PMDG 737-700 has been released!

[Steve Dra 7,588]

30 minutes ago, JSmith2112 said:

Steve Dra's KLM livery is looking gorgeous, the screen shots on PMDG 737-700 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (PH-BGU - 2015) » Microsoft Flight Simulator don't do it justice.

Thank you (didn't want to @ you unnecessarily).

Thanks J!

No worries @'ing me...I get a dollar an @ from my Mom and 50 cents per like, so she's currently at the bank, taking out a 2nd mortgage on the house! 🤣  I should be able to move out of the basement in a few days after the 737 release. 🙂 

Just kidding, but I appreciate all the likes and stuff from you guys.  I don't have to  tell you how hard the whole PMDG team and Beta Testers worked to give you this flying work of art, and we won't deny its nice to see appreciative comments because that lets us know we did our job right.  Even the negative ones, if they are civil and constructive, are welcome too, despite what some may think, and we try as hard as we can to learn from them and correct the issue if possible.

In fact, I was working on getting this one out (still too much to do to show a full preview), but I got feedback on my WestJet paints that I'm resolving as I type.
Yes, the clouds are Photoshopped. 🙂

I particularly like this shot and angle of the camera/time of day to show you the PBR effects the PMDG painters built into the COMP maps that grace every aircraft!  

Here is a better pic of my fictional ANZ (soon to release) I painted for a friend on the Beta Team that shows the surface scratches quite well:

You can also see the dynamic action of PBR as the rivets at the correct angle to the light source (uhh...the sun hehe) are brighter, and get darker with the curve of the metal towards the back of the tail.

We have come a long way from this I'd say! 🤣

Thanks again for the comments, and please, if you're enjoying the plane in general, take a few moments when she's loading into the sim to head to the PMDG forum and thank the crew who brought her to you.  I'm sure when they wipe the sleepers from their eyes this morning after release and are sitting down to scan the forums with their 1st cup of coffee, they'd love to see your comments.

Also, if you are enjoying the sounds, make sure to "@"  @chiswick72 and thank him here at Avsim...he's been hopping on here trying to answer some of your sound questions, and did a marvelous job on the sounds IMO...best I've ever heard in my 20 years of simming!

OK...just gulped my 1st cup of coffee.  Forum scanning over, back to those WestJet corrections! 🙂 I'll make the pages at flightsim.to say version 2 on them so you'll know I've finished with the updates if you're a WestJet fan and waiting.

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

Ok, so made it home in the lunch break, and the download worked this time. Used Chrome, just like last night, with adblocker disabled, and now the authentication worked without delay. A 2nd pane opened and I could chose the download location. 1.6GB, and a 3 minute download. 

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

3 hours ago, verbal said:

Nope, figured it out, it's at:

 

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages\pmdg-aircraft-737\work\Flightplans

This folder does not exist for me?

[omarsmak30 4,068]

16 minutes ago, Steve Dra said:

Also, if you are enjoying the sounds, make sure to "@"  @chiswick72 and thank him here at Avsim...he's been hopping on here trying to answer some of your sound questions, and did a marvelous job on the sounds IMO...best I've ever heard in my 20 years of simming!

OK...just gulped my 1st cup of coffee.  Forum scanning over, back to those WestJet corrections! 🙂 I'll make the pages at flightsim.to say version 2 on them so you'll know I've finished with the updates if you're a WestJet fan and waiting.

Thanks @chiswick72 for the immersive sounds!! Even V1 Simulation streamer yesterday has admitted the PMDG737 for MSFS has best Boing sounds in any sim while the FBW has the best Airbus sounds in any sim 

[Steve Dra 7,588]

Just now, Andreas Stangenes said:

Ok, so made it home in the lunch break, and the download worked this time. Used Chrome, just like last night, with adblocker disabled, and now the authentication worked without delay. A 2nd pane opened and I could chose the download location. 1.6GB, and a 3 minute download. 

Congrats!  Along with the issues with the server host being resolved...the tidal wave of ravenous simmers wanting to grab the 737 has probably subsided a bit and the mass of frustrated downloaders should start to wane if it hasn't already.

When we were beta testing, we were getting all our new builds thru the commerce page, a new thing for PMDG, but was necessary due to some technical difficulties with the normal distribution channel.  Rob thought it'd be a hassle for us and apologized for making us grab the build there.  Turned out to be a good thing as we also in the process, got to heavily beta test the downloading process at the same time ...and did find and resolve a few gotchas before you guys got to experience them! 

Granted, we were only a dozen or so, so we could never test bandwidth or server load (overload)....YOU guys sadly had to test that for us...and like it was kinda' predicted....YOU GUYS BROKE THE INTERNET! 🤣

Joking aside ( I always feel that a little humor helps, we KNOW how frustrating it was yesterday for those who got sucked into the tidal wave and never got properly spit out...hopefully if you're still in it, today will let you see your 737 first hand on your PC)....PMDG did all they could to mitigate the situation and you can bet Rob was inventing new curse words on the phone to PMDG's ISP and others to get the issues resolved!

Anyway...let's all hope that the beating war drums PMDG could hear in the distance, coming directly towards them, will subside and the war chiefs will reach and agreement to not crush all PMDG the employees, then move to PMDG's ISPs for a similar thrashing and complete destruction, and peace and harmony will once again return to the Flightsim Island. 😆

Enjoy your shiny new 737...and treat yourself to a BBJ flight in this beauty! (This plane can't take a bad screenshot!)

