I am interested in purchasing the Level-D 767 but I have a number concerns about the product. It appears that the products original release was plagued with a number of problems and that the user community is awaiting a significant software patch. When I examined their user forum earlier, the forum seemed almost hostle towards both the product supplier and their technical support staff. This morning when I returned to their general discussion forum the forum had been cleaned of all messages concerning the expected patch. As far as I can tell the patch has yet to be released.This morning I also pulled down from their site a posting that detailed the contents of their soon to be released Maintenace Release 1. For the most part, none of the fixes seem to be a major problem that could not be worked around until the patch is released. My real question is this aircraft worth purchasing now or in the future and what has been the normal response by the technical support team for question reguarding their product? I am a end user who reads the technical manuals so I'm mot scared off by the size of the Level-D user manual. I just don't what to spend time or money on an aircraft model that may have long term problems.ThanksTom

Hi Tomwell you can please yourself really, I have the aircraft and despite the fact that the VNAV has issues that will be resolved in the patch, I fly the aircraft pretty much every day. If you manually program the FMC and follow the latest tutorial you will enjoy the aircraft as it is. The patch should omly make a good product even better.So as I said, it's up to you, It works fine at least for 95% or you can wait till the patch fixes what problems there are which in my opinion do not detract from the enjoyment of the aircraft. I have flown it twice around the world since I bought it and I haven't found anything that would stop me from flying it or make me regret purchasing it when I did. You must read the FMC manuual and follow the tutorial from KJFK to LIRF or you will have problems.CheersTim

Tom,I have the level D and you first have to understand I am a real world pilot, who has flown mostly aircraft which you had to 'fly' not program an FMC. Saying that, my knowledge of FMC's is somewhat limited. I have not yet mastered the VNAV and such, so I program the FMC with the route, weight, fuel and such and do the navigation myslef, which I enjoy more, while still working on the FMC to understand it better.Before even getting that far withe the FMC I hand flew the aircraft for more than a week getting to know it quite well. I hand flies beautiful, and now with my 'limited' understanding of the FMC, it is even better.On the problems with the LEvelD, I can say this, it does have some, but for as sofisticated as this offering is, that is to be expected on a new release. We had very few teething problems with the DF727, however that aircraft was in development for a very long time, and Paul G was most insistant that we release with little or NO bugs . . . we came very close on that one -- I'm not sure of the time the Level D took to bring to its present state, but I'm sure it was in development for quite awhile.Saying that, I have all the faith that the guys at LevelD are doing their utmost to get ready their service release 1, and when we get it, most of us will be very happy.I also know that this offering is very highly praised by those who have really flown the 767 and those who have made their business 'knowing' all about 767's.For me, I like it and am most fond of it, just as I am now beginning to really like the new Ariane offering . . . both have a few problems and both I feel that they will be resolved within a limited amount of time. I really don't believe you could go wrong with the level D if you are into the 767, although, like the Ariane, the DF727, PMDG's 737 and other complicated precedure sims, you have to spend alot of time reading the manual . . . because they are very close to the real aircraft. Read, read and read some more.Just my 'not so humble' .06 cents worth, your mileage may vary.Best,ClayClayton T. Dopke (Clay)Major, USAF (retired)"Drac"

The aircraft is a joy to fly despite the issues reported. Many of those reporting problems have a misconfigured system or have discovered problems within the release which went un-noticed during beta testing. The developers have stated that a service release is very near to being finalized and will address most of these concerns.The support staff is, for the most part, very accomodating. That being said, with practically any product regardless of whether it is a simulator add-on or otherwise, it's impossible to predict every problem that will present itself to the user upon installation. We all have different hardware and software through which the program needs to interact. Immediately upon discovery of a problem, whether real or not, the user is confronted with one of several choices. Go to the support site and ask for help, or go to the support site and look for help. Since english is not everyones first language, sometimes searching for a problem becomes an effort in futility. This tends to be frustrating and brings out the worst side of normally civil and engaging people. What seems like a simple problem turns in to a war of words on the support forum and manages to accomplish little but cause ill feelings.Problems with LDS 767? Nothing really that would prevent you from enjoying it even without a service release. The whole package is very high quality and though it has a few shortcomings, there is no reason to wait for a patch, fix, service release or whatever you want to call it. Buy it and enjoy it. You should have no regrets.By the way, Flight1 has a 30-day return policy if it doesn't live up to your expectations, so you really can't go wrong.

I like the plane, it's pretty cool. You can get it now and learn to fly it while you wait for the patch. The plane is perfectly flyable as it is right now.Jeff

If you're intending to do a lot of complex FMC stuff or program SIDs/STARs, wait for the patch, otherwise it's fine right now...