JaneRachel

bear in mind gang, there is an awful lot we all want to tell you about that excites us just as much as Im sure it will excite you all.For obvious reasons, in deference to PMDG, we are very careful in forum in what we discuss. In deference to yourselves, I for one, want you all to have the surprises and big smiles that we all did when we first got this bird on the tarmac.None of us want to spoil the fun you will all have exploring this remarkable aircraft. We dont want to unwrap the gift before we give it to you ;)Rob Randazzo to his credit, throughout development, has encouraged us to be honest and forthright. Those of you who know Rob, will recognise he is a straight talker! So Ryan and I are not talking as some "cynical marketing hype" we are all talking from a deeply help personal conviction and passion in this aircraft.Jane-Rachel

now onto 744 workload.There is still significant workload involved with flying a 744 properly over a steamship. On the ground that is simplified to an extent by the automation, but dont forget we have an FMC to program and worry over in the glass birds (and Im sure many of you will put your hand up and say that is non trivial). You gain in some areas, you lose in others, preflight.Of course, we still have things like IRS alignment. Now on the 744 do we enter positional coordinates by hand or do we trust what the GPS is telling us and prime the IRS from the GPS position, or maybe do we enter an airport ID etc. Lets make sure that the FMC radio autotuning is in sync with the IRS and GPS and that we are getting sensible navigational data. Lets press that POS button on the glareshield. Is the country we are departing from not certifying GPS navigational updates over their territory. Do we need to inhibit the GPS from the appropriate page in the FMC. decisions decisions ;) And dont forget all the paperwork pre-flight, fuel and weights etc etc..Once airborne, if your flying properly there is still work to be done too. Dont forget to plot your alternate airports on the FIX page, and maybe range rings on the navigational display for equal time points. Maybe keep updating RTE2 with a route from where we are to our alternate, in case we need to divert rapidly best to have a route in hand. Keep checking the EICAS and synoptics to make sure that all the aircraft systems are still cute and cuddly and not about to bite you :)The bottom line is that if you sit in LNAV and VNAV watching a video and combing the dog your missing out on a lot of the inflight procedures that are followed in realworld ops. As a simmer the workload is as real as you want to make it. This applies to any aircraft that you chose to fly in FS2004. If you want to know whereabouts on the dogs back has not yet been combed, or exactly how far you are from that alternate at Keflavik, the choice is yours.

Hey Teeloo, gangOK, actually from a software point of view its way way harder to model a 744 than a 742, if you model to PMDG standards that is :). This is not intended to decry a superlative product such as the RFP, its simply great, Im sure we all agree. An awful lot of work went into that product.This thread has two main themes as far as I can see, procedural modelling and workload, let me address both and bore you all to tears for a couple of minutes reading if I may. I will mention some realworld things and then to the PMDG specifics in each post. I will probably do it in two separate posts, for those bored with the first, please feel free to skip the second ;)1) The 744 still has all the primary ingredients of the 742 (and Im talking real aircraft here ). It has hydraulics, electrics, pneumatics and all those gubbins that you see in a 742. However, the difference lies in presentation. One of the first things you are taught on migration from a steam 742 to a classyglassy shiny 744 is not to underestimate what you see. You still have all those items that you see on the steamships but rather than round dials stuck here there and everywhere, the information is transposed to the EICAS, upper and lower displays. Flicking between the lower synoptic pages effectively gives us all the same information, and we have to be aware of it and monitor it, we just monitor on a screen not on a dial.Now, in terms of systems in the 744, there are indeed a chunk of automated things that happen. Again though dont take these things for granted. There are many thousands of combinations of aircraft state (ignoring the complexities of say the FMC system). Its a case of if this switch is here, then this this and this happens, but not if this happens first. The logic tree of the 744 systems is frightening. Lots of configurations with lots of permutations, that the pilot can intervene with creating more permutations. Its horribly complex to model, more so than "steam gauges" which in many ways (yes I know the exceptions) are on or off, or at position x, y or z. In the 744 we have "this happens only when this happens, and only if the attendants served a cheese roll before offering the chicken and beef scenarios"Examples? what do you think happens to the pneumatic systems if you chose an APU-PACK departure, with the APU driving air conditioning. Or did you know that the 744 changes fuel valves around automatically when flaps 10 or 20 is in position for takeoff, to always ensure a tank to engine initial climbout? Or what if we start messing with electrical bus switches, or maybe the odd hydraulic switch?your starting to get the idea Im sure, the 744 is as complex as any other airplane. Now, superimposing this onto the PMDG744. Has PMDG modelled a complex logic tree of aircraft systems. Answer oh yes! enough to keep procedural fans feasting on what is offered for a very long time. Do the synoptic displays on the lower EICAS, and upper EICAS messages accurately reflect aircraft state. Oh yes, they are not just pretty pictures on all those graphical pages. Your going to have to monitor them and respond to what you see. Thats "real" data your seeing there, not pretty pictures, but a representation of the aircraft systems. There has been opportunity to double check all this information with real 744s during dev.And if you dont want to autostart (various reasons why), you could always kill the EECS and start manually. Make sure to monitor all your N1, N2, EGT values, vibration, oil pressure etc. Did I mention these numbers are what we see on the real aircraft and that Vangelis spent a long (read real long) time modelling engines and performance. Im sure I did :)Jane-Rachel

