bones1977

Don't know if any of you are still having this problem, but here is the definite solution (directly from fsdt): "That AFCAD, by unfortunate coincidence, comes with a file that has the same name and a similar size than the one the Addon Manager uses to detect if FSDT KLAX is installed, the file is named KLAX_OBJ.BGL: if you rename it to anything else, it should fix this." In other words, just rename the KLAX AFCAD file that goes into the "Scenery/Global/Scenery" folder to anything else. I named mine "KLAX _OBJ2.BGL", and it worked just fine. Hope this helps!

Nope...Never noticed that, lol. I guess it just seems like it's been two years, but the more I think about it, that's about right. I guess I was wrong about that too, 21 doesn't quite equal "dozens", but you get my point, right? I'm an idiot!

Oh, now I remember what you're talking about. Ya, I somehow disabled that years ago. Cool, I thought I had something wrong for a minute there...and YEE HAW....someone finally replied to one of my posts in this forum!!! It's amazing how things work when you follow the rules and sign your dang posts!

Let me start by explaining that I am an idiot! Now that I've made that clear, let me also say that I have been posting in this forum for a few years now, although I have to admit that it's pretty rare for me to post here, because whenever I check back for replies to the questions I've asked, I can't ever seem to find the original post thread. So, I just thought there were too dang many people using this forum, making it impossible to navigate far enough back to find the replies people have left in response to my posts. Well, referring back to my first point....I'm an idiot! I'm coming to realize that I never did set up a signature, so all my dang posts have been deleted. Hence the reason they are nowhere to be found. Now, I want to make it clear that I have read the Forum Rules at least two or three times. The problem is that I could have sworn I set up a signature for this forum way back when I joined (I use a lot of forums, and I guess I can't keep them all straight). So, each time I read the rules, I just assumed that I was in compliance (you know what happens when we assume). Isn't there a way to have an automated email sent out to people who have their posts removed, explaining the Forum Rules, and why their posts were deleted. I understand that most people who don't sign their posts, probably don't fairly belong using this forum, but I bought this product fair and square, and would have highly appreciated such a friendly gesture. I have posted some very important questions, as well as some helpful replies to other people's posts, which all went to waste. One more time, let me get it on the record that I'm an idiot and take full blame for having my posts deleted, so this isn't a gripe or complaint, it's merely a suggestion. I'm just saying it would have been nice to get an email informing me that I'm a moron, instead of leaving dozens of posts in a forum for over 2 years, before coming to realize it for myself.... ...I'm just sayin' ....oh, and PLEASE DON'T DELETE THIS POST!

The livery manager for the NGX uses .ptp files. I don't know anything about OPS center. What is that?

Does that mean I should be getting a red "brakes" word on the monitor? I've never seen this before.

Definitely an alpha channel issue. If that's the -900, you have to adjust the alpha channel, as it doesn't match up correctly, but my guess is you used something other than Paint Shop to do your paint, and it probably didn't properly include any alpha channel at all, since all the windows are completely covered.

Going back to the original question, how early are you starting your flair? I read the manual, but didn't like the idea of beginning my flair 10' from the ground...it just looked like I was going to slam into the ground. So, I started my flare around 50' like I do in most other turbojets, and always used up the whole runway to get the dang thing stopped. Once I finally got myself to trust the dang thing, and perform my flare at 10', I have no problems getting stopped (with, or without reverse thrust). Just a thought. My suggestion is to allow the aircraft to perform a full autoland, and see what happens. Then you'll know if it's the aircraft or the pilot causing your problems. In my case, the results of that test are why I now flare at 10', lol!

Reverse those two settings, and you should be fine. "Cut Throttles" just cuts the throttle to idle, but does not activate the reversers. Whereas, "Decrease Throttle Quickly" will activate the reversers, especially if they are already at idle. I just use a plain old joystick, but I have it set up to where I pull the throttles all the back to idle (I use the "Cut Throttles" option simply because the throttle on my POS joystick doesn't bring the throttles all the way back to idle), perform my flair at 10' and touch down, then use the "Decrease Throttle Quickly" option to take the throttles to full reverse, then once slowed down, hit "Cut Throttles" again to stow the reversers. I can't guarantee that this is the exact proper way to do things, but it works fine for me. One other thing, just in case, are you arming the Speed Brakes, and setting the Auto Brakes? Both of those make a huge difference, as well, and without them you might add a few feet to the runway, lol

Just thought I'd follow up...I do have GIMP working just fine now with this paint kit. It took a long while, but I just went down the list of layers, and pulled them all out of the group folders. It's still a little glitchy here and there, but nothing more than usual for GIMP. I don't know how or why, but as soon as those layers got ungrouped, the shadow layers turned dark like they're supposed to be, and everything looks great. Good luck!

