NXGN SIMULATIONS - CITATION CJ4X FSX P3D

[Chock 17,769]

The short answer is: yes it has FLC, no it doesn't have VNAV. The longer answer is...

The aircraft uses a licensed version of Eric Marciano's Easy FMC, so that is of course somewhat simplified, however if you know that add-on, you will know it is largely the tedious stuff which you don't have to put in which Easy FMC does not have, in most respects it works the same as a functional FMC and of course has the advantage of being slaved to the built in nav aid database, so there is no need for any nav aid updating although the developers are looking into the possibility of enhancing that, but you have to bear in mind that Easy FMC is essentially a different graphical representation of the default GPS rather than an actual FMC. However, if you are into DIY fixes, this does not mean you cannot put a fully functional FMC into the thing if you like, because you could always stick the ISG Honeywell/King GNSXLS FMS and Collins Proline 4 gauges in it (if you have those) and then it certainly would do SIDS, STARS and VNAV. I do have those ISG gauges, but I've been happy enough with this aeroplane and its default functions to not really be bothered about doing that, as it is very nice as it comes, and I always fly SIDS and STARS manually off a chart anyway, since I like actually driving the aeroplane myself lol.

So as it stands, you can put a flight plan in manually or have it read the sim's current flight plan, which is what I like, i.e. both options. But, you are not going to be using SIDS or STARS unless you manually put them into your flight plan, which can of course be done, but not via the CDU itself.

By default, FLC, does function properly but VNAV is non functional in this bird, so you have to use other methods to fly that, i.e. on the MCP alt, which is no big deal to me since ATC are normally getting you to use the MCP anyway, so that's often what I'll use on things like the 737 etc. The autopilot will do both V/S (up to +/- 8000fpm if you are mental enough to go for that rate lol) and it will capture altitudes too, so whilst there is a bit more work than simply hitting VNAV and doing a crossword puzzle while the TCAS takes care of looking out of the window for you, it is entirely possible to fly any VNAV profile you like, just not fully automatically.

At the end of the day, the add-on costs 20 quid, so its functionality is commensurate with that price point, although having said that, I've really taken to this thing a lot and have been using it for charter flights around Europe in Air Hauler 2, and it is great fun for that kind of thing.

I've got two of them in my AH2 fleet, one which I use for ad-hoc charters myself, the other is employed on a scheduled passenger timetable between EGGP and LFPB which comprises ten flights per day, seven days a week, so the little CJ4 is flying its word not allowed off in my sim world lol.

That schedule with just one of the CJ4s brings in around 4 million Dollars a month, it is flown by three of my AI pilots, so the little Citation paid for itself within less than three weeks in AH2, since its acquisition cost in AH2 is 2.4 million and the overheads for that operation between Liverpool and Paris in total are less than 85,000 per month all in, including the pilot's wages, maintenance, base costs, insurance etc. Thus it is one of the most cost-effective aeroplanes I've ever used in AH2 and a very quick and inexpensive way to make cash, and it is very nice to fly too and looks cool as well. I'm going acquire another one and put that one on a round trip route from EGGP to LEAM soon, which will mean I've got three of them, two of which will be pulling in about 10 million per month between them for monthly costs of less than 200,000 whilst the other one sits there for whenever I fancy doing a flight in it.

 

[kyouls 1]

Thanks for the reply Chock! Does it give you the option to climb in mach speeds or just IAS? Is the FADEC represented well?

[Chock 17,769]

From the manual:

FLC Button

Depressing the FLC (flight level change) button engages syncing to the current airspeed/mach. The speed reference can then be changed with the SPEED knob. Pushing the FLC switch again disengages the mode. 
 
Speed Knob

The rotary SPEED knob changes the IAS/Mach speed reference (FLC mode). The speed knob changes the Airspeed or Mach bug at any time. The integral PUSH IAS/MACH button within the SPEED knob toggles the airspeed control between IAS and Mach. 
 
V/S & ALT Button & DOWN/UP Wheel 

The VS and ALT switches select both vertical speed mode and altitude capturing mode. When activated, the system maintains the vertical speed reference and the FD holds the selected altitude. After mode selection, rotation of the DOWN/UP wheel slews the vertical speed reference in the direction of knob rotation. Range is ±8000 fpm. 
 
