FSWeekend not only gave us a chance to talk with many developers, it also gave us a chance to get some hands-on time with PMDG’s upcoming and highly anticipated 777. Although a bit tucked away in a corner, the PMDG booth must have been the busiests, by far. None of that is surprising though, given that PMDG hasn’t visited FSWeekend before, and had, just a day prior to FSWeekend, shared more details of their upcoming aircraft for MSFS.
Arguably, the booth that PMDG brought to FSWeekend was a bit improvised. Sitting upon a table was a test bench, sort of an open computer if you’re unfamiliar, that allows you to quickly change and reconfigure different hardware set-ups without constantly having to open up a PC case. Right next to the open test bench: a coffee machine. Now any other person would have seen the possible risks here, especially on a busy and open show floor like at FSWeekend, but surprisingly, no incidents happened (that I’m aware of). The monitor was also positioned at some distance from the flying setup, which arguably made it a bit difficult to look around and get a good eye for all the details.
As you might expect, this is not a plane that you normally just spawn on the runway and take over a tour of Amsterdam to discover some landmarks. Given the limited time at the booth due to the large crowd I also didn’t quite have time to get into the FMS and start programming a whole flight. And admittedly, it’s been a while since I flew the 777 so I might need a quick refresher on this topic anyway. So I opted for the former option after all, a VFR flight over Amsterdam, and set my take-off thrust.
The sounds on this plane are once again very immersive. The engines take some time to spool up and you can hear the increase in pitch as you slowly start rolling down the runway. The plane felt heavy and sluggish, and I was worried if I’d even make it off the runway in the first place. Alas, I managed to, and at a shallow climb I slowly made my way out of Amsterdam airport. The flight dynamics felt smooth and responsive, but again, sluggish due to the weight of the plane. It sure felt like I was flying a heavy aircraft. I decided to turn on the auto-pilot and play around with its settings a bit. The plane comfortably and accurately followed all of them without issues. Of course I managed to overspeed my plane, causing all the bells and whistles that come with that to go off, but even then the plane managed to correct itself perfectly.
Looking around the cockpit, one of the first things that caught my attention was the EFB. It looks the same as the EFB in the 737, but I was happy to see that PMDG has expanded the EFB with an additional app for ground operations. It’s now finally possible to set and configure your ground equipment, doors and payload via the EFB. I’m happy to see PMDG expanding and adding to EFB like they said they would, and I also welcome them to 2024 with the rest of us.
A lot of comments have been made over whether or not PMDG has redone the cockpit of the 777, like they initially planned several years ago for Prepar3D. I did not have side by side pictures to compare the cockpits, and I’ll admit that I was a bit sceptical at first. But after all, it is a 777 cockpit so things are bound to look similar or the same. The cockpit of the 777 was very well modelled. Detailed, and large, with its recognisable beige colours on all the panels. The textures were detailed and crisp, and a clear step up from older simulators. I tried opening the door to explore the cabin but alas, this build must’ve been a bit older as the cabin door was not functioning in the demo. That doesn’t mean the cabin was not modelled at all though, and once phasing through the door I was greeted by a detailed passenger cabin.
My first impression of this aircraft is quite positive. The 777 is just not really a plane that you take around for a 5 minute spin, and to discover all its details and intricacies you’d have to spend many more hours in it – which I’m sure we’ll all do upon release. But from what I did see, the plane looked good. It had high quality modelling with new details we haven’t seen before in PMDG’s 777. The textures looked crisp, and I was happy to see the team adding new functionality with the EFB. This hands-on, brief as it was, has me very excited for PMDG’s next release, which hopefully isn’t too far out at this point anymore.
