How close the NGX got to the real thing..

[JazzPilot 0]

Not a secret anymore, I know, but I couldn't resist and had to throw this topic in.

 

The NGX came out about almost a year after my last flight in a 737 (+ visit in the flight deck). 2 weeks ago, I flew in a 738, for vacation. Flew back home today, also in the flight deck again and I have to say, it's just amazing how close this addon gets to the real deal when it comes to system depth and sounds, and of course, the 3D looks..

 

What I also wanted to say is that I was pretty much amazed by the fact that all pilots I flew with so far this year, knew the PMDG NGX!

 

On the first flight when I was sitting on the F/O seat after landing to take a few snapshots (the F/O took some of myself sitting in the pit), the captain asked me if I was flying any sim, I answered with FSX and he said: "I heard they're very good now, you can do a lot.. What was it, P..M?" I said: "PMDG's NGX?" and he looked up to the F/O and smiled: "Yeah, that's what I mean!".

 

And during CRZ today, right before we were cleared to descend, the F/O said: "I bet you know everything by now (I knew the F/O) flying the PMDG", and the captain agreed asking me how much you can do with PMDG's NG. :)

 

A little bit of excitement every time I get to fly in the flight deck, you get used to it, but it's always a new adventure..

 

By the way, they kicked in the V/S a minute before going back to VNAV, I have to say you can feel the climb movement in the front part of the airplane much more.. Felt like sitting in a fighter for a second..

 

Just wanted to share this experience, sorry for any typos, I didn't sleep for about 30 hours?.. Can't upload the pictures I made, as the captain did repeat himself quite a few times warning me not to load anything to FB, Twitter etc.. I hope you understand my situation.

 

I wish ya'll a great day, thanks for reading (if you did.. :P ), and keep flying the NGX, if you get a jumpseat ride you'll have a lot to talk about with the pilots ;)

[Birdman 0]

What a great read. Thankyou so much for sharing :-)

[kjjj11223344 48]

Thanks for sharing. Reading about the NGX's realism puts a smile to my face.

[738 72]

Nice post man, a very good read to wake up to this morn.

[Jetman67 506]

Hello

 

How did you score a jumpseat ride, cant do it anymore in Australia due to those dam terrorists,I even offered to pay and to show them my aviation ASIC but they didnt care, I really miss that

 

Wayne

[JazzPilot 0]

I'm glad you liked my post!

 

I live in Europe, your chances are almost 0 if you're an adult and don't know the pilots, or any other pilots which they know so you can use them as a reference. It wasn't difficult for me because I know half of the company. On the flight yesterday, I knew the F/O, but I asked another F/O, who is a closer friend if he could request the flight (that was a month before..), he did request it, but he didn't get the flight, but lucky for me the F/O who got the flight turned out to be a friend of mine. :)

 

Already looking forward to flying the 738 in real life in a few years..

[Fabo 213]

Sometime, some friendly pilots will accomodate you, on their own risk, if they believe you to be harmless and not post openly *hey I was in the cockpit illegaly at this one time*. Slightly paraphrasing a badly translatable proverb in my language, "where is no lawsuit there is no penalty" or maybe "where is no prosecutor there is no judge", so they may risk it.

 

You would have better chances if you were a security-cleared aviation personell, for ex. when I worked at an airport, and I had a security badge, it could be argued that I would not be a security problem, and I would be briefed so I were not a safety problem.

 

Sometimes, there is an even better chance - arrange it with an airline. Maybe you are in press, or you are a (somewhat) respected blogger - make it so that you would be writing a collumn about a life of an airline pilot, or something - and the airline might just have it arranged so you would be allowed as a kind of "auxilliary crew" on the flightdeck. There was this kid that flew with Ronan O Cadhain to Orlando officially, he wrote a short account of it on this forum.

 

Else... get hired as a FA, they get a ride on occassion... :P

[bakaman 28]

you got it right man, can't get closer to the real NG. Nothing but PMDG !!!

[JazzPilot 0]

When I entered the flight deck, it was very familiar within the first few seconds. The only few differences I noticed 2 weeks ago and 2 days ago when I flew in the flight deck (twice within 2 weeks now), were the dimensions. I first thought it's the view angle of the sim, but when I was sitting on the F/O seat after the landing, or on the jumpseat during the flight I really noticed that there's so much less space in the real thing, but I trust PMDG and it's probably the resolution.

