GDex

Dan, I finally got around to re-flying LCLK-CYQB. I used the exact same flight plan as the first time. Flight distance: 4774 NM. Flight duration: 11:44 hrs (2nd time). Both times, I flew in real weather as introduced by Opus. Average wind at cruise altitude: 1st flight: 274°, 38 Kts. 2nd flight: 269°, 73 Kts. So the wind was pretty much from the same direction, but much stronger the 2nd time. With such a headwind, the 2nd flight took longer than the 1st. The “Auto Time Compression Going Wild” problem did not occur. There was no case of overshooting in turns. However there were 12 instances of abrupt speed/altitude changes. Each time, I paused the sim and recorded the time and distance from departure. All of these occurred at cruise altitude (FL320 initial, then FL340, then FL360). The first occurrence was at 1:25 hrs into the flight, then at varying intervals, however, there was a stretch of 2 hours where there was an instance every half-hour, +/- 2 minutes. After 8 hours in the flight, I had to pause the sim for about 4 hours. When I resumed the flight, it took about one hour before an instance happened, at 9:04 from departure. This was followed by 2 more instances at 9:33 and 9:46. After that, I was nearing the TOD point, so I went back to x1 and had no further instances; the flight completed without any other hitch. I don’t know if this data can be of any use to PMDG. I could make it available in an Excel spreadsheet if they are interested. My conclusion for the future is I plan to use x8, but if I run into problems, I will scale back to x4.

Dan, I had never heard of Gibbs rules (my TV watching is usually limited to news and hockey games). Read up on them and found them interesting. However, when I wrote that sentence, I did not mean it as an apology, but rather as in "I'm sorry I ate too much". You're probably right about x8. Since that first flight I referred to when I started the topic, I did another (SBGR to CYYZ) in x8 and had the same heading/altitude control in LNAV/VNAV mode problem, however no Auto Time Compression Going Wild problem. I will redo LCLK-CYQB in x8, but when it starts going funny, I'll reduce to x4. I'll post the outcome.

Robert I have checked the dlls in the dll folder under the PMDG folder, and in all of them, the read-only box was clear. I nevertheless ran again the SP1C update (although it gave me a message to the effect that I was reinstalling the same version). I will find out in my next flight if that worked and let you know one way or the other. Incidentally, my FSX program is located directly in the C drive, not in a program folder. When I install any EXE file, I start by turning off the UAC and my anti-virus. I felt that the first problem that I reported (Auto Time Compression Going Wild) was just a unique anomaly, but I thought I should report it anyways in case it could help someone in the future. Then in the subsequent exchange with Dan (he was very cordial and helpful), I mentioned this other problem (heading/altitude control in LNAV/VNAV mode) because I thought it might be related to the first problem, and it occurs on every flight. It was in the same post that I wrote “Nevertheless, it might be interesting for PMDG to investigate these issues and possibly improve their program in the future.” This statement is very different than “insisting that we "improve our program"”. It was just a suggestion. The fact that the problem kept occurring after the installation of SP1C led me to state “it certainly did not resolve the heading/altitude control in LNAV/VNAV mode issues when in x8”. It was not “delivering a dictum here on what you think we didn't do”. I just made a plain observation of what I saw. You mentioned “it might be more helpful to take a tone of cooperation” – that was my exact intent in making this post in the first place. I certainly did not expect such a blast in return. Now I am really sorry that I made this post. Regards

I do have SP1C installed, but it certainly did not resolve the heading/altitude control in LNAV/VNAV mode issues when in x8. I will do some testing during the holidays and let you know the outcome.

Hi Dan. Thanks for responding to my issue. Since the incident occurred, I have done only 1 flight on the T7 and this event did not occur. I would not know how to try to reproduce the event, since the aircraft was flying straight and level in cruise at x8 when it occurred; the wind was steady. My rig is described under my name in my posts. I believe it is sufficiently powerful to run the PMDG aircraft without any problem. I normally get FPS rates in the thirties. As I indicated, I am running Opus Software as weather engine, and it has a feature whereby the sim is first slowed back down to a steady x1 rate before the weather is injected, then raises the simulation rate back up to whatever it was before. I am wondering if there could be an interaction between this Opus action and the PMDG Auto Time Compression feature and the FSX Simulation Rate feature. In fact, do you know if the PMDG feature uses the FSX Simulation Rate feature or if it is independent? One thing I did notice on all my long T7 flights is the aircraft behaviour when running at x8. Initially, everything is smooth and normal. But when about ¾ of the way through the flight, I start getting sudden speed and/or altitude changes. It also starts being “sloppy” in turns: normally, it starts turning a bit before a waypoint and merges smoothly into the new direction. But at some point in the flight, again about ¾ of the way through the flight, it starts overshooting the turn, then overreacting the other way, does this a few times, and finally settles down in the desired direction. It looks like the program (FSX and/or the aircraft) is “getting tired” at the end of a long flight! If I fly in x1 those issues do not occur. Such behaviour was going on when the incident occurred. So I think the “going wild” incident might be related to the behaviour described in this paragraph. As you said, the solution is probably running at x4 instead of x8, and I’ll just have to choose shorter trips. Nevertheless, it might be interesting for PMDG to investigate these issues and possibly improve their program in the future.

Hi Lasse. Thanks for replying. The last update of my T7 was the SP1c done on 23 October 2014. I bought the original T7 on 20 Dec 2013, and installed SP1 on 22 July 2014. Looking at the development history in the text note that came with SP1c, I notice that I missed SP1b. Can that be an issue? Or does SP1c include SP1b?

