December 3, 2024 / admin / 0 Comments
If you’ve been around the flight simulation community more than a day or two, you’ve probably heard or read someone reference “The ABCD, XYZ aircraft is study-level or is of study-level quality”. But what exactly does the term “Study-Level” mean when it comes to our home based simulators?
A Little History
I first heard the term “Study-Level” somewhat late in my use of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 or what can be referred to as FS9 (circa 2005/06. The term really took hold during the early FSX days and continued to be a popular term throughout the life of P3D. 3rd party aircraft developers like PMDG, FSLabs, Majestic, A2A, Level-D (B767), QualityWings and Leonardo are a few that come to mind who developed study-level aircraft for the home simulator.
Overused Term
There are many in the community who feel the term “Study-Level” is misused and/or certainly overused to describe 3rd party add-on aircraft. Their argument, is the only way to truly experience a true study-level simulator aircraft is to experience a full “Level-D”, high-end simulator such as the airlines use to train pilots. While I understand their position on the matter, I do believe it’s OK for us home simulator enthusiasts to use the term.
What Makes a Study-Level Add-on Aircraft
In my opinion and I know others will agree with me, there are a list of areas which if developed into a 3rd party add-on aircraft will make it study-level quality. This list would consist of High-Fidelity Flight Dynamics, Accurate Flightdeck Replication, Complex Systems Modeling, Realistic Avionics, Accurate Aircraft Performance, Detailed Engine Modeling, Accurate and Interactive Checklists/Procedures, Enhanced/Accurate Sound modeling, Failure and Damage modeling.
I think it’s near impossible for any 3rd party developer to meet 100% of each of these above mentioned items outside of a true Level-D simulator. But most who are actively developing study-level aircraft for home based simulators meet these areas within a 90% threshold just fine.
Study-Level Aircraft for MSFS
Before I list some current aircraft developers who produce study-level aircraft for MSFS, allow me to state what is NOT study-level. Default aircraft, and NOTHING from CaptainSim. Yes, I’m still a CaptainSim hater.
Here’s my short-list of 3rd party aircraft that lives up to the standard to be called study-level and are available or planned to be available for MSFS. PMDG, Fenix, A2A, Bluebird Simulations (757), Leonardo, Horizon Sim and Kuro mods of the default Dreamliner comprise the majority of the study-level aircraft that either are currently available for MSFS or soon have plans to be available. I would probably also throw iniBuilds and the team behind the FlybyWire A320 project in this list as well.
More about my own history with study-level aircraft
As I stated at the top of this article, I really became intimately familiar with study-level aircraft back in the FSX days. There was a time in my sim experience that I didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t truly understand the complexities of those early aircraft. But my first foray into a study-level aircraft was with the Level-D Boeing 767. It quickly became my “go-to” aircraft of choice and I took the necessary time to learn the systems and she was a joy to fly. Then came the PMDG 737, QualityWings 757. I soon became somewhat of a study-level snob and would only ever fly these types of aircraft. Today we are truly blessed with so many choices for MSFS in the study-level category with many more on the horizon. While each take a level of effort to learn and truly understand before ever attempting to fly them, I look to these developers as true quality in their overall craftmanship and dependability in the sim. With a few exceptions in the GA or general aviation category, the only airliners I will use are those who produce a study-level aircraft.
If you are new to the world of flight simulation and you are just fed up with the default aircraft or have made the mistake of falling for a CaptainScam aircraft….divert your hard-earned money towards those I mentioned above as you will not be disappointed.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
April 17, 2024 / admin / 0 Comments
I realize this is the third “Reader Question” post I’ve made in recent weeks. Yes, that’s true! I’ve obviously been holding out waiting for the release of the PMDG 777-300ER as that will be a day-one purchase for me and within a few days I’m sure I would write about it. So until that happens, and I’m still holding out we’ll have it before CTP on 20 April, (but that is looking less likely) here is another email question/comment from one of our blog readers.
