Hi Molly,185kt approach speed sound quite high, that means your aircraft is quite happy if not overweight for landing. I suggest to use a first few times an empty aircraft ie no cargo/ no passengers. The fuel load should be realistic too which is hard to get it right without using any fuel planner tool. Without such a tool I suggest to load the aircraft with no cargo/ no passenger no fuel at all, then enter everything in the FMC, then go back to the PMDG Load tool and start adding fuel load to your aircraft. When you go back FSX it will show in the FMC a message the insufficient fuel, which means that FMC thinks you won't have enough to go to your destination. So go back and forth until that message disappear. Be careful when you leave FSX it will pause your simulation and in FMC you have to try to clear the warning message. If you clear it and it come back means you need more fuel, if it goes away means you have enough. The only downside would be this method doesn't calculate any wind forecast unless you entered that too in your flight plan, so if you would have a very strong headwind on a medium to long flight (few hours) then you could use all the fuel before you reach your destination. On a short trip (1-2 hours flights) it will be ok even with strong winds because FMC has plenty of reserve calculation by default, so if you not planning a go around then it will be fine.This way you will have a light aircraft so your landing speed should be around 150-160kt. Reverse trust also be careful how to use it. If you are using keyboard only you have to press F1 approx 40m above the ground during the flare. After touchdown if you press F2 you will have only idle reverse trust which means you will have some but your engines will have idle settings. to get full reverse trust keep holding down F2. when you reach 60kt ground speed you should press F1 and that's it. Auto-brake config. if you set it min you will have much less brake than in max settings, so you might have to select max on a shorter runway especially if you are heavy to stop in time. Don't forget even max auto-brake won't give you maximum braking power you have to press . and hold it down to have manual braking. So if you see after landing that your aircraft is not decelerating and the end of the runway is coming you have to use manual braking. Don't forget in FSX if you press and hold a button down then press an another the first button which you still holding down won't have any effect. So like in landing you holding the . key down to manual braking the aircraft then press F1 to stop revers trust you have to keep pressing down and holding down the . key again. That's why you should use a yoke/ joystick etc...Hope this helps

Hi KriszBito, welcome to the forums. (You forgot to sign your real name by the way, which is a forum requirement.)I mean absolutely no offence to you - it's great that you're keen to help others - but a whole bunch of what you've suggested there is not "best practice" at all, and would be misleading to a new PMDG MD11 operator trying to learn the correct techniques. I suggest you do a couple of the tutorial flights as well, and do some reading of the manuals. For example, the A/T will retard the thrust levers to idle automatically at the the correct height, provided you leave the A/T engaged. Fuel planning can be done quite easily if you look up the figures in the book and do some basic maths too.The topic of what support software works best with the MD11 has been touched on already, but for my money the most important programs are:TOPCAT - This does all your takeoff and landing calculations including speeds, t/o and landing distances, thrust reductions, and has a reasonable fuel estimation built into it (it's not perfect but it's OK, if anything you'll end up with more fuel than you need, rather than not enough!)Navigraph charts / AIRAC data - There are many avenues to get charts for an airport but lately I've become a real convert to Navigraph, the price is very reasonable and you are assured that the charts and aeronautical data are matched up. The question of which STAR or SID to select can be tricky, personally I do most of my flying in Europe, so I use vatroute.net to pick out the desired route. In almost all cases the first and last waypoints in the route are the end of the SID and start of the STAR respectively, so you look for the SID/STAR with a name that matches the waypoint at each 'end' of the route. Another good source is VATAware. Do a "city pair" search on VATAware and you'll find a suitable route for most flights.Lastly, Angle of Attack's MD11 training is fantastic for those looking to get the most out of their MD11, I highly recommend it, as would a number of other seasoned PMDG MD11 users here.

Hi KriszBito, welcome to the forums. (You forgot to sign your real name by the way, which is a forum requirement.)I mean absolutely no offence to you - it's great that you're keen to help others - but a whole bunch of what you've suggested there is not "best practice" at all, and would be misleading to a new PMDG MD11 operator trying to learn the correct techniques. I suggest you do a couple of the tutorial flights as well, and do some reading of the manuals. For example, the A/T will retard the thrust levers to idle automatically at the the correct height, provided you leave the A/T engaged. Fuel planning can be done quite easily if you look up the figures in the book and do some basic maths too.The topic of what support software works best with the MD11 has been touched on already, but for my money the most important programs are:TOPCAT - This does all your takeoff and landing calculations including speeds, t/o and landing distances, thrust reductions, and has a reasonable fuel estimation built into it (it's not perfect but it's OK, if anything you'll end up with more fuel than you need, rather than not enough!)Navigraph charts / AIRAC data - There are many avenues to get charts for an airport but lately I've become a real convert to Navigraph, the price is very reasonable and you are assured that the charts and aeronautical data are matched up. The question of which STAR or SID to select can be tricky, personally I do most of my flying in Europe, so I use vatroute.net to pick out the desired route. In almost all cases the first and last waypoints in the route are the end of the SID and start of the STAR respectively, so you look for the SID/STAR with a name that matches the waypoint at each 'end' of the route. Another good source is VATAware. Do a "city pair" search on VATAware and you'll find a suitable route for most flights.Lastly, Angle of Attack's MD11 training is fantastic for those looking to get the most out of their MD11, I highly recommend it, as would a number of other seasoned PMDG MD11 users here.

