54 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

The cruise altitude is only 5000 feet. I have just made another attempt (and clicked on the "Alt Inv" button to try and force the plane to descend; based on something I read in a similar thread here on AVSIM), but it failed again. I am extremely puzzled

Lots of folks here are trying to help you, but you do not seem to be willing to help us help you.  You don't answer questions directed at you by others trying to understand what you are doing.  This makes it very unlikely anyone will figure out your errors.

Back to square one.  Can you successfully fly the two Tutorials?

I have successfully flown the first tutorial, but I have not tried the second one.

With respect to the flight from EGPD to EGAA......I decided to test this from a saved position not far short of the T/D marker. The descent commenced as soon as I reduced the altitude on the MCP from 5000 to 2500. The ILS 25 lock was established normally, and I was able to land perfectly. I have done this twice, and it worked both times. I will have to try the full flight again tomorrow morning, and see what happens.

It really just requires practice and if needed following tutorials over again to get the hang of it. 

I tried my latest updated flightplan again, and it worked! The entire flight was flawless. I had everything prepared nice and early this time, and when I clicked on the "Alt Inv" button, the aircraft started to descend from 5000 feet to 2500 feet as instructed. It levelled out at 2500 feet, locked on to the localiser, intercepted the runway 25 glideslope, and followed it until I disengaged the autopilot and autothrottle at 1000 feet (so that I could perform a manual landing). Everything worked perfectly!!

What an awesome feeling. My first ever successful FMC programmed flight

The FMC has now been programmed for the next flight (EGAA Belfast Aldergrove to EGBB Birmingham), so I am looking forward to seeing if I can get that one to work first time!

On 10/27/2017 at 1:25 PM, Spin737 said:

And watch out for ships and the lighthouse. ;)

We had to dodge the Lighthouse on the way out too. It was very stormy and rainy when we left so we departed south. I've never seen it quite so bad in the islands. 

I tried (and failed) twice to complete my second flight, but the failures had nothing to do with the FMC flightplan. It was that old favourite of P3D v3 users, fondly loved and remembered......the OOM! To be fair, I was half expecting it, since I wanted to test how far I could push the scenery complexity for these flights. I will be trying again tonight, but with the buildings autogen completely disabled. This should make a big difference, as I am trying to complete the flight (EGAA Belfast Aldergrove to EGBB Birmingham) with ES Isle of Man and (most importantly) ES Shawbury Fields active. There are a huge number of autogen buildings in ES Shawbury Fields (and I fly directly over this region), so disabling them should allow me to complete the flight....assuming that the flightplan works. I noticed an error last night (it had introduced a hold loop for some strange reason), so that was removed.

I need to pay more attention to the approach phase of the NGX FMC flightplans. I have failed three times in succession on my second attempted flight (EGAA Belfast Aldergrove to EGBB Birmingham), and I suspect that it is because I have not noticed errors (one waypoint in the approach to runway 33 had a bearing of 229 degrees; I am not sure why that was the case), or the route involved a final 90 degree turn too close to the approach path.

I seem to recall a comment in Tutorial #1 about FMC flightplan input errors being something that we have to live with in flight simulation, so maybe this is what has happened here. I have since rebuilt the approach phase, and this seems to have removed the "rogue 229 degree bearing waypoint". I just hope that it works this time!

On a side note, is there any way of getting a close up of the final approach phase on the ND? Could I load the plane at the destination airport and see it that way? It's rather annoying having to wait until I get to the end of the flight, and then notice that the trajectory looks weird at the end (hold loops/inappropriate turns etc).

 

9 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

On a side note, is there any way of getting a close up of the final approach phase on the ND?

Switch the nav display to plan mode.  On the legs page a STEP prompt will appear at 6R.  You can use it to step through the fixes in your route.

I finally managed to land at EGBB Birmingham, so I will be using the knowledge I gained on that flight to see if I can make it to EGGD Bristol in one shot

Nailed it first time

I have just prepared a flight from EGJJ Jersey to EGNM Leeds Bradford, starting with the ORTAC 3A departure from runway 26 at Jersey. However, the trajectory calculated after the first waypoint in this departure shows a tight 270 degree turn to the left (rather than a 90 degree turn to the right) to get on a heading that will take me to ORTAC. Is this correct? It seems rather strange...

EDIT: Maybe I should use the SKERY 3A departure instead?

The ORTAC 3A departure was a complete disaster (the aircraft made the 270 degree turn, but then tried to make another full turn after that, so something clearly was not right. Then I decided that the SKERY 3A departure took me too far west (it was a 90 degree right turn from SKERY to NEDUL), so I have decided to use the RNAV 08 approach waypoints (GIPTA and LAPLI) for the runway 26 departure, followed by ORTAC and NEDUL. This should result in a more controlled and sensible departure. Whether this matches the real world is irrelevant to me.

try flightdeck2sim on youtube, great instructional tutorials from a real world 737 pilot based in UK