I recentl bought the PMDG 747, but have experience with payware products, such as the PMDG 737-600/700 and the Level-D 767.I am experiencing a problem with my PMDG 747-400 in FS9. After climbing through about 13000 feet my FMC will tell me that my maximum flight level is 15800 feet (sometimes it will give me maximum flight levels round about 16000 feet). So I continue to fly but at about 15000 feet my flight simulator closes. This happens everytime I fly the pmdg 747-400. In my FMC I have entered my correct flight level which is usaully above 30,000 feet and the whole aircraft is started up following the noarmal procedures checklist. Anybody know the nature of this problem and how it can be solved? Help would be greatly appreciated, I am looking forward to flying this beauty long haul but this problem limits me to low level flight. ;)Maaleki Bodjona

Hi there Maaleki,>>After climbing through about 13000 feet my FMC will tell me that my maximum flight level is 15800 feet (sometimes it will give me maximum flight levels round about 16000 feet). So I continue to fly but at about 15000 feet my flight simulator closes. This happens everytime I fly the pmdg 747-400. In my FMC I have entered my correct flight level which is usaully above 30,000 feet and the whole aircraft is started up following the noarmal procedures checklist.<

Hi lee,I usually load about 2/3 of the fuel, so roughly 255,000 lbs using the PMDG fuel load in the pmdg 747 options in Flight Simulator itself, so I am almost positive it is not a fuel loading problem. The EICAS will say that I have a FMC message. My FMC tells me the max flight level under the dotted line in the CDU, where anything you type into the fmc appears. Only my Flight Simulator closes, my desktop does not crash. As for my weather, I use the Silverwings weather or the default Flight Simulator weather. My altimeter is always correctly set and my altitude on the MCP is always set to the altitude I am cleared to. In my FMC VNAV page my altitude is usually set on, or close to the OPT LVL. Sorry that I can not be much more specific than that as I can not identify anything else that may be causing this problem.Cheers,Maaleki

Hello to all,This problem sounds to be a weight problem that can be solved by changing the weights in the Load Editor. Being that Iwork for a certain airline that flies 744s I have access to realistic loads that a 744 might operate on a daily basis. With that said: the Traffic load for the 744s my airline flies hovers anywhere around 49000kgs and this amounts +/-100000 llbs.(and this is with a 98% full flight and I have yet to see it go past 56000kgs) Traffic load= estimated weight of pax + cargo + baggage. In the load editor the weight of full pax is about 79860llbs so add baggage weight and you should have a realistic load for a 5666sm flight with no problems. Just my 2 cents....Gideon

I tried all the suggestions and reinstalled my 747-400 and now the problem seems to be fixed (aleast for the moment). Thanks all ;)