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Every now and again, a flightsim developer releases a product that makes you rub your jaw, because it is clear from the moment the addon loads that it is going to be a classic and is going to develop its own fan club of simmers who will use nothing else - occasionally going to the extent of building dedicated 'home cockpits' so that they can relax when they get home by doing what airline pilots do for work. Some of these setups end up costing thousands of dollars and one guy even has a cut off section of an old airliner nose attached to the side of his house so that he can enjoy the last word in realism short of going to the bother of getting an ATPL and going job hunting. The Aerosoft/PMDG Boeing 747 is one of the select group of addons that let us to go beyond the arcade and take a look at the next dimension.
The first time I reviewed the product was back in the Spring of 2006, when I tested the passenger version of the addon, released for FS2004. PMDG had already built up a solid reputation at that stage, so I was expecting something good, but ended up being completely blown away by what I saw, which is why the 747 got a gold AAA, despite being one of the most complex addons I had ever seen.
We are used to having a 747 as one of the default planes, but given the popularity of the aircraft, it was odd that until FS2002 appeared, Microsoft didn't think to include it, although it seems to be here to stay. The gap was filled by numerous freeware and as payware 747s, the pick of the bunch on the payware side being Ralph Tofflemire's 747-200, which has undergone numerous upgrades over the past five years and is presently marketed under the 'Ready for Pushback' banner, although not for FSX as far as I am aware; and the PSS 747-400, which was still available for FS2000/2002 under the 'World Airliners' tag, but may be hard to get, given PSS' recent troubles. As far as freeware goes, you can take your pick, but my favorites are the Project Open Sky series, the eDimensional 747 Freighter and the MelJet 747.
Aerosoft's product comes in a DVD style case, which contained the installation DVD, two manuals and a 'cockpit views' guide. Complex addon that this is, installation took a while, one departure from the norm being that you have to install a runtime in order to get the plane running. There is copy protection in the form of a registration key pasted into the product case. Twenty liveries (ten each for the passenger and freighter versions) are included on the DVD and these can be installed separately; in the process you are offered a choice between installing DXT3 or higher quality 32 bit textures, the latter being recommended if you have a high end system. Dozens more liveries are available on the PMDG website for download, although there is some overlap between the files there and the installation set and all the liveries are presented as executables, so they can be installed just by double clicking on them.
Most people shouldn't have any trouble with the installation, but I ran into a problem as soon as I tried to load the plane, in the form of a dialog telling me that 'PMDGoptions.dll' could not be found - this came up when I was OKing the gauges in Vista. Under most circumstances, this would have been a show-stopper and the product's feet would have not touched ground before it was sent to the great bit-bucket in the sky, but PMDG are a very professional operation with a can-do attitude to support, so I checked their website. Sure enough, the fix was there, on the PMDG ops page. The reason for the problem was also given and I quote: 'We have been able to confirm that the Wilco/FeelThere PIC 737 product is the prime offender when it comes to DLL.XML corruption on our customer's machines. This was verified by testing the installer and determining that it indeed edits the DLL.XML improperly, rendering it corrupted and on occasion useless to editors that may follow along later. ' So there you go. Interesting - if you have the PIC 737 installed, beware. Guess what? I do.
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Mimimum system spec is quoted as FSX SP1, Windows XP2/Vista, a 3.0 Ghz Pentium or dual core system, 150 Mb of hard disk space, a meg of RAM and a 512 Mb video card. This is a realistic assessment of what is needed, although a single gig of RAM is tight for running Vista and would possibly lead to problems running the product. I did the review on a 2.66 Ghz Core2Duo with 4 Gb of RAM, a 768 Mb GeForce 8800GTX video card, Window Vista SP1 and FSX SP2. Frame rates were better than expected; which is to say that you won't be taxiing this thing into complex airports with all the sliders maxed unless you want to be seeing a slideshow. I was getting 8 - 9 fps on the threshold at KLAX with middling FSX slider settings, around 15 fps below 2000 feet and 20 - 30 at altitude. The message is: the faster the machine you have, the better this addon is likely to run.
The printed manual is 61 pages long and was in English in the version I reviewed. Reading this before loading the 747 for the first time is vital, as otherwise you won't be going anywhere, but you aren't finished, because there are 54 pages of a Flight Management Computer (FMC) manual to follow. The cockpit views poster Aerosoft includes will be a familiar to ATPLs, who spend many hours learning to feel their way around diagrams like this one blindfold in order to get accredited and pass checkrides. In addition to the printed manuals, the installation creates a link on the start menu to 'PMDG simulations', which gives you access to fourteen more pdfs, covering everything you could need to know about the operation of the plane in tremendous detail - be warned that it takes a while to read all of these, given that they total many hundreds of pages.
