4 hours ago, jcomm said:

I have already watched a few of the videos, skipping cruise phase mostly, and it was important for me to get a better idea about the state of this PMDG new MFS product.
It looks great, graphically and even if not fully featured even systems and flight dynamics wise.

Hi jcomm, could you care to elaborate as to what you think is missing systems and flight dynamics wise?, or point out where you heard any such commentary from any of the IRL 737 pilots and other experts' previews? Apart from the missing EFB and WX radar, I haven't heard/seen anything being called out as missing systems wise.  And if anything, various of these experts feel the flight model/dynamics is as good as or better than the P3D version of the aircraft, which some of them consider the gold standard when it comes to 737 simulation on computer sims. I've been keen to hear such comparisons/commentary so been trying to scour all these previews for that, so am genuinely interested.

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by lwt1971

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

I watched two of the videos and I was thinking that in the time to properly setup a flight, I could almost complete one of my normal 1 hour flights in another aircraft. I don't have the time or interest anymore to do a proper preflight in a 737. 

Hehe....I hear you Bob.  However, certain preflight items (mostly checks) are not 100% necessary to get you in the air....its just that in real life, you'd sure want to make sure they are working before finding out they're not at 35,000 with an engine fire. 😉

If you have failures turned off (most of us do), you can be pretty certain that the fire suppression system will be 100% operative 100% of the time...other systems you check before a real flight follow suit.

I've developed some really bad habits I'm not proud of in the sim, pretending to be a pilot, and if I flew these things for real, would never skip steps in the sim because of that very risk of bringing that flow into the real world where a ton (several tons in fact, hehe) of real people are counting on you to get them to their destination safely.

Regardless, once you get the flows down, just like the daunting DC-6 when we 1st sat in from of that instrument panel with dozens of round dials, you get used to it and get progressively quicker each time you fly her. 🙂

Not advocating that folks adopt any shortcuts just to get in the air quicker, but this is a sim, and we're free to enjoy that sim in any way we choose. 😉

 

2 hours ago, PaulM said:

Stupid question, don´t kill me please. But we´ll able to fly with world map routes or we have to program all the things?
I´m  not a hardcore simmer and i´m happy with bredok3d version, but will consider get this if someone who only load a plan on world map and fly, can enjoy this.
Thanks in advance.

 

1 hour ago, OzWhitey said:

Paul, I don’t think so. No other PMDG Boeing let’s you do this.

I doubt if that will bu true for this PMDG plane in MSFS. Don't want to start another PC vs XBox discussion but afaik PMDG really wants this plane to be released for the XBox too and so I am pretty certain that setting up a flight plan using the MSFS planner will do the trick: start a flight with the plane on the runway and you should be good to go, with the plan loaded and all in FMC.

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

I watched two of the videos and I was thinking that in the time to properly setup a flight, I could almost complete one of my normal 1 hour flights in another aircraft. I don't have the time or interest anymore to do a proper preflight in a 737. 

LOL Yeah, same here. I think I might do a FULL realistic flight once or twice a year, well, maybe 3 or 4 times, but usually I use my self made 'to do list' which skips everything that's set as it should by default already. Saves a lot of time. I do fly cold and dark to cold and dark 99% of the time though: I only start a flight on the runway whenever I need to test something.

Having said that: I would love to get this PMDG 737 but well... after not having flown a Boeing for some 10 years or so and being used to the Q400 and/or Airbus I don't think I can bring myself to learn the 737 from scratch again... I think I will enjoy the FBW A320 and maybe get the Fenix bus and pass on this one. I think... 😉

(I did buy the 737NG for FSX a looooooooong long time ago: I don't suppose that will enable me to get the upcoming 737 a bit cheaper, does it...? 🤔😎)

7 minutes ago, tup61 said:

 

 

Having said that: I would love to get this PMDG 737 but well... after not having flown a Boeing for some 10 years or so and being used to the Q400 and/or Airbus I don't think I can bring myself to learn the 737 from scratch again... I think I will enjoy the FBW A320 and maybe get the Fenix bus and pass on this one. I think... 😉

(I did buy the 737NG for FSX a looooooooong long time ago: I don't suppose that will enable me to get the upcoming 737 a bit cheaper, does it...? 🤔😎)

I had the P3D version of the 737, and that doesn't qualify for the discount either. I even had manuals for the 737 that I bought at the Avsim meeting in SanDiego years ago, but they were for the earlier version 300-400-50. .  Frankly I thought the Majestic Q400 was more of a challenge to fly properly, than the 737. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/737-Classic-Pilot-Handbook-Procedures/dp/146100263X/ref=asc_df_146100263X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312151261589&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4861833608850101586&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9010811&hvtargid=pla-519371254797&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=58874700461&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312151261589&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4861833608850101586&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9010811&hvtargid=pla-519371254797

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by Bobsk8

2 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Frankly I thought the Majestic Q400 was more of a challenge to fly properly, than the 737.

I think so too but the Majestic Q400 has settled in my system so to speak and I know it inside out: the 737 I'd have to (sort of) learn from scratch again. The older I get, the lesser I am interested in learning things from scratch, so I noticed lately. 😉 But well, who knows, once I've read/seen some reviews (and the 800 has been released) I might reconsider getting the PMDG 737.

Well, it didn't take very long to derail the thread...

Could we please stick to posting videos and opinions of RL B737 pilots as it was intended?

2 hours ago, tup61 said:

 

(I did buy the 737NG for FSX a looooooooong long time ago: I don't suppose that will enable me to get the upcoming 737 a bit cheaper, does it...? 🤔😎)

It wasn’t that long ago. I remember sitting up til 3am one night back in 2011, trying to get the NGX downloaded before anyone else could.

