Hathaway

Yes, it is meant to be like that because FSX actually turns off AI traffic at high time compression settings. So when auto-compression causes a drop below 16x you will inherently come across that "loading" screen as the AI traffic is re-loaded.

Is this a persistent problem, or a one time event? I'm noticing you are currently showing a tailwind. Were you keeping an eye on what the winds were doing at this time? Occasionally when wind directions between vertical levels are strongly different, the crap smoothing by FSX results in your airspeed dropping because you cannot accellerate sufficiently fast to keep it up as the wind swings around you. Do you have any aftermarket weather engines running? You certainly shouldn't have to use FLCH nor adjust your V/S manually during a properly configured VNAV climb, so I'd investigate other aspects first.

I'm betting it had more to do with the posting of the copyrighted "Boeing Performance Manual" than any "hitting close to home".

If you are willing to sacrifice a touch of visual realism, you can actually. Just turn on the option to always show the physical throttle position, then while A/T is engaged match the physical throttle position indicator to the A/T commanded throttle position. Then if A/T is ever disengaged for any reason, you'll be commanding the same thrust setting.

I am not sure how one "sets a livery as default", so let me guess: You downloaded the Unpainted livery, then either did one of the two: (1) Modified the aircraft.cfg file so that the unpainted livery is under the [fltsim.0] heading or (2) Renamed the Texture.PMDG_u folder to Texture.pmdg or (3) Copied the contents of the Texture.PMDG_u folder unto the Texture.pmdg folder Do any of those describe how you "replaced the original PMDG texture"?

The only aspect of it I would use would be performance calculations to determine appropriate de-rates. Otherwise, I have no interest in trying to view charts within the virtual cockpit. I print 'em out or view them in the ol' acrobat reader on-screen.

It's highly recommended to not set any advanced add-on aircraft as the "Default" for free-flight when FSX is first opened, if that's what you mean by "default". It can lead to many undesired issues (not to mention a slower FSX startup time). Regardless though, to select other liveries, just be sure the "Show all variations" check-box at the bottom of the "Select Aircraft" browser is checked and you should see all liveries.

Not for the vast majority of us who can press "Shift + 2" Why on earth would you let some software kill off the Shift+2 shortcut? And are you really totally prevented from simply re-assigning it? It seems like that would be the best solution to your problem: It's only one step to get at your CDU with a key assignment, and it doesn't negativley impact framerates for the rest of us who don't need a new click-spot.

Switching over to UNICOM to announce your arrival intentions to the Leesburg Executive Airport traffic?

Except, as discussed in the 777 intro documentation, your viewpoint in the actual aircraft wouldn't allow you to look at the EICAS message without turning away from the external view either. Having every portion of the main panel in at-a-glance sight as well as a view of the outside is in no way more realistic.

In most of the videos people are using EZCA, but you can try the built in VC views by pressing 'A'. You'll find pressing 'A' three times will have you looking directly at the overhead panel with no head twisting needed. Hold 'Shift' and press 'A' three more times to come right back to the pilot's view in the VC.

I would say that estimate leans towards the absurd based on the chatting in the AoA release party chatroom. Seemed most everyone was getting successful downloads with only a few having problems. The thing is, those who it worked for, aren't flooding the forum here complaining, so all you are seeing are those who had problems. Additionally, from those who I have spoken with about issues, no-one who used PayPal had problems while those few who did, did not use PayPal. It may well be a fluke, or it could be that PayPal's massive financial transaction infrastructure can handle the traffic a lot easier than PMDG's already loaded-up servers. I would ask if there are people here in this thread having issues who used PayPal, and if not, I would suggest new purchasers go with the PayPal option. Edit: Huzzah! Hypothesis defeated based on a new post just a few up!

No. Ground vehicles are beyond the scope of the B777 and can be added with their own ground enhancement add-ons if so desired.

In and out of checkout after some slow processing in about 10 mintues and the download took a grand total of 8 minutes just a few minutes ago. Not bad at all if you ask me.

JaneRachel Whittaker gave a great post describing it with some discussion in the thread thereafter. Check it out: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/415050-beta-notes-you-dont-have-time-to-fly-longhaul-think-again/