Jack_C

PMDG has historically given great updates on theirs products. There is an obvious reason why they can't right now. Just let them finish already. And your question IS one of the questions that people ask repetitively. Oh and BTW I just got back from flying a plane. Got some days off now but thanks for the concern.Jack C

These kind of posts are really starting to get irritating. Let them finish already. Sure they could tell you an estimate of december. But something may come up and they need to do more programming. Then you will say the typical "But you told us December! You lied". And if the do release it in December when it isn't ready then you say "You released a piece of junk with bugs". They can't win!!!!!!!!!! Just let them finish the damn product already and quit with the annoying posts. Rant over......until next annoying post.Jack C

You sure? I heard Dan spiked the kool aidJack C

LMAO we've been topped.

Back in the 80's a friend of mine was a military controller in Cold Lake. During Maple Flag they sometimes do the silent launches which is where the tower controller stands about 100 feet off to the side of the threshold of the runway. To launch aircraft, they just raise and lower a flag. Red flag was hold position and green flag was take off. This was just practice because in time of war they don't want the enemy to know when you are launching your aircraft. He got me a temporary restricted area pass and I went out with him. Now at 100 feet from aircraft that are taking off in formations of 4-5 like the Tornado, Jaquar, F111s, F15s, F16s, F18s, F4's, F14's and we had the B1's( but obviously not in formation take off due to lack of width on the runway) you never heard what loud really can be! Over 200 aircraft within an hour at 100 feet. You chest felt like it was going to explode. Even if I did have a heart attack the aircraft would act as a defibrillator.Jack C

LMAO

That looks pretty sweet. I wish they would focus more on Passenger type aircraft though. I find fighter sims like LOCKON the place to go to fly fighters, etc. Dropping bombs on VATSIM just doesn't cut it for me. hehe. But if Accusim got into more things liek DC3,4,6 type planes that would be more up my ally.

I, myself, didn't think it was your tongue BUT if it were I would say that is the cleanest looking tongue I ever seen. Must use Comet or something. As for the debate on the matter or one pilot, there are many strong points on each side of the coin. As one person said about how much the plane would actually cost to buy if it were that automated. Now this is just a guestimate. Lets say this new level of automation costs an extra 25 million (I can see it costing this easily). Lets say that planes flies 70,000 hours over the course of its life (this is probably even on the high side). Do the math and thats $357 bucks per hour to have that automation. NO first officer I know get paid close to that. More like 40-120 per hour. And you have to take into account the increased maintenace and cost of parts. That would be HUGE. So would it really be worth to have that automation? Not remotely close. So it would cost about 3-6 times more to have that automation than to just have an FO. AND on top of that I am sure the captains would be demanding more money too. There are a lot of newer advances that are effective in reducing crashes. I would like to see how much EGPWS has made a difference. I am guessing a drastic difference. Things like this is where I think the focus should be. It was mentioned that there is more likely to be errors if there were two pilots than one. I disagree to a point. If pilots practice discipline and good SOPs the error are reduced iMHO.Jack C

Hey JC. Don't get me wrong. I am not dissing the pilots. Just their leader. Jack C

But to guys like us it makes him look like an idiot and not very smart. Last time I was on a train that hit the wake of a 747 or severe mountain wave.............people get seriously injured by not being buckled down in an airplane. Not too long ago some woman broke her neck and back in in the States because she wasn't buckled in. I agree SOMETIMES that any publicity is good publicity but in the case where it makes you look like an idiot I don't agree.Jack C

