Black Box A340 - experience

[swiesma 625]

Hi folks,

 

I watched a Matt Davies video some days ago with the Blackbox A340. And it looked pretty good to me.

 

Is anyone of you flying this bird and can give me some feedback if it is worth buying it?

I really  love the A340s and I am in search for somethin new till the Aerosoft A330 arrives.

 

Help would be appreciated!

 

Best regards,

Stefan

[captjames 19]

I have it and actually, really started to fly this thing properly.  The visuals aren't PMDG, however she flys nice and has good system depth.  If you follow them on Facebook, you'll see their latest update features a major overhaul of the VC.

 

When I first purchased this a year ago.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't overly impressed but now after giving it a damn good breaking in, it's worth a good 8/10!

 

Hope this helps.

James

[SVA1181 56]

Hello Stefan,

 

I have the BBS330/340 in my hangar, they look good, the systems are fairly good, however the FDE needs a lot of work, it just doesn't feel right when you hand-fly it, noting that this product is still under development.

 

With best regards,

 

Steve

[iamlmc 2]

I am also curious about this one. Is it comparable with Aerosoft A318-321 buses? I mean in terms of complexity (modeled systems), how hard on the FPS and such...

 

Thanks,

Luís

[flibinite 18]

The Aerosoft is a noticeably better all around product.  I 'had' to have an A340 and as Steve notes it's an OK, unfinished product.  If I were just wanting the A330 I'd wait for Aerosoft, or significant upgrade from Black Box

[regis9 3,999]

Does the blackbox version currently available work in P3Dv3.2?

[Irishcurse 234]

Personally I would stay away from their stuff. They have multiple unfinished aircraft released. They haven't finished one but continue to develop others.If you decide to buy it just know you are buying a unfinished product.

[Egbert Drenth 250]

I can't say anything about Blackbox A340 but if I were you I would stay miles away from pre-releases or whatever they call it.

 

About 1.5 years ago I bought a preview/prerelease from another developer also as an incentive to be able to finish it.

What I learned from this and other pre-releases that it pretty much works counter productive. 
Since they have money in the bank, the necessity to finish it swiftly is no longer present, and it will take longer to release.

 

My 2 cents

[Prayog 3]

I have both A330 and A340 from Black box. Those are products which still needs improvements on flight dynamics as well as VC appearance and functionalities. The Blackbox team though honestly agree to this and are developing towards their version 1.0 They are very much responsive to the issues one would report on their Facebook forum however please do not expect much on turn-around. I reckon their development team is small and lot of time is taken to release the updates. E.g. They had promised wide-body update by Christmas -2015 and are yet to release it (It is highly likely that they added more work like VC overhaul, new load manager etc to the earlier planned update).

 

Aerosoft on the other hand, is much better in terms of Flight dynamics, VC functionalities, appearance etc.

 

Edit: Blackbox widebody will work with P3D 3.x however one need to manually point to the relevant directories. Make sure FSUIPC (even if non-registered) is installed and that set-up is run as an administrator. One time throttle calibration is need via MCDU inside flight, as well as tiller key configuration for taxiing. Blackbox also do provide a manual for the first flight that provide detailed information on all this.

[swiesma 625]

Thanks for all the responses.

I'd really love to have an A340-600, but I have no intent to live with an unfinished product and work around bugs.

 

So I think I will wait for Aerosoft, even so this will "only" be the A330. At least I was on the A330 in real live 6 times - still was not lucky enough to get on a A340.

[ErichB 3,638]

BlackBox have had a patchy reputation at best. Not entirely sure why they are even in the business of fligthsimming. Since they became BBS, they haven't yet released a complete, fully working product and they've been around for longer than most.

[GCBraun 2,390]

Their A340 is the closest you will ever get to a reasonably advanced A340 for P3D. I gave it a go knowing that it was not a finished product and I am not disappointed! Some quirks here and there but it is perfectly flyable...

[swiesma 625]

So here I am back again - and bought the BBS A340.

 

What should I say. For 25€ ok...

 

What i like so far:

- The outside model

- The outside sound

- The Load Manager

 

What I don't like:

- The FMC (total crap)

- No start state (cannot set cold&dark as default as far as I've seen)

- Inside sound

- The clickspots are sometimes hard to understand, i still don't know how to arm the speedbrakes by mouse and once extracted I cannot fully retract them.

 

 

The VC is ok, but not really good.

Overall not the best buy, but some good details.

 

 

Question: Can I use this

http://secure.simmarket.com/turbine-sound-studios-airbus-a340-trent-500-hd-pilot-edition-soundpack-for-fsx-(de_8134).phtml

For the BBS Airbus? I think so because I saw a Matt Davies video in which the sound is pretty good in the cockpit.

[wardp 19]

Sadly I cannot fly mine as the brakes are permanently stuck on. I have tried everything suggested by BB on the forum and elsewhere but they do not release so its literally a no-go for me.

[dbw1 444]

I'm happy with it. I knew it was a work in progress when I purchased. Steady improvement with each update. I'd buy again.

Dave