July 15, 2011 / admin / 0 Comments
Please note: I wrote this blog post approx. 6 months ago and for whatever reason it failed to publish. I just realized it was stuck in draft mode and while I’ve changed my mind about some aircraft developers and also own a couple of excellent payware models that work flawlessly with my GoFlight hardware, some of the ideas expressed are still very much valid in the grand scheme of things.
I don’t know about you, but I think we need a better “try before you buy” system for flight simulator software add-ons. Yes I get the whole issue around software piracy. In the “real-world” I work for a large enterprise software company. We take software piracy very seriously and so should the creators of flight sim software and add-ons. But in most cases the “trial or evaluation” method in flight simulator add-ons is extremely limiting.
As many of you who follow my blog know, I’m an avid GoFlight Customer. I love this hardware and I love that for the most part I can conduct the majority of my flights with limited use of the keyboard and mouse. I have over a thousand dollars invested in GoFlight gear with the very idea of not needing to click with a mouse during flight. However, with this comes some restrictions that I’ve only learned about since coming back to the hobby.
During the 2001 – 2005 timeframe, most of the aircraft I operated were either the FS default variety or those based on the default variety and shareware type aircraft available from sites likeFlightSim and AVSIM. Today most of what I have flown have been the same type of aircraft. However, I did purchase a few Carenado models which I dearly love.
Part of my on-going frustration with software add-ons and the lack of a decent trial system stems from a PMDG purchase I made a few months ago. The product in question is the PMDG 747-400X. I had heard about and seen images of this beautiful aircraft and decided to purchase it. Once I downloaded and installed the aircraft I discovered it would not work with my GoFlight GF-MCP Advanced auto pilot module. While I researched and found forums from years ago talking about a software fix available from PMDG to correct the issues, the fix is no longer available. I essentially spent $54.99 on an aircraft that will sit in my hangar and never be flown.
Initially I didn’t understand why the PMDG 747-400X wouldn’t work. I had a lot of experience with the default aircraft and the shareware type from Flightsim and AVSIM. I’ve never run into any issues with the compatibility of my GoFlight equipment and these models. I even had purchased from Flight1 an MD-80 model and experienced no issues using that aircraft and my GoFlight hardware. So why is this PMDG model not working?
From what I now understand, the GoFlight GF-MCP Advanced is compatible with all MSFS default aircraft and any freeware/payware aircraft that model their MCP/autopilot functions the way the default aircraft are modeled. After spending $54.99, I realized PMDG DO NOT model their aircraft autopilot functions the way that MSFS modeled the default aircraft. This means if I want to fly the PMDG 747-400X that I own, I would need to fly it with my mouse and keyboard to control the autopilot/MCP functions. Not cool.
To explain the above paragraph differently. The GoFlight GF-MCP Advanced uses the standard Microsoft FSX keyboard commands to control the aircraft. When I turn the heading knob on my GF-MCP, it sends the corresponding keyboard commands of Ctrl-Shift-H followed by = or – depending on which direction I’m turning the knob. The PMDG aircraft uses a completely different keyboard mapping per function setup. It’s this difference which prevents the PMDG aircraft from working correctly with the GF-MCP.
Many will argue the PMDG aircraft is far superior to any default and shareware aircraft available today. I do admit the flight dynamics, the look, the feel of the PMDG models are truly amazing compared to the default and shareware models I own. My reservation to flying it is simply the lack of support for my GoFlight GF-MCP Advanced.
Now before I forget, yes I have talked to tech support for both PMDG and GoFlight. Both sort of point their fingers back to each other as being the responsible party. However, I will take the side of GoFlight in this argument. GoFlight creates their hardware to work with the default and shareware models. GoFlight also makes their SDK available to any aircraft developers free of charge.
What I’ll admit to not fully understanding is why PMDG (and others) code some of the aircraft functionality different from the default aircraft. I’m not a software developer….but I would think it would be possible to create an aircraft model just as wonderful as the PMDG 747-400X, yet stay with the basic functional requirements as what the default aircraft uses.
Now I certainly do not hold PMDG responsible for me spending $54.99 on something that I may never fly. As a matter of fact, the aircraft isn’t installed any longer. I should have conducted better research. However, back to the original subject of this topic, PMDG does not offer any sort of trial process. But even if they did, I would imagine it would be lacking in the functionality available.
