FS2Crew for the Maddog

[trisager 2]

In your review of FS2Crew for the Leonardo Maddog you have "FS9" under "Simulation type". That is correct, of course, but it is worth mentioning that both FS2Crew and the Maddog itself are actually two-in-one products - they work with both FS9 and FSX (your license is valid for both platforms). It is just a matter of choosing either FS9 or FSX at install time.FS2Crew for the FSX Maddog is identical to the FS9 version, so what you wrote in your review applies to the FS9 version also.

[Caribpilot 56]

You are correct. Slight oversight on my part.

[Benjamin J 751]

Thanks for the review, I enjoyed reading it. Would you say you learn the Maddog 2008 more easily, using FS2Crew, or is it better to learn to fly the Maddog first before adding in FS2Crew?

[JHepburn 0]

Thanks for the review, I enjoyed reading it. Would you say you learn the Maddog 2008 more easily, using FS2Crew, or is it better to learn to fly the Maddog first before adding in FS2Crew?

Hey Ben,For normal operations, I think you could learn the flows for FS2Crew pretty easily without knowing it all. Since failures are modelled on the aircraft (not FS2Crew), then if things go south you may be in a bad spot if you don't know all of the systems.My recommendation is to learn the whole darn thing first, and then bring in FS2Crew. If you have failures turned off though, you could do just fine with FS2Crew from the outset.Hope this helps!

[Caribpilot 56]

Hey Ben,For normal operations, I think you could learn the flows for FS2Crew pretty easily without knowing it all. Since failures are modelled on the aircraft (not FS2Crew), then if things go south you may be in a bad spot if you don't know all of the systems.My recommendation is to learn the whole darn thing first, and then bring in FS2Crew. If you have failures turned off though, you could do just fine with FS2Crew from the outset.Hope this helps!

Personally I find it better to learn the aircraft first. I spent about a week reading everything in the manuals to understand how things work. When you use FS2CREW it makes flying much easier since you know what is being done by the Virtual FO and why it is being done...it makes your job easier :(

[trisager 2]

Slight oversight on my part.

Well, I'd encourage you to update the review with the correct platform (FS9+FSX) information.

My recommendation is to learn the whole darn thing first, and then bring in FS2Crew.

I'd recommend flying the Maddog tutorial flight once or twice, then add FS2Crew to the mix. That gets you going with correct procedures from the start, since the FS2Crew flows and checklists reflect real-world operation very accurately.Once you are comfortable with the Maddog/FS2Crew combo, here are some suggestions for learning about the systems in more depth:* Skip the pre-departure portion of the FS2Crew flows and do all the cockpit setup yourself.* Do some go-arounds from various points in the approach sequence. These can be surprisingly difficult to do right.* Enable failures. Loosing a system in flight is a great way of discovering what it actually does :( By the way, in case you haven't seen this, Leonardo has announced a service pack for the Maddog that is expected sometime late April / early May as well as an update that will add a fully analogue cockpit option. This should not affect FS2Crew much, but the developer has confirmed that he will follow up with an FS2Crew service pack as required.