payware quality

[crvm 0]

I'm with you Michael, Although PMDG make great top rate aircraft they certainly are not the only ones that do. PIC V2 (LDS Team) have a winner before it reaches the starting gates! Flight 1/DreamFleet have wonderful add-ons regardless of some 1 timer posters of late who talk like they are someone. Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]http://www.rawbw.com/~bdoolin/shinault/southparkcartmad.gif[h3]PMDG 747![/h3]Caution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)ASUS KV8 DLX | AMD 3200 64 | 1 GIG PC 3200 DDR | GIGABYTE 5700 ULTRA | ViewSonic VP192b 19" |

[Guest BernBear]

Michael,You got me there! The F1 Meridian is the only other payware plane that I really like, which is why I didn't include it in the turboprpop wish list :-) I actually have a few hours in real Meridians and I would agree with you that the F1 Meridian comes very close to the real thing within the limitations of FS (The F1 Meridian has a tendency to run very hot on climb out, limiting climb power, which is virutally unheard of in the real thing but I am told that is limitation of the FS turboprop model)I can't speak for the F1 ATR, since i haven't tried that yet.I also can't say much about pre-FS9 addons, since I didn't start buying payware addons until FS9. I didn't mean to make my statement absolute, since it is merely my subjective opinion, but I'll continue to say that the PMDG birds are the best heavy iron that I have tried so far.Best RegardsMax (Bern, LSZB)http://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004betateam.jpg http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpg

[michal 44]

>which is why I didn't include it in>the turboprpop wish list :-) Max,But you certainly did, read your post again .. ;-)I agree with you F1's Merdian has ITT usually too hot and its secondary altimeter has nonsensically spinning needle.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2

[Guest jpsulliv]

Well, I'll just add my comments in here, since I read this every day and haven't posted anything in like two years..I think PMDG has the highest-quality product, followed by PSS.I don't buy a lot of add-ons for MSFS, simply because I don't have a lot of time to "fly" and frankly, learning how to do it properly has always frustrated me, what with all these tutorials that tell you WHAT to do but never WHY.My first payware add-on was PSS's 747 and 777 for FS2000, which were excellent and I flew them habitually. But I was always kind of put off by their posts in their own forum, which seems to hold the attitude that the customers are just whiny little babies. Then came FS2002, and a new (and long in the making) patch was required to get it to work. In the meantime, I was exploring Fly!II since PMDG was making a B777 for it, which I promptly bought. I liked Fly! II quite a lot in spite of all its problems, and I felt sorry that PMDG had put all of this work into it which must have required a huge effort to workaround what was broken in Fly! II.When the PSS patch to get the 747 and 777 to work in FS2002 was ready, it seemed that suddenly I needed much better hardware to get it to run properly, as they had used the glass cockpit stuff from their new Airbus products, and you had to crank up the resolution to make it even legible. I was unwilling to spend a few thousand on a new PC, and besides, the PSS A320 was buggy, so I quit "flying" altogether for a spell.Then I had some money and some free time working away from home on an assignment, so I bought the PS1 747 simulator, which I still have and fly at work when no one is looking. But being a DOS-based affair, it's really quite painful to get it to work on a modern system. I had the joystick working for awhile, then it magically quit and I've never gotten it to work quite right since.Without much heavy iron left to fly, I bought the PSS A330 and A340 when they came out, and they're okay, but I'm not really an Airbus kind of guy.Remembering PMDGs first product (the B747-400 manual, was it?) I decided to try the first 737NG product. I was immediately amazed and overwhelmed at how difficult it is to fly. It reminded me of my time in the United 747 simulator, which I thought I could handle after the PSS 747 and PS1. I only crashed twice (once on takeoff, once on landing), but I learned very quickly that a real heavy jet is REAL hard to fly. A REAL simulator with an instructor next to me was the best couple of hundred dollars I ever spent.Anyway, I bought the 737NG/800/900 not long ago and I've been pretty happy with it, although I've been having a hard time getting the hang of it. What I particularly appreciate about this product is the depth of detail, such as the very functional FMC. Of the products I've used, only the PS1 FMC simulates more.So when I saw that PMDG is going to give us a B747-400, I thought "this is so cool, I have to go to the bathroom!" The screenshots are very impressive - better than any FS add-on I've seen, I think. I'm hoping it will turn out like a very much updated PS1 747-400 in operation and realism. All I can do now is wait. :(

[teropa 4]

Hi,Seems that you're not familiar with 767PIC or the upcoming Level-D Simulations 767-300 :).Tero

[ARCO 245]

I would not let a thread like this close without a mention of one of the leading sim available today: 747-200 RFP, the only 747 available with the full complexity of virtually all systems. And a support second to none... It would appear very few of you tried it, that's probably why it was mentioned only once sandwiched in many others. If you know how to fly it, the 744 will be no challenge for you!

[Guest jpsulliv]

I've considered the 747-200 RFP several times, actually, and I remember it was very well reviewed everywhere I read about it.My only reservation is I'm a glass cockpit-only kind of guy. One of my first good simulators was Falcon 4.0, which I learned to fly by instruments only - no computers. So you're right - if you can fly that, a 744 should be no problem.I guess I'd better give the 747-200 RFP another look.

[Guest jpsulliv]

>Hi,>>Seems that you're not familiar with 767PIC or the upcoming>Level-D Simulations 767-300 :).>>TeroI own 767PIC, but it doesn't work in FS2004. :( I guess I could always do a side-by-side install of FS2002 and FS2004. Unfortunately, I have precious little time to fly anything these days, let alone mess with the computer.