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Well it all came together nicely really. Cue having one ear infection and only being able to hear in mono. I was off work sick and the weather was crap. Wellington, New Zealand is the kind of place that's gorgeous on a good day with its hills, valleys, mountains and picturesque bays, but on a cold/windy day (of which there are plenty) you just don't really want to leave the house! We get a maritime climate with some interesting weather thrown our way to keep pilots (virtual and real) quite busy! So I decided that i wanted to treat myself, being all mono, so I rumbled down to my local cheap priced IT reseller and scored me a 23" monitor to go with a recently built PC. Sweet! I eagerly jumped into FSX and started flying. Having only recently installed it and the only other add-on being Just Flight's excellent Piper Tomahawk I decided it was time also to flex my credit card's tired muscles once more, and get myself a nice add-on!
So I jumped online and started looking for something fun and interesting. I've become a real short-flight addict of late. About 2 years ago I started doing my PPL in New Zealand but had to cut short when I was nearly ready to go solo thanks to failing my medical due to a lazy left eye so I really jumped into VATSIM again and started flying regional journeys between virtual New Zealand airports. I've also been doing loads of GA flying and exercises and every now and then having a real world lesson. I was thinking of getting something like a Dash 8 or maybe a Beech 1900 so I moused over to PMDGs site. I had the 737NG in my FS2004 days a few years back but when drooling over PMDGs 737NG distant arrival I stumbled upon the Jetstream 4100 on their web site. Hmmm. This looks interesting....GA style handling with airliner type systems...small and fast, lots of buttons and switches that make interesting noises and ahh a working FMS. Sold. I replaced my slightly fatter (but not bad value at $44.95) credit card back in my wallet.
I'd never actually heard of a Jetstream till April of last year. Wellington Aero Club had their annual open day at Wellington International Airport and on display there were a couple of interesting visitors from other tenants of the airport, one of them being Air National who had a Jetstream 31 that you could walk through and sit in the cockpit. I did so and had a nice chat for about five minutes with a pilot (whose name escapes me) about flying and had a good look around and toy with the controls. Sadly he wasn't nice enough to let me start it up and go do some circuits but it was a lovely aircraft and the cockpit felt well designed and easy to find things. I thought from the outside it was a sleek almost-wish-it-had-jet-engines machine, clear lines that looked in way better proportions then the Metroliner or Saratogas parked nearby and its big props sitting on the sleek wings spoke of speed. I took a photo and then promptly forgot about Jetstreams for 9 months!
The Jetstream 41 modelled here by PMDG is a stretch of the Handley Page Jetstream 31, the original design of that which dates back to 1965. Handley Page were trying to save themselves of the coming consolidation of British Aerospace companies and were desperately trying to stay afloat by launching the Jestream, and it went on to become a profitable success, just a bit too late to save HP from being swallowed into Scottish Aviation and later BAe. Only 100 J41s were produced by HP and then BAe Systems up until 1997, but it remains in use today by many airlines around the world, here in New Zealand most recently by the now defunct Origin Air but as far afield as Hong Kong, Greece, the UAE and Columbia! I think its design must owe something to its great British heritage, imagine having the mighty Halifax and Victor bombers that were on the drawing boards before it. Parked up today it still looks good! Plus its got a modern cockpit, good performance and as I said before, almost GA handling to boot.
I'm not going to beat around the bush here folks, my PC isn't great. I'm still kind of travelling around the world so my PC is something I threw together from some cheap second hand parts I bought here last year. My wheezer is an Athlon XP 64 3800 with 3Gb RAM, Radeon 3650 AGP 512Mb and a 500Gb HDD running good old Windows XP. Yes I can hear some of you laughing now at me running FSX well, but I do! I get around 15-20Fps with most scenery options turned up high. I did worry a bit when I read the specs on PMDGs web site though:
Mininimum - 3GHz or multi-core processor, 1GB RAM, WinXP SP2/Vista. MS FSX with Service Pack 2 installed. Screen resolution set to 1280x960 or greater.
Best Performance - Dual or Quad Core Processor, 2GB RAM, 512MB Gfx Card, WinXP SP2.
I wasn't expecting miracles with this product if it was going to be very detailed but I thought with some slider-tweaking it would be okay. My CPU was definitely blushing with inadequacy inside its cooler as I read its specs.
So after a 149Mb download and a simple installation I loaded up FSX and chose NZWN, a clear day and a shiny blue and white PMDG Jetstream 41. Yes it was that simple. Do not adjust your set. I downloaded it, ran the install package, chose where to install it and off it went. No crashing, no tears. To be honest I expected that from anything from PMDG these days, there don't seem to be too many angry people on their internet forums reporting problems installing or seeking damage from throwing hammers at their screens. Within FSX it asked me for the serial number and activated itself nicely online and that was it. No hassle.
