You know the saying, “hell will freeze over before” ______________ (insert what ever comment). Ladies, Gentlemen and Children of all ages….things are starting to get a bit chilly in the devils playground because I woke this morning to the news that John Deere will be included in Farming Simulator 19 due to release sometime this fall.
As I typed on Discord this morning, “It’s 5:20 AM, the hotel coffee is weak today…but OMG. History certainly was made today. John Deere and cotton. WOW…Just WOW. What exciting news. Now hopefully the next time we see anything regarding FS19 it will be actual game footage as I’m not a big fan of CGI”.
So I had my shower and I watched the trailer again. But I’m still not trusting things….on my way to the office I managed to get lost (briefly) then find myself, to get lost briefly again in search of coffee before finally making my way into the office. With a good, strong cup of coffee in hand (and pouring down throat) I watched the trailer one more time. Yep…it’s really, really true. John Deere is coming to FS19.
This is really awesome news. While I’m fully aware we PC users have always had JD green equipment to choose from, and pretty much every single map I’ve ever played (once I was introduced to mods) have had at least one green tractor or other green piece of equipment installed, not all John Deere mods are created equal. As a matter of fact, some of the poorest performing mods I’ve ever come across have been John Deere. So with Giants now having a license to distribute John Deere equipment in FS19 it most likely will mean a much more reliable set of JD equipment which will truly benefit us all.
Hang on a minute…let me watch this just one more time…..
OK…I’m satisfied I’m not dreaming. Here’s the CGI trailer revealing John Deere. Enjoy….I need to get to work now.
From the San Francisco Bay Area….have a fantastic day!
Last night a bit of history was made and I was fortunate enough to have been a part of it. As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’ve been flying on the VATSIM network from its inception, and even briefly before when it was known as SATCO. I’ve participated in many events around the world and just about each and every one of those events left a lasting impression on me. I remember my first CTP or Cross the Pond and the 9/11 remembrance events are always very special. But Friday night I experienced something which out of my 18 year history with VATSIM was an absolute first and honestly I almost missed out on it.
Earlier in the week I had been researching some of the scheduled events taking place at FSExpo18. I recently blogged about this event which is taking place this weekend. I somewhat stumbled onto the VATSIM FNO event (Friday Night Operations) and when I read about it, I knew I had to make every effort to participate. However, the timing couldn’t have been worse. I’ve been extremely busy at work the past few weeks, I’m leaving today (writing this on the plane) for SFO for work, my parents arrive on Thursday and I’m once again traveling the week of the 25th. So much going on, but I so wanted to participate. While I don’t need to ask permission from my wife to really do anything, I explained to her about the event and said I’ll get everything done I needed to do, work right up to the time I need to leave for the airport on Sunday. She agreed that this event would be special. WOW…I have a fantastic wife.
The Event
VATSIM has held, what they’ve historically called “Light up America” events in the past. The goal is to attempt to staff as many air traffic control positions as possible. Keep in mind this is all volunteer effort. While most everyone enjoys the online flying part, we need folks who equally enjoy serving as ATC or Air Traffic Controllers to make it “As Real As It Gets”. This event had the exact same goals and VATSIM was taking it up a notch by hosting it Live from the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas during FSExpo18.
Again, I’ve been flying off and on on the VATSIM network since it was born over 18 years ago. I recall participating in other “Light up America” events, but I don’t recall it being as successful as Friday nights event actually was. This is not to say it never has been, I just don’t recall it and never had the opportunity to participate in any such event.
Return to Twitch
OK…I need to just say one thing. In a few days you’re going to see a blog posting which is a response to an email I received a few days ago from a long-time (somewhat long lost) flight sim friend. He wrote me after seeing newly published content on my blog site about flight sim. In a nutshell, he’s asking me if I had any plans to livestream my flights on Twitch as I once did before I started up my YouTube channel. I replied to me privately, and asked him if he would mind me turning his email, my response and other thoughts into a blog posting for future release. He thought that was a great idea and I had been working on writing that up for release in a few weeks. However, as I began to plan my flight for the VATSIM event, I thought to myself it might be a good event for me to stream on Twitch. So I did and here we are…
Rusty, Rusty, Rusty
It’s been over three years since I had broadcast my flying on Twitch. Back then, I would make every effort to fly to/from airports with ATC coverage…but what I really enjoy most about livestreaming is interacting with my viewers. Unfortunately in an event of this scale, there is so much ATC chatter that it really makes it hard….plus I’m a bit rusty with some of my VATSIM procedures (especially when flying in a controlled airspace) that juggling a three ring circus (ring one my aircraft, ring two VATSIM ATC and ring three my Twitch viewers) could easily become overwhelming. But surprisingly I think I did OK and really only got my wrist slapped by ATC one time and that was my failure to STOP my taxi at SFO after I had vacated 28R, was given permission to cross 28L by SFO Tower, but I was handed off to SFO Ground a bit late (i think) and I unfortunately was changing frequencies and still moving. But all is OK…and I’ve learned a lesson which I won’t forget.
Thank you VATSIM
As you can see from the screenshot I captured from VAT-Spy during the event, America was certainly lit up with ATC. It’s not every day a pilot can depart on the east coast of the US and fly all the way across the country and be within ATC control the entire time. For my flight, I opted to recreate the flight I’m currently on (Denver to San Francisco) with Southwest Airlines.
I must also say, that while I enjoy VATSIM events. Most are situated around a single airport or a single ARTCC region. This places a lot of traffic all attempting to land/takeoff within a small airspace. I would love to see VATSIM organize more events similar to Light up the USA. But I’m also aware it’s all volunteer effort and I really have no idea the amount of work it took to pull off this type of an event. A possible solution might be to divide the US half (along the Mississippi River) and have eastern and western focused events alternate in similar fashion to the Light up the USA event.
Thank you Viewers
As PBS says, “It’s Viewers Like You” and it really is. I appreciate those who turned out to watch my flight. I realize most of my YouTube subscribers are mainly Farm Sim fans, but I do have a mix of fans who enjoy all things simulation and hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I certainly did and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to experience this event, glad I had the opportunity to share it with others and very much look forward to more, more, more.
I need to close for now and I’m going to see if I can upload this via my onboard wi-fi connection. Look for another installment of the GBS WorldFlight Tour later this week and perhaps another edition on Saturday. Sometime I’ll also schedule and release the letter I mentioned earlier which again I wrote not really knowing I would be streaming the flight.
