So I just recently got PDMG 747. I am not very advanced at flight simulator and I would like to know what you do to get the 747 to follow the IFR you set in the main screen.Thanks Hugh Stull

Edited February 5, 201214 yr by Patriots1

Hugh,The bird is complicated enough and your question so broad in its potetial scope that I have to advise a few hours invested in reading the manuals. You will probably find the answer to your question somewhere in the chapters dealing with the FMC.I can still remember my first attempt at flight with The Queen - it took me around 3 days just to work out how to start the engines!Good luck in your learning. You will find most people on this forum most helpful with your more detailed questions.

Hello Hugh,Welcome to the Sim World. I don't know if you are a real world pilot just coming on the sim scene or simply new to the entire aviation enterprise via the sim environment. If you have some aviation knowledge and specially IFR, then you have some base to start with, if not, you must first understand the aviation procedures first and only after you are able to follow them with a basic aircraft, ONLY then you should think of making the gigantic leap to procedural flying QUEEN style.I am a real wordl pilot, almost IFR licensed and have years spent in the sim environment starting from ProPilot'99 to FSX. After all this experience it took me more than a year to become comfortable with the mighty QUEEN after being no stranger to high performance complex aircraft of all sorts.The technical complexity of the QUEEN requires a lot of studying and deep understanding of how it was designed, why, and how it was envisioned to operate. It is a journey of immensly rewarding discoveries for wich I will forever be grateful to Mr Randazzo and the wonderful team at PMDG.To crack a bit Pandora's box I will just say this: aircraft like the QUEEN has a database of all the waypoints in the world and added by complex naviagtion equipment (inertial systems added by ground and satellite electronic referrences) it knows at all times where it is in relation to the world and how fast and in which way is it changing it's position. So, all you have to do is load a list of waypoints to follow (aka flight plan) in it's brain (aka FMC=flight management computer) and then tell the autopilot to follow the FD (flight director) which reads from the FMC what the airplane should do as computed by the FMC. That's it! On the "main screen" like you say - aka PFD=primary flight display - you can follow the whole show unfold. Pretty cool huh?So, I hope my say has motivated you not to become discouraged by the learning curve ahead of you; it is a path worth follow.The catch: learn the Boeing way, and then the Airbus way will turn you upside down, make you have to forget almost everything and start over again. Again, path worth follow.All the best,Ionut Micu,Romania