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The Boeing 717 actually wasn't
the brainchild of Phil Condit and the folks at Boeing. It was actually designed
in Long Beach, California, by McDonnell Douglas. When Boeing took the unprecedented
step of buying McDonnell Douglas in 1997, they also got an aircraft that was
pretty much complete in the design and engineering phase. All that needed to be
done was to transfer of the lines on paper to an actual object.
Production started, and the orders started rolling in. The launch customer was
AirTran Airways (formally known as ValuJet) placing an order of 50 aircraft.
Since then, 18 airlines from the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East have
placed orders for this aircraft. Deliveries started in September 1999, with the
first 2 going to AirTran.
The aircraft was built at a time when the demand for 100-seater aircraft was at
an all time high. Airlines were already ordering regional jets from Bombardier
and Embraer like there might be no tomorrow. And so it was only natural for
the two heavyweights to enter the ring. Boeing inherited the MD-95 and renamed
it the 717, and Airbus went ahead with designing the A318. While the A318 isn't
due out for another couple of years, the 717 is here and flying now.
The 717 can be considered a smaller version of the 727 in some cases. The
three-holer (as it was affectionately known by people in the aviation industry)
was a rugged workhorse, flying into and out of airports with small runways, and
performing many stops throughout a day's flying. The 717 is no different. With
106 seats, it's the perfect aircraft to fly into airports with small runways,
airports that are mostly served by turbo-prop aircraft, or for use on short
haul, high density routes. In fact, Boeing claims that the aircraft can easily
perform 8 to 12 one hour flights every day, day after day. Up front, pilots are
confronted by 6 liquid crystal displays, similar to the Next Generation 737s and
777s.
- Basic Maximum Take Off Weight: 114,000 pounds
- Non-stop range: 1580 miles
- High gross-weight range: 2085 miles
- Typical Operating empty weight: 69,830 pounds
- Powerplant: Two BMW/RR BR715 turbofan engines, each rated at 18,500 - 21,000 pounds of takeoff thrust
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Our Review:
As you've probably guessed by now, this review is based on the 717. And it's on a package that was
released by a gentleman that is very well respected in the flight simulation
community. It's none other than Roy Chaffin. The package comes with the
panel, of course, an Olympic Aviation Boeing 717-200, and an excellent
HTML-based manual. Before we start though, let's recognize following people
involved in the making of this package, and deserve credit:
Bill Rambow: The internal views and the manual
Steve Small: The aircraft flight dynamics
Christian Kogler: The working fire panel, originally designed by Eric Ernst
Alex Bashkatov: Aircraft Configuration Gauge
Guntram Strasser: Weather Radar
Eric Mitchell: Original aircraft design
Nathan Tenney: Aircraft textures
Tony D'Ambrosio: RealCRT gauges
Congratulations!!!
Having just been promoted to the position of Chief Pilot on the B717 for Olympic
Aviation, you get the honors of going to Long Beach, California to pick up
the first aircraft for the airline. But before the aircraft makes it to home
turf, the aircraft needs to pick up 100 passengers from Cleveland and get
them to Vancouver where they will be boarding a cruise ship headed for
Alaska.
As you approach the new Boeing building, you see a line of brand spanking new 717s waiting
for pilots from the respective carriers to come and take them. In the middle
of the pack is the one you're there to get. In the screaming midday
sunlight, the aircraft is shining bright, the white paint bright enough to
be seen from miles away—the glistening metal on the exhaust seems bright
enough to cause blindness. As you approach closer to the aircraft, you start
seeing the finer details like the flight controls, the tabs, the flap screw
jack housings, and the finer points of the paint scheme. You can hardly wait
to get inside but manage to control your excitement. As you set foot inside,
the scent of new galleys, new furnishings, new seating, new carpeting,
overwhelms you. You head into the flight deck and instantly feel right at
home. In front of you, you see six CRT screens used to display the various
flight parameters and systems information. Having completed the walk-around
and checklists found in your flight manual (FS2000 Kneeboard), you're all
set to start the engines. Engine startup is similar to an Airbus: flick a
few switches, and she does the rest. On the overhead panel, you see an
"Avionics" and an "Auto-start" switch. Pressing the
Avionics switch turns on the engine information screens and the HSI, while
pressing the Auto-start switch turns on the batteries, the remainder of the
instruments, and begins the engine starting process.
Once the pair of BMW/RR BR716 turbofan engines come to life and stabilize,
you're set to put this baby into motion. Having received taxi instructions,
you advance the throttles forward to about 50% N1 and begin heading for the
active. Along the way, you experiment a little to see how the aircraft
handles. With the speed set to about 15 knots, you make a turn and feel the
nose wheels struggle to follow the turn. So, the conclusion to the
experiment is to keep the turn speed below 10 knots, just to be safe. Other
factors you notice are positive and instantaneous feed from the nose wheel
steering.
