International X-Plane Engineering Group, better known by their abbreviation IXEG, has published a video nearing thirty minutes with a rundown of what is to come in version 1.3 of their Take Command!: IXEG 737 Classic.

In case you are in a hurry, we have summarised the entire video, which you can read below.

Jan Vogel opened the video by saying "users have gone without an update for way, way too long", but added the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a change of lifestyle that has enabled far more time than previous to be spent on the aircraft.

"[...] we had some time go over our plans of what we are going to do with this aircraft, where we want to take it - we still think it's a great product - we want to bring it up to current times," Vogel explained in his introduction. "Expect to see further updates from us from now on.

"It's more of a quality of life update than really adding a lot of meat to this aircraft - I know there's a lot of outstanding issues, like the FMC, and some of the sounds and so on."

A final list of changes is to be published once everything is in place for its release, though much of what is in the update was covered in the video.

The update is compatible with both X-Plane 10 and 11, and its flight model has been tuned in the latter with the experimental flight model currently in use for the "utmost realism". Vogel therefore recommends pilots to fly the aircraft with the experimental flight model enabled in X-Plane's general settings.

For bug fixes in the cockpit, the rudder and brake input has been fixed, an issue experienced by pilots without rudder pedals, whilst on the overhead, the issue with runway turnoff lights causing the MCP to light up has been eliminated.

The standby power logic has been changed, so that more advanced users can mess around with the electrical system.

"We have fixed the stall warning test on the ground. It works again," Vogel said. "So you can click those buttons up here and they activate the stick shaker like they should."

In terms of replays, saving one and replaying it did not allow the user to switch to an external view. This is no longer the case in version 1.3, whilst a change in the fire suppression system that caused the reverse thrusters in the left engine not to deploy when needed has been added.

The show vortices option in the preferences has been removed, citing interference with the rendering of the cockpit.

In terms of improvements, the flight model has been tuned over "many hours" so that correct pitch and performance values are present, and the aircraft has now reverted to the X-Plane ground model, as the team believes it is accurate enough to be used in the aircraft.

The runway shake effect has been refined in X-Plane 11, which is now also influenced by the speedbrakes.

On the MCP, the altitude selector has been tuned for easier selection of altitude, and all rotary switches and knobs now have scroll wheel support.

Responding to a highly-requested issue, Vogel stated "we have changed the intensity of the external lighting. [...] So now, we have turned [them] up and you will really see the external lights helping you see much better and they're much brighter."

The 3D model in the cockpit has been adjusted in various places, with new details having already been shown previously. On the exterior, the winglets have been heavily refined, as have the CFM-56 engines, which now also has engine windmilling.

Furthermore, the logic of the engines now include better hotstart modelling and can be started through windmilling.

In the FMS, some work has been undertaken for external flight plans, and

On the additions list, the two flashlights and map lights can now be physically used to light up the cockpit with the mouse cursor.

The thumbwheel numbers on the yoke can now be changed, and the main menu and camera pop-ups on the left can now be disabled to not be so annoying.

This is in addition to the height of the yoke, which can be adjusted to a user's liking, along with AviTab that has been implemented in version 1.3.

Finally, Vogel wrote in a subtitle that the option to resize and remove the EHSI pop-up preview window will be included.

The video closed out with an estimate that the update will be out in "less than a month".

Further information about the upcoming update is also available to read on the X-Pilot forum.


Many thanks to Bjørnar | TheWingedViking for tipping us off in our Discord server! Join the discussion of this aircraft and others here.