The latest airliner in the ToLiss line-up, the A330-900neo for X-Plane has been available for a bit of time now and received its first couple of updates. After its release we took a first look at the brand new Airbus widebody here. Now, I would like to take the opportunity to dive a bit further into the ToLiss A330-900. Who is ToLiss and what do they bring to the table with this aircraft? Is it a step up from previous ToLiss models? And what can we say about the new features that have been introduced?
Who is ToLiss?
For X-Plane users ToLiss may be an established name, but for those unfamiliar, let me give just a bit of background about ToLiss as a developer before we dive in. The ToLiss team consists of two core members, Torsten (known in the community as “Gliding Kiwi)” and Giuliana. They, in turn, collaborate with various other developers, artists and people from the community on their projects. They have real life experience in the field of aviation, having both worked as engineers at companies like Airbus and Bombardier. In the year 2008 Torsten worked on a PhD in flight controls. This later evolved into the creation of a first payware plugin and the founding of ToLiss together with Guiliana in 2017. Then in 2018 this led to the first ToLiss product, the Airbus A319. The family was then expanded to the A321, A321neo and A320neo before moving on to widebodies in the shape of the mighty A340-600, which was released roughly 3 years ago. Now the A330-900neo is the latest addition to this expanding lineup. Which is, in my opinion, an exciting choice because this model is popular with airlines in the real world and will be relevant for quite some time to come!
Installation
Time to get into it. For this review we’re taking a look at the latest available version at this time, version 1.0.3. Thankfully the installation of a ToLiss aircraft is not overly complicated: download a ZIP file, extract and place it in the X-Plane aircraft folder. The add-on is compatible with both X-Plane 11 and 12. Optionally you could install the Skunkcrafts tool which keeps all ToLiss aircraft updated with the click of a button. After loading in you enter your activation code and you are good to go. When it comes to liveries there are already many real life and fictional paint jobs available for free, created by the community.
Exterior model and textures
Now that we’ve loaded in, we take a look at the exterior model of the airplane. Now if I was planespotting I would not hesitate to immediately classify this as an A330-900neo with its recognizable black zorro mask around the cockpit windows. When I look at the airplane from the side and compare this to a real life picture it looks like the overall shape and proportions of the 3D model are accurate and well done. Walking closer also reveals a good amount of detailing on the exterior, antennae, vanes, pitot tubes and various labels are present and textured well. Only when standing close does some texture pixelation become visible. Now in previous models it was sometimes possible to find “panel gaps”, visible openings between sections but that is not the case here. This leaves me with the impression that it’s a step up from previous models. The wingtips also have a smooth curve and the individual bulbs for the position lights are modeled.
The Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engine has an accurate 3D model, with details such as a drain mast underneath and a pressure sensor at the engine intake. The tail cone has a shiny and realistic “burned metal” look. With the default liveries, the engine is decorated with a GK (Gliding Kiwi) logo instead of RR for Rolls-Royce. Technically inaccurate but this is probably related to copyrights. The main landing gear also looks convincing, featuring not just the important bits (a wonderful tilted bogey!) but also a good amount of detailing including hydraulic lines and various decals that were added in the latest update. The gear assembly and its animations deserve a bit of extra recognition. It gives an extra layer of satisfaction to that butter landing when you look at the way the bogey tilts smoothly and the weight of the aircraft sets on its struts leaving a trail of tire smoke behind.
When looking at the wing flex, the animations aren’t quite as smooth, as if a lower “framerate” is used. I wouldn’t say immersion breaking, but perhaps the choice here was to increase sim performance at the cost of fidelity in the animation. The flexing intensity however, is customizable. This is not a common feature but nonetheless a welcome one. Finally a quick peek inside the cargo holds. All the main parts you would expect are present, the loading rails, various panels and appropriately numbered sections.
Cabin
Walking on board we take a quick peek into the cabin. Over the various ToLiss models I noticed a slow and steady increase in the cabin modeling. It seems this trend continues in the A339 as I was able to find more details with better textures while still striking a balance with performance. The cabin itself looks modern, featuring a lit up, blue tiled ceiling which is a new design implemented in the Airbus “Airspace” cabins. The economy class looks good but perhaps the business seats seem to have received a bit of extra attention, as they feature some extra leather details.
In some scenarios however, especially when the windows don’t cast a lot of light inside, the cabin can look a bit flat as there is not a ton of shading happening. Some of it is perhaps due to X-Plane limitations, but if we compare the ToLiss to the default Laminar A330-300 we can see that the default A330 cabin feels a bit more “3D” due to its more natural lighting and shadows.
