FMC problems

[Guest Ruud op de Weegh]

Hello!!Being rather new with PMDG I read all necessary documents to make my self a PMDG pilot.Finally after many days I could make a journey with the 737 NGHowever a lot of problems:The aircraft does not listen to the planned descend which point was visible in the display. (D/C as far as I can recall)Although Cost Index is configured at 10 and LNAV and VNAV being activated, the climbrate exceeds 4000 ft/min and makes the aircraft stall and crash.When I configure some legs where I want to change speed and/or altitude, the capital characters remain big and I can't make them change into small onesToday I almost made it to the runway during approach. I switched to manual to land and after a few seconds all four engines on idle and nothing could make them respond anymore..... and another crash. Please believe me.. the autopliot was de-activated as well as the FMC.I am very much willing to retry, but as it looks now I am more interested in removing it from my harddisk. The 747 is even worse but perhaps I have to wait for updates, although a commercial product should be better than this.I am very frustrated and if I bought it in a normal store I would return them both and ask my money back.

[Guest]

Ruud, I can only recommend you read the manual for the 737.If you set the final altitude in the MCP the FMC will initiate the descent automatically at the calculated T/D.Most likely you forgot that step, it's happened to me in the past.Remember that the 737 only has 3 engines (counting the APU), not 4 :)I don't know what you did to loose power during final approach, but I can only guess you pulled your throttle lever back to idle and then disengaged autothrottle. This will indeed cause the engines to idle. They take a while to spool up again when you apply power, as they should. Maybe you reacted too late to the unexpected drop in power and that's what caused your crash. Again, it's I think happened to all of us at some point, and until there's a throttle control that is moved by the computer to reflect the settings of the aircraft throttle as indicated by the autopilot it will continue to surprise people from time to time.Can't comment on the 747 as I don't have it.The 737 is not free of flaws, but your problems seem to me to be operator error.You know where to contact me if you need to talk it over in private, sometimes seeing someone else doing things makes all the difference.

[jdk2 1]

Ruud,Both of these aircraft are very rewarding once you get the hang of operating them The following tutorial was written for the 744 shortly after its release and shows you how to set up the aircraft and perform a short flight in Southern California. Give it a try and see if it helps.Jimhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_pf.jpg

[jdk2 1]

Sorry, here's the link to the turtorial:http://smithplanet.com/fs2004/pmdg/index.htmJimhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_pf.jpg

[Guest Hawkeyeted]

Ruud,>The aircraft does not listen to the planned descend which>point was visible in the display. (D/C as far as I can>recall)You'll need to reset the MCP to the alititude that you are cleared to descend to prior to T/D. If you have you cruise alt in teh MCP, VNAV will not start the descent (i.e. the MCP alt overrides the FMC)>Although Cost Index is configured at 10 and LNAV and VNAV>being activated, the climbrate exceeds 4000 ft/min and makes>the aircraft stall and crash.Sounds like you have the VNAV and LNAV armed, but the autoipilot is not (i.e. CMD "A" or "B").>When I configure some legs where I want to change speed and/or>altitude, the capital characters remain big and I can't make>them change into small onesThey're supposed to stay bold, indicating you have modified the leg data.>Today I almost made it to the runway during approach. I>switched to manual to land and after a few seconds all four>engines on idle and nothing could make them respond>anymore..... and another crash. Please believe me.. the>autopliot was de-activated as well as the FMC.All 4 engines? Are we talking the Queen, or the NG? In eitherway, just because you turned off the A/P, the A/T remains armed. To go full manual, you'll need to disarm BOTH the A/P and the A/T.Trust me Ruud, the PMDG products are "top shelf". The problems you are having are 99% likely to be self induced. THe biggest problem that folks have with the PMDG products are because of what folks "think" the FMC shoud do, and not what it ACTUALLY does.As suggested, get into the tutorials instead of the the manuals. The manuals are more usefull once you know the whats/hows of the automated systems.

[Guest Ruud op de Weegh]

Hello crew and pilots,I will read and answer all your comments the coming weekend. Been abroad several weeks, weekends of course at home, and did not have much time to take care for your mail.Be sure I will be with you the coming weekend!

[Guest Ruud op de Weegh]

Hello Jeroen,Of course I read the manual. I almost have to print a second time because of my use of it. But the manual is not good enough. Jim offered me a URL where I found a wonderfull document. With many typo's, mistakes and not always correct, but it helped me a lot.>Ruud, I can only recommend you read the manual for the 737.>If you set the final altitude in the MCP the FMC will initiate>the descent automatically at the calculated T/D.>Most likely you forgot that step, it's happened to me in the>past.Hihihi, yes of course I forgot because it is not exactly what the manual said. I flew and will fly a lot with FSNavigator and I must say, it is in a very good competition with PMDG as a auto pilot >Remember that the 737 only has 3 engines (counting the APU),>not 4 :)Ooopsss, really ? LOL>I don't know what you did to loose power during final>approach, but I can only guess you pulled your throttle lever>back to idle and then disengaged autothrottle. Nope. I explain it in a bigger message to Ted.>The 737 is not free of flaws, but your problems seem to me to>be operator error.To be honest... I expected much more of it, giving the fact that FSNavigator also let's your aircraft land automatically.Anyway, I now fly the 747 and I am waiting for the moment I have to descend and approach HECA. I wonder if the bird will do its (her?) job.Thanks for trying to help me.Kind regards,Ruud.PS: >You know where to contact me if you need to talk it over in>private, sometimes seeing someone else doing things makes all>the difference.Best would be Skype or TeamSpeak. For Skype just look for my name (Ruud op de Weegh) and TeamSpeak look for my server at worldcaribbean.servegame.org using 8767 port Besides that, perhaps you live in the northern part of the country...

