Today is December 14, 2023. Just looking for some up-to-date information on the status of the B-314. Have recent updates solved most of the issues with the plane? What is the current version number? This is one of my favorite planes in aviation history and I will purchase it instantly if the current version is, for the most part, fixed! Thanks for any opinions!
Scroll up about 9 posts and read what I recently wrote about it.
Nothing has been updated with the 314 in a very long time and it’s unclear if it ever will receive updating.
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Seems like a crapshoot as to purchase or not to purchase. If the developer has really abandoned the plane, I think I will avoid it for now. A real shame as it had seemingly a great future. Thanks for your evaluations.
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I would certainly hold on purchasing.
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It truly is a shame. The plane was great in P3d, and I was enthusiastic about it in MSFS early on, figuring (based on dev comments) that it would eventually reach P3d level as a high-fidelity-systems rendition of the plane. Nixon is right though; it seems to be abandonware at this point. The P3d version was clearly a labor of love for someone; unsure if they lost that dev or what.. but it’s currently in what I would call a beta state at best (unmodeled systems, non-functional engine instruments, flight model problems, barely functioning gyropilot, bugs galore) and has received no fixes in, what, a year?
I’m an absolute historical fanatic for this plane, but at this point even I feel like I wasted money on it.
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I bought it under the impression that the MSFS version would see feature parity with the P3D version, mostly because that’s what Pilot’s said their goal was. By all accounts, Pilot’s is a nut for this plane too, hence the dedication to the previous versions.
It seems like that perspective may have changed. Feature parity hasn’t happened, so I’m not going to recommend buying it.
100% agree. It’s sad.
Disclaimer: I’ve never played P3D but at a fraction the price, I wouldn’t have expected it to be on par. At least my understanding was the other was extremely expensive?
Still doesn’t excuse leaving some of the bugs in it though.
To be fair, every addon that’s been in both sims is a fraction of the price as P3d, and most aren’t in a less-developed state. I believe the PMDG 737 was over $100 in P3d. Maybe different licensing, maybe just assumed greater volume.
My opinion:
Terrible flight model with way too much authority on rudder and elevator and terrible to trim
Terrible engine sounds
Terrible propeller animation
Outside textures too plastic like looking with too uniform coloring, missing sheet wrinkling, weathering like waterline fouling etc
Wrong, 50-star flag used, also red should be less bright
The globe of the Pan Am logo should have a white background
Not enough detail in cockpit/engineering view with partly below average textures and a way too dark texturing.
Been working on the textures lately.
Changed the dark green walls and brightened most of the flight deck.
Rivets inside have been mostly redone and most textures were upscaled, sharpened and de-noised. Still some parts to change. WIP so to speak.
Also, I’m currently redoing the Pan Am livery with a completely new and corrected flag (everything in a higher resolution,too). Next will be some subtle weathering on the skin.
Decreased the rudder and elevator authority too, and it handles a bit better now.
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I spent quite a long time speaking with the developers at the Flight Sim Conference. Obviously, they do love the plane and wanted to do the best they could with it.
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At that time they were deep in working to release the Dash 7. I’m sure that took a lot out of them and was only just recently released to finally free them for other work.
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They’re also dealing with a lot of issues with MSFS with floatplanes and multi-engine planes and fuel systems, etc., etc.. They got frustrated by that a lot.
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When it was released, there weren’t many historical floatplanes. Now there’s a ton of comparable historical offerings, many who had the backing of Microsoft and Asobo directly, which I’m sure bit into their sales. Not much motivation to continue when the money’s not coming in and they’re working on other projects with greater projected sales.
I have no idea what they’ve been working on since the Dash-7 was released.
My bet is we’ll see more updating when 2024 is released. Along those lines, my bet is a lot of the development issues they ran into will be solved by 2024?
To that point, I haven’t heard, has the 2024 SDK been released in any form to developers yet?
Personally, I have always loved the B314 from a historical perspective. I had left the FS realm before the P3D version was released (and never got P3D either), so I was psyched to see the plane released and purchased it immediately. As far as I’m concerned, I’m happy with the product. I don’t have any issue flying it, but, I’m a hand flyer and not an AP user. I never noticed any jerkiness about flying it, but that could come down to controllers or the way I fly. It takes off and lands fine for me, and I never had any issue flying IFR in it. For recreating its flights, I could see the AP not working to spec as a bummer for many. I’m surprised no enterprising people have looked into fixing the AP? In any event, I’d personally recommend it if you’re interested in the plane, but, that’s me.
Thanks for the updates. I’m glad they acknowledge the issues at least, but…
For the first: They should have finished one project before starting another. The fact that they rushed into a second before finishing the first should be bothersome.
Second: Frustration is 100% understandable. Quitting a project that you charged money for, is not. The first time I flew it I noticed serious issues with the fuel and reported them. They did fix it, but it’s like they didn’t even test it. If they had, they’d known the center tanks didn’t work…
Third: The 314 came out before most of them… I wouldn’t think it hurt their sales too much. I think their problem was they released it in a relatively poor state and word got around quickly - before it got onto the Market. The others are just as good or better and much cheaper. The only real thing they have not going for them is… they aren’t the 314! 
But like you perhaps, the 314 is my favorite historically speaking. I would say I’m moderately displeased… but not completely unhappy. I have better planes that cost half as much. But it does fly. I am an AP flyer. The point of this aircraft is to fly for many hours which can be problematic without an AP. I can’t understand why it’s so hard to get right when so many other planes have it work perfectly - planes that are smaller, larger, slower, faster… It just shouldn’t be a problem.
In the end simply compare it to the Latécoère 631. $10 vs $30.
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Couldn’t agree more, on all points, and it’s why I haven’t bought the Dash 7. Fool me twice…
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I am not buying the Dash 7 or anything by Pilot’s anymore. They wrote themselves off to me by abandoning the 314.
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Well, that’s a good ol’ Catch 22. People are not spending money on this, until it’s up to snuff. But it will not be updated up to snuff until people spent their money on it, apparently.
I’m very much interested in this aircraft, but I’m not paying the money they are asking for the condition this one is in. If PILOT’s stance is releasing an unfinished product and only finishing it, when enough people bought, they should clearly mark it as Early Access. I certainly will steer clear of a developer like that.
Customer trust has a bigger influence on “projected sales” than these guys seem to realize.
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Yep.
10 chars
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Working on the textures again!
Redone a lot of rivets. God… so many…
Redrawn almost all reflection maps.
Still some parts missing (mostly subtle weathering) and cockpit currently WIP.
Slowly getting the hang of adding wrinkles etc.
Flying around 1935’s KSFO by Redwing
Anybody know how to alias engine sounds from other aircraft or how to edit nav lights?
I once knew how to alias sounds, but I cannot get this to work here.
Cheers!
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Great job! Looks a lot better. Will you be sharing these improved textures at a later point?
Looking good - Well done. About the sounds take look in the Boeing 247 thread. A guy is redoing the sound based on Big Radials sound set. Try contacting him.
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https://flightsim.to/file/61806/sound-fix-for-the-right-flywheel-in-the-b247d
With permission from Big Radials.
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