At night time this is not so much a problem however and the ToLiss A339 features in-seat screens that can even show an outside view due to an onboard camera. Both the in-seat screens as well as the whole cabin can be disabled in flight via a setting, allowing you to squeeze out a bit more performance if needed.
The flight deck
Now we head back to the front to explore the flight deck. ToLiss aircraft typically have good frame rates and I’m pleased to learn this is still the case. The cockpit feels familiar in an Airbus sense, but has enough little details to give the A339 an unique feeling. Based on community feedback, the cockpit textures have gone through some rapid changes in the last updates. In the current version the cockpit has a lot more detail in the textures, like wear and tear. Up close the textures are crisp and detailed, especially in the area’s you interact with. I believe this to be a solid, but also necessary improvement from the initial launch state. Looking at the overall colors in the cockpit, it does feel rather grey and in my opinion misses a bit of that “Airbus blue”. The grey, together with certain lighting conditions can cause the cockpit to appear a bit flat or lacking contrast. For example the area near the rudder pedals can appear just as lit up as the main instrument panel, which feels a bit unnatural. Overall though, I find the cockpit perfectly usable and as we spend most of the time in the cockpit, the good performance is also worth some sacrifices.
Sounds
Now when you give those Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines “full beans” it quickly becomes a satisfying ordeal. The engines first “whine” a bit at first, seemingly complaining with their task before accepting their fate and spooling up with a roar. Finally at full thrust a satisfying noise is produced that I can only describe as a “Mighty Neo buzz” that almost makes you want to discontinue any approach just to hear TOGA thrust again. Aside from the engines, the sounds of the various buttons and switches in the cockpit range are generally well done. Cutting the air conditioning by setting the Engine Mode selector to “IGN/START”, is indeed noticeable and you can hear the sound of rushing air diminish.
All around, from the electric seat motor to the wiper knob, from the brake fan switch to the cockpit window opening, the sounds are convincing as the sound effects are of high quality. However in relation to the existing ToLiss aircraft, I would’ve liked to have perhaps seen a bit more development in this area as some sounds can start a bit familiar if you’ve flown more aircraft in the ToLiss fleet. Various different push buttons, such as the MCDU usually have the same sound effect. The metal sound of the engines windmilling on the ground also seems absent. I feel like the aircraft would come a bit more alive if the sounds are dynamic and react a bit more to the environment. For example more variation in gear rumble at different ground or air speeds. Extending the flaps all the way produces a single sound and it would be neat if you could hear the flap motor change pitch a bit as perhaps hydraulic pressures fluctuate a tiny bit.
Handling and flying
Like any modern Airbus, the A339 has an advanced Fly-By-Wire (FBW) system, sporting all sorts of protections to keep the aircraft within a safe flight envelope. There are many details and complications that go into this, so quite literally I took a dive or two and observed its behaviors. Bank it too far? The Airbus limits and corrects you. Almost stalling and falling out of the sky? A feature that automatically provides full engine thrust and lowers the nose, called Alpha Floor saves the day.
Whatever you throw at it or whatever control law you are in, you get a behavior that’s true to the real aircraft, making this an area where the real life experience of the developer makes this virtual aircraft shine. And knowing this is simulated accurately does indeed make it a joy to fly.
After these “stunts” I also hand flew some departures and landings to get a good feel of it. The implementation of FBW also translates into a very pleasant manual flying experience. Now I realize these things can be a bit subjective. However, the protections and rules as I mentioned above are objectively implemented correctly. So when you look at aspects like how fast you can roll the plane or how fast you pull up, you get a response that reflects an accurate simulation of the Airbus FBW system. For example if you pitch up full stick backwards, it takes into account the G-Loading on the wings and this in turn results in an accurate interaction with the flight model. The responses feel dynamic, realistic and therefore a great manual flying experience. Once on the ground, the aircraft plays well with the physics in X-Plane and it does indeed feel like you’re trying to maneuver a 250 ton (or 550,000 pound) aircraft around. This makes the taxi fun and challenging, though just a bit easier than the longer A340-600.
