GPS How to get it to display

[Guest zero]

My son has recently bought PMDG 737-800, but he is frustrated because he can't get to see the GPS. There isn't an icon for it in the cockpit.Isn't there a FS9 command to get straight to the GPS ? I have looked in FS9 help but can't see it.

[Guest dt1951]

Rest assured there are 3 GPS units in the aircraft. And they work just fine. However, they are not like the Garmin GPS in the freeware aircraft as they are not visible to the pilot. The FMC will interface with the GPS units, so he will have to input his flight plan info into the FMC, not the GPS. The Nav display will allow your son to monitor his flight enroute.

[Guest bigun]

The PMDG737 uses an FMC like the R/W 737. No GPS available.

[Guest zero]

Don, but he doesn't always use flight plans.Is there a way to call it up and just see "where we are." ?

[Tabs 2,790]

Zero, (please sign your real name next time in accordance with PMDG rules)Our 737 uses a real-world flight managemnt computer (FMC) to create and fly its flightplans, it doesn't work like the simplified FS9 GPS your son is used to. There are a variety of tutorials availiable for learning how to use it - search the AVSIM library for one by Fred Clausen, which is a good basic starter course in how to set up a flight realisticaly. This isn't a plane your son is going to be able to fly without putting in some time reading the manuals and tutorials, especially if he's coming from flying the grossly over-simplified default FS9 737... Feel free to post any questions here and we'll try to answer them.

[Guest brettdonahue]

Congrats to your son for buying a really nice plane. Perhaps what might help show your location in flight would be to press the "ALT" key, this will bring up the FS menu and then you can click on "World" then "Map"This will give you a similar picture to what is displayed in the GPS.If your son is ready to use 3 GPS's at once, he can check out my article on how to program the FMC at http://brettdonahue.com/content/view/13/9/I wrote it last month for another newbie so there are a lot of pictures to show what needs to be done and you can shoot me an email if you have any questions. The tutorial is from the 737Bretthttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpg

[Tabs 2,790]

FS Navigator is another addon that would give him a large scale moving map as well...Programming the FMC does give you a route map on the navigation display though, which is more than sufficient for the real NG pilots. [;)]

[Guest brettdonahue]

And you could always hit the ARPT button to see what you are flying over... ?Bretthttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpg