iFly Boeing 737

[Skybird]

Does anyone know the B-737NG for FS2004 by Chinese developer iFly?

http://www.iflysimsoft.com/index.aspx

It won very good reviews for the FS9 version, also for the just released FSX version. I wonder if it is better than the very old and outdated PMDG package of the 737 for FS9, which is many years old and always had several issues that never got solved, thus it never compared to the quality of the PMDG 747 or the Level-D 767.

I am lacking an airliner module for that size segment (B737 or A320 range) since years, since the PMDG 737 never really satiusfied me. Could the iFly version be the one I was waiting for in looks, realism, functionality and stability - or do I risk to catch up a sack of Chinese trojans?

Looks nice!

[Skybird]

I couldn'T resist. after having gotten a new system that runs FS9 with all my addons and all graphics stuff and traffic and mods, mods, mods at unlimited frames , and after having had a surprising up with OMSI, a disappointing low with Bus and Cablecar, and recenmtly getting back into Condor by getting thge very very nice photorealistric Scenery Alpi 3.3, it was time for me to book another - hopefully - upwards experience and getting back to flying (which suffered a bit in the past 12 months). For the end of this month I also have decided to u-turn on my reservation about DCS A-10, and have preordered the DVD edition, sheduled for relase by the end of this month in Germany. Yesterday I have printed the manuals, all in all an impressive 1000 pages and two superthick A4-folders of paper.

But I drift off. This is the Chinese-made iFly Boeing 737NG, released by Flight1 last year for FS2004, and the FSX release has outraced PMDG this year as well. Both versions they developed independently from each other. So, scenery and plane-wise you still have dedicated releases for FS2004. I think reason is simply: FSX with addons even on the latest hardware kills your frames again if you are not careful with the options, but in FS9 and modern hardware, you simply can max out all and everything, and it runs! I also found that it runs nicely with Windows 7 Pro on 64Bit - at least for me, some poor dogs out there are said to be not so lucky.

The iFly Jets: The 737NG is the most sophisticated and complete 737 addon for Microsoft Flight Simulator so far. High accuracy simulation of cockpit and systems, along with features such as ground support and push back, make this a premier expansion to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 (FS9). The product has been tested by real NG pilots to help maintain the accuracy required for this simulation.

This product offers quite an extensive fleet covering the NG range. This includes the 737NG 600, 700, 800, and 900, plus the BBJ, BBJ2, and BBJ3. There are several variations among this fleet that you can customize via the configuration manager, including jet engine types, and wingtips.


Dozens of features make up this product.

FMS:

- Winds aloft forecast entries.
- Conditional waypoints for SIDS/STARS/Approaches.
- Fly-by and Fly-over waypoints for SIDS/STARS/Approaches.
- Accurate Cost Index calculations for LRC/ECON speeds
- Horizontal and vertical navigation.
- User defined and conditional waypoints.
- Sid/star and navdata custom database.
- ETA and Fuel prediction.
- All pages and menus are implemented.
- Color display.
- Maintenance pages.

Autopilot:

- Realistic Autopilot Flight Director System with Autothrottle System.
- Autothrottle (A/T) Engaged Mode:
- N1 - MCP SPD
- GA - THR HLD
- Retard - ARM
- FMC SPD
- Roll Mode:
- HDG SEL - LNAV
- VOR/LOC
- Pitch Mode
- TO/GA - G/S
- V/S - FLARE
- MCP SPD - VNAV SPD
- ALT/ACQ - VNAV PTH
- ALT HOLD - VNAV ALT
- Leg Types:
- Track to Fix
- Direct to Fix
- Arc to Fix
- Course to Fix
- Radius to Fix
- Heading
- With left and right Flight Director.
- Cross-bar or single cue flight director.
- Two individual flight control computers (FCCs).
- Fully simulated AFDS Status Annunciation.
- Pitch/Roll CWS with a CMD Engage Switch Selected.
- Activation of mouse wheel for easier MCP windows settings.

