bill1970

I followed the uninstall/reinstall procedure as described above. When finished with the uninstall, there was no 737 folder in the [sim]/PMDG folder. When install was compete the panel state files are all dated from 2011/2012. The Ops Center confirms that I have the right version 1.10.6436. Shouldn't the date on the panel state files be newer? I am installing the FSX (not Steam) version (the only platform I have installed). When I go into the sim with the default panel state (engines running) everything is fine. I then changed to the LONG panel state and set that as my default. Starting from that state, I went through the normal procedures to get the aircraft ready to go. After engine start, I had the FUEL, FLT CTRL, and ANTI-ICE warnings. If the issue is the old panel states, why is the new installer giving me such old panel states? Can PMDG post a ZIP file of the new panel states so I don't have to uninstall/reinstall (for the 5th time)? Bill Rowe

I had the same issue on a flight in LAX last night. I was following the KEACH1 STAR (FENUK) transition. VNAV was operating and commanded IDLE then HOLD at TOD. I pulled my hardware throttles (Goflight TQ6) back to idle and confirmed idle thrust. Descent proceeded normally toward TEVTE and the 23000B altitude constraint. Approaching TEVTE, I noted that VNAV had not changed the target speed to hit the 280 kt constraint, so I hit speed intervene and dialed in 280 on the MCP. I passed the waypoint a little fast, but nothing major. Next active waypoint was VTU with hard constraints of 250/11000 active in the LEGS page. I hit the MCP speed knob again to get out of speed intervene. VNAV was still commanding 280 knots, which made sense. I used a little speed brake to slow down to 280 as I was still fast. Approaching VTU, I had 11000 set in altitude and IDLE/LNAV/VNAV PATH on the FMA. Again VNAV was going to hit the altitude constraint, but it was going to reach 11000 right at the waypoint (green arc) and there were no green circles indicating a deceleration. I hit speed intervene again and set 250 kt and used the speedbrakes to hit the constraint at VTU. Shortly before reaching the waypoint, I hit the altitude knob to remove the active constraint at VTU (so it wouldn't level off there). This made KEACH the active waypoint, with SADDE right after it (250/10000A). At this point FMA was still showing IDLE/LNAV/VNAV (can't remember SPD or PATH). I released speed intervene again and VNAV went nearly level,as expected since it was at speed (250 kt) and had 15 miles to descend only 1000 feet by SADDE. At this point I got distracted by ATC telling me to switch frequencies. Once, I'd switched, I found that the A/T was commanding full thrust and the plane was climbing at ~4000 fpm. Hardware throttles were still at idle. VNAV was active and the altitude was set to an altitude below the current altitude. Although I have the A/T override to "only in HOLD" my first response was to move the throttles forward and then back to idle, but that didn't have any effect (as it shouldn't have). I ended up having to disconnect the A/T completely to regain control over thrust. Any thoughts? Bill Rowe

I'm running Steve's FX Fixer and using the instructions, I've been able to get VC shadows working in the PMDG 777. I love the effect and Steve's software. However, I have a strange issue when using TrackIR: namely the shadows move around when I move my head even when the plane is not moving. It's as if the light source in the VC is moving with TrackIR Any one else have this experience? Bill Rowe

Since we are getting the weather radar functionality in the (hopefully) near future, can someone with real world experience enlighten us on typical airline practice for using the radar? I'm assuming that it's not on for every flight from takeoff to landing (but I could be wrong). What are the conditions that would lead the crew to turn on the radar or turn it off mid-flight? I'm guessing that flying into a SIGMET area would induce the crew to turn it on. Also, keeping it on for night flight makes sense? Thanks, Bill Rowe

Since we are getting the weather radar functionality in the (hopefully) near future, can someone with real world experience enlighten us on typical airline practice for using the radar? I'm assuming that it's not on for every flight from takeoff to landing (but I could be wrong). What are the conditions that would lead the crew to turn on the radar or turn it off mid-flight? I'm guessing that flying into a SIGMET area would induce the crew to turn it on. Also, keeping it on for night flight makes sense? Thanks, Bill Rowe

