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MrKen

IAS vs Mach question

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Quick question about the 747-400 for FSX.Sometimes when I start up a flight (always cold & dark), I'll go through the startup procedure, set up the FMC, get the IRS aligned, do the pushback & start up the engines. I know that's not everything that's involved, it's just to give an idea where I'm at. I follow the startup in AOA's videos for the PMDG 747 each time because I'm new enough to forget whole sections if I'm not careful.I generally set my speed (VREF+10), flaps & trim en route to the runway to save a little time and here's my problem.99% of the time my speed for the AP is displayed in KTs & I never change it because I haven't had a reason to.The other 1% it is displayed in Mach and I can't change it. Hopefully I'm doing what I'm supposed to do by clicking the select button above & left of the knob, but that doesn't work, it still displays Mach.Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere?I'm running FSX Deluxe on Win7x64. Other software running are FS Commander 8.6 & REX 2.0.The 747 is a recent download (month or 2) so it has the current updates already (2.10.0040)

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Edit - Sorry misread your post, I've never come across thatRegards


Rob Prest

 

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Hi Ken, There is the button on the FCP to switch back and forth. Are you loading a saved flight perhaps? If so my guess is you may have hit it by accident prior to saving the flight. I doubt there is a key tied to it which would be my next guess. It sounds strange and I have a ton of weird little issues like this every now and then but most of the time just did as I mentioned and either missed something or hit it before.For example, I run my sim at 5040x1050 and always in VC. I load up and resize all the panels, load cold and dark, set load and fuel etc... This takes me a good 5-10 minutes to get everything how I want it, then I save the flight so everything is perfect. Perfect though is hard to get and often find something that I either hit by accident, forgot to set (like the fuel option in the FMC to FMS or Auto) or see like your seeing.If it's not a saved flight I'm not sure since although I have seen it, I rarely do enough to have cared much.


i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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I don't use saved flights unless it's midway through a long flight & I'm going to be gone from the house for a few days. When that happens I save the flight in FSX & save the current panel state, but that hasn't happened in a month or so.Generally I just select the plane & set up a basic flight plan in FSX to put it at the gate I want, load the 400x cold & dark panel state that came with the plane & then load a plan into the FMC that I set up using FS Commander when I get to that point. I have the same nav data installed in FSC and the plane, downloaded within seconds of each other.It's weird because it doesn't always happen. I noticed it a couple of times when I first started using the 747, but naturally assumed I'd done something wrong, restarted the session & it'd be fine.ETA: Right after posting this I found a solution. I didn't mention I use the 2D cockpit & sometimes forget than fsx even has virtual cockpits because I use them so rarely...Well you jogged my memory so I tried changing to vc & the button works now, and continues to work in 2D after I hit it once in the virtual.

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Right after posting this I found a solution. I didn't mention I use the 2D cockpit & sometimes forget than fsx even has virtual cockpits because I use them so rarely...Well you jogged my memory so I tried changing to vc & the button works now, and continues to work in 2D after I hit it once in the virtual.
Glad I helped jog your memory, mine can barely walk lately it seems.Must have been that first sentence about "There is the button on the FCP to switch back and forth".Anywho, glad you found the solution.

i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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Glad I helped jog your memory, mine can barely walk lately it seems.Must have been that first sentence about "There is the button on the FCP to switch back and forth".Anywho, glad you found the solution.
Actually it was the 'always in VC' part. It reminded me that in other planes I'd used with custom panels that some buttons/switches seemed to only work in certain cockpit views. At any rate, now I've got a tolerable workaround for when this happens, so thanks for the help.On a side note, Whenever I'm flying I have a yellow "TCAS OFF" message along the left side of my inboard crt. Is that normal?This is mainly curiosity as everything else seems to work fine, so I haven't had a need to really look into it.

