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Flying the BlueBird Simulations Boeing 757-200 from Halifax to Toronto in Flight Simulator 2024

Jonathan Beckett17h ago

Quick summary· AI-generated

A first-flight review of BlueBird Simulations' 757-200 addon in MSFS 2024. The author flies Halifax (Orbx) to Toronto (Orbx) and discusses startup procedures, cockpit systems, and a tuning quirk involving ILS frequency assignment on the pedestal vs. MCP — which he resolves by explaining Boeing's actual hardware design. He notes the smooth flight experience and compares cockpit evolution across Boeing generations, flagging one potential rounding bug in NAV 1 tuning.

Excerpt from Jonathan Beckett

Today we’re flying the BlueBird Simulations Boeing 757-200 from Halifax to Toronto in Canada, and taking a good look around both airports (both available from Orbx).

Halifax and Toronto airports from Orbx As promised, here are the links for the airports we saw in the simulator today: Halifax : https://orbxdirect.com/product/fsimstudios-cyhz-v2-msfs2024

Toronto : https://orbxdirect.com/product/flytampa-cyyz-msfs2024

Startup Procedure I am using my own hand-written functional start procedure to get the aircraft up and running. The guide takes you though everywhere you need to look, what to press, what to turn, and what to configure to get the aircraft up and running properly. You can get a copy of it from the URL below: https://ko-fi.com/s/03faf8bd16

Free trial of SayIntentions.AI I am using SayIntentions.AI to provide air traffic services, and aircraft injection during the flight. If you like the look of SayIntentions.AI, you can click the link below to try it out for free! https://sayintentions.ai/join#677719f0e67f8

Debrief As a “first flight” it went remarkably smoothly. I of course had a couple of “lack of talent” moments - such as not re-setting auto-throttle speed after using open climb, and not finding the speed limits for the flaps (remarkably, printed next to the flap position indicator - whoops). The strangest thing I noticed was not being able to tune 111.50 into NAV 1 on the instrument panel during approach into Toronto Pearson. I’ve checked online - it could be a rounding bug in the aircraft programming. Now solved - see the postscript below! Otherwise, it was really interesting (to me at least) to see the evolution between the Boeing 737 series aircraft, and the 777 in terms of cockpit evolution. I’ve never seen a 757 before in any simulator - so this was a first for me. Postscript After realising the ILS is on the pedestal in the 757-200 (not the NAV radio on the MCP), I did some reading earlier to find out why I couldn't tune an ILS frequency on the "wrong radio"... turns out Boeing designed it that way.

In early Boeing glass cockpits like the 757, 767, and classic 737, the VHF Navigation (VOR/DME) system and the ILS system are physically separate hardware installations with distinct roles:

The VOR/DME receivers are tuned via the panels on the glare shield or MCP (or CDU on later setups), whereas the ILS receiver is a standalone unit wired directly to the ILS control panel on the central pedestal.