Random Speculation

With all the recent product announcements and hints being dropped here and there, I thought it might be fun to speculate on things we might one day see from some of the developers out there.

DISCLAIMER: this was written by some guy sitting in a cubicle somewhere. DO NOT TAKE THIS TO BE ANY KIND OF SERIOUS PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT, OR ANYTHING OTHER THAN PURE FANTASY AT THIS POINT. DO NOT COMPLAIN TO THE DEVELOPERS THAT YOU WANT "X," IF THEY HAVE NO PLANS TO DELIVER "X." Okay, did I get your attention? :)

Here are things I would like to see, which would be totally plausible:

1. 737 "Original" (-100/-200 series)
   
   Sure, 737 variants abound all over the place. Wilco/feelThere has a decent version of the 737 "Classic" (-300/-400/-500 series), and PMDG is working on a great "Next Generation" version (-600/-700/-800/-900 series). However, there aren't really any good versions of the 737 "Original" (-100/-200 series) for FSX. I think it would make a lot of sense for Captain Sim to take this one on eventually. They have already done a 727 and a 707, and the 737 "Original" cockpit is very similar to those two. It would fit in very well with their classic jetliners lineup.
   
   
2. 777/747
   
   I wonder if Captain Sim is working on a 767-400 variant as a prelude to an eventual 777 product? Or even a 747 product, covering all variants in the usual Captain Sim style? The older 747 would dovetail nicely with their classic jetliners lineup, while the newest 747 could borrow cockpit elements from the 767-400 and 777 series?
   
   
3. DC-8 (especially the "super 70s")
   
   Surprisingly, more of these are still flying around today than 707s, even though the 707 outsold the DC-8 originally. The DC-8 has retained life as a reliable short-to-medium haul freighter in many cargo airlines, particularly UPS. (Though UPS has recently announced that they will finally be retiring all their DC-8s.) This seems like it would fit in with Captain Sim's classic jetliners lineup. And the DC-8 is technically a Boeing plane now, since Boeing bought McDonnell-Douglas over a decade ago. How about it, Captain Sim? :)
   
   
4. DC-10
   
   CLS's version isn't bad, but it just doesn't seem very realistic to me. Somebody somewhere is going to do a very realistic DC-10...just watch and see.
   
   
5. Airbus A300/A310 series
   
   Another older jet that deserves some love these days in the flight sim world. American Airlines still flies the A300, although they will phase the last one out of their fleet by the end of 2009. The A300 sees plenty of action for passenger service, particularly in developing countries. Not to mention the use of the A300/A310 as freighters by both FedEx and UPS. I keep hearing reports somebody is working on a realistic A300, but I can't find anything reliable about it right now. Like the DC-10, CLS did a fairly unrealistic A300...but I want something better!
   
   
6. Boeing 717
   
   I think this would be an interesting plane for flight simulator. It is essentially an MD-80 with the updated flight deck from the MD-10/MD-11 series. This one seems like it would make sense for someone like CoolSky or Leonardo to take on, since they already do excellent MD-80s. PMDG certainly has a wonderful MD-11 flight deck, but I get the sense that they would rather pursue new and different things.
   
   
7. Russian jets (especially Tu-204, Il-96)
   
   Considering these already do or eventually will make up substantial portions of the passenger fleet in countries like Russia, Cuba, and Iran, it would be interesting to take one for a spin in flight sim. I know there are quite a few Russians working at Captain Sim these days. Wonder how much experience they have with the "native" Russian aircraft? Interesting to think about.
   
   
8. Embraer 120 "Brasilia"
   
   This seems like a good candidate for PMDG to take on someday after they finish up the Dash-8. On the other hand, feelThere seems to have developed quite an affinity for Embraer products lately. First the E-Jets in 2008, and now the upcoming ERJ v2 sometime later this year. If feelThere wanted to take on a turboprop project of their own, this might be a good candidate. The fuselage of the EMB-120 is supposedly very similar to the one used in the ERJ-135 series. They would mainly have to focus on modeling props instead of jets, as well as the (probably substantial) differences in avionics. Hmmmm. Who knows? The EMB-120 still sees a lot of use in the U.S. these days, in both passenger and small-market cargo service. Skywest flies a bunch of routes in EMB-120s for United Express to small markets in the Western U.S.

Don't know whether any of these things will happen, but it's fun to think about.

2009 Product Outlook and Review

I know I just did one of these back in May, but there have been so many surprises and updates, it's worth a few moments to do an update.

2009 started off rather inauspiciously for us flight sim fans, with the demise of Microsoft's ACES Studio, the developers of the Flight Simulator franchise. (Rumors persist that Aerosoft is working on development of their own flight simulator, so we shall see if anything comes of that someday.) On top of that, it has been a relatively quiet year for third-party add-ons so far, too. Don't know if it is the poor global economy, just a normally slow time of year, or maybe a scheduling quirk among all the various developers out there. Probably a little of all of the above. Fortunately, there appears to be some momentum going into the second half of 2009, and things are definitely showing signs of picking up.