After a relaxing few days along the eastern coast of Australia, our tour departs Cairns headed west for Broome, Australia. Our tourists will spend a few days in this Australian coastal city doing a little pearl hunting and seeing many of the other sights around the area. The excitement is high and the morale of the passengers is very good. Our flight today will be an equipment transfer for TigerAir. TigerAir is one of Australia’s low-cost airlines and in addition to shuttling our tourists from Cairns to Broome, we’re also assisting TigerAir by moving this Boeing 737-800 over to Broome. While this flight leg is not the longest we’ll experience during our tour, it’s one of the longest we’ll complete in the 737. As will be the case in each of these tour updates, I’ll post an updated route map showing our progress. The blue icons are yet to be visited and the magenta icons are those destinations we can check off the list. Finally, in addition to the screenshots telling our flying journey, I hope you are also enjoying learning a little something about the cities, countries, airports and airlines along our journey. I certainly am.
An updated version of our tour map showing Cairns as visited.
History of City
Broome is a coastal, pearling (as in pearl hunting) and tourist town in the Kimberly region of Western Australia. According to the 2016 census, Broome has a population of 16,000 but grows to over 45,000 in the peak tourist season.
History of Country
As for Australia, officially named the “Commonwealth of Australia” which is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world’s sixth-largest country by total area. Neighboring countries include Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor. Our tour will actually visit both Indonesia in just a few legs and PNG towards the end as we make our way back to Sydney.
History of Airport
The Broome airport is a regional hub of the northwestern part of Western Australia and is the 20th busiest airport in Australia. It also has just one runway measuring 7,769 feet (2,368 meters) in length and is one of the reasons we’re once again flying a Boeing 737.
Like Cairns, the Broom airport is a payware add-on airport from Orbx.
History of Airline
Today we are flying for Tiger Airways. TigerAir is an Australian low-cost airline which began operations in 2007. While TigerAir does operate out of Cairns, it does not fly to Broome. I was rather limited due to runway length so I chose to fly the 737-800 once again for this flight and was also limited in the choice of airline livery I could locate on the internet. Just as a point of reference, there are no real-world flights which operate direct between Cairns and Broome. Passengers wishing to fly between these destinations in the real world would most likely connect through major hubs in either Sydney, Perth or Melbourne.
Tigerair currently owns 4 Boeing 737-800 aircraft in its fleet. But will be replacing the 14 Airbus A320 aircraft with Boeing 737-800 in the future.
If you fly Tigerair in real life, you can enjoy their Tigerbites which is their own brand of airline food and Tigertainment which is their onboard wireless entertainment system which utilizes a “Bring your own device” concept. Then once connected to their Tigertainment system you can enjoy a variety of complimentary videos and music.
But as I mentioned on the first video of this tour series, my goal is to add as much variety in the aircraft type and also airline brand as possible.
Flight Briefing
QFA1066
YBCS – YBRM
Planned Fuel – 14,000kg
Planned Altitude – 34,000
Distance – 1542.4nm
Flight Time – 3 hrs 55 mins
Route: NONUM1 NONUM J64 AS T11 BRM
Flight Journal
It’s June 4th and our holiday travelers have thoroughly enjoyed their stay in Cairns. We have an early afternoon departure of Cairns and should arrive in Broome in plenty of time for dinner. As you can see from the map above, our route will take us southwest to Alice Springs, then northwest to Broome. As previously mentioned, we flying a TigerAir Boeing 737-800 and once catering has finished we’ll be ready to button up the doors and push back from the gate.
Push and engine start complete. The marshalling team from Cairns have been top-notch and first class all the way.
With Cairns being a relatively small airport, the taxi out to runway 15 was short and we’ve been given our take-off clearance.
An awesome view as our TigerAir 738 turns to join the departure out of Cairns.
Wing views are always my favorite. Cairns airport in the background.
Once again the immersion effect from FSFX Packages is well worth the cost.
During our previous flight from Sydney to Cairns, the ground vegetation was just as it appears here (lush and green) but will soon change.
As we headed west, the ground textures changed to a more desert and baron look.
Another wing shot as we’re descending. Speed brakes are up to slow us as we near 10,000 and our 250kts speed restrictions.
Making our final turn to line up for the visual for runway 10 at Broome.
Runway 10 is just visible in the haze. No ILS at YBRM.
Still just a tad high on final according to the PAPI lights which show three white, one red.
There we go, red on white…we’re alright!
One final shot of our TigerAir B738 all parked up and secure at Broome Airport. Our tourists will spend a few days here exploring and pearl hunting. In a few days we’ll depart Australia and head northwest to Indonesia. Due to the short runway at Broome, once again we’ll be flying the Boeing 737. But this will soon change.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.2
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
PMDG 737-800 (Tiger Airways livery)
Orbx Global Texture
Orbx Australia
Orbx Cairns Airport
Orbx Broome Airport
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Thank you for taking the time to read this report. Our next flight will depart Broome, Australia for Jakarta, Indonesia. As previously mentioned, due to the short runway in Broome, our flight to Jakarta will once again be in a Boeing 737. However, once we reach Jakarta…our next two legs will feature the Boeing Triple Seven (777) and the Boeing Dreamliner.
FlightSimExpo 2018, PMDG’s “Secret” Project Announcement and More Ramblings from a sleepless night is the topic of this article from GrizzlyBearSims. Ladies, Gentlemen and children of all ages….as I’ve often mentioned during my YouTube videos…I occasionally suffer from bouts of insomnia. I generally fall asleep quite easily, then wake up a few hours later with thoughts and ramblings knocking around in my head. Tonight I went to bed around my normal time feeling exhausted from work to only wake up in the middle of the night with the desire to write.
FlightSimExpo 2018
This coming weekend 9-10 June, Flight Simulation enthusiasts and AvGeeks from around the world will gather at the Flamingo in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada for North America’s newest flight simulation and aviation conference, FlightSimExpo 2018. Created by simmers and developers, FlightSimExpo is being advertised as “the only community-created and driven flight simulation conference in North America”.
This thing is going to be huge and I can certainly understand why they picked Sin City to host the first event of its kind. The sponsor list reads like a who’s who of all the major players from the world of flight simulation. With Orbx being listed at the top of the pyramid and just about everyone else I’ve ever heard of in my long history with this hobby is involved. All the big name YouTube/Twitch personalities will also be in attendance. I certainly wish my travel schedule would have permitted me the opportunity to attend. But there’s always next year!
