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KLM MD-11 (Real World) and KLM B717 (Fictional)...

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[This post is triggered by recent sighting, here, of a set of beautiful pictures of the Sky Simulations MD-11, including KLM livery. Prompted by those pictures, I did acquire, today, the Sky Simulations MD-11 SIM, but I haven't got to fly it yet...This (McDonnell Douglas) Trijet Classic remains a favorite among most jetliner fans/simmers...including myself...]

From about a decade ago, I cannot forget one of my (memorable) MD-11 flights, in a KLM MD-11, probably, my only travel in a MD-11, as far as I can recall. I'd posted a story, here, a while ago, about that flight. As a quick recap, I excerpt, here, below, some text from that old post of mine:

"...I recall that MD-11 flight vividly, outbound from Chicago...At that time, I was already considering myself a seasoned long-distance flyer, of relevance, here, in the sense that, minor or even moderate turbulence would not unsettle me that much...but this flight was different...! 

At cruise altitude, over mid-Atlantic, after night had fallen, we experienced severe turbulence....("severe" as based on my personal experience, so far, and I've not experienced that kind of turbulence in any flight ever after that)....what was worrisome was that, the turbulence did not let up in intensity, for a (rather) a long time....it was not violent, but persistent and very rough, as if someone ("nature" it must be) is (constantly) jabbing our metallic contraption, from all sides, up/down/left/right. The Pilots while making comforting announcements, climbed up and down, in stages, by thousands of feet, each time, (duly and calmly pre-announcing their such intentions), to get a break from it all...but, there was no respite. I kept thinking about those Pilots, up front, at the tip of the plane, bearing the brunt of whatever that was causing this turbulence. The MD-11 kept fighting and kept punching its way through this invisible disturbance... (there was no thunderstorm or any such thing, that I could detect, in the dark sky..., but I was well-aware that we were high above mid-Atlantic...Greenland to the (far) north, also came to my mind...). 

As we flew on, through this, in stunned (and frightened) silence, meanwhile, my admiration, gradually grew, for the tough plane and its equally tough Crew. After what seemed to be an interminable period, the turbulence finally (and thankfully) subsided as fast as it had started. Then in a few more hours, I would catch the peaceful first light of day, with the rays of the orange sun outlining the distant horizon in the east (of western Europe actually) ...with the plane soon about to start its long descent to Amsterdam...) ..."

So, the (KLM) MD-11 had proved its worth as a friend I could count on...🙂...as far as I'm concerned... (KLM retired the type in 2014, marking the end of all passenger MD-11 services worldwide).

In this post, I've gone back to KLM, and shown two sets of pictures (1) a KLM MD-11 (in a RW livery) lifting off (2) a KLM Boeing 717 (in a fictional Retro livery, which caught my attention today) also lifting off. These two (aircraft) SIMs are by two well-regarded developers, PMDG and TFDi, respectively. The legacy (but now dated) PMDG MD-11 was, of course, masterpiece simulation, for its time, which SIM, fortunately, continues to fly well on my system. From the past years, I recall studying (and executing), often, its wonderful Tutorial (based on a RW Training example, simplified of course) - "SWR801: London Heathrow - Zürich...An introduction into flying...the Douglas way..."...written obviously by (RW) MD-11 Pilots, and having given us earthbound wannabe flyers... 🙂...a genuine taste of flying a classic and unique jetliner...on our desktop...

The B717 was TFDi's very first (and quite an impressive) debut output. They are now working on an MD-11 of their own, for both MSFS and P3D (would that be not wonderful for lovers of this plane...?). B717 (originally MD-95) is a unique plane, that had caught my fancy from the beginning days of my SIM interest. The B717 carries the name of "Boeing", but, so to speak, has the heart of an MD-80, and the genes of a DC-9...! It was originally conceived and designed by McDonnell Douglas (this final trace of the remarkable McDonnell Douglas commercial jetliner heritage would be gone, when B717 production ceased in 2006). If one is used to MD-80/90 SIMs, one would be struck by the avionics suite of B717. The reason I've juxtaposed, below, shots of the MD-11 with those of the Boeing 717, is because, when I'd caught sight of the B717 [VC] for the first time, the likeness to the [VC] of MD-11, was so uncanny and unmistakable (layman non-pilot speaking, here, of course) ....🙂... (see my screenshots below) ...! If one's not a Pro, which I am not, the only way, on the front (cockpit) displays, one could detect the difference is by observing the number of "engine" parameter columns (2 vs. 3) on the "Engine and Alert Display" and "System Display" panels (3rd and 4th screens, respectively, as seen in my shots below).

