So, the user @JYW persuaded me to pick the AS / ToLiss A346 up this weekend 😊

TL:DR - I am so glad I did. Despite some 'warts', it is immensely enjoyable and immersive.

Purchase was fine in Aerosoft One.  TIP:  Before you launch MSFS2024 to load the plane for the first time, copy your activation code from Aerosoft One into your Windows clipboard.  When you first load the A346, it will load the exterior model, with no landing gear, and you'll think "Oh no, here we go again!".  But this is just because the plane is not yet activated.  Press Shift+C to go into the cockpit and you'll see that the EFB has an activation page.  There's button to click to 'paste activation code and activate'. When you hit that button, all becomes great, your landing gear appears, along with all of the rest of the systems.

First impressions of the cockpit modelling and texturing were fine.  It does not look as bad as it does on compressed YouTube videos. In fact - whilst it's obvious it's not the absolute best out there - it really is perfectly nice and the default view position is excellent.  You can see ahead out of the windscreen and equally have a good view of the PFD and ND.  I read the full 44 page manual before using the plane, and I'm also a former user of all of the ToLiss Airbus in X-Plane. So the pages in the EFB were intuitive for me.  If you haven't used ToLiss addons before, it may be a bit less intuitive but once you click on each page, it's pretty clear what each setting or function does.  In beginning to warm the electrics up the sound immediately struck me as being very good.  Nice avionics sounds and nice smooth airflow.  The panel state settings also work great - I tested cold & dark, ADIRU+APU, and Ready for take off - all set the plane into the correct state momentarily.

And then I started the engines manually.......... the engine start sounds are something to behold!  Things start off subtle and then this incredibly convincing, deep bass sound appears, once ignition has occurred.  It sounds fantastic!  There are individual sound settings that can be tweaked in the EFB, which is always appreciated and not included in all complex aircraft addons.  I turned the engine sounds down a little because, although they are gorgeous, I felt they were a little too loud for the cockpit.   There is a modelled headset to the left of the captains seat and clicking it, activated a rather good headset simulation mode.   Another quality feature that I appreciate.

One of the few things that disappointed me, when operating a test flight, was that the aircraft seems to be the only airliner I own that does not work with AmbitiousPilot's "Toolbar Pushback" tool.   I hope this will be addressed, as I really don't like the integrated pushback that comes with the plane, where you have to 'guess' the distance to push back, then get only 1 angular movement to make!  That PB reminds me of FSX.

Let's talk more about textures.  They are actually quite mixed, which makes me think this has been done strategically, to provide the excellent PC performance that you get with this model. 

Let's look at some examples:-

The cockpit textures are not highest level but are perfectly acceptable

 

I hold the same opinion about the overhead

 

There is some very low resolution modelling and texturing in certain parts of the cabin (here in one of the galleys)

 

Apparant 'wear' on the walls of some areas of the cabin is not visually pleasing

 

Yet some areas, such as the seat textures themselves, are very convincing and well textured

 

Some areas of the external model are disappointing, but others (like this wheel well) are done well 

 

We all have different expectations in this area - for me, the low resolution textures (which are not seen universally) don't upset me. I spend 90% of the flight in the cockpit, save for some custom views that I set as seat and window views. I don't tend to walk through the cabin, so I will almost never see the nasty walls or galley cupboard knobs!   The point here is, if these compromises have been done deliberately to provide the excellent performance that I am seeing in the model (with a strong CPU but weaker GPU), then I'm all for it. 

The systems work excellently.  During the normal Airbus flows, to prepare to take off, everything performed flawlessly.

The flight handling characteristics are some of the best I have experienced in MSFS. In fact, as some others have said, it feels more like flying a ToLiss aircraft in X-Plane.  There's a good feeling of weight and inertia but it's also convincingly responsive (for it's size).  Unlike the Inibuilds A340, when you disconnect the AP on approach, it doesn't start wallowing around, losing the track to the runway, with no wind or control inputs! It's very enjoyable and satifying to hand fly.

So there we go - I am pleased I was persuaded to buy it, despite some initial reservations.  It's immensely enjoyable!

.......and who doesn't love a good wing view with 2 engines out there!

 

 

Edited March 15Mar 15 by JYW

I've been a Toliss XP user since they first brought out their A319 and always been very pleased with their creations. Plus their customer service/support has been excellent imho.

When I heard they were teaming up here to produce the A340 I thought this will be a good buy. This review backs up my thoughts.

I will buy in the next day or two.

I'm a very satisfied customer with the A346. I don't have to have flushing toilets or trays dropping down in the cabin. System wise and handling, I give it a A plus.

Just completed my first full light: Lufthansa from EDDF to OMDB.

95% of everything worked flawlessly 😎

Of the other 5%, most of it may have been user error.