The only applet you get is a neat visual load manager, accessible from the start menu, which allows you to set fuel and pax to any combination you want, complete with warnings should you try and exceed maximum takeoff weight. A 'PMDG' item also appears on the FSX addon menu when the 747 is loaded, which allows you to alter just about any parameter you can think of, including the refresh and display parameters for the glass displays in the cockpit; the way the automatic flight director system (AFDS) works.
Further items on the PMDG menu allow you to save or load particular panel states and to set up failures ad nauseam, no less than sixteen different types of electrical failure are available. Random failures can also be assigned, including an option to assign the frequency at which failures occur - the interesting thing being that some failures, if not acted upon promptly, triggered cascades of other failures and that it is also possible to cause systems to fail by flying the 747 beyond its limits. One of the most useful options of all is the facility to pause the plane at the top of descent (T/D) which means that you can get some sleep while the autopilot flies the plane long distance and wake in the morning to find it poised ready for you to take control of the interesting bit - assuming you got your fuel calculations right and the plane isn't bobbing in mid-Atlantic. It is also possible to save the panel state and I found this very handy when I was swapping liveries in mid-air to get the screenshots.
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Because of the sophistication of the fuel management system, the developers strongly advise that the 747 should only be fueled using the fuel and pax applet, or via the PMDG menu - leaving me sorely missing a fuel planner applet, but a quick Google search showed several freeware options. The manuals have a very helpful section on how to calculate the fuel required for different flight profiles and distances, which worked well as just as long as I stuck to the airspeed advisories in climbout. There are also sections on maximum and optimum cruise altitudes for given gross weights which takes all the guesswork out of figuring out cruise flight levels - the only snag here is that it is almost impossible to be certain what the oceanic upper winds will be like in FSX. One tip is that whatever your style of simming, you must think about the gross weight of this plane at takeoff, because if you fill it full of fuel and passengers and then set off on a short flight, not only will it take you forever to climb to altitude, you will end up stooging around for hours trying to burn off excess fuel before you can land, because the addon has a built-in maximum gross weight above which structural failure will occur on landing - just like the real thing, only less expensive.
The visual model is highly impressive, with moving parts and some very fine textures, although it loaded my RAM to the limit and swapping planes too often eventually resulted in an out of memory FSX crash. In addition to the extreme detail found in the visual model, the developers have taken a great deal of trouble to get the flap and gear deployment right, with the result that many simmers will find themselves tapping their fingers waiting for even twenty degrees of extension. There is none of the 'hit the switch and cope with the pitch' type of FS flap deployment we know so well and the plane feels that much more realistic in flight because of it. At the expense of assigning specific key commands using the PMDG item on the addon menu, you can open every door on the hull and the developers have seen to it that the point of view is properly adjusted so that the plane can be docked properly at most addon airport gates.
The addon has a photorealistic cockpit which is generally good, with all the 2D panels displaying well with crisp graphics and readable legends right up to 1600 x 1200 on a twenty inch monitor. The only let-downs are the radio panel and the pedestal, but that is only by comparison to the forward panels and the overhead, which are first class - as far as I can tell the graphics are the same ones as the FS2004 product. The plane is provided with both left and right hand 2D cockpit panel views, so it can be flown from either seat, the easiest way of switching views being to use a mini-panel which sits unobtrusively at the top of the screen. As is customary with airliner panels, in addition to standard forward views, a 'zoom' mode is available, which increases the relative size of the glass gauges, while still presenting them as part of the panel. The PFD and ND can also be zoomed independently. The virtual cockpit is well up to the high standard set by the rest of the addon and it is practical to use it to fly the sim, although if you have a marginal system, panning can be quite slow due to the very high level of detail involved and it took a while to skin at times when I swapped into it from spot plane view - should this happen, there is an option to turn it off on the PMDG menu. The sheer size of the 747 cockpit means that it can be quite tricky to use some of the controls, although the A key has been programmed to get you out of trouble - although it doesn't give you access to the surprise feature of this plane, which is its fantastic virtual cabin. One of the most useful features in the VC is the ability to turn the yoke off using the PMDG option menu, which means it doesn't get in the way of the view of the panel to the extent that it would otherwise.
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FSX appears to share a limitation with FS2004 which means that of the five com radios that most 747-400s possess, only two of the units have been simulated. In the FS2004 version, the developers announced that they were looking at providing weather and time reporting functionality in the Arinc Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) in a future update and the bad news is that they are still looking. Otherwise, you get all the usual other radios, including twin ADFs, VORs and DMEs. The navigational suite includes a full simulation of the intertial reference system, radio altimeter and ground proximity warning system (GPWS) - the latter including windshear warnings which are annunciated on the PFD and accompanied by autopilot flight director system (AFDS) pitch and roll guidance. All in all, we are looking at a very complex airplane.
