Hi I had two questions regarding the 777.

 

First one is takeoff procedure. I watched a tutorial by Matt Davies. His plane reads out the v1 speed aloud, mine is quiet. Also he spools up the engines to 70% and then goes to TOGA, which is fine but I notice that my plane struggles to reach even 100 knots. What am I doing wrong to not get the v1 audio cue and failing to reach actual takeoff speeds?

 

My second question is for the altitude management. I load up the route exported by PFPX just fine, I can see all the legs with altitudes, VNAV and LNAV are active but the plane does not obey the set altitudes. Only seems to do that during landing otherwise the altitude remains at initial climb altitude I put into the MPC. How can I let the FMC effectively control the altitudes?

 

Thanks,

JC Goloubev

 

 

First one is takeoff procedure. I watched a tutorial by Matt Davies. His plane reads out the v1 speed aloud, mine is quiet. Also he spools up the engines to 70% and then goes to TOGA, which is fine but I notice that my plane struggles to reach even 100 knots. What am I doing wrong to not get the v1 audio cue and failing to reach actual takeoff speeds?

 

Please read the Intro Manual. It goes into quite a lot of detail about the product, to include the whole Company Options settings. The company options allow you to - per livery - set different options to more accurately reflect what that real aircraft would use (usually for either that livery, or that airline).

 

The lack of callouts could also mean that your sound settings are not set properly in Windows and the flight sim.

 

Failing to reach takeoff speed could be any of the following:

• Being too heavy for the runway (fuel and/or payload)
• Not setting throttle properly
• Having hardware brakes that are "dragging" (i.e. in need of calibration)

 

 

Instead of YouTube tutorials, you should probably use the one PMDG has provided first so that you're sure you're setting everything up properly. You can find it via the Operations Center, or by navigating to [sim Folder]\PMDG\777\FLIGHT MANUALS (or 'documents' or similar - can't remember it off the top of my head).

 

 

 

My second question is for the altitude management. I load up the route exported by PFPX just fine, I can see all the legs with altitudes, VNAV and LNAV are active but the plane does not obey the set altitudes. Only seems to do that during landing otherwise the altitude remains at initial climb altitude I put into the MPC. How can I let the FMC effectively control the altitudes?

 

You're misunderstanding how this is applied, it seems. The MCP is essentially your permission level. What I mean by this is that the value on the MCP is what you are allowing the aircraft to go to: "you may only go as high/low as this value." If you're in VNAV, it will follow all of the altitudes, but it MUST stop at the altitude on the MCP.

 

Imagine if the FMC could override the altitude in the MCP:

Controller says "climb via the SID, except maintain 12,000."

You set 12000 in the MCP.

The FMC sees you've set 12000, but decides that the SID has higher restrictions, and your cruise altitude is much higher.

The FMC re-sets the 12000 to your cruise of 34000.

Controller says "possible pilot deviation, advise you contact [facility] at [telephone number]."

 

You then have to explain to them why you ignored their instruction, and then have to explain to your chief pilot why you should keep your job after you let the automation start making decisions for you.

 

...or worse:

You set 5000 in the MCP because you know there is terrain in the area.

The FMC sees you've set 5000, but the approach begins at a lower altitude.

The FMC re-sets the 5000 to the approach altitude of 3000.

You make your turn onto the final approach course for the VOR approach.

TERRAIN TERRAIN PULL UP

*smack*

 

 

 

You're the brain. The FMC is the tool to help you do your job. It cannot - and should not - be used to do your job for you.

Thank you for the reply. It makes sense. I will check out the manual.