Sigmar

Hi everybody, good (long term) news since I just discontinued using FSX for good and changed over to X-Plane 10.30 (64 bit). I did enjoy sim-flying PMDGs products but FSX as a platform has reached the end of its lifetime. I've had enough fighting its many bugs ... For now I shall fly KingAir, CRJ, 757 and PSX (the successor of my old favourite 747 sim, coupled to X-Plane) until 737NGX and 777 become available for X-Plane. Happy landings Sigmar (LOWL/LNZ, Austria)

Oops, sorry ... I stand corrected, as I was fooled by the shorter range compared to the PAX version. So we have "our" bird now flying commercially. Sigmar Stadlmeier

Lufthansa Cargo just received its first 777 freighter. It will fly its first commercial mission on 19 November to JFK. Although it is not the long-range version, at least our Lufthansa Cargo livery will be flying soon. See mor details on the LH Cargo homepage: http://lufthansa-cargo.com/de_de/mainnav/unternehmen/boeing-777/ Happy landings! Sigmar Stadlmeier (LOWL / LNZ)

Hi, fellow 777 captains, I get 60 fps external view, 30-35 fps Cockpit view, no freezes, no stutters, no nothing, just smooth operation (and the well-known FSX issue of the PFD/MFD display freezes when out of range of a control tower can be rectified by switching to the next cockpit view with *A* and returning to the previous one with *SHIFT*+*A*). Please find enclosed my system details plus the settings which seem to work best on my system (which does not mean that they will work on yours.. any hints on what might work better still are appreciated, but this does a decent job already) : Hardware = ASUS P7P55D QuadCore, 8 GB RAM, nVidia GTX570 graphics (driver version 311.06), TerraTec Aureon 5.1 PCI Sound (ASUS on-board high definition Sound disabled in BIOS) OS = Win7/64bit FSX.cfg: HIGHMEMFIX=1, Usepools=1, RejectThreshold=262144, Poolsize=2097152 FSX settings scenery resolution 19m, scenery detail 1m, water low 2.x, cloud range 80 nm, traffic (air/road/boats etc) 10%, scenery complexity very dense, autogen normal nVidia Inspector Settings: AA 8xS, Anisotropic user-defined/off, anisotropic filtering 16x, neg LOD bias CLAMP, framerate limiter 60 fps, VSync force ON To sum up: performance similar to 737NGX and significantly more stable than MD11. Very well done. Sigmar Stadlmeier

+1 @Gregory: OS's 777 are 777-200 ER (Extended range) and are doing fine :-) Data and Image Gallery available at www.austrian.com --> Our fleet --> 777 ... Sigmar Stadlmeier (LOWL / LNZ)

+1 Thanks to everybody at PMDG, including developers and beta testers. Sigmar Stadlmeier (LOWL/LNZ)

(panel.cfg) That was the one I could not remember until I was back at my Sim PC -- John was faster :-) Good to hear your display is ok now. Happy Landings Sigmar Stadlmeier

Hi Alvaro, this may be obvious ... but have you selected and checked the proper resolution in your FSX settings to match your monitor? I once had an issue with FSX reverting to some default setting after I made some changes. Which graphics card do you use? (I am not at my sim PC right now; perhaps I can help once I return to it). Sigmar Stadlmeier

Hello, fellow captains, while some of us may be impatient, I still prefer a thoroughly tested product over one which is released prematurely... I closely followed the discussions both in the official (producer) and unofficial (AVSIM) forums on the Dash 8 recently released by Majestic, and what I saw confirmes what I had been suspecting. I just did a complete reinstall of my whole system (OS, software environment, FSX, aircraft...) because after installing that very product plus its first update I just could not complete any flight anymore (both hangs and sound-related CTD's, even with J41 which had never done that before). It worked before, it no longer did afterwards... the facts speak for themselves. Now, after spending one weekend, J41, 737NGX and MD11 are fine again. I am not blaming Majestic here, it might have been due to several leftovers from aircraft previously installed and un-installed again, but still... So I shall wait patiently until a mature 777 is released which does not mess up my system. Happy landings (and no CTDs... :-) Sigmar Stadlmeier (LOWL/Austria, J41/737NGX/MD11 and some A2A warbirds on the sim; PPL, 700 hrs and 1050 missions in real life; ASUS P7P55D, 8 GB RAM, nVidia GTX 560, Win7/64)

Update 4 April 2013: They are history. OS's last 737-800 (still in old NG colours) was retired. For those who can read German, see the report on http://www.austrianwings.info/2013/04/fotobericht-von-der-ausflottung-der-letzten-aua-boeing-737/ -- and those who do not may still enjoy the photos. Happy landings Sigmar Stadlmeier

