boxman83

I don't doubt it for a second. It's Boeing. It hasn't been done well, yet. Rob's favorite airline, UA, flies a shed load of them. It seems like a great opportunity for their commercial business line, i.e. airlines. -Moe Syzlak

ASN is PMDG-quality software, in my opinion. It's legit. I've got AS2012 but I'm too cheap to buy the upgrade to ASN at the moment. I highly recommend.

Build your own. You can do it a lot cheaper than you'll pay Alienware or Chillblast for their computers and it really isn't that difficult. -jp

:mad: Here's a data point... I spent the better part of the last two days flying PHX-SYD with the 77W. About 10 minutes ago, I'm 14.5 hours in, just beginning to start my initial descent and.......BLAM! Fatal error, do not pass go, do not collect $200, please restart the program and try again. Thanks, and have a nice day. I'm batting about .500 with my longhaul flights and successfully completing them with the 777. Other than the 777, the only other add-ons I'm running are AS2012 and Traffic X. I'm going to give PHX-LIH a shot here in a sec, hopefully I can finish that one. -jp

But then there's people like me that have a limited amount of simulator time and don't want or need another narrowbody with the same mission as the NGX. I think that's what Ryan was alluding to when he referred to it as competition for the NGX - a lot of people don't want multiple aircraft of the same function. I'd honestly like to see some throwback stuff. Maybe an L1011, DC10, 727, etc. Although, commercial support from the manufacturers is probably non-existant with those. It seems like their sales are their market research. As in, the one niche aircraft they created sold poorly so they don't see another niche aircraft as being commercially viable. I'd imagine that PMDG has to keep an eye on the big picture here. As far as product planning is concerned, what can they develop and perhaps transition to P3D at some point as a commercial product vs what can they also sell to the kids with a home computer and FSX. It's not all about us, anymore. -jp

Because it's not like PMDG has ever changed their mind before, right? -john paul

By far. Keep in mind that all the people on here that enjoy punching buttons and letting the autoland do all the work in FSX are not professional pilots. Real pilots prefer to fly approaches and land by hand, unless environmental conditions dictate otherwise -john paul.

I take everything PMDG says with a grain of salt. They make a wonderful product, but sometimes I think they should refrain from speaking about future plans. There was the A320, the Dash 8, the apparent stillborn DC6 that we've been hearing about for several years now, all of the grandiose expansion packs for the 737X that have never materialized(the -ER, the BBJ, the military variants...), etc. Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe the SP and the -300ER will be along shortly, but I've learned not to get my hopes and to only make periodic visits to this forum. Temper your expectations in other words. Mike Jones

Most airlines don't opt for the aux fuel tanks because there are very few routes in the world that actually need them, and they add to aircraft weight and take up rear cargo compartment space when not in use. The economic reality is that any ULH route that would necessitate use of those tanks is probably a non-starter to begin with as they're incredibly difficult to generate a profit on, regardless of the capabilities of the aircraft involved. -jp

Most people here are probably too young to remember, but Wilco will never get a dime of my money. -jean paul

IIRC, I also paid additional for the 744F for FS9 when it was released as well. If it's priced roughly the same as the 777 is, I'll have to seriously examine whether it's worth it for some eye candy and a few other features implemented in PMDG's latest works. Hopefully, PMDG will give us legacy 744 owners a discount the same way they did with the 744X for existing FS9 owners. Otherwise, I'm fine flying the X. -jp

V2 better blow my socks off. If I purchased V2, it would effectively be the third time I've paid for the 744(FS9, X, and now V2). -john paul

All's I'm saying is that it adds to the signal to noise ratio significantly when I see one guy post without his name and then five people feel the need to jump down his throat for that. Repeat that a dozen times and it creates a lot of unneeded, garbage posts. If you're not a mod, I really don't see why you should feel the need to enforce the rules. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, but this is, for all intents and purposes, a game. An ultra realistic game, but a game nonetheless. I'm a grown a** adult, I play it too. This isn't an "I'm better than you are..." type of thing. It's just coming to the realization that you're an overgrown child, which I am. -john paul

Typical pre-release thread in the PMDG forum at AVSIM. Half of everyone is complaining and the other half have self appointed themselves as junior deputy moderators, demanding that people sign their names. Seriously people, relax. It's a bleeping video game. It's still summer here in the northern hemisphere, go out and get some fresh air. -john paul

Really? Reaaaaaallllly? You think PMDG's website has some way of scanning your computer to detect pirated software and then denies you access to the website because of that? Wow. I think I've heard it all now. At the risk of indulging his grandiose accusations, if one had a pirated copy of an aircraft, they may be wanting to download liveries.

He's right, the 772ER is commonly referred to as the 77E, the 773ER is referred to as the 77W, the vanilla 773 is the 773, the 772F is the 77F and the 772LR is the 772L. -jean paul

Maybe they could go back to their roots and produce another 757. Or the 787. -jp

I seem to remember PMDG saying the same thing eight months before the 737NGX was actually released. Stealth launches aren't their style. I doubt we'll see it before the end of the summer. -john paul

I'd venture to guess there's very little meaningful market data to be collected from these forums when you consider that the people here that participate on AVSIM are probably 1% of PMDG's total customer base. Not to mention the credentials of said 1%. -john paul

Here's my theory. I don't think it has anything to do with marketing or the time it took to produce. I think there's a close correlation between the popularity of aircraft in real life vs flight sim. Several years ago, who was flying the MD11 in pax guise? KLM, World and Finnair? People want to virtually fly aircraft that are tangible. That is, aircraft they see often and can fly on themselves. How many MD11s total were built, ~280? And again, even when the MD11 was released, there may have been 30 of those in the world operating pax ops? It's a niche aircraft in the real world and I think that ultimately translated to the virtual world as well. It's no surprise that the 737, of which 5k+ have been built, and the 747 which over 1k have been built are PMDG's stronger sellers. However, virtually speaking, it's still a fantastic aircraft. McD had a much different control philosophy than Boeing did so it's fascinating to experience both. -john paul

That's uneducated speculation, actually. Mergers and acquisitions take place every day without cash changing hands, the UA-CO merger for example was purely a stock swap. And as previously mentioned, AA has plenty of cash on hand in any event. I do agree that AA will be the surviving brand on the account that US has almost no brand identity outside of the country. It's the worst kept secret in the airline industry right now. It's certainly not a question of it, but of when. I think both airlines need it for long term viability. -john jones

I seem to remember PMDG stating at one point a long time ago when they were looking at the A320 that they were having problems acquiring the data needed from Airbus in order to develop the simulation and that Airbus wasn't cooperating. I'm not sure if that's still the case as that was quite some time ago. I'd personally love to see an Airbus widebody given the PMDG treatment. -john jones

So the simulation is driven with FS9 with PMDG's original 737NG underlying it? I saw something very similar to this at FRA. If that's what it is, I'm glad I didn't pay for it. Looks like a good time all the same though.

The oldest was delivered in '99 and the newest in '08 or '09. At least one 77W will be on property with AA by the end of the year.

Actually, he did. If my memory serves me correct, I believe RSR was employed by United in a managerial, non-flying role before he took flight training and became a regional pilot. I also believe he was making the manual and perhaps even several of the aircraft for Fly! before he became a professional pilot so I don't think he quit anything to for the sake of PMDG. In fact, I think he was laid off.