Unfortunately, all available tickets have been sold for the event so we’ll just have to sit back and wait for others attending the event to begin spreading all the news and joy with the rest of us on the interwebz. I’ll be tuned into all the regular FS news channels and will share any major news along with my opinion right here on GrizzlyBearSims.com.
PMDG’s “Secret” Project
At some point over the weekend, we’ll finally know what PMDG’s “Secret” Project is all about. Speculation has pretty much run amuck the past few weeks as to what this “secret” project could be. Some are saying it’s a new aircraft model and others seem to think it could actually be a brand new sim platform. It appears whatever this “Secret” Project is, it’s been in the works since 2008. I have some thoughts and ideas on what this “secret” project could be and most likely what it will not be which I’ll discuss in the next few paragraphs.
First, this isn’t the first time PMDG has identified a new upcoming project using the term “Secret”. So just because the hype leading up to FSExpo2018 is convincing everyone this could be the next best thing since the old pocket on a shirt, it may not be that big. But as I said, speculation is running wild and before I run through the potential list, let’s talk about the history of PMDG first.
Firstly, PMDG is an acronym of Precision Manuals Design Group and was founded by Robert S. Randazzo. PMDG got its start by producing detailed flight manuals (hence the name) for the Microsoft Flight Simulator Boeing 747 and 757 , but soon moved into the development of freeware and later quality payware aircraft models. Today PMDG develops some of the finest study level aircraft for the Microsoft FSX, FSX Steam Edition, Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D and X-Plane simulation platforms.
Their current list of supported aircraft models include Boeing 737-800/900 (-600/-700 expansion pack), Boeing 777-200LR/F (-300ER expansion pack), Boeing 747-400 Queen of The Skies II and the Douglas DC-6. It should be noted the Douglas DC-6 was the first aircraft developed by PMDG for the X-Plane platform. Also of note, the Jetstream 4100 is available for FSX only and their MD-11 (FSX only) was officially retired. According to public information, PMDG is currently developing the Jetstream 4100 for P3D and the Boeing 747-8i/F expansion for both FSX and Prepar3D.
As I mentioned, speculation as to exactly what the “Secret” project for 2018 has been discussed in all corners of the internet. Also, let’s keep in mind that we have been told this “Secret” project has been in the works since 2008. 10 Years, a decade. Of course, just because something has been in development for 10 years, doesn’t mean it’s been actively worked on all this time. After all, PMDG only has 8 employees according to Wikipedia. A quick Google search has uncovered many of the possible scenarios which I’ll list below with a few comments/opinions from yours truly…this list will start with the most bizarre and eventually work our way into perhaps the most likely scenario. At least from my viewpoint…here goes.
PMDG will make us pay for all our aircraft one more time. This one ranks highest on the most bizarre, but if you are unfamiliar with flight sim and especially PMDG, allow me to bring up up to speed. As I’ve discussed a few times, the one factor in my decision to embrace P3D is the fact that a large majority of the add-ons I purchased during the time of FSX have been re-developed to function in P3D. Most importantly, many of these have been re-developed to work in P3D v4 (64 bit). Of all the add-ons I own (and I own a lot), most have been made available at no additional cost. Meaning, some sceneries I purchased to use with FSX (sometime after 2006) have been redeveloped to work in P3D v4, with installers made available some 12 years later and at no additional cost. While this list consists mainly of scenery add-ons, a few of my favorite aircraft have also been made available for P3D v4 at no extra cost. But when P3D came onto the scene, PMDG made the decision any aircraft you had previously purchased for FSX would need to be re-purchased for P3D. While we were all down on our knees after that punch to the gut, PMDG then kicked us again and said, AT FULL PRICE! Yes, it was a hard pill to swallow especially knowing that PMDG didn’t really have to completely rewrite every line of code with these aircraft. But considering they provide the very best study level Boeing models available for P3D, we all opened out wallets, whipped out the credit cards and said…”Take Our Money”. But fear not….I don’t believe PMDG will be announcing we must all re-purchase our favorite aircraft AGAIN for P3D (at least not at this time).
PMDG will develop an Airbus aircraft, specifically the Airbus A380. As PMDG have established themselves primarily as a Boeing shop, I’m not sure I see this as an option. Another small piece of information I’ve found on the internet, it appears Randazzo very much dislikes Airbus. He’s often used the line “If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going”. Of course, a study level Airbus A380 would certainly be a money maker and I’ve known folks who would sell their soul just to make a buck. The other factor that I believe doesn’t make sense for the A380 to be the “Secret” project is there is already a study level Airbus A380 currently in development. But of course, this really doesn’t matter. In the grand scheme of things, the only thing that matters is who brings their version to market first. PMDG most certainly could have been working off and on over the past 10 years on the A380 and we would have never known it. In addition, IF they are working on an A380 it most likely release long before any other possible developers version.
PMDG will develop a new flight simulation platform. If you know a little history, this doesn’t sound too far fetched. We’ve known for a year or two that PMDG was involved in a conglomeration of well known flight sim developers who negotiated with Microsoft to acquire the rights to continue developing FSX as a flight sim platform. However, during the negotiation process, Dovetail Games flew in with a better plan and obviously deeper pockets and walked away with the rights. This of course led to the FSX Steam Edition, Dovetail Games Flight School and Dovetail Games Flight Sim World. Only FSX Steam Edition has survived and you can read my article titled “And then there were two…” for more info on the demise of FSW. To continue with this thought, we need to look at the facts. We’ve been told by PMDG that this “Secret” project has been in the making since 2008. Microsoft had been releasing versions of their popular flight simulator every 2-3 years with FS2000 releasing in 1999, FS2002 in 2001, FS2004 (FS9) in 2003 and FSX in 2006. After the release of FSX in 2006, the flight sim community (best I can remember) just believed that FS11 would be the next in the franchise and life was good. Even in 2008, I doubt anyone felt any turbulence approaching. In 2009, it was reported that development behind the MSFS product was being heavily affected by Microsoft’s ongoing job cuts and there were rumors the entire dev team would be laid off. Soon after, we learned the news about the ACES team being laid off and speculation began to build on exactly what the future was for the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise. The point I’m getting at here is in 2008, PMDG was still a relatively small company. I’m really not sure they would have had the need or desire to think one day they would build their own flight simulator platform. The whole Dovetail scenario didn’t occur until 2014. As far as this scenario goes, I feel it’s more likely that PMDG (and that conglomeration previously mentioned) have some how negotiated with Dovetail Games to take over where they left off with FSW. Or perhaps negotiated with Lockheed Martin to distribute Prepar3D for entertainment purposes. Or none of these scenarios at all.
