AVSIM Commercial
Aircraft/Adventure Review
Fly the Mad Dog |
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| Rating
Guide |
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| Publisher:
Perfect Flight 2000 |
Description:
The classic MD-83 paired with a general-purpose adventure compiler |
Download Size:
51.5 Mb |
Format:
Executable Auto Install File |
Add-on Type:
FS2002 Air Transport/IFR aircraft, panel and adventure compiler |
| Reviewed by: Maury Pratt, AVSIM Chief Managing Editor |
Possible
Commercial Rating Score: 1 to 5 stars with
5 stars being exceptional.
Please see details of our review rating policy here |
McDonnell-Douglas' (now Boeing) MD-80 series is one of those workhorse air transports that are well known to travellers, but not that well represented in flight simmers' hangars. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful plane that's fun to fly. Now Perfect Flight 2000 offers a very nice rendition—and it comes with apparently the first 3rd party implementation of Microsoft's ABL scripting language, Perfect Flight's Adventure Compiler. The significance of that is that the resulting adventures interact properly with FS2002's AI aircraft and ATC facilities. The adventures also provide cabin calls, voiced check lists, take-off V speeds, GPWS and radar altimeter calls.
First built in 1980 at McDonnell-Douglas Long Beach, CA facility, planes in this series still number among the those with the lowest operating costs in commercial aviation (now improved with its successor, Boeing's B-717). From the Aircraft.cfg files I learned that this plane accommodates a maximum of 172 passengers with a nonstop range from 1,500 to 2,700 statute miles (2,410 to 4,345 kilometers), depending on the model. The longer range MD-83 has a takeoff weight of 160,000 pounds (72,575 kg).
You get a variety of liveries—25—including such U.S. based favorites as American, Continental, Delta, Northwest—and from an earlier era, Pan Am and TWA. Other airlines around the world include Air Canada, Alitalia, KLM, Quantas, and Scandanavian. The panel, designed by Massimo Grassi, is unusual in that interchangeable Captain and First Officer modes are provided, each offering several pop-up views. There's also a special Landing/VFR panel view for improved final approach visibility. And, of course, there's a feature that rates your performance ;-)
Another provided feature is the 'Fly the Mad Dog Manager' which according to the documentation is a software interface written in MS Access used to manage your fleet, the pilot logbook, statistics, adventures and more. I couldn't test this feature as my "Home Office" version of Office 2002 doesn't include MS Access.
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Installation, Display and Documentation
When you download and open the product zip file, you're faced with four .exe files and a user guide in Acrobat pdf format. You're well advised to take a look at that before installing, though you'll find that installation is easy and folder set-up is automatic (be sure to point each installer to your main FS2002 folder). While the exe files can be loaded in any order, I'd suggest you first install Maddog_Main_Setup, then Maddog_Panel_1_Setup and Maddog_Panel_2_Setup respectively; and finish up with Maddog_Manager_Setup.
Though I would have liked to have seen some discussion of the panel's instruments, documentation is otherwise quite good. In addition to an illustrated run-down on using the Adventure Compiler including a sample flight, there's checklists for each phase of flight operations.
Let's get started...
Upon loading FS2002 you use the Create Flight menu to select the 'Perfect Flight 2000 Mad Dog' (as 'aircraft manufacturer'), then MD-83, then American in this example, a flight from New York to Boston. So select the Flight Planner and choose New York's JFK as the departure airport (Gate 9 - medium); and Boston's Logan Int'l as the arrival airport. Flight plan type is "IFR" and "high Altitude" airways. Once executing Find Route be sure to Save the resulting flight plan. Remaining chores are to select an appropriate time and weather, and be sure to save your situation as 'maddog' (as the adventure compiler looks for that for its setup).
Now you're ready to compile your sample adventure. Go to your computer's start menu and select 'Fly the Mad Dog'. Now click on 'Load Flight Plan'. This brings up the flight plan you've saved as 'maddog' together with parameters such as the computed V speeds (based on the established fuel load). You can modify the cruising altitude here if you like. Also you'll find selectable options for Speed Calls, Check List, 'Rate the Flight' and Engine off (when the adventure is started). Once set to your satisfaction, click on 'Compile Adventure'—on my machine the adventure was compiled almost instantaneously. Now click Exit and return to FS2002.
Test System |
Dell 8200 P4 2,400 MHz
WindowsXP
512 Megs RD RAM
GeForce 4 4600ti graphics card
40X DVD CD ROM
MS Force Feedback 2 joystick
Dell 19" Monitor Flying Time:
3 hours over 2 days |
American MD-83 taxies to departure runway at KLAX
Quantas livery — wheels up!
Northwest climbing over Los Angeles harbor heading East
An in-flight view cruising toward Boston; note that the GPS window is open
The lighted panel flying after dark
The "Landing panel" is a most welcome feature!
You'll use the throttle quadrant panel as you go through checklist items
Alternative Captain panel by Frank Elfert offers realistic MCP, radio altimeter and chronometer
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The flight experience is pretty much as the same as flying without an "adventure" running, particularly if you're accustomed to flying with Oncourse Software's Flight Deck Companion. When the adventure starts you'll hear the pre-flight checklist. Open the ATC window and get your IFR flight plan clearance in the usual manner, then push back and start the engines. Now contact Ground for taxi instructions and roll on out to the departure runway. You'll hear the taxi checklist, and after setting the parking brakes at the runway hold line call Tower. You'll get take-off clearance (or a "hold short" if there's AI traffic approaching), so release the brakes, set flaps (you'll be warned when you reach 40 knots or so during takeoff if you haven't), line up with the runway, set autobrakes to RTO, and click on autothrust to spool up the throttles. (Although there's a TOGA button on the throttle quadrant panel, that doesn't appear to work.) You'll hear the first officer call "airspeed active," "80 knots," "V1," "Rotate" and "V2" in succession. Then "Gear up" and "Flaps up" confirmations are heard as you take these actions. This is a pretty busy time now, as there's lots of ATC chatter (some of it directed at you to change center frequencies, change heading, and so forth) but while coping with that you'll be turning on the AP, changing shortly from HDG to NAV mode and switching the NAV/GPS toggle to GPS. From that point on it's pretty routine.
