After a quick view I agree with Jaydeeās review except about the sound.
The sound of switches is really wrong and very very low, there is no distinctive metallic clak sound and instead we get a horrible mouse click sound hopefully this can be changed in the future.
Iāve seen pictures of a couple 727s flying in Brazil with the GTN750 installed in real life, and other than that I know many operators have had just about any other GPS unit you can think of installed on them throughout the years, so I wouldnāt say having those options is not realistic.
I donāt know how to post pictures here but if you image search āGTN750 727ā on Google youāll see a few pics of the cockpits with Brazilian regs.
Finally got to do part of a flight from C&D to cruise. So far Iām loving it, and zero complaints. It operates just like the FJS I used to use in X-Plane. Itās a joy to hand fly, I like the sounds a lot though I do agree the switches are a bit on the weak side. One question, and this is more me not remembering, but shouldnāt the speed bug control the IAS hold climb mode? Otherwise I canāt understand its use. Thanks!
The Salmon / orange speed bug has no bearing on Autopilot operation. Speed mode maintains the speed that the aircraft was flying at when the mode was selected.
Ok I had a feeling thatās how it worked. I now recall the FJS 732 had a bug that would manage the speed for IAS hold but the 727 it held whatever it was flying at when the mode was activated. Thanks for clarifying!
No problem, there were many options for ASIās on the airframe. Unfortunately none had the option of interfacing with the autopilot to my knowledge. The last FedEx 72ās had bugs that I believe were driven by a PDC, same as the EPR bugs. By the time I flew them those pdcās were long gone haha. I always figured the FJS 727 did it that way as a quality of life improvement for pilots.
It has been a struggle finding any time after work to sit down and really learn the 727, but I did at least take it for a quick circuit. Iām really impressed so far. I love that it has the CIV-A INS as an option, and the paper āEFBā is a great touch. Iāve heard they have more quality of life improvements coming down the road too. Excited to find some time this weekend to do some proper freight hauls.
I flew it on last nightās stream and had an absolute blast. Very much a keeper and a highly recommended purchase.
I am running into a few bugs, though, and it may be on my end. I use SPAD and have heard there are potential issues there.
Sometimes my throttles stop moving. The spoilers and flaps axes from the same two controllers continue working, but the throttles are dead. Not only that, but using the mouse to move them produces no result, either.
After getting the aircraft ready to start, the starters donāt work. I have plenty of duct pressure, and the pneumatics are set properly, but I engage ground start and nothing on N2 for any engine. This happened once doing it manually, and once after using the automatic flow.
I canāt get the flight director to work - I use the GTN750, but have also tried the CIV-A and nothing seems to do it.
The only way Iāve been able to get the aircraft flying is to start on the runway, and once I did that it worked beautifully. Flew it manually and it was great.
One other automatic flow suggestion: Iām not sure it takes into account how to reset configuration on a go-around or touch and go. Going from ālandingā to ābefore takeoffā produces unexpected results, bugs not set properly, etc. The flight engineer not setting the pressurization mode from ground to flight also caught me off-guard.
Iāve been trying desperately to get this girl in the air proper, but gat ā ā ā ā , there is a bug where the Heading Select dial just, stops working. I can dial it to any heading I want, but after a second, it immediately resets to 0 degrees. This isnāt a keybind issue, I have nothing bound to AP controls on any of my peripherals other than AP Disconnect. The bug works fine, but at some point during startup it just snaps back to 0 degrees and locks there, nothing frees it.
I also cannot get it to follow coordinates, at all, AUX NAV defaults to the selected heading, and because thatās stuck at 0 degrees, I canāt actually fly a flight plan.
Anyone else experiencing this? I cannot find ANY info on it ANYWHERE, not even a ālogged bugsā section or something from FSS.
Whatās weird is, the HDG Bug worked fine my first flight, I could set any heading I wanted to, but once I did my 2nd flight, it will not stop resetting my set heading to 0.
It sounds like your heading bug issue is related to the INS. I know when you use the INS for navigation, it takes over the heading bug and uses that to manage direction.
Iām not sure if youāve looked at this already so maybe itās not going to help but just in case hereās a link to the documentation for the CIV-A: CIV-A INS | FSS Documentation Hub