Hi,No offence at all and I do agree I need more training too. I just tried to suggest some steps the way I've done things, but sorry again if I misled anyone.btw my name is Krisz Bito will sort out my profile too.

Hi Krisz, your sig looks all good now. :( No need to apologise for your input, the great thing about these forums is that - when they aren't overrun with release date questions - they are a treasure trove of information and advice on using your add-on to its very best potential. Spend a bit of time here and I promise you that you'll come away with some very useful information that enhances your simming experience!Everyone will have a slightly different way of doing things of course. Over the last 7 or 8 years I have refined my operating techniques based on things I have picked up from forum discussions and face-to-face time with pilots who have flown the real thing. For example, during the MD11 beta I had the good fortune to meet a retired Swissair MD11 Captain at my aero club bar. I shouted the beers and then spent two full hours picking his brain. I learned a heck of a lot from that session about the energy management peculiarities and "tricks of the trade" of the MD11 and was delighted to find that those behaviours have been very well captured in the PMDG model.Anyway, I'm sorry if my initial contact with you sounded a bit harsh Krisz, welcome to the forums! It's great to have you here. :(

Hi Molleh, I don't know if my experiances with PMDG's MD11 are any help to you. I have been landing the aircraft manually following the ILS most of the time, but also use the AUTOLAND in bad weather. Like you i use the FSX ATC and FSX route planning, it all seems to work ok for me too. The speed of the aircraft during approach is triggered by your flap setting, the aircraft will only slow down when you select the next flap setting. MD 11's land using 35 or 50 degree flap settings. Unlike Boeing aircraft, where you select the speed and then select flaps to suit, on the MD11 you select the flap for the speed you want, takes some getting used to, but that's how it works. You do need to make sure that your speed on the AUTOPILOT panel is set to PROFILE mode, i've found that this is also the best way to get the aircraft to stop at the end of the runway after landing too. If your setting the speed manually i found the aircraft continues down the runway at the set speed instead of stopping. Don't forget the MD11 has an autopilot disconnect on the yoke, this doesn't disconnect the autothrottle, this is located on the left hand side of the left throttle handle as a black button, this is another querk of the MD11. Two disconnect buttons!Your other question concerning the ILS frequencies, i find i take the ILS frequency from the FSX map mode, so i know i have the correct frequency for the runway i want to land at. It may not be as realistic as online ATC and SID and STAR charts but it does seem to work ok. Like you i program the FMC using the NAV RAD button, the ILS frequency is only picked up by the FMC if the two VOR radio settings are set to AUTO ie have no pre-selected frequency showing on the NAV RAD page.Before anyone else here makes any comments on what i've just told you, I'm not an expert on the MD11, but i enjoy flying mine, and just wanted to pass on what works for me. Since receiving an MD11 into my hanger, about a year ago, my B744 hasn't flown much at all. The MD11 really is a most amazing aircraft and works brilliantly. Persevere and enjoy what i think is one of the most fantastic aircraft on FSX to date.Hope this helps, regards. David Phillips.

Woohoo, got my first non-tutorial-guided autoland! Flaps 35 was the answer. Now I just need to work on the airspeed, for some reason autothrust was giving me about 185 knots. The autobrakes, spoilers, and reverse thrust couldn't save me from the end of the runway. Actually I had bound page down/page up for incremental throttle control and little did I know EZCA uses those keys by default for raise/lower eye level. So there I was, trying to crank the reverse thrust while staring eye-level at the rudder pedals :( I'll have to work on that...Thanks. I tried Flightaware's routes but for some reason the MD11's FMS would not recognize waypoints I was punching in.

Just for information.Landing Flaps 35 (or 50) have been indicated in this thread as a condition to obtain Dual or Single Land mode.Although Landing Flaps are a (certified) requirement for Autoland, the setting is NOT checked during the Autoland check, which is a system redundancy check only for the systems involved.So, Molly, there is something else you did correct to perform your first, non tutorial, autoland.Keep on going.Regards,Harry

Mark,You don't have to shout for beer on this one.It's free.Regards,Harry

Mark,You don't have to shout for beer on this one.It's free.Regards,Harry

Thanks Harry, :( and yes, I forgot to mention earlier: You're 100% correct, the flap setting has no bearing on the autoland at all. Whatever the OP did differently was something else.

Thank you everyone for the helpful information! I really appreciate it, and I definitely like the advice that pertains to just getting some flying done with the MD-11 even if it's not with the most totally 100% accurate to real life procedures of SIDs & STARs.Just did a fully successful flight from Memphis to Columbus (Rickenbacker) all by me onesies, with real weather to boot. :( The only strange problem I had was being stuck in the autoland roll out mode after I slowed below 60kts, so after I turned off the runway the plane was fighting me to go back to runway heading, lol! I think it was caused by not bringing the throttles back to idle properly because after a few minutes of figuring out what I did wrong, I hit the cut throttle key again and the autoland turned off.That was so much fun, and surprisingly a real rush trying to make sure I didn't miss anything all while following ATC's vectors and dealing with low visibility. :( Looking forward to more!I hope no one minds if I put this pic here:

Switch the autopilot off during the rollout! :(

Yip, if you don't hit Z to turn off the auto-pilot then once again to turn off the alarm, it will do that.

Actually I did hit Z, in fact I had the ROLLOUT indicator in green surrounded by the white AP OFF box.

You may need to press Z twice. I know that either the CD MD80 or the PMDG MD11 I have to hit Z twice.Rod Storer