reinstalled twice and no load editor or fuel planner. where are they?

Load editor is the FMC. You insert fuel and cargo and passengers using the FS Actions interface listed on the "menu" page of the FMC (CDU units) inside the running simulator. You can add and subtract fuel either instantly, or set up the "turn around" program to gradually fuel you up in real-time (ie it will take several minutes to load fuel, and by "several" - 40+ minutes for a full tank is possible)

 

Payload can be edited either by Passenger & cargo holds, or by total zfw (which will distribute a 'plausable' loadout of passengers and cargo, automatically distributed for a good %mac trim number).

 

 

You can directly interact with the fields:
First Class (single number up to max 14)

Business (single number up to max 48)
Economy (Single number up to max 172)

Fwd/Aft Cargo (must be entered as Number/Number ie 10000/10000 The number before "/" goes to the front cargo hold, the trailing number goes to the back one)

Bulk Cargo (single number,)

You can also directly enter a ZFW (tonnes with decimal point, can include up to 3 decimal points, though only the first one will be shown. ie 420.215 is fine. This is either Imperial Tons (as shown in the pic) or Metric Tonnes depending on the setup you have/livery.

 

You can also enter a "Load Level" (in this case 65.1%) with any number between 0% and 100%

 

------------------------------------------

 

Fuel planner doesn't come with it (And I can't remember any fuel planner coming with any PMDG product?) I'd suggest PFPX, or other planning softwares. The amount of fuel the thing uses depends on route duration, altitude, weather, winds, temperatures, air densities, step climbs, yadda, etc. 4 metric tonnes per hour is a reasonable guess if you stick right on the optimum and apply large reserves while being careful with winds and actual time of flight (perhaps base off real world). You can use the real world fuel burn numbers.

 

But correct use of PFPX as a planning tool (and not a magic "make my entire route for me) in conjunction with ActiveSky Next (yes I was that specific) for weather, will nail the fuel prediction every time.

 

More fun things that the FMC can do:

http://downloads.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/777/5/GroundOps.jpg

You can find the load editor in the FMC.

There is no fuel planner though.

 

Edit:

See above ,)

good rule of thumb the plane uses 17600lbs of fuel per hour of flight

Just use the PROG page of the fmc to see how much fuel you need for your trip.

To be honest, if you take it seriously, you would not use the FMS for fuelplaning. Instead the FMS numbers are there to figure out, how your fuelplan works out along the way.

Of course, its a quick solution and it can be done in the simulator, but for a real fuelplaning I would also suggest to use PFPX (wich is payware) or to register and use the free service at simbrief.com to generate a flight plan there. In both cases you get a great briefing wich also includes the needed fuel.

The 777 just isn´t a flight- or fuelplanner. It´s an airplane! (Believe me! I´ve seen some in reality. :lol: )

Regards,
Schmo

I second PFPX. I have never used such a complete flight planning suite. 

I suggest, Simbrief:

 

It's freeware,

It supports AIRAC,

It supports real WX,

It supports 77L and 77W flawlessly with FP and Wind uplink, CI, and complete fuel policy (auto or manual).

It prints OFP in many different styles based on RL airlines.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnoJWACp83Y

reinstalled twice and no load editor or fuel planner. where are they?

 

Since I usually point this out when people mention reinstalls:

Reinstalls are generally more work than the solution they're attempting to "solve."  Usually, it's some sort of user misunderstanding, or misconfiguration, as is the case here.  For future reference, the intro manual would've explained all of this, which would've helped you avoid reinstalling unnecessarily, posting here, and then having to wait for a response.

 

There's a lot of great information in there, and despite it being 90-some pages, it's mostly pictures.  You should definitely have a look at it, because it'll explain lots of the "quirks" of the aircraft that you might first think are "unrealistic."

 

 

 

To be honest, if you take it seriously, you would not use the FMS for fuelplaning. Instead the FMS numbers are there to figure out, how your fuelplan works out along the way.

 

Of course, its a quick solution and it can be done in the simulator, but for a real fuelplaning I would also suggest to use PFPX (wich is payware) or to register and use the free service at simbrief.com to generate a flight plan there. In both cases you get a great briefing wich also includes the needed fuel.

 

The 777 just isn´t a flight- or fuelplanner. It´s an airplane! (Believe me! I´ve seen some in reality. )

 

Yes and no...

 

What a lot of people don't know is that (real world) dispatch software actually uses the same fuel prediction code as the FMC.  As such, in order to get the most accurate plan numbers (without having to buy external software), it's just as valid, and actually rather "realistic" (to a certain degree) to use the FMC to calculate all of that for you.  So, sure, it's not going to plan your route for you, but it absolutely does plan your fuel for the route.  It might not include all of the contingencies that PFPX would add into the calculation, but I wouldn't say "it's not a fuel planner."

Thank you gentlemen for your very indepth response, I admit I didnt go too far into the manual at all. Ive been flightsimming for over ten years now and have enjoyed a very stable fs2004 /win xp setup for years. After microsofts ditching of xp I reluctantly made the switch to win 7 and fsx, I must adl=mit im overwelmed and feel like I just started simming all over again. Im saddened by the lack of available hi quality free ware sceneries to be had. Lastly, im very distressed at the new payware aircraft not having 2d panels. I cant get my head around this concept. My first reaction was regret for buying this thing, ive never flown the virtual cockpit, it made no sense, you have to pan all over the place and the controls are not clearly visible, and how do you taxi or park at a gate or do the kai tak or jfk r13l visual vor approach without the hat switch snap views. Well i guess its time to embrace the new despite all its newness. Again, thank you for the info , ill get into the manuals all the way and ill see you guys up there somewhere.

I struggled with the virtual cockpit when I first got the NGX, but then I discovered the EZ-Dok camera aka "EZCA", which enables you to set up a series of different VC views that you access simply by hitting a specific key eg, Capt/FO, FMC, radios, lower/upper overhead panel, engine start, MCP, etc

 

It makes life much easier, and is well worth it.  You won't miss the 2d panel.

 

cheers,

 

Jeff Hunter

Heck! No one has said it yet .... so I will.

Please include your name in your post as per PMDG forum rules.

Thank you!

 

I use Simbrief for flight & fuel planning and it seems pretty good, especially with the NGX. And for rule of thumb calculations, I go with 8000 Kg/hr of flight.

 

 

Well i guess its time to embrace the new despite all its newness. Again, thank you for the info , ill get into the manuals all the way and ill see you guys up there somewhere.

 

Believe me, once you get into habit of looking around the VC, you won't want to go back. Even basic FSX offers mouselook, that was good enough for me, now with EZCA... there is no going back to 2D.

I use mouselook only, works nicely.

ok, Edward Jones is my name, im with American Virtual Airlines(www.joinava.org)(AAL514)with over 4600 hours logged. Ahhh, whats mouselook, but im going to get pfpx and ezca for sure and just learn to adapt. Thanks guys.