As an example to the lack of functionality available in a demo model. I looked into the Captain Sim Boeing 757. I downloaded and installed it. But the demo model is so locked down in functionality, I couldn’t make a conscious decision to buy. Here is what the Captain Sim website states about their demo model “We hope this Free Demo will help our customers to make more informed purchase decisions and thereby enhance their satisfaction with the 757 Captain product.” Further down the page, this is how it reads to inform you of what doesn’t work in the demo:
Please note, the following features are not included in the Free Demo:
• Extensive Systems Programming (ADI, HSI, EICAS displays inop)
• Flight Management System (CDU inop)
• Realistic Flight Model (flight controls locked in the Demo)
• Custom system sounds and crew voice messages
• Authentic Sound Set – PW and RR engines (alias to default 737 sounds in the Demo)
• Collins WXR-2100 Weather Radar
• Aeronautical Data including Terminal Procedures
• Repaint Kit
I don’t know about you….but how do you make an “informed purchase” with the above mentioned restrictions? I couldn’t even find a way to contact the Captain Sim folks to ask if their aircraft would work with my GoFlight hardware as the only way it appears to reach their forum is with an order number. Sorry….you’re not going to get my money before I can find a way to review your support forum.
Now I realize I’ve picked on two aircraft manufactures. Here’s my thoughts on how some scenery developers handle their trial periods. I own several FSDreamTeam sceneries. They offer a try-before-you-buy method. But the scenery demo only works for the first 5 minutes. Yes, you can restart the timer, but only if you exit and restart FSX. 5 minutes? One can’t explore the complex scenery of KDFW in 5 minutes.
Another small beef I have with some vendors is what appears to be the number of times I can activate a particular product. I believe if I purchase a software product, I should be able to install this particular software product over and over and over (as long as I’m not running it on multiple systems). In other words, if I feel the need to rebuild my FSX computer every 6 months, I shouldn’t have to worry in a year or two running out of the number of install/reinstalls I’ve performed. This appears to be an issue in our hobby.
As I stated near the beginning, I fully understand the issues software vendors (all software vendors) face with software license piracy. I understand (and appreciate) that a lot of hard work goes into the development of quality software. While I don’t have the answers, I believe in the examples I’ve provided that a better solution must exist. There must be equal parts of trust built into the license protection so that honest customers like myself can determine if the product is right for them and the software developers can protect their IP or intellectual property.
In closing, I want to make it clear that I do not hold any bad feelings toward PMDG or any developer of Flight Simulator add-ons. Yes I called out my experiences with PMDG, but I only hold myself responsible for purchasing something that I may never use. I may never fully understand why PMDG and others develop aircraft add-ons that differ in the primary functional aspects from the default aircraft. Yes I get the need for better flight dynamics etc. But why change the autopilot keystroke combinations which is basically why the PMDG doesn’t work with GoFlight? To me and my flight simming experience, it is more accurate to turn a knob on my GF-MCP to control autopilot functionality than to use my mouse.
Until next time…Happy and Safe Simming…
Jerry
June 9, 2011 / admin / 0 Comments
This is not going to be an official review of the new Captain Sim Boeing 777-200 as it basically is an exterior only model which incorporates the default B747 panel and B737 sound at this time. Now I know what you must be thinking, especially if you are not familiar with the Captain Sim product and the way they have released products before. From what I understand they have released products in the past in a piece by piece fashion. Meaning it starts with the exterior model and then sometime down the road they will release an interior model etc. While I’ve known about Captain Sim for a while, this is the first time I’ve installed and flown one of their aircraft. Thankfully they start with the exterior as it would look funny flying around just a shell of an airplane.
At present time, the Captain Sim Boeing 777-200 (exterior model) is available 9.99 Euro ($14.56 USD). Now if you’ve read several of my recent blog posts you know I’ve purchased several new aircraft for my virtual hangar. First, about a month ago I purchased the iFly 737NGX and that was followed by the LVLD 767. I’ve blogged about how much I enjoy flying these aircraft and that I’m hooked on the payware aircraft modeled closely after their real world counterparts and have truly enjoyed the realistic procedures required to get these aircraft into the sky and safely back onto the ground. So why did I pay nearly $15.00 for an exterior model that only that acts and behaves like a default or freeware model?
Well…the answer to that question is I didn’t pay for it. I won it. Yes…I won something and I’m tickled about it. I haven’t won anything in years and wasn’t expecting this at all. It was given away as part of the raffle for our AvA 10th Birthday bash event. I actually could choose from any Captain Sim product and I chose the 777. Why? Well this one of course is easy to answer. Since I already had the B737 from iFly and the 767 from LVLD, it made sense to select either the B757 or the new B777. I decided against the B757 as I’m really looking at the Quality Wings 757 if they can ever get their GoFlight hardware integration working. Once this happens then I’ll gladly give them my money. So I figured I really had nothing to lose on the 777. I decided if all else fails, I would just fly it like I would my POSKY B777’s until I found a payware model that I liked. Plus, the FSX Flight Sim community (in my opinion) is really lacking in the quality payware 777 department. We have awesome 737 models out now (and soon to be released PMDG) and we have great 747, 757 and of course my new pride and joy the LVLD 767. But 777’s??? Nah….not really. So I’m hopeful this one fills a very important void for all of us FSX users.
