Wilco's AIRBUS vol1 opinion

[Dirk98 354]

Guys, what's your opinion on Wilco's Airbus vol.1 after 2 years of flying and a number of patches? I recall there were some confrontational and negative posts at the release time about Wilco's technical support, forum etc., that I would't heed anyway. My quesion is how much fun is to fly this aircraft in your FS collection after the shake down? Can it become your major carrier like it is in r/l in Europe? I'm thinking to buy it, but only if it lasts in the air real long. Is it atmospheric, with thought-out and convenient panels and clickspots system, credible FDE and acceptable simulation of the systems? Is the performance good in VC in FS9 and FSX?I know there are other iterations of Airbus in the works, but I'm not asking about them here.Thank you for your thoughts and comments. This time I'm going to follow them.Dirk.

[ahuimanu 50]

>Guys, what's your opinion on Wilco's Airbus vol.1 after 2>years of flying and a number of patches? I recall there were>some confrontational and negative posts at the release time>about Wilco's technical support, forum etc., that I would't>heed anyway. My quesion is how much fun is to fly this>aircraft in your FS collection after the shake down? Can it>become your major carrier like it is in r/l in Europe? I'm>thinking to buy it, but only if it lasts in the air real long.>Is it atmospheric, with thought-out and convenient panels and>clickspots system, credible FDE and acceptable simulation of>the systems? Is the performance good in VC in FS9 and FSX?>>I know there are other iterations of Airbus in the works, but>I'm not asking about them here.>>Thank you for your thoughts and comments. This time I'm going>to follow them.>>Dirk. I bought both volumes about a month ago.It has been patched several times and is, all in all, quite nice. However, don't count on a reliable experience in Vista - the developer doesn't own Vista and there can be weirdness and CTDs in Vista. There have also been problems with using saved flight plans.The MCDU is nice and the aircraft fly pretty well. The whole package and the VC is pretty smooth and it is an acceptable simulation.There are a few visual bugs with the model that remain unfixed (the A319 comes to mind) and other little quirks.HOWEVER!!!CAVEAT EMPTOR when buying ANYTHING from Wilco and feelThere, you will get very poor service from Wilco; feelThere/Wilco have a dysfuncational service relationship where feelThere directs you to Wilco and Wilco directs you to feelThere with neither owning up. Very simple procedures with your account, like getting your email changed on an old order with Wilco is IMPOSSIBLE! You will also find that most feelThere products start off fairly wobbly, but they do *generally* clean up after a while. I waited (like you did) for the Airbus for just this reason. I apparently missed most of the ballyhoo and my own negative experiences with the Airbus product are related to running Vista and FSX.So, you will be rolling your dice and you may end up lucky. To be fair, most users end up lucky. If you don't need support, products from feelThere are above average, if you do need support and Wilco is involved (they are joined at the hip), you are in trouble.Of course Scoob will come along and refute me, but you asked, I told.If you love the Airbus, go for it, you'll *likely* be more happy than sad. I have not caught a lot of luck and have had trouble with the EMB-145, the 737-300 and both Airbii.

[Dirk98 354]

Thanks, Jeff. I'm strai... err I'm on WinXP Pro 32b. I had quite acceptable support (at least communications) from Wilco and even better from FeelThere and Scoob.Sounds good.

[Guest iksound]

Hey Guys, I'm pretty new here, so I don't want to tread on any toes or anything. and I too have just bought the airbus volume 2. I have all the 737's from wilco to. I think in the main the airbus is pretty good, doesn't suffer from the throttle problem on decent that the 737 seems to. but I'd say the speed break is largely for show. not too sure about the flight model as it doen't seem to want to slow down at all, even with the throttle at idol and the nose straight (or even pitched up), which I find a little confusing. I have heard tell that the airbus takes some slowing down? I was also a bit concerned that the idol N1 is only 18% and I need to apply near 50 N1 to start rolling, again, seems a little excessive to me. I'm not trying to be negative here at all, the visual models are nice and the 2D and 3D cockpits are great. and once again Mr york has added the iceing on the cake with the FS2crew for it. again I'd like to say, i'm not trying to be negative, but when you have something like the PMDG747, that just works, where ever I put it, its hard not to be hard on wilco products, there does always seem to be a, fix, workaround, patch or some such thing with these planes, and in the same situation, the PMDG just keeps on going. for example, I am now running FS9 on VISTA 64, 4GB ram, 8800GTX 768 Coe2 etc; and PMDG, fine, LDS 767 ok, (not really got into this yet, as have a job etc) wilco 737, to be honest, I've given up with this, life's too short. Wilco airbus, bar what I've mentioned, a niggle or two, but generally good, can take off and land safely, well, using autoland, not sure about manually, partly skill based and partly its unpredictable speed. I know, we've all been spoiled by PMDG, a credit to their excellence, looking forward to the MD-11. and if they do an airbus! well...!Seriously, the bar is now very high, and i'm a bit of a purist in that I want to know that it flies like the real thing, to get a true sense of something I'll never do in real life, and this means it has to work in a predictable manner, and not screw up on your desent or approach, after a long flight, am I right?I hope you can see what i'm trying to say, I don't want to upset anybody, but this is my particular experience.I'd say its worth a look if you want an airbus, and a change from the many boeing's around. I'm afraid I don't know anything about any of the other airbuses that are around.Cheers all.IanCore2 Duo6600 2.48800GTX 768MB4GB RamVISTA 64 Home PremiumFS9, FSBuild, LDS 767. Wilco 737, Airbus Vol 2.PMDG 737's, 747.AS6. FS2crew, PMDG and Wilco VersionsFSGlobal 2008. FE, GE, Traffic 2007world Airports 2.

