One quick note, first load in, once you start your first flight order a pizza, see if the pizza or plane loads first?
I gave up like four times but the music was still playing the sim showed unfrozen but was at the 100% point for a good 20 minutes well apparently it takes like 26 minutes. Since then all subsequent load ins have been spot on like you would expect from a complex plane.
Only complaint so far rotors not spinning in some views.
I’m on pause now trying to get myself ready to try to land at Pearson.
I’m absolutely not qualified and going in HOS SOP and have not at all RTFM.
The more I fly, the more I like it. The MD-80 ist just brilliant. Also, it comes with a massiv learing curve, another big bonus.
I intended this to be a kind of filler until the 737-800 comes out, yet I don’t think the 737 will ever replace this. In fact I don’t know whether I need the 737 at all (spoiler: I’ll probably buy the -800).
I do agree with most of what you write - yet my MD-love makes me not care. Haha.
I really do think that comparing these different products puts quite a distance between 146/737/A320 in terms of graphics and MSFS utilities. That’s too bad, especially graphically the product could have gotten a way better start.
I’m not sure wether the developer will update over time, I suppose it’s pretty hard to do a full 3D scan in great texure detail of a live MD82 nowadays.
I did love how Leonardo didn’t overhyped their product prior to release. I have learned one(!) thing of the past year it’s that I never want to look at any youtuber previewing a product way before release. Never again. Hahaha. At the same time there were quite a lot of bugs that shouldn’t have made it through the beta, like the ATC error for one. If you’re going to charge it as the most expensive addon to date for MSFS, you should have offered more in development effort really.
So yes. I do agree. It either should not have been this expensive but (more importantly as I don’t mind niche market products) they should have given it a few extra punches. At the same time, it’s such a joy flying it and I certainly don’t experience buyers remorse. When people are looking for a true classic, it’s expensive for what you get but the experience makes up for it.
And thanks for your texture overhauls Porco! I haven’t installed them yet but I’m tracking your progress on flightsim.to and will likely catch up soon.
I’m a 172 guy who just got all nostalgic for the bird and am barely able to get it airborne flying by “feel” and seat of pants piloting for now but it’s so fun. BTW thank you McDonald Douglas for the little indents on the airspeed indicator giving me half a clue.
To be fair we youtubers had 4 hours with the plane before embargo.
That was not enought time to learn how to use the plane or to make videos in other languages than the one in the channel, that is why what you saw on launch day were “first impressions” or external view reviews.
The reviews ended up coming close to or after launch, once we had the time to learn and subtitle the videos.
On the other hand, I think Leonardo did a good job with the pricing, let me explain.
Their price model does not consist in reaching thousands of users, they want to reach a very specific group of people, fans of the MD82 that want a complete and complex experience.
I don’t think they care about not selling a lot, since the increased price will allow them to earn almost as much but providing support to only people that are indeed interested in learning.
When creating a product you have to decide wether to reach a large audience at a low price or a smalñ audience at a large price, abd they took their bet.
Absolute nonsense. How could you make a good first impression with such a strategy?!? Of course you couldn’t do much if anything with such a short amount of time… But well, it’s not like marketing is our problem though.
You can’t, but hey, at least we tried hahaha no, but jokes aside, I am at least thankful they let us cover it, I think it was a last minute decision, but while the first videos were rushed the ones that came later were well received
I’ve messed about with the PMDG a bit but the MD-82 is just waaaaay more fun TBH. It does everything it needs to do for me and honestly, if I’m not zooming way in, it still looks awesome and performance is great. No problems getting 30 frames at a massive resolution across 3 4k displays with Navigraph and Simbrief open along the sides. I can’t get that with any of the other new “high fidelity” planes on offer.
If people don’t want to spend what Leonardo needs to get paid for the amount of time they spent porting it or whatever, then buy something else instead, or save the money. But realistically, I’m going to get far more than my $90 worth in value out of it. Heck, I can barely play 2 rounds of golf for $90. I can’t go to Disneyland for the day for less than double that. I’ve already spent 30 hours flying this thing around and with every additional hour, the price feels cheaper and cheaper.
I am not 100% sure but I think the portions that you see that are not spinning are not fan blades. I think I remember reading that they are fixed FOD protection devices of some sort to keep objects out of the engines themselves.
Edit: Here is a video where you can see it at around 2 minutes in the description it says “The visible “blades” are stationary vanes that help guide the air into the engine***” American MD-80 Takeoff/Landing - CMH-DFW (2016) - YouTube
From a distance it looks okey, and the cockpit has arguably the most atmosphere.
However, when you get just a little closer you will see that the textures look nowhere near as good and it also doesn’t sound nealy as good as the other planes, while costing like nearly double in some areas.
I am a 22 year simmer. Flew this plane in FS9.75. It was not made for pretty graphics then or now. You Will find out about it’s TRUE OPERATION the more you fly it. Even with failures off if not flying right It Will Bite. Crash land. Period.
Sure it is realistic. But with those sounds and graphics that pricetag is a no go. We are not in XP or P3D times anymore. Pretty sure they are shooting themselves in the foot and limiting sales a lot with that kind of pricing. Look at the 737 and 320, those guys are bathing in money. The MD-80 side has gone very very quiet very fast. Lets hope they update the plane closer to what MFS can deliver audiovisualy.
Yeah, and you can get the Fenix for $25 less with all it’s bells and whistles and be trapped into the mouse interface only, and not be able to use any peripherals to control anything other than the throttle and the stick. The MD-82 looks like even better value for me today then it did earlier in the week.