Here are my own ideas as to what the “secret” project actually is….Once again, let’s open our history books to the year 2008. After all, this seems to be some key date in PMDG’s history.
PMDG will release the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 for P3D v4. Now this would certainly be a crowd pleaser and many, many credit cards would gladly be whipped out to pay for this. PMDG actually released the MD-11 in 2008 for both FS9 and FSX. At that time, the only other wide body aircraft available from PMDG was the 747-400 (version 2) for FSX. The MD-11 was loved by many and for those still running the boxed version of FSX, it’s still flying the virtual skies hauling passengers and freight all around the world. As of two years ago, the worldwide fleet of MD-11s totaled 123 with Fedex operating 57. With PMDG’s decision to retire the MD-11, it’s left a big void in the virtual aviation hobby.
PMDG will release either a Boeing 757 or 767 for P3D v4. Another absolutely WIDE void in the virtual aviation hobby was created when the wonderful Level-D Boeing 767 was officially retired. I owned the Level-D 767 for FSX and just before PMDG released the 777, the 767 was my favorite aircraft to fly. In the real world, the Boeing 767 continues to fly the skies in vast numbers with over 700 still in service as both passenger and cargo operations. Even after the 767 is retired from passenger service, it will still proudly fly the skies as cargo aircraft. As for the 757, rumors about rumors have long existed that Level-D would eventually make a 757. The excitement was quite high for this news as the community had been wanting a study level version of the Boeing 757 for a long time. Even today, with both QualityWings having a 757 for FSX (and P3D v2/v3) and CaptainSim offering a 757 for P3D v4, the community still lacks that study level quality version. In the real world, 738 Boeing 757’s are still in service with Delta, Fedex and United Airlines having the largest fleet still flying today.
Something YUGE? Again, I have been using Google to parse as much info as I possibly can regarding this “Secret” project PMDG is announcing this weekend. In Jan. 2017, Robert S. Randazzo posted a lengthy discussion topic regarding status updates on somethings PMDG had been working on. This posting discusses many things including PMDG RainMaker, 747-8, 777, NG3 (not to be confused with NGX) and the Jetstream 4100 (J41). Down many paragraphs he mentions “We originally thought the J41 would release in late summer and showcase this new effect (PMDG RainMaker), but product development hit some snags and is still in holding since we moved development resources over to a major (massive…YUGE, even!) project that we haven’t announced yet”. He further mentions that we won’t see the “PMDG RainMaker” effects until the 747-8 expansion. So….something YUGE! Is this code for something? I’m not sure, but elsewhere on the interwebz I found a discussion regarding speculation that PMDG might have been working on the Boeing 747-200. How do I connect “YUGE” to the B742? G-HUGE is a registration number for a British Caledonian Airways Boeing 747-200. Yes, I agree…this is a stretch of the old imagination. But I’m starting to become delirious from lack of sleep now.
If I were a betting man and of course this announcement will take place on Saturday, 9 June in Sin City (Las Vegas), so place those bets now….I would say the most likely scenario will be either the MD-11 or 767/757 option. Either (or all) would be a really big deal in the flight sim community. Either (or all) would fill a really “YUGE” void in the flight sim community and would just strengthen the Boeing offerings PMDG already has in their portfolio. But we’ll just have to wait until Saturday to learn what new thing we can expect from PMDG.
A Few More Ramblings
I’m starting to drift off to sleep now and need to jot down a few more thoughts as I can’t be guaranteed to remember them when I wake up later. A few years ago I wrote about a similar flight simulation conference called FlightSimCon. While FlightSimExpo (which is what the majority of this blog posting is about) claims to be “the only community-created and driven flight simulation conference in North America”, I suppose there has been a lot of confusion in recent weeks about these two conferences. Anyway, in the past…FlightSimCon was held in the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT (Bradley International Airport KBDL). While I believe attendance was always good, it was a difficult location to get to for the majority of the attendees. The organizers of FlightSimCon for the 2018 event have since changed the location to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Dallas, Texas. However, this event falls two weeks AFTER FlightSimExpo and appears not to have as many sponsors/exhibitors. While I understand these are two different conferences, operated by two different groups…the planning could have been better. The flight simulation community is rather small in comparison to other gaming communities and I personally don’t believe two events of this kind can survive especially when the are scheduled two weeks apart. The majority of the excitement certainly seems to be around the FlightSimExpo Vegas event as the list of sponsors/exhibitors consists of all the major players.
Finally, I really hope you enjoyed the first installment or Leg 1 of my “around the world” WorldFlight 2018 tour which released here on my blog site on Wednesday. Look for Leg 2 on Saturday morning and my hope is to be able to deliver at least one leg each week and occasionally some weeks could have two legs.
I’m sorry this has been a lengthy/wordy article. Yes, there’s a lot of info to digest and some of it, or perhaps none of it will come to fruition. That’s OK with me, it’s been a fun walk down memory lane. If by some freak chance something I’ve listed here does happen, then I can only thank the Flight Sim gods for waking me and placing the thoughts in my tiny brain.
Until next time….As Wesley Snipes would say…..
Jerry
P.S. Yea…I also enjoy aviation movies.
For legal disclosure, the Wesley Snipes (Passenger 57) GIF is copyright of whomever created it and to the producers/directors and Mr. Wesley (tax man) Snipes himself.
Back in the day, long before the GBS YouTube channel…I would blog about my flight sim adventures. It’s really why I started this blog site over 10 years ago. As I began planning the WorldFlight 2018 GBS Tour, I spent a few days kicking around whether I would record any of these flights for YouTube, stream on YT and/or Twitch or just blog about them. I decided to return to my roots of just simply blogging about these adventures. I know as a civilization we’ve somewhat moved away from reading about things. But I figure there may still be a few folks who frequent my blog from years ago that might enjoy this. So with out further adieu, let’s begin.
Just to familiarize yourself with our tour map. I’ll be posting an updated image of this map as we complete the legs of the tour.