Hello, I’m new to your blog site and have already discovered a wealth of information that has helped me tremendously in my flight sim hobby. I’m considering purchasing the Bredok3D A380 from the MSFS in-game MarketPlace. Do you have any experience with this aircraft? I’ve read that FlyByWire is developing an A380, but as the A380 is my favorite aircraft I’m wondering if the newly released Bredok3D version is worth the money. I have experience with the Fenix A320 and PMDG 737, is the Bedok3D A380 similar in quality? Can you help?
Well….to answer your question, No….I do not have any experience with the Bredok3D A380 and I don’t plan to purchase it. In my opinion it is a waste of money. To take this one step further, I doubt I would even install this aircraft into my system if it were free or if I were given a copy of it. I just dislike these Frankenstein type of aircraft that mostly utilize the default aircraft systems (in this case the default A320). There are just too many developers that have taken this course with releasing add-on aircraft that may look from the outside to be what is advertised, only to find out they utilize the default aircraft. Another example of this is CaptainSim’s Boeing 777 that when released used the default Boeing 747 systems.
I suppose you could consider me a bit of an add-on aircraft snob. I don’t mind spending my hard earned money towards something like the Fenix A320 or the PMDG 737 (or hopefully soon to be released B777-300ER), but I’m just not going to waste my money on this trash. It’s just not worth it in my opinion, especially considering that a freeware version of the A380 will release soon from a reputable developer (FlyByWire) who has a proven track record with their A32NX.
While I can appreciate that the A380 is your favorite aircraft, likewise the Boeing 777 is mine. I’ve never been tempted to purchase anything other than the PMDG version once it releases and it’s been a really, really long wait as I completely uninstalled P3D about 2 years ago once the Fenix A320 and PMDG 737 released. So it’s been more than two years since I’ve flown a 777 in the sim. But the wait will certainly be worth it.
Bottom line and my complete open and honest opinion for you. WAIT!!!! Don’t spend your money on the Bredok3D A380 as in the long run I think feel you’ll be disappointed. Especially when you state that you have experience with the Fenix A320 and PMDG 737. Trust me, even without flying the Bredok3D A380, I can tell you the level of detail, level of quality and level of immersion in the Bredok3D A380 will be absolutely NOTHING like the Fenix or PMDG and I’m more than certain that the FBW team will blow everyone out of the water with their A380 once released.
If you’re just craving some larger, long-haul type aircraft until the FBW A380 releases, then have a look at the Horizon Simulations Boeing 787-9 or the Kuro Boeing 787-8. Both of these are fine freeware representations of the Boeing Dreamliner.
There are far too many other quality aircraft which you can fly until the FBW A380 releases. Have you tried the Horizon Simulations Boeing 787-9 or the Kuro Boeing 787-8? Likewise, the Headwindsims Airbus A330-900Neo is likewise a fairly descent aircraft which I also have in my virtual hangar.
Scammers/Scamware
Final thoughts on this subject. Some in the community refer to Bredok3D, CaptainSim etc. as scammers and call their products scamware. While I’ll stop just short of calling them scammers and development of scamware, I will just say that buyers must beware of what they are getting from these types of developers and this is part of the problem. Since the release of MSFS 2020, a very large number of newcomers have entered the hobby. This is a very good thing for the hobby, but these individuals haven’t been around to witness the behavior of developers like this in the past and don’t understand the questions to ask. They just see a shiny, new Airbus A380 and think that will be a quality aircraft. Unfortunately, developers like Bredok3D, CaptainSim and many others like them are not going to stop doing what they are doing until such a time that their Frankenstein projects no longer sell.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
April 15, 2024 / admin / 1 Comment
I guess I’m truly bored with waiting for PMDG to release their Boeing 777-300ER. Since I last published my “T-Minus 8 Days and Counting” post, the days are rapidly passing by and I fear my gutsy prediction that we would have the 77W before the VATSIM CTP event on 20 April is going to be a bust. While I could still be right, I just fear with no progress update over this past weekend from PMDG that the chances are rapidly evaporating before our very eyes. But hey, it can’t be too far away. So hopefully we’ll have it before the end of May????
