adamant365

Fair enough. Good answer Kyle. Same with Ollli... Although I probably will continue to take the shortcut and the realism and continue to use my iPhone timer to "alert" me when the next waypoint should be near by. I just thought it would be a good idea if there is anyone else like me out there who likes to keep track of fuel burned vs. planned but also needs to use time compression due to time constraints and would possibly like to know when the next reporting point is arriving. I don't know what it is...but I get a real kick out of logging the fuel and time at each waypoint like I saw in the Air Canada 777 DVD by justplanes and seeing how the simbrief numbers compare so well to the PMDG ones.

I'm with Mattias. I use simbrief.com. It is free, although you do have to create an account. It will even allow you to "activate" a navigraph.com AIRAC cycle so that the navdata you are using on their site stays up to date (needs a navigraph subscription, of course). I find the dispatch flight plan very nice indeed. I've said this before, but if you look at the Air Canada 777-300ER DVD by JustPlanes, you will see a point where the captain is logging fuel and time over each waypoint on a plain text nav log and then writing the fuel difference out to the side. The output nav pages from the simbrief plan is identical to this. I find it very engaging on the long haul flights to record my total time and fuel remaining at each waypoint I pass. I'm very impressed with how close the calculations from simbrief are compared to what I am actually seeing in the sim. The dispatch paperwork that simbrief supplies is very nice (in that dead-plain text just like the RW stuff kind of way).

Anyone else think this is a good idea? I can totally see everyone thinking I'm crazy here....

Dear PMDG, I really like the auto time compression feature. I don't know if this is possible or whether there would be demand for it, but would it be possible to have the sim play a "ding-dong" (like the "Cabin Ready" one) when within about 10 NM of a waypoint? The reason I ask is because I like to log fuel and time over each waypoint on my simbrief plan. However, on 5+ hour flights, I just have to use time compression. My current work around is to set a timer on my phone for the time until my next waypoint divided by the time compression value. However, this isn't exactly accurate since the sim may slow compression for wind shifts, temp changes, turbulence, etc. Of course, this would be an "option" in the TC options menu (maybe even with selectable distance to waypoint???) so those who don't want it wouldn't need it. I know it's not realistic, but then again, neither is the time compression to begin with.

Okay, now both of these paragraphs are what I try to achieve. In my entire simming days (back to glorious FS5), I have always had a tendency with big jets to kind of "pre-flare" at around 40-50 ft. I always got away with this until the PMDG MD11 came along and I found myself either floating or going 50..40..30..20..(*oh ######*)..10....bang, bounce, porpoise, etc. With the MD11 it takes a smooth full pull starting at 50ft to accomplish 100-150 fpm. Then the NGX happened and I started floating all over the place. I've found that starting a normal flare at 30 feet along with simultaneous reduction of power to idle gives the best results. This is very hard to do correctly though. I "cheat" a little if the runway is long enough and reduce VS to about 500 or so at the threshold then finish the flare starting at 20 in conjunction with idle reduction. This is much smoother and easier only if runway allows. I'm not afraid to touch down on the aiming bars at 200 fpm if it's somewhere like HOU or MDW though. As for the 777...it seems to very much need the "perfect" technique. Start a "preflare" at 50 feet and you'll float float float. It really takes a perfect 2-3 degree pitch up starting at exactly 30 feet to get an optimal touchdown profile. I do think the idle reduction starts late though as well. I remember when the NGX came out and everybody was up in arms about how hard it was to land and lo and behold, PMDG found an issue with the dynamics. I'm wondering if something needs to be tweaked with the T7 as well because it seems as if the power stays on forever when using the A/T as Boeing recommends.

Search AVSIM (or Google) for "PMDG S-Turns." What you find will have you fixed right up.

I had the exact same thing happen. The "problem" is actually a very cool feature and not a problem at all. You have to make sure your controller is exactly centered in order to trim in both directions. For example, if you are pulling back on the yoke, it won't let you use nose-down trim and vice versa. The computer is preventing you from being stupid and trimming in the opposite direction that you are pulling the yoke because obviously, that would very much compound an out of trim situation. In my case, I found that my lovely 3 year old daughter had messed with the "trim wheel" on my CH yoke making the software think I was constantly applying back pressure and therefore it wouldn't let me trim nose down.