I made my way from Denver, Colorado to Sydney, Australia and allowed myself some time to rest from the jetlag of a long, cross the pacific flight. I’ve been hired to operate a world tour, shuttling lucky passengers who have all gathered in Sydney on a luxurious 46 leg, 25+ country world tour. Money appears to be absolutely no object to these people as they certainly seem to have no cares in the world. For the sake of sheer adventure, we will be changing aircraft frequently as we make our way around the globe. Thankfully, as their captain…I’m qualified to operate a variety of Boeing and Airbus aircraft. I’ve partnered with many global airlines to utilize their aircraft for the tour. Funnily enough, they welcome this as we’ll be moving aircraft from one airport to the other on their behalf.
Leg 1 of our world tour kicks off on an early, rainy fall morning in Sydney. Our tour group is a mishmash of all nationalities which is all part of the plan. Think of it as a self-guided tour group. Meaning we have passengers who are familiar with our tour stops and they will spend time sharing information with each other along the tour. Pretty cool concept if you ask me. Plus what better way to check out all the wonderful aspects of these cities, the food, the nightlife etc.
History of City
Cairns was founded in 1876 and named after William Wellington Cairns, Governor of Queensland from 1875 to 1877. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River Goldfield. Cairns is located on the east coast of far north Queensland. The city is the 5th most populous in Queensland and ranks 14th overall in Australia. Cairns is a popular tourist destination because of its tropical climate and access to the Great Barrier Reef, which is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
History of Country
As for Australia, officially named the “Commonwealth of Australia” which is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world’s sixth-largest country by total area. Neighboring countries include Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor. Our tour will actually visit both Indonesia in just a few legs and PNG towards the end as we make our way back to Sydney.
History of Airport
The Cairns airport is an international classification airport. Its early history goes back to 1928 when a pilot named Tom McDonald started flying his de Havilland Gipsy Moth off a sand ridge near the present airport. He could only land and take off between high tides. During one emergency, Tom was forced to take off from beer barrels.
Today, the airport has direct flights to 18 international and 30 domestic destinations and many general aviation flights including a number of helicopter operators. Flights are operated to all major Australian cities and tourist destinations, regional communities in Far North Queensland and a number of international destinations in the Asia-Pac region with connections all over the world.
The Cairns airport has one runway measuring 10,354 feet (3,156 meters) in length. The airport you’ll see is a payware add-on airport by Orbx.
History of Airline
Today we are flying for Qantas. Qantas is the flag carrier of Australia and its largest airline by fleet size, international flights and international destinations. It is the third oldest airline in the world, after KLM and Avianca. Qantas was founded in November 1920, it began international passenger flights in May 1935. The name Qantas is actually an acronym for its original name of “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services. Qantas is nicknamed “The Flying Kangaroo”.
The aircraft we’re flying today is the Boeing 737-800. Qantas currently has 70 of these aircraft in service today which clearly makes it their workhorse aircraft.
The flight today is an actual real-world flight which Qantas operates between Sydney and Cairns in the Boeing 737-800.
It’s June 2nd, it’s early, it’s wet and it’s cool in Sydney this morning. The ground crew is busy getting our Boeing 737-800 ready to go. Our tour group will soon be arriving by bus. The Sydney airport have granted us permission to board from the tarmac.
Our excited travelers have arrived and boarded the aircraft. Along with luggage and extra cargo, we’ve been granted permission to push, start and taxi to the active runway.
Line up and wait for 16R
Rotate
Note the visual immersion effects around the fan and across the wing as we climb out via the DEENA7 STAR.
Above the clouds as we climb to FL360 (36,000 feet).
Simply beautiful
Time to descend via the TOTY4W arrival.
Making our right turn to join the runway 15 approach.
Gear down, flaps 40
Runway in sight
First leg is in the books. Our tour passengers and their baggage are being offloaded to enjoy their brief say in Cairns, Australia.
Simulator Specifics
Prepar3d v4.2
ActiveSky Weather Engine
ActiveSky Cloud Art
Envtex & Envshade
PMDG 737-800 (Qantas livery)
Orbx Global Texture
Orbx Australia
Orbx Cairns Airport
VATSIM
Route Planning Tools
AivlaSoft PFPX
Navigraph Charts Desktop
FlightAware
FlightRadar24
SkyVector
Google Maps
Thank you for taking the time to read this report. Our tourists will spend a little time visiting the sites around Cairns and we’ll be departing soon for Broome.
I made a decision a few years ago not to attempt to become a “Breaking News” blog site. I just don’t have time and I’m just one guy. Most of the flight sim related content I write about either has to do with my own involvement in the hobby or news/information about products I own and use in my sim. Sometimes I comment on newsworthy items within my writings as I often have opinions regarding these things. After all, my experience in this hobby goes back a long, long time. The title of this writing is called “FSLabs Making News – Once Again”.
If you search my blog site using FSLabs, you’ll find two articles. You can read article one here, and article two here if you desire. In each of these articles I more or less refer to the news from earlier in the year where FS Labs got caught inserting malware into their Airbus A320 aircraft. This action according to FS Labs was in an effort to catch would be software pirates.
Before I continue any further, allow me just to state that I’m well aware software piracy runs amuck not only in the flight sim community, not only in the gaming community…but is an issue across the board for all software developers. While more needs to be done to stop this behavior and bring those who commit these crimes to justice, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about this. The steps FS Labs initially took was very much the wrong way.
About FSLabs
FlightSimLabs (FSLabs for short) is an payware, add-on aircraft developer who has been around for a few years. One of their first products was the Concorde-X. The Concorde-X was developed for Microsoft FSX and was quite popular. Those who have been around for a while may remember the Concorde was a featured, default aircraft in FS9, but removed in FSX. Since the Concorde-X product, FSLabs have been working on developing near study level replicas of the Airbus A320 and A319 aircraft. It’s their A320 product which first got FSLabs into a bit of hot water with the FS Community.
The Malware Debacle
As I mentioned earlier, FSLabs first ruffled some feathers in the FS Community back in the February 2018 timeframe. The story was so big that even bloggers, writers who would never even think to write about flight sim news covered it. Here’s one of those articles. In a nutshell, FSLabs wrote a bit of code which installed a “Chrome Password Dump” which was hidden inside the A320 installer. This bit of malware could extract users personal information which is stored within the Chrome browser including passwords and billing information.
