Ifly 747v2 - The Queen Reborn
Introduction
The Mighty 747 is more than just an aircraft it‘s a symbol in aviation. I fell in love with her the first time I saw her and it‘s still my favorite aircraft since then. She‘s part of the aviation industry for more than 40 years, and has proven her reliability over all these years. She transported the equivalent of 80% of the human race.
History of the queen
Pan am had a problem they needed a plane that could fly further and could carry twice as many passengers than the Boeing 707. So they went to Boeing for the task and paid them 525 million dollars for 25 747‘s. Boeing agreed to deliver the first 747 to Pan Am by the end of 1969. The delivery date left 28 months to design the aircraft, which was two-thirds of the normal time. The schedule was so fast paced that the people who worked on it were given the nickname „The Incredibles“. Developing the aircraft was such a technical and financial challenge that management was said to have „bet the company“ when it started the project,
Production of 747 started when the production plant was also still in development. The Boeing Factory is the biggest factory in the world. The doors hold the Guiness world record for the largest mural. The factory is so big you could easily fit entire Disneyland inside it and still have room for parking. Clouds are even known to form near the 11 story high ceiling.
The first 747 rolled out the huge factory on September 30 1968. Her huge wingspan and fuselage immediately bombed her jumbo jet and quickly established herself as the undisputed Queen of the skies. By the end of June 2015 Boeing built 1510 747‘s . The Queen is loved by passengers and pilots. Several different variants were built from the 747 :
Airlines now demand more sufficient aircrafts these days ,and Airbus answered that demand with the A380 and the old 747 cant keep up with that. So they are replacing the 747 with the A380 or the much younger and modern Boeing 777 which only has 2 engines but is a lot more fuel efficient.
Introduction of Ifly
Ifly first developed the 747 for fs2004 and was rather good, but was after the release of the PMDG 747 pushed to the shadows. The old Ifly 747 was only interesting for flightisimmers who didn‘t wont to spend to much money on their sim because it was completely free to use.
In 2011 Ifly released the Boeing 737 NG for FSX which was just like the old 747 very well received by simmers and reviewers and is still used now by some simmers. Not that long after that PMDG released their version of the 737 NGX which of course blew the competition once again in the shadows.
Ifly now released the 747v2 which still supports FS2004 surprisingly, together with the FSX version and the later released Prepar3D version. The P3D version is the one that I have spent many sleepless nights in.
One of the features that most likely fs2004 users would appreciate, is that Ifly still supports 2D panels , which saves a lot of FPS and is very easy to use. Personally I dislike those, I think 2D panels are outdated for use in FSX/P3D and I rather love spending many hours in the realism of a nice VC.
Currently the Ifly 747v2 comes only with the 3 engine variants for the 400 model and sadly no cargo or ER model. The ER and cargo model are currently in development and the -8i and -8F are on the waitinglist for now.
The installation only comes with 2 liveries; British Airways One World and Virgin Atlantic and 1 stock Ifly repaint. With each livery you can choose if you want to use wide screen or normal screen for users with wide screen monitors like I do.
IFly 747-400 Features
FMS:
- Winds aloft forecast entries.
- Conditional waypoints for SIDS/STARS/Approaches.
- Fly-by and Fly-over waypoints for SIDS/STARS/Approaches.
- Accurate Cost Index calculations for ECON/LRC speeds
- Horizontal and vertical navigation.
- User defined waypoints.
- SID/STAR and navdata custom database.
- ETA and Fuel prediction.
- All pages and menus are implemented.
- CRT/LCD
- Maintenance pages.
Autopilot:
- Realistic Autopilot Flight Director System (AFDS) with Autothrottle System.
- AFDS active (Display in green): FD, CMD, LAND3, TEST (Displays in green with white triangles): LAND2 (Displays in amber): NO AUTOLAND
- Autothrottle (A/T) Active (Display in Green) Modes: THR, THRREF, HOLD, IDLE, SPD
- AFDS active Roll Modes Display in green): HDGHOLD, HDGSEL, LNAV, LOC, ROLLOUT, TO/GA
- AFDS armed Roll Modes (Display in white): LOC, ROLLOUT, LNAV
- AFDS active Pitch Modes (Display in green): TO/GA, ALT, V/S, VNAVPTH, VNAVSPD, VNAVALT, G/S, FLARE, FLCHSPD
- AFDS armed Pitch Modes (Display in white): G/S, FLARE, VNAV
- Leg Types: Track to Fix, Direct to Fix, Arc to Fix, Course to Fix, Radius to Fix
- With left and right Flight Director.
- Cross-bar or single cue flight director.
- Three individual flight control computers (FCCs).
- Simulated AFDS Status Annunciation.
- Activation of mouse wheel for easier MCP window settings.
Exterior Model:
- 3DS Max Model
- Realistic control surfaces.
- Working elevator power.
- Realistic flight spoilers and ground spoilers.
- Nozzle valve animation.