 

What I also noticed is that on the pedestal / radio stack panel, some of the switches, knobs and panels are placed in different orders or positions, not a big deal though, I'd like to know why they mix that tho.

 

The yoke is also much more black than it looks like in the NGX, probably another little detail that nobody cares about, but I noticed that last year already and edited the yoke textures for myself to make it look more black-ish.

 

Those are only the differences I noticed, so please, don't think I'm complaining. I am very happy about the NGX, it's a great learning tool and preperation tool for the 737NG typerating in the future, and of course, so much fun flying it manually through the virtual skies.

 

Never felt so familiar on a flight deck like on the 737 NG's:)

[Jordan 0]

I think the order of the radios would be an airline preference.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

I'd be curious on things like flows...did their actions match the PMDG flows? Also, power settings, airspeeds, etc.

[Jude Bradley 659]

i agree with you on the flight-deck size,on the other hand,it's quite hard to place a 3d object onto a flat-screen.

Best we can hope for is a compromise.

Glad you enjoyed the flight deck. Last time i was in the cockpit was in '97

[JazzPilot 0]

I'd be curious on things like flows...did their actions match the PMDG flows? Also, power settings, airspeeds, etc.

 

The flows do match due to the fact that most of those are SOP's come from Boeing, so it's more like a general operating procedure for all 737 NG pilots, the company side procedures are just a few small differences.

 

Power settings: Nothing else than what you see on the PMDG depending on the circumstances.

Airspeeds: When I came back to the flight deck during flight I noticed .77 mach on SPD INTV. VNAV and LNAV was on. We were at FL380. At the time I took one of the snapshots (using it as a reference now) we were on 88.0 thrust on both engines (had a few differences every now and then from engine #1 to engine #2 of roughly 1 % N1).

 

What I also noticed when we used V/S mode to initiate the descent before arriving at T/D, the yoke didn't move but the trim did all the work, unlike in the NGX, but it's just a small detail and probably beacuse of the low V/S.

 

What else is there to say.. hmm..

 

The runway course was already entered about 30 minutes before T/D. We used flaps 1 for T/O, just like the last flight 2 weeks ago.

 

Oh, and I have to say, during the first 2 minutes of descent when I went outside the flight deck, getting myself some water and talking to the cabin crew, the aircraft stabilized at a certain altitude and believe me, it felt like 3 G's pushing you up while standing right infront of the flight deck door :P You feel the movement so much in the front, especially while standing..

 

if there are any other questions, feel free to ask, I'll try to answer them as best as I can.

 

Edit:

 

May I add, the weather radar is an awesome feature in the real 737 :P Saw like all the front parts on the ND covered in red.. Wasn't too happy about that.. This 737 also had nice sun shades on the side windows.

 

Oh and at the end of the first flight when I was sitting on the F/O seat taking photos, I was talking to the captain and heard the standby altitude indicators needle vibrator, so I asked him: "Isn't the vibrator annoying?", we had a good laugh, well, the crew had.. I then corrected myself: "I mean the vibrator preventing the needle to get stuck in the standby altitude indicator!". I'll never forget that, and I think they won't as well, especially my mate, who was the F/O.. :)

[Avroboeing 3]

Hello

 

How did you score a jumpseat ride, cant do it anymore in Australia due to those dam terrorists,I even offered to pay and to show them my aviation ASIC but they didnt care, I really miss that

 

Wayne

 

You can still ride jump... If you work for the company. There are other requirements too. I can't remember how many times I've flown jump. It definitely pays to work for an airline if you have an interest in aviation/aircraft.

 

Ashley Frew.

[Avroboeing 3]

I'd be curious on things like flows...did their actions match the PMDG flows? Also, power settings, airspeeds, etc.

 

I can't talk on behalf of the original poster, but as far as the airline I work for goes, I'd say that on the 738 flights that I've flown jump on, 98% of the flight was conducted using the very same Checklist/Procedures as the NGX (are you surprised? Don't be. Such is PMDG). The remaining 2% is split between company variances and flying according to conditions.

I was surprised at how much I knew what they were doing, and I'm sure you'd be equally as surprised when you get to ride the jump. One other thing that I noticed, which the original poster illuded to, was the fact that the runways seemed bigger!? Maybe it's just the flight sim or my screen resolution. On the real thing, looking out towards the runway, I get the thought of... "if you missed touching down on the runway, you must be trying reeeaaally hard to get fired".(CAVOK).

 

Anyway, I've hijacked the post, great post.

 

Ash Frew.