Hi All,I was wanting to get some opinions on th is aircraft as I am thinking of purchasing it. I do all of my flying from the VC. How does the VC, systems modelling, overall model and sounds compare to the PMDG and Captain Sim products? I am looking for a good MD-80 payware addon(to suppliment the fantastic MD-11 addon I have now) that has great depth in terms of the FMC and systems modelling. I noticed that navigraph does have super 80 pro AIRAC updates. Finally, how is the support from the developers? Any updates released recently?I appreciate any feedback I can get on this aircraft.

Scott,All in all its a nice simulation. The external model is excellent. The VC however from a a purely graphical stand point, is well behind that of PMDG or Captain Sim products. The plane however is EXTREMELY framerate friendly. Do not let the graphical quality of the VC scare you off. All in all its a nice simulation. If you want something in line with PMDG's or Captin Sim's complexity I suggest you have a look at the Leonardo MD-80 (graphics still lag behind). www.flythemaddog.comRegards,Bob

It's so funny that you should post this, because I was thinking of buying either the Flight1 Super 80 Pro or the Leonardo 'Fly The Maddog Pro'. After reading this post on Avsim: http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtop...736&hl=md80I have decided that due to what sounds like better performance I am going to get the Flight1 Super 80 Pro. It's also a bit less expensive than the Leonardo version. Plus of course it you buy the Flight1 version and don't like it you can get a refund.Also of interest from that post it looks like the Navagraph data is easier to update in the Flight1 version and in the Leonardo version there is some converting that needs to be done. Not sure how much converting since I didn't read the link that goes to that article.Read the post above that I linked, it has a lot of interesting info.Also you can do a search here for MD80 and there are some other posts on this as well.

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback!Bob,Do you own the Leonardo MD-80 and if so, how framerate friendly is the VC? I don't see a lot of youtube videos that are being flown from the VC. cmpbellsjc, I looked at the conversion process for the navdata and you are correct, it looks like it is a process to get the latest data in the FMC. It also looks like most of the gauges and switches are rendered in 3d which can be taxing on the system. The Maddog version does look pretty nice though(from what I can tell). It looks like it was a port to FSX from 2004.

Scott,I own both the Super 80 and the Super 80 Pro and they are EASY on FRAMERATE. Sitting on the runway at KSEA, Full Autogen, Full Complexity, Airline Traffic 65%, GA 35%, Ships, boats, Ferries 25%, .........locked 30FPS. These aircraft are easier on framerate than the 'stock' FSX heavies. I do not own the Leonardo, my understanding of the Leonardo is that its much harder on FPS.

oops!

If you want a pretty VC, go for the Leo, if you want good FPS, go for the Coolsky, it's as simple as that.If you want a review of the super 80, my review of it is up on the reviews index, and the leo (which I didn't review) is also up there. Personally however, looking at a few of the differences, if you can tolerate an FPS hit, if you want more options in the aircraft in general, I would go with the Leo. This however is purely from a feature list standpoint, as I haven't had the chance to get the Leo.

I have both and I haven't flown the Maddog in a long time, if that tells ya anything. On thop of that, you can never go wrong with Flight 1, their customer support is top notch.

Do you guys that have the Super 80 Pro know if the repaints here in AVSIM that are for the regular Super 80 will work with the Pro model?

Do you guys that have the Super 80 Pro know if the repaints here in AVSIM that are for the regular Super 80 will work with the Pro model?

classic repaints will not work with the pro

How many repaints are there for the Leonardo? Because it's obvious the VC is of far better quality, but looking at the Avsim library, there's not even half the amount of repaints available for it. 17 pages, of which maybe 6 are for Leo repaints, while the Coolsky has 27 pages (for both the old and the pro together).

How many repaints are there for the Leonardo? Because it's obvious the VC is of far better quality, but looking at the Avsim library, there's not even half the amount of repaints available for it. 17 pages, of which maybe 6 are for Leo repaints, while the Coolsky has 27 pages (for both the old and the pro together).

"Ronyo" - Todd Fleck - on the LH forum will create any scheme you wish, provided you can give him the photos.

I have both and I haven't flown the Maddog in a long time, if that tells ya anything. On thop of that, you can never go wrong with Flight 1, their customer support is top notch.Jay

While I agree with you on the second part, Jay - I can say the same about the Coolsky version: "I have both and I haven't flown the CoolSky MD in a long time, if that tells ya anything." The LH MD-80 has to be flown by the book. It will either not start, will burn, will lose an engine, will lose both engines, the gear/flaps/lights/etc., will fail, or something will just plain not work if you manage the aircraft as if it were a standard-quality "jump in and fly" aircraft. You can't do it with this aircraft. There are very few compromises in it's systems functionality. Its let-down is the lack of developer support, but this is more than compensated for by the user members.If you are a systems man - you will get the LH Maddog, FS Passengers, Radar Contact, FSBuild - and love it: if you are a casual "jump in and fly" you will hate it, and shelve it pretty quickly.

Thanks for the reply, Paul! I went over to the Maddog forums, and asked if there's a possiblity someboyd could make the repaints I so dearly want for this plane. If the answer is yes, I'll probably go ahead and buy it. It's not my favorite aircraft, but I love T-tails, and I love smaller jetliners, so i can do short flights.