Litjan

What you say has merit - especially when you consider that you can make a "simplified" airplane within a year or so - and probably sell almost as many copies as you would for a very realistic version. But I think we already have a good offering of planes like that in the X-Plane franchise. And we are not only in this to make money - for me it is mostly a hommage to the best airliner I ever flew. And thinking that the very first 737-500 that I ever flew just got scrapped in Tulsa breaks my heart. I hope that we can immortalize this great aircraft with this add-on. And I don´t want to immortalize a dumbed down version (although we do have to succumb to some X-Plane and flight-simulation realities, of course). Another thing to keep in mind: The 737 is a plane that was built to "simply fly". No overly complicated system logics, no constant fighting the automation (most spoken words on some airliner´s flight deck: "What is it doing now?" and famous last words: "It´s never done THAT before!"). Not on the 737! So I think if you are a casual user and just "want to fly" you can do so. The (real) 737 does not ask for much more knowledge or system manipulation than a King Air or a Citation Jet. Set the pressurization, extend the flaps, off you go. There is a lot more to know to operate it efficiently and with reliable safety, but if you don´t have to pay for the fuel or a new airplane...then you can get away with a bare minimum of procedure adherence. If you are a total airplane noob then don´t expect to hop in and fly some complicated circling procedure on one engine. But if you can fly the default heavies with some degree of success, you will certainly be able to get our 737 from A to B. Jan

Hi simeg, we are really not playing with you guys - I know it´s frustrating, and I am sorry if we cause you mental pain! We don´t want to say more than what we already said, sorry. Boy, I guess I start to understand Microsoft´s stance on community interaction... All the best, Jan

Well, a gentleman like you is certainly going to put money where his mouth is, correct? So how much would you be willing to put down to show us all the strength of your conviction? Jan

I think so, too - I have only heard good things about those aircraft... the truth is that I don´t really have the time to fly X-Plane for leisure, anymore :-( Jan

Can you specify what you think "icing conditions" are? Liquid precipitation is not icing condition. Just below 0C is not icing conditions. Real icing conditions are hard to find. You need: A.) Supercooled droplets (not snow!) - visibility below ca. 1500m or 1SM B.) Temperature between ca. -40C and -1C C.) A TAT (leading edge temperature) below -0C I am not sure if X-Plane models icing in low visibility - I think it distinguishes between "visibility" and "clouds". So you may have to be "in the clouds" (where everything goes totally white) to get icing, together with parameters B and C. If your airplane flies "too fast", then the TAT will rise so that no ice can build, even if the OAT is -10C... Jan

You are doing something wrong. The icing effects in X-Plane are definitely there. I just tried it. I get a marked increase in drag, and a marked decrease in lift. I attach a picture - try to display the same data on your screen, then hunt for icing conditions: Fly inside clouds with a temperature just below freezing. Careful: You must have a TAT below freezing, not an OAT. Also too cold - no icing. Snow won´t ice. All this is realistic. Also: Don´t have anti-ice equipment running (some planes might have this on by default). Jan

It will ice over if you enter icing conditions. Jan

When I started flying the 737 in 1996 I just missed out on getting rated on the -200 as well. So I can´t make any general comparison about flying the real derivates, however many pilots I spoke to said that the characteristics were indeed quite different. I can´t make any comparison about our model and the FJS one, since I don´t have any FJS aircraft. Jan

Been there, done that

We model the Sundstrand APS 2000 APU. It is FADEC controlled - and in our V1.0 it always starts up (below a certain altitude, iirc) and will not "break" if you don´t adhere to the various limits. I feel that this is realistic enough, because in 10 years of flying this plane I only had to refer to the starting limits only a few times (you can start it 3 times without any waiting, but then have to wait 30mins before the 4th and subsequent attempts). Usually the APU starts up just fine. the procedure is: Toggle APU switch to ON. Release. Ta-da! We plan to have a "wear and tear" model in future updates and versions - but I will vote strongly to not make it a "gamey" model. If you bust a limit, it usually does not mean that the affected component will fall apart into a 1000 pieces. The limits on operations are usually designed to keep the component running without damaging it in the long run. So if you have a limit of 2 minutes between start attempts, and you only wait 1:55, the starter most likely will not fail right away... I don´t think we will make this totally "realistic", because then you would have to fly the plane for thousands of hours before you see any "wear", but it will not be a "bust the limit by one degree and the plane will instantaneously combust" model, either. Some middle ground. Jan

Well, you know how that goes... "Ladies and Gentlemen, both the Captain and the First Officer had the fish last night. Now unless anyone can fly a 737-300, I am afraid that we have to cancel today´s flight to..." Jan

Ah, now I understand the question, it´s about the plastic speed-bugs, not about the orange speed cursor. No, you must set them manually - just like in the real plane. We don´t want to teach you wrong habits. If you ever have to fly a real 737, I want you to be ready for it, and not sit there and wait for the plastic bugs to move to the correct speeds . Jan

Now... what do you think?

