Opinions on Freeware Airbus 380s

Hi All,

Looking for a reasonably good 380 , freeware. Any suggestions or opinions?

Thanks,

Keep in mind they will not have a VC.

Thomas Ruth made native FSX models of the PA A380, the “Multiplayer Models”.

One can use these to merge with his A340 VC. That’s the combo I use for years now.

So there could be better options in the meantime.

Wim

Hi All,

 

Looking for a reasonably good 380 , freeware. Any suggestions or opinions?

 

Thanks,

Bill - Let me know when you find a freeware download that works for you! I find plenty selections, the PA downloads I have tried, usually you can tweek the aircraft.cfg to get the FSX selections to pull up, but not for me with the PA downloads! Tried another, an Andreas Meyer download, no luck there either, not with other websites either! I have had good luck with downloads all the way up to the A350, but the A380 just refuses to "dance with me!" :(

Thanks - Rick

...usually you can tweek the aircraft.cfg to get the FSX selections to pull up...

Not sure what you mean by that.

Wim

Win - Most downloads, the developer has inadvertently overlooked something that would prevent the aircraft from showing on the user's aircraft selection menu. Andreas Meyers is not the name of the manufacturer, but Boeing or Airbus might be! Special named textures not mentioned in the cfg file. Absence of Category=airplane.

ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner" All and many more which might hinder the aircraft from appearing on the FSX aircraft menu

MrZ - Don't know about the panels, but most of the freeware I can get to work, sometimes it's something simple, but these Airbus A380's, I checked that all the t's were crossed, i's were dotted, but I still could not get them to appear in the FSX aircraft selection menu! Granted, these freeware downloads weren't any of the huge 50-70 MB downloads, but they still should have worked?

I'll keep trying until I find one that works! - Rick

A lot of aliased panels are used by most of these aircraft uploaders. Some folks like to delete default aircraft causing newly installed aircraft not to show.

MrZ - I tried one more after you mentioned the aliased panels, and sure enough I couldn't get that to work, but on closer inspection of the cfg.file I did noticed they aliased the B747_400\panel. I suppose they have to have a panel which can be associated to 4 engine aircraft. Do you suppose this aliasing by some uploaders had something to do with my not being able to get the freeware to work?

Absence of Category=airplane - ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner" All and many more which might hinder the aircraft from appearing on the FSX aircraft menu

The absence of these lines have never hindered the appearance in the Aircraft Selection Screen, at least when NO FILTERS are applied.

Of course, when developers start messing with the display names, it becomes difficult to find them in the list. Especially when, on top of that, they don’t provide a valid thumbnail.

The absence of a VALID panel (or panel alias) however does prevent the aircraft of showing.

Wim (with an M - dutch abbrev for William).

WiM - I apologize for the mis-spelling of your name. Once I posted the reply I noticed it was a typo, I had no idea whether I could edit the post or not. I am looking up now and it does give me that option, so my mistake. I know you are Wim, have since I have been using this site. You are one of the few who closes out your replies with your signature!

Sorry, have a nice day! - Rick

MrZ - Don't know about the panels, but most of the freeware I can get to work, sometimes it's something simple, but these Airbus A380's, I checked that all the t's were crossed, i's were dotted, but I still could not get them to appear in the FSX aircraft selection menu! Granted, these freeware downloads weren't any of the huge 50-70 MB downloads, but they still should have worked?

 

I'll keep trying until I find one that works! - Rick

Yeah, the aliased panel will get you almost every time! Even if that particular 747-400 is in your Airplanes folder these uploaders get the alias wrong. Best practice is to just copy the whole panel folder over to your new aircraft.

Sometimes they forget to give the new paintjob/texture folder name in the aircraft.cfg and that keeps it from showing also!

Thanks Mr Z, I never thought to copy the whole panel folder over to the new aircraft. I will try that next time I have that problem! Kind of lost interest in having the Airbus A380 now. Too many downloads and deletions for this computer!

I thought it was strange that the developer would alias the 747 panel, but when you mentioned it, it hit me, he/she needs a panel to accommodate a 4 engine aircraft!

Thanks again! - Rick

Yeah, the aliased panel will get you almost every time! Even if that particular 747-400 is in your Airplanes folder these uploaders get the alias wrong. Best practice is to just copy the whole panel folder over to your new aircraft.

 

Sometimes they forget to give the new paintjob/texture folder name in the aircraft.cfg and that keeps it from showing also!

Mr Zippy - Okay, curiosity got the best of me! Your suggestion of copying the entire panel folder and moving it over to the newly downloaded aircraft worked like a charm! It definitely had the panel aliased from the B747-400, so I guess this will be an on-going solution for you in helping others, when it comes to downloading the Airbus A380. I know it just about whipped me, but you came up with a solution! Thanks!

I know one thing, the Airbus 380 won't be winning any beauty contests, but I guess that's not what

Airbus built them for! It should be fun flying for a change; it is a Big Boy and should be a challenge!

Thanks and have a nice day! - Rick

Mr Zippy - Okay, curiosity got the best of me! Your suggestion of copying the entire panel folder and moving it over to the newly downloaded aircraft worked like a charm! It definitely had the panel aliased from the B747-400, so I guess this will be an on-going solution for you in helping others, when it comes to downloading the Airbus A380. I know it just about whipped me, but you came up with a solution! Thanks!

 

I know one thing, the Airbus 380 won't be winning any beauty contests, but I guess that's not what

Airbus built them for! It should be fun flying for a change; it is a Big Boy and should be a challenge!

 

Thanks and have a nice day! - Rick

Glad it worked out for you! Now my next suggestion would be to Google search FSX A380 panels.

There are a bunch of way better looking 2D panels out there and it would be a simple matter of downloading and installing that panel folder to any and all of your A-380 aircraft. I'll show mine!

Yes, I agree, much better looking! Let me check out Google! Nothing on this site?

Thanks - Rick

Glad it worked out for you! Now my next suggestion would be to Google search FSX A380 panels.

There are a bunch of way better looking 2D panels out there and it would be a simple matter of downloading and installing that panel folder to any and all of your A-380 aircraft. I'll show mine!

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]200170[/ATTACH]

Mr Z - Okay, found a panel download, Pasquale Rinaldi (2011 download), very nice panel, much better to look at than the B747 panel.

Observations: 1) No autobrake available 2) Finally found out how to arm spoilers w/o going to 100%, Shift + /, arms spoilers at 29%. 3) Also, first time setting up flight, if most of the switches appear not to be working, make sure the panel light is on. I thought for sure I had a bum download, but when I went back in and looked at the lighting section, I had inadvertently turned off panel light due to being a daytime flight; it had shut off many of the panel switches. Turned the panel light back on, and all was good!

I am getting to enjoy flying this "Big Boy!" Still experimenting with approach speeds, down to 160 KIAS, and the aircraft lands so softly with the nose in the air, it acts like it wants to keeping flying! I will keep trying to lower airspeeds which might help in getting the nose to come down on it's own!

Anyway, Mr Z, thanks for all your help and suggestions! Maybe this thread might help others!

Rick