And actually...I originally meant to reply to the OP's observation. To say my honest opinion...I find the behavior of this particular aircraft on approach to be very inconsistent. I find myself having a hard time maintaining a constant rate of descent on final. It just seems very "touchy" and weirdly enough, it seems to behave differently if I have an ILS tuned or not. I was performing the ILS29 to KOAK last night, and after I disconnected the A/P (left the AT on), I started to drift a little low on the glideslope. Well, without really making any further inputs, the nose came up a bit and my VS went from -800 to about -650. I have no idea why that would happen on it's own. The whole approach just seemed very not smooth. It didn't seem characteristic of a large passenger jet at all. Oh, and it had nothing to do with the weather, I already thought of that. On the contrary, today I flew a visual approach to KMSP (AP off AT on again) and it was silky smooth this time. No weird changes in pitch like I experienced at KOAK. Then, no matter what type of approach I fly, nailing a consistent flare path is very difficult. Sometimes I swear this aircraft tries to flare itself. Even with no wind or a constant light breeze, sometimes the flare is nice and easy, and sometimes, I end up floating down the runway. It's almost like the FBW just needs a little tuning or something...and trimming on approach is a whole other story. Very strange.

The first landing (Air China A330) in the second video was really quite bad actually. By that, I mean that even though the wheels touched the ground early on, watch how long the pilot holds the leading edge axles of the main bogies off the ground. That entire time, no spoilers are deploying and no braking is happening. That pilot must have eaten up at least 1000 feet from the start of the flare to when the spoilers actually deployed. Yes, it may have been "soft" but by no means was that good. (I deleted this paragraph because it was stupid...) My completely uneducated opinion is that instead of doing a quick flare starting at 10 feet - which requires EXACT timing to prevent a float or hard landing - you should aim for a more gentle flare starting at around 30 feet. That gives you just a little more time to adjust for a sudden gust, etc. And aim for about -100 to -150 fpm.

I just set the FSX default "Autothrottle (arm)" (Shift + R) to the #1 joystick button on my CH Yoke. It's pretty simple: 1. Go to FSX "Settings" then "Controls" option. 2. Click on "Buttons/Keys" 3. Filter by "Engines" in the dropdown menu. 4. Highlight the "Autothrottle (arm)" command and click "New Assignment" or "Change Assignment" 5. Press the button on your controller you want to assign to the A/T disarm to...I use the left index finger trigger on the yoke. 6. Click OK to save the command, then OK again to save the settings. I also defined the "Autothrottle engage (TOGA)" (default Ctrl + Shift + G) the same way except I use the left "toggle" switch on the right side of the yoke housing (technically button 6). Pressing this button downward activates TOGA so I don't have to click the clickspot on the MCP or do the keyboard command. Works nicely and is somewhat realistic in action. Oh, and don't be stupid like me....make SURE you have the "Repeat" slider all the way to the left on these key assignments so that a long key press doesn't multi-toggle the action.

I highly recommend checking out simbrief dot com. I used it for the first time today on DL80 (LAX to ATL) and the fuel predictions were PERFECT. I landed with 900 (yes 900) pounds more fuel than their planner said I would land with. It really creates quite the comprehensive dispatch briefing for you...NOTAMS, weather, and all. If you've seen the Air Canada 777-300ER video and recall the part where the captain was logging fuel burn vs. predicted on his paper briefing, this thing has an identical section. It was awesome following along with my flightplan and writing, +0.4, +0.4, +0.5, etc and seeing how close to the actual fuel burn my "briefing" was. Anyway, you do have to sign up but it is free. It can even use up-to-date navdata provided you have a navigraph subscription. I don't know where they get their calculation data from, but as long as you have the ZFW correct, the predictions are very accurate.

Doesn't work. I click the link and I just get a page full of gibberish. Right-click, Save As... yields an HTM file.

Interesting post...and I understand that using MAX thrust TO will burn less fuel, but is it worth it to put the extra wear on the engines? I think a GE90 runs upwards of $20 Million. I would think that not only would wear be higher at max thrust, but the risk of failure would be higher as well. Not to mention the fact that if you scare the bejeezus out of the pax by climbing out at a 25 degree deck angle all the time, they won't likely be customers for long. Then you're bankrupt and fuel burn doesn't really matter anymore...