In recent weeks I’ve flown the heck out of the PMDG 737, Fenix A320 and both the Horizon B789 and Kuro B788 and have just wanted to do something a little bit different in the sim. To be perfectly honest, in the past year or so the vast majority of flying that I’ve done in the sim (and I would estimate this to be hundreds of hours) has been flying tubeliners. By tubeliner I mean the likes of the PMDG 737, Fenix A320 etc. As some may know I fly for an American Airlines virtual airline and also currently serve as the Dallas/Ft. Worth Hub Manager. The VA keeps me busy and this year we’re doing another contest to see which hub can score the most points to be crowned HubOps Champion. Under my watch, the DFW hub has won this title in 2021 and last year in 2023. We’re looking good to also reclaim the title this year. But as we have a substantial lead in points, I have a few days to do a few other things in the sim and I’ve chosen to dust off my VFR flying skills.
Other than all the default GA style aircraft that comes with MSFS 2020, the only payware model I had was the Carenado Mooney. It’s a super easy aircraft to fly and I’ve spent a few hundred hours just cruising around the sim world. Which by the way, I used the Carenado Mooney Bravo for an around the world adventure back in the days of P3D and I need to complete my journey in MSFS when time permits. But I digress….
I’ve read some really good reviews on the JustFlight PA-28R Arrow III and decided to make the purchase. I purchased the bundled deal where I got three different versions of the PA-28 including the Arrow III, Turbo Arrow III/IV. Just as you might expect from JustFlight, these are really superb models.
Anyway, like I said…I’ve been wanting to brush up my VFR flying and decided to spend a few days doing just that. For my inaugural flight in the PA-28R Arrow III I decided to head over to England where I started out at Southampton EGHI. I plotted a course from Southampton flying north towards the Compton VOR. From there I headed east towards High Wycombe and the Wycombe Air Park/Booker Airport EGTB. If you are interested, I wrote a review of the Wycombe Air Park back in 2020 which you can read here.
Route plotted in SkyVector (EGHI CPT EGTB)
Southampton, England EGHI (MSFS default scenery)
I really couldn’t be more happy with the purchase of the JustFlight PA-28R. While I do love the Carenado Mooney, I think this Cherokee is going to become my new GA favorite. After a few minutes I quickly familiarized myself with the controls and had her purring in no time. After a quick check of the weather, I taxied to runway 20 and within seconds I was airborne and making my way towards the Compton VOR.
When I fly VFR, low and slow type flights I do enjoy flying in the UK. I have a real special affinity to the Wycombe Air Park as before my wife moved to the US, she lived in High Wycombe and just a few miles from the airport. When I would visit we would often go and watch the planes on the weekends.
Before landing at the Wycombe Air Park (EGTB), I take a brief scenic flight down towards Stokenchurch.
Parked up at the Wycombe Air Park.
Well, as previously stated the new Piper Cherokee has truly been a joy to fly and I’m proud to own this add-on in my virtual hangar. You too can own the Piper PA-28R Arrow III or the Piper PA-28R Turbo Arrow III/IV or get the entire bundle which includes all three aircraft for a discounted price.
Until next time….
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
April 12, 2024 / admin / 1 Comment
Today I’m having a relaxing semi long-haul flight out of the new iniBuilds OMDB Dubai International Airport enroute to London Heathrow in the Boeing 787-9 by Horizon Simulations and flying as British Airways. While in the real world BA operates this flight in a Boeing 788 or in a Boeing 777-200. Well….I had been doing some flying in previous days in the 789 and I wasn’t sure if the 788 was updated to the latest and greatest version and of course we still don’t have a Boeing 777 available from PMDG and that sort of brings me to the main topic of this blog post.
As the title reads, we are just 8 days away from the VATSIM Cross The Pond event and the last update we’ve received from PMDG regarding progress of their Boeing 777-300ER was a week ago. To the best of my knowledge and after scouring various Twitch and YouTube channels, I see no one streaming any pre-release content regarding the PMDG 77W. While I generally “never say never”, it’s becoming increasingly less likely that we’ll see the PMDG 777-300ER before the VATSIM CTP event on 20 April. So…I’m afraid the prediction I made way back in early March is just not going to happen.
On Thursday, Microsoft announced a new tentative release date for Sim Update 15 (SU15) to be 30 April. While PMDG have publicly stated that the release of their Boeing 777-300ER is not dependent on SU15, they may still decide that a “wait and see” release is in their overall best interest. After all, if I were in charge of one of the most highly anticipated aircraft releases of this year, I believe I would make this same decision to wait until SU15 was publicly available, test thoroughly in that release and schedule a release date sometime afterwards in very early May.
