757 Professional by PSS/Just Flight

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757 Professional by PSS/Just Flight

Postby Guest » 14 Mar 2008 20:07

I have flown many addon aircraft, from the wonderful Carenado 206II to the brilliant PMDG 737, but most of my aircraft purchases have been for the ???bigbirds??? of which I own the Level D 767, the PMDG 747, 727 Professional, PMDG 737 and Captain Sim???s brilliant 130C Hercules ??? what can I say, I have an understanding wife (and bank manager!).

I am sure you will agree that the addon???s listed above are amongst the best addon aircraft available for FS2004, and with my experience of these addons I thought I would tell you how my latest purchase, 757 Professional (published by Just Flight), stacked up against the competition.


Purchasing & Installation

I decided to make my purchase through a direct download from Just Flight???s website. The transaction was very smooth and I felt ???safe??? dealing with a company with a reputation as good as JF.

The only issue as far as the website is concerned however, is that there is a patch available (1.3) that really is an essential download for 757 Professional, but you need to have previous knowledge that this patch exists as it isn???t mentioned on the info page before you purchase the product. Alternatively, you can notice a little strip of text that scrolls across the title bar of the website that mentions the patch.

Installation, activation and patching of the product was, as you would expect, painless and completely straight forward.


The Product

The manuals were very good and contained a fair amount of detail including a guide for a complete flight for a cold & dark cockpit to shutting down at the destination. There were also a few PDF files detailing speeds & weights etc.

The product also comes complete with a load manager and a fuel calculator and this was where my first (and only problem occurred). I am running a fully patched up version of Vista Home Premium (64) and for some reason the load manager just plain refuses to fire up. So I have been onto JF and they responded with a solution within a day, but this hasn???t done the trick and so they came back with instructions to send them my DirectX settings. I am now waiting for a response, but am very impressed with how friendly and quickly the support team responded.

This actually wasn???t a huge deal for me anyway, as I always do my own calculations on a flight prep chart I have created for myself.


The Flight

Well what can I say; this is a beautiful product to look at. The 2D panel is very nice, although I have never used it so cannot comment further.

What I can comment on it the virtual flight deck. I would say it is definitely up there with any of the other products I own (personally I still think the PMDG 747 is the best), but the 757 flightdeck is easily more impressive and immersive than the Level D767 or PMDG 737. If you have either 777 Professional or PMDG747 then you will find the standard of this 757 reaches these lofty heights.

The FMC and all the functions seem to work very well, and I found it very easy to pick up as I am used to using the FMC from the other Boeing based products. I have yet to find any quirks or bugs and each flight has so far been great fun.

Some people have reported problems with getting the aircraft lights and radios to work and also people were posting that they were unable to tune and catch the ILS. I too, had all these problems, but a quick look on the forums cleared up all the issues. It seems you need to fire up the default flight, leave the settings of the Cessna well alone and then change the aircraft. As long as you do this you???ll have no problems



There is also fully working Wx radar that works perfectly with ActiveSky6 and also the TCAS system is fully functional. A very important feature for me is that you can fly from start to finish in the virtual cockpit, and when in use with Active Camera is a joy to work in.

As for the external appearance, the standard is very good, some texture sets are better than others but there are a huge amount to choose from and the general standard is very good ??? of course it helps that the aircraft is a nice looking bit of kit in real life.

Take a look here for some screenshots

http://www.air-source.us/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2398

For me this add on is terrific, graphically it???s beautiful, it sounds great and functions perfectly (providing you remember to start with the default flight). The thing I really like is that the aircraft fits nicely between the 737 and the larger 767/777.

I should add that the JF support are chasing up my load editor problem and so I can???t fault the customer support folks either.

9/10
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Postby FR8_DOG » 15 Mar 2008 00:52

I really appreciate your review Darren, I didn't really expect it (unless it WASN'T my suggestion LOL). I'm still an FS9'er on XP (waiting for FSXI). You just may have convinced me to purchase this. I too am looking for a medium-long-range jetliner to augment the PMDG 736/G.

Thanx again.

BTW the pix are really nice, that's a fine looking a/c.

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Postby Guest » 15 Mar 2008 10:26

Hey FR8_DOG,

it was your comment in the other thread that prompted me to knock together a quick review. Just doing my bit for the AS Community.

I am glad you found it (the review) helpful, and hope you find its accurate if you do make a purchase.
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Postby AS275 » 15 Mar 2008 10:33

Good review Darren. I have had the 757 and 777 since originally released by PSS and bought the CD versions from JF recently mainly because the 777 has all the PSS liveries whereas with PSS they had to be paid for separately (and also because I have a habit of losing backup CDs :oops: ).

It seems you need to fire up the default flight, leave the settings of the Cessna well alone and then change the aircraft. As long as you do this you???ll have no problems

A sound idea with any payware plane.
AS275
 

Postby Guest » 15 Mar 2008 19:11

For my money I would say the 757 & 777 Professional range are as good as it gets, with the exception of the PMDG 747 (of course).

Glad you liked the review, thanks for the feedback.
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Postby Guest » 27 Mar 2008 21:51

Thanks for the review, how do framerates in the VC compare with the LDS 767, Wilco 737, PMDG 737?
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Postby Guest » 28 Mar 2008 12:21

Your frame rates will take a hit, but suprisingly its not to bad, I would say its just a little (and I mean just a little) more demanding than the LevelD or PMDG737, but this is down to the quality of the VC I reckon.

Its not as demanding as the 777 Professional or PMDG747, so if you can run these you'll be fine.
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Postby Guest » 28 Mar 2008 12:43

Thanks. Now if i knew when the Airsimmer Airbusses would be out it would make the decision to purchase this or not a lot easier lol.
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Postby Guest » 31 Mar 2008 17:18

I have yet to purchase an Airbus, which is odd as I really like them, but there is yet to be an addon that has really grabbed me.

I did have A340 Professional, and although it flew well, the cockpit graphics left a lot to be desired. I know there are CLS airbus products, but they are only Lite products and so I worry I wont find them immersive enough.

What are these Airsimmer products then, they seem to have slipped under the radar for me?
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Postby Guest » 31 Mar 2008 22:18

They are the airbus you are waiting for pretty much. I have the PSS busses but they don't have a VC, and everything else is lite so I haven't bothered with them either.

This video sums things up pretty well - http://www.avionic-online.com/index.php ... _Interview

The Airsimmer bus will have pretty much everything imaginable simulated, they even plan to implement some form of ACARS etc. Their website hasn't been updated in a long time but they give almost daily updates on stuff on the forum so be sure to go there http://www.airsimmer.com (main site) http://airsimmer.com/support/ (forum)

It's been in development for quite some time, hopefully release is soon.
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Postby AS275 » 01 Apr 2008 13:29

It's been in development for quite some time, hopefully release is soon.

As has http://www.airliner-xp.com/ which also looks to be a winner especially as it is a collaboration between some established planemakers.
AS275
 

Postby Guest » 01 Apr 2008 16:10

The only problem is the Airliner XP isn't going to be released anytime in the near future, if at all.

All the devs involved make awesome products, but it looks like they are just too far behind Airsimmer.
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