FSX-MS BlackBox Simulation- Airbus A330/40

[okupton 308]

The lack of accurate nav data could be a deal breaker for me. Appreciate all the feedback so far!

[pao 55]

Am not even talking about the sytems, just have a look at the VC...  this is low med quality payware FS2004 standards...

 

When you read the comments from the developpers on their website "when everyone else fail"...   this is really funny.  These guys live on another planet ; they don't know Aerosoft (for textures) and FsLabs for systems..

I do noy buy beta software. Now with the A318-A321 series and the upcoming A330 from AS, this BBS offering will be a thing of the past.

Cheers, Ed

 

 + 1.

 

And if you wanna invest, the FsLabs is the Rolls Royce / CAE Simulator like :-))

[Pict 15]

I've just flown from EGCC to EGLL. Frankly I'm struggling to criticise this add- on.

 

See my post earlier - the 2D and all gauges are excellent.

 

The systems work well. I got Roll Out on landing.

 

I'm not a VC expert. It might be improved.

 

The most important thing for newcomers is you can have unlimited 90 minute trials. Just get a pause every ten minutes.

 

Whilst I liked the audible checklists on AS 320 series I have to say for screen visibility alone this is by far my favourite.

 

Try it - it costs nothing- it may surprise you - and kill some of the Blackbox paranoia.

 

 

It's just ok I guess. Autopilot somewhat improved..  Managed speed flight director issues. Very strange F/D commands in certain pitch modes..  Takes too long to accelerate to 250 no matter what the payload is and over 10000 it doesn't pitch down enough to capture climb speed..  Plus you can only select ILS approaches and they don't have the approach waypoints in the MCDU for some reason  and can't do RNAV or other non precision approaches unless you manually put in waypoints..

Better handling that's for sure but flare mode is still off.. Can't seem to pitch up to smooth out the rate of descent especially in the a340.. Drops like a rock.. I messaged them and no response yet seeing they're quite busy with other things..

 

Capt. Billy Bob

 

Noticed the same thing as well - particularly the erratic FD commands - better than earlier versions so at least some fine-tuning took place.

 

 

Am not even talking about the sytems, just have a look at the VC...  this is low med quality payware FS2004 standards...

 

When you read the comments from the developpers on their website "when everyone else fail"...   this is really funny.  These guys live on another planet ; they don't know Aerosoft (for textures) and FsLabs for systems..

 

 + 1.

 

And if you wanna invest, the FsLabs is the Rolls Royce / CAE Simulator like :-))

 

 

I'll withhold any judgement until the software is actually complete....as there can (and most likely will be) be major overhauls even at a "v0.85.x" - especially in the area of systems.

 

Unfortunately many of you here (and elsewhere) seem to not understand what beta software actually is though ... VC is far from complete, systems are still being implemented, FBW still being tuned ... and by a two-three person team (how many of you complaining have any programming knowledge? Maybe you should offer your services to them and pitch in rather than poke fun at them constantly). The mere fact that they're taking on developing an Airbus FBW type (notorious for their difficulty in programming/coding for any accurate simulation) is a feat in its own right - and there *will* be major coding/visual/FDM overhauls for sure even before any RC's are released.

 

FSLabs only covers the narrow-bodies for now - aside from Aerosoft's upcoming offering, this is pretty much the only other Airbus wide-body with any (planned) in-depth systems simulation - and the only recent one doing a mid/study level A340 (well there is the Wilco Editions....can't really say anything on it as I don't have a copy of it).

 

[edited for grammar]

-sorry for my marconic english

[Guest Mik75]

After my first "real" flight in the most recent version (ENGM to EDDH, a rather short one, just in case things go horribly wrong) there were a few more things that showed some strange behaviour:

-Entering the flight plan didn't alllow the entering of multiple legs, but after a new via/to section, you have to scroll down to the last entered waypoint and have to repeat the process every time.

-I couldn't get the engines to start, had to use Ctrl E (that worked a few times before without problems)

-While initial climb was ok, the plane didn't accelerate to 250 during the climb to 10k, and it really struggled to get to crz alt, keeping its calculated climb speed, so i took manual control with v/s (engines seem to be underpowered, there has been only 15,000 kgs of fuel on board, 199 pax, and 6 tons of cargo)

-radio tuning logic in the A330-300 is very funky (left mouse button for figures left of the comma, mouse wheel for the others)

-on the managed descent, I had to use speed brakes all the time, to keep the a/c on the calculated path (which may be typical for the real thing too?)

