Systems Fidelity Still Surprises Me 1 Year Later

I've been spending alot of time in the 777, but something happened to me a couple weeks ago in the NGX I wanted to post about finally, and thank PMDG for... the systems depth on your products is amazing, and even after a year or so of flying the NGX I still find myself surprised by how detailed the NGX is modeled. I was on a flight from KMIA to MHTG when all of a sudden at FL350, 10 minutes or so into cruise, I got the TOCW. At first I was thinking "this is insane"... "this is a bug"... "how the !$ could I get a takeoff warning in cruise?" The shrieking of the warning bells was driving me crazy, yet no warning light of any kind had gone off in the entire cockpit... just the TOCW going off like a banshee and ruining my concentration. I really thought it was a bug, but I decided to give the QRH a try, and to my surprise the TOCW is also a warning for cabin pressure problems. Looking at the upper overhead, I then realized I was an idiot and forgot to place the pack switches back on after start. I then released passenger oxygen, equipped emergency oxygen, and began an emergency decent.

When I started Googling "Boeing TOCW pressurization", I found that the quirkiness of this warning system (mixed with the crew's inability to distinguish the problem) led to the unfortunate crash of Helios 522. Following the crash, a lawsuit was filed against Boeing citing the lack of a visual caution light as a leading cause of the incident. All 737s have been mandated to be retrofitted with a more detailed pressurization warning system by 2014.

It amazes me that PMDG modeled these details to such an intense level. It truly feels like I have a 737 in my computer, with all of its individual quirks and ambiguity, with who knows what other systems waiting to catch me off guard in the future. When PMDG states in the tutorials that "there are things you will still be learning years later" they are not kidding.  Its amazing what PMDG does... utterly amazing. Keep up the excellent work!