[Guest Ruud op de Weegh]

Hello Ted,By accident I sent you my reply which was not yet finished, so here I go once more... I appreciate it very much you want to give it a try, but it will be a tough job I guess. Okay, here I go... >The aircraft does not listen to the planned descend which>point was visible in the display. (D/C as far as I can>recall)You'll need to reset the MCP to the alititude that you are cleared to descend to prior to T/D, AND have VNAV armed (not ALT). If you have you cruise alt in the MCP, VNAV will not start the descent (i.e. the MCP alt overrides the FMC)After reading and reading I must admit ... you are right about this. Although I must say... then FSnavigator is a better autopilot, but okay let's continue..-------------------------------------------------- >Although Cost Index is configured at 10 and LNAV and VNAV>being activated, the climbrate exceeds 4000 ft/min and makes>the aircraft stall and crash.Sounds like you have the VNAV and LNAV armed, but the autoipilot is not (i.e. CMD "A" or "B").The doc's say to use a low cost index to climb slower and using less fuel, althouth the cruising lever will be reached much later. Now I read in a document (URL from Jim (jdk2) the opposite. Now I use CI=100 and I made the take off and climb to cruising level once with the 747 Not the 737.--------------------------------------------------- >When I configure some legs where I want to change speed and/or>altitude, the capital characters remain big and I can't make>them change into small onesThey're supposed to stay bold, indicating you have modified the leg data.I was confused about it, because the bird did not respond at all. Now I know the letters must be bold although it does not work (yet) at all times. ----------------------------------------------------- >Today I almost made it to the runway during approach. I>switched to manual to land and after a few seconds all four>engines on idle and nothing could make them respond>anymore..... and another crash. Please believe me.. the>autopliot was de-activated as well as the FMC.All 4 engines? Are we talking the Queen, or the NG? In eitherway, just because you turned off the A/P, the A/T remains armed. To go full manual, you'll need to disarm BOTH the A/P and the A/T.In other, freeware panels, I did not notice any difference between an activated or non activated F/D switch except for the two needles in the artificial horizon. Since I de-activate F/D while landing, I made one landing complete today. BUT!!! I vacated the runway while I was writing a personal message to another pilot and guess what? The four engines shut down! Fuel enough!! It took a while before I understood I had the re-activate APU power again before I got them running again. Starting up this time my fault, not the shut down! ------------------------------------------------------ > Trust me Ruud, the PMDG products are "top shelf". The problems you > are having are 99% likely to be self induced. Nice problem here... The trim can not be adjusted upwards, only downwards. But once at zero it is not possible anymore to adjust it upwards again. Switching the NUM-LOCK off and pressing the "1" key should doThe database is poor. It does not know many airways and many SID's and STAR'S are missing that I do have in FSNavigator. Another problem? After being pushed back I had to put the brakes on, so I did.... the aircraft has been kept pushing back into the buildings and if I did not do anything about it (pause, repositioning, the bird now as somewhere pushed in the Black Forest in Germany. The only solution was to start all over again. And something else....This afternoon it is the second time I am flying the 747 without big problems so far. Just after being airborne the VNAV was switched off automatically but after a few minutes I finally got it activated and working. I am on my way to Cairo and above Italy the first problems are starting: the speed decreases from 300 to 270 already. Even 737's are faster I looked into the FMC... The cruising altitude was changed without notifying the pilot, me..--------------------------------------------------------- > THe biggest problem that folks have with the PMDG products are > because of what folks "think" the FMC shoud do, and not what it > ACTUALLY does.> As suggested, get into the tutorials instead of the the manuals. > The manuals are more usefull once you know the whats/hows of the > automated systems.So I did... I printed that document I downloaded and there are some typos but also mistakes ....Here there are some extractions from the doc with my comment 1. Set the GEN CONT (generator control) switches ON. These cannot be turned on These buttons show a ON indicator (?) and the word OFF 2. Turn the ENGINE hydraulic pump selectors ON. (Hopefully these are the switches on the left bottom second row from the bottom) 3. Enter KLAXKEDW into the scratchpad etc. Only errors like not in Databse till RNW Load Error. 4. The second time my choice was flying from Sydney to Melbourne, Australia. The database is not correct showing an airway Q38 which does not exist. Routefinder shows the same airway as FSNavigator does: Q29. Also airway H65 is not in the database. So now the route is DCT WOL Q38 ML 5. Press LSK 4R to verify your takeoff trim settings. Result Trim 6.0 and CG 23% Trim can not be adjusted upwards. 6. Set Hydraulid DEMAND Pump selector 4 to AUX. This will power the #4 hydraulic pump with electrical pressure during engine start. This switch can only set to Auto or On So where is AUX?? 7. Close the FMC. The FMC all the times responds with

[Guest Ruud op de Weegh]

Hi!!Here I am again.One flight was very good tonight. Arrived safely at HECA so I thought why not a second flight? Already 4 hours I try to get the thing back in the air. Something with the electrical system of engine # 2. I could not fix it, so I restarted Fsim and with another livery I thought I would be able to make it. No way, the same again. And with the same document as a guide I tried to start it all up.From today, sorry guys, I quit using this PMDG and will have lovely fun with freeware aircrafts as I had before.Thank you all for trying, but PMDG now has been removed from my HD and I threw it in the trashcan.Hope you will have more joy with it than I had :-(Nobody can say I did not try. All these documents on my desk reading and re-reading and what for? An empty printer cartridge...Thanks again, I really did appreciate your effortsKind regards,Ruud op de Weegh.