ahaka

Yes it is possible in FSX. I have done that a lot of times in full screen and it works just fine. The buttons are also clickable.

So, is that salad leaf going to be included in the virtual cockpit? :( It would be great to be able to choose what you have eaten, and the dirt texture would change accordingly.I'm kidding...

There is a video of Kona airport developed for FSX on youtube. Don't know if it will be freeware or payware though.

It's true that the FSX sound engine is rather limited, but PMDG could do this through their own sound gauge, which I believe they already use to add sounds. They would just need to define which soundfiles different vertical speed values at touchdown would play. Of course they could argue that it would not be 100% realistic, but it's sure more realistic than having a gentle touchdown sound when you land at -500 fpm. :D

I wonder if the team is planning to include a "dynamic touchdown sound". What I mean is it gives you audio feedback depending how smooth or hard the touchdown is. This would be great even if it's a bit exaggerated, since there is no physical feedback on a desktop simulator.

Ryan is correct, but one thing that affects the aircraft in FSX weather engine is the wind direction and speed.I wish there would be a way for someone to program more realistic thunderstorm behaviour for FSX. I guess this is beyond the limits though.

Thanks for posting this information to all of us! Very interesting reading, especially coming from someone who has been flying the plane for real.One thing got me thinking... In the J41 there is no VNAV or such, so you would have to keep a look on your vertical profile by yourself anyway. Not being able to meet the MSA at some waypoints should therefore be a limitation of the performance of the airplane, rather than the equipment, right (that explains why it's more critical for SID than STAR)? As I understood, in real life, the procedures that the airplane can not fly are completely excluded from the FMC? And if this is the case, the ATC should just give the headings/speed/altitudes during departure and you ignore the SID completely? Should the ATC already know that the procedure can't be flown with a specific airplane, or do you have to report it first?

My second flight went fine with the F/O. The only peculiarity on the flight was right after takeoff, when the flight attendant suddenly said "hello". :( I also kept hearing lots of knocks on the door during taxi.Unfortunately I can only recall couple of things that were clearly done or went differently than on the first flight.First, the pushback went better this time. After the 90 degree turn, I felt that it was not stopping again, so I said "stop pushback" a couple of times. Eventually it stopped, and I finished the conversation with the ground crew normally this time.I also re-calibrated my headseat before the flight, even though it was already working and registering commands previously, and had no problems with the J41 edition either.I must say, now whernever the F/O replies to anything with "check", it's a heart stopping moment. :(

Thanks for the detailed report #1 Robert! It's looking very promising!If the FPS will be at least as good as in the Level-D 767 for FSX, it will be an amazing achievement from PMDG, considering how much detail there is in the plane.

Bryan,I'll try another flight today to see if it happens again and report back.

Yes, just like jbl2kz, my green box shows all the commands ok, and they are not repeated either. It should all work fine according to the green box and J41 version.Another thing that happened on that flight was the pushback didn't stop, and saying "stop pushback" did not do anything, so I had to hit shift+P. After 10 minutes I was already taxiing, and then the ground crew started saying "pushback complete". However, everything else went just fine until after takeoff, when the FO stopped doing what I asked and always replied "check".

Hello,I'm also experiencing this problem on my first flight. However, I dont think it has anyhing to do with the microphone, because the problem only started right after takeoff. Anything I say was replied by "checked" and no function is performed. I have to do a second flight, but any ideas what might have went wrong? My J41 voice commander has been working without any problems.

I've just done more testing, and it indeed seems that the wobbling effect is WAY greater the closer to the earths equator you are located. Could this have something to do with the FSX "round earth" model?PMDG (or any other users/beta testers), IF you have time, try doing this quick test: load the PMDG MD-11 or 747-8 at some airport close to equator, for example WSSS (Singapore), try taxiing around with some tight turns and notice how the vc camera spins around even though you have disabled all dynamic head movement and momentum effect. Now take off and do some tight turns with around 30* bank while maintaining altitude (pulling back on the yoke/stick) and notice how the eyepoint changes way too much.Now after observing this, go to a way more northern airport, like PANC or something, and do the same tests and notice that the eyepoint moves way less (so little it doesnt really disturb you).I really don't understand what part of the FSX code causes this behavior, but maybe someone who has deeper knowledge of FSX could explain it (or even fix it).

