800NG at sunset

[Chock 17,769]

Some pics of an Air Hauler 2 test flight flight today from Manchester to Dubrovnik in my airline repaint of the iFly 737-800 NG delivering a load of televisions...

 

 

 

 

 

[Metal_Sky 14]

Wow, nice shots!!!

 

What is the iFly bird like in the 737 range?

[JAT 185]

Nice.

 

nebojsa

[Chock 17,769]

What is the iFly bird like in the 737 range?

The iFly 737NGs are great. Lots of people bought the iFly 737NG package when it managed to beat PMDG's 737NG to the draw a few years ago whilst they were awaiting PMDG's version, but many switched to the PMDG bird when that came out, since it is undeniably a bit more technically adept in terms of simulation, however, I suspect many were surprised at how good the iFly NG was (and still is) when they got their hands on it, lots of people thought that because iFly was/is basically three Chinese guys, they might not be able to really go for it when developing a really accurate NG; they were forgetting of course, that many of the components which make up the real Boeing 737 are in fact built in China, so those people know a fair bit about 737s lol, and they evidently know a fair bit about simulating them too, because the iFly 737 runs great in FSX and in FS9 too, as indeed does their B747.

 

Being a big fan of the 737, I have pretty much every 737 variant you can get, from every developer who has ever had a stab at the 737: Ariane, Milviz, Captain Sim, Wilco, Just Flight, E-Dimensional, PMDG, iFly etc, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Quality Wings manage with their forthcoming 737 classics, which will be welcome because the Wilco ones are getting a bit long in the tooth. Then of course, someone's gonna have to make a B737 Max variant, since the real thing is due for delivery to the launch customer a mere four months from now. Kind of incredible to think that will mean, later this year, the Boeing 737 will have been in continuous production for 50 years!

 

But as far as the iFly simulated 737NGs go, and where they stand in terms of realism and performance in FS for an NG variant compared to the others available (i.e. Ariane and PMDG), I'd place it a very close second to the PMDG, so close in fact, that if anyone wasn't that bothered about having collimation on the HUD, then there'd be little to choose between PMDG and iFly. And as good as the Ariane one is (which beat both iFly and PMDG to the draw in terms of coming out first), it's definitely in third place for an FSX NG because of the high cost of each model, complex package choices and the frankly pain in the &@($* registration method.

 

So it's certainly true that if anyone is a Track-IR user, the PMDG 737NG's HUD is more realistic, and indeed is a superb bit of programming and development on PMDG's part. Having said that, if you can live with the slightly less realistic parallax of the iFly NG's HUD, and are not too bothered about simulating ultra-realistic failures on various systems (which is the other thing the PMDG 737 NG does better), then the iFly 737 is a good choice, since with the iFly NG you get the entire range of NGs, from the (appalling in real life owing to its terrible stability) 600 variant, to the 700, 800, 900, 900ER and the BBJs, all for 55 Dollars, whereas the PMDG base package (800 and 900) and the expansion pack too (600 and 700) are required to get the full range of NG variants, which adds up to about 95 Dollars.

 

What is particularly nice about the iFly NG package, is that in addition to getting an entire range of 737 variants for less than 50 quid, they are very customisable via a nice little utility which, beyond allowing you to save panel states, loadouts, startup configs etc, also lets you choose a ton of options, including: six different engine types with different amounts of static thrust and differing bypass ratios, short field performance packages, ISFD or standard standby instruments, digital or traditional instrumentation, FD customisation, HUD, autopilot options etc, so you can easily create the exact airline version you want. Don't get me wrong, I think the PMDG 737NG is perhaps second only to FSL's new A320 in terms of being a damn-near perfect study simulation of an airliner, but my hat is off too to iFly who managed to come a very close second to it and include so much in a package which was almost half the price. That's why I still very often choose to fly my iFly 737 instead of my PMDG one when I fancy wheeling out an NG.

[Navigator43 25]

The iFly 737NGs are great. Lots of people bought the iFly 737NG package when it managed to beat PMDG's 737NG to the draw a few years ago whilst they were awaiting PMDG's version, but many switched to the PMDG bird when that came out, since it is undeniably a bit more technically adept in terms of simulation, however, I suspect many were surprised at how good the iFly NG was (and still is) when they got their hands on it, lots of people thought that because iFly was/is basically three Chinese guys, they might not be able to really go for it when developing a really accurate NG; they were forgetting of course, that many of the components which make up the real Boeing 737 are in fact built in China, so those people know a fair bit about 737s lol, and they evidently know a fair bit about simulating them too, because the iFly 737 runs great in FSX and in FS9 too, as indeed does their B747.

Being a big fan of the 737, I have pretty much every 737 variant you can get, from every developer who has ever had a stab at the 737: Ariane, Milviz, Captain Sim, Wilco, Just Flight, E-Dimensional, PMDG, iFly etc, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Quality Wings manage with their forthcoming 737 classics, which will be welcome because the Wilco ones are getting a bit long in the tooth. Then of course, someone's gonna have to make a B737 Max variant, since the real thing is due for delivery to the launch customer a mere four months from now. Kind of incredible to think that will mean, later this year, the Boeing 737 will have been in continuous production for 50 years!

