Hi mates,
I bought the MD-11 and ... God, it's a hell of a piece, let me say so.
I made some test flights and finally went down on the fly-in...
Let me say that this airplane is not a fully automated airplaned, where all the contingencies are planned and almost controlled by the FMC.
This is not a 747. This is much better than the 747, and also much more complex. The airplane have a level of realism that I never saw and definately you need to really know the airplane to control all the flight situations that happen along the flight.
On my case, happened some things. But let's put some screenshots to show you the story
.
The cockpit is awsome. Highly detailed, very realistic. The FMC (here is called CDU) is another piece of art. Completely functional. Here you can see me configuring the Flight Plan.
As you can see there are a lot of "buttons" to press
... You need to know them all, how to pass from VNAV to NAV mode, things like "flap-a-dial", or "ABS disarm mode" are new words for all of us (or least to me
)
Now, LHSN is a VFR military airport. Matt (lol) made a small "one-letter-mistake" and the fly-in was to LHSM and not LSHN! We didn't figured that out, so I was preparing to land the MD-11 on the military airport. Now, the problem is that that military airport doesn't have navaids to land! It's alsmost fully VFR approach so I made a special intersection on RWY16 as you can see there (the PBD002).
The overhead is another masterpiece. Check that out! All buttons work, and have their special behaviors. You have all the main airplane contexts: Electrical, Hidraulics (real works here!), Air Packs, besides others. You also have special details like the "FILL IN" channels when the airplane is refuelling (I tested it, it's great!) and also a lot of automated or manual override actions.
On that screenshot, I was overriding the AIR PACKS, so the PACK 2 wasn't turned on.
I made the pushback. Know what? It's like the 747. You have a "PUSHBACK" simulator.
But, forget it mate. Here you have much more simulators!
You have simulations for all the cabin and cargo doors, you have a REFUELLING simulator (yeap, you see the gallons getting inside your fuselage) and you also have a Ground/Air power simulator. All voice simulated, all realistic as it can be.
Now, after you push-back it's always nice to check if the hydraulics are working. There you are: The "configuration" window, where you can see them working and test all of the controls.
Finally, after you configure everything on the airplane, it's time for the engines start!
3 engines, each one with 60.000lbf force gives you enough power to climb it very quickly even fully loaded. Not as much power as the 747, but also lighter than the 747
When I was taxiing I configured the "DIAL-A-FLAP" for this weight. The DIAL-A-FLAP is a great mechanism that lets you configure the exact angle for the flaps at Take-off. You can have 21º or 22º or 23º. It's great so you can actually have the best t/o and climb rate configuration!
On that case, my DIAL-A-FLAP is 15º.
Two of our friends were there also
... You know them
.. and even Ricardo was on ATC on LHSM! (Yeap, we decided to go to LHSM)
Now, after the take-off, everything went very fast. I got a problem when I was going to land at LSHM. The runway that was supposed to have ILS, on my FSX scenery, it doesn't. The CTR warned me for this but I forgot to check. So, I decided to land visually, BUT, when I was getting there, the runway was with no lights! ... The asphalt was there, but because I was flying at night, I couldn't land this "big jumbo" ... So, I diverted to LHBP, a great airport, with no problems to land!
And finally landed and went to gates!
And that's all mates.
I hope this story can show you the real airplane that PMDG made. It worths every dollar that you spend there. Took them 4 years to make it, but it's a perfect machine to fly!
More screenshots of special features will be posted soon!
