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AVSIM Commercial Aircraft Package Review

Just Flight 777 Professional

file:///E|/AVSIM/Reviews/777/777.htm (1 of 12)10/03/2006 12:19:07 PM


Product Information

Publisher: Just Flight

Description: Boeing 777 package of three models 772LR 772LRF 773ER and 27 liveries

Download Size:N/A

Format:DVD

Simulation Type:MSFS 2004

Reviewed by: Jean-Claude Bailly AVSIM Staff Reviewer

A Much Awaited Release

The Boeing T7, as it is also known, is an elegant and powerful airplane entirely designed by computers, competing for the airline market share with the Airbus A330/340 and allowing some of the longest commercial flights for the LR version.

A first, the 777-200 had been released by PSS/Just Flight for FS 2000 and patched for FS 2002. At that time, it was one of the very best FS add-ons available on the market. One must acknowledge though, that the FS9 scene is a lot more competitive for add-on developers. Therefore, it became much more demanding in terms of performance and realism since new products recently released keep pushing the envelope to a degree never imagined before in many areas. Long gone are the days when a forum moderator could afford a curt reply such as: “Dummy buttons cannot be switched because they are not functional, this is company policy” to a request from a customer who wished to flip even the dummies for the sake of going through his check list properly… Out of charity, I won’t tell which forum this was!

This PSS/Just Flight rendition of the T7 for FS9 is a totally new piece of software. Entirely redeveloped from scratch with a number of new features, some of them contributing to the progression of our hobby to a higher degree of “virtual realism”. Let’s see what these are.

Documentation

Just Flight must be complimented for including a comprehensive 128 page printed manual. A well documented regrouping all the information a virtual pilot will need to know in order to comprehend this complex add-on. One regret though: the printing quality of black and white panel photographs is such, that it is very hard (and smallish) to read. To make sense of the performance charts (page 18 to 22), I had to use a magnifying glass to figure what max payload I could board to be able to take off from Mexico City...

A tutorial, coming with a ready to use short flight plan file for FS9 and FSNav, from KBFI (Boeing airfield) to KLAX (Los Angeles), is also provided.

Some Interesting Innovations

Weather radars started to be included and/or integrated in add-on panels. In particular in the Flight 1 Dreamfleet 727 and general aviation aircrafts. They are even included in freeware versions such as Alain Capt MD11 panel and Tupolev 154B2 of Project Tupolev. With this latest FS add-on product, the confines of realism in desktop flight simulation have been pushed further with the first full integration of the existing stand alone weather radar technology (FSWXR-2100) into the Navigation Display. Offering what so many virtual pilots had been asking for – so far unsuccessfully - from some other major developers, since the first weather radar add-on was launched for FS9.


http://www.justflight.com/

mailto:[email protected]


Weather Radar on ND

Beside this great and major innovation, that will remain a milestone in FS9 already imitated by new add-ons, the developers created the most complete and user friendly setup utility for hardware users/cockpit owners. Aall aircraft panel commands have a line on the very elaborate keyboard commands list that can be called from within the cockpit, then be copied to FSUIPC (registered). FS hardware/cockpit owners please take note, you can virtually “map” all your cockpit commands on your modules (chances are you won’t have enough of them), and everything works like a charm. I could, for example, implement and be able to use the fast and slow increments for the GoFlight MCP rotating buttons (I was only able to programme slow increments on other add-ons. The fast increments would always be very messy when used).

Hardware setup utility

On the setup menu, you will find start-up options such as ground requests; external power – primary and secondary, and ground air, but no pushback command (many freeware versions are available in the AVSIM library). You have the possibility to select “pause at top of descent” if you wish (as on the Just Flight Airbus 330 and 340), set the ADIRU time to align, change various airlines specs, and a very straightforward fuel load utility from within the plane. This command will fill your tanks according to your request (in weights, or percentage as you prefer) automatically, however, you cannot intervene in the process (i.e. choose the tanks). Last piece of advice, make sure you select the refresh rate of your EFIS displays at 4 or a maximum of 6 FPS so as to avoid gutting your video performance (for the purpose of this review, mine were set at 4 FPS).

Another great utility is the check-list on the secondary EICAS, like on the actual plane, the pilot can click on each check to be performed.



Set up options Fuel load utility Check list on Secondary EICAS

Load Manager and Fuel Planner

The Just Flight 777 Pro has its own tools to calculate loads and CG, as well as fuel quantities. Both include the possibility to toggle between Kgs and Lbs, a welcome addition for Europeans sometimes feeling forgotten or lost in the conversion quagmires. The simultaneous use of both tools will complete your preplanning calculation and save the load status of your aircraft. Remember though, that your fuel will be loaded from the cockpit and take note of the fuel quantity, as well as of the CG% for your CDU input.

