PMDG 747 Engine Fires

[Guest swanrunner]

Has anyone had random engine fires on all 4 engines and APU for no apparent reason? I have the latest program update and no failure modes selected and when I select outside views black smoke is pouring out the engines and APU tail pipe with no fire indication in the cockpit. It just happens sometimes on a random basis.John SwansonQ6600 2.4ghz 6g ram GE8500GT Vista 64bit

[Qavion 19]

I think you'll find that the smoke is simply a FS-effect employed by PMDG to show lightup.Smoke coming out the back of engine tailpipes is not as bad as having a genuine fire underneath the engine cowls (which is where most of the fire detector loops are located).Older engines sometimes do generate a bit of smoke (for example, a bit of oil sitting in the tailpipe may cause this). Remember that the core of the engine is designed to resist very high temperatues with the use of materials like titanium. The core of the engine is burning fuel.... It's when the "fire" spreads to other parts of the engine that you have trouble ;)Cheers.Q> Ян

[Guest swanrunner]

Q, Thanks for your reply. I don't believe this is normal. It is very thick and heavy black smoke. When you are in the passenger cabin view sometimes you can't see out the window. I watched a You Tube video someone did of a engine fire demo on the 747 and that is what it looks like. I have to shut down FSX and then reload. It is just a random thing that does not happen everytime I use the program. John SwansonQ6600 2.4 ghz 6gig ram GE8500GT Windows Vista 64bit

[johndrago 4]

>Has anyone had random engine fires on all 4 engines and APU>for no apparent reason? I have the latest program update and>no failure modes selected and when I select outside views>black smoke is pouring out the engines and APU tail pipe with>no fire indication in the cockpit. It just happens sometimes>on a random basis.>>John Swanson>Q6600 2.4ghz 6g ram GE8500GT Vista 64bitYour description sounded familar. I found this on the Ops page (http://ops.precisionmanuals.com/wiki/PMDG_747-400X_FAQ)- John----------------------Known Problems Within FSXPMDG 747-400 fails to reloadFSX has a problem in the way it loads custom animations for the visual models. PMDG relies heavily on custom animations in order to do everything from flaps and slats to allowing users to de-select the winglets or open and close the cargo nose of the 747-400F. For this reason, the PMDG 747-400 is susceptible to a quirky fault within FSX that is generally relatively easy to avoid: If you have selected a PMDG 747-400X, then re-enter the aircraft selection menu and select a PMDG 747-400X of the same engine type, you MIGHT trigger this quirky little bug in FSX, and the PMDG 747-400 will fail to load properly and be unflyable within the simulator. If this happens, simply close the sim and start over again. We identified this failing to Microsoft but there simply wasn

[3-2-1-Now 126]

FSX really is a poor piece of work, isn't it? :(I've no doubt ACES worked hard on it, but to not fix these bugs when they know about them is inexcusable (and I realize this is probably more of an M$ problem than an ACES one).Best regards,Robin.

[Guest swanrunner]

Thanks for your reply John, at least I know I am not the only one with this issue. John Swanson

[Shmiffy 0]

So, my first post in the 744 forum and it's likely to be a controversial one!Robin:I appreciate your point, i really do, but to state that FSX really is a poor peice of work on the basis of a few minor, although admittedly annoying bugs, is a refrain that i have heard often, and to be quite frank, am getting somewhat bored of.As someone who has Beta Tested what is probably one of the most complex FS Addon's in history (SSTSim Concorde), you of all people should surely realise that sometimes, there are bigger fish to fry.In this instance, the smoke issue, i would imagine that they have added it to the list, and will fix it. Whether that is a future Service Pack that a tiny team at Aces is working on, or if it is in FS11, who, really cares that much.Regardless of your opinion, FSX has improved the visuals and with an assortment of the RIGHT add-ons, you can expand on those visuals 1,000 fold. With a good computer, you can run FSX at great frame rates and to be honest, that's what most simmers are after.If you cast your mind back to previous FS releases, the same old posts as we are seeing now for X afflicted 2000, 2002, 2004 etc.I dont work for Aces, i dont work for MS, but if i did, i would probably be having serious doubts as to whether or not to even bother with a continuation of FS development. After all, with the price people pay for the software vs what actually goes into it (or even comes out of it for that matter), i would personally be inclined to just hook up with a Pro Full Motion Sim manufacturer, add $1,000,000 to the price and concentrate on that. I'm sure that there would be a lot less people on forums bemoaning the fact that one of the animations is a bit off or that a tiny little village in the back end of beyond is missing.Robin, apologies for hitting you with this particular post, it's not directed only at you, but all who post FSX sucks. Lets be honest. What would you prefer. 98 or X?The team took a gamble, took advantage of the future of personal computing, and took advantage of new toold and techniques, at the very least they deserve a hearty congratulations for having the faith in the product, and the determination to continuosly expand and improve on a product that probably has one of the smallest markets of any of the MS groups products.Apologies to the OP for dragging this a touch further off topic than it already has gone. So if the mod's feel that this would be better served as a new thread, pleas move it, or ask me to and i will. It is not meant to be an inflammatory post, and i didnt set out to attack anyone in particular, but having googled FSX a bit over the last few days in a search for new and exciting tips, tricks, addons etc, and being hit with a million and one posts that do little other than #### about FSX, i am sure that you can understand that it begins to sound like a very old and overplayed record after a while.CheersPaul