Exterior Model:

- 737-600/700/800/900/BBJ/BBJ2/BBJ3
- 3DS Max Model
- Realistic control surfaces.
- Working elevator power.
- Realistic flight spoilers and ground spoilers.
- Working autoslat.
- Nozzle valve animation.
- Working APU doors.
- Entry & cargo doors with corresponding cockpit light.
- High quality livery textures.
- Flex wing.

Virtual Cockpit:

- Gauges fully functional and clickable. Every switch, knob, lever is modeled in 3d and animated.
- Animated windows, Wipers(two speeds) and more.
- Superb instrument lightning at night.
- Windshield reflection and rain effects.

Systems:

- Fully simulated Inertial Reference System.
- Display type (PFD/ND or EFIS);
- NAV1/2 receiver with working AUTO/MAN mode.
- Realistic Ground proximity Warning System.
- Cabin pressurization gauge & logic fully implemented.
- Flap load relief protection and autoslats logic.
- New failures.
- Aural alert.
- Simulation of Left and Right EFIS.
- Full TCAS logic (with traffic display on EHSI).
- 2D Panel supports both standard and widescreen monitors.
- Hundreds of programable key assignments
- You have the ability to operate both captain and first officers ND's in different modes together while in 2D widescreen and in the virtual cockpit .

Miscellaneous:

- With engine CFM567b: 18/20/22/24/26/27.
- Interactive Configuration Manager.
- Many custom configuration options.
- Detailed operation manual,tutorial and QRH included.
- Aircraft performance calculated directly from flight model parameters.
- New very smooth GDI+ based CRT displays.
- With sound package.
- More than 44500 SIDs/STARs included.
- Ground support and push back.
- Over 100 free liveries via the Flight1 Library System.

Does this sound got or not? Feedback by customers around the web indicates overwhelmingly pleasant experiences.

I am in good hope!

Teaser: the one I wanted to post above, but I have mistaken the links:


Nice sounds as well!

[Skybird]

Hoppla, in a German forum I read that some of the included versions in this package even come with the new HUD Boeing is offering, the 737-700 BBJ for example. I thought that would be a PMDG feature exclusively.

I hope that I can confirm that when my copy arrives!

[CCIP]

Looking forward to your review! I love the 737 (flying my aging FeelThere PIC 737-300) and I've been pondering getting into the NG via PMDG or iFly. I guess we'll see what your experience with this will be like.

[Skybird]

Santa has been early this year - it'S here, the whole package, via UPS Express (no shipping costs in this store...)

I will - hopefully - take off in an hour or two and make my virgin flight with this new 737. A couple of first impressions. First impressions are:
wowh, very good so far. This could become the new airliner benchmark for my FS9, maybe even outclassing the legendary PMDG 747 and
Level-D 767! Again, this is about the FS2004 version, which was released earlier last year. The FSX version is sold separately since sometime
this late spring, I think.

I got it on DVD, not as a download. No messing around with Flight1 installers, no messing with their service if I need to reinstall on
another or a new set-up system. No messing with the SP 2.1 download, it is included on the DVD, installer said. iFly is very restrictive with
their support in the forums, the forums are not opened until you have registered a copy, that is bad public relations and a missed advertising
opportunity. I feel not invited to spend the time to register there just to see if there even is acvtivity in the forum. Probbaly there is, and
probably they have good support. But it is bad customer relation, I think. I didn'T like that with the STS Space Shuttle Simulation, and I still
do not like it here.

You get also a small booklet with basic info on installation, options, configuration manager, and a training flight, and a sheet of Din A3 paper
that gives you a quick overlook on what panels are covered:








To adress my own post from above: yes, the HUD is there, definitely, and it looks cool! From the pdf:









The install went smooth, when ignoring that it triggered my antivirus to go red over the exe. Checking the exe via Anti-Malware by
Malwarebyte, nothing was found, I switched off Avira Premium and went ahead.

