Some General Questions & a Question regarding the Tutorial

[MerlinCH65 0]

Andrea - is the STAB OUT OF TRIM light one of the three warning lights just below the EFIS? Because there it actually flashes (sometimes yellow, sometimes red)...Thx!Michel Bühler

[MerlinCH65 0]

Hi AgainJust did the flight again. Take of and A/P engagement work well - got the hang on that :-)After the Leg "DET" the MCP limitation of 5000 has to be increased to 6000 and the ALT INTV Button must be pressed. Now the plane starts to climb (quite strong ascend as said in the tutorial). I keep the AP support for a couple of seconds, then I get the yellow FMC P/RST Button below the EFIS. No Error on the Upper Panel so far. In the FMC I go into the PROG page and click on page 2 (i think) where I can see an Error "XTK Error". Googled that - did not found anything.I am going to try one thing though: I will do the climb from 5000 to 6000 NOT by VNAV (will disengage that one) - I will do it "manually with dialing in the desired climb rate and will level the plane again at 6000 and then will engage VNAV again. Let's see what happens. Will report soon.Michel BühlerP.S.: I installed the SP1 (yes, beat me for not having done that before...) and I realize that some instruments have changed. But hey, that's probably the way it has to be (e.g. middle panel the second artificial horizon-thingie is now different...)

[MerlinCH65 0]

Edit/Addendum:This time, the AP engagement after Take Off went bad (argh). Is it possible that PMDG does not like it if I prepare a flight until I am ready to take off & then reload that status again and again just to practice take-off and AP operation? It's strange that I sometimes can engage AP well and all is OK until the **** ALT-Change after DET and sometimes I completely fail to engage?? For example last try I was ready to take off, everything was Set & OK on MCP etc. I start to accellerate and about 45 N I engage TO/GA with ctrl+shift+G and IMMEDIATELY my VNAV and LNAV buttons extinguish on the MCP and I can't get them to work again?God I really want to learn that but the behaviour is so random I just don't get that.Can it be a System-Issue of my PC? I have a 32-Bit Win 7 with 4GB of RAM and run FSX with PMDG 738 at around 20/22 FPS during this flight - seems not to bad, no? Is it possible that my PC doesn't catch up with what needs to be "calculated" in the background? Is it the moonphase LOL?Sorry - don't want to sound bitter but I'm passing around 24 hours in total and have not even done successfuly the first tut flight.Michel Bühler

[MerlinCH65 0]

OK - here is the result of the next test:This time I took of, AP set and all is OK. After Leg DET I manually disengage VNAV, select 6000 on the MCP and manually let the plane climb by setting 600 climb rate. Plane climbs steadly, rest of AP (LNAV and A/T is still on and OK).Now I pass the next Waypoint and now I am OK to climb to FL 210 (or similar). I engage again VNAV to let the AP control the ascend. Some seconds everything is OK, then the plane starts to climb faster and accellerates. Then VNAV kicks out and here are the messages:On FMA I get a ALT ACQ Message and I get the amber warning light below the EFIS (the most left one AP P/RST) and I dive.Any idea?Michel Bühler

[davierosoft 13]

Ok, why don't you try to put FL210 directly before take off? FMC already knows restrictions and will pass tem without problems, what is illustrated in the tutorial is like a second level of "security" to not pass the restrictions.What about A/T?I think it is strange that the plane starts to dive after the AP disconnection, it appears to be a controller problem.Strange is also the ALT ACQ that appears when approaching the selected FL.I continue to think that some screenshots could help us.To post screenshots use free online hosting services or attach directly using the forum instruments.To make a screenshot tere are a lot of ways, the one wich not requires the download of a program is to push the PRINT SCREEN button on the keyboard then use the paste function in a program like microsoft paint (windows default program) Save it as JPG and upload.XTK is the cross track error (shown in progress page 3) the data in this page shows wind data and vertical and lateral track deviation. Is not related to the autopilot.

[MerlinCH65 0]

Hi AndreaIt's a bit late now here in Switzerland :-) but I will give Screenshots or other info. Right now I did the following: there is another Tutorial flight from Tom Risager from KIAH to KLAX that starts Cold & Dark. I will do this and will let you know what happened. I will also try your suggestion of directly punching in FL 210 in MCP. I just need to go to sleep now hehehe...Thanks for standing by !Michel Bühler

[davierosoft 13]

Same here... in Italy ;) Have a good night!

[RYR738 9]

Taking everything I have read into account, I really think that you should try the tutorial flight without any controller/joystick.Just use the arrow keys to lift the nose into the air at Vr and engage the autopilot as soon as you can.It would also be a good idea for now to not bother with the MCP altitude restrictions and just let the plane climb and descend.Set 25,000 ft before you takeoff and VNAV will automatically obey all the restrictions during the climb.I think your joystick is one of the major issues here.I hope things go well.Fred.

