Yes, it look's very nice and attractive. My opinion is that it is possible to use a regular 747-400 to simulate the short flights in Japan, the realism is still good. But on the other side, even more realism is welcome. :)When i was working in Scandinavian Airlines (SAS Cargo) in Norway, twice a week we had a 747 400 coming from Vienna to pick up cargo that was going to Korea. I believe it was a little over an hour flight. That flight I have made some times. It arrives empty and almost with no fuel on board because of the short jump up to the north of Europe, so it was kind of weird to watch the landing because it was so light. Looked a little more bumpier an responsive to wind than i usually see. And low speed and very fast braking, looked like it almost stopped the moment the landing gear touched the ground. Kind of fun :)

To be honest, I think you'd have to really want a 400D model to justify the price of the Aerosim one, as it is definitely on the 'lite' side, but being completely fair, it gets great FPS, which is one of Aerosim's stated design goals, and as noted, you can soup it up with ISG stuff. Nevertheless, I think it is one for '747 completists'. With the exception of Aerosim's 767, I do have all their FSX stuff, and it's not bad on the whole.Anyway, back on topic, my choice to always fly with real weather in Air Hauler bit me on the &@($* yesterday, I had planned to fly the JF Constellation from Almeria to Toncontin, but using ASE meant that Manchester Int'l, where I was due to ferry the Constellation from for a quick cargo pick up at Manchester Woodford, was completely fogged in. I took off hoping that I might sneak into Woodford if the weather cleared, I circled around for about half an hour but it was a complete no go and I had to divert to the south of England. Check out this weather of the taxi and take off from EGCC, gotta love ASE, but man that weather was bad, it was like that up to about 3,500 feet agl (that was exactly like the real weather was in the NW of England yesterday too, the fog was incredible):Al

The Simcheck A300 seems fantastic, and i like to learn about the INS system. I have a question for you, do you also try the aircraft you review out in emergency, say loss of hydraulic, cabin-pressure or generator power. Or even an total engine failure?It seems to me that this isn't something most of the reviewers write about. I haven't read all of the reviews out there so maybe I'm wrong, but it would be a nice touch to also try- at least some of the big complex aircraft that have complex systems, to see how the response is and how each aircraft handles. This is no criticism of you or the other reviewers at any way because the reviews i read is very good and detailed, its more of a forgotten point that actually is very essential in aviation. And emergencies do happen from time to time. Thanks Al, very nice written :)Kjetil

Personally, unless there was a specific failures feature which was a big part of an add-on's selling point, I probably would not attempt to break the thing as part of a review, but oddly enough, one of the things that is great about the Simcheck A300 is that the where the systems are dependent on one another, it is done in a convincing way, for example with the hydraulic systems, which do need to be functioning for even simple things such as the parking brake to work. Nevertheless, the real A300 has a lot of built-in redundancy, although in exceptional circumstances, even that could not be enough, which is kind of evident from this little adventure, which was an astonishing bit of airmanship:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Baghdad_DHL_attempted_shootdown_incidentAl

In the last couple of weeks I have flown the following:KDFW......CYVR PMDG MD11F ARROW CargoKORD....EGLL PMDG MD11F FedexEGLL....OMDB PMDG MD11F Lufthansa CargoOMDB....YPPH ..........................Lufthansa CargoYPPH.....YMML.............................Lufthansa CargoYMML......NZAA.............................Lufthansa CargoNZAA......RJAA..............................Lufthansa CargoRJAA.......EDDF PMDG 747 400 X Pax LufthansaThe last flight was the first time I have flown the route from Narita to Frankfurt, and the first time flying in Russian airspace, You don't realise how vast it is till you fly over it.CheersJulian

Personally, unless there was a specific failures feature which was a big part of an add-on's selling point, I probably would not attempt to break the thing as part of a review, but oddly enough, one of the things that is great about the Simcheck A300 is that the where the systems are dependent on one another, it is done in a convincing way, for example with the hydraulic systems, which do need to be functioning for even simple things such as the parking brake to work. Nevertheless, the real A300 has a lot of built-in redundancy, although in exceptional circumstances, even that could not be enough, which is kind of evident from this little adventure, which was an astonishing bit of airmanship:http://en.wikipedia....otdown_incidentAl