Specs say 1.3 GB of HD space are needed. After installation, you have a link to the config manager on your desktop (here you handle liveries,
loadout, and select winglets and eyebrow windows), and a link to the pdf-manual - a whopping 522 pages, "aber hallo, Alter!" 't seems we have
some homework to get done.

Notice: all cockpits come in 2D and 3D versions, and the 2D cockpits again come with a 4:3 and a 16:9 version, so there are no distorted
instruments with the bitmaps. Nice!

I so far had just one short stop on the fly in FS, to check if the plane is there. It is, or better: they are, mayn versions of the NG and NGX. The
2D panels at day are solid work and readable, the virtual cockpit really looks good, very good. Night textures and lights will be checked later. The
cockpit is extremely noisy, so is the exterior view with running engines. No frame impact (I would have been surprised anyway). The VC is fully
clickable it seems - and the FMCs both can be well read and fully operated in VC view as well!

So far the first impressions, I'm set to get into my flight planner and then have a first haul from Vienna to Münster later this afternoon. I will
report back after that fligh,t this night or tomorrow, then giving my experiences with system depth and reliability and functionality. I'm excited
right now, this looks like a sure winner so far, and if the flight dynamics are like what I have seen so far, it is. I'm just glad that I have had 737
earlier, the Dremafleet 737-400 for FS2002 and the PMDG 767NG for FS2004, so I have an idea what the overheadpanel layout is about and
how the FMC and APC is basically handled - else I would need to consume all those 522 pages first indeed. Oh, and the plane got awared "Best
Airliner for FS2004 in 2010" by German site Flugsimulation.com


Flight1/iFly:

[Skybird]

I have spend 2-3 hours today - just sitting in the cockpit and playing around with the switches and the FMC-CDU. No flight, sorry, that had to wait, I little bit underestimaterd the depth of system simulation of this beauty and had to turn more pages in the manual than I expected. So the following is just another and not the final part of this "review". And I must admit:

"Iz naiß...!"

Those three Chinese were knowing what they were doing. This module is incredibly detailed - more than PMDG's 747 for FS9, I dare say so now.

It started with a short breeze of cold air. The 737s in this package do not get recognised by AES, so I needed to manually tune bridges and lifts to correctly fit the pax and cargo doors. Also, although there are some 60 liveries on CD, they are not installed with the main program, and need to be manually installed in two different steps in different softwares, which imo could have been solved more comfortably and elegant. By default, you only get the white-orange house-livery of iFly.

The exterior model is nicely done, though, with front and back pax doors and both cargo doors as well as the front right door all being operated via Shi-E. The engines can be opened too, via separate command. The plane looks well rendered and modelled, with a certain layer of dirt and oily dust sticking to parts of the plane, or so it seems.

The 2D cockpit is very well done, imo, and offers a wealth of perspectives that surpasses everything I have seen in FS9 before. For example, both FMC panels get operated independently, and even operate the maintenance pages that sims of this kind usually bypass. Also, many of the options you usually access via the menue (CTD or LCD style monitors, carrier options, etc), can be accessed via the FMC as well. I think I have never seen such a complex FMC, not in PMDG's 747, not in Flight1's ATR-72, and not in Level-D's 767. Many pages there that you used to think of as inoperational in other sim modules of this type. Also, you have more options to arrange the 2D cockpit. For example you have four different perspectives for the main panel alone, two for the pilot and two for the guy on the right seat, and both offering a VFR and an IFR layout, allowing you gaze at the panel in a way that you can monitzor all five - correction: SIX - monitors simultaneously. The manual has one multi-page chapter about how to manipulate the six displays alone, how to arrange and coimbine different layouts on different screens, I saw those display options in PMDG's 747 as well, but here it is brought to a much more complex level. Also, like in other modules, every monitor can be magnified separately, jumping into the foreground. If you lose sight in here, than it definitely is your own fault.

