Mike777

This might help. It's for a different model 787 and may be slightly out of date, but it should still be worth looking at: https://flightsimulator.azureedge.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/B787-10-Tutorial-Flight-v1.pdf Mike

In the all-time worst crash, KLM and Pan Am 747s on Tenerife, the KLM co-pilot was unsure whether their 747 had been cleared for takeoff in very foggy conditions (it hadn't), but was not assertive enough toward a very senior captain. I am very uncomfortable with generalizations about Asian pilots. There are plenty of examples of dumb mistakes by pilots of many different cultures and nationalities. In the Air Asia incident, the A330 systems programmers, who may well have been French or German, deserve some blame for not including a warning in the event of a discrepancy between GPS position and entered position from the first software version. People make mistakes. Mike

Tutorial 1.5 is at the following link. You will see the download link near the top. http://precisionmanuals.com/pages/downloads/docs.html Mike

i heartily agree with Michael C.'s suggestion that you fly the tutorial and read the intro manual carefully. Also, I mis-spoke in my earlier entry. Thrust mode is shown on upper LEFT side of PFD. Pay attention to what thrust mode you are in when the thrust reduces or increases unexpectedly. Again, I am guessing that your issues are arising from accidental throttle hardware inputs in HOLD mode, both on takeoff and during VNAV descents. Search FCOM2 for "Hold mode" -- you will see that the autothrottle stops controlling the throttle levers in that mode, leaving them open to any deliberate or accidental input from your throttle hardware. Also read up on the options for how you set your throttle hardware to override the autothrottle commands. As Bob S. said, PMDG wants you to sign your full name in its forums. Mike

Most likely your throttle hardware is sending spikes/commands that you are unaware of. In both situations the Autothrottle (A/T) is most likely in HOLD mode, which allows movement of the throttle levers to adjust thrust. On takeoff, the Autothrottle goes into HOLD mode at 80 knots. This allows manual adjustment of thrust; if your throttle hardware is set to a minimum position and you touch it accidentally or it sends a spike, thrust will drop. In VNAV descents the Autothrottle also often goes into HOLD mode. Again, depending on your hardware throttle's position, you might send a full thrust or other command that you are unaware of. For both situations, check what thrust mode the A/T is in on the FMA (upper right of PFD for Thrust mode). See if it is in HOLD mode. There is also an option to display the hardware throttle position on the N1 EICAS indications. That should help you troubleshoot. Mike

Thanks, Michael. I was looking in the wrong place! Mike

You may have a scenery problem, specifically more than one AFCAD (runway and airport nav info) file for the same airport. Please give the specific airport and runway where this is happening. No. For vertical mode you can be in VNAV, FLCH (flight level change) or VS (vertical speed) or Altitude hold. For horizontal mode you can be in LNAV, Heading Hold or Heading Select. If you have APP pressed and you intercept the localizer followed by the glideslope, it will follow both. You should always check the FMA at the top of the PFD to see what are the active vertical and horizontal modes, and what modes are armed Yes, along with the final approach course heading, but in most cases it shouldn't be necessary. Francis, I think you have not done the tutorial that comes with the PMDG 777. You aren't going to be able to learn to fly it just by asking questions. Also, you need to give the specific airport, runway, frequency, and heading where you are having a problem. Mike Michael, can you point Francis to Kyle's tutorial 1.5? I can only find his original Sept. 2013 video. Thanks, Mike

Hi, Francis, After reading through this thread it's unclear to me what you are doing. I often take a shortcut while flying a STAR and often eliminate the initial waypoint of an ILS approach, without the autotuned frequency disappearing. So let me go over a few things: A STAR is an arrival that sets you up for the final approach. A STAR will end either with a transition waypoint to the final approach, or with VECTORS, which means you have to be vectored by ATC or vector yourself to the first waypoint of the final approach. So the STAR and the final approach are two different things. The STAR ends at or before the beginning of the final approach. (From a VECTORS waypoint, you may have to fly using heading select until you are in a good position to aim for the initial waypoint of your final approach. You can eliminate the VECTORS waypoint by selecting the first waypoint of the final approach as your next waypoint.) Before you are close to the arrival airport, first you select your final approach which is for a specific runway. Then you select your STAR. This is because some STARs are not available for all runways, so when you select your final approach/runway, the inappropriate STARs won't show up any more as choices. If the final approach you select is labelled "ILS" it will autotune the ILS frequency as Michael described above. (If you select another type of approach, such as an RNAV or VOR approach, the ILS frequency will NOT be autotuned.) Deleting some or all waypoints in the STAR won't affect the final approach or the tuned ILS frequency. Even choosing to go direct to an intermediate waypoint on the final approach, instead of the initial one, won't delete the autotuned frequency, in my experience. The other thing to be aware of, is that there can be a discrepancy between the ILS frequency autotuned by the FMC, and the frequency in the FSX scenery. This is because the scenery is old and the FMC is using recent data. In that case you won't see the localizer or GS indications on the PFD or ND (or you may land on the wrong runway!). This is not an autotune problem. You can check by opening up the FSX map and comparing the frequency there to the frequency autotuned by the FMC. Mike

