pbenoit

Back in the day, When I was working from a home office, I could get up early, prep a flight, and get airborne before "going to work" I was flying for Singapore V A in those fun days, and would fly long routes, WSSS to KLAX, EGLL, EDDF, PANC, FAJS, FACP. Sometimes passengers and sometimes cargo using the PSS 777 and PMDG 744. I could work on one PC while flying on another.... watching the weather, responding to ATC, managing the flight, balancing fuel. It was a total blast, at least I thought at the time!!!!! Usually by the end of my work day, I'd be in a descent and prepping an approach. Those were the days!!!! Best to everyone Paul Benoit (Kbos)

Ah, but ain't life just grand. It's nice to see an intelligently handled conversation. There is no right or wrong here, just personal choice and preferences. IMHO, developers, manufacturers, other folks who mnake or produce things for people to buy need to pay attention to what people want. People "vote" with their hard earned money.Agreed, this discussion will never end because people have likes and dislikes, preferences. I do sincerely wish that someone from PMDG would make an official statement about whether there WILL or WILL NOT a 2D cockpit in the 777. Easy enough to do, a simple binary yes or no, no trade secrets or promises to divulge, dates "not" to discuss, but a simple YES or NO would be just great. If the issue is not yet settled, then that would be nice to know. INFORMATION is all I believe people would like to know, no biggie, 2D or not.Please, Capt Randazo, Ryan, Dr Vaos, just a word or two; a minute to help those of us who are intertested level set our expectations and get on with it. Like Control said in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, "just one word, Jim, just one word....." 2D 3D or Both. 8-)=Thanks so much for listeningbest regards,Paul BenoitKBOS/KOWD

Hello Pmdg, and all of you other forum lurkers,if this "no 2d" thing is true, then i'll have to think hard and long about it. My trusty old P$$ Triple 7 has served me quite well for years and hundreds of great flights, but I'm sure will not it hold a remote candle to a PMDG offering, but I can't stand the 3D cockpits, have never figured out how to smoothly use them to fly. With literally thousands of hours of FS flying, I have avoided the 3d stuff like the plague. I am an old dog, and I don't really want new tricks.o well, call me silly, but i would really appreciate the option, like I have with the awesome NGX, MD11, 747 and everything else I "fly"Thanks for listeningPaul BenoitKBOS/KOWD

Thanks Gents, appreciate your quick responses. I will sniff around for some piper docs. And I guess I'll go into BF Skinner pigeon pecking mode and try things and see what I break., hahahahahahaha, o me of little faith. I guess if I can handle the Maddog I can handle this little guy.Thanks again,Paul BenoitKowd/Kbos

Hello,I just bought this beauty. While there are ;lots of .PDFs, there does not seem to be a general user manual to acquaint one with the software, panel switching, features, all the stuff, which for example, ESDG, Flight One and PMDG usually provide to acquaint you with the product and their implementation.The normal prcedures are great, if you are already familiar with the aircraft. Is there a "quick start", "tutorial first flight" or anything like these available, planned? I feel like a whiner here, have been simming for ever, mostly big complex iron.... and this "little" one is very complex and needs a bit of generic "this is how it all works" instruction. I remember the "Meridian" long long ago, was the same complexity, but it did have some good introductory user stuff, in addition to all the complex component doc.Thanks for any guidance here, and again, sorry for being a wimpy old dude, this is my first carenado product, and I want to learn all the features and how-tos. I prefer the written words with illustrations, rather than the Pavlovian try and fail, try and learn, been there done that for 60+ years.Cheers to all and tnanks,Paul BenoitKOWD/KBOS

all very nice, thanks to you all for sharing!!! paul benoitkbos

Simon, I'll be the nth pereon to add my grateful appreciation for your time and experience. In my 30 + years of simming, I too, have never encountered such a useful and intresting thread!!!! Thanks so much for your time and effort!!!! Happy landings!!! and best Regards, Paul BenoitKBOS

2nd hot fix and tweaking assistance from Pan Lalas, this issue is now solved for me. Best to everyone, hope you ALL have success with this great aircraft.Regards,Paul BenoitKBOS

