Hello and thank you for stopping by. For several years I have wanted to produce more cinematic flight sim productions. However, the amount of time required hasn’t always been something I’ve had a lot of. But times are different now. Of course I love flying and this video was a lot of fun to put together. There will be more soon….
Welcome Aboard to American Airlines flight 777 with non-stop service between Phoenix Sky Harbor International
Airport and Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. Your captain for this flight is JT. Please sit back,
relax and enjoy the flight.
Addons used:
Aircraft:
PMDG Boeing 737-800 (NGXu)
American Airlines Livery
Simulator:
Lockheed Martin Prepar3D v5
Scenery:
(1) ORBX FTX GLOBAL
(2) ORBX OpenLC North America
(3) Flightbeam Studios KPHX
(4) FlyTampa KLAS
(5) FSDreamTeam GSX Lvl 2
Camera Effect:
Chaseplane
Weather:
ActiveSky
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Please visit my blog site https://grizzlybearsims.com You’ll find my complete mod list and various articles and reviews on many of the simulation based games I enjoy playing.
Thank you for watching!
J
MUSIC CREDITS
________________
Inflight Music
Dreaming in 432Hz by Unicorn Heads (YouTube Music Library)
Taking a short break from writing about the flight sim world just to document some thoughts I have towards the real world. Specifically the real world of aviation and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic it is experiencing.
Like many avid flight simulation enthusiasts, I’m also an avid avgeek. It’s somewhat funny if you think about it. As much as I enjoy the hobby of flight simulation and enjoy the real world of aviation, I’ve never had any desire to obtain my private pilots license. The amount of money I’ve spent on the sim world could have gone a long ways towards paying for lessons. But either I was too busy in my younger days or now it’s just too expensive. Either way, time (or lack thereof) still plays an integral part I guess. But in any event, I still very much love everything about real world aviation. It might just be plane spotting from my back deck or even travel…I love it all. But the future of aviation is really uncertain at this point in time.
Sure, we all must keep a positive outlook on this. As my long time readers will know, my wife and I usually travel to Europe every other year or so. We were just over last summer and while we had no plans to travel this year (2020), I’m sure we’ll make the trip again sometime in the future.
State of the Airlines
Within the aviation industry, airlines are struggling. Most major airports around the world look like airplane parking lots with multiple runways and taxiways being closed and used for storage. Those airlines still flying are only operating a small fraction of their fleet and routes. These flights may contain a few passengers, but mainly are flying cargo. It’s unclear whether carriers will be able to weather this storm. While we’re starting to see a re-opening of the world’s economies…I’m not sure how long it will be before we see a return of pre-COVID-19 air travel.
The Demise of the Jumbo
Airlines were quick to begin grounding their fleet of aircraft around the world. As previously mentioned, some airlines are storing aircraft at their hub airport locations while others are flying them out for longer term storage in the many desert storage locations. As airlines begin to predict their return to service, the jumbo jet doesn’t appear to be part of their plan. Virgin Atlantic made the decision to retire their Boeing 747-400’s in early May. Delta will retire their entire Boeing 777 fleet by end of the year. Of the approx. 234 Airbus A380’s, not a single one is flying at the present time and just yesterday I heard that Emirate’s has plans to retire some 46 of their A380’s approx. 10 years ahead of schedule.
Long Live the Queen
My trip to London last summer was onboard British Airways Boeing 747-400. A truly magnificent aircraft and my favorite to travel on. While I can’t be certain, but I suspect that flight will go down in my personal history as the last time I was able to fly on the B744. Most of the 744’s are in the 20+ year age range and just simply may not survive this crisis. But of course that’s not to say we’ll never see another Boeing 747 flying into our favorite airports.
Both the Boeing 747-400 and 777 will continue to fly as cargo aircraft for many years to come. While some passenger variants may end up in the airplane graveyard, many will be retrofitted and return to service flying cargo all around the world. This of course won’t be the case for the Airbus A380. Unfortunately, the A380 (passenger variant) wasn’t designed to have an afterlife as a cargo hauler.
Not Just Widebodies
The impact of COVID-19 isn’t just hitting widebody aircraft. While one can argue that Boeing certainly had major issues before COVID-19 was even heard of, the global pandemic certainly isn’t making it easy on the aircraft manufacture and specifically for the Boeing 737 Max. In recent days, orders totaling just over 100 aircraft were cancelled and of course the worldwide fleet of this variant has been grounded for more than a year. It’s truly difficult to predict when or even if the 737 Max will ever fly again.
Switching Gears
While not aviation related, I’ve heard that RV sales are at an all time high. At least for now, people are changing their attitudes about travel and will opt to take their entire house with them where ever they may roam. This might be wise for some as everything you need is all self-contained in your RV.
Final Thoughts
As I said at the top of the piece, the future is simply unknown. As I write this, I’ve been self-isolating/working from home for just over two months. I don’t expect this to change anytime soon. Many tech companies have decided not to attempt to bring their workforce back until sometime next year. Other companies are planning to continue with a work from home policy indefinitely. While I personally believe we’ll continue to see a drop in the infection/death rate due to COVID-19 throughout the summer, I believe we may see it climb once again later this fall as we enter the typical flu season. Again, while the future is unknown…we all need to be prepared for the impacts of COVID-19 (in one way or other) to continue to impact us well into the decade.