The virtual cockpit I like a lot, too. Everything is readable and almost crispy in fonts. You can operate (read and type) both FMC panels from here without calling them up in separate screens, if you want! It is not only functional, but also is no ergonomic crime to the eye to do so. All switches are 3-dimensionally modelled, and clickable.I have had no night conditions so far, but even at day the floodlight was working, putting out gloomy brown-red light onto the upper panel. The cockpit in the 737 seems to be much tighter and smaller than in the 747 and 767, and this is what I weas completely missing in the PMDG version of the 737 from so many years ago. A little bit I felt like inside a tank. Some people seem to complain about the VC, but I do not have a single clue why. I like it very much. Just that sometimes, depending on the direction of light, it is a bit too dark, which is an inherent FS9 problem and no fault of the VC designers.

The FMC uses its own data format for flightplans. That is nothing new, PMDG does that, too, since years, also other addon producers. But I use Flight Sim Comande rversion 7, several years old, adn this one does not recognise the new format, and offers no option to translate plans into it. Just moving the flightplan into the according folder of iFly did not work. I fear I need to type in the list of waypoints manually every time. Okay, the price of using an old flight planner. Fortunately I plan my flights that way that they rarely last longer than one hour flight time at max nor that they have more than a dozen waypoints or so.

That'S it for tonight. Tomorrow I hopefully will carry of this beauty for a flight. It's really a hightech playground for big boys!

[Skybird]

This is a marvellous video. Not only does it illustrate the iFly VC from very close, but it also has displays of a fantastically looking landscape that looks incredibly realistic, also the weather is nice. But it is FS9, not FSX...!! I wonder how his display options have been set, I use pretty much the same scenery addons like he mentions, but have never seen it looking so great: enjoy the 13 minutes ride, it is very relaxing and chilling:

[Skybird]

First of two planned flights for today. Just finished the first in Hamburg, set to the early evening. I started with the BBJ1 set up on the runway, and imported one of four preset panel states, which range from "cold and dark" to "before taxi" (you can also define that the planes always start with a preset panel state, wich for me usually is c&d). I had electricity when loading "before taxi", but engines were not running. It was nice to find my way thorugh the panel due to former 737 modules, making some light, and getting the engine started, pretty much the same way like I used to do in the old PMDG 737. I had no flight plan, just wanted to manually take off, cycle, and then land. The BBJ it was because it has the HUD.

On the HUD, you access it from 2D where it replaced the front view that deletes the cockpit, gives you full sight and just five basic instruments at the bottom. Here you have no instruments, but the HUD. In VC, you can click on it on the top of your windshield, it then slowly moves down and into place. In VC, I found it to be quite dark, both the glass, and the dark grey-green symbology, in 2D it was bright green. The display infomation is functional and very nice I think especially during takeoff and landing. But in VC I really would not use it beside these two phases of flight. Also, while it is a solid design, it is a bit blocky and not really animated in fine lines, so: it is nice to have it, one can use it, but one maybe will not miss it too much when flying one of the 600-900 range of 737s that do not offer the HUD option.

The flight went fine, with solid frames over Hamburg by night, with lots of light effects, Ultimate terrain europe, Environment, German Airports, and mixed sky condition. I noticed that when looking to the left side, frames, locked at 32, dropped for a split second to around 27-28, an effect that may be stronger with the HUD being run in VC, and while the addons and lights may contreibute to system stress in this location, I have not seen this happening in any of my other addon planes, not the Level-D767 and not the Piper Cheyenne and not in the Flight1 ATR and not i the PMDG747 - all of these once were known as frame hogs, but the iFly 737 maybe consumes more system resources than any of these. However, despite these rare micropauses, playability did not suffer at all, and there were no other "problems".
It looked all very niuce, the cockpit light in VC is the best I have in any of my airliners, I just love it and have the dome light on all time: it is that certain DefCon-1 kind of atmosphere it creates. Lights on the 2D panels also were nice, giving a good mixture of lit instruments and generally lit panel.