Thanks for settling it once and for all! I never realized before that the T7 actually flies by flapping its wings. Haven't laughed this hard for awhile. Mike

No problem at all, Michael. Still would like to know what the OP is trying to accomplish -- After spending many "fun filled" (??) hours years ago editing PSS approach files, because at the end of a STAR it just threw in a couple of generic waypoints and no missed approach procedure, I'm happy not to have to do it anymore (even though the PMDG SIDs & STARs look much more intuitive). Mike

Just tried using CDU -- slightly older Airac but went from DET31 to LAM, including left turn. BTW this is EGKK. Only time I've found it necessary to program such procedures is with the old PSS 777 which didn't have real final or missed approaches. Mike

Hi, Peter, Why can't you just do this on the CDU screen? Just move LAM15 up so it comes after DET31. Unless LAM15 is in some strange location relative to DET31, the aircraft will turn left to get to it. Mike

Hi, Jetairfly737, The software addon program Remote CDU places the same entries in the same file to make its remote CDU work, except that it adds one for the second CDU. So it is safe to do. But you should make a backup of 737ngx_options.ini before you edit it just to be extra careful. As Dan said, the most likely reason you can't save is that FSX or P3D is locking the file. If either program was running but is not now, try restarting Windows. If that doesn't work, right click on the ini file and see if it is set to read only. If it is change it. Mike

Sorry I asked. At any rate I will try very hard never to make any thread go south. Mike

Hi, Steve, It's amazing how many times I've stared at a file name and not noticed an extra "-" or "." or a missing character. I've developed the habit of copying and pasting whenever possible for this reason. It's certainly possible to copy a texture folder name into an aircraft.cfg file and visa versa - same with an aircraft title into a TTools aircraft.txt file, when necessary. But I am guessing in this case it's a different AI aircraft than he thinks -- at least I hope it is because then he will narrow down his search for a solution. Mike

OK, I'll bite, what is a "lav cart dump shack"? Mike

Hi Steve, The texture names and aircraft.cfg file entries look good in his screen shots. The thing that's so weird is that I'm pretty sure he used the WOAI auto installer, which should really make such mistakes very unlikely. I have the same AAL repaints on the same model and I don't have a problem. I just downloaded woa_americanairlines_v4_fsx.zip and manually decompiled it. Steve, you are right that there are two files for the 738W that should be in FSX/Texture, FAIB_737_800_AlwaysOn_L.dds and FAIB_737_800_L.bmp. However they are in fact missing from my FSX Steam installation and my AAL textures still work! (They are missing due to my dual FSX:MS & FSX:SE installation). So I'm sure something's missing on my installed FAIB 738W aircraft, but that alone wouldn't cause Amrit's problem. Amrit, is woa_americanairlines_v4_fsx.zip the package you downloaded? Did you by chance download the FS9 version? I hope you will make doubly sure you have identified the right aircraft that is showing up black Mike

Hi, Amrit, Everything looks good between your aircraft.cfg file and your texture folder names. If something else were messed up you wouldn't see the aircraft at all, even black with no textures. It turns out I have the FAIB 737-800 Winglets aircraft with the same American liveries you have (plus some others). I made the aircraft visible by copying the stock B737-800 panel folder into the FAIB 737-800W folder. I also opened the aircraft.cfg file and put "panel=" within each American livery entry, although I think this step isn't necessary, because ALL my FAIB 737-800W liveries then showed up. I loaded each AAL livery into the opening, Free Flight screen and they all displayed properly. I didn't take the trouble to load each one into a flight setup, but if the liveries are showing in the opening window, they are probably OK. I did load one retro livery into the stock startup flight and it looks fine although it flies kinda weirdly. SO: a couple of questions. Please read through all of them: 1) Is this happening for only one specific livery or all AAL liveries? 2) How do you know that the FAIB is the AI 738W version that is causing the issue? I have another WOAI 738W AIA model although it does not have AAL liveries (none of my AIA 737s, 738s or 739s has an AAL livery). Or perhaps you are seeing a different AI aircraft or airline than you think -- when you flip through the AI aircraft from within FSX by right-clicking you should see briefly ID info on the aircraft in the upper right corner. But if you do what I suggest above and make the AAL 738Ws visible, you will know for sure. 2) This is a long shot: within each AAL texture folder you should see two files, FAIB_737_800_L.bmp & FAIB_737_800_T.bmp. If they are incorrectly named, even slightly, they won't work. If one is missing it probably won't work either. The names are all exactly the same for every texture. Mike