As you approach the active, you ask the co-pilot to bring up the
quick reference checklists on the instrument panel. One item is high-lighted
red: FLAPS 15. You set flaps 15, and the red disappears, leaving white text,
indicating the main checklist items are complete. Also, on the fourth CRT,
the one with all your radio information, you notice a small picture of the
aircraft, with lights flashing and remaining solid. You tell the co-pilot
that this gauge is used to tell you relative positioning of the flaps and
landing gear. When the lights are flashing for the case of the landing gear,
it means the gear is in transit, and when they are solid green, the gear is
extended, while no lights indicates the gear is up and retracted, kind of
like the three-green/three-red stack of lights found on conventional
aircraft. In the case of the flaps, when the lights are flashing, it means
the flaps are set to a setting other than no flaps or full flaps. A solid
light indicates full flaps, and no light indicates flaps up.
With clearance for takeoff received, you line up and advance the throttles. You realize the power of the engines now, since you're being sucked back
into your seat as the aircraft's speed increases. Your co-pilot calls V1 at
130 knots, and Rotate at 140 knots. A gentle pull on the control column, and
away she goes. As you pass through 3000 feet, you're vectored to your first
waypoint, and asked to contact Center, who clears you to you cruising
altitude of FL340.
With a climb speed of 290 knots set in the auto-throttle
system, and the autopilot set to NAV mode, you sit back and watch the
computers do their magic. For situational awareness, you bring up the GPS on
the 3rd CRT, the same screen that shows the engine parameters, checklists
and weather radar. At FL260, you switch over to Mach 0.78, your cruise speed
for this leg of the flight. Once up to FL340, you request permission to do
some stall tests. Having received permission you set throttles to idle, let
the aircraft slow down, and then pull the nose up a little. At 115 knots,
the stick shaker activates, and the stall horn and lights go off. Throttles
go to near full power, nose down, and recovery is attained, with a loss of
about 3000-4000 feet. Once stabilized, you lower the gear, full flaps, and
repeat the procedure. This time, the aircraft stalls at 80 knots. "Not
bad" you say to yourself. The rest of the flight goes without incident.
In your mind you think to yourself how quiet the engines are, and how
smooth the ride is—almost like riding on a cushion. Nearing Cleveland, you
change from the GPS screen to your quick reference descent and approach
checklists. Once set on the localizer, and then the glideslope, the flaps have been
set to 25 units, speed brakes and Autobrake armed, and gear down. By this time, your
airspeed is hovering around 140 knots. A slight crosswind is prevalent here,
and since the aircraft is so light, you use a fair amount of rudder to keep
the aircraft center-lined with the runway. Also, you make a mental note to
not to over-flare the aircraft due to the light weight. As you turn off the
active, you turn off the Autobrake, retract the flaps, and position the
spoilers down. With Leg 1 complete, preparations are underway for Leg 2:
cleared to Vancouver International at your discretion.
Conclusion
The panel is now in its fifth version. This time around though, it was mainly a
conversion from FS98 to FS2000. Users of the freeware panel are treated to
the stock 777 gauges, while users of the RealCRT gauges have the option of
using those. Since no SDK was available to the team, users of the freeware
panel will find that the EPR gauge doesn't move. That's not a snag, just
something that the team couldn't figure out how to implement because
Microsoft hasn't as yet released the Panel SDK. For users of the RealCRT gauges you'll find that the N1 and
N2 readings are reversed, and the MISC. page shows no readings. Once
again, that's because Tony is working on an update for the gauges to make
them compatible with FS2000. Other than that, the real flight deck is simple
yet effective. The same applies here. This is also the first panel where the
production team has gone to the trouble of providing cockpit interior views
in all directions. Look right and you see an empty co-pilot's chair. Look
behind you, and you see the flight deck door. Look left and you see your
window. Everything in between is also taken care of.
The aircraft needs some minor texture adjustments. The cockpit
windows from the outside are not quite there. Also, there are no rotating
fan blades in the engines. The aircraft was originally designed for FS98 and
was included here as-is, except for adjustments on the flight
characteristics to make it more realistic. The above two problems give this
one away.
At the end of the day, this is a must-have package for 717 fans or fans of Roy Chaffin and
his production team. They have consistently delivered excellent
panel/aircraft packages and thus have a reputation for high quality
realistic packages. This installment further strengthens their reputation in
the flight simulation community. In spite of Roy's convalescence from health problems he's experiencing, we hope he continues producing packages like this for many many years to come.
You can download the aircraft and panel file from AVSIM's File Library, or visit Roy's RCS Panels web site.
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