A Little Simulator Flight I had....Long Post

[David B 53]

Hello fellow avaitors. This posting was brought about, after seeing and thinking of the responses re:PMDG 747-400.OK, to start...I was flying the 737-700, with the "Southwest" style gages. IE: No PFD or ND.OK, all set let's get the pe-flight done. I go thru my litany of flows and setups I have done many times before. Let's see were to fly? I know, let's do a fairly quick fligt at night, from KSLC-KLAS...that should be fun. All right panel is setup, let's get the route in the FMC. OK, typed in....Hmm..FMC doesn't want to accept the routing. Bummer, now it's locked up. OK, let's re-set and try again. OK, did I miss anything? No. Good the FMC took the route this time. Looks good on the LEGS Page. Ok, all set, time for push. Start #2...looks good. Start #1...Hmm, #1 doesn't want to light-off. OK, check all the switches, and also make sure no faults induced. Yep, everything checks. Try again, no light off. Well, another re-set. Gonna be a long night it looks like. :-) OK, finally both started, runing normal. Gotta love that little push back tug..pretty cool. The gate area, looks a little bland though.OK, all checks done..ready for takeoff. Power set, picking up speed...V1..rotate...nice steady pull.....hey....she doesn't want to fly...what is the deal. OK...re-set end of runway. Hmm, trim is set correctly. Well, let's try 2 units more than required. OK, rolling...good she'll fly this time. Allright cleaned up and cruisin..FL290. Let's put in a little tail wind to accelerate the flight a little. OK, let's go direct to the IAF KLAS....Hey what happened to my FMC fixes on the LEGS page! OH, well no problem...I'll just use the DEP/ARR page and reenter my STAR for KLAS, get everything reset. OK, got her set....OK final vectors for the approach...got a visual on KLAS...both beautiful 25l/R runways in sight. :-) Say, were's the strip and the airport terminal. Man, these graphics are kinda sucky. Landing uneventful....but, were's the terminal?Hmm, let's go back to KSLC. Try some Low-Viz approaches. OK, got the WX set up...remember to adjust trim to compensate for flight model.OK, increase thrust....Hmm #1 is flaming out again! Well, that would sure make a V1 cut easier...to have it happen at 50kts instead. :-)OK, let's re-set end of the runway again. Good to go. INcrease thrust, #1 flame out again! Double check for any failures...nope everything looks good. Re-set again. Great, now were locked up. Have to do a re-boot of computer this time. Think I'll take a break while it's re-booting.All right, everything is up and running again. Looks good. OK, take-off normal....everything is good..let's do an approach. OK, checks done all set on final...hmm...were's my flight director? Good thing, I set up a flight on final so I don't have to completely re do everything. Re-set...Ahh there it is. Flight Director normal again.Good approach and Go-Around...truck on runway. :-) OK, time for another ILS...Hmm what happened to my flight director again. Re cycle, Ok...working OK now. All right landing uneventful. WX really Low CAT III stuff. Been awhile since I've done some airwork. Let's take off....do some steep turns, then adjust the WX for Winter...do a low viz approach in the blowing snow...should be pretty cool. Steep turns going nicely....get's the scan going, that's for su......HEY! What happened to the view? Everything just went totally black! I lost my visual! OH well, let's re-set back on the runway again. Hmm, still no visual. OK, let's try a re-set all the way back at the gate..when I first started. Man, still black as night. Everything else is working...just no visual outside the windscreen. Sigh....Guess it's time for another re-boot. I think It's time to call it a night.Now, at this point...I guess your saying to yourself. Man, that dudes flightsim is screwy. Or perhaps, I had some MAJOR BUGS in my PMDG 737-700?If that was the case, I would agree with you. Folks, the above events and situations, did not occur using FS2004 and PMDG 737-700.NO....they occured during a 4 hour sim session I had, at the training center for my airline. In a MULTI-MILLION dollar, full motion, full visual simulator..less than a year old. My instructor hadn't set up any of these failures, they just happened.Granted, some of the low-viz stuff was using the HUD, which in itself can present problems. The missing terminal, strip etc. in KLAS...was missing because there is no airport terminal graphic...just the runways. It's like this at most of the other airports too. Also, while flying, some of the textures will pop into view all the sudden, especially if trying to draw other things as well. IE: Hollywood sign for example. You'll just see a blurry white area, till almost on top of the sign..then it will pop into view.It had also,just undergone a software upgrade recently....IE Patch! One of many the 737-700 sims had undergone in the past few months. These sims have been running for over a year, mine was the newest, so less than 1 year. But, the same type as the others. Why would they even need a patch?What's my point? I guess, it's to point out...nothing is perfect..particuarly when it comes to computer, software and even multi-million dollar simulators.We as FS2004 users, are blessed with some great 3rd party add-ons..a good stable core program in FS2004. Admittedly, it's great to be able to sit in an actual cockpit mock-up, flip switches, move levers etc. But, when nothing seems to be working a portion of the time...sure takes the fun out of it. A re-boot on the simulators, take close to 45 minutes..that is is everything boots up properly. At times, I'll think...this doesn't happen on my PMDG 737 at home. :-)As a real world pilot, I feel that BOTH the PMDG B737-700 NG's and the B747-400, are beautiful pieces of work. One type I fly for a living, the other I fly for fun. ON both of them,I'm able to use real-world procedures to fly them. Are there some anomalies in the PMDG 744...yes, as acknowledged by the developers. Also, in the process of being fixed as we speak..most likely. However, with the limitations of flight sim, I think overall...they have done a #### good job! Given time, the 744 will be rock solid, I truly believe.Folks, All in all. I feel we have it pretty good. Especially, when you see how far we have come. :-)Thanks for listening.Best,David

