A few things forgotten on the PMDG 747

[Guest pakket]

There are a few things forgotten on certain instruments on the panel:1. On the ctd status page there is no oxygen for crew and passengers sign.2. On the ctd there is no temperture notice for the crew rest area and the bulk cargo area.3.on the ctd there is no orange sign on the doors page if the doors are open.4.there is no maintance page on the FMC.5. it is not possible to see cargo in the bulk area on the 747 freighter.These are small shortcomings, but if the ifly 747 includes these things, it certainly should be on the PMDG.I like to see this things implemented, to make it a hardcore simulator. Details are important, tell that to everyone, also details that might only needed in a case of emergency. Some products outhere run very short on detail, for example Airbus series vol.1 and vol. 2 fom a certain company we all know. I like to pay more for more detail, it is up to the developer, if they deliver i pay for it to make it as real as possible.Best regards, Martijn

[Mats_J 2]

Martijn,Are you sure the things you are mentioning are forgotten and not just omitted by design?Cheers,

[Tabs 2,790]

I quite resent the notion that we're not a "hardcore simulator" because we don't have such minor and seldom used things as what you mention. The other 747 that you imply is "hardcore" comes nowhere close to matching our AFDS and FMC fidelity, which I think is just a wee bit more important than the minutiae of door symbology and maintinance pages for pilots.What exactly are you going to do with such things anyway? They'd be nothing more than a systems manual entry forgotten in a few minutes to most people.

[Orlaam 306]

>4.there is no maintance page on the FMC.It's my understanding this isn't even accessible to pilots, and you couldn't do anything in there anyway, so why bother??? It's an engineer page. Silly request.

[Guest hangar744]

Hi Martijn,what is "the ctd"?...never heard of it.regards,delcom

[FLEX1978 373]

Martijn, Have you even flown this simualtor? The attention the detail is mind blowing. Extreme minute attention to detail that still shocks me years after using this software. I feel I just wasted a few minutes of my life reading your post, but I had to reply.Rob

[cavaricooper 2,614]

Delcom, I think he's referencing the EICAS but calling it the Cathode Tube Display.....For the rest, I am a HUGE fan of the current version, but also a BIG proponent of gentle BUT CONSTANT clamor for further improvements to the platform. It is IMHO the absolute leader in the large/heavy transport aircraft category- by a substantial margin. That said- additional functionalities and systems faithfulness are things I am quite willing to pay for- and from prior postings, I am not alone.PMDG is recognizing this and their separation of the FS9 Unifier installer in the FSX update was a brilliant idea. That way, those wanting to update the fat girl in FS9 could do so, while tucking the rest away for later.It is my hope that they will continue to enhance the 744 product line- and after reading (between the lines ;)) of Robert's last postings post type rating- I am encouraged! At least we know he loves her as much as we do! :)Patience and gentle pressure- there's the ticket!Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png

[Guest sunbear]

Actually, I'm getting a little shy of oxygen reading this post.....Could you help me located where the nearest cannister is??PMDG is as 'Hardcore' as it gets..period..jack

[Guest hangar744]

Hi Martijn,after I learned what you meant with "the ctd" or something, I took my time to check out my PMDG FS9 744F and 744 models. Sorry, I do not own FSX 744, so I cannot provide any info on that bird. So here we go.1. On the ctd status page there is no oxygen for crew and passengers sign.I understand your concern on this really significant item. You are right, there should be OXY PR: CREW XXXX and PASS XXXX displayed by digital readouts in units of psi. Let's hope in the future we will have that on our EICAS STATUS page.2. On the ctd there is no temperture notice for the crew rest area and the bulk cargo area.PMDG got this right. My 744 and 744F show the most common indication layout for the zone temperature control system. My real word airline is not interested in the bulk cargo digital readout, however I've seen some North American operators going with that option. On 744 full pax, I've never seen controls for the CRA, since the CRA is right behind the flight deck. 744F CRA is located behind the U/D so it has controls, and yes, it is modelled in the PMDG 744F.3. on the ctd there is no orange sign on the doors page if the doors are open.PMDG got this right. Boeing uses only a few colors in the flight deck for simplicity. Each color has specific meaning. No orange...that I know of. My doors work just fine on both 744 and 744F, and the door warning system feeds the EICAS DOORS page with the correct amber color. What PMDG did not model here is the passenger doors auto/manual indicating system on the 744 pax.4. there is no maintance page on the FMC.The FMC has nothing to do with the maintenance pages. The 4 CDU's have more to do with the 2 CMC's. If PMDG in the future decides to include the CMC's, (good luck) well...prepare for a few hundred megabytes package with a few thousand pages manual (as a brief introduction to this completely new world) Remember, what the pilots will ever see on those screens is just a small, very small part of the entire system. At this point there is no proper CMC simulated for commercial use. If PMDG has such plans, I could lend a hand.5. it is not possible to see cargo in the bulk area on the 747 freighter.My cargo is gone from the bulk cargo compartment, too. They also took all the restraint nets, spare tires, tools and other spare parts with the LOB container. I called security.regards,delcom

[claviermichel 0]

Hi Martijn,I fully second all coments made by Delcom.ON CMC's. Generally speaking if dispatch relief is ok there is no point wasting time before departure trying to read the tons of test data stored the CMc's memory. Should however dispatch been rejected because of critical failure(s) it becomes ground engineers' duty/job to read, understand and use the multiple information compiled by the CMC and correct/repair the faulty parts.I am not aware of any flight crew procedure requiring a reading of CMC's tests. In fact a substantial part of the tests made are so called ground tests which have an automatic shut down procedure when the plane is airborne. Also as far as I know the readings are inhibited automatically when airborne or at least below certain flight levels.Therefore in my humble opinion, the modelling of this extremely complex piece of equipment would not be rewarded at all because:1. it is of no use to the pilots, 2. it is or should not be used in flight, 3. and it is almost exclusively a ground engineer tool to detect and quickly analyse system failures.Should we one day - may be in another life - have a proper dispatch and ground engineer simulation then this topic may become actual again but not at this stage of the simulation development.Best regards

[Guest hangar744]

Hi Michael,I'll share a little extra info on the 744 CMC's. You might be interested.Some airlines don't want their pilots to mess with the CMC, so it's limited to ground only.Some other airlines let their pilots to take a peek below FL100. Fair enough.However during a test flight we want to monitor some of the systems in great detail even above FL100. We need it unlimited.These limitations can be set by entering a weird 28 character hexadecimal number on the CDU's. That number is expressed from a 96 character, four-digit sequence binary number). Two of those 0's or 1's (namely bit 46 and bit 45) will be responsible for the limits of your CMC.I don't think the pilots are required to know where and how to enter those codes.regards,delcom

[mcbellette 145]

I think on the FSX version of the -400F you can see cargo in the cargo hold from spot view (if you have loaded cargo from the Load Manager).

[claviermichel 0]

Hi Delcom,Yes, you are right I should have mentioned the test flight option. I limited my comments to a pilot point of view. I personally believe that reading CMC's results from a pilot point of view is a non necessary additional charge which distracts the pilots from their duties and responsibilities. This is my personal opinion which may change if someone could demonstrate to me the benefits of the CMc for the pilots.Michael