Letters to the Editorial Staff of AVSIM

Dear Sir(s) I have been using and enjoying AVSIM since its inception. The only thing I can find aggravating is when you post and announcement such as that in the subject matter and go to the link only to find that there is no indication of the subject matter being there. Do you folks look to see if there is a valid download or offering before publishing the story?? Thanks, Craig Evans [email protected]

Up to now, the Avsim reviews have helped me a lot in the process of deciding which product to purchase, which freeware addons to download, etc.The "Star Rating System" with 5 stars being "exceptional" has contributed a lot to my decisions.However, I have the impression that in the latest reviews there has been a somewhat inflationary use of 4 or 5 stars. The reviews themselves did not reflect the star rating. To give you two recent examples:Example # 1:KDEN (Denver) & KDTW (Detroit) commercial addons, reviewed by Cameron Jones: 4 stars. But Cameron writes: "DEN and DTW do not score well in the performance category"; and: "the building textures that look excellent at l…

There are so many great repaints out there, but its often hard finding the plane that its meant for, so id simply like avsim to make it compulsory to provide a direct link to aircraft the repaint is for. thanks for reading :-wave

I see the Carenado advert is back. It still doesn't work.

I don't know if it comes from Avsim but starting today I've received at least 20 spam e-mails with suspicious 72kb attachments all of which refer to a flightsim vendor: flightsim.com, avsim.com, Phoenix Simulations, etc., even some I've never corresponded with. They all say RE: Your Password, etc. I believe someone has somehow gotten hold of your mailing list(s). My mailbox is overflowing and it's a good thing I check it regularly. I tried McAfee Spam Killer but the first thing it killed was a picture of my new grandson from my son. (So, I killed Spam Killer and got 20 Spams in return)...

Hello and thank you for your work in bringing all the download add-ons to us and making the forums available. You may already offer this service, but I have not seen it. Is it possible to have a searchable database of updated or modified files cross referenced to their original files? When you dowload an aircraft there may be missing gauges or improvements/repaints that become available later. Same goes for gauges, scenery, utilities, etc. It would be nice to be able to query the database by aircraft name, original file name, author, etc and have it kick back the most current updates. It would be even better to be able to feed the database with a list of the origina…

I feel a great urge to send out a big "thank you" to Steve Cartwright.Steve, I really appreciate the time you take to evaluate all the freeware uploads and write "Bear's Top Picks" for us. I am rarely disappointed in downloads based on your suggestions. Many of us do not have time to spend sifting through all the freeware postings and can only rely on judging books by their covers on the front page Library Updates lists, when we don't miss the daily list altogether.I will also add that I believe your recent picks of 20 top files is just right. Even if there is a particularly fruitful month, 20 is about the most I am comfortable reading about and downloading in one sitting…

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!I downloaded the Avanti the day after the freeware version was released. I am interested in doing a review on it. NO ONE has flown it enough to do a review yet but I already have about four hour in type. I will probably be prepared to publish a review in one to two weeks. I don't mind not being the only one, if another is publishrd I will still continue. FS0 is not my primary sim, I just got it a few months ago. I didn't use FS9 very much UNTIL this plane was released. That gives you a clue as to my opinion of it. In case you haven't figured it out I do recomend this download. It DOES have a few bugs but I have already worked around all the…

...to the people involved recently in the actions that have pushed the AVSIM staff to this point. What point is that? Why, the fact that going into the MS Flight Simulator General Discussion Forum now induces latent seizure activity, what with all the bright, flashing really unnecessary graphics...

Hello, just wondering why some forums, you are unable to instantly post a message, instead every single post has to be reviewed by moderators? Are some forums more prone to volatile topics or what? Or is it a punishment to people who abuse the forums? I noticed the new 767PIC forum is now censored in this way. I wonder if maybe when Level D Sim releases their new product that their avsim forum will continue as their support forum. In my opinion that wouldn't be very productive, because I don't know about you, but when I post a question, I love having almost instaneous responses, and that's part of what makes this community great.Jeff USAF

A recent post in the gen discussion forum on this topic (which comes up every so often) prompted my response, but I didn't post it there since it seemd kind of off-topic. So, I will put it here but I'm not looking for a response. It's more of a "FWIW" kind of thing submitted as an open letter:Q: Can someone advise the "best" or "must have" aircraft and/or scenery for world-wide coverage?A: Unfortunately, the AVSIM review sections are essentially defunct (at least IMHO). Steve "Bear" recently posted, and in the past he was probably the most prolific writer, but there just isn't much content these days, which no doubt promted your (and other's) posts.The brand X site d…

I would just like to see if Avsim could more strongly encourage authors to upload their addons to the proper category. I find it very frustrating to find repaints in the original aircraft category, and full models in the repaint category. It makes finding what you are looking for a total pain. I realize this comes down to the authors and not the library managers (unless they had 12 free hours a day they wanted to spend on sorting lol!).For example if I search for Dash 8 in FS2004 Original Aircraft it finds 13 files. Out of these 13 files 7 are repaints. (though some maybe have been uploaded with the whole model as well, but they are duplications of a model already there).…

I thought this issue had been resolved, but evidently not. I was reading a post that linked to a file in the avsim library, except that avsim was blocked out by #####. When I wrote a note questioning this policy, I was dumbfounded to see that my use of the word avsim was blocked out by...#####. and administrator posted a response that this decision was in accordance with and agreed to by flightsim founder nels anderson. I remember when nels was one of the most helpful guys around back in the early days of commodore 64 and FS4. I just want everyone who uses both forums to know about this awful situation...bad for the forums, and bad for the users. Thankfully, Tom has not i…

Good to see the 'Bear' back - sorry you've had such a rough year; hope '05 is better.I was fascinated to read your selections and will take a look myself. But as to the new format - aarrgh, no thanks! If we want a lengthy history of an aircraft we can look it up. What we want are your opinions on FS models - and the mini reviews were just perfect to sample things we might not otherwise have come across. Stick to the core business, Bear!