Hey James. I do and don't agree with some of your points. Pilots are very much monitors these days. But remember, like cars, these planes are built by humans and will fail. Our company a few years ago spent 20-30 MILLION to create a new reservation system and that didn't work out. Now this is just a program that books passengers, etc. I couldn't even fathom how many scenerios a person could come up with that would prbably make a computer crash. I don't know how many times you sit there flying along and you start a descent and during the descent the computer does something wonky and you say "what is this thing doing?". So you have to level down the automation (disable LNAV or VNAV and switch to LVL change) and rebuild the profile. These are just very simple tasks that the computer mishandles. Boeing releases new versions of software for the FMC all the time (think we are on 10.7). Can't you just see this headline "Due to a software glitch and hundreds of people getting killed XXX rreleases version XXX software. This SHOULD solve the problem and if not hopefully no one else has the "beta test" the next version". As for single pilot, an engine failure or fire alone can wreak havoc. For one person to do the duties of two now? I doubt it. There is just a LOT more that goes behind the scenes when the crud hits the fan for one pilot to manage. There are better ways to reduce costs than to reduce the number of crew members. Fuel savings, engine technology, efficiency, PAY THE CEO's what they are worth not because the company is making money because our economy is booming. When a CEO can make the company money in a recession then he deserves a pat on the back in the form of bonuses. Jack C

He obviously doesn't always think through what he say. Just by suggesting this, I wouldn't fly on his airline ever. Sorry, I'll pay the extra 100 bucks to fly elsewhere. If he is suggesting things like this what is he actually doing WITHOUT permission (eg, neglecting maintenance to get that extra mile out of a screw jack or something). Sorry, but I have seen and worked for owners that are greedy. They squeeze money out of the areas that sacrifice safety. Sorry to say but this guy is a moron.Jack C

I remember and engineer whos field was involved in things like this. But he did say a pilotless aircraft is a long long way off. The amount of extra wiring alone to implement redundancies due to lack of pilots is unimaginable. The weight of the wiring would not make it feasible. At our company, management has calculated that carrying 300 pounds less potable water saves us 1-2 million a year is fuel savings. Of course we caryy enough water but why carry 600 lbs when you only have a 30 minute leg. I can imagine what tens of thousands of pounds of extra wiring would cost. I wonder what the unions would do if the threat of reducing an aircraft to one pilot would be IF there is plans for that by the manufacturers. Got to remember the unions are a lot stronger now than they were back 30 years ago. I think the airlines would have a huge battle on the hands for that one. Oh how about this. Try cutting the CEO's pay! There is no way a CEO should be making 50 million a year (especially when they drive the company into creditor protection and devalue the company where no investor wants to touch you. I won't mention names but it sounds like Blobert Nilton. Don't get me started with him!). 50M a year? That pays for about 400 pilots. As for pilotless aircraft. Look at what happened to that UAV that lost radio contact and had no way of controlling it. I don't think FAA wants these things around. Jack C

Not only that if boeing certified it as a 2 crew then it HAS to be 2 crew. Authorities can't change that. IF they did and something did happen it would be a lawyer's heaven.

This one is a bit off topic BUT it does involve the NG! Unless the reporters messed this one up and reported incorrectly (they NEVER do that) I couldn't believe a CEO would even THINK of doing this. Wanna see accident rates go sky high because one pilot couldn't handle the workload. It WOULD happen. I know the authorities would never allow this to happen but IF it ever did RyanAir would be doomed. I wouldn't put myself or any member of my family on any of his planes. Here goes. Quote:Ryanair, Europe's biggest low-cost airline, could be in the market for up to 300 aircraft, the company's chief executive was quoted as saying in an interview on Wednesday.Ryanair had pulled out of talks last year to buy 200 jets from Boeing after failing to agree on certain conditions.But Michael O'Leary told the Financial Times there was still the option of buying not only the 200 Boeing jets -- worth about USD$15 billion -- but up to 300 from either Boeing or its rival Airbus.He said he saw no airline on the market worth buying.O'Leary also told the paper he is seeking permission from aviation authorities to use only one pilot per flight as a way to cut back on costs."It would save the entire industry a fortune," O'Leary said.Boeing spokesman referred questions about the interview to Ryanair and said talks with any customers were confidential.*ReutersWhat some people will do just to make a dollar. When will the greed ever end?Jack C

Who can NOT love the 757. As said, it's like what a woman should be. Long legs and big..........engines.

