There's actually a PMDG sale on right now (24% on all products) through to the 14th, and I've been considering the 747 for a long time, but always put it off since more and more airlines are retiring them, and the cargo routes are rarely European and i don't have many American sceneries to fly in and out of, so I'd have to buy loads just to make the cargo routes worth it, even then, passenger routes are rare because of how little airlines operate them now. BA retired their entire fleet, KLM only use 3 for cargo, Lufthansa have a few iirc, but that's it from the major airlines.

Maybe i should invest in the NGXu instead, which i honestly think I'd fly more often. I don't fly long haul enough to justify buying the 747, but there's something about just owning a 747 that appeals to me. Right now, i would say 95% of my flights are short-haul, while the other 5% is the odd long haul i do overnight because i'm bored and its an easy way to force myself to wake up early the next day.

 You do get the 400D variant, which is the high density short range version, used a lot in Japan, so it's not like you can't do short haul in a 747 and still be realistic. But then again, who says you have to be realistic anyway; you can fly it wherever you want. It's a great add-on, brilliantly optimised too, so it gets good FPS for such a fancy add-on.

If you have the cash to spare I'd highly recommend buying it, it's a fantastic aircraft, I've pretty much ended up gearing my entire sim setup round it because it's so enjoyable to fly.

Also, though I'm aware many prefer to fly on more modern schedules, http://departedflights.com/ has a wealth of international routes from the mid-late 1990s with the 744, which is often where I look when I fly the aircraft.

And like Chock says you can always take them on short-hauls anyway -  technically it wouldn't even be that inaccurate - BA was certainly known to take their 747s out on European routes every now and then to compensate for disruption of their narrow-body services.

Edit: oh, and if you're looking for short-hauls and and happen to have the scenery, then the Hong Kong-Taipei shuttle is a classic, especially if you have FlyTampa's Kai Tak Scenery!

Edited August 9, 20214 yr by SimeonWilbury

Lufthansa recently (maybe still) scheduled 747s out of Frankfurt to Majorca, Spain to compensate for high demand that the usual narrowbodies couldn't handle. They also schedule(d) A350s to Majorca out of Munich. As for cargo, there's always a short- to medium-haul sector, especially in the US and Asia, that's operated by a big one as well.

Edited August 9, 20214 yr by threegreen

Cargo is mostly where it's at for the 747, and to a fairly limited number of airports due to its size.  In the US you'd expect to see them mostly at the big international cargo hubs--KMEM, KSDF, KOAK, KONT, KMIA and PANC...add a few european hubs like EDDK, LFPG, and EGLL and you have a decent network to fly within.  As far as long haul goes, I tend to fly the front and back ends of those legs--I fly the heavy takeoff, departure, and climb to cruise, then use a utility to reposition myself 200nm from destination, and fly the descent and arrival, skipping the long boring cruise in the middle.

There are also some pax operations...Lufthansa still flies them, and then there are head-of-state aircraft that fly legs from short to extreme long-haul.

If you want to fly current real-world ops, the 737 will be much more versatile.  That said, a heavy, powerful 747 has a truly unique feel to it, especially in the takeoff and landing phases.

I highly recommend the 747. Fun to fly. A true icon. Good sounds. Nice turbulence effects. Enough work requires to make it a little more fun than the 777. I sometimes do real life flights. But many other times I fly whatever I want. 

Thanks for all the replies gents, definitely will be picking this up for some new life into my sim, even if its a large dent in my budget 😅

I,have alot of hardware for the PMDG 737 but funny enough the 747 became my favorite Boeing by PMDG.

Its such an icon and modelled fantastic. I love the 747-400 most with the old crt screens and MCP.

Just need more time......

Must have 

Michael Moe 

49 minutes ago, w6kd said:

I fly the heavy takeoff, departure, and climb to cruise, then use a utility to reposition myself 200nm from destination, and fly the descent and arrival, skipping the long boring cruise in the middle.

Hi Bob. Mind sharing what this amazing utility is? Sounds interesting. 

I enjoy flying military contract flights in the Atlas Air colors and that often means military bases such as Travis, Anderson and others with no addon scenery available so that means using default fields at times. Not so bad when you have some great scenery on approach at some places like Japan and Guam and a good performance bonus over a heavy pay ware port.  

Back on topic, yes, PMDG 747 is well worth the price as is the 747-8 extension. The FS2Crew makes a nice addition as well if you don't have Multicrew Experience.

I enjoy flying military contract flights in the Atlas Air colors and that often means military bases such as Travis, Anderson and others with no addon scenery available so that means using default fields at times. Not so bad when you have some great scenery on approach at some places like Japan and Guam and a good performance bonus over a heavy pay ware port.  

Back on topic, yes, PMDG 747 is well worth the price as is the 747-8 extension. The FS2Crew makes a nice addition as well if you don't have Multicrew Experience.

Edited August 9, 20214 yr by PATCO LCH
Please delete double post.

17 minutes ago, PATCO LCH said:

Hi Bob. Mind sharing what this amazing utility is? Sounds interesting. 

Look for Quantum Leap in the AVSIM library.  It's listed as an FSX utility, but it also works in P3D.

1 hour ago, BlueSwurl said:

Thanks for all the replies gents, definitely will be picking this up for some new life into my sim, even if its a large dent in my budget 😅

BlueSwurl -- I just bought it.  This rare PMDG sale made it irresistible.  So far it looks great.

20 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Look for Quantum Leap in the AVSIM library.  It's listed as an FSX utility, but it also works in P3D.

Thanks. Checking it out. Even time compress can get awfully monotonous.

I strongly recommend the 744 and 748 especially that finally PMDG will do a revision on the LNAV/VNAV. You can fly the 747 at almost any airport around the world and land on runways as short as 7,000FT, on the -8 as short as 8,000FT at your leisure. There are short flights in certain areas as short as 1 HR or so.

I listed a few airlines PAX or CARGO that go almost anywhere you can think about.

 

China Airlines

Western Global

United Parcel Service

Cathay Pacific

Martinair

Kalitta Air

Polar Air Cargo

Aerotranscargo

CAL Cargo Airlines

Air Atlanta Icelandic

ASL Airlines Belgium

Singapore Airlines

Asiana 

Atlas Air

National Cargo

ASL Airlines Belgium

FedEx

Saudia

Martinair

Lufthansa -8

Nippon Cargo

AirBridgeCargo

Cargolux Airlines International