All, I have just completed the first tutorilal flight with the 737-800. As a first time user of any PMDG products I have to say bravo!! I have FS Commander with up to date navigraph data. I created a flight from KDEN-KLAS and loaded it into the FMC as a CO route. following the steps from the tutorial I was able to set most it up but of course there is a big difference in the EU flight and I cannot get v-speeds probably because I have something wrong. The tutorial mentions TOPCAT and I am willing to buy this as well if it will help me understand the set up better. I really want to get the most out of this gorgeous 737. Is there a simplified check list that will help me set it up correctly?Thanks

If your vspeeds aren't coming up make sure during the preflight setup in the cdu you're selecting the takeoff flap setting, confirming the speeds & pressing exec.Topcat is good for fuel planning, but you can also use the cdu for that

Edited January 29, 201214 yr by MrKen

Thanks Ken, I did have flaps in and experimented with different settings with no luck.

Check that you have departure runway set

also make sure you set your alt setting as well as i found out i forgot to set my alt and was wondering why there wernt and v speeds set in the fmc

Or simply check out my 'short checklist' which only contains the things you really HAVE to do: if you follow those steps, it should work.737NGX 'short' checklist (from C&Dd to C&D) version 3When you are going through the official tutorial it is very easy to miss a step, specially when you are new to all this, and missing one step can mean the difference between succes and failure. My checklist contains the mandatory steps to go from cold and dark to flight and back to cold and dark again.

Edited January 30, 201214 yr by J van E

If you'r not able to get V-speeds following the tutorial, you don't follow the tutorial.Bert Van Bulck

Required info:GW (init ref page 1 compiled and executed)Flaps setting for take offDeparture airport and runway.All other data are unnecessary for Vspeeds.Vspeeds can be manually set using the relative knob on the main panel, also the GW can be entered in this way, so the FMC can be totally disregarded.

Thanks to all that replied and the checklist looks like it is very helpful. I am going to Boeing in May for a symposium maybe I can score some 737 docs while I'm there.

Utopia in the AVsim library does a good job of 737 variants derates as well as topcat only covers part so far.

there is no TOPCAT support since several month now unfortunately.The developer was active in his forum the last time on october. <_<As TOPCAT supports several 737 from different developers (even old PMDG ones), you get the numbers nearly, but they do not match 100%.And you can't send them to the FMC directly.All in all you can save your money and look out for some of the EXCEL-sheets around on AVSIM instead of buying TOPCAT.

Good to know, I will save my $$. I guess it is like anything else worthwhile in doing... practice. Never been killed flying a sim.