Steve Dra

Mike, I sent you a PM to see if I can help off-line.

It's technically an "iFly Pad" 🤣. You can also move it to a real iPad (or tablet, 2nd monitor, etc) if you'd like. In addition, there is a clickspot on a screw of the FMS to move it above the FMS while you're inputting data, so you don't have to swivel your view back and forth....and a click spot to hide it (and the FO's) altogether, to get them out of the way, and to reduce the GPU's workload (although I have not noticed any impact of having them displayed). And....pure "quality of life"-type things.... The icons in the upper right (the "sun" and "headphone") are clickable, the "sun" pulls up the brightness settings. And yep, there is a "Night Mode" too. (and the icon changes to a moon...too cute!)😉 And as you can see I pulled out the charging cable...and the iFly Pad is discharging (showing 96% on the screen above the FMC, and 93% a bit later when I moved it back to the window). The Headphone icon turns on "headset mode"...so it gets quieter. No menus to dive into...just right there, very intuitive. This is a very welcome, free addition to the plane.

Thanks. I've enjoyed painting, but reaching the end of my career. As far as the diversity in the team, I wholeheartedly agree that folks from all different backgrounds can be a more productive team than one with only experts in the field. Like you said, we all see different things, and when we cross-check each other...a "suspected" bug can be quicky identified as a real issue, or just a knowledge issue. Just about every one of my reports begins with "I don't know if its supposed to do this..." LOL. And I rarely post a bug into the bug-tracker before running it by the team. Some bugs are obvious, like a reproducible crash, others could be nuances that the tester is not familiar with. And the human factors standpoint is fascinating...I too love watching the interaction and seeing a diverse team collaborate. 😉

My specialty is inhaling virtual paint fumes, which leads to the hallucinations that I somehow know how to fly a commercial airliner. 🤔 I just point out what I think looks/feels unusual and wait for the real pilots to tell either me that's how its supposed to work or yes...that's an actual bug and report it. Then I go back to my paint booth to add or touch-up another livery as the hallucinations have faded by then and I realize that I'm on the beta team for painting, not for validating systems or flight fidelity. 🤪

Thanks Ryan. Real life gettin' in the way of simming....you know how that goes. 😉

I enjoy flying her....very well put-together package. Devs are great to work with and listen to feedback from rated pilots and other contributors to the project. @Jviation and I made numerous suggestions to enhance the textures which were considered and frequently incorporated. His environment maps grace my paints in the livery manager (we collaborated on the project, and he graciously let me add his Ev maps that we're way better than mine to enhance my liveries.) 😊

Glad you're enjoying it. Watch that rotation on the A321. 😉 I like flying them all, and like I mentioned, doing real world flights with the proper model (and livery).

I enjoy flights to and from Key West....fun airport to land/take off from. I did a KEWY/KATL in the Delta A319 in the past...will have to do the return trip! 🙂

For the cost and what you get for it....solid no-brainer for adding the 319/321 to your fleet. I use real world routes and aircraft (thanks flightradar24), and with the full Airbus line-up, I don't have to pretend the A320 is a 19 or 21 if the route I want to fly calls for one. Plus, they do handle differently...and the one thing that'll get ya is that the A321 has a potential tail strike if you try to take off like an A320. Most instrument panels even have a placard noting that you're in a 321 and beware of a tail strike. You gotta' rotate her slowly, and almost every takeoff (as far as I know) is a flaps 2 vs flaps 1 on the other busses. And a slightly higher rotate speed. All this so she lifts off the ground as much as rotates, to avoid that dreaded tail strike.🤔 The A319 is a blast to fly....loads peeps and paxs faster (of course), and is a welcome addition when I find a route that calls for her. I'm flying the Fenix Busses more than Boeings now (unless I'm testing)...and this is the 1st time in my long simming career that I can say that...a testament to how good the Fenix Busses are. Can't wait for the NEOs...and whatever else Fenix brings to market. 🙂

If that doesn't fix it....load the default PMDG liveries and see if they display ok. Also try different models like the freighter or BBJ. If they all have purple wings then its probably a texture that went corrupt or missing (never could figure out how that happened randomly, LOL). If the PMDG default liveries are also bad, you can go the OC, click the 3 dots (...) and select verify files to make sure your install is ok. (The latest build is 4.00.007. "The James Bond" build, LOL). If the file validation comes back with errors...click the "Remove product", and reinstall it. If that fails, it will be time to submit a ticket at PMDG.

