Flight Simulation developers shared news today, including aircraft and a utility for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, MSFS 2020, and DCS World.
Simulation Daily publishes a roundup every day for all the news across the flight simulation field, helping you keep up to date with the ins and outs of the industry.
Before we move on to the flight simulation news, make sure to check out today’s episode of our “Can You Guess this Airport?” video series and see if you can identify the airport portrayed.
Casa C-212-200 Aviocar for MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 Gets New Screenshots
Project Max released new screenshots of the Casa C-212-200 Aviocar for MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024.
You can check them out above.
BeyondATC VFR Stage 2 Detailed
BeyondATC provided plenty of updates about Stage 2 of its VFR side, which is currently in the final stages of internal testing, although a release date for the release on the experimental branch has not been announced.
Since the update is very long and detailed, you can read it in its entirety on the developer’s site, but the utility will be able to load airports dynamically around you as you fly around (incidentally, this will be implemented on the IFR side as well).
Another feature that will be shared with IFR is the ability to use the COM2 radio, although only in monitoring mode, on top of an updated toolbar with more options.
There will also be mre frequencies and controller types.
VFR regions have also been overhauled with new features and the ability to change which VFR rules apply when flying outside of the US/UK/AUS.
Global
- Traffic alert systems for traffic services and flight following – including new calls to IFR traffic about activity in and around controlled airspace.
- Broadcast frequencies and the ability to blind transmit to them – this includes better handling at uncontrolled fields where you can now use BeyondATC natively from an uncontrolled field.
- More intelligent squawk code assignment and enforcement based on region.
- Utilisation of new airspace data to denote what type of airspace an aircraft is flying in.
- Similar callsign detection – meaning ATC will advise the use of full callsigns if two similar shortened callsigns are on frequency.
- Allow the loading of smaller fields, including private fields with no scenery data, increasing the flexibility of VFR flights.
- Work has been done in cleaning up the frequency data we get from the sim, including better handling for 8.33 kHz frequencies.
- Controller workload denoting if certain VFR services are available, including the ability to hold you outside of controlled airspace or deny your request if they are under increased workload.
US
- Flight following.
- Added ident handling, with a chance for US controllers to ask you to ident (impacted by traffic density).
- An overhaul of departure and arrival handling to incorporate arrival into various airspaces.
- Airspace class awareness (Bravo, Charlie and Delta handling).
- This includes systems of airspace breach monitoring.
- Class B transit requests and coordinated handoffs when under flight following.
- AWOS/ASOS stations.
UK
- Basic/Traffic Services.
- LARS (Lower Airspace Radar Services).
- AFIS (Aerodrome Flight Information Service).
- AGCS (Air/Ground Communication Service).
- FIS (Flight Information Service) – London and Scottish.
- Overhaul of arrival and departure handling.
- Control zone transits.
- VRP’s (Visual Reference Points).
- ASR (Altitude Setting Regions).
AUS
- Flight following.
- AWIS (We’ve also added AWIB stations for NZ).
- A note: in addition to Canada using FAA rules, we’ve switched NZ to use AUS VFR rules.
AH-64D Apache Longbow DCS World Getting DTC and George AI Pilot Enhancements
Eagle Dynamics announced some improvements coming to its AH-64D Apache Longbow.
Firstly, theb DTC (Data Transfer Cartridge) for the helicopter is “nearing release.” It’ll include the following features:
- 50 Waypoint/Hazard, 49 Control Measure, and 50 Target/Threat points
- 10 Routes
- 15 Battlefield Lines and 12 Engagement Areas
- 8 Priority Fire Zones and 8 No Fire Zones
- 10 ADF navigation presets, 10 COM radio presets, and 10 pre-composed text messages
- Pilot and CPG weapon settings, missile channels, and laser codes
- Customized RLWR threat table and chaff/flare programs
Furthermore, the Longbow’s DTC can save two missions simultaneously, letting you upload data for follow-up missions following the primary one. In big maps you can also split the mission in half and save each in the two slots, overcoming the limitations of the onboard memory.
You can also transfer part of that mission data to other ships in multiplayer by using the AH-64D datalink capabilities.
George AI Pilot is also getting improvements, including new combat maneuvers like orbiting a target location, maintaining a holding pattern at the current location if the helicopter is too heavily loaded to hover or to conserve fuel, returning to a previously designated battle position and holding, immediately descending to low altitude to reduce exposure to air defenses, or masking the helicopter back behind a hill.
George will also warn the player verbally of incoming weapons and hits. He won’t do so if he’s performing CPG duties and is using the TADS, since he’s looking and the sensor video and can’t look outside, but you can order him to stop using the TADS.
If directed in advance, George will try to autonomously evade enemy weapons, dispense chaff or flares when necessary, or mask the helicopter to low altitude without requiring a direct command. He can also be directed to autonomously engage nearby enemies with the 30mm gun, either in self-defense or at will.
Last, but not least, his flight logic has been improved, enabling better climb, descent, and turn behavior.
If you’d like to read more flight simulation news, you can find plenty in our previous roundup article from yesterday.
If you want to go further back, we have a handy overview video of the major flight simulation news in the past week. You can watch it below. As usual, leaving a like and a comment and subscribing to our growing YouTube channel is extremely helpful.