Positive things:

-The fuel consumption and calculation within the preflight tool and the FMGC was spot on with what PFPX had calculated

-all constraints during departure and arrival were flown correctly

-FBW on t/o, initial climb and landing felt quite stable and realistic

-the new preflight tool worked nicely

 

I'll do some more flights with it to come to a final conclusion.

[KrisJ 43]

I think the flight model and systems shortages can be justified by the fact it is still beta.

But i must say Preflight Manager is great tool. Very detailed, precise, user friendly interface. It allows to make a dispatch equal to PFPX loadsheet.

 

Also it is kind of PMDG Operations Center in terms of livery dowloading.

[Scarp 20]

@Mik75

 

The via/to and scrolling is a feature of airbus, as real as it get's

Startup: check that APU and APU bleed is on + turn the button below the actual individual engine starters to "start". Also make sure throttles are at idle.

Climb: Did not notice anything out of the ordinary, it accelerates to 250 below FL100 and continue to accelerate above. I do recall that the previous version had a bug where the spoilers got deployed when you armed them, but there was no indication in the cockpit and if I remember correctly neither visually visible from the outside either. So if you experience problems, try and hit the spoiler button on the keyboard and quickly retract them again. If the speed picks up then, the bug persists. I don't think it's a common bug for everyone and I don't know what triggers it. But so far I haven't experienced it in this version.

Managed decent: Here I see no improvment from previous versions, and this is my biggest critizism. I dont even think they have omplemented this yet, which is beyond me considering all these years gone by (been customer since 2012). In the real bird you usually start TOD 5-10 miles out. Then the aircraft will go into a shallow decent until it intersects the vertical path. But not this bird, for all intent and purpose it dives down to the first restriction (if there are any) or down to the altitude entered in the AP regarless of the vertical profile. This means dangerous flying in mountain areas. I also suspect that the logic between mac and kias during decent isn't working either, coz my plane slows down to 250 kias no matter what cruise altitude I'm at and keeps it all the way down to activation of the approach (in the MCDU). In addition I observed on my last flight some erratic behaviour as far as the pitch and VS goes. It was bobbing up and down a little too much before it settled. So either something got messed up during installation or, managed decent isn't implemented yet.

 

So besides the lack of managed decent, everything else seem to be working as it should. I've only tried 3 short flights with both the A330 and A340. Take off and climb works, obviously cruise works, but the decent part seem to be totally missing unfortunatly. And finally approach and auto land works. 

I'm gonna try and reinstall just for the sake of it and I cross my fingers that it will solve the lacking managed decent, because that was the one thing I was really hoping would be added in this new version. If it isn't I will be very dissapointed.

[Guest Mik75]

@Mik75

 

The via/to and scrolling is a feature of airbus, as real as it get's

Startup: check that APU and APU bleed is on + turn the button below the actual individual engine starters to "start". Also make sure throttles are at idle.

Climb: Did not notice anything out of the ordinary, it accelerates to 250 below FL100 and continue to accelerate above. I do recall that the previous version had a bug where the spoilers got deployed when you armed them, but there was no indication in the cockpit and if I remember correctly neither visually visible from the outside either. So if you experience problems, try and hit the spoiler button on the keyboard and quickly retract them again. If the speed picks up then, the bug persists. I don't think it's a common bug for everyone and I don't know what triggers it. But so far I haven't experienced it in this version.

Managed decent: Here I see no improvment from previous versions, and this is my biggest critizism. I dont even think they have omplemented this yet, which is beyond me considering all these years gone by (been customer since 2012). In the real bird you usually start TOD 5-10 miles out. Then the aircraft will go into a shallow decent until it intersects the vertical path. But not this bird, for all intent and purpose it dives down to the first restriction (if there are any) or down to the altitude entered in the AP regarless of the vertical profile. This means dangerous flying in mountain areas. I also suspect that the logic between mac and kias during decent isn't working either, coz my plane slows down to 250 kias no matter what cruise altitude I'm at and keeps it all the way down to activation of the approach (in the MCDU). In addition I observed on my last flight some erratic behaviour as far as the pitch and VS goes. It was bobbing up and down a little too much before it settled. So either something got messed up during installation or, managed decent isn't implemented yet.

 

So besides the lack of managed decent, everything else seem to be working as it should. I've only tried 3 short flights with both the A330 and A340. Take off and climb works, obviously cruise works, but the decent part seem to be totally missing unfortunatly. And finally approach and auto land works. 

