Hi, I'm posting in the general forum as I think my questions are general in nature. I'm in the process of making new airfiles and cfg for the Meljet 747-400 with all 3 engine variants to use in FS9 and will be available direct from me for free for anyone who would like them. I've already done most of the work for the PW engines version but for now I need to fine tune the dynamics. I have had good feedback from someone who is testing for me. The last job will be to adjust for the different engines for the various planned versions. Can anyone tell me please what the approximate pitch angle would be in a real 747-400 with a fairly full payload and the maximum permitted fuel for final descent with full flaps at the recommended speed? And what percentage amount of fuel for that payload would be considered the max permitted landing amount? At the moment the cruise pitch angle of the model with full load and fuel is around 3 degrees up. Would this be about right? The only information I have was from being a passenger on a 747SP and I remember that the plane always felt that it was slightly pointing "uphill" in cruise.

Bump! I guess this information is not easily available except probably to real world 747 pilots. At least I could not find anything useful with several searches on Google. Would very much appreciate any clues, ideas etc.

out of my head..pitch between 5-8 dgrsMLW 630,000 lbspitch while in cruise around 2.5-5 degrees, but 2.5 is normal.Johan[A HREF=http://www.phoenix-simulation.co.uk]Phoenix Simulation Software[/A]-----http://www.people.zeelandnet.nl/johdUnofficial PSS Website

I've got a B747 pilot friend (Virgin). Haven't spoken to him for a while but I'll email him with the question and see if he comes up with the answer...if he does I'll let you know.

It just so happens that I was watching a United 747-400 from the window of the USAIR A321 that I was on landing at KSFO yesterday and he looked as though he was about 10o with full flaps and gear down just before touchdown.Ed GreenKCLThttp://www.panelshop.com/DEV.jpg

Thank you all for your answers. Seems like the model characteristics are pretty close then! I've gone into a lot of detail with settings. For example the front wheel(s) now have good visible movement up and down when braking at low taxispeed, having adjusted the compression figures by a long way. All weights and locations of everything I know about including fuel tanks and even the eyepoint have been checked with fx lights. Where actual real information is not available to me I think I've made some decent guesses based on logic. I don't know if I had a non-original cfg file but some of the stuff was way out of place. Also the original model could not recover from a deep stall, this also is true of the default model and has been fixed on the Meljet I have. One other thing I'm unsure about is the allowable shift in centre of gravity when the payload and fuel are changed. I've positioned everything as accurately as I am able and it doesn't quite add up right for some reason. I would guess that the overall shift would be within 8-10 feet. If it has to be better than that I will have to redistribute the passengers! However the flight characteristics seem pretty good whatever the fuel and payload is set to and I haven't even noticed much difference in the pitch trim settings, except at varying speeds. I'll be posting a new thread when I've got something for all to try. Progress is pretty good but at the moment I'm playing with the mach curves in the airfile to try to get the speed/climb/power ratios and it seems to be working out well. Still have to learn a lot but I'm using a methodical approach with everything I adjust. Look forward for any further useful information but the answers you have given are making me feel a lot more confident. Thanks again.