Wilco Airbus Series

[Anthony Fluhart AS167]

So is it worth it? I know we won't be seeing any other Airbuses in the next two years (i.e pmdg)!

[JSkorna]

Depends on who you listen to, the pro-Wilco or the anti-Wilco camp.

[Anthony Fluhart AS167]

I understand that. But I was curious if it was somewhat accurate. I have the 737 PIC and thought it was alright. I was wish bryan of fs2crew would do a version for it. I know with the 737 there were some issues before the patch... I was just seeing if someone had it and see what they thought since there aren't any reviews out yet.

[Brandon Stoll]

Well, if you get it, let me know because I want a good Airbus series! I would do PSS but there's is old and I don't believe they have a TED livery available.

[Moose4]

I just went back and started messing with it after shelving it for a couple of months. I think they've put out two large and one small service pack since release, and it's MUCH better than it was on release. There's still some small bugs, but most of the really ugly ones have gotten cleaned up, and performance on my older system is reasonably acceptable now, in the 2D panel.

Basically, it's classic recent Feelthere--the initial release has a lot of potential but a ton of bugs, then after two or three patches, it's good. The 737 PIC was the same way. The only one that I can remember them getting right "out of the box" was the Legacy.

[AS380 Mark Richards]

I'm Mark, and I'm a Paywareholic...

I am not an Airbus fan, given the number of interesting routes that airlines are flying the scarebus on, I feel the urge to fly some of them.

I currently have the PSS Airbuses and while it is an average addon, it was created for FS2002, updated for FS2004 and was really the first generation of more complex addons for FS and has seen better days compared to the likes of PMDG and Level D.

As WILCO PUBLISHING have released their Airbus I was wondering whether anyone had it and what they thought of it and whether they can provide me with their thoughts.

I have the Wilco Feelthere 737PIC and while the panel is delightful, I found the flight dynamics and visual model left a lot to be desired and have now merged this with the 50North B737 to get a superb 73 to fly.

Any and all thoughts appreciated and sorry for those who read this as a cross-posting.

Mark

[Guest]

I too am a paywareholic, i had spent over 300 dollars in captain sim products, flight1 products and active sky x and the only thing i really like is the active sky x, anyways, i like the IFDG airbuses they do for me and there MD-11 seems pretty cool too

[Moose4]

My quickie review of the Wilco/Feelthere A320s. I'm not a professional, nor am I a particular Airbus expert, but my 50 GB FS2004 installation does indicate that I am a bit of a payware junkie.

I can't quibble about the exterior modeling, some people have said there are issues but if there are, I don't notice. The interior looks pretty good. There is a VC and it's largely clickable, but I don't use it, as my old machine (Athlon XP 2500, 1 GB RAM, Geforce 6600 128 MB AGP) is barely up for running the Airbus in 2D, much less VC mode. The gauge refresh rate in VC mode isn't that great. Even sitting on a runway on a clear day, I can get as low as 12 fps. But, my system is a bit of an underperformer for whatever reason.

The fly-by-wire system on the Bus is modeled. Pull the nose up to, say, 10 degrees pitch and let it go, and the plane will maintain 10 degrees pitch as the speed changes. Similarly, the "notches" on the throttle are modeled, and you will hear click sounds as you move your throttle device up from idle, to flex, to climb, to TO/GA. You'll spend virtually the entire flight with your throttle sitting in the same place, and if your throttle device has calibration issues or spikes, it can mess with the autoflight system.

The autopilot is mostly or fully modeled to real-world spec. All the super-whiz Airbus automatic stuff is there, and the manual modes too.

The "Standard" package has the A318, A320, and A321. For whatever reason, Wilco decided to make the A319 and the A319CJ corporate jet part of the extra-cost "Deluxe" package. The A319 is pretty long-ranged for its size (I've done a 3300 nm flight with it, barely) and the A319CJ is longer-ranged still.

The original package was, as is typical with recent Feelthere offerings (the Legacy excluded), amazingly laden with bugs. They really rushed it out the door. There's been a couple of service packs since then and it's a lot better--it no longer routinely CTDs on me after a couple of hours.

[Brandon Stoll]

Here's my questions, speaking of accuracy...does it have the airbus gpws that shouts that you're a retard...if you don't retard the throttles on landing?

[Guest]

Indeed it does, I flew the A318 while I was flying military missions in FS9, I won't go into why but I'm basically a GM for a wargame/Sci-fi campaign.

Anyhow for that reason I didn't fly with AS or any other VA for those flights, but this particular flight was into EGLC, as I approached over Southend I took some small arms fire, (having flown from Aviano in Italy, so up to this point I was quite happy with my mount), anyway to cut a story short, I suffered multiple failures, not modelled by the Airbus itself but by FSPax, to the sound of masses of gunfire. I'm neither a fan or Wilco/Feelthere nor am I an enemy, as this will I hope show, but the Airbus herself did what I would've expected, she lost an engine and yawed towards that engine, the hydraulics were out and the flaps no longer worked, and when I landed I'm pretty sure the reversers didn't kick in either, (don't know whether that was electrical or hydraulics) but she did manage to stop, albeit with some difficulty as you can imagine with no airbrakes either, just short of the drink at the end.

All in all I sat back, breathed a sigh of relief, and realised that so far anyway this was the best Airbus I'd flown. And why people call it a Scarebus I don't know, just jealousy because they're doing so well perhaps, but I've seen them at airshows and they are pretty amazing for their size, especially the new A380.