With Reference to BobIt was wrong of him to post Personal issues, I have no issue that is opinions of the sim were different from others on here, that is the whole point of the forum, for us to discuss the sim and its values, Where I found Bob not to be off use in the forum is that he didnt seem to want to accept at any cost that things could improve. Whatever someone said he was prepared to die for his love of the Airane, he twisted peoples words, or used the "I think, it may" too much to cover up the sims defficiencies, or they are working on that. When people critiscised the Activation system again he was never prepared to say yes I can see it needs improving.I love the LevelD 767, I think its probably one of the best sims available, better than PMDG in my opionion, but I'll also be the first to point out its bugs, areas it could be improved. Bob just didnt seem to want to discuss, just defend, which is honourable, but made his opionions just look like he was woking for Ariane, it took value away from what he had to say, which is a shame as some of what he passed on was valuable. I suppose he just looked too good to be true, which wasnt helpful to us all here that wanted the facts about the sim, company, activation system etc.. His views were coming from his passion for the sim rather than from the facts, and technicality, admittely he had a hard time in often having to defend himself as a member of Ariane, and maybe why he became so defensive in other areas, but was it the forum or him that created that?I hope when he comes back, that he continues to help with this forum, but in a factual non passionate way, as he is a high usage user of the sim, he can be helpful to those who want to look at buying the Ariane, but he needs to be realistic not just passionate.RegardsJames

"Come on 'Neville', call it a late Christmas present!"Toni.

Who's "Neville"?EDIT: OK, got it, Neville Francis Caswall Rolt, Director of Ariane Design Flight Simulation Limited.

From the Ariane X2 Boeing 737 Flight Crew Training manual:'Path descent is not fully supported, so select LVL CHG to EXECute the DESCent phases of the flight by entering each ALT given as directed by ATC, or as shown on the FMC'Incidentally, I had to type that out, because in addition to not being able to print the manuals from the PDF, you can't copy and paste stuff from the manuals either.Al

From the Ariane X2 Boeing 737 Flight Crew Training manual:'Path descent is not fully supported, so select LVL CHG to EXECute the DESCent phases of the flight by entering each ALT given as directed by ATC, or as shown on the FMC'Incidentally, I had to type that out, because in addition to not being able to print the manuals from the PDF, you can't copy and paste stuff from the manuals either.Al

More and more evidence its not quite the "Proffesional Sim" that it claims to be...making those other so called "SimToys" look proffesional. lets hope Ariane look to this and bring the product up to spec.

From the Ariane X2 Boeing 737 Flight Crew Training manual:'Path descent is not fully supported'Al

"Not fully"? or "Not at all"? Seeing that a FLCH descent is completely different from a Path Descent, apart from going downhill in either case.It's a bit like being "Not fully pregnant".

From the Ariane X2 Boeing 737 Flight Crew Training manual:'Path descent is not fully supported, so select LVL CHG to EXECute the DESCent phases of the flight by entering each ALT given as directed by ATC, or as shown on the FMC'

Finally! Thanks for clarifying that. That's a non-starter for me. From what I am hearing in previous posts, if I were to change, for instance, my cruising altitude in mid-flight, the descent paths will NOT be re-calculated. Is this correct?

Dunno about that, still testing stuff. By the way I can also confirm that I am not fully pregnant :( Joking aside and to be fair to Ariane, there are a number of documents and guides to the Ariane 737 which can be downloaded from the Ariane website. These are actually pretty good and do clarify what works and what does not with regard to the nav database and other stuff, so it's not like they are being secretive about matters, the info is there if people want it, and there are a lot of good tips on those documents too.Al

By the way I can also confirm that I am not fully pregnant :( Al

That's good news. I also hope you are not "going downhill" owing to the stress of this review. :(

OK GUYS.TOGETHER WITH GEOF WE HAVE DECIDED TO REOPEN THIS THREAD BECAUSE WE KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOUR INTEREST TO CONTINUE THIS DISCUSSION.BUT.....WE WON'T ALLOW ANY MORE COMMENTS ABOUT BOB, PUTTING HIM DOWN/ DEFENDING HIM, NOR ANY MORE COMMENTS ON AVSIM'S STAFF DECISIONS.THIS THREAD BELONGS TO YOU, SO PLEASE BEHAVE YOURSELVES AND ACCEPT THAT THEY ARE RULES YOU NEED TO FOLLOW TO PRESERVE THE QUALITY OF THIS FORUM.THANK YOU.

OK GUYS.TOGETHER WITH GEOF WE HAVE DECIDED TO REOPEN THIS THREAD BECAUSE WE KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOUR INTEREST TO CONTINUE THIS DISCUSSION.BUT.....WE WON'T ALLOW ANY MORE COMMENTS ABOUT BOB, PUTTING HIM DOWN/ DEFENDING HIM, NOR ANY MORE COMMENTS ON AVSIM'S STAFF DECISIONS.THIS THREAD BELONGS TO YOU, SO PLEASE BEHAVE YOURSELVES AND ACCEPT THAT THEY ARE RULES YOU NEED TO FOLLOW TO PRESERVE THE QUALITY OF THIS FORUM.THANK YOU.

That's great guys, thanks. I was so dissapointed when I came home today to find it locked.Looking forward to hearing more the subject.

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The impression I'm getting so far of the Ariane 737 is that its quite a solid simulation but has a few obstacles that would stand in the way of a purchase, such as the nav data manager. One thing I don't get (I may be missing something here), is why Ariane sell each 737 ng separately (i.e.700/800/900). I wasn't aware of substantial differences, do ariane offer some sort of upgrade price for the others you dont purchase initially?The post on the first page of the thread from this 'India Knight' character looks encouraging but there has been no real change to the website since and no further communication (as far as I'm aware). I want to convince myself to get this but I suppose its better to hold out for Alan's review. Anthony H

From what I can work out, it seems VNAV only respects altitude constraints on the climb if you set it on the MCP, just seems to completely ignore what I type into the FMC Legs page and go straight for the MCP alt upto cruise. Also, when I enter my altitude constraints/speeds on the ground, the FMC doesnt take note of the speeds I enter eg 220/5000 it just makes its own speeds up depending on what you have set on the climb page/cost index. Quite disappointed I spent this much money on this addon in its present state. Think this plane will end up being unused until/if a service pack fixes VNAV and for now I'll go back to enjoying my PMDG MD-11.Also, it starts up as default massively overweight which is why it doesnt like you entering the default gross weight setting into the FMC, even when you take most of the fuel out of it. Have to take some of the cargo out/put the passengers on a diet before they board. Found if I set all the forward/aft cargo to 0 then it will accept normal gross weight inputs such as 130.1 instead of the 3 decimal places without pausing etc.Just descending into EHAM from a FL330 cruise on LNAV and VNAV. It started TOD itself, quite early (after I set a lower alt into the MCP - I set it to 4000 to see what it would do about the constraints I set in the FMC). I'm supposed to be at 10000ft at the SUGOL intersection it had dropped below 10000ft 20 miles before SUGOL and is crossing SUGOL at about 4500ft and levelled off at 4000ft not long after, so seems descent is based on what you type into MCP too and not the altitude constraints you enter into the FMC legs page.When on approach and you press the init ref button on the FMC, it defaults to the take off page at the lower right line select key instead of the apprach ref too, you have go press index to bring the menu up then select approach. I'm sure on other boeing addons it defaults automatically to approach ref??

I'm not necessarily defending the Ariane decision to sell variants of things as separate add-ons, and from a purely personal standpoint, I'm not a huge fan of that approach by any developer where models are broadly the same, however.... There is quite a substantial difference between different versions of the 737NG, despite their broad commonality, although whether all those differences are reflected in the Ariane versions is something I'm currently still in the process of determining.For example, the 900 (actually now the 900ER - Boeing have stopped making the 900) has a different certification from other 737s, because it has more emergency exits which allows it to carry more than 200 passengers, it has a greater range owing to it having an extra fuel tank, and it has a higher maximum Mach limit owing to a slight wing redesign. Other changes include how it is pressurised automatically as it climbs, which also affects how many cycles it is certified for, so it's a lot more than simply an NG with a couple of fuselage plugs to make it longer.As far as making a different model and charging for it goes, that means that between certain different NG models for FS you might possibly need: the model changing, the antennas and other stuff relocating, the wings to be changed, the undercarriage to be altered as well as the tires and how they are animated when retracting, the tail altered, the number of exits to be changed and their animation to be included, and the APU to be remodelled. Inside it might need a different APU panel, a new power bus panel, the standby instruments to be changed to the combination digital one found on more modern NGs, or the older steam gauges depending on which year and model it was, the MCP changing to the newer installation, or to retain the older version, the PFDs changing to reflect CRTs or TFTs, a new radio suite, new door and cargo annunciators on the overhead, and some other different overhead panels with minor changes. The configuration file would certainly need to be altered, as would the flight model, and then the textures would have to have a new file and map created to fit the different shape.That's a lot of stuff to change really. I personally think it might be nice to have a system whereby you pay less for subsequent models to reflect that you are getting something different, but which did involve additional work by the developer, but that's just me thinking out loud.Al

Just very briefly... The 800 "X2" is a very nice aircraft really but there's been so much hassle and nonsense around it all that i've got a negative view of it all now. The external model is not bad, excels in some areas yet strangely doesn't in others (i.e the landing gear is superbley done) and the engine nassels yet the wings disappoint me a lil bit. The McPhat paints are very good and they make the wings look a lot more realistic. The flight dynamics or w/e are beautiful.. feels just like it would.. although i've never flown one/nor in a sim it just feels like how I would imagine it to fly like - though again, like other parts of this bird there's issues.. approaching on vref and the noise is only 0.5 to 1 degree up - it's slightly off landing or approaching like the FCOM says it should. Sounds are pretty nice.. well parts of them - the packs and the recirc fans are a nice feature. The VC is very nice, high FPS with nice detail. The bad points... the denial of "people" is just annoying.. a lot of "people" won't accept any bad points of the aircraft and don't seem even remotley botehred about the lack of vnav descent path - to them it's equal to PMDG/level-d.. sure it's their opinion.. oh well. Support is pretty much RTFM or reinstall it and I usually get blasted for "assuming" things :/ As one person pointed out, the product details are deceiving.. and this guy also mentioned that a lot of just doesn't make any sense. Back to the aircraft.. the FMC is okay but i've been having problems with putting routes in (fliping direct to with direc to via) Lack of alt restraints on the LEGS page is amazingly disappointing for such a "professional sim". Also a big fiasco when they released this "X2" product line... they wouldn't discount anyone who had the X1 product and it was another