Gang,To quickly address questions posted in many threads.Its worth pointing out that in addition to the PMDG development team, the beta team has a very large component of airline pilots (yep 744) and Boeing engineers, in addition to seasoned simmers who beta tested the NG and learnt a lot during that process.So, to answer the questions on system accuracy from many of you, there has been an extremely intricate modelling of aircraft systems, the more you look, the more you find in the modelling. Lots of little nuances of systems that bring a big grin to the face and "oh wow, that works properly, great to see them putting that in" I dont want to spoil PMDG's thunder so I wont mention those things in detail, but suffice to say there is an awful lot of custom code to get around FS limitations that adds a whole new dimension of realism.I have been overwhelmed by the realism. Those of us who have had the great pleasure to fly the real 747 feel right at home in this cockpit, be it 2D pilots, first officer seat, a superlative VC or reaching up to the overhead :)Everyone in the development process, be it developer, advisor or beta tester have put their heart and soul into making an airplane that is very very special. There is a huge personal passion from everyone. That has shown through in everything from 3D modelling, to systems, to panel design etc.Despite all this, frame rates in all views have exceeded that of the NG, in my personal experience.The bottom line is that everyone involved has done everything in their power to bring you the best 744 they could make.take careJane-Rachel

Although never having ridden in one I have seen them land at LHR so I know EXACTLY the appropriate pitch attitude for each phase of flaps courtesy of my binoculars. I will of course share this with Vangelis and the flight dynamicists ;-)I can also advise on the winds for each approach and how that affected landing, courtesy of poking a wet finger in the air as a precision instrument for gauging wind strength, direction and ambient temperature.I do apologise to the PMDG team however, as without an MD-11 DVD I am afraid I have no status as a systems expert ;-)Jane-Rachel

Although we do actually run all the figures first from performance data before going out to the aircraft :) The FMC figures are used as a crosscheck.The only problem is, of course, the practicality of making performance data sheets for every runway of every appropriate airfield available.. So simmers pretty much have to use the FMC..Jane-Rachel

Thanks Mark,Being PEGASUS kit, is the user manual out of sync with the current FMC build that is going through beta?I noticed in the IRS alignment section of the manual, referring to POS INIT pages there was no GPS reference (GPS is inherent to PEGASUS installations) that can be simply scratchpadded over to the SET IRS POS field? No obvious mention of GPS positions on POS REF page3? Is the aircraft not GPS equipped? (although GPS is integral to PEGASUS of course)There are other little things too such as not noticing an E/O SID mentioned on departure pages etc etc, Thanks in advance for any clarificationJane-Rachel

Hi Jonathan,Out of interest, could you please enlighten me as to what specific areas of the PMDG 737NG you consider "overrated", or is it the aircraft as a whole? Is that comment based upon your personal expertise with the real NG or simply a simmers view?I am not being critical of you, but genuinely quite curious to find out why you have that view of the aircraft.all the bestJane-Rachel