Litjan

Doublechecked my manual: Normal alignment (between 70 deg, 12 min north and south) takes "approximately 10 minutes". High latitude alignment (between 70,12 and 78,15) takes at least 17 minutes (we don´t model that).

It does take EXTRA time if you are up in the high latitudes. I have to doublecheck but the regular full align time is 13 min, iirc. Misleading is the fact that the time to align shown on the IRS units starts with 7 minutes...and then stays at 7 minutes for the first 6 or so minutes and only THEN starts to count down. So unless you really start the chronometer to time it, you will never see more than "7 minutes" TTA, which may lead you to believe that it is only 7 minutes total.

It is on our list - align time is around 13 minutes, I can get the plane ready in 5... if the flightplan is not too long

There may be some VRAM savings in this, but the actual framerate advantage will be very small, I think. I believe that XP does not render what you can´t see. To test this, set yourself up at KLAX, runway 06R facing the city. Look at the framerate. Now turn around and look out over the Pacific. Compare framerate now.

Thanks for letting us know the reason...I think the magneto switch is probably assigned to "start switch" engine no.1 and will therefore allow bleed pressure to run the starter for the left engine. Normally the starter will flip to the OFF position automatically, but just like in the real aircraft, if you HOLD it open, it will continue to be aspirated by bleed air and "help" the engine (which will then run with a higher N2).

This is most likely the speed trim function at work. It is a function of the real aircraft as well and it will try to "trim" the airplane for a certain speed to add speed stability (you can google its function). To stop it you can select flaps up (it only works while flaps are down) and it only works while thrust setting is high. The speed the trim system aims for is determined by the position of the speed cursor, so make sure you set it to the appropriate speed you want to fly (like if you accelerate for clean up).

Tom and I met at FSExpo last weekend and planned the final steps we need to take before release.

You must be new!

Why don´t you ask in a relevant forum?

No, there will only be one configuration.

Some more early morning testing...

No (it could be modeled, but we aren´t going to, I think I mentioned the big reason why we won´t a while ago already) and no.

Sometimes they just don´t clap...

Show ´em the fire warning spill lights, show ´em the fire warning spill lights!

Only XP12.

You hope in vain.

I believe the 737-300 for XP12 would be like another product, so that should be possible.

This thread (and this forum at large) are the correct place - although there will be an email newsletter when the plane is ready for XP12. We are in the final stages of updating, I am not going to dare and put a date on it, but the plane is flying fine and the remaining work is some 3D, some minor bug squashing and a final user-experience polish. Cheers, Jan

No, I forgot what those lines mean - it´s been a few years since I worked with the VRconfig. All the info I had was here: https://developer.x-plane.com/article/aircraft-vr-configuration-_vrconfig-txt-file-format-specification/

@Ian Hi, I have checked the behavior on the XP12 version I am testflying right now, but I am sure that the logic for this was not touched since the XP11 version: When moving the pack switches to OFF (moving between auto and high should have no effect) the N1 indicated on the N1 LIMIT page increases by 1.0 percent N1 - this is correct and according "to the book". It makes sense, too - without the bleed air being extracted to drive the packs you can create more thrust before you hit the EGT limit. What is probably missing is getting the same effect when turning OFF the engine bleeds - as you would in a takeoff where the APU powers the packs (as opposed to having packs off for an unpressurized takeoff). I will add an issue to our internal list to also add this dependency. Cheers, Jan

The problem in the 737 warning system design (that we have faithfully reproduced) is that the warning horn for the takeoff configuration and the warning horn for excessive cabin altitude (it being >10.000 feet i.e. not enough pressure to breath) is totally identical. Boeing reasoned that pilots are smart enough to figure out that if the warning horn sounds on the ground, it can´t be the cabin altitude warning and if it sounds in the air, it can´t be the takeoff configuration warning. The Helios pilots proved them wrong. After that incident they implemented a new Abnormal Checklist for this, it is called "warning horn intermittent" (or so). It goes like this: If you hear an intermittent warning horn, find out if you are A.) on the ground - this means you are hearing the takeoff configuration warning horn, do not take off! B.) in the air - this means that you are hearing the excessive cabin altitude warning horn, do the "Excessive Cabin Altiude Abnormal Checklist". The vast majority of pressurization problems are due to forgetting to turn on the packs, either after engine start (where you turn them off to have enough bleed pressure to start the engines) or after takeoff (if you took off without packs operating to squeeze out some more power from your engines).

Just for XP12.

Well, what was your cabin altitude? Just moving the switch to FLT and setting the correct FLT ALT and LAND ALT is not enough, as the Helios pilots found out, too. The next time it happens please take a screenshot of your cabin altitude indicator and also of your pressurization panel (bleed air switches and pack switches). Oh, and it wasn´t the TO config warning, this can only sound on the ground (or to be more precise while the air/ground switch is sending a ground signal).

This will probably answer your question - as the pilots asked themselves the very same question that you just asked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522

It is perfectly legal to fly the 737 Classic with the FMC inoperative - in that case you would consult the books to find the correct N1 value, set the carots in manual mode and use the autothrottle or manual throttle input to set the power accordingly.