Having flown a variety of aircraft in the real world, I've always been a bit frustrated hand flying aircraft in Flightsim. It's just not quite right. The aircraft are too touchy, the trim is too twitchy making the aircraft unstable. Even with quality controllers Its difficult to maintain altitude, speed etc. It's easier to fly the real thing. That having been said, I must say that PMDG has made a huge advance in this area. I can not believe how stable the NGX is. I don't know how they accomplished it but this is by far the most realistic airplane I have ever hand flown in Flightsim. It's just a joy to fly, not a constant fight. I've not had the time to fully explore the complexity of the systems which I'm sure will be a continuing source of amazement, but what good are complex systems if the airplane's flight characteristics stink. This airplane is a gem!! Great Job PMDG!!

It certainly is a pleasure to fly. Every approach I've flown so far has been hand-flown and although quality has varied wildly :)...it certainly feels much more intuitive to fly then other FS aircraft for sure.

Having flown a variety of aircraft in the real world, I've always been a bit frustrated hand flying aircraft in Flightsim. It's just not quite right. The aircraft are too touchy, the trim is too twitchy making the aircraft unstable. Even with quality controllers Its difficult to maintain altitude, speed etc. It's easier to fly the real thing. That having been said, I must say that PMDG has made a huge advance in this area. I can not believe how stable the NGX is. I don't know how they accomplished it but this is by far the most realistic airplane I have ever hand flown in Flightsim. It's just a joy to fly, not a constant fight. I've not had the time to fully explore the complexity of the systems which I'm sure will be a continuing source of amazement, but what good are complex systems if the airplane's flight characteristics stink. This airplane is a gem!! Great Job PMDG!!

Do you share the impression or the truth it depends, that runways on FSX are narrower then reality ? Length is fine instead IMO.

Do you share the impression or the truth it depends, that runways on FSX are narrower then reality ? Length is fine instead IMO.

Never thought about it...I can usually put it on the stripes though...I have noticed that the view on final seems more realistic. From the cockpit of an airliner the approach looks much steeper than it appears in flight sim....not sure if this is something PMDG worked on but it looks better in NGX...

it's all a matter of zoom and other view tweaks. i think especially the widescreen takes manipulation after setting the fsx.cfg file to widescreen.i found that it's best to have the forward view window extended to full screen size, adjust the panel.cfg forward_view entry and leave the zoom at 1.0.

it's all a matter of zoom and other view tweaks. i think especially the widescreen takes manipulation after setting the fsx.cfg file to widescreen.i found that it's best to have the forward view window extended to full screen size, adjust the panel.cfg forward_view entry and leave the zoom at 1.0.

I see some people's screen shots that have the view set way back. Not realistic. In the real airplane when your seat is forward your view is very close to the panel. I use Track Ir and zoom in pretty close. More realistic.

Hell, yesterday handflying the last part of the tutorial flight, I landed 2/3 of the way along the runway and still managed to stop some distance away from the end. This indicates that the plane should be pretty good for short field landings. Henri

Hello all,

Absolute joy to hand fly the NGX even just with the mouse. Of all sim activities, hand flying this bird is one of the best, alongside very few other airplanes from other companies.

After flying real airplanes, I too agree there are very few sim products that behave as they do in reality. The narrow aspect/view is easy fix with proper setup and settings. Like mentioned above, there it should be only zoom 1.0 and correct aspect ratio and view angles. Aside from that, REALISTIC input controls are a must.

Not to brag, but I make my own input controls, real yokes, and mechanisms that are true to life with VARIABLE force according to IAS. I just wonder, how many people know that a real 7XX column, through artificial feeling, at max IAS develops approx 100 LBS force at full deflection and that a full deflection of the pedals will steer the front gear just 7 degrees (that makes a world of difference in keeping it straight at high speed on the runway). How many people have that in their sim for realism? Not to mention controls driven back by AP and CORRECT tiller behavior with rudder pedals movement (tiller moved by pedals, and almost 180 deg tiller deflection for 65 deg on gear) :smile:

I completely agree; turning everything off and hand flying is awesome, aside from the marvelous Boeing style automation assisted procedural operations.

Happy flying all, aviation is awesome real and simmed!

Ionut (John) G. Micu

Hello all,

 

Absolute joy to hand fly the NGX even just with the mouse. Of all sim activities, hand flying this bird is one of the best, alongside very few other airplanes from other companies.