Hi Dennis,Unfortunately these tweaks (including setting the dynamic head movement values to 0 in fsx.cfg) do not remove the head movement completely. It removes the acceleration effects, but when yawing or taxiing the airplane, or when banking in the air, the head starts to wobble and sink/rise. I've found some other posts about people complaining about this effect, which is very obvious in the PMDG heavies, but noone has yet to find a solution how to completely remove the dynamic head movement.

Had some time to experiment with FSX. Funnily it seems that the closer you are to the equator, the more extreme this head "sinking/rising/wobbling" effect in VC is. It also seems that the further the cockpit is from the airplanes center of gravity (or pivot point in 3D terms) the more wobbling you will see. So in MD-11 and 747-8 this effect is far too great and makes flying from VC difficult.Perhaps the effect does not bother so much if you fly in the more northern latitudes. However, I'm still looking for a solution on how to make the virtual cockpit camera stay still in FSX, just like it did in FS9.

Hello,This is already the second post I've made on this subject, but I've really had enough of this thing happening, as it's nearly ruining the experience of flying big jets from virtual cockpit in FSX. What I'm talking about is that even after disabling the momentum effect, and setting all the dynamic head movement values to 0, there is still some annoying acceleration effect in virtual cockpit, that makes some of them unflyable by hand due to constant big changes in camera position.This effect is almost non existent in J41, so I wonder why it is present in big jets like the 747 and MD11. Surely PMDG must know what is causing this problem? If there is no solution to fix it, it would be nice to know what is causing it. But if in J41 it is almost completely fixed, then why can't it be fixed in 747 and MD11?The effect mostly happens when taxiing, or when making turns in the air. The camera just slowly starts to move towards some corner, and in no time the viewpoint is completely screwed. If noone else has this effect, and the view in the virtual cockpit remains static in all circumstances, then what am I doing wrong? I've been trying to find a solution for this for a long time with no results. This is a desperate cry for help. ;)

Yeah I just figured that out too. Sorry.

Same problem here.Can move the eyepoint to the correct position manually though, so its not the end of the world.

Can't wait to try it :(

Hi,I'm not completely familiar on how FSX graphics engine works, but if it also handles transparency through CPU, it could be one reason why the clouds affect performance so much. I believe the clouds are basicall a set of polygon planes textured and stacked together to form an illusion of a puffy cloud. So puffy clouds also use more polygons than cirrus clouds... The more puffy clouds you have, the more polygons you'll end up with.

I'm starting to lean towards the fact that this might be a real PMDG project after all. Which is (or would be) the best flight sim news of the year. :) Taking closer look of the models, it surely is not the kind of work that was just done quickly to fool people, and taking into account Mr. Randazzos mysterious "Dash-8 preview", this could really be some 1st class entertainment from PMDG team. Keep the videos coming. ;)If this really is not a PMDG project, I think they would by now make a statement about that, or at least its about time! :D

Anyone with good 3D modeling and texturing skills could easily make a model of 747-8, put PMDGs textures on it, export to FSX and make videos on youtube.The latest news from PMDG tells that they are working on two aircraft at the moment, and 747-8 was not one of them. I would surprise if they would be already posting videos of a plane they havent announced. :) I sure hope that this plane will be done by PMDG in the future though.

Hello Dan,I'm using the checklist provided with the PDFs. The FCS is set to co pilot because I'm flying from the co pilots seat. No NAV is tuned in, but this doesnt make any difference, the heading arc still wont show up. Everything else seems to work normally.

Do you have your standby fuel pumps on?

Hello,This problem suddenly occured to me. The picture explains it all: There is no heading arc in the HSI arc mode, the FULL mode indicates heading normally. Any ideas what has happened? Restarting didnt help, and the system is fully aligned.