I'm gonna try and reinstall just for the sake of it and I cross my fingers that it will solve the lacking managed decent, because that was the one thing I was really hoping would be added in this new version. If it isn't I will be very dissapointed.

Hi there!

Well, that you can only enter one airway/waypoint couple at a time, and that you thereafter have to scroll down to the exit point of the leg to enter the next one, is not a feature, but wrong implementation, I think. ;-)

The climb didn´t work out well. Spoilers were in, but it didn´t get any faster than 210 below 10k, and it struggled to climb with a rate of more than 4-500 ft/min above 20k, so I had to take manual control. The engines are way too powerless, I guess...

Shure, I started the descend 5 miles out of TOD, the initial descend was fine. But it soon started a kind of oscillation, in which it nosed up and down slowly, in order to keep the managed speed. So the descend went out of hand, a bit... Nothing too dramatic, though.

Engine start didn´t work on that flight, apu bleed air was sufficient (according to the lower ECAM bleed cfg page), but the valves didn´t open. It worked a day before on several test patterns. Who knows what might have caused this...

[dbw1 444]

Im happy with BBS. Support for me has been excellent based on the couple times I needed it. I'm happy with product and knew it was a beta when I purchased. It improves with each iteration.

Absolutely no complaints here.

[HighTowers 1,434]

Nice to finally have an update. The progression on this bird is extremely slow. Like previous comments, there is some improvments. I second the preflight manager. Great tool, works well and sends it all to the aircraft properly. The liveries are quite extensive too and automatically installs.

 

While the exterior looks quite nice albeit too shiney, the VC looks a little cartoonish to me. Its not bad but not great either. However the displays when in 2D are quite clear. Lots of things not implemented yet, some switches still dont work. But the systems appear to be correct for the most part. Still no working terrain radar. The FMS is my biggest complaint. Its very basic and requires alot of work arounds and inputting your own waypoints. Dont expect to do anything beyond very basic. Still uses the PSS database which doesnt say much. Had some weird drawings on the ND when inputting waypoints at times. I realize all this will be corrected with the big rewrite of the FMS for V.90 but by the time that happens, the AS 330 might be on ver 1.3.

No problems with startup. As for flying, there is some quirks and strange behavior here and there. Climb out didnt have an issue, but the descent was a mess as mentioned above as well. Oscillates alot, and gets into a very steep descent. I just took over and managed myself. Manually handling was pretty smooth and improved from the previous version. Even had a heavy feel to it.

I rarely autoland, but establishing ILS wasnt a problem either.

 

BBS are trying to say the least. They have some strict competition with AS330 coming.

[olspsd08 8]

I have flow both models a few times and my one issue is the turning radius. I have a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro and i twist the rudder to max but yet can get any sharp turns. From the outside, you barely see the nose wheel move even though i am using full rudder. Does anyone know how to resolve this? I was able to install all liveries and the new Pre-Flight Manager works great. If they can re-do the VC and a bit more texture on the outside, honestly i believe they can go places. Not too many full size A330/A340's besides PA and of course AS that's due out soon hopefully. Overall kudos to BBS.

[KrisJ 43]

I have flow both models a few times and my one issue is the turning radius. I have a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro and i twist the rudder to max but yet can get any sharp turns. From the outside, you barely see the nose wheel move even though i am using full rudder. Does anyone know how to resolve this? I was able to install all liveries and the new Pre-Flight Manager works great. If they can re-do the VC and a bit more texture on the outside, honestly i believe they can go places. Not too many full size A330/A340's besides PA and of course AS that's due out soon hopefully. Overall kudos to BBS.

On the ground you need to activate tiller. Assign a button/ key to Tail Hook in P3D Controller settings. Then you will use it for Nose gear/ rudder selection. Basically read the manual

[olspsd08 8]

Right oh! This is the first aircraft of all the ones i own that i need to do this for. Thanks.

[regis9 4,004]

Anyone using third party sounds?  Any suggestions?  

[hornplayer 1]

Flight from klax to kmem.. read all reviews... want repeat, but basically agree with most of the problems,,,climb out speeds and bobbing up and down on approach... also following updated star into Memphis and vnav wasn't precised which caused me to loose speed and crash about 2 miles from touch down...thanks for some improvements

[CaptBillyBob 51]

I posted a couple of times on their FB page and sent a PM.. When it comes to the MCDU and how the plane should fly, they seem to ignore those posts.. Time to stop focusing on the looks of the plane and fix this stuff.. Or talk with a real pilot for some input..