First off, here are some of the significant add-on aircraft releases that have appeared already in 2009:

• Captain Sim 727 Captain (including -100, -200, and freighter variants)
  
• Flight1 Cessna Citation Mustang VLJ
  
• Sky Simulations DC-9
• Captain Sim 767 Captain (-300 variant)

(Apologies if I have left anything out -- please feel free to comment in the comments section below.)

Here is what I believe will be out very soon, possibly within the next month or two:

• Captain Sim 767 Captain (-200, freighter, tanker, and AWACS variants)
• Flight1/AirSimmer A320 -- feature complete, supposedly entering final testing now.
• PMDG JetStream 4100 -- in final beta now.

Here are projects that we know are in the pipeline, but completion timeframe is unknown:

• Captain Sim 767 Captain (-400 variant, with all-glass cockpit like the 777)
• Captain Sim 707 Captain (refresh for FSX) -- I think there will be a sudden, surprise announcement about this on their web page at some point, like they did with their 767 recently. This would be in their "early jets" lineup, on the heels of their 727. Perhaps before Christmas?
  
• Captain Sim B-52 -- some early prototypes up at their website. Looks like an interesting follow-up to the C-130 in their military aircraft line. No clue how far along they are on this one.
  
• Wilco/feelThere ERJ v2 -- I think we'll see this one sooner rather than later, as they shipped a repaint kit to McPhat Studios back in late April. feelThere has been very mum on this one, other than teasing us with some really pretty screenshots. Wilco has yet to acknowledge the existence of this product on their website. I liked the original feelThere ERJ, and I'm looking forward to the update.
  
• Flight1/Digital Aviation CRJ 700/900 -- I think this one is still a ways off, but they have showed off a nice screenshot of the overhead panel. Digital Aviation has done a nice job with the Fokker 70/100 and Cheyenne, so I'm definitely looking forward to this one someday.
• PMDG 737 NG v2 (aka the NGX) -- if this came out in time to show up as a present in my virtual Christmas stocking this year, I would be a very, very happy man. I have been wanting a quality 737NG for a looooooong time. This would dovetail very nicely with Airsimmer's upcoming A320 series in my virtual fleet. I don't know when this will happen, but I will be very excited whenever it does.
• PMDG Dash-8 -- confirmed to be their next turboprop after the Jetstream 4100 is released. Don't know which variant yet, but I am really hoping for a Q400! Won't see this one until sometime in 2010, at any rate.
• PMDG's "Next Big Thing" -- don't know what this one is, but they told everyone to stop asking for a 777. Heh! I don't know if they were just pulling our legs, of if that request means anything. Won't see it until 2010 at the earliest; not until well after the NG v2 is out the door.
  
• Flight1/AirSimmer A320 variants (A318, A319, A321) -- I think in a fashion similar to Captain Sim, these will be sold as optional add-ons to the A320.
Edit: according to a posting in the AirSimmer forums, these will be included with the A320 product. Sorry for any confusion.
• Flight1/AirSimmer A330/A340 -- the next big thing in their lineup, and a logical choice to follow the A320. The A330/A340 uses the same flight deck, so they will no doubt be able to reuse many aspects of their previous work on the A320. Won't see this one before 2010, though.
• Next-Level Simulations A380 -- don't know much about these guys, but it looks like they are working on an interesting A380 project. Will be worth watching to follow their progress.
• Flight1/Level-D 757 -- who knows? Level-D isn't saying much, and Captain Sim seems to be stealing their thunder a bit lately. I have thoroughly enjoyed their 767, though, and hope one day their 757 will see the light of day.

Well there you have it. Lots of things to look forward to! No doubt, there will be a few more unexpected surprises along the way, too. It's one of the things that keeps this hobby interesting.

PMDG JS4100 Page Goes Live

Check it out here! Woohoo!

Looks like August is going to be a very busy month for us simmers...

AirSimmer A320 Entering "Final Testing"

So sayeth Nik, at AirSimmer.

Woohoo!

Captain Sim 707 for FSX in the Works

Captain Sim confirmed in a post on their forums that they are working on an update to their 707 product for FSX. This is not too surprising, since the 707 shares some similarities with the 727, which Captain Sim recently updated for FSX. Still, another cool old plane to look forward to down the road!

AVSIM Library Back!

The AVSIM file library is back, after some delays in recovering from May's hacking incident. Thanks to all the hard work of the AVSIM staffers in putting it back together again! Looking forward to picking up some more repaints here soon.