The founder of FSLabs (Lefteris Kalamaras) did apologize for the including such intrusive code in the A320 download and stated “I want to reiterate and reaffirm that we as a company and as flight simmers would never do anything to knowingly violate the trust that you have placed in us by not only buying our products but supporting them and FlightSimLabs”. He further stated “While the majority of our customers understand that the fight against piracy is a difficult and ongoing battle that sometimes requires drastic measures, we realize that a few of you were uncomfortable with this particular method which might be considered a bit heavy handed on our part.”
My Opinion Thus Far
As many others have pointed out in various articles and blog postings, the action taken by FSLabs and its founder Lefteris Kalamaras is disturbing, highly unethical and while I’m not a lawyer, I would even think this action borders on illegal behavior. While much of the flight sim community compares FSLabs and their A320 to the likes of PMDG and their lineup of Boeing study level aircraft, with the right apologies and follow-thru, I personally could have considered giving them a second chance. After all, forgiveness right? But as the weeks and months from the initial news regarding the malware unfolded, it has once again thrust FSLabs into the news and once again it appears they are not doing the things they need to do to win trust within the community.
PR Debacle
One might think if FSLabs were sincere in their apologies they would just ensure everything they did going forward was 100% positive within the flight sim community. They would keep their heads down, develop the finest Airbus products available and provide awesome support to the community. Then hope, pray and beg for the forgiveness from the community. But no…in recent days two additional little bugbears have popped up which have further ruffled feathers in the community.
The first installment of how bad can you run a flight sim add-on company was how FSLabs and their founder have been threatening some folks over in the Reddit community and perhaps other bloggers/writers. The second major mess-up appears to be in how their A320 installer is writing a cmdhost.exe file under the Windows system32\ and SysWOW64 directories.
While I’m not an application developer, I do understand enough about the Windows operating system to know that these directories are no place for third party installers to write anything to. From previously published articles it appears this action was a necessary part of its eSellerate infrastructure and provides communications between the eSellerate servers and the FSLabs installed product in an activation interface scenario.
Final Thoughts on this matter
Again, it’s not my intent to report news. I would much rather spend my time flying and writing about all the wonderful things taking place in the flight sim community. However, as I often receive emails asking for assistance and advice related to various subjects in the hobby, I felt I wanted to at the very least share my thoughts on all this. The very sad part of this entire story is FSLabs have done a remarkable job (from all that I’ve heard) on developing a near study level Airbus A320. I actually would have loved to own this product, but as I previously stated, I will NEVER purchase anything from FlightSimLabs. Of course, I don’t believe my reluctance in purchasing their products will bankrupt them. However, while I will not outright say you should avoid purchasing their products, I will just encourage you to conduct your own research and just be very careful if you do decide to purchase any FSLabs product.
Are you an Airbus Fan?
I’ve got to admit that my passion for tubeliners isn’t in the Airbus camp. I’m a Boeing guy. But while I may prefer Boeing to Airbus, I do enjoy from time to time flying the smaller Airbus A318/A319 & the A320/A321 aircraft variants as this opens up a totally new and different world to virtual aviation. It allows me to simulate airline operations for the likes of Frontier, EasyJet and many others who are 100% operating Airbus aircraft. Or it allows me to simulate the Airbus operations for American and British Airways who both operate a mix of Boeing and Airbus aircraft within their fleet. The wait will soon be over as I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Aerosoft A318/A319 & A320/A321 series of aircraft will be released for Prepar3D v4. I owned these for FSX and earlier versions of P3D and have missed them in P3D v4. Aerosoft is a software developer we can trust to not only develop and support a quality aircraft simulation product but do it without playing silly buggers with us in the process. The Aerosoft Airbus series is scheduled to release on 26 June and once I make my purchase, download and install…you can expect a full review here on my blog. Of course, as it’s been over a year since I’ve operated an Airbus aircraft, I’ll need some time to come up to speed on them. But hopefully it’s just like riding a bike.
As always, thanks for reading. Look for my blog report from the first leg of my WorldFlight GBS 2018 tour to drop on Wednesday. It was a fun flight from Sydney to Cairns and as I type this, I’m actually flying leg 2 from Cairns over to the western corner of Australia and the city of Broome. I hope you’ll return to Planes, Trains and Automobiles (and Farming too) to catch up on all the action.
The organizers of WorldFlight, have prepared the 2018 version of their world tour to raise money for various charities around the world. Each November, teams from around the globe participate in this annual week long event. Many of these same teams, stream their flights on Twitch & YouTube from one of many full-sized flight simulators around the world which have been setup.
Over my 35+ year history with computer based flight simulation, I’ve circumnavigated the globe many times and in many different aircraft. In 2010, I embarked on an “Around the World” journey in a single engine Mooney Bravo which consisted of 75 individual flight legs, spread out over approx. 45 days. The total trip mileage was 35,816 nm and consisted of 201.5 flight hours. If you are interested, you can view my trip log here.
I’ve flown the Worldflight tour (on my own) many times. Last year (2017) I completed it in the PMDG Boeing 737-800. As it was just a “for fun” flight, I didn’t keep a flight log but it was a lot of fun just the same. For 2018, I’m going to attempt to do a better job with keeping a flight log, showcasing on my blog site. Just like the old days!
As it would be impossible for a single pilot to fly the complete route, during the actual even timeline…I’m planning to start my journey in early to mid June. The general purpose of doing this is to help raise awareness for the official event in November and expose as many of my viewers to this awesome charity event.
Unlike last year where I used the same aircraft type to complete the tour, this year I’ll use a variety of aircraft from my virtual hangar including both Boeing and Airbus aircraft. The Boeing types will include 737, 747, 777 and 787. Airbus will be a A319, A320 and A321 variants. In addition, you can expect to see a variety of airline liveries throughout the journey. As the tour begins in Sydney, Australia…I’ll kick the tour off with Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia.
In some (perhaps most) instances, the two airports which make up each leg may not have real-world flights connecting them to each other. In cases like this, I’ll use my own imagination to determine what airline would make the most sense to operate and which aircraft type. A lot of the decisions driving this will be the availability of aircraft liveries. But I’ll strive to do my best to keep a variety throughout the journey.
The same applies for airport scenery. While I own a lot of different airport sceneries, I don’t own all the airports we’ll be visiting during this tour. If I can find quality freeware airports that won’t break my sim or cause issues, I’ll consider using them. But in some cases, default scenery will just have to be used.
The 2018 WorldFlight Tour begins in Sydney, Australia and travels a westerly direction (see map below). This tour will consist of 46 legs, covering an approx. 36,153 nm while visiting over 25 different countries.
