Nyuni

Definitely not a big deal, just have to ask. I've never been denied after the flight, on a multitude of airlines. Most recently, on a BA 788. The Capt, F/O, and I had a very interesting discussion on the similiarities and differences between the avionics on it and the 777. And as for not getting the Captain's seat, well, the BA 788 Capt couldn't quickly (or happily enough) insist that I have a seat there for a photo op!

I have my hardware speedbrake axis set up/calibrated purely through P3D instead of going through FSUIPC, so maybe there's some other factor with FSUIPC that's gumming things up for you. I would take the axis/calibration out of FSUIPC and just set it/calibrate it through FSX/P3D instead... I don't see any real benefit to run that particular axis through FSUIPC.

This isn't strictly true - the speedbrake axis is an assignable axis in P3D/FSX controls and -can- be assigned to a hardware axis if you have it. Kay - if you have the speedbrake assigned to a hardware axis, then don't use shift+/. There is a 'arm zone' in the axis such that if you move your hardware lever slightly out of 'zero', then it will click into 'armed'. My assumption is that there's a twitch in your hardware axis that is registering that axis at 'zero' again (since I'd assume you have the handle in the 'down' position), which is kicking you out of armed mode. Try to arm purely with your hardware lever and it should alleviate the problem (since the lever will be in the 'armed' range of the axis).

I didn't measure it down to the T, but they seemed accurate enough for my personal use. It did take into account all the major variables, as the FCOM tables do. I actually still wish I had it (lost it in a series of unfortunate events and a backup failure), as the TOPCAT beta doesn't calculate anything but max braking landings, my spreadsheet would crunch all autobrake levels. Maybe I'll try to recreate it sometime. Of course PMDG would want to do it perfectly, but I'm sure they also have access to all the data they could ever need to be able to do such a thing!

I dunno, prior to TOPCAT doing it I had made myself a spreadsheet using the performance tables in the FCOM in a weekend that was working just fine for takeoff/landing calcs, so it's not particularly difficult to just crunch the performance numbers. I won't speculate on what takes the TOPCAT devs so long.

Hmm, and how cool would it be if there were a lightweight webserver or something that you could hit said EFB simulation on from your locally-networked Tablet... Having the FCOM/QRH/Performance calc functions of the EFB simulated in that way would be nifty.

I didn't see this quite so 'clearly' mentioned, so I just thought I'd point it out - the trick with facilities on VATSIM is to think in terms of 'hierarchy' of control - if NY APP is on, but DXR tower is not and DXR is within NY APP's area of operation - then APP will control all the 'lower' facilities (twr, gnd, del, as appropriate) for airports within its area of operation. This, of course, is up to the controller and their workload for their "primary" position, but that's why the APP controller had a cow (and unfortunately some guys can be a little rough on VATSIM "newbies", which is just to the detriment of the network as a whole!) These days on VATSIM, if I'm not sure whether someone's controlling a facility I'm at I'll just ask. Better clarifying than getting the ol' New York Treatment you were privy to!

There's at least Beta support for the -200LR in the latest TOPCAT beta release... It will occasionally have flaps 15/20 as optimal config when operating close to MTOW on "shorter" runways. I don't fly the -300ER, and there's no TOPCAT support for it beta or otherwise, so I can't speak to it.

In your PFPX output I also see that you have 'LRC' for your CI value, which is what PFPX uses by default... What are you then using for CI? If you're not flying LRC in the aircraft, then the PFPX calculations are going to be completely off. PFPX is purely garbage in/garbage out... When I plan with PFPX, I always enter the CI I plan to fly with/enter into the FMC... And I find that the fuel loadout/burn is pretty much spot on. Try doing that and ensuring your in-flight winds aloft are appropriately reflected in FSX with whatever weather you prefer.

Further update... Nearly done, just needs a few more details and corrections: http://i.imgur.com/zN5Gb0A.jpg

Fictional, of course, but soon these geese will be available to fly to the far north: http://imgur.com/2yLSDvN So that's the hard part. Now on to giving it the rest of the finishing touches...

Thanks for the videos! These are nifty features. I was wishing for some manner of CPDLC integration, perhaps with the already existing ACARS network from hoppie.nl, but I knew that was a long shot at best. I feel like a major add-on like the 777 integrating such functionality would really spur adoption where appropriate on VATSIM/IVAO/etc, though.