[Dirk98 354]

>I think in the main the airbus is pretty good, doesn't suffer>from the throttle problem on decent that the 737 seems to. but>I'd say the speed break is largely for show. not too sure>about the flight model as it doen't seem to want to slow down>at all, even with the throttle at idol and the nose straight>(or even pitched up), which I find a little confusing. It seems to be a problem of the programmer/designer at feelthere who works on flight models. The same can be said about their fine Legacy, that also does not slow down in a creadible way, and the spoilers are quite inefficient (also confirmed by a pilot/technical specialist working on Legacy in a prv communication).Thank you for your observations, I generally feel the same about their PIC Boeing737. So we can say they (B737, A320) are quite good as long as there are no alternatives for these particular models. :)Cheers,Dirk.

[Guest iksound]

Thanks Dirk, Just one more point re the airbus, the manual is a real let down for me, the tutorial is basically a list that runs, "do this then do this then do this etc". Features need to be expalined, every time you release a new bird. making sure all abreviations are spelled out somewhere, ie the first few times you come across them. I think this issue is not just limited to Feelthere, I personally would like to see a move, by companies/individuals towards manuals explaining the theory of what you are trying to achieve and not just listing procedures, and the order they should be done. and the manual should provide you with the tools you need to select any appropriate method or technique for a given situation. ie, you don't always get an ILS CATIII approach clearence, so how do you set the thing up for VOR, DME, Visual etc; I hope you can see what i'm getting at?I'd like to see them explain the features as well as the airbus ethos, this would allow users to learn about the system they've created, in the current state, I'd be tempted to draw the conclusion that shedding to much light on the way this particular version works, may reveal some flaws in the logic therein. this was a big disappointment for me, not least because I have poor eyesight and the PDF has two pages crammed onto one and won't print out in large print.Once again, thanks allIan

[ahuimanu 50]

Most feelThere products are above average but they are often left with nagging bugs that never get fixed. Generally, by the time they are patching (if they are patching) a release, they've moved on to their next project. Most of this is my problem though as I keep coming back to them over and over again... Why? well, as another in this thread pointed out: they continue to offer products where there is no other viable and credible competition. Very shrewd on their part. I have enjoyed the 737-300/400/500, the ERJ-145, the Legacy and the Airbus series, but each came with its own little bit of grief; some of this grief was the very process of seeking support. My favorite feelThere/Wilco tactic is the shutdown of a support forum and being left with Wilco's non-support email method. They are friendly enough in their correspondence, but things just don't get solved.If you are in the market for an airbus on the serious side and can deal witha few flaws (CTDs in Vista under certain circumstances, an A319 model with continues to be flawed, etc.), then by all means have at the Airbus Series Vol. 1 and Vol 2. - there is no other competitor in the market right now which comes close. I know there are some promise-ware Airbii on the horizon, but the feelThere product is a bird in the hand.

[Guest iksound]

Not sure if I memtioned, I'm using FS9 not FSX, I have tried the airbus Volume 2 on FSX, and I think that that, coupled with Vista 64 had some issues, but I have no idea if they've been resolved, as there were some discussions on the forum about some issues, i'm quite happy with fs9 for now. and to be honest, I wouldn't expect feelthere to look at VISTA 64 just yet, as most people are sticking with the 32bit verions of XP and Vista, but it something developers should be working on as it would be a great shame to waste all that processing power.

[brucek 38]

One of my comments is that an altitude restriction in the FMS flight plan (when descending on a STAR for instance) does not appear to over-ride the ALT setting, when the a/c has to pass through the restriction altitude to get to the ALT setting. I'm not sure if this is Airbus logic vs. Boeing logic and my expectations are unreal or not, but it sure seems strange.As someone else said, I keep coming back to the AB vol 1 and 2 as there is no other product.Bruce.

[Guest iksound]

I have two of the ITVV DVD's which are interesting, although they are both 747 400 based, in a simultor, one of the captains demonstates how to start the engins properly, what to look out for etc and I notice, with some horror, that the airbus vol 2 EGT get's as high as 850 degrees during start up, at which point, according to my DVD a 747 engine would be glowing red hot and you would have effectively destroyed several millions of pounds worth of engine. not sure what the tolerances are of the engines but I feel sure that going above 650/700 is a no no? anyone who know's (real pilots) please feel free to chip in if you can shed some light on this.Ian