Testing the Latest Captain Sim 757 and 767 Updates

I just wanted to take a moment and follow up here on the state of the new Captain Sim 757 and 767 updates from yesterday. I downloaded and installed them last night, and reinstalled all my extra liveries -- not too many, thank goodness. I then tried a short flight in both a 757-200 and a 767-200 from KDFW to KAUS. (Flight time: roughly 30-40 minutes, just long enough to takeoff, cruise, and land.) I have to say, I am very satisfied with both updates. The Captain Sim 757 and 767 are truly wonderful planes with the latest updates. I know some people will prefer the Level-D 767, and I like that one a lot, too. I think you have a hard time going wrong with either one.

Some observations from my testing this morning:

• The missing terminal procedures bug in the FMS at large airports (like KDFW) on the 757 has indeed been fixed. Hooray! This was one of my pet peeves about the previous version.
  
• The "porpoising/rocking" bug on both the 757 and 767 when doing ILS approaches has been fixed, as well. Landing both was as smooth as glass now. Much, much improved.
• The 757 flight deck has been revised to behave more like the 767 now. In particular, the "TCAS FAIL" message (which I alluded to with some confusion in my recent 767 mini-review) now appears on the 757 as well whenever you are below minimums.
• With the v4.4 update to the 757, Captain Sim is now also bundling the Captain Sim Weather Radar for the 757 at no charge, as they already have done with the 767. The weather radar on the 757 now looks virtually identical to the 767.
• The bug involving some of the keyboard shortcuts (such as Z for autopilot) not working appears to have been fixed.
  

All in all, a nice update right before Christmas. I'm taking a week and a half off from work at Christmas, so I expect I'll get lots of flying in on these then. Looking forward to it!

I know a lot of people had some bad experiences a while back with Captain Sim, but I think for the most part, they have redeemed themselves. I know some simmers will never be happy unless it's Level-D or PMDG putting out their planes, and that is their prerogative. I think Captain Sim has done a great job with the 757, 727, and 767 this year. They have been responsive to customer input and appear to be working hard to fix the defects in their planes as they are reported. They have also done a nice job of integrating their planes that use FMS's (757 and 767 currently) with the Navigraph updates. Big thumbs up to Captain Sim!

I imagine things will be quiet for the rest of the year from Captain Sim now, with all the 767 variants (except the -400) and fixes. Wonder what they'll unveil next in 2010?