CLS A310-200/300

The Airbus A310 is a medium to long-range widebody airliner based on the larger A300. The A310, referred to as A300B10 in the early design stage, can seat about 200-220 passengers and was the second aircraft type developed by Airbus. The A310 program was launched in July 1978 and the first flight of the A310 occurred on April 3 1982. The first A310 entered commercial service with Lufthansa in April 1983. The A310 officially ceased production in July 2007, though five orders from Iraqi Airways remained on the books until July 2008.

Started in 2005, Commercial Level Simulations (CLS) has grown to a high quality commercial add-on developer for MS Flight Simulator. Their products are not that expensive and yet high quality.

CLS developed the Airbus A310 as an expansion model for the Airbus A300-600R or Beluga, but there is a standalone version as well. The package contains the A310-200 and A310-300. Many different types are modelled: Cargo model, special model used by Royal Canadian Air force, MRTT (tanker) used by the Luftwaffe, with animated refueling pods, EADS model with animated demonstration fuel boom.

Also, quite a few liveries are included like Lufthansa, Air France, Pan Am, Air Transat, Aeroflot, Hapag-Lloyd, Turkisch Airlines, Emirates SkyCargo. All paints are high quality. Each model does have its own animations, like opening doors, pushback truck, 3d stairs and animated refueling pods with the tanker model. The virtual cockpit looks nice, but not all systems are modelled, so not all buttons and switches are clickable.

The flightdynamics are well balanced, so for the averange flightsimmer it shouldn't be a problem to manually land this aircraft. Just make sure there isn't too much crosswind, because due to a contact points problem, the aircraft is still drifting sideways after touchdown. This problem has been reported from a few people only, which may indicate that not everybody has encountered the sideway drift or not many people takeoff/land in crosswind conditions.






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