I have had one day with TFDi’s MD-11 (so keep that in mind) and have been able to go from C&D to flying a flight plan. As with all my study level add-ons, I have been documenting my custom checklist, and feel i am pretty solid with this add-on at least to TOD. Here’s my impressions so far. 

I would give the interior visuals a C grade, with it being a bit better at night. It does hurt immersion imo, but it gets a passing grade - barely. The exterior textures are a B, but this is no iniBuilds, PMDG or Fenix in the looks department imo. 

Performance is okay, but all of the above perform better on my rig. Nothing to impact the experience too badly, and at cruise altitude things were totally fluid. But at a large airport with BATC running, i am not getting 60 fps. 

Sounds are okay, but I need to spend more time tweaking levels because i barely hear those GE engines. Alarms sound good, and i have plenty of experience with those after one flight. 

The EFB is very basic. The worst i have seen from an add-on costing half what this one does.

Speaking of cost, I bought the entire lot for $90. Yeah, this is easily the most expensive add-on i have purchased. 

The FMS is really no more difficult to program than the Boeing or Airbuses I have used. It just takes getting familiar with, and i am pretty comfortable after two times. You see a lot of similarities between the MD-11 and those planes. 

Going from C&D to ready to taxi is pretty straightforward. Nothing too different from the A320 or 777. You have to handle a lot of the same details, just in slightly different ways. Stab trim is an exception, but again, just another thing to tackle. 

Firing up the engines was pretty simple if you remember to turn the APU on. Ask me how i know. I just didn’t get the feeling of immersion with it like i do when I am firing up those A350 engines. Inibuilds gets panned here at times, but i really love the A350. So immersive. 

Taxiing the MD-11 is the best of the bunch. I like the way it handles, and i don’t find myself fighting to keep it under control either taxiing to the runway or taking off. They did a good job here. 

Taking off, you can feel the weight of this thing. I felt a bit of panic at rotation, as i thought for a moment i wasn’t going to get her off the ground. But once you get a little altitude this thing really climbs quickly. This is a powerful plane, but a longer runway sure helps. I haven’t done a landing yet, but i already see where this plane is a handful if you are not managing energy properly. 

And once you get the MD-11 off the ground and into cruise this is where the real differences between the MD-11 way of doing things and the Airbuses and Boeings shows up. There seems to be a two step process of arming things, then activating them. You even see this with something like setting flaps. You precisely set the flaps, but until you move the lever into the Dial a flap zone, nothing happens. 

My Dad worked for Douglas for 10 years, and he was an engineer involved with this project. This plane was definitely designed by engineers, as everything is very logical. But imo the elegance of the Airbus way of doing things is completely nonexistent in this plane. Douglas wasn’t making many attempts to dumb this thing down. I see a lot of my Dad’s way of thinking in this plane. Douglas built planes for pilots who knew what they were doing, or at least that is the way I see it. I remember seeing one of these up close when visiting my Dad’s work in Long Beach. He called their manufacturing process “bang to fit” and he said “once you see how these things are built, you’ll never fly again.“ If he was alive today he’d get a kick out of seeing this plane in MSFS 2024. 

Getting this thing to follow a flight plan seems pretty straightforward, but the real work comes into managing the descent, which i have just started learning. It gets busy from TOD on. I am just now getting comfortable making MCDU changes for runway/approach changes in the Airbus, so that will be exciting in this bird. You need to manage this plane two or three waypoints in advance. There is a surprising amount of automation in the MD-11, but this is clearly no fly by wire creation. Still, she does have character and TFDi has captured some of that. But is the MD-11 as immersive as the A350? I have not seen that yet.

I will provide more feedback after a landing but so far I am on the fence with this add-on. It needs better visuals and sound I think, but we will see. Definitely an interesting journey peeling the layers of this onion. 

Side note: I completed another flight in the 777F, which was the plane that replaced/killed the MD-11. PMDG did a nice job on that one, but it is almost too easy to fly. The MD-11 is definitely more work. I am just not sure the result is more rewarding. But…it took me a while to warm up to the triple 7, so we’ll see. 

And yes Ryan, I will get some pictures! 

Edited March 14Mar 14 by RobJC

17 minutes ago, RobJC said:

I would give the interior visuals a C grade, with it being a bit better at night. It does hurt immersion imo, but it gets a passing grade - barely. The exterior textures are a B, but this is no iniBuilds, PMDG or Fenix in the looks department imo. 

I have a feeling you have your texture resolution in the sim set to anything else but high or ultra. The MD-11's textures are very prone to reducing in quality when you reduce that setting. That's the only explanation I have you giving it such a low grade.

Sorry to hear you rate the visuals at such a low level. I thin kthere might be something at play here, considering you seem to see PMDG's artwork to be superior (which to me is their weakness, aside from making great products otherwise).

Here is what the MD-11 look like on my sim, does it look like this on yours? The cockpit is full of details IMO

https://ibb.co/jPyK4KmY
https://ibb.co/9f3SdHT
https://ibb.co/B5wY2zZx
https://ibb.co/CGbTpQH

(make sure to click on load full resolution to see it in 4K, it might take a minute)

 

Edited March 14Mar 14 by Pilot2PC
Image links corrected

2 hours ago, Farlis said:

I have a feeling you have your texture resolution in the sim set to anything else but high or ultra. The MD-11's textures are very prone to reducing in quality when you reduce that setting. That's the only explanation I have you giving it such a low grade.

I will check on that. Thanks!

