PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II 0.00.

INTRODUCTION

PMDG 747-400
QUEEN OF THE SKIES II
Introduction and Use

Copyright © 2005-2017
PMDG Simulations
All Rights Reserved

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INTRODUCTION

This manual was compiled for use only with the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the
Skies II simulation for Prepar3D™ from Lockheed Martin Corporation. The
information contained within this manual is derived from multiple sources and is
not subject to revision or checking for accuracy. This manual is not to be used for
training or familiarity with any aircraft. This manual is not assumed to provide
operating procedures for use on any aircraft and is written for entertainment
purposes.

It is a violation of the owner’s copyright to distribute this document or any portion

thereof without permission of the author.

The PMDG Simulations Web Site can be found at:

[Link]

Copyright © 2005-2017 PMDG Simulations

This manual and all of its contents, pages, text and graphics are protected under
copyright law of the United States of America and international treaties.
Duplication of this manual is prohibited. Permission to conduct duplication of this
manual will not be sub-contracted, leased or given.

Lockheed Martin, the Lockheed Martin logo and Prepar3D are registered
trademarks of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Boeing, the Boeing name and
certain brand marks are the property of The Boeing Company. Some graphics
contained in this manual were taken directly from the simulator and altered in
order to suit duplication on a printed page. All images contained in this manual
were used with permission.

Produced under license from Boeing Management Company. Boeing 747, 747-
400, 747-400F, 747-400D, 747-400M, 747-400BCF & Boeing are among the
trademarks owned by Boeing.

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INTRODUCTION

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

The original purchaser of this software is granted a limited license to use
the software in accordance with the End User License Agreement as
agreed to at the time of installation.

Please review the license agreement carefully, as it provides you with

only limited rights. Specifically, you may not sell, resell, trade or barter
this software product/license without the permission of PMDG.

You should also be aware that you may not use this simulation software
for any training, pilot familiarization, recurrent training or operational
awareness training.

This software may not be used to demonstrate the airplane, airplane

systems, operational norms, flows, procedures or other pilot knowledge
application in a classroom or training environment without being
supplemented by the appropriate commercial license.

Please note that this version of the simulation may or may not accurately
represent the actual operation of many different aircraft systems and no
warranty is made to accuracy or correctness.

In all circumstances the aircraft manuals issued by a certified training

center for use with a pilot’s training course and the manuals located on
the flight deck of an aircraft as well as the operational procedures dictated
by the aircraft manuals supersede any information taken from this product
or the documentation provided with this product.

This simulation may not be used in any public or private display for which
users are charged admission, usage fees or other revenue generating
charges. Nor may the simulation be used in any manner which reflects
poorly on PMDG, PMDG Simulations, Boeing, Boeing’s employees,
suppliers or customers.

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INTRODUCTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE ....................................................................... 3

THE TESTING TEAM .................................................................................13
PMDG TECHNICAL SUPPORT ................................................................14
IMPORTANT – READ THIS PAGE ...........................................................15
THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER BOEING .................................................16
GETTING P3D SET UP FOR THE PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies
II ....................................................................................................................19
Yes, You Really Should Read This: .......................................................19
Proper Installation: ...................................................................................20
Product Activation: ...................................................................................20
Optimal Installation of P3D: .....................................................................20
Running P3D: ...........................................................................................21
[Link] Settings: ..................................................................................22
Lockheed Martin has created a short guide on tweaking the
[Link] file available here: .........................................................22
In the [Main] Section: ...........................................................................22
If you are getting out of memory errors in P3D, adding the following
line can help with it according to the development team at Lockheed
Martin: ...................................................................................................22
This forces the simulator to completely unload all of its data when the
flight is reset or changing airports. ......................................................22
[Link] fix: .....................................................................22
P3D tweaks: .........................................................................................22
P3D In-Game Settings: ...........................................................................23
Graphics Page: ....................................................................................23
General Page: ......................................................................................23
Traffic Page: .........................................................................................23
Scenery and Lighting Page: ................................................................24
Realism Page: ......................................................................................24
VAS management – stopping out of memory errors: ............................26

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Background and theory: ...................................................................... 26
Using Process Explorer or FSUIPC to monitor VAS: ........................ 27
Causes of high VAS usage: ................................................................ 28
Large amounts of photoscenery areas ............................................... 28
High amounts of AI traffic .................................................................... 29
Ultra high resolution environment textures......................................... 29
[Link] Level of detail radius value .......................................... 29
Autogen, water, weather ..................................................................... 30
High detail addon airports ................................................................... 30
Flying a lot of legs without shutting the simulator down: ................... 30
Using the sound preload options: ....................................................... 30
Conclusion: .......................................................................................... 30
THE PMDG 747-400 AND FLIGHT-SIM HARDWARE/SOFTWARE ..... 31
Conflicting Software: ............................................................................... 31
Hardware SDK: ........................................................................................ 31
FSUIPC users: ......................................................................................... 32
KNOWN P3D’isms TO AVOID: ................................................................ 34
HOW TO USE THE MANUALS ................................................................. 36
Introduction: ............................................................................................. 36
Tutorials: .................................................................................................. 37
Flight Crew Operations Manual: ............................................................. 37
Quick Reference Handbook:................................................................... 38
THE PMDG 747-400 DIDN’T DO WHAT YOU EXPECTED? ................. 40
The plane is behaving erratically: ........................................................... 40
I can’t load full fuel: .................................................................................. 40
In the 737 or 777 it worked like this…: ................................................... 41
I turned the battery on, but the plane has no power: ............................. 41
I connected the air start unit, but no duct pressure is showing on the
ECS page: ................................................................................................ 41
The Step Climb is telling me that I need to climb 4000 feet: ................. 41

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INTRODUCTION
The PVD is not working / The PVD continues to move even though I’m
stopped: ....................................................................................................42
I turned off the autopilot, but I can’t silence the alarm: ..........................42
It’s difficult to taxi: .....................................................................................42
How do I save my route?.........................................................................42
Why are my tire rims orange? .................................................................43
My [insert passenger/VA program here] is flagging me for excessive
V/S: ...........................................................................................................43
I couldn’t get LNAV to arm/engage: ........................................................43
The bank limiter isn’t working as I expected in LNAV: ..........................43
The mouse wheel isn’t working on certain knobs: .................................43
Pressing the RESET button on the MINS knob does not reset the mins:
..................................................................................................................44
Sometimes I hear strange sound artifacts after switching views: .........44
I get a NAV DATA OUT OF DATE message on the CDU: ...................44
RAAS is calling out the wrong runway numbers: ...................................44
I see a large mass of TCAS targets on the ND around an airport on the
ground: .....................................................................................................45
The aircraft “bounces” on the ground when I change views: ................45
I have service based failures on but nothing ever happens: .................45
It takes way too long to enter wind predictions for a long route: ...........46
The weather radar isn’t working. .............................................................46
I’m seeing erratic changing fuel loads and autopilot issues. .................47
I’m getting stutters when sounds load to play: .......................................47
DETAILS AND QUIRKS OF THE PMDG 747-400 ..................................48
Air Conditioning System: .........................................................................48
Auto-flight System: ...................................................................................49
Cockpit Shaking Feature: ........................................................................49
Cockpit Displays: .....................................................................................49
Doors: .......................................................................................................50
Electrical System: ....................................................................................50
Engines:....................................................................................................50
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INTRODUCTION
Fire Controls – Engines:.......................................................................... 51
Flight Controls: ......................................................................................... 51
Flight Management Computer: ............................................................... 51
Fuel Density Model: ................................................................................. 52
Ground Friction Model:............................................................................ 52
Ground Service Vehicles: ....................................................................... 52
Hydraulic System:.................................................................................... 52
Landing Gear: .......................................................................................... 53
Lighting Systems: .................................................................................... 54
Physics-based Wing Flex:....................................................................... 54
Pneumatic System: ................................................................................. 54
Sounds: .................................................................................................... 55
THINGS THE WIDE BETA TEAM WANTED YOU TO KNOW............... 56
INTERACTING WITH THE PMDG 747-400 ............................................. 58
Push-Pull Operations: ............................................................................. 58
Knob/Switch Turn Operations: ................................................................ 58
Switch/Knob Cursors: .............................................................................. 59
Operating a Two Position Switch/Knob: ................................................. 60
Operating a Multiple Position Switch/Knob: ........................................... 60
Combined Rotary Knobs: ........................................................................ 61
Other applications of gray shaded cursors: ........................................... 61
Multi-Function Knobs in the Virtual Cockpit: .......................................... 63
Using click and drag controls: ................................................................. 63
Using Pop-Up Panels .............................................................................. 64
Panel Open/Toggle Cursor: ................................................................ 64
Close Panel Cursor: ............................................................................ 64
Zoom Display Cursor: .......................................................................... 64
Main Panel and Forward Pedestal Clickspots: ...................................... 65
Rear Pedestal/CDU Clickspot: ............................................................... 66
MCP Popup and Close Click Spots: ....................................................... 66
EFIS Click Spot:....................................................................................... 67
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TOGA Click Spot: ....................................................................................67
Radio/Audio Panel/XPDR/Weather Radar Popup and Close Click
Spots:........................................................................................................68
CUSTOMIZE YOUR PMDG 747-400 EXPERIENCE ...............................69
Accessing FMS Based Menus from a Dark Airplane: ...........................69
PMDG 747-400 Home CDU Menu: ........................................................70
PMDG SETUP MENU .................................................................................71
Understanding Panel vs. Flight Save/Load States: ...............................73
Save/Load Effect on Failures: .................................................................74
Save/Load from the P3D menu: .............................................................74
AIRCRAFT SETUP MENUS ......................................................................75
How this helps you: ..............................................................................75
How this works behind the scenes (For sim techs and nerds!):........76
Using the AIRCRAFT menu: ...................................................................77
Restoring a Definition File: ......................................................................78
Using a Different Definition File: .............................................................78
Using a Fixed Definition File for All Flights: ............................................79
EQUIPMENT Options: .............................................................................80
PAGE 1/22 - ADFS, FMS ....................................................................81
PAGE 2/22 - ELECTRICAL .................................................................81
PAGE 3/22 - EGPWS ..........................................................................81
PAGE 4/22 – EGPWS 2 ......................................................................82
PAGE 5/22 – EGPWS 3 ......................................................................82
PAGE 6/22 – EGPWS 4 ......................................................................82
PAGE 7/22 – FMC DATALINK............................................................82
PAGE 8/22 – FMS ...............................................................................83
PAGE 9/22 – FMS 2 ............................................................................83
PAGE 10/22 – FMC 3 ..........................................................................83
PAGE 11/22 – FUEL & WT/BAL .........................................................84
PAGE 12/22 – FUEL & WT/BAL 2 ......................................................84
PAGE 13/22 – HYDRAULIC ...............................................................84
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PAGE 14/22 - INSTRUMENTS .......................................................... 85
PAGE 15/22 - MISC ............................................................................ 86
PAGE 16/22 - MISC ............................................................................ 86
PAGE 17/22 – PACKAGES ................................................................ 86
PAGE 18/22 – PACKAGES 2 ............................................................. 87
PAGE 19/22 – PANEL OPTIONS ...................................................... 87
PAGE 20/22 – PANEL OPTIONS ...................................................... 87
PAGE 21/22 - WARNING SYS ........................................................... 88
PAGE 22/22 - WARNING SYS 2 ........................................................ 89
DISPLAYS Option Pages:....................................................................... 90
PAGE 1/7 ............................................................................................. 90
PAGE 2/7 - PFD .................................................................................. 91
PAGE 3/7 - PFD .................................................................................. 91
PAGE 4/7 - ND..................................................................................... 92
PAGE 5/7 - ND..................................................................................... 92
PAGE 6/7 - EICAS ............................................................................... 92
PAGE 7/7 – EICAS .............................................................................. 93
FAILURES Customization Pages: .......................................................... 93
OPTIONS MENUS ...................................................................................... 94
SIMULATION Configuration Menu: ........................................................ 95
PAGE 1/10 ........................................................................................... 95
PAGE 2/10 ........................................................................................... 97
PAGE 3/10 ........................................................................................... 98
PAGE 4/10 ........................................................................................... 98
PAGE 5/10 ........................................................................................... 99
PAGE 6/10 ........................................................................................... 99
PAGE 7/10 ........................................................................................... 99
PAGE 8/10 ......................................................................................... 100
PAGE 9/10 ......................................................................................... 101
PAGE 10/10 ....................................................................................... 102
IRS Options Sub-Menu: ........................................................................ 103
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PERFORMANCE Options: ....................................................................104
PAGE 1/2............................................................................................105
PAGE 2/2............................................................................................105
KEY COMMANDS Options: ..................................................................106
COLOR Options: ....................................................................................107
Method 1:............................................................................................107
Method 2:............................................................................................107
SOUND Options: ...................................................................................108
FAILURES AND MAINTENANCE ...........................................................110
Failures: Top Menu: ...............................................................................111
All Systems: Top Menu: ........................................................................111
Random Failures Sub-Menu: ................................................................112
Service Based Failures Sub-Menu: ......................................................113
Maintenance Sub-Menu: .......................................................................114
System Failure / Maintenance Menu: ...................................................115
Failures Master List: ..............................................................................116
Air Conditioning: (44) .........................................................................116
APU: (7) ..............................................................................................117
Automatic Flight: (5) ...........................................................................117
Communications: (13)........................................................................117
Doors: (17)..........................................................................................118
Electrical: (52) ....................................................................................118
Engine: (48) ........................................................................................119
Fire: (16) .............................................................................................120
Fire Protection: (92) ...........................................................................121
Flight Controls: (23) ...........................................................................123
Flight Instruments: (19) ......................................................................124
FMS/NAV/ADIRU: (23) ......................................................................124
Fuel: (46) ............................................................................................125
Hydraulics: (43) ..................................................................................126
Ice Protection: (32) .............................................................................127
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Pneumatic: (22).................................................................................. 128
Warning Systems: (12) ...................................................................... 128
Wheels and Brakes: (10) ................................................................... 129
FS ACTIONS MENU SYSTEM ................................................................ 131
Fuel Menu: ............................................................................................. 132
Payload: ................................................................................................. 133
Doors: ..................................................................................................... 134
Pushback: .............................................................................................. 135
Service Vehicles: ................................................................................... 136
Ground Connections: ............................................................................ 137
Ground Operations: ............................................................................... 138
Ground Maintenance: ............................................................................ 140
Cabin Lights: .......................................................................................... 141
Auto Cruise: ........................................................................................... 142
GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR PMDG 747-400 ........................... 143
Virtual Cockpit position and zoom: ....................................................... 143
Using the Landing Lights: ..................................................................... 145
TrackIR: .................................................................................................. 145
Alternate TO/GA Click Spot: ................................................................. 146
Keyboard Direct Entry to CDU Scratchpad:......................................... 147
P3D VIEW SYSTEM AND THE PMDG 747-400 .................................... 148
LIMITATIONS OF THE SIMULATOR ..................................................... 149
Time Acceleration Limit: ........................................................................ 149
External Load/Fueling Programs: ......................................................... 149
Do not use non-PMDG external models: ............................................. 150
Flight recording and playback issues: .................................................. 150
Hardware toe brakes: ............................................................................ 150
External route export programs: ........................................................... 150
THE COLLINS WXR-2100 WEATHER RADAR .................................... 152
Active Sky Next or Active Sky 2016 requirement: ............................... 152
Basic radar concepts and theory: ......................................................... 152
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Tilt: ..........................................................................................................153
Before takeoff and lower part of the climb ........................................153
Mid to high altitude climb: ..................................................................153
Cruise: ................................................................................................153
Descent: 0 to +10 ...............................................................................154
Gain: .......................................................................................................154
WX vs. WX+T modes: ...........................................................................154
Predictive Windshear System (PWS): ..................................................154
Limitations: .............................................................................................155
Active Sky Next range settings: ........................................................155
Future features: ..................................................................................155
THE 747 AND TURBULENCE IN P3D ....................................................156
What P3D turbulence does: ..................................................................156
Turbulence filtering: ...............................................................................157
AP/AT TURB MODE TRIGGER option: ...............................................158
Other ways of mitigating turbulence effects: ........................................158
P3D turbulence settings ....................................................................158
Weather addon settings.....................................................................158
FMC SAVED FLIGHT PLANS AND COMPANY DATALINK ...............159
Flight plan file management: .................................................................159
Loading flight plan files ......................................................................159
Saving flight plan files ........................................................................160
Weather Forecast Data .....................................................................162