The FPS Minute of Truth

You will have a choice on the FS Aircraft Menu between the 2D cockpit only, or 2D + VC if your computer can take it. On this very point, be aware that the Just Flight 777 Pro is not much more demanding on resources than two of its major competitors (i.e. PMDG 747 after December patch and LDS 767 with February patch). I tested the three aircraft (VC and no VC) for 15 minutes each on the ground from cold and dark to taxiing, with the same livery texture, at the same airport (Heathrow scenery by Garry Summons), same gate (331), at the same time of the day (13.30) so as to make sure the AI traffic and the scenery textures would be the same, with the same weather (from AS6), the same traffic (FS Traffic 2005 at 50%) and the same flight plan loaded in the FMC (EGLL WSSS), the difference in FPS was slightly in favour of the Just Flight 777 Pro. For the sake of being precise here are the results:

Aircraft

With VC Active 2D Only

Max FPS

Min FPS

Max FPS

Min FPS

Default Cessna 14 10 NA NA

Just Flight 777 Pro 10 6 13 9

PMDG 747 8 5 10 7

LDS 767 9 5 12 8

In order to make another comparison with a much lighter scenery, here is the same test at Aruba airport with no traffic, no weather and VC only:

AircraftWith VC Active

Max FPS Min FPS



Default Cessna 74 69

Just Flight 777 Pro 52 22

PMDG 747 38 18

LDS 767 44 23

Video setup for the test:

Anti Aliasing x 4 and anisotropic x 8 on ATI CatalystHardware Render to Texture: ONTransform and lighting: ONGlobal maximum texture size: MassiveScenery complexity: Extremely denseUsed in conjunction with FS9 during the tests: FSNav, FSFK, AS6

Welcome on board

“ Stepping” into your cockpit will probably make you feel like “déjà vu” for those familiar with the 744 layout, since the instrumentation is similar. The 2D panels available are: the main panel (with a special and additional zoom bitmap), the overhead, the pedestal, the CDU, a radio rack, a chronometer, the switch panel for the lower EICAS and a separate setup screen already covered above. All panels have the precision and remarkable sharpness that PSS is known for.

Main Panel Main panel zoom mode Overhead



Pedestal CDU Radio and radar stack

To navigate from one panel to another, one has the choice between a clickable bar located at the top of the glare shield, or (after hiding this bar from the setup menu if you wish) using invisible (but easy to remember) hot spots.

The VC is well reproduced (the best VC PSS ever designed so far) and is “fully” interactive, a first for PSS. You can definitely fly the aircraft from the VC only, it is especially enjoyable if you have a good set of FS hardware, thus avoiding the wrong click spots when in turbulences, and panning too often through your cockpit. Needless to say, Active Camera is required if you want to really appreciate the experience. Using the VC upon engine start for example is a treat, as it avoids your going through three separate 2D panels. The same applies to taxiing, the ground visibility (pressing F12 to lock your mouse in 3D panning with Active Camera) is far better than in 2D.

VC a visitor point of view VC before push back at night Excellent VC rendition

At night, you will have a choice of two lightings commanded by one button located on the overhead. This is when you realise that the claim of a “fully clickable VC” stops short of the reality. In fact, you will find only one light button to click with two positions (difficult to identify at first), the others (dome, storm and master brightness) are dummies. Having said that, the lighting in the 2D cockpit is excellent and quite adequate for the VC during day or night. There are periods (sunset or sunrise depending of the position of the sun to your cockpit) when seeing the overhead in the VC can be challenging.



VC floodlight VC low lighting 2D Minimum lighting

Going for your walk around

Now that you requested and have the ground power plugged in, set the batteries on and launched your ADIRU (Air Data Inertial Reference Unit), it’s time for your preflight inspection so as to discover, at the same time, the exterior model. The developers managed to strike the right balance between performance and livery details. Personally, I prefer this option giving priority to FPS. I am always amazed though by the amount of detailing that goes into landing gear and flaps when one looks at them up close. “Why on earth are all the doors open?” you will ask yourself when looking up to the cabin. Well, there is only one door command! Consequently, if you open “the” door, the eight of them will open… Not energy friendly is it? And as for realism…

Main gear Boarding time Dubai At the gate in Dubai

Let’s go back on board it’s time to feed the FMC.

Programming the CDU

No challenge for those used to Boeing FMC programming on other add-ons. There is a tutorial in the manual for those who have to go through the learning process.

The loading of a flight plan is as easy as one can hope. Your FS9 flight plans are used directly by the Just Flight 777 Pro FMC, press “Route Request”, then “FS Flight plans” and browse on your list of FS9 flight plans saved. If you use FSBuild and/or FSNav, simply export your plan to FS9 and you’re done. The



same intention to ease the CDU loading process is found on the PERF INIT page, press PERF INIT REQUEST and Gross, ZFW and fuel weights will automatically be populated (remember that you loaded your fuel from the setup menu shift+8). Don’t look for the CDU Fix page, it is not implemented.