I have never experienced the high altitude chamber before but I would like to. I would be one of those guys that you couldn't tell if I was experiencing hypoxia because when they give me a question like 1000-3 and I give the wrong answer..........well that's just normal. Of course we watch videos in training and go through the reports on past accidents based on hypoxia but to experience it is something else. I remember the fighter pilot that was in the chamber at a pressure altitude of 40000 feet or so and they gave a rapid decompression. He didn't even have enough time to get his mask on and he was out. Scary stuff. Its hard to imagine how some of these accidents do occur with all the external signals around you telling you whats going on but that sometimes is whats scary about these accidents. Its easy to sit back and watch the video and point fingers but if you weren't there it's hard to grasp and say "why didn't they do ........."Jack C

Well I thought I would give this thing a more thorough run for its money. Heck I havent even got 10 minutes past a cold and dark cockpit and I have a bunch of bugs listed. This is going right off the real world procedures. I would like to see their list of bugs that they have right now to see if any of these are on the list.

4 years on the NG now and haven't pushed the LRC button yet. I wonder what it does? heheJack C

I just did a one month unlimited on it. Right off the get go I can say i am not that impressed. You can't enter Direct into the routing. Well who doesn't do ANY part of a route these days with one segment being direct. I thought it might obtain the winds automatically for you according to route and time of flight but you have to enter it automatically. It will only assume you are in Longe Range Cruise on the FMS. It will not take into account any cost index. I never select LRC on the FMS. Entering a route looks like its a pain in the behind. But I DO like the concept of the program but it just needs work.Jack C

Well sorry! PMDG raised the bar and now they are the comparison model. Personally I am tired of hearing iPhone this and iPhone that but they too have raised the bar. Every industry has THE comparison model. Why not compare it to PMDG. You say they abandoned FS9 users. So with THAT logic, EVERY dev has abandoned FS2002 users too? Although I use FS9 just as much as I use FSX, FS9 has to be let go of sooner or later. I can understand why PMDG moved on to FSX. Do I like it? Not really but I respect their decision. I am all for dev still making products for FS9. BUT, like you, it gets tiring hearing people complain about devs abandoning FS9.

We have the Bump thrust available in our 800's. Once in a while we will use it coming out of Maui. It gives us an extra 1000 lbs of thrust from 26000 up to 27000. Everything else will be used first (eg, flaps 25) before bump thrust is used. Like Kristoff said it is costly.Jack C

Hey guys. I had MAYBE 10-15 mins just to execute a take off so not too much time with it. I really like how you can configure the engines to the airframe. At Westjet we have the 24K for the 700's so thats what I threw in it. There are some things that could have had more attention to detail. For example the flaps. The extend and retract WAY too quickly compared to the real thing. Its more like default 737 retraction/extension time. The autopilot on take off, at some point, switched to CWS but still indictated CMD on the PFD. Well it can't be both. One or the other. A few discrepencies witht the FMS BUT then again I haven't messed around with it much. All I found so far with it was it didn't give me the total distance of the flight planned route on the PROG page AFTER I activated and executed the flight plan. In the start sequence the gauges don't refelct what they would int he real aircraft. EG. The temps on start are WAY too hot. At about 60 some odd precent the Starter Cutout switch disengaged which it should be 56%. So these are just some quick things that I found. Are they going to ruin your FS expereince? Probably not. I want to check hwo the autopilot handles LNAV/VNAV and how well it manages the descent and stays on path. But I gotta get running to work. Liek I said, if you don't like it, you can alwasy get a refund. Take care all.

I don't think it does this.Jack C

I agree with Ryan. No point in adding a wx radar if it doesn't simulate the weather properly. I don't want to have my radar painting red in clear skies. Spend the time creating something that is realistic.