[brucek 38]

Hi Michel,I haven't had a chance to look any further at your issue, my wife was taken into emergency surgery today (all is now well with her), so haven't been looking at FSX stuff.Thanks, Bruce.

[MerlinCH65 0]

Hi FredIf all else fails I will do this & let you know!Hi BruceSure! Wishing you wife all the best and take care! Passengers can wait :-)!!Michel Bühler

[janpitor 2]

I have an idea. Maybe it is a weather problem, not autopilot problem. Try to turn off turbulence in FSX.

[MerlinCH65 0]

Hi JanpitorI already have disabled this feature in FSX as recommended by PMDG in the manual - but hey - thanks! It could have been that. Actually, I'm flying with "fair weather" and I don't have ASE on - I plan to turn on the fancy stuff later as soon as I have a remote idea what I'm doing on that left seat

[scandinavian13 5,192]

[...]you always take off with headwind !

Not always. If at all possible, yes.

[MerlinCH65 0]

Hi GuysHere we go with some more details on my last tests regarding my AP issue. I am more and more convinced that the AP goes out of service due to a trimming issue. I did the tut flight this time in two different ways. The setup of the plane until take off is "by the book/tutorial". The difference between the two tests is (thx RYR738 for your suggestion!) that during the second test I set the ALT of the MCP to 250 (the max height of that flight - and not the 5000 of the ALT limitation that is given for the first couple of legs.No matter how I fly - by the tutorial or by the RYR738-method, I always get the same issue:After switching to AP A and passing the first couple of legs I approach leg "DET". DET is the last leg where I am limited to 5000. The next leg will be FL060...Shortly after passing DET the plane starts to climb. The problem is that it climbs quite steep. For a couple of seconds the AP is still working. Then I get out of trim warnings (yellow, sometimes amber warnings - the three AP-Lights below the EFIS Panel just in front of the captain. In the same moment my joystick rocks back very hard (wants to initiate climb) and AP disconnects. I will have to check again next time the actual speed of the plane, but as at this time the plane is at 250 KN and the loss in control happens a couple of seconds within the steep climb lets me think that it might not only by lack of speed (stall).  If I take over manually control  of the plane and stabilize the flight (bring back on AP course and trim) I will most of the time NOT be able to engage LNAV/VNAV again. I would have to fly manually to EHAM.The only way to actually continue after DET is to initiate a "manual" climb by V/S at around 700 - this way the climb is not that steep.I think they key question here is: Why am I loosing the AP in a tutorial flight where I do everything OK (MFD Indicators are OK, Speed is OK etc)As a side note: I did another tutorial flight from Tom Risager where he lets you start cold & dark and fly from KIAH to KLAX. The interesting thing here is that during this flight I do not loose control of the AP, even then when there is a climb very similar to the tutorial flight of PMDG. During KIAH - KLAX I do very well... That leads me to believe that there is something with the AP I do not yet understand.Is anybody out there (PMDG-Guys hello :-) who have a clue what that could be? I killed roughly 5850 people during my tests, I'm starting to sleep bad I could not take screenies last time (there are some on the first page that might help - will try to do so during another test - but actually I'm a bit fed up with Southengland after so many test flights.I attach some screenies that are real small but i have to due to size limitation - just use zoom to see some details (hopefully)... Good nite lads! And thanks for your ever so great patience with the rookie!Michel Bühler

[davierosoft 13]

For a couple of seconds the AP is still working. Then I get out of trim warnings (yellow, sometimes amber warnings - the three AP-Lights below the EFIS Panel just in front of the captain. In the same moment my joystick rocks back very hard (wants to initiate climb) and AP disconnects. I will have to check again next time the actual speed of the plane, but as at this time the plane is at 250 KN and the loss in control happens a couple of seconds within the steep climb lets me think that it might not only by lack of speed (stall).  If I take over manually control  of the plane and stabilize the flight (bring back on AP course and trim) I will most of the time NOT be able to engage LNAV/VNAV again. I would have to fly manually to EHAM.

The part narrowed is your AP failure problem, the force feedback breaks your autopilot.Try this solution and see what happen:Use your hand to mantain the joystick during the SID and until the aircraft is climbing normally.There is something strange as the joystick must not do this, but, in this moment we will troubleshoot only the failure.Fly again and see what happen. Also, try to disengage force feedback to check if it is responsable of that.Are you using FSFORCE software?I have microsoft sidewinder 2 and I had a problem of AP failure due to wrong FS force settings wich vibrated too much during landing gear extension.