4 hours ago, bennyboy75 said:

I think even multi-million dollar Level D sims (and I’ve flown a few - 737-400/A320/A330) struggle with the physics of the transition between the ground and the air. As I understand it, the real thing is usually easier to fly than the sim due to the sensory feedback of it actually moving in three dimensions. The simulator moves of course, but a lot of the movement is designed to trick your senses. 

That said, the last decent long session I got in the real sim was an A320 Neo and it was astonishingly similar to flying the Fenix on a decent home setup. Everything felt so familiar, with only stuff like the safety harness being a bit of head scratcher as how to wear it is obviously not a thing in the desktop sim! 
 

The 777 feels very nice to taxi around whereas I find most others of the payware jets (737/Fenix) a bit squirrelly. MSFS has a way to go in this area but anyone who used X-Plane remembers how anything more than a 4 knot cross wind would have you in the grass. 

You’re absolutely right about level D sims. My airline has some of the newest sims for our fleets. They all fall short in delivering 100 percent real experiences. One can always feel that it’s a computer that is being flown instead of the real jet. As you said, the ground/air transitions are just not correct. They are extremely close, but not perfect. It makes doing crosswind landings and takeoffs a procedural event instead of a true piloting event. 
 

I will say though, there’s something to be said for people who can fly the sims really well because of the above limitations!

Taxiing the fenix is annoying at best. To be honest though, it’s not really that far off from real life. We are flying different jets all the time and the nose wheel steering it’s not perfect. As a result, you drift to one side and have to keep correcting. Then the jet goes to other side. So on and so forth. I use the rudder pedals on straight aways instead of the tiller in real life.

17 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

We've had real pilots disagree with each other on here too.

That’s what we do best! Inflate our own egos and then disagree with each other! Got to have something to complain about! 

3 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

The "experts" on this forum probably don't appreciate comments  by real airline pilots, when they know better, I mean don't hours flying paper airplanes count for something? . 😉 

I get what you’re saying. Believe me, it’s not far from the truth! It’s the internet after all. Par for the course right? At the end of the day, us real pilots can be a real pain too! Always disagreeing even though we are saying the same things half the time! We are an interesting bunch! 

10 hours ago, ahsmatt7 said:

Absolutely! Glad to offer insight where it’s applicable. One can discern the difference between developers who take the time to pay attention to details when coding the flight dynamics. It sounds like the A300 is fairly well coded. I unfortunately don’t have the add on myself. 
 

Have you purchased the PMDG 777? So far this is one of the best add ons I’ve flown for msfs to date to give a convincing experience flying an airliner. I say this in terms of the four forces of flight, pitch, power and the changes in performance regarding these things. For example, think of thrust changes on approach and the associated sink or ballooning when making too large of thrust changes. Or, how it’s fairly difficult to slow these jets down in descent. 
 

I have the thrustmaster HOTAS warthog. It’s not a yoke, but it does give me the same resistance I can best expect with home hardware. What are your thoughts on said Boeing yoke? 
 

I may give the A300 a try. Another user on this thread is pretty adamant about it being the best add on ever for its price point. May have to take them up on that. 
 

Any other questions  you have, feel free to ask!

Hi. Yes I have bought the 777 and completed a few flights. I couldn’t resist even though long haul is less my thing, I like to see and support development and was keen to see the new nav data format in action. I like it. 
 

I like the Boeing Yoke but with the additional spring applied to make it have more resistance, perhaps similar to your warthog setup. 
 

The A300 is very good, quirky and less intuitive than the 737 or 777. It gives me a feel though, of a 737-300/400 in terms of the flight deck appearance - an aircraft that I’d absolutely love to see in MSFS but I think the chances are slim sadly.