ALT SEL Knob

A preselected altitude is set via the ALT rotary knob. The altitude preselect mode provides a means for FD/AP to climb or descend to a preselected altitude and then level off and maintain the preselected altitude. 
 

[scianoir 610]

On 18/10/2017 at 9:44 AM, Chock said:

I'm going acquire another one and put that one on a round trip route from EGGP to LEAM soon, which will mean I've got three of them,

Excuse my ignorance Alan as I don't have Air Hauler 2, but am I correct in assuming that you didn't actually have to buy the NXGN CJ4X three times, but rather that you assigned the one that you bought as three different aircraft within your AH2 fleet. 

I have never really thought about or looked at AH2 as over the years I have bought various utility type addons which I have never really used much and I thought this might just be another one of those, but reading your various comments here makes it sound like an interesting addon that you seem to use a lot and I am now tempted!

My apologies for sideslipping slightly off topic!

Bill

[Chock 17,769]

1 hour ago, scianoir said:

Excuse my ignorance Alan as I don't have Air Hauler 2, but am I correct in assuming that you didn't actually have to buy the NXGN CJ4X three times, but rather that you assigned the one that you bought as three different aircraft within your AH2 fleet. 

I have never really thought about or looked at AH2 as over the years I have bought various utility type addons which I have never really used much and I thought this might just be another one of those, but reading your various comments here makes it sound like an interesting addon that you seem to use a lot and I am now tempted!

My apologies for sideslipping slightly off topic!

Bill

Yup, it gives your flights a lot of purpose and makes simming into a bit of a challenge too, well kind of anyway, at least it lends another facet to it. Yup you are correct, any aeroplanes you have installed in your sim can be 'bought' by your Air Hauler airline, so you could buy loads of them if you wanted to, although I usually either buy things with different liveries or make my own for them. You can fit them out as either cargo or passenger aircraft.

[scianoir 610]

Thanks for clarifying that Alan - I always like the idea of products that give flights a purpose. I've read the information on AH2 available on the Just Flight product page and it looks as if it could become quite time consuming in itself if you become involved in it in any great detail! However I quite like the concept of this and may well give it a go. Hopefully it doesn't have much of a resource/performance impact and more importantly I hope using it won't intrude too much into my actual flying time!

Bill

[Chock 17,769]

Nah, you can leave it for weeks and dip back into it or go at it like crazy, either way works.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

Does AH2 work well for smaller aircraft like the Turbine Duke or a King Air?  I like to fly small cargo and passenger routes.  I am, honestly, not much on mission add-ons but, maybe, it'd be worth a try.

 

[Chock 17,769]

13 hours ago, Gregg_Seipp said:

Does AH2 work well for smaller aircraft like the Turbine Duke or a King Air?  I like to fly small cargo and passenger routes.  I am, honestly, not much on mission add-ons but, maybe, it'd be worth a try.

 

Yup, although your airline would of course make less money per flight than if you were flying the kind of cargo or passengers a 747 could hold, but you can set the size of jobs it generates and the size of airports it uses in the options to make it do stuff appropriate to your fleet, and of course you could set up passenger routes for your smaller aeroplanes, and the operating costs for a smaller aeroplane into smaller airports would of course be less. After all, I am using this CJ4 on a passenger route I've created between Liverpool and Paris which takes ten passengers per flight, and that's less capacity than a King Air, but since it flies ten flights per day seven days a week and I've set the ticket price at 300 dollars, it still makes a lot of money.

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

2 hours ago, Chock said:

Yup, although your airline would of course make less money per flight than if you were flying the kind of cargo or passengers a 747 could hold, but you can set the size of jobs it generates and the size of airports it uses in the options to make it do stuff appropriate to your fleet, and of course you could set up passenger routes for your smaller aeroplanes, and the operating costs for a smaller aeroplane into smaller airports would of course be less. After all, I am using this CJ4 on a passenger route I've created between Liverpool and Paris which takes ten passengers per flight, and that's less capacity than a King Air, but since it flies ten flights per day seven days a week and I've set the ticket price at 300 dollars, it still makes a lot of money.

Verrrry interestingggg.  You say 'it flies ten flights per day seven days a week'...um...you do that?  They have a demo?

