I was hunting a basic, not study level, aircraft for fun flying but I can’t even get the engines to start. Anyone have any hints? Would appreciate any help you can give.
on a keyboard press Ctrl E which will start the whole aircraft for you
Thank you. That’s what I finally did. I find this plane extremely hard to fly, but I’ll keep trying. Anyone have any tips on flying, capturing ILS, etc.?
This aircraft is a horrible representation of a 737. The only thing it will teach you is bad habits, unfortunately. Engine start logic is COMPLETELY wrong because they way they have done it is not how any of it actually works. Same thing with anything related to autopilot - the calculations for approach speed are all completely wrong. I believe it has you approach at 93 knots or something along those lines regardless of your weight. That will stall a 737. If you want to learn a 737, I highly recommend PMDG. If you are looking for a budget buy, the PMDG 737-600 is under $40! That will get you all the systems done correctly and if you later feel like jumping into the bigger variants, you can purchase them later - they are more expensive, but they also have several variants per package whereas the -600 gets you only one - the passenger version. That’s why it’s less expensive, but the systems are all there as they are on the bigger birds. The Bredok release is not at all a good product, so I wouldn’t try to learn it - the flight dynamics are wrong, systems are wrong, it’s basically an arcade aircraft.
Capturing ILS on a 737 - make sure you have the ILS frequency dialed into NAV1 (and NAV2)… Make sure both left and right courses are dialed to the correct heading of the runway (those are on the approach charts, as well as PERF page - but I don’t remember if Bredok has it done correctly)… Once you are on the base leg, turn on VOR/LOC mode… that will capture the localizer once it’s lined up with it on the final. After you see the VOR/LOC turn green on MFD (top part of it), activate APPR. That will capture the glideslope. Watch for purple diamonds… if your purple diamond on the vertical is below the center line, you are way too high and won’t capture it. Make sure it’s above the center line. It will start slowly dropping. Once it reaches the centerline, the aircraft will begin automatic descent on the glideslope. Make sure you have the SPD function active on autothrottle and the speed is dialed in at 5 knots above VRef speed - again the VRef speed is on that page in the FMS where the ILS frequency and course are. Select 30 degree flaps in most cases. Take that speed and paste it into the scratchpad and insert where the blank spot for it is. Again, keep in mind that Bredok has VRef speeds all wrong. Don’t try to use those. They should all be above 110 knots or so… never below. Most of the time they will be in the 140-150 range for Flaps 30 landing. Hope this helps.
Thank you for the detailed reply. I was hoping to find a simple 737 to just fly from place to place without a lot of preflight preparation. Seem like I got my wish, too simple to fly correctly. I was looking at the PMDG products but wanted a 737Max. BTW, I’ve since found out they have no support or support forum and do not answer the emails. I’ll chalk this up to a mistaken purchase.
Things can only get so simple, and simpler than that, they become wrong. The simple definition of a ‘car’ being “anything with four wheels” is generally correct until you start picturing a farm tractor or supermarket trolley. Yes, you get a 737MAX-looking stuff, but is it really that paticular plane or a flying thing that could very well be a Boeing Stratocruiser given its weird performance numbers?
If you want a pizza, you need to get a pizza, not pizza-flavoured potato crisps. Yes it is easier to consume and digest, but it is not even close to the real thing. Bredok3D’s 737MAX looks like a stock 3D model of an airplane converted for MSFS use. So I won’t count on their accuracy let alone simulation depth.
The thing with MSFS is, you don’t need to be intimidated by the looks of a very complex button & switch-laden cockpit that are functional. For that kind of “challenge”, Asobo has given us the auto-complete checklist AI, which is quite a boon to use.