Saturday, April 9, 2011

The Latin conundrum


Latin* abundance and dynamism. Latin miracle. Despite the dreary half dying Mexsim, we can count up to eight latin designers. More than 20 sceneries have been launched in 2010. But what are the secrets of this success ?

The eight first designers ;
By alphabetic order, Aviation Multimedia Studios (AMS), Bajasim, Boris Forero, Intersim studio, Latin VFR, Taxi2gate, Tropical Sim and Virtual Col. Intersim is based in Miami but have strong links with Cuba. We can also add the important Terra Brasilis community and some commercial partners like Flymex (who doesn't seem to develop new sceneries anymore...).




Why this success ? Let's try to give four explanations but there are certainly many others.

1) Passion for aviation. Caribbean, Central America and South America are composed of distant countries. Aircraft is the best mean of transportation ever to connect people across high mountains, jungle or islands. (i also remember a documentary about the A-380 tests in Medellin, Columbia. European staff was litteraly impressed by the warm welcome and the high interest shown by columbian people for aircrafts).

2) Airports administration are not totally paranoid yet. It's not easy but still possible to take pictures in airports (i mean its easier than in USA and Europe usually). And of course, you need good photo materials in order to design good sceneries.

3) This passion has promoted and developed strong simmers communities (Flycay, Terra Brasilis etc.). Simmers can help grab photo material in airports.

4) Designers lower wages ? (although these are going to reach "standard" american and european levels due to market opportunities).


Latam is a rich region of the world, and certainly the display of the default sim in FS is by all means dull and horrible. Depicting this region in FS is quite a challenge, since usually the norm is in Europe and N America where the majority of all scenery is available. In our case in LVFR we saw the huge gap that exist in this region, and the amazing disproportion that exists in terms of payware per airport capita, we are still way behind and a lot of work is still to be done. Thanks, Ricardo LatinVFR

I have to say that its good to see more Latin American airports, some of us Americans and are European friends are fascinated by the natural beauty of these countries some with big mountains hot weather. And the area the airports are located in make for some very interesting and amazing approaches so my hat goes of to all the Latin developer for recreating this in flight simulator and keep up the great work airdailyx. :) Cesar/Silverbird
By Plasol on The Latin conundrum at 5:17 PM

Hi Dom, I disagree with point two, because here in Ecuador, airports are under private administration, and as we are now FAA certified again, if you try to take pictures without permission can turn in a nightmare. I had a lot of troubles with this, until I meet some pilots that help me with pictures, and, for the night textures at SEGU, a friend that works there, finally help me with that. In the case of Quito, airport authorities never help me with authorizations -also, there are stories of people running with their cameras and airport police behind them!. So, I think that here we are totally paranoid. I remember also a request for do some planespotting at SKBO that was finally accepted, but when I ask again for new access I was constantly rejected. And the only point near RWY21 here in Guayaquil, for planespotting, was spoiled with a higher fence. :(

By borisforero on The Latin conundrum on 4/11/11




*According to the official definition, latin countries are those who spoke (or still speaking) romanes languages. 

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