So, can someone enlighten me what flying the NGX is like and what it's about?

 

Gregg, the 737 NGX is a joy to hand fly. Of all the other aircrafts i have tried on fsx, the ngx has the most accurate flight dynamics. It is true it has glass displays and the "fancy" fmc and route programming but you still have everything that's needed to fly the "old" way. you can set the ND in VOR mode. what i like to do is i print the departure and approach plates and fly the aircraft chasing VOR needles through the whole SIDs and STARs with autopilot, autothrust and flight directors off. the workload is high but it gets very exciting and enjoyable and after some time you get used to it and it becomes second nature.

 

when i'm in a good mood and have enough time i do all the preflight procedures from cold & dark to ready for taxi, but sometimes i don't feel like going through all of those steps and load the plane in a presaved state. so as others have said the ngx can be as complex as you want it to be, you can sit down and follow real world procedures to the detail or you can load it up for a quick ride and not worry about "lengthy checklists and pushbutton flying"

I am a student pilot in the RW, however I only fly a Cessna 172 SPII, that being said I am a Virtual Airline pilot, I used to fly for Delta Virtual back with FS2004, I specialized in the Boeing 737-832W and 757-332ER/W. The 757 was a POSKY and was fairly well done, however the 737 was the old PMDG model, and even then it was superb, I easily logged 500 hours in it over the years. I now fly for my own VA (Turboprop Regional) which is a subsidiary of MSFlights VA. I miss flying the 737 as it was my favorite jetliner to fly. The PMDG 737 while complex and extremely accurate is a pleasure to fly as its extremely versatile, responsive, and not too overwhelming (there is a learning curve however). The best way to find out if you want to fly 737's is to use the lacking default one with a modified FDE that makes it fly more realistically, this will give you a good indication of things to come with PMDG just ramped WAY up. If you prefer more steam gauges to E-MFD's you might want to wait for Milviz to release their 737-200 which should be out soon and looks very promising.

Well, getting to specifics, how long does it take you from 'sitting down in the cockpit' to taxi?

 

Around 10-15 minutes, I don't add in time for pax to board even though addons like GSX models it. Upon arrival I do my shutdown flows and then sit on the ramp for about 5 minutes so that my online logbook registers the gate arrival. Opus automatically injects the weather on startup and it take me 1 minute to find the route on flight aware.

 

On your short hauls is it mostly hand flying?

 

Yep, after getting the coolsky DC-9 I make little use of the autopilots and I barely use the auto throttles at all. I usually click the LNAV/VNAV after climbing through 18K and the AP gets disconnected descending through 18K (wx permitting). I find it to be a bit boring watching the plane do all of the work.

I'll second the favorable comments on FS2Crew here. As a RW NG F/O, I'm of the opinion that FS2Crew voice control is the best and easiest way to appreciate what it is like to fly an NG. Other than that it is actually just easier and generally less hassle as you don't have to do the whole set of procedures. I have flights saved at various runway holding points around the world, when I have loaded the flight I just flick FS2Crew to the required phase (usually Before T/O Checklist) and call for it, as a starting point.

Greg,

 

To answer your question regarding hand flying, yes I prefer to hand fly as much as possible and the NGX responds wonderfully. My routes of choice are between PHX and SFO or MIA/ATL and TPA. Setting up the NGX from a short state to taxi can take anywhere from 10-25 mins give or take depending on your thoroughness. I like simulating reality but I also like to get up and flying, that's where my focus lies.

 

If you don't already know.. simroutes.com has lots of popular routes that you can download in the PMDG format to save time on route programming.

Thanks to all of you guys. Some really great inputs here and some really valuable information. I watched the vids. It's pretty unbelievable how real some of them feel. I've been looking for a plane that I could take longer distances that is stable and realistic to fly (my standards for realism are probably high). Heck, one big jet in my livery wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?

 

Gregg

You can get the -600 and fly it as a bush plane if you really want to.