Hello,I have a question to developers or real pilots of a 738.Like the 767 PIC the N1 button is to engage the throttles for takeoff , why is in the panel of the PMDG a hidden to/go button and a visible N1 button with a other commands??? is that in real life also???????? If not please can you make it as in a reallife.Is there a possibility to use the FMC for a alternate airport?Is the fuel flow and step climb accurate as in reallife, with my testflight, it was not, it stayed 2000 ft below a reallife flightplan. wat is your experience?ThanksCees van Diest

I haven't flown PIC in years but the reason why the TOGA button is "hidden" (not really hidden ifyou read the manuals) is because it is placed on an odd location on the throttles in real life, and their location didn't work well with the 2d cockpit. I don't think that the FMC supports an alternate airport, but I could be wrong. (My FS is broken right now and won't run so I cant check for myself).

TO/GA and N1 are two really different autopilot functions.During take/off they operate similarly, because what TO/GA does is set the A/T at N1 hold per the N1 indicated by the FMC.But the first different you have at 80kts:TO/GA puts the throttle in HOLD mode, that means the servos are disconnected and, if there is any emergency, you are able to immediately reduce the thrust and intraprehend correct measures.If you were in N1 mode that would have not been possible, you'd had to first disconnect the A/T.Then the TO/GA also sets many other things on takeoff:target speed and FP modes; and it does even other things if you press the TO/GA while on finals.N1 is a simple throttle mode, were it holds the selected (wether by you or by FMC) N1.About the FMC alternate: in the real thing, this is a hidden feature accessible by the OFFSET menu (hidden if your airline hasn't payed for it) with a key combination (specifically: entering an offset value without executing, and subsequently push ERASE on both CDUs simultaneously), i do not know of this feature being present in the PMDG, if it's there please let me know :)About the altitude: it's you who decide what altitude the plane is going to fly. So you can't blame it for not going to the right altitude: it's you who have to make it go there.Possible reasons for not achieving an altitude:-MCP altitude lower then cruise altitude-cruise altitude too high for flying distance, you will descend before reaching top of climb-cruise altitude too high for plane loadAnd many more.Maybe you can provide the exact load, fuel and flightplan?

>TO/GA puts the throttle in HOLD mode, that means the servos>are disconnected and, if there is any emergency, you are able>to immediately reduce the thrust and intraprehend correct>measures.>If you were in N1 mode that would have not been possible,>you'd had to first disconnect the A/T.That's not entirely correct. You can manually override the autothrottle by moving the thrust levers. So, you can immediately reduce thrust even in N1 mode. However, I believe that as soon as you let go of the thrust levers, they will return to the autothrottle commanded position and thrust level. (I don't have my manuals at hand to double check that.)Don S.

"TO/GA puts the throttle in HOLD mode, that means the servos are disconnected and, if there is any emergency, you are able to immediately reduce the thrust and intraprehend correct measures.If you were in N1 mode that would have not been possible, you'd had to first disconnect the A/T."Is this correct, Claudio? Do your manuals specifically say that the A/T won't go into HOLD mode in N1 mode during takeoff? Nothing in the Boeing Maintenance manuals suggests that it won't (slightly vague in that respect).The only difference I see is that the AFDS system requests N1 thrust, rather than the pilot requesting it manually. Once N1 is engaged, hardware and software control thrust lever movement and engine trimming for takeoff. Hold, as far as I can see, is not an A/P function, it's a simple A/T function.Thanks for any further info.Cheers.Ian.

>Is this correct, Claudio? Do your manuals specifically say>that the A/T won't go into HOLD mode in N1 mode during>takeoff? Nothing in the Boeing Maintenance manuals suggests>that it won't (slightly vague in that respect).No, nothing specific as i do not have a real manual.But i went there out of reason: there are two modes, of which one is for takeoff.Then it must have something specific for the takeoff procedure.Really the N1 mode is very simple: spool up the engines until they reach the selected N1 value, and hold them there.No complex logic involved.TO/GA has some logic in it: checking speed, pre-activating lateral modes, disconnecting A/T servos.There is no other mode in the A/T where it disconnects the servos, only TO/GA as far as i know.This has been my reasoning behind it all.If you have any specific information i'm happy to stand corrected :)

"If you have any specific information i'm happy to stand corrected"I try a post on the PPRuNe forums and see what they come up with.Back shortly (I hope)... Cheers.Ian.