Page 1
767 Pilot in Command
By Bob "Groucho" MarksGame Title: 767 Pilot in Command
Version: v1.0
Category: Civilian Flight Sim Enhancement Pack
Developer: Wilco Publishing
Release Date: Released
Recommended Spec: Windows 9x/Me, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 Standard or Pro, 128MB RAM, DX8, DirectX compatible video card, CD-ROM, 256MB Free HD Space
Reviewer's Spec: AMD Athlon TBird 1GHz, WinMe, 384MB VCRAM, Hercules GeForce2 GTS 64MB Video card (Detonator3 v6.50 drivers), CH Products Flight Sim Yoke USB / Pro Pedals USB HOTAS
Article Type: Review
Article Date: February 28th, 2001
It’s a not-very-well-hidden secret that I harbor a certain weakness for civilian flight sims, particularly of the quasi-VFR variety. The occasional cross-country jaunt, complete with pre-flight planning using real charts and using VOR navigation, helps keep me in practice should I ever get a chance—and the funds-- to finish my private pilot license. Most airliner add-ons, however, don’t normally do much for me. I’m definitely not one of those Virtual Airline guys who won’t even fire up Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2000 (FS2K) unless they’re wearing a buttoned-up Arrow shirt with gold-striped epaulets. I do, however, occasionally like my wife to dress up as a stewardess and sit in my lap; but that’s a story for a different kind of pay site.
Air France 767 outbound from Paris
Let’s face it---for the most part, flying an airliner holds all the thrill and excitement of a career in accountancy. The fun part of driving a heavy comes in when something really important breaks right in the middle of the flight (and no, I don’t mean a wheel coming off the drink cart, though that is indeed serious). I’m talking about serious system failures. But there’s a problem. In FS2K and Austin Meyer's X-Plane, the procedures for dealing with these situations are far too simplistic to immerse, primarily because the systems are there almost as an afterthought. If they can even be simulated at all, incidents such as hydraulic failures, tire blowouts, and explosive depressurization become almost boring.
Enter 767 Pilot in Command (767 PIC), Wilco Publishing’s newest add-on to FS2K. With incredible systems modeling unsurpassed in mainstream PC flight sims, Wilco’s 767 PIC is a welcome challenge for the more technically-minded flight simmer. In fact, Wilco refers to 767 PIC as an upgrade as opposed to an add-on, a distinction that is truly fitting. Through serious programming voodoo, they’ve succeeded in carving far more depth out of the basic FS2K than you would think possible. If it’s realism and a mental workout you crave, you’ll find that 767 PIC is the Marianas Trench of systems and procedures modeling. (For those of you who are weak on your oceanography, that means really, really deep.)
A United 767 departs Honolulu's reef runway
Installation
Loading up 767 PICis a complete no-brainer. I installed it on top of my well-patched and add-on rich version of FS2K Pro with no problems or glitches. 767 PIC could just as easily be loaded up on a virgin installation of FS2K Standard or Professional as the Wilco CD includes the last released patches for the Microsoft sim. DirectX 8 is also included, and it’s recommended that you load DX8 up if you haven’t already.
Delta over Waikiki
Class Subject
The Boeing 767 is one of the most common wide-body airliners in use today, in use with airlines all over the world. Wilco’s 767 PIC includes liveries of 12 different airlines and a generic Wilco Publishing scheme. It’s a favorite with pilots and crews, though not as much so with passengers in coach. I still have bruises on my forehead caused by my own kneecaps after my last flight in a 767.
The gear animation is very nicely done
The airplanes are beautifully rendered both inside and out. The incredible attention to detail is readily apparent in the fully interactive internal views, external paint schemes and mechanical systems. The landing gear retraction sequence and flap/spoiler actuation are wonders of computer animation. The night lighting externally and internally is also very well done. All in all, Wilco appears to be making up for the sins against humanity and good taste they committed in the hideous Airport 2000 Volume 2 by doing a beautiful job on 767 PIC.
Sound effects are likewise excellent, as the ambient turbofan sounds help to immerse you into the front office of a modern airliner. With a huge assortment of bells, alarms, buzzers, and other audible warnings, you are quickly alerted when Bad Stuff is afoot.
Homework Required
The panels of 767, pulled up all at once just to freak you out.