But as far as the iFly simulated 737NGs go, and where they stand in terms of realism and performance in FS for an NG variant compared to the others available (i.e. Ariane and PMDG), I'd place it a very close second to the PMDG, so close in fact, that if anyone wasn't that bothered about having collimation on the HUD, then there'd be little to choose between PMDG and iFly. And as good as the Ariane one is (which beat both iFly and PMDG to the draw in terms of coming out first), it's definitely in third place for an FSX NG because of the high cost of each model, complex package choices and the frankly pain in the &@($* registration method.

So it's certainly true that if anyone is a Track-IR user, the PMDG 737NG's HUD is more realistic, and indeed is a superb bit of programming and development on PMDG's part. Having said that, if you can live with the slightly less realistic parallax of the iFly NG's HUD, and are not too bothered about simulating ultra-realistic failures on various systems (which is the other thing the PMDG 737 NG does better), then the iFly 737 is a good choice, since with the iFly NG you get the entire range of NGs, from the (appalling in real life owing to its terrible stability) 600 variant, to the 700, 800, 900, 900ER and the BBJs, all for 55 Dollars, whereas the PMDG base package (800 and 900) and the expansion pack too (600 and 700) are required to get the full range of NG variants, which adds up to about 95 Dollars.

What is particularly nice about the iFly NG package, is that in addition to getting an entire range of 737 variants for less than 50 quid, they are very customisable via a nice little utility which, beyond allowing you to save panel states, loadouts, startup configs etc, also lets you choose a ton of options, including: six different engine types with different amounts of static thrust and differing bypass ratios, short field performance packages, ISFD or standard standby instruments, digital or traditional instrumentation, FD customisation, HUD, autopilot options etc, so you can easily create the exact airline version you want. Don't get me wrong, I think the PMDG 737NG is perhaps second only to FSL's new A320 in terms of being a damn-near perfect study simulation of an airliner, but my hat is off too to iFly who managed to come a very close second to it and include so much in a package which was almost half the price. That's why I still very often choose to fly my iFly 737 instead of my PMDG one when I fancy wheeling out an NG.

Does the Wilco 737's work in 3.4?

Some pics of an Air Hauler 2 test flight flight today from Manchester to Dubrovnik in my airline repaint of the iFly 737-800 NG delivering a load of televisions...

 

 

 

Absolutely stunning

[Glynn 405]

These days I only fly the PMDG NGX but one area that the iFly beats PMDG on is the VC modeling especially the window dimensions, textures are better on the NGX though.

[Metal_Sky 14]

Thanks for the review, Alan.

 

I have their 747 bird which is pretty amazing. I'm surprised by its level of detail and features. Maybe one day I'll try their 737 next to my NGX.

[Chock 17,769]

Can't say I've tried the iFly or the Wilco one in P3D so I dunno. I do have P3D, but not currently installed, since I'm fairly happy with the Steam version of FSX. I know the Wilco one is okay in FSX-SE, so I'd guess at it working in P3D, although when you look at the VC of the Wilco one these days, you can tell it's getting on a bit cos it's nowhere near as flashy as more recent VCs, although to be fair, that does mean it runs well, and there are some quite nice add-ons for the Wilco 737s, such as Pilot in Command, so it has its merits, or at least will do until that QW one shows up.

 

Incidentally, I just scraped this iFly 737-800 into Maastricht from Dubrovnik after I miscalculated the fuel on board for a positioning flight in Air Hauler, although luckily for me, I added the winglets to it in the config menu, so it got a bit better fuel economy, but I ended up sacking off the last three waypoints of LNAV and went direct to the FAF. Landed with 6 percent fuel lol (I do that a lot on Air Hauler since you have to buy the fuel lol). Actually, in fairness to the iFly 737-800, it did land believably because of the light weight (i.e no cargo and very little fuel on baord), it was still happily floating above the runway in ground effect at 110 knots. Landed so long I ended up having to back taxi down the runway to reach a turn off point hah ha.

[Metal_Sky 14]

How is the auto brake logic?

I've noticed some pretty brilliant programming with the iFly 747 relating to the reversers applied with the autobrakes. Watching the brake torque from the CMC page of the FMC is pretty startling as to how they achieved the tie in with the brakes not applying as much pressure when reverses are deployed.

 

Pretty impressive. I went back and tested the NGX and I didn't see any logic in this at all. Just seems to increase even more braking with the reverse thrust to the point of pretty ridicules stopping distances.

[Chock 17,769]

Dunno about silly stopping distances, I just damn near went off the end of 5R at EGCC with it lol, thought it was never going to stop lol. Will look into that though.

[simmerhead 885]

...from the (appalling in real life owing to its terrible stability) 600 variant...

 

And still the "Piglet" does a great job in Arctic Norway where it is the workhorse for Scandinavian Airlines doing some of the most challenging winter ops in Europe. Just landed as a passenger in one a few days ago in 45G60KT conditions!