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The Greek Philosopher Heraclitus about 500 years before the birth of Christ said that the only constant in life is change. Keeping true to this great reflexion, I decided after some 1.5 years writing reviews for this great web site, it is time to implement some changes to the way I write my reviews.
It was a Saturday, I was in front of my best friend's house ready to take a drive to the center highlands of the country looking for better weather, and some of the nectar of the Gods (which in Nicaragua would mean some seven year old dark rum) when I got on my Blackberry the 7th or 8th email in reply to my last review, which was the 757 Captain Package from Captain Sim and JustFlight. Half way through the drive it hit me, what better way to interact with readers, and at the same time provide future readers with good info about the products I review, then to mention in my future reviews comments, complaints, or interesting info, about my past writings.
As a result I am proud to introduce in this review the Aviator's Feedback corner. This section will be dedicated for our readers. I will select some of the best commentaries sent about my reviews. Criteria for what is worthy is unlimited, simply whatever I think will benefit future buyers of the product, and also for developers to have a feel for what users think about their products, or their services.
Hopefully as time goes by we will have more and better feedback about all the great products we purchase.... So let's get started!
1. Problems with the software - three emails regarding the same problem I experienced with the autopilot malfunctioning on approach.
2. Compatibility - one report of compatibility problems with GoFlight controls.
3. Developer complaints - I received one very interesting email from a costumer who purchased the software and complained that Captain Sim would not give him costumer support information because he had purchased the product from JustFlight. The reader had to find alternative ways to find help with the product. Both JustFlight and Captain Sim should have their eyes open to this, regardless of who sold it both companies are making profits from this venture so they should be equally responsible for providing good and timely costumer support to their clients.
FSX Missions Eurowings CRJ-700 comes in a 63 Mb zip file downloaded directly from the Flightsim Pilot Shop. One of the advantages of this product line is you do not have to mess with product keys, passwords, or any codes in order to install, it's just your straight download, run the installation program and the software does the rest. Both downloading and installing times are short, once done you will see a category for Eurowing missions in your missions folder and you are ready to fly.
The package includes a livery for the CRJ from Eurowings, which is used with the default CRJ. The package also brings a 16 page manual in PDF, and a pilot's log also in PDF to keep track of flight hours and IFR day / night flying time. You will need to read the manual shortly to understand how the checklists and cabin calls work since they are not fully automatic, but nothing fancy or complicated. After a quick ten minute review you should be ready to go.
The adventures are marketed to immerse you in what a typical airline flight should be. It brings cabin calls, checklists, pre-routed flight plans that automatically get logged into the plane's GPS, and it automatically retrieves real world weather for the flights. The program has many features that sound very nice in paper, but actually fail to deliver once you get behind the controls.
The software does a decent job at trying to simulate a real cockpit and what goes on during a flight, but it fails to deliver the full experience for many reasons. Number one it uses the default CRJ that comes with FSX, which as most of you know hardly comes close to the complexity of the real airplane. As a result, the checklists that go with this airplane are limited, short, and to some degree unnecessary.
It uses the default ATC engine provided by FSX which hardly can be mistaken for a human's voice. For one they are not running checklists and executing them as in a real cockpit, they are talking to you and basically telling you what to do which is really not the intended purpose of running checklists. Everything else about the flight is your normal non mission flight in FSX. There are no added animations or visual features.
In all the missions the CRJ is parked at the gate in a cold cockpit configuration. You take the controls as PIC and begin the short checklists to power up the plane, request IFR clearance and get going. Meanwhile you get a couple of cabin calls while doing taxi, and after landing. Flight plans are already loaded into the default GPS, and necessary charts are available through the kneeboard. The checklists are performed with the usual FSX missions dialog, where a command is given a number on the keyboard, and that is how you interact with the mission environment.
To be completely honest I only did four flights from the fifteen available. But the four were basically the same, except for the real weather which obviously changes over time. I have to say I also purchased the 737 Delta Mission packs, and really it's the same thing. There are really no elements that make it much different from a normal free flight session, and the few things it offers are not really up to high quality standards. On a personal note, I would say that with a program such as FS Passengers you have the capacity to create a much more credible environment, for any flight you choose, in a much higher quality environment, in my humble opinion FS Passengers make this type of offerings unnecessary.
I would not recommend this package to an already experienced person really looking to get immersed in simulating real world airline operations. I would say this is for someone who is starting to fly the default jets and wants to add a little realism to their flying experience. This package would be good for a simmer to determine if he wants to go to the next step and really start simulating flying the big birds in an airline environment.
Highs - It comes with a nice ERJ livery and if you are starting out it is a good introduction to see the capacity FSX has to simulate a real airliner environment.
Lows - No eye candy for the missions, it looks like a normal free flight. Using the default CRJ greatly limits the capabilities to introduce real checklists. The program tries to offer a real airline ops environment although it has no technical capacity to accurately deliver. The price does not reflect what the package really offers.
The Verdict - Great idea, it is a concept that always sells (specially with me) but it does not deliver at the end. Spend $20.00 dollars more and get something like FDC Live Cockpit.
Gustavo Mercado
gusifer@gmail.com
Learn More Here
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