One can draw a fair contrast with a 767 simulation - I forget the manufacturer - where the manual tells you in clear and simple terms how to switch the thing on, taxi out, take off and navigate your way from one part of the globe to another. The deeper stuff one can take in afterwards at one's leisure. I think PMDG could well look at this aspect: it would certainly do nothing to deter sales and could well enhance them.

 

*COUGH* Tutorials...... :Idea:

 

G

I appreciate the sentiment but it does seem to me that if your purchase a relatively expensive piece of software - expensive in relation to similar offerings by other software houses - the least they could do is to provide coherent instructions on how to get of the ground (figuratively and literally). Except to hone one's basic skills and gain a deeper understanding of the technical side of matters, buying additional manuals and printing out reams of paper should not be necessary in the first instance.

 

One can draw a fair contrast with a 767 simulation - I forget the manufacturer - where the manual tells you in clear and simple terms how to switch the thing on, taxi out, take off and navigate your way from one part of the globe to another. The deeper stuff one can take in afterwards at one's leisure. I think PMDG could well look at this aspect: it would certainly do nothing to deter sales and could well enhance them.

 

As a new member to this forum and having just purchased this add-on, I whole heartedly agree to this statement. I feel the instructions and tutorials are a little too technical from a laymans perspective. But I'm getting better.

*COUGH* Tutorials...... :Idea:

 

G

You should do something about that cough. I have not yet found much in the tutorials that helps but perhaps you could quote the page numbers. In order to wind the 737NGX up I had to try and remember what we did in 1957 and adapt.

Except to hone one's basic skills and gain a deeper understanding of the technical side of matters, buying additional manuals and printing out reams of paper should not be necessary in the first instance.

 

Okay M. (Can we get your first name yet...hahaha...unless i'm talked to Bernard Lee here),

 

You do not need to buy any additional manuals. All the documentation available for print off the PMDG website are included with your NGX software. You may have to print a tutorial. Personally, I think most just give it a good read and try it out in the sim. Did you buy a boxed edition from somewhere like aerosoft? That seems to be the case.

 

Please look at the pictures we gave you and please go through the tutorials. PDF's of everything you need to get this aircraft up-and-running is there. PMDG isn't hiding anything from you nor have they made this airplane unflyable. Your start menu/PMDG should have all the links to the documentation. Thousands (?) of users are having a blast with this release every day. Many of them faced a steep learning curve. They still learned to enjoy it. You must give it a bit of effort and patience.

 

You're trying to make this aircraft fit-in with how you have 'simmed' in the past. Unfortunately, this is not the manner in which this addon should be utilized.

 

The days of dragging our aircraft on the FS Map to the approach are over. Barrelling across the continent at 64x isn't going to work either. We wouldn't expect the real aircraft's navigation systems to maintain accuracy at 28000 Knots, nor should we expect this very complex release to do the same. I'm sorry to be blunt, but you're not giving this addon a fair chance. I'm not angry at you, don't worry. It's just such a bummer to see someone getting so frustrated and so lost when trying to approach this addon.

 

The brilliant thing about the 37 is the huge variances of routes that are available. There's plenty of <45 minute routes out there in the world that would give you a very good experience with all phases of flight - takeoff, climb, cruise, approaches...and all that mix. No crash-inducing 64x or drag-and-drop required. Come out here to Calgary and rip up to Edmonton in the NGX...with a good wind you'll be wheels up/wheels down in ~27 minutes! (http://flightaware.c...2330Z/CYYC/CYEG)

 

BUT FIRST - Seriously. Do the tutorials. I mean do number 1...fully...then do number 2. I mean look at each step and each picture and just do it. Do it.

 

You must follow the steps at the beginning of the tutorial documents to get the situation set up appropriately. This is especially important for Tutorial #1. Ryan's done a bang-up job in getting you in the air quickly and correctly in Tutorial #1. Tutorial #2 runs you through everything you need to utilize this aircraft to it's potential...and it's a very rewarding flight at that!. You should have no issues garnering where everything is by using a bit of that knowledge from your time with the FS2004 releases.

