lensman

Tom, We've never met but AVSIM has meant a great deal to me. To say I was stunned by your news is an understatement. I've been in tears for the last 30 minutes. The primary thing is to take whatever time you need to be with your family and friends. Everything else is a very distant second. I can state this because I was just diagnosed with cancer six days ago. Wow did my priorities change in a day. Thank you for AVSIM and everything you've done for our hobby. You are in my prayers, and Godspeed. dan davison

Just tried it again - yes, AT and AP are off, FDs off, flaps up, The plane will respond to F1/F2/F3/F4, but not the throttle on the joystick. Nose landing gear still doesn't turn, so I can't get off the main runway. Thanks for the hints, any other ideas? dan davison

Hi Peter and Pau, Yes, the autopilot is off -- that siren drives me crazy. I will double-check the auto-thrust: I'm 99.9% sure it's off. Thanks! dan davison

Hi All, I apologize for asking this, but what is the trick to getting a 777 steering after it lands? I remember this being asked after shortly after it was released, but a bunch of searches did not turn up the original thread. In brief, I land OK, slow to a high-speed turnoff, but the nose wheel doesn't turn. The throttles also don't work unless I use the F3 and F4 keys. The throttles will then move in the cockpit view and the plane will roll. The joystick will not turn the front wheels, though. The brakes are not on, taxi and landing lights are on, no smoke or overtemp from the tires, I know it's something simple, but I dunno what it is. Thanks for any help! dan davison There should be a signature here, but the way life is going, who knows.

This is great news. Plus, I haven't heard of "Circle Error Probable" since a couple decades ago at Los Alamos. I didn't know the term was still in use. I will not hit F5 every minute for the next 8440 (approximate) minutes. I will not hit F5 every minute for the next 8440 (approximate) minutes, I will not hit F5 every 8440 (approximate) minutes. I will not hit F5 .... dan "lensman" davison

We've not seen much of the interiors yet, but .... most importantly .... where is the PMDG cola? "Only 1,250 calories". :rolleyes: dan davison

From the PMDG web site: PMDG 737NGX Video Training by AoA Price $2,000,000.00 It's been this way for almost 2 months. Is this the airline price? That's not how much it costs on the AOA web site - I subscribed as soon as AOA announced they'd be making the training videos. dan "lensman" davison p.s. I would post a direct link to the PMDG and AOA sites for comparison but IIRC we're not allowed to do that on AVSIM. I just cut-and-pasted the above from the PMDG site. I don't know how to get rid of the link, otherwise I would.

True enough. I take it you've never had a tonic-clonic seizure. Good, and I hope it stays that way. Aside from physical damage (from the seizure) you lose your driver's license for 6 months in most states. Mine are myoclonic, but I still get the aura. I really liked the effect, it was just the speed that could cause problems. An amazing number of people find out the hard way, especially at dances, concerts, and driving in poorly lit tunnels. dan "lensman" davison

Hi all,I really like the "spinning" avatar and banners effect today (April 1, 2012). However, a gentle reminder is in order. Those of us with epilepsy or movement disorders can have seizures/tremors triggered by that kind of effect. I think they are rotating fast enough that it won't be a problem for most people, but I sure felt the beginnings of tremors (the "aura") start up the first time one started spinning. I figured out what was making the banners spin, so I can just look away, and there's no problem for me.I really like the effect, but you may want to warn people or really slow it down (yes, it loses the propeller feeling).Best wishes,dan "lensman" davison

I would have fallen for this if I hadn't watched the PMDG videos on YouTube yesterday. RR said the MD-11 was their most disappointing-selling project. Which makes no sense to me, because it is an awesome a/c and an awesome sim. Drive by KEWR before midnight and it's practically the only a/c visible (FedEx and UPS liveries).Anyone know why all the avatars and sig banners are rotating?Dan "lensman" Davison

Well, there are other reasons for needing 2D panels - readability for those of us with low vision. Vic & artists did a **superb** job on the NGX - in the 3D view all labels are readable, as are the popups. But, some're not visible from an angle. I'm not sure what EZCO is, but it sounds like it could solve the "I can't locate that switch from this angle, or this angle, or this angle" (if/when I can afford it).The main challenge is the center consoles. When I'm trying to change HUD settings, or NAV radio settings, I switch views and wind up looking at the door, floor, or ceiling for some reason. Then I have to pause, roll the mouse around to try to find the right view, switch back, and unpause. So much for immersion.There are still parts of the upper panel I haven't seen clearly (far upper left and far upper right) in 3D view, because of the angle. There must be some trick I haven't found yet, but I don't know what it is. (I use the posters in the Captain's kit instead).PMDG did a superb job on making everything readable in the NGX (except for the soda cans and the pogo stick!) so I don't have to use the 2D panels as much. In a competitor's 767 I can't make out switch and button labels in any view, with W7's built-in magnifier or third-party magnifiers).So I'm in the minority, and I'd have to give a -1 on the loss of 2D panels, although I understand why.