I think it bears mentioning that some textures, notably the cabin that purposely has a low resolution due to an issue reported to Asobo that needs resolving. 
 

3 hours ago, RobJC said:

You need to manage this plane two or three waypoints in advance.

Personally I can’t say I agree. On PROF I find the aircraft can pretty much handle everything  without any intervention short of me deploying flaps and gears. 
 

Despite its age I find it more automated than an Airbus. The real challenge comes with landing it, the landing characteristics definitely take practice due to it loving to drop out of the sky and poor elevator authority. 

25 minutes ago, Lucky38i said:

I think it bears mentioning that some textures, notably the cabin that purposely has a low resolution due to an issue reported to Asobo that needs resolving. 
 

Personally I can’t say I agree. On PROF I find the aircraft can pretty much handle everything  without any intervention short of me deploying flaps and gears. 
 

Despite its age I find it more automated than an Airbus. The real challenge comes with landing it, the landing characteristics definitely take practice due to it loving to drop out of the sky and poor elevator authority. 

After i have had a landing or two i will report back. My initial impression of this aspect could be off. 

Something is definitely off with your rating on its visual appearance. that cockpit… It looks gorgeous! Both during the day and at night.

I too think the cockpit visuals are pretty good, a solid “B” in my book. I’d rate the sounds even lower than you did, though. I don’t know why it is so hard for companies to get decent CF6 sounds, ini’s suck too. Barely passable grade for those. PWs are only marginally better.

We really need Boris to do some CF6 sounds to show what’s possible!

Overall I quite enjoy it. It’s part of the top, most used aircraft in my fleet among the various PMDG and Fenix birds.

Okay completed my first flight, which was my shakedown flight from KDEN to KLAX. The flight was pretty flawless except for the fact that when I landed I had no ground steering, so I ended up off the runway lol. I did an ILS landing and the MD-11 basically had as much automation as the 777. I did double check and my textures are on ultra, but it is fine. Not a deal breaker. The plane does have character, no doubt. Overall, I like it. Sure, I wish the sounds were better, but that could be something on my end. Performance landing in LAX was fine, and with BATC there was activity. Not one pause or lag. I even had a runway/approach change, and it was a breeze to deal with.  

I need more time with this plane but it is a keeper. I could see some of my Dad in the design ethos, and that in itself brought back memories from my trips to Long Beach. 

 

Edited March 15Mar 15 by RobJC

Well I fly/flew the MadDog in real life for my job. I bought this addon last year for MSFS2024 so my son can see what I do and I believe TFDi has done a very nice job. The MCDU/FMS is very realistic as well as the auto flight system. The visuals of the airplane look very good sharp. She fly’s well enough for flight sim 2024 and is reminiscent of the old PMDG MD-11.

Tip: If vectoring yourself in the terminal area to an ILS, obviously you’ll be in HDG SEL but to descend, use flight level change (pulling the altitude selector knob) to get IDLE CLAMP and enter a speed on pitch descent. That’s how we did it in the real world. There’s almost no place we went where the route was totally connected to the approach where you could stay in NAV & PROF until arming the approach. Well, KONT on the SCBBY arrival is at least one exception.

Also, like other planes, if you autoland remember to click off the autopilot on rollout or you won’t be able to steer it off the runway.

Anyway, my company decided to retire the jet after an accident last fall. I’m currently learning a new plane and haven’t used TFDi since maybe December but I do really like it. I just flushing my brain of MD-11 and trying to learn Boeing. Any good 757/767 addons for 2024??

Cheers

Edited March 15Mar 15 by dvdfab5

6 minutes ago, dvdfab5 said:

Any good 757/767 addons for 2024??

No.

6 hours ago, RobJC said:

when I landed I had no ground steering

That is one characteristic of the MD11, if you taxi too fast, you will have a hard time with the steering of your nose wheel. There are a couple of videos showing this. I guess after you landed you did not decelerate enough to use your steering (max 10/12 knots) and your plane continued to move forward with your nose wheel perpendicular to the runway... Have your front wheels pneumatics checked, they might have to be changed!

1 hour ago, dvdfab5 said:

Well I fly/flew the MadDog in real life for my job. I bought this addon last year for MSFS2024 so my son can see what I do and I believe TFDi has done a very nice job. The MCDU/FMS is very realistic as well as the auto flight system. The visuals of the airplane look very good sharp. She fly’s well enough for flight sim 2024 and is reminiscent of the old PMDG MD-11.

Tip: If vectoring yourself in the terminal area to an ILS, obviously you’ll be in HDG SEL but to descend, use flight level change (pulling the altitude selector knob) to get IDLE CLAMP and enter a speed on pitch descent. That’s how we did it in the real world. There’s almost no place we went where the route was totally connected to the approach where you could stay in NAV & PROF until arming the approach. Well, KONT on the SCBBY arrival is at least one exception.

Also, like other planes, if you autoland remember to click off the autopilot on rollout or you won’t be able to steer it off the runway.

Anyway, my company decided to retire the jet after an accident last fall. I’m currently learning a new plane and haven’t used TFDi since maybe December but I do really like it. I just flushing my brain of MD-11 and trying to learn Boeing. Any good 757/767 addons for 2024??

Cheers

That is really cool! Glad to know you think it is reasonably accurate. Appreciate the tips. I don’t think anyone have built a decent 757/767. 

2 hours ago, dvdfab5 said:

Any good 757/767 addons for 2024??

Cheers

This is in the workshop, to be released this year if everything goes well

https://bluebirdsim.com/