Thanks for reading and I’ll be sure to return shortly with a P3Dv5 setup update. Until then, please continue to take care of yourself and those around you.
Could the wait be almost over? It certainly appears so. Looking back through my archives of blog articles, it appears the first time I mentioned the QualityWings Boeing 787 Dreamliner was way back in February of 2013, so yea….over four years ago. What I said back then (and I quote myself) “QualityWings Simulations currently has a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in development and if it is anything like their 757, I’ll certainly make the purchase pending it has the upgraded batteries”. Of course, the battery remark was referencing the issues Boeing had been experiencing during that timeframe on the real Dreamliner aircraft.
Anyway…according to this Facebook post directly from QualityWings, this awesome aircraft is expected to roll out of the QW Hangar sometime in the Summer of 2017. This truly is great news for those who are Boeing fans (like me) and are looking for a little variety.
FSX Rollout First
I suppose the news stating that initially the B787 will only be released for FSX doesn’t come as a big surprise. After all, with a development spanning over four years and their initial reluctance to support P3D….those still on FSX will get to have the first level of fun. But don’t fear…the QW787 will also be supported on FSX-SE (Steam Edition) and Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D v4. Unfortunately there is no mention if they also plan to support the older P3D v3 (or even v2 for that matter). I would certainly hope QW would at least consider releasing and supporting it for P3D v3.
Cost
QualityWings have announced their QW787 will be sold separately for FSX (including SE) and P3D. This is become more and more common with add-on developers and the price will be $69.95 USD for each platform. Purchasing the product for FSX will not guarantee operation in P3D and vice versa. Finally, the QW787 will be sold through Flight1 and will include a 30 day refund policy.
More about the Dreamliner
Boeing announced the development of the 787 Dreamliner in 2003 and the first test flight occurred in late 2009 with the first production model being introduced in 2011. The Dreamliner is a long-haul, mid-size widebody, twin engine jet liner. It offers variants seating anywhere from 242 to 335 passengers in a typical three-class configuration. The Dreamliner is approx. 20% more fuel efficient than the Boeing 767 which it was intended to replace. Airlines are using the Dreamliner for both long-haul and shorter high-density routes.
Saying Goodbye to an old friend
With my move to Prepar3D v4 (and not looking back), it appears I’ll need to say goodbye to my old friend the QualityWings 757 as QW has no plans to make it available in P3D v4. At one point in time, the QW757 was my favorite aircraft. But much like the Level-D 767, they both really began to show their age in a post FSX world. Fortunately, according to the latest news from FSELITE, the folks behind the popular Level-D 767 have finally announced their 757-200 which is reported to be approx. 80% ready and in beta. Of course, time will tell just when and how this will be released. Rumors are also going around that Level-D is looking at what it would take to get their 767 into P3D v4.
My Hangar Needs
When (if) the QW787 is available for Prepar3D v4, it’ll fit in nicely with my PMDG Boeing 737NGX (800/900 and 600/700), Boeing 747-400 (Queen of the Skies II) and the wonderful Boeing 777 (200 and 300 variants).
As I just don’t have time for many long-haul flights, I would suspect I’ll use the Dreamliner in the shorter-haul high density passenger route configuration (2-4 hour) both in North America and Europe and continue using the 777 and 747 to simulate freighter operations across North America and Europe. My 737NGX will continue to be my workhorse.
If you are curious as to what add-ons are currently compatible with the 64 bit version of Prepar3D v4, then look no further than this extensive spreadsheet list which is updated frequently as more add-ons are released for this awesome sim.
The highly anticipated 64 bit version of Prepar3D (P3D v4) was released only one week ago, but already dozens of 3rd party add-ons have been either made compatible or confirmed to already be compatible with P3D v4. On the very first day of release, many 3rd party developers already had released new installers and the list continues to grow.
Over this past weekend, PMDG released their almost new Boeing 747-400 Queen of the Skies II for P3D v4. While I own the PMDG 737 NGX and the beautiful Boeing 777, I had yet to pickup the 747. But I’m excited to say that the Queen now lives in my hangar and here’s a recent flight image of this beautiful airplane.
I can also report that on the above mentioned flight using the PMDG 747-400 (flying as Atlas Air Cargo), I departed from Denver KDEN (Flightbeam add-on scenery) and arrived in Dallas/Ft. Worth KDFW (FSDreamTeam add-on scenery) with all graphics settings maxed out and P3D v4 performed like a dream. I simply could not do that in P3D v3.x without an Out of Memory error crash.
Over the next few weeks, I will continue to get more of my large collection of 3rd party add-ons installed and configured into P3D v4. At the present time I’m also working on a video review of the new Dovetail Games Flight Sim World and will also begin showcasing some flying action from the new P3D v4 on my GrizzlyBearSims YouTube Channel along with Farming Simulator 17 “Let’s Play series”.
Thank you for reading my blog and thanks for subscribing to my YouTube Channel.
Hello and thank you for stopping by. For several years I have wanted to produce more cinematic flight sim productions. However, the amount of time required hasn’t always been something I’ve had a lot of. But times are different now. Of course I love flying and this video was a lot of fun to put together. There will be more soon….