I had just wrapped up a KDFW to PHNL flight in the LVLD 767 (wow what a treat to fly) and had some time before dinner to install and check out this CS 777. She installed with no issues and when I fired up FSX she was listed right there in the aircraft menu. Where else did I expect to find it? I was pleased to find that out of the box she comes in the following liveries American Airlines, British Airways, KLM, United Airlines, Japan Airlines, Air France and Singapore Airlines. This is great because three of the seven are members of the oneworld alliance (AAL, BAW and JAL) and I’m planning to simulate my real world trip to London from Denver in a few days. I can fly any of the oneworld codeshare flights with AvA. This is great by the way as it allows for such diversity in aircraft. When I have a need to fly a Boeing 747 I can jump in and fly a BAW flight. Now I have a saying (which you’ve all heard I’m sure) and that is “If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going”. So…while I could jump in an Airbus A380 as Qantas I haven’t done so just yet. Anyway you get the idea.
So I started the Captain Sim Boeing 777 in the British Airways livery and took her for a lap around DFW. We departed on 17R and headed east around and out of the way of Dallas Love Field and then came around from the NE to land on 17C. For a default, freeware aircraft I have to say she handled great. Yes..I had just finished an almost 8 hour flight to Honolulu in the awesome LVLD, but this wasn’t bad. Considering she is lacking in the interior and flight dynamics like the LVLD.
From the outside the “eye-candy” is fantastic and the image above doesn’t do her justice. I can tell you this B777 will be moved front and center in the virtual hangar in front of the POSKY models I have. The POSKY’s look great, but there are some visual issues (like a hole in the fuselage) which sort of stick out. I’ve tried to find a fix, but gave up. I just make sure I take on extra oxygen and blankets and life is good. 
Again, this is just a first look. Please….Please…Please keep your 9.99 euro in your pocket for now (unless of course you just want an exceptional looking exterior visual modeled aircraft in the liveries I mentioned before. You can also find additional liveries in the usual places such asAVSIM.net. I plan to take this beautiful aircraft on a round-trip long-haul from Denver to London Heathrow and back to simulate my real world trip I’ll take in a few weeks. I will make sure to provide more information in the form of an update so you can better decide.
Finally, I am entitled to the additional packages once they are made available by Captain Sim. I’ll do a full review of the Captain Sim Boeing 777 at that time. Time will tell if she’ll work with myGoFlight MCP when all is said and done. I sure hope so.
In closing, I’ve really enjoyed providing this first look into the Captain Sim 777. I think I’ll review a few other items I have in my flight deck in the near future. I know I promised some information on the VRInsight CDU I purchased a few weeks ago. Perhaps that will be the first review item. We’ll see.
Until next time,
Jerry
May 20, 2011 / admin / 0 Comments
When I began flying computer sims back in the early to mid-80’s all I really could do was get the Cessna off the ground at Meig’s Field in Chicago. If I was lucky I could return to Meig’s field and land within a 5 mile radius of the airport. Most times I ended up in Lake Michigan. As time went by and with the help of my Uncle who once had his PPL, I was able to narrow it down from a 5 mile radius to a 4, then a 3, then a 2 and before I knew it I could depart Meig’s fly around for a while and return and land….YES on the runway.
As the flight simulation software evolved into what it is today, I’ve slowly been trying to learn more technique and follow procedure more accurately. While I have no aspiration to become a pilot in the real world, I do continually push myself to be a better pilot in the virtual world. After a stressful day in the office….this is my stress relief. Of course, I’ve had more stressful days flying my computer sim….but that is a different story and I know you understand what I’m saying.
My friend Al (who is a flight sim blogger and inspired me to start by blog) will often ask me “What MD-80 are you flying?” By the way, check out his blog here. Anyway, I will usually answer…Oh that is a freeware model I found somewhere. With exception to some GA aircraft I own from Carenado, all the heavy iron I fly is freeware. Oh wait….I do own a PMDG 747 but she never leaves the hangar, but more about that later.
Back in around late 2001 – 2002 timeframe I heard about a company called GoFlight. I’ve talked about GoFlight before. They make various hardware modules for those wanting to build a home cockpit. My goal when I began purchasing these hardware modules was to make every attempt to avoid having to use the mouse and keyboard in flight.
The modules aren’t cheap in price, but as I’ve said before…all hobbies have a cost and I even blogged about that here and I simply do not mind paying for quality and quality is what you get with the GoFlight gear. Anyway, I began buying a few here and a few there. At the time I sort of mothballed my equipment and took about 5 years off, I had about $1000 invested in GoFlight hardware and only needed to use mouse and keyboard about 60% of the time. I had moved the needle, but I needed to move it more.