Holy moly, just did the secure checklist, parked at the gate at DFW after a great flight from LAX, using RC4 and a great little iPad App called iGMAPHD which is a moving map on Sectionals, Terminals, HI Alt Charts and basic google map ... very awesome, and it works flawlessly, my addiction to FSNAV now is terminated. NO FREEZES THANKS VERY MUCH!!! to my new friend Pan Lalas in Hong Kong who helped me do the needed SIM and graphics card tuning and other tweaking and to PMDG for their latest fix!!!! I feel like a little kid, and at 62, that's quite a thing!!!! This is indeed a wonderful piece of software!!! I can't wait to dive into more details!!! and to fly more!!!! I also wish those of you out there with issues good luck with the new hotfix, and to say that all good things come to those who wait, AND have some wonderful people to help and a company which really stands behind their product!!!! Onward and upward!!!! Best Regards to ALL and THANKS AGAIN to Pan, and to the fine folks at PMDG!!!! Paul BenoitKBOS

Ryan, thanks very much for your response!!! I have been communicating with Pan Lalas who very graciously alked me through many tweaks to graphics settings, fsx config and other settings. What a great, helpful individual. my next window of flight opportunity is Monday, (tomorrow is for my granddaughter, lucky guy that I am). I'll give KLAX to KDFW with RC4 another try and see what happens. Hoping for the best of course. I do understand the memory issues, and with Pan's help, applied tweaks, oo many to remember, to try and limit the "drag" on memory. I have two support items open which have all my config details If you can't see those, I'll take screen caps and post here Thanks again for your concern. I'll post with my results on Monday, Best regards, Paul BenoitKBOS

In my 30+ years of simming, I have bought every aircraft addon (with a few exceptions) and "listened" in on the forums about some people's issues with their newly acquired addon. Miraculously or very fortunately I never had an issue with ANY addon. They ALWAYS worked right out of the setup.exe. O my, I now have compassion for all of those disappointed simmers with their issues, which I never had. So here I am, with one of the most detailed, wonderful versions of a simulated aircraft I could ever dream about, after waiting years, only to be in a situation where I cannot complete a flight, not even one measly little hop from LA to Dallas. I have submitted two freeze reports to support, installed the hotfix, tried the suggestions.... Highmem, etc, offered by the fine folks here in the forum, but again today, and YES I am a glutton for punishment, who lives in false hope, on my way from LA to KDFW at 36000 feet, on J74 between Saint John (SJN) and DRYHT when all stopped again. I went to tune the next vor station CMX and OY, could not change the freq. Could not update the course or heading on the MCP ... o well, still flying over the ground, changing to the skeleton aircraft view (yes I have a lowly ( i guess) Win XP 32 bit OS) but actually dead in the water. Today my hopeful flight was with RC4 and a cute little app for my iPad2 ... FX Follow, a cool little moving map. I'm addicted to moving maps to try to keep myself oriented in time and space, I miss FSNAV so much it's painful, my addiction to moving maps is indeed terrible. On my laptop I'm following the flight using a Navigraph NDAC Hi Alt chart to see where I am on J4. Cool Stuff. Ok, maybe there is a hitch with FXfollow or RC4. But how can that be???? Yesterday with ONLY RC4 I got as far as overshooting DFW on approach to RW17C, was lost, and hit ALT, and the FSW map to see where I was. I was SE of the airport, so was going to turn north then West, and then try an localizer intercept coming in from the northeast. O well, How many times have I done this ... lots, well switching back to the main screen I see all white, with the text in the little RC4 window all scrambled. Nothing I could do would bring me to a panel screen, virtual or 2d. AGAIN, DOA so to speak. Why do I keep doing this I say to myself, feeling stupider by the minute, just like spending my $79 on an AOA membership which so far has nothing but developer's comments to offer, not what I bought!!! Paul, you are an IDIOT (notice I restrained myself from using the F adjective). So I guess, I'm done for now. This wonderful piece of software simply will not work for me, with or without addons. Let's face it RC4 is really not an ADDON, but a key part of FSX ... how can you fly without ATC? So what am I to do? I have been "away" from FS for over 2 years, and this wonderful NGX was to be my reentry back into the hobby. But I am so disgusted at this point, and angry with myself, that I just want to scream. I suppose I can go back to the other 737 and my favorite MD-80 (while SAS, Delta and AAL are still flying them) and be satisfied with them, and of course a 747 filght or an MD-11 or ATR-72 flight. I feel very sad writing this, because, having been at one time a programmer, I understand the level of effort put into this software. I can't blame anyone and will not blame anyone. Perhaps the PC world has become SO COMPLEX that it's impossible to "write" software for all possible environments, specs, and configurations. With my WIN/XP 32 bit setup on my Dell XPS630i, I feel like a third world country... not having the resources to even "be in the game" or so it seems. Sad. I am now retired, and don't envision a new machine in my remaining lifetime unless we hit the mega million something. I have looked to upgrading to Win 7 64bit, but it appears really daunting, and beyone me at the moment. So I wish you all at PMDG well, and hope you have success with this wonderful software, and perhaps find the niggling little teeny snippet of bad code somewhere which is causing the freezes and memory difficulties. If it appears that a lowly 4GB 32bit PC is not able to run the NGX, please say so so my expectations can be set. I'd appreciate knowing that. I know you are all working very hard on problem soplving and I wish you bon chance in your efforts. In the spirit of ex-programmer-like cooperation, I would be very happy to test any potential future fixes. ou can find my email addr in your support system. Very respectfully, Paul BenoitKBOS

