icemarkom

Ah, indeed. Doesn't change the point of my comment though. Then again, I am not sure whether I interpreted the second screenshot correctly, but it appears to me flaps are up on that one.

Harald, your screenshots is with flaps up, while the OP had flaps all the way down. These are two very different configurations.

Dunno... Have you considered using better cloud providers? *cough*google*cough*

You have armed VNAV and LNAV, but did you actually turn on the autopilot (CMD)? And yes, at the very least, please fly the tutorial. Follow every detail. It's useful, and will save you hours of grief.

Is your mic on for com1? If not, try turning it on, and see what happens.

Thanks, Kevin. I've seen those, but as I said in the original post, I am still a little unclear :-).

Yup. That answer makes perfect sense, but over time there was a little bit of a miscommunication as to what's happening. I for one am hoping for the next-next NGX release in the near future. From strictly user perspective, it's also showing its age, when compared to 747, and 777. Besides, you folks deserve some more of my money, and you didn't want it for v4 upgrade. Sigh.

I think I'm getting comfortable enough in the 747 to add some spice to my flights, i.e. the random simulated failures. Apologies if this was answered in the intro manual, and if it is, I'll head back there, but this is my go-to place for asking "obscure" questions. Feel free to point me to the docs, if these questions are answered there. In the FMC, I've enabled random failures for "All Systems" that should be happening at a rate of 2x per 10 hours, limited to a single failure. I also have service based failures enabled. This I have enabled a few days ago, and I had one engine flameout (nice!), and aileron lockout (didn't even notice, until after I looked in the FMC post-flight if something failed). So, at least some of this seems to be doing something. Now for my actual questions. Browsing through the failure options in FMC, I noticed that while "All Systems" has failures enabled, as described above, individual systems seem to have random failures disabled. I am *guessing* that "All Systems" overrides individual systems in this case. Is this correct? OR - do I need to enable individual systems for failures, before my global settings kick in (based on my so-far experience, the answer should be: no). Are those X failures in Y hours, per "sim time", or actual time? I.e. if I'm using intelligent acceleration at 8x, I should be expecting a failure about every ~2 hours or so. This, I have not observed. Are those X failures in Y hours per cumulative flight time, or counted for each flight? Last, but not the least: any chance a failure could trigger revert to normal time during the accelerated flight? That would be really nice, as it took me some time to notice that flameout :-)

Well, having extensive experience juggling some of the most complex systems in the world of software and networking... A: Because one of those other products, by your own comment, is held up by a third-party. It was a reasonable question to ask, I suppose... :-)

I had a problem with this as well, and direct-to for the next seems to have solved it for me. Entering offset of 0, did not however. I believe that was the first thing I tried. I even tried 0L, and 0R.

Well, B2 did fly and drop bombs over my house in the past, so it's not just all drama. Just depends where you live :-)

Suggestion: fly the approach with some other airplane, and see what happens. That should tell you for sure whether it's your simulator, or a bug in PMDG aircraft.

Tentatively, I think Kyle was spot-on. But again, my curiosity is kicking in. Is this particular shortcut specific to P3D? Was it not there in FSX?

I can't but stop wondering why does that matter? Those vehicles are eye candy for when you're on the ground. Isn't the performance important really only when you are in the simulated air? Perhaps I have wrong expectations of my sims, but I really don't care about the performance of eye candy :-)

I looked through the P3D settings, and it seems APP mode is mapped by default to <ctrl-a>. I can see me typing that combination, as I use Linux terminals a lot, but it must be some subconscious action somewhere (I don't have this mapped to any controls). In the FMC, it appears APP mode is mapped to the same key. I turned it off there, as well. Thanks for the pointer, I'll observe if this comes back in some form.

This sparked my curiosity. What exactly is the problem here? Or to rephrase, what exactly do the "default" (or more correctly, those not using SimConnect) aircraft do that initializes the variables, or whatnot, and that cannot be done elsewhere? I am sure it's not laziness, but I am just curious.

Thanks for the answer, Kyle. My reluctance to ask here was exactly because I've suspected for long it may be something on my system, but I am still at a loss. Unfortunately, I can only look later today, but help is greatly appreciated. Could you give me a hint what mapping exactly I should be looking for? I haven't changed anything in PMDG keymaps (those found in FMC), and I can't remember changing any default key mappings in P3D, either. Is the APP mode mapped to a key by default? I don't use FSUIPC (I had it installed in v3, but don't in v4), and the only "advanced" keymapping I use are macros for my yoke and throttle buttons, but those are mostly just keypress sequences for my preferred views. The rest are simply button-to-key maps.

I've been struggling with myself whether to ask this question at all for some time, but decided to, because it's driving me somewhat insane. And has been for a while. Sometimes (cannot reliably reproduce, and am not 100% sure what triggers it), I noticed that autopilot* (FD, FMC, again not sure) arms the approach mode without me being anywhere near approach, or doing so manually. This very often happens on departure, even though I've selected (armed) VNAV/LNAV, or if I haven't. I've observed aircraft happily do nothing about this, as well as attempt to fly some approach, after intercepting "something". This is particularly frustrating on departure, to the point I have a post-it note under the screen to check AP mode. I've spent countless hours in NGX on FSX, and with all three aircraft in P3Dv3, and from I remember, I have not seen this in FSX. With P3Dv4, I've seen it with 747, but I have not spent enough time with T7 to "reproduce" the behavior. Now for the real question - any ideas what I am doing wrong?

I have seen it mentioned in the docs (I still haven't flown the sim).

Are you talking to the ATC at the moment when this happens, or immediately before? If yes, what is your push-to-talk button mapped to?

What Don wrote (but it's actually a bit more complicated than that, especially on runways shorter than 3000 ft, which are not a factor for 737). So, you may be wondering *why* not just aim for the threshold? I know I was... The reason for that is because having a "displaced" aiming point, gives you an extra safety buffer should be undershoot it :-). Same reason why your aiming point is mid-field when trying a deadstick landing.

Just curious: what is your default aircraft in the simulator when you start it?

It should have been installed with your PMDG 777.

Yeah sorry, I misspoke, I wrote stratosphere, but meant troposphere. Now, my 5" comment comes back from OP: 32000 vs. 37000, which is 5000ft, or close to 5" pressure difference.

I was curious about that after I spent some time plane spotting at the local airport, but other than the cosmetic effect, what would your expectation of that feature in the flight simulator be? I suspect that the only perceived thing would be slightly lower (virtual) fuel burn, and nothing else.