PMDG Engine failure caused by low oil pressure

[tonyleo 0]

Hi all

Using PMDG 737 NGX, after a nice flight, was just getting ready to land at Stansted and one of the engines cut out from low oil pressure, within minutes the second engine too, same low pressure warning. Due to no power, could not control the plane much so landed in a field. After a 2 hour flight, this is very frustrating, never has this issue before. Looking online, looks like other users have had the same issue wiith PMDG. What I did to get power again was go into FCDU and select state panel that was set on short flight same as always. Does anyone have any advice on this please? Was not amused, especially as fly with FSPassengers.

 

Thanks

Edited May 8, 2018 by tonyleo

[markadeane 272]

Tony,

How many hours do you have on the NGX? How long was the flight you had just carried out? Any warnings prior to the engine shutting down? There is a function within the FMC menu to refill oil, it does sound like you simply got low on oil.

[wedgantilles 76]

Two things come to my mind, as said by Mark, it could be a service based failure if you activated those, though I would be surprised it would take out both of your engines, as I think having one both oil quantity low at the very same moment is pretty unlikely. But then again the FMC should have allowed to refill or check if there were any kind of failures at that time.

The second is FS Passenger, I've not flown with it from a long time, but as far as I can remember, it could also generate random failures, with a predefined percentage of occurences when you create the company I believe. So it's also very possible FS Passenger could have itself triggered the malfunction as it would probably play with normal system in FSX it could have translated in something more serious in PMDG, but that's only a guess, and if you have set no failures in FS PAssengers then it would most likely be the previous item.

[tonyleo 0]

12 hours ago, markadeane said:

Tony,

How many hours do you have on the NGX? How long was the flight you had just carried out? Any warnings prior to the engine shutting down? There is a function within the FMC menu to refill oil, it does sound like you simply got low on oil.

Hi

thanks for the reply. It was a 3 hour flight or thereabouts, engines failed the last 10 mins or so of the flight, one after the other. Is there a way to get round this with automation? I use V-route to work out routes in FMC, I still have to set up some info in the FMC manually though. I've been using NGX for about three weeks, roughly about 2: 1 /2 hour flights once every two days, so around 10 hours a week maximum.

Edited May 9, 2018 by tonyleo

[tonyleo 0]

3 hours ago, wedgantilles said:

Two things come to my mind, as said by Mark, it could be a service based failure if you activated those, though I would be surprised it would take out both of your engines, as I think having one both oil quantity low at the very same moment is pretty unlikely. But then again the FMC should have allowed to refill or check if there were any kind of failures at that time.

The second is FS Passenger, I've not flown with it from a long time, but as far as I can remember, it could also generate random failures, with a predefined percentage of occurences when you create the company I believe. So it's also very possible FS Passenger could have itself triggered the malfunction as it would probably play with normal system in FSX it could have translated in something more serious in PMDG, but that's only a guess, and if you have set no failures in FS PAssengers then it would most likely be the previous item.

Hi

thanks for the reply, the failures in FScaptain are turned off, and as you said to both engines? I see from forums that other users have had similar issues. How do you turn off services?

 

 

[scandinavian13 5,192]

14 hours ago, tonyleo said:

Hi all

Using PMDG 737 NGX, after a nice flight, was just getting ready to land at Stansted and one of the engines cut out from low oil pressure, within minutes the second engine too, same low pressure warning. Due to no power, could not control the plane much so landed in a field. After a 2 hour flight, this is very frustrating, never has this issue before. Looking online, looks like other users have had the same issue wiith PMDG. What I did to get power again was go into FCDU and select state panel that was set on short flight same as always. Does anyone have any advice on this please? Was not amused, especially as fly with FSPassengers.

 

Thanks

If it worked before and then suddenly started happening, it's a good indication that it isn't the plane. If it were the plane, it would've been happening this entire time.

New hardware? New hardware calibration? Changes to  FSUIPC? New program? Something in there.

Sounds similar to when people assign a mixture axis and don't properly set a null zone. The mixture axis spikes and for jet engines, anything less than 100% mixture in the sim is "fuel cutoff."

[downscc 1,327]

May I suggest that your preflight include a look at the engine oil and hydraulic fluid levels?  The NGX does not have the Ground Maintenance menu items that 747/777 does, and you have to keep an eye on these levels.  They diminish with time.

[tonyleo 0]

1 hour ago, downscc said:

May I suggest that your preflight include a look at the engine oil and hydraulic fluid levels?  The NGX does not have the Ground Maintenance menu items that 747/777 does, and you have to keep an eye on these levels.  They diminish with time.

Thanks, will have a look at this

[tonyleo 0]

6 hours ago, scandinavian13 said:

If it worked before and then suddenly started happening, it's a good indication that it isn't the plane. If it were the plane, it would've been happening this entire time.

New hardware? New hardware calibration? Changes to  FSUIPC? New program? Something in there.

Sounds similar to when people assign a mixture axis and don't properly set a null zone. The mixture axis spikes and for jet engines, anything less than 100% mixture in the sim is "fuel cutoff."

Hi

no new hardware, flying with same addons as before.

Thanks

[windshearDK 52]

The engine oil is used, and if you don't service your aircraft with engine oil, it will overheat! I am surprised that Kyle a developer didn't know this.

I've tried it in the 777 and 747, and because PMDG never gave me the numbers I didn't know what quantities to look for.

I tried to go online to find answers and here's what I got:

 

777: full engine oil is 26 qts per engine and Min Oil Quantity before start is 18 Qts.

747: Full engine oil is at 21 QTS Min Oil Quantity before start is 16QTS

737: 

Before each flight, the indicated engine oil quantity prior to engine start must be 12 quarts or more.

NOTE: There must be 7 quarts or more of oil remaining in the tank by the end of your flights for possible takeoff and go-around (TOGA) operation.

Normal oil consumption is less than 0.4 quart/hour.

Maximum permitted oil consumption is 1.0 qts (-700) or 1.24 qts (-800) Per hour.

[windshearDK 52]

I run system based errors, as I really like the idea that you have to keep an eye out on the numbers

[kevinh 409]

If you start with the same saved panel state this can’t happen as the oil quantity will always start at value set by the panel state. The NGX doesn’t have the option to bypass this. However if you always start from your previous flight then oil will be used and lack of oil will cause engine problems. In which case you must always include a check on oil quantity during preflight. 

Edited May 10, 2018 by kevinh