News

Another month has passed... Already. So it's time for our monthly report, @everyone !

First and foremost: we have still MASSIVE sales ongoing on the MSFS Marketplaces until July 9, for all Flying Fries aircraft. Go take a look!

Done in June:

• ✅ Important new update for the Scrapyard Monster : v2.4, followed soon after by the hotfix 2.4.1, bringing further improvements to the engine and propeller sounds. Especially during fly-bys! Your favorite monster now has an auto-throttle, a fantastic sound pack, multiplayer-compatible aerobatic smoke, and more. Hear it for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHYw2Wi182M . If you haven't tried it yet, what are you doing?
• ✅ And now the big one: the Quasar 1.2 went into beta! After weeks (months, really) wrestling with its AFCS, the work is finally 95-100% done. I also reworked the sound pack to match the new Flying Fries standard, thanks to Grégoire's teachings, with a little teaser to go with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FhMB8Bb-Os . The new flight model is something else: easier to fly, more fun, and you can fly it without having to manually correct its attitude: point the nose somewhere, let go of the stick and explore the cockpit while the Quasar does what you asked!
• 🔧 Speaking of Grégoire ❤️‍🔥 : he's spent the whole month on the Gabriel's new sound pack. It's coming along beautifully. This one is going to be a gem. A true gem.
• 🔧 I also started working on the Hind again. Cleaning up the exterior topology, cutting UV seams, reorganizing objects, origins and hierarchy, renaming each part, assigning material slots to different parts, etc. Tedious, manual work (Blender and a lot of patience), but it feels good to be back on this helicopter. And there's already fresh progress to see in the #hind thread.

Upcoming in July:

• ▶️ The Quasar 1.2 release is very close now. The beta usually runs one or two weeks at Flying Fries, and we're not far from a release candidate. Barring any surprise, the 1.2 should land in July, and with it, the Quasar opening up for rental on the MSFS 2024 Marketplace. I've also written a long article about the challenges behind its unique AFCS: https://flyingfries.com/articles/quasar-v1-2-and-custom-afcs-coding
• ▶️ The Gabriel 2.0 keeps growing. The amount of additions and rework is something else, and we'll put together a proper presentation for it. I don't think it'll be out in July, but the goal is to finalize it during the month for an August release. Right now, all that is missing are the brand new sound packs for the two variants of the Gabriel. Grégoire is on it, and we can't rush an artist 😉
• 🔧 And then, the Hind . With the Quasar wrapped up, the Hind is now my one and only active project, and it's getting my full attention from here on. After months of "soon", the delays are behind us: every aircraft has been, or is about to be, updated. The modeling has already moved fast these past few weeks, and it'll keep moving hard until the end of the month. This is the real start of a long road, and I couldn't be happier to be on it.
• I'm also taking some time off to do nothing but enjoy the beach, the sea, the cocktails, and above all my wife and daughters! 🏖️ That said, paper and pencil are coming with me, and a few crazy ideas for the Hind might find their way onto the page. I can't fully switch off. Yes, @Steiny, I can hear you from here: "take it easy, slow down, rest a little." I'll do my best.

🎉 SUMMER SALES TIME, @everyone! 🎉

From June 25th to July 9th, Microsoft is running its Summer Sales on the MSFS 2020 & 2024 marketplaces, and all four Flying Fries aircraft are in! These are some serious discounts:

• The Quasar : -30%
• The XF-11 : -50%
• The Gabriel : -50%
• The Scrapyard Monster : -60%

And here's the thing: this isn't just a discount on aircraft gathering dust... It's a discount on products that have just been, or are about to be, greatly improved this summer!

The XF-11 and the Scrapyard Monster just received major updates: gorgeous new sound packs, finer 3D model for the XF-11 and multiplayer-compatible aerobatic smoke, auto-throttle, and a lot more for the Monster. That content is already in your hands.

And the best is still coming. The Quasar and the Gabriel are about to receive their biggest updates yet. We're talking rebuilt sound packs for both, a brand-new flight model and HUD for the Quasar, fully remade modeling and textures for the Gabriel, new liveries, a new aerobatic variant, a new EFB... the list goes on. All free for owners.

