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Captain Sim Boeing 727 For FS2004/2002

By Andrew Herd

he jet age began in 1952 with the flight of the de Havilland Comet, but it took off with the Boeing 727, a plane which was forecast to sell 250 hulls and ended up selling nearly eight times that number. The 727 was not only the first trijet introduced into commercial service, it was the best selling jet airliner right up to the 1980s - a record it would still hold were it not for the Boeing 737. And yet the strangest thing about the 727 is that it nearly didn't get built at all.

In 1958, Boeing decided to develop a four engined jet aircraft. With hindsight, this doesn't seem like such a big deal, but forty years ago, with the Comet experience fresh in everyone's minds, it was a scary commercial risk. No-one knew for certain what the pitfalls of commercial jet flight might be, let alone the size of the potential market; so Boeing hedged their bets by designing a military tanker/transport that could be adapted for civil use without too much trouble. The prototype was called the Dash 80 and it must have stuck in a lot of people's minds, because Tex Johnston did two barrel rolls in it over Lake Washington in Seattle. With that kind of sales pitch, perhaps it wasn't surprising that the KC-135 was a success - paving the way for development of the 707. Encouraged by early orders for the new four engined jet, the Seattle engineers cautiously began the design of a smaller passenger jet, but with so many irons in the fire, Boeing's finances were by no means certain and the project hung in the balance for a long time. In the end it wasn't until 1960, four years after studies began, that enough orders were secured from United and Eastern for the company to take the plunge.

The prototype 727 flew on February 9th 1963. When production ended in August 1984, the 727 fleet was carrying 13 million passengers each month and had carried four billion in all, which makes you wonder why there were any doubts about sales - but remember how different the world was forty years ago. In January 2001, nearly 1300 727s were still in service and you can still see the first one they built, which flew continuously with United from 1964 to 1991, earning its rest in the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

The new trijet became a favorite all round. Apart from being one of the most attractive aircraft ever designed (though I think the Caravelle had the edge) it had a sophisticated wing with triple-slotted trailing edge Fowler flaps and leading-edge slats, giving it low-speed landing and takeoff performance which was good for a commercial jet of its day, allowing it to use runways no 707 pilot in his right mind would consider.

Production began with the 100 series, of which 571 were sold, the majority in a dedicated passenger configuration, though the 100C had a side cargo door, which allowed it to carry mixed loads. The 727-200 was stretched to take up to 189 passengers and was the most popular variant, with 1,245 sold. The most noteworthy of these was the Advanced 727-200 which flew in May 1971 with "wide-body" restyling, more powerful engines and bigger tanks; these considerably enhanced its payload/range capability, improved its takeoff performance and reduced its quite considerable noise footprint. Some idea of the performance increment can be gained from comparing the gross weight of the 100 series (160,000 pounds) with that of the heaviest variant's gross weight which was 30% greater at 210,000 pounds.

Boeing are justifiably proud of the fact that 101 different airline customers purchased new 727s and while the major U.S. airlines have retired their oldest airframes, many are still operating their younger 727-200s. Forty years after the plane first took to the skies, the Achilles' heel of this old lady is high fuel consumption and the racket she makes; so many 727s have been retro-fitted with "hush kits" to keep them legal. By 2005, the majors will have retired their fleets completely, but there is little doubt that 'twenty-sevens' will continue to see service with second and third tier airlines for decades to come.

By now, I hope you can understand my enthusiasm for seeing a quality 727 package for Flight Simulator, but there is one other thing that I ought to say before getting into the meat of the review. Sure, Boeing's baby handles like a big jet, but the design belongs to a time when things weren't quite as cut and dried as they are now. Ernest Gann published Fate is the Hunter just as the commercial jet age was beginning, and to read his book is to understand what it was like to pioneer the airways - which is exactly what the 727 did. Okay, it went higher and faster than Gann's DC3s and 4s, but the 727 was as much a stranger to computers as they were. This isn't an Airbus, some kind of computer-driven pilot-proof technofest, it puts you in control. So put on your walking boots and get ready to git flyin'.

The full '727 Pro' package is massive 77 Mb download from the Captain Simulations web site and costs $36.95, while the 'Standard' version is $29.92 and weighs in at a comparatively slim 52 Mb. CD versions are also available to order for users without broadband and I am sure that many people will opt for this. The developers give the minimum system requirement as a 600 MHz Pentium with 128 Mb of RAM, a 16 Mb 3D video card and Windows 98 or better; the recommended spec being a 1.8 GHz Pentium with 512 Mb of RAM, a 64 Mb 3D video card and Windows XP.

