16 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I never touched that switch on the overhead, but if it happens again, I will check that switch position. 

Now I'm assuming here but it seems you don't touch many switches and let FSFO do it.

Personally I have no idea what FSFO does and how it may do a flow incorrectly in way you don't expect, especially for a plane you're still learning. Having 5,000 hours in PMDG calls for using FSFO cause you'll know right away if it did something wrong. However, I can't see why you would use it for something you're still learning yourself.

1 hour ago, sloppysmusic said:

But no MCAS right? Not even a simplified version to keep AOA under control during a steep climb? Can you even notice the CofG differences with say an empty aircraft compared to the NG or classics? 

There are a lot of misconceptions around MCAS, mainly thanks to the way the media reported on the issues that existed at its initial conception.
A steep climb does not mean your angle of attack will be high.
There will never be a need for MCAS to activate in the normal flight envelope on a MAX.
Doing an MCAS demo in a level D sim and differentiating the MCAS inputs from the speed trim inputs can already be complex and require some effort from the crews sitting upfront.

There are also no meaningful differences in aircraft control between NGs and MAXs.
Subtle differences... absolutely! But nuances already existed when comparing a -700 to a-900 for example. Or even an empty -800 compared to a fully loaded one for that matter.

 

MCAS activates at very high angle of attacks. To reach those Aoa values, you either need to be flying at extremely low speeds (we are talking way down in the lower amber band) or you would have to heavily load the wings with deliberate quick pitch up input to briskly increase that AoA.

It would be nice to see iFly simulate the speed trim system including the speed trim function and MCAS function but to be honest it would probably add little value to our simming experience.

Edited January 28, 20251 yr by Sylle

15 minutes ago, Sylle said:

A steep climb does not mean your angle of attack will be high.

Yes I was throwing that in as one example in laymans terms as it's nose UP that affects AoA.

 

17 minutes ago, Sylle said:

It would be nice to see iFly simulate the speed trim system including the speed trim function and MCAS function

Yes it would. Then I would happily NOT comment on a post that read something like "this is the most accurate addon plane in the history of simming".

The new 'improved' and certified MCAS with its interaction with the extra AoA nose sensors and also changed logic with deactivation is to me just as integral to the MAX as the new engines themselves which are the reason for the systems existence (simplified explanation again). I've read the revised FCOM and the MCAS logic chapters make very interesting reading (could not find copy of original). If these systems were incorporated I'd buy the ac.

 

7 hours ago, sloppysmusic said:

Yes I was throwing that in as one example in laymans terms as it's nose UP that affects AoA.

Not really.  Remember, an airplane can be stalled (the critical angle of attack exceed) in ANY attitude, and also at any airspeed (except at zero g.). You can be stalled pointed straight at the ground; developed spins wouldn't be a thing, if you couldn't. 

As far as MCAS, I think you're conflating it with the rest of the speed trim system.  The vast majority of 737 Max pilots (we're talking 99+%) will never see MCAS activate in their entire careers, except during stall training in level D sims.  MCAS never activates in the normal flight regime, where an airliner lives basically its entire life.

Loved it in P3D and loving it in MSFS.

However I find the acceleration mode via the EFB does not work. Anybody managed to get it to actually accelerate?

Also, if I use an external accelerator the plane can not fly in a straight line.

9 hours ago, Lucky38i said:

Now I'm assuming here but it seems you don't touch many switches and let FSFO do it.

Personally I have no idea what FSFO does and how it may do a flow incorrectly in way you don't expect, especially for a plane you're still learning. Having 5,000 hours in PMDG calls for using FSFO cause you'll know right away if it did something wrong. However, I can't see why you would use it for something you're still learning yourself.

I agree with this take, wholeheartedly. Learning a new aircraft should be a manual effort. You should only use FSFO or FS2Crew as a _tool_ once you're already familiar, not as a tool to _learn_ an aircraft / the first few times you're flying a new aircraft, even if it's a variant of an aircraft you're familiar with.

Saying "the APU doesn't even turn on" and not qualifying it with "I was using FSFO and expecting it to turn on the APU for me, I didn't even try to turn it on myself" is disingenuous, at best.

1 minute ago, Leftos said:

I agree with this take, wholeheartedly. Learning a new aircraft should be a manual effort. You should only use FSFO or FS2Crew as a _tool_ once you're already familiar, not as a tool to _learn_ an aircraft / the first few times you're flying a new aircraft, even if it's a variant of an aircraft you're familiar with.

Saying "the APU doesn't even turn on" and not qualifying it with "I was using FSFO and expecting it to turn on the APU for me, I didn't even try to turn it on myself" is disingenuous, at best.