New features
So far, whenever a new ToLiss airplane is released, it ships with a couple of new features that were not present in previous models. For the A339, one of the new additions is the HUD or Heads Up Display. In simple terms it’s a screen that projects information in front of you, allowing you to blend the view out of the window with data from your primary instruments. It can be present based on your livery or manually turned off or on and is only compatible with X-Plane 12. I have found using this on other aircraft, such as the Hot Start Challenger 650 quite useful and fun. Fortunately the ToLiss implementation is also excellent. The projection is done correctly, meaning your viewpoint is important in order to see all the data, just like real life. Additionally it doesn’t just show you the basics like autopilot modes, altitude and speed but also a projection of the runway and the extended centerline. This can take a bit to get used to but I found it especially enjoyable to use the HUD in low visibility conditions and seeing the runway appear underneath the projection when coming out of the clouds. This projection is also calculated live based on simulated data from all the computers and sensors on board. For example your GPS or ILS data may not be fully accurate resulting in a slightly inaccurate projection on the HUD. This is realistic and something that real life pilots have to take into account as well. If you prefer to have the HUD display perfect data however, ToLiss allows you to configure this as well. I suspect this may be my favorite new feature.
Another new feature is the ability to upgrade your traditional Radio Management Panel to a modern version with a screen. This panel, called “DRAIMS” (Digital Radio and Audio Integrating Management System) is a new way to interact with your radio and transponder. It features a digital screen, showing you the active and standby frequency as well as the transponder code. It has some cool tricks, it informs you if you type an invalid frequency and if you just type “227” it’ll figure out it’s short for frequency 122.700. Also setting the squawk is a breeze through the ATC button and it has some shortcuts to activate the TCAS system. It is almost feature complete, only missing some minor features. For example you are not able to the change radio modulation on high frequencies or change specific SATCOM settings on the TEL page, but this is not something that would really affect your (online) flight. And like in other ToLiss models, under the INT and CAB button you can open a small floating window that allows some quick access to common actions such as loading cargo or opening doors. It’s nice to see this modern tech, certified in the last few years, already make it into this simulation. Personally I enjoy using it over the old system, in case you don’t then ToLiss allows you to select your preference via the settings.
To test this next feature I took the A339 online on the VATSIM network. Flying through some busy airspace departing Amsterdam, I was able to play around with the ATSAW or Airborne Traffic Situational Awareness system. It provides an extra layer of information to pilots about the traffic around you. The navigation display now shows you info about other aircrafts relative altitude, their heading, their ground speed, vertical speed and even their wake vortex category. It is impressive to see this work in an online environment and it really does provide you with more awareness. Via the FMS (Flight Management System) and new traffic selector knob in the cockpit you can even cycle through the traffic around you and see more detailed information. In previous ToLiss models the range of aircraft displayed on the navigation display seemed limited to 40nm. In the A339 however it is possible to see aircraft several hundreds of nautical miles away, a substantial upgrade.
The last new feature is the TOS and ROW/ROPS, yes Airbus (and aviation for that matter) sure love acronyms. The Take Off Surveillance warns you if you start to takeoff from a taxiway or runway other than previously programmed. The Runway Overrun Warning & Protection System is a bit more advanced, it monitors the aircraft on approach and warns if you become destabilized in a way that won’t let you make it to the end of the runway. I managed to trigger this by accident when I was above the glideslope for my landing on a 2500m runway. If you do touch down, it will attempt to predict if you are unable to stop before the end of the runway, resulting in a commanding “max braking” or “max reverse” audio cues if you’re in trouble. This is even integrated into the new HUD, where the warning messages also appear. Therefore I found these features to work well and it adds a bit of “neo” flavor to the aircraft.
Systems
I took the A339 out on a number of test flights to explore the simulated onboard systems. During all stages of a flight I like to flip to the various ECAM (Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor) pages. They can display information to the flight crew about all kinds of systems like the electrical system, hydraulic system or the state of the flight controls. This window into the system simulation shows that there is a lot of depth to them. If, for example, you leave the cockpit window open and it’s cold outside, the displayed cockpit temperature will drop. If the ground crew opens the cargo door (this activates the yellow hydraulic system), the ECAM page accurately displays the yellow system becoming pressurized. Another nice detail is the simulation of “imperfect sensors”. In real life, no two sensors are exactly the same and if you for example were to compare the exhaust gas temperature of both engines, they are indeed not identical.
Now when it comes to the fuel system, the Airbus has a trick up its sleeve to improve the aircraft’s fuel economy. As the fuel slowly depletes in cruise, the center of gravity shifts forward. To prevent this causing the aircraft to descend, the horizontal stabilizer angles down to lift the nose up. This causes extra drag however. Now they could ask some passengers to move seats to the back but a more practical way is to move fuel to the trim tank in the tail section. ToLiss has modeled this feature very well and indeed on longer flights you can observe the fuel being moved around appropriately.