[Guest georg]

Nice story, David. It was fun to read. The simulation we can have at home, is of very high level today and we should be satisfied with it. :)

[Guest ponyboy]

I agree, good post. Had me fooled. :D

[Johan_Dees 84]

Amazing story!Just tell the instructor to delete *.* and reinstall, or show him FS2004 and th PMDG stuff, who knows what happens after that!One of the big things I picked up was about the trim setting.In FS one most of the time, not always, can takeoff with a wrong setting, since it doesnt do as much as it should, or way to much elevator authority in the fde.(easy to adjust btw).Does a real 737 wrong trim setting has such an impact?Johan[A HREF=http://jdserver.no-ip.com]Personal Server[/A]A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, AND A LITTLE MORE ACTION PLEASE!HELP:http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=238882

[Guest]

Thanks for the interesting read!You make good points, now how about getting me hired?? :)

[dfish 1]

I guess we really don't realize how good we've got it. It wasn't too long ago we were drooling over FS5! In a few years we'll be looking back at FS9 and laughing. Dave FisherCYYZP4 Prescott 3.2e 478p 800mhz 1mg CPUP4P800S Asus Motherboard1.0 gig PC3200 DDR RAM 400MHZGeforce Ti 4200/128Maxtor 40 Gig ATA 133 HD x2WDC WD800 80 Gig HDhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpghttp://fs2crew.com/linepilot.jpg

[David B 53]

Thanks fellow aviators. I'm glad you enjoyed the story.Johan, it could possibly get real interesting if the trim was off, depending on how the aircraft is loaded. The biggest surprise, because you have flown so much at that trim setting, and you expect the performance to be a certain way....and it's not. It will certainly get your attention. As long as the trim is in the green band, she should fly. The problem the other night as I understand, the % MAC was off calibration in the sim itself. So, it caused the plane to be too nose heavy, with the appropriate trim, set for condition and weight. After compensating, almost 2 more units of up trim....she flew as expected. I know the sim techs were looking into the problem. So hopefully the next time I fly her, she be fine tuned. It's one of my favs, because it has the new HGS 4000 system installed. Very nice system. Hope that helps answer your question.Best,David

[Guest Darren Howie]

Great post Dave.The visuals in our 320 sim are nowhere near as good as FS9 and even when using the DB which still exists for Kai Tak workmates cannot believe how good it is in FS9 using the Samsoft scenery.Right on the money.Darren

[Guest bobsk8]

I had the opportunity to fly a B767-400 ER full motion sim a couple of years ago at an airline training center. It cost around $27 million dollars. I can remember thinking that the graphics were pretty sparce on the sim when on the tarmac compared to MSFS. of course, that is not a priority item in the design of this sim, but it does show how far we have progressed in the way FS9 looks as you taxi around the airport or look down at the scenery.

[Guest bonjourmoi44]

David:Fantastic post! I have always wondered how the "real" sims compared to our "fantasy" sim.