After downloading the file and running the installation, it is necessary to use an activation applet before using the plane, or all the instruments will be frozen. The applet sends your name and email address to Captain Simulations, who return a code, which is copied back into the applet and 'activates the plane'. The applet is found in the "Legendary 727" program group, along with a link to the manuals. I didn't have any trouble with the installation process, which ran very smoothly.

There are three pdf manuals: a 30 page systems manual; a 38 page operations manual; and a 9 page training manual, which is where the developers ran out of steam, because it is littered with spelling mistakes. As usual with more complex packages, it is a good idea to read the documentation, although to be fair, anyone with a reasonable amount of FS experience ought to be able to load the 727 and fly it straight away, as long as you don't plan fooling around with stuff like the APU.

The visual model is in Gmax, which has taken over as the design tool of choice for commercial FS packages, although FSDS is staging a brave rearguard action in the freeware sector. In the Pro version Captain Simulations offer a choice of four different planes, the -100 and the -200, in both cargo and passenger versions, with a total of 20 liveries, ranging from Pan Am, British Airways and TWA to my favorite, Cougar. The first Cougar plane I ever saw was at Teesside Airport and I nearly crashed our plane craning my neck as we taxied past.

The 'Standard' 727 pack has only the -100 model planes, ten liveries and lacks the 'check and set' voice package, at a saving of just over seven dollars. As part of either package you get an applet called '727TCE' which allows you to configure various options such as call sign, cargo, passenger and fuel load, seat capacity, special effects, crew language, engine fit and even whether the plane has a VC or not. There are already quite a few freeware repaints on offer - although these will need minor adjustments to become TCE compliant - and Captain Sim are already offering a prize for the best new livery posted each month. One of the best things about jets of this era is that the original paint schemes were all rather pleasing and the textures supplied with the package really show them off. The developers have really gone to town on the textures; I have seen others which are as good, but none better than the ones on this plane.

As you might imagine, everything is animated (including the wipers) and there are full reflective textures on offer, but as usual there is a price to be paid for it and you do need a fast computer to run the package. As far as the visual model goes, the rather complicated combination of high lift devices on the leading edge has been modelled well and you get both the Kruger flaps on the outer edge, as well as the slats on the inner edge - with everything down, the sim looks like the wing is coming apart, just like the real thing does. One of the Easter Eggs in the package is triggered by clicking on the captain's window handle, which opens the window - it says it is opening the passenger doors, but that doesn't happen.

My 1.7 Ghz PIV had trouble keeping up with the plane at times, with some frame rate dips reminiscent of the early PSS airliners. Despite this, it is very difficult not to be enthusiastic about the plane, because it has one of the best visual models I have ever seen and the textures are absolutely outstanding.

The flight model is interesting, as one would expect from Captain Simulations and, as is increasingly the case with the better FS packages, was designed with feedback from pilots who flew the real thing. You get an excellent impression of the inertia even a medium sized airliner carries compared to a GA plane, although the sim is still comparatively maneuverable, which is how it should be. So while you can't count on turning final at three miles, neither do you have to intercept the glideslope so far out that the airport is in the next state, all of which goes to make the 727 that little bit more fun to fly than its bigger brethren. What you do have to do is pay careful attention to power management, or you will end up in a smoking crater short of the runway. The 727 certainly has the capacity to teach you much more about power/attitude/trim combinations than most other aircraft sims I can recall, but this exposes one of the only real problems with the flight model.

Captain Sim have geared the trim much more highly than the average FS plane - which may well be correct for a 727, but the problem is compounded by the fact that like many FS planes, the sim is unstable in pitch. In my experience the 727 requires the pitch wound so far aft that it is at the very bottom or even just outside the normal range on take off and if you set the pitch then and never adjust it back again, you are in for trouble. In the end, I resolved the problem by always keeping the flap window in view, so I could wind the pitch back into the green on climb out, but I never felt completely happy with it. A lot of people will get caught out by this, because if you get the trim wrong on approach with the plane lightly loaded, it can be kind tough to get the nose down again after the flare.