767 PIC is not a sim for someone who wants to shake the box open, drop in a disk, and bore holes in the sky. Sure, you can select the 767 as your aircraft and it will set you in the cockpit with the engines running, allowing a flight around the patch once or twice. The 767 is a complex beast, however, so doing anything beyond staying in the pattern like an overpriced VFR bug-smasher is impossible without a good deal of book learning. The manual for the Flight Management Computer (FMC) alone is 108 pages long, while the familiarization instructions for the panel weighs in at a serious 116 pages. This isn’t even counting the normal and emergency checklists, which read as if they were lifted right out of Ma Boeing’s own manuals. In fact, Wilco claims that actual Boeing manuals can be used. Believe it.
A page from the emergency procedures checklist, unfortunately only supplied in .pdf format
Just as for the real aircraft, this information is essential. Any pilot will tell you that a thorough checklist procedure can spell the difference between life and death; this point is amplified to the nth level in an ultra-complex beast like the Boeing 767. The argument could easily be made that the checklists and procedures are as essential to using Wilco’s 767 PIC as the Flight Sim 2000 program itself is.
All of the 767s in PIC are artistically gorgeous
Then why, I ask with all exasperation, is this necessary information only supplied electronically? These essential documents are only available in Adobe Acrobat “.pdf” file format on the 767 PIC CD. The sole printed material provided is a flimsy overview pamphlet. This, my friends, is annoying beyond description. Granted, a 300 page manual would probably be a bit cost prohibitive in a sim add-on that street retails at $39.95. The normal ops and emergency checklists, however, would only be 62 pages. Come on, Wilco, that is one corner that shouldn’t have been cut.
Rather than deplete my inkjet by printing out the information I need, I set my Toshiba laptop next to my CH Products Flight Sim Yoke USB to display the instructions I would need to operate my simulated piece of Seattle steel. Not the easiest way, perhaps, but it works. I also ran Jeppesen FlightMap navigation software on the laptop---primarily because I’m a geek, but also to provide enhanced navigational SA by depicting surrounding intersections, airports, and national boundaries.
With the hardware set, I was ready to run some Flights and Adventures.
Class Is In Session
The training in Wilco’s 767 PIC are broken down into a series of Flights and Adventures. Flights are sessions with no co-pilot interaction or help and Adventures are situational, pre-scripted flights featuring a co-pilot and instructor. The Flights, which are excellent for general familiarization and practice, are as follows:
- Two Flights with navigational information loaded up and engines already started, excellent for familiarization with the FMC and various systems
- Two Flights in a “cold” 767. The pilot must perform all cockpit preparation for flight, including engine start and loading of navigation information. Luckily, flight plans created in the FS2K Flight Planning function can be loaded into the FMC, or you can do it the “real” way and enter waypoints and frequencies manually directly into the FMC.
Your friend, the FMC
- Six procedural Flights with the aircraft in various phases of a flight, including cockpit preparation, engine start procedure, take off, climb & cruise, approach & landing, and post landing. Without a checklist and a working knowledge of the FMC and panel, you’re toast. One note about the procedural Flights---since these are intended to be the foundation of your training syllabus, wouldn’t it make sense to make an Adventure that walked you through the procedures? This would be similar to the way that Fly! does the startup walkthrough, and would greatly speed up the learning process.
The primary instrument panel with superimposed FMC
The Adventures, however, are where I found the best white-knuckle, sweaty-brow flying to be. With the obvious exception of the random failures unit, you know precisely what’s going to happen and when. This doesn’t in any way erode the challenging fun of flying a crippled airliner and the added workload of attempting to work through the problem. In the Adventures a co-pilot / instructor is with you, sharing the tasks and reading the procedures aloud. The challenge seems very real as you attempt to keep the entirety of Business Class from barfing chicken cordon-bleu all over the inside of the cabin while simultaneously attempting to work through a hydraulics failure. Any attempt to run the gear failure scenario without yelling something like “Keep your panties on, I got it” aloud at your virtual crewmate is futile. These scenarios are very well scripted and will, for a few minutes of white-knuckle flying time, completely suspend your disbelief.
Speedbird in flight
Graduation
This is, by far, the best add-on to the FS2K series I have yet seen, and I’ve seen a lot of them. The deep modeling as presented in 767 PIC will ensure that the Wilco Boeing 767 will be my default airliner to fly whenever the mood strikes me. If the truly technical side of civilian flight interests you at all, give 767 Pilot in Command a try.
Off into a Hawaiian sunrise
Wilco Publishing's
767 Pilot in Command
