Litjan

I saw some videos of the A320 by FSLabs and I am totally and utterly impressed - haven´t been able to spot anything even remotely wrong. However, I don´t have FSX installed and if you learned to fly on a 737 you don´t need any help in Airbus-Simulator-Checkrides Cheers, Jan

Hi Nils, could it be that you are running out of fuel? This would cause the APU to shut down...but using the GPU should still work, of course. Another problem could be that you are not connecting the APU generator or GPU - the battery would eventually drain and after that there is no way to connect AC power to the airplane anymore (the breaker is powered by the battery). In the real plane you would have to connect a DC source to enable that. What mmerelles wrote is very plausible, too. We have had many reports of Saitek Panel or other hardware users that mapped a switch to some sort of function (like avionics, battery switch, etc.) and that would mess with the 737´s system... Viele Grüße, Jan

I am not the expert on this - but for us to enable something like this, we would have to have an opportunity to read weather at certain locations, and I doubt that X-Plane provides datarefs or an interface for that. We have worked around obstructions like this before, but I don´t even know what that prompt REALLY does - I have never pushed it in 10 years of flying the real 737...(-> low priority feature) Jan

No, that is not related. We expect our plane to keep working in XP11 - but I am sure there will be a thing or two that needs to be adjusted - or some new features that we can make use of. I don´t think there will be a 1.0.8 - we have enough new content and fixes ready on the sideline to warrant calling the next one 1.1 - we are "just" waiting to get some more FMS fixes in. Once those are done we will need to do a thorough flight-testing, we would like to avoid the "fix two things, break one new" we used to have during the frantic hot-fix run. Cheers, Jan

...and the weather request we will most likely never be able to add...

I can´t comment on that without having a separate controller for my tiller myself - but keep in mind that there is no "speed washout" for the tiller, and a full deflection equals 80+ degrees, while the full rudder pedal nosewheel steering angle is only 7 degrees. So it will feel very springy with most hardware... Cheers, Jan

I think the default X-Plane command is "mixture more rich" or something like that... Jan

Hi John, are you talking about the TMA (Thrust Mode Annunciator)? It announces the maximum currently available thrust (not the FMS flight mode) - so while the plane is not at the same altitude as the MCP ALT (even during descent) it will show CLB. Cheers, Jan

I will check on my end to see if I can recreate what you are seeing...will take a bit, though, I have to work the next 5 days... Cheers, Jan

If you are in VNAV you will see that our plane intially gets a bit "over" the calculated path, then dives down to re-capture it. The real plane plans a smoother initial curve - this is something we skipped to avoid the complexity - VNAV is hard enough to calculate as it is. We may add that at a (much) later stage... Jan

The initial part of the descent is "constant MACH" - and since the speed of sound gets bigger with warmer temperatures, you will see that the indicated airspeed keeps going up as you descend. So in a way you are not only descending, you are also accelerating! In addition, the "glide angle" for a constant airspeed is also constant - but you have to remember that at high altitudes the plane is moving a lot faster than indicated. (TAS > IAS). So you will also get a much higher ROD for the same angle. These effects are portrayed well in X-Plane, and it is not unusual to see 5000+ fpm rate of descent in the real 737 when descending at constant MACH at high altitudes. The passengers (and pilots) are unable to feel "high ROD" - you could descend at 20.000 feet per minute and no one would know (at least not for a minute or so...) Jan

Hi john, mmerelles is correct - we still have some issues to work out with the VNAV part of the descent - it can still be easily confused by multiple and complex descent restrictions. We plan to improve that - as a workaround I suggest going to autopilot modes that give you more control (V/S or FLCHG) so you can adhere to your desired descent path. Cheers, Jan

This approach is a "RF" (radius to fix) approach that only very advanced FMS versions can fly. The version number we model can not. Cheers, Jan

No, there is no "pipper" for runway or taxiway alignment in the 737. And it would not work in most cases, since usually during an approach there is some crosswind, and also the 737 does not taxi "straight" (it has a slight slack in the wheel castors, so it looks like it is crabbing during taxi) There is a guide on how to set up the correct seating and head position in the real manual - but there is nothing to help you judge alignment in the lateral position (just sit straight and look straight ahead) . Cheers, Jan

Whatever works for you! Happy flying, Jan

I think dr_anthony probably has the answer - the effect is called "cinema verite" and can be accidentially triggered to ON. Check the X-Plane "view" menu... Jan

Oh, the good old days of manual reversion flying in the simulator... skipped the workout in the health club on those days... Jan

Yeah, I watched the video - it is a really complicated situation for the FMC - it still thinks that you are in climb mode and wants to go to CLB speed after recalculating the route after the DIRECT TO. I don´t really know what went wrong at that point, but in that case I would suggest to simply revert to a more simple autopilot mode like MCP SPD and V/S or FL/CHG. We will look at these kind of situations (descents involving several speed and altitude restrictions) more closely in the future, there is still a lot of work to be done... Jan

Unfortunately the video is "private", so I can´t really see what is going on...

I did have a conversation on this subject with Ben Supnik, so maybe he incorporated some improvement in this regard... "Fixed max deflection of low speed nose wheel when not using a hardware tiller." Not sure, have to check if this affects us... Jan

I did have a conversation on this subject with Ben Supnik, so maybe he incorporated some improvement in this regard... "Fixed max deflection of low speed nose wheel when not using a hardware tiller." Not sure, have to check if this affects us... Jan

Thanks for letting us know, Tom - I wonder what fix affected that one... Jan

Nope, should just work like it did before. Jan

This is already fixed for the next update, thanks for reporting! Jan

Excellent - and don´t worry, the "combined modes" of A/T and AP pitch channel are probably the most complex systems in the 737. Still looking forward to clearing up that original bug - keep me posted! Cheers, Jan