I feel its time I invested in some new products for my FS9 (subject to Christmas presents for people being sourced cheaply!). I am interested in buying the new Dubai scenery from Flytampa as it looks incredible, but also fancied a new aircraft.

 

The most complex aircraft I have used in flight sim is the Project Airbus A380 or CLS A330/340!

 

I once had a go on my friends PMDG 747 and couldnt even start the engines without a youtube tutorial, when I did I had all sorts of alarms going off when I took off!

 

With this in mind, how complex is the Qualitywings 757? Does one need a degree in FMC's to use it or is it quite straightforward once you get the hang of it, I'd hate to pay for something that required a full-time job to figure out!

I got the qw146 for fsx and havnt looked back its not as complicated as the pmdg aircraft series but can be in certain parts of flight i be looking at this rather than the qw757 imo.Fmc is quite easy to master once you done it once its pretty much straight forward suppose you have checked out the qw forums plenty of info in there you can look at

And if I've had no experience at all of dealing with FMC's in the past, should I avoid this package at all costs or does it give a tutorial in idiot-speak to get you up to speed with it?

And if I've had no experience at all of dealing with FMC's in the past, should I avoid this package at all costs or does it give a tutorial in idiot-speak to get you up to speed with it?

 

if you follow the tutorial and do it 3 times than you be able to program the fmc in your sleep, in matter of fact once you master this fmc you should have no problems in the pmdg fmc set up as well

It's not at all complicated. A few mins glancing through the manual and you'll be fine. That's exactly what it was designed for. It could be a good stepping stone for you because if you master this (and you'd have to try really hard not to) it will help you on the road to more complex addons like the fantastic iFly 737 series.

The QW 757 is what got me into wanting more from my payware. I believe it is an excellent "beginner" payware that will get you started in short order. It's a fun aircraft with good performance as well, 200 pax at 6,000 feet from a 6,000 foot runway...no Airbus (nor any other Boeing for that matter) can match it. I say go for it.

And if I've had no experience at all of dealing with FMC's in the past, should I avoid this package at all costs or does it give a tutorial in idiot-speak to get you up to speed with it?

 

Most certainly not, Ant.

 

Infact, that is the very reason to buy QW aircraft. Its a very easy learning curve, and with the way the manuel is written its very easy to get to grips with the AC quickly. Plus there is a tutorial to help you get to grips with the FMC (As does most addon AC with a FMC).I found that once you have mastered the FMC in QW AC, all other complex FMC (PMDG) where pretty much straight forward...just more options. So i woulld definatly reccomend both mentioned aircraft as a very good first step into the world of FMC's.

 

As the QW team says, ''Complexity Simplified''

 

And it would be really, really hard to say whitch is best, (757, or the 146) although since the realease of the 146, its all ive flown, its just has so much character ( off topic, most recent flight with the 146(RJ85), was Gatwick to Dubai.1st leg on the 1st day was 4 hours, landing at Kos for an overnight stay/ refuel. Another 4 hour leg the second day, ( so 8 hour flight over 2 days) and boom, 6 miles final into DBX and i had a double ( yes double) out of memery warning popup..followed by a CTD..I just love W732bit for that ...gutted.

Thanks for your advice guys. I've got almost 3 weeks off work now so perhaps I will treat myself to an early christmas present and master it. Like you all say perhaps itll ease me into the next level of simulation such as PMDG etc...

Thanks for your advice guys. I've got almost 3 weeks off work now so perhaps I will treat myself to an early christmas present and master it. Like you all say perhaps itll ease me into the next level of simulation such as PMDG etc...

 

you cant go wrong with the pmdg series of aircraft

You should probably just bite the bullet and get your head round the FMC, to be honest. All the proper stuff (PMDG, iFLY, QW 146, Level D) needs to be flown by the numbers if you want to do it properly and the only way to do that is by programming the FMC. The trick with FMC programming is to make it easy on yourself. The hardest bit is probably entering airways and waypoints and then getting them to marry up with the corresponding SID or STAR. If you use something like Vroute Premium it spits out the route and you just enter it the start and end airport codes straight into the 'route' section of the FMC and everything is loaded for you automatically. Vroute even tells you which SID or STAR is most appropriate for the weather and runway in use so you just select those from the 'dep' and 'arr' pages. Nothing to it.

 

The other program that makes FMC programming easy is TOPCAT. It calculates all the performance numbers based on the aircraft weight, runway in use and prevailing weather and all you do is type them in on the PERF and TAKEOFF pages. Once you get up to speed you could program the FMC in about 4-5 mins, tops. Once you understand how the aircraft uses the information from the FMC to fly, you will find that it decreases your workload in the flight deck enormously.

Well I treated myself to flytampa Dubai this month, depending on how much I have left over after Christmas then I may well take your advice and go for it, I think its time I took on a new challenge.

 

Thanks again

Learning FMC's is a great fun and a wonderful challenge! You'll be able to fly real routes the real aircraft fly etc. You could also start flying on vatsim or IVAO to make the experience that much better :lol: ! FMC would be great help.

 

Have fun!

Agree with the other posters, I actually started w/ the PMDG 737 series on FS9 and then later purchased the QW 757 (which works in both FS9 & FSX, which is a HUGE plus in my book!). The QW FMC is not as detailed as the PMDG 737 but you still have to set things to get your flight going.

 

The tutorials will walk you through it and once you've completed a couple of flights it's very simple to use. The QW 757 is also a very beautiful plane, the textures are crisp and another nice thing is it comes with a texture installer. The newer PMDG NGX has a similar program whereas the older PMDG 737 you have to manually edit the aircraft.cfg file, copy/paste the textures..etc...etc...the program to actually add the textures is nice, you just click on the livery you want to install and it does the work for you. This is good for me, less user error. B)

 

I also have to say their customer service is great. Most payware sites are good, but I have experience with QW's I purchased a new machine and had lost my activation codes when I went to reinstall the planes (FS9 & FSX versions) I contacted their customer service they looked me up via my email used to purchase the product and sent me my activation codes. It was a very quick response, so +1 for their customer service.

 

I would say the QW 757 is one of the better payware add-ons.

 

Happy Flying,

Gus

Some people have had FPS problems with the QW757. With your specs, I seriously doubt you will, but one important thing is that you use the "Install as administrator" option when you install it. (Right click your mouse with cursor on the exe file, scroll down to option Install as Administrator)... I don't know why it matters - but for several people, including myself, it made a huge difference.

 

Cheers

Ian

Another vote for Quality Wings. I have their new Avro RJ series and right now it's the only aircraft I fly. It hand flies like a dream, and I often don't turn on autopilot until after FL180. I also hand fly the the Juneau LDA approach and that is a lot of fun.

 

Don't let the FMC scare you. Read the manual and do the tutorial flight. Once you get used to flying with FMC, you'll never want to fly without one. They are all very similar in how data is entered, so once you learn one you'll have no problem with others.

 

One word about Quality Wings - their aircraft modeling is fantastic. I think they fill a nice niche for those who want complexity but don't have the time with fully realistic aircraft. It's realistic enough for my time and needs.

 

Also, get a good flight planning program like FSBuild.

 

Good luck!

 

Todd