Speaking of failures: Some times I have it on and I had an electrical mailfunction and suddenly APU failure or shutdown. Kind of a funny twist to the routine.I read your review. Very good and very detailed. It gave me all the information I needed plus a bit more interesting things. And I got to say something about a line you wrote: Yes, I am a detail junkie, so no wing flex for me is a bit down, but no biggie.And nice with the real A300 background history.I had to deal with A300 (DHL) daily with my time in the airline business, and frequently the aircraft needed external air to start. But still, a very durable aircraft after my impression. That's one of the reason the A300 tempt's me.

In the last couple of weeks I have flown the following:KDFW......CYVR PMDG MD11F ARROW CargoKORD....EGLL PMDG MD11F FedexEGLL....OMDB PMDG MD11F Lufthansa CargoOMDB....YPPH ..........................Lufthansa CargoYPPH.....YMML.............................Lufthansa CargoYMML......NZAA.............................Lufthansa CargoNZAA......RJAA..............................Lufthansa CargoRJAA.......EDDF PMDG 747 400 X Pax LufthansaThe last flight was the first time I have flown the route from Narita to Frankfurt, and the first time flying in Russian airspace, You don't realise how vast it is till you fly over it.CheersJulian

Absolutely, it have to be the only nation in the world that they fly domestic flights that passes 9 hours.Well, I see the departure's and arrival's that you like to travel long distance. See the world, very cool. The transport demand is global :)

Hi,I've been cris-crossing the 34 US states covered by the excellent Simsavvy photorealistic scenery for 1 year in dutch Owen's DC3C coupled with FS Captain. I use pilotage as a navigation technique with real world sectional charts. Spoting my waypoint landmarks is really challenging and keeps me busy during my 150-200 NM legs in real weather. In the DC3C, all the systems are modelled and require constant monitoring. Watching the scenery+Navigation+FS captain + system monitoring (with occasional realistic failures) is exciting . I enjoy my flights so much, it is addictive.Happy flying.

I usually pull up Flightaware and check my local airports or airports in a paticular area i wnt to fly and see what routes aircraft are flying. If I have that particular aircraft in FSX (I have tons of addon aircraft GA and commercial mostly payware and some freeware, so usually no problem there) I'll make the flightplan with FS Commander and fly that particular route. It works for me because alot of times I load up FSX and can't figure out what I want to do or where I want to fly so Flightaware helps me out alot and they also have most of the charts you'll need which you can print out.

Hi,I've been cris-crossing the 34 US states covered by the excellent Simsavvy photorealistic scenery for 1 year in dutch Owen's DC3C coupled with FS Captain. I use pilotage as a navigation technique with real world sectional charts. Spoting my waypoint landmarks is really challenging and keeps me busy during my 150-200 NM legs in real weather. In the DC3C, all the systems are modelled and require constant monitoring. Watching the scenery+Navigation+FS captain + system monitoring (with occasional realistic failures) is exciting . I enjoy my flights so much, it is addictive.Happy flying.

That sounds like a very cool routine. What is this DC-3 you are referring to?

That sounds like a very cool routine. What is this DC-3 you are referring to?

the DC3C is a free model that you can download from the FScaptain website.http://www.fscaptain.net/certified.phpYou don't need to buy FS captain to get it but the two make a very nice combination. If you want to fly by the book, it is a must. Be aware that the VC is below current FSX standards but I put up with it because I prefer realistic system modelisation than eye candy VC. I would like to have both of course. Both means A2A aircraft (I have the B377 and the B17, very good aicraft). I spend most of my time watching the scenery to find my waypoints and scan my gauges periodically. Read the instruction manual and see if it suits you. here is an extract"Be assured that there is nothing in the following flight procedures that's said for pretend realism. The systems you are operating here aren't the ones that you may be used to that are based around what's built-in to Microsoft Flight Simulator. Every checklist item and every warning is here to caution about a real possible situation in the DC-3C aircraft, including some that could happen in the real world but that simulator pilots seldom expect to ever encounter. Even light bulbs can burn out in this airplane."There are both random failures and pilot error induced failures. You can set the failure probability (never, rare, likely, certain). rare is the most realistic. you know that a failure can happen, but you never know when. Believe me when there is a failure you have to think fast to fix it, and you feel the pressure!! All failures are survivable if you do things correctly.It is very exciting

Asking me to choose a favorite aircraft is kind of like asking me to choose a kid I like over the other(not that I have one, but you understand I hope) I typically fly the CS757 most often, and it's usually cross US routes like Boston to LA, or random flights like, from Portugal to Ethiopia. Just whatever floats my boat at the time.

