rfresh737

I got another support email tonight from PMDG. Note: and I am a subscriber to the FMS database update cycles from Navigraph. "Ralph, Just tried this. The current real world Jepp chart for the STAR does not show any restrictions at POKRR or PRINO - just the 170/8000 at CHIPZ. That's exactly what I'm seeing here using the latest Aerosoft Navdata Pro cycle. I went ahead and added the restrictions you stated you had though. At 8 miles from CHIPS, I dialed 6500 and pressed ALT INTV and I do see the issue you mentioned. Something very much like this was fixed during the 777 development and it'll probably be fixed when we roll that code backwards into the NGX later on (no ETA on that sorry). Work around was just to press VNAV again to reengage it. Ryan Maziarz Technical Support"

This happens to me every now and then...I don't know why it does, but I shut down FSX and re-start it and that usually fixes it.

>Ps hows the video coming along? I made the first draft yesterday and Matt has reviewed it. I will be doing the re-recording hopefully within the next 24 hours.

You don't set the missed approached altitude on the MCP until after you've captured the glide slope. That way, the a/c won't start climbing as you are experiencing.

What's more odd is that opus was working with its live weather disabled...I was only using its camera views...worked fine for a month...then all of a sudden high TAT temps at cruise...I don't know what changed to cause that. I don't have any other weather add-ons.

I turned off FSX weather and turned on OpusFSX Live Weather and that fixed it.

My solution was to turn off FSX weather and use OpusFSX weather.

If i don't load OpusSFX then this does not happen. If I load it, it happens. Since I don't use the weather much, I'm trying to figure out how to disable the Opus weather engine and just use the default FSX wx engine. I'm using OpusSFX mainly for the camera views.

No I'm not sure who is controlling the weather. I'll have to recheck. What's the temp bug issue? Thanks...

I don't have any pure wx add-ons so I don't know why its doing this. This is something new to happen and I have not made any changes to my add-ons or configurations. The only add-on I'm using is OpusFSX which has a weather engine but I don't do anything with the weather engine. I guess I'll try descending and see if that changes the TAT. Thanks...

I'm at FL270 and my TAT on the engine displays +21 C. Way off and causing my cruise speed to be too low at around 199. Where do I adjust my outside air temperature? I don't see a field on the CDU (or am I blind?). Thanks...

What does that exactly mean? Loading in what way? Don't all add-ons have to load initially?

I got a response from the PMDG folks: "This is probably a bug honestly - there was a similar issue with the 777 that got fixed during development. I assume the same thing probably exists in the NGX and will get fixed when we update the NGX again (no ETA on that though, the focus is on the 777 service pack and 300ER right now here)." So, there you have it. A bug.

So, the ILS frequencies are mis-matched. The ILS plate shows 109.15 and FSX shows 109.9 so how does one update FSX? Or is 109.15 the one that is out of date?

I zoomed in but I cannot see any ILS freq.

Hi Mike Where in FS would we find that? FS Map? Thanks...

I got setup for this approach to try and see if I could shoot this ILS. On the ILS plate CORK runway 35 the freq is 109.15 but the sim doesn't seem to recognize that. I get no localizer and no glide slope data at all. Same problem Vernon had, so I was able to reproduce it at least. Is there something that has to be configured in FSx or the 737NFX to make the ILS freq work? Thanks...

>very good point. Missed the G/P part in there. That was a minor part of it. He had initial descent trouble with that "des path unachievable" CDU mesaage. Vernon: what does "ILS+DME 35" mean? Does that mean you were 35 miles out on the approach?

G/P (Glide Path) will appear when you are too far out on the ILS to pick up a good glide slope signal. In those cases, instead of pressing APP, you must press VOR/LOC to capture the LOCalizer only. I have one such an approach I make going into Las Vegas airport. I intercept the localizer 25 miles out for crying out loud (I'm flying the published STAR). That's way too far out to pick up the G/S signal so I press VOR/LOC and capture the localizer. Then when I'm about 10 to 15 miles out AND the glide slope pointer is filled in, I press APP and now G/S appears in the FMA and then I know it's now armed to capture. >just don't get it, it says ILS why didn't it do a normal ILS app? There are a lot of manual things you must do when flying an autopilot flown ILS approach.