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INTRODUCTION

THE TESTING TEAM

We take great pride in the cohesion and dedication of our testing team
members, and we place significant demands on their time, their expertise
and occasionally their patience.

We would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to

the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II project as Technical Advisors:

David Andrews Evangelos Kagklis

Andrea Biancucci René Moelaert
Allan Burek Doug Morlan
Nathan Coats Alexei Nicolov
Michael Codd Mike Ray
Jose Cortes Bryan Rosier
Stephen James Matt

We would also like to thank our dedicated team of wide beta testers who
have worked tirelessly to help us improve the quality of this product. Any
lapses are ours:

Mark Adeane Chris Makris

Carl Avari-Cooper Jorge Moya
Michael Cubine Luke Pabari
Aaron Buchanan René Pedersen
Evangelos Dokos Steve Perry
Dan Downs Jean-Rémy Ragaru
Jhan Jensen Mike Roth
Mats Johansson Randall Smith
Johan Ketting Evan Veal
Sven Kubusch Kyle Weber
Tom Landry Jane Rachel Whittaker
Pete Locascio Peter Wright
Mike MacCulloch TSims

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PMDG TECHNICAL SUPPORT

PMDG employs a ticket based support system that allows us to provide
you with direct, personal attention from a tech support analyst. If you have
trouble with this product, we encourage you to visit our technical support
portal:

[Link]
Our policy on answering support tickets is that you should receive a reply
from us within 24-48 hrs, depending on the type of request you submit.

Our average reply time to tickets is generally less than 6 hours and our
support team is dedicated to getting you up and running as quickly as
possible.

Please Note: The support ticket system will require you to create a login
that is unique to the ticket system and is not tied to your PMDG Store
login.

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 PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II 0.00.15

INTRODUCTION

IMPORTANT – READ THIS PAGE

 Please read pages 21 through 34 of this manual even if you
don’t intend to read anything else in it – they contain very
important mandatory P3D settings and recommendations for
proper functioning of the product.
 Installation and license activation instructions are on page 20 of
this document.
 Liveries are downloaded and installed (among many other
functions) through the PMDG Operations Center application,
which is installed automatically with the PMDG 747-400 Queen
of the Skies II. You can find it in your Start Menu under
PMDG Simulations/PMDG Operations Center.

Note that an Operations Center update may be triggered the first

time you run the application – this is normal and is required.

The Operations Center has its own separate manual, which can
be found on the About PMDG Operations Center page via the
link on the left side of the main screen of the program after it
runs.
 Full documentation for the aircraft including the Tutorial flight that
explains how to operate and fly it can be found in the PMDG
Operations Center application by selecting the 747 product from
the main drop down menu and then choosing the Documentation
module from the menu on the left side.
 Payload and Fuel loading and aircraft options selections are
handled through the FMC directly by pressing MENU > FS
ACTIONS and PMDG SETUP. There are no external load or fuel
managers for this product. Do not modify payload or fuel with any
other method than the FMC pages described above.
 If you need to reinstall your operating system, are upgrading your
hardware, or are installing on a completely new computer
system, please deactivate your license manually first through the
FMC on the MENU > PMDG SETUP > LICENSE page. This will
eliminate the need for you to submit a support ticket for license
reactivation after you reinstall.

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0.00.16 PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II

INTRODUCTION

THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER BOEING

What can possibly be said about the Boeing 747-400 that hasn’t already
been said?

The airplane is an icon within a class of icons. The 747-400 is easily the
most recognized airplane in the world, even among people who do not
enthuse poetically about airplanes.

When we released our first rendition of this airplane back in 2005, it was
the first time a fully animated virtual cockpit had been used in a major
airliner study simulation for desktop simmers. Looking at that product
through the prism of a dozen years, the product looks quaint. Almost
folksy.

Especially compared to this, the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II.

You will notice a bit of product branding schizophrenia in our references

to this product. To help it all make sense, it helps to understand that our
first version of the 747-400 Queen of the Skies was created for use with
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. A few years later, we released version 2
of our 747-400 simulation for use with FSX. In doing so, we dropped the
“Queen of the Skies” moniker in favor of calling it the 747-400X, in a tip of
the hat to the X in “FSX.”

With the 747-400 slowly fading from mainline passenger service, we felt it
was important to recognize her role as the world’s aviation ambassador
by bringing back the “Queen of the Skies” moniker and thus v3 of our
747-400 simulation can either be known as PMDG 747-400V3 or PMDG
747-400 Queen of the Skies II.

Don’t over-think it. What is truly important is that you get the product
installed, and jump in to see just how far the state of the art simulation
produced by PMDG has progressed in the last dozen years.

Just about everything in the 747-400 product line is simulated. Engine

variants, airframes, optional equipment and changes to the design and
operation of the airplane throughout its storied career are all packed into
this simulation.

Hundreds and hundreds of equipment options, hundreds and hundreds of

simulated failures. More than a dozen airframes, brought to life by
thousands of animations and more than 1,440 sound files, designed to
play/layer and interact in such a way that it really brings the entire
airplane to life. From the first press of the battery switch to hearing the
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INTRODUCTION
engines spool down at the conclusion of the flight, this is by far the most
complete all-around simulation of the entire airplane that you can buy for
desktop use.

In fact, many of the things we bring you in this simulation cannot be

included in anything short of buying your own 747-400 and flying it around
the world. Take some time to marvel at the sophistication and detail of the
external model, the actuators and fairings and flaps and spoilers and gear
doors. All of it is animated accurately, with many tiny details hidden for
you to discover.

In both the internal and external sound environments, you will notice that
the sounds produced by the simulation match those produced by the
airplane when such things as packs, pneumatic pumps, or pneumatically
driven leading edge devices are moved.

It is all there, in a single package for you to enjoy.

This product also marks the unveiling of our entirely new physics engine
that changes the way we approach modeling things such as brakes,
temperatures, inertial effects, shaking, sound generation, structural flexing
and the like. We tried to come up with a catchy-sounding brand name, but
in the end we found it felt sort of silly to try and brand name bringing you a
tremendous level of accuracy, just as PMDG has always done.

The PMDG 747-400 product line is a unique in the ability to accurately

portray not just the “book values” of a particular airplane, but also the
nuances and subtleties of the 747 airplane that are normally unavailable
through manuals and guesswork. Experienced aircrew will notice
hundreds of subtle details lending themselves to a complete and
satisfying simulation experience. (We have compiled a list of such
behaviors for you in this document!)

To this end, we have gone to great lengths to simulate the sophisticated

environment that is the modern airliner cockpit. Using many of the same
tools employed to teach pilots and mechanics how to support the 747
airplane, we have worked to build a simulation that capitalizes on the
strengths of the simulation environment while simultaneously working
around the simulator’s weaknesses through the use of innovative
technology and development.

Invariably there have been times when we needed to make choices

between realism and usability. While Microsoft Flight Simulator is a
wonderful and dynamic platform for modeling airliners, there are some
aspects of Microsoft Flight Simulator that just do not function as well as
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INTRODUCTION
we would like, and we have worked hard to overcome them while also
enhancing the realism of the PMDG 747-400 experience. To the greatest
degree possible we have attempted to document these shortcomings
within this manual.

The PMDG 747-400 is a highly complex simulation platform and we have

compiled this documentation in order to provide you with the best
information to help you learn how to operate this simulation effectively.
We recommend that you read through these documents without trying to
retain all details on the first read. It is our experience that even seasoned
airline pilots will gain the most from skimming their manuals repeatedly
over many months in order to learn everything that is required of them in
a new airplane.

We recommend that technique to all PMDG customers as well. Read,

learn, and enjoy the results of our hard work!

If you need help or require assistance, please use our support ticket
system mentioned earlier or visit our user-to-user customer forum hosted
at [Link] in the forum section. The PMDG forum is the
best place to converse with like-minded PMDG customers and to learn
new tips and techniques to operating a complex airliner like the 747!

The release of this product brings many of us at PMDG full circle to the
airplane against which we feel we began to earn our reputation for
incredible detail and accuracy. This simulation took three long years to
create, but along the way we never doubted for a moment that the end
result would be the finest 747-400 simulation you could get your hands
on. We don’t feel she is finished, by any means, as we still have some
new features and functions that will be added in the coming weeks and
months. Without your dedication to our products, and to this hobby as a
whole, we simply wouldn’t have a reason to do what we do. We cannot
thank you enough for the opportunity your enthusiasm represents to all of
us at PMDG.

So please let us say without qualification: Thank you.

On behalf of the entire team,

Thank you!

