This aircraft for me is all about being the Captain, nothing else.

I use the guy in the middle seat to do what he is paid to do. 🙂

So why do I enjoy it so much?

I love starting the engines there never sure to fire.

Apart from everything about it the highlights are.

Takeoff

Rotate at v2, well not really rotate the smallest amount possable, let her float of the ground, then fly her at 130kts keep her there to 500ft, then pitch for 140KTS, then after climb power is set pitch for 165kts. Get that perfect and I do this 🙂

Plan and work out when to discend level out 20 miles from the ILS. Now I love all this..... Get speed down to 175 kts to drop the flaps to get to 140kts before GS and NEVER touch the trottles. 

Landing, Never touch the throttle to 1000ft when the AP comes off. Use flaps to glue the aircraft at e.g 130kts VAPR, 500ft flaps 50 hit VREF bang over the numbers. Land perfectly at VREF as smooth as butter.

Thats my job as captain. To never touch the FE controls to am 1000FT on approuch. Then its my ship 🙂

At this point of time getting all the above perfect is what I love. No GPS ofc.

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by Nyxx

I never thought I would fly anything this ancient, but I had to get back into any product from PMDG, This is the most fun I ever had with any plane to date. As always, a true master piece.

This thing now sets the standard!

Hard fought to find anything I don't like actually.   That's highly ironic considering I've spent all my sim time in tubeliners, predominantly 73/77/78   MSFS wants you to slow down and take in the scenery a bit though.  It's not just point A to point B with two highly developed add on airports, it's truly about the journey and taking it all in.  IMO the -6 is absolutely made for that. 

Then there is the -6 itself

Visuals, sounds, the shake of the engine cowls, the gratification of firing her up correctly,  getting outside my comfort zone of following a Magenta line with a CDU/EFB to do the thinking for me, having to plan my descent and trying to calculate the distance/time/speed required for controlled descent, the FEEL of the approach (hard to describe) and then the reward of bringing her in opening the windows and shutting her down while peaking outside at those spectacular engines... 

Totally unexpected how enamored I've become with this bird.  Thank you PMDG.  

What is good about the DC6. First, it  flies like a real aircraft, great handling, great sounds, great immersion. I have flown goo payware aircraft going all the way back to the Level D 767, and PMDG and A2A aircraft, and the DC6 in MSFS tops them all.  I also like that you can easily land at smaller airports, and you can still see the great scenery in MSFS at 12-18000 feet rather than cruising at 31,000. This is the best investment in an add on aircraft that I have ever made in almost 30 years of flight simming. 

Actually DC6 made me to buy MSFS, downloading now.

If everything will be ok, then my next purchase is DC6.

Fingers crossed 🙂

Beautiful and complex, just right. 

Now A2A guys, get that Connie and B-377 out !

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by warbirds

What are the take off and landing distances of this aircraft with zero payload? I am curious to know what kind of airports it can operate from.

4 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

What are the take off and landing distances of this aircraft with zero payload? I am curious to know what kind of airports it can operate from.

Takeoff around 4,000 feet. Landing around.  2600 feet

For me it is the immersion. This thing is a time machine. It just feels like a living breathing machine from the past. So much character. For example, trying to start each engine isn't as simple as pushing a button. There is a sequence, and within that sequence there's a subtle timing to get it just right. Get it right and those radials fire up, the cockpit shakes, gauges twitch, sounds rumbling. Get it wrong and the engine just won't turn over. It's those little details that provide the level of immersion that I really like. 

For me the sound immersion is top notch 

For me: Not to hard to learn and if you have learned it flies like a dream !

How it is done from PMDG for the all around usage, all in all very well thought out.

Sound is amazing - for short i like the whole thing - it´s just a little Masterpiece 😎

 

cheers 😉

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by pmplayer

All of the above including nostalgic memories of childhood trips. Also the free video tutorials from Robert is a tremendous bonus. Those are priceless but free. I enjoy the VOR navigation without GPS though I do cheat with the moving map on my EFB from Aivlasoft. In the future I’m going to try navigating with the moving map off, just like back in the day.

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

Takeoff around 4,000 feet. Landing around.  2600 feet

You can takeoff on less than that.  There are charts in the POH where you can calculate takeoff/landing distance based on headwind and weight.  I took off from a 3100 foot runway using said charts, and a wet takeoff setting.  And I was pleased to find out, thankfully, that they were right on the money!

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by Gilandred

Ive just made a huge update to my PDF and also added all my controll setting if you would like to look?

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/pmdg-dc-6-cloudmaster-forum/129605-roberts-tutorials-made-into-a-simple-to-follow-pdf-for-the-msfs-dc-6

7 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

What are the take off and landing distances of this aircraft with zero payload? I am curious to know what kind of airports it can operate from.

It can takeoff from runway 10 at TFFJ,  but you have to baby it.    It can easily land on 28 and stop before the terminal building,  even without reversing thrust.    By comparison,   the 787 can do the same,  but with max auto brake and reversing.  The 787 develops around 20 knots more speed before you rotate at the last second on 10.   The 787 has power to burn during climb.   Talking 20 degrees of flaps on both.

Landing the 787 or DC-6 on runway 10 is equally challenging,   and I find it rather satisfying  to do so.    

EDIT: TFFJ is 2119 feet long.

Edited June 30, 20214 yr by Waldo Pepper