'X-Plane 9' v9.03 Update in App Store
posted by Blake Patterson on October 20th, 2008 3:49 PM EDT in News, Simulation, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Laminar Research has just released a v9.03 update to their highly acclaimed iPhone flight simulator X-Plane 9 [App Store].
Developer Austin Meyer had this to say about the new features in v9.03:
X-Plane 9.03 starts to get REALLY serious without taking out any fun.
Go to the map in the settings screens to see the airports and NAVAIDs, including NAVAID frequencies.
Close that window and hit the INSTRUMENT PANEL button to see the full-screen instrument panel, good enough for flight-training. This is a first for iPhone.
Drag the panel up or down to see the NAV radios, and tune the NAV radios to the desired VOR and ILS frequencies… you can now shoot a full ILS approach, complete with intercept from the VOR! Set the HSI to NAV-1 or NAV-2 with the little button right under the HSI to display the NAV radio desired.
We can now say that X-Plane for iPhone has some real value in maintaining actual flight proficiency in instrument flying skills.
We reviewed X-Plane 9 for the iPhone (with video) back in September.
This game is kinda boring, I mean, it's nice for the first 2 minutes.
I really like this game, it's relaxing just to fly around. But I think the main thing it needs is some cities and rivers/bridges to fly around/under.
I'm concerned Austin is more interested in making this a full on sim with all the bells and whistles instead of keeping it accessible enough for us casual fliers. Some more places to fly and new planes to fly would suit me just fine instead of all these dashboard dials I know nothing about.
i think its a GREAT sim. i'm an airline-pilot and really enjoy xplane.
two notes:
-the version 9.03 seems to crash quite often (i did not have that problem before)
-how to set the ILS and LOC is not clear to me
looking forward to the next versions of the product
Luckily I don't have to be worried about Austin turning this into a "game", based on his writings and history that'll never happen… whew! This is basically a lite version of X-Plane that is limited by hardware and I would expect that it's overall goal and feel would be the same.
I welcome this update and have been waiting for ILS, VOR, etc. Makes it feel more like a real sim which I like, yet the new options do not prevent casual flying. When trying to pack all of these features into the iPhone there will definitely have to be tradeoffs and adding scenery would seem to be the most challenging. I would welcome another plane or two of course.
Cheers, this app feels like it's on it's way.
ruedi, try restarting your phone. The app uses just about every drop of RAM in there and restarting should prevent crashes.
The new 9.03 version is spectacular! I've been shooting instrument approaches and trying to make some basic arrival procedures for myself (like fly outbound on the 120 radial from EUR and intercept the localizer/glide slope for 26 at LOWI.)
Of course there are more features I'd like so see, but I'll bet they're on their way. A basic altitude/heading hold autopilot would be nice while doing all the buttons for the new radios, etc.
Really, though, a full-blown simulator like this on the iPhone? Amazing!
Also, I had a couple crashes like some people were describing right after installation. I restarted my phone and have run it for hours without any problem.
I really like X-Plane, but 9.03 crashes the majority of times that I launch it. I don't really want to reboot every time I want to use it. I think the developer should either remove some features, or tweak his memory management.
"I really like X-Plane, but 9.03 crashes the majority of times that I launch it. I don’t really want to reboot every time I want to use it."
You shouldn't have to. I had this problem on version 1 of the app- crashed every time I played. ONE reboot fixed the problem permanently for me.
I agree an autopilot button needs to be added so that we can fiddle around with the menus while its flying .. great sim
I was thinking about this exact possibility yesterday as I took off and climbed out off runway 06 on version 9.02, and after a few minutes on runway heading did a “teardrop” procedure turn (45 degrees to the right for a minute or so, then left turn at rate 1 all the way round to heading 240) – I thought I needed more accuracy on intercepting the correct runway radial, because when I broke cloud on descent, I was off the runway heading in spite of my best efforts to stay on the right “radial” and had to “jink” around to get the landing right – I didn’t
Halfway through my grocery shopping, I noticed an application update “pushed” to my iPhone and lo and behold, it was version 9.03!! Yay, localiser and glide slope thrown in!! Haven’t tried it yet, but this is turning into an amazing phenomenon I would never have dreamed would arrive this early given the available technology.
Hook this up to a Cinema display, add a few Approach Charts and Standard Instrument Departures and who knows, we may be talking an FAA/CAA certified learning tool here…
Great suggestion earlier for an autopilot – if not feasible, how about ELEVATOR and AILERON TRIM CONTROLS to lock the aircraft attitude once our desired altitude or rate of climb/descent have been attained? That way we can focus on tweaking other controls to fine-tune the experience.
Also, I don't recall (in my excitement) if there's a rate of climb / descent indicator dial – that would be very useful for those of us that have one eye in the cockpit while flaring out for landing (I got that from an FAA video of the first Auto-land device on a Lockheed Tri-Star, which flares by carrying out a descending stall at 300ft/minute).
Oh, Mr. Meyer you've started quite a monster here, don't you ever stop!!
Any bets, any takers, Microsoft Flight Sim X Lite for Windows Mobile 6 appearing on HTC, Nokia and SonyEricsson smartphones in 2009?
What a waste of money, the game is hard to play you need to be a full fledge pilot to even get the plane off the ground and there are no manual or tutorial either.
Almost EVERY decent fight sim are complex and hectic.
For a seasoned flightsim user, this game is really enjoyable but for novice users this game truly can be frustrating. It is not a arcade game, in fact the "mission" are not more that to take off, give a tour, then landing on.
The only think i miss about this game is a way to setpoint and to auto-pilot. Also (if was possible) a way to multiplayer, ATF and such.