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The dreaded MCDU!


fat-al

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Hi All,


I saw a CRJ700/900 had been released at a really high level of quality and functionality and I got really excited.
But, I then spotted that dreaded word MCDU....Great another awesome aircraft that there is no point in me purchasing.
I work and I have a family, realistically I don't have the time to learn how to operate these aircraft on a semi professional level.
I wan't to get onto the sim, fly the aircraft with the old school auto pilot but still enjoy having a realistic looking and feeling aircraft without the set up time.
Its great that sims have come this far and its great that these levels of complexity are available but it's not that accessible to a lot of people.
I am a real world Pilot (admittedly only sailplanes and paragliders) but I'm confident in my ability to learn the more intricate systems on offer, provided I had the time.

 

'Most flight simulator fans prefer flights that do not exceed two hours, and for a good reason. The parts of simulated flights considered “fun” are the departure and arrival. That’s why commuters are so popular with flight simulator fans.' 

 

I definitely fall into this category and am interested to know of the 2 hours includes the 20-40 mins it takes to sort out the nav data and get the aircraft to a flyable state.
So many great aircraft are out there that all operate on these systems, Dash 8 Airbus series, CRJ amongst others.

 

It would be great if there was a lighter weight option that wasn't also compromised when it came to quality.


I'm sure this probably comes across as negative or a rant but it's just so frustrating.
Even with weather engines etc there is now a set up time, resulting in great realism but still additional time before flight, add aircraft configuration to this and it could be an hour+ before you even push back.

I feel like there is the potential for people to loose interest or fall out of love with flight sims because the fun and enjoyment is being overtaken by this need for ultra realism. It's easy to feel like your average, everyday simmers have been forgotten about by developers especially when the sims them selves are still flawed.

 

Al

 

 


 

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Frankly between the different start up states that are available and the MCDU having probably only 3 pages that you'd *need* to look at I have been able to get this in the air in 5 minutes or less if I just wanted to fly some circuits or whatever.

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Hi,

 

it may feel hard and complex when you first see it, but believe me, once you are used to the way an MCDU operates (be it Boeing, Airbus or Bombardier) you can set it up in 3-5 minutes at maximum.

It's bascially always the same: Enter your route, enter the weights, enter the performance data (the latter two can be caculated automatically with one button click in our CRJ!).

 

You should try to go the step ahead and give an MCDU a try. It will initially take you some learning and, assuming you have 2 hours a day for the sim, it might take a week or two until you get into the systems.
Once you're into them you will quickly notice how "easy" it is to handle these systems, expecially in a CRJ which is, compared with Airbus and Boeing, a rather simple aircraft.

If you don't want to risk "loosing money" on it you could try a freeware one first. I believe there were one or two good freeware MCDUs available on the internet. Somebody else may be able to give you good guidance here as I'm not too much into the freeware aircrafts due to my job here. The basic operating principles of FMCs is always the same, only the layout may differ, so you will get the idea with it.

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@Martyn Hi,

How about for longer flights though, and how much reading did you have to do to get to that point?

Have you reached a point where you can do circuits without constantly pausing the game and reading the manual?
I would love for this to become a more feasible option as I have waited like everyone else for a good 7/900 for a long time.
I would be interested to know how difficult / time consuming you have found it so far and what aspects, if any you found it harder to pick up.

 

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@fat-al I did the tutorial flight once with pausing, and then for the second flight paused during approach to read up make sure I had it right, having some good experience with b737, a320 addons helps though.

TBH, the MCDU on this plane is not complex at all, it's very 'bare-bones' (not negative) compared to some others. The DAVE helps as well, it will suggest V-speeds and let you just press a button to set them up.

I guess as with any plane, it's as complex as you make it.

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1 hour ago, fat-al said:

@Martyn Hi,

How about for longer flights though, and how much reading did you have to do to get to that point?

Have you reached a point where you can do circuits without constantly pausing the game and reading the manual?
I would love for this to become a more feasible option as I have waited like everyone else for a good 7/900 for a long time.
I would be interested to know how difficult / time consuming you have found it so far and what aspects, if any you found it harder to pick up.

 

Longer flights? Well the CRJ is a short range aircraft, so there won't be any "longer" flights.

 

Which leads me to my next point: Flight plans. How else do you suggest adding a flight plan? It sounds to me like you should use the default CRJ that comes with FSX. I understand that not everyone wants complete realism, but when you get used to it, you can have the CRJ lined up for takeoff in about 10 mins, and that includes fully programming the FMC.

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I say give the MCDU a try. There are many great YouTube videos that can get you up and running in 20-30 minutes. The MCDU is what tells the aircraft where to fly and how to do it, so dumbing that down or removing it would be pretty hard. I suggest just taking the time to learn it. They are actually very simple. And once you learn one, you will understand all of them. It doesn't make sense for a developer to spend time on a complex aircraft trying to make it work without using the complex systems.

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