As well as the aircraft itself you get a wealth of PDF formatted reading for your viewing pleasure, the first of which I went into for a good peruse was the Tutorial. This is a nicely laid out lesson on how to get the bird up and running, flying a short flight between airports and some usefull overall information to get you going quickly. Unless you're either rated in a J41, or have the luck of the Irish , you'll need this guide to quickly learn your way around and get flying. I am Irish and decided to try my luck, however my shiny J41 was in flames before I knew it so I advise you people to read before you fly :) I'll get back to the flames in a bit, as well as the tutorial there's a very in depth operating manual covering every system and procedure in depth.
The config manager is nice and tidy and easy to use. You may remember that my PC wouldn't win any medals for speed? I'm sure I heard it sigh a little in relief when I opened the config manager because this is where you can claw back some frame rates if your PC suffers from laziness. You can reduce refresh rates of the EFIS, remove extra effects such as passengers and icing, and control engine fires. I initially assumed it was a "load manager" also where you fuel or fill the plane with PAX but that's done within the beast itself.
There are plenty of liveries to download from lots of the operators that flew the J41 and when I had a quick look online I was excited to see one for Origin Air. Great to see a small airline from a corner of the globe brought back to life in FSX. Lots of nice looking liveries also and a quick and simple download is all it takes for them to appear in FSX.
I've already told you how I like the visual lines and design of this aircraft, so lets discuss its modelling in FSX. You never fly a real plane without walking around every inch of it so I did the same with this one and was very pleased with the detail and accuracy (from what I can see) of the model. The animations of the control surfaces and undercarriage are very good and there's the nice touch of being able to see your passengers and pilots being animated too! Lighting is to a good quality, Jetstreams having unique "Conspicuacy Lights" in place of strobes on the wingtips. I was very impressed to see working leading edge ice inspection lights also, as well as the usual taxi, landing, nav and tail flood lights. All lighting is individually controlled from the cockpit. The aerials and probes around the body are highly accurate and I'm not sure was it just the livery I was using but the airfame does look "weathered" in certain places. A bit dirty and used which is exactly how you'd see a real airplane that spends its time working for its keep. Smoke and fire effects are included and during startup this is modelled well. As you must have gathered by now considering how many times I've mentioned fire so far-starting up incorrectly or your EGT overheating will make your engines burst into flames! So most people will experience this effect during their learning process (or by not watching their engines inflight) You can easily turn it off in the config manager...but hey, where's the fun in that! Watchings those engines spool up and burst into life is an enjoyable experience.
Take a stroll into the flight deck and relax into one of the seats while you take in the view. Here are some very well modelled 3D switches, controls, buttons, levers, CRT displays, analog instruments and even some books to help you along your way! Books? Well just one, a nice feature of all the speed reference cards for the J41. You use the load sheet attached to the pilot's side to fill your plane with people and cargo then calculate the weights on takeoff and landing. You can input some of this data into the FMS and use the speedcards to calculate all the V settings for takeoff and landing target speeds etc. Very handy.
It means you can nicely preflight from within the sim, you don't have to use any other programs or manuals to work out your speeds and settings. That's one of the great things about this plane, preflighting becomes easy and enjoyable.
Enter those settings into the speed bugs and your co-pilot will callout "v1 and rotate" as well as the standard "70 knots" and "positive climb" callouts. He also gives gear and flap callouts too. Another nice feature.
Pretty much everything works (except the weather radar) and every switch has its own sound. The interaction is intuitive with a simple left click for left turn or right click for right turn and a handy way of clicking and holding down the switch while you look around the cockpit. Without power the cold dark cockpit looks modern but has traces of use and even dust to add to realism. The seats and armrests are very detailed and there are even two map working lights above your heads! All warning systems such as GPWS or fire alarms can be tested via a panel beside the co-pilot and its quite a sight to light up "the Christmas tree" all at once.
The overhead is excellent and very easy to find your way around after a while. The pilots manual suggests a certain workflow to pre-flight and this becomes second nature after a while. Aircraft systems such as fuel, electric, anti ice and the all important cabin signs are found here, as well as the simple auto-start controls for each engine.
The center pedestal contains two sets of engine controls, rpm and power levers used to keep both engines within limits. Monitor those limits closely you must, so careful movements of the condition levers are needed for subtle RPM adjustments. Unlike Boeing the air-con stuff lives here as well as trim, flaps and parking brake etc., plus gust locks! I haven't come across those before. Strangely the familiar spoiler arm is missing, this because they are automatically deployed during reverse thrust for you so there's just a switch to arm them on the glareshield panel.
All in all a very well built cockpit and panel environment, my personal best for FSX. It's so detailed and complete that you find yourself constantly busy during all stages of flight running through checklists and configuring systems. Its learning curve is such that anyone can become an expert after using the tutorials and spending some time in the air.
The cabin is decent enough, not very detailed apart from animated passengers but I don't plan on spending much time here so it doesn't bother me. Modelled cabin interiors are a nice touch and perhaps fun once or twice to look around but I never see the point in them to be honest. If I wanted to sit in the back of the plane I'd buy a product called "Passenger Simulator" but I spend my time in the cockpit.
