Bunch of problems with the 747-400x, VERY disppapointed

[Guest hench289]

I have flown the 747-400x only a few times already and i have noticed a lot of problems with it compared to the FS9 version and im very disappointed. First well start with the cold and dark startup with engines running everytime. Second is the the tcas dont work, neither offline or online(i do have the newest FSUIPC). Third is the Navaids indentifying randomly, some do majority dont. Forth and a MAJOR issue is the plane homes to the next waypoint. I had a 60 kt crosswind at FL310, my initial heading to the waypoint was 002 by the time i reached the waypoint my heading to the waypoint was 075. That is classic homing, what is taught as the most dangerous way of tracking. This happened with the wilco 777, i never thought it would happen with a PMDG aircraft. I dont know what happened from the FS9 version to this one. The fifth problem is the airplane cant hold altitude, as i have been writing this for the past 20 minutes the airplane hasnt stopped oscillating up and down past FL310. It goes up 300 feet and to correct it descends at 2500fpm and blows right past FL310, by the time it corrects its 300 below FL310. Then it climbs again at 2500fpm and blows right through FL310. The winds aloft havent changed at all during this whole process so its not that. PMDG worked how long on this project...and there are this many problems and a few majors one at that. Its like they never flew the airplane, i just dont understand. I am very disappointed i paid 29.99 euros for this product and there are major problems. If i would have known there were this many issues i would have not forked over this much money it. I definately feel bad for the people who had to pay full price for it. I really hope PMDG gets to work fixing these issues. This is definitely not a PMDG product as we are all use too. It might look good but it sure has a lot of problems. Please help PMDG, i have confidence you guys can fix it. Till then i will be back in FS9Kevin H.

[Guest AJ]

Yes there are a few problems, but nothing out of the ordinary for the launch of a product like this. If you were around, you will recall that there were similar problems at the release of the FS9 version, and there were also similar problems with the release of the NG. Anyone else remember those crazy fire bottles going off at V2? Now that was a dramatic bug!Problems are like these are frustrating, but inevitable. Report what you see, but be patient and give them time. Also, be careful about assuming that things are bugs as opposed to problems on your end. Not all of what you are reporting is being experienced by everyone else. My copy seems to hold altitude just fine, for example. Have a litlte faith in PMDG. They have earned it in spades, and they DO know what they are doing. They have proven this time and again.Andrew

[bob34 124]

Ditto to AJ.I'm glad to have it. I get to play with it even if it's not perfect and I get to stop checking the home page every few hours to see if it's been released. :)Keep in mind if they sold 30,000 copies this week, it's running on 30,000 different machines. That's more testing than any length of beta cycle will ever flush out.Once a bug is reported, before they can comment or suggest a fix, I would imagine they are trying to reproduce the largest reported problems first. I've never seen a piece of code go into production without bugs. Even if it seems like something obvious that should have been caught, these things slip through.These guys probably won't see daylight for months after the release. They support their product. You'll see.

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Kevin-Reading your post- I've come to the conclusion that there is quite a bit of user error- and poor understanding of what the airplane is or is not doing.Obviously- this isn't a venue for any of us to teach you how to fly the airplane- but I will pick a few items out where I think you are mistaken/misguided or just ol' fashioned wrong. ;-)>First well start with the cold and>dark startup with engines running everytime.We've had a number of reports of this behavior. Strangely enough- many others do not see this behavior. We are researching. In the mean time- if you feel enterprising you can certainly create your own C&D scenario with less than 60 seconds of time invested...>Second is the>the tcas dont work, neither offline or online(i do have the>newest FSUIPC).Well- actually, TCAS does work. (Poking fun here- it's the grammar in that sentence that "don't work neither.")>Third is the Navaids indentifying randomly,>some do majority dont.This has been true since August of 2005 when we released the FS9 version... It is a result of the method that we use to convince FS that it has three radios rather than just the two that are designed into the program. FWIW: In an airplane of this type- your primary navaid identification method is the auto-decoder which listens to the nav frequency and produces the decoded identifier on the navigation display. If you see an identifier displayed using raw data, you have no obligation to listen to, or manually identify the navaid yourself. Just a little tip from the real world. ;-)>Forth and a MAJOR issue is the plane>homes to the next waypoint. I had a 60 kt crosswind at FL310,>my initial heading to the waypoint was 002 by the time i>reached the waypoint my heading to the waypoint was 075.No. The airplane doesn't "home." I'd spend some time studying the appropriate way to navigate the airplane- and you will likely discover that the problem isn't what you thought.>oscillating up and down past FL310.You can induce oscillation by allowing FS to model turbulence. Turbulence modeling in FS9 and FSX is entirely and completely bogus- and will always create a problem for a good flight model. If you subjected an airplane to the gust factors used by the FS weather engine- the airplane would suffer structural failure at about 1/10th of it's service life... We generally recommend turning off all turbulence function within the sim. Now comes the part where you'll swear you didn't have turbulence... Yes- I know.... a few thousand hours testing this airplane we'd have known if it oscillated when being operated normally.>PMDG worked how long on this project...and there>are this many problems and a few majors one at that. Its like>they never flew the airplane, i just dont understand.Yes- and this is one of the few points you make that you are dead on... You don't understand. Take the time to learn, read the materials provided, and read some of the discussions here in the forum- and you'll discover that we understand quite a bit more than you'd imagine.(And do you REALLY think that we'd release a product without having flown it? Really... REALLY think that one through and decide if that isn't the most inane comment in the whole post? I'm sorry if I come off sounding impatient with you- but after many tens of thousands of hours of development time- offhanded comments like that take every ounce of credibility out of anything else of value you might add to the conversation...