 

After flying real airplanes, I too agree there are very few sim products that behave as they do in reality. The narrow aspect/view is easy fix with proper setup and settings. Like mentioned above, there it should be only zoom 1.0 and correct aspect ratio and view angles. Aside from that, REALISTIC input controls are a must.

 

Not to brag, but I make my own input controls, real yokes, and mechanisms that are true to life with VARIABLE force according to IAS. I just wonder, how many people know that a real 7XX column, through artificial feeling, at max IAS develops approx 100 LBS force at full deflection and that a full deflection of the pedals will steer the front gear just 7 degrees (that makes a world of difference in keeping it straight at high speed on the runway). How many people have that in their sim for realism? Not to mention controls driven back by AP and CORRECT tiller behavior with rudder pedals movement (tiller moved by pedals, and almost 180 deg tiller deflection for 65 deg on gear) :smile:

 

I completely agree; turning everything off and hand flying is awesome, aside from the marvelous Boeing style automation assisted procedural operations.

 

Happy flying all, aviation is awesome real and simmed!

 

Ionut (John) G. Micu

I fly the NGX with a Microsoft Sidewinder joystick. Not realistic at all but it still flies great. So highly realistic inputs aren't the problem. Flight sims generally are harder to fly than the real thing because you don't have the same cues to help you. Especially peripheral vision and motion effects. Yes it's true that full control deflection does create very large forces, but most flights are accomplished with very small control inputs so a pilot never needs to exert more than a few pounds of force unless something goes wrong, like a jammed stabiliser.

 

I'm surprised and impressed that you've managed to create simulator flight controls that can generate such high forces. It's not an easy thing to do by any means and usually beyond the price limits and capability of most simmers. Apart from anything else you need a seriously strong mounting frame to react such forces against.

I think of my controls as sort of a fly by wire that does not exist in the real airplane. I have a very nice GoFlight yoke that looks and feels like the real thing but I am amazed by the light touch movement and comparing it to the actual movement of the yoke in the virtual cockpit.

I’ll add that when I was flying the other developer model (for FS2004, but they are virtually the same) I thought that using CWS is the only possible way to handle 737NG on hands, even flying a usual pattern was hard. But with NGX... After I understood some of it’s quirks... Well, I was thinking about flying patterns as a mandatory exercise, now it’s a real pleasure. I was giving the A/P everything except the takeoff and final approach after one full pattern, now I just can’t, it just feels wrong.

I see some people's screen shots that have the view set way back. Not realistic. In the real airplane when your seat is forward your view is very close to the panel. I use Track Ir and zoom in pretty close. More realistic.

Yeah, I don't understand the view points I seen posted before where people are using extremes like .60 or lower and it looks like they are flying from the cockpit door. If you sit in the real thing it doesn't look anything like that. I use no more the .90 if I need to increase my field of view.

 

Btw, I just noticed this was a 4 year old thread that was dug up before I replied.

 

 

Sean Campbell

 It's just a joy to fly, not a constant fight. I've not had the time to fully explore the complexity of the systems which I'm sure will be a continuing source of amazement, but what good are complex systems if the airplane's flight characteristics stink. This airplane is a gem!! Great Job PMDG!!

I always hand fly upto 130-150FL ish (SID), Its just so good.

The only other plane is PMDG 777

 

Love PMDG aircraft.

Btw, I just noticed this was a 4 year old thread that was dug up before I replied.

Well, it's worth it

 

Yeah, I don't understand the view points I seen posted before where people are using extremes like .60 or lower and it looks like they are flying from the cockpit door.

I guess it’s because not everyone have a TrackIR and using a joystick hat continuously isn’t that easy. PMDG in the manual recommends to use .60-.70 zoom level in the VC.

Diana,

 

The use of anything less than 1.0 zoom is completely wrong because the entire depth/distance perception is gone way, way off so you cannot accurately operate the by visual cues.

 

The best possible visual operation is to have 5 monitors with zoom 1.0 placed all around with your head exactly in the middle, monitors being in front, two at 45 deg and two on the sides, This will give you approx 180 deg visibility. The images should be proper VC views at the correct respective angles. A 6th monitor should be the 2D image of the instrument panel in front of you a little lower so you can see the front VC monitor.

 

Now that's a way to hand-fly this birdie