There may be, but in my case it was definitely an issue with Gimp related to grouping layers. I just ungrouped them all, and now it's fine, at least so far. BEFORE PIC (With beginning stages of paint to help display the issue): Note: That should say "Pacific" AFTER PIC (Without Paint): Really? Thanks for the heads up, we might have to go with the 800 then. I know it works, because another VA I fly for has one that works great.

I'm pretty sure I just figured it out. I went down the list of layers, and pulled them all out of their grouped folders so that they are just all single layers (obviously I kept them in the same order they were in). I don't know what your experience was, but on top of the shadow issue, GIMP was running excessively slow and consistently freezing for long persiods of time (or ceasing altogether). Now it's running nice and smooth, the file opens right up and every click I make doesn't take 15 seconds to actually occur. it's lookin' good!

I got it figured out. It seems to be an issue with the layer grouping. I pulled all of the layers out of the grouped folders and it seems like it's going to work. Wish me luck, lol!

"This Paint Kit for the PMDG 737 NGX comes in a .zip file that consists of the following .PSD files for use in Adobe Photoshop. Other graphics editing suites may be used if the PSD can be read. For best results, Photoshop is strongly recommended but it’s not a requirement." PMDG 737NGX Instructions It's not that it doesn't work, if that was the case, I would have stopped trying hours ago. I can open the files, I can edit the files, I can save the files, there's just a problem with the shadows completely whiting out parts of the a/c. I didn't even think it was a Gimp issue until I saw somebody else mention it in this forum. Other than this one issue (which unfortunately is major enough to render the repaint useless without a fix), everything seems to work fine. My issue isn't with it possibly being incompatible with Gimp, it's that I don't even have enough documentation or available knowledge to figure out for sure what the problem is. Look, I've already calmed down a lot, so I'm not going to argue with anybody about this, but I have painted several aircraft from less reputable companies, and never had such basic instructions provided by any company. I know most of what they should be including anyways, but I'm just disappointed on this one. I don't know if you paint or not, but if so, would you be able to do your first paintjob from those instructions combined with the information available on their website? I don't think anybody could honestly say yes. People spend a lot of money on their aircraft, and they do advertise that their aircraft are repaintable. It would just seem logical that instructions would follow, that's all I was trying to say. My first repaint was on a Captain Sim product, and although I clearly think PMDG is superior, the manual for the Captain Sim plane had an entire section dedicated to painting and another section of their forum dedicated to the topic. I did my first paint job with a more difficult paintkit without any major problems or questions...everything I needed to know was provided, and I thought I would get the same or better out of PMDG. Thanks for the input, and sorry for my little rant there, but if anybody knows exactly what the issue is with Gimp, and/or any possible solutions, please let me know. I'm referring to the fact that the Shadow layers are solid white and cover up portions of the paint completely, and put a general haze over the entire aircraft, taking away most of the detail. You'd think to play around with transparency, but they specifically mention not to touch these layers....for the record, I tried anyways, and there just doesn't seem to be any way to get it right. You're either stuck with almost no shadows or no details.

I must say I'm either blind, stupid, or highly disapointed with PMDG when it comes to the paint kits for these NGX's. I'm having some issues using Gimp to repaint the 739NGX, but I'm not sure if Gimp is the problem or the kit itself, or something I did, or what? I understand this isn't rocket science, but after reading the little two page instruction book that came with the kit (which says that this is a complicated paint kit, and that it is just a brief introduction to the files, but not meant to be a manual for the dang kit), I really figured I would find a ton of help online...more manuals from the company that made the dang thing (which specializes in the production of user manuals), suggestions, solutions, etc. Yet, all I seem to be seeing is a few people who have commented about the kit one way or another, but not really experiencing my issues. I could explain them all, and be made to look like an idiot by all the people that know more about this than I do, but I just really think that there should be more instruction included with this thing. The dividing lines in the main fuselage file are explained, yet other files have lines crissin' and a crossin', but no explanation as to what the heck they do or what they're dividing, etc. I'm a perfectionist, and that's what I liked best about PMDG was that I thought this was a value we shared, yet there's no way I can complete this repaint right now without some major issues that many would probably overlook, but shouldn't have to be overlooked...this is PMDG, right? So someone please correct me if I'm just plain wrong, and there's a ton of material somewhere under my finger tips (not some YouTube tutorial where somebody spends 45 minutes teaching me stuff I already know), I'm talking about detailed instructions and explanations of the individual files in the paint kit, solutions to problems that come up along the way, and places to seek solutions to the bigger issues that might come along. Before everybody attacks the dude going off on PMDG, let me just say that I love PMDG's products and the NGX is my favorite plane to fly. However, I fly for a VA, and their livery isn't available for the NGX yet, so I told them I would do it, and now I've possibly just spent an entire day working on something that I might not ever get to use if this is a Gimp issue, because I'm not buying PhotoShop just for a repaint. I'm normally a pretty calm, collected dude, but this is really frustrating when you can't even find much of anything, and you know there are many others with the same questions, thoughts and problems! Angry for now, but probably laughing at my self in an hour, Bones1977

