PMDG 747 - My Comments

I downloaded the Queen an hour or so after it was released. It was difficult, but I got it. I did hope the servers would hold up, but for some reason they didn't. Obviously if Avsim crashed, then it was more than anyone anticipated. I'm not so sure you can blame PMDG for the server issues. If they had three times the number of people they expected trying to order at once, then things can happen.On to the Queen itself. I'm no 747 flyer, nor do I have any manuals besides the PMDG manual to guide me, so I'm taking any issues or comments others have about bugs with a grain of salt. A few people have clamimed it's buggy and a lot of things don't work, but without getting into it, I'd say most of them are operator error, or simply people looking for problems. People did the same thing with the NG. They did the craziest things to find errors in coding logic, then complained. Well, alot of the nonsense people do aren't something you'd do when trying to fly it properly and I'm sure real pilots don't either. For the record, the FMC goes blank when entering data because the real one does. This isn't a bug. Thanks to Ryan for pointing that out on another forum.I personally have done three short flights in the Queen and have found it to work perfect and I love it! Let me say that I have always found the 747 to be an ugly plane and have never had an interest in them. I bought the Queen because I love the NG, and know PMDG does excellent work. After what was a nearly perfect flight tonight, I can say that it is really fun and will challenge my hand-flying skills for manual landings. So far I have a hard time staying centerline, but touch down was smooth and so cool. The MCP commands I used work (HDG, LVL CHG, VNAV, LNAV) as they should. The FMC has performed as to be expected with my only background from DF734, 767PIC, PMDG737NG, and LVL-D767. I haven't asked it to do anything strange, but programming it the normal way works great on my end. All the buttons and knobs in 2D and VC work as I expect them to. Overall I'm extremely impressed.My biggest surprise was the VC and the frame rates. A few have stated they were not better than the Level-D or even the NG, but I happen to disagree. On my system with ASV running and plenty of clouds, I get very good frame rates in VC mode. Do they drop on occassion? Of course. Are they high enough to approach a busy airport? Maybe for some and probably not for others. Everyone's system is different and so are the amount of add ons people run at one time. I personally feel that PMDG did a wonderful job of keeping the VC looking great and functional, while keeping the frame rates in line with what can be expected in FS9 with today's computers. I did an approach tonight into KLAS and switched to VC. I know for a fact the NG and most other complex add on VCs would've killed my system. I'm talking slide show, and not fun. The Queen didn't even stutter while switching and the frame rates did not drop below 15 once. I find that really acceptable, considering I had ASV with lots of clouds and UT running as well.My last issue is the price. PMDG previewed their product enough on the forums and website, that you knew what it looked like and was going to include. PMDG even released the manual ahead of time for people to read. Everyone knew what it was going to do with regards to features and how it was gonna operate. People are complaining about the price, but some are still buying it. One person said it was nice, but not worth 54 dollars. Well, as I said, you know what the 54 dollars is going to get you. That's the price, like it or not.ETA: Great job PMDG and thank you for another awesome add on!Here's a couple screens to show my FPS:http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/4585/pmdg011ok.jpghttp://img236.imageshack.us/img236/4184/pmdg033ja.jpghttp://img236.imageshack.us/img236/7463/pmdg051vi.jpg