I have had these two failures multiple times, and I haven't reached the first maintaince interval (250 hours). What operational errors could be causing frequent failures of these two items. The ENG PRSOV VALVE failures seem way too frequent for an engine that is ETOPS certified, so I feel like I must be doing something wrong. I am running the service based failures and and a factor of 5x (i.e. 1 hour of flight time in the sim equals 5 hours of aircraft wear and tear). Bill Rowe

From the posts you cited above I understand that the doors that are being opened by the PMDG code are correct. My issue is that they are opening when there is no ground equipment nearby and I would like to control when they open (basically take certain items in the PMDG ground ops list out of automatic control) so I open them when the GSX catering vehicles are in position, not whenever the PMDG code wants to do it. I have my default flight set up with cargo and 2L open, all other doors closed, not armed. I'd like ground ops to have control of 2L and the cargo, but manually open and close the doors for catering. Bill Rowe

I've noticed that when I used the ground operations function, the virtual cabin crew open doors 2R, 4L, and 4R, even though there are no ground services at those positions. Is there any way to edit what doors are opened and closed by the ground ops function? It looks kind of silly to have those doors open with nothing there, plus my virtual flight attendants might fall out. I have GSX, so I'd prefer to open the doors as needed to complete catering. Bill Rowe

OK. That makes sense, but if I can't enter an altitude restriction, then how do I enter a speed restriction on a cruise leg where the FMC calculated altitude is the planned altitude (which would be a normal situation since you would file for an altitude that was economical for the weight you were planning). Basically the initial waypoint in the NAT is showing (in small font): .833/FL340 and I want to put .83 Mach restriction through the NAT and then add ECON/ at the last NAT waypoint to return to econ speed. I've been looking at the FCOM vol.2 pg 11.42.28 and it talks about entering a constant speed cruise segment. I've been trying to replicate what is shown there (unsuccessfully). Bill Rowe

I was putting in the constraint as speed and altitude. I entered .84/340 and got "invalid entry" I tried multiple formats for speed (e.g. 0.84, .840) and altitude (340000, FL340) but nothing worked. I couldn't even enter an altitude constraint of FL340 by itself even though the FMC was planning FL340 at that point (I was making the mod on the ground so it wasn't that the waypoint was active). I tried a waypoint later in the route and was able to enter FL340 after the step climb. So there was something about that waypoint (a regular intersection) that the FMC wouldn't let me apply an altitude constraint. I couldn't enter a speed constraint on any waypoint. Bill

I am flying EGLL-KEWR and the flight plan calls for a speed and altitude restriction for the oceanic track portion of the flight (M0.83/FL360) The legs page has the FMC calculated values, which include a step climb in the middle of the NAT. I have tried to override by entering the required speed and altitude at each oceanic waypoint, but I get an "invalid entry" message, no matter now I try to enter it. I can do speed intervene and not perform the step climb until exiting the track, but I'd like the performance calculations (fuel predictions) to be correct. Am I missing something? Bill Rowe

I know one of the flights I loaded from a saved flight, but the other failure occurred on a flight that I set up fro scratch (selected aircraft and airport in the FSX free flight menu, and the default panel state (I have it set to "long turn") Bill Rowe

I have service based failures active and on my two of my last three flights I have had a failure of the PRSOV or HPSOV valves. Is it normal to have these valves fail so frequently? Bill Rowe

I had the same issue. In my case I has selected a manual turn time and the clock started counting down. Then I entered the fuel uplift and I got a message that there wasn't enough time to complete the uplift in the turn time selected. I tried changing the turn time but I kept getting "Invalid Entry" So I ignored it and proceeded with the rest of pre-flight. When I was ready to go, the turn clock had counted down to 10 sec, but the fuel uplift had stopped. I ended up having to go to FS actions and manually change the fuel to the desired amount. Bill Rowe

As I study up on the systems, I noticed that the 777 has auto antiice detection and the flight software activates and de-activates wing and engine anti-ice as needed based on detected conditions (I'm assuming OAT/TAT and some sort of moisture sensor). Has PMDG been able to incorporate any detection of icing conditions? I know the simulation can sense the temperatures, but can it detect "visible moisture present"? If not, then should we set anti-ice to on when conditions dictate? I'm guessing that the limitations of FSX make this a manual operations (we pretend we dispatched with the ice detection INOP), but I thought I'd ask in case PMDG managed to work some magic. Just did the first tutorial flight last night and I'm SO IMPRESSED with this aircraft! Thanks PMDG!! Bill Rowe

As I was browsing the failures on the CDU during my last flight I noticed that the 9th stage bleed air had failed. Did the research online and I know I must have operated the throttles above idle with the APU supplying bleed air ("Dual Bleed"). So I know what I did wrong but there were no indications in the cockpit (that I could see). Question for the community: How would this failure be picked up on a real aircraft? Is this something that would be found during the normal check before each flight, during an overnight check, or something even longer? Obviously I could just clear the failure before the next flight, but it would more interesting to see what develops from the failure. Thanks, Bill Rowe

Quick procedural question for ETOPS certified aircraft: For ETOPS flights, one of the required procedures is to cycle the fuel crossfeed valve from closed to open and back to closed one hour prior to arrival. Is this for flights conducted under ETOPS? Or is it required for every flight on an ETOPS certified aircraft? Seems to me the latter would make sense (since an aircraft might fly a non-ETOPS sector prior to an ETOPS one and you'd want the cross-feed to be working before the ETOPS operation), but since its an FAA rule it doesn't have to necessarily be logical Any real-world operators with knowledge? Thanks, Bill Rowe

My recent experience (as a passenger) was that the landing lights cme on and they announced that we were passing 10,000' and we had to turn off electronic devices. I don't know if they were lying about it being 10,000' Bill Rowe

Nope. 1000 ft vertically OR 5 mi laterally (except in close to some terminal areas where the lateral separation is reduced). So you can have aircraft on the same airway (no lateral separation) pass as long as the 1000 ft vertical separation is maintained. Bill Rowe

Is anyone working to develop an iPad app that would connect to the NGX to mirror the CDU so I could read and program the FMC? I know there is specialized hardware out there, but it's pretty expensive and I'm willing to sacrifice realistic look to get the functionality Bill Rowe

Would it possible to add an option to search only in the current forum? That is the type of search I do most often (i.e. searching within the PDMG NGX forum). I know I can do it with the advanced search, but that interface is really clunky. EDIT: Never mind... I just saw that the option was available within a forum. I had been looking at a specific topic. Thanks for adding such great functionality Thanks, Bill Rowe

I'vee been seeing periodic airspeed spikes when flying AS2012 and PDMG NGX. I've made the mods to the FSX.CFG file as suggested, but am not using FSUIPC smoothing of the winds. Mostly the spikes are a couple of knots, but can be more (and trigger a momentary overspeed at cruise). I recorded flight data with FSRecorder and then converted to text to examine the raw data. What I saw was a spike in airspeed once every second (wtih 1/32th second sampling). The spike died away within the next one or two samples. Has anyone else seen this behavior? I'm hoping not to have to use FSUIPC to smooth the winds, since Active Sky shouldn't need this. Bill Rowe

Where did you get this latest version? All I can find is 4.70b that was released April 15 2011Bill Rowe

I know the answer will vary by operator, but can some of the folks who work for airlines tell me what policies are in place on when (and when not) to use the HUD for aircraft that have it installed. I'm wondering if most operators only use it during low visibility approaches, or if some use it all the time. It is handy to have your airspeed and aim point displayed for you, even if the visibility is good, but I wonder if I'm "cheating" by using this while I (hand) fly approaches.Bill Rowe

Same problem here (using -800Winglet, Alaska Airlines Livery). The livery was downloaded and installed after SP1, so I know it isn't an issue with an old liver installation.Bill Rowe