Your worst experiences with a PMDG aircraft

[JonRD463 146]

Wow, I wouldn't think there would be so many people with "bad" experiences like me! I thank you all guysBut I have a question for the 747-400 users: Is there a way to tell if you tail-struck during rotation (apart from the sim that crashes)?

I don't have the Queen, but I find myself tailstriking the default 747 too many times. :D There's a mini "crash" sound that plays when it happens. Given PMDG's attention to detail, I'm sure there's probably a sound for it if it's non-catastrophic. Cheers,Jonathan Dodds

[Krister 51]

Last night, actually this morning since I landed at 0140Z, I did a flight on Vatsim from KATL to KLAX in the PMDG 738. I used FS Flightkeeper which has a function that gives flight critique when you have landed, ie it evaluates how you have performed at all stages during the flight - if you have landing lights on above 10' , too excessive VS, busting flaps speeds etc.If you get a score of 100% you have done pretty ok, and I guess if you get 0% it's back to the manual. Well, I managed to get MINUS 250% :D and it even claimed I had torned off my flaps! :D Personally I thought everything went pretty smoothly and I got full marks eg for my landing. Extending the gear at 100 AGL perhaps wasn't according to SOP though...

[Ioan92 63]

A new bad experience would be when, on my flight from JNB to FRA, during the last portions of the flight, over terrible weather, both elevators were pinned down and I have no idea if it was something natural of the plane, an error of mine or a bug. I even posted a thread about it and the lack of answer dissapoints me.

[tandy 1]

I have had two catasthropic crashes using the md-11 both of which on reflection were my fault.1) I had read the tutorial constantly and have got the start up procedure from the first tutorial down to a fine art meaning the only i've checked the manual was to briefly cross reference something so deciding i would manually taxi the md-11 until the run way i set off at a steady 15 mph when suddenly looking up to check the runway for any on coming aircraft the plane started to gain speed at an alarming rate, i applied speed brakes which had no effect at all, i deployed full flaps to try to make a short take off before i piled the md-11 into someones lovely house which would have been an awkward insurance claim. as v1 and rotate speeds approached i pitched up about a 100m from the fencing and 150m away from the closest houses. the plane started to climb and for a minute i was happy to reach 300m untill suddenly i noticed the altitude dropping i never had the chance to pull the plane out of the stall as i sadly smashed into a housing esatate. Turns out i had engaged the autpilot without meaning too.2) For this disaster to occur i placed the md-11 on klax with the aircraft ready to go with all the systems primed, this was a short manual flight to test the frame rates on take off and approach into klax one i was aiming to repeat numerous times until i found a trade off between scenary and traffic with frame rates. Not realising i hadn't set up a fuel load i indifferently started the take off roll and took off successfully from Klax, climbing to 3000ft i decided to lower the engine thrust to allow me to turn around some 60 nm out from the airport to start a manual descent into Klax, as i lowered engine thrust about 35nm from klax i noticed that the engines were loosing power, i wasn't worried i ould test the engines and see if it was a small problem with the throttle, engaging the engines to maximum power resulted in no response from the engines themselves. At 3000ft i decided i wouldn't have enough time to do more than 2 engines restarts before i ran into trouble not that i knew how to do them anyway, turning around to make an emergancy descent into klax and with my speed dropping at a none too pleasing rate i again made the decision to deploy flats to 15C. In theory this allowed the plane to generate enough lift to maintain a glide in which i could reach Klax, or at the very least make an attempted crash landing, this however didn't happen and as i noticed the ground hedging closer i deployed the landing gear ad attempted to find an empty stretch of land in which to park the plane, this didn't happen as i turned the plane gently the wing dipped and caused the plane to nose dive into a block of flats.

[ailchim 204]

Executing an excellent Eastern Airways JS41 landing at EGHI after an immaculate flight and then pressing F3 for reverse thrust instead of F2.Result ever quickening acceleration down the rest of the runway (resulting in ever more feverish pressing of F3). Didn't quite reach V2 before the boundary fence.