The PMDG Development Team

31JAN17

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INTRODUCTION

GETTING P3D SET UP FOR THE

PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II
There are hundreds of thousands of possible hardware setups upon
which you might run P3D and the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II
so it is important that you take a few moments to be certain that P3D is
properly set up to run this advanced airliner simulation in top form.

The following recommendations have been created by our support team

and are based upon years of helping customers get the most from their
PMDG products.

Yes, You Really Should Read This:

During the beta testing period for the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the
Skies II, without fail, all of the testers who took the time to follow this
section’s recommendations to improve P3D performance were very
pleased with the results.

Even if you have fast hardware, there is something to be gained by

following these instructions to get P3D set up and operating effectively.

Also, we STRONGLY discourage users from trying to “beat the

(Windows) system” by disabling services and “turning off functionality”
within Windows.

The services running on your local machine serve a purpose and

providing that you have properly maintained your Windows installation
and you follow the guidelines we present here, turning off services is not
going to give you much in terms of performance.

It is important to note that PMDG is using the FlexNET Licensing Service

and if you turn this off, the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II will
cease working.

In short, leave the services alone…

You can gain far greater performance by running Windows 10 64-bit, and
by following experienced guidance for optimization, no matter what
operating system you use!

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INTRODUCTION
Proper Installation:
When you run the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II installer, it is
going to ask you whether or not you should install a few Microsoft runtime
libraries on your local machine. The sub-installers for these runtimes are
intelligent, and they will only install if your local machine NEEDS the
installations- so please do not try to second-guess the Microsoft runtime
installers. Select YES, and let the installers determine whether or not you
need updates to your machine.

Failure to install the required runtimes will lead to unreliable operation of

the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II.

Product Activation:
The PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II requires an active internet
connection to activate the product. Upon first run of the aircraft, a window
will appear asking for your license key. This key can be found near the
bottom of your purchase confirmation email or attached to the inside of
your CD/DVD case. It is a long string of 6 groups of letters and numbers
that looks like this:

3P44-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX where the Xs are letter or number

characters. There is no letter “O” in our keys, it’s always the number zero.

Like the PMDG 777, the PMDG 747-400 allows for user-initiated
activation returns. To access this function, press MENU on the CDU, then
PMDG SETUP, then LICENSE. The prompt is on this page along with
one that will show you your key in case you need it for support.

Please make use of this feature when reformatting, changing hardware or

PCs and so on.

Optimal Installation of P3D:

Please Note: If you already have P3D installed, you will find the
recommendations in this section to be useful the next time you purchase
a new computer or conduct a new-machine installation!

 Do not install P3D into the default installation folder: When

installing P3D, do not install the simulator into the default
directory that it offers. Instead, customize the folder to something
different (such as C:\P3D). This will eliminate problems that many
users experience resulting from various Windows protection and
permission issues forced upon programs placed in the Program
Files and Program Files (x86) folders.
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INTRODUCTION
 Choose a modern, 64-bit Operating System: We strongly
recommend that users run their simulator from a 64-bit operating
system. The best operating system currently available (at time of
writing) for P3D is Windows 10 64-bit. The advanced memory
management capabilities of modern operating systems are far
superior when running complex simulations such as the PMDG
747-400 Queen of the Skies II. (More on this a bit later in the
section about out of memory errors and VAS on page 26.)
 PMDG has experienced numerous issues with the Windows
8/8.1 platform since its release and we do not offer any official
support for these operating systems. We have seen the PMDG
747-400 Queen of the Skies II work just fine in Win8 but we
have also seen inexplicable strange problems result on it as well.
If you’d like to try it, it is at your own risk and we cannot provide
support for it.

If you do decide to try it, keep these guidelines in mind:

 Disable User Account Control (UAC). This requires
registry editing in Win8 to completely disable. We cannot
offer instructions on how to do this. Search online for it.
 Make sure P3D is installed in its own folder such as
C:\P3D, not the default location where the OS’s
permissions issues with this folder can become a
problem.
 Always run P3D with the right click “Run as administrator
option as described below:

Running P3D:
 Set P3D to “Run as administrator.” This will give P3D the best
opportunity to use system resources effectively and without
limitations. To do this, right click on the P3D icon, and then select
properties. Click on the Advanced button, and then check the box
that reads: Run as administrator. From this point onward,
whenever you run P3D, the program will run under the
administrator permissions group. (You can also follow these
steps by right clicking directly on [Link]).
 Do not let your antivirus software actively scan P3D: While we
are all concerned about the prevention of malware, it is extremely
important that you allow your P3D installation to “opt out” of being
actively scanned for viral activity while the software is running.
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INTRODUCTION
P3D loads thousands upon thousands of graphic files and
models into memory while you are flying, and active malware
scanning slows this process dramatically. In some cases active
scanning can reduce your simulator performance by up to 75%.

There are too many antivirus suites out there to make

recommendations for each one, but if you search for “exclude” in
your software’s help system, you will find instructions.
Simply EXCLUDE your P3D root directory and you should be all
set!

Do not forget to manually run a malware scan on your P3D

directory on occasion just to keep you safe!

[Link] Settings:
Lockheed Martin has created a short guide on tweaking the [Link]
file available here:
[Link]

In the [Main] Section:

If you are getting out of memory errors in P3D, adding the following line
can help with it according to the development team at Lockheed Martin:
 AlwaysFullLoad=1
This forces the simulator to completely unload all of its data when the
flight is reset or changing airports.
[Link] fix:
We highly recommend the use of a replacement [Link] file
if using Windows 7 64-bit. The Windows 7 version of the file is bugged in
conjunction with P3D and can cause the sim to crash after repeated
menu use over a few hours of flying.
[Link]

Extract the dll contained here into your P3D root folder, the sim will
reference it instead of the bugged Windows 7 default version.

P3D tweaks:
There are numerous tweak guides and websites out there in the P3D
community that can help you to get more performance out of the
simulator. We recommend reading up on these at the AVSIM forums and
deciding for yourself which performance tweaks you’d like to use.

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INTRODUCTION
P3D In-Game Settings:
We recommend the following settings to help you get the most out of
P3D.

Graphics Page:
 Wide-view Aspect Ratio – Check this box if you’re using a
monitor with a widescreen aspect ratio. This setting locks the
vertical field of view and allows for additional horizontal field of
view. If the simulator looks highly zoomed in with all the default
views, having this setting off is probably the culprit.
General Page:
 Program/Show Scenario Startup Screen – Check this box to
ensure the sim loads up on the Scenario screen that lets you
select your aircraft, airport and runway, weather, time of day etc.
when you first load P3D.
 Program/Panel Serialization – Set this box to off when using the
747 since we perform our own custom panel state save and load
operations.
 Information Text/Show cockpit tooltips – set this box to checked
on to assist with special knob functions and hidden clickspots.
Traffic Page:
The settings you will want to use for managing aircraft and vehicle traffic
within the simulator will vary depending upon whether you use a third-
party program to produce aircraft traffic within the simulator or whether
you use the default P3D mechanism.

Please understand that AI traffic density can have a huge impact on

performance, especially at congested airports. We recommend that you
experiment with the settings a bit to find the correct balance of traffic
density vs. performance for your machine.

You may find that in order to maintain strong performance in high density
traffic areas you need to reduce the traffic density settings slightly.

For land and sea traffic, we generally recommend setting these sliders to
“around 15-20%” for realistic results. Higher settings will not necessarily
improve the visual quality of the simulation enough to compensate for the
impact on performance.

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INTRODUCTION
Scenery and Lighting Page:
 Bathymetry – turn this off when operating aircraft in P3D.
Bathymetry is the terrain under the surface of the ocean. P3D
supports submarine simulations and you don’t want invisible
terrain mesh rendering under the water while you’re flying an
aircraft.
If you are experiencing poor performance, the scenery and lighting pages
are one area where you can gain quite a bit of bang for your buck for
even small reductions in your P3D scenery settings.

In our experience, customers who are suffering from poor performance

are generally expending huge quantities of processor and memory
capacity by having settings that are set too high for their hardware
capability. Note: See the section on aircraft “bouncing” on page 45 if you
experience this with a mesh setting above 19m.

Realism Page:
We recommend that you set all of the flight model sliders to the right in
order to experience the best level of realism when flying the PMDG 747-
400 Queen of the Skies II.

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INTRODUCTION
Pay particularly close attention to the settings displayed in the graphic
below. All of the boxes in the ENGINES and FLIGHT CONTROLS
window should be cleared if they are checked. ATTACHEMENTS refers
to military aircraft stores stations and should remain checked when flying
a civilian aircraft like the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II.

NOTE: G-Effects can be set to the pilot’s preference.

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INTRODUCTION
VAS management – stopping out of memory errors:
We would like to acknowledge P3D community member Srdan “Kosta”
Kostic’s research into the OOM problem and VAS usage on which a good
portion of this section of the manual is based.

Background and theory:

P3D is a 32-bit application. Even under the recommended Windows 10
64-bit operating system, the [Link] process always faces the
same mathematical limitations that all 32-bit applications do. One of these
is a 4GB hard limit on something called “virtual address space” (VAS).
When P3D crashes with an error message saying that your computer has
run out of available memory (commonly called an “OOM” in the sim
community), it’s actually talking about VAS, not physical memory like the
amount of RAM in your system. Customers who have huge amounts of
RAM like 16GB or 32GB are often baffled by this message for good
reason – they certainly aren’t running out of physical memory. Microsoft
probably should have made the error say, “The application has run out of
virtual address space.” instead of the vague “memory” term.

VAS is effectively a preallocation of everything the simulator can

potentially access during a flight and will fluctuate over the course of
using the simulator as you fly between different areas. Note that VAS is
*NOT* the same thing as the “virtual memory” swapfile that you can set
the size of in the Windows system options – they are two very different
things and having a large virtual memory swapfile does not protect you
from the 4GB VAS limit. The mathematical limit itself comes from the
definition of “32-bit” – a bit is the most basic data structure in computer
science and it can have two values, a 0 or 1, which can mean all sorts of
things like true or false, on or off, etc. This is why at the core a computer
executes “binary” code. The amount of VAS a 32-bit process can access
can be calculated by raising the number of possible values for each bit (2)
to the power of the number of bits available (32). So 232 equals exactly
4,294,967,296 bytes (not bits). When you do the rest of the conversion
math this value comes out to exactly 4 gigabytes of potentially
addressable memory for a 32-bit process.

The reason we recommend using a 64-bit operating system like Windows

10 64-bit is due to the fact that it can give [Link] that entire 4GB block
of VAS. In 32-bit Windows the default is a maximum of 2GB of VAS for
P3D and 2GB reserved for the operating system. This can be increased
to 3GB for P3D through an edit to the boot environment configuration
(“the 3GB switch”), but this is still 1GB lower than you’ll get with the 64-bit
version of Windows and it makes both OOMs more likely and OS crashes

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INTRODUCTION
more likely because it reduces the amount of VAS the OS itself has to
work with. 32-bit versions of Windows can also only ever access 4GB of
total physical memory, so if P3D is using 3GB itself, there’s not much
there for the OS and other applications. 64-bit Windows does not have
this limit and with a lot of RAM you can essentially run as many other
applications outside of P3D (browser, weather apps, flight planners etc)
as you want with no effect on the system. There is literally no reason not
to run the 64-bit version of Windows 10 on a P3D simming PC.

If you’d like to read more in depth about VAS and the other types of
memory used in Windows, Mark Russinovich’s blog has an excellent
series of articles that detail it:
[Link]

Mark is the author of the Process Explorer tool below, a member of the
Windows kernel design team at Microsoft, and one of the most
knowledgeable people in the world on how Windows actually works.

Using Process Explorer or FSUIPC to monitor VAS:

With the proliferation of so many high detail aircraft and sceneries for P3D
in recent years, the sim can easily approach and in many cases exceed
the 4GB VAS limit. As the sim approaches the limit, very odd things start
can start happening like disappearing scenery, disappearing or
transparent visual models on the aircraft, flashing artifacts, long pauses
and so on. If it exceeds the limit you will get the OOM error window or the
sim will just crash to desktop (CTD) without any error message at all.

If you’re having VAS issues, the first step is going to be to determine how
much VAS [Link] is actually using throughout your flight. Fortunately
Microsoft has a tool that allows you to do exactly this called Process
Explorer – you can download it here:
[Link]

Once you have it downloaded, unzip the files to a folder of your choosing
and run the [Link] file. You’re going to see a rather bewildering
looking list of all the processes running on your computer with various
columns full of parameter values that are constantly updating.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is enable the VAS display – to do
this, right click in the area where the column names are and choose
“Select Columns”. Go to the “Process Memory” tab in the window that
pops up and put a check mark next to the one called “Virtual Size” and
press OK. This is going to enable the column, but it will likely be at the far
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INTRODUCTION
right of the Process Explorer display. I recommend maximizing the
window and then dragging the Virtual Size column over so that it’s right
next to the CPU column so that you can easily see it. Click the top of the
column where it says “Virtual Size” until you see a downward pointing
arrow, which means the list is now sorted with the highest VAS using
applications first in the list. You can now resize the window to a more
manageable size.