 

If you don't have the patience to do that. Then go to youtube. Try and gleam some good knowledge from people actually showing you what to do. I don't know any really good youtube tutorials out there myself but hopefully someone can point you in the right direction.

 

In the big picture here....the 737 really isn't the most complex aircraft out there in terms of a pilot's perspective. With a bit of effort, it's not that tough to wrap your head around it. Just think! It could be worse! We could be trying to teach you FSLabs' ConcordeX!

 

The things haven't changed since 57 really. You still need electrical power, pnuematics, and all that stuff. It's just the steps that are a bit different. Heck. I'm even willing to set up a TeamSpeak session here with you if it gets to that point.

I gave you a document & page number ... did this not help?

 

Yes it did, and I said thank you, You weren't the only one but I'm grateful to all. And I wasn't far out actually......

 

The point I was making was that I had indeed text-searched all of the documents to find the information since the winter has set in here - for some reason the reference you gave didn't turn up,

 

Keen as most of us are to do it right, reading several thousand pages isn't viable, so help from this forum on very specific issues on the myriad of items not covered in the tutorials is always extremely welcome. Thanks again.

 

To be clear, I'm a multiple PMDG customer - FS9 737, MD11, JS41, and 737NGX. Much as I love the MD11 and the JS41, I currently fly only the NGX [and I mean only]. I haven't got the 747 and won't buy the 777 as I don't do long haul. I'll probably buy the DC 6, assuming that's serious. God knows why but I'm unlikely to be able to resist.

I am grateful for the trouble you are taking but I think the point is being missed. Once I can master the start-up process, the troubles should be over but it should not be necessary - and certainly not desirable - to trawl though a mass of pdf's and GKWE in order to get thought the essential process of switching the ignition on. This lack of basic documentation is all the more frustrating in that the 737 (or any of the modern jets) are far less complex than the stuff we used to fly in the 1950's. Even then the task was simplified by having a check-list which is precisely what is needed here.

 

Having twice succeeded in getting the engines turning over- although by no means certain of doing it a third time - and getting the FMC up and running, the PC (which is a large one with 8GM of Ram etc) crashes which makes the whole thing rather tiresome. I have, actually, yet to get into the air.

 

It is a great shame really because I have no doubt that the 737 NGX, like its PMDG predecessor, is in a class of its own yet I suspect that for every stalwart who has bored his way through the litany of extramural miscellany in order to get the engines running, there are fifty who have given it up as a bad job. Will they return to PMDG? I doubt it yet had PMDG included a simple guide/check list to get them over this first hurdle, PMDG would have profited thereby. (The basics I am looking for seem to be in 'tutorial 2 pages 9 -21 and 53 - 70. They could, I think, have been condensed onto a single sheet - as is done (or used to be) in real life. A simple aid-memoire.

 

It is probably true that there are all sorts of films and video's to look at and no doubt they are of the greatest interest - if you have the time available to find and digest them.

Switching the ignition in shouldn't be that hard. The ignition knobs go to Ground, everything else is taken care of for you as long as you have some duct pressure.

 

One quick browse at google brought up this: http://www.carsten-r...PMDG-737NGX.pdf - Maybe this is what you are looking for.

 

I don't understand how you could enjoy the FS2004 737 release, and have such a hard time with this one. There should be many things second nature to you here...especially just starting the thing up. Unless you were using Ctrl-E or something.

 

If you followed the tutorial #2 you should have no problems getting the engines running. I recognize you may not have the time to take an hour or two to do it from start to end...but really that's what it will take. Sorry.

 

By the way - that....

litany of extramural miscellany

is how the aircraft works. That's just how it is. I don't know what to tell you. Those aircraft in the 50's had their fair share of "extramural miscellany". You just need to take the time to wrap your head around the aircraft and it will become second nature. Once again, I don't understand how you could work well with the FS2004 NG and have no luck here. The procedures and methods are basically the same.

