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VeryBumpy

Captain of the Ship B377 vs Captain Sim C-130X? (pics)

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Both of these seem to be very interesting beasts.

 

I see the C-130X is a much older product and as such, I'm guessing is the inferior product.

 

Is there one plane that is much better than the other?

 

Which one has the most bells and whistles to tinker with?

 

Which one has more atmosphere or character?

 

377t.jpg

 

jblcHNd2Mg4HuH.jpg

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B377 all the way...


Mauricio Brentano

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B377 without doubt. And that's before you put it in a flight sim. That it's the one made by A2A sells it without further research required. I have the C130. It's ok, but is missing that something.

 

Mike

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The B377 is a couple of light years ahead of the Capt Sim C-130X. I have both and this is based on my experiences with both.

 

Ray


When Pigs Fly . Ray Marshall .

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I have both. The C-130 is a older product. The B377 by far is much more in depth. Captain of the Ship is like nothing else in flight simulator. I recommend all of A2A's products. You can't beat their realism. The C-130 is still fun though if you want a quick fly around. Expect a learning curve with the B377. But well worth it.

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Both of these seem to be very interesting beasts.

 

I see the C-130X is a much older product and as such, I'm guessing is the inferior product.

 

Is there one plane that is much better than the other?

 

Which one has the most bells and whistles to tinker with?

 

Which one has more atmosphere or character?

 

I believe this is comparing apples to oranges.

The C-130 is an excellent simulation and although it is an older simulation, it's still an excellent model of the C-130 and the best available. Add on Turbo Sound and it is for real.

 

On the other hand nothing at all, can compare to the Accu-sim products that are being released by A2A. They are a simulation unto themselves. It would be more off center than comparing the PMDG 737NGX to the PMDG FSX 747.

 

If you want a good C-130 simulation, I believe the one that Captain Sim has is the best available and is surly no disappointment. If you want to fly a real Boeing 377 with a full crew at your command, then buy the A2A product. It is the closest thing that you can have to the real thing.

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Both of these seem to be very interesting beasts.

 

I see the C-130X is a much older product and as such, I'm guessing is the inferior product.

 

Is there one plane that is much better than the other?

 

Which one has the most bells and whistles to tinker with?

 

Which one has more atmosphere or character?

 

I would go with the Herc. I have it and the B377.

 

I bought the B377 with high hopes of it being as advertised. It did not perform for me as I had hoped and the issue/issues that I was having were never resolved by the developers. I became so frustrated with the B377 that I deleted it from my harddrive.

 

Billy Bluestar


I Earned My Spurs in Vietnam

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I would go with the Herc. I have it and the B377.

 

I bought the B377 with high hopes of it being as advertised. It did not perform for me as I had hoped and the issue/issues that I was having were never resolved by the developers. I became so frustrated with the B377 that I deleted it from my harddrive.

 

Billy Bluestar

 

You appear to be going against the grain of most here. Curious as to what issues you had with the B377.

 

Thing that appeals to me greatly are the floats on the C-130. I like water planes and just bought Tongass Fjords X.

 

Tried the demo of the C-130. Seems nice enough but it does seem to lack atmosphere or character. Most buttons in VC don't work, I assume that's demo related. Shame the demo has place holder sounds, and they don't allow you to actually fly it.

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I'm on the lines of FSXman, it is a bit hard to compare these two IMO. Of course, purely simulationwise A2A CoTS is ahead of Hercules, but for me these two models have never been alternatives: C-130 is quite modern and widely operated, mostly military cargo plane and A2A 377 is vintage airliner full of historic feel, without any modern navigation aids and with all the frills of unreliable beastly pistons. To me, these two fill completely different holes and I'm actually a bit surprised that these two are put on to the same line.

 

I'm currently learning the 377 and to me it gives the best feeling of flight of all the large aircraft I've flown in FSX so far. Nice view from large cockpit, extremely immersive sound environment and the need to always be on your toes makes 377 an intriguing experience. CoTS virtual crew is invaluable: I first tried to handle engineer station fully on my own in take off and all I managed to do was either underpowered flight and stall+crash or one or more overheating and breaking engines :P It is very complex simulation and takes time to learn. But it surely teaches a lot about aviation in old days and about complex systems in aircraft (nothing in A377 is run by computers).

