Morganw487

Yes there were 777 pilots on the team; invaluable no doubt. But when your average, ordinary customer who sees the problems 70% of us have is also a 777 pilot, it needs to be evaluated. I'm not saying anything is wrong 100%; I don't have the technical experience to make that call. But when a 777 pilot purchases it and has trouble out of the gate like most of us, we need to hear from the team. If it is correct, which is debatable, we need to know. If not we need to know also.

It seems if a 777 pilot doesn't agree with trim/FBW logic, it needs to be evaluated by the team or explained if we are erroneously operating the plane. I noticed right away trying to hand fly that my inputs were unusual; I was over controlling because too little is required to fly her. In 777 landing videos I have seen a good exercise of trim; with the PMDG 777, doing the same results in unstable pitch control. As a Cessna pilot, I wasn't sure if this was accurate, but I can see that it is not entirely if a RW 777 pilot doesn't approve. Still a great bird though.

Although understandable to a reasonable extent, I have never seen such enthusiasm for release. By that I mean the team is getting another good chuckle at the "hidden" clues they must have forgotten about placing. Regardless, it is days out; you cannot rush excellence. It will come out when it comes out, and they said they would let us know directly before.

This is directed more towards beta testers at PMDG, but if anyone can attest to the following question feel free to interject. What weather engine(s) does PMDG use, and what weather engines have been tested with the 777? I am becoming frustrated with using REX Essentials Plus; I gave it another chance after the developers updated the altimeter bug. However, I still see screen flashes, wind shifts, and honestly a complete lack of smooth frontal and general weather transitions. With the REX Wx engine, the only weather changes are instantaneous upon loading of new weather data, which is highly unrealistic. I am split, however, between purchasing ASE 2012 or Opus. I have seen great results from both programs in videos, but if one performs better with the 777 or is recommended by PMDG, obviously that is the one I will go with. Other general weather engine comments or suggestions are welcome. Morgan Wiley

I have no doubt I could do it. I really do not have the time this time of year, and I would still rather have the pros handle it. And this place has all the benefits of building it without me actually building it. It also allows me to upgrade it myself in the future and gives me the ability to run windows 7.

Ok guys, I appreciate the help and comments. I have come up with a Cyberpower PC of equivalent price, $1100 with shipping and Home and Student 13'. What do we think now? BASE_PRICE: [+1150] CAS: Corsair Carbide Series 200R Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ USB 3.0 [-1] CASUPGRADE: None CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive [-34] (BLACK COLOR) CD2: None COOLANT: Standard Coolant CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-4670K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1150 (All Venom OC Certified) [-104] CS_FAN: Default case fans ENGRAVING: None FA_HDD: None FAN: * CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo Gaming Cooling Fan [+4] GLASSES: None HDD: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [-23] (Single Drive) MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory [-59] (Corsair or Major Brand) MOTHERBOARD: [CrossFireX] MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate Intel Z87 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ Military Class 4, OC Genie II, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, HDMI, 2 Gen3 PCIe x16, 2x PCI-e & 2 PCI (Pro OC Certified) NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium [+0] (64-bit Edition) OVERCLOCK: Pro OC (Performance Overclock 10% or more) [+19] POWERSUPPLY: 500 Watts - Corsair CX500 V2 80 Plus Certified Power Supply [+10] RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT SOFT1: Microsoft® Office® 2013 Home and Student (Word, Excel, PowerPoint + OneNote) [+119] SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+40] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

And looking around, I am not finding many problems with flight simulator on windows 8. I know it has a lot of other interface issues, but if flight simulator works fine on it I can live with it.

Would anyone have a suggestion for a pre built from any other companies with an I7 and upper end NVIDIA card? The ones I see are well over $1000.

I forgot to mention that antivirus and Home and Student 2013 were included in the price, so the rig itself is then only around $900. Still a lot of money, no doubt, but HP allows greater customization than Dell and is much cheaper. I don't want to build because, inspite of my computer knowledge, I would be afraid of making a mistake like putting the mobo on the plastic wrap or forgetting to ground myself and then end up breaking something. That's even if you get all of the parts shipped in working order. I have respect for those who can build it themselves, it is just not for me. And I currently run a 4.5 year old laptop, so salvaging for a tower is also not an option.

Good evening to those in the US and regards to everyone else, I am in the market for a new rig. I will not mention the current specs of my system for fear of humiliation and distraction from the point of this post, which is, how would the NGX and other PMDG aircraft perform using the rig with the following specs: Windows 8 64 3rd Generation Intel® Core i7-3770 quad-core processor [3.4GHz, 8MB Shared Cache] 1.5GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 [Dual Bracket; 2x DVI, HDMI, DP, VGA via adapter] FREE Upgrade to 10GB DDR3-1600MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs] 1TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive No secondary hard drive $20 Off Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2013 $20 Off Norton Internet Security 2013 - 15 month SuperMulti DVD Burner 15-in-1 memory card reader, 4 USB 2.0 (front), 2 USB 3.0 (top) No TV Tuner Beats Audio -- integrated studio quality sound HP USB keyboard and optical mouse with volume control Premium Wireless-N LAN card and Bluetooth®(1x1) 460W Power supply Adobe Photoshop Elements & Premiere Elements 11 It is important to remember that this model, the HP Envy H8-1520-t, does not have the option to select Windows 7, which was a disappointment because I have heard of problems with windows 8. I do not overclock although the processor can be purchased as a 3770K. I do not run crazy Orbx or even Aerosoft scenary, amazing no doubt. If the machine is what I think it is, that may very well change. I am looking for comments, suggestions, and feedback, preferably constructive (not my first post here ). The rig is a little over $1000 out the door with tax and shipping, which I think is not a bad deal compared to Dell. Building one is not an option for me. Morgan Wiley

What's funny is that I haven't fixed the isolation valve yet either. Realistically, it would probably take the airlines more than a day to fix something like that, but given its importance for starting the engines it may be higher up on the list of things to fix. I can't get over increasing power to engine two to generate the air pressure to start number one. PMDG has modeled it all, there is no doubt. Currently cruising FL340, again DTW-LAX, isolation valve inoperative.

Looking through the QRH I really can't find anything on how to handle an isolation valve failure. At the time of the flight I didn't have the opportunity to browse the very hefty manuals for help.

I completely agree. The amount of realism goes up 10 fold.

After many hours flying the NGX, I finally experienced my first failure this morning. Delta Airlines flight 487 non-stop to LAX from DTW (Detroit). I had the APU running, disconnected ground power and air, and began to pushback. After the before start checklist but while we were still rolling back, I turned the engine ignition switch for engine two left one click as I always do. Monitoring the lower EICAS, I noticed nothing was happening, no N2 rotation at all. I thought somehow I had forgotten to turn off the packs or closed the APU isolation valve, but no. Everything was in the proper configuration as it has always been for engine start. I have had this aircraft since release nearly two years ago now; engine start was one of the first things I learned. After another minute of questioning an error on my part, I concluded that the only thing that could be causing the phenomenon was an air leak or loss dealing with the APU. By this point we were fully pushed back from the gate, so I again set the chocks and decided to try out the air start cart. It did enable me to start engine number two. Because I thought I had sufficient air pressure from the engine, I disconnected the cart to start engine one. N2 rotation was very slow and would not reach 25% for starting, so I added power to engine two to generate more air pressure. This worked, and eventually engine one came to life. What got me about the experience was the trouble shooting situation I was forced to go through in the simulator. It got me thinking about aircraft systems and what I could do to complete the task at hand in a non-normal circumstance. On the ground at LAX, I looked at the failures and sure enough, the APU Isolation Valve had failed. I am not sure how or why the device failed unless I am improperly managing the air pressure, but it was really nice to be challenged. All the best, Morgan Wiley

If I remember correctly, this can happen from time to time when takeoff power is set, the latches for the emergency exits take a second to engage. This was one of the nuances of the aircraft the PMDG team scrutinized over in the development process. It happens to me sometimes and usually goes away within a few seconds. Assuming it is not takeoff configuration, which it does not appear to be because you stated that flaps were set, there is nothing you can do about the warning, although it really doesn't last long. As always don't quote me on anything and I am by no means an expert, although I do remember this being discussed somewhere.