There are so many Airbus products coming out in the months ahead that are targeted at the hardcore simmer. It's going to be difficult to shop for the best one as their release dates will all be different. I'm aware of Airsimmer, Wilco/FeelThere, PMDG and I believe at least one or two more. So, how does one shop intelligently? I'm not going to buy them all. I can speculate based on the developer's reputation or wait for reviews to figure them all out. What are you going to do?

I'm going to get FSX. That plus the ifdg/posky models and PSS panels plus FSX' fly by wire modelling should make for some interesting results until the announced addons are released.Regards,http://www.bremmekamp.com/img/misc/avsim.jpg

Nem. . . . that's a fine sig banner. . I like it!:-)

It's fine except that it violates the "rules":2.) That image shall not be larger than 400 x 60 pixels in size3.) The image file shall not be larger than 10 Kbytes in size4.) The image can be animated, but shall not exceed the 10 Kbytes size

The Airbus is very complex so I am not optimistic about getting one to the same standard as the Feelthere, Level D or PMDG Boeings. If anyone can approach it has to be PMDG.However having waited for so long it wil be hard to resist trying them all.

Well I think this is going to be a fun time with FS, all these Airbus's, I can't wait. I will definatly be getting the PMDG bus, there's no doubt that there offering will be quality through and through. However seeing that there are some others on the horizon, I may be tempted by some of these.

>It's fine except that it violates the "rules":As did several dozen other sigs when I created this one (and most of them probably still do). But god forbid we have a one picture sig on here where the image is slightly larger than allowed but is NOT followed by 100+ lines describing some bloke's rig, listing every speck of dust in his PC case.Corrected the image to abide with the "rules" (double quotes courtesy of my previous speaker).Regards,http://www.bremmekamp.com/img/misc/avsim.jpg

Were I an Airbus fan, I'd be tempted by the Airsimmer version... I'm not, though, (why did I click on this post?) so I'll stick to my trusty 742 RFP and SSTSIM!

I think Airsimmer will win them all. =)

Both Airsimmers and PMDG products look certainly promising. Based on the experience with other PMDG products, I would almost say that the PMDG bus will be a safe purchase. My only concern is about performance. Given the fact, that it will only work on FSX and having seen that FSX /w basic aircrafts runs slower than FS9 does (/w the same basic aircrafts) plus knowing how much performance a complex addon like the PMDG 747 can eat on FS9, a combo of FSX + complex Airbus addon will most likely only run decently on a very high end machine. Not a big deal though - these products are not just around the corner and my next hardware upgrade is scheduled for early or mid next year.Too bad that none of them announced the A330/340 which I like a lot more than the smaller ones. Though, I still hope that PMDG will do them later, because it would be, at least in my opinion, a wise decision and a good way to make more money :) The similarities between the 320/330/340 are big and once you have done all the complex avionics and gauges, you can offer a quite big range of products based on the same core code (of course, building the models, doing all the fine tweaking, creating good FDEs is still a lot of work - but, at least, a lot of code and artwork (panels for example) could be shared between 320/330/340 products.

This is a good question, not to mention a tough one!I was aware of Airsimmer, Feelthere and PMDG's efforts also, but you mention 'one or two more', who else is producing the airbus at the moment?Disclaimer: The following is obviously all speculation but is based on the respective deisgners track records and some reasonable assumptions/guesses. I don't know any more than you! :-)First to market will be a close call between Airsimmer and Feelthere/Wilco, with Airsimmer SEEMINGLY the closest to release from what we've seen. The PMDG320 will be further away, I suspect well into '07 unless they've been hiding something from us (which - I guess - is quite possible!)PMDG will undoubtedly produce a very accurate detailed product, but this takes time, lots of it. Plus it's FSX only, so those sticking with FS9 for now will have to look elsewhere. Asides from that I suspect that PMDG will have the most fully-featured product. They always do, it seems!Feelthere/Wilco will produce a very good product if their 737 and Legacy are anything to go by, but their work may *possibly* lack a few of the 'extra mile' sort of features that PMDG include, such as load managers, inbuilt pushback calulators, comprehensive failures etc. If you don't care for these sorts of things, then you'd do well to consider this version as it will most likely be the best performing add-on for slower PC's, their Legacy and 737 are very good performers.Airsimmer has a very promising looking airbus series, but as we all know it's easy to write a fully featured spec list for an upcoming product, the proof will be in the pudding. The Airsimmer team is staffed by some mighty talented people and I have faith that they will deliver a very good product. Currently Airsimmer has my money as I'm sticking with FS9 for a while and their product looks to be the better FS9 option.

wait for reviews, browse their support forums for whatever bugs appear and comments from buyers

Airsimmer and PMDG will rock !!!

I think that because the Airbus market within FS has been starved since PSS released in FS2002, it will be hard for me not to buy the first one that is out. I know this is just pure speculation, but PMDG's products are YEARS in development, so waiting another year or 2 for their version doesn't make much sense if you want an updated Airbus for FSX. I'll probably buy it when it comes out though :)Shameless plug: How about a panel res of 1920x1200 for us WFP users!

I think AirSimmer's will be the first good one to come out (I hope so). You're right about PMDG though, they take forever (they do make the best though).