane I bought is the PMDG 747; I'm following the support forum on a daily basis, and I see that some users report problems and bugs; there is a service pack coming out in a short time, and I'm sure that those bugs will be solved.

My experience with this 747 is really good. I also found some bugs on some flights (LNAV missing its route, with the plane going from left to right in a really funny way - maybe not so fun for the passenger's stomaches), but in general hte plane is astounding. Perfectly flyable, excellent flying dynamics, good support and a "precision" ;-) manual. Great realism.

Conclusion: go buy it, you won't regret.

Bye