The Fall of 2010 came around and the Flight Sim bug bit me again. I pulled out all my gear (I also have the CH Yoke and Peds) and I built a new PC worthy of running FSX with sliders all the way to the right. I plugged all my GF gear in and started flying.
Sometime between the time I semi-retired from the hobby and the five long years it took me to get back into it, I forgot (perhaps never knew) that a lot of the payware companies don’t factor into their aircraft programming design to incorporate external hardware like that of the GoFlight gear. The difficulty comes in around how a payware company designs the auto-pilot functionality. If they get away from the Microsoft default key assignments then most likely the add-on payware aircraft won’t work with the GoFlight MCP. This is what happened and why I own a PMDG 747 FSX model that never leaves the hangar.
Now let me briefly explain what happened. I am a sucker for eye candy (have been since I was a teenager) and I fell in love with how the PMDG 747 looked and all the features. I spent about 2.5 minutes researching and found a thread talking about a software patch available from PMDG (for free) which would allow the PMDG to work with the GoFlight MCP. Credit card in hand….BOOM…there she was…the Queen of the Skies. But that excitement was short lived with the GF-MCP wouldn’t work. I calmly researched and after about 10 minutes or so of digging around I found another thread stating that PMDG was no longer offering that patch. However, I could purchase it, but it only worked with the GF-MCP Pro. I had the GF-MCP Advanced.
This experience left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. It would cost me several hundred dollars to get to the point where I could fly the PMDG 747 without having to use mouse for MCP functions. I took a stand and said I wasn’t going there. I would not fly an aircraft and not be able to use the hardware that saved me 40% of the keyboard and mouse interactions. I remembered freeware/shareware companies like POSKY who make some nice looking aircraft and they all work with my setup. So that is what I’ve been flying.
A few days ago I began reading about a new payware aircraft that was soon to be released. It was the Boeing 737NG and everyone was talking about it. Yes, everyone is also talking about PMDG’s soon to be released product….but this company beat them to it. iFly just released their Boeing 737NG for FSX and let me tell you she is as beautiful as she is functional. When I saw the images some of my FS friends had captured and watching the videos I forgot about my past experiences with PMDG for about 2 minutes.
But like a giant hand coming from no where, I was slapped back into reality. This probably won’t work for me. Oh…by the way, in the past 2-3 weeks I’ve spent another $1000 in GoFlight gear. The needle has been moved even further. I only use the mouse and keyboard about 25-30% of the time. So there was no way I was going to just give my hard earned money away so this 737 can sit next to the 747 and collect dust.
I quickly started researching but I couldn’t read everything in their forums about add-on hardware functionality. Thankfully my virtual airline CEO purchased the 737NG earlier that day and was setup with forum access. I asked him to look through the forums to see if there was any mention of GoFlight compatibility. Bada-Bing-Bada-Boom he sent me a message through our AvA forums saying to get on TeamSpeak. A very long story short, he told me there was support for it and I nearly started a fire with the friction created by taking my credit card from my wallet so fast.
I installed and set her up for a quick flight and took her for a lap around KDFW. She handled beautifully and just launched off of runway 35C like being launched from an aircraft carrier catapult. I was flying her in her base iFly livery colors. I couldn’t sleep last night with the excitement of flying her again today.
So I got up and installed an Alaska Airlines paint on her (American Airlines is not available yet) and am flying an AA Codeshare from KDFW to KSEA then on up to PANC. She handles better than I could imagine and I’m learning a lot from flying a more complex aircraft than the default or freeware models. I also flew the return trip from PANC to KSEA then on down to KDFW.
(Alaska B739 at KDFW during an afternoon rain shower).
Now…if you are a GoFlight user and own the GF-MCP Pro (which I now do) there are some very minor bugs. Most all functionality works with exception of a few lights do not illuminate. I’m told GoFlight is currently in beta testing for a new GF-Config software (this is what makes all the GoFlight hardware work with FSX) and it should be available soon.
To fly this aircraft the way she needs to be flown, I’ve probably moved the needle backwards on my quest for no mouse and no keyboard interaction. But most will be just on the ground. I’m OK with that for now.
It has taken me a few days to write this blog post and I’ve now owned the iFly 737NG for FSX for a little over 4 days now. I’m learning more about her each and every day. I won’t say I’ve not had my frustrations with this bird, but each one I walk away a little smarter and a little happier.
I won’t say I’ll never fly the old freeware models I have….actually I will fly them as I do enjoy a variety when flying for AvA. But I do really enjoy this new airplane and glad to say iFly the Boeing 737NG.
Next time I’ll share with you my experience with a new flight simulator add-on called FS2Crew. I purchased the FS2Crew version for the iFly B737NG and it has helped by adding a virtual second pair of hands in the cockpit.
Until next time,
Jerry