Now run P3D and monitor this number for the [Link] process while you
use the simulator. It should quickly move to the top of the Virtual Size
column as the sim loads. If you see it start to get close to 4,194,304K (this
is 4GB in kilobytes) – you know you have a VAS problem.

If you have a registered version of FSUIPC, you can place a very handy
free VAS meter into the P3D window’s title bar by going to the Logging
tab and then entering into one of the lines of the “Specific value checks”
section the Offset 024C and Type S32. Check FS Title Bar in the “Display
to” section below it. Press OK and you’ll see a readout of the free VAS in
kilobytes in the title bar. FSUIPC will play a Windows “ding” sound if the
sim is getting close to an OOM error. This is a good time to save your
flight.

Causes of high VAS usage:

The PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II aircraft itself uses
approximately 700 to 800MB of VAS based on our testing, split roughly
equally between the VC and external models and the aircraft systems
programming. This is in line with other high-end addons aircraft on the
market and is not excessive given the advanced capabilities of the
product. Great care was taken to optimize and not increase the VAS load
of the aircraft beyond what is necessary to simulate it properly. Here are
some of the more common causes of high VAS usage we’ve identified:

Large amounts of photoscenery areas

Products that install photoscenery for whole US states or whole European
countries are a particularly high source of VAS usage when a lot of them
are enabled at once. There are several such packages on the market and
all of them will exhibit this issue. P3D unfortunately allocates VAS for
these areas even if you are not flying over them and never go near them.
We have observed almost instantaneous OOM errors upon loading our
products on customer PCs where they had for instance the entire eastern
United States photoscenery installed. Disabling the photoscenery
reduced the total VAS load by well over 1GB and allowed the simulator to
function normally. Users have reported success with photoscenery and

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INTRODUCTION
our products by enabling only the states or countries their route passes
over. Use Process Explorer to monitor VAS and see if this works for you.

To the best of our knowledge the reason this happens is because

photoscenery uses a unique texture for every single area within it. Normal
P3D scenery uses a small group of textures that get repeatedly used via
the landclass system. Having to precache and allocate for the presence
of that many textures is likely at the root of the problem.

Here is a link to a very good open source utility called

SceneryConfigEditor that will allow you to make groups of scenery areas
that you can turn on or off with a single click:
[Link]

High amounts of AI traffic

Be reasonable with the amount of traffic you’re putting into the simulator.
Often the high 100%-type levels become unrealistic anyway from the fact
that P3D’s ATC system bunches them up and can’t handle vectoring
them all. You end up with a ton of go-arounds, a massive line for takeoff
and so on. That many airplanes also eats into the VAS allocation. Again,
this is not dependent on the specific traffic product you’re using.

Ultra high resolution environment textures

Many “environment” type addons (as with the photoscenery and traffic
there are several of these available) contain options to install very high
resolution textures for things like clouds, water, runways and taxiways
and so on. It is our experience that these maximum resolution textures
often increase the VAS load disproportionally to the amount of visual
improvement they provide. A 4096x4096 resolution texture actually
contains 16 times the amount of pixel data that a 1024 resolution version
of the same texture does. The 1024 or 2048 versions of the textures
you’re installing are likely going to be visually indistinguishable to you
from the maximum 4096 version and they will result in both lower VAS
usage and lower GPU memory usage.

[Link] Level of detail radius value

Some tweak guides recommend increasing this setting in the [Link] file
above its normal 4.500000 maximum value. While this does improve
visual detail into the distance, that improvement comes at the expense of
increased VAS usage because P3D has to load in more autogen, more
high detail mipmaps for textures etc. Leave this setting at 4.500000
unless you’re actively monitoring your VAS usage and are sure that
setting it higher isn’t putting you into OOM territory.

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INTRODUCTION
Autogen, water, weather
The usual culprits for lowered performance in P3D also are the main
drivers of VAS usage. Lowering them can significantly reduce the VAS
load if you’ve exhausted the other possibilities.

High detail addon airports

Since 2013, we’ve observed several recent addon airports using upwards
of 1GB of VAS as they come into view.

Flying a lot of legs without shutting the simulator down:

P3D appears to not fully release the contents of scenery areas that have
been used during the session. We have observed OOMs happen when
flying around to a bunch of different high detail airports over high detail
terrain all over a long period of time. To avoid this simply save your flight
after landing and shutdown, close P3D, and then reload it and your flight
and you should be in a reset VAS state.

Using the sound preload options:

The 747 has options that allow for the caching of sound files in memory.
This was done in attempt to eliminate the stuttering that some users have
experienced as sound files load. If you are having OOM issues, we
recommend selecting the default NONE option. This will only loads
sounds into memory as they’re needed and releases them from memory
60 seconds after playback. This will significantly reduce the VAS load vs.
the SELECTIVE or ALL options. (See page 109108 for more information
about this feature.)

Conclusion:
There are real limits in the 32-bit P3D environment that you have to be
aware of and manage. It is likely impossible for you to run every high-end
aircraft and scenery addon all together at their maximum settings without
making compromises to stop the OOM error from happening. It is up to
you to decide what’s most important to you and prioritize between
different addons using the tools outlined here.

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INTRODUCTION

THE PMDG 747-400 AND FLIGHT-SIM

HARDWARE/SOFTWARE
When modeling advanced aircraft systems to the degree that we like, we
often find that it is necessary for us to “take control” of various aspects of
the simulator in order to force the results that are needed in the interest of
realism.

Conflicting Software:
One classic example of this “taking control” relates to the fuel system on
the airplane. Without getting into complex details, the fuel
consumption/management process that is at the core of P3D is based on
the theory that all fuel tanks are stacked vertically with a stand pipe
running between them. This, combined with the fact that the engine fuel
consumption model used by P3D is far from accurate for a turbine gas
generator engine (modern turbofan!) means that we must engage in
some very complex adjustments to make certain that the fuel
management and consumption logic in during the course of your flight
results in accurate fuel behaviors.

For this reason, our simulations are generally not compatible with any
virtual airline software that monitors the level of fuel in the tanks and
deducts “points” for changes to the fuel value. We recommend disabling
any such features, or encouraging your virtual airline programmers to
contact us for guidance on how to work with this advanced feature within
the PMDG simulation product line.

Hardware SDK:
A challenge faced when creating highly complex add-on aircraft for P3D
is making certain that our simulation product will be compatible with the
broadest swath of flight simulator controls and hardware as possible not
just for today’s users, but for users three years from now.

There are literally thousands of flight sim controllers and hardware pieces
available and it is impossible for us to test the PMDG 747-400 Queen of
the Skies II with every possible configuration.

In addition, PMDG’s products are extremely complex and to a large

degree we are using P3D primarily as a world platform for a highly
complex external simulation that is running side by side with the P3D
platform.

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INTRODUCTION
This means that there are circumstances where we choose to work
around the standard P3D control interfaces because they are inadequate
to simulate completely the complex environment of a modern airliner
cockpit.

Our goal is to allow hardware manufacturers and intrepid users to create

their own drivers so that their hardware can be made compatible with our
software. We have included a Software Development Kit (SDK) that
allows hardware manufacturers to independently create drivers to ensure
the highest degree of compatibility.

The only restriction that we place on developers is that these drivers must
be provided at no cost to their customers. SDK documentation and code
examples are included in the <P3D root folder>\PMDG\PMDG 747 QOTS
II\SDK folder.

FSUIPC users:
The goal of the developers was to create greater interoperability between
the P3D platform and add-on developers like PMDG. In theory this should
all but eliminate the requirement for users to install and use FSUIPC as
an interface between complex add-ons and the P3D platform.

Like most things in the FS world however, the skills of developers like
Pete Dowson continue to play an extremely valuable role in the way many
add-ons interact with P3D.

Many users have found that FSUIPC continues to provide value for
improving the P3D experience by smoothing control axes, wind shifts in
weather, etc.

During testing, we came up with some general recommendations that we

felt were important to pass along:

 The PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II is fully compatible

with FSUIPC except that we recommend that you do not
calibrate your flight controllers through FSUIPC. We recommend
that you use the driver/software that comes with your hardware.
(Calibrating through FSUIPC may not cause any problems, but in
certain circumstances with certain hardware we found that
problems existed that could only be resolved by having the user
conduct the calibration via the driver/software.)

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 During testing we have found that in extremely rare
circumstances, users with FSUIPC installed would need to delete
their [Link] file after installing the PMDG 747-400 Queen
of the Skies II in order to get everything playing well together.
We recommend that you try this if it seems the 747 is not
behaving normally after installation. If you see strange issues with
engines not producing thrust despite looking like they’re running
or the aircraft climbing with an unusual nose-down attitude, this is
probably the cause.
 Please ensure that you have the latest version of FSUIPC
installed – during our testing process, an issue was fixed that
caused the mouse cursor to flicker when using the 747’s ECL
system. If you see this, make sure you have the latest FSUIPC!
In all cases, any “disagreement” between the PMDG 747-400 and
FSUIPC was corrected by simply deleting the [Link] file and
allowing them to regenerate.

We continue to explore ways to make the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the

Skies II interact more smoothly with FSUIPC and we’ll make those
changes available as they are finalized. Both FSUIPC and the PMDG
747-400 are trying to accomplish the same goals and following the above
recommendations should keep you out of trouble.

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INTRODUCTION

KNOWN P3D’isms TO AVOID:

The best way to think of the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II is to
approach it in terms of a stand-alone simulation that is using your P3D
installation in order to provide a world in which to simulate the 747’s flight
operation.

We have put a tremendous amount of time and energy into making

certain that this experience is as seamless as possible, but occasionally
we find unintended consequences of our efforts to provide you with the
most accurate simulation possible.

A few notes to keep you from running into trouble:

 There is a common misconception that when loading a complex

simulation like the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II that
you should first load the default Cessna into the simulator, then
load the PMDG 747-400 on top of it. This is not a factual
conception and in fact we do not recommend the practice at all.
What is required however is for a default aircraft to be your
default startup flight in P3D. The reason for this is that this flight
actually loads in the background invisible to the user – if it’s set to
a complex addon it can result in the inability to set certain internal
variables that the 747 relies on until the simulator is restarted.
 One shortcoming of all PMDG products for P3D is that our
products do not like to be “reloaded” on top of themselves. This
means that if you have one livery or variant of the airplane
selected and running within the simulation world (say, a 747-400)
and you wish to change liveries to a different 747-400, you will
need to shut down the simulator and then select the new variant
or livery you wish to switch to from scratch. If you load a 747
livery or variant on top of itself you will see strange issues in the
cockpit, P3D may CTD or otherwise crash, etc.
 Setting the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II as your default
flight can cause the same behavior described above from
reloading it on top of itself. The default flight is loaded in the
background as you start P3D and thus if the 747 is your default
flight and you then select another variant, it loads on top of itself
even though you may not actually see it happen. Keep the default
flight as one using a default aircraft and you won’t have any
issues with this.

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 When flying over the ocean, there is a bug in P3D that can cause
the displays to freeze in place. It happens as a result of passing
through the “Tower” view preset when outside of the range of any
suitable actual tower. Flip back between the “Cockpit” and “Virtual
Cockpit” views and it should clear. To avoid this, use the right
click menu to select views directly, instead of cycling through the
views using the S and A keys on the keyboard.
 We do not recommend the use of “dll injection” to modify the
simulator’s graphics capabilities. This includes ENB Series,
SweetFX, FXAA Injector etc. While the effects these dlls can add
are very impressive, they often destabilize the simulator and
cause crashes. If you use these, you do so at your own risk. If
you’re experiencing strange crashes or anything like that, remove
any dll injection files you’re using and see if the problem goes
away.
 We have modified the functionality of the P3D default “B” key that
sets the altimeter. When pressed above transition altitude, it will
now preselect the local ground level altimeter setting rather than
directly setting it. This makes it easy for you to switch over
correctly as you descend through your transition level.

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HOW TO USE THE MANUALS

The PMDG 747-400 comes with four documents:

 PMDG 747-400 Introduction (You are reading it now!)

 PMDG 747-400 Tutorial #1
 PMDG 747-400 Flight Crew Operations Manual
 PMDG 747-400 Quick Reference Handbook
Taken altogether, this can seem like an intimidating amount of
information, but the point that we want to make most clearly is that if you
can fly the default airplanes, you can fly the PMDG 747-400!

