Hi, I am using the PMDG MD-11 in FSX Deluxe SP1 w/ Win. 7, and it is a fantastic aircraft! It works normally (most of the time). But there are two problems.....1. Engine won't always startIf i pull the starter plug, the light will come on and on the EICAS you will get an N2 reading and you will hear the starter engage, but the N2 reading will stay at 0, and will not move. Now this only happens ocassionally, mostly when i start from a cold and dark setup. However, this even happens when i use other panel states such as 'long turn'. What is wrong? Not that it is something that will make me remove this fantastic bird, but it is somewhat annoying.2. The airplane goes out of control midflight This only seems to happen when I use time acceleration....For example, one time I was flying KMEM-KLAX and it was flying well without any problems for about 2 hours, (and I had used time acceleration earlier) then I felt hungry and decided to eat lunch. So i set the aircraft to normal time speed and then decided to set the speed to 1/2 speed to make sure that by the time i finished lunch it would still be at the correct altitude. Well, after i finished my lunch, i checked on the airplane only to find that it was spinning out of control, going from 60 deg. nose up to 60 deg. nose down in about 2 seconds and was banking left erratically. It then proceeded to give me flap speed errors (my flaps were not deployed), and would not go back to normal flight no matter what I did. So i disconnected the A/P and tried to regain control, but my inputs did not cause the aircraft to budge from its course. I checked the configuration page and the flight controls stopped working.......This has never happened to me before. I have experienced some fatal errors when using time acceleration as well, so is this problem caused by time acceleration?-Oh and on the EICAS there was a CG OUT OF RANGE, but it had been showing after I took off, so I don't believe this is the problem.This is for sure not caused by my PC either because my system specs are what PMDG has listed as 'recommended specs'~Core i3, 4 gb RAM....etc.Or is this because of Windows 7 as I understand that FSX Deluxe and WIn. 7 don't get along very well....I would really hate to have to remove this fantastic bird...I am new here, so sorry if this has been answered before, but I tried and couldn't find an answer here.Thanks in advance! ~Carl

Hi, I am using the PMDG MD-11 in FSX Deluxe SP1 w/ Win. 7, and it is a fantastic aircraft! It works normally (most of the time). But there are two problems.....1. Engine won't always startIf i pull the starter plug, the light will come on and on the EICAS you will get an N2 reading and you will hear the starter engage, but the N2 reading will stay at 0, and will not move. Now this only happens ocassionally, mostly when i start from a cold and dark setup. However, this even happens when i use other panel states such as 'long turn'. What is wrong? Not that it is something that will make me remove this fantastic bird, but it is somewhat annoying.2. The airplane goes out of control midflight This only seems to happen when I use time acceleration....For example, one time I was flying KMEM-KLAX and it was flying well without any problems for about 2 hours, (and I had used time acceleration earlier) then I felt hungry and decided to eat lunch. So i set the aircraft to normal time speed and then decided to set the speed to 1/2 speed to make sure that by the time i finished lunch it would still be at the correct altitude. Well, after i finished my lunch, i checked on the airplane only to find that it was spinning out of control, going from 60 deg. nose up to 60 deg. nose down in about 2 seconds and was banking left erratically. It then proceeded to give me flap speed errors (my flaps were not deployed), and would not go back to normal flight no matter what I did. So i disconnected the A/P and tried to regain control, but my inputs did not cause the aircraft to budge from its course. I checked the configuration page and the flight controls stopped working.......This has never happened to me before. I have experienced some fatal errors when using time acceleration as well, so is this problem caused by time acceleration?-Oh and on the EICAS there was a CG OUT OF RANGE, but it had been showing after I took off, so I don't believe this is the problem.This is for sure not caused by my PC either because my system specs are what PMDG has listed as 'recommended specs'~Core i3, 4 gb RAM....etc.Or is this because of Windows 7 as I understand that FSX Deluxe and WIn. 7 don't get along very well....I would really hate to have to remove this fantastic bird...I am new here, so sorry if this has been answered before, but I tried and couldn't find an answer here.Thanks in advance! ~Carl

Carl,The MD-11 is one of the best in my opinion.With the engine problem, make sure you have the APU on and providing air if pushback is required. If pushback is not required, I think you can use external air. Make sure you arm the ignition on the overhead panel first.With the spinning out of control, you need to make sure that the aircraft is loaded correctly. The CG should not be displayed. This could be the problem to the attitude situation.Let me know if that solves the problems.

Thanks for the quick reply!As for the engine problem, i have checked that the APU is on, however I am completely new to this, so I have tried some 'Boeing' methods. I make sure that the APU is on 9 (the green ON light is present), and I am quite sure that it is on because the APU bleed air is on. Isolation valves are also on( Is there an APU isolation valve, or is that a Boeing thing?) Pack #2 does go on as well, so the APU is on I believe and ignition A is armed indeed (the packs go off)As for the out of control problem, I am not sure how to fix the CG error as i used the 'use actual (value)' option on the FMC fuel init. page. Or are these so called actual values false?Thank you for your help...~Carl

Thanks for the quick reply!As for the engine problem, i have checked that the APU is on, however I am completely new to this, so I have tried some 'Boeing' methods. I make sure that the APU is on 9 (the green ON light is present), and I am quite sure that it is on because the APU bleed air is on. Isolation valves are also on( Is there an APU isolation valve, or is that a Boeing thing?) Pack #2 does go on as well, so the APU is on I believe and ignition A is armed indeed (the packs go off)As for the out of control problem, I am not sure how to fix the CG error as i used the 'use actual (value)' option on the FMC fuel init. page. Or are these so called actual values false?Thank you for your help...~Carl

I think the APU valve is more of a bleed valve and not an isolation valve. Does the N2 stay at 0 or does it take awhile for the N2 to increase? That would be helpful to help diagnose the problem.For the CG problem, you should load (passenger/cargo/fuel-wise) the aircraft from the load manager that came with the MD-11. That will have your CG values needed to fill in the FMC FUEL INIT page.

