Reviews - Flight Simulator Reviews

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Reviews - Flight Simulator Reviews

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Last Review Posted by Jessica - posted: Tue, July 27, 2004 11:32am

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This 737 (I’m on to v1.3 now) from PMDG is the cat’s whiskers of MSFS add-ons. For those who are new to modern airliners there are loads of manuals available from the developers which will have to be studied closely before you try and fly it. The Mode Control Panel will be familiar to anyone who has already tried other Boeing add-ons, and the FMS/CDU is very similar to the one featured in Dreamflight’s 737 or Aerosoft’s A319. So, many users will be off to a head start.

I loaded up the 737-600 2D cockpit only version for a test flight from Hamburg to Southampton, UK. There are lots of cockpit views to choose from. I set up the flight in the main ‘M’ panel and took-off in the zoom ‘Z’ view. Nice clear EFIS screens throughout. This simulation is hard to fault. The only thing that comes to mind is the rather incomplete SID/STAR library for the FMS, but the manuals include a guide to producing your own arrivals and departures. On arrival at the destination the model sat right on the glide path all the way down to minimums. I tried a couple of non-precision approaches and the 737 did exactly as I wanted.

At $39.95 the 737-600/700 is worth every cent. Unless I want to go and blow something up, I suspect that my other add-on aircraft will be spending a lot of time in the hangar from now on.

Rating: 10

Product Details: "Boeing 737" by Brad - posted: Wed, January 28, 2004 - Rating:

9.39

Last Review Posted by Jessica - posted: Wed, July 21, 2004 7:03pm

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$27.95 is just too much for this add-on when you can get so much more for so much less from other add-ons. It's clear that the developers don't know much about the actual aircraft, so it's no surprise that their model falls down in most areas.

Sim fans shouldn't have to accept these standards in 2004. Spend your money elsewhere.

I downloaded the Citation X add-on from the Eaglesoft Development Group site for the princely sum of $27.95. Payment and installation was straight forward. A manual in PDF format was available from the developers, but rather surprisingly there was no load editor or fuel/trip planner. This is something you could live without in a Cessna 152, but in a long range aircraft like the Citation X? I don’t think so.

My initial impression was of a model which had received a lot of attention as regards its external appearance. The cabin was also highly detailed and even included an animated passenger in the deluxe model. However, the panel was a bit of a let down. I would have raved about this four or five years ago, but now in 2004 it looked rather old hat. The CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) displays and EICAS (Engine Indications and Crew Alerting System) messages were quite readable but lacked the realistic appearance that I would have expected. On the RMUs (Radio Management Units), the click points for COM and NAV tuning were the trickiest I’d come across in a long time. I gave up trying to tune the ADF on the screen and resorted to the ‘a’ key on my keyboard instead.

For my first test flight out of Seattle/Tacoma Intl (don’t try to get this bird airborne off short runways, you’ll need about 4500 ft at low weights) I worked out a fuel load to give me a take-off weight of 25,000 lbs. I tried to select the flight director modes for a normal IFR departure, but I was left slightly baffled (more on this later) by what I could and couldn’t set. In the end I just plumped for HDG and ALT modes, and off I went.

Handling was good and it was almost a shame to engage the autopilot. I carried out some general handling and configuration changes and returned to the airport for a couple of circuits. Emboldened, on a subsequent departure at Vr-5 Kts I pulled the left engine fuel shut-off valve. The Citation X got airborne easily on the remaining good engine and climbed away at a V2 = 135 Kts. In fact, I was able to trim the aircraft to fly hands-off. OK, so the aircraft was light, and most of the default twin-engined models will do this, but quite a few add-ons fall down on this test.

On the second test flight I took the aircraft up to 45,000 ft for some upper air work. On long trips, and having burnt-off some fuel, this is the Citation’s natural environment. But this is where the Eaglesoft model showed its first major handling weakness. Because of the lack of information provided it would be very easy to find oneself at the lower end of the safe flight envelope. There is virtually no stall warning, and I suspect that a lot of users will simply find themselves falling out of the sky. Low speed awareness, vital in an aircraft like this, is minimal on the PFD (Primary Flight Display). There is an animated Pitch Limit Indicator (seemingly always present) which drifts down the pitch ladder as the angle of attack increases, but I feel that many virtual pilots will be frustrated by the jet suddenly departing from normal flight and then hurtling towards the ground.

I also noticed that the speed trend tape on the PFD is wildly inaccurate, and the HSI (Horizontal Situation Indicator) is so small (Project Magenta’s useful pop-up windows spring to mind here) that I found myself using the nav display on the MFD (Multi Function Display) for track/drift and ADF indications.

