F-35 project update...and other things.

It is quite a busy period for me (...well...as always!) but I'm doing my best to complete the F-35 soon. The most time-consuming thing, for me, is that I'll be moving into a new house in the next few weeks... which, for you, means another potential delay in the F-35 release (due to the fact that it may take few weeks to activate the internet connection in my new home)... Still, rest assured that the F-35 will be released as soon as possible.

This blog

As you may have noticed, the AdSense banners are gone (their decision, not mine). While the reason for the suspension for the ads was unclear, I think it was due to the fact that I was suggesting to click the banners - which is against the AdSense rules. My fault - I had not read the AdSense policy carefully. It was not my intention to cheat or anything. Also, as I had not read my home e-mail for a while, I've missed the 72 hours time limit that AdSense gives you to fix your site. I've filed an appeal but as it was my fault it is likely that the ads are not coming back.

Not a big deal for me, although I appreciated the fact that the advertising paid for full access to airliners.net, for example... Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that those empty boxes you see are, in fact, empty. Will rearrange the layout of the blog asap.

F-35 Lightning II

It is almost done, meaning that it is already at least as good as my previous project... but as I was not satisfied with the MFD "interface", I am extensively reworking it. It will be closer to the actual F-35 in both graphics and functionality, although still not as customizable to the real one and given some artistic licence for FSX limitations and playability.

I've made some minor changes to the flight model (with thanks to Roberto Leonardo for providing major improvements to the Alpha and Beta1 versions) and the external models are done - with exception of the launchers and the external loads (with should not take more than a couple of hours to make).

So, the big unanswered question is the release date.... and I have no clear answer, yet. The Beta 2 / (potential) RC1 is just few work-hours away, but the actual release date will also depend on when I will have the internet connection in my new home.

T-45C Goshawk 2.0

I had very good feedback on the "T-45 Goshawk 2.0" project. I've received the .pdf files for both the T-45A and T-45C Natops (thanks Phil) and placed them in my documentation folder - together with almost every Goshawk file available on the internet.

The only thing I'm missing right now are good, hi-res pictures of the cockpit - I have some (the ones I've used in the current release), but are not as good or as complete as I'd like.

Also, I've received some appreciation e-mails from former and current T-45C pilots, so the new version will include "first hand" feedback. By the way I was happy to hear that they found my FSX rendition to be realistic - although I've learned that in most cases, real pilots are more forgiving than other users, in terms of simulation realism... I think it is due to the fact that they realize that FSX is, afterall, just a game :-)

F-14D Tomcat

There is some chance I will make a small update to the Tomcat before reworking the T-45C. While I am not satisfied with the F-14, and while I know it can be vastly improved, there are a couple of issues with the latest release that can be easily fixed. Also, I'd like to apply some of the "tricks" I've learned making the F-35... We'll see...

By the way, seems that the download links from rapidshare are broken. Will fix that too, although you can find the Tomcat at flightsim.com.

E-mail

Unfortunately I had no time to reply to many of the emails I've received in the past few weeks -my apologies. I tried to reply to the most urgent ones - and I will reply to the others asap

That is all for now. In the next post I will provide some hi-res pictures of the latest F-35 build.