Re-evaulating the SSW A310

[Guest danowat]

Hi All,I have decided that I have so much unused payware in my FS that I am going to have a real go at trying to fly some of the ones I have not flown before I splash out on anymore.The first of my unused planes is the SSW A310, I remember buying this and quickly giving up in it as I found it impossible to fly.Last night I sat down, read through ALL the docs, and the tutorial determine to get it off the ground, fly a route, and land, and you know what?, I managed it.Ok, so its not perfect, the tutorial really needs re-writing as there are some glaring issues with it, not only the ommision of the correct way to turn on the AT at take-off :-roll.I also noticed that I couldnt aquire the LOC whilst in V/L mode, only in LAND mode, which I thought was strange.Bottomline is, I know have a plane I paid for, that I CAN fly.Any thoughts?, I know SSW'a support is not great, but there must be quite a few of you out there who, like me, had given up on this plane?.Dan.

[Guest daniel.alm]

Hi DanI'm quite actually quite interested in the SSW A310 but after reading so many horror posts in their forum and seeing that they obviously couldn't get this plane to be bug-free (and I think we're now 1 year after release), I decided to wait a bit until the next patch is out and see how it works then. What makes me wonder at SSW is their non-existant support in their forums, I saw people there who pre-ordered a Tu-154 and never heard back about the plane status again. I think maybe the most important thing when I buy a payware plane is the support and I really didn't like what I saw over there. But I'm nonetheless interested in what seems to be the only serious Airbus simulation available at the moment and if the next patch (I think it's 1.5) really solves all issues, I'm going to give this bird a go and finally buy it. I would appreciate if you or other users could post their impressions here after the next patch.Regards,Dan

[Guest monsoon]

Like you, i have put this panel on the shelf because of the bugs. They say there is a 1.5 coming out but i wouldn't count on it any time soon. It has been almost 2 YEARS since this panel has come out. Thats is a little long for a panel to be fixed. The support there is to be questioned. I think they have lost a good customer base due to this. If this panel had been cleaned up in a timely manner, i think SSW would have been one of the bigs (PMDG,PSS,etc)

[Guest danowat]

Hi Dan,Yes, the support is very lax, but, I posted some question at the forum at simsoftworkshop, not the one here, and got the answers I need pretty quick.The 1.5 patch has been coming for a looooooonnnnggg while, don't hold your breath.It is a VERY hardcore simulation, and does have a few issues, but now I have taken the time to sit down try and figure it out, I reckon it could be a quite satisfying plane to fly.Dan.

[Guest daniel.alm]

>The 1.5 patch has been coming for a looooooonnnnggg while,>don't hold your breath.Hi Dan,LOL, Ok then. It's sad to see that such a great plane with so much potential became a sort of never-ending story, I just hope it gets a happy end. I'm still a bit on the edge of buying it but i think I'll try to wait a bit more and see if that patch materializes at some point.ThanksDan

[Guest danowat]

I would certainly hold off, seems to be a HUUUGGEEE problem with the navdata, and a "type mismatch" error :(Dan.

[Guest monsoon]

DEFINATELY hold off. Do this favor for yourself and save the frustration associated bugs. and trust me, there are bugs.

[Guest]

What type of bugs are we talking about here? I never use the AP nor the FMC but fly only from the VC. Would I still run into bugs? Also how are the framerates in the VC? And are there cargo repaints? Thanks!

[Ricardo41 5,949]

I am seriously never going to buy anything from Russian sim-plane designers again; there seems be an across the board complete and total lack of consideration for and interest in us, the PAYING customers. I have the TU154 from igfly - where is the virtual cockpit that has been promised for last year?I have the YAK40 - where is the support for this plane?I have simsoft's Moscow scenery, which I think is mediocre compared to other payware sceneries. CaptainSim (a Russian/Canadian outfit) at least did the right thing: they completely closed down their support forum. At least they're being honest as to where their priorites are. ricardo

[Guest danowat]

If you don't fly AP or FMC I would really say an Airbus is not the plane to fly.The framerates are pretty good, and there are a few cargo paints around, but in all seriousness I would say that you would be just aswell served by some of the freeware that is available.Dan.

[Guest daniel.alm]

Yes, I'm going to hold off until I see a patch from SSW and hear the opinions in the forums about the final status of the A310. On the other hand, I think it's unfair to put all Russian designers in the same boat Ricardo. I agree that the payware companies from Russia might be a bit bad when it comes to customer support, but they do have very fine aircraft. And apart of that, they produce the finest freeware out there, very often lightyears ahead of their payware counterparts. One example is the Tu-154 from Project Tupolev at www.protu-154.com and another is the YAK-40 from http://yak-40.nm.ru/files.html . There's also a great IL-18 at http://il18.fluo.net/ and don't forget the Tu-114 or the AN-24 from SAMDIM. So yes, without Russian designers my sim-experience wouldn't be half as good at the moment.Regards,Dan

[Guest]

Why can't I fly an airbus if I don't use the autopilot? I can't enjoy hand flying a very interesting airplane? I guess I'm only one of a few people who actually enjoy flying rather than programming a computer, sitting back, and doing nothing.

[Guest danowat]

"Why can't I fly an airbus if I don't use the autopilot? I can't enjoy hand flying a very interesting airplane?"Of course you can, there is nothing stopping you, but by design these planes are meant to be flown by the AP and FMC."I guess I'm only one of a few people who actually enjoy flying rather than programming a computer, sitting back, and doing nothing"Well, I too enjoy hand flying, but when I fly something by hand I do it in something that is really meant to be, and there are many, many beautifull hand flyers out there.By all means get the A310, if you just fly it without the AP and FMC then I doubt you would encouter any bugs, as they are mainly to do with the AP, FMC and Navdata.Just another thing that you might need to know, the basic visual model is actually the Harald Nering (sp?) freeware model that is available in the library.CheersDan.

[Guest panda234]

And there are some great sounds and a cockpit (that works) that go along with the Harold Nehring A300 model. The A310 is coming soon. Check it out at hnac.org. I've had the setup a few days now and it's awesome. billg

[Dillon 2,197]

I second that about the bugs. After purchaseing the plane myself, I wouldn't recommend this one to anybody...