This is not directly relateed to FS but I thought it was worth airing.I have a legal copy of a major application, costing several hundred dollars, from a major international company. When I installed it, I had to enter my serial number then use the internet to get it validated. No problems, and I've been using now for several months.Last week I had to do an XP System Restore. The application then required me to re-validate it, presenting me on-screen with the 24-digit serial number, an even longer validation number, and a shorter number which I guess was a code for the reason for re-validating. I was given the option of validating by internet or phone with the message…

Fligthsim com just announced that they are number 1 as measured by Nielsen, who ever they are.Avsim states they are number 1.FS planet states "FSPLANET.COM - THE WORLD'S BIGGEST FLIGHT SIMULATOR FILES SPECIALIST DOWNLOAD SITE!!!"The fs planet claim is ridiculous by any measure. But what bothers me is that Avsim provides the data to back up their claim, no one has challenged FS com to provide data to back their claim up. I am suspecious that "all nodes busy" claims this based on how many clicks people have to make to get in. Can anyone shed some light?Sven

Hi AVSIM stuff,I'm thinking about posting something about my (bad) experiences I've had when doing some work for a certain payware company.At the moment I think there is no need to mention the name of this company neither in this message nor in the final post.I just want to start a thread to give others a place to write about similar experiences. So the readers could get some knowledge about how to negotiate with payware companies or at least to learn that there exist some companies that aren't very reliable.My question to you is: In which forum should I place such a post?In my case it's about panel design, so would that forum be the right one?The other question is, would…

I'm sure you probably get a few of these, but I wanted to add my two cents worth anyway. I have been a flight simmer enthusiast for the past ten years, however only discovered the "online" world, including the available downloads etc, 2 years ago.AVSIM is my IE homepage and I rely on you guy's here 99% of the time for all my FS needs.I can't thank you enough for offering this service free of charge for a hobby that I enjoy immensely.The changes that have happened to flight simming over the last 4 years alone are incredible and I can't wait to see what Microsoft and the world of FS will bring next.Congratulations on a job very well done.Thank you once again.

Hi Avsim, thanks for the excellent site! It's great how I can always connect and download, with no irritating logins or adverts.I've just been downloading a load of files, and what I've been doing is to select a category and 'Order by downloads', to see which files are more popular and therefore likely to be higher quality. The problem with this is older versions of files often have more downloads, so I'll download a promising file and find V1.2 on the next page, and that newer files appear further down the list because they haven't got as many downloads, although they're still good packages. Would it be practical to 'Order by Download Rate' where files that have been up …

Can you possibly find a way of writing your story about B717 instead of saying that it's "dead"?Words like "dead" in this context first of all misrepresents what happened, which was that Boeing decided not to build any additional B717 airliners beyond the current set of orders. Second, it's titillating, and that cheapens your story, making it embarrasing to read. Third, it's just in bad taste, making the reader jump to the idea that maybe some people had been killed in an airplane crash - at least that's what I first thought, and after chatting with a few others I know I'm not the only one who had this initial reaction.You could have done exactly the same story with "Bo…

Saw this on the Simflight Page today... Somrthing just doesn't sit right with about how they handled this.Quote:"Columns Wednesday, January 05 @ 18:38:35 CET Correction To Avsim's ReviewIn their 'quest' not to mention FSAddon Publishing (or simFlight) anywhere, Avsim got it all wrong in their review of Bill Lyons' wonderful Custom Classic X package. Cartwright mentions the co-operation between Bill and Richard Goldstein on providing a custom made Magic One hangar to the Orcas Island package. He's running a year or so behind though by 'thinking' Orcas Island is a Lago publication. It is published by FSAddon Publishing of course, as is Lake Wenatchee and Misty Fjords, two …

Seems like a lot of new features - would be nice to see an objective review. Just a suggestion.

I received this message after posting in the PIC forum. Post message noticeThank you for using our forum.The message you posted has been submitted for review by the forum moderator.Select from following optionsGoto forum listings | Goto topic listingsWhat is this all about?JimCYWG

Happy Christmas all,I am considering writing an article about my experiences during a few flights on an A320 LEVEL D simulator. It wont be until well into next year. I would would appreciate some feedback as to whether it would be worth the effort and any thoughts about content.

After reading Eric's review of the new Caranado Cherokee may I suggest that Eric's future reviews make less use of the word "nice"?e.g. "It definitely flies nice and gives a good feeling of speed and flight. The virtual cockpit is very nice...." More descriptive adjectives would have painted a clearer picture of his findings. "Nice" is too all embracing to convey what he means.I do hope that this is taken as constructive, rather than destructive, critisism. The review itself was interesting and, for me at least, well written. I enjoyed it and look forward to more to come from him.