The plane, manually flown via stick, felt very heavy, and reacted slower than I expected and am used to froim the 747. Well, that is a change. I do not know if that is realistic behaviour, or a bug (don'T think so), but it certainly gives you the impression to handle something really big and heavy. I got used to it, after all you do not fly a 737 to do aerobatics with it. The manual approach went very differently therefore, with me needing more time and a longer line-up distance than expected, that'S why I needed a second approach. I do not know if that is realsitic when flying the 737 manually, but I armed speedbreaks, but they did not activate on touch-down, maybe becasue AT was not engaged?! For the same reason I think the reversers also did not sprung to life, without AT they do not do it. It took me half an hour to figure that out! After all, it was a very satisfying short flight experience, and the plane felt different than expected - but "right". If that is realistic or just a tricky illusion, I cannot judge and it does not really bother me. That it gives me a convincing sim experience, from my point of view - that is what convinces me.

The sounds were different than I remembered from videos. Sound mods got mentioned, maybe I took one of these mods for the default sounds in those vids. However, the default ones are not bad - just not so attention-catching like those I heared before.

I noticed the 737 was rolling in idle with parking brakes released, don'T know if that is realistic?! N1 was 20.3 and N2 was 59.3 at idle - empty plane, no pax, no cargo.

Well, good start so far. Show continues later this afternoon with a prepared flightplan LOWW-EDDG and full autoflight. Then it is about autopilot systems, FMC and CDU. But there are vids on youtube showing flawless operations like that, so I do not expect any bad surprises anymore.

I came over some discussions between guys arguing about whether the to-be-released FSX-onmly PMDG 737 or the iFly, now available for both FS9 and FSX, offers richer details and realism. Well, for FS9-users like me, that is a no-brainer. PMDG does not offer the new 737 for FS9, and the old one which they released so many many years ago, always remained to stay in a medicore state, imo, it had some issues especially with flight dynamics in certain autopilot modes, and visually it now is inferior, too. Do FS9 users interested in a new 737 sim have alternatives to iFly these days? I don'T think so. And the argument over the FSX, PMDG still needs to release their package, and then - I leave the disucssion to those whom it concerns: FSX-users exclusively.

Tests run green lights so far, everything looks like this is a real winner!

[Skybird]

It'S done, the second flight has just been conducted - successfully. I started in Vienna, and it started not too well with 12 planes waiting with me in the cue for the runway. While my fuel was flushing away, it gave me a lot of time to get more familiar with the various switches and the FMC especially. There are so many pages that I have never seen before. However, taxing with this plane is a great joy, it is not so hectic and agile, but feels more calm, allowing smoother taxiing and less oversteering that was not intended at all.

After takeoff, my first surprise was that I just could not engage LNAV VNAV directly, and needed to struggle a bit with the FMC while steering the plane manually, then via Heading Hold. Finding the TO/GA button also was a bit tgricky, but it is there. While the takeoff thus was anything but ideal and the pilot trying to make sense of what was not going on (and why not), the plane nevertheless climbed steadily and reliably without jumping up and dpown or making any experiments. I then understood that I need to manually catch a valid vector to an FMC waypoint, and then it it allows to engage LNAV. So, in details, the 737 works differently a bit, also with the autothrottle.

The flight to Muenster then was smooth, and again I discovered the many new pages in the FMC, don'T ask me what all of them do mean, I just don'T know it, but there is a thick manual that waits to be red. The functions I wanted however, were all there, accessed in the familiar way - the Honeywell FMC CDU that Boeing uses in the 737, 747 and 767 all seem to work pretty much the same way, differing only in details.

In midair, the TCAS reliably warned me twice of proximity alerts. Short beforte beginning the decent, however, I got a sudden "adjust vertical speed - adjust" message by HAL, followed by "climb, cliomb" and "clear of conflict" - although I had not doen anything and the plane was not maneuvering. This was the only event that I cannot make sense of, but despite the aural presence it had no other perceivable consequences.

