FSX Review and Fancon 2007

In this podcast I deliver the long promised review of FSX. It is a good game to be sure, however, I gave it a ratting of 7.5/10 due to its lack of play progression and poor engine performance. In the process of reviewing FSX I also talk a bit about its third party dependent content system and the way games of its type have been so successful from a business stand point.

I also talk about the events of Fancon 2007. Below you will find the text of the report I made for Sky Blue Radio. Thanks guys for helping me attend such a great event!

Pics are on the way got to get them off my camera phone.

-Nicolas

Friday November 9th, 2007

I landed in SEA for Fancon @ 4:46 PST yesterday on rwy 16l. The route used was SILOW1.SILOW FLG GCN BERYL ELY REO IMB.CHINS5 with a take off from rwy 7l @ PHX. Overall it was a good flight.

The show starts bright and early on Saturday so I'll be ingesting some of Seattle’s best coffee. If there is any info you folks want me to retrieve please let me know. I'll be posting updates on this thread as often as I can.

If anyone happens to be going to the show look for a long haired leaping gnome. I'd love to say hi:P

That's all for now.

Update #1

The show is now underway, and what better way to start than free food and alcohol! I got to talk shop with the AVSIM staff writer, as well as one of Boeings flight simulation developers not to mention a certain international third party dev team working on a very extensive A320 series sim product.

Will report more tomorrow. For now nicnacjak is at the gate and shutting down.

Update #2
Saturday November 10th, 2007

The main day of Fancon has now come to a close. But, oh what a day it was! I spent most of my day at the conference sessions learning as much as I could from the shows presenters.

P.I. Engineering was the first up with recommendations on how to make ground based scenery look more realistic. Although most of their work is more applicable to train sim, the FS modeler can also gain a lot from their insight.

Next up was Raynald Bedard of Embry-Riddle University. His talk was based around the FSX mission system and the way that he and a team of his students have been able to add an advanced scoring system to the missions. Although the original intent of this system was to assist in training students as the university, the technology developed for this is being brought into the flight simulation community. During the show visitors were able to play missions that qualified them to be part of the FanCon Fly-Off. The winner of the event received a $25,000 scholarship to Embry-Riddle.

The next talk saw PMDG premiering an early version of their MD11 aircraft. It goes without saying that this was a very exciting presentation. The crowds went wild and the complexity of the simulation was plainly evident. After the premier, the software was demoed at PMDGs booth. Although I didn't get a chance to play with it, it’s on the top of my to do list for day 3!

Following these talks I went to spend sometime on the show floor. The impending release of the PC12 for FSX courtesy of Flight1 has got me excited. There is also AirSimmer, who is currently working a very realistic model of the A320. Although getting the fly-by-wire- system right is clearly a big hurdle, the demo I saw this weekend was very promising. I also stopped to have a chat with Captain Mike Ray, one of two former 747-400 pilots that I talked to today! Captain Ray has a new manual out covering the A320, a handy asset to have aboard.

Next it was back to the talks to hear from Aces themselves. It would appear as if they are putting a very heavy emphasize on feeding the community of payware add on developers. Their eventual goal is to make both flight and train sims more direct portals to the third party community that they support. Although this doesn't mean a whole lot in the short term, the implications are very positive for the long term. MS hopes to make further strides towards their goals with Train Sim 2 and more improvements with the inevitable release of the next FS incarnation.

I wrapped up my day by joining the World Flight endeavor with the 763 and a very advanced flight deck environment. Sure, I made that approach into Russia a little early but fun was had.

Got to shut down for the moment. Tomorrow there is a tour of the Boeing Plant and more talks and booths to visit. Don't forget to say hi if you are up here!

Update #3
Sunday November 11th, 2007

Well the conference is over and two wonderful 737-800 pilots have ensured that Nicnacjak is back on the ground in Phoenix.

Day three went rather quick. It stared out with a field trip to the Boeing Plant up in Everett, Washington. The sad news is that one is not allowed to take pictures as you tour the hangers where the 777 and 787 are made. Evan sadder news is that the hangers for my two favorite Boeing planes (the 737 and the 747) are not open to the public. On the bright side, though, it is very cool to see the assembly line for the triple 7 and getting a look at the original 787 and the beginnings of the second 787 was just cool.

Interestingly enough, Boeing has very few facilities for building aircraft at Boeing Field International, although, the museum of flight is located there. The 747, 767 and 787 are all made up in Everette at Pain Field. In the meantime the 737 is pumped out at Boeing's facilities in Renton.

There was a cool setup at the beginning of the tours that included a museum with the vertical stabilizer for the 747, the 727 flight deck, and a sample 787 cabin. I did get pictures of those! And, it the news department it looks like Boeing is trying to put an end to its 767 program. They are currently waiting on a bid from the us military for a possible version of the plane, but, should this fall through the flow of new 767s maybe drying up soon to be replaced by the 787. If production ceased, the 767 would join the 717, 757, 727 and 707 in the hall of retired Boeing airliners.

After returning to the Fancon conference, I found that things were beginning to wrap up. I attended the last talk on scenery development and plane modeling. Scenery to the (G)Max: Exploring New FSX Modeling Options by Bill Womack.

Not being a molder myself some of the techniques he mentioned went over my head. However, I was able to grasp the concept that G Max is a very handy tool for plane building in FSX, especially if you don't have the 6k needed to buy 3DS Max or Maya.

As the show floor was closing down, I walked by the SimTube booth where Cody Bergland of Jaggyroad films was showing one of his famous flight videos. A quick walk out to the main corridor lead be by the World Flight 767-300 which had just taken off on its last leg inbound for Boeing Field International. Flying around the world is no small task to be sure!

Once I was forced off the show floor by some nut who claimed the show was closing, I took my suite case and headed for the trusty 560 bus to SEA-TAC. I had thought of going by BFI, but, by the time the show ended all I had energy to do was sleep in the terminal as planes took off and landed on runway 16l. Finally, it was time to board the trusty 737-800 that would take me home. The air was a little choppy but not too bad. Upon arriving into Phoenix on runway 25l, I experienced the smoothest landing I have had in ages. The perfect ending to such a great trip!

My thanks to Sky Blue Radio for allowing me to take this trip. I would also like to thank Neil McNeight who helped to arrange the trip to the Boeing plant.

I hope to be returning again next year for now please stand by for photos and tune in at the normal times as I return to the airwaves this week.

PS the route for the return flight was SUMMA6.SUMMA ANGOO IMB NEERO SLOWN BERYL
CORKR.MAIER2