- Working APU doors.
- Entry & cargo doors with corresponding cockpit light.
- High quality livery textures.
- Flex wing.
Virtual Cockpit:
- High Quality 3D modeling
- High Definition textures
- Gauges functional, clickable and animated
- Animated windows Wipers (two speeds) and more.
- Superb instrument lightning at night.
- Windshield reflection.
Systems:
- Simulated triple Inertial Reference System.
- Terrain Display
- NAV1/2 radios with working AUTO/MAN modes.
- Realistic Ground Proximity Warning System.
- Cabin pressurization logic fully implemented.
- Flap load relief protection.
- Failures.
- Aural alerts.
- Simulation of Left and Right EFIS.
- Full TCAS logic (with traffic display on EHSI)
- Weather Radar (Active Sky Next Required)
- Predictive Winshear (Active Sky Next Required)
Miscellaneous:
- CRT and LCD Display units
- Interactive Configuration Manager.
- Many custom configuration options.
- Detailed tutorial and operating manual
- Aircraft performance calculated directly from flight model parameters.
- With custom Turbine Sound Studios GE, RR, PW sound packages
- More than 44500 SIDs/STARs included.
- Ground support and push back.
- 2D Panel supports both standard and wide screen monitors.
- Hundreds of programmable key assignments
- Ability to operate both Captain and First officer‘s instrumentation in different modes while in 2D and in the virtual cockpit
Installation
The Ifly 747v2 can be bought for € 54 from the Flight1 store, 3 different installers for each sim,
when opening the download, the Flight1 wrapper will open and this is where you make the actual payment via creditcard of paypal . After a success full installation you will find the b747 configuration manager on your desktop. Flight 1 offers a refund during the 30 day period following purchase this is something more developers should offer.
Manuals
The aircraft comes with 6 manuals in PDF.
• 744 Checklist
• Flightplan Introduction
• Ifly 744 tutorial
• Ifly 747-400 Operation Manual
• MyFleet
• Procedures Introduction
Configuration manager
After installation, you‘ll find this shortcut on you desktop, used to setup your 747 for the flight and change settings and manage your liveries.
The configuration manager has 3 tabs I will discuss each as briefly as possible
• Payload
• Fuel
• My Fleet
Payload
You have 3 presets for the payload; Empty , full and random. You can change the layout of the aircraft in 3 or 4 classes with different seatings. The front and after cargo can be changed in percentage or typing in the weight in Kilograms or pounds.
Fuel
You have 4 presets with fuel; empty, 1/3full, 2/3 full and completely full or you can change the percentage or type the kilograms or pounds. But that‘s not all, you can even change the quantity of each thank of the aircraft and there are many tanks in this big bird.
My Fleet
Here‘s where you manage all of your different liveries and install new ones. New repaints can be found in the Flight1 library, there are about 30 liveries online at the time I‘m writing this review. That aint a lot and many important liveries are still missing, but without some support of the repaint community the amount of liveries wont increase very fast. Installing repaints goes quite easily but in a different way that you‘re used to so reading the My Fleet manual could come in handy and could save you from the usual headaches later.
But the My Fleet can do a lot more than manage your different liveries. For instance you can change each panel startup state for each livery .
You can change the many different autopilot options and change the setting for each display unit and much much more. Very useful features are the ability for autocrusie, auto stepclimb , Pause at TOD , auto balance fuel and even auto pause the sim when fuel quantity gets to low.
Options
You can change the options in either the configuration manager, in the flighsim menu some options can also be changed in the FMC as well so, plenty of choice. The list of options is huge and you‘ll be able to fine tune your aircraft to completely to your needs.
Exterior
Overall the exterior of the Ifly 747v2 is well modeled , smooth animations of control surfaces and nice detailed landing gear. Exterior lights look great and realistic especially at night when the lights reflects on the ground.
Interior
This is where the Ifly 747v2 really shines its simply STUNNING yes with capitals it looks that good. Only a few other payware aircafts come close to that quality . For FS2004 users this is the most complex VC ever and Ifly did an amazing job putting this in the more than 11 year old simulator. The VC features many 3D objects and animations and beautiful textures but ofcourse this all has it‘s price to pay as the frames drop is quite huge so taxiing on a FPS heavy airport with this bird could be very stuttery and not smooth at all. Even on my powerful system my FPS in the VC were about 20-25 FPS when I get 35-45 FPS with other payware aircafts. Perhaps Ifly could focus on this too for the next update. Some animations in the VC are just unnecessary, like the moving tabletray, sunscreens and the moving seats & armrests. It would be useful if you could turn these off in the configuration tool it could save a few FPS.
An alternative is of course using the 2D panels, but seriously who still uses those ? It‘s 2015 now!
Last but certainly not least is the cockpit night lighting which looks great as well. Some customers have complaints about the yoke being to big, I compared this with the real aircraft and call me blind but I see little difference in here.