We have created a truly scalable experience for simmers who love the
747. If you want to just push up the throttles and fly, you can do this. If
you want to dive as deeply into the details as a career airline pilot, you
can do this also. The simulation will support you no matter what your goal
is for any particular simming session!

Following is a quick rundown on how to get the most out of your manuals:

Introduction:
We have put this document together in order to collect in one place as
much information about how to use the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the
Skies II as possible.

This introduction will give you some tips on how to set up P3D for optimal
performance with the PMDG 747-400 and it will explain PMDG’s
proprietary custom icons and cursor symbology as it is used in the PMDG
747-400.

The introduction document will also show you how to use the in-sim
capabilities to change your cockpit layout, cockpit displays, the visual
appearance of the external model, as well as the use of mechanical
reliability, failures, ground services and pushback capabilities.

This document includes a list of “fun to know” quirks that experienced 747
pilots will recognize within the simulation. We thought you’d like to know
just how detailed we have made your new PMDG 747-400.

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Tutorials:
In order to help new users get acclimated to the capabilities of the PMDG
747-400 Queen of the Skies II, we have created a tutorial to get you up
and running quickly.

The first part of the tutorial should be viewed as a “Quick-Start Guide” that
will take you from loading the sim to launching off on your first flight in the
PMDG 747-400. The purpose of the first flight is to keep things simple
and straight forward, thus giving you the opportunity to enjoy all that the
simulation has to offer without getting lost in details!

The first tutorial will start you in a powered-up and ready-to-go 747-400 at
KDEN – Denver, right at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. You will follow
along step by step and eventually find yourself parked at KSFO – San
Francisco nestled between the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean
with your passengers deplaning!

The second more advanced tutorial will cover long haul flying and
detailed EROPS planning and will be released at a later date.

Flight Crew Operations Manual:

The FCOM is one extremely large book that is split into two pieces in
order to make it manageable.

Volume 1 of the FCOM provides you with the following information:

 Technical Notes about the 747: These are not important to you,
but they do provide a fascinating insight into the evolution of the
747 airplane since it was certified.
 Limitations: This chapter is a one-stop shop for all of the limits
that you should never exceed while flying the airplane.
 Normal Procedures: This section of the manual should be
thought of as your “step by step detail guide to operating the
airplane.” You can start with an airplane in just about any
condition and the Normal Procedures will give you a step-by-step
process to reaching the next phase of flight. We highly
recommend loading up a “Cold and Dark” scenario and working
through this chapter. This will give you a really in depth view of
the detail level contained in the PMDG 747-400.
 Supplementary Procedures: This chapter is similar to the Normal
Procedures, except that it contains procedures that you won’t
perform on every flight. For example, start an engine using a
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ground-start-cart? The supplementary procedure for performing
this task is your go-to location to find out how it should be done
properly!
 Performance: This chapter contains all of the published
performance data that is available for the 747 type airplane. If you
like to go through the mental exercise of planning your own flights
down to the last detail, this chapter will give you everything you
need! (Note: The performance data for reduced thrust engine
types is not published and therefore is not available. All of the
data currently available is included in this chapter.)
The PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II provides you with an
unprecedented level of accuracy in the simulation of the mechanical
systems on the 747 airplane. We have worked tirelessly with expert input,
reams of data and nearly continual verification processes in order that the
PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II should very precisely behave in
the way the real-world airplane behaves.

Pay attention to the small details described in this manual. You will be
surprised again and again just how deep the level of simulation runs in
the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II!

Quick Reference Handbook:

This is a document that many simmers never open, and in doing so fail to
take advantage of a really fascinating part of the simulation!

The Quick Reference Handbook is, for lack of a better description, the
approved method for pilots to conduct trouble-shooting while flying the
747 airplane.

Inside this book are the approved procedures that you may perform in
response to virtually any situation you might face. From an engine fire all
the way down to a simple annunciator light in the cockpit, the Quick
Reference Handbook will take you step-by-step through the process of
troubleshooting, resetting and sometimes even fixing any problem that
you might experience!

In the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II we have added the ability to
activate aircraft mechanical failures for those who are interested in them.
Many of these failures are quite obvious and simple to understand.
Others may present various symptoms and have various different effects
on your flight.

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For example, various FUEL warnings on the EICAS might be simply
informational, something that requires a normal action, or it might indicate
something more sinister.

How do you know the difference?

Pull out the Quick Reference Handbook, look up the warning in the index,
then follow the checklist procedure!

There are many mechanical failure scenarios in the PMDG 747-400

Queen of the Skies II that behave this way, and learning to use the
Quick Reference Handbook will help you find easy solutions to complex
problems while also teaching you more about the PMDG 747-400 Queen
of the Skies II systems than you ever thought you might learn!

We recommend you spend some time playing with the failures and
exercise the Quick Reference Handbook. You can’t hurt anything, and
you can always hit the reset button if you get in over your head!

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THE PMDG 747-400 DIDN’T DO WHAT YOU

EXPECTED?
Here is a collection of items and features that we saw during development
and testing that we think might be likely to trip you up:

The plane is behaving erratically:

Over the years, many developers have gone to great lengths to add
realism into the sim. The tools are wide ranging, but can negatively
impact the aircraft in just as many ways. Certain camera add-ons move
the viewpoint to simulate turbulence/breathing/vibration, which can look
like the aircraft behaving oddly, while others actually inject motion into the
air. Other programs inject weather in odd ways, which can cause the
aircraft to behave erratically, or perform poorly. When you are flying the
aircraft and notice any odd behavior, it is best to try flying without one of
those programs to narrow down the cause. From there, you can usually
find a setting in the other program to help eliminate the issue.

I can’t load full fuel:

The density of fuel will vary slightly, depending on where you are in the
world. (Fuel Density is essentially the mass of a gallon or liter of fuel. This
value is defined by industry standards and varies depending upon where
the fuel was extracted, where it was refined and its temperature at time of
boarding. None of this is important to you UNTIL you get fuel that is low
density (6.4lbs/gal, say) and very warm. Suddenly you may find that you
cannot load the desired fuel weight aboard the airplane because the
tanks have a limited volume.

This has been modeled in the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II.

When you are boarding fuel, you can tell if your fuel density will prevent
full weight of the tanks from being usable by looking at the density figure
shown on the refueling page. In this case the density will be shown with
the density value in reverse video (or, a bright background behind the
text). That being said, if you are in a place with poor fuel density, such as
China on a hot day in August, you may not be able to get the full
advertised range of the aircraft. Something to consider when planning
flights!

One other item to keep in mind when you are fueling the airplane: If you
are using the Ground Operations to refuel the airplane in real time, and
you will need fuel to be boarded into the stabilizer tank, you must set the
stabilizer to 6 degrees of trim in order to allow the refueling manifold to
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operate properly. If you forget to do this, the refueler will call you on the
intercom and ask you to re-trim the stabilizer to six degrees.

Listen to the exchange of conversation between the ground crew and the
cockpit, and you should be able to conduct this operation without having
to look it up in the manual!

In the 737 or 777 it worked like this…:

One thing the Beta team consistently noted was that the PMDG 747-400
is definitely not what you have become accustomed to with the PMDG
777 or PMDG 737 NGX. While there are many similarities in that they are
both Boeings, the differences between them are numerous enough that
you will want to be wary of preconceived notions carried over from your
earlier experiences with other aircraft. As an example, you may be in for a
rude surprise if you are used to how the 777 will automatically configure
the GENs, and then turn either the APU or engines off without verifying
which source you are using.

I turned the battery on, but the plane has no power:

The PMDG 747-400 manages power draw to ensure it has the necessary
functions at all times. The aircraft is only giving you about enough power
to start the APU or connect ground power. Once either one of those
power sources comes online, the rest of airplane will come to life.

I connected the air start unit, but no duct pressure is showing

on the ECS page:
This is modeled correctly. High pressure air is being supplied directly to
the mixing plenum, which is downstream of the pressure sensing units.

The Step Climb is telling me that I need to climb 4000 feet:

The default step size is ICAO, which is not the RVSM that you may be
used to from the PMDG 777. ICAO specifies the minimum vertical
separation for IFR flight as 1000 ft (300 m) below FL290 and 2000 ft (600
m) above FL290, except where Reduced Vertical Separation Minima
(RVSM) apply. This means that your step size will be 2000 ft below
FL290 and 4000 ft above FL290. If you wish to use RVSM separation,
use a step size of 2000.

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The PVD is not working / The PVD continues to move even
though I’m stopped:
The PVD will only activate when:

 On the ground
 PVD system is powered
 At least two IRUs are in NAV
 ILS is tuned
 ILS signal is received
 LOC deviation is less than 2.0 degrees
 Within a 45 degree intercept course to the runway centerline
Additionally, the PVD, like the LOC indication, is based on amount of
deviation, and not motion.

I turned off the autopilot, but I can’t silence the alarm:

You need to press the autopilot disconnect button on your joystick (or the
Z key) twice in order to silence the alarm. Make the first press, wait a
second or two and then press it again. If you double-press too fast, it
won’t silence. Always use the disconnect button, don’t use the disconnect
“bar” on the MCP – you’ll have the siren constantly going off if you do.

On aircraft with the RESETTABLE SIREN option set to NO, pressing the
master warning button on the glareshield will not stop the alarm – this
goes for any master warning in fact, not just the autopilot.

It’s difficult to taxi:

One of the more difficult transitions from smaller aircraft to larger aircraft
is the adjustment to the length of the fuselage. For those who have
experience with the PMDG 777, taxiing should be relatively
straightforward. Adjusting to the longer length when coming from the
PMDG 737NGX, however, will be a slightly more difficult adjustment. The
most helpful would be that you should taxi past the taxiway centerline until
it is in line with the bar between the two side windows.

How do I save my route?

You must have a valid route entered and activated first and you must be
on the ground. Then, go to the RTE page 1, and press LSK 4L < ROUTE
SAVE. This lights the EXEC button. If you press it now, it will give the file
an automatically generated name. You can also type a custom name into
the scratch pad and it will save the route under that name. The .rte files
are saved to <P3D root folder>\PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS\747.
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Why are my tire rims orange?
The PMDG 747-400 realistically models brake heating. If you are seeing
the brakes glowing orange, you’ve definitely overused them. They will not
be as effective (or effective at all) in this state and if the heat increases
further you run the risk of fire and blowing tires.
You can cool the brakes this by bringing up the CDU and going to
MENU/FS ACTIONS/GROUND MAINTENANCE, hit NEXT PAGE, then
select COOL BRAKES at LSK 1L.

My [insert passenger/VA program here] is flagging me for

excessive V/S:
A common misconception is that passengers are sensitive to vertical
speed when they are not. The only difference that the passengers would
note would be that their ears were popping more frequently. The
departure profile is flown in a pitch-for-speed mode, where you set the
throttles on the particular throttle limit, and hold speed through aircraft
pitch. At lighter weights, these pitch angles may be considerable. In order
to reign in some of the thrust for lower pitch and vertical speed, derates
may be used.

I couldn’t get LNAV to arm/engage:

LNAV has some specific parameters that must be met in order for it to
arm/engage. These are:

 To arm LNAV while on the ground: The first waypoint in your

flight plan must be within 5 degrees of the departure runway
course.
 To arm LNAV in flight: Requires a valid interception point for
active leg, interception angle less than 90 degrees OR within 3
miles cross tracks error OR within 3 miles from active. LNAV will
stay armed until interception.

The bank limiter isn’t working as I expected in LNAV:

LNAV uses its own auto-bank limit when turning to follow the LNAV
course. It will use a maximum of 25 degrees unless in approach mode or
in holding.

The mouse wheel isn’t working on certain knobs:

There is no mouse-wheel operation on the bank limiter, BARO or MINS
knobs: they were made operable only with left/right mouse clicks on

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purpose to save you from accidentally triggering them while spinning their
inner knobs with your mouse-wheel.

Pressing the RESET button on the MINS knob does not reset
the mins:
This is modeled correctly. The button does not remove the numbers from
the display. It simply removes the flashing amber notification. In order to
clear the display, you will need to dial the value back to its minimum (click
and hold the MINS knob and drag left slightly until the value disappears).

Sometimes I hear strange sound artifacts after switching

views:
This is a known bug in P3D, especially with complex add-ons that use lots
of custom sounds like the PMDG 747-400. We recommend that you
press the Q key twice after switching views, as this always eliminates the
problem.