Mini-Review: Sky Simulations DC-9

Flashback to February 1965. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded at around 900 points. Gary Lewis (son of comedian Jerry Lewis) and his band the Playboys had the #1 hit in the U.S. with a song called, "This Diamond Ring." In aviation, a significant milestone was reached when the very first DC-9 prototype took to the skies for its maiden flight.

Over 44 years later, the Dow Jones Industrial Average now trades at somewhere around 8,000 points, down from an all-time high of over 13,000 points. Gary Lewis reportedly lives in relative obscurity near Rochester, New York. However, the DC-9 remains a venerable workhorse in commercial aviation in the United States, comprising a significant portion of Northwest Airlines' domestic fleet. In addition, the DC-9 spawned two additional derivatives: the highly-successful MD-80/90 series, and the Boeing 717 (originally MD-95) -- both of which also continue to see action in the skies all over the world.

Sky Simulations has lovingly reproduced the DC-9 for Flight Simulator X (and soon, also Flight Simulator 9), so we sim pilots can appreciate firsthand this plane whose illustrious career spans nearly five decades. Every model in the series is represented, from the -10 through the -50, including freighter variants. Here is a shot of the DC-9-30 in action, sporting a Northwest Airlines livery:



The Sky Simulations DC-9 sports a very nice set of 2D panels, for pilots who prefer to fly in that mode. Here is the main 2D view from the captain's chair:



And here is the first officer's view:



One interesting thing about this is that there are certain controls that are only accessible from the first officer's panel: note in particular the light switches across the top, and the hydraulic switches near the lower center. Hydraulics are modeled very faithfully on the DC-9: if you do not switch on the hydraulics, important systems like the flaps will not function!

Fortunately, the DC-9 ships with a pair of PDF documentation files: the first one being essentially a tutorial/checklist walkthrough, and the second one being a more detailed operations manual.

Continuing our tour of the 2D panels, here is the center pedestal (throttles, flaps, etc.):



Here is the overhead panel:



Here is the autopilot and radios:



Note that the autopilot is an old-school Sperry SP-50A. Fans of the 727 will pick this one up in no time at all, because it functions almost identically to the 727 autopilot. There are no LNAV or VNAV modes here: you are responsible for managing the vertical ascent/descent on the aircraft, as well as horizontal navigation. As is typical for these kinds of planes, you should generally plan on hopping from VOR to VOR. Fortuntely, DME is available, so you can find airspace fixes relative to VORs fairly easily.

Here is the panel for operating some of the doors and systems on the DC-9:



Last, but not least, Sky Simulations also makes available the standard FS Garmin GPS unit as a concession to the modern era:



This is helpful if you are trying to locate the glideslope on an ILS approach, but not necessary.

The DC-9 also has a very nice 3D virtual cockpit:



And while not shown here, the cockpit is also available in grey, in addition to the blue color seen in these shots.

Prepping the DC-9 for takeoff can be a fairly complicated affair, but the tutorial document does a fairly good job of walking a new pilot through the procedure. Note that the DC-9, being a 1960s era plane, lacks a lot of conveniences taken for granted in modern airliners. Many pilots prefer it this way! This means that you will have to manage navigation, ascent/descent, and even the pressurization of the cabin manually. Do not expect to be bored when flying this bird!

The sounds in the DC-9 are relatively faithfully modeled, too. Everything from the GPWS ("Pull Up!") and the Stall alarm/sirens is all there. In addition, Sky Simulations have provided several free add-on liveries spanning all variants of the type, including the Northwest Airlines livery featured in the screenshots here. This is a very nice touch, at a time when some companies are moving toward charging customers for extra liveries. Surely more free liveries created by hobbyists will appear at places like AVSIM in the future.

I do have some complaints about the DC-9, which I hope will be addressed in future bugfix updates:

• I could not get ILS approaches to work on the autopilot, for the life of me. I can't tell you how many times I stalled the aircraft and crashed short of the runway. The radios will pick up the glideslope, and I can see the glideslope bug, but I cannot get the autopilot to descend with the glideslope, no matter how closely I follow the approach procedure in the tutorial. Either I am missing something that is unclear, or there is a bug with regard to ILS approaches.
• Speaking of stalls, the stall speed in the DC-9 seems high. I have had the plane stall at 160 KIAS at flaps 40. Really? Seems like the flight model needs to be tweaked a little bit.
• There are a few minor graphical glitches here and there. One example is tuning the NAV1 radio, when going from 108 MHz to 109 MHz: the text shows up as "119" rather than "109". The actual value is correct (109), but the text displayed is wrong.
  

These defects aren't terribly surprising for a 1.0 release, and I would be willing to overlook most of them if the developers make good on their promise to address them in a future release. The flight model seems a little off, though. I had a terrible time trying to land the DC-9, crashing it quite a few times on final approach before I was ultimately successful.

I leave you with some money shots of the DC-9 flying past the Chicago skyline enroute to O'Hare from Minneapolis:









Enjoy!

Rating: *** 1/2