I do understand, but its kind of a weird parallell. A chunk of flying metal to a living kid.....Oh well...I did get your point though. I also have the CS757 and its great. I did a route from Gardermoen to New York. Or I tried to do it. Not enuff fuel capacity to get there with full payload. But in real life its a route done almost every day. I "heard stories" that they have to leave behind passenger's checked in luggage to be able to get all the way. And it also quite frequently happens that the poo-tanks are full and cant be used when just a little over half way. Thats westwards, eastwards its not that big problem because the passengers are mostly sleeping. And also some amount of landings with under the "one hour of fuel" left, and have to be given priority. European aviation authority's aren't to happy about it. If you for some reason will attempt this with a full cabin and pretty full bag load, let me know how it went :) Its almost every time very packed aircraft because it its very few direct route's from Gardermoen to North America.

What I find helpful with my flight planning is a rather nice Atlas (book) that I keep by my computer desk. Many flights have originated from simply opening up the book to a random page and planning a flight from somewhere in the area depicted. I've also used it endlessly just to get an idea of what the distances and geography/topography will be like in the different areas and plan my flights accordingly. I then look for corresponding cities and airports to fly out of and into. I've ended up setting up some rather non-standard flights this way. For example, I once flew from one country in S.E. Africa all the way to the Middle East. Not the usual flight plan for most. But it was definitely interesting.But lately I've been doing quick local hops while testing new graphical settings and newly acquired addon airplanes.

Lately I have been flying the QW757, CLS MD80 and Airbus X. I almost always start from an airport with high quality scenery, bad weather and AES compatibility to another airport with similar conditions. Most flights are between major US airports and holiday destinations in the Caribbean, Hawaii, Mexico and Central America.

I fly mostly between KLAX, KLAS, KDFW, KJFK, KBOS, and KBUF. I go between these airports because I have FSDT/FlyTampa scenery for them (except KLAX, waiting on FSDT for that one).My favorite is the PMDG MD-11, but my fleet includes the following:PMDG MD-11XPMDG 747-400XPMDG 747-800PMDG 747 LCFPMDG JS4100FSLabs ConcordeXSimCheck A300Level D 767Leonard MD-80CS 707CS 727-100/200fCS 757-200/200fCS 767-300CS C130Wilco 737 PICFeelThere E-Jets Vol 1VRS F/A-18EAerosoft F-16Lotus L-39RealAir Duke

Wow what a question, so many to chooseStill haven't learned the PMDG MD-11, can fly their 747 blind folded though, my favorite heavy iron.I usually fly the 747F in routes flown by Cargolux, UPS, or Atlas Air/Polar. Sometimes Kalitta in their 747 converted freighter.Lately picked up all the Orbx North American scenery and hopping around various airports in either the Carenado Super Cargomaster or Flight1 Pilatus PC-12 if I need a little more speed.Still go back to the Hawaiian airports by FSDreamteam, island hopping is fun, just wish there was more detailed Hawaiian terrain scenery. Use the PC-12, Cargomaster, or RealAir Duke.Sometimes hop around Europe trying to get good use out of all the addon airports I have from there in the PMDG 747 or PC-12Once KLAX comes out I will fly more big iron again with Cargolux routes especially in North America.Still want to get around to learning how to fly the PMDG MD-11 and Eaglesoft Citation XHoping Captain Sim release an update for a few nagging issues to fly their 727F around the Pacific for Asia Pacific Airlines Cargo and around the US/Canada for FedEx/Morningstar/Kelowna Flightcraft/Cargojet/AmerijetI love this sim!!