signmanbob

Thank you Bryan!

It's amazing. Such a vague question makes a three page forum thread. 😊 The difference between a "real" simmer and an "unreal simmer" is the same as a "study level" aircraft and an "entry level" aircraft.

Whatever...I wouldn't fly FSLabs without good hardware either. I'm not saying that a twisty-stick won't work, it's just not the best option. Once you have good hardware, you'll wonder how you did without it.

I just bought Wellington. Since I don't go to that part of the world much, I was glad to get it at a sale price. Now I have all the Flightbeam airports that are available. It completed my collection.

You sound right. I've never heard of those games. Maybe it's just me, but I think they could have used a much better description. Just saying "Tycoon" means nothing to me.

What do they mean by a "traditional tycoon"?

A lot of developers "partner" with the aircraft companies, but still don't make "study level" products. Wilco is one of them. Don't let that fool you. There is a big difference between what PMDG does and someone just "partnering" with an aircraft company.

I agree. I'll buy it when it is released just like I bought the NGXu. I'm enjoying flying it and I'm not disappointed at all. It's a beautiful 737 that is stable as a rock and has many improvements. For the research, skill, talent and time that PMDG puts into its products, consistently improving them over the previous releases, it is well worth every penny to me.

It depends on what relatives your taking out to dinner.

I have the Virtual Avionics MCP and EFIS and it is not working with them at all. My Flightdeck Solutions CDU is partly working. All of the buttons work, but the screen is black. I can look at the screen in the VC and push my buttons on the hardware CDU.

Did PMDG make their SDK available to you?

These two that are reviewed will be my next purchases. They look good for sure.

I'm downloading now. Super excited about this one.

Nice review. I almost bought this earlier this week, but decided to buy the AeroMexico 737 Max and Egypt Air 787-9 instead. Now I'll have to get this next.

Make sure that you don't have chocks set. I ran into that with the NGX. I had released the parking brake but forgot about the chocks.

That makes sense to me Brian. Thank you and I hope that you can get that damage straightened out quickly and get back to normalcy.

Brian, I'm not very knowledgeable about these things. Do I just drop these metal files in each Texture file and replace what's there?

I paid him to make them for me. He can't sell them because the devolopers won't allow it, but you can contact Sergey and he'll make you any paint that you want and amazingly quickly.

This is Sergey. He does an outstanding job with his paints. I have purchased many of his paints for the Maddog, CS757 and many custom paints that he has done for me. He did some great looking private jet paints on my 747-8i, TFDi 717 and NGX. He is my "go-to" painter for custom paints. These are high-resolutions paints that Sergey adds layers of weathering and bump maps to. I don't have any problem at all buying paints. These people do a lot of work to make these paints perfect. Everyone deserves to be paid for their work if they need that. I know that there are many free-ware paints but the pay-ware gives us more options and variety. You'll find that Sergey's paints are well worth the money. He is an very good painter and gives great support for his work.

Taxi with the two wing engines running. Don't start engine 2 until you get to the runway. It will taxi perfectly. Definitely use TSS sound. I think everything under the hood of this MD-11 is default P3D (FSX), just wired to different buttons. Pros: • You have what looks like an MD-11 in P3Dv4 • Aircraft is very nice to hand-fly. • Autopilot is capable of flying lateral navigation after you learn which buttons to push. • VC looks way better than anything that Sky Simulations has previously released. They did a lot of work to make it look this good. • Uses a dedicated version of Easy FMC for the CDU, which has been around for a while and is a simplefied FMC/CDU that will get you there. CONS • Flight systems do not work like the real MD-11 in any way (based on my experience using PMDG and TFDi). This is an MD-11 in looks only. • FMC/CDU will not accept SIDs and STARs and doesn't seem to be able to update the nav-data with Navigraph. • Sounds are sub-par. • Has no VNAV capabilities at all. You must use VS to climb or desend • Panel displays are a little blurry. Must use pop-up displays to really see what is going on. • Taxis way too fast with three engines running. This may be true with the real aircraft. Taxing on two wing engines works perfectly • By interfacing with navigation databases: In order to keep it simple, EasyFMC has been designed to use the existing GPS database that every user has within FS2004 or FSX. This is convenient because you don’t need to install and maintain a navigation database. The drawback is that the GPS information is not up to date. If you have some advanced add-on, such as PMDG, Level-D or Wilco, you may have a better navigation database. (from EasyFMC manual on website) EasyFMC Doc