Sorry, my reply is somewhat late ... very well said, Edoardo, this echoes what I have been thinking over the past year or so. As XPlane is moving toward a 64bit version, the PMDG 777 will be definitely the last addition to my FSX, and it will be so only because of PMDGs quality standards, and in no way due to those of FSX. I have not forgotten the many hours wasted on trouble-shooting (inter alia) the MD11 - troubles resulting mainly from FSX's many flaws under current OS's. The next major change will be the change of the simulator platform, and it will be from FSX to XPlane, and once PMDG starts releasing products for XPlane that change will happen soon. Sigmar Stadlmeier (home-based in LOWL/LNZ, Austria)

Nice LOWI approach indeed ... just in case anybody not familiar with LOWI wants to see the real thing: (Boeing 767 -- yes, seven-six-seven, of now defunct Lauda Air, IATA code NG) (737, ex-NG, as seen from the ground) Enjoy! Sigmar Stadlmeier (home-based at LOWL; never visited LOWI with anything larger than a DA40 in real life)

Hi, fellow simpilots,as an Austrian I cannot help sharing some images of the DC6B of the Flying Bulls with you. Check out their website www.flyingbulls.com and see their fleet (includes a B25, as well as an F4U Corsair and a P38!). The following images were taken in 2005 and 2009 at the traditional "AirPower" show, held at Zeltweg Airbase (LOXZ) every other year. Enjoy (just in case someone needs some inspiration for a livery...)Sigmar Stadlmeier(home-based at LOWL & occasional visitor to LOWS, where the Bulls are based)

Most interesting ... just "returned" from LTBA to LOWW, hit "pause" at some stage (to pick up my daughter at the nearby train station...) and continued thereafter. Found some strange indications on both the LEGS and PROG pages of FMC: Last waypoint indicated proper ATA, whereas next waypoint indicated a wholly unrealistic ETA (the 737 just does not need 8 hrs to cover 80 NM). Just look at the images provided: The 91 miles from VADEN to GOL (=Golyama) VOR cannot possibly take 8 hrs + ... and voila, once we pass GOL VOR, we see an ATA at GOL VOR of 1246 (UTC), rather than the unrealistic ETA of 2034 predicted before ... and so it went on and on, until a perfect autoland (both A/Ps engaged) at LOWW. Any ideas ... Ryan...?Sigmar Stadlmeier

Hi, fellow 737 sim pilots,bad news for those of you who like to fly the NGX in OS (Austrian Airlines) livery: Under their current restructuring efforts, OS has announced that its short-to-medium haul fleet will become Airbus-only. The 737s (which had all been inherited when Lauda Air was taken over by Austrian) will be replaced. Then both the OS and NG liveries on the -600, -700 and -800 will be history... I shall miss them in real life (I was actually on board OE-LNO once, on a flight to LDDU!) and shall continue to use them in the sim.RegardsSigmar StadlmeierLOWL (Linz/Austria)

Hi, Guillaume, Ryan and William,just for troubleshooting purposes: In my case it certainly was not an unusual ISA deviation - I did what I always do, usually roughly setting up FSX with the weather outside my window after consulting aviation weather charts by Austrocontrol for winds (I have a user account, as I do not only fly a sim :( ) and entered the required data into the FMC. The problem described by William happened once only, went away after a reinstall of the PMDG installer files (800/900, then SP1 for 600/700 compatibility, then 600/700, then straight to SP1c) and has not come back. I did a sim flight yesterday (LOWW-LTBA), deliberately changing weather en route and making the relevant entries in the FMC, and the ETA predicitions remained stable, made sense and were very accurate.Happy landingsSigmar Stadlmeier

Hi, William,see my posting under http://forum.avsim.n...1c/page__st__50 In my case, consecutive updates seem to have corrupted my 737NGX installation. Uninstalled and re-installed, with just SP1c (the updates are comprehensive rather than incremental). No guarantee that this will work for you; it did, however, for me.RegardsSigmar StadlmeierLOWL, Austria

Hi everybody,I had two strange issues (both resolved):First, after some 15 minutes, i.e. during the final stages of climb to cruise altitude, the autopilot disconnected... I re-engaged it, and it disconnected again after some minutes, and so it went on and on ... I've seen this before, both with 737 and the LevelD-767, and usually it was due to a runaway elevator trim (could see the trim wheel moving, even with Yoke disabled, so certainly no erratic hardware input!) which occurred when something went wrong with loading or setting up a flight. This time I had it in three consecutive -- and different -- flights (and this has never occurred before).Second, on the last of these three flights (out of LOWI, by the way) the FMC went crazy and could not determine ETA: Both in the top right hand corner of MFD and on the LEGS page the numbers were fluctuating wildly from anything between 0600 and 2200...I decided to un-install completely and re-installed, but without SP1b and went straight to SP1c, as the updates are comprehensive rather than incremental. Both issues are gone now, and the final test flight LOWI-EDDT was smooth, all the way to an autoland at EDDT (RWY 26R). On some systems there may be conflicts between consecutive updates. Has anybody ever seen something similar?My specs are: ASUS QuadCore processor, 8 GB RAM, nVidia 480 graphics, Win 7 (64), FSX SP1+2 (no acceleration), no other add-ons running while flying the 737NGX; Saitek yoke, throttle and pedals.Happy landings!Sigmar Stadlmeier (home-based at LOWL)

Hi, Kenny and Panos,sometimes the track wanted by the crew may be unavailable, or in particular the cruising level they want is unavailable (due to other traffic already assigned there), so it is a choice between taking the penalty (in terms of fuel consumption) of a lower cruise level on the desired track or the desired cruise level on a different (and perhaps slightly longer) track. FMS helps ... crews program both routes, enter the given/expected wind conditions, compare the fuel estimates given by the FMC and make their choice accordingly (... confirmed by a friend of mine who flies 767; must be very much the same with the MD11).Sigmar Stadlmeier

Hi Kai,it's always a balance ... it was 18 months after initial purchase, and it was entirely my fault not to verify the backup in time. Read PMDG's standard terms of contract... that's life.Sigmar Stadlmeier

Just had to reinstall MD11 and found my backup installer to be corrupted (most likely due to bad data medium) ... bought extended download service, submitted a ticket with all previous information concerning previous order ID etc ... Mr. Paul Gollnick, Manager Customer Support, responded within a few hours (despite the time zone difference between PMDG and good old Europe), reactivated my download URL, and everything worked perfectly, MD11 being back on my system now. Thank you & very well done, everybody at PMDG.Sigmar Stadlmeier

... not just to delivering a fantastic simulation (certainly much more than simply a game) but also to providing a program which really takes into account the many weaknesses of FSX under various operating systems. A while ago I had strongly complained about MD11 not taking these into account at all (thus requiring the user to become half of a software engineer...), so now I owe a big *thanks* and *applause* to all developers and testers for getting it right this time. It certainly was worth the waiting. This is one simulation which can claim to live up to - if not excel - the standards once set by PS1 (744) many years ago. I just finished a round-trip LOWL-LGIR-LOWL with OE-LNQ, with no issues at all and very acceptable performance and frame rates, thanks to *******' instructions for fine-tuning FSX. Sigmar(PPL & ground instructor air law in a real life FTO) System specs: ASUS P7P55D, 8 GB RAM, nVidia GTX275 (with recent drivers --> important!), Saitek yoke, pedals and throttle quadrant; OS = Win7 64bit, FSX SP 1 and 2fsx.cfg: HIGHMEMFIX=1 applied, sound quality reduced to minimum; FSX scenery water effects reduced to 1.x (caused system hangs with MD11 on longer overwater flights) Some additional hints after working through PMDG's instructions for setting up FSX:On lower performing systems, texture_max_load = 4096 may cause problems. The default =1024 seems quite acceptable even in VC.Wide_view_aspect=true is only advisable for 16:9 screens. On 16:10 screens (such as mine), =false gives a better overall image, if zoomed properly.

It also happens to the original :( ... had messed up my 747-400 installation, reinstalled plus added my favourite 744 liveries, and that reinstall affected the graphics for the MD11 cockpit screens. I suspect it was due to the installer procedures of the Aerosoft CD I got my 744 with (always insists on adding some C++ stuff which had already been there). A reinstall of the MD11 cleared the issue (that is what was recommended to me some time ago as the proper installation sequence ... 744 first, then MD11).Sigmar

Here are the results, ladies and gentlemen, and they are remarkable ... disabled the sound chip on the ASUS P7P55D board, and replaced it by a cheap Terratec Aureon 5.1 PCI sound card ... and NO ISSUES AT ALL, not even with the PMDG MD11 which I reactivated just to test it with this setup. The issue is definitely with the interaction of the graphics card (in my case, nVidia GTX275) and the mainboard hardware. Even standard keyboard commands such as CTRL-TAB work now as they were supposed to - How come that one of the major software developers produces a sim, how come that one of the major developers of payware add-ons, developes pieces of high-end software which definitely malfunction when run on state-of-the art-mainboards, sold by the thousands to paying customers?! Where are the beta testers here?! Anyway, FSX now works, even with LevelD767 and PMDG MD11 (and always did with PMDG 744X), under the setup described above. Half a year of agony and wasted time has come to a good end. I hope this is useful to some fellow simmer.Yours respectfullyDr. Sigmar Stadlmeier

I stand corrected again ... just managed to reproduce the problem with the SimCheck A300 on a trip LSZH-LGRP (Zurich-Rhodos). FSX hung over Northern Italy, I had to go to the task manager by hitting CTRL ALT DEL, closed down a few processes, including one which was related to sound ... and FSX came back to life and continued, although without sound. Again: The problem was most likely to occur with the PMDG MD11, occasionally with LevelD767, very rarely with SimCheck A300 and - amazingly - still never with the Queen, PMDG 744X. The problem sure is sound-related, and some aircraft are more likely to run into it than others. Next I shall try to 1) identify the process responsible for the problem and 2) try to disable the (rather high-end) on-board sound and run FSX on a cheap soundcard in telephone quality. Will report back when results are available.Sigmar Stadlmeier