[Guest yurob70]

Fuel SYS on Manual with Engine 2 Pump off(I thinke dit transfers Fuel)Engine Failure and i didnt note it and Takedoff.Restarted engine again

[Felix_Nicol 0]

PMDG 738 :I was pushing back from the terminal, starting my engines, and then I realised, they weren't starting up. I must of spent 30 mins to figure out what was wrong, turned out I forgot to start the APU :(I've used RW checklists ever since.

[Guest b737lvr]

i wish i had the money to buy the NG..... all of you are making me jealous :(

[Benjamin J 748]

don't be that jealous. I don't think the PMDG 737 is *that* great. There are other models out there that offer more, and it seems iFly will soon be releasing their own 737NG series that, quite frankly, looks very good. I think you ought to save your money for the iFly plane when it comes out. Don't go for the PMDG anymore; it is old and I think the price is too high for something that old.

[Krister 51]

don't be that jealous. I don't think the PMDG 737 is *that* great. There are other models out there that offer more, and it seems iFly will soon be releasing their own 737NG series that, quite frankly, looks very good. I think you ought to save your money for the iFly plane when it comes out. Don't go for the PMDG anymore; it is old and I think the price is too high for something that old.

While I agree that there are many planes out there today that are of much higher quality than the PMDG 737NG, and nothing else would be strange considering its age since it was originally made for MSFS2002, but I have to say that no aircraft in my hangar (and I have A LOT of them) have given me that much money's worth as the PMDG 738NG and 739 NG. Only one comes close and that would be the "Greatest Airliner 747-400" from Dreamfleet since it took me into the world of airliners and use of FMC!

[Guest b737lvr]

any news on that IFly 737?

[Joduv 90]

Hi Guy's !I was doing a long flight from Paris CDG to Mexico City with my Air France 747 (see here : http://fr.forum.ivao.aero/index.php/topic,113543.225.html ) Because of remaining fuel onboard for landing (22 tons) and high level airport in Mexico, my approach speed was very high ! Also I land to late after the touchdown zone, so directly desarm autobrake with pedals and apply full breaking and reverses ! I stop just before the end of the runway 05R with a lot of chance ! Breaks were very hot (like 7 or 8) ! (sorry for my bad english...)Cheers !

[Guest iberia999]

Hahah been reading some of these wow.I was doing a EHAM - LEPA on a 738, and right when 40 minutes had passed and everything seemed to go fine... I left my room since the plane was on auto-pilot and then I saw my bro going in...5 minutes later... I walk into the room seeing that my autopilot had been disconnected. I was descending at like 8000ft/min.I was able to restore the plane into a lower cruising flight level and barely made it smoothly back to LEPA without any reserves LOL!!!James W.

[Guest bratonabike]

i stalled on my final approach into st maarten, killing a few onlookers, destroying the beach and smashing into the threshold. :(

Had a hair-raising landing of the 747X while on a leg to China. Had a smooth approach and was caught by surprise after passing 200ft when a strong crosswind blew the aircraft right off the centerline. Decided to go-around and give it another shot using the opposite side of the runway. The same thing happened and even worse. I was forced to divert the flight to my alternate in the interest of safety, with only 2,000 lbs of fuel remaining after landing successfully.

ooo u cut that a little close :(

i stalled on my final approach into st maarten, killing a few onlookers, destroying the beach and smashing into the threshold. :(

oh and i was in my 744X B)

Hahah been reading some of these wow.I was doing a EHAM - LEPA on a 738, and right when 40 minutes had passed and everything seemed to go fine... I left my room since the plane was on auto-pilot and then I saw my bro going in...5 minutes later... I walk into the room seeing that my autopilot had been disconnected. I was descending at like 8000ft/min.I was able to restore the plane into a lower cruising flight level and barely made it smoothly back to LEPA without any reserves LOL!!!James W.

hahaha my little bro did almost the excact same thing, except my 747 went up.. and stalled at bout 44000 feet, and i was there to watch it take a dunk into the middle of the atlantic ocean

That was brilliant.

amen. B)

[Guest bratonabike]

I had set up a long haul from KLAX-YSSY and I was super excited to bring the Queen in to land and was on short final and the power went out. Yeah...

ahahaha i did that once, except i shut down my pc instead :(