No, I couldn't turn on the APU manually. I think I posted that a Youtube video showed a way to load a Turn Around State in the EFB, but there was something faulty in that, which kept the Apu from starting. 

1 hour ago, Stearmandriver said:

Not really.  Remember, an airplane can be stalled (the critical angle of attack exceed) in ANY attitude, and also at any airspeed (except at zero g.). You can be stalled pointed straight at the ground; developed spins wouldn't be a thing, if you couldn't. 

As far as MCAS, I think you're conflating it with the rest of the speed trim system.  The vast majority of 737 Max pilots (we're talking 99+%) will never see MCAS activate in their entire careers, except during stall training in level D sims.  MCAS never activates in the normal flight regime, where an airliner lives basically its entire life.

It's true that most failures will never be seen by most pilots in an entire career except in the sim. Which is the whole point here. The sim is used to train for what you would hope never happened during a career, but does for the unlucky few. A casual sim can just have nice modeling and simple nav to be accepted. I only chimed in here because the "best sim addon 737 max in history" would really have to have the failures modeled to qrh standards. 

I know I'm in a tiny minority here. Feel free to move on! 

On 1/27/2025 at 1:46 PM, Bobsk8 said:

OH please, I can fly a 737 blindfolded. When the autothrottle can't control speed, and the speed indication is bouncing all over the place, that isn't acceptable. But the shades in the cabin are nice. 😉

Like other simmers have stated, there's nothing wrong with the 737max. Read the manual that came with it. Ther's also a tutorial on setting up the EFB. Once you learn that the Max is a joy to fly.

I've have been flying both PMDG 737 NG as well as ifly 737 Max and I have not encountered any problems whatsoever. There are some minor differences between the two on how things work. That's why it is essential you read the manuals that came with the airplane - certainly for me on my first flight in Max, There were few things I had to look it up in the manuals even though I had flown 737ng for several years, There is a reason why pilots IRL do differences training when transiting to Max from NG. 

Edited January 28, 20251 yr by CAP1234

First flight for today, from KCLT to KMSY.  Everything worked perfectly, APLV2 flight scored 100..  Flew the ILS perfectly. 😃

23 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

First flight for today, from KCLT to KMSY.  Everything worked perfectly, APLV2 flight scored 100..  Flew the ILS perfectly. 😃

Glad you finally learnt how to fly it properly (well, at least the basics). It's a great plane, you'll have fun. 

Edited January 28, 20251 yr by JonathanC

30 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

First flight for today, from KCLT to KMSY.  Everything worked perfectly, APLV2 flight scored 100..  Flew the ILS perfectly.

Happy to hear you got it sorted out; confirms my decision to pick this up once it is released in 2024.

On 1/27/2025 at 4:51 PM, Lucky38i said:

Did you configure the AT lock to partial, always or none in the EFB?

ifly has configurable way with how AT interacts with your physical throttle as described in the manuals

Otherwise known as "No I did not read the manual".

3 hours ago, sloppysmusic said:

I only chimed in here because the "best sim addon 737 max in history" would really have to have the failures modeled to qrh standards.

The failures (and there's an extensive selection of them) very definitely are modeled to "QRH standards", if by that you mean that failures present as the QRH says they should, and are resolved by following QRH guidance.  MCAS is not a failure, it's simply a channel of the speed trim system that applies a short input of nose down trim at high AoA (something the existing speed trim system already did on the NG anyway).  

Functionally, it is useless in a desktop sim.  It's in the real airplane as a "hack" to the flight model to partially compensate for a forward shift of the center of lift on the engine nacelles at high AoA.  This doesn't happen in MSFS because, well, it can't - there's no way for the flight model to accomplish it, unless you artificially adjust the trim state as PMDG does for a different reason, with the problems we see in the PMDG because of it.  There's no point in simulating it, because you end up with what we already have - an aircraft with a stable flight model through the high AoA regime.  Running the trim in the desktop sim would amount to nothing but a sound effect.  

Would it be a nice addition if they modeled some of the more common functions of the speed trim system?  Meh, maybe.  The same concept applies though - to do so, you'd be "breaking" the flight model just to use trim to "hack" it back to where it currently is.  Really hard to see why that would matter much. 

If you're using the lack of a speed trim system to claim that the iFly is lacking in systems depth, you need to understand that this is not the case.  I am frankly more impressed with the systems depth on the iFly than I was with the PMDG, and am further impressed by the dev's dedication to making the project better and better, vs the making of excuses that we've seen from the competition for the last couple years.