I’m thinking of investing in learning and controls for a 737 in FS24. Probably the Asobo Max to start and then the iFly. I might also try my hand at flying a 747 at some point. 
 

My understanding is that Boeing auto throttles will move the throttles automatically. Of course no throttle quadrants I’m aware of will mimic this. How much of an issue does this present in immersion or when switching to hand flying? What happens when you switch off AT and your levers are in a different position from the plane in the sim?

I’d like to get the WinWing MCDU and MCP. But they have three different Boeing MCDU options. And it seems the Max has a slightly different button layout from the other 737s. Im not sure which WinWing is the best for a 737 max and 747. Anyone have one of these and can comment?

Interestingly I just today watched the fsexpo video of Meridian GMT announcing exactly the option to enhance the upcoming throttle quadrant with three motors for trim and the two throttles for Boeing operations... but sadly no date avail yet whenever they will be avail. On a sidenote I never found (and still not finding) it immersion breaking back when flying Boeing but for me the Boeings went overall boring so I did go down the bus route and they stay in their detents.

Cheers T.

27 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I’m thinking of investing in learning and controls for a 737 in FS24. Probably the Asobo Max to start and then the iFly. I might also try my hand at flying a 747 at some point. 
 

My understanding is that Boeing auto throttles will move the throttles automatically. Of course no throttle quadrants I’m aware of will mimic this. How much of an issue does this present in immersion or when switching to hand flying? What happens when you switch off AT and your levers are in a different position from the plane in the sim?

I’d like to get the WinWing MCDU and MCP. But they have three different Boeing MCDU options. And it seems the Max has a slightly different button layout from the other 737s. Im not sure which WinWing is the best for a 737 max and 747. Anyone have one of these and can comment?

There are actually a few motorized TQ's out there that will follow the throttles which is VERY cool however for myself personally I tend to manually follow the autothrottle with my manual throttles.  On the PMDG for example there are two engine indicators.  White tells you  where the Autothrottle has the throttles and a blue that shows you where the physical throttles are so it's very easy to follow and make sure they are aligned.  Not sure if that is just a PMDG thing.  

MCDU I went with one for the 737 and one for the 777 so can't help there and I use the Opencockpits modules with the same limitations that the buttons don't always align but muscle memory is an incredible thing and it's amazing how quickly you can separate where things "should" be and where they "are"  

Funny story, I have dual EFIS and an MCP.  I then added the display indicator unit for the 777 which physically moved everything by about 1/2 inch to make things fit.  For the next few flight I CONSTANTLY adjusted Altitude when I meant to adjust the heading because the altitude dial ended up where the heading dial was...  I even surprised myself how 2nd nature reaching for the dial had become...

It's a sim so while I would love to have a 1:1 for everything I even have a 737 overhead mapped to all the 777 controls and kept things "as close" to where they should be as possible but in some case completely substituted individual controls to get everything mapped.  

Do what YOU enjoy 🙂 

9 minutes ago, Torsen said:

Interestingly I just today watched the fsexpo video of Meridian GMT announcing exactly the option to enhance the upcoming throttle quadrant with three motors for trim and the two throttles for Boeing operations... but sadly no date avail yet whenever they will be avail. On a sidenote I never found (and still not finding) it immersion breaking back when flying Boeing but for me the Boeings went overall boring so I did go down the bus route and they stay in their detents.

Cheers T.

Why did the Boeings get boring for you?

52 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

Why did the Boeings get boring for you?

For me it actually was the other way around like you described in the other thread. I was falling back into this yeah another flight in the 737 click click AP is doing it all. I was doing a lot of flights VA based both cargo and bbj in the -700 back then in 2020 times and at some point you get saturated and search for something new. At this time I had not invested in additional tubeliner hardware yet. I came from FBW 320 also and moved on to the Fenix and later to the Toliss 340 and I really enjoyed to learn to handfly flybywire planes. Winwing entered the game and I went down this road. I nowadays just enjoy the very smooth handflying of the Fenix and Toliss on departure minimum to FL100 or even TOC and same from TOD or a least when going from STAR into approach... I have the T7F also but just jump into it from time to time. What I enjoy though is the wonderful Felis 747-200. I'm not bound to one sim so I enjoy the variety a lot. Beside that in 2024 I love doing Maddog, RJ and F28 classic flights also. And GA... and Helos... I do them all 😄

In the end its one of the big plus in our wonderful hobby that you have so many options and you can't really go wrong. (except spending too much money 😄 )

Cheers T.

1 hour ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I’m thinking of investing in learning and controls for a 737 in FS24. Probably the Asobo Max to start and then the iFly. I might also try my hand at flying a 747 at some point. 
 