The other problem with the flight model is that the rudder doesn't have much authority. The major use of the rudder after takeoff is to keep the ball centred, so the trouble isn't really apparent until you have the plane on short final, when it becomes increasingly difficult to keep everything lined up, it being tricky to make small adjustments by banking alone. I realised what was happening as soon as I tried some crosswind landings, a situation where the rudder is critical, whichever method you choose to fly the approach. I just couldn't land properly and it was then that the penny dropped. The developers are working on both these problems.

The next issue with the 727, and indeed with any complex visual models like this one is frame rates. In tests I don't go out of my way to do add-ons any favors, my rationale being that the first thing most users will want to do is operate the plane at their favorite add-on airport, which means it is no good if I do the testing on the deserted runway at Boondocks, North Dakota, or Carlisle, Cumbria, for that matter. So I took the 727 to SimFlyers Philadelphia and tried it there. The good news about the package is that it is not as much of a frame rate killer as you might suppose, but it treads a very fine line. Loading the default American Pacific 737-400 on the active runway at KPHL, I get around 17.5 fps in spot plane view at 150 feet, whereas the Captain Simulations 727 gave me 13.0, while putting the planes on stand 14 gave 14.5 and 10.0 respectively. Changing to the 2D panel view, I got 15.4 fps off the Microsoft Boeing and 10.5 from the 727, which is just this side of OK. The figures for the VC aren't much different, though they are definitely a few frames lower, but if you use the texture and configuration (TCE) app to knock out the virtual cockpit, you get a 50-75% improvement in the frame rate. Having tried the plane at several other airports, I would estimate that if you choose to use the VC, you should budget for a 50% frame rate hit compared to the default 737, so the bad news is that you need a relatively powerful PC to run this one at top spec - I would suggest at least a 1.7 Ghz PIV or better, which checks out with the recommendation. However, if you use 727TCE to kill the VCs, then you ought to be able to run it on virtually any machine that can load the default 737 - with the aircraft set up this way, you gain a couple of passenger views and you still get a great 2D panel.

The TCE is so central to using the sim it is worth taking a look at it. I have snapped it while I was in the process of fueling and loading one of the cargo variants, but the applet can also be used to load and configure new liveries. In the shot, I am in the process of choosing whether to use the VC/2D panel setup, or the 2D panel alone, having previously loaded the plane (note that by default, the 727 is empty), and adjusted the fuel load - as you can see, I have put in one container too many! The overload sign goes away once you have selected a fuel/load combination that keeps the plane within its CofG and the only thing left to do after that is to save the config and load FS2004/2002. If you have any DreamFleet/FlightOne products, TCE is similar to Text-o-Matic, though it is capable of doing much more - for many users, the main use of TCE will be to knock out the VC in order to speed the sim up.

Talking of flying, I guess we had better take a look at the 2D panel, which is a peach. DreamFleet really started something when they popularised high-quality photorealistic panels and although quality sims do come out from time to time with hand painted panels, they just don't give quite the same feeling of being there as a well-edited digital photograph can. The 727 does not disappoint in this respect and although the bitmap could be very slightly crisper, it definitely impresses, especially at night. This is one of the things that makes me wonder what direction FS2004 (or whatever the next version of Flight Simulator will be called) is going to take, because to run this quality of bitmap in a virtual cockpit would take more computing horsepower than most users could afford right now, and I would hate to lose 2D cockpits like this just because 3D graphics let you pan around.

The 727, with the exception of a few refits, had analog instruments throughout; so the basics of the panel should be immediately familiar to most users. In fact, having reviewed it, I would put this package forward as an ideal stepping stone for simmers who are looking to "convert" to jets and are fighting shy of learning how to use glass cockpits with their unfamiliar instruments. By comparison, if you load the 727, you get an instantly recognisable basic six right in your face and all that remains is to drop a little flap and firewall the throttles - given enough runway and careful management of the trim, I guarantee you will get airborne eventually!

Naturally, there are one or two differences from the Beech Baron, even making allowances for the 727 being a trijet instead of a piston twin, but they don't amount to as much as you might think. Instead of an attitude indicator (AI) you get an attitude and direction indicator (ADI) which differs from an AI in that the bank indicator reads in the opposite sense and the unit sprouts a set of flight director bars; but below that you get a bog-standard HSI, which works exactly the same way as the one in the King Air. Apart from the engine instruments, an approach progress display, a mach meter, gyro compass and a radio altimeter, there isn't anything really novel on the panel. Okay, so there are a few bits and pieces, but trust me, it isn't hard to master them and you will have a lot of fun doing so.

