Greetings all, I just finally completed my first tutorial flight (damn real life work issues.....lol). A few questions: I had set it up to the point where everything was ready to go (ie: throttle and go). I had to pause because the boss, aka the wife, called me for something. When I returned approx 10-15 min later, the engines seemed to have stopped, and the GEN lights were illuminated on the overhead. I had to restart both engines. What would have caused this? Did it have anythng to do with leaving the engine start knob in the "CONT" position for all that time? On the FMC, during preflight, how do you know if everything has been correctly entered? I don't recall seeing a "preflight complete" msg, or anything like that. What is that continuous chime I keep hearing during the departure, and again during the approach/landing? ps.....I was getting 30 fps during cruise (less than that if my mouse was on the screen). I didnt check the numbers at the airports, but everything seemed smooth enough. ********************************************** I also attempted my 1st "real" flight, KLAS-KLAX. For some reason, the autopilot wouldnt kick in after I was airborn. I had RNAV/VNAV on, along with both FS's and the autothrottle. No idea what had happened there.

Ron, You had the engines quit while the sim was paused? That's odd. One of the tests I did was to leave the sim paused for several hours...never had any problems. There's no "preflight complete" message. With practice, you'll know if you've missed anything. If your AP isn't coming on, you may have a spurious control input coming from your controller. Try recalibrating your controller and see if that solves the problem.

What is that continuous chime I keep hearing during the departure, and again during the approach/landing?

oooops....I just figured this one out. It was the EZDOK program. D'OH!!