AVSIM Commercial Aircraft Package Review Lockheed L-1011 'Fly the Tristar'

Over the years my simming interests have been centered on commercial transport aircraft—the Boeings, Airbus, MD-10s, Beech turboprops, and now the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. And as a reviewer at Avsim I've noticed two distinct trends:

• The ever-increasing aircraft systems functionality and detail fidelity of the Level-Ds, PMDGs and PSS developers in particular; as well as, for example, Ralph Tofflemire's classic 747-200 "Ready for Pushback." These publishers target the "enthusiast" hobbyist market.
• An increased variety of aircraft types that supplement MSFS' default 737-400, 747-400 and 777-300 planes (and the Beech King Air 350) by add-on aircraft developers. While these are by-and-large good products, their developers target what I might characterize as the "entertainment" market.

I was especially interested in reviewing Perfect Flight's TriStar because I had been a manufacturing engineer at Lockheed shortly before this plane was developed and so had followed its fortunes—which are well documented in the PF User Guide. Though perhaps not as well known as the Douglas MD-10 (and later the McDonnel Douglas MD-11) both are quite similar in design and capabilities. And though quite successful initially, Lockheed and its engine supplier Rolls-Royce lacked the resources to sustain increasing competition from Boeing—Lockheed's legendary role as a pioneer and producer of commercial transports – especially their earlier L-1049 Constellation – ended in 1984 after having delivered 250 TriStars. (For those interested, I found a really complete illustrated L-1011 history at Ryosuke Yano's Fly TriStar website.)

Test System Dell XPS P4 3.6 GHz WindowsXP 1GB RD RAM nVidia 6800 graphics card Dell 19" LCD Monitor Perfect Flight's L-1011 with doors opened and stairs deployed (shown in TWA livery). Overhead panel showing initial pre-flight stage—battery power applied. Kneeboard pop-up with FS-generated KJFK-KBOS flight plan selected. Kneeboard pop-up now with airport data display selected. Now the checklist display option has been selected in the kneeboard pop-up. Now in flight, GPS pop-up shows current route position. Now crossing Long Island Sound. Right turn at RAALF waypoint—VC flight deck view Touchdown at Boston's Logan Airport. Note flap and speedbrake deployment . . . . . . and closeup of engine thrust reverser detail. Here's a quick look at the throttle quadrant / radio stack. . . . and an interior view of the passenger cabin. Um, I think I much prefer the First Class cabin!

Installation and Documentation

Downloading and installation proceeded without incident.

Of the 22 pages in the included .pdf format User Guide, just six deal with the sim; the remaining pages are a text profile and history of the Tristar. There's a brief discussion of choosing a few adventure setup options, then loading the L-1011 Start-Up Adventure, selecting the desired aircraft livery for your flight and establishing a flight plan (you use the standard MSFS flight planner), and finally the desired weather settings. The "adventure" starts by setting the parking brake; the 'before start' check list is heard. The 'taxi' voice check list is activated by reaching 20-25 knots taxi speed; again setting the parking brake at the runway hold line triggers the before take-off checklist. Similarly, taxiing to the gate and setting the parking brakes on initiates the 'shutdown checklist' (and releasing the brakes again causes your 'score' to be announced if that's one of the options you've selected). There—you have the gist of the "documentation." Oh, and I recall hearing a 'before landing' checklist out of the blue.

The Aircraft

The aircraft's external appearance is really quite good, though not exceptional by today's standards. Fuselage, wing and engine skin and fairing contours are smooth and well-proportioned. Sixty liveries are included in the aircraft installation file; an additional 37 liveries are offered free at the Perfect Flight website. Many of the liveries are quite interesting as they include period replicas of L-1011 operators who are no longer in business, notably Eastern Airlines, Pan American, PSA, and Trans World Airlines (shown here). The development team is to be congratulated for the variety of choices available with their L-1011!

