There's a interesting 757 panel which makes some BIG claims in Today's uploads that I thought some might want to "test". It's by Lonny Paynehttp://library.avsim.com/sendfile.php?DLID=25992Best Wishes,Randy J. [email protected]" A little learning is a dangerous thing"AMD XP2100 |MUNCHKIN512 DDR RAM |ECS[/b ]K7S5A MB |[b]GF364 MEG |WIN XP PRO

Just seen it before I come over to the forums.From what I can say from the screenshots (I have yet to downlaod it), it looks...nice. Not as good as PIC (slourp, slourp), but nice. He hasn't included any screenshots of the FMC and I find it a bit strange. What I don't (personally) like is the ADI option he included. Personally I prefer the Pegasus style with 2 cues FD. The overhead looks complete.Now, we only have to try it! If anyone did already and wants to share his/her opinion we are all ears! :-)Fly safe!George DorkofikisAthens, GreeceOk..ok... I'll also put one of those intelligent lines at the bottom, at least so I like to think! :-)" 'Hot' pilots don't go around. Alive pilots do!"

Well,I've been playing with it for the past 2 hours now.The verdict: for a freeware panel: WAU!!! Very nice! as a competition to PIC: The panel is "sharp", it's not smooth in the way ol' PIC is, not even close. It doesn't model the FMC, just some weight and speed calculations to help the pilot. The overhead is nicely done, and it works. There's even a failure generator, which was very nicely done, and I liked it very much. The autopilot has 757/767 looks but is only a FS2002 autopilot masked as something else.The plane flies nicely, it's almost easier to fly than PIC, but has odd responsiveness to engine power... it's kinda abrupt, and IMO doesn't resemble real flight very much.The callouts from the virtual F/O are nice, I like them a lot. It wouldn't have taken much to model "eighty" "Vee one" "flaps 15" etc. etc. to PIC itself. The biggest reason as to why the panel was fun to fly with was to get ANOTHER 767/757 panel to try at last, and then compare it to PIC... and then see that PIC is lightyears ahead. But NO disrespect to the panel designer. THIS should be the direction of Freeware developers... With a lot of hard work it could easily stand up for competition against PIC. But... I mean A LOT...Anyways, Go ahead and try it yourself... it's very nice :)Tero

Would you like to have a co-pilot in PIC as well ?To call you the speeds, flaps, checklists etc?George DorkofikisAthens, George

At the present time I am using FDC with the PIC panel in the 757/767. It seems to be working fairly well and the best part is I enjoy it. jim in NM

Well, mister, that's what you get from comparing a freeware to a professional, commercial product.

Yes George! Did you ever release the Virtual Co-Pilot application you were updating for FS2002?

Nope...BUT... I'm going to this Weekend... At last I found the last little bugger that was troubling me when I used it with PIC.All set now, passed it to a few friends for final tests and I'll upload it probably Saturday Night (UTC).The good extra thing is that now when you set the Vref Speed on arrival, the flap speeds are automatically calculated... Approximately of course but you can always overide them if you have the proper tables... :-)Cheers,George DorkofikisAthens, Greece

Hey George, this sounds real interesting and I will look forward to loading it up. Couple of questions:1) Will there be a noticable affect on frame rate performance on a 900 Mhz PIII? 2) You mention that flap speeds are automatically approximated when Vref is set, does that mean these entries are made outside of FS for each take-off & landing, or is it coupled to PIC and you are referring to when Vref is populated in the PIC FMC?It sounds like this will be a nice addition to the panel.

There is no frame impact at all. It's an adventure and as such won't take up resourses.. It's NOT an EXE or a program... It's running right from within FS as native with all the advantages (and disadvantages unfortunately) you can expect.You will have to feed the Vref speed manually to the adventure each time. Then within the adventure the flap call speeds are automatically updated. You can overwrite them at anytime of course.George DorkofikisAthens, Greece

Preston,Umm... so ?? What's your point ?I wasn't arguing about anything... just letting people know what to expect... as George here was wondering about how the panel was.l8rTero

Dude, calm down. Nobody said anything about you arguing about anything. You wrote a good review.. but I'm saying that you can't expect a freeware to be "competing" with a commercial ware like PIC.

Preston,Hehee.. Review is an overstatement. But the panel itself is awesome in terms of freeware. The guy obviously has put a lot of work into the panel, and all by himself. With the exception of a few gauges of which one is even courtesy of W.Chafe himself.Anyway, I wasn't expecting a competition, but the "big claims" like Randy put it, sure are pretty big, but the surprising part about the panel is, that it lives up to its expectations, although not being any competition to PIC as is. Future will show what kind of improvements Lonny will incorporate into the panel.I wonder if he's reading this forum, and/or flies the PIC...sorry for overreacting, yesterday was just one of those daysTero

Over at the main FS forum, Lonny wrote that his plans are indeed to program a fully functioning FMC! Unfortunately I can't get into his site for more information as the server says that the daily limit b/w has been exceeded for the day!I have yet to download and try it...but... Are there any GOOD 757 airfiles around????George DorkofikisAthens, Greece

George,Expect a GOOD 757 airfile soon by Transavia 757 pilot Iskander Hannivoort (Iz is his screen name here, if I remember right), who makes the airfile for the upcoming IFDG 757. There's another thread (not old) that discusses that thing. IZ just pointed out that he will be redoing the airfile for more accuracy.It should be good...With Lee's VSI TCAS and that 757-airfile coming up, there's no way of knowing where we'll end up ;D.rgdsTero