Systems
The Ifly 747v2 has been tested by real 747 captains,FMC, Autopilot, Electric , hydraulics, packs everything is modeled and works like in the real 747. The aircraft supports Active Sky Next for the on board weather radar, which is a very nice feature as it is one of the most realistic weather engines out there. Unfortunately this is only compatible with the FSX and Prepar3D model cause of the limitations of fs2004. Ifly also included a working terrain radar which is always very useful.
The FMC is perfectly remodeled and works just like the real thing. Like said before the FMC gives access to many of the other options, like opening doors. fuel, payload and much more.
A very nice feature and new for Ifly Is the ability to program failures, always nice to practice your ramp scenarios or if you want to add more realism to your flights.
But even with all this testing by real pilots a few minor issue still remained.
I noticed a few times that after a long haul flight the fuel used seemed to be way off and the consumption was inaccurate. I used Ifly‘s performance template in Aerosoft‘s Professional Flight Planner X. However I found out that these were incorrect and I found correct templates in the Flight1 library.
Another minor issue is when at take off or at approach the windshear warning always sounds even if there is none. Luckily you can turn this option off in the settings.
Another small thing I noticed is the time from extending the flaps from up to 20 goes to fast, in the real aircraft his takes almost double the time.
Flight Dynamics
Ifly seemed to have improved the wingflex on this bird, which was needed in my opinion. The wing bounces nicely when taxiing. At take off roll when the wings produces lift there is very little wingflex , surely not enough . Same when approaching and flaring above the runway there is very little wingflex perhaps another update could fix it even more.
On the other hand flying this girl manual feels like a dream, she feels very realistic, quite heavy just like the real deal . When controlling the yoke you will feel that everything has a small latency just like in the real bird and feels very realistic in that way.
When taxiing she needs quite a lot of power to get her going, this could be cause of fsx/P3D has this sticky floor problem that X-Plane doesn‘t have.
On the other hand inflight the engines on this bird almost feel like 4 Boeing 777 engines cause she climbs like an elevator, even when taking off near MTOW this girl has no problems climbing, same when climbing between stepclimbs she climbs like a rocket.
Sounds
Overall amazing sounds, very realistic and I‘m not talking about the engines only. The sound of each knob and switch in the cockpit the brakes as the sound of the buttons when you click them on the FMC are all included. Ifly made use of Turbine Sound Studios (TSS) for the engine sound they are used in other add ons too and is simply amazing from interior and exterior.
Compatibility
A few issues I encountered with the Ifly 747v2 and third party add ons, first one with the GSX. When calling for catering services, GSX kept asking to open service door 2 when all doors were already open. Also when asking to board the back cargo loader never showed up. I found an alternative cfg for GSX on the Fsdreamteam support forum and everything worked out fine then.
The on board weather radar uses data from Active Sky Next, which is always know for it‘s high realism an correct weather data.
Pro Flight Planner X by Aerosoft is supported to export your Flight plans to the Ifly‘s FMC, by just typing the flight plan name into the CO route. Or by just opening the flight plan in the Ifly menu in the sim this saves a lot of time for a long-haul flight.
As I mentioned earlier the build in templates that comes with Pro Flight Planner X are a bit off, so make sure to download the correct ones from the flight1 library.
Conclusion
A question I often receive via social media is ‚ is it better than the PMDG 747” short answer, YES , truly is and for fs2004 users it‘s the best payware aircraft you can get .
For 54 euro the Ifly 747v2 is certainly worth the money., yes it has a few issues but I‘m sure the team of Ifly will work those out in time. Another question I regularly get is “should I wait for the PMDG 747v2” well I leave that answer to you. But keep in mind the PMDG 747v2 will be most certainly more than 54 euro as the current Boeing 777 basepack is already way above this price. I spent well over 120 hours in this bird and many more hours to come and I enjoyed every single hour.
Service Pack 1
- Dynamic Interactive Panel Flood and Back lights 2D & Virtual Cockpit: FSX/P3D
- Static Flood lights in Virtual Cockpit , Dynamic Interactive Panel Flood and Back lights in 2D: FS2004
- Increased fidelity and refinement across all systems.
- Enhanced external textures and models.
- Performance enhancements.
- Air file fine-tuned, climb/descent performance close to real charts.
- Corrections to systems, textures and models.
- Revised mouse scroll and click spot interaction.
- Dynamic on-ground and in-flight wing flexing.
- Revised paint-kit.
- Revised SDK.
Some bugs were fixed but the overall performance is still weak. You will need a high end system ans lower your details in Prepar3D to get a flyable aircraft.
Test system
My specs:
Intel I7 5820K @ 4,8 Ghz
16 GB DDR4 memory
2x GTX 980 in SLI
Windows 8,1 x64
Model : 8.0
Textures : 7.5
Flight Model : 7.0
Interior : 9.0
Sound : 10.0
Performance : 4.0
Details : 8.0
Manual : 9.0
Value for money : 10.0
Overall score: 7.7