I'm imagining a 777 with winglets that happen to each contain a CF6.... Wouldn't that be something

I had the aircraft configured properly for landing...spoilers armed, autobrake 1 (I was light), gear down, flaps 25, VREF was about 138 I think. I did float a bit so it's remotely possible the protection kicked in, but I didn't get any sort of annunciation that was the case so I don't think that's what happened. The same thing happened after I went around. Did another circuit and shortly after I touched down, GA was commanded. At that point the baby started crying so I had to pull eject handle (airline option). I've tried this twice since then and haven't had it happen again. One thing to note is I did perform an entire preflight with initialization, speeds, etc. I simply set my route to KATL to KATL with custom waypoints set up for a circuit and then do the rest of the preflight. The only possible thing I can think happen was a controller spike. At the time, I had "IN HOLD ONLY" set for my controller A/T override. I've since switched it to "NEVER." But I did have my throttle at idle. I have the NGX set the same way and have never had issues with spikes causing strange AT behavior. In fact, I think I have the only CH Yoke which literally never has spikes. Plus, I have a small null zone set at idle. I'm going to probably just have to go with this being a one-off occurrence. I haven't seen it since and now that I know the 777 doesn't have any "auto go-around" I'll have to assume it's something I did wrong or was a controller issue.

It got buried quickly... Does anyone know the answer to my question?

Quick question. Is there any sort of "Auto Go-Around" mode with the 777 A/T? I looked in the FCOM at the Automatic Flight section but couldn't find anything. Here's why I ask: I was doing some circuits at KATL the other day and I had the route set up to take off from 26L, fly ~3 NM past the departure end, make a 90 degree right turn, fly an 8NM base, make a right, fly a 12 NM downwind, make a right, fly base, make a right and then make a 12 NM final starting at the IF for 26R. While I was on final for 26R (about 5-6 NM out), I realized I had been given 26L for the approach so I sidestepped to 26L without changing the approach in the FMC/CDU from 26R. Well, my approach was relatively stable but landing was only OK. The A/T controlled thrust as desired...went to idle at ~25 ft., etc. I touched down once and bounced up to <1 foot (I don't think the MLG ever fully left the ground really) and the spoilers hadn't deployed yet. Before I could settle it in though, the A/T commanded TOGA and I was more or less forced to go around at that point. So, is this normal behavior? Is there ever any condition where the A/T would automatically command TOGA? I did have my controller throttle at idle from the FAF onward.

Read the intro guide..... It will tell you many useful things, particularly that even with BAT power, nothing will happen. You must apply some other power source first. If you hold down the MENU button on the CDU, it will come on so that you can connect the GPU.

But if he is given a "direct to" to one of the waypoints that doesn't exist in the STAR file, he should be able to enter that waypoint (as long as it exists in the fix file) at the top of the flight plan on the LEGS page and then line select the next waypoint in the sequence to right below that fix bypassing all the other fixes in the STAR.

The navdata that came with the 777 is up to date and does contain the fixes in question. DMxxx waypoints are definitely in the "Fixes" master file. You should be able to enter them directly in the LEGS page as standard waypoints. However, I noticed in the chart for EDDM, there are waypoints DM456 and DM426 that do NOT exist in the actual SIDSTAR procedure file for EDDM. However, those waypoints are in the master "fix" file so you should be able to add them individually by typing DM426 or DM456 and then line selecting them where you want on the legs page. Are you sure the EDDM chart is up to date? It has an EFF date in 2010 and last revision in 2012.

What's the FOM? Sorry for sounding dense, but I have FCOM v1 and v2, the FCTM, the intro manual, the tutorial, and the QRH. EDIT: Nevermind, I found it. FCOM v2, page 10.10.64 - 10.10.66. VERY cool feature.

Would you please elaborate on how it is one might do this? I looked in the FCOM and can't find how to do this.

Do a search for "S Turns" and I believe you will find a wealth of information on the subject as well as the solution. You can almost certainly blame your Wx engine for sudden changes and also the FSX turbulence effects.

No. Please read the intro. PMDG strongly discourage disabling services. Source: Intro manual page 11. In addition, the intro manual states that the 777 uses the same as, if not less than the amount of resources as other complex addons. Give a read to the intro manual, especially the sections that talk about FSX setup, VAS, etc. You may have large chunks of scenery loading every few minutes that is causing the pause.

I saw that little blurb there last night while reading the intro manual and was actually on my way here to post about it but I see you beat me to it KriVa. I had to read it three times to make sure I saw it right. I would be absolutely thrilled with a 200ER. Keep in mind though...even though it is committed to print now, don't be 100% convinced it's being done until it is announced either on Facebook, here at Avsim, or on their website. Although what encourages me most is the references to the "community" and how much influence we have on their operation. I think the "-200ER Poll" post that has been/was just might have been able to have influence....