I get a NAV DATA OUT OF DATE message on the CDU:

The navigation data included with the PMDG 747-400 is provided by
Navigraph and up to date at the time of release. (February 2017, the
AIRAC 1702 cycle) After this cycle expires in early March 2017, you will
have to upgrade for a small fee if you wish to maintain up to date real
world navigation data.
This data can be purchased here:
[Link]

If you don’t care about having current data and just want to remove the
NAV DATA OUT OF DATE message, you can open up the file
fmc_ident.txt, located at <P3D root folder>\PMDG\NAVDATA and edit the
third line - OpProgram= FEB02MAR01/17- to read a different date range
that will not trigger the message.

RAAS is calling out the wrong runway numbers:

The RAAS system calls a file called [Link] that exists in the root
P3D folder. This file is generated by a program called [Link],
made by Pete Dowson of FSUIPC fame.

It can be downloaded here:

[Link]

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Unzip it to the P3D root folder and then run the exe, it’ll generate an
update [Link] that should fix any problems with RAAS calling out
the wrong runway numbers.

I see a large mass of TCAS targets on the ND around an

airport on the ground:
This is caused by the way vehicles are simulated in ground support
addons like GSX and AES (they’re “aircraft” objects virtually). This should
not occur unless you have increased the TCAS range settings in the
options beyond what is realistic.

The aircraft “bounces” on the ground when I change views:

We have traced this issue to using a P3D Mesh resolution setting that is
higher in resolution than 19m. These are the 10m, 5m, 2m, and 1m
settings. This appears to be a P3D terrain engine bug and isn’t something
we can fix. If it bothers you, you can set the terrain resolution to 19m or
lower. These are the 19m, 38m, 76m, 152m, or 305m settings.
Be aware that lowering this setting can affect the use of sceneries that
require the higher setting. For example many airports require high
settings to simulate taxiway bridges and similar structures. If you have
high resolution terrain mesh installed this will also decrease the detail of
mountains and other such features if you go below the mesh’s level.

I have service based failures on but nothing ever happens:

Modern jet aircraft are extremely reliable and most airline pilots will go
through their entire careers without having a serious failure incident on
their airplane. The data that the service based failures feature was
created with reflects this – these are rare events.

We recognize however that most simmers probably don’t have a lifetime

to spend waiting for that one-in-ten-million engine failure at V1, so to
improve upon the original way this feature was implemented in the PMDG
737NGX, we’ve created a rate multiplier function that will essentially
accelerate the aging of the various parts on the aircraft to give you
failures more frequently.

To access this feature, bring up the CDU and then press MENU, then
PMDG SETUP, then AIRCRAFT, then FAILURES. Select the ALL
SYSTEMS page at LSK 2L:

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When service based failures are enabled, the RATE field at LSK 3R
allows entry of any number from 1 to 1024. This will accelerate the
aircraft’s aging and you should see more frequent failures in terms of real
usage time.

It takes way too long to enter wind predictions for a long

route:
In real life, 747 pilots get their wind data sent to them over the datalink,
which eliminates time consuming manual entry of the figures.

We have provided multiple ways to simulate this functionality and they are
described in the section near the end of this manual.

The weather radar isn’t working.

The Collins WXR-2100 simulation present in the PMDG 747-400 Queen
of the Skies II requires the Active Sky Next or 2016 weather engine
software from HiFi Technologies Inc. The reason for this is that it is the
only weather addon on the market at the time of this writing that outputs a
3D precipitation dataset that we can (finally!) use to realistically simulate
radar physics. This is not possible currently with the P3D default weather
or any other weather addon. We will be working with other weather addon
developers to integrate similar technology if they provide it within their
program.

AS2016 is available for purchase here:

[Link]

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I’m seeing erratic changing fuel loads and autopilot issues.
There is an issue with the BIOS/UEFI clock and high precision event
timer on certain recent Asus motherboards at the time of this writing. The
timer becomes erratic or stops completely and causes issues with the
aircraft systems. We use these timing functions extensively and they must
be working correctly for proper operation of the airplane. Check with Asus
for a firmware update and consider replacing the CMOS battery on your
motherboard if you experience these issues. The problem is not specific
to PMDG or to P3D and has been widely reported on the big hardware
forums around the Internet. If you are building a new PC for P3D, we
recommend staying away from Asus motherboards until this issue is
confirmed to be resolved.

I’m getting stutters when sounds load to play:

Sound preload options are available that can help alleviate this issue on
certain configurations prone to it (i.e. – slower mechanical HDs instead of
SSDs, lower end sound chipsets or cards etc.). These options are
detailed on page 108 of this manual.

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DETAILS AND QUIRKS OF

THE PMDG 747-400
During the design and development of PMDG products, we integrate
input from a number of experts and users of the aircraft. This combined
with our detailed research and design process allows us to add
behaviors, quirks and nuances to our simulations that add a true flavor of
realism to the simulation.

These behaviors are the kinds of items that an experienced 747 pilot or
maintenance technician will see and recognize them as hallmarks of a
truly detailed simulation product.

The following behaviors are a non-conclusive list of behaviors that you will
find in the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II that are simulated
precisely as they appear in the actual airplane:

Air Conditioning System:

 You may think that these temperature readings on the air
conditioning synoptic are a result of a simple simulation, where
you set a target temperature and then simply modify the zones
temperatures to eventually achieve this figure over some time.
There has been always a lot more to it in all our products,
simulating the whole flow path of air from engine bleed to air
compressor to the mix manifold to trim air ducts etc, with all
valves along the way fully simulated. What is new in the PMDG
747-400 Queen of the Skies II is the temperature simulation of
individual zones based on a detailed heat exchange model that
takes into account thermal loads such as:
o Electric loads (e.g. operating display screens and
dome/floods lighting in the cockpit, cabin lighting)
o Supplementary heating sources (footer/shoulder heaters
& windshield air)
o Number of passengers on board and distribution to zones
o Solar heat (areas of windows in each zone, time of day,
current cloud coverage)
o State of doors
o Interaction conductivity of different aircraft compartments
(cabin, cargo bays etc) with exterior and between each
other

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Auto-flight System:
 The autopilot/flight director system on a modern airliner is a very
precise instrument, but it is not foolproof. You may see the
airplane vary slightly from the desired speed, track or altitude as
the airplane works to manage energy in order to accomplish the
path-defined goal. It will make decisions to turn slightly inside or
outside of the path, accept a slightly fast or slow condition, or
even pass through an altitude slightly in order to prevent
exceeding acceleration limits or engine spool up/down
capabilities.
 When you press a switch on the MCP, that mode may not
engage instantly, but instead will exhibit a small time delay
necessary to bring all of the various components through their
self-checks prior to actuating.

Cockpit Shaking Feature:

 A new feature implemented for the first time in a PMDG aircraft
provides the feeling of shaking of the cockpit with the associated
rattling sounds under various conditions:
o Ground roll
o Touch down
o Engine excessive vibration or failure
o In-flight turbulence
o Stall conditions (angle of attack)
o High speed buffeting
o Excessive g-force
o Speedbrakes application

Cockpit Displays:
 Both CRT and LCDs are modeled, with their associated visual
cues. The curvature of the CRTs can be seen behind the glass
pane, while the LCDs are flat and have a matte finish.
 Each display type has custom color definitions to faithfully
recreate the subtle differences in how the colors appear based on
the type of unit selected.

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Doors:
 Most door warnings that you receive while on the ground will
result from faulty, cluttered or obstructed sensors. While on the
ground, cycling a door open/closed will usually cure the problem
for you. If the problem does not clear, takeoff is inadvisable.
 Door warnings received in the air have potentially serious
consequences. Follow checklist procedure carefully to avoid
aircraft damage or loss of pressurization.
 If you allow GROUND OPERATIONS to run, the flight attendants
will manage the cabin doors automatically, including the arming,
disarming opening and closing of doors at the appropriate time.

Electrical System:
 You can fail any bus on the airplane, and suffer the appropriate
penalties as equipment powered by that bus falls offline.
 The PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II has a live, real-time
amperage consumption model. Every system on the airplane has
its real-world electrical consumption tracked in real-time. Many
items use only 0.005 amps, but the airplane has many thousands
of electrical consumers, so load shedding behavior will vary
depending upon what systems you have consuming power at the
time load shedding occurs!
 Every piece of equipment on the airplane that uses electricity is
correctly wired to its appropriate electrical sources. If you lose a
DC bus, you might lose the switches that are powered by that DC
bus, and thus lose interaction with the items those switches
control. Something to think about if you are experiencing power
failures.

Engines:
 All three engine manufacturers are simulated: PW, GE, and RR.
 If you have failures enabled, monitor your engine oil
pressure/temperature, EGT and vibration readings regularly.
Unhandled failures result in a cascade of other failures. For
example, an engine oil leak will eventually trigger an electrical
generator failure, an oil pressure failure and inevitably (in a
probabilistic manner) result in increased vibration, fuel flow and
finally complete engine seizure.
 Failures such as an ENG OVHT are dynamic, and will be
triggered slightly differently each time, requiring that you follow the
checklist to resolve them effectively.

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INTRODUCTION
Fire Controls – Engines:
 Bottles and Squibs are tracked. If you fire the bottle for one side, it
won't work for the other side.
 Fire Bottle Squibs can and do fail to test. If this happens, you
should catch it during the TEST function.
 Engine overheats may not necessarily result in the need to shut
down an engine... but you will have to follow the procedure in the
QRH to find out.

Flight Controls:
 Flap deployment speed is affected by the mode that the system is
operating in. When the trailing edge flaps are moved using the
ALTERNATE or SECONDARY flap system, they are
EXTREMELY slow. And you lose access to the full range in some
cases!
 Rudder control inputs are moderated by aerodynamic forces. Full
rudder deflection in even moderate IAS is thus impossible. This Q-
System model facilitates yaw stability and prevents inadvertent
yaw induced roll. Nevertheless, rudder authority is sufficient to
allow for runway alignment (de-crab) or even a sideslip (wing low)
approach even at high cross winds.

Flight Management Computer:

 The RTE 1 page 1 shows an ACTIVATE prompt at LSK 6R even
when there is no route entered. If you press it, the EXEC light is lit
and if you press the button it just reverts to the previous state. This
is realistic and is a quirk of the real life unit.
 Unlike the FMC in the PMDG 737 NGX (but similar to the PMDG
777), the flap setting/Vref speed combination you select on the
APPROACH REF page is advisory only. The airplane will not
automatically slow to this speed – you need to speed intervene
manually on the MCP to do it. The FMC by default places a 170
knot speed at the runway, which is also advisory only. In real life,
pilots don’t enter in their Vref into this restriction or anything like
that, it’s all done with speed intervention on the MCP.
 All speed restrictions in the 747 FMC are treated implicitly as at-
or-below restrictions. For example, if you have a 300 knot
restriction but your ECON descent speed is 275, the airplane will
cross the restriction at 275, it will not speed up to 300.

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INTRODUCTION
Fuel Density Model:
 Depending on where you are in the world, the fuel you take on
board will vary in density. For most flights, this does not cause
any issues, but in areas where the density is particularly low, you
may find that the fuel will take up the capacity of the tanks without
reaching the advertised weight values.
 When density is below the level where the tanks can take on a
full fuel load (by weight), the density is displayed in reverse video.

Ground Friction Model:

 P3D has a very odd ground contact model that can lead to odd
behaviors while taxiing. For the first time in a PMDG aircraft, we
have effectively side-stepped the limitations of the simulator so
that the ground roll is more authentic.

Ground Service Vehicles:

 In addition to the static representation of ground connection carts
seen in our previous products the 747 introduces dynamic
animation of ground service vehicles:
o Ground power, air conditioning, and air start units driven
in place by tractors
o Galley service & cabin cleaning trucks
o Mobile air stairs
o Cargo loaders and bulk cargo belts
o Tail stand
o Fuel pump truck
o Lavatory, potable water, and maintenance vehicles.
 All these are fully integrated to the aircraft (doors/cargo bays will
open in time, fuel truck will connect to under-wing refuel panel,
etc.) and will become alive either under the Automatic Ground
Operations feature or you can call any individual vehicle/service
manually whenever you need it.

Hydraulic System:
 Violating operating limitations on pumps will cause the case drain
fluid to overheat, resulting in an OVERHEAT warning.
 We have used realistic times for pumps to come online and drop
offline.