One case certainly was - I could not for the life of me manage to enter my FLEX temperature into the PERF page..... some Googling revealed that, in the A340-600, you have to enter 'F' or 'C' before the temperature (eg 'F63').   Problem solved! 😊

I found a couple of bugs, such as that when you press 'Save' while in the sound page of the EFB, it puts the overall sound level back to 100% (even where you've set it lower).  I worked around this by leaving the overall sound level at 100% and instead making the same desired changes using the 'Internal' and 'External' overall sound level sliders - which do save - achieving the same effect.

One thing I could not crack - I couldn't find any way of getting/seeing the METAR or TAF for my destination airport.   In most addons, there is a function within the EFB where you can quickly recall the origin or destination METARs.  I couldn't find any such function in this aircraft, and neither could I manage to pull the same info up in the MCDU.   In the event, I used the default MSFS2024 EFB to view this.  Not an ideal solution though, as I've set up the A346 to always use Simbrief data and weather. The MSFS EFB can report slightly different conditions.

The systems performed flawlessly, especially where VNAV (managed descent) was concerned. Absolutely nailed my descent.   And on disconnecting the AP on the ILS, the aircraft is a sheer joy to hand fly.

 

Edited March 15Mar 15 by JYW

26 minutes ago, JYW said:

One thing I could not crack - I couldn't find any way of getting/seeing the METAR or TAF for my destination airport.   In most addons, there is a function within the EFB where you can quickly recall the origin or destination METARs.  I couldn't find any such function in this aircraft, and neither could I manage to pull the same info up in the MCDU.   In the event, I used the default MSFS2024 EFB to view this.  Not an ideal solution though, as I've set up the A346 to always use Simbrief data and weather. The MSFS EFB can report slightly different conditions.

I can only say what I said to others: Reading the manual helps. 😉

The METAR is on the Landing Calculation page and you can refresh it any time by hitting the "Reset Button". Just make sure you already have a flightplan in the MCDU.

 

Edit: Spoke to soon. The METAR remains at the time even upon pressing "Reset". The manual says that should update it. I tricked it by entering a different Airport and then reentering the real destination. That did refresh the METAR. So I consider this a bug.

Edited March 15Mar 15 by Farlis

My wife is going to kill me. 

7 hours ago, JYW said:

So, the user @JYW persuaded me to pick the AS / ToLiss A346 up this weekend 😊

TL:DR - I am so glad I did. Despite some 'warts', it is immensely enjoyable and immersive.

Purchase was fine in Aerosoft One.  TIP:  Before you launch MSFS2024 to load the plane for the first time, copy your activation code from Aerosoft One into your Windows clipboard.  When you first load the A346, it will load the exterior model, with no landing gear, and you'll think "Oh no, here we go again!".  But this is just because the plane is not yet activated.  Press Shift+C to go into the cockpit and you'll see that the EFB has an activation page.  There's button to click to 'paste activation code and activate'. When you hit that button, all becomes great, your landing gear appears, along with all of the rest of the systems.

First impressions of the cockpit modelling and texturing were fine.  It does not look as bad as it does on compressed YouTube videos. In fact - whilst it's obvious it's not the absolute best out there - it really is perfectly nice and the default view position is excellent.  You can see ahead out of the windscreen and equally have a good view of the PFD and ND.  I read the full 44 page manual before using the plane, and I'm also a former user of all of the ToLiss Airbus in X-Plane. So the pages in the EFB were intuitive for me.  If you haven't used ToLiss addons before, it may be a bit less intuitive but once you click on each page, it's pretty clear what each setting or function does.  In beginning to warm the electrics up the sound immediately struck me as being very good.  Nice avionics sounds and nice smooth airflow.  The panel state settings also work great - I tested cold & dark, ADIRU+APU, and Ready for take off - all set the plane into the correct state momentarily.

And then I started the engines manually.......... the engine start sounds are something to behold!  Things start off subtle and then this incredibly convincing, deep bass sound appears, once ignition has occurred.  It sounds fantastic!  There are individual sound settings that can be tweaked in the EFB, which is always appreciated and not included in all complex aircraft addons.  I turned the engine sounds down a little because, although they are gorgeous, I felt they were a little too loud for the cockpit.   There is a modelled headset to the left of the captains seat and clicking it, activated a rather good headset simulation mode.   Another quality feature that I appreciate.

One of the few things that disappointed me, when operating a test flight, was that the aircraft seems to be the only airliner I own that does not work with AmbitiousPilot's "Toolbar Pushback" tool.   I hope this will be addressed, as I really don't like the integrated pushback that comes with the plane, where you have to 'guess' the distance to push back, then get only 1 angular movement to make!  That PB reminds me of FSX.

Let's talk more about textures.  They are actually quite mixed, which makes me think this has been done strategically, to provide the excellent PC performance that you get with this model. 

