So, having sat up all night pressing F5, I got the MSFS 737 in the air nice and early. I've been streaming over at the MSFS discord, where it's entirely possible I may have been chatting to some of you, as a couple of people wanted a distraction from the sad view of the broken PMDG website.

It's now 8 am, and I thought I'd let you know my thoughts before I head into work, looking a little tired and bedraggled, but happy... 🙂

Here are some things that people seemed to be interested in over on the MS site:

Aesthetics - cockpits and wing views.

Wing views are not a feature I've ever used, but hey - here they are. Actually looks quite nice. 

The cabin.

As you likely know, you can only get here via the drone camera. I'd say it looks better than expected for something that is due to be replaced by a proper version down the track. The drone floating up and down renders the cabin useless, but now you know what it looks like. You can't get there at all from the internal view.

The cockpit.

Where I spend almost all of my time during a typical flight. You've undoubtedly all seen this already on the various streams. 

One question that people seemed interested in was how the systems are (effectively the same as P3D, minus the weather radar) and how the CDU-controlled options look. My KLM NG came with the old-school Honeywell MCP, so you can see we've swapped it out with the Collins. Most of the options that you'd expect from the P3D version in terms of equipment are there, which are of course extensive. The major thing I was hoping for but not expecting was the option to control a range of aircraft functions via keybinds. As was the case with the MD-82, this option has not been implemented in the MSFS version.

 

The external model.

You know that's going to look beautiful in MSFS. Here are a couple of quick shots from the climb out from EGPH and the rather special landing at LGSK (more about that later).

So what about the other important things - the performance and the flight model? I was flying in flatscreen mode due to my unplanned livestream, so it's hard to compare to my usual VR flying. Fabio said yesterday that he reckons performance is similar to the default 172. I'm not willing to go quite that far, but it was really smooth in flight, with effectively no stutters when looking out the left window during a banking turn.

And the flight model? Pretty good, I'd say in my subjective opinion. It feels a bit more "floaty" than the P3D version, which is probably a good thing (it doesn't feel as much on rails as it does in that sim or FSX). Pitch and roll felt good, and the plane was a pleasure to hand fly with the Honeycomb Alpha. After takeoff from Pyreegue's Edinburgh, the plane performed very well both in hands-on and LNAV/VNAV modes.

Landing is harder for me to comment on. One of the guys on the MS Discord wanted to see the failures in action, so we failed the hydraulics and tried a desperate plunge into Orbx's Skiathos airport. It actually worked better than expected - probably just another Tuesday if you fly for Ryanair - but I really hope nobody here saw that goat rope! If you did - I'm blaming it on the hydraulics. 🙂

All in all, flying the 737 after a bit of a hiatus feels like coming home again. It's great to have it in the sim, it looks better than ever, and it has all of the features that many of you have grown to know and love during your time in FSX and P3D. Whilst I'd love a bit of innovation, an EFB and a proper cabin, PMDG has built a worthy successor to the NGXu. 

Edited May 10, 20224 yr by OzWhitey

how are you getting the wing views - are they bound to a particular key by default?

50 minutes ago, OzWhitey said:

and a proper cockpit

What's missing from the cockpit?

3 minutes ago, mac44 said:

how are you getting the wing views - are they bound to a particular key by default?

I don't think I've ever done this in the sim before, but one of the guys on discord wanted wing views and somebody else knew how to get them!

Go to the camera --> select showcase from the tab at the top --> select fixed camera down the bottom of the menu --> select one of the external view that corresponds to a wing view (1,2, 5,6,7,8)

Cheers!

Just now, Bdub22 said:

What's missing from the cockpit?

Typo, I meant to write "cabin". Will fix.

As for the cockpit - some of the viewers claimed that the cockpit is too blue, but it's looks like Boeing Gray to me.

Ah, gotcha! Thanks for clarifying. 

Looks nice. Does it have ambient sounds (boarding, crew announcements) and an EFB or is that planned for later? 

Cheers. 

Indeed fully agree with this review. The systems are the usual systems that we know from NGXu in P3D but yet feels like a new airplane in MSFS I think due to the modeling, sounds and textures in MSFS version. It is indeed really immersive, although I have free 99$ credit, I wouldn't mind to pay again for it as I think is completely worth it and you wont be disappointed for sure

7 hours ago, OzWhitey said:

So, having sat up all night pressing F5, I got the MSFS 737 in the air nice and early. I've been streaming over at the MSFS discord, where it's entirely possible I may have been chatting to some of you, as a couple of people wanted a distraction from the sad view of the broken PMDG website.