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INTRODUCTION
 Engine Driven Pumps (EDP) turn if the engine is turning. The
"pump switch" on the overhead is not actually turning the pump
on or off. Instead, this switch controls a solenoid that cuts off fluid
flow to the system respectively from the EDP. That solenoid is
held in the closed (off) position by DC power, so loss of that
associated DC bus will cause the solenoid to fail-open, thus
allowing the EDP to provide pressure to fluid on that side of the
airplane once again. This could be bad if you had that pump
disconnected for a reason!
 Overheat sensors in the Electric Motor Driven Pumps (EMDPs)
will trip pumps offline to protect them from overheat. It is
important to note that these are different sensors (and different
temperature ranges) than those that control the OVERHEAT
lights - so even when the overheat LIGHTS go out, you still may
not be able to activate the EMDPs for a while longer while they
are still cooling.
 EMDP cooling time will depend upon whether the pump is
running, or whether the pump is OFF. (Should take approximately
5 minutes to cool to normal temps when running, but
approximately 30 minutes when off because the fluid provides
cooling to the pump. This of course will vary slightly, depending
upon fluid temperature and wheel well temperature depending
upon condition.)
 Hydraulic Quantity indication is affected by gear/flap/spoiler/flight
control position, as well as thermal shrinking. You will notice
changes in hydraulic quantity indicated during flight as you
change the configuration of the airplane, set the parking brake,
etc.
 Hydraulic quantity is displayed as measured to the standpipe
within each reservoir. You may retain some pressure and
functionality even when the system shows no quantity because
there is fluid below the standpipe!

Landing Gear:
 Brakes are subject to Brake Temperature Soak. The brake
temperature will climb for a period of time after heavy brake use.
 Wheel well fire warning can be triggered by sucking hot brakes
up into the gear bay. Follow the checklist if you get a wheel well
fire indication!

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INTRODUCTION
 We have simulated the full alternate gear extension for the 747.
You will notice that the landing gear doors remain open during an
alternate extension. To retract them after landing, simply power
up the hydraulics, push the landing gear lock override, then cycle
the handle up and then back down.
 You will notice that the volume of the gear-bay turbulence sound
changes as the nose gear forward bay doors open and close
during extension and retraction. This sound is entirely code
controlled and dynamic, so if you lower the gear using the
alternate extension, the turbulence noise will be louder on the
flight deck than it is when those doors close as they normally do
during extension.

Lighting Systems:
 The diagram used to determine the power source for every bulb
on the flight deck takes up 165 standard sized print pages.

Physics-based Wing Flex:

 For the first time in a PMDG aircraft, we have included a fully
physics-based wing flex model. The wings will sag while on the
ground, depending on how much fuel is in them. While in flight,
the wings will be lifted upward by the amount of lift being
generated, but bent in a characteristic way under the significant
weight of the aircraft.
 Environmental factors are also included in the calculations, so
turbulence and gusts will also influence the wing flex behavior. As
the wings react to these environmental factors, the engines and
engine pylons will as well.

Pneumatic System:
 The bleed pressure produced by each engine is directly
computed based upon bleed production of the engine for current
RPM and appropriate combination of high and low pressure
stages bleed air as controlled by the HPSOV (High Pressure
Shut-off Valve), and the PRSOV (Pressure Regulating and Shut-
off Valve). The logic of these two valves (condition to open/close,
target pressure values to regulate, etc.) is simulated in detail,
resulting in highly accurate bleed pressure production values for
each engine.

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INTRODUCTION
Sounds:
 This package uses over 1400 digitally recorded sounds to
replicate the living, breathing work environment of a 747 pilot.
 While in the external views, you will hear sounds made by ground
equipment, windmilling engines, wing fuel pumps, electric
hydraulic pumps, air conditioning packs and the APU. All of these
sounds layer together to provide a very realistic exterior sound
environment.
 We recorded sounds for nearly every switch on the flight deck
and then linked them in such a way as to ensure that they are
synchronized to switch movements whether fast or slow.
 Many sounds in the product have multiple recordings that trigger
randomly to produce a subtle difference in the sounds each time
a particular one plays. This is a technique borrowed from music
production (Armen and Ryan are both musicians), where
randomized drum samples are often used to produce a more
human sounding programmed drum performance.
 Some mechanical systems on the airplane can be faintly heard
from the flight deck (electric hydraulic pumps, for example) and
you will hear them from the flight deck if you listen closely.
 Sound level mixing was done over many hundreds of hours in
order to provide the best mix of sounds to accurately replicate the
cockpit sound environment.

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INTRODUCTION

THINGS THE WIDE BETA TEAM WANTED YOU TO

KNOW
 At high gross weights – particularly those at “hot and high”
airports – be prepared for underwhelming performance. Take off
rolls will be much longer, and the climb rate will be sluggish,
particularly at acceleration altitude when retracting the flaps.
 When planning, normal remaining fuel values are much higher
than you are used to. A good minimum is at least 30,000 pounds.
 If TO/GA is not selected prior to 50 knots, AT operation will be
inhibited until 400 feet. In this case, the throttles will only move
manually until that point.
 When soft disconnecting the AT, the disconnect switches need to
be clicked twice with a 1-2 second pause in between to avoid the
auto throttle disconnect EICAS message and associated caution.
 Proper takeoff procedure with respect to your physical throttle:
o Advance the throttles to approximately 50% N1.
o Press TO/GA (don’t use the MCP A/T button, it takes half
a second or so to "capture").
o Wait until you see THR REF annunciated on the FMA.
o Push the throttles fully forward. They are dead now
because the AT is active.
 The stabilizer trim rate in the 747 is quite slow compared to other
airplanes you may be used to.
 Fuel management in the 747 is a lot more involved than that of
the NGX and 777. The pilot must handle center tanks, stab tanks,
aux tanks in the case of the ER, and an array of wing tanks that
need to be switched at a specific point in flight.
 The 747 has a lot of energy behind its mass and will require
planning and energy management on tight approaches. Plan
ahead and if it won’t work, go around!
 On landings, be mindful that you are much higher in the 747 than
you would be in the NGX or 777.
 Despite the higher viewpoint, the 747 is relatively easy to land,
provided the approach is stable. Make full use of the radio
altimeter callouts to judge the height above the runway.
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INTRODUCTION
 The APU will run while airborne, but it will not start unless the
aircraft is on the ground. There is enough redundancy on the
aircraft that its use while airborne is not required.
 Unlike the 777, the transfer of power between the engine
generators and the APU is manual. Remember to reach up and
transfer the power source from the engines to the APU prior to
cutting fuel to the engines. Pilots of the NGX will likely be less
prone to forgetting this step.
 Don't forget to press the MIC button on the ACP panel (below the
radios panel) corresponding to the radio you want to transmit on
or no-one will hear you online. Yes, it’s modeled that closely!
 There are certain calculations that you perform through the CDU
that take a surprising amount of time to complete. A good
example is the required trim setting generated by entering the
%MAC. Keep in mind that the processing power in this FMC is
equivalent to the old Intel 8086 processor. The FMC has been
purposefully designed to have the same response times as the
real FMC.
 When using a cargo variant, the nose and side cargo doors
require that a power source be available, but not in use. As an
example, if you are using APU power, GEN1 can be used for
power, but GEN2 will need to be switched off (left AVAIL) in order
for the doors to operate.
 GSX will interfere with the PMDG Ground Service vehicles. If you
use GSX for parking, be sure to restart couatl before selecting
service vehicles.
 When taxiing, keep speeds in turns at 12 knots or less to ensure
that the body gear steering is active to assist the turn.
 The fifth engine ferry option is not available on all engine types.

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INTRODUCTION

INTERACTING WITH THE PMDG 747-400

The PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II uses a fully custom, highly
flexible interface methodology in order to make your PMDG 747-400
experience as intuitive as using your own hand.

This section will help you to learn how to push/pull levers, rotate knobs
and push buttons within the cockpit. The guidance is identical whether
you use the 3D Virtual Cockpit, or whether you use the flat 2D popups.

The PMDG 747-400 utilizes a specific cursor shapes that are visible in
both the 2D and Virtual Cockpit in order to assist the user to:

 Easily locate the regions where mouse operations are applicable.

 Instantly identify what kinds of mouse operations are applicable
for each click spot.
 Identify what each mouse operation can be expected to do.

Push-Pull Operations:
Push-Pull operations apply to pushbuttons and knobs that can be either
pushed or pulled in order to effectuate an action. One of three cursor
shapes will appear when the mouse is placed over a pushbutton or switch
that fits into this category:

Push cursor:
Only push operation is applicable. Use left or right mouse button.

Pull-Only cursor:
Only pull operation is applicable. Use right mouse button.

The push/pull icon will change to reflect the operation selected by the
user. So if, for example, the left mouse button is pressed the cursor will
change to the “push” cursor, and if the right mouse button is pressed the
cursor will change to the “pull” cursor.

Knob/Switch Turn Operations:

Knob/Switch turning can apply to knobs, dials, wheels and switches that
must be turned or rotated. Three different cursor shapes will appear when
the mouse is placed over the knob.

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INTRODUCTION
Switch/Knob Cursors:
For knobs/switches that turn/move left/right the following applies:
This cursor indicates that the switch may be rotated to the
left/right. This is the “neutral” cursor, meaning that you are not
currently rotating the switch.

Press either the left mouse button or turn the mouse wheel
down or to turn the knob to the left. While doing so the cursor
will also rotate to the left as seen here.

Press either the right mouse button or turn the mouse wheel up
or to turn the knob to the right. While doing so the cursor will
also rotate to the right as seen here.

Note that the mouse wheel does not function for switches, only
knobs.
For switches that move up/down the following applies:
This cursor indicates that the switch may be moved up/down.
This is the “neutral” cursor, meaning that you are not currently
rotating the switch.

Press the left mouse button to move the switch down. While
doing so the cursor will also rotate to the left as seen here.

Press the right mouse button to move the switch up. While
doing so the cursor will also rotate to the right as seen here.

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INTRODUCTION
Operating a Two Position Switch/Knob:
On the PMDG 747-400 flight deck there are a broad range of knobs and
switches that will be moved using the left and right click action described
above. For knobs/switches with two positions, left or right clicking on the
switch will move the switch between the two positions.

Operating a Multiple Position Switch/Knob:

For knobs/switches with multiple positions, or with a range of positions
(such as a temperature selector knob) successive right or left clicks (or
scrolling of the mouse-wheel) will cause the switch to continue moving in
the direction of the click until reaching the full limit of the knob’s available
motion.

For knobs that do not have distinct position detents, such as a dimmer or
a temperature knob, holding down the left or right mouse button will
cause the knob to scroll through its available range of motion in the same
direction as the mouse click. Additionally, you can use the mouse wheel
on your mouse to scroll rapidly.

Some hits to remember when using knobs:

 Using the mouse wheel will let you rapidly enter

heading/speed/altitude changes into the MCP!
 Double clicking the left or right mouse button while the mouse is
over a rotary knob will cause the knob to move immediately to its
full left or right position.
 This functionality applies to all knobs such as dimmers that
control brightness (display units brightness knobs on the lower
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INTRODUCTION
main panel, as well as PANEL/FLOOD lighting controls on the
lower main panel, the overhead and the center console.)
 The middle mouse button can be used to instantly place any
rotary panel lighting control in the center 50% position.

Combined Rotary Knobs:

In some cases, there are multiple rotary knobs embedded into a single
location, such as the heading knob found on the MCP. In order to help
clarify the operation of these knobs, you should note the color of the
Left/Right rotation cursor. The primary rotary function of the knob will use
white rotary icons as described above, while the secondary rotary function
on the knob will use gray shaded rotary cursors as shown below:

Other applications of gray shaded cursors:

You will notice that in certain places that require special action, such as
the landing gear handle unlock switch, or on the guards covering guarded
switches, the cursor will appear gray. This is to indicate to you that the
action is special as it relates to that switch, guard or knob.

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INTRODUCTION
Example:
As an example, the mouse operations on the heading select knob are
shown in the following figure:

3
2

1. This shaded cursor indicates that you are able to rotate the secondary
outside knob that operates the bank limiter, but only using left and right
clicks, not the mouse wheel.

2. This un-shaded icon indicates that you can rotate the primary heading
select knob both with left and right clicks and with the mouse wheel.

3. This cursor indicates that you can press the button embedded inside
the two rotary knobs.

If you spent a few moments feeling around the PMDG 747-400 cockpit
with your mouse, you will find many different areas where you can click,
rotate, move up/down or left/right various controls. Over time, these
cursors and their associated actions will become second nature!

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INTRODUCTION
Multi-Function Knobs in the Virtual Cockpit:
All of the mouse cursor functions described above work in the Virtual
Cockpit or the 2D popup environment. As you move the mouse cursor
over a knob or switch, simply watch to see which cursor (primary or
secondary rotary cursor, push, move up/down or move left/right cursor) is
displayed. This will help you to identify which function you will effect by
mouse input.

