I just had a look at the latest World Tour pictures...forgive me if I'm wrong about this (or if this has been mentioned before), but it seems that from the cockpit, you are looking at the inside of the nosecone?Surely, you should be seeing the top (outside) of the nosecone?Best,Martijn Pleines

The view is a bit odd-looking, but I believe it is correct. What you are seeing is the inside of the lower half of the nose. Take a look at real world pics of the aircraft with the nose up. There is a gap in the top of the nose cone so that it can pass over the cockpit cabin. And so, when the nose is open, the "top (outside)of the nosecone" is actually located slightly above the flight deck windows. Therefor the pilots would only see the inside unles they leaned forward and looked straight up. See below:http://www.airliners.net/open.file/889198/L/ http://www.airliners.net/open.file/699744/L/http://www.airliners.net/open.file/846466/L/Andrew

By the way, as long as we are speaking of the opening nose, I wnated to ask whther the controls for openning and closing it are located in the cockpit, or if this is something handled by the loadmaster down below?Anrew

OK, I did'nt realize there would be such a big gap in the upper side of the cone to look through!Thanks for the info,Martijn

We're looking into it... (literally).

http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/139420.jpg

-Paul

That's actually a pretty interesting shot. Look's like you can see both the inside and outside of the nose. Is the nose fully in this shot or is it in stransit. The screenshots on PMDG's website show only the inside. It will be interesting to see how it looks in PMDGs VC when the door is in transit. Perhpas the beta testers could posts some additional shots.Andrew

taken from the steps from outside "L1" door, (while on the ground in YMML :-) )so you can see that you should be able to see the nose-door-inside from the cockpit...Sorry if the pic not showing directly and hence only a link to my pic.Cheers,Norbert - CLX001CEO Virtual Cargoluxwww.virtualcargolux.org

"Is the nose fully (up) in this shot or is it in stransit."Not 100% sure, Andrew... I took this shot at least 4 years ago. I remember trying to take a shot around this time and the doors started to move, but I'm not sure if it was this one.Anyway, it looks like it's up or almost up. The airline was most likely Singapore Airlines.The dark rectangular shape in the middle of the shot, if I remember correctly, is where they Weather Radar Transceivers are located. They have to move with the door as the antenna is in the nosecone... and the signals between them are transmitted through a rigid rectagular metal waveguide (tube).On the left, you can see part of the door drive mechanism with a flexible drive cable which stretches over to the other side of the door.Cheers.Q>

as far as I know it is done by the loadmaster/cargo ramp officersNick