Down at lower levels I carried out some unusual attitudes. This is where the Eaglesoft model excelled itself. At 300 Kts and 3,000 ft I pulled up into a perfect loop and recovered at 3,000 ft straight and level. A slow roll was effortlessly executed, with the GPWS ‘Bank Angle’ aural warning reminding me that I had exceeded normal bank limits. But hang on, wait a minute, the Citation X isn’t meant to be an aerobatic aircraft.

To really put this Citation X add-on through its paces I would have to try a trip from the USA to Europe. I had to do a lot of homework to work out the flight profile, fuel burn, airfield performance, etc. Most dedicated PC flight simulator enthusiasts (the type who might buy and want to make full use of this add-on aircraft) are smart enough to want to research and operated the Citation X as it would be in the real world. However, one glaring omission from the Eaglesoft model will stop them: it lacks a fully working FMS (Flight Management System). A host of other cheaper long-range add-on aircraft include this facility as standard. Having spent $27.95 I was going to have to navigate using the FS Flight Planner. I would have liked to have been able to program SIDs, STARs, airways, oceanic entry points, etc with the FMS as in real life. Eaglesoft’s excuse for a Honeywell FMS CDU (Control Display Unit) looked awful and has very limited functionality, such as calculating take-off weight, V speeds and next waypoint only information.

The long trip I chose was from Boston/Logan Intl, USA to Biarritz/Bayonne-Anglet, France. This route would be typical of one undertaken by the Citation X with a total great circle distance of 2,966 nm. I departed with 12,000 lbs of fuel and climbed to FL410. Cessna boasts that the real aircraft is easy to fly. However, the Eaglesoft version required my full attention as on more than one occasion it looked as though it was going to give up. 450 nm out I stepped up to FL480. Half an hour later, I had burnt off enough fuel to continue the climb up to FL510, where I settled down in the cruise at Mach 0.82. By the top of descent, 170 nm from the French coast, the Citation was easily cruising at Mach 0.88.

The real world weather at Biarritz was giving an unseasonably strong north-easterly wind with a 1,500 ft overcast, so it was going to be the non-precision VOR/DME approach to runway 09. This is where it all started to go horribly wrong. With just eight miles to go I was completely thrown by Eaglesoft’s interpretation of the flight director control. Luckily, I still had over 3,000 lbs fuel remaining, so I was able to circle and start again in order to achieve a safe arrival, this time hand flying it on raw data, although by now I was regretting using real world weather.

On reflection, the autopilot/flight director would appear to be the same as that featured in the default Learjet included with FS2002. This isn’t good enough in a $27.95 add-on, and I would consider this to be a major failing. Surely, in reproducing the Citation X, Eaglesoft should also have replicated as closely as possible something that is at the very heart of the aircraft, that is to say, the flight guidance system. Other add-on developers have achieved this with aircraft as complex as Boeing and Airbus, and for a lot less bucks.

I believe that payware costing as much as this should offer something over and above that available in existing default aircraft and freeware. What you are getting with this add-on is little more than a panel and a lot of eye candy. Perhaps a little less time spent on fancy graphics and more effort put into the panel, gauges, etc, would have produced a more acceptable simulation. I wonder if any Citation X pilots were invited to participate in this project. There are plenty of them around. If one was consulted then it would appear that he or she allowed the developers to take a lot of liberties in the way the Citation X has been reproduced.

I might have been prepared to pay $20 if the Citation X had come as a bundle with three other models and a couple of nice FBO type airport scenery add-ons, but it’s just not worth $27.95. If you want to try your hand at a long-range jet with lots of functionality try a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320 from one of the other add-on developers.

Rating: 3

Product Details: "Cessna Citation X" by Byron - posted: Sun, February 29, 2004 - Rating:

8.92

Last Review Posted by Jessica - posted: Wed, July 21, 2004 6:43pm

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Not up to the usual PSS high standards as they kept quiet about the centre tank bug (still don't think it has been fixed on the download version even after a year).

Great to hand-fly though. Download some H-bomb effects from www.geocities.com and go and nuke some targets in the former WARPAC nations.

Rating: 5

Product Details: "Avro Vulcan" by Raligard - posted: Mon, March 8, 2004 - Rating:

9.00

Last Review Posted by Jessica - posted: Wed, July 21, 2004 6:34pm

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Early versions in FS2002 were a bit buggy.

This is as close as you will get at the moment to flying a real Airbus, and it's easier to hand-fly than the PSS offerings.

This is one of those add-ons in which you have to study the manual.

Rating: 8

Product Details: "Eurowings A319/320" by royisher - posted: Thu, February 5, 2004 - Rating:

8.00