Hello, someone read this topic please!! Gaétan Dextras

Strange thing happened to me yesterday. I was flying the B777-200LRX from LCLK (Larnaca, Cyprus) to CYQB (Quebec City), a 4,774 NM journey. I used Auto Time Compression at 8X (controlled by the chronometer switch) from the time I reached cruise altitude, and kept using it except for the step climbs. Everything went fine until I had about 550 NM to go. I then noticed several abrupt changes in speed and altitude even though the wind direction and speed were constant (I use Opus for weather interface). I went off and on Auto Time Compression a couple of times to stabilize things. Then, when I was about 450 NM from destination, the Auto Time Compression suddenly shot up to a ridiculous number like 128X or more. I immediately paused the flight, and turned the Auto Time Compression off using the FMC. However in the few seconds it took me to pause the flight, the plane went on right past the next waypoint (where it was supposed to do a 19° turn) and travelled about 200 NM. After I had stabilized the aircraft and got going again (without Auto Time Compression), it behaved as expected, i.e. it started turning back towards the waypoint it had bypassed. At this point, I intervened through the FMC and made it go direct to the next logical waypoint (bypassing 2 waypoints) and from then on, the flight carried on normally and I landed at destination without any further problems. As anyone ever run into that problem? Any ideas as to the cause? Gaétan Dextras

Kyle, I had not noticed it was a bookmarked PDF. Thanks for letting me know. On page numbering, I know it is a standard technical document numbering system, which goes back to the days of the typewriter, when you would not wish to retype 275 pages because you inserted a new page after page 2! However in the case of the Introduction Manual, it is standalone so I don't see the need for 0.00 which would imply there might be a 1.00 section further down. I just thought if PMDG decided to insert a ToC, it would be easier to do it without the 0.00 which repeats on every page of the document and is totally redundant. However it's no big deal. Gaetan

I have a suggestion for PMDG concerning the B777 Introduction Manual. This manual contains a huge amount of interesting and useful information. However, finding a specific piece of information is difficult due to the lack of a Table of Content. Presuming that the original version of this document is written in MS Word, it would be a cinch to use a Heading Style for all the headings in the document, and then create a clickable Table of Content from these styles. Then when you create the PDF version of the document, make sure the clickable feature is carried over onto the PDF version. This would make life much easier for the users, namely your customers. I know that it is possible to find specific information using the Acrobat “Find” feature, but it is much easier to access information directly from a table of content. In fact I am surprised that such a simple feature was not implemented a long time ago, coming from a company whose name includes the words “Precision Manuals”. Incidentally, if PMDG decides to implement my suggestion, I would also suggest changing the page numbering format from “0.00.XX” to just “XX”. The 0.00 string provides no useful information at all.

The 777 recommended specs state 16:9 or 16:10 monitor. Will it work with a 4:3 monitor? I run the 737NGX without any problem on this monitor, but if I remember well, in the settings, there is an option to select this ratio. Is there a similar option in the T7? Gaétan

Thanks all for your comments. CTRL+F sorts of work, by searching the page number such as NP.21.3. But in such an example, it will search successively through NP.21.31, NP.21.32, NP.21.33, …. until its gets to the actual page I am looking for (page 79 in the PDF page counter at the top). This is certainly more work and time than just clicking on a link. As a workaround, I have printed some of the TOC pages and written by hand the PDF page number next to those pages I was interested in. As for Kenny’s comment that hyperlinked manuals would be more expensive, I have difficulty believing this. If Boeing has produced hyperlinked manuals for RW pilots, that extra cost must have been absorbed in the B737 development costs; anyways it would micro infinitesimal compared to the cost of a single B737. I still would appreciate PMDG’s comments/answers on this subject.

Question to PMDG. In the 737 NGX PDF manuals, in the table of content, one cannot click on an item and jump to the correct page. So for example, looking for page NP.10.42 requires a lot of scrolling and searching. I know this is feasible since I have seen many PDF documents that offer this feature. Will the 777 manuals be built that way?

Question to PMDG. In the 737 NGX PDF manuals, in the table of content, one cannot click on an item and jump to the correct page. So for example, looking for page NP.10.42 requires a lot of scrolling and searching. I know this is feasible since I have seen many PDF documents that offer this feature. Will the 777 manuals be built that way? Gaétan

Thanks to all who have answered my questions. I have gone ahead and uninstalled/re-installed FSX, this time in C:\FSX, in accordance with all the provided recommendations (running as administrator, UAC and anti-virus off), and have installed the main add-ons (PMDG 747 & 737NGX), and continuing installing others. There is an outstanding issue. But first I remind you of the evolution of my situation: For the last 2 years I was using a borderline computer running Win 7 32-bits. On August 31, 2012 I acquired a new powerful machine running Win 7 64-bits, and I installed FSX in the default Program Files(x86) folder. In the last couple of days, I reinstalled FSX in C:\FSX. When FSX was installed in the default Program Files (x86) folder, and I loaded a PMDG aircraft flight previously saved when I was using a Win 32-bit computer, the reloaded flight was not correct. For example, flaps were up when they should have been down, the auto-brake switch was off when it should have been at RTO, and the FMC data and flight plan were completely cleared from the FMC. After re-installing FSX in C:\FSX, the same thing happens with the B737, but with the B747 it is even worse: all the displays (PFD, ND) are black. On the other hand, I created a totally new flight with the 747 and saved it, and when I reloaded it, everything was fine. This issue does not occur with default FSX aircraft. So I can live with this issue, but I am just curious to know why this happens. Can this be due to differences between the 32-bit and the 64-bit systems? Incidentally, turning the UAC off is fine while running FSX, but outside of that it causes annoying side effects, the biggest being that when I go on the site of my bank or other financial institutions, I have to re-enter the 12 digit account number each time, whereas if UAC is set at the default position, the system remembers the account number and automatically enters it in the appropriate field.