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Despite being out of production, the 757 is still a relatively advanced plane, given that, together with the 767, the type pioneered the use of digital electronics. Most of the production run is still being flown, given that the 757 is a much quieter plane than the raucous 727 it replaced, thanks to its high-bypass engines and the use of improved alloys and composites in its high-tech wing, which combined to make it over 40% more fuel efficient than its predecessor. For whatever reason, Flight Simulator developers fought shy of developing 757 addons, until FS2004 came along - and then we got two at once, developed by PSS and Captain Sim respectively. Just Flight have chosen to market the PSS version, the only bad news about it being that the addon is only compatible with FS2004 and that it looks as if there are no plans to update it to run on FSX. The good news is that the addon will run under Vista, unlike the Captain Sim 757, which utterly refused to load last time I tried it on my system, so if you run FS2004 on Windows Vista, this is the 757 to look at. The package comes in a DVD-style case containing a single DVD and a 67 page manual, which includes a tutorial flight in the final pages. System requirements are given as FS2004, a 2.5 Ghz Pentium class processor or better, Windows XP (though it works with Vista), 512 Mb of RAM, a 64 Mb graphics card, a gig of hard disk space and a DVD-ROM drive, because the product comes on a DVD - not a CD. When it was first released, 757 Pro got some rave reviews, but also acquired a reputation for being a little buggy, so it was with some interest that I put the DVD in the drive and ran the installation. I did the review using FS2004 on a 2.66 Ghz Core2Duo with 4 Gb of RAM, a 768 Mb GeForce 8800 GTX and Windows Vista, but I also installed 757 Pro on a 3.0 Ghz Pentium running XP - in neither case did I run into any problems with the install process.
When the installation was done, I found a new Just Flight entry under the Windows start menu containing a 757 Pro group - within the group were links to a 24 page pdf describing the history and all the different variants of the 757; a 31 page pdf of charts and tables, which will make the space cadets' hearts go pit-a-pat, but otherwise can be forgotten; a very useful 29 page FMC manual, which is a must-read; a 'cockpit selection tool' which lets you choose whether to load the virtual cockpit or not; a rather neat fuel planner; and a very nice graphical load editor, which does all sorts of useful things, like calculate the zero-fuel weight for you and load the plane accordingly. The latter pair of tools are something which ought to be included as standard with every complex airliner, together with a tutorial, so congratulations to PSS for supplying all three. All the documents are very well written, although the printed manual is necessarily concise, given its size. Starting up FS2004, the aircraft selection menu brought up something like a dozen different versions of the 757, differentiated by engines, the type of exits fitted, winglets, and further split into -200, -300 and freighter versions. I scrolled up and down the list and then decided that life was too short to go through all the versions counting liveries, but a selection in no particular order includes Condor, Continental, Icelandair, ATA, North West, Air China, a slew of British Airways paints, Britannia, Monarch, Thomas Cook, US Airways, El Al, Iberia, the USAF, UPS, DHL and Delta. You get the picture - if an airline flew the 757, Just Flight have supplied their scheme and you get all the variants in the developer's livery thrown in. Very impressive, dig the winglets.
