Back To Page 1 Another of my favorite airplanes to fly in X-Plane is a free add-on created by Paolo Matricardi: the Aeritalia G.222 twin turbo-prop utility aircraft. The G.222 features a custom panel that looks really sharp and an external 3D model that is absolutely gorgeous. The G.222 flies like a dream; the […]
by Chris “BeachAV8R” Frishmuth The rotor-heads will be pleasantly surprised at the flight dynamics of the rotorcraft in X-Plane. Though I’m not a helicopter pilot in real life, I’ve spent countless hours flying helicopter sims on the PC. With the exception of MSFS, it has been my general observation that most helicopter sims have a […]
Back To Page 8 After firing off my ordnance I’m light enough to sustain a hover. Transitioning from full forward flight to a hover is a tricky affair that requires a fair amount of practice. A gradual transition occurs from high speed flight to the hover where less and less lift is generated by […]
Back To Page 7 X-Plane really excels in Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) and helicopter modeling. I spent endless hours tooling around in the included VTOL models (the Bell 609 and V-22 Osprey among others) and really enjoyed the challenge of reining these monsters around the skies. A gentle touch, patience and good planning […]
Back To Page 6 Taxiing over to the seaplane ramp we drive right into the water in our amphibious airplane. Pulling over to the fuel pumps I shut off the engines and add some fuel. X-Plane uses an intuitive aircraft loading and fueling menu to set your aircraft weight and fuel parameters. Just move […]
Back To Page 5 If quiet and graceful is your cup of tea then get towed aloft in a sailplane to catch the ridge lift or thermals that X-Plane models. Another one of my personal favorites is the Bombardier CL-415 water bomber. This is a super fun airplane that can land on water or […]
Back To Page 4 Anticipate the flare since you are coming down at such a high vertical velocity! Once you are down deploy the speedbrakes and the braking chute. From the top menu you can rapidly switch scenarios, aircraft and situations. You can be placed on an ILS approach, aerial refueling, a takeoff or […]
Back To Page 3 For those high speed dashes when you just can’t bear to go commercial, fire up the SR-71 and you can travel from Los Angeles to Washington in about an hour! I can’t say how accurate the flight models are for these more exotic airplanes, but they are certainly fun to […]
Back To Page 2 A night view of Washington National airport (DCA) from several thousand feet; this is fairly realistic looking with rather subdued airport lighting being difficult to discern from above but readily visible laterally. For those times when you are flying in the pitch black areas of the country out west in […]
Back To Page 1 Another fantastic feature of X-Plane is the replay feature. Just like the 3D tracking information, the replay information is constantly being saved without you having to do anything, it happens automatically. Whenever you want to review a landing or maneuver, just enter the replay mode and pull the slider on […]
by Chris “BeachAV8R” Frishmuth So how about flying the B-1 Lancer? The casual simmer will have a blast with this airplane. Certainly the cockpit isn’t even close to the real thing, but X-Plane is, in large part, about the fun of flying the airplanes, not getting swamped in the minutia of exact detailing. The glass HUD […]
Back To Page 5 Retarding the throttles over the numbers I ease the plane onto the runway while my feet dance a bit on the rudders. The feel of both flight and ground handling in X-Plane really is superior and constant attention must be paid to the aircraft to keep it tracking down the […]