From the seats, the information derived from these systems is presented on twin primary flight displays (PFDs) and navigation displays (NDs), with a paired EICAS stack placed centrally on the panel. All this wizardry is controlled by an electronic flight information system mode control panel (EFIS MCP) which is fully implemented with the exception of being able to display weather information - but can be used to display TCAS data on the ND - just make sure that you turn on one of the TCAS modes on the radio panel, or you will waste many mouse clicks trying to get the traffic around your 747 to display. The gauges are beautifully implemented and are fully customisable via the PMDG menu item. Looking at the PFD, for example, it is capable of displaying not only all the usual attitude, altitude, vertical speed and heading information, but also airspeed trend, minimum and maximum maneuvering speed bars and flap settings below FL200. Seven roll and ten pitch modes can be annunciated, together with five autothrottle and five AFDS modes, making this one of the most sophisticated PFDs I have seen to date.
The ND has four different display modes (approach, VOR, map and plan) and can be switched to show any range scale between 10 and 640 nm. All the usual features you would expect are included. Heading, trend vectors, range to altitude intercept, speeds, radio and navaid data and ETAs are displayed on the unit, as in the real 747-400; and the map can be switched between expanded and compass rose mode as the user wishes. Needless to say, you get all the usual magenta line display, distance to next waypoint and ETAs, along with a vertical deviation indicator and a static flight plan display that lets you step through a plan loaded on the FMC before flying it. This is one of the few big iron sim NDs I have seen that has holding pattern and procedure turn displays included. The primary and secondary EICAS displays are also simulated to the highest possible level, with eight different display modes implemented on the secondary display as shown below - a helpful feature if you have opted for in-flight failures to occur. Given that virtually every system from the electrical buses to the hydraulics can be troubleshot with this display, it is a very fine example of coding.
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The flight management system (FMS) maintains the very high standard of coding demonstrated by this addon and provides a very realistic simulation of what it is like to operate a real 747-400 FMS. What an FMS does is to co-ordinate all the navigational, flight and route data available from the aircraft systems and present it to the AFDS so that the ideal flight path can be followed, either by a pilot following pitch and roll cues presented on the PFD, or more often, under the control of the autopilot. As pilot, you control the FMS via the control display unit (CDU), using the mode control panel (MCP) to modify AFDS settings. Typically, it is also where bugs can be expected to turn up in FS airliner addons, given that the highly complex code involved is beyond the majority of developers, but in the 747-400 it all works as advertised and seems to be even more robust than it was in the FS2004 version, thanks to judicious patching.
All three CDU's are operational in the sim, although the central unit is normally only used as a backup should another one fail. Simmers familiar with these units from other addons should be aware that the developers have modelled the latest version of the Boeing software, which means that there are some changes from existing published manuals, although most of these are small, other than the inclusion of the newly added ability to input GPS derived data on the POS INIT page. Once again, the simulation of the flight management computer (FMC)/CDU combination is extraordinarily well done and all the CDU pages are active with the exception of ATC and FMC/COM. The FMC manual is very well written, although it is necessarily complex and newbies will find it a little overwhelming, but I can't recall seeing a more lucid approach to this difficult subject and if I had to start learning about how to program FMCs, this would be my first choice of addon to do it. Five types of waypoint can be programmed in: nav database fixes; along track waypoints; place/bearing/distance waupoints; lat/lon waypoints; and place bearing/place bearing waypoints, so it is possible to program the FMC using almost all the modes available on the real thing. A good, although not totally inclusive range of SID/STARs are included and while I am on the subject, regular updates of the FMC database should be available on the PMDG website.
Like the FS2004 version, the 747 handled all the routes I threw at it, including complicated transitions and approach procedures. Part of the reason for this is due to the excellenece of the flight model, which is one of the most realistic ever developed for Flight Simulator. Getting the 'feel' of a heavy like the 747 is almost impossible using the creaky .air file system in FSX, but the developers have somehow managed to deliver the goods and I would be hard put to think of another 747 sim that feels so right. Particular highlights include the fact that the 747 is one of the few FS airliners that allow proper rotation - you can actually hang the nose at eight degrees as you wait for the wing to generate enough lift to take you skyward. In addition, the developers have correctly modelled the enormous difference between flying the 747 empty and at gross weight; in the latter case, ten thousand feet of runway can feel uncomfortably short. I did have a few problems running the product on FSX under Vista, as described above - but most of these were caused by my constant swapping of view and liveries to get the screenshots, which eventually ran the system out of memory. If I loaded a single 747 livery and stayed with it, it ran just fine, as long as I didn't try to run too many other apps at the same time.
Verdict? If you have a fast PC, the Aerosoft/PMDG 747-400 is a compulsory buy. This is a sim with a long pedigree and it has made the transition from FS2004 to FSX successfully and although it demands a great deal from a computer system, it gives just as much back. Yes, it is incredibly complex and yes, it will be scary if you aren't an experienced simmer, but it is the best 747 sim out there, bar none.
Andrew Herd
andy@flightsim.com
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