I suggest for your first taste of Rotate MD-80 'immersion'...is to set your plane on the ramp at KDTW, and then find your right-side window seat in the cabin, overlooking the wing.  Click in the pull down menu, to let A.I. control your flight...............

 

I highly suggest you try this out...quite the virtual experience.  This plane lends to this...as the cabin is most excellent, as well as all ambient sounds, you wouldn't hear, unless you were sitting where I am...mid wing, right side, window seat... 

 

Ses

Hey Mitch,

 

Nice post- I have never used the "AI flies aircraft" function. I googled it and found some comments back in 2012/2013 related to default planes flying on AI OK but not 3rd party. Now, a lot of XP10 updates have happened since then, so I'm not sure of the current state of the functionality.. I assume it's better than those 2012/2013 comments suggested back then. But my question: Do you think that there is some additional AI functionality in this MD80 than other 3rd party a/c? I don't have it (yet) but am interested once I get it to try what you suggested..... sounds cool..

 

Thanks, Bruce.

When I try to have the AI fly the plane they taxi all over airport for ever and sometimes just take off across the grass.

Hi Michel,

 You are absolutely correct on the flaps settings.Thank you. :-)  I had everything set correctly earlier, but must have overlooked something as it seems to work fine now at flaps 11 etc... I certainly don't want to be misleading. I actually have 10.42 installed tonight as I didn't want to use the last beta to see if the lights issue would resolve itself. I installed a light enhancement that makes lights bigger in Xplane on an older version somewhere, and thought that to be an issue, but this time, let the installer overwrite all my files. The aircraft lights are still much to big IMO, the same as before. Not a game changer for me as I spend 99% of the time in the left seat, not looking outside. I also tried a flight plan from KAUS-KIAH. I didn't have time to finish it, but it was staying right on track.

I also changed Xplanes sound settings..Engines and props 70%, everything else at 100%. Now the engines aren't too loud up front. The neat thing the Devs did is that the engine sounds change depending where you are in the aircraft, so if you go to the back they are louder than on the flight deck. Brilliant! 

 

 Best, Jeff

When I try to have the AI fly the plane they taxi all over airport for ever and sometimes just take off across the grass.

 

It´s a bug in X-Plane. The lable should really be "LAI (limited artificial intelligence) flies aircraft"! The rest works as intended. :smile:

Hey Mitch,

 

Nice post- I have never used the "AI flies aircraft" function. I googled it and found some comments back in 2012/2013 related to default planes flying on AI OK but not 3rd party. Now, a lot of XP10 updates have happened since then, so I'm not sure of the current state of the functionality.. I assume it's better than those 2012/2013 comments suggested back then. But my question: Do you think that there is some additional AI functionality in this MD80 than other 3rd party a/c? I don't have it (yet) but am interested once I get it to try what you suggested..... sounds cool..

 

Thanks, Bruce.

Hi Bruce.

 

When I was in row, whatever, lol...right over the right wing, and had a good view of it,  as the A.I. (you hear all interaction between the A.I. crew and ATC) crewman/woman got the flight plan cleared, and was given clearance for taxi to the active, you could hear the Rotate MD-80's twin engines spool up and then float as the A.I. crew 'manipulated' the throttles.  The sounds are fantastic...and so real-to-life.  When we turned onto the threshold, and XPX.42 ATC gave take-off clearance, the A.I. crew spooled those babies up...and we rushed down the runway.  The wing was in serious flex, especially the 1/3 tip portion...and not just flicking up and down, like it was cardboard...nope...a very realistic 'wave'...and then the wing tips loaded up upon rotation...and away we went.  At N1, the crew slid back the throttles for the climb-out..and I sat eating my sandwich, TOTALLY passenger-immersed...watching Detroit give way to rural landscape in our Dawn departure.  Not only does this plane immerse you in the cockpit, but so totally as a passenger (a great and highly detailed passenger cabin!)...from leaving the gate, to cruise and beyond.  FSX and P3D has no such fabulous feature....and I wish that they did!

 

So, yes...the A.I. crew does control the Rotate MD-80 , flaps extend and retract, ailerons moving as per the yoke, landing gear retraction/extension, and for that matter, all of my 3rdP party, Carenado, etc....I have been a virtual passenger in quite a few of them!

When I try to have the AI fly the plane they taxi all over airport for ever and sometimes just take off across the grass.

You have to be at a international airport...that the XPX.42 ATC is taxi-way aware of.  Try KDTW (Detroit Metro), or CYYZ (Pearson, out of Toronto) I have used both, and can vouch that if you start from the 'ramp' position, you will have a great taxi...turn onto threshold...(including all waits for other traffic...(simulated)...and onwards to rotation, climb, and cruise at assigned altitude.  I've done this many times.  So...try KDTW...for that is the first one that the Rotate MD-80 lifted off from....

 

Set yourself up into your seat...over the wing...or whatever...and then use the drop down, and press on A.I. flies the aircraft.  Then...sit back, and have a nice climb-out...  Oh...important...don't use A.I. controls the camera/views...for that will kick you out of your set viewing seat/spot.

 

Mitch

Gotta love this plane....virtual, or real....:

 

 

Alright. 

 

So I made my first flight (SCIE -> SCCI) yesterday evening in this rather nice aircraft. I am using the v3 mesh for South America (looks really good btw). I got the plane set up for the flight by eyeing the included tutorial and I thought I did a pretty decent job doing it. Turns out I probably failed at some point. More on that later. 

 

First up; performance. Well.. It kind of varies from among the best performers out of just about every aircraft I own for X-plane right down to single-digit FPS (most often in exterior view while flying). Granted, I only have a 3gb card yet (I have however ordered a 6GB 980 TI along with a Skylake rig as my current is about to turn in its resignation, and hope to see some difference). For now, I've tuned down texture res from "very high" to high - will do another flight this evening with this setting and see how it goes.