It's a lot easier to actually describe systems during a quick flight so let's go.
From what I read online, loading up the default Cessna is the recommended clean way of loading the J41. Another handy feature is the ability to load and save flights with the switches in the same positions you saved them in. There is no custom screen for loading up the panel in a certain state but the ability to save renders this feature unneeded anyway. It obviously loads a bit slower then a default aircraft but even on my system the loading time is fine.
Loading up cold and dark you first want to configure the overhead panel to give you some battery power and begin preflighting the aircraft. I find the whole procedure here very satisfying as there's lots to do and a good 10 minutes worth of configuring to get the bird airworthy. If I really wanted to though, I could get up and running in a couple of minutes by just starting engines, setting trip, flaps and power and blasting down the tarmac. The level of involvement is up to you, it depends how much you want to simulate.
Starting is best followed through the manuals for the first few attempts as there are a few things to be careful about and a few differences to other turboprops. Start and gust locks must be removed. You need to ensure the EGT never rises above limits during startup. There's a little oil pump to operate if the props aren't feathered right for startup. Watch the battery volts or you won't have enough power. The forum was littered with people reporting problems with blowing up their engines on startup but if you follow the excellent tutorials or how-tos online, you'll be smokefree on startup!
The Honeywell FMS is basic by airliner standards but has more then enough features for regional flying. Of course you don't have to use it, simple ADF and NAV beacon flying is fine but if you feel like putting all your waypoints into the FMS the feature is there if you want it. You get a massive database of SIDs, STARS and waypoints and also good fuel and decent planning features. As there is no auto-throttle you must follow the descent profiles manually but it's very useful to help with planning. Using some of the weights on your load sheet you can compute fuel and weight data midflight which is great. I find myself using it for most flights for the ease of having a VNAV route displayed in map mode and it's very easy to switch everything over to capture VOR and ILS readings during approach and landing.
This aircraft I find handles beautifully at all times once you respect its speed. By performing loads of circuits at different speeds and really learning how to handle the J41 I feel like its one of the easiest and most satisfying small airliners I've flown in FSX. Its ease of control reminds of the small GA aircraft I have flown in real life. Down low it's great fun and nimble enough to get into tiny airports. Takeoff at around 97-130 kts, climbing at 170 kts you can get a respectable 1700-2000 fpm climb speed and then you can cruise at 16000-25000 feet at 300 TAS quite comfortably. Coming back down it can be very easy to end up way too high and too fast on approach if you don't follow a proper profile for slowing down before you want to descend. Again this is due to the unique design of the direct-geared engines, even at idle they are tuned to produce 22% thrust! You must watch your power, engine temps and airspeed all the way down to low levels otherwise you'll quickly end up with an overspeed warning or a ticking off from ATC. This all adds to the fun though.
Fly in cloud or icy conditions for too long and you'll see ice appear on the leading edges of the wings and tail, plus around the engines and props. This is annunciated on the panel if it's detected prompting you to clear everything with the comprehensive anti-ice system, again keeping en eye on your EGTs as you do so. I'm not sure if the icing build up affects the flight dynamics or aircraft weight in real time.
Two other awesome features are the engine fires and rain effects. Everyone will blow up an engine once or twice during their learning phase (I bet not in real life) and this is well moddled with fire/smoke effects and the corresponding fire warnings and in the cockpit. You better pop your fire retardant (two shots) and hope for the best! It's great to see rain well integrated with wipers for both pilots also.
This will keep me busy for a long time. I was very lucky in that I went looking for an add-on with lots of realism, lots of depth, but featuring a smaller sized aircraft that I could fly online between regional airports. The PMDG J41 satisfied that need perfectly and will be my main flyer for a while, at least until the 737NGX comes out! It's a high quality product, extremely detailed and you're given enough documentation to feel like en expert after a few days of learning. There's an excellent online community to help you along your way, and plenty of good support from PMDG themselves. Even on lower end systems it can be configured to not destroy frame rates too much. The sound set is very good and the special effects excellent.
It's time to forget the world of 2D panels or VCs that only half
work, immersive yourself in a complete 3D experience where you find
yourself feeling in total control of a complicated machine and where
you can get a lot of satisfaction from mastering its technology. I
love its flight model and the fact it keeps me busy for the entire
flight if I want it to. Use this aircraft in conjunction with VATSIM
and you've got a very good simulation of real life as a regional
airliner pilot which, if many us could see better or afford it, is
probably where we'd like to be in real life! And that's what FSX
should be about, simulating well and having fun at the same time. If
you're like me and love smaller trips or feel like a break from your
big four engined heavies take this plane for a test drive. Get back into
handflying and VOR/DME approaches into those little airports dotted
around the place. An excellent aircraft!
Paul Clancy
plclancy@gmail.com
Learn More Here
Other PMDG Product Reviews:
Aerosoft/PMDG MD-11X
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