Hello,I could need some help for the MD-11.At take off the pitch becomes too high, the a/c's nose is going very steep high and forces the a/c to make a rather sudden correction by lowering the nose.During this phase the message "protection" appears on the upper left corner and speeds turn white. VNAV disengages.After that I have to press again the FMC speed button as well as Profile button to continue flying the flight plan in VNAV mode.What is going wrong during this phase?Help appreciated,ChristosGreece

She needs to be handflown carefully on takeoff. Keep manual control of your pitch and make sure you are close to the FD steering bars before engaging autopilot. If you have a problem controlling pitch then maybe the trim was off a little bit. She really is a handful, isn't she?

She needs to be handflown carefully on takeoff. Keep manual control of your pitch and make sure you are close to the FD steering bars before engaging autopilot. If you have a problem controlling pitch then maybe the trim was off a little bit. She really is a handful, isn't she?

Yes, she definitely is... She is absolutely fantastic.Coming to my point: I do handfly her on take off, FD needles centered and at about 1500ft height I engage Autopilot. Trims set correctly upon take off. Then I have this problem. At what height do you engage the autopilot? No problem with the pitch?Should I fly handfly her even longer? Until where?Please help taming her on take off...Thanks,Christos

I watched a FedEx MD-11 take off from KMSP last week sitting on the left side of an A320 holding short for Runway 17 right behind it. The pitch angle after rotation during the initial climb was extremely high, so much so that it looked wrong to me based on watching the average 737 or A32x take off. The real aircraft does in fact pitch up extremely high, we've got it right!

I watched a FedEx MD-11 take off from KMSP last week sitting on the left side of an A320 holding short for Runway 17 right behind it. The pitch angle after rotation during the initial climb was extremely high, so much so that it looked wrong to me based on watching the average 737 or A32x take off. The real aircraft does in fact pitch up extremely high, we've got it right!

Why does she then correct this very high pitch up by lowering the nose and is it normal that VNAV disconnects?

Why does she then correct this very high pitch up by lowering the nose and is it normal that VNAV disconnects?

Christos,does this happen on EVERY take-off you do or could this perhaps be related to turbulence you encounter on climb-out?You write that you do have the F/D bars centred when engaging the AP. At that moment, is your elevator deflection also neutral or are you perhaps holding a steady input instead of neutral?Regards,Markus

Christos,does this happen on EVERY take-off you do or could this perhaps be related to turbulence you encounter on climb-out?You write that you do have the F/D bars centred when engaging the AP. At that moment, is your elevator deflection also neutral or are you perhaps holding a steady input instead of neutral?Regards,Markus

Markus,It happens on every take-off!Sorry I can not understand what is ment by 'elevator deflection'. Can you explain? Maybe that causes my problem.Christos

Also, verify you have current version 1.20.0055; the earlier version had a tendency to overstate trim causing over rotation in certain configurations.

Hi,Can you actually quantify the pitch? She seems fine to me!She lifts off passing +10

Lets not forget PMDG has Actual MD11 pilots and cooperation from boeing ( to name a few). If it wasnt real...it would mostl likey be fixed or changed....Peter Osborn

Markus,It happens on every take-off!Sorry I can not understand what is ment by 'elevator deflection'. Can you explain? Maybe that causes my problem.

Christos,With elevator deflection I meant if - at the time of engaging the AP with FD bars centred - you are still maintaining any elevator deflection by pushing or pulling the yoke. Before engaging the AP you need to have the FD bars centred AND the yoke in the neutral position (so you don't have any elevator deflection) in order for the AP to be able to take over smoothly. This requires the elevator trim to be set correctly so that no pitch change occurs when releasing the yoke to neutral. Maybe you could provide us with a screenshot showing the PFD and SD CONFIG page taken at the very instant you're about to engage the autopilot?Regards,Markus

Also, verify you have current version 1.20.0055; the earlier version had a tendency to overstate trim causing over rotation in certain configurations.

Hi Dan,I have the above version installed.Thanks.

Christos,With elevator deflection I meant if - at the time of engaging the AP with FD bars centred - you are still maintaining any elevator deflection by pushing or pulling the yoke. Before engaging the AP you need to have the FD bars centred AND the yoke in the neutral position (so you don't have any elevator deflection) in order for the AP to be able to take over smoothly. This requires the elevator trim to be set correctly so that no pitch change occurs when releasing the yoke to neutral. Maybe you could provide us with a screenshot showing the PFD and SD CONFIG page taken at the very instant you're about to engage the autopilot?Regards,Markus

Hi Markus,Before engaging AP elevator IS neutral. AP takes over smoothly.At what height do you engage the AP?If I handfly her until 4500-5000 ft then pressing AP does not create this problem.(I don't know how to attach screenshots in a forum)Regards,Christos

Before engaging AP elevator IS neutral. AP takes over smoothly.At what height do you engage the AP?If I handfly her until 4500-5000 ft then pressing AP does not create this problem

If AP takes over smoothly, going back to the original problem, does she still revert to airspeed protection?The AP should be engaged when you are aligned with the FD steering bars, trim neutral (no elevator pressure required) and you are above 400 AGL. Once you've made a dozen takeoffs, this would normally be about 400-800 AGL. Setting the trim is very important. If elevator pressure is required to stay aligned with the FD after about 5 sec after rotation then the trim was wrong.To attach screenshot, press PrintScreen button, open something like Paint and paste the image from the clipboard. Then I have to resize the image to 80% to stay below the AVSIM size limit but this depends on your screen resolution. Save as the jpg file to your desktop, then in the forum reply screen use browse to point to the jpg file, upload it, and finally use the control to the right and above the upload button to insert the picture in your reply.

Christos,if you say that the AP takes over smoothly then trim and elevator seems to be correct. So the problem arises after the AP is engaged... What are your weight and thrust settings? Are you perhaps extremely light on weight and depart with full thrust?Markus