 

Next; looks of the aircraft. Wow. Just Wow. Really nice. Top notch in my opinion. Love the 80's styling of the instruments (makes me think of back to the future..  :smile: )

 

Next; the sounds. Really like the sounds of the aircraft as well. Although I confess that this is not super-duper important for me. 

 

Well. After getting the engines up and running I started taxiing to the runway. Nice feel to the taxiing. Take-off was uneventful. It rotated by it self and flew nice and straight. Did the initial turn by myself to intercept the magenta line to my first waypoint. After climbing a couple of thousand feet I decided to engage the autopilot. Here is where I probably had goofed up earlier. That did not exactly go as I had intended. Engaging VNAV it absolutely refused to follow the plan, so I ended up flying on HDG instead. Eventually I got to my cruise alt at 30k feet and a speed of M0.77. Everything worked just fine - well apart from the fact I had to manually set the HDG for the entire route. 

 

Descent went nice but landing was a ride - probably due to my lack of experience. It was an ILS approach where I disconnected the A/P for the landing. 

 

Short version: 

1. It looks good, feels good (however I need more practice). 

2. Intermittent performance issues. FMS is not complete (no PROG-page for example). Maybe wonky A/P behavior (however probably my lack of experience). 

 

Should you get it? I think so, yes. Hopefully some updates and fixes will come. It's a nice change from the Airbus/Boeings out there. I see myself doing a lot of flying in this one. 

...and can these planes CLIMB!

 

...barf bags, anyone?...

 

 

Well. After getting the engines up and running I started taxiing to the runway. Nice feel to the taxiing. Take-off was uneventful. It rotated by it self and flew nice and straight. Did the initial turn by myself to intercept the magenta line to my first waypoint. After climbing a couple of thousand feet I decided to engage the autopilot. Here is where I probably had goofed up earlier. That did not exactly go as I had intended. Engaging VNAV it absolutely refused to follow the plan, so I ended up flying on HDG instead. Eventually I got to my cruise alt at 30k feet and a speed of M0.77. Everything worked just fine - well apart from the fact I had to manually set the HDG for the entire route. 

 

Hi Richard,

 

You'll never get the Autopilot to follow the flightplan by engaging VNAV. That is for vertical profile of your flight. NAV is the correct button the lateral part of the route... :wink:

Hi Richard,

 

You'll never get the Autopilot to follow the flightplan by engaging VNAV. That is for vertical profile of your flight. NAV is the correct button the lateral part of the route... :wink:

 

Hehe.. my bad. Of course I meant NAV..

Hi  Sesquashtoo is the Santo Domingo airport from Scenery Gateway ??

it looks absolutely real,  great  sooting  can t wait to see you change your GPU  lol ...

 

 

 

oupss my bad ITS REAL lol .....

Hehe.. my bad. Of course I meant NAV..

Just a note, you should get NAV TRK in the flight mode annunciator if everything is set up correctly.

Hi  Sesquashtoo is the Santo Domingo airport from Scenery Gateway ??

it looks absolutely real,  great  sooting  can t wait to see you change your GPU  lol ...

 

 

 

oupss my bad ITS REAL lol .....

Just had to post those two....I have never seen a commercial flight climb like that...

 

MD-80/82's must really have great performance!

 

As for changing my GPU...still in the game plan...but with paring down the general Res, to no greater than High...mostly run the Rotate MD-80 at NORMAL...I can use my purchase (with my present GTX680-2GB) with workable FPS.  I do see that going to a 4/6/12/ GB VRAM card will bring me back all the settings that I'd prefer (and use with the rest of my hangar) to run with.

 

That aside, I'm really enjoying it.  As the Captain, or as a passenger...

 

MItch

Well, over the last two days,...I have worked out my usable Rotate MD-80 'M.O.';

 

I am running the sim for all my other planes and usage operations with the sim full out, and with Resolution at Very High.

 

If I anticipate the next flight, with using Rotate's MD-80, then before I shut down the present flight, the last thing I do, is to drop the Resolution setting, to Normal, or High. Mostly NORMAL, though, and that with all the other settings in play tree hugger, extreme, extreme, water advanced, etc...with FPS usage in cockpit or out...between 17-30 FPS, depending on what the aircraft if flying over, or at what airport I take off, or land into.  So it is usable.

 

As a result of being forced to drop my Sim Resolution, to Normal, or High, from my standard Very High...I thought of doing something more, for night or dusk operations. I got to thinking...exactly WHAT terrain do you actually see IN THE DARK OF NIGHT?!?!?!?!?

 

Answer...NOTHING!  

 

So, I dropped (which I have never done, or thought to do actually....) the Sim Res settings to the lowest setting of MINIMAL, and what did I get?  Well..CRAZY smooth and high FPS performance...that's what I got!  

 

So...the tip is...in dusk-to-night ops...crank up all the eye-candy...(even if previously, you never could...) and drop your Sim Res...to the lowest setting.  Drop to desktop...fire up the sim again...and go do some great night ops..and approaches. You will most likely have new-found stellar performance.  Why have the sim res anything higher than minimal...if you don't SEE any of the higher setting's visual benefit?  Like..er..duh.... and slap the forehead!  Most likely, the same can be said for FSX and P3D.

 

Give it a try...and smile at the performance gained, with no 'visual loss' on the ground.  You can't see any great discerning detail, anyways! )))))

 

Ses

Just a note, you should get NAV TRK in the flight mode annunciator if everything is set up correctly.

 Yeah, but that's the odd think. I have NAV TRK but it won't follow the FMS-plan.