LVFR A330-900neo First Impressions

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I downloaded the new LVFR A330-900neo from the Marketplace shortly after it became available. I haven’t looked at the YouTube tutorial yet. The first flight of about 5 hours is underway now. The benefit of the A320 family and the A330 is that the cockpits and avionics are similar so there is very little retraining needed moving from one to another.

I haven’t tried all the features of the new aircraft like SimBrief upload. The connection and authorization of Navigraph in the EFB worked quickly. One “problem” I have using the navigation charts is that I push buttons way too fast not giving time for the EFB to catch up, The weather radar works very well from 40 to about 120 nm. The aircraft flies very smooth even in rough weather. The interior cabin cameras are fewer than the other LVFR because much more detail is packed in. The A330 has 1x2x1 first class, 2x3x2 business class, and 2x4x2 economy class. FPS performance seems to be as good or better than the other LVFR aircraft and the stock A320. It is not a study-level aircraft nor is it designed to be. There are enough bells, buttons, switches, and error messages that can be used during flight to keep the beginner or intermediate pilot busy. Did I mention that there are EFBs for both the pilot and co-pilot or the custom ground crew?

The EFB is similar to the other LVFR aircraft EFBs. Across the top are icons for Aircraft Status, System States, Ramp Manager, Weather Report (including METAR Request), Checklist. The second row has Weights and Fuel (which seems to track with the Fuel menu), V Speeds calculator for takeoff and landing speeds, Navigraph Settings (for one-time authorization), Carts, and OANS. The third row has the icon for the SimBrief FlightPlan (one time pilot id entry, current flight plan displayed, and send to CDU button).

I think I’ve found my new favorite aircraft, at least until the upcoming LVFR A340 is delivered.

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Can you, or someone please compare it to the Headwind simulations A330-900?
Because it totally evades me how this can be better or even remotely similar.

My rational is that being a Neo the Headwind takes all the good things from the FBWA320NX including great LNAV, VNAV (experimental but works nicely), etc.

In my mind I expected the LVFR A330 to be the default A320 with a different exterior model and some bells and whistles like the cabin, tablet, etc. But as poor as the default in systems and navigation. Is this right or did I get it wrong?

Since LVFR announced that they won’t allow other devs to enhance their products and considering their products need a LOT of enhancement I’m inclined to avoid them for good from now on.

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LVFR doesnt aim for study level, or even high fidelity. They do improve over the default A320 though. They have added some systems over the default, they work on improving the flight model, etc. And over time, LVFR makes more modifications to all their aircraft to further enhance and improve them. Headwind is aiming over time to make their A330 study level.

So if you look at a fidelity spectrum, you have Asobo Base->LVFR->Headwind. Over time LVFR will be moving further away from the Asobo base, but they won’t match Headwind. However, for many people that is perfect. Its a model that some people can’t get (XBox users cannot get Headwind), and it provides a higher fidelity than default aircraft without being too intimidating.

I get it. Some people want all their aircraft to be of the highest fidelity as possible. But that doesn’t make what LVFR is doing as wrong. There is still plenty of market share that find this aircraft as desirable. Like all addons, its up to each individual consumer to determine if the addon matches their needs.

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I’d rate it a 7/10 as it sits currently. My biggest gripe is that the elevators are way too sensitive/reactive even after playing with dead zones and reactivity. The landing gear also sink into the ground.

Will have to spend some more time with it on Sunday but it’s not bad for us Xbox’ers.

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Thanks, I get the main point are Xbox users, I’m happy they have this option now.

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Thank you for your thoughts on this. I have been waiting for a larger Airbus to arrive in Marketplace, and was awaiting some reviews before purchasing it myself. Looks like MS will get my money when I get home from work today :blush: xbox-series-x

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It is not just for xbox users i love the LVFR series they a bit more than default but not as much as so called study level. study level is far to overrated and those that only fly it cant seem to grasp why others do not, there is room for us all you takes what you like.

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For the Xbox Simmers out there: i read numerous reports of black screen issues on different locations, even the larger vanilla airports. Can someone confirm this? It’s preventing me from buying at this time.

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None for me although I only had about a 30 minute test session.

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I also got the A330 on xbox using a Airbus TCA and if they can fix 2 major things I’d give this a 8/10. Yes, I have, and fly the study level PMDG’s and also am a student pilot. BUT I do understand the niche of the market that this airplane fits into and appreciate/love the fact that it’s beautifully rendered, an amazing aircraft, and works with the TCA quadrant. It’s fun to fly and will put a smile on your face for sure, and that’s all that matters right? Please let me know if you guys also have these issues or if it’s a me problem. This is my feedback after 2, 1 hour hops around the East coast.

Elevators: I saw another mention of the elevator sensitivity on this thread. It seems that the elevator does not move smoothly from neutral but rather feels like there are “detents” at which the nose will pitch at specific increments but nothing in between. This makes any kind of precision maneuver (landing, takeoff, aligning with the GS) difficult.

VS/Level Change: When trying to get the plane to descend on VS mode, managed VS mode sends the plane into a -3000 ft/min nosedive. Selected VS mode does nothing. Not sure if I need to change a setting in the FMS for descent profiles?

Landing: The plane seems to “stick” on the runway upon landing the main gear. Not sure if this is the behavior of the actual A330 if there are any real-world pilots here. Not a dealbreaker, but definitely something that takes getting used to.

Engine Sounds: Engine sounds on startup seem muffled in the cockpit but sound decent outside. Not sure why.

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Just done a flight from Lisbon Portugal to larnaca Cyprus… A great addition to the airbus family for us xboxers… A few little niggles, but I’m sure they will iron them out. Simbrief integration works a treat… I will be using this a lot. The only that bugs me is TCAS doesn’t seem to work, this is true for all LVFR and default airbus, annoying.