I've seen all of the AOA demo videos on YouTube. I'd like to become a member and go through all of their systems videos and their airwork series, however, being retired, I am on a budget. I can't buy everything all at once to support my PMDG 737NGX hobby and the making of my video tutorials! For example, I have FSUIPC installed but it is not registered. I down loaded it and installed it to see what it is all about. I discovered it is pretty useless unless you register it, so that will have to wait for me. I make my videos using Screen Cast-O-Matic as it it a relatively low cost tool and provides nice output that I can import into my Window7 Movie Maker editing tool. Jaime was telling me about Fraps, a really high quality video rcording tool, but that too costs money to register it. The unregistered version limits you to making 30 decond videos so that's not useful at all lol. I will continue to use Screen Cast-O-Matic for the time being. I wondered off topic a bit (Kyle, turn your head). But back to the AOA video series. From what I've seen of their systems videos (and again, I've seen all of them), they look pretty much like I would expect to see at an airline ground school training course. In other words, their quality is up to what I've worked with at McDonnell Douglas and more recently, at Boeing (for initial pilot factory training courses). I've only found one or two of their videos on air work so I can't comment too much on those but I'm sure they have the same quality as their systems videos. I have read that their training material is reviewed by 737NGX pilots for accuracy, etc. As I said before, I wouldn't mind becoming a registered user of AOA and I do plan to when I am able to. Spin737 (Matt) and I are now working together on the videos I am producing. I wanted a 737NGX pilot to review my videos before I release them and he has graciously agreed to do that. I also have Eric (a relatively new flight simmer to the 737NGX) review my videos before I release them. He checks them from a new flight simmer perspective to make sure that what I am saying makes sense to someone new or relatively new. The "Reverse Thrust" video was our first collaboration effort for the three of us. So, moving forward, the Boot Camp Series videos will have been reviewed by two flight simmers (one a RW pilot) and I will take their comments and suggestions and make a final version and release that. It can be a long process to put together the ground school portion and take even longer to video the simulator sessions and edit the film in Movie Maker. My goal is to bring airline level training to this 737NGX community. I want to give all of you the level of training that you would not otherwise have an opportunity to receive. My Boot Camp Series (going back to the basics) has grown out of realizing that many flight simmers have never had an opportunity to get the basics of a jetliner. Therefore, many of the basics are either missing or not understood very well because there is no where to get that basic training information (or it's spread out all over the internet and very hard to find). Let me give you some examples of what I mean. When I trained at the factories (Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing), our training material was FAA approved (of course) for current, line flying jet pilots. What this meant was, our 5 week initial pilot training course was written to the level of an experienced line pilot. So, we did not teach anything about the Flight Director. They were expected to already know what that is and how to use it. We didn't teach them about how a jet engine works. We didn't even teach them that the engine starters were bleed air turbines (that is important when you get to the training part of abnormal procedures for engine starts, hot starts, hung starts). So, there was a lot of assumptions made about their level of understanding on jetliners in general. If you don't have that basic level of knowledge, you won't get through the 5 week course. Now, many of the new 737NGX flight simmers don't have that basic knowledge either so they have a double learning curve: learn the 737NGX and learn the basics if you can find it somewhere. The difference is, here you don't have a 5 week dead line breathing down your neck. You can take longer to collect the knowledge. What I'm trying to do is introduce some of the basics and background when I produce a given video tutorial topic. You know, there are tons of YouTube videos out there about how to fly an ILS approach. But they all take the same approach: they just show you how to do it. And that's needed to be sure but where's the background on how to do it and why we do the things we do when we fly an ILS? Some of you have asked me to produce such a video because you are having trouble flying ILS approaches or can't make good landings consistently, etc. Well, I am currently working on that for my next video. My to-do list is getting quite large but I don't mind taking requests and adding to it. I have about 8 topics on it at the moment. For those of you who are having trouble with speeds on the approach or just can't fly a good ILS or get really stressed when you try to fly an ILS (as one simmer told me) I promise you after watching this next tutorial you will make perfect ILS approaches and landings every time.

Thank you Kyle. That's quite a comment coming someone who has over 8,000+ posts covering a time span of 7.5 years AND who knows this aircraft inside and out. Thank you very much, I've watched many of your videos and they too are quite thorough. With similar topics being covered on YouTube, everyone has a chance to get input from a variety of sources which can help greatly in learning a new subject. Yeah, the ramblings, I know...I'm certainly aware...I do try to reduce them but habits are hard to break lol.

Yes, I have a runway set in the CDU...

Yes, there is a CDU message when I press the ALT INTV button: "VNAV DISCONNECT". Maybe there is a lower altitude limitation that will not keep VNAV engaged when using ALT INTV , I don't know for sure, yet. I have a formal technical question logged with the PMDG folks.

Yes, I'm aware I can do that but I'm trying to use ALT INTV to do it. I wonder if there is a lower altitude limitation whereby it kicks off VNAV for some reason. I'll try it at cruise and compare the behavior.

I was wondering what might cause pressing ALT INTV to kick me out of VNAV mode? I'm in the final stages of my descent, starting my initial downwind leg and I have a way point altitude constraint coming up I want to remove from the Legs page. On the MCP I set my lower altitude and then I press ALT INTV and it does remove the constraint but it also immediately kicks me out of VNAV. My setup: I'm on my down wind leg, on my way to CHIPZ way point (8 miles to go) at 8000 feet. My Legs page shows: CHIPZ 8000 (active way point, 8 miles to go) POKRR 7300 PRINO 6500 HAWKO 5400 I've been cleared by ATC to descend to 6500 feet. So I set the MCP altitude to down to 6500 (I want to remove the POKRR 7300' constraint). Then I press ALT INTV and that's when VNAV kicks off. FMA pitch section blanks out (when VNAV PATH annunicator goes away). Amber "CWS P" annunicates to confirm no pitch mode (lost VNAV). I must be doing something wrong or have something else set wrong? Thanks...