Yes, I also think the better choice for PMDG would have been the 787.  The 747-400 seems to be turning into a vast cargo fleet...

To me, I only fly the F type and that's great because it makes short hopes like I can fly from EDDF to EGLL as its cargo. I like I can fly short flights with the cargo version and park in very different placers to pax. That's my way of enjoying the 748.....748-8F 🙂

PMDG -----> Extreme detail and precision ---------> Wipe out your bank account

QW787-----> Not as much detail but still excellent ----------> Save your bank account 

The cockpit graphics of the 787 are much more current than the 747 and somewhat similar to the Airbus A350. Just a thought

Quote

Yes, I also think the better choice for PMDG would have been the 787.  The 747-400 seems to be turning into a vast cargo fleet......

....assuming that you limit yourself to real world routes with the correct aircraft types

Edited October 17, 20187 yr by Christopher Low

7 hours ago, Rafal said:

By the way, ladies and gentlemen, a.. 747-800? 🤔😀

Yeah, it's an '8' as far as official Boeing nomenclature is concerned, but it was originally to be called an 800 when they were mooting the idea of it, back when Airbus scared the bejeezus out of them by coming up with the A380, which was designed to carry up to 800 passengers in high density config, hence its designation and the fact that it's got a ton of emergency escape slides, many of which are rocket powered to inflate them quickly.

That 800 passenger malarkey stuck with people, additionally because most are used to that 'hundred' convention in naming stretched airliners. Certainly around the airport where I work people call it the 800 quite often, and everyone knows what they mean, just as they all know what everyone means when someone says: 'oh my god, not that piece of s***', i.e. they mean that either Airbus A330 9H-AGU, or Airbus A321 LY-VED, is taxying onto the stand lol.

I guess it's a bit like calling the DC-3 the 'Dakota', which was only its RAF name and not an official Douglas title, or the UH-1 the 'Huey' instead of the Iroquois, although in the end Bell accepted the fact that everyone called it a Huey and actually had that name put on its rotor pedals in the cockpit, so sometimes what aeroplanes get called is democratised lol.

Edited October 17, 20187 yr by Chock

If budget isn't a factor, I'd go with PMDG all day; however, since budget is a factor, why not have your cake and eat it too?  Specifically, did you consider buying the QW 787 AND iFLY 747? 

QW787 = $69.95

iFLY747 = $59.95 (the -8 version will also be included)

Total = $129.90

PMDG 747 = $134.95 (204.95 if you include the -8)

It's another option worth exploring.  I won't pretend the iFLY rendition of the 747 is on par with PMDG; however, for the value, it's excellent in its own right.  I believe it was reviewed here on AVSIM and received the 'Gold Star.' 

Edited October 17, 20187 yr by kingm56

9 minutes ago, kingm56 said:

If budget isn't a factor, I'd go with PMDG all day; however, since budget is a factor, why not have your cake and eat it too?  Specifically, did you consider buying the QW 787 AND iFLY 747? 

Since the OP only mentioned two choices, I did not choose to mention the iFly 747 on a previous post, but as it has been brought up now, I'll chip in on this, and not in a way most people might expect either...

Disregarding what one thinks of either of them in terms of simulation (suffice to say they're both very good), yes the iFly 747-400 is cheaper than the PMDG 747-400, but in the same way that the iFly 737 NG represents better value than the PMDG 737 NG, I think the PMDG 747-400 represents better value than the iFly one.

To explain, with the 737s, you get far more variants for the price when you buy the iFly one, especially considering you have to buy an expansion with the PMDG one just to get an additional two variants. But with the 747s, it's the other way around; the PMDG 747-400 package has a load of different variants in it, whereas the iFly 747 only gives you a basic passenger version. Now of course this doesn't matter if you're happy to fly your bog standard iFly 747-400 as though it was a BCF or a 400D or whatever, but with PMDG, you get a proper simulation of those variants.

What will changes this and put the ball back in the other court somewhat, will be when iFly releases the (free) update to their 747-400 which will include the 747-8, meaning you won't have to buy any sort of expansion to get the shiny new big fat Boeing jumbo, but since it isn't released yet, it remains to be seen how detailed a simulation of the 8 variant that is, but it's something which is at least worth perhaps bearing in mind in the longer term, since that iFly update is nearing release apparently.

I've got both. I'd say the 747-400/-8 if you got the budget for only one, although the 787 costs much less (69USD vs 210USD for the full 747 package). 

QW 787 has its good points. But - for PMDG, you are paying that price tag for the full attention to detail, the immersion factor, and the "works out of the box" just makes it so much nicer. I don't have to go nitpicking because there is nothing to nitpick about...