Same here...but it was a military charter from Naples, Italy on an ATA L1011....about 20 pax on board...we all sat up front, LOL. Flew a World Airways DC-10 over there (and was just as empty). Tri-Jets on both trips...pretty cool I thought.

I see in the video that you were on an ILS approach...it captured the LOC and trying to turn on to the centerline, and you're coming in from the left from about a 20 degree angle. That should be a fine intercept angle, but it seems that its snapping back in forth, which is behavior I've never seen before. The wind was 065/04 so that's not a factor. Does it happen with any approach? Only when on an ILS approach? Or during other phases of flight?

In my case....after extensive troubleshooting (i.e. pulling the remaining 3 hairs out of my skull), I realized that I had a button on my Bravo throttle set to the rudder trim and it randomly spiked and pushed the rudder into a hard-over, causing the issue you describe. Check your rudder trim indicator the next time it happens... if you've already checked for and cleared random rudder trim assignments on all of your hardware controllers. If it happens again, or if you see the needle jittering....that could be your issue. To add to @Stearmandriver 's info about locking out your controls when the AP is engaged....Here is where you find that page on the EFB...and where the info is in the excellent iFly manuals.

IMO....every plane looks good in that version of the Cathay livery. Even from the P3D days, this was one of my favorite paints... I added so much detail and weathering to it, and I love the look of the 747 BCF in general. 🙂 Even in bare metal...the livery was fantastic. (of course, the 747 is an excellent canvas, and I love painting her).😊 Can't wait for the 747-400 to arrive in 2024!

I'm on the fence with this one. Curious to know who stills flies it? I can't seem to find them on flightradar24 or other flight route sites we go to, looking for real world flights. I don't know if I'm not looking for the correct aircraft identifier or what. Does FedEx, DHL, etc still fly them? Any of them fly in the US? Half-hoping that they don't fly anymore, hehe....I don't really need another plane to get wrapped up in (like that has ever stopped us before, LOL)

I think Jack said it best after the 1st test flight of the 747. I've never flown either aircraft, but I can only imagine that Joe Sutter's masterpiece flew with the likeness of his soul. He figuratively put himself into the 747 with his engineering genius, and his relentless tenacity when fighting the bean-counter's wishes to cut his staff kept the project from being scrapped. The 787 was designed for the bean counters and today's cut-throat business world, the 747 was designed during the era when taking risks to break thru barriers to advance the aviation industry was envisioned by the likes of Bill Allen and Juan Trippe.

I believe that some of the settings were reset to default with the SU....I think this is what reset.

I have met you in person (more than once), and I can confirm that you are the most dedicated, enthusiastic and professional developer I've ever met...and all of your products are top-tier IMO. The Phenom will be another stunning release for you, and I can't wait to add her to my overcrowded virtual hangar (I may have to push the TBM on to the ramp, or get a bigger hangar, LOL...the C750 just took up the last sq foot of space in there. 🤣 I've been on your beta team (way back in the AI lights days...hehe...and still have the FSReborn Polo shirt you gave me at the Expo in Vegas....the 1st year it was in Vegas). Being fortunate enough to be on several beta teams, I can confirm that it completely changes any preconceived notions you may have had regarding that developer, or the development/testing cycles each employs to create a new product for us crazy simmers to enjoy, and/or praise/criticize to no end. 😁 If you are invited to join a beta team and take the position as more than just a way to get early access to a cool new sim product, you'll find it's a lot of serious work...and if you learn nothing else about the whole addon creation process, you'll learn how to uninstall/reinstall/reconfigure that product in your sleep... as you'll be doing it more times than you'll care to remember, LOL. You'll quickly realize what's involved in pushing an update to users, and the expected feedback afterwards...and above all, why Devs can seem a bit grouchy after a long development/test/release cycle...most are functioning on a few hours sleep per night for months, if not years...and have to endure many, flippant/disrespectful comments (most coming from those who have not had the experience of developing a Flight Sim product themselves.) 🤪 All devs welcome negative comments as long as they are constructive and properly researched (i.e. "I can't start the APU on the M500...you must fix this bug ASAP! What a bad developer!"). As the saying goes: "Walk a mile in my shoes"....I'd bet just about all of us would die of exhaustion if we applied that to @simbol ' shoes. 😉