High-Bypass, Your right, Sky Simulations are definately off to a good start, but it's just a start. There is a long way before this aircraft will be in a class with the "lite" or "mid" system aircraft released by companies like Aerosoft or QualityWings. For me, in order to have a valid "lite" aircraft, the flight systems must resemble the real aircraft in a way that you get the "feel" of operating an MD-11 The fact that it has an FMC is enough for me, even if it is made by "EasyFMC", but I would like it to have an up-datable nav-data base with SIDs and STARs, so it can be flown online with confidence. Also the FCP does not work at all like the real MD-11 and for me, that is a problem. Below is what PMDG wrote about the procedure for using the FCP on their MD-11 for FSX: "The autothrottle and autopilot systems on the MD‐11 are NOT independent of each other in the way that they are on Boeing aircraft. Before takeoff, pressing the AUTOFLIGHT button on the FCP arms both the autothrottle and the autopilot takeoff modes. Advancing the throttles manually past around 60% N1 will cause the autothrottle system to actually engage and begin controlling thrust. There is an audible click sound from the panel when this happens. After takeoff, press Autoflight again to do the equivalent of pressing one of the autopilot CMD buttons on a Boeing. This will actually give control of the pitch and roll modes over to the AP. From this point on, the two systems are completely unified and essentially operate as a combined system until disengagement at landing." (12/22/2016 Tips for Boeing pilots learning the MD11 by PMDG Simulations) (brings a tear to my eye) The MD-11 that Sky Simulations released with v2.2 does not replicate this in any way. I believe they just took the default autopilot for FSX (P3D) and wired it to the FCP buttons as best that they could. Kind of a long way from having an MD-11 in P3Dv4, but it looks good anyway and it does manually fly really well. So well actually, that I wouldn't even try a full autoland with it because I don't believe it could do that any good at all.

i just did a full flight from KSEA to KLAS. I've come to the conclusion that this is not so much a "lite" version, but a very inaccurate version. It did not catch the localizer or glide slope. I had to use the vertical speed knob to descend until I disconnected the autopilot to land, even though the bright green annunciators showed that I was locked on the localizer and the glide slope. The APU finally did shut off, so it must just take a while to cool down before it cuts off. So many things don't work like their supposed to that I can't say them all. Still it is flyable and handles very good on manual. Since it don't work like an MD-11 you have to figure out what does what in order to make use of the autopilot the best that you can.

I got the autothrottles working. You have to push FMS speed for them to work. On the PMDG MD-11, when you push "Auto Flight" the autothrottles would be working. Still no SIDs yet though. I don't know where they are on the FMS, or where I can update the nav data yet. Another problem is that I cannot turn off the APU once it is started. Just have to leave it running. Still it is a fun aircraft to fly. I'll be installing my TSS MD-11 sound package next. It taxis perfectly on the two wing engines. The more I fly it, the more I'm liking it. It's just nice to have an MD-11 in P3Dv4, even if it has some faults. The cockpit visuals are not too bad. Actually better than PMDG's old MD-11 for FSX. I may have to install FSXSE so I can install my PMDG MD-11 and compare them.

I believe there is a place for aircraft like the Aerosoft A320, QualityWings 757, and others that are not the system depth of PMDG or FSLabs. These aircraft can be very enjoyable to fly as long as they are well made, consistant and stable. Any model of the MD-11 should have some form of PROF working and a working autothrottle, because the MD-11 was a highly automated aircraft. I don't expect Sky Simulations to be as in-depth as the PMDG MD-11 or the TFDi 717, but I do expect it to have the basic system automation of the MD-11. This one may have that once I get everything loaded and working right. I'm hopeful anyway.

Looking at the .cfg file, I believe it is supposed to have autothrottle working. Mine just was not. I am going to reload it and try again. I could not get the FMC/CDU to work until I reloaded the MD-11, so some of the problems may be me. It also says in the manual that it is supposed to use SIDs and STARs, but the sample picture of the CDU screen on the manual doesn't show any SIDs, just runways and ILS frequencies, so I don't know where the SIDs are. I need to find out if the nav data can be updated. I don't know where they are getting it from.