If memory serves correct, I was the first on Avsim to get the NGX off the ground. I chose FS Dreamteam PHNL for my first takeoff. Approaching V1, I noticed an AI jet deciding to try an incursion from one of the cross runways.

Keen to be first in flight, I judged the distance and called it - “yeah, nah, we’re good.”

Got the 737 off the ground, no problem, at least for the first three feet or so. Then I hit the AI jet and everyone on my plane died tragically.

That’s never happened to me before or since, so I’ll always remember my first sort-of-flight in the PMDG NGX. 🙂

 

2 hours ago, lwt1971 said:

Hi jcomm, could you care to elaborate as to what you think is missing systems and flight dynamics wise?, or point out where you heard any such commentary from any of the IRL 737 pilots and other experts' previews? Apart from the missing EFB and WX radar, I haven't heard/seen anything being called out as missing systems wise.  And if anything, various of these experts feel the flight model/dynamics is as good as or better than the P3D version of the aircraft, which some of them consider the gold standard when it comes to 737 simulation on computer sims. I've been keen to hear such comparisons/commentary so been trying to scour all these previews for that, so am genuinely interested.

Hi @lwt1971,

my observations not based on what the 737 drivers commented but rather on my own assessment, based on no hands-on experience with the product, so, I agree, very limited in terms of validity...

Anyway, you've pointed out EFB and Wx as well as importing OFP data which ( correct me if I'm wrong... ) is not ready yet - presently a manual import method must be used instead for flightplan and OFP winds and weights import. 

Flight dynamics wise, I really can't say much more than what I observed during taxiing operations and steering on ground during takeoff / landing / rollout, the problems with MFS ground physics ( a bit squirely ), not a problem with the product itself, as well as the IMO overdone flexing wingtips at cruise ( maybe just an exaggeration of some effects ? ).

Other than that, and a strange behaviour I was able to observe during a Flying Fabio landing, where the 737 goes nuts, I didn't find anything wrong.

Of course I would have to test, myself, VNAV accuracy with trikier STARS / APPs, but the product looks really nice so far !

So another real life 737 pilot was on Chewwy's stream.  His name was Horgy.  I believe Horgy used to fly for Ryan Air but flies for some other airline now.  Anyways, this is what Horgy had to say about the PMDG 737 in MSFS:

Quote

It's got a good level of systems immersion and everything so you can really boil down into the minutiae of what it's doing and what the procedures are, but also it's a fun airplane. Looking at it now in FS2020, it looks outstanding externally. There's the odd thing that needs working on but that's a combination of bug fixing that the dev team needs to work on but yeah, I definitely think so, it looks cool.

Comment source: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1462681364?t=02h13m47s

 

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by abrams_tank

Just as an aside, I think it would be fantastic if they could somehow mimic ACARS for flight plan and performance data.

56 minutes ago, jcomm said:

my observations not based on what the 737 drivers commented but rather on my own assessment, based on no hands-on experience with the product, so, I agree, very limited in terms of validity...

Flight dynamics wise, I really can't say much more than what I observed during taxiing operations and steering on ground during takeoff / landing / rollout, the problems with MFS ground physics ( a bit squirely ), not a problem with the product itself, as well as the IMO overdone flexing wingtips at cruise ( maybe just an exaggeration of some effects ? ).

Ah ok I see... well, in terms of taxiing and ground physics, the IRL 737 pilot who's been testing the bird and making these videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJku5jC23Y0MkmPqU7CZhog/videos said: Both are quite a way ahead of P3D physics, indeed it taxies a lot nicer than it used to in P3D (https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/169435-climbing-out-of-ibiza#post169452), so perhaps the PMDG bird is either overriding or enhancing the default MSFS ground physics.

As for the wing flex, I too thought that maybe it's overdone, but then it seems like PMDG have gone out of their way to model the wing in multiple sections and physics calculations across those to react to turbulance and other effects realistically (in the various videos where it was flexing a lot the simmers also had a lot of turbulance/wind going on outside).  Also, this IRL 737 captain thought the wing flex was realistic actually: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1461278701?t=03h06m08s

So ya, at least it's good to get these initial reactions from the experts, we'll know more as others chime in leading up to release and beyond.

 

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by lwt1971

1 hour ago, Boeing_Driver said:

Just as an aside, I think it would be fantastic if they could somehow mimic ACARS for flight plan and performance data.

I think....that's what a part of PMDG Global Operations was supposed to be, but I don't know what the status of that project is.   I'm sure if that's not the case someone will be along to correct me.

Latest from 737 IRL pilot "737NG Driver", dual FMC failure simulation... and further below his tutorial on powerup, safety inspection and walkaround.. first of a series he plans to do.

Per his posts on the PMDG forum, he's still learning how to capture and upload better quality videos (I can see obvious artifacts due to video compression)

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 20224 yr by lwt1971

21 hours ago, Mace said:

I think....that's what a part of PMDG Global Operations was supposed to be, but I don't know what the status of that project is.   I'm sure if that's not the case someone will be along to correct me.

Well they haven't said they're not still doing it, but I haven't heard about any progress on it in a *long* time. Of course, I don't read the official forums because I don't use my real name on gaming sites, so I could have missed something.

 

What would be really cool is if they would have some sort of randomized failure that you could potentially catch by doing a thorough outside walk around.  For example, hydraulic leak or pitot tube blockage.  These issues, if not caught and corrected, could then manifest into an in flight failure and emergency situation.