philfab2

I have used the PMDG 777 since it first arrived and love it. One thing I have always appreciated is to be able to pan right around the cockpit with the spacebar/mouse combo. You can actually see the signed certificates on the back wall of the cockpit. I do not have EZDOK or FSUIPC. Just recently my mouse pan seems limited to only 90 degrees - no longer able to see the flight attendants in the jump seats. I have used the NVidia Inspector to improve my displays, but I don't think it is anything with that (but you wouldn't know) but apart from that I am at a loss to find anything on the internet dealing with this problem. I am willing to bet there is some box now ticked, or some 1 now a 0, but am running out of ideas. So, what prevents the mouse from panning more than 90 degrees? Regards, Phil

Very nicely done. There's such a lot to cover, but you came out with flying colours (colors). A couple of points I noticed, having been an instructor for Boeing on the -300ER simulator, the beacon was not on with the engines running. You may choose to mention in further tutorials that as the 777 has three certified engine power schedules, and then each of these can be further reduced by the maximum reduction of 25%. I used to teach the guys that it is like having the choice of three selectable engines with assumed temperature as desired at differing weights. When dealing with the TAKEOFF page, Boeing usually go to page 2 first to set the three altitudes, and then back to page 1 for Flap, C of G etc. I noticed that you did not set the BARO MINS for Dubai during your setup for the landing, but as it was visual you probably intended to do it that way - I might have missed that one. Well, if that's all I could pick up, you can be justifiably proud of the job you did. There is only one thing that really bugs me with the model - and we cannot contact anyone by email these days, is the reverse thrust after landing. Boeing and Embraer did a joint video on the importance of selecting reverse as soon as possible after landing. In the real aircraft you would select reverse as soon as the main wheels touch down, and apart from the delay of the interlocks, reverse would be immediate. You certainly would have it prior to nose wheel touchdown. It appears that the model is programmed to prevent reverse until the nose wheel is on the ground. Is this something that could be fixed with updates in the future. It is now 2nd January 2016 and I have only just discovered your video. It may be that you no longer visit this site to view comments after so much time has elapsed. Whatever! Thanks again, Phil McConnell philfab2@gmail.com

I am waiting to update my 777 Professional. Mine was bought as a DVD from Just Flight, and when I visit the Operations Center, I am told I have 5 new messages, all to do with updates. When I click on these, they say that the online version can be updated but are working on the DVD version. Could you possibly shed some light on this? My biggest beef is the delay in reverse thrust activation; it seems to be programmed to not be available until the nose wheel is on the ground. Having flown the real aircraft and then been a simulator instructor for Boeing for six and a half years, we teach straight from the Training Manual that full reverse is selected (after the small delay for the interlock) immediately after touch down. I still cannot believe that a model of the aircraft can be so accurate and all from a small DVD and small price. Beautiful. Regards Phil McConnell (philfab2)

I have been using the CS L1011 and am very happy with it - with one exception - it descends at idle power far too steeply; not the standard 3:1 that every aircraft in the world seems to follow. I have 3000 hours in command of the Tri Star and this model brings back beautiful memories. Can anyone shed some light on maybe a tweak of some file or other to make it descend flatter. One little gem the aircraft did was at 13000 ft on descent and 320k, I would select 1000fpm and it slowed to 250 at exactly the same time it reached 10000ft. Thanks, Phil

You will need to select the ILS from the DEP/APP page on the FMC. This will only be available to you if this is the ILS at your selected destination on RTE page 1. e.g. YSSY to YMML will therefore have available ILSY 16 - for example. One of the options will be BOL intercept. By using this, you will have a line bearing 160 degs towards BOL from a long way away. Plenty of time to organise an intercept heading or whatever you want. You could fly at 4000ft in ALT and use the HDG bug to put you on some sort of intercept and engage LNAV. So now you are heading in the rough direction of BOL in ALT and LNAV. Now arm APP and you will find that as the aircraft intercepts the localizer, the HDG bug automatically slews around to 160, the runway direction. Part of the magic or the 777. Now you are at the position where you can decide to fly the beast yourself, so do not engage the A/P. You could also decide to let the A/P do the work and disconnect at minimum for a manual landing, or even just leave the A/P engaged and it will do an autoland. There is no special setup to make the aircraft do an autoland - it's just a matter of whether you leave the A/P in our take it out. So I don't have some lawyer screaming down my neck, I will mention that in real life in bad weather requiring an autoland, the crew has quite a checklist to run through to ensure they are familiar with their actions in case of a failure with low visibility. Hope this helps, Phil

I would like to have access to ground power before the aircraft is powered up, i.e. when completing the pre-flight scanflows, the external power would be AVAIL, and ready to be selected ON. The book says hold the MENU button to activate the CDU prior to power up, but for the life of me, I cannot hold it more than about one second, then the little hand opens again. I would like to start in COLD AND DARK, but this seems to start with the ground power selected DISCONNECT. Anybody any ideas? I have tried to do my homework on this but cannot find a reference as to HOW to hold the MENU key.

I have flown the 777 as captain and now am sim instructor on 300ER. This is not to say I am the owner of all knowlege 777 - far from it, but I'm also not a kid leaning on the fence at an airport dreaming of one day being able to fly. I have noted several posts about cold and dark. It is very unusual for a pilot to see this - but not impossible. With ETOPS, EDTO (several terms) there is a bit of checking to be done before the beast gets airborne, so usually one will arrive at the aircraft fully powered up with packs on and maybe even a brew of coffee already made. My query is in the PMDG model, the default on the NAV RAD page is for the radios to all be manually tuned (M) which locks out any auto tune. The correct default should be Auto (A) on the three selections. I have also noted if I turn off an airway using HDG SEL and try to intercept a new airway by putting the airway designator in L1 RTE page, hoping to put the end point in R1, I get INVALID ENTRY. I do believe this is an error. Another post mentioned that you cannot put anything in the fix page. I concur. Also, when EXITing a hold, the holding pattern behind the aircraft should be removed. I haven't had too much time to 'play' but am extremely impressed at just how close to the real beast your model is. I cannot even start to get my head around how you could achieve this, when the real one has such amazing computing power. The most sincere congratulations on the incredible product you have produced. P.S. I notice on many of the videos that are around, people are waiting to get oil pressure, or some N1 or N2 figure before selecting the FUEL CONTROL SWITCH to RUN. Definitely not required! The AUTOSTART system will take care of all start malfunctions except no oil pressure - which requires the ABORTED START procedure. (Unannunciated). I am really hanging out for the 300ER, mainly as I am more familiar with 'the numbers'. Best regards, Phil