Of course, (and this is just an effort to keep the dream alive) a lot can happen in eight days. PMDG may be tying up the last of the loose ends with a plan to release the 77W to a few select content creators this weekend and if all goes well could still release it mid week just ahead of the CPT event. But I believe it is safe to say that if this hasn’t happened by Wednesday, 17 April or Thursday, 18 April at the very latest that it just won’t happen before CTP.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!! (Just not in the PMDG 77W YET)
Jerry
December 24, 2023 / admin / 0 Comments
It’s hard to believe the end of year is just days away. The year really went fast, but I guess that is also part of getting older. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about some of the MSFS add-ons which released this year and also wondering how it compares with 2022. During 2022 we had some really amazing and much needed add-ons appear on the scene. Most notably the Fenix A320, PMDG 737-800 and GSX Pro. To be brutally honest, 2023 hasn’t really been as exciting as 2022 and much of that has to do with developer delays.
Most of us speculated that PMDG might be able to get their Boeing 777 out before the end of the year and Fenix had also hoped to release their Airbus A319 and A321 airliners. But unless something changes in the next few days, we’ll have to wait until 2024 for these. I recently wrote about “What’s in store for us in the new year”? Have a peek at that article and see if you agree on some of my non-scientific speculation.
I’ve come up with a short list of the add-ons that I added to the sim in 2023 that truly impressed me.
Horizon Simulations Boeing 787-9
Anyone who publishes their top add-ons for 2023 and does not list this one at the very top or very near the top needs their head examined. In my opinion, prior to the release of the Horizon Simulations Boeing 787-9 we were absolutely starving for a truly capable long-haul, widebody aircraft. Naturally, the Horizon Sim 787-9 wouldn’t have been possible without the AAU2 Aircraft & Avionics Update released back in June. This revolutionized both the default Dreamliner and 747 in MSFS and of course the developers at Horizon Simulations capitalized on that and released their aircraft. The truly awesome thing about the Horizon Simulations Boeing 787-9 is it’s freeware. Pending you own the Premium Deluxe version of MSFS, this aircraft is 100% free. In addition to the bit about it being free, in my opinion it is just as good as the QualityWings 787 from P3D which we most likely will never see in MSFS.
Kuro Boeing 787-8
Directly behind the above mentioned Horizon Simulations 787-9 is the Kuro 787-8. These two could be interchangeable as for what might go into the #1 spot or the #2 spot. I’m ranking the Kuro behind the Horizon simply because the Horizon Sim 787-9 was released about a month before the Kuro. But they are both grade A representations of the Boeing Dreamliner and both (again in my opinion) exceed the QW Dreamliner which again, I must say we’ll never see in MSFS.
Headwind Simulations Airbus A330-900
While I believe this aircraft may have actually released back in 2021, it really didn’t catch my attention until earlier this year after it had had plenty of time to get all the kinks worked out. This was my first Airbus widebody to ever fly and I’ve had pretty good luck with it. While I’m mostly a Boeing sim guy, this has been a fun aircraft to fly and I highly recommend checking out the Headwind Simulations Airbus A339X.
Various Airport Sceneries
I’ve added some really awesome airport to MSFS over the past year. While I can’t be 100% certain that every one of these are new to 2023, they are new to me in the past year. FlyTampa EHAM, iniBuilds KPSP, Flightbeam KMSP, MKStudios EIDW, Dominic Design KPHL and KIND (along with a few others that I am pretty sure were released in late 2022) all are excellent representations of their real world counterparts.
Looking ahead to 2024
With regards to all the aircraft I mentioned in this recently blog post titled “What’s in store for us in the new year?” I failed to mention the FBW A380X. Based on some of the screenshots and updated information which was released around the middle of December, the project is coming along and hopefully we may see this aircraft sometime in the new year. Also, iniBuilds also just announced their plans to release an Airbus A350. I’m not sure if we’ll see that in 2024, so time will tell.