I’m really not sure how long it will take me to complete this tour. Perhaps I’ll try to wrap the last few flight legs around the same time as the actual event is taking place. It might be fun to fly the last leg or two on VATSIM at the same time the actual event is taking place. But only time will tell if this will be possible. You can follow along with my progress visiting my blog site and the 2018 WorldFlight Page I’ve setup.
Before I start this review. Please allow me to get the fine print out of the way.
The product I am reviewing was purchased by me and for my own personal use. I receive absolutely no compensation of any form (cash, credit, discounts, promises) for reviewing this product. I have not contacted, nor have I been contacted by the vendor to provide this product review. The opinions expressed (good or bad) are my own, your mileage may vary.
OK…with the legal disclaimer out of the way, allow me to get started. Like many of you, I purchased the QualityWings 787 for P3D v4 within minutes of it being released. I’ve personally been anxious about this aircraft release from the time I first learned of it. However, I’ve often been critical of QualityWings for their decision to first release this aircraft for FSX and FSX: SE. But I’m also man enough to admit that I’m biased as I’ve not thought much about FSX since the early days of P3D v3.x and certainly have no interest in FSX now that the 64 bit P3D v4 is available and performing so well.
Study Level She’s Not
A question which is popping up just about everywhere has to do with whether or not the QW787 is a study level aircraft similar to any of the PMDG or FSLabs aircraft. For the record, I don’t currently own (nor will I ever) any FSLabs aircraft. The reason for this can be summed up here. But I do own the PMDG Boeing 737, 747 and 777 and enjoy flying each and every one of them. I can certainly confirm the QW787 can’t be compared to the likes of the PMDG Boeing lineup, but she’s still a joy to fly.
Study vs Quality
I make no bones about the fact that I’m NOT a real world pilot. I suppose some might wonder how I can spend over 35 years flying computer based sims, enjoy them passionately and not have any interest in real world aviation. Simply put, when I was younger and had more time, I didn’t have the money. A decade or so ago, I had the money…but just not enough time. Now days…well, as I’m older the cost of learning to fly is much more expensive and I suppose I just have a lot of other interests in my life. At least this is my story and I’m going to stick to it.
While others may see PMDG as a developer of study level aircraft, I see them as developers of quality simulation aircraft. Some folks might not see the difference between these two things…but I certainly do. As an example, I really have no idea if the PMDG 737 performs like the real thing. I believe it does as that’s what others say…but my only real experience comes from riding a few thousand miles a year in one for work related trips. Likewise, I have no idea if the PMDG 747 performs like the real thing. But from my point of view in my nice business class seat, I’ll just order another glass of wine and I’m a happy passenger.
The point I’m making here is while I do enjoy the level of detail and the tasks which must be carried out to be able to simulate flight in a PMDG 737, 747 or 777….I really have nothing to compare that to other than the fact that I appreciate the level of quality which goes into a PMDG aircraft. But I’m starting to digress and this article is reading more like a review of PMDG so let me get back on track. The QualityWings 787 Dreamliner at this point in time, is not study level and it’s also not on the same level of quality as that of the PMDG models I own. But I believe it can be.
Bugs
I honestly can’t remember the last time I purchased a flight sim add-on aircraft which was 100% bug free on day of release. Most likely the reason I can’t remember is because in the history of flight simulation (and I have just about been around the entire time) no aircraft that I’m aware of has ever been released 100% bug free. Yes, the QW787 has a few bugs. Most that I’ve discovered I would classify as minor annoyances, but a few certainly qualify to be labeled and identified as major. Fortunately, I’ve personally not discovered anything I would label as a show-stopper. Here are a few of the bugs I’ve discovered.
ActiveSky and WX Radar CTD – When using both ActiveSky for P3D v4 (ASP4) and using the onboard wx radar features of the QW787, a CTD or Crash to Desktop can occur. While some may identify this as a show-stopper bug, the CTD can be avoided by simply not using the wx radar features. QW’s are aware of this and working on a fix. This is the only bug which has caused me any issues which I couldn’t overcome.
VNAV Issues – Some folks are experiencing various issues related to VNAV mostly during the descent.
LNAV Issues – Consisting of the aircraft attempting turns too early and/or overshooting turns altogether.
Altitude Constraints on SID/STARS – I’ve experienced both while flying the QW787.
If I’m not mistaken, Qualitywings have recognized these issues as bugs and are working on a fix. As of a few days ago, the ETA for the hotfix was in approx. 2 weeks.
Bottom Line
I’m extremely happy with the purchase and I look forward to the hotfix patch which hopefully will resolve all the issues. I’ve spent several hours flying this beautiful aircraft on mostly short hops of no more than 2-3 hours. The QW787 Dreamliner is a new favorite in my hangar. I’ll leave you with a few recent images of this beautiful aircraft from some of my recent flights. I’ll also return with an updated post once the hotfix has been released. But if you are looking to add a Boeing 787 Dreamliner to your fleet for P3D v4, then look no further than the QualityWings version. I believe you’ll be pleased you did.
Over the past several weeks I’ve been catching up on the latest information regarding all things Flight Sim. I can’t help but notice so many people are just throwing their hard earned money down the drain. I simply don’t understand it. What am I talking about? I’m talking about my fellow flight simmers who are wasting their money on Prepar3d v4. Allow me to explain.
History Repeating Itself?
Going back to the early days of FSX, we flight simmers spent a lot of time tweaking just about everything we could tweak in an effort to eek out an additional few FPS and also do our level best to avoid the dreaded OOM or Out of Memory error. Those were fun times…NOT!
Initially the process went something like this. Run FSX (same applied for P3D v1, v2 and v3) on a 64 bit OS to take advantage of the full 4GB of VAS (virtual address space). In comparison, a 32 bit OS would only allow you 2GB of VAS. But you still had to pray constantly that your payware departure airport, your payware aircraft and your payware arrival airport (plus all the scenery in between) didn’t produce an OOM on final approach. How frustrating to spend 2, 4, 8 or more hours flying to experience that annoying dinging sound in the final 5-10 minutes of flight then ***POOF*** the OOM error and then CTD.
As more time progressed, additional tweaks were discovered which would gain you a very small percentage of performance. Tweaks to the .cfg file and tweaks using Nvidia Inspector would gain you even more performance. It was all worth it, because even the smallest performance gain could mean the difference between success or failure.