Assuming that all goes well (that is, you haven't failed to heed ATC commands and thus suffered the indignity of IFR control being cancelled), in due course you'll be directed to descend and to switch to Approach Control. During the descent you should hear the first officer read out your landing checklist. I'll point out that you really have to pay attention to your descent speed, as this slippery MD-83 tends to accelerate more than you might expect, and as you deploy spoilers the throttles insist on advancing. Anyway, you'll be vectored to the assigned landing runway and LOC intercept. I found this went smoothly and the approach was perfect. But a warning here—be sure to disengage the AP's speed control early on, or you'll discover that, even with the AP disengaged at the inner marker you can't get the throttles back to idle for flare—and you'll be fighting the engines even with the spoiler and thrust reversers activated. Assuming you manage to stop before the end of the runway and turn off the active, you'll be directed to contact Ground for taxi instructions to the terminal. Once the parking breaks are set you'll also hear your score for the flight.
The aircraft
These are very nicely done aircraft. Good details, reflectivity, and smooth fuselage curvature. Though I didn't evaluate performance to real-world specifications, control felt natural, smooth and responsive.
Panel features
The panel, though pretty much "plain vanilla," does the job. You won't see the sophistication we've come to expect from other recent releases, both commercial and freeware, nevertheless the effect is reasonably realistic. There's no virtual panel, but the choice of Captain and First Officer views is welcome, as is the "Landing panel" view—essentially a truncated (but lowered) panel display. The outside views through the cockpit windows are nicely detailed as well.
<Shift><1> works in conjuction with <Shift><5> to turn off the main panel and replace that with the Landing panel view. There's icons on the panel to call up and remove certain of the panel pop-ups—the radio stack (also <Shift><2>), and GPS on/off (<Shift><3>); oddly the usual icon for the Throttle Quadrant on/off is missing (you use <Shift><4> instead). There's two other icons, one to activate Map view, the other to bring up the semi-transparent ATC window. I found that I much preferred to call up ATC with the <~> key (or you can set your environment to Auto-open ATC window).
The panel's layout struck me as a little sparse; however the instruments are quite legible. It took me some time looking around at the mouse-over captions to figure out what's where (that information not being in the documentation)—particularly the FD (top), AP, and Auto-throttle switches on the MCP. By trial-and-error I learned that the NAV/GPS toggle is set to the right to activate GPS control. Though this vintage aircraft's instruments are mostly analog, the PFD does include a speed tape; the ND in pretty elementary—you'll see a true airspeed readout, and in this instance a GPS mode indicator showing the waypoint toward which you're flying and its distance; on the other hand I didn't see a wind direction indicator.
An overhead panel is missing altogether. In its place there's two rows of annunciator lights; these show, for example, the engine start-up events correctly sequenced after starting the engines with <Cntr><E>. The Throttle Quadrant shows control positions, fuel quantity, the principal engine start switches and assorted avionics and light switches. Another thing I found surprising—I couldn't find the landing gear position handle or indicator lights anywhere; yet once I extended the gear these mysteriously appeared where the secondary engine instruments had been (see image).
Note that an "unofficial update" to the Captain's panel was posted to the AVSIM Library as I was writing this review. It's Frank Elfert's MD-83 Fly the Maddog Panel Update (w_ftm83.zip). It adds a yoke (<Shift><6>), but more significantly there's a realistic MCP and radio altitude readout gauge, and a chronometer.
The Adventure Compiler
This is quite simple and performs as advertised. In addition to the four supplied adventures, you can create an adventure for any departure/arrival air port pair you like. To test this I set up a 2nd flight from Los Angeles (KLAX) to San Francisco (KSFO). Apart from the utterly simplistic flight plan FS2002 generates (no SID or STAR), the resulting flight came off as expected, with considerable traffic during the approach to KSFO's runway 28R. One quirk I noted here is that I was instructed to hold for a United flight taxiing across in front of me (Thanks, Project AI!) I applied the parking breaks to hold my position—and immediately heard the Parking (shut-down) checklist. So keep that in mind when moving around on the ground.
Conclusion
Fly the Mad Dog is a good product for what it does—namely an "all-in-one" package for those looking for a satisfying air transport product that's nicely integrated with FS2002's AI and ATC features. For "hard core" simmers the planes and panels are decidedly "middle of the road," especially by today's demanding standards. And you can improve on the provided panel by installing Frank Elfert's w_ftm83.zip panel upgrade.
The package offers good value for its relatively modest $22.50 price, considering the ample number of liveries provided, a serviceable panel and particularly its Adventure Compiler with FS2002 AI/ATC compatibility. You can see more screenshots, and purchase Fly the Mad Dog at Perfect Flight's website.
Credits:
Software programming and documentation – Marco Martini
Aircraft artwork – Luis Cerutti, Massimo Grassi, Gary Simpson, Ashley Flynn
Panels – Massimo Grassi
Sounds – Osvaldo Braca
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