 

[Steve Dra 7,588]

7 minutes ago, Andreas Stangenes said:

This folder does not exist for me?

If you have not loading the aircraft into the sim...as in all the way unitl its in the sim, ready for you to fly, you may need to do that 1st.  

Also note...that INITIAL LOAD of the plane (all 3 variants, the pax, BBJ and Cargo) will take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes to load the FIRST time in MSFS!!!  do NOT abort the 1st load at 3 mins because you think its hung (like a lot of us beta testers did the 1st few times we loaded it because we forgot, LOL).

Once it's loaded...check to see if you have those folders!

Please report back if that fixed it.

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

4 minutes ago, Steve Dra said:

If you have not loading the aircraft into the sim...as in all the way unitl its in the sim, ready for you to fly, you may need to do that 1st.  

Also note...that INITIAL LOAD of the plane (all 3 variants, the pax, BBJ and Cargo) will take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes to load the FIRST time in MSFS!!!  do NOT abort the 1st load at 3 mins because you think its hung (like a lot of us beta testers did the 1st few times we loaded it because we forgot, LOL).

Once it's loaded...check to see if you have those folders!

Please report back if that fixed it.

The airplane is now fully loaded and on the blocks at my departing airport. The folder does not exist. The only folder in the packages folder is aerosoft-trondheim. 

[Steve Dra 7,588]

3 minutes ago, Andreas Stangenes said:

The airplane is now fully loaded and on the blocks at my departing airport. The folder does not exist. The only folder in the packages folder is aerosoft-trondheim. 

Are you saying the entire folder structure does not exist, or just the flightplan folder?

You may try exiting the sim and see if the folder builds...in the beta test we did encounter this but I was thinking it was resolved and the folder structure was built even before initial load...but can't be sure (we tested a LOT of stuff in the last few weeks LOL)

If it still doesn't exist after exit, I'm gonna have to refer you to PMDG to open a support ticket as I'm not sure what could be causing the issue.  If you can do me and the community here a favor...if you submit the ticket and they fix it, please come back here and share the fix...they're could be another simmer reading this that the info may just help. 😉  Paying it forward as it were.

[MDFlier 2,031]

8 hours ago, FlyingGoose said:

Part of the issue is the weird two-step that PMDG does. Why do you need an email activation code just to download your product when it’s going to ask you for the license key anyway? I mean, just let the initial download be ungated and then do your license check at installation time. 

I dunno... Let them have a bit of DRM on their end up front. If the product starts getting out for free, really stupid things can start happening and we don't want that. Nobody else make great Boeings so we got nowhere else to go.

3 hours ago, DAD said:

 only thing is a strange sound every few minutes, sounds like a steam puff or similar to the wiper sound (which was off) but that may be something in the real thing I never noticed before. happy camper here

Maybe your co-pilot had beans for lunch? lol

 

Y'all broke PNDG before I could get a shot at her last night so I woke up early this morning and beat you guys to the punch. Just finished installing.

Edited May 10, 2022 by MDFlier

[psolk 3,040]

Purchase/registration key/download process was flawless this morning.  All aspects of the process were instantaneous.  

Excited to give her a whirl later! 

[RobF2 150]

Is it just me, or are there a lot of shiny new 737s rolling down the runway at Renton today/tonight - even though its wee hours in the US right now  🙂

[Victoroos 205]

34 minutes ago, Andreas Stangenes said:

This folder does not exist for me?

Do you have ms or steam version? 

[Steve Dra 7,588]

Just now, MDFlier said:

I dunno... Let them have a bit of DRM on their end up front. If the product starts getting out for free, really stupid things can start happening and we don't want that. Nobody else make great Boeings so we got nowhere else to go.

Maybe your co-pilot had beans for lunch? lol

LOL....beans or 3 alarm chili!

Anyway @DAD....watch the trim wheel very closely when it happens...if it moves even a tiny bit, that is most likely the sound.  There is some sort of auto trim system (I'm not a 737 pilot so can't tell you the exact name) that may be causing it with micro adjustments to the trim in flight.

@FlyingGoose...like MD says...while maybe a little revamp to the authentication system could be in order after the realization that the customer base from P3d to MSFS products has increased 10-fold at least,  PMDG still needs a system to do DRM.  You can bet they are evaluating that before the next major release (the -800 I'm sure) and while its a HUGE effort, cost and RISK to change your commerce system mid-stream in a huge revenue cycle, they'll have that on their radar for sure. And if they can make it better (which would equal better customer satisfaction for them, and more money, LOL) the odds are they'll do just that. 😉  Let's give them time to grow with this entirely new market...we already know you won't get a better Boeing aircraft to fly. 🙂 

[Steve Dra 7,588]

6 minutes ago, RobF2 said:

Is it just me, or are there a lot of shiny new 737s rolling down the runway at Renton today/tonight - even though its wee hours in the US right now  🙂

Seattle ATTRC (or whatever its called) had to shut down the entire sector and issue a rolling ground hold throughout the entire country (and Canada) for all flights in and out of the Seattle area!

Not only did PMDG break the internet, they also broke ATC in the Seattle area! 🤣

[Car147 2,278]

26 minutes ago, Andreas Stangenes said:

The airplane is now fully loaded and on the blocks at my departing airport. The folder does not exist. The only folder in the packages folder is aerosoft-trondheim. 

Mines the same with no file in that location, and have been fully loaded into the aircraft in the sim. I only have the Bae 146 in that location. I'll drop a message to support in the meantime.