[Chock 17,769]

13 minutes ago, Gregg_Seipp said:

Verrrry interestingggg.  You say 'it flies ten flights per day seven days a week'...um...you do that?  They have a demo?

Nope, my A.I. pilots employed by my airline do those.  Don't think there is a demo since it actually isn't a full release yet, but early access, although it is pretty complete in that state.

[scianoir 610]

6 hours ago, Chock said:

Nope, my A.I. pilots employed by my airline do those.  Don't think there is a demo since it actually isn't a full release yet, but early access, although it is pretty complete in that state.

So once you have set it up, your AI pilots do most of the flying essentially in the background and am I correct in assuming that all of this carries on from day to day even if you're not using FSX?

Bill

[Chock 17,769]

2 hours ago, scianoir said:

So once you have set it up, your AI pilots do most of the flying essentially in the background and am I correct in assuming that all of this carries on from day to day even if you're not using FSX?

Bill

Yup, you can set it up that way if you want to, i.e. leave your AI pilots to it, and they will fly your schedule and the revenue from those flights will accrue even if the program isn't fired up because when you start Air Hauler 2, it spends a few seconds 'updating' what would have gone on since you last ran it, so you can literally leave it for weeks and not worry about it. Your AI personnel cannot perform maintenance on your aeroplanes though, so you would have to at least look in on the program once in a while to perform A, B and C checks on your aircraft and perhaps authorise any repairs necessary to your fleet should they be required, because if not your aeroplanes would not be able to fly after about 100 hours in the air. Your AI pilots improve in skills and abilities the more they fly by means of skill points accruing, and you can decide which abilities their 'skill points' are assigned to (i.e faster loading times for cargo, smoother landings, more economical fuel use, faster slot times etc, that kind of thing), but those points do not automatically get assigned, so you'd have to fire up the program once in a while to do that too.

For example: Currently In Air Hauler 2 I am building a base at an airport in Paris to operate additional flights and such, it will take about 3-4 days for that base to be up and running, and it would take additional time to expand any facilities I chose to build at that base, last time I checked it was at 29 percent completion, but that was a couple of days ago and whilst I was busy working and looking after my girlfriend's horse (i.e. real life intervening), it will have continued being built and when I crank up AH2 tomorrow, I should imagine it will be operational. all of that construction and all of those AI flights will have been going on whilst I've not had the program running and so the finances and wear and tear on aeroplanes etc will reflect that when I next crank up AH2.

One of the really interesting things about all this, which adds a nice touch, is that if I decide to fly an ad-hoc flight from one of the airports where my scheduled flights in AH2 are operated, and so did actually have AH2 and FSX or P3D running to make that flight, there is a good chance I would see some of my fleet either arriving and taxying into my base parking slots or perhaps departing from one of them. and any of my fleet not currently in use would be visible as parked aircraft too. That's a feature I really like about it, because it's like having real people working in your sim driving those aeroplanes (i.e. your AI pilots have names and biographies and varying skills and type ratings etc).

There's loads of cool stuff like that in AH2, such as the chat room on the radar page where you can chat to other pilots making AH2 flights and see their location on the radar in realtime and what they are flying and the payload they have on board. Things like is in the program, which you don't actually need, but which make it more fun, is why I've always like both it and really liked its predecessor too; the moment AH2 became available as an early access, it was a no brainer instant buy for me. Not only that, the developer is very open to suggestions and his support is great. AH2 is something which adds greatly to your flight sims and the fun you can have with them; I'd have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone who like flight sims and either cargo or passenger operations.

 

[scianoir 610]

Thanks for the informative insight into AH2 Alan. It sounds as if you can make it as immersive as you wish. At one stage I used an airline management simulation (independently of my flight simulator) where you built up and developed an airline from scratch managing all aspects of the operation and I found this was quite engrossing. That product was from an Australian developer if I remember correctly and, although the name escapes me, I think it was something original like Airline Simulator! As I started spending more of my limited free time on my flight simulator however the airline simulation program fell by the wayside for me some years ago, but it seems like AH2 is a nice way of combining flightsimming with an airline management simulation....very tempting!

Bill

[Chock 17,769]

Here you go, some pics of an AH2 charter flight in the Cessna CJ4X Citation, carrying four passengers from LeBourget to Aberdeen, which they paid $16,200 for: