Somebody_Else

If you want another free resource to help route plan and you intend to fly in in/out of the UK then may I recommend the UK AIP Standard Route Document (SRD). It lists the approved ATC routes and STAR's between most UK airfields sorted by Departure aerodrome or UK entry point. It's available near the bottom of the menu at http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/public/index.php%3Foption=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=165&Itemid=3.html I use it in conjunction with PFPX to ensure the UK portion is as accurate as it can be.

Que sera, sera Whatever will be, will be The future's not ours to see Que sera, sera

Saw/heard the VC-10 for the last time today as the RAF are decommissioning them to be replaced by the A330 based Voyager ( :blink: ). They don't make them like that any more. Oh and to join in on the 747...ugly? Crazy talk! Can we not ban everyone who hold this belief?

Crikey, I hadn't thought of it like that...I'll end up doing the same. Grrrr! I hate to think about the total amount of money I've spent in the last decade on this game, hobby, addiction, madness?

Have you read the many stickies on the subject? One in here and more indepth one at the top of the PMDG General forum (http://forum.avsim.net/topic/418314-04sep13-you-have-an-order-problem-read-me/) explaining what went wrong? The only way you will get the support you need is through the ticket system, posting on the forum and facebook will get you nowhere other than being pointed to the sticky.

Introduction manual page 52 will help.

From the introduction manual, section 'THE PMDG 777-200LR/F DIDN’T DO WHAT YOU EXPECTED?': Q) I turned off the autopilot, but I can’t silence the alarm: A) You need to press the autopilot disconnect button on your joystick (or the Z key) twice in order to silence the alarm. Make the first press, wait a second or two and then press it again. If you double-press too fast, it won’t silence. Always use the disconnect button, don’t use the disconnect “bar” on the MCP – you’ll have the siren constantly going off if you do. On aircraft with the RESETTABLE SIREN option set to NO, pressing the master warning button on the glareshield will not stop the alarm

Can you be more specfic with what you are asking?

Nah, I'll just buy it, install it then sit and look at it.

Indeed. Though it's a conversation I'm not comfortable having in a public forum.

Robin, I don't disagree with you but my point is what has led the aviation community down this track and that is automation and the failure to realise the impact it has on us humans. You said it yourself: Less emphasis on automation and more emphasis on flying. That is the key and sadly that is what is not happening. Some companies own SOPs seem to favour the machine over the human. I know of one big company out there that instructs their pilots to engage the a/p at about 500' AGL and if they'd don't they better had a good reason for doing so. The company concerned sees that it is the most efficient way to run their aircraft but do they realise what it is doing to the guys in charge of the thing the moment the machine spits its dummy out. If it's not addressed correctly then I can see this becoming the number 1 risk factor (if it's not already) and hence why I am referencing the incidents. Airbus have had this battle almost from the get-go with the A320 series, the air show crash. Though "LESS emphasis on automation, MORE emphasis on manual flying skills" does not appear to be the way the future is going.

Talk about thread creep we've gone from Engelbert Humperdinck to Queen.

Well that's an interesting thing to bring up, the indication was only wrong for a short time due the icing of the pitot tube and the a/p dropping out due to airspeed inconsistencies..it was the what happened afterwards that resulted in the very sad outcome. Though this along with other high profile incidents (737-8 at EHAM, the 777 at SFO etc) should be pointing out the huge issue of humans & machines working together. Work needs to be done to guard people from these kind of events happening again.

Here in the UK we are in the process of decommissioning the en-route NDBs a bunch where switched off in 2011, though for some reason, I've been to lazy not to read up on, they seemed to have stalled. We have SIDS (EGBB,EGNX) that are based/end on NDBs but as the conversation has gone it is rather ridiculous as they are very outdated and in modern airliners it's becoming harder and harder to find the ADF in the first place! Now, I don't think we'd be in a hurry to decommission VOR's. They are the basis of intersections, holds, landing procedures etc etc. ATM is very slow on the uptake of new technology and has to cater for the minimal navigation requirements. I think it will be a long time before GPS becomes a minimal requirement.

Yeah you're right but as PMDG are not modelling the 200ER from the start (and possibly not at all) they've included some paints that are fictional to represent the big airliners that fly T7s that would otherwise not appear in PMDGs first offering. As a BA fan and a member of BAV I'm very happy with this point of view (seeing as BA only really have the 300 via 787/A380 delay compensation and what not). :lol:

The pressure setting only matters when your are flying at the altitude concerned. The moment you are cleared to a new level then the setting can be changed on the proviso that: A: If the pilots level off before the transition level then they would need to ensure they re-select the altimeter setting Or B: I, as a controller, would reiterate the altimeter setting if I issued a new clearance to stop at an altitude. Now, this is my UK experience our transition levels are low (vary between 3,000 - 6,000), Europe is similar. Operating practice may be different in the states with 18,000ft transition level. Although the principle is no different.

I think he said because he was climbing above the transistion level. Alot of companies operating procedures dictate that as soon as they are cleared to a flight level the pilots should select the standard pressure setting.

Ah, that makes sense, I think we used to have similar phraseology for similar situations but it was done away with a few years ago. Cheers.

All reads very interesting, I'm sorry to read that you appear to have been mucked about a fair amount. I hope your end of contract doesn't mean your unemployed for too long. I'm a en-route controller in the UK and I'm working on some future ATM projects as well. Big period of change in our world over the next decade or so. Don't want to thread creep to much but one of the things I found interesting was when you where talking about approach controllers issuing instructions. It appears they have to inform the pilot of where they are when telling them what to do, eg "XXX123, 3NM SE of ABC, Do This". Do you know why? It seems a bit unnecessary, I would hope that the pilots should know where they are; I'd imagine contributes massively to RT congestion.

Take a screenshot?

Just to add to everyone else, thanks for the video...I'm currently in the 744 routing to KSEA from EGLL (thought I'd position myself in the hope the T7 isn't too far away ), so it's helped pass some time. Picked up a few tricks I've not used before with the FMC. If you don't mind the question, what do you currently do in the real world? I couldn't work out from your chatting if you where in ATC, or piloting or none of the above (I'm RW ATC so was just curious when you where talking about some of the US procedures)!

It's quite simple really. Jeppesen do not make products for flight simulator enthusiasts, their pricing reflects this fact. PMDG make products for flight simulator enthusiasts, their pricing reflects this fact. Lets be clear about this, I don't know how you have access to Jeppview but if I wanted to buy the European IFR electronic charts it would cost me nearly 1,800 EUR. I think you'd be hard pushed to find a non-pilot subscribing to this service. The two business models are different. Why should PMDG spend effort coding something that a minority of people will use that will erode their profits in the process? I assume you will still get to use your Jeppview EFB by whatever method you currently do, I guess a tablet.

TOPCAT will continue to exist, PFPX is a flight planner. When they first announced it they said that PFPX would take data from TOPCAT to include the information in it's briefing pack. However, some time ago they said that they where having difficulty with this, we'll have to wait and see. Everything that has been said about PFPX leads us to believe that it will be the most comprehensive tool of this sort seen so far.

I dream of the day that internet forum boards can be a haven of serenity and peace for their inhabitants. Sadly I think there's more chance of world peace breaking out.

I've created a .BAT file that deletes all the auto-save entries which I run once in a while...I can share the text if interested.