Want to see for yourself? The full catalog and the latest changelogs are right here: https://flyingfries.com/catalog . And if you'd rather peek at what's cooking for the Quasar and the Gabriel , take a peek at the Behind the scenes threads on the server: #quasar and #gabriel

So if you've been on the fence about any of them, this is the moment. Buy now, pay less, and enjoy everything that's already landed plus everything that's on its way. 💪

Grab them while the sale lasts.

@everyone > The Scrapyard Monster v2.4 is out today, still available as freeware on flightsim.to:
➡️ https://flightsim.to/addon/55992/the-scrapyard-monster

The initial release of this aircraft was on June 1st, 2023. Exactly three years ago. But I started working on it in January 2022. Here is a little article I wrote about the history of this wild first project, and how it kept staying up to date with the times, how it opened some doors for me, introduced me to an incredible community, and how it's still there, benefiting from my work on other add-ons (auto-throttle, multiplayer aerobatic smoke effect, sound pack, etc.)

📖 https://flyingfries.com/articles/four-and-a-half-years-with-the-scrapyard-monster

The Marketplace tests are in progress. Hopefully, update 2.4 will be available next week for Xbox users (FS2020 and FS2024).

It's time for the monthly report, @everyone!

Did Flying Fries ship anything big in May? Almost nothing came out the door... and yet there was a serious amount of work going on behind the scenes. Let me explain. 💪

Here is what happened at Flying Fries in May:

• ✅ Interactive checklists for every Flying Fries aircraft are now live on the website: https://flyingfries.com/checklists. Free, open to everyone, and built to feel just as comfortable on a desktop screen as on your phone or tablet in the cockpit.
• 🔧 Quasar v1.2 is where most of my energy went. A brand new auto-throttle built from the ground up (ambitious for an aircraft with such a wide speed envelope, and it came out stable, sharp and efficient), a new AFCS replacing the old auto-aileron trim with three assistance levels (Direct/OFF on @Steiny's raw flight model, plus Cautious and Unleashed), and two new liveries: one street-art design, and one that stays secret for now. 😏 Full write-up here: Open in Discord
• 🔧 The Scrapyard Monster v2.4 got the same treatment, and then some. Quasar's auto-throttle ported over and tuned, but the big leap is a deep sound pack overhaul: reworked samples, reshaped engine curves, far more natural, and a lot more besides. This one moved fast. Full breakdown here: Open in Discord
• I burned a full week chasing WASM ideas for the auto-throttle that led nowhere useful, for now. I'll revisit WASM on the Hind , which will be native FS2024: no more "how do I make this work across both sims?" headaches!
• Zero progress on the Airport Pack, and zero group flights either. You pick your battles: mine were the ultimate FS2020 Scrapyard (XF-11 v3.0 style), and a Quasar v1.2 ambitious enough to open the door to FS2024 rentals.

So, what should @everyone expect in June?

• ▶️ The Scrapyard Monster v2.4 is shipping in days: before the end of THIS WEEK on flightsim.to. Of course, the MS Marketplace might take a few more days, but nothing crazy.
• ▶️ The Quasar v1.2 should also land in June, barring any serious technical surprises. I won't lock in a date or a tighter window, but I'm confident.
• ▶️ Gabriel v2.0 could come out in June, but it's not guaranteed. @Gregoire Monesma has already done a colossal amount of work on the sound pack 🎶, but there's a lot left: don't forget we're dealing with two engines and two aircraft variants, so the workload is huge. 🤞
• ▶️ The Hind finally takes center stage. This was a goal I set a month or two ago, and now that the XF-11 , the Gabriel , the Scrapyard and the Quasar are (almost) behind me, I can finally pour the bulk of my time into this helicopter. A bit on the airports too.
• ▶️ I won't be at FS Expo this year, so we won't get to meet up on the American side in 2026. Maybe next year, who knows? But we'll try to put together one or two group flights again. That should be doable, right? Grab the @Group Flyers role in #🦄roles if you want a ping, and keep an eye on #🛫group-flights-chat.

Nothing shipped, and yet what a month. Tank running on full. Onwards and upwards.

Stay tuned!