HI triholer,So i can't help you much on the engine start problem, that's something i haven't experienced with my MD11. So long as you have the APU running and the ignition on A or B circuit, and make sure the starter and fuel switches are on, on the center pedestal, you should get an engine start ok. I have sometimes found the starter switches hidden under the throttle levers, which can be awkward.Your other problem, i've had something almost similar happen when i used time acceleration in FSX, where after altering the time 7 or 8 times through the options along the top of the screen, the sim crashed. I've read here thats a fault with FSX!! I guess it's possible you could confuse the navigation by altering the time speed as it won't be able to follow your set route accurately.Hope this is some help, but persevere with one of the most amazing aircraft in FSX. (No i don't work for PMDG either, lol)Regards.

Hi, I am using the PMDG MD-11 in FSX Deluxe SP1 w/ Win. 7, and it is a fantastic aircraft! It works normally (most of the time). But there are two problems.....1. Engine won't always startIf i pull the starter plug, the light will come on and on the EICAS you will get an N2 reading and you will hear the starter engage, but the N2 reading will stay at 0, and will not move. Now this only happens ocassionally, mostly when i start from a cold and dark setup. However, this even happens when i use other panel states such as 'long turn'. What is wrong? Not that it is something that will make me remove this fantastic bird, but it is somewhat annoying.2. The airplane goes out of control midflight This only seems to happen when I use time acceleration....For example, one time I was flying KMEM-KLAX and it was flying well without any problems for about 2 hours, (and I had used time acceleration earlier) then I felt hungry and decided to eat lunch. So i set the aircraft to normal time speed and then decided to set the speed to 1/2 speed to make sure that by the time i finished lunch it would still be at the correct altitude. Well, after i finished my lunch, i checked on the airplane only to find that it was spinning out of control, going from 60 deg. nose up to 60 deg. nose down in about 2 seconds and was banking left erratically. It then proceeded to give me flap speed errors (my flaps were not deployed), and would not go back to normal flight no matter what I did. So i disconnected the A/P and tried to regain control, but my inputs did not cause the aircraft to budge from its course. I checked the configuration page and the flight controls stopped working.......This has never happened to me before. I have experienced some fatal errors when using time acceleration as well, so is this problem caused by time acceleration?-Oh and on the EICAS there was a CG OUT OF RANGE, but it had been showing after I took off, so I don't believe this is the problem.This is for sure not caused by my PC either because my system specs are what PMDG has listed as 'recommended specs'~Core i3, 4 gb RAM....etc.Or is this because of Windows 7 as I understand that FSX Deluxe and WIn. 7 don't get along very well....I would really hate to have to remove this fantastic bird...I am new here, so sorry if this has been answered before, but I tried and couldn't find an answer here.Thanks in advance! ~Carl

Thank you all!And yes, the N2 needle is not moving at all. I tested it to see if it was just slower than usual, but after 5 minutes, you hear the starter reigniting constantly and the N2 needle remains at zero. I always manually start the aircraft (no CTRl+E). And yes, I do make sure that IGN A is on. Should I try IGN B? Even when i tried CTRL+E, it still failed to start. But this only happens every 1/7 times I fly this airplane.Most likely it is time acceleration that is causing this then. But I am still wondering why I was not able to regain control of the aircraft manually? Well, thank you all for your replies! Gotta love this forum!~Carl

Thank you all!And yes, the N2 needle is not moving at all. I tested it to see if it was just slower than usual, but after 5 minutes, you hear the starter reigniting constantly and the N2 needle remains at zero. I always manually start the aircraft (no CTRl+E). And yes, I do make sure that IGN A is on. Should I try IGN B? Even when i tried CTRL+E, it still failed to start. But this only happens every 1/7 times I fly this airplane.Most likely it is time acceleration that is causing this then. But I am still wondering why I was not able to regain control of the aircraft manually? Well, thank you all for your replies! Gotta love this forum!~Carl

You'll see that most of the people on this forum are nice and helpful.According to the QRH (either printed manual or PDF), turn the FUEL Switch OFF. If the starter is disengaged, allow the engine to shut down and verify IGN-A or IGN-B is selected then pull the ENG start switch. If the starter is engaged, motor the engine for 30 seconds by pushing the ENG START switch. For engines 1 or 3, attempt another start. If that doesn't work I don't think the engine will start, For engine 2, select the other ignition and attempt another start. If that doesn't work, I don't think the engine will start. Other than that I don't know what's going on with your engines... :unsure:For the CG, I would still make sure that the numbers are correct. But with time acceleration, it does crazy things to the aircraft. I had a bit of trouble using it at x8 and I did have attitude problems but nothing like yours. Must have been a crazy ride for the passengers.

haha!! Thanks, I'll try that out.~Carl

very old topic but i found this with the search because i also had the problem with the engines not spooling up (or so it seemed).

 

i found what the problem is (at least in my case). it is actually a display problem in the VC. i just started flying the MD-11 again after a long break (blame the NGX) and noticed that when starting in VC, even with the engines running, engine indications are all zero. switching to 2D panel and back fixes that. now loading a panel state with the engines shut down that does not look wrong at all. but when you start the engines the readings stay there. switching to 2D view you will see that the engines actually are starting.

 

so it is just a problem with the engine displays, not the aircraft itself. from now on i will just switch back and forth once between 2D and VC when getting into the flight deck and the problem is gone.

 

thought i'd share in case someone else has the same issue looking for a solution.