There isn't much I can say about the plane's handling qualities; it "feels" very much like flying the default 737. That is to say that response to controls is o.k., but I found it has a too-light feel; for example it was easier than I imagine it should have been to control speed during descent, and in fact the plane could be "dumped" unrealistically to loose altitude on too high an approach.

I liked the engine sounds and there's adequate ambient sound in the cabin. What you'll hear mostly, of course, is ATC chatter; the package's built-in sounds are limited chiefly to V speed calls, "gear up/down" enunciation, a really irritating "Check flaps speed" each time you raise or lower flaps even one notch (see discussion below re managing flap speeds), and the usual GPWS callouts.

Panel features

The panels are rendered in both 2-D and Virtual Cockpit (VC) formats. In 2-D mode there is a 'main panel' (Captain's view), an 'overhead panel' and a 'throttle quadrant' which includes the radio stack. Having been developed before the days of Flight Management Computers (FMC) or modern Engine Indicating and Crew Alert System (EICAS) capabilities, the L-1011 has a third flight crew station for the Flight Engineer. Accordingly PF's rendition includes a separate Engineer's panel (the documentation simply calls it an 'Instrument Panel'). You can also call up a GPS screen (FS2004's Garmin GPS 500) which, while certainly helpful won't add to any "sense of immersion" with this plane; a multi-purpose "electronic kneeboard" window; FS' ATC messages; and FS' map view by clicking on the corresponding panel icons. However, except for the kneeboard window you won't find any way to remove panels that happen to overlay their panel icons—except by remembering which of the six <shift>+<#> keys to press.

The Main Instrument Panel

The 2D panels are pretty conventional; and the 3D Virtual Cockpit—again judging by today's expectations of a commercial product at this price—is adequate but not exceptional. While I didn't expect to see the fidelity to detail of Level-D, PMDG or PSS offerings, these panels leave you feeling you're flying a rather meager imitation of the real thing. What really bothered me was the two prominent, oversized "gauges" positioned just to the right of the primary artificial horizon, showing trim settings and flap position. These certainly diminish your sense of realism.

You're pretty much on your own to figure out instrument functions, as there are no instrument descriptions in the User Guide; just screenshots of each available panel and a few of the pop-up windows. While most instrument functions will be familiar to any sim pilot who's mastered FS' default air transports, the mode control functions took me some experimentation to see how they function here. I didn't find either the vocal or the pop-up checklists to be much help either, as these don't specify procedures, just whether items have been "checked." In general I had the feeling this is a 'game' rather than a simulation. But then, if you're not particular, I suppose some will feel they're doing something worthwhile looking at panels while checklists are "read" to them.

Here is the main panel as seen in a vintage photo (courtesy Bjorn Hellstrom at the Tristar Photo Page)

Here's a comparison shot of PF's L-1011 main panel.

Here's a perspective view of the flight deck (courtesy Adel Al-Uzaizi at the 'Fly TriStar Information Center' website)

This VC screenshot is looking from the pilot's view.

Similarly this screenshot is looking across the flight deck toward the first officer's panel.

The flight engineer's panel as seen in another vintage photo (courtesy Bjorn Hellstrom at the Tristar Photo Page)

Here's a comparison shot of PF's L-1011 engineer's panel.

View of PF's L-1011 engineer's panel in VC mode.

When you set up the "Adventure Manager" (before starting your FS session) you can choose the flight's fuel load, whereupon V1, Vr and V2 speeds are calculated based on gross takeoff weight; then the adventure is compiled. So far so good, as these (optional) callouts will be voiced during the takeoff roll. But what about the flap retraction schedule? No speed bugs appear on the airspeed indicator nor, as aforementioned are tables of gross weight/flap retraction speeds provided. So that's guesswork. Worse, you've no idea of what the flap extension speeds or, for that matter your landing speed should be as that should depend on your remaining fuel load. With more recent planes you'll find all that information computed for you from your FMC inputs with corresponding bugs (marks on a speed tape) to guide you. I admit it; I'm spoiled by today's "glass cockpits."

