Cool News For Norway Lovers

[Deleted]

Orbx is doing ENSG - Songdal, Norway. Looks great. That makes 5 airports for Norway now, with 4 being close enough to get to in the 182 or similar machines. I'm all in on this one! I tried to link the page directly but it's just showing as "orbxsystems.com" which won't get you directly to there. Go to the Previews forum and you'll find screenies there.

[Deleted]

Just looking at the pics of it again. Man, sure wish we had a really good (i.e. PMDG or Majestic) Dash 8-100. That's a 3600 ft runway in there. Pretty tight for Taiga's DHC8-Q400PF, and other than a couple of leased light aircraft that's about the smallest we have. May have to lease something a little smaller for that region I guess, but I don't know what it will be. I need something that's pretty high end and well developed. Might look at the C404 or 406 (2 airplanes that were actually reasonably well done by Carabeo and they do have the GTN in them). We are mostly flying bigger stuff though, in the 777 and 737-800BCF. We have our Avro RJ85's up for sale, but maybe we'll have to re-think that one. That one can do 3500' fully loaded (yes, IRL - I've seen it!), which would work nicely for all those strips in that region. Pretty expensive to operate though and they probably carry more than we need at a time for these smaller centres. We'll have to think on that one a bit.

[scottb]

I bet the F406 would be a good machine for it. I heard it's a pretty good model, but I don't own that one. I had hoped it was going to be on sale, but it's not. I might just get it anyways, since most of the sale stuff I already have or am not interested in.

-Scott

[Deleted]

Yeah, I'm really considering it. The tricky thing with it is it has to be able to do steep approaches and Carenado didn't model the prop drag when you bring the engines back to idle with the pitch to full fine. That's going to be a real problem for some of these airports. I'm also concerned about capacity. With that small a cabin, I'd have to go out and back. I couldn't hit several towns in one shot. That all said, I'm not necessarily ruling it out. I'm also looking at the Flysimware 441, which I have and while the graphics aren't great, the engine and system modeling is very good.

[Bushpounder]

What about the Beech 1900 or a Caravan? I would LOVE to have a really nice Dash 8-100/200/300. I have one, but it's a lower shelf purchase. Nice for screenshots.

BP;)

[Deleted]

Well, I'm trying to be less negative since coming back, but I'm really not impressed with either model. Both would be ideal (although single engine in northern Norway would have you biting your nails a lot if you were going for the realism bit <LOL>!). I really, really wish we had a couple of good light twins (other than the Dukes - finding those IRL is like looking for a needle in the haystack, and they are definitely not working machines). A 421 would be ideal, and even a 310 would be good. If I had some A2A quality machines in a twin, I'd be really tempted to ditch the big stuff and run several small, local outfits. I get bored if I'm in one place too long and the big guys alleviate that, not to mention those are superb quality airplanes. But, a 1 hour flight takes almost as long for the preflight and the gobs of checklists one has to go through. That's ok, but these are working right now only because I'm on holiday and I have all day to play with these. When I go back to work, things will change again and I'll be back into the smaller stuff. Same paint and name, but different slant. I did try out the Flysimware 441 again tonight and it's really quite good. The graphics leave something to be desired, but otherwise the systems and engine modeling are very well done. That is in the fleet currently.

[scottb]

I have the Flysimware 441, and it's pretty good. Wish their graphics were a little better. What about their MU-2? Is that any good?

-Scott

[olderndirt]

How about the new Alabeo "Conquest - looks awful good to me.

[Deleted]

Good thought and I really debated this one Dave, but I kept watch on the forums when it was released. If they sold 10 of those, I'd be surprised. Yes it looks good, but their Garrett engine modeling is a complete disaster, and the frame rates (like in all their current aircraft) are horrible. I suspect the FDE's are not very good either, but there is so little info on the forum about that, that it's impossible to tell. After my experience with the Aero Commander though, I'm back to being extremely suspect of all their current FDE's. Why they can get it so right on so many airplanes, then suddenly take a dive I really don't know, but my suspicion, based on knowing someone who worked for them for a while, is that they can't keep people. The new guy that comes in knows less than the last guy and poof, there go the FDE's down the drain. Of course, their autopilots and engine modeling have never been up to snuff, so that's another issue. The Flysimware 441, while lacking in interior graphics, is very good systems/engines-wise, and I already have it, so I'm going to do some testing with it.

Scott, yes the "Mooo Two" is excellent. Again, very good systems and engines (has the same engines basically as the 441) and I should add the sounds for both are outstanding. We had a Moo-Two parked across the taxiway from us and even when I had my head buried in an AFCS in the shop, I always knew instantly when it was starting up. FSW has captured that feeling very nicely. The only issue I have (and it's a relatively minor one) is that there are exactly zero of these registered in Norway. I wouldn't let that stop me though, as they are used a lot for cargo work these days and from my perspective they are an ideal airplane for what I need over there. I do have the aircraft (and it's very easy to paint with their excellent paint kit) so yes, this is a distinct possibility.

This has taken on a bit more importance now too. The 777 is causing FSX to crash on every exit (kernel32 error), so there's something in my system it doesn't like. On top of that, I'm learning that all these big airports, even though they aren't enhanced, are frame killers (I can live with some things, but the stutters are a biggie for me). Since that's all the 777 can use, the beginning and end of every flight is pretty rough. It's possible that Taiga will kill it's heavy lift division (I'd be VERY sorry about that, but...) and go as several local operators and smaller aircraft. Each operator may take on a different name but all will be under the Taiga umbrella. We're seeing this IRL as well, as Summit Air in Canada has gobbled up most of the smaller operators up north, but you still can see the individual liveries and names they used to be under. So we'll see. That decision has yet to be made, but I could see operating in Norway with the 441, MU2, Lear 35, possibly the Q400PF and the 737-800BCF. The Alaskan ops would likely just have the 737-800BCF and Q400PF. Might also look hard at the 406 and the 404. The 404 I know was one of the better Alabeo models out there, so that could work if it doesn't kill my frames in heavy weather too badly.

Many thanks for the input guys. Appreciate it

[Deleted]

Well, as usual, I stand corrected about the Flysimware stuff. It's about to be uninstalled. So, maybe I'll have a closer look at the Carenado 441, but I do wish one could paint it.

[scottb]

I think I'm going to pick up the 406 tomorrow. I like the 404 pretty well and I've heard the 406 is good.

-Scott

[Sandy]

Might I suggest a DC-3? 3600 feet is plenty to land on, perhaps a bit slim at full weight to take off from however. Make it a turbo-prop version and you're golden.

[Deleted]

The only DC3 I would use would be the Jahn's one, which is outstanding. There are 2 problems with it there however. First is you HAVE to have a good GPS now for the approaches they have now. The GTN is the best but it has to be a pop up in that machine and some of those approaches are tough enough without having to grab a pop up at critical times. The second issue is that there isn't a whole lot of light there this time of year. There's no night lighting in that airplane yet so that's a huge problem from the get-go.

The runway lengths are more than long enough. You only really need 2500' for that airplane. The other issues are the limiting factors.

Good idea Sandy, but not feasible for the winter. Come summer though and the story changes.

[Sandy]

No problem, and yeah, I forgot about the night lighting issue on Jahn's.

Would the Shrike fill the spot well enough?

[Bushpounder]

Just shine a flashlight on the screen!!

BP;) <--- Just trying to help here!