I have been flying the Boeing 757-200 (CaptainSim) aircraft for a week now on FS9 and I love it.

Back when I used FlightSim 2002 I flew the CaptainSim Boeing 727-200 and was in love with her, she was stable and the model was fantastic.

However the lack of FMS/FMC soon meant I switched to another company’s Boeing 737NG as soon as it was released.  Later I flew another company’s Boeing 767-300 and then the Queen of the Skies another company’s Boeing 747-400.

Since downloading CaptainSim Boeing 757-200 I have completed six flights (LGW>RHO>LGW>IBZ>LGW) all on the Monarch (classic) livery.

The CaptainSim Boeing 757-200 aircraft has its faults however I really enjoy flying her and the sounds of the engines could keep me entertained for hours.  I have heard people say that the model is not stable and you can’t leave the auto pilot unattended.  I have not had any such issues.

The FMS is stable and once engaged the aircraft flies a stable pre-programmed flight path to its set destination.

I would say that it is a massive shame that CaptainSim has not communicated the programming of the Boeing 757’s FMS to NaviGraph which means the FMS data is now dangerously (and unrealistically) out of date.

While on the ground the CaptainSim Boeing 757-200 is wonderful to look at and the system which opens the doors, exits, windows etc is a dream comes true.  Once again there is a minor problem which I am told is on the next update, the APU only powers the aircraft for a short period of time – after that if you need the engines started you need to connect ground power (GPU) something that does not happen in real life.

Taking off is great, like in the real world the Boeing 757 accelerates like a Porsche 911 lol…  Once again it would be nice if the FMS came with SID’s and STAR’s.

On the climb CaptainSim Boeing 757-200 climb’s like a trooper which once again my experience in the real world on the Boeing 757 is similar.  Once again a small nag, but when you switch from TO/GA to CLB, 1 or 2 there is very little change in the EPR setting and the EPR setting is sometimes completely ignored.

For example on climb you can have the climb thrust set at CLB 2 (say 1.62) then if you switch to CLB 1 the EPR setting will switch to 1.71 however the thrust won’t go any higher then 1.62.  It’s a small thing so it’s not that important.

Cruise is great, as I said before stable and follows the flight plan with out fault.

Once again sometime minor.  The lower secondary engine display won’t go to a blank display.  A friend who is a Captain on the B752 type says this secondary display is normally left blank in flight so if there is a problem it automatically switches on.

I am also finding it impossible to switch off the ‘logo’ light.  On normal operations (with British Airways and Monarch Airlines) the logo light is used on the ground and kept on until FL100 (or trans altitude) when it is turned off until either decent is started or if there is a TCAS alert.  It is really affecting the realism of this otherwise near faultless 757 external models.

Descent seems to be very good as well.  From what I understand the B752 in real life is hard to slow down and you need to plan well ahead – much like CaptainSim Boeing 757.

While on approach I am loving the vortex that appears off the wings – it’s great.  In the UK we get fog a lot this time of year and I took some simply amazing pictures of CaptainSim Boeing 757 on finals into a fog bound LGW, the vortex added to the whole feel of damp, cold fog! Love it.

If I was going to be picky again I could bring up the fact the breaks are always on, but I have found away around this problem.  On landing the auto breaks disconnect totally and you have to manually stop the bird, which is better then the emergency stop that happened the first time I tested CaptainSim Boeing 757.

As I said before the external model is great.  CaptainSim have always been very good at programming the external model, with the Boeing 727, then the Boeing 707 but the Boeing 757 is by far the best I think so far.

There are a few issues with how the external model works.  For example when you activate the APU the APU intake does not open automatically, however when you switch the APU off the intake does close by itself.

Also on landing when you select reverse thrust cowling (reverse thrust door) only moves to the amount of reverse thrust you have selected.  According to a friend who is a pilot on the B757 he said the cowling should open fully once reverse thrust is selected, no matter how much thrust.

Now the sounds. If there was one section of the package that’s let down it would be the sounds.  I have not even stepped into the PW version of the CaptainSim Boeing 757-200 as I have only been flying the Monarch livery and they only fly the RR version of the aircraft.  I like the engine sounds, if anything I would say that on taxi the engines don’t wine as much as they do in real life and on take off, when using a lot of thrust there is not the growl that RR’s make in real life either.  In cruise the engines are fantastic I really like the sound and landing, oh landing.  Reverse thrust has never sounded better if you ask me!

I have flown many times on the Boeing 757 landing in Greece where there is a very short runway and the pilots have used plenty of reverse thrust on landing and I like to do the same - CaptainSim Boeing 757 does not let you down.  The noise is great.  Once again one thing I would say is the sound file does need to be a little longer.  Quite often when landing at an airport with a long runway the pilots will select idle reverse or very little reverse thrust and slow down very gradually.  If you do this on the CaptainSim Boeing 757 you will fine the sound file would have cycled around before you get to 100kts or below which puts a dampener on things.

In the flight deck the sounds totally let it down.  I am going to ignore the missing announcement sound files (I was told they are going to be added with the service pack update).  When you switch the seatbelt signs on it makes one sound, the non smoking sign another – neither sound is used by any Boeing aircraft for that function.  Also the evacuation signal.  I was SO pleased someone has finally added this.  However the sound that is used for this alarm is not anything like the one in real life.  I know it would be hard to get a recording of the real one, but anything would be better then the one currently in use.

It sounds like I hate the product and that’s totally NOT true – I love it, and I think there is the problem, I want to fly her loads but I know if these easily solved problems are left untouched I would retire this wonderful product early.

I can only hope that the service pack solves these problems and I can finally boast about the CaptainSim Boeing 757 on Avsim and Airliners.net hobby forum.

Thank you for the best ever Boeing 757 made for Flight Sim

Kimberly.