The fact that this is simulated is a clear sign that all the underlying systems like flight controls and the computers that calculate the center of gravity are all simulated well and working together. The A339 also has a sophisticated brake temperature model, taking into account the location of the temperature probes within the wheel assembly and the heat transfer between brake pads and discs. It can take a bit of time for the heat (or cooling) to reach the sensor.
Finally I want to mention the FMS. This computer, controlled via the MCDU (Multi-function Control Display Unit) is simulated in detail by ToLiss. It provides all the basic features like flight and performance planning as well as a large variety of more advanced features. This includes inputting directs, secondary flight plan, holds, wind data and accurate vertical navigation and fuel predictions. More advanced features include calculation of equi-time points (a point that timewise is halfway between two other points) as well as full CPDLC and PDC (Pre Departure Clearance) functionality. This makes the ToLiss FMS a mature and stable implementation that is great to use.
Failures
The A339 comes with roughly 250 system failure options that can be triggered in two ways. You can select a failure of choice and you’re free to trigger immediately or when a certain condition is met. For example you can choose to have a VHF 1 failure somewhere during the descent phase or at an exact altitude or speed. Alternatively you can enable the random faults option, which is based on the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of the actual components. If you set this to a value of one, it should mirror the failure rate of the real airplane meaning you’d rarely ever get an issue. Setting it to 100 however means you run the same risk of a component failing that you would get if you did 100 flights. I think this customization is really well done and allows you to fine tune the risk. I like having it on 15, this gives a reasonable chance that maybe one failure will occur during a medium haul flight.
Some of the failures you can select are also recoverable, meaning if you know what steps to take you can recover the failed system. Thankfully the ECAM is a great help here and is fully programmed to guide you through any critical failures, respecting priorities. This means the failure of your VHF 3 radio is not as important as that engine fire. I was able to simulate a large array of system failures that also affect each other as you would expect. This is another testament to the system depth in the A339.
Useability
To make your life as a virtual pilot a bit easier, ToLiss included a number of ways to configure your airplane. The one stop for everything you need is the Interactive Simulation Control System (ISCS). This system allows you to configure the state of the aircraft when you first load in, for example engines running or cold and dark. Another tab contains settings for how the aircraft behaves in the sim, such as wing flex, cockpit light enhancements or turning off the cabin. This is also where you configure the new features such as the HUD or DRAIMS panel. The ISCS is also home to the fault scenarios, allowing you to enable random or specific faults. Traditionally in ToLiss aircraft the ISCS pops up in a window. However for the A339 there is now an option to instead interact with the ISCS on the EFB (a tablet in the cockpit). I found this to be a bit more immersive than the standard pop up window, so this is a welcome addition that I hope makes it to other ToLiss models in the future.
Additionally I want to highlight another huge usability feature, autosaves. It’s not new to the A339 but it is very powerful to be able to fully save a certain moment in time, complete with the exact state of the aircraft and all its systems. Creating a save is instantaneous and you can do it manually whenever and automatically every few minutes. One of its usages is doing an approach or landing over and over for training purposes. With the stutter free autosave enabled you can be back up and running in a few minutes after a potential simulator crash.
The aircraft also ships with three manuals, useful to both beginner and expert. One manual provides an introduction to the aircraft itself, another manual covers how to set it up in the simulator and finally a third document that contains a full tutorial flight. This adds value to the product and allows you to extract more out of your flights.
Conclusion
The A330-900neo by ToLiss is a wonderful addition to the fleet. In my opinion It feels and flies like a widebody Airbus simulation should. The external 3D model and texturing is well done, especially the engines and landing gear. The visuals on the interior don’t always look perfect, in some cases it misses a bit of color and contrast. The sounds aren’t a huge step up from previous models, but it’s very usable and I’m a fan of the engine sounds in particular. The strong suits are performance (frame rate), system depth and product stability. The A339 comes with an extensive simulation of aircraft systems including failures and an accurate engine and flight model with a great implementation of the FMS and FBW systems. It also scores high on usability with features like autosave and the ISCS integration in the tablet.
During all my test flights I found the aircraft to be very stable, meaning no crashes or even any easily identifiable software bugs. The new features are more than just gimmicks and add a bit of fun and modernization to your flights, giving this aircraft an edge over previous models. The aircraft also received a number of updates after launch to fix some small issues and to address community feedback. To me these are signs of a committed developer. So in conclusion, the Airbus A330-900neo by ToLiss is very easy to recommend to anyone interested in Airbus simulation on the X-Plane platform. Aside from some minor aspects in visual fidelity, the aircraft is a joy to fly and operate. The depth of the simulation and the maturity of the product provides you with a lot of entertainment for many flights to come.