My understanding is that Boeing auto throttles will move the throttles automatically. Of course no throttle quadrants I’m aware of will mimic this. How much of an issue does this present in immersion or when switching to hand flying? What happens when you switch off AT and your levers are in a different position from the plane in the sim?

I’d like to get the WinWing MCDU and MCP. But they have three different Boeing MCDU options. And it seems the Max has a slightly different button layout from the other 737s. Im not sure which WinWing is the best for a 737 max and 747. Anyone have one of these and can comment?

Not sure about the Asobo Max ( I don't fly default aircraft ever), but the PMDG and th iFly max have setting where you can see your throttle lever position and compare and then adjust it to where the AT has it set. Then when you turn off autothrottle, nothing changes. 

Edited July 13, 2025Jul 13 by Bobsk8

2 hours ago, Torsen said:

For me it actually was the other way around like you described in the other thread. I was falling back into this yeah another flight in the 737 click click AP is doing it all. I was doing a lot of flights VA based both cargo and bbj in the -700 back then in 2020 times and at some point you get saturated and search for something new. At this time I had not invested in additional tubeliner hardware yet. I came from FBW 320 also and moved on to the Fenix and later to the Toliss 340 and I really enjoyed to learn to handfly flybywire planes. Winwing entered the game and I went down this road. I nowadays just enjoy the very smooth handflying of the Fenix and Toliss on departure minimum to FL100 or even TOC and same from TOD or a least when going from STAR into approach... I have the T7F also but just jump into it from time to time. What I enjoy though is the wonderful Felis 747-200. I'm not bound to one sim so I enjoy the variety a lot. Beside that in 2024 I love doing Maddog, RJ and F28 classic flights also. And GA... and Helos... I do them all 😄

In the end its one of the big plus in our wonderful hobby that you have so many options and you can't really go wrong. (except spending too much money 😄 )

Cheers T.

Makes sense. Do you have any advice for me on choosing WinWing gear?

8 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

Makes sense. Do you have any advice for me on choosing WinWing gear?

I can't give you a direct advise as in the end it's very subjective but I can tell you what my thinking behind was in my decision. First I had already a set of base hardware to somehow comfortably fly both Boeing and Airbus with Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo and the complete Thrustmaster TCA Stick and throttles plus extension. Second I'm roughly flying 2024 and XP12 in an overall 70/30 split so another priorities point set but with keeping in mind that both worlds work. Third taking a look at my hangar and the forecast of addons to come available. Probably the most headache point. Base assumption, concentrating on the future proof versions of the sims only (again subjective and highly debatable for some still, but seeing it from a dev point of view 2020 was crossed from the list already). Boeing: At this point I had to set the PMDG 737 NG as out of service as not to be seen in 2024 for a long time when checking pmdg news, records and what time they usually need (I honestly think we won't see a new 737NG from them before 2026). On the other hand with Zibo and LevelUp based on Zibo there is a complete range of NGs avail for free and some people say they don't have to hide behind pmdg's dated 737 NG (but in the sim with the lower prio). And the T7F in my hangar (back in time at this point was still not in 2024 but announced to be ready soon) and as I'm not a fan of pmdgs module/price policy I def not wanted to waste money just to get another version working already in 2024. On a sidenote I'm not one of this "I fly only the current realworld company XYZ routes in the corresponding plane otherwise I could not stand this blasphemy" or "omg you can't fly this type/size plane on this route" guys and fly what and where I like mostly in a relaxed VA env. Back on topic, Airbus: I had the Fenix complete family already in the hangar working nicely in 2024 and had planned on jumping on the Toliss 340 soon. The 330 family avail also in 2024 default with some limitations as INI is not willing or allowed (contracts with MS) to broadcast the MCDU output leaving the external display dark with only the buttons working. So in the end a lot more to fly and deep dive on the Bus side then on the Boeing side for me. 

Another point was that I wanted to concentrate on the 320/NG era and def was not interested to go into the A350 or MAX direction. Final point was that the Airbus modules would cover a broader range of planes (32X,330,340) ootb in contrast to the slightly varying Boeing setups, that actually would not drive me mad but still would be a somewhat compromise under the premise that I get one set of modules and not several. 

Plus I checked the availability of profiles and options to use the Winwing hardware with mobiflight for other planes as I fly a lot more than only the Boeings and Busses. But that actually is quite easy and with the usual compromise most things can be done easily on whatever hardware and plane you choose.

So that’s in the end why I did go for the Bus modules. But as you see ymmv a lot with other premises. Either way you are not doing something wrong anyway.

Cheers T.