 

I just yesterday bought A2A B17 Accusim and haven't tried that yet, but so far of all the terrific A2A planes I have (P40, Spit, P51) I thing 377 is the best, truly creme de la creme. Stratocruisers greatness is just something you begin to understand when you start the huge engines for the first time, kick them to full power in first take off, take it in the air and somewhere at that moment you just realize how little you know. It starts to suck your sim time and after a while you notice that you still don't know squat about it. On some of your training flights, when you think you are getting the hang of it, you get your first mechanical breakdown in 30000 feet. You'll notice that you act just like some sim rookie: you are going bananas in your virtual cockpit desperately trying to search the manual what to do and you realize again that you still don't know squat.

 

By the way, 377 have fine manuals in A2A Style, but there is not much of a tutorial and there aren't that many in internet too. Things are explained what systems mean for Stratocruiser, but the lack of step by step tutorial giving you exact operating procedures may scare people away. Manual has good checklists though, which surely help a lot. So, some experience in other vintage propliners helps greatly.

 

In conclusion, if I'd had to choose one of them (I have both), I'd take Strato. But everything depends on one's interests too. Some wan't to fly like they do it today, with modern equipment and so on. As I said to me these two aren't on the same area. It would be a lot more meaningful to compare 377 with JF DC-6 or Connie for example (results are of course clear in these cases) as with C-130 and B-377 the only common things are pretty much four propellers. If you spare the cash, get both. CS 130X is really good package too and age doesn't show IMO!

 

PS: For the best experience with B377, I'd recommend that you have at least two axes to spare for engine throttles, preferably four.

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You appear to be going against the grain of most here. Curious as to what issues you had with the B377.

 

Thing that appeals to me greatly are the floats on the C-130. I like water planes and just bought Tongass Fjords X.

 

The main problem was the ILS did not work correctly. If I tracked it with centered needles, it would be off in heading, glide path and course by a substantial amount. Before anyone starts beating on me, I've been a commercial pilot for over 40 years so I understand big radials and ILS's.

 

I have read where there are a lot of fans of the B377 and A2A and these folks seem to be happy with them. They were non responsive to my trouble ticket and inquiries in their forumn. That non-responsiveness from them is what I found to be most disappointing.

 

Billy Bluestar


I Earned My Spurs in Vietnam

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I definitely agree on the poor A2A support. Dealt with them on some Catalina X texture issues in VC. They left common forum complaints unsolved and it's like they didn't read at all the content of the emails I sent them.

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VeryBumpy, Catalina X is an Aerosoft product, not A2A. In my opinion, A2A offers excellent customer support.

 

For what it's worth, I've also found Aerosoft support to be pretty good--on the one or two occasions when I've actuallly had a problem.


Joel Murray @ CYVR (actually, somewhere about halfway between CYNJ and CZBB) 

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The main problem was the ILS did not work correctly. If I tracked it with centered needles, it would be off in heading, glide path and course by a substantial amount. Before anyone starts beating on me, I've been a commercial pilot for over 40 years so I understand big radials and ILS's.

 

I have read where there are a lot of fans of the B377 and A2A and these folks seem to be happy with them. They were non responsive to my trouble ticket and inquiries in their forumn. That non-responsiveness from them is what I found to be most disappointing.

 

Billy Bluestar

I found this thread in A2A forusm addressing your problem:

http://a2asimulation...lit=ils#p223990

 

You are probably one of the two people in the thread complaining about ILS issue. In general, I can't find any other remarks about non working ILS on the forums. Not a single user complaining outside of that thread. So, you really think that there is no possibility that the problem is in your end (some scenery or addon problem) and it is certain that problem is caused by A2A bug which practically means, that no other simmer of the hundreds or thousands of B-377 users have just noticed it or then they never use ILS?

 

As Lewis replied in thread:

Unfortunatly this was a system error as pointed out by other uses, using there ILS etc just fine. The user deicided to dump the aircraft, nothing we can do in such circumstances unfortunatly. Kinda the nature of the Computer/FSX beast sometimes, often a reinstall is all that is required though.

 

End of story. A2A can't fix your install, so probably deleting Strato was right thing to do.

 

By the way, ILS works fine here also.

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Doh, you are correct. A2A I have no clue, Aerosoft is who I referred to.

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