Awesome advice. I think I'll go with either the H60 or the Antec 620 for cooling and rearrange fans as superglide17 suggests. Reviews of the H60 and 620 both say they are easy to install, and YouTube videos and the installation manuals both seem relatively straightforward.The stock cooler is indeed firmly mounted, so the high temps aren't due to one of the clips working loose.@superglide17: do you know where I'd find instructions on replacing the Big Boy fan? I have a replacement already, but cannot figure out how to get the current one out (has 2 broken blades). I found 2 screws and 2 clips by comparing to the replacement fan. I can get the left side up (as seen from the front), and sort of get the right side clip loose, but can't figure out where to go from there. It looks like the metal top has to come off, but if there's a way, I don't have the visual acuity to see it. I asked Antec tech support and didn't get an answer I could understand (although the reply came after the microstroke which affected mostly language processing).Again, thank you both *very* much for the advice. I really want to get this fixed, because Tuesday is chemo day. I need something relatively mindless to do late that day and the next. FSX missions, with a few changes, are perfect.dan

Thanks for the quick reply. I do intend to overclock the processor when I get the machine stable. You're right-that's why I went for the "K". I've not reseated the fan but that's worth a try. Those Intel/AMD connectors come loose but usually it happens when the machine is moved or bumped.I'll check out the coolers you mention although I dread having to take everything apart again.Oddly enough, I've never had a noise problem with the case. I've had a hissing sound in my ears since a stroke and infection about a year ago, and the machines that keep me breathing make enough background noise that I've never heard the fans in the case.Thanks again,dan

Hi,My recently built gaming machine has strangely started overheating. Specs are in the signature. It had been running FSX in the 50C range, but after a complete reinstall of W7x64, FSX, and all my files, it runs FSX in the 70-85C range. Processor is i7-2600K, not overclocked. The case (Antec 900) has six fans, two 140 mm over the drive bays blowing in, one 140 mm on the side panel blowing in, one 200 mm on top blowing in, and two 140 mm (one on the PSU, one on the case) blowing out. There's also two fans on the Radeon 6950, blowing into the case, but the side fan blows cool air onto it. All are running as fast as they can. The stock Intel CPU cooler fan runs proportionally to the temp of the CPU. There were no hardware changes, no position-of-hardware changes, and no changes to the cabling. I'm not sure reversing the fans (to make a negative-pressure setup) would make any difference.The case does not have a cutout in the motherboard tray to install an aftermarket cooler. My vision is not that good, so I'd prefer to get a cooler that "plugs" into the board (ASUS P8X68-V-Pro) the way the stock cooler does. In looking at reviews, I've not seen a cooler that does that. I don't care whether it's air or liquid-cooled (although liquid sounds better at this point), I just need the part that contacts the CPU be of the "push-pin" Intel type.Any recommendations would be very welcome.Thanks in advance,dan "lensman19067" davison

What a disaster. The BIOS flashing went OK ... but completely destroyed the boot sector(s) of the W7 HDD. I tried half a dozen "repair" utilities (EasyBCD, testdisk, Paragon something-or-other, EBCD, various live CDs, and W7 "recovery". It would not even boot off the W7x64 DVD. I wound up having to reinstall everything. I had backups of my files, of course, but finding all the programs, blech. When HDD prices come down I'll get an extra HDD and make an image clone. I ran Microsoft Update four times before it was satisfied that I was updated on everything (OS, Office, whatever Silverlight is, but I did not let it update drivers: some were from 2006 (!)). I got those from the mfr's web site.Back to the original issues. The first was pausing, the second "fogging".Pausing: The fresh install of FSX+Acceleration still does the pausing. I set up Task manager, Process Explorer, and Process Monitor (separately) and was stunned by what happens. When FSX pauses, nothing else is increasing its I/O or CPU. FSX is literally being removed from memory. The working set goes from about 1.2GB to 24MB (that's not a typo). After it all "drains" out, it then reloads and after it gets ~75% of the way, the program resumes. virus scanning and Carbonite are turned off, Google Desktop and Windows Search are configured not to touch the SSD (which only has FSX). "Game Booster"-type programs are not in use, and FSUIPC is not loaded. It is as if the program is checkpointing itself, which would be a very nice feature, but I haven't seen that since CRAY OS days.Fogging: Remember, this is a fresh install of W7. When FSX pauses, if I click the mouse a couple times, it still fogs, but eventually (< 5 minutes) comes back. In these cases, FSX does *not* "drain" out of memory. Task Manager lists it as running, Process Explorer does not show any I/O (of any kind) and the working set size does not change. All FSX threads are in either Wait:I/O or Wait:Executive Something state. Now for the real special change: the "fogging" happens in any program, including the windows 7x64 desktop. Happens in Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Safari for Windows, Word 2010, Excel 2010, and while running installers. Unlike before re-installing everythingA new behavior: Now the machine runs hot (no I don't overclock). Previously, when running FSX, the temp might spike to the upper 60s, but run in the upper 50'sC. Now, all four cores happily run themselves into the lower 'sC. All temps monitored by RealTemp 3.0 and ASUS's monitoring utilities (AI Suite). No voltage/current changes, just the temp. (I am running the stock cooler: that will be the subject of another post). Leaving services alone, but killing all possible user processes (e.g. Dropbox, Carbonite, Google Desktop, search indexing, yada yada) does not alter the behavior. It happens with the PMDG 737NGX, the PMDG 747X/XF/LCF/8i/8F and the LDS 767.The case has six fans, two 140 mm over the drive bays blowing in, one 140 mm on the side panel blowing in, one 200 mm on top blowing in, and two 140 mm (one on the PSU, one on the case) blowing out. There's also two fans on the Radeon 6950, blowing into the case, but the side fan blows cool air onto it. All are running as fast as they can. The stock Intel CPU cooler fan runs proportionally to the temp of the CPU. I don't know what has changed that the temps are running so high.If you've read this far, thanks, and any advice/comments are welcome.dan "lensman19067" davison