 

PMDG gave us the actual aircraft manuals. I'm sure when you learned your aircraft back in the day, they provided you with the aircraft manuals as well. Between instruction and reading the book, you learned how to operate it. Granted - there is no included checklist - as that is normally provided by the operator in the real-world.

 

Just stop approaching the aircraft with this frustration and look at it as a bit of fun. It's only a game. You can screw things up and do things differently and it's not the end of the world. Take what you know from the real-world and your experience with the FS2004 NG and apply it to the NGX. Look at the overhead. You know you need electrics right? What do we have here? AC and DC bus'. Batteries and TRUs for the DC, and gens/APU/inverters/ground power for the AC. Turn the battery on and see what works? Not much. Start the APU - it's easy. Move the switch to the momentary Start position and watch the EGT. Look at the battery drain on the electrical monitoring panel - should be seeing -200ish amps or so as the APU starts. You know this. It makes sense.The APU off Bus lamp will light up when it's ready to provide power. You can also look at the electrical monitoring panel and verify the APU's providing 115VAC & 400HZ. Close the switches and AC power will be applied - your aircraft will start to breathe some life now...work from there and give the thing a real go.

 

I don't know what else to tell you. You have to take the time to learn it.

The startup checklists are included in the fcoms.

They are straight to the point. Tun this on, switch that off, etc.

 

How easier can it get?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone...typing errors imminent

Also, as far as I can recall starting the engines is basically the exact same procedure in the PMDG 737NG as in the NGX. Sure, the are some more cool stuff you can do in the NGX but nothing you HAVE to do in order to get them running. Or did I reset my brain somewhere along the road?

Step 1 click on FMC (looks like an old calculator with a lot of buttons and a big screen)

 

Step 2 hold down menu on it

 

Step 3 select pmdg actions and then load panel state default,

 

Step 4, find the Fd switch and the auto thrust switches and turn them off.

 

Step 5 careen over the grass, throttles full (ignore the beeping noise) then lunge skywards, why not even try a barrel roll.

 

Have fun!

 

Pete

 

 

Ps. Alternate shortened steps. click file, click load flight, click before visual approach to LOWI. Click ok.

And PMDG backed their product with not one but two extensive tutorials, which has been mentioned multiple times.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone...typing errors imminent

 

I've never read through 99% of the manuals (I should be ashamed!) - but I've done the first tutorial flight. It teaches you about 95% of what you need to know for a simple trip Point A to Point B.

 

Actually, the other day my real world CRJ pilot friend taught me a few things about the NG's FMS (the CRJ and NG have similar FMS's). He was shocked that FS could do the inputs he entered!

To learn every procedure seriously- use the manuals

 

To just learn the procedures- Youtube

The second tutorial is really worth the time. Much of the cruise is spent going brought various things you can do with the FMS. It's a trip that probably needs to be done more than once to get to grips with it - particularly the approach.

 

Mike

Enfin! I managed to start the engine, taxi out and fly a few circuits but I cannot say I am over impressed with the NGX. Having got the engines running, one wondered for some time why the brakes wouldn't release and eventually found the answer deep inside the FMC. (Which could have been made clear somewhere in the printed manual).

 

As for the flight, I cannot see that the VC is any improvement over the 2D and I suspect it is an innovation made for the sake of innovating. What is important in a simulator is not what is actually around but what you see in your mind's eye and I think 2D reflects this the best. Still, I shall experiment with WC and see if I change my mind. Who knows.

 

I am not sure that the engine noise is any more real in the NGX than it was in the NG but is that strange noise like a steam engine letting off steam? If it is supposed to be slipstream, it is a very noisy one - i thought for a minute the navigator was frying bacon behind me,

 

Finally, did someone say that PDMG are producing a DC6? That is a type I well remember.

Than maybe you should stick with the fsx standard 737 , since you have been given good advice in this thread about reading the intoduction manuals etc, and doing the tutorials 1 and 2 and if you can't grasp the concept of it than the ngx isnt for you iam afraid.