It's now 8 am, and I thought I'd let you know my thoughts before I head into work, looking a little tired and bedraggled, but happy... 🙂

Here are some things that people seemed to be interested in over on the MS site:

Aesthetics - cockpits and wing views.

Wing views are not a feature I've ever used, but hey - here they are. Actually looks quite nice. 

The cabin.

As you likely know, you can only get here via the drone camera. I'd say it looks better than expected for something that is due to be replaced by a proper version down the track. The drone floating up and down renders the cabin useless, but now you know what it looks like. You can't get there at all from the internal view.

The cockpit.

Where I spend almost all of my time during a typical flight. You've undoubtedly all seen this already on the various streams. 

One question that people seemed interested in was how the systems are (effectively the same as P3D, minus the weather radar) and how the CDU-controlled options look. My KLM NG came with the old-school Honeywell MCP, so you can see we've swapped it out with the Collins. Most of the options that you'd expect from the P3D version in terms of equipment are there, which are of course extensive. The major thing I was hoping for but not expecting was the option to control a range of aircraft functions via keybinds. As was the case with the MD-82, this option has not been implemented in the MSFS version.

 

The external model.

You know that's going to look beautiful in MSFS. Here are a couple of quick shots from the climb out from EGPH and the rather special landing at LGSK (more about that later).

So what about the other important things - the performance and the flight model? I was flying in flatscreen mode due to my unplanned livestream, so it's hard to compare to my usual VR flying. Fabio said yesterday that he reckons performance is similar to the default 172. I'm not willing to go quite that far, but it was really smooth in flight, with effectively no stutters when looking out the left window during a banking turn.

And the flight model? Pretty good, I'd say in my subjective opinion. It feels a bit more "floaty" than the P3D version, which is probably a good thing (it doesn't feel as much on rails as it does in that sim or FSX). Pitch and roll felt good, and the plane was a pleasure to hand fly with the Honeycomb Alpha. After takeoff from Pyreegue's Edinburgh, the plane performed very well both in hands-on and LNAV/VNAV modes.

Landing is harder for me to comment on. One of the guys on the MS Discord wanted to see the failures in action, so we failed the hydraulics and tried a desperate plunge into Orbx's Skiathos airport. It actually worked better than expected - probably just another Tuesday if you fly for Ryanair - but I really hope nobody here saw that goat rope! If you did - I'm blaming it on the hydraulics. 🙂

All in all, flying the 737 after a bit of a hiatus feels like coming home again. It's great to have it in the sim, it looks better than ever, and it has all of the features that many of you have grown to know and love during your time in FSX and P3D. Whilst I'd love a bit of innovation, an EFB and a proper cabin, PMDG has built a worthy successor to the NGXu. 

Thank you very much for taking the time to write this down!

Thanks for this write-up.

Does the minimum speed (red black area on lower part of speed tape) now increase with additional wing loading?
IIRC, that was fixed value in P3D NGXu, but it's a dynamic value in real life, basic physics.

Was always a pet peeve of mine when conducting approaches in turbulence etc.

1 hour ago, Fiorentoni said:

So what about the other important things - the performance and the flight model? I was flying in flatscreen mode due to my unplanned livestream, so it's hard to compare to my usual VR flying. Fabio said yesterday that he reckons performance is similar to the default 172. I'm not willing to go quite that far, but it was really smooth in flight, with effectively no stutters when looking out the left window during a banking turn.

For me it is pretty much equal in 4K Ultra at SBRJ:

 

 

A nice/good write up Rob,

Thank you,

Time to put our diffrencers aside I hope and enjoy the hobby we share and love.

Edited May 10, 20224 yr by Nyxx

you can certainly create traditional cabin views, you walk etc... just edit the camera.cfg on the aircraft first to position the initial viewpoint... set cams, reset viewpoint after

 

3 hours ago, gb09f said:

Looks nice. Does it have ambient sounds (boarding, crew announcements) and an EFB or is that planned for later? 

Cheers. 

No ambient sounds and those are also not planned for later. PMDG categorically refuses to do these things, just how they refused (on P3D) proper Simbrief integration or ACARS with at least METARS.
There is no EFB on board, but it will come some time in the future (hopefully with Simbrief and METARS, but as said, they are not exactly famous for doing this usability stuff in the past).

1 hour ago, JETPETER2 said:

you can certainly create traditional cabin views, you walk etc... just edit the camera.cfg on the aircraft first to position the initial viewpoint... set cams, reset viewpoint after

 

That's my routine pretty easy indeed 🙂