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Just my opinions and the tl;dr version of opinions first:

If on XBOX - Go For it! Not the best but far from the worst
If on PC and you focus more on experience, visuals, and cinematics - Sure it’s not bad, Go for it.
If on PC and you enjoy realism and want systems and depth - Hit the brakes hard and halt!

For reference, I’m a VR PC player and enjoy higher-fidelity aircraft. I had the money to spare and have the LFVR a321 with the Horizon Mod, and I just thought what the heck why not see what it’s like? I also have the Headwind a330 mod and will use it as a base comparison. I’m also not downing anything just giving my honest feedback.

This aircraft beats the Headwind mod with visuals specifically the cockpit. It does feel more like an A330 while sitting in there. Also, having a functional radar is great, although I know no radar at this moment is full fidelity but it’s worth mentioning. The OAMS is the shining star, and really fantastic. So cool to see that in an aircraft. And that is where the good stops for me unfortunately…

In every other detail, Headwind a339 beats this one. Systems depth, systems accuracy, flight modeling, handling, efb feature, fonts, you name it. The takeoff calculator in the efb is a joke honestly. I was at 228.4 tons, and the takeoff calculator has a “tons” field. I input 228 thinking I’ll round it’ll be fine, but I got an error message saying round to the nearest 2 digits :exploding_head: Umm for an aircraft that has a max takeoff of 251 tons, how do you round to only 2 digits? No matter what I input in the weight field the takeoff speeds stayed the same…

It also has serious flight model problems. The elevator is sensitive, but the main problem I spotted was throughout the whole climbout. Up to around 15,000 feet we were climbing at 3000 plus fpm, but at 25,000 we were climbing at 600 fpm. Seriously, to reach 20,000 took a less than 10 minutes, and then from 25,000 to reach 35,000 (simbrief recommended cruising altitude) took almost 25 minutes on its own! Trust me I do understand that the climb will slow with altitude, so please no lectures :wink: This was a clear issue with the flight model/engine model. No other aircraft that I own in MSFS (PMDG, Fenix, MD-82, BAE-146, etc) have these kinds of problems.

Edit: I’m not going into the MCDU but trust me the Fly By Wire team’s work that is incorporated into the Headwind MCDU is just a clear winner. Entering waypoints, holds, calculations, VNAV, etc. all better in Headwind.

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Point taken. But as I keep saying over and over again this is great for xbox, not the best, 146 is my fav, beats pmdg hands down. But let us enjoy it. We have no mods to us, no freeware and most of all we are not IRF pilots!

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What about performance? FPS comparison vs Headwind?

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Please don’t take my post in the wrong way. I even recommended it for XBOX users by saying “Go for it!” in my TL;DR section at the top :smiley: I don’t hate on anyone’s personal play style or choices. I also recommend it for PC users who love visuals, because visually it’s stunning and I could see some amazing cinematic movies or something coming from it. I just wanted to give the other side to users like myself who want the fidelity and are asking how it compares to Headwind.

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I didn’t run any FPS counters in it up to this point, and my goal as a VR user is to receive no stutters! In that regard, it worked very well for me. At KATL (which is demanding scenery) it was stutter-free and smooth sailing without touching any of my graphics settings so on par with Headwind for me personally.

I do have a beefy rig for what it’s worth. AMD 7950X3D and RTX 4080 using Valve Index VR headset at mostly High settings-ish.

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Good comments here. I am a PC user (having spent over $6k to build then upgrade to the NVidia 4090 card). I did buy this last night in hopes it might be better than the other LVFR Airbus models I have in therms of the throttle. Sadly, it was not. LVFR still has not added an option to calibrate my Thrustmaster Airbus Throttle Quadrant with the throttle in the sim. I get the X-Box market this was designed for. But, foolishly, I was hoping a calibration option would be included. FBW, Headwind, Fenix, and just about every other airline developer’s add-on has it. As anxious and excited as I got that an A340 is coming, I guess it will be the same approach.
So, I am in agreement with comments above: The Headwind would be my recommendation for an A330 if you are using a PC. And. since there does not seem to be much hope that Horizon will develop a mod like they did for the smaller LVFR Airbus models, I guess my brand new LVFR A330 (with a multitude of really nice liveries) will remain a virtual “hangar queen” for now.

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So let’s settle the debate… We have this (xboxers), you have anything you want (pc)… As you may or not know xbox is limited… And again I say, a percentage over 95 of users are not IRL pilots…

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You’ll have this issue with any plane, especially for Xbox/S models. And because not everyone takes the time to read forums, or manuals for that matter, there’s always going to be people with issues. Black screen LCD’s is due to too much memory being taken, so it’s not just Xbox, it can be PC’s too. The more complex the airport you are at, the amount of AI you have around you, the level of complexity of the terrain and scenery around you, photogrammetry, is all going to eat that memory up (as well as memory leaks which can cause issues over time, which Asobo continues to improve with each release).

So if you are having black screen issues, first step would be to review your graphic settings and reduce them, reduce the update rate on the glass, reduce the level of AI you have, fly from less complex airports, and so on.

I totally get that the realism is cool, and man, I want it, too, but, if you’re using any of those AI addons that inject planes, you’re likely to be having problems. Optimizing the levels might help, but I don’t know how possible that is on Xbox. I haven’t bothered to use these packages for this reason, too much work to get it working, and then to optimize it. (not to mention the highly increased risk of memory leaks taking your system down).

What debate are we “settling” (lol)? Which football team is the best (you can use either definition for that)? And what does being “IRL Pilot” have to do with it? (I am one, but, to me, that doesn’t mean much) (Plenty of IRL pilots use Xbox).

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I wouldn’t want to bring my work home with me