This is my hat trick for FS2Crew... My third review for their products, and second in the Voice Commander line of products, and once again job well done. This time around Mr. York decided to release the Voice Commander Edition for the Level-D 767 (a product which already had a FS2Crew version for it without voice recognition) which as most readers who have been in this hobby for a while will know it is one of the best add-ons ever released for the Microsoft Flight Simulator platform.
I guess this time around the million dollar question will be if you already own the 767 with the original FS2Crew version on it, whether it is worth the money upgrading to the Voice Commander. If you ask me the answer is a very confident YES. From the pre departure events all the way to shutting down, you will be getting pretty much the same you got in the original FS2Crew version, but doing it with speech recognition is a whole other different experience. I got to review the PIC 737 version of the Voice Commander and I am hooked. Naturally once I saw the release of the Level D 767 version on FlightSim.Com I just had to jump at the opportunity and once again I was impressed with the quality of the product.
The software is available through direct download at the Pilot Shop. The file comes in a 254MB compressed ZIP folder. You will need to have the speech recognition in your Vista or Windows 7 OS system in English for the program to work correctly. If you have an XP system you will need to download additional software which is listed in the manual. Windows Vista and 7 users will also need to turn off the User Account Control feature for the software to work.
It is also highly recommended to get a good quality headset, and if you have not used the voice recognition in Vista or 7 you run through the tutorial and training program that comes with the OS so the speech recognition system works better with your voice. The program also brings a newly redesigned configuration manager which you will need to use for a couple of things. First you will need it to activate the license so the software will work in your system, and then you will need to open the Level D 767 configuration manager and simply click on the SAVE button. This is needed because the software upon installation automatically changes the configuration file for the Level D panel, but to implement the changes it is necessary to save the configuration information.
Once the program is installed you will need to change a couple of settings in the Level D setup menu from within FSX. First turn down all the way the Level D volume for the voices, and deactivate the F/O, and deactivate the door opening feature. As you may know the Level D software has the capacity of repeating some of the tasks that FS2Crew will be doing so to avoid certain things from happening twice it is necessary to configure the Level D plane correctly. In the load panel state feature you will find a FS2Crew panel state to load which will start you up perfect for a FS2Crew flight.
I think the best way to go at it the first time is to print out the manual which is very good by the way, it's about 62 pages with all the details you need to use the software and for it to work appropriately. This way you can go through all the checklists and understand what is needed to answer every time the FO calls a checklist item. A lot of them we already know, but some are a little tricky and takes good memory to recall and get right.
As in all FS2Crew products there are key click spots in the cockpit that you use to access the menus. This version has only two and they are in the same place. They both are in the vertical speed indicator gauge and are basically side by side. The first one is the main panel (left click) and the second is the configuration panel (right click).
The main panel is the one you will mostly use throughout your flight. It will let you know in what stage of the flight you are and what checklist is coming up, and it will let you control actions such as toggling speech recognition on and off, headsets, calling the Flight Attendant, adjusting the volumes of the speech system, night lighting, etc. You will not be touching this panel very much and it can be kept hidden throughout the flight since you will be controlling checklists and giving the FO orders with your voice.
The configuration panel is the one you will set prior to starting the flight to control certain functions much like the ones that are in the older versions of FS2Crew. You can setup the region of the audio of your crew, volume, start the preflight events (which is optional) fast forward time, let FS2Crew control the jetways before push and parking, select whether you will have a pushback, and the parameters for it, select a FO takeoff (which I have not tried to be honest), enter all V speeds, and arrival elevation data.
Operationally there are really three things that you control with your voice which seem to be independent of each other. First you call the checklists with your FO, and interact with him through the voice recognition system, second you can order your FO to operate certain aircraft systems, and third you communicate with other players in your flight such as the pushback and gate agents, and flight attendants.
Checklists work like a charm. According to FS2Crew they are based on real life operations (much like all of their products) and the flows work great. They are a little too short; it feels so great to call out the checklists with your voice that it leaves you wanting longer checklists, but if the checklists are that long in reality then no problem. Checklists include pre flight, before start, before taxi, before takeoff, after takeoff, descent, approach, landing, shutdown, securing. As I'm sure it is in real life not all are called and performed by you. If you choose the pre departure events you will also communicate with the ramp agents, company ops, and call pre departure briefings. Since you are the pilot flying, some are read and executed by the FO, such as after takeoff, descent and approach, I would have LOVED to have all of them done by me, but in the interest of making it real we will look the other way.
You just took off and the FO is going through the after takeoff checklist... Just when you think how cool it is to be doing all of this without clicking the mouse or hitting a keyboard you realize that's not all this program does. After hearing the call positive rate of climb you say "gear up" and the FO does it. The FO can operate most of the autopilot parameters such as speed hold, auto throttle on, autopilot master, approach hold, VNAV hold, LNAV hold, heading select, VOR hold, flight director on off, climb thrust, heading XXX, speed XXX, course XXX, flight level XXX, altitude hold, and call flaps. You can pretty much start the descent and land without touching the mouse except for setting the FMC for landing.
Last but not least you control with your voice all the pre departure events that are a trademark feature of the FS2Crew products. You answer the engineer for receiving and turning over the plane, you can ask for coffee, you have full communication with the pushback agent while pushing and all the way through disconnecting and saying good bye. All of this is optional of course; if you wish you can go direct to the preflight checks and get going which is what I do since these days I don't have that much time. If you do choose to do the before departure dance, there are many items that the FO does for you much like in the older versions of the software so make sure you read and understand who does what in the panel configuration prior to the preflight checks.
All in all I can say the program was incredibly easy to use and get accustomed to, and it is so much fun using it. For the first time I had to go to client support and it also works pretty well. I made a mistake installing the program (not setting York as a trusted program) and within 24 hours my problem was solved. It required somebody from FS2Crew to access my system remotely and after that it worked like a charm.
Highs - Flawless system programming, super easy to use, great tutorial and manual, standardized programming with the other Voice Commander editions makes it easy to use once you mastered the first one.
Lows - To truly get the feeling of the product you need to do various flights with the printed tutorial on hand because of the many trigger words you need to memorize, but it is small price to pay for voice recognition.
The Verdict - Great work once again! Now we need the voice commander for the Captain Sim 757 and Feelthere ERJ145.
Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Windows 7
Flight Simulator X or FS2004 with the Flight 1 Level D 767 installed
Headset or microphone (the higher the quality the better)
Microsoft Direct X (March 2009 or later) *
Microsoft Net Framework 3.5 or later *
* Automatically installed by the installation program
Microsoft Flight Simulator X (SP2)
Windows 7
3.22 Quad Core Extreme Processor
4 GB High Speed RAM
526 MB Nvidia graphics accelerator with DirectX 10.
Gustavo Mercado
gusifer@gmail.com
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Other Reviews By Gustavo Mercado:
Flight Simulator Platform Solutions' FSX Booster
Feelthere Embraer Regional Jets
FS2Crew 737 Wilco Voice Commander Edition
Air Hauler
Zinertek Ultimate Airport Environment X
FSX Missions Eurowings CRJ-700
Captain Sim Boeing 757