Looking for a short haul aircraft for P3DV4. Was going together the FSL A320 but I'm waiting until the SP drops. Was looking at the 717. Is it stable or is it a case of if you buy it you're a unpaid beta user who had to pay for it?

I have it, its stable on my machine, its a beta and they don't pay me, and I knew it was a beta when I bought it, because they tell you it is. 

It is much much improved since its release.

But it's not a mature state yet IMHO (so take it with a  grain of salt), you will encounter weird bugs and "what is it doing now?"-scenarios. But CTD's have been pretty much eliminated (again, in my experience)

Good thing is the team is pumping out new releases at least once a month if you are enrolled in beta-program.

It's a fine aircraft overall, I'd say it's ahead of the AS CRJ. Not sure you appreciate that measuring stick though.

4 minutes ago, SAS443 said:

It is much much improved since its release.

But it's not a mature state yet IMHO (so take it with a  grain of salt), you will encounter weird bugs and "what is it doing now?"-scenarios. But CTD's have been pretty much eliminated (again, in my experience)

Good thing is the team is pumping out new releases at least once a month if you are enrolled in beta-program.

It's a fine aircraft overall, I'd say it's ahead of the AS CRJ. Not sure you appreciate that measuring stick though.

Good info. So if you purchase it you still must enroll in a beta program? I would think if you spend money on it they should make any and all updates available to anyone that paid for it.

Can one do a complete flight with the FMC or is that still not feature complete? 

It is a complete aircraft as it is right now, FMC included. Perhaps not ALL FMC features are present yet but is fully functional for flight planning and navigation. And just keeps getting better (they just released yet another update yesterday) and surpasses many other of their competition with their innovation, such as Real Light & True Glass. 

And these guys are top-notch in listening to customer feedback.

The 717 is great.

I think public version is version 1.0.8.0

Beta-program is currently 1.0.9.16. I highly recommend you do enroll for the beta. 

I can complete flights from A to B no problem, even on VATSIM. FMS is sufficient for online flying. And she is a joy to hand fly. Here's a video I made some weeks ago

 

4 minutes ago, SAS443 said:

I think public version is version 1.0.8.0

Beta-program is currently 1.0.9.16. I highly recommend you do enroll for the beta. 

I can complete flights from A to B no problem, even on VATSIM. FMS is sufficient for online flying. And she is a joy to hand fly. Here's a video I made some weeks ago

 

Thanks for the good information. Couple last questions, can anyone enroll in the beta program? And, are you able to load fuel and weight via the FMC like you can with the PMDG aircraft?

You load the payload / fuel via a stand-alone software (Tfdi Addon manager). These values - GW, ZFW, CG,  etc - are also visible on the onboard tablet (very nice feature)

I agree, it has much improved to the original release. One BIG issue though, the Profile descend (similar to VNAV descend), it is way off. You either end up several thousand feet above the profile or you have the speedbrake out A LOT. Which is unrealistic e.g. in a no wind scenario, uncomfortable for the virtual passengers :-).

There is no balance yet between Top of Descend and a plane which can`t that well go down + slow down at the same time. 

Has been mentioned a lot in their forum, but sadly no improvement. 

2 hours ago, B777ER said:

Thanks for the good information. Couple last questions, can anyone enroll in the beta program? 

Yes, anyone can enroll in the beta program and have access to the latest experimental builds...it's worth doing, IMHO.

2 hours ago, B777ER said:

Looking for a short haul aircraft for P3DV4. Was going together the FSL A320 but I'm waiting until the SP drops. Was looking at the 717. Is it stable or is it a case of if you buy it you're a unpaid beta user who had to pay for it?

I would like to buy this simulation. I recently installed P3dv4.1. So I am interested in simulations that can exploit the 64 bit technology.

However as you rightly put it,  your a beta tester who has paid for the privalage.

Best regards

David

 

 

Just to clear something up, When you buy the TFDI 717 you have 2 options,  Stable version and the Beta version.  You do NOT have to pay extra for the Beta version, you just sign up for it.

It's a fantastic product!

Get in the cockpit in vr and if you're flying in rain the raindrops on the windscreen will blow you away. 

It has a mature fmc and reliable autopilot system with autoland capability too

1 hour ago, sultanofswing said:

Just to clear something up, When you buy the TFDI 717 you have 2 options,  Stable version and the Beta version.  You do NOT have to pay extra for the Beta version, you just sign up for it.

Yes I understand that. However, the version I want is the P3dv4 version. Since this is still in beta, I would be buying it for the beta version. 

Cheers.