I’m working my way up to a re-review of the PMDG 737NG for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. I’m not quite done yet and I’m waiting to see what the visual update, apparently arriving around the same time that the 737-700 does, offers. In the meantime, I’m getting myself familiar with the 737s again and learning even more than I used to know. Here are a selection of the flights I’ve been on recently for inspiration!

Seattle (KSEA) to San Jose (KSJC) with an Alaska 737-900ER

First one out of the gate and I’m getting my 737 muscle memory back into play with a slightly stormy departure and then a brilliant cruise down the US west coast into San Jose.

Seattle was rainy and stormy so my takeoff gave me only brief glimpses of the surrounding area before we were engulfed in cloud. The 737-900 requires a careful touch on takeoff as its longer fuselage is slightly more prone to tailstrikes, fortunately, I still had some good habits developed the last time I flew it and so I avoided that.

I did get a cabin altitude warning which made me realize that I had missed a couple of items on the checklist including switching the packs back on after engine start. Whoops. It took a while to clear but eventually we were ok again.

Clear of the storm, the skies most of the way down were still a milky white with glimpses of mountains and the Pacific ocean all the way down. There was a brief break just as we started to descend over San Francisco of the famous Golden Gate Bridge. Nice! A hazy arrival into San Jose airport to finish it off.

Sorong (WASS) to Surakarta (WAHQ) with a Lion Air 737-900ER

From the familiar to the much less familiar. One of my goals this year has been to make sure that I keep on exploring the world provided by flight simulators and that means picking up flights in areas of the world that I am less familiar with. Lion Air in Indonesia operates one of the larger fleets of 737-900s so that was a great way to experience something different.

This flight is semi-accurate in that both airports have 737-900 flights though they less frequently connect directly. Departing Domine Eduard Osok Airport (with a freeware scenery pack), I climbed out after a long takeoff run (hot and heavy) into the tropical skies of western New Guinea.

The geography here is typically south Pacific with island chains and large expanses of open water. My route took me over Obi island, over the Banda Sea, South East Sulawesi, and then over the Java Sea before descending over the island of Java and in for a landing at Surakarta (a MSFS built in bespoke scenery). The enormous peaks of Mount Lawu and Mount Merbabu dominated the scenery before coming in for a smooth landing.

Copehagen (EKCH) to Amsterdam (EHAM) with a KLM 737-900

From the less familiar to the very familiar. I do love the KLM blue livery and the operator flies their 737-900s on some regular European routes mixed in with other types.

This was a relatively easy flight for the most part departing Copehagen with some beautiful late day sun. That would be the theme for this relatively short hop with a beautiful setting sun the whole way along.

By this point I was feeling pretty confident with my 737NG flying again. There’s still a few finer points I need to brush up on again and my flight routing and arrival had me scratching my head a bit (I need to learn how to read charts better still) but nonetheless it was a fun one.

My approach speed was definitely too high here and I nearly did a go around but managed to make it work at the last minute.

Los Angeles (KLAX) to Las Vegas (KLAS) with a Delta 737-900ER

I recently upgraded to the V3 version of Fly Tampa’s Las Vegas so I’ve been getting my money’s worth out of that one and making sure that I do some flights into and out of that airport. One of the busiest routes is Los Angeles to Vegas so that’s what I did with a Delta 737-900ER.

This one wasn’t a long flight but it was a bumpy one with stormy clouds and slightly challenging winds on takeoff. Still no tail strikes!

The flight was short but we were being bumped around for a good chunk of it. Fortunately that started to clear as we descended into the Vegas area. The scenery here is spectacular, especially in blue hour after the sun has set and the approach into Harry Reid International was incredible.

I took this opportunity to use the HUD and see what that experience was like. I’ve gotten used to landing airliners with no HUD and I can see why its not always a necessity though obviously a nice to have. My DCS World fighter pilot proclivities usually have me wanting to use a HUD in those circumstances but this is different.

Despite all the distractions, I landed it with a beautiful touchdown and in one of my better landings.

Winnipeg (CYWG) to Calgary (CYYC) with WestJet 737-600

So far all of my flights journaled here have been 737-900 or 900ER flights so how about the other end of the 737NG spectrum? Enter the short 737-600 which has a wider wingspan than it does fuselage length. Coming from the stretched 737 makes this one just seem…. wrong, somehow. Odd proportions aside, however, the 737-600 is a very fun airplane because it has great performance. WestJet no longer has these in their fleet but used to operate it years ago.

Departing a very snowy Winnipeg (Winterpeg amiright?) I climbed quite quickly away from the airport without much trouble. No chance of a tailstrike here! Then it was up into the skies over the Canadian prairies with lots of farm land and lakes below. Our cruise altitude was 40,000 feet, as set by SimBrief, but clearly well within the capabilities of the 737-600.

Fast forward and we’re starting our approach into Calgary as the sun has continued to come up bathing the whole area in a warm glow. Western Canada doesn’t have the same snowpack so while it was cold, the sim showed only minimal amounts of snow as we arrived into the Calgary area.

Another beautiful flight!

Review incoming soon(ish)

It takes me a lot longer to write reviews these days but one thing that is holding up my PMDG 737 writing is that I’m waiting to see what these visual updates to the external model are going to do.

To quote PMDG’s Robert S. Randazzo in a recent PMDG update:

We have a significant exterior model update process taking place in the background of the 737 development effort. We mentioned this back in December, because we nearly held the 737-800 off market in order to complete this process, but decided instead to phase the changes in progressively post-release in order that all of us could enjoy the 737-800 during our holiday breaks. (You did, didn’t you?!!!) If you watch the change list for build 18 and beyond, you will start to see these changes rolling in. We anticipate the process being completed around the time the 737-700 releases. The change includes a significant refresh/update of model geometry, textures, animations and adds some feature to the exterior not currently present in the airplane. We’ll put together a highlight post to walk you through the changes, but I suspect you’ll see them quite evidently when we finish rolling them out.

Factoring all of that into my thinking on the re-release of the 737NG line means I’ll have to hold fire on going any further with my review process until that’s out.

In the meantime, I’m doing some flights, having some fun, and seeing what these updated aircraft can do.