The 2D main panel has the usual lateral views associated with it and in addition to a selection bar, there are five other panels, which can be accessed by all the usual methods. The second officer's panel is one of the more impressive views - shown in the second screen shot - and it has dozens of working components. You will also find yourself using the overhead panel from time to time, pictured alongside, with another hundred switches or so to play around with. This is one of the great joys of flight simulation; you can think, "Well, gee, I wonder what that one does?" and flick it off without risking the plane falling out of the sky and the lawsuit of the century following. The 727 overhead is particularly good in that respect, not only because it has so many switches, but because many of them have animated traps. In the screen shot, I have unlatched one of the switch covers by moving the mouse cursor over it. Go on, dare me to hit that switch.

While Captain Simulations don't claim that this is a procedural sim, like Wilco's classic 767 PIC, all the useful systems have been implemented to a level that makes them fun to use, rather than a cause for worried burrowing through endless documentation. I suspect that this will turn out to be one of the great strengths of the 727, because it is possible to become an armchair expert on the plane after about forty minutes reading, and if you go back to it after using another package, you won't find yourself sitting helplessly wondering where some vital control is to be found. And yet, when you take in the main panel, the overhead and the second officer's panel, you have the guts of what makes a 727 work and while you wouldn't be able to fly a real one after using the sim, at the very least you would know your way around pretty well.

One of the pop-ups you will become familiar with is the autopilot control panel. This replicates one of the early autopilots with which the majority of 727s still seem to be fitted, so the throttles are your responsibility, the AP controlling pitch/altitude and heading, although it will fly a NAV lock and can handle a glideslope. After a quick whizz through the manual, I managed to fly a very reasonable (for FS2004/2002) localiser intercept and ILS approach, knocking out the autopilot at 400 feet AGL and landing it manually. Despite its period feel, the autopilot is a reasonably complicated unit and it is not at all intuitive to use, boasting such subleties as a turn and pitch controller and aileron and elevator control engagement, which is something you don't get to see so often. I tested it on a couple of flights and once I remembered I needed to tend the throttles, it worked fine, though I had a couple of minor episodes of porpoising, which I suspect was caused by the trim issue, though it may be down to the Microsoft autopilot. Every now and again I get email about this and I always agree that it would be nice to see it fixed, but just imagine what it would be like if Microsoft got its own back on us and built in Dutch roll instead? That is the one thing I am really glad is missing from FS, because even an on-screen representation would make me throw up. I guess that is what yaw-dampers are for...

The graphic above right is a composite, showing the radio and APU pop-ups side by side. Under normal circumstances you cannot do this, but PhotoShop knows no rules.

Look carefully and at the very top of the radio panel the autopilot control panel is visible. The 727 has a slightly unusual arrangement of the radios, with the two dual NAV/COM units stacked one above the other, so that the COM radios are on the right and the NAV tuners on the left; and you don't get frequency flipping, because this is a real plane (-: The radios tune by mousing the inner and outer knobs. Below the radios is the transponder, another interesting survivor from the age of steam. Just below the squawk window are a couple of knobs - the left one selects the first two digits and the right one the other pair. The unit can be switched through all its modes including standby. All the frequency digits are within their windows on the radios, which isn't always the case with flightsim aircraft, other developers please take note (-:

Underneath the transponder is the audio selector panel and underneath that is a pair of ADFs, classics of period design, with spinning frequency displays of the sort that I thought had gone out with the Ark and a certain C150 of my acquaintance. Once you spot that it has three different switchable ranges, this is a seriously neat unit and the perfect antidote to the characterless digital crap that tends to accumulate in modern aircraft and which we would all sell our mothers to get. Just take a look at the screen shot and you will see that not only do you get a beat frequency oscillation switch, but can even select which ADF aerial you use, not that I imagine it makes any difference in FS2004/2002. I am not sure what the second ADF actually does, since the game doesn't have a second ADF, but it is comforting to know that you could use the unit if Flight Simulator allowed it.

The APU pop-up looks just as hard treated as everything else on the bird. At top you have the fuel dump panel which will allow you to eject 2300 pounds a minute of Avtur on the unsuspecting heads of the people below you. Below that is the APU panel, which lets you, er... control the APU. Hours of enjoyment to be had here, if APUs are your thing. At bottom the graphic shows the deicer doing its stuff, but take my advice and never use your PC above the icing level.