When you put it that way, I can guarantee you this is exactly what happened. Me and my Boeing-experienced self need to spend a bit more quality time with the weighty tome that is the POH!Thanks. :)

Had an interesting occurrence on takeoff this evening, and I'm wondering if it's something I did wrong, or some fluke I caused in the plane.I was taking off from KSDF - had everything dialed in, hit the Autoflight button once to arm ATS, and took the runway. PROF was armed. I had the heading knob set to the runway heading, as this was going to be a radar vectored departure and not a SID. Takeoff was normal, ATS clamped and off I went. At about 600 feet, I hit the Autoflight button again to engage what I thought would be heading select mode. Immediately the aircraft began to bank left, even though I had the runway heading set and it showed up properly "HEADING 168" in white on my PFD. I pulled the heading knob to perhaps command the proper heading, and yet the left turn continued. I disengaged the autopilot, and manually flew to the desired heading. I reengaged the autopilot, and again the aircraft wanted to roll to the left. I was finally able to remedy the situation by -pushing- the autopilot knob to set the current heading, and then pull to command. After my vectors, I engaged NAV mode and the aircraft tracked the flightplan as expected.Was I doing something wrong here? With a manual heading set upon takeoff the aircraft should track the manually set heading when the autoflight button is pushed, correct? Without NAV mode engaged (or armed prior to takeoff), it shouldn't try to navigate me to my first waypoint - and even if it were, I would've expected it to roll me to the right since It was only 40 degrees or so in that direction.Any suggestions?Brian Schwark / KBWI

I've had a repaint of the New Colors for quite some time available in the library. If you search for UPS 747-400F or by my name you'll get my textures in both 32 bit and DXT format.Thanks for the old colors, I'd toyed with doing them as well but lost interest!

That's pretty sweet! I assume the only thing it's missing is integration with the FMA along the top of the HUD, since the gauge presumably can't read the PMDG's AP states? I'm pretty good at adding gauges to panels myself and want to give it a crack - but I didn't even know this existed!

I think the issue you're running into here is the lack of wind data provided to the PMDG 744FMC. Since in the real world the aircraft would be getting weather data from ACARS for each waypoint (which isn't available to us in the sim, obviously), the FMC calculations change with the current winds. So, if you have a strong headwind for a certain segment of your flight, the FMC may predict you have less fuel than the reserve value in the PERF INIT page for the entire trip, tripping the "INSUFFICIENT FUEL" message.Try this - if you use a weather addon such as ActiveSky that spits you out a navlog with the forecast winds aloft for each waypoint of your flightplan, enter this data manually into the RTE DATA page by entering the wind bearing and speed (i.e. 250/12) and pressing the LSK to the right of the waypoint to store the data. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong in this procedure, I'm not in front of the sim to check and am describing it as best I can from memory) This will help the FMC make better fuel predictions based on the forecast winds throughout your flight, not just the instantaneous winds the aircraft is experiencing at any given moment.

I've also produced a repaint for the 744F in new UPS colors, available through the AVSIM library.pmdg744fups32bit.zip for the 32 bit textures.pmdg744fupsdxt3.zip for the DXT3 textures.

In the LEGS page, press the Line Select Key next to the waypoint you want to go direct to, which will put the waypoint name in the scratchpad. Then press the Line Select Key next to the first (active) waypoint in the LEGS list, that will replace the first waypoint with the one that you want to go direct to, keeping the rest of your flightplan intact Don't forget to EXEC to activate the change.This could have been found in the manual - I suggest you read it for whichever aircraft you're flying.Also, you'll want to sign your real name to your posts, as per forum rules.

Save your final layouts as a 32 bit bitmap in Photoshop. Then run the resulting bitmap file through DXTBmp, and save as an extended bitmap in whatever format you want, whether that be 32 bit or DXT3. Don't forget to add your alpha channel via DXTBmp at that time if you need it.

I've created one, It's here on avsim. Search for my name and they'll come right up along with the repaint I did for the Pax 744. DXT and 32bit versions available for the 744F.Has some texture distortion along the top of the fuselage, but I was told this was an issue with the model.

When attempting to do a UPS Livery of my own, I encountered issues with the texturing along the top of the fuselage (excessive distortion.) When I posed this question here on the forum in another thread, it was pretty much confirmed from the developers that this was the issue keeping a UPS repaint from being completed.Refer to my post and Mr. Randazzo's reply in the following thread:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...d=106488#106671

When I was running 2k Pro SP4, I had no issues running the 744 (pax version, was running XP by the time 744F was out) without any issue (save for having to install the gdi+ dll, available from Microsoft.)As it's an unsupported configuration, your mileage may vary... but it worked fine for me with the aforementioned gdi+.dll caveat.

Gotcha. Thanks for the heads-up, Robert! Appreciate it. :)

UPS is what I'm working on... I did one for the 744 Pax, but I think I remember Pete Sterling mentioning some sort of texturing bug with the 744F that would make UPS difficult... and I think I'm running into that as I attempt to do it. :/Pete, if you catch this message, did the issue have to do with distortion of the texture along the top of the fuselage? Because I seem to be getting a decent amount of that with the 744F where I didn't have much of that on the 744 Pax...