My pleasure. I both wrote manuals and taught pilots in my career and realize that the eclectic iFly EFB is a learning challenge to all who've acclimated to the intuitive UI of other tablets in the cockpit. 🤪 We are predominately visual learners, and a quick screenshot with corresponding arrows and annotations are worth their virtual weight in gold. I try to do it whenever possible, as the minute or so usually spent responding with a text-only explanation frequently leads to more clarification needed in the long run, whereas a screenshot with annotation usually gets the "Ahh ha" moment and a quick resolution. 🙂

Yes...it dynamically links and the most you would have to do is uncheck the airport and re-check it and it will instantly reestablish the new symbolic link with the new folder. Note below I added a "New Folder" to my USA sub folder. The app informs you that a refresh is needed. When I hit refresh, the new folder will show. You can just use windows file explorer to move your airports to their new folder, click the checkmark by it, and it will instantly symbolic-link it to your community folder. Make sure you MOVE the airport to its new folder and not just copy it. If Addon Linker detects an addon with a duplicate name it won't like it. PS: I did the same thing too....started adding airports and before I knew it, I wanted to sub-categorize them...LOL. Since I had so many USA airports, I sub-sub divided them into geographical regions, hehe. You could go absolutely bonkers on classification...but I felt my final methodology worked the best. I started with just airports, but found that aircraft and utilities are also great to turn off thru the Addon Linker to speed up your load times, and to save resources. I wanted scenery to show at the top, hence my naming convention of 1Scenery-Airports, 2Aircraft, 3Utilities.

Here is where you "Set" the physical position of the throttles in the iFly MAX: Note that you can also control how you'd like the hardware inhibited....I choose "Total Inhibit" so any hardware noise spikes won't disengage the autopilot. Very handy if you have old hardware and they are a bit noisy and kicking the AP/AT off, especially if you leave the cockpit enroute (The trash doesn't take itself out, LOL) PS...this is page 13 of the MAX FS2020 User Guide and Tutorial.pdf that customers can easily view from the iFly manager (i also posted this in your other post, but adding again for those only viewing this one. iFly (Jim Harnes) put a LOT of work into the manuals, they are very well done.) 🙂