The 'Check and Set' utility that comes with the Pro version is worth having, if you plan to use the 727 a lot. According to the manual, it consists of a complete set of Captain, First and Second Officer, Stewardess and Ground Crew callouts, recorded by people who have actually been there and got the T-shirt. Before using it, you need to make sure that all the relevant crew member switches on the audio panel are on and that the volumes are set correctly. Increasing the volume is done by shift-clicking on an audio knob, while ctrl-clicking reduces the volume and you can kill the green line by pressing ctrl ~. The default voice pack has English and German options, but according to the manual there is no reason why other language sets can't be added, if users are prepared to record them.

The virtual cockpit is as much a thing of beauty as the rest of the plane, though if you keep swapping in and out of this view, you must be prepared to wait while the textures play catch up. Wilco still have the only active VC in town, in the 737 that comes with Airport 2004/2002 Volume 1, but though you can't adjust anything directly on the 727, you can get around it by using shift-numeric key combinations to pop up the 2D sub-panels in the virtual cockpit and do the adjustments there. The VC is night lit and as far as I can see all the gauges work, but I didn't hunt right to the far corners of the panel in order to confirm that. There is no virtual cabin, as is sensibly the trend with recent airliner releases - these things look great, but are an extravagant waste of frames.

To get the real 727 experience, you need to strap a speaker to either side of your head and turn the sound right up, but the audio set is extremely good. When you listen to it, reflect on what you are missing, because Boeing very nearly went for Rolls Royce Speys, which made the most wonderfully distinctive sound, to my ears at least. In the end they chose JT8Ds, which are fine machines, but sound like every other jet engine you ever heard - good. In addition to the conventional sound set, you get a wonderfully English-sounding stewardess telling you to be good while you are on the flight and a (very quiet) female co-pilot who goes through the checks with you. The co-pilot volume can be boosted using the audio panel, but you also get a green text bar up there telling you what she is saying in case there is any doubt.

The manuals deserve an honorable mention, not least because they manage to cover the ground without leaving the reader wondering if it might not be easier to go out and study for an ATPL, but also because instead of filling page after page with impressive looking performance tables that only the most obsessive simmers will ever use, they actually include several takeoff and descent profiles. These are in the "X marks the spot where you lower the first stage of flap" class, so a user who studied them carefully would be certain to be greasing landings very early on. I can't recall seeing another commercial sim with anything like these diagrams before.

I looked hard for bugs, but couldn't find anything serious - however, I did have a couple of unexplained crashes when swapping from one plane to another, something that my setup isn't normally prone to, so I suspect that the 727 was the cause. These crashes only happened after I had had the sim running a long while and had worked through several planes, while running PhotoShop and Dreamweaver, so it is probable that the average user won't experience any. There is a problem with the landing lights, which work, but show as big rectangular splashes at the wing roots; the exits say they are opening, but don't; and one of the models lacks smoke on landing - but this kind of stuff is par for the course with a flight simulation release. Captain Sim were already releasing patches as I began writing the review. With the first three service packs installed (totalling around six megs) most of the bugs went away, leaving only the flight model to be fixed.

By now you will have got the message that not only did I like this package, I really enjoyed using it. To be honest, commercial jet sims do not quite light my fire the way GA planes can, but I am definitely prepared to make an exception for planes of this generation and before, when pilots really had the opportunity to fly the aircraft. As users have grown bored with the latest modern jets, developers have turned their attention to the previous generation and I think it is a good decision. FlightOne were first out of the gate with their DC-9, which is a little rough around the edges, but reasonable value for the price; however, Captain Sim go well into the lead with this one and they have set the standard in the medium passenger jet sector.

I realise that many readers enjoy tending avionics and if aligning IRUs turns you on, be my guest; but this 727 is a great fun to play with and I like the way Captain Simulations have made it scuffy inside and more than a little time-worn. Barring the trim issue, it flies well and it looks and sounds great, so I tend to agree with people who have suggested that this one might become a classic - if Captain Simulations can get the flight model fixed, that is. The last big iron that pleased me so much was DreamFleet's 737, which still awaits a Gmax visual model, so for the time being, the 727 is going to be my preferred mode of civilian transport above FL180.