Let's look at some examples:-

The cockpit textures are not highest level but are perfectly acceptable

 

I hold the same opinion about the overhead

 

There is some very low resolution modelling and texturing in certain parts of the cabin (here in one of the galleys)

 

Apparant 'wear' on the walls of some areas of the cabin is not visually pleasing

 

Yet some areas, such as the seat textures themselves, are very convincing and well textured

 

Some areas of the external model are disappointing, but others (like this wheel well) are done well 

 

We all have different expectations in this area - for me, the low resolution textures (which are not seen universally) don't upset me. I spend 90% of the flight in the cockpit, save for some custom views that I set as seat and window views. I don't tend to walk through the cabin, so I will almost never see the nasty walls or galley cupboard knobs!   The point here is, if these compromises have been done deliberately to provide the excellent performance that I am seeing in the model (with a strong CPU but weaker GPU), then I'm all for it. 

The systems work excellently.  During the normal Airbus flows, to prepare to take off, everything performed flawlessly.

The flight handling characteristics are some of the best I have experienced in MSFS. In fact, as some others have said, it feels more like flying a ToLiss aircraft in X-Plane.  There's a good feeling of weight and inertia but it's also convincingly responsive (for it's size).  Unlike the Inibuilds A340, when you disconnect the AP on approach, it doesn't start wallowing around, losing the track to the runway, with no wind or control inputs! It's very enjoyable and satifying to hand fly.

So there we go - I am pleased I was persuaded to buy it, despite some initial reservations.  It's immensely enjoyable!

.......and who doesn't love a good wing view with 2 engines out there!

 

 

Nice, thorough review 👌 

17 hours ago, JYW said:

One case certainly was - I could not for the life of me manage to enter my FLEX temperature into the PERF page..... some Googling revealed that, in the A340-600, you have to enter 'F' or 'C' before the temperature (eg 'F63').

Does anyone know why that is?  I’ve never seen the need to add an F or C in any other Airbus PERF page…it just seems odd given how good Airbus is at keeping things similar between aircraft. 

45 minutes ago, regis9 said:

Does anyone know why that is?  I’ve never seen the need to add an F or C in any other Airbus PERF page…it just seems odd given how good Airbus is at keeping things similar between aircraft. 

I was curious too and Google came up with this...

System Specificity (A340/330): While some Airbus models (like the A320) might accept a raw number, the A340, especially in detailed simulations, requires the "F" (or "F" followed by the temperature) to ensure the computer distinguishes it from a DERATE input, where the character "D" might be used.

1 hour ago, regis9 said:

Does anyone know why that is?  I’ve never seen the need to add an F or C in any other Airbus PERF page…it just seems odd given how good Airbus is at keeping things similar between aircraft. 

It’s not a temperature thing.  It’s asking for FLEX or DERATE.  So F63 isn’t 63 Fahrenheit it’s just the FLEX number. 

31 minutes ago, ATRguy said:

It’s not a temperature thing.  It’s asking for FLEX or DERATE.  So F63 isn’t 63 Fahrenheit it’s just the FLEX number. 

It's still a bit weird that whoever programmed the MCDU software decided to add that. The A340-600 is the youngest of the legacy Airbus line with the CEO engines. After that the A380 with it's updated new MCDU came out. And in all of the legacy Airbus software you never had to type an F before the flex number. They only added that for the A346. Makes no sense to me.

22 hours ago, Farlis said:

I can only say what I said to others: Reading the manual helps. 😉

The METAR is on the Landing Calculation page and you can refresh it any time by hitting the "Reset Button". Just make sure you already have a flightplan in the MCDU.

 

Edit: Spoke to soon. The METAR remains at the time even upon pressing "Reset". The manual says that should update it. I tricked it by entering a different Airport and then reentering the real destination. That did refresh the METAR. So I consider this a bug.

 

I categorically did  read the manual!   I don't know if you found the same, but parts of it aren't well written.  Some images are aligned with the wrong captions, there is reference to X-Plane and there are parts that say "See Section X".  😉

Good to know about the workaround for refreshing the METAR though.

 

One addendum to my mini-review:-

Negative point

The ground services / vehicles provision of the addon is very poor.  There are no stair trucks or luggage loaders to deploy and neither is there a jetway connection hot key.

Very objective review and honestly almost exactly what I had expected the addon to be. 

FWIW, I must be the only guy who’s NEVER seen the pax cabin of an airliner - seen waaaaay too many IRL and couldn’t care less. 😂

1 hour ago, JYW said:

One addendum to my mini-review:-

Negative point

The ground services / vehicles provision of the addon is very poor.  There are no stair trucks or luggage loaders to deploy and neither is there a jetway connection hot key.

That's why there's GSX to handle all those things.

 

31 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Very objective review and honestly almost exactly what I had expected the addon to be. 

FWIW, I must be the only guy who’s NEVER seen the pax cabin of an airliner - seen waaaaay too many IRL and couldn’t care less. 😂

No you're not. I spend all my time in the cockpit. Seen many many cabinsalso IRL>