Strange Lighting Problem & FMC Gripes

[Yoda967 23]

First: fantastic job! The 757 was long, long overdue, and you've done a truly masterful job of it.On a night flight this evening, I noticed that the instrument lights on the 2D panel and the exterior lighting (strobes, beacons, landing, logo, and taxi lights) appear to be tied to whether or not there's an active frequency dialed in to the NAV radios. NAV1 active....got lights. NAV1 not active...no lights. The panel backlighting seems fine.The VNAV CLB and VNAV DES pages allow for manual SPD setting, but not in the usual Boeing format of "KIAS/MACH", e.g. "300/.74" on the CLB page or ".74/300" on the DES page. I can enter either KIAS or MACH values, but not both. When switching to the RTE page after the initial POS INIT entries, I believe the scratch pad should be automatically filled with the departure field entered on the POS INIT page. It's entirely possible that I'm wrong here, but that's my understanding of the Boeing CDU.I apologize if these have been brought up before...I couldn't find any mention quite like what I'm seeing.

[Guest BenSmethurst]

On the night of my first flight i completed the CDU pages, just a test flight from Manchester to Gatwick, after departure when i went for auto pilot and then LNAV the aircraft started to swing from side to side, i landed and looked through the CDU again, i couldnt find a problem, i wondered if you have experienced this??regards

[Yoda967 23]

Ben,No, I haven't experienced either of those things.The lighting issue turned out to be the FS9 Master Battery switch; you must turn on the Master Battery Switch in the default Cessna before selecting the 757.The other two issues aren't "problems" per se, but questions/observations.

[B777ER 2,485]

I find it best to always load the default Cessna, leave everything running on it, then switch to the 757 (or any other payware for that matter). If you have cold/dark selected, everything will shut down for you..but everything will turn on like it is supposed to when it is time.

[Yoda967 23]

Yes, I agree, though not every add on offers a Cold And Dark Start feature. I've made it a practice to load everything through the default Cessna, and as per the setup in the FS2Crew PMDG737 manual, only the avionics switch is on.It's an easy solution...switching things on before selecting the 757. :-)