PMDG 737 NGX: PMDG's attitude toward realism

[aceridgey]

@ryanI absolutley LOVE what you said!"we are sure that many of the first reported bugs are actually events in real life"that sounds amazing,, i like the idea that you can break the aircraft through incomplete actions and lazy preparationTHIS is the reason why we LOVE PMDG.

[MorsAbAlto]

The day will come when you'll need a real world type rating to use a PMDG aircraft...

[ryanbatc]

Fail! There are a lot of people not signing their name here.

Technically I'm guilty of that - never really thought of it since my I use my same login for the main forum...But with a bit of detective work anyone can find my name... half of it is in my username :(

[Puffmac]

@Alexander,The day will come when the NGX is released :(

[pao]

Sorry if this has been asked before but when are the first outside shots going to be shown ?Greg

[thefsxflyer]

When they are realeased. That's when.

[windshearDK]

Sorry if this has been asked before but when are the first outside shots going to be shown ?Greg

Its planned to be shown before release LOL dont believe the words you read here, so much crappy humour I think RR said they wanted to show more VCs, then perhaps externals - oh and better yet an insight into some of the features

[WTE_Pharoah]

Quick question (I know I'm being pedantic) but, given PMDG is going with the 'worn and dirty' look for the cockpit, would it not make sense to not have the usual 'new' boeing livery on delivery? ;) eg. if I was CEO of Virgin Blue and Boeing delivered a brand spanking new B737-800 NG to me (in boeing livery say), and the cockpit was dirty/worn....I'd be sending it right back with a little 'please clean and return' :)

[Roadburner426]

Seems Ryan has it covered.. There is not much use for modelling circuit breakers in a simulated aircraft in my opinion. In the real world very rarely do we ever get popped circuit breakers. The only time you ever see it is when you get high amperage through the system and then it pops shutting it off. Which is the same effect as if the pump just shut off regularly. Granted in real life you can push the breaker back in, and then maybe get an overheat/fire in said affected system. The MD-11 has many failures that act as you describe. For example I have had over heats on hydraulic pumps (which the aircraft automatically shuts off for me), and depending on what pump is affected I have actually lost the ability to extend the landing gear. Which I then had to figure out where the handles were in the floor to manually extend them.. Or in other cases you may only get the flaps to extend a certain number of degrees.. Also upon landing depending on which pump failed determines whether I lost nose gear steering to the left or right... Those are only the hydraulic related failures I have had with it too. I could go on forever about all the other ones I have had. I really think that NGX is going to take this to the next level from what RSR and Ryan have said.. Even adding a level of maitenance fidelity that a very few of us have ever been exposed to. While it does suck waiting.. I do not think that any other product in the tubeliner category is going to come close to this bird. Maybe, just maybe whatever A2A is coming up with for the P-51 Accu-sim, but that is not in this category.

[Guest wims]

Seems Ryan has it covered.. There is not much use for modelling circuit breakers in a simulated aircraft in my opinion. In the real world very rarely do we ever get popped circuit breakers. The only time you ever see it is when you get high amperage through the system and then it pops shutting it off. Which is the same effect as if the pump just shut off regularly. Granted in real life you can push the breaker back in, and then maybe get an overheat/fire in said affected system. ...

I'm not sure how often it happens either, but I do know that a friend of mine had his GPWS fail on a 744 flight yesterday and apparently it could have been fixed if they pushed the CB. They didnt tho, they just landed without the GPWS instead of trying to find the error.

[SLKVP]

Always enjoy in PMDG aircraft what is visible (exteriors, VCs) but there is always an extra satisfaction feeling knowing that there are things which are working but are invisible. So, Dear Robert and EMV, let your magic roll!!!!!!Sam

[Roadburner426]

Well usually for us (I can only speak for the H-60) it happens in the electric hydraulic pump system.. When the motor starts to wear internally it takes a lot more amps than normal so it will pop the breaker. The only other times I have seen it happen is when the electronics guys do a bad wire repair and it shorts out the system. They are just fail safes in the overall system which is why I don't think it is to big of a deal. Cause they will model the system failing anyway as they did with the MD-11X. Even if the circuit breaker was there to push chances are it would pop again anyway either immediately or once the system heated up enough to pop it again. I mean granted it is not realistic, but in an aircraft like this where you have 100's of circuit breakers you would be in the back searching panels endlessly for where it was. When I was studying to try and go through the Navy Flight Engineer program for the P-3 had to know at the drop of a hat where a circuit breaker was, and how to re-route power in case relays were fried, etc. I enjoy just being able to read the manual in a week span, fly, have a failure, and be able to follow the checklist. Without months and months of sitting around reading basically doing ground school/type specific training.EDIT: Now that I think about it don't know why they wouldn't have checked the CB's if the GPWS lost power.. I know one of the first steps on our checklist before even turning on battery power is "All switches/circuit breakers... Off/Safe/Normal." If I wasn't getting power to something that would of been the first thing I scanned.

[Cras]

Scott,First of all, trackIR is a wonderful piece of tool that I never fly without for the last 3-4 years, secondly Maddog 2010 in my opinion has a very nice overhead panel and I frankly don't quite understand the earlier comments, thirdly, Bryan at FS2Crew will use his magic wand to raise PMDG 737NG to an even higher level as he did for Maddog 2010! And my incoherent rambling all comes together in this video :D

Mind you, I didn't use the Pro clip on the TrackIR which would have gotten ridden of all the erratic head movement and it was just my second or third attempt at using FS2Crew... But I think it does prove the great advantage TrackIR gives you!

The overhead panel in the VC of the Maddog just doesnt seem right to me. The big APU and EXT PWR lights, the switches, they just dont look good to me, nor like a real MD80 panel (and yes I have been in a MD80 pit, one of AALs). I tend to use the 2D Popup for overhead panel work, but I do enjoy flying the Maddog.As far as FS2Crew, that is an addon I just cant fly without. I got my first version for the Level D 767, got the PMDG 747 as a gift, and I have bought the Voice versions for the Maddog, the JS41, and the Level D, and it is just fantastic. I cannot wait to see what Mr York has for us in the 737 NGX.Thanks for the video by the way, Track IR does look great.

[Murawski]

I'm not sure how often it happens either, but I do know that a friend of mine had his GPWS fail on a 744 flight yesterday and apparently it could have been fixed if they pushed the CB. They didnt tho, they just landed without the GPWS instead of trying to find the error.

My guess would be that they knew it was the CB, but didnt want to take the chance of there really being something wrong, and resetting it. That could of cause a fire/bigger problem... But what do I know, im only licensed to fly small little single engine planes...

[michal]

and apparently it could have been fixed if they pushed the CB. They didnt tho,

Well, it could have been fixed but the did not do that. Does it make sense? Not exactly. What you left out that they were following SOP that forbid to touch many CBs because there is far greater chance of causing more damage than fixing anything.There was bad crash recently that took 2 lives when pilot attempted to bring to life a radar whose CB popped out. He simply tried to reset it.

Engines that melt if you over stress them.

Sorry, it sounds like a 'gamy' thing. This really is not part of professional simulators since it is impossible to simulate wear and tear and mechanical breakdowns with any degree of accuracy.