Matt2218

Moe - when you installed the LCF it should have dropped a .pdf file into the folder that has the rest of the documentation (in your Flight Simulator X / PMDG folder somewhere...I'm not at my sim computer right now).One thing to take note of is that you need to do all your loading and unloading in the same flightsim session if you want cargo to be in the hold when you open the tail at your destination. This is because it uses the regular freighter panel it doesn't "save" awareness of the cargo (other than its weight) in a saved flight.

Michael;Here is how I do it.Right click to rotate the IRS align switches...they will go directly up to "nav"...you need to left click each one once to set it to "align".The FMC should then prompt you to enter the IRS position. You may have to enter it twice.Then rotate the IRS switches to "NAV" and you should get the correct displays. If not using "instant align" wait until the counters reach zero before selecting "nav".Sorry if that is what you are doing already...all I could think of.

Interesting, I will have to experiment with that...my machine is a new i7 and runs FSX very well otherwise.

Update:Re-saving the bumpmap texture (PMDG748i_normal.dds or whatever it's called) with mipmaps definitely did solve the "lines" problem...Unfortunately on my system, adding mipmaps to the main 748i texture files resulted in blurriness so I went back to the regular ones. Which is interesting because mipped textures looked great on my 744s.

Ioan;He needs Photoshop to use that plugin, right?Richard;The main bump map for the -8i is the .dds texture found in the folder "texture.8inormal".Another option for converting textures is the MW graphics Image Converter tool (CONVIM) by the same guy who made DXTBMP...

You can also use the freeware utility called "DXTBMP" to open the .dds files and re-save them as described. I haven't gotten around to actually doing it yet :)

Stephen - figuring out these systems is hard enough as it is...so I'd say you are doing OK in my book.All the best for your continued recovery...

David;In my "Flight Simulator X" folder, I've granted full control to the following:SystemAdministratorsUsersTrusted InstallersAnd apparently that did the trick because my 'configurators' are able to edit the aircraft.cfg.

Dave -Sorry man, I am an idiot! Turns out I DO have the diagonals...just that since I got this widescreen monitor I've been flying VC so I didn't notice it in the few times I've had the 2D up.

Good afternoon David;Pretty frustrating. I had your exact same problem and solved it by doing what Kyle mentioned...but I think I gave full control to everything that I possibly could in that dialog box (owner, system, administrators, users), not just my username. I wasn't methodical at all so I can't tell you which one made the difference. If any of those don't have "full control" that would be the place to start.I'm not at my home computer right now, but if you haven't solved this by tonight I'll look at the permissions on my "Microsoft Flight Simulator X" folder and post what I've done.Matt

ATI must have resolved this problem on the newer cards or drivers. I had this pixel issue with a previous rig but not my new one.

This should be a sticky called "Read This First"...Running as Administrator by itself doesn't cut it!

Robbie -Based on my limited understanding of the FMC, I don't think you did anything wrong in programming other than ask a heavy A/C to climb too fast. It's telling you that you can't do FL360 right away...when some fuel burns off you might be able to step climb higher (check the VNAV pages for that info).If I'm off on this somebody else chime in!

What can I say...I guess I've got a talent for unintentionally finding (and sometimes being) the "Hidden Flaw" in perfectly functional systems :( LOL I hand fly a lot and prefer the dual cue FD - so I really appreciate everyone's efforts on this! Thanks -Matt

Thanks for asking this question Dugald...I'd been wondering about that one too.

Jon, Kyle - Many, many thanks for investigating this with me. Sorry if my persistence was irritating. Case closed!Have a great week...Matt

Hey Collin -Sounds to me like the problem is that you left the "override pumps" for the inner wing tanks on too long. The fuel is supposed to burn center first, then inner tanks until the fuel in tanks 1-4 is equal, and then "tank to engine" for the remainder of the flight. The EICAS will prompt you when to go "tank/eng" but if you don't turn off the override pumps it will use the fuel in those inner tanks until they are dry. Not what you want. Fortunately you still had your crossfeeds open so tanks 1 and 4 continued to feed engines 2 and 3 or you would have flamed out.Chapter 11 of the manual has a really good description of how to configure the valves at the start of your flight, and what you need to do in flight. It's actually pretty well automated. The EICAS fuel page has a great display of what is going on also. As Eric said, all the pilot needs to do is hit the right switches at the beginning of the flight and then turn pumps/crossfeeds off when prompted by the EICAS.On a side note, the system really is pretty cool. When you select takeoff flaps, it temporarily opens two other crossfeeds so that the center tanks feed engines 1 and 4 and wing tanks feed 2 and 3 (for redundancy in case of a problem). After takeoff it automatically goes back to feeding all from the center tanks.Not sure about the APU, I'd have to tinker around in the sim to replicate that...Regarding the autobrakes, I have the same problem. It's become a habit now to move my virtual hand from the gear lever to the autobrakes switch...

Gents;Here is some video that illustrates the difference between FS9 and FSX (mine):This is in FS9. Note at around 1:25 the pilot turns right toward the runway and the needle deflects about halfway between the center square and the side bracket. Here's a closeup, sorry it is so grainy but the video is old: That's quite a bit more than what I am seeing in FSX. My needle just rests against the left side of the square in this situation like in this video: (look around minute 3:00)And in this popup from my system:I think something has changed. Not huge, but it makes a difference when you're using the FD. Thanks for reading -

Thank you for that document Kyle.Check out figure 2 on page 3:My PMDG FD never looks like that. I don't get even half the amount of deflection shown there, ever. On an older youtube video of a PMDG 744 (in FS9) making the Kai Tak IGS approach, when they turned right the needle deflected to the left quite a bit more than I have ever seen in my sim. Makes me wonder if something about FSX+Acceleration and/or the Windows7 system is limiting the needle's travel.Either way I can personally live with what I have at this point, but the sim is so good it would be worth fixing if it is broken.

I really can't believe how you talk to people on here.I appreciate you and Jan posting the videos, but they didn't answer my question. In yours, the autopilot was flying the aircraft, and in Jan's the pilot kept the needle centered so well that it didn't show me how much the needle would move if the pilot WASN'T flying well.All I wanted to know was how much should the needle actually be moving to tell somebody he needs to do something? The problem I was having was that I was unable to perceive the need to make small corrections because the needle barely moved - like a needle's width at a time to tell me a five degree bank was needed. The result was that I was all over the place. And as you have seen two other guys have said that it doesn't look quite right to them.This was in contrast to other payware aircraft I have flown and seen in videos, so I figured I would ask here. My hope was that somebody would simply say "Yep, mine is like that too - you get used to it"...or better yet someone from the PMDG staff would say "Mine is like that too, and that's how it is supposed to work per our 744 test pilot." Instead I got a condescending Human Factors lecture, accused of reading the roll needle as a course deviation indicator, and a questionably accurate description of roll-needle operation from you.This thread started out so simple and turned into a complete Charlie Foxtrot. I'm really sorry I even asked the question at this point. The funny part is that after flying a bunch of approaches with this needle I've gotten good at using it and I kind of like it. I hope it is realistic.

Paul;There's no problem flying approaches at any bank limit setting if you keep the needle centered.The issue I raised was that the needle doesn't have as much of a range of motion from side to side compared to the PMDG MD11, Leonardo Maddog, QW 757, Capt Sim 767 (some I own and others I've seen in videos)...so it isn't as obvious when a correction is required from the pilot. If you look at the images I've posted in this thread that's about all the deflection I've seen.I just wanted to know whether or not that was correct. Some say it is, and others say it isn't.At this point I've gotten pretty good at flying with this FD so I'm good to go either way. Thankfully my eyes are still good enough to detect a needle's width of change because that's all ya get most of the time :)

I'm sorry you feel that way Kyle, not my intent. After all, I did say "I'm not sure..."I was responding to this: As compared to this: Based on my study prior to this thread, experience with other simulated aircraft, and Jon Bunting's responses, I don't believe yours to be an accurate description. Yes, you aim the nose at the pitch bar (as you would aim at a single cue), but you're really not pointing your nose at the roll bar. You're rolling the aircraft to match a bank angle calculated by the APFD system. The roll bar is centered when you are at the correct bank angle, and the amount of deflection from center is based on how different your current bank angle is from that which is being commanded by the APFD, not the roll rate required to get there. To me this seems fundamentally different from what you were saying, and moots a lot of the human factors concern that you were describing (ie the pilot rolling at an excessive rate to achieve the required bank angle).If I'm wrong, or if we're in violent agreement, then "great"...I don't care who has the better handle on the dual cue roll needle. I just want my doubts confirmed or denied by somebody who has access to the real thing. So unless you are a 744 pilot then I think it's best we wait for Jon Bunting or others to weigh in on whether or not the PMDG is behaving correctly.The fact that we've got a couple of folks who claim to be jet pilots saying that this sim's APFD is different from their experience tells me that it is worth investigating. Have a good night -

Thanks for weighing in on this Ian. Good to know that I'm not completely crazy.I flew a few more approaches last night and found that if I selected the big "popup" window I could follow the cues to a favorable position at "minimums", but still found that I could deviate pretty far from the commanded bank angle without a large needle indication.

Very interested to know whether your rig matches my screenshots, and if that is normal or not.I have no doubt at all that you/PMDG got this thing locked on when it was developed, but with all the changes in FSX and computer systems I could see it throwing off this gauge over time. Much appreciated, Jon - thank you.

LOL, thanks Jon.I'm a little slow, so are you saying that PMDG's needle should be moving more than it does, or that what I'm seeing is how it is in the real world? Again, the most deflection I've ever seen is shown in the first post of the thread.If so, it's pretty tricky to use...but I guess that's why you guys get the big bucks. And apologies for not knowing who you were when I 'validated' your understanding of the roll needle. :( Happiest of New Years to you...