Thanks Mike, did as you suggested!!! I'll register up for support as you noted. Best, Paul BenoitKBOS

I am lost in something.... I tried to login to the support page on your website. I can login to my account and see my purchases and all my previous procedures, trying to login to support, my user name (email?) and password do not work... I did ask for and received a password from your retrieval service.. but when trying to retrieve my login info using FORGOT LOGIN, I provide the email I used to login to my account and it does not know me. So I am lost in Space. I have a bunch of data from my latest FREEZE, but I since i can't log in to the support page, I can send the information in I am VERY Frustrated. I'm sure it's just me and am not blaming anyone. is my username and password and Account signin and password the same thing? There is no place in the account area to review my information and maybe change it. What am I missing? I really don't want to put my email here but you can find me in your system by my order number I would very much appreciate someone from PMDG helping me get this sorted, preferably by email. I would like to be able to login to the support system and provide you all with the details of my latest very frustrating freeze. I have yet to complete a flight since something always freezes, the Altitude Setting dial, the speed dial,, silly but the aircraft is hurtling along at 36000 feet but I can no longer interact with it. I really would like to use this fine aircraft... really, but something's amiss somewhere, either me, again and again or something in the software (perish the thought!!!) Respectfully, Paul BenoitKBOS

Thanks Dr Vaos and others who responded . Want to close the loop on this. Before I went to bed last night I fired up the PC and slowly, methodically went through to engine start from cold and dark. All worked as it was supposed to! Very happy about this, but I swear I had those problems on three previous attempts.Off to try the tutorial ! Thanks again for the responses.Best regardsPaul Benoit

First, this is really some piece of software, my hat is off to you all!!! ok, frustration. Start cold and dark. "shift a" a a few times to get to overhead. battery on. start apu, egt indicates it is running. move the apu gen switches to on, they seem to be momentary switches, but the meter says that the APU is generating power. "shift A" back to main 2d panel, mfd and pfd are off (is this correct?), I am running down the first few items in the normal procedures and expect that the mfd and pfd should be powered, see no instruction in Normal proc to turn the brightness up. shift 3 to get FMS. press FMC ... then press INIT REF to set PPOS, nothing happens. hit menu again again, Look at FS Actions. back to memu, FMC choice is now gone, missing, not there. thought to perhaps start an engine and use it's generator. opened the isol valve switch opened the apu air switch, duct pressure should increase, correct? There is APU EGT so I'm pretty sure it is running ..so without duct pressure there is no starting an engine, packs are off. Hmmm, i am saying, where Have I gone off the cliff. APU should start and provide power and air duct pressure. FMC should work, I should be able to use the basic keys, initref, etc???? I have read the introduction and set things as suggested. Have not tweaked any PMDG Setup items, they are as installed. What am I doing wrong here?? please help me with a clue. I'm not saying anything is wrong, but it sure dosen't feel right, especually the duct pressure, lack of PFD and MFD being on, and FMC choice going missing, an oh did I mention, choosing doors returns a blank page, Good Grief. Thanks for any help!! Best regards Paul BenoitKBOS