I am learning about flying the PMDG 747 and I just have a general question about flying it. I usually set the autobrakes to 3 for braking but if I wanted to do it completely manually I have to push the trigger of my joystick to engage the brakes once I have landed on the runway but I was just interested to know how brakes are applied in real aircraft. In real aircraft do you just push both of the rudder pedals forward or something or is it somwhere else? Also is the braking animated by the PMDG 747?Any comments related to braking would be appreciated like how braking differs in different aircraft from jets to GA. Also at what speeds it is safe to apply brakes so they don't overheat screech. ThanksAl

Hi Al,You would apply the brakes by tilting the pedals, the left and right brakes work independently (Just like the saitek pedals you can buy online)In the 747-400 to set the parking brake you need to apply brake pressure with your feet and then pull the parking park lever, this will lock the pedals. Not sure what you mean by animated but as far as overheating you can check brake temps on the gear page on the lower EICAS. Practice will give you a good feel of how to brake smoothly, your in command and can overide the autobrakes whenever you see fit.Also I would recommend getting a good set of pedals to enhance sim.Rob

Al,manual braking an airliner is something you have to get experience to do it well. These brakes can get overheated quite quickly if you do it wrong.However once you master it you can use maximum brake pressure without overheating anything. Generally speaking it is better to apply short but high brake pressure than it is to use slight brake pressure over a long period. Regarding when to apply manual braking... Be aware that on many airliners autobrake will apply brake pressure right after touchdown while the nose wheel is still up. This is something you won't do with autobrake off.Problem with MSFS default brake button is this, you are not able to vary your brake pressure. It's either full brakes (hitting the key) or no brakes (releasing it). So if you want to brake like in reality you need a set of hardware rudder pedals. Regards,Markus

Thanks a lot for your answers. I definitely will get some pedals when I can afford them. Regarding the animation I just meant that I wondered if when one applies manual braking is the movement of the pedals tilting been modelled or animated in the virtual cockpit. The pedals do animate when I twist my joystick to activate the rudder pedals. It isn't a major thing at all. I think the VC is really excellent.