A "practical guide" is a relative term (as are most statements regarding usefulness in a specific situation).😊 What would be practical for you, may be boring for some, over-complicated for others. Like the old Goldilocks story, you're looking for one that is "just right", hehe. As far as your standards being too high (again, a relative statement), they may be too high for person looking for the perfectly specific guide to learning the iFly MAX, or as @Stearmandriver notes, rare is the occasion where you'll find the tutorial perfect for your needs. Like all of us not type-rated in the 737, we crave the specific info we're looking for, in just the right amount, tempo, and flow, that will put us behind the yoke the fastest with a good understanding of what we're doing. LOL, I'm going thru the exact same dilemma as you with the Fenix Airbus at the moment. 🤣 I consider myself competent in the basic workings of the iFly MAX,as a beta tester for the outstanding aircraft and many hours in it. My transition from the NG from another popular developer to the MAX was pretty seamless, except for waiting for that "Motoring" text to disappear on the display before flipping the fuel on (and learning the reasoning behind it, which is fascinating to any aviation nerd who craves any new info on the plane he's flying)...Oh, and getting used the fact that I don't have an EGT dial to watch when the APU is starting, hehe. Other than watching the taxi speed as the LEAPs push out a LOT of air and the big, beautiful, easy-to-read displays on the MAX, not much difference to the NG in my limited and novice experience. Like I said in a previous post regarding the EFB, hands down the hardest thing to learn in the iFly MAX. Its UI is clunky, un-intuitive, and frustrating until you finally stop trying to compare it to a modern tablet-style unit, and just learn how to operate it for your specific needs. The biggest tip I can give you when operating it is committing to create muscle-memory for clicking the "Save" button after making changes to the settings in the EFB! With most modern tablets, any change in settings is "committed" as soon as you click it...in the iFly MAX EFB however, it is not committed, nor does it warn you it's not committed if you click a setting and move off that page without "saving". 🤪 This can lead to substantial frustration and confusion as many have experienced. Like I said...commit yourself to memorizing the need to click that "Save" button, and you may start to conquer the MAX's quirky EFB. Here is the important note in the manual highlighting this... and if you haven't already, the excellent manuals are a click away when you open the iFly Manager. NOTE: There is an EFB Supplement, but it only shows you how to use the charts and other features for navigation, not how to use the aircraft config settings...those are in the User Guide. 😉 Keep at it Chris....learning to operate this add-on is a very rewarding experience (at least for me)...and in my opinion, it is one of the top aircraft addons for flightsim. (and my most-flown aircraft by far).

Hmmmm....a creation of your own doing...or can we all virtually live there? (i.e., is it available on flightsim.to?). It looks like a beautiful addon. I have my own custom TBM 850 that would love to live the life that yours is. 😊 She has been neglected since 2020....and really wants to get back into the rotation of all the wonderful planes in my virtual hangar, LOL.

I worked on the -60's predecessor (The SH-3 Sea King) for 12 years as an Avionics Tech, and I can attest that our birds spent around 65% of their flight time in a 40 ft hover, either as "plane guard" off the port side of a carrier, or dipping their AQS-13 sonar bell into water, trying to find subs. The ASN-123 TACNAV was its navigation system and scary-reliable (I only changed out one unit in 12 years). The -123's box weighed approx 42 pounds (80's electronics), was about a foot wide and 1.5 ft long. They were NOT fun to tote up and down ladders on the ship, LOL (although with the exception of that one time, I was only carrying them from the main shop to the tech shop to have them calibrated or new software loaded). Anyway, Navy ASW/SAR helos spend most of their lives hovering over salt water, with their rotor wash providing a nice saltwater mist all over the aircraft. Needless to say (but I'm saying it anyway), over 60% of the maintenance man-hours were spent by all "ratings" (AT AE, AD, AMs, etc) fighting corrosion. One of the 1st things a new airman to the shop learns how to do is "scrub cannon plugs" 🤣 To the topic at hand, our helos did not even have an ILS system, it was not required for its mission, at least back when it was originally designed...back in the late 50s! 😗 Sorry, I digress (hey I'm a sailor, we tell stories, LOL).

I totally agree Carl! I have not tried the new Baby Shark yet, but this update has put the Airbus family on equal footing for my preference to fly Boeings! 😊 Fenix gave us basically a whole new set of aircraft for free...and the native 2024 models and other 2024 features make this, hands down, the best aircraft in MSFS2024! I'm currently taking an Allegiant A320 from Destin, FL to Lexington KY on flight 3113. The sunrise departure was just epic, and the new textures are the best I've seen! The weathering on the glareshield is fantastic and the panel's clarity are crystal clear. Here is my favorite livery by @Jviation I'm using for this flight...just stunning work as always by Jordan. (I've visited the Clearwater Aquarium and seen Winter....what a great story and perfect Logo to wrap an airplane with to represent the Tampa/Clearwater hub. Fantastic update Fenix! Very much appreciated.