At the time this review was written, there were still a few bugs to be corrected on the CDU. Such as, the departure runway identification appearing as the destination runway on the APPR REF page (as well as runway info of the departure airport), and on several occasions I had a frozen FMC after inputting the runway to be used from the DEP/ARR page for example, or any other new data. I could not open the INIT REF page anymore until I switched pages around. Another surprising issue, was the ETA's were calculated in a bizarre manner since (apparently) step climbs would affect the calculation, tremendously increasing the ETA on the LEG page as well as on the PROGRESS page. As an example, while flying between WSSS and VHHH, I was at FL 370 and at 100NM from DAMVO with an ETA of 00.50Z and an ETA for VHHH at 14.45Z, when in fact I was merely an hour and 42 minutes away from my destination.

Friendly warning: be careful to correctly input your CG on the TAKE OFF REF page, if you don’t want to become seasick while airborne.

Taxiing and Flying

On the ground, the 777 will teach you to anticipate, like any “heavy”. Should you taxi too fast your next turn will end up in the grass, and the modelling is excellent in this respect.

When arming your transponder before take off, you will not see the TA/RA on your ND, it is not modelled, only TA is.

Test System

Dell Dimension 8300CPU: Intel P4 3.02RAM: 2.0 GBVideo: ATI RADEON X 800 PRO 256

Flying Time:48 hours

This is when you will start enjoying your radar integrated in the ND. I did extensive testing of it in the Singapore area, once my real world pilot home, flying in and out of “Thunderstorm alley” for it is cluttered with thunderstorms virtually daily. Using AS6 and actual weather, the results were quite impressive indeed. One might argue that weather radars on FS9 may not paint embedded CB with precision – if at all - hence, it is pointless since a weather radar is truly useful only when one cannot see the potential danger out of the windshield. Quite frankly, I welcome this new addition even with its known limitations. It makes for visual realism the same way ambient sounds do, but of course this is just my opinion!

Talking of sounds, upon takeoff, don’t expect your co-pilot to call the speeds (unlike all elaborate FS add-ons released recently), you’re alone on board. Should you badly need a co-pilot then enlist your wife, kid or neighbour! The sounds audible from the cockpit are very subtle and well balanced during the flight, but there are none before you start your engines, no air conditioning in the ducts, no instrument buzzing, no button clicks – according to the developers - the 777 cockpit is dead quiet on the ground when the engines are stopped…(?!)

In flight, the model behaviour meets expectations. Hand flying is easy and responsive, the “feel” and inertia of a heavy airplane is there in all configurations tested. In particular, on the good old IGS 13 approach of the former Kai Tak airport,

it's always a good place to test your hand flying skills.

When in flight at night, should you look at the exterior of your aircraft after turning off the unnecessary lights above 10000ft. You will notice that the logo lights are still on, not your mistake though; apparently PSS did not yet find how to correct this FS9 feature - or did not bother with it - as its main competitors did. A small detail indeed, but yet at this level of quality such items do make a difference between passion and apathy.

The occasional oscillation issue aforementioned during cruise and approach could be linked to the CG of the aircraft being wrongly input in the CDU or wrongly calculated by the software and to the resultant overreaction of the A/P trying to find, unsuccessfully, the best AoA through excessive trim. After twelve flights of different lengths, configurations and payloads on the three models, I did not experience this problem with the 772 (both versions), but several times with the 773ER during cruise and/or on final upon glide capture. For about thirty seconds, she oscillated significantly, the plane was hen stable on short final and the landings uneventful. On one flight with the 777 300 ER, when experiencing these oscillations, I immediately closed AS6 and cleared all weather with FSUIPC, the “bobbing” reduced significantly but did not disappear. I then closed FS9, and restarted the same flight with the 777 200 LR this time, with the same AS6 weather, I did not have the oscillations at all throughout the flight.

The A/P can be sometimes abrupt, for example, when on Autoland. With a 5 kts 80° left crosswind on final at Vancouver (Nigel Grant freeware scenery), my file:///E|/AVSIM/Reviews/777/777.htm (8 of 12)10/03/2006 12:19:07 PM


plane was madly rocking its wings to remain on the localiser as if it was fighting a 20 kts crosswind, and on another approach at Dubai (Fly Tampa scenery), the same wing rocking was far less with an 11kts 20° left crosswind but still present. And so it was at WSSS with Samsoft scenery with a 02kts headwind.