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On a side note, Whenever I'm flying I have a yellow "TCAS OFF" message along the left side of my inboard crt. Is that normal?This is mainly curiosity as everything else seems to work fine, so I haven't had a need to really look into it.It's normal if you have TCAS switched off, part of your preflight is to set it to TA or TA/RA


Rob Prest

 

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Just a stupid question Ken, but do you pilot from the left seat as well? Or do you pilot from the right?


i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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On a side note, Whenever I'm flying I have a yellow "TCAS OFF" message along the left side of my inboard crt. Is that normal?This is mainly curiosity as everything else seems to work fine, so I haven't had a need to really look into it.It's normal if you have TCAS switched off, part of your preflight is to set it to TA or TA/RA
You should leave your Xpndr off/standby until you enter the runway. However, some big airports use Xpndrs to get tabs on taxiing aircraft, so you will then turn it on to TA/RA once you are away from the gate and on a taxiway. (The AP for the airport will tell you if this is the case.)Setting the Xpndr to TA is good for takeoffs and landings in congested airports and it will turn off the voice telling you to descend/climb.

Scott Kalin VATSIM #1125397 - KPSP Palm Springs International Airport
Space Shuttle (SSMS2007) http://www.space-shu....com/index.html
Orbiter 2010P1 http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/
 

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FLEX1978; Yeah, that's right. After the pushback I don't usually go back to the com panel so that explains it. I've been letting fsx set the xponder freq because I don't have a 3rd party atc & tend to forget that step...Turbine777; Always left seatCras; That's good stuff to know. I've been focused mainly on getting the plane up & then back down safely, leaving off the rest until I have a better handle on the basics & can give it more attention. I logged 30-40 hrs in a Cessna, but that was 16 years ago from a small, regional airport (KGGG) so I know nothing now about using proper communication & approaches. Just trying to get where all my attention isn't necessarily focused on the flight before trying to learn the rest. I don't have the time for real training, so fsx has become my crack & pmdg beats the stock 'planes' to hell & back...Thanks all for the great help! You've all been pretty patient with me considering how little I know about it all.

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That is great info there Scott, I thought I had it bookmarked but I don't. Anyway there was a topic a few months ago that had lots of great info gathered and there was some good (quality) discussion on the transponder as well as lights. From memory more and more airports seem to be getting the equipment for ground traffic and changing their rules to transponders on at the gate, but that's as far as I go with my memory until I have it serviced. I think I'm past the manufacturers MTBF :(


i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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That is great info there Scott, I thought I had it bookmarked but I don't. Anyway there was a topic a few months ago that had lots of great info gathered and there was some good (quality) discussion on the transponder as well as lights. From memory more and more airports seem to be getting the equipment for ground traffic and changing their rules to transponders on at the gate, but that's as far as I go with my memory until I have it serviced. I think I'm past the manufacturers MTBF Nail Biting.gif
I have seen it more and more on the APs of the airports I fly into. You will see it printed somewhere, always different as they print it where there is room. It will say "ASDE-X Surveillence System in use. Pilots should operate transponders with Mode C on all twys and rwys."Mode C of course means your transponder is broadcasting avionic information (altitude, baro settings, heading, that sort of thing)As far as lights go, there are some pretty hard rules (flying in the US, but I follow them where I fly in my FSX world, as I am sure real world ops do not differentiate), you put on the Navs when the aircraft is powered by either the Ground Power Unit or the APU.You put on the beacon when you are getting pushed from the gate and you turn it off after you have killed the engines.Stobes are on when you enter the runway. Go off after you leave the runway after landing.Landing lights go on when you start your takeoff roll, , go off after passing 10,000, go on descending under 10,000 feet, go off when you leave the runway after landing.Logo lights go on when you are operating in dusk/night/dawn situations. Usually turn them off/on when passing around 18,000 to 20,000 feet.Wing lights are used for gate operations, (walkarounds loading, that sort of thing) Also on some aircraft they are useful in checking for ice buildup on the airfoil.These lights can have different names on different aircraft. On smaller planes, what we think of as landing lights on like the 737, 747, or 767 are called Recog Lights on smaller planes like private jets or the JS4100.The Taxi light is usually the nose light, but a much less intense bulb than the nose landing light. The MD-80 has two settings on the same switch for the nose light.Smaller private jets also have the ability to pulse the wing landing or recog lights, used as an identifier on approach. I have yet to get a straight answer on the real world use of these lights, have heard they are used so the tower can better see the airplane, have heard they are good and getting birds out of the way, I tend to use them (on the eagle soft C750) as approach lights into smaler "Executive" Airports, and turn them from pulse to ON when I am cleared to land.

Scott Kalin VATSIM #1125397 - KPSP Palm Springs International Airport
Space Shuttle (SSMS2007) http://www.space-shu....com/index.html
Orbiter 2010P1 http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/
 

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