Hello, 

I saw that captain sim aircraft for FSX:SE are on sale. The boeing 727 and 737-200 are only 35 USD. I am unsure about how good this is though. Another one I was interested in was the Q400 by majestic software. Should I wait for a sale on the q400 or buy the captain sim? I am into aircraft that are very close to real life like PMDG.

Zaakit. 

well i would certainly advise looking at them both on youtube before you make your decision, there both good but, not in the same age range (year of development). 

Those two aircraft are so different that it's hard to recommend one of them over the other without knowing what type of flying you like. If you enjoy high-end turboprop and everything that goes with it then you absolutely can't go wrong with the Majestic Dash 8 Q400.  There is also the Leonardo MaddogX.  The MaddogX and Majestic Dash 8 are likely the two most detailed aircraft ever developed for flight sim.

Best wishes.

 

Are captain sim as good as PMDG? I don't mind graphics or sound, as long the cockpit controls are close to real life. I am mainly looking for the products which have the best FCOM's and user manuals.

Edited June 19, 20196 yr by Zaakit

33 minutes ago, Zaakit said:

Are captain sim as good as PMDG?

Absolutely not.  I'm not saying their bad products, but not near PMDG level.  The Dash 8 and MaddogX exceed PMDG level in my book, and I'm a HUGE PMDG fan and I've had each of their aircraft produced since 2008.

But if you're interested in Captain Sim, then I believe you can download their manuals on their website (used to be able to anyway).

 

Edited June 19, 20196 yr by DaveCT2003

23 minutes ago, Zaakit said:

Are captain sim as good as PMDG? I don't mind graphics or sound, as long the cockpit controls are close to real life. I am mainly looking for the products which have the best FCOM's and user manuals.

Absolutely not.  PMDG is one of maybe four add-on developers that occupy what I'd consider to be the top-tier in terms of simulation fidelity, as does Majestic with their Q400.  Captain Sim produces some decent add-ons and some incomplete and not so great ones, but none of them rise to the level of that top tier.  The top tier add-ons perform very close to the real thing in terms of performance metrics (fuel burn, power settings, t/o and landing distance etc), and have deep system simulations that go beyond what's used in everyday operations. 

And when it comes to user manuals, well, PMDG stands for Precision Manuals Development Group...in that respect they stand pretty much alone at the top of the pyramid.  I have yet to see anyone else produce documentation that rivals PMDG's for depth and completeness.

Regards

Bob, did we just start our replies exactly the same and post less than 1 minute apart?

Now their part of the Internet AND repeated, so you know it's got to be TRUE!  LOL!!! 

 

Ok thanks, I guess I will leave the captain sim then. Is the simcheck a300 any good? How does it compare to the Q400 and does it have all the controls the real a300 does like a pmdg aircraft?

1 hour ago, Zaakit said:

Ok thanks, I guess I will leave the captain sim then. Is the simcheck a300 any good? How does it compare to the Q400 and does it have all the controls the real a300 does like a pmdg aircraft?

It seems the other aircraft we've mentioned/recommended are not interest to you.  Is it the price?  If so, do you have a price limit in mind?  I'm trying to find something that narrows things down a bit.

Most products in our community have manuals available on the developer website, and there are almost always a host of videos for each product on Youtube, as well as product reviews (See Frugal's Youtube Channel, which is merely one such site).

I'll move on now, but extend to you my very best wishes.

 

 

The Captain Sim 727 is a very good add-on aeroplane, however, if you are looking for something which is as realistic as possible, whilst in most respects the CS 727 does fit that bill, there is one area where it 'fudges it' a bit: If you know a lot about the real aeroplane, specifically how it is operated in terms of correct thrust settings for your weight and the weather conditions at the time, you will know that the correct throttle settings for take offs and some other phases of flight are set based upon values found on paper charts for the correct engine pressure ratio (EPR) value using the EPG gauge. You will find that you can't really do this with real accuracy in the CS 727 because they basically used the same engine modelling for the 100/200 and 200 ADV versions they made whereas in reality, these aircraft used engines with different power outputs and therefore they were not operated using the same EPR values for all aircraft.

For most people who aren't too bothered about being 'super realistic' this isn't an issue since it won't stop you from flying the thing and having fun with it (and there is indeed lots of fun to be had with it). This criticism (if you want to call it that) applies to their B707 too, which is also unable to have its thrust set properly based on EPR value calculation charts (I know this because when I was doing reviews of this and the CS 727, I wanted to be very thorough and so I went to the trouble of buying some real manuals for the 707 and 727). Now I don't want to this to put anyone off who doesn't really care about flying the things to that level of realism because believe me, this won't spoil your fun, the CS 707 and 727 are among my favourite FS add-ons ever in spite of this detail, which I investigated as I say, just to make sure my reviews were as detailed as they could be for those who are really into the 'nerdy stuff'.

If you do go with the 727 incidentally, try and get hold of this book, as it is a mine of useful information on how to fly a 727 properly.