I’m also really hopeful that someone will someday, someday really soon release a quality Dallas/Ft. Worth KDFW airport. The Asobo version is ok, but it really doesn’t do this awesome airport justice. FSDreamTeam has always been the developer to make DFW, so hopefully it is on their list for the new year.
Of course, I’m really excited to see what Microsoft/Asobo releases with MSFS 2024. I know this is a sore subject among the flight simulation community. I provided some of my thoughts and opinions way back in June which you can read about if you so desire. But I’m really excited about MSFS 2024 as I believe this new sim will be a truly amazing upgrade to what we have now.
Well….that’s about all I can think of at the moment. Yes, I do believe perhaps 2022 was a much bigger year for add-ons….but while 2023 might have been a bit of a sleeper, I think 2024 will really blow our socks off.
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I look forward to all that the new year has in store for us.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
P.S. I started writing this blog post in very early December. The teasers from PMDG regarding their 777 and the assumed 737 MAX began gaining serious traction around the middle of the month. As I’ve always released my “Top Add-ons” blog post just before Christmas, I did have hopes that I might need to edit it and slot in a new PMDG release. After all, if PMDG had released either the 777 or the 737 MAX in the calendar year 2023, that release would have been my #1 add-on of the year. However, as the 777 only went into beta testing around the 17th, I don’t anticipate it releasing until sometime in the first quarter of 2024.
November 4, 2023 / admin / 1 Comment
I’ve written a lot about my thoughts on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for MSFS over the past year or so. I’ve speculated on whether QualityWings would be bringing their Dreamliner to MSFS and I’ve shared my own thoughts and comments about the wild rumor that perhaps PMDG was working with QualityWings in some capacity to finally bring the product to MSFS. I’m happy to say that none of that no longer matters to me. The wait is finally over, the almost near perfect replacement for the QualityWings 787 Dreamliner is here, and it’s available right now!
Before I ramble on. From what I’ve heard around the flight sim community. QualityWings is all but dead. A few months ago the word was that most of the developers have left and not only were their customers left in the dark about any future plans, so were the beta testers. While I suppose QualityWings could at some point get their act together and finally bring their products to MSFS, I’m sorry to say that they are a day late and many dollars short. Let’s face it. QualityWings only has three products in their current portfolio for FSX/P3D. That being the British Aerospace 146, the Boeing 757 and the Boeing 787. JustFlight has their 146 Professional, BlueBird Simulations is doing a fantastic job with the Boeing 757 and hopefully will release in early 2024. As for the Dreamliner….again, what is available right now as 100% complete freeware rivals anything QW could bring to market.
Yes, if you own the Premium Deluxe version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 you too could be flying in an almost near perfect version of the awesome Boeing 787 Dreamliner is available today in the 787-9 variant via the Flightsim.to website. I’ve been enjoying the 787-9 developed by Horizon Simulations since it released just over a week ago. While I describe this add-on as “almost near perfect”, there are a few small issues that I’m sure will be addressed over the next few weeks that will bring it to absolute perfection. The biggest issue that most flight sim enthusiasts have with this aircraft has to do with the rotation. The aircraft seems to be very nose heavy and is somewhat slow to respond when pulling back on the yoke. But as I said, this is being addressed and I expect to be fully resolved in the next few weeks.
Of course, the Horizon Simulations Boeing 787-9 has only been made possible by the AAU2 or Aircraft & Avionics Update which released back in June and the addition of the more recent changes allowing Simbrief integration into the CDU as it fully capitalizes on these now default systems into the base Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner.
In addition to the Horizon Simulations Boeing 787-9 which is available today, the Kuro 787-8 is also expected to be updated with the same Simbrief integration and hopefully will be available soon.
So if you’ve been longing for a quality long-haul Boeing aircraft, then look no further than the Horizon Simulations Boeing 787-9. Make sure you grab the livery pack which also includes dozens of high quality liveries for both the 787-9 GE and the 787-9 RR engine variants. I truly don’t believe you’ll be disappointed.
If you do not own the Premium Deluxe version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, I believe you can upgrade via the Microsoft Store (not sure how it works if you purchased via Steam). But the cost to upgrade, in my opinion is well worth it to gain access to this awesome aircraft.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry
