Godzone Virtual Flight

From when covid hit New Zealand, access to airports required to build a realistic model has been very difficult to obtain. A feature of Godzone/Real New Zealand airports has always been the realism, which means I need to visit an airport, sometimes on many occasions, and take my own photographs. I have no interest in moving to a more generic, 3D-painted process.

To add to this issue, I was expecting to be able to release any future projects through the Microsoft Marketplace, but it's now been 3 years since I applied for access, with no result. Although in the past I've had a lot of success with my own Store, plus SimMarket for the European market, my one release for MSFS has not performed anywhere near as well as any previous release for FSX/Prepar3d.

At the end of June, 2023, I will close my own online store, although the site will remain for support. Already-purchased downloads will remain available until the end of 2023, at least, but at some point I will need to pull the plug once Godzone is not able to cover the cost of maintaining the site. I have no timetable to remove scenery from SimMarket yet, but I will review this at the end of the year.

I am now of retirement age, with a couple of health issues, although nothing which would stop me from continuing making scenery if it was possible. If Microsoft rang next week and offered access to the Marketplace, I would certainly go ahead with currently unfinished projects, and I'd be happy to continue nagging airport management for access. But this is not likely. I do hope that Microsoft finally offer a system which allows all small developers to contribute, but I think this is a few years off at the moment.

I would like to say how much fun the last twenty years have been, up until covid anyway. I have met so many local -- and overseas -- simmers, mostly online, and a lot of characters in person. The support for this one lone developer has been amazing.

Thanks to everyone who supported me, some of you go right back to the early beginning, when I posted scenery on CD! I have always felt that I must be doing something of value to simmers, and the fact that I can't continue is my one regret.

This update to 1.1 includes some tidying up to make the airfield fully compatible with the new World Update, plus adds native helipad support for the trolleys.

The trolley shown below is reserved for the HPG H145, which is the actual rescue heli model used by Otago Helicopters. As the H145 doesn't quite sit on the same spot as the default helis, this one has been tweaked so it doesn't fall off. However default helis starting on this trolley may not sit correctly.

Note that you can land on any of the trolleys using either default or addon helicopters, it's just the start location which can cause issues.

There are two ways to start on the trolleys, by choosing a Parking spot your heli will start off cold and dark, as previously with version 1.0 of Taieri, while choosing a HELIPAD your heli will be ready for flight. See the new manual for further details!

Existing owners can redownload for the updated installer, while new customers will receive the update. To redownload, login via 'My Account', and click on 'Downloads'.

Those who purchased through SimMarket should receive an email with update details.