Hi,Say if you load up the 737 to it's max take off weight; I have noticed you can input weights way above your MTOW limit into the FMC, is this true to real life ? Also, how do you get your engines to give you max thrust? By playing around if I select a false OAT of 23 degrees that seems to give me my max n1 number although true OAT was 14 degrees. I would have thought entering no number would give max n1 number? Does dispatch tell you what to fly or do the pilots have tables/progams to do calculations for them.Also, how do you know what flap to use? If the runway is short and your at your MTOW what flap should you use; 15 maybe even 25? Finally is there a program like the one someone developed for the PIC A320, that you can input many variables into and it predicts your take off speed's/limitiationsCheers,Paul

Also, what if there is heigh ground ahead how do tables take account of terrain clearance?Thanks

Paul,I can help with a couple of your questions: how to select the takeoff flap setting and how terrain clearance is handled.Takeoff flap setting: A higher flap setting provides the most lift and therefore allows taking off at lower speeds. Therefore, in general, the higher the flap setting, the shorter the takeoff run. If you're taking off from a short runway, a higher flap setting will generally give a higher maximum field length limited takeoff weight than a lower flap setting.However, higher flap setting also means more drag and a lower lift/drag ratio. This reduces climb performance. A lower flap setting generally will give you a higher maximum climb limited takeoff weight.So, it becomes a tradeoff. For short runways, where field length performance is the limiting factor, use a higher flap setting. For longer runways, where climb performance is a limiting factor, use a lower flap setting.Terrain clearance: In the real world, airplane manufacturers must supply information in the Airplane Flight Manual from which an obstacle clearance flight path may be constructed (or at least it can be determined at what weight the airplane's obstacle clearance flight path can clear the terrain for the takeoff conditions). The computation may be done by the dispatcher and provided to the flight crew, or the crew may have the information in tabular form in the operating manual, or the crew may use an onboard computer to do the calculation.In our simulated world, PMDG did not provide us with the obstance clearance information, nor do we have good data on the terrain profiles in our simulated world.Don S.