Ariane 737-800 v3

The Boeing 737 is a popular medium-range, narrow body commercial passenger jet aircraft. The Boeing 737-800 was launched in 1994 as a replacement of the 737-400. Many new improvements like more fuel efficient CFM56-7 turbofan engines, increased wingspan, increased fuel capacity, higher MTOW, redesigned vertical stabilizer and glass cockpit with modern avionics are standard on all Next Generation 737s.

The Ariane Boeing 737-800 v3 package contains the 737-800 model, virtual cockpit and detailed manuals. The download version also includes the Boeing BCA Livery. The boxed version contains more liveries: Boeing BCA Livery, KLM, Hapag Lloyd TUI, Virgin Blue and Qantas. There is a winglet and non-winglet model and you can choose between PFD-ND or EFIS Operations.

Unlike the majority of developers, Ariane includes only a virtual cockpit, no 2d panel. The virtual cockpit systems are controlled by a stand alone application and does not rely on the presence of a command program like FSUIPC. This is quite unique but seems to work well. The exterior model looks great and has many details and accurate animations. The livery textures are high in quality and add even more realism to the exterior. A nice feature are the wing vortices that appear depending on the weather.

The virtual cockpit looks great, lots of details and animations like sliding deck windows with knot limit (84 knots) for window lock, moveable nose steering tiller, animated windshield wipers with rain glass wipe effect that shows �rain removed� on each sweep of wipers, moveable pilot seats, and more. Many if not all cockpit systems are simulated, like TCAS, GPWS, IRS, etc. It's all about realism with this package. For example, the IRS align takes some time and has to be done, otherwise you can't use the navigation system. Flap movement is also very realistic, it takes some time before you have the desired flap setting. Also, the flight dynamics are very realistic.

Flying the aircraft entirely in the virtual cockpit is no problem, all common levers and switches are clickable and animated and the EFIS displays will popup in a separate window when clicked. Sometimes, the text near the levers and switches is a bit hard to read. Good thing that there are tooltips (pop-up text) activated for every system. The lighting of the virtual cockpit can be adjusted by lighting levels on the panel, just like the real thing. The CDU is fully functional with VNAV profiles, SID\STAR support, waypoint ALT and SPD restrictions, smooth curved flight path on vector display, etc.

Engine sounds are available in a separate package, which will cost you extra money. Those sounds are not too good, especially the external sounds. So you might consider to download a freeware sound pack from websites like the AVSIM Library. As mentioned, the download version includes only one livery. If you want more liveries, you can either choose the boxed version or purchase the "Boeing 737-800 Airline Upgrade" which contains these liveries: Air One, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Hapag Lloyd, Jetairfly, Kenya Airways and KLM. It's a shame that you have to pay for them, most developers offer their liveries for free.

Ariane has created a very realistic Boeing 737-800 simulation, but it comes with a price. More than 80 dollars for the base and extra livery package is a lot of money for an aircraft addon for FS2004.

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