Anybody ever get this thing working with GIMP? I just spent all dang day getting this repaint all done, assuming the white cloudy look over my paint job would go away once I converted the files....NOPE...something to do with the Shadow layers that we're not supposed to touch. Is this just a GIMP issue? Did I do something wrong? If it is a GIMP issue, is there a fix? PLEASE HELP!!

This happened at PKWA....smack dab in the middle of the Pacific, so that was most likely the cause. Thanks for the quick replies, guys!

I didn't read through this whole thread, but I had a very similar issue to that described in the first post, and here's what solved it.... "It seems that after a update to windows Vista and 7, FSX has a tendency to Crash to the desktop and restart. Following the event viewer, and with help from various sources (specifically the FSpassengers forum) I (or we) found the cause. The before mention update modified the UiautomationCore.dll, and caused FSX to crash at random times when accessing the in game menu (ether by pressing ALT or right clicking). This includes the original DLL file before the update. In stall is easy, instructions are included. Be aware that this will only fix the CTD error that’s caused by this problem. Any other CTD error caused by another source will not be fixed." I don't remember where I got this file but the guy gave permission to share it, so I'll throw it on my personal server. If you want to download this fix, and give it a shot, go for it. It's risk free, so even if it doesn't fix the issue, it ain't going to hurt anything. accountingeek.com/payfiles/FSX_fix.zip

You need to go into the FMC's "PMDG Setup" menu, and select a "startup state". Get everything set exactly how you want things to be when you load a flight. Then click on "Panel Save State" in the PMDG Setup menu. After that, click on "startup state" and select the panel state you just saved. After that, whenever you load that particular plane in FSX, it will start up exactly in that particular configuration. This is all explained pretty clearly in the "NGX Introduction" manual that comes with the aircraft when you purchase it. If you don't know where the manuals are, click on your start menu, and find the folder "PMDG Simulations"....very valuable information in that there folder, and you should definitely at least read that introduction manual cover to cover if you really want to understand how to use this A/C!!

You're not the only idiot...I say that with all the respect in the world....this coming from a fellow idiot, lol! Thanks for having the nerve to make this post, because you just solved one of the few things I didn't like about the PMDG. Yet another problem that ain't their fault, lol!

Just wondering what this means...My amber FMC light is lit, and the FMC is displaying the message "Scanning DME Fail". I looked up "FMC/CDU Alerting Message" in the Quick Reference Guide (Chap. 11.6), and it just says to "Take action as needed by the message". I checked the "Failures" Menu and it says there are no current active failures, so it must be something I did or something. I'm sure I can just clear it out, but if I did something to cause this, I'd like to know what I did, so I don't repeat the mistake in the future. Anybody know what this means and/or what causes it?

Disregard....laziness got the best of me. I figured I'd just follow the tutorial step-by-step, and ignore the charts...wrong move! Once I looked at the chart, I understood what was meant by passing AB. I do agree that it is hard to spot on the display, but using the DME's it was rather easy. I'm guessing you have to nail the landing perfectly to make taxiway B though, cause I zoomed right on by it and had to back taxi. Great tutorial though, but from a bit of a rookie's perspective, every little error and typo counts. I had a hard time with a couple things at first, and now I know from reading this thread that it wasn't me, they were typos. Forgive me if somebody already pointed this one out, but I haven't noticed it in this thread. On page 118, after entering the runway information for 08, it never tells us to execute the change. I don't think it's that big of a deal, but I didn't execute it until I noticed that my FMC didn't match the screenshot on page 119. Love the aircraft...it was everything it's cracked up to be, just wish I hadn't waited so long to get it!!

I'm lost!! If I wait until I pass AB, I crash. Can someone go into a little more detail on the steps involved on the approach? Maybe with some extra screenshots.