I must give credit to both Dovetail Games and Lockheed Martin. First Dovetail, DTG were successful at improving their FSX: Steam Edition. FSX: SE performed much, much better than the older FSX Boxed Edition. Likewise, with the release of Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3d v3.x, even more performance related changes were made which reduced the OOM’s and CTD’s considerably, unfortunately….not completely.
A Brand New Day
About a year ago, I wrote a piece titled “The Last OOM?” The very next day I followed that article up with another piece titled “Flight Simulator 11 is finally here”. Both articles were focused on the much anticipated release of Prepar3D v4. P3D v4 was the first 64 bit flight sim platform based on the ESP platform and we all held our breath as we installed it, loaded it up with our add-ons and took the skies.
Bad Habits are hard to break
Unfortunately, they really are. I’ve mentioned many times about the large investment I’ve made over the years in my flight simulation hobby. During the time between the release of FSX, P3D v2 and P3D v3…I had accumulated a great deal of 3rd party add-ons for the platform. I’ve been extremely fortunate, that so much of my investment (especially with airport scenery) I made in the early days have been able to carry forward into the 64 bit world with no need to repurchase anything. A few aircraft (PMDG, A2A) I’ve repurchased due to the change in license agreements…but I’ve gladly done this because I really enjoy this hobby. But I made a decision the day I spent my $199 for the professional version of P3D v4, that only…AND I MEAN ONLY…add-ons 100% compatible with v4 would be installed into the sim. Anything else is truly a waste of money.
Don’t Waste Money
This sort of ties back into the title of this blog posting. This morning I was perusing through a few Facebook groups and saw multiple discussions regarding problems some folks are having with Prepar3D v4.x. Everything I read could be summed up into one category and that would be “self-inflicted stupidity”. Perhaps I’ve just coined a brand new term, but I doubt it as I often group some folks in my real world IT day job into that category. Just stop the madness.
If you’ve spent your hard earned money to purchase Prepar3D v4, and you want the very best performance….just download it, install it and pretty much leave it alone. You don’t need to spend a lot of time tweaking it and you most certainly don’t need Nvidia Inspector. Install add-ons which are P3D v4 compatible, wait patiently (along with the rest of us) for others to be updated and made compatible and by all means, stop trying to hack old FS9 and early FSX add-ons into v4. Just stop it!
Final Thoughts
Prepar3D v4 (currently v4.5) has been out almost one year. During the past twelve months, dozens of 3rd party add-ons have been made v4 compatible with many more on the way (including the Aerosoft Airbus). If you are a fan of the Microsoft ESP platform (like me), then P3D v4 is absolutely worth the cost and it will give you hours and hours and hours of rock solid performance with no OOM’s, CTD’s or other annoying issues which make you want to pull your hair out. And it will do all this without spending hours, and hours and even more hours tweaking.
Ladies, Gentlemen and Children of all ages who absolutely love everything avgeek, the wait is over. Yes, QualityWings released their Prepar3d v4 version of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on Wednesday. Earlier in the week, news broke that QW had lifted the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with their beta test team and images, videos and discussions began appearing all over the interwebz. The assumption was the QW787 release was imminent.
It’s been a long and winding road
According to my blog site search engine, the first mention of the QW 787 Dreamliner in any of my writings was back on 22 June 2017. Later in 2017 from a hotel room in Orlando, I followed up with my comments regarding the fact QW opted to release the 787 for FSX (boxed) and FSX: Steam Edition before any version of Prepar3D. This was somewhat of a head scratcher for me especially since P3D v4 had been out for about 5 months at this point and other aircraft developers (PMDG, A2A and others) had managed to release their aircraft which were originally developed for FSX and older versions of P3D with P3D v4 installers. But oh well…we would just have to be patient.
The Un-official Race
I’ll admit that over the years I’ve been slightly critical of QualityWings. I’m not the only one that has wondered “what the heck are these guys thinking” when it comes to the decisions they’ve made. I often speculated just how long it would take them to release their 787 for P3D v4 and even felt it would be well after Aerosoft released their Airbus A318/A319 & A320/A321 product for v4. I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t actually wager any money against this bet, as I would have lost. The guys at QualityWings have beat Aerosoft by country mile. As I recently discussed, the Aerosoft busses won’t be released until 26 June. So congratulations QW.
Not a First Impressions Article
I’m going to wait a few days before I write my official “first impressions” piece. I feel I need some more time in the aircraft before I’m able to write a fair and balanced piece. But I’ll certainly share two screenshots and a bit of commentary from my inaugural flight last evening. I plan to spend some of this upcoming long, holiday weekend in the Dreamliner and will have a much better sense of just how good (or bad) this aircraft is. But I can tell you this much. My initial impression of this is QualityWings have lived up to using the word “Quality” in their brand. I’m impressed.
Cruising at FL360 enroute from KDFW to KDEN. As I’ve discussed before, I really don’t have the time to fly a lot of long-haul flights. So while the Dreamliner truly was designed for long-haul and even ultra long-haul flights, most of my use will most likely be fictional flights of no more than 2-3 hours in length.
The “Sporty” style of the B787 Flight Deck is impressive. While this aircraft shouldn’t be compared to a study level PMDG aircraft, it truly isn’t bad. There’s still enough work that needs to be done to ready this aircraft for flight to keep me 100% interested. I’m fairly confident, the QW 787 Dreamliner will get used often.
One Small Issue
Ok…well, perhaps it really isn’t that small. Especially considering I did experience a CTD (crash to desktop) on my inaugural flight. One flight, one CTD…I guess one could say it might be a bigger issue. But after reaching cruise altitude, I was messing about with the weather radar features and while doing so experienced the CTD. This was the first CTD I’ve ever experienced in P3D v4 and certainly the first CTD on the new Beast v5 gaming machine. But I see absolutely no reason to panic. I’m fairly certain this product will be like most others….there will be a few quirks that will get resolved in an update patch/fix soon.
The good news, I run auto-save via FSUIPC. FSUIPC performs an auto-save of my flight, complete with all aircraft configuration settings every 15 minutes. I was able to re-launch P3D and resume my flight (just like nothing ever happened) from the latest save.
OK…well I must get to work now. I quickly wrote this piece while easing into my Thursday morning in the office. The coffee is gone and I must go find more or today will be a long and difficult day.
Until next time….I’ll be dreaming of my next Dreamliner flight.