During decent, all manipulations on the front panel and new settings for the autopilot, worked well both from 2D and 3D cockpit. Only the sink speed the püane choose by itserlf when you help byx engaing spoilers, is a bit high for my taste: top speed of decent was 4200 feet/min via LEVEL CHANGE, which I doubt the passengers would welcome with enthusiasm. Maybe sinking via V/S setting is more appropriate, but I wanted to test the automatism. Final approach was in foggy weather and low clouds, I could not see the runway, not even the ground, but the ILS was caught and followed reliably, just do not forget that here you need to engage VOR G/S before you can engage APP directly, which is possible in the 747 and 767 moduels I use. Hitting APP directly, leads you nowhere. Sppoilers got armed and automatically deployed, but no reversers. Then, taxiing again, which is a joy with this plane, again, it is not so hysteric in steering than most other planes for FS9.

I see no real disadvanatges or weaknesses in this package, indeed I think this one plays in the top group of plane addons for FS9, surpassiong both the older Level-D 767 and the also older PMDG 747 in several aspects, while offering compoarable reliability and good features and documentation. I am willing to beolieve that some details regarding procedures with the FMC and APFC maybe are even simulated more detailed and more realistically than in the other two packages.

As an FS9 user, you cannot go wrong with this one. If you have FSX, you maybe want to wait for the new PMDG 737 and then compare and then see if they really do it better - but iFly has delivered a pretty good job on the FSX-737 meanwhile, too and it is likely that this win of the release race already has costed PMDG customers.

No technical failures, no problems, no functional inconsistencies or needs for workarounds. For FS9: highly recommended! Get it. This belongs to the top group of the pack. Maybe it even is the best. I just can say: I like this package very, very much.

Rating: clearly above the 90% mark.

Also, get the DVD version, it comes aleady patched with the SP 2.1, so you do not need to struggle with the Flight1 installer and re-registration in case of reinstalling your system.

[Skybird]

The manual of 522 pages is available for download here (with official permission by Flight1):

http://files.100megabyte.com/ifly/Op...s%20Manual.pdf

[Skybird]

Two things. First I just learned that a socalled feature pack for later this year is confirmed, a thankyou by the developer for the faith people put into a relatively new company, and the big support given to the plane. That package will add options like stairways and HUDs to all versions, upgraded configurator tool, etc.

And second, think again on the fuel planning. In all flights I did with any of the iFly 737, I ran danmgerously low on fuel, I tried the two old fuel planners for the 737-600/700/800/900 that I have, nevertheless after calculating flightplan, configuration and fuel I always ran dangerously low on the latter, and this evening expereinced another first ever: during night approach on Frankfurt losing engine 1 due to fuel out. Wowh, that was a new experience, but I managed to land with one engine and irritatingly confused stick and pedal input. Having just left the runway and wanting to taxi, engine 2 died, too. Woah!

I do not say the fuel consummation is wrong in the sim. I just say that older, years-old fuel planners that were designed to mnatch older 737 modules, seem to mismatch the numbers used in this sim. So take care, get a bigger reserve than you are used to, just to be safe.

And it seems I need to spend some study time for the autopilot modes, I thought I could live from my experiences with the 747 and 767, but there is too much new stuff, new pages, and the modes being enaged in different ways than I am used to.

I love this plane now, it has been named my official FS9 champion today! I even printed out the full manual, which I assumed I could get around. Weighs heavy on the bookshelf!

[Skybird]

Two FS9 galleries of around 20 pics each. The first is preparing a Boeing 737/BJ at the gate in nightly Leipzig, taxing, flying, and then approaching Frankfurt by night, with focus on illustrating the virtual cockpit of iFly's 737.

http://imageshack.us/g/840/b01cp.jpg/

The second, again around 20 pics, is a Lufthansa Boeing 737/700 standing at the gate of Mega-Airport Zurich, zoomed in on from orbit, with some random impressions from another approach to Zurich by night at the end. Service action around the plane provided by AES.

http://imageshack.us/g/16/a01y.jpg/

I provided both galleries in the stickied screenshot thread as well.