Hi, Amrit, The files for the texture should be inside a folder called "texture.XX" where XX is specific to the repaint - in your case it might be "American" or "AA". The texture.xx folder should be in the folder for the specific aircraft. I don't think it will work to put the textures in the general FSX\Scenery\World\Texture folder, but in any case the textures should be inside the texture folder which is inside the specific aircraft folder, most likely under SimObjects\Airplanes. Open the aircraft.cfg file for the 738 and find the entry for American Airlines. Make sure the "texture=" entry agrees exactly with the name of the texture file without the word "texture." If the texture folder is called "texture.AA" then the aircraft.cfg entry should be "texture=AA". Mike

Hi, Fabio, To follow up on Dan's point, I think if you have any tabs instead of spaces that may mess things up. Make sure all of your entries line up exactly with the next entry below. "NZPG" in all the runway entries should be spaced (not tabbed) so that it lines up exactly with EGAR and all the later airports and runways listed. BTW I just checked ARPT_RWY.dat and it did pick up NZPG even though I hadn't deleted it and allowed it to rebuild. It even shows the discrepancy between the added data and the missing runway (8/26) in the FSX stock scenery. Just a quick question: Where are you looking for the runways? I see them on the CDU approach page on the right. Of course there are no STARs as there is no separate STAR file in FSX/PMDG/SIDSTARS. Mike

Hi, Fabio, I just tried it and it's working for me. So, a couple of things: 1) Don't try to edit ARPT_RWY.dat. It's a cache as Dan said. However you might try deleting it and letting it rebuild after you've made the NZPG entries and saved the files. It will rebuild the next time you load the 777. That might be the source of your problem. If that doesn't work: 2) You only need to enter the following lines in WPNavApt.txt; the ones coming after are there only to illustrate the proper placement of the NZPG lines. As it turns out, they go at the very beginning of the file after the header stuff -- first entry -- because MCMurdo is further south than any other airport. MCMURDO STATION PEG NZPG08 10000309-77.957161 166.551514000.0030900000 MCMURDO STATION PEG NZPG15 11024016-77.952072 166.489395000.0001600000 MCMURDO STATION PEG NZPG26 10000129-77.958916 166.682709000.0012900000 MCMURDO STATION PEG NZPG33 11024196-77.980484 166.538956000.0019600000 3) Same for Airports.dat: NZPG-77.955197 166.522621 Again, at the head of the file after header, the very first entry. When you're done, the entries should look the same as the ones you copied from Ken. If this doesn't work, please post your entries for the two files. Hope this helps! Mike PS: PMDG wants you to use your full name in its forums.

I don't think he needs to do anything with the licenses as long as he's on the same computer -- I never have. I agree with Romain, no reboot necessary. The only reason to save panel.cfg files or anything else in the panel folders is if you have made changes. For example I've resized the left popup CDU screen and added a radar gauge, so I would lose those settings, and possibly the art work that goes with the radar gauge, if I didn't back up the panel folder & files. Likewise, if you've made changes to the aircraft.cfg files you will want to back them up too. For example, I've modified the camera views to allow F10 & F11 to give me overhead and pedestal VC views, so I would lose them if the aircraft.cfg files are overwritten and I didn't have backups. But don't just copy the old panel.cfg or aircraft.cfg files back after the new installation. Only copy the modifications you have made (if any). Otherwise you might revert to obsolete aircraft.cfg or panel.cfg files. Mike

Hi, Romain, Yes, you are quite right! Missed that. Best, Mike

Hi, Ronny, Did you completely uninstall the earlier versions of the -200LR and 300ER, using Control Panel>Uninstall Programs? You can't just install on top of the older versions -- the installers provide complete, new installations. If you run the OC before you uninstall, it will preserve your addon liveries. Uninstall the 300ER, then the 200LR. Install the new 200LR, then the 300ER. What versions of these two aircraft are showing in the Operations Center? The most recent for the 777s is 1.10.7025. BTW, my OC, which says it is up to date, has modules version 1.14 for both the777 and the NGX. Mike

Assuming you are referring to the 777, Romain's suggestion will most likely fix the problem. The file is in FSX\PMDG\Navdata but it is not part of the Airac. It will rebuild the next time you load the 777. You can back it up if you want to be extra careful. Mike