This release goes through the whole field in detail: the runway, the radio, the ground, the weather and the aircraft themselves. Departures can start from an intersection, US airports get US clearances, low visibility, rain and snow change the traffic, and every aircraft sits on all its wheels and lands the way it should.
Runway
- Intersection departures. "Taxi to holding point A9, runway 24L" takes the departure to A9 by its own taxiway, holds it there and lines it up from there. When the runway left is too short for the type, the crew says "unable, intersection A4, request full length". The aircraft's menu has Depart from…, with every intersection and the runway each one leaves.
- Full length when nothing is said. With no intersection named, a departure lines up at the start of the runway.
- Vacate via… A landing aircraft's menu offers the exits it can still make. When only Ground is yours, it is Ask Tower: vacate via…, and Airside's Tower says it.
- A landing turning off is not traffic on the runway, so it no longer sends the next one around or stops a takeoff.
- Between two parallels, a landing reports "runway vacated" and stays with Tower.
- Short runways: the aim point and the flare fit the runway, and aircraft no longer go around with "long landing" again and again.
- Cleared to land on the click desk after "continue approach".
Radio
- US clearances at US airports. "Cleared to Atlanta airport via the PADRZ5 departure, then as filed, maintain 5000, departure frequency 119.6, squawk 4521", and "runway 27, taxi via B, C".
- A stand from the air is the plan. "Expect stand 12" given on final is the stand alone: the crew vacates and asks "request taxi to stand 12". "Taxi to stand 12" is the stand and the taxi, as before.
- "Expect runway 13L" with a pushback changes the runway the departure expects, and a parallel runway the same way is taken without a question.
- Conditions kept. "After the crossing Swiss, continue taxi" gives way first and then goes on.
- "Hold short of runway 24R, contact tower": the crossing is Tower's.
- Heavy and Super in the first call, and /H and /J on the strip.
- The wind as a controller has it: Tower gives a two minute average, the ATIS a ten minute one, with "gusting".
- A runway heard one figure off your flight's own, one the airport does not have, is asked back: "confirm continue approach runway 18L?". "Affirm" takes it.
- More understood: "exit at taxiway W", and "cleared to land" heard as "Cleese land".
- "Stand 12, ready for pushback": the stand is in the push request and on the strip.
- What to say. Settings, Speech recognition can show the shortest words for the instruction the selected aircraft is waiting for. Off by default.
- In spotter mode the crews no longer ask you about changing to Ground.
Ground
- Pushed the wrong way? After a runway change, a departure drives forward round to the other end of the runway instead of saying "unable".
- Expedite and taxi slower are kept when Airside has to plan a route again.
- Another free stand. An arrival whose stand is taken gets another free stand that fits.
- Two stands of one name are told apart, and stands like 1A and 1B can be said.
- Clear of the wingtips on neighbouring stands.
- An arrival waiting for its stand answers Ground, wherever it waits.
- Giving way ends once the other aircraft has gone by, so nobody is left standing.
Weather
- Low visibility. Below 550 metres, arrivals come at least eight miles apart, taxiing is at most twelve knots, and the ATIS says so.
- Rain and snow. In rain the ATIS says the runway is wet; in snow it says so and taxiing slows to ten knots.
The aircraft
- On all their wheels. Every aircraft sits at its model's own angle with every wheel on the ground, on flat ground and on a slope.
- Landings. No more two or three touchdowns on widebodies, and the nose holds through the flare.
- Wheels that turn on time. They start turning the moment they touch the runway, and on a takeoff they keep turning until they leave it.
- Tyre smoke at touchdown now shows on the A320 family too. It is still being tested, so you may not see it on every landing.
- Fans turn at idle, on the ground and in the flare.
- No ghost aircraft. Copies the simulator makes for the jet bridges never stand on a runway.
The desk
- Drag the flight strips into the order you want, and a departure's strip moves to GND the moment it is handed to Ground.
- Text size. Settings, Display: 115, 130 or 150 per cent, the whole desk.
- Stand colours with a key. On the ground radar, free stands are coloured by the size they take, with a key under the airport's name. Its i hides the key and shows it again.
- Your layouts. Floating panels have one title bar, and Settings, Display keeps three layouts.
- Settings, searchable. A search box at the top finds any setting, and every section has its own card.
- Settings before a shift is the short window: audio, speech, keys and the desk's size. The rest open from the desk.
- The airports with free live traffic are listed as plain boxes. A click no longer copies a code, which looked like choosing live traffic.
- The opening menu: Stuttgart, runway 07, drawn in 3D.
- Airside's camera views are always on. If another add-on holds the simulator's camera, the desk tells you.
- Settings, Audio no longer offers an aircraft sound pack to download. A pack you already installed stays as it is.
The launcher
- It remembers your e-mail. The address you last signed in with is offered in the box. "Not you? Use a different e-mail" clears it.
How to update
Open Airside from its launcher. It updates in one start.