Overhead and Engineer's Instrument Panels

I found it surprising that, since an engineer's panel is provided, all functions necessary to prepare the plane for flight from a "cold and dark" cockpit can be handled using just the overhead panel; I would have expected to have to use at least something on the engineer's panel. And these panels are sparse indeed—you get somewhat of an impression of working the system controls, but since the aircraft's electrical, hydraulic, fuel, pneumatic and environmental systems aren't really modeled there's not much to do except to turn on the battery, click 'APU' Gen and then the engine's "autostart" button. The start sequence is mildly interesting though, as each engine spins up individually and the corresponding fuel pump is activated once sufficient N2 power has been reached; animated fuel cutoff levers at the top of the overhead pop to their 'open' position as well. As you can see from looking at the panel screenshots above and to the left, indicator lights are way too outsized.

Kneeboard window

Working in conjunction with the flight plan, there's quite a lot of helpful information accessed by clicking any of the Kneeboard's six buttons: Briefing, Radio, Navigation Log, Key Commands, Checklist, and Reference, which states the L-1011's general specifications for size, speed, passenger capacity and the like. I had hopes for the 'Briefing' window, but that turned out to simply repeat instructions for compiling the adventure, loading the plane, and activating the checklists (most of which you must have already done in order to get to the point you can activate this window in the first place). Next, the 'Radio' choice calls up portions of the ATC instructions and your responses that you saw individually from the ATC window, it's sort of like what you would see in an 'instant messaging' session, handy for recalling clearance details, for example. The 'Navigation Log' is just that; it's the same as what you can print from FS's Flight Planner. 'Key Commands' show all the current FS key settings in case you encounter something you need but have forgotten.

The 'Checklist' window is more interesting; it offers a very helpful "chart search" facility you activate by ICAO code or airport name. This displays in turn web link choices to view available runways with their ILS frequencies, also VORs/freqs together with waypoints and their relative positions; and also abbreviated approach procedure charts for selected STARs. You'll also find an option to download IFR Approach Plates with a free SimChart trial offer. There's even an FSCharts FAQ provided. The other major section for this window is a set of html files viewed from the Checklist window containing each of the PF 'Fly the Tristar' "checklists." I've used quotes here as these are I think just impressions of real checklists; using the 'After Takeoff' checklist as an example, you get items such as:

Altimeters - Reset and checked (I believe you do that when passing FL180)
Ignition - Off/On (?)
Hydraulic panel - Checked
Fuel panel - Checked
and so forth.

Some "anomalies"

I can't say for sure whether a few oddities I encountered were from "pilot error" or are bugs in the program—your mileage may vary. A really strange one is that on some instances of loading the plane (adventure) with a dark cockpit I couldn't get power to the radios until after starting the engines! Now that's not very helpful, as you'll likely want to contact ATC for clearance delivery and Ground control before pushback and engine start. This is the kind of thing that renders attempts to follow normal preflight before start procedures meaningless.

Speaking of pushback, you go into 'slew' mode to do that (unless you have some 3rd party utility for that); there's no built-in pushback here. I found that steering is very sensitive to taxi speeds. Even being quite conservative with the throttles, from time to time I couldn't get the plane to respond to rudder (nose wheel) control inputs in time to steer accurately. Oh, by the way, you can't steer on the ground at all without 'autorudder' engaged (in the FS main menu's Aircraft|Realism Settings). And it's just a "niggle," but the '---kts' groundspeed on the HSI remained blank until I switched the GPS/NAV switch (just below the glare shield) to 'GPS'. And one that I never did figure out was the time the control surfaces inexplicably stopped responding during the take-off roll, with obviously unfortunate results!

Conclusions

If you're looking for a well-crafted Lockheed Tristar to fly, you'll enjoy this one. If you want a package that meets today's standards of fidelity to real aircraft in its details, flight dynamics, and particularly in modeling systems operations though, you'll find those elsewhere (several for the same money). Perfect Flight's Lockheed L-1011 'Fly the Tristar' can be downloaded or the CD version ordered from their website; the price is 24,00 Euros or approx. $30 USD.