With regard to the Majestic Dash 8 Q400: If you like realism, then there isn't a more realistic add-on out there at all. It has a very good claim to being the most realistically simulated and most complete add-on airliner you can get for either FSX or P3D, and when I say this, I am including anything PMDG, FSL, iFly and A2A have ever made in that evaluation. You really can't go wrong with it and in addition to this, for flight simmers it is a very good one to study and enjoy because - being a regional prop twin -  it is comparatively easy to learn how to operate it completely realistically, and being fairly ubiquitous, it is used on flights of lots of different durations, but of these nothing too long, which means you can get a lot of take offs and landings done within a shorter period of time and it won't bore you with long stretches of flight where you are sat there letting the autopilot do all the work. I'd recommend the Majestic Dash 8 Q400 to anyone any day of the week, it's fantastic.

22 hours ago, Zaakit said:

Ok thanks, I guess I will leave the captain sim then. Is the simcheck a300 any good? How does it compare to the Q400 and does it have all the controls the real a300 does like a pmdg aircraft?

The Simcheck A300 is quite an old product but it is not bad although not quite in the same league as the PMDG aircraft. Its systems are however reasonably complex and proper operation does require studying the manual. You need to note that the basic aircraft does not come with an FMC which has to be purchased as a separate upgrade. This is based on the Honeywell system used on this airliner in the real world and is worth buying if you want the A300. You can read a 2010 review of the A300 here on Avsim:

https://www.avsim.com/pages/0410/Simcheck/A300.htm

As many others have already said, the Q400 is one the most realistically simulated airliners in FSX and, as such its level of systems replication exceeds that of the A300. Everything about it is realistic even down to its somewhat tricky landing characteristics! For a complex aircraft, it also benefits from a relatively low VAS footprint which is an important consideration when flying in FSX. The bottom line is that the Majestic Q400 is just a great aircraft!

Bill

 

 

Be careful the simcheck A300 is only compatibility with FSX not FSX SE

7 hours ago, E69_Brisafresca said:

Be careful the simcheck A300 is only compatibility with FSX not FSX SE

Good point - I hadn’t noticed that! Apart from the FMC upgrade, I guess Simcheck have not updated this since it was first released nearly 10 years ago - a shame really as it had a lot of potential.

Bill

@scianoir

Very true, aerosoft has left the A300 abandoned, at least they should make it work with FSX SE, I never understood why.

The only way to get a worthy ''A300-600'' is by combining the thomas Ruth's A300 and the add on ISG1

 

On 6/21/2019 at 8:56 AM, Chock said:

The Captain Sim 727 is a very good add-on aeroplane, however, if you are looking for something which is as realistic as possible, whilst in most respects the CS 727 does fit that bill, there is one area where it 'fudges it' a bit: If you know a lot about the real aeroplane, specifically how it is operated in terms of correct thrust settings for your weight and the weather conditions at the time, you will know that the correct throttle settings for take offs and some other phases of flight are set based upon values found on paper charts for the correct engine pressure ratio (EPR) value using the EPG gauge. You will find that you can't really do this with real accuracy in the CS 727 because they basically used the same engine modelling for the 100/200 and 200 ADV versions they made whereas in reality, these aircraft used engines with different power outputs and therefore they were not operated using the same EPR values for all aircraft.

For most people who aren't too bothered about being 'super realistic' this isn't an issue since it won't stop you from flying the thing and having fun with it (and there is indeed lots of fun to be had with it). This criticism (if you want to call it that) applies to their B707 too, which is also unable to have its thrust set properly based on EPR value calculation charts (I know this because when I was doing reviews of this and the CS 727, I wanted to be very thorough and so I went to the trouble of buying some real manuals for the 707 and 727). Now I don't want to this to put anyone off who doesn't really care about flying the things to that level of realism because believe me, this won't spoil your fun, the CS 707 and 727 are among my favourite FS add-ons ever in spite of this detail, which I investigated as I say, just to make sure my reviews were as detailed as they could be for those who are really into the 'nerdy stuff'.

If you do go with the 727 incidentally, try and get hold of this book, as it is a mine of useful information on how to fly a 727 properly.

With regard to the Majestic Dash 8 Q400: If you like realism, then there isn't a more realistic add-on out there at all. It has a very good claim to being the most realistically simulated and most complete add-on airliner you can get for either FSX or P3D, and when I say this, I am including anything PMDG, FSL, iFly and A2A have ever made in that evaluation. You really can't go wrong with it and in addition to this, for flight simmers it is a very good one to study and enjoy because - being a regional prop twin -  it is comparatively easy to learn how to operate it completely realistically, and being fairly ubiquitous, it is used on flights of lots of different durations, but of these nothing too long, which means you can get a lot of take offs and landings done within a shorter period of time and it won't bore you with long stretches of flight where you are sat there letting the autopilot do all the work. I'd recommend the Majestic Dash 8 Q400 to anyone any day of the week, it's fantastic.

Many years back, a guy put out "Michaels's Mods" for both the 721 and the 722.  If you install them properly, you can operate both aircraft almost exactly on the numbers from the real world EPR charts.   It makes a tremendous difference.  I agree with you that the CS 727 is a great product.  I'm pleased that they added the CIVA ins system in the last update.  The only bug that really still nags me on this plane is that the flight director is awful.  Why they can't get that even close to right is weird.