Hmm, interesting. I didn´t think about that variometers are calibrated to a certain altitude. But that would mean that regular variometers (like on high performance piston acf) are also only accurate at a specific altitude? However they are designed to be used at a big range - from sea level to 20.000+ feet. There has to be some sort of compensation - pressure gradient per 1000´ of altitude is much smaller at 20.000 than at MSL. I imagine there is some sort of transmission that is affected by static pressure, thereby compensating different pressure gradients. Here is an interesting post that also describes how the orifice corrects for pressure and temperature changes: http://www.theairlinepilots.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=898&sid=1c06fdf9e75cfb858b57227f8e136307 Of course it is unknown to me wether such a (more expensive) instrument is also built into the cabin VSI. It really only needs to be accurate from 10.000 to 0 feet, if you want to plan the cabin descent rate to match the aircrafts descent path. This might be needed when using the Standby mode or even manual AC or DC mode. Above 10.000 feet cabin altitude you really only care about the absolute pressure change per minute, as this directly affects what you and the passengers "feel" as you try to get the cabin under control again. Cheers, Jan

I love the idea! Jan

Drop someone from the pilots window and time how long until impact!

My first guess was that the descent rate would be lower, since all the air has to rush in through the little outflow valve opening, but there are fairly big negative-pressure relief panels on the fuselage that make sure that the pressure differential can never be negative. So my guess would be: Also 1500fpm. Cheers, Jan

So... what are the correct answers? Great idea, by the way!

So... you are not a Belieber?

I second Cameron, definitely not for V1.0 - not ruling it out for later, although it would mean a lot of work just for another "look". And I am not sure if there are still any pictures of brandnew Classics available anywhere . Jan

I agree - if I had a real 737 for a day, all I´d do is fly patterns with it. If I want to sightsee, I would take a C-172 to better see the scenery. Pattern work is where it´s at, taking off, landing, accelerating, decelerating, configuration changes... Jan

Anytime - there is no way for us to determine if the plane is "on a centerline" or even "over a light". Not possible in X-Plane. But many taxiways and runways are very bumpy in real life, and the bumping and rattling is something you can hear and feel very well in a 737 - especially when sitting over the nosewheel. Jan

And you know I wouldn´t ruin two perfectly fine and very expensive CFM-56´s on takeoff and climbout like that, don´t you? But - you can hear the "sawtooth" effect of the very high RPM a lot better that way. Jan

Dang, this is serious stuff. Here is my guess, without looking at the AMM and being corrupted by flying Airbuses for 4 years : Sitting in the cockpit with everything set up, how would you know if the spoilers extend when rotating the control wheel? Remember, the EFIS 737 doesn't have flight control displays. And no peaking outside the window!Hydraulic Quantity indication decreasing (as fluid gets caught in the extended cylinders) Assuming you have all static ports blocked (no altimeter). You took off, flew the numbers according to QRH and at some point levelled off. What ways can you think of to get an estimate of your altitude (MSL or AGL)? (Aircraft was just painted and someone did a really bad job during the preflight :-) )Either get into the ACMS and do an Alpha lookup of geometric GPS altitude (MSL). This would also work with a handheld GPS like your mobile phone, if you have an APP for that. You could use your weather radar with a tilt of 0. The beginning of the "ground return" in NM divided by 3.3 is approximately your altitude AGL in thousands of feet. Another way is to get a radar station with altitude readout (military) to scan you, or to have a friendly plane come up and fly alongside ;-) The last possibility is to depressurize the airplane and use cabin altitude indication. The F/O's course selector is not responding to changes. What could this indicate?Some mechanical malfunction of the transducer, or the MCP locked up (usually goes along with altitude going to 50.000 and the altitude alert blaring...). It could also be an electrical failure of a certain bus (no idea off the top of my head which one) If the airplane symbol appears in the lower right corner of the EHSI - what does this indicate?Never seen that conciously or heard of it. The CRT wears out and suddenly there is a color loss in the EADI. What implications could this have on landing in bad weather?The colour is required for autoland, because the FMA is written in "green" and if that colour fails, you could not verify the autopilot status during a low-vis approach. You are having a very bad day (obviously!) and now all 4 CRT's are black/white (complete loss of color). Any implications?This is mostly due to lack of airflow (equipment cooling). The CRT´s might shut down at a later stage, depending on how the internal temperature develops. Try to re-instate airflow by going to an alternate ventilation system. Let's start with that :-) Regards YD

Read what has been posted before.