This could be caused by complex sceneries and video load since I did not notice any such problem on FS9 default sceneries. Altitude, glide and localiser interceptions were all smooth when done with relevant parameters and correct CG in all my flights, with the exceptions already mentioned above for the 773 ER. Another occasional autoland problem occurred when approaching the runway at an altitude of 150ft. The VS would suddenly increase from 700ft/mn to 1200ft/mn, using the replay several times to check what went wrong, I could not identify one single item to explain this, since the parameters were all perfectly adequate and the plane stabilised on its approach path at VREF+5kts all flaps out. As I uncheck “aircraft damage” for my tests, the landing rollout went on normally after a heavy nose impact (no flare) that would have, in real life, destroyed the nose gear.

Autoland

Landing the 777 manually is relatively easy once you are used to heavies. I was very satisfied with the performance in the deceleration phase from touchdown to runway exit, brake efficiency, spoilers and reverse do their job adequately.

All out Short final Welcome to Kai Tak Spoilers and reverse in action at Kai Tak

With such a long hauler, many simmers will want to use the FS acceleration. On several tests, I could verify that up to x16 there would be no major



deviations unless your route includes nasty weather and/or sharp turns, in which case your plane is likely to go off track and will move about its set altitude for a while. But ultimately, it will get back on its parameters after complaints from the AP alarm (you better put your sound off anyway).

The Freighter

When flying the 200 LRF, I made a point to take off from MMMX with the max payload allowed by the altitude (7316ft) and my relatively short hop to Lima, Peru. Should you want to try it, in spite of the 15442ft of runway 5L, your palms will get wet when looking at the distance remaining to lift off. The same tension will remain while climbing on a heading of 145 to clear the mountains lying south-east of the airport. This is where your two GE90 with their 110000lbs of thrust are welcome to get you out, a great feeling.

The cargo doors are all modelled both for the upper and lower decks and the load manager will help you in your cargo dispatcher job.

777 200 LRF at MMMX EICAS Door page (freighter)

Conclusion

So, is this new product worth acquiring? Undoubtedly for all “heavy iron” lovers the answer is yes, but… just not yet! In my books, there are too many defects. In particular, in the flight dynamics department and CDU that may spoil, from time to time, your virtual flying pleasure. All the known issues are to be resolved by a patch to be released “soon” according to the developers. I say “from time to time” because you may be very lucky – as I was on several of my flights – and never experience any of those defects, actually when I wrote the very first version of this review, none of the major defects happened to me…

I sincerely regret that - except for the usual splendid 2 and 3 D panels – the developers do not appear to be passionate about details as much as their main competitors (I reckon this is personal, hence subjective). This product gives the clear impression that it wants to compete – and has most of the necessary ingredients - for the top quality slot but yet does not offer what other developers considered as an integral part of a good flying experience.

I am of the opinion that once three competitors introduced what simmers would now consider as new standards – see the “details” list below - (as the weather radar will undoubtedly become for future products), a new top add-on cannot ignore those standards and should offer them (I do not include the cabin interior in this category of new standard features).

In fairness, none of the missing “details” will prevent you having a jolly good time at the yoke of one of the most sophisticated airliner plying our skies today… that is after the patch of course. With only some extra efforts and willingness, Just Flight/PSS could make this plane part of the top FS league where it ought to belong.



Takeoff in the Rain Climbing in heavy weather 777-200 LRF

Sunset on the flight deck Over Dubai On final

What I Like About The 777 Professional

● First integrated weather radar in the ND ● Good overall FPS performance (see comparisons above) ● Great user friendly setup utility from within the cockpit ● A complete list of keyboard commands for those using FS hardware ● Excellent panel and gauge rendering both in 2 and 3 D ● Very good cockpit lighting ● Package offered at a good value for money by Just Flight ● Good documentation and tutorial

What I Don't Like About The 777 Professional



The lack of interest of PSS to tackle small details such as:

● Sound environment before engine start is missing ● No co-pilot calls for speeds on TO ● No push back utility ● Logo light not isolated and remaining on at night ● No TA/RA TCAS modelled ● No Fix page on the CDU ● 8 doors on one command

Defects found on the finished product released on CD● FMC pages freeze at times after data input (occasional) ● No correct destination runway info on CDU on INIT REF page (all flights) ● Grossly wrong ETA calculations (only flights with step climbs) ● Abrupt wing rocking on localiser (occasional with dense sceneries) ● 773 ER oscillated during cruise and upon autoland glide interception (occasional, no rationale) ● On autoland, sudden dive for the runway threshold with a nose gear landing (occasional, no rationale)

Note: Announced patch has still to be made available, so this review is based on the product released last month on CD only without the update

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Standard DisclaimerThe review above is a subjective assessment of the product by the author. There is no connection between the producer and the reviewer, and we feel this review is unbiased and truly reflects the performance of the product in the simming environment. This disclaimer is posted here in order provide you with background information on the reviewer and connections that may exist between him/her and the contributing party.

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AVSIM Commercial Aircraft Package Review Just Flight 777 ... · AVSIM Commercial Aircraft Package Review Just Flight 777 ... Download Size: N/A ... clickable bar located at the top