Laminar Research X-Plane 8 Part 1 Page 8

Back To Page 7

 

As I continue to climb I hit the magic “3000” altitude and the right engine catches on fire and starts smoking. Losing two Pratts in the same lifetime would be rare, let alone on the same flight!

Another interesting failure that X-Plane allows for is the total separation of an engine or flight control in flight. Here I’ve set the left engine on the KC-10 to fall off, resulting in an interesting emergency landing.

So we’ve looked at the “business end” of X-Plane. As you can see, it is a useful and effective tool for flight training in many different ways. Flight training is fun, and flying instrument approaches are worthwhile, but what about the casual simulation fan; what does X-Plane offer them? Let’s take a look.

We’ve already touched on the wide variety of aircraft types that are included and available for download. X-Plane 8 is in its infancy right now. A glance at the file archive at X-plane.org shows nearly 700 different aircraft available for Version 7, many of which will be either re-done or imported to meet the differences in Version 8. In fact, I’ve sampled a few of the Version 7 aircraft and have had good luck just plopping them into X-Plane 8 and they appear to work fine. Sometimes you will get an error message and the aircraft won’t load, probably due to a missing texture or object in the package that Version 8 requires. Here is a MiG-15 from Version 7 that seems to work just fine directly imported into Version 8. (MiG-15 by Barry Leger)


Part 2 of BeachAV8R’s X-Plane v8 review is Friday.

We want your Feedback. Please let us know what you thought of this article here.


System Specs

  • Alienware Pentium 4, 3.4GHz
  • 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM
  • NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB
  • CH Flight Yoke and Pro Pedals
  • Saitek X45

Cessna 402 Businessliner Twin Engine Mirror Polished Airplane Propeller Blade picture

Cessna 402 Businessliner Twin Engine Mirror Polished Airplane Propeller Blade

$695.00



Cessna 100, 200, 300 Series Aircraft Window Latch Handle (Left-Hand) picture

Cessna 100, 200, 300 Series Aircraft Window Latch Handle (Left-Hand)

$179.45



0721105-27 Cessna 172N Heated Pitot Tube picture

0721105-27 Cessna 172N Heated Pitot Tube

$742.50



CESSNA Airplane Aircraft key blank C1054B PK500-PK999 2000-2600 picture

CESSNA Airplane Aircraft key blank C1054B PK500-PK999 2000-2600

$3.99



Aircraft Control Lock, Cessna 172 picture

Aircraft Control Lock, Cessna 172

$79.99



Cessna 172N Mic Jack Control Box picture

Cessna 172N Mic Jack Control Box

$82.50



0523557-1 Cessna 172N SW Fuel Transmitter picture

0523557-1 Cessna 172N SW Fuel Transmitter

$412.50



0513261-14 Cessna 172N Pilot Control Wheel with Mic Switch (L:12.25,” D:0.745”) picture

0513261-14 Cessna 172N Pilot Control Wheel with Mic Switch (L:12.25,” D:0.745”)

$385.00



Bruce’s custom aircraft cover Cessna 206 picture

Bruce’s custom aircraft cover Cessna 206

$250.00



1962 Cessna 172C  picture

1962 Cessna 172C

$38000.00



Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes