The Airbus A300 is a short- to medium-range wide body aircraft. Launched in 1972 as the world's first twin-engine wide body, it was the first product of the Airbus consortium of European aerospace companies, wholly owned today by EADS. Production of the A300 ceased in July 2007, along with its smaller A310 derivative.
What's interesting is that the need for an A300 was expressed by Frank Kolk, an American Airlines executive. The A300 was needed as a replacement on the high density routes operated by the 727s. The aircraft was required to have a 250 - 300 seating capacity, twin aisle configuration, two engines and the capability to operate out of high altitude airports with appreciable payload without any penalty.
Development of the A300 began in 1967 as a joint venture between aerospace companies of the UK, France and Germany. Development wasn't very steady but ultimately it was decided that the A300 would be a twin engine aircraft powered by CFM engines to attract US customers. The Airbus consortium was formally set up in 1970 with the joining of the Spanish CASA a year later.
In 1972, the A300 made its first flight and the first production model, the A300B2, went into service in 1974 followed by the A300B4 a year later. Although production ended in 2007, many airlines still use the A300 freighters and a few use the passenger variant as well. Although now most A300s are the 'cross-bred' types with both analog and digital flight instruments and a two man cockpit configuration.
The technologies employed on the A300 included advanced wings, wind shear protection, advanced autopilots (for its time), and an electrically controlled braking system. The early A300s had cockpits with analog gauges and a position for the flight engineer as well. Later A300s incorporated features like two man crew due to automation of the flight engineer's duties, glass cockpits, and extensive use of composites. On newer A300s, the ADI, HSI, INS, have been replaced by EADIs, EHSIs and simple FMCs respectively.
Add on developers seem to be on an Airbus-developing spree lately. We had the Air Simmer A320, A320 Jetliner from CLS/Just Flight and Airbus X from Aerosoft. Now come to think of it, aren't these all of the newer 'glassy-classy' Airbuses? There's one developer who decided to stand out from the crowd and develop one of the seeds of the Airbus family tree: the A300B4-200. Unlike most A300s today that have semi-glass cockpits, SimCheck decided to develop the classic variant with the analog steam gauges and INS. Both passenger and cargo modes are included. The product is marketed by Aerosoft and is for FSX only. The latest version is V1.2. I couldn't find any published system requirements but I reviewed it on a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Quad with 3 GB of RAM and a 512 MB NVIDIA 8400GS running a 32 bit Windows 7 OS. The simulator used was FSX Acceleration.
You won't have to wait long, lest you have dial up, for this 196 MB zip file download from the FS Pilot Shop. One downloaded and unzipped, an installer with license agreements in five languages are found. Installation is rather easy and painless as it uses the direct serial key validation method. After installation, a directory is created in the start menu containing some links to useful web pages, a flight plan converter, texture installer and a folder containing all the manuals. Checking out the planes in FSX it seems we have quite an appreciable collection of liveries old and new for both passenger and cargo variants. More repaints are available on SimCheck's web site. Some extras are available there too.
Documentation for this aircraft covers the following topics: INS, configurator, livery installer, normal checklists, normal procedures, panel overview, quick start, and a tutorial flight. The manuals are quite realistic and comprehensive. This bird isn't easy to fly. Be sure you give the quick start and tutorial manual a thorough go before actually flying the tutorial itself. You might want to do the panel overview manual as well. The flight tutorial has been nicely done but it's not complete. It won't teach you everything you will need to know to fly this plane but enough is there to help you get the aircraft from A to B if the cockpit has been powered up (start up procedures from cold & dark have not been described). As for the applets, you get a flight plan converter which converts FS2004 flight plans into FSX flight plans, an aircraft configurator that can be used to configure the aircraft and plan for fuel, and a texture installer which can install those additional liveries you can download from SimCheck's web site. They work fine and are quite useful as well.
One of the things about this aircraft that really impressed me is the virtual cockpit. The textures are crisp and the instruments are clear. For those systems that have been simulated, quite literally 99% of the controls for them are functional in the VC. The VC also has some hidden click spots to access sub panel pop ups like the setup menu, refueling gauge, etc. One neat performance feature is the option to show or hide VC window reflections. Having these on does provide a realistic view but they do hit frame rates a wee bit. It's also possible to display/hide the yoke if needed. These two features can be accessed immediately through two labeled click spots next to the ADI. You'll be happy to hear this plane has a functional flight engineer's station as well. One thing I found a little odd was the inclusion of the SimCheck logo on the yoke. There is no virtual cabin with seats for this aircraft for the passenger version but there seems to be a low resolution one for the cargo model. There's a functional doors panel as well. Oddly, the passenger models have this too. Other than that, the VC looks and works great. The VC has a few sub-views as well.
2D panel users can take a breather because this product comes with a functional 2D cockpit. The gauges and instruments are nice and clear. An appreciable portion of the panel is visible on the main display. A panel selector is available at the top left corner of the screen. The captain's, F/O's and FE's (flight engineer's) panels can be accessed along with the other usual sub panels as well. Everything's quite clear and easy to use. The click spots here are in commonality with the VC although there is no option to enable window reflections. This is perhaps a limitation of FSX itself. The yoke isn't there for obvious reasons. The 2D panel looks good on the whole.
The exterior model looks quite good. An appreciable collection of liveries are available but they aren't really of very high quality. Various airlines' liveries are available for both passenger and cargo variants. Some elements of detail are visible on a closer glance like dirt effects. All usual animations have been modeled and it looks like there's an external power unit as well that is visible when the external power is connected. One letdown here would be the absence of wing flex. It feels odd seeing those wings just sit still when flying. Wing flex on the real A300 is not so pronounced but it would have been nice to see it modeled. Aircraft views are available as wing views, a tail view and nose gear view.
Night lighting in the interior of this aircraft is quite good and realistic. But it's not possible to control the lighting much as the only options available for lighting are a common function of the BRT switch and storm light switch. Nevertheless, lighting is very good in the interior. One letdown is the FE panel. One of the screen shots very well explains it. Exterior lighting is fine.
The level of systems programming for this add on is quite astounding. In no way is this bird easy to fly without a flip through the tutorial. Some of the interesting features are the INS, autopilot and the FE panel. Nearly all possible systems have been simulated. A setup menu can be accessed through a click spot and be used to configure various aspects of the aircraft such as external power, panel state, etc. The working environment is very realistic. For example, the brakes don't work if there isn't enough pressure and their efficiency can even reduce due to overheating from excess braking under load. As with any aircraft there are some acceptable limitations: shared cockpit is not supported, INS does not have an MSU (similar to aligning on modern IRSs) or VOR updating or drift, no weather radar, panel works only with FSUIPC (registration is not necessary). During cruise, however, the autopilot does rock the plane gently from side to side. It's not erratic but it's gentle. Sometimes, the autopilot does get a little abrupt.
The flight dynamics for this add on have been well done. They are well balanced and represent the feel of flying a medium sized airliner. The flight dynamics have been tested by a professional A300 captain. The plane handles quite well on the ground as well. Braking is quite realistic on this aircraft. One bug is with the horizontal stabilizer trim. For some position of the trim just short of 3 units, just a touch of adding trim results in the trim jumping to above 3 causing a sudden pitching up tendency and vice-versa. Other than that, I had no problems.
I would categorize the sounds for this add-on in the above average category. The sounds are good but they do need some tweaking. The exterior sounds are very realistic and it feels like listening to some real GE engines. It's the internal sounds that could use a bit of tweaking. A little more of the sounds of the relative wind could have added to realism. What's interesting is that specific sounds can be heard on the movement of almost every switch in the cockpits which is quite realistic. Air conditioning and avionic sounds have been designed well also. There aren't any V-speed callouts but GPWS altitude callouts are there.
I bet you've been itching for this topic. This aircraft does give a hit on the frames but not too much. Now don't be expecting to be flying to complex airports with scenery and AI cranked up. The exterior model and 2D panel give negligible hits. It's the VC that's the main killer. To get the best results, it's important to have an acceptably powerful machine.
This is a fine product. It has some appreciable documentation, virtual cockpit and 2D panel, nice night lighting, and systems are good. The sounds could have been better though. Wing flex and proper virtual cabins could have been a nice touch. Trim control and autopilot need some tweaks. SimCheck have another service pack coming up that will also add more features as well so be on the lookout for that. Please feel free to contact me if you have any queries or suggestions.
Rohan Nair
rohannair10@yahoo.co.in
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