I like the new website very much and for the first time I've started to take note of the daily news and updates. I like the comments section on these too.

I marvel at all the new addons, widgets etc and wonder how we will ever find time to use half of them. But, the more the merrier - I realise that people look for different things from their flight simulator.

 

One thing stands out above all others though. We still do not have an Airbus 320 series of iFly or PMGD quality. If you live in Europe, apart from the notable exception of Ryanair and its 737-800s, you've got to look very hard to find an airline which flies anything except Airbus. Malév Hungarian had a largish fleet of B737s but it recently collapsed. BMI Baby (a recent BA acquisition) also flew 737-400/500 but it is folding next month. BMI Baby was reported to have been losing £50 per hour for the past 4 years.

 

Back to the Airbus. Airsimmer has been promising its Advanced for so long that there must be considerable doubt that it will ever appear. As far as I know neither PMDG nor iFly show any interest in doing an Airbus. It is a very odd situation.

 

Which Airbus do I fly? I am still using the freeware Project Airbus with Alex Wemmer' s freeware panel and gauges. It has a very nice ND and FMS but apart from that it is quite basic.The trouble with the PA version is getting liveries. As new airlines arrive and old ones change equipment, painters tend to ignore the Project Airbus model - a pity because with Alex's panel it is not bad at all. I have the Wilco Airbus designed for FS2002 and then patched for FS9, but I never got it to fly properly. I get confused by the various versions of FeelThere/Wilco Airbuses and their Evolutions (De Luxe or not), and the various upgrades for these.

 

IMHO, the hobby urgently needs a high fidelity Airbus A320 series aircraft compatible with FS9 and FSX. Whether we get it or not is another thing.

It's safe to say that there will not be another all new A320 for FS9. All we have to work with is what's already out there. I have both Wilco and airsimmer. Wilco bus allows us to get a shallow taste of normal flights in an A320. Airsimmer goes a lot deeper into system simulation. I recently revisited both the airsimmer basic and advanced beta versions and I'm currently flying and enjoying the latter with no major complaint.

We still do not have an Airbus 320 series of iFly or PMGD quality.

The chance is almost zero. I start to think that Airbus is too complicated to be simulated. I'm not saying they can't but those who have tried are badly wounded... only few handled the complaints professionally. PMDG has stated they would come up with "something new" in the future yet whatever that is, it's not meant for fs9

 

Airsimmer has been promising its Advanced for so long that there must be considerable doubt that it will ever appear. As far as I know neither PMDG nor iFly show any interest in doing an Airbus. It is a very odd situation.

Airbus often causes problems for developers. Boeing addons sell, why bother taking risks by designing Airbus? They don't care if we're dying for airbus, they want to sell (Gosh I miss posky)

 

IMHO, the hobby urgently needs a high fidelity Airbus A320 series aircraft compatible with FS9 and FSX. Whether we get it or not is another thing.

tell us something we don't know :)

Given the apparent 'difficulties' of creating hi-fidelity Airbus models I guess that none will be created for XPlane either. Airbus planes are so ubiquitous these days that their very limited presence in all of the simulations undermines the credibility of the entire thing for me. It is like a Champions League simulation without Barcelona - in fact it's worse than that.

 

why bother taking risks by designing Airbus?

 

Taking risks is what business is all about.

PMDG were at one stage going to do Airbus. A difference of opinion between Lefteris and Randazzo (?) has seen the former leave, start Flight Sim Labs (aka FSLabs), issue the Concorde and is well advanced along with their A320, now solely for FSX.

 

As has been suggested in quite a number of recent threads the Airsimmer comes closest of all insofar as systems modelling is concerned.

I know it's not PMDG but hopefully it is better than the Wilco. I will try it.

I know it's not PMDG but hopefully it is better than the Wilco. I will try it.

 

Did you mean Airsimmer? Yes, it is better.

I personally use the PSS A320 merged with the Project Airbus model, and some of my personal flight dynamics tweaks. Systems aren't modeled 100%, of course, but it's a great visual model, is a blast to hand fly (I would say it's a good 80% solution for fly by wire and autotrim), and gets me from A to B with a basic FMGC...throw on some of the classic CFM or IAE engine whines and it's just as good as anything else out there for FS9, in my opinion.

I personally use the PSS A320 merged with the Project Airbus model, and some of my personal flight dynamics tweaks. Systems aren't modeled 100%, of course, but it's a great visual model, is a blast to hand fly (I would say it's a good 80% solution for fly by wire and autotrim), and gets me from A to B with a basic FMGC...throw on some of the classic CFM or IAE engine whines and it's just as good as anything else out there for FS9, in my opinion.

 

IMO to lots of people, VC is kind of must-have nowadays since hardwares are more and more powerful and people enjoy seating in VC more than 2D...

 

I don't often use VC, but I can't play without it..just my way of enjoying FS.

I personally use the PSS A320 merged with the Project Airbus model, and some of my personal flight dynamics tweaks. Systems aren't modeled 100%, of course, but it's a great visual model, is a blast to hand fly (I would say it's a good 80% solution for fly by wire and autotrim), and gets me from A to B with a basic FMGC...throw on some of the classic CFM or IAE engine whines and it's just as good as anything else out there for FS9, in my opinion.

 

Used to be my combo as well, except I used the IFDG model. Right now it's Airsimmer for me. I miss some of the functions of the PSS mcdu, like an INIT B page, but the rest of the package makes up for it. At it's best nothing compares to the Airbus-immersion factor of flying the AS320 vc, especially at night.

Used to be my combo as well, except I used the IFDG model. Right now it's Airsimmer for me. I miss some of the functions of the PSS mcdu, like an INIT B page, but the rest of the package makes up for it. At it's best nothing compares to the Airbus-immersion factor of flying the AS320 vc, especially at night.

 

This is true, I have never been a big VC fan, but the Airsimmer changed that. The VC is fantastic (especially at night as Mark said) to the point that I only fly this bird form the VC. The systems are the best available (advanced version has INIT B, etc but is still a bit less stable than the Basic version) and is the only real A320 option for FS9. I am looking forward to the FSLabs A320 (the only reason I have FS9 installed is for the Airsimmer) and moving to FSX once and for all.