As owner of both aircraft, I wonder why the MD-11 wasnt more successful. I am pretty comfortable flying the MD-11 ( I did the angle of attack training) and I have to say compared to the 737ngx , MD-11 is a dream to fly. So highly automated. Why didnt companies want this bird. Flys beautifully.

 

Dont get me wrong , the NGX is awesome aircraft and pmdg did an outstanding job on it. Just saying for comparison purposes the workload is night and day. Well for us single pilots anyhow in FSX. Perhaps thats a different story in the real world with two pilots.

 

When i worked for Canadian Airlines on the ramp, I had the opportunity to go to the DC-10 simulator at the time where my uncle was a captain and watch one of his test sessions. The workload was quite high. The MD-11 automates so much of that. I suppose compared to todays twins the 11 is not as efficient, but for an operational standpoint, its great. And the FMC is awesome to use.

 

Just my 2 cents worth for anyone who wants to consider purchasing these aircraft, go with the MD-11 first and understand it. Then when you do the NGX you will have a greater understanding of it. It helped with using the FMC despite the differences.

 

Happy flying and thanks PMDG for the awesome aircraft. Look forward the 777 and 747.

The MD-11 is my favorite aircraft of all time (both RW and PMDG). Beatiful plane. Saddly, my chances of flying on the real thing are very thin.

 

The NGX is amazing, and I'm sure the T7 will be mind-blowing, but the MD11 will still have a warm spot here.

 

One thing that I red somewhere, is that the MD11 has a poor safety record, specially on landings...

The MD-11 is my favorite aircraft of all time (both RW and PMDG). Beatiful plane. Saddly, my chances of flying on the real thing are very thin.

 

The NGX is amazing, and I'm sure the T7 will be mind-blowing, but the MD11 will still have a warm spot here.

 

One thing that I red somewhere, is that the MD11 has a poor safety record, specially on landings...

 

I noticed that flying it for landings if you "stick" it hard to the ground it will get away from you and want to fly again even with spoilers deployed. at least initially and autolands. But its safety record was marred more by pilot error rather than malfunctions I think.

Both are very enough for me,but if need to chose one,i thinking MD-11 is first chose. Like hightowers mention,MD-11 have many Advanced system,and always use to about 40% in the FMC.

Hi Hightower (btw its a condition of this forum to post your real name :-) )

 

With regards to the MD-11's failure as a commercial airliner, well it's kind of simple. Although she's a fine aircraft and the automation is awesome, she was late arriving and originally missed all her performance targets, iirc. Add to that the ETOPS regs which allowed for twins to fly much further from land than before, and house that the old trijet was just to inefficient compared to the 767 for example. Which is a pity, because the md-11 is such a nice aircraft (with a dark side I might add ).

 

Best wishes,

Jessica bannister-pearce

I love this plane too and have been flying/simming it for several years now. Lately I seem to be having a problem with "floating" on the landings and landing long. Hope I can fix this but otherwise I agree with the above, including the desire to try out PMDG's new 777.

Once the NGX was released I haven't the touched the MD-11 for a long time. Then, after some nice hours I was somehow satisfied and needed something different, so I fired my A-10 and Ka-50 up again. I also had a great time in those two! However lately I rolled the MD-11 out of the hanger again, and yesterday I bought FS2Crew for her, which makes a great experience improvement too!

Up to now I messed up my last five landings :rolleyes:, especially since I have FS2Crew I am a little bit disturbed by the landing checklist and always start to descend below the optimum glide path (I should try flaps 35 again, flaps 50 just adds so much drag :lol:)...

However, as others already said, if I had to choose, then I would say the MD-11, it is just so different and much more challenging then the NGX, especially while flying with an outdate navdatabase online :Whistle:

Up to now I messed up my last five landings , especially since I have FS2Crew I am a little bit disturbed by the landing checklist and always start to descend below the optimum glide path (I should try flaps 35 again, flaps 50 just adds so much drag )...

 

Im almost always landing with flaps 35 exception being extreme circumstances. I too was landing long until y I mastered getting it to the threshold and punching it down there and making it stick. Otherwise it appears to float long and youll run out of runway.

My spoilers wefe armed once and they still didnt deploy and i ended up and the end of the runway pretty quick even with thrust reversers auto brakes med.

 

Jessica- Thanks for the explanation of the md11s failure as far as marketing. Too bad. Aesthetically shes a beaut.

Put the MD-11 on the shelf and kind of forgotten about it for a few years, Until the other day!

 

Started looking up tutorials on Youtube and reading the provided PMDG manuals now flying this beauty with more confidence, still have to grease up on a few areas like landings but slowly getting there!

Its a great learning curve and challenge moving from Boeing to McDonnell Douglas, really enjoying it to the full!

I've been flying NGX non-stop for a year, but I'm going to start doing some long-haul cargo with the MD-11X. Two fantastic, but very different PMDG products in terms of handling characteristics. Can't wait for the 777X!

I had learned how to fly her a while ago, but it wasn't enough to steer me away from the 747... I have about 1000 hours on the 747, barely 60 on the NGX and less than 2 on the MD-11....

 

Oh boy..

If I'm going to do something, I better do it before GEC gets 77F's..

I love the MD11 also, I bought it for FS9 and FSX. I have over 300hours logged so far in both sims with the MD11.

Simply speaking, and it's my opinion........ NGX is the best plane ever modeled for FSX and MD-11 comes second to that, About 80% of NGX over all experience. For me MD-11 is more controllable in a way (I don't know how it must be my mistake but if I am not 100% focusing while descending the NGX, I get a speed problem, it's a little not too easy to slow down). I hope for a quick release for T7 and B747-V2 and then the fleet is almost done

The MD-11 is my favorite aircraft of all time (both RW and PMDG). Beatiful plane. Saddly, my chances of flying on the real thing are very thin.

 

The NGX is amazing, and I'm sure the T7 will be mind-blowing, but the MD11 will still have a warm spot here.

 

One thing that I red somewhere, is that the MD11 has a poor safety record, specially on landings...

 

My uncle flys MD-11s for Fed-Ex RW. I love hearing his stories about different flights.

yesterday I bought FS2Crew for her, which makes a great experience improvement too!

 

Agreed, It is a pity there is no " voice control" possibility. That would make it absolutely great to fly with

 

Eric