a few md-11 questions

[spesimen]

hi!i'm enjoying this new plane it's a pleasure to fly.i have a few questions that i can't find in the manual i'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction:1. how do you calculate the appropriate flex temperature for if you are underweight? in the tutorial they show 54C as an example but where does that come from? i'm curious how heavy i need to be before starting to move that towards outside tmep.2. is there a way to easily determine the radial for a flight point along your current path from a 3rd position? in radar contact you are usually cleared to 11k at 40nm from the airport. in the boeings i could create a fix from the airport using "/40" and then it would let me upselect that waypoint as the intersection of my flightpath with that distance from the airport. i'm not sure if it's possible to do something similar with the md-11. i've been creating an along-track waypoint instead and i can generally get it in the ballpark but i think there must be a more accurate method. i looked at the different fix and waypoint types and i think if i knew the radial to that intersection creating a waypoint would be easy but i'm not sure how to calculate that other than eyeballing it or a protractor on the chart or something.3. is there a formula to convert average winds to winds along track? i use active sky and will get an average wind of say "277/55" and in the boeings i would just enter this into the cruise winds. but now do i have to normalize that against what my average heading is for the flightplan as well? it has been a while since i have done any vector math maybe this is a simple problem or something best left to flightplanning software?cheers,-andy crosby

[Check_Airman]

1. You can't. Boeing has not allowed PMDG to release the performance data to do this. All takeoffs must be full power.2. You'd probably need to enter the airport in the fix page to get an idea of your radial, then create a place/bearing/distance waypoint, eg. EGLL/145/403. No. Just enter the Activesky value in the CRZ WIND field on the INIT page.Paul

[spesimen]

thanks for the reply.a few followups..1. if takeoffs must be full power is it basically just SOP to set the flex temp to outside temp then? why do they show it so much higher in the tutorial? does changing the setting have no effect?2. yah that seems to be the only option. i wish i had a more accurate way to find the exact radial of course :)3. it seems like the only format it accepts is a temperature and a headwind or tailwind component. maybe i am just entering the wrong string into the scratchpad? everything i try either says format error or ends up as a temperature and then "HDxx" or "TLxx". in the manual (page 10.18) is says wind bearing is always along the aircraft track, is there a way to override this somehow?cheers,-andy crosby

[Check_Airman]

>thanks for the reply.>a few followups..>1. if takeoffs must be full power is it basically just SOP to>set the flex temp to outside temp then? why do they show it so>much higher in the tutorial? does changing the setting have no>effect?Airlines will normally do reduced-power takeoffs, however, since we don't have the data available to calculate takeoff performance, the only "proper" way to do it is to use full power.>2. yah that seems to be the only option. i wish i had a more>accurate way to find the exact radial of course :)>>3. it seems like the only format it accepts is a temperature>and a headwind or tailwind component. maybe i am just entering>the wrong string into the scratchpad? everything i try either>says format error or ends up as a temperature and then "HDxx">or "TLxx". in the manual (page 10.18) is says wind bearing is>always along the aircraft track, is there a way to override>this somehow?To enter the wind information, you can use FSBuild, as it gives you the average head/tailwind component. You can enter this in the init page as Hxx or +xx.Paul

[mfrantz]

Andy,You have several options for adding wind forecast information:1. From the F-PLN INIT page you can enter average crz wind/temperature that applies to the whole of the flight. This input is made in a head/tail component format only. 2. From the PERF CLB and PERF DES pages, you can access the CLB/DES FORECAST pages and enter wind forecasts for various altitudes. These apply to the climb/descent phases only and the input is made in a bearing/velocity format.3. Once a T/C and T/D are calculated you can go to the VERT REV page of any cruise waypoint and access page 2/2 in which you can enter wind forecasts for various altitudes. These apply to the cruise phase at the selected waypoint and the input is made in a bearing/velocity format. Note that these entries are propagated forward and backwards, so if you enter wind forecasts at only one cruise waypoint they will apply to all cruise waypoints.

[spesimen]

thanks for the help guys. i think i have a pretty good handle on it now. actually i didn't realize that fsbuild could import wind data from asx either! now that i have that configured my planning has improved subtantially.cheers,-andy crosby