X-Plane 10.30 Lives!

Laminar Research, creators of the X-Plane flight simulator franchise, has released the latest update to X-Plane, version 10.30.

This latest release represents the largest and most significant X-Plane update to date. It not only contains numerous fixes and performance improvements, but also some substantial additions to the product itself. Foremost is the inclusion of the new GPS. The previous versions of X-Plane also included a GPS instrument but it could only do direct-to navigation and could not implement a GPS approach. With the recent introduction of GPS enabled approach systems at many airports, the new GPS in X-Plane will allow customers to practice actual GPS approaches using an instrument familiar to most general aviation pilots. The new GPS is a drop-in replacement for the old X-Plane GPS, so that with one click in Laminar’s PlaneMaker, old aircraft can be upgraded to the more IFR capable version. The X-Plane 10.30 default aircraft come with the new GPS already installed. The new GPS is based on the Garmin 430 and Garmin 530 and both variants are included.

The 10.30 update also includes major improvements to both the weather and scenery systems. The system for the placement of autogen scenery has been refined so buildings, trees, and other objects more accurately reflect their real-world counterparts.

With the recent release of World Editor 1.3 and the Airport Scenery Gateway, hundreds of new highly detailed airports have also been included in this latest and major update to X-Plane 10.