Hope you enjoy these (sample) images of these two unique jetliners, seen together from my virtual world...both flying in the color of KLM, an airline, that's one of my favorites, at least for one reason...🙂...!!

Thanks for your interest...! Good flying...!

[PMDG (MD-11), TFDi (B717)]

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Beautiful set of shots,  love the MD 11, hopefully this plane finds his way to MSFS at some time..

cheers 😉

Edited by pmplayer
  • Like 3

My Rig : Intel I7-7820X 8 Core ( 16 Threads ) @ 4,0, ASUS Prime X299 A II,  64 GB 3600-17 Trident Z, 750W Corsair CX750 80+ Bronze,  MSI 8GB RTX 2080 Super Ventus XS OC, WD 4TB and WD 6TB 7200 HD,  Win10 V.21H2, in use 3x 4K monitors 2x32 Samsung 1x27 LG  3840x2160.

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My father flew the DC10 for KLM. During one flight the cockpit crew felt some turbulence and didn't think much of it although passengers and cabin crew had been alerted. But in the back passengers and trolleys had flown through the air, hitting eachother and one passenger who had landed on the armrest had to be taken to hospital. Maybe it is the structure with one engine in the tail, that could lead to some very intense bumps in the back of the plane in flight.

Edited by phmcr
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Menno 

i7-11700, 16GB, 1 TB SSD, 2 TB HDD, RTX 3070, Windows 11, MSFS 2020 DeLuxe, P3D 4.5

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***Wonderful Series***

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100%75%50%d8a34be0e82d98b5a45ff4336cd0dddc

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Patrick

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6 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Beautiful set of shots,  love the MD 11, hopefully this plane finds his way to MSFS at some time..

cheers 😉

In progress courtesy of TFDI

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CYVR LSZH 

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Great photos...and story!

Love that classic KLM livery! (...and their cabin service is/was remarkable!)

Personally flew on Delta's MD-11 many times between Cincinnati and Portland (where the aircraft would continue on to Tokyo). Beautiful aircraft! Looking forward to see what TFDi can do with this one...hopefully it's still a go for P3D.

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Folks: Appreciated the comments, thoughts, and likes...🙂...!

TFDi will surely do a great job, based on their track-record with the B717...!

 

18 hours ago, phmcr said:

My father flew the DC10 for KLM. During one flight the cockpit crew felt some turbulence and didn't think much of it although passengers and cabin crew had been alerted. But in the back passengers and trolleys had flown through the air, hitting each other and one passenger who had landed on the armrest had to be taken to hospital. Maybe it is the structure with one engine in the tail, that could lead to some very intense bumps in the back of the plane in flight.

Curious incidence, Menno...

To this day, I occasionally think about that strike of turbulence...I know unexpected turbulence can occur in clear air at high altitudes...due to colliding jet streams and such...

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On 6/11/2023 at 8:44 PM, OOMEJIP said:

Nice livery 😉

Thank you much, Jip ...!

Appreciated you creating an account just for posting your first comment on a ~2-year-old post of mine...🙂...glad to know you're into livery painting too...

Liked your intro, "I am a normal dude....and have some passion for aviation...."...

Aren't (we) most of us here ...?

Cheers...!!

 

On 6/12/2023 at 7:37 PM, Jack_Sawyer said:

Cool shots.

Appreciated the feedback, Jack ...!

I've been always very fond of these two classic aircraft ...KLM livery helped me, here, too ...!

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Great to see the MD11 of KLM. I was passenger on the sisterplane 'Maria Montessori' for my flight to New Delhi-India in Sep2012. Hereby shot before my boarding at Amsterdam-Shiphol:

MD11-KLM-at-Shiphol.jpg

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Nice picture down the Memory Lane...!!

Yes, Amsterdam<-->Delhi was once a regular KLM MD-11 Route; I recall...

Thanks for the comment and sharing the photo...!

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