I recently noticed that the NGX keeps burning fuel while I navigate the menus in FSX. For example if I open the FSX map or the FSUIPC menu for a couple of minutes, the fuel amount drops significantly when I return to the flight.

 

This screenshot shows the intial fuel values:

 

I then open the FSUIPC menu for two minutes, and when I close it and get back to the cockpit, the fuel value has changed:

 

This does only happen when I use the menu dialogs in FSX. When pausing/unpausing the sim, the fuel value doesn't change (as expected). I have done the same test with the default 737, and this behaves normally.

 

The reason I discovered this issue was the large amount of pireps in Virtual Norwegian that reported "fuel changed"-events right after "simulator un-paused"-events (which occurs when the pilot un-pauses or closes a dialog that causes FSX to pause). All these flights were done using the NGX.

 

I'm quite sure this is not a problem only on my setup, and I hope this is something you can fix for the next update.

 

Best regards,

Even

 

 

I recently noticed that the NGX keeps burning fuel while I navigate the menus in FSX

I would expect that is normal. I imagine the plane continues to fly while you are looking a drop downs from the menu bar. As you mentioned pause stops the flying and fuel burn.

I would expect that is normal. I imagine the plane continues to fly while you are looking a drop downs from the menu bar. As you mentioned pause stops the flying and fuel burn.

 

I'm talking about the popup dialogs that causes the simualtor to pause. For example the flight planner or the settings dialog.

 

Even

I'm talking about the popup dialogs that causes the simualtor to pause

I have this setting in the FSX.cfg file - PAUSE_ON_LOST_FOCUS=0. Maybe you need to change the value from 0 to 1.

As I understand it, that flag is only for when the FSX window is losing focus - like when using alt+tab or when an external program gets focused. The internal windows/dialogs in FSX does not affect the focus of the FSX window. One example is the "End flight" dialog that opens when you press ESC. The expected behaviour is that the flight is paused while this window is open, and so it seems to be, but when closing the window the fuel value drops by hundreds of kilograms while the aircraft is at the same spot as it was left. Try it, and I think you will see what I mean.

 

Even

fuel value drops by hundreds of kilograms while the aircraft is at the same spot as it was left.

I tried your scenario and the fuel decreased , however, the plane got closer to the VOR. I see what you mean. If you think this is a bug I would submit a ticket to PMDG at http://support.precisionmanuals.com. I think it is normal - the default 737 is screwed up.

 

Have you tried any other add-on plane to see if the behavior is the same?

(Before concluding/asking if this is a bug in the PMDG 737NGX...)

I tried your scenario and the fuel decreased , however, the plane got closer to the VOR. I see what you mean. If you think this is a bug I would submit a ticket to PMDG at http://support.precisionmanuals.com. I think it is normal - the default 737 is screwed up.

 

It's normal for FSX to freeze when you switch to the map, change date/time, etc. The simulation is halted. However it's quite possible NGX external models continue running and then update the FSX part of the model when FSX resumes. Hence the sudden drop in fuel quantity.

 

I don't think it's a bug. It's a consequence of the PMDG model architecture.