OMG. Where are all those knobs and button when I need them most?

[DAD 353]

had my worst flight ever. all started with nice weather at coffs harbour YSCH. programmed everything nicely for my trip to YBCS. All went well when during the climb at approx. FL120 suddenly the copilot PFD quit working. Just said MAP (how funny! possibly a remindfer) in the middle. Then I a horn went off. checking for sign of malfuntion I just saw 1 red light on the overhead: the EQUIP light was on. nothing else. but no enough. checking the FMC failure section in an attempt to cheat I saw that the passenger oxygen masks were deployed. Tried to service them while sinking at a rate of 4000ft and 300 kts overspead but the masks deployed right away again. same time the first real warning popped up: FLT CONT. aha. finally something to work with. latest now I realized that elevator and rudder hardly worked. they only allowed minimal input and I had to use manual trim to slow down the descent and try to level off. only A/T still worked. anyway, when sort of level at maybe 8000ft I pulled the QRH and skimmed them for FLT CONT. amazingly I found nothing in the index. had to use the search function to look for it to find the LOW PRESSURE warning. Which however was not on in my case. Anyway, long story short. Flaps worked but gear did not, tried to fly to the next available apt YVED but I could not maintain a proper sinkrate for a belly landing and crashed. findings:1. what a great simulation indeed. I am flying heavy irons since PMDG's first NG + 747 + MD11 + (well, less heavy) J41.But I never. I repeat NEVER ran into a situation like this that I could not recover from a failure due to the lack of proper counter measures. Sad for the plane and passenger but actually great for me. 2. But what I also realized is that I am missing - for the first time - a cockpit layout telling me where which knob and button is. or did I miss this in the documentation? it is nice to have hundreds of pages of documentation but they have little to no pictures. don't laugh at me now. yes, pictures. as for dummies. plus why does the QRH not list a FLT CONT in its index? luckily I could use the search function but I doubt a printed manual has this. so I came up with section 9.7 about

FLT CONTROL switch(affected side). . . . . . Confirm. . . . . .STBY RUD

but I doubt that was the right thing as it refers to the LOW PRESSURE warning I did not get . Besides, I was not able to locate said switch anyway. Which refers back to 1, above: what a great simulation as I never had to dig so deep into any documentation to keep flying.

alright. time for a restart I guess. second service. will try the flight again. Thanks, PMDG, for this experience which showed me that all my possibly hundreds of landings with your other aircraft at challenging places like LOWI or VHHX were just kindergarten compared to this NGX.

[derianc 0]

Wow... O_O I'm very impressed by this. Didn't know they took it this far! xD

[dskviator 4]

I had the same situation on a cross country flight. Forgot to set cabin altitude and the pass oxyn mask went off...but it also started banking wildly as I was descending and searching through the QRH to see what needed to be done, so had to hand fly to land, with only A/T functioning, boy she doesn't wanna go down. But she handled so nice, it was brilliant. The only annoying thing was I couldn't shut the damn horn off, couldn't find the cheat escape in the FMC either ...lol...you bet I don't forget the cabin alt anymore. one other thing I noted was, if you pull the Gear up and return the gear lever to the center before the gear came all the way up, guess what's gonna happen. Since there was no warning on the screen I went scurrying, it took me a good 5 mts to realize that was the gear horn going off. Pulled the lever up again, waited for full stow and then returned it to center. That final wind sound as the gear door comes to a close is also wicked detail...Very nicely done PMDG!!

[DAD 353]

lol...you bet I don't forget the cabin alt anymore.

so this was all about cabine altitude. alright then. mine was set to auto and I thought I am done then. I am just trying that flight again, ysch to ybcs. read this and quickly adjusted cab alt to 34000 as that is my FL. hope that helps.

[dskviator 4]

I sure hope so, because I never got it in any other flight, every one of which I set the cabin altitude. Although, I am too casual a simmer to have gone through the full manual to know what it actually does, but that was my understanding !!

[Jigsaw 8]

I also had a failure today. Both hydraulic pumps overheated, but I could finish the flight without any subsequent problems.

[henkie 0]

plus why does the QRH not list a FLT CONT in its index?

The function of the annunciator panel is to draw your attention to the overheadpanel. When FLT CONT lights up you know there is something odd with the flight control section on the overhead. So you have to look in that section to see what light is on. Every light has a label, in your case LOW PRESS. Now you can look up in the QRH for LOW PRESS and you will find the procedure to handle that abnormality.

[DAD 353]

When FLT CONT lights up you know there is something odd with the flight control section on the overhead. So you have to look in that section to see what light is on. Every light has a label, in your case LOW PRESS.

LOW PRESSURE was not on. Just EQUIP. LOW PRESSURE just came up when I searched the QRH for FLT CONT instead. Which reminds me that I did not look up EQUIP in the QRH which is - as I realize only now - in the index. Must have been the workload. See page 49 of the QRH: the equipment door was not closed. hence the oxygen masks. all makes sense. impressive! But then I still wonder why the hydraulcis failed or whatever caused the lack of control surface and the landing gear failure... all because of a defective door? did I say impressive already?

[DAD 353]

I am just trying that flight again, ysch to ybcs.

unfortunately now the flight ended again but this time through a red cross OOM error. Too sad, first time ever. Tried the flight again for a 3td time and again got the OOM. never saw that with my system before. with neither application let alone another other aircraft. will try again asap. only thing I adjusted was affinity mask in fsx.cfgfrom 5 to 14. Could that really trigger the OOM?