What is not so impressive is what happens when you load the plane for the first time, because on both the systems I tried, the PFD and EICAS displays appeared to be corrupted. A visit to the support section of the Just Flight website sorted the problem, which is caused by two missing fonts, which it was an easy matter to download and install - but you would think there would be some kind of errata slip included in the package to alert users to the omission. The manual does have an install FAQ, but it makes no mention of this particular problem, nor does it mention the fact that a 64 meg patch is available and required, if you aren't to be be plagued with bugs affecting the CDU, so I did the review with the installation patched to version 1.3, which seems to be stable. Given that the 757 has been out for over a year now, I was underwhelmed by the idea of having to patch the addon, but the good news is that it works right out of the tin, so I guess one can't complain. The visual model is very good, as one can expect from PSS and because the interior isn't visible through the cabin windows, it didn't hammer the frame rates into the ground on the review system, which ran more or less full tilt at 30 fps the entire time in spot plane view. Eye-candy like virtual interiors is great if you are running a quad processor system at 16 Ghz, but this simmer can live without it, especially if it guarantees good frame rates on the approach - I would far rather have ten extra fps in hand on short final than be able to see seats in back and have to cope with a slideshow. You can open the doors either by using the normal keystrokes, or from the 2D panel and it is also possible to deploy the ram air turbine, there is plenty of detailing on the gear and flaps and everything you would expect to move, moves. The liveries - as I said, so many that I didn't count them - are all excellent and I have seldom seen an addon supplied with so many paint schemes pre-installed. The 2D panel is a work of art and I have seldom seen or used a better one; even at 1600 x 1200 it knocks your eye out and for all that it is a graphic on a computer monitor, the overhead has the most convincing three dimensional look I have ever seen. Needless to say, the restrictions imposed by FS2004 and of having to simulate an entire cockpit on a rectangular screen mean that some things have had to go and some of the gauges are a little small, but all the glass screens in the main panel can be popped up in larger versions which are easy to read. Virtually everything on the panels works and it is possible to start the plane from cold and dark following (more or less) real world procedures. The flight management computer (FMC) is very well simulated and you can do just about anything with it that you could do with the real plane, right down to using it to fly holds and to set up fixes - with the 1.3 patch installed, which also fixes some engine parameters in the cfg files, the panel seemed to be stable and worked well without throwing up any significant bugs during the review period on my system. The sub-panels are accessed via an unobtrusive set of icons at the top of the screen and can be slid around and repositioned to your heart's content. The virtual cockpit isn't quite up to the standard of the 2D panel, but nonetheless it is very usable and I had no problems operating the 757 with it. If your system is near to the minimum spec, you would be well advised only to use the VC at altitude and to hit the A key and change to the 2D panel on approach, but it is probably possible to run the 757 with the 2D panel only (using the panel configuration app) on a slightly less well specced PC. The sound set is er... very jet-like, but a bit on the quiet side. Sure, the 757 has high-bypass turbofans, but they are noisy all the same and given that you can hear one coming in when you are in a light plane with the engine running, my advice is to turn the volume up. 
Overall, 757 Pro is pretty much state-of-the-art for FS2004 and I am sad to hear that it isn't likely to make it into FSX. What you get here is a plane that, while it isnt up there with the Level D 767, makes a great foil for the Wilco 737 PIC and is about as well simulated as most simmers would wish - very few FS airliners have this much functionality built into them and if your only experience is flying the default Boeings, 757 Pro will be a serious challenge. The developers haven't shut newbies out - start the 757 hot and you can just firewall the throttles and reach for the sky, but the moment you want to do anything more than hand fly the plane, you will need to do some reading. Great fun, the sort of can-do airliner that is modern, yet harks back to the days of 'if you can see a runway, you can land on it', so if you belong to the bush pilot end of the big iron simming community, you could do worse than take a look. Just get those fonts and the patch installed before you fly.
Andrew Herd  Copyright © 2008 by FlightSim.Com. All Rights Reserved. |
he 757 was originally designed to fill the niche vacated by the 727 and to provide an alternative to the 767 on routes requiring less capacity. The first flight was made in February 1982 and Eastern and British Airways had the type in operation early the following year, with the last hull being delivered in late 2005, after just over a thousand had been built. Despite the 727 replacement tag, the 757 has fifty more seats and early on in the 1990s the type was granted extended-range twin engine operation (ETOPS) certification that enabled it to be flown transatlantic. One of the attractions of the type is that it is similar enough to the 767 that crews can be cross-trained to fly and maintain both planes and the 757's reserves of power meant that it found a ready market with airlines operating out of hot and high airports, like Mexico City and it could operate from any runway the 727 could use, with a full passenger load. Another point worth mentioning about the 757 is that it was the first Boeing to go into production with non-US engines, the original powerplant being Rolls-Royce's RB211 - it was only later that Pratt & Whitney engines were made an option.
