I just tried the 744. This is one of my favorite pmdg aircraft, and also one of my absolute favorite in real life. I've spent quite a lot of time with the pmdg version of it, and also the upgrade pack for -8. So what do I think. Well first of all it is a FPS hog. It subtracts at least 10 more frames than the airbus. Otherwise, the cockpit looks nice, and the important buttons are there. The automatic vspeeds in the fmc are incorrect, and you should not follow them. You can manually set different vspeeds. Prior to takeoff I had set the Lnav and Vnav modes (probably big mistake), and when I engaged the AP the plane tried to crash. I was high enough that I could recover, and VS-mode helped. The automatic calculation for app speeds were totally off. I had 24000 pounds of fuel and 20% pax. The aircraft was in other words superlight, yet it wanted me to land at 250 kts. I put 160 in as an interim number since that is a pretty normal vapp for flap 30, and adjusted as I got closer. As I was about 6 nm out it occurred to me that I had forgotten to bind AT-disconnect so I just turned the AT off so I wouldn't have to fiddle with it later (since it didnt behave on takeoff, I didnt trust it on landing either). 

As I came in over the threshold at about 150 kts, I noticed the immense ground effect. The thing didnt want to land at all. It was floating like 50 feet for what seemed a century. I had to litterally point the nose down to make it land. Now this would be normal if I was overspeeding, but I couldn't really go much lower before going into the red band. Might be the red band calculation was off, and that I really was overspeeding considering my light weight. 

So, nice-looking heavy airplane, and I need to familiarize myself with her quirks. She doesn't fly by the book, that's for sure 🙂 

Your Vref speed for that weight and flaps 30 should be around 125 at the most.  158kts is flaps 30 at 652k

Edited August 21, 20205 yr by Hollister56