Dear colleagues,

 

Christmas is round the corner, so I have a list of possible new entries in my V-hangar. Apart from the QW Avro, which I'm surely buying, I have my eyes on these:

 

Airbus X Extended

LevelD 767

Simcheck A300 (just noticed the future FMC upgrade)

Coolsky DC9

 

I know the 767 is quite old now, but it still seems a very nice done aircraft; besides I've never heard anyone complaining about it, so...

 

I love the Airbus, but found previous versions too buggy even to think of buying them. Now, is this A320 really good? I'm reading on Aerosoft forums and see that many people are reporting problems with VNAV and LNAV. I see there's no failure sytem, too. But systems are modelled afaik...aren't they? And FBW seems good. I'm waiting for the FSL one, but who knows if it gets released before 2013 Christmas maybe...

 

Talking about Airbus I found the Simcheck A300, read Mutley's hangar review about it, seems a good one. Given the update planned (which seems close) this seems a good choice too.

 

Coolsky, I heard a lot about it when it was released a few weeks ago, now I don't even read it around anymore. Was that a paper fire..?

 

Please don't tell me buy the NGX: I have it already :lol: Same goes for the J41. This should tell you what I'm looking for, more or less.

 

Thanks for your opinions:

 

Cheers, and Merry Christmas everyone!

Fede

 

Edit: if you have any other planes you think I should consider, feel free to add them here.

You might want to investigate the PMDG MD-11 as well. Sorry to throw yet another choice into the mix to make it even harder to decide. I have the MD-11 and love it. I also enjoy the Level-D 767 and Simcheck Airbus A300. Despite it's age the 767 is still just a pleasure to fly. The A300 is well made and a nice change of pace if you want to broaden your horizons from the Boeing FMC's, as is the MD-11. Good Luck choosing. Same problem I'm faced with every time I end up with a little extra FlightSim addon money. What to choose, what to choose?!?!?!?!? A problem I enjoy having.

Have a look at the aerosoft support forums and make your own mind up on that one. Some love it as it looks great.

 

The one that jumps out of your list to me is the coolsky DC-9, the SP1 is coming out very soon and that is a class act of an aircraft. It's in a totally different league to the airbus.

 

The other I would think about is Opus weather engine.

 

GL

+1 for the MD-11. An absolutely must have and beautiful aircraft. The Level D 767 flies perfectly every time and is always a pleasure to fly but is a bit dated in the VC. As far as the Airbus goes, you can get it for only 16 euros if you have the original Airbus X...so it's worth it but the VC graphics are the same as previous model X and the VC in this Airbus is so bland compared to Boeing that it makes me reluctant to fly it. The Coolsky looks amazing but I hear it's super heavy on frame rates! I would also recommend the Quality Wings BAE-146! Go for the Coolsky DC9 and get the Airbus if it's only 16 euros. The Level D is great but over-priced since it's so old. Be sure you budget for the new PMDG 777 coming soon!

I like the 767, but it's VC is completely outdated so I never fly it anymore. I've been too spoiled by PMDG's NGX I think.

 

The one that stands out to me on your list is the Airbus X extended. It works beautifully, it's miles ahead of any other Airbus sim that I've tried and I've not encountered any bugs except for a rubbish TOD calculation. Doing the math yourself isn't that complicated, so you can always just override it. Also, I usually fly on Vatsim or IVAO, and there ATC usually tells you to start descent well before you need to ask for it yourself.

 

I returned the DC9 because of some mipmap VC blurries. It looked horrible on my computer, which is pretty new and up to date. I doubt that I'll buy it again even if the SP fixes that, because it's not really suited for navigating a modern airspace, and not for online flying (ILS, VOR and NDB isn't enough in some places, some major airports now only publish RNAV approaches). I think it's fun to go retro (70's and 80's) and all, but not over time.

Yeah, the MD11...I didn't want to put it on the list, but it was already It's just that I rarely fly long hauls (same problem I'd have with 767). As far as I know the MD11 has the same level of complexity of the NGX hasn't it? It's older I know, but I see people are still enjoying it quite a lot.

 

And no, I haven't got the original Airbus X, too simple to my tastes. It seems this one is more...extended But tell me, apart from the TOD wrong (which hopefully will be fixed, I presume), how does it behave with the A/P. I read of 6000 fpm descents and climbs. Wrong turns with LNAV, too. And extremely low FPS when Aerosoft claimed it was fantastic on performance. Does it come with any charts? I mean, can you preplan with papers in hand? Or do you have to hope the runway will be long enough..? I'd like an A320 so bad, but still there's something which prevents me from buying (and if FSL released its one in January, well, you know...).

 

Is it so old looking the 767? I have OPUS, thanks One of the best purchases I made this year. I don't fly VMC anymore LOL.

 

Does the A300 come with charts too? I can't tell by the site, and Mutley's says the documentation is a bit poor.

 

Noted your comments on the DC9, thanks. But I never fly online, so that wouldn't be a problem. But I already read about blurry textures and high impact on frames. Now that would be a problem.

 

Thank you very much, keep 'em coming