You probably already heard the news but just in-case you haven’t, PMDG have at long last launched the PMDG 737-700 into Microsoft Flight Simulator. The launch wasn’t without its challenges but now that it’s out the stream of content around the release is near constant and so here is a round-up of some content that you may want to sit down and watch. Let’s fly!

Launch challenges and successes

It may be understating the situation when I say that PMDG’s 737 was highly anticipated. Over a decade of highly detailed and well respected releases on previous flight sims has earned PMDG a lot of attention among airliner sim pilots. That reputation, combined with the 737’s near ubiquitous presence among airlines around the world makes this a near perfect storm for interest. It also doesn’t hurt that MSFS is the biggest sim release around consistently selling more for third party developers than other sims have previously.

At 6 pm EDT on May 9, PMDG posted a note on their Facebook page saying that they were facing unprecedented demand for the aircraft and that their systems were ready to scale for the release. Unfortunately, not all plans play out the way they were intended and by 9 pm EDT on the same evening, PMDG had posted another post detailing the problems.

My understanding at this juncture is that one of the modules that runs in the back-end of our eCommerce suit failed to properly scale resources when it came under load, then subsequently failed.

PMDG on Facebook

E-commerce solutions are often a complex series of systems that need to talk to each other and sometimes it just doesn’t work the way that everyone intends them to.

The system did not entirely collapse under the strain but rather was processing the demand slowly and apparently there was quite the demand.

Fortunately, since then users have reported a smoother process and it seems like things are more or less back to normal although I’m sure PMDG are seeing a busy time on their website.

Content round-up

So, with all of that now behind PMDG and the community, it appears that the 737 roll-out is otherwise going fairly well. I have heard about complaints with some sound bugs and the odd system that isn’t working at quite the way it should but these are to be expected with big complex releases.

With that out of the way, I wanted to round-up some enjoyable content that people may want to watch either as a sumplement to their own experience with the aircraft or as a way see what the fuss is all about.

Let’s start with flightdeck2sim who did an epic 5-hour live stream. The host of the stream indicates that he is a real world 737 pilot and instructor and so the experience and detail that he goes into on the aircraft is certainly impressive. If you want a highly realistic approach to flying the 737, this is the way to go.

Next up we have AvAngel’s excellent video. AvAngel asks the question on can a beginner fly the PMDG 737-700? I’ve flown some simplified airliners in MSFS but the more complex airliners are intimidating even for someone who has flown DCS’ most complex military aircraft. These are just different beasts. I really appreciate this video!

Then, Blu Games stream with the PMDG 737 is another great video to watch. As always, Blu puts on a great show with some fantastic interactions with his audience. Blu offers the middle ground between 737 instructor and GA enthusiast flying around an airliner with plenty of experience flying other jets but learning the PMDG 737 for the first time. This is an interesting flight with a diversion, some change of plans, a go-around, and some problem solving which is great to see because this is often what my airliner flights look like. Great content!

YouTube is of course chalk full of new PMDG 737 content so these are just three of many videos out there.

When is the Stormbirds review coming?

I’ve already had couple of people ask me about a review of this aircraft and so let me give you a bit of a complex answer. Airliners are something that I said I wanted to get into last year and that I wanted to learn more about this year so PMDG’s offering is very much on my radar. I might wait for the more popular -800 model to arrive so I can fly a type that I see most frequently and have flown on.

My review will likely be approaching this similar to what you see from AvAngel. As many of you know, I’m more into general aviation and combat sim aircraft so getting into and reviewing something like the 737 will be breaking new ground for me. I still intend to approach it but it may be a little further down the line.

In the meantime, I encourage you to engage with the excellent content above and even more on YouTube and across the web.