Reviewed: the iFly Jumbo....

[Alphajet_Enthusiast]

This is my review of it....

So, what makes this release special? Well, its the first Flightsim Jumbo to be released as freeware with a faithful replication of systems, from the lights to the flight management computers.
The download is about 65MB and it includes an installer, so first impression: professional stuff, with a filesize like this you cant go wrong.

Upon loading the aircraft you are in for a good surprise, everything is there and looks awesome... The panel is detailed and you get basically the same subpanels as in the PMDG version of this heavy.

The subpanels. Here seen are the overhead, the pedestal and FMC. Everything is functional


The first thing I did was open up the FMC. Joy, it is all one could wish, even the FIX page is modelled. Great stuff


The panels seem perfectly allright, even better than that, great. Even fuel dump is simulated, iFly spared the simmer no details.
To complement the 2-D panels the plane comes with a fully functional virtual cockpit. Attractive, accurate and functional. This time its not a case of "pick two".

The very nice Virtual cockpit


The exterior model is pretty good. No, it does not touch the likes of Project Opensky but it does tease the eye. The developers included multiple liveries including Northwest, Lufthansa and Air China which is a nice surplus as we can hop straight into a livery of choice without having to wait for repaints. The finish of the paints is quite appealing, although the Lufthansa one seems a bit odd and disproportionate.

The exterior model is very pleasant to look at

[Alphajet_Enthusiast]

Of course, now that we are satisfied with the looks and the presence of the systems, the  real question is how this all comes together as a simming experience. To test this I took the aircraft to the Czech Republic for a large pattern at Ruzyne. All systems were to be used, including FMC, fuel dump, the autopilot and so on.

Upon takeoff everything performed as should. However, it was immediatelyfelt that the aircraft was too light on the controls and overly responsive to changes in trim. The climbout was smooth, and after a quite lengthy delay, the autopilot activated and the aircraft pursued the LNAV and VNAV flight cues.

The autopilot reliably follows VNAV and LNAV cues


However, here it was noted that the flight director of the aircraft is not as stable as I would have liked. Despite only slight winds, the jumbojet was rather rocky at maintaining a smooth flight path.

As I turned back to the airport, the radio tuning happens in the flight management computer as it supposed to be, which is nice. The LOC and APP modes where initiated and the CMD L and CMD R to allow a full CATIII autoland back on runway 24. The aircraft was smooth in localizing and smoothly followed the glideslope.

The autoland occurs smoothly and the FMC behaves like the PMDG one


Bringing her back down to terra firma


However, although this iFly 747 features Land3, Flare and Rollout functions, the autoland was slightly off the centreline. I sincerely hope that this was due to the scenery not being default and maybe I had not changed the AFCAD yet as should have been, I will investigate this later.

So what is she like?  ;)
Well, the aircaft is very accurate in systems and the model is very visually pleasing and looks right.
However, once you take control of her yourself she doesnt quite "feel right". The flight dynamics seem a tad too responsive and light for such a huge beast, and are very different from the PMDG physics.

Pros
--> Fully functional FMCs, IRS, APU, Hydraulics, Electrics and whatnot systems you could dream of.
--> Very nice exterior and interior modelling, including a nice virtual cabin
--> Very stable autoland with all real functions
--> Custom gauges
--> Totally free

Cons
--> Dodgy, somewhat too light handling and FDE
--> Absence of pre-enterd FMC SIDS/STARS
--> Very resource hungry and thus very heavy on framerates. On my system I got about 20-25 frames on average with this thing, so on more modest systems this will really reduce frames to the bare minimum
--> Tentatively: autoland localizing not fully centreline accurate, but this might be due to addon scenery

Test sytem
--> Geforce 7800GT
--> 1024MB RAM
--> AMD ATHLON 64 3200+
--> MSI K8N SLI NFORCE 4 CHIPSET BASED MOTHERBOARD PLATINUM EDITION
--> SAITEK X45

My advice: very nice, appealing and accurate aircraft that pushes the realism of freeware aircraft in a new dircetion, but it is very resource hungry and the flight dynamics and flight director portray serious inaccuracies.
I would recommend this for the genuine enthusiast, who has the computer power to actually run this thing.

NOTE I just discovered if I drag my traffic slider to 50% traffic (all other settings full, screen resolution highest) then I get frames in the high twenties, usually 30 where it is locked. So just reducing traffic a bit will boost performance a lot. Good luck!

[lemoncat]

a very nicely done review alpha..i haven't had chance to try it yet...but then reading your review i thought how much time am i going to spend flying this...answer not too much really,even though i do like the heavy's a lot,  but spend far too much time in fast jets and spitfires ect,
the visual model looks stunning...great aircraft

[GA_Pilot]

How about a tutorial on programming the #$%^'ing FMC......Never could figure it out, but never flown with one either....

So I am guessing I will stick to Carenado, and Dreamfleet GA planes  ;D

[Fitter]

I must get that one...great review

[Omag 2.0]

Amazing... kinda dreaded the fps-hit allready, so we'll have to wait how she handles on my pc ( bad I predict...  :() Oh well... there's always an upgrade... the question is when...  ;D

[Alphajet_Enthusiast]

Hey, thanks guys!
I have got to warn you though, the carpet in the virtual cockpit... Its RED!!  ;D

PS Dont be intimidated by the FMC, there is a 300 page manual that comes with this addon and there is plenty of information in there. I have the advantage on being type rated.... on the PMDG boeing that is...  ;D
But if a sixteen year old can use it (and I was using FMCs when I was 14-15, too) so can you!  ;)

[Jakemaster]

Nice review alpha!  Now, maybe Ill do a review.  I was thinking about doing some before, maybe even suggesting a 'reviews forum' .  Ill post a review of Eugene Heyart's Otter NG later today or later this week (I need to work on science fair)

[BFMF]

Nice.....but not my cup of tea

[Alphajet_Enthusiast]

Thanks, and look what I just discovered!  :)

If I drag my traffic slider to 50% traffic (all other settings full, screen resolution highest, cloudy day weather) then I get frames in the high twenties, usually 30 where it is locked!  :D Still, the PMDG 747 is better on frames I must say.

Omag, you might be sorted!  ;)

[Splash]

It truly is an awesome aircraft/download.  I especially like the First Officer panel as well.  I started printing the manual two days ago, it's still printing.  Ha Ha  Just kidding.  
Personally I love it, steep learning curve for me, but I can fly it, just gotta figure out the FMC.
Great review AlphaJet.
I am still getting mostly 27fps, except in high traffic areas and clouds, but am really pleased with it
Cheers
Splash (Ed)

[The-Black-Sheep]

[quote]Hey, thanks guys!
I have got to warn you though, the carpet in the virtual cockpit... Its RED!!  ;D


Awww, I wanted a blue carpet ..haha! just kidding..I couldn't give a monkeys about it.

Nice aircraft.

[Souichiro]

Very interesting Alpha! Nicely done!

Can't wait  to take her up....unfortunately I have very little time....

[Alphajet_Enthusiast]

Thanks!

By the way, just discovered on a short hop from Orly to Ostend that the TCAS works wonderfully.
For those of you not familiar with TCAS, its an acronym for Traffic Collision Avoidance System. It shows on your Navigation Display or ND, where other aircraft are and at what altitude according to your position.



As you see in the pic, the +131 mark on the ND shows that the traffic is +131 from my altitude, and the scale says it is within 10 Nm, probably at around 5Nm away. Lets look out the window... surprise surprise...  ;)

[Tom_M]

I hope the FDE issues will be sorted soon enough- great review... Now let's see this bird on SimV!

EDIT: Ohh, there it is!