[Guest jason080974]

Everyone in the flightsim Community knows there has and always will be some Bugs when a developer first releases a product! Why is there always someone who has to have a dummy spit over it! If your not happy can i suggest maybe next time you wait untill there is a service pack for it before you buy it! Also stop complaining about the price its very resonable considering the time PMDG have spent on the 400X! I can garentee if PMDG sold the 400X for $1 there would still be people complaining that $1 is to much and it should have been 50 cents!

[craig_read 43]

I must agree with Robert here, the majority of the problems people encounter (probably me included) are a result of lack of understanding.. As for oscillation.. I too have had that, I've also had my aircraft being thrown 100 feet horizontally at random intervals when the winds aloft change instantaneously, and also when they appear not to, it's very strange but it's definitely a weather issue... I know it's not their models fault.. I just have to sort the sim out.. If you're using Hi-Fi ASX, and you visit their forum, you will be aware that they are trying to do something with wind smoothing within FSX as they've had a lot of trouble with it.. it's just an FSX thing..EDIT: Oh and there is another C&D on another post put up by vangelis I believe.. go check that out :)CheersCraig

[lefteris 70]

The latest version of FSUIPC, found on Pete Dowson's support forum (pinned at the top), includes a first pass at wind smoothing which users report has helped them. It's not 100% yet, according to Pete, but I think it will assist you in getting a lot less problems with winds changing direction so rapidly and violently.

[ahuimanu 50]

Lefteris...Very cool! Jeff

[Guest hench289]

Robert->Reading your post- I've come to the conclusion that there is>quite a bit of user error- and poor understanding of what the>airplane is or is not doing.>>Obviously- this isn't a venue for any of us to teach you how>to fly the airplane- but I will pick a few items out where I>think you are mistaken/misguided or just ol' fashioned wrong. >;-) There is no need to teach me how to fly an airplane, i am a certified flight instructor with close to 700hrs. There is no user error,asi have read the manual god knows how many times, and considering my real world experience i understand exactly what the airplane is doing.>>First well start with the cold and>>dark startup with engines running everytime.>>We've had a number of reports of this behavior. Strangely>enough- many others do not see this behavior. We are>researching. In the mean time- if you feel enterprising you>can certainly create your own C&D scenario with less than 60>seconds of time invested... I created my own scenerio a few minutes after getting the new queen and noticing there was a problem with the C&D scenario, i was just stating a minor problem. >>Second is the>>the tcas dont work, neither offline or online(i do have the>>newest FSUIPC).>>Well- actually, TCAS does work. (Poking fun here- it's the>grammar in that sentence that "don't work neither.") Please help me out with the TCAS then, i have used it offline and online and there is no traffic showing up on it at all. I have the option checked "Show all Traffic" and i have put my self into situations where there was traffic right next to me while flying and nothing is there. >>Third is the Navaids indentifying randomly,>>some do majority dont.>>This has been true since August of 2005 when we released the>FS9 version... It is a result of the method that we use to>convince FS that it has three radios rather than just the two>that are designed into the program. FWIW: In an airplane of>this type- your primary navaid identification method is the>auto-decoder which listens to the nav frequency and produces>the decoded identifier on the navigation display. If you see>an identifier displayed using raw data, you have no obligation>to listen to, or manually identify the navaid yourself. Just>a little tip from the real world. ;-) I know this has been a problem with the FS9 version, only when using FSINN. I tried all the fiexes in the forums and i have not gotten it to work. I guess the same problem carried over to the FSX version.>>Forth and a MAJOR issue is the plane>>homes to the next waypoint. I had a 60 kt crosswind at>FL310,>>my initial heading to the waypoint was 002 by the time i>>reached the waypoint my heading to the waypoint was 075.>>No. The airplane doesn't "home." I'd spend some time>studying the appropriate way to navigate the airplane- and you>will likely discover that the problem isn't what you thought. There is definately no reason for me to study up on the appropriate way to navigate an airplane. The problem is exact what i thought and i have duplicated that problem and i have a picture to prove it. In the picture i went from 2 random waypoints that were 90nms apart, as you can see the black line is a straight line from the 2 points and you can see my red track. THIS IS TEXT BOOK HOMING! >>oscillating up and down past FL310.>>You can induce oscillation by allowing FS to model turbulence.> Turbulence modeling in FS9 and FSX is entirely and completely>bogus- and will always create a problem for a good flight>model. If you subjected an airplane to the gust factors used>by the FS weather engine- the airplane would suffer structural>failure at about 1/10th of it's service life... We generally>recommend turning off all turbulence function within the sim. I have disabled the turbulence option and it seemed to help some, and i was never using fs generated weather anyway. >>PMDG worked how long on this project...and there>>are this many problems and a few majors one at that. Its>like>>they never flew the airplane, i just dont understand. >(And do you REALLY think that we'd release a product without>having flown it? Really... REALLY think that one through and>decide if that isn't the most inane comment in the whole post?> I'm sorry if I come off sounding impatient with you- but>after many tens of thousands of hours of development time->offhanded comments like that take every ounce of credibility>out of anything else of value you might add to the>conversation... i never said you guys didnt fly the airplane, i said its like you didnt fly the airplane. I know for sure you guys did just not sure how you missed some of the problems. I understand every new produc has bugs, but the issue that made me post this to begin with was the fact that it was homing to the waypoints, which is something i expect from Wilco or PSS. PMDG products are the best out there,i know you guys will come through and fix the problems.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/179732.jpg