NOTE: Depending upon your monitor size and resolution, you may have
some trouble accurately placing the mouse cursor over a switch while in
the VC. If you experience this problem, we recommend that you zoom
closely to the switch. This will greatly increase the accuracy of your
mouse and is similar to “leaning” toward something on the flight deck in
order to make it more accessible. Holding spacebar and rolling the mouse
wheel is the easiest way to look around and zoom in P3D.

Using click and drag controls:

Several controls in the cockpit including the MINS and BARO selectors,
the manual pressurization Landing Altitude selector, the Fuel to Remain
selector, the Rudder Trim knob, and the Flight Deck Temperature selector
when moving between MAN and AUTO use a click and drag style logic
that moves between different control “levels.”

To use the MINS knob as an example:

You will see the normal cursor, but to operate the control you must right
or left click and hold, which will produce the tooltip shown above. In the
case of both the MINS and BARO selectors, there are two speed levels,
slow and fast. To move between the two levels, drag the mouse a short
distance while continuing to hold the button down.

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INTRODUCTION
Using Pop-Up Panels
The essence of the PMDG 747-400 Pop-Up Panel control schema is
based around click spots located at strategic locations throughout the
Virtual Cockpit (VC). When the user moves the mouse cursor over one of
these click spots, the cursor changes in order to help the user understand
what options are available via the click-spot.

When accessing the various pop-up panels, the following cursors may be
displayed to the user:
Panel Open/Toggle Cursor:

or
When either one of these cursors is displayed, the left or right mouse
button can be used to open or toggle a panel window. These types of
mouse click spots are normally located on the main panel.
Close Panel Cursor:

This cursor indicates that you can use either the left or right mouse
button to close the current panel window. The mouse click spot is usually
located on the top-right corner of the panel window.
Zoom Display Cursor:

These cursors are displayed when the mouse is moved over the central
area of one of the display units or the screens of the CDUs in the VC. A
left or right mouse click when the “+” cursor is displayed will open the
display unit or the CDU on a new window of larger dimensions.

When the zoomed window is open a “-“cursor will display on both the
zoomed window click-spot and the corresponding normal display click-
spot. Use the left or right mouse click on either click-spot to close the
zoomed window.

NOTE: If you forget what a specific click-spot will do, simply hover your
mouse over the spot and a tool-tip will appear to remind you. (Provided
you have tool-tips enabled!) They will also tell you what the
left/middle/right click functionality of certain clickspots is.

At night, the click locations are illuminated using the MAIN PANEL
brightness knob in order to make them easy to find.
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INTRODUCTION
The following pages show/explain the mouse click hotspots that are used
to pop up/control the various flight displays, 2D pop-up panels and yokes.
The different cursor types that the user will see when the mouse is moved
over click spots are also depicted.

Main Panel and Forward Pedestal Clickspots:

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INTRODUCTION
Rear Pedestal/CDU Clickspot:

MCP Popup and Close Click Spots:

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INTRODUCTION
EFIS Click Spot:

NOTE: Same location on FO Side.

TOGA Click Spot:

NOTE: Both Captain and FO alternate TOGA click spots shown.

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INTRODUCTION
Radio/Audio Panel/XPDR/Weather Radar Popup and Close
Click Spots:

NOTE: Both Captain and FO click spots shown.

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INTRODUCTION

CUSTOMIZE YOUR PMDG 747-400 EXPERIENCE

With the PMDG 747-400 product line we continue to use the methodology
that allows you to change just about anything in the airplane without ever
having to leave the simulation. From your fuel load to the passenger load,
cockpit configuration, external model options, failures, maintenance and
cockpit equipment: everything can be configured live, in P3D, without
having to pull down a menu and without having to leave the
immersion of the simulation!

Accessing FMS Based Menus from a Dark Airplane:

Since we have moved all of the configuration options into the FMS in
order to promote simulation continuity, we also had to give you a way to
access those menus even if the airplane is not currently powered.

To access the FMS based Setup/Configuration menus from a Cold &

Dark cockpit, simply press and hold the MENU button on the FMS until
the FMS screen comes to life.

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INTRODUCTION
PMDG 747-400 Home CDU Menu:
At any time while flying the PMDG 747-400, you can press the MENU
button on the CDU and you will be presented with the top menu for the
CDU system:

On the left side of the screen, you can select the <FMC prompt to enter
the aircraft flight management functions. On the right side you will find the
PMDG SETUP> and FS ACTIONS> prompts. These options are the core
of your ability to customize your PMDG 747-400 flight experience.

If at any time you get lost in the CDU, simply press the MENU button and
you will be brought immediately back to this page!

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INTRODUCTION

PMDG SETUP MENU

Pressing the PMDG SETUP> prompt at will display the following menu:

The PMDG SETUP page is the “home base” from which you will
configure your PMDG 747 to suit your needs. From this menu you can
adjust the specific options for your airplane cockpit as well as many
options to control various aspects of the simulation experience itself.

There are a few things to keep in mind while learning how to tune the
PMDG 747-400 to suit your tastes:

 <AIRCRAFT: The PMDG 747-400 allows you to configure the

equipment options you want on your 747 and in your cockpit and
then bind them to the registration number of the livery you are
currently flying. This gives you the opportunity to set up the flight
deck for individual liveries according to the configuration used by
different airlines or on specific airplanes and quickly switch
between them. The items listed under <AIRCRAFT are airframe
specific, so you can change them when loading different liveries.
 <OPTIONS: The PMDG 747-400 allows you to set global options
such as the mechanical failures model, performance tuning, key
commands and sound options that remain in place even as you
switch between different liveries or 747 body types.
 Panel SAVE STATE> and LOAD STATE>: The save/load state
prompts allow you to save the current setup of the panel to a file
that you can then reload at any time in the future. Saved panel
states are independent of specific saved flights so if, for example,
you wished to save the current state of the cockpit as you left it at
the conclusion of your flight, you can then reload this panel
condition in the future and find all switches and system in the
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INTRODUCTION
desired settings. (This is not the same as saving a flight because
it merely saves the condition of the airplane, thus allowing you to
load your panel configuration into any flight you wish.)
 STARTUP STATE: This prompt allows you select a saved panel
state that you would like the simulation to use as your default
panel condition every time the simulation is launched. For
example, if you were to select a Cold and Dark scenario as the
STARTUP STATE for the airplane, you will be presented with
that cold and dark panel state whenever and wherever you
choose to load the PMDG 747.
 LICENSE>: This prompt allows you to view your license key or
manually deactivate the license on your computer, as mentioned
earlier.
 ABOUT>: A short animation with the names of the Development,
Tech and Beta teams.

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INTRODUCTION
Understanding Panel vs. Flight Save/Load States:
When it comes to saving your flight, there are a few things that you should
clearly understand in order to avoid confusion.

Saving a Flight: Saving a flight is done via the P3D File/Save Flight menu.
This will save the airplane position, status and configuration into a file that
can be loaded at a later time via the P3D File/Load Flight menu.

Saving a Panel State: Saving a panel state is a bit different. Panel states
allow you to save the airplane’s current configuration without any regard
to the phase of flight or location of the airplane. This being the case, panel
states are entirely mobile and thus give you great flexibility.

For example, let’s say that you want to create a condition in which the
airplane is on the ground with the APU running, the IRS’s aligned and
everything ready to start the engines. You do this by setting the airplane
up as you desire, then going to the PMDG SETUP menu in the FMS and
pressing STATE SAVE>.

You will be prompted for a name for the panel state, and the FMS will
then create the necessary files in your <P3D ROOT>\PMDG\PMDG 747
QOTS II\PanelState folder.

Once this state is saved, you can have the airplane in any location in the
P3D world and use the LOAD STATE> prompt to instantly put the
airplane into the desired configuration.

We have created some panel states that we thought might be desired by

users:

Cold and Dark

Default
Long Turn
Short Turn

These panel states can be loaded at any time and the airplane will be
instantly configured according to the panel state selected. This can be
convenient for quickly setting up a flight to start precisely where you want!

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INTRODUCTION
Save/Load Effect on Failures:
In the PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II the current state of failures
is always saved. If you have a particular failures mode saved, and various
failures are already active or armed to become active, they will remain as
such when you load the flight that was saved in that condition.
This can be useful for saving flights enroute without losing any of the
activities that have taken place earlier in the flight sequence.
Some users may not want the failure conditions to transfer to a newly
loaded flight. If this is a concern, then please be certain that you clear all
failures and disable failures from the FAILURES menu prior to saving the
flight.

Save/Load from the P3D menu:

You can also conduct save/load operations from the P3D menu. The
PMDG 747-400 Queen of the Skies II will intercept the save/load
function and create both the P3D save file and the PMDG 747-400 panel
save file for you using the name you select.
You will then be able to load your flight and panel state from the P3D
menu as well and the airplane condition will be just as you left it.
On the PMDG SETUP menu you will notice a STARTUP STATE prompt.
You can use this prompt to force P3D to load the PMDG 747-400 in
exactly the same configuration every time you launch the simulator.

In addition to the 744 DEFAULT engines running state, we have included

the following panel states for you to use:

 744 CLDDRK: This is the airplane completely shut down with the
shutdown, securing, and power down procedures complete. The L2
entry door is open since you presumably entered through it. The
airplane is chocked.
 744 SHORT: This is the airplane on a short ground turn. The
shutdown procedure has been completed and the APU is running
and providing power and air. The securing procedure is partially
completed. The L2 entry door and all three cargo doors are open and
the airplane is chocked.
 744 LONG: This is the airplane on a long ground turn. The shutdown
and securing procedures have been fully completed. Ground power
and air conditioning are both connected and the airplane is chocked.
The L2 entry door and all three cargo doors are open.

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INTRODUCTION

AIRCRAFT SETUP MENUS

The AIRCRAFT menu allows you to configure the equipment, displays

and mechanical fitness of your airplane to suite your needs.

When using the PMDG 747-400 you should think of aircraft options in
terms of airframes. Through this menu system we allow you to define the
equipment contained on the flight deck of a limitless number of aircraft,
defined by airframe tail numbers.

For example, if you wished to define the specific equipment carried on

N744PM, you can do so, saving the information via the AIRCRAFT menu.
You might then define a different equipment setup on N744GE and save
that configuration via the AIRCRAFT menu.

Thus, you can quickly return to whatever configuration you choose by

simply loading that aircraft’s configuration file via the AIRCRAFT menu.

How this helps you:

The PMDG 747-400 tracks everything in terms of individual airframes. As
you fly N744PM, for example that airplane will accumulate flight time. Any
changes you make to the equipment carried on that aircraft can be saved
and the simulator will load those options the next time you choose to fly
N744PM.

If you wish to use a different aircraft configuration, simply select it via the
AIRCRAFT menu and the changes will be instantaneous.

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How this works behind the scenes (For sim techs and nerds!):
You don’t need to read this section to use the AIRCRAFT menu, but we
are including it for those who want to know details about how the
AIRCRAFT menu system works.

Each livery comes with a pre-defined definition ini file that defines all of
the options related to that particular airplane. The file is fully editable.

The definition file is named to match the tail number on the livery and gets
copied to the <P3D root>\PMDG\PMDG 747 QOTS II\Aircraft folder by
the livery installer. A backup original copy is left in the texture folder so
that you can use the AIRCRAFT menu to revert to the original
configuration file if you make changes that you no longer wish to keep.

When you select a livery, and then launch the simulator, the PMDG 747-
400 will determine what equipment in installed on the airplane by reading
the definition file for that livery’s tail number. When the sim launches your
cockpit will be set up according to that definition.

If you make changes to the cockpit layout and save the definition file
using the AIRCRAFT menu, those changes will be present in the airplane
any time you load that livery.

So the key thing to remember is that each aircraft should be viewed in

terms of its tail number. When you load a livery, the definition file
matching the airplane’s tail number will be used to populate your cockpit,
display and maintenance options.

If desired, you can save multiple definitions for the same airplane in order
to simulate changes in the equipment carried over time. For example you
could set one set of options for the N744PM setting, then manually make
changes and save the file as [Link] Then, if you desire to use the
second configuration, simply select it from the menus as will be described
below.

NOTE: The livery number displayed in the AIRCRAFT menu will always
match the tail number installed with the livery. This is because the
maintenance and flight time tracking must be tracked for that individual
tail number!

Do not manually change the tail number in the DETAILS pane of the
aircraft select screen in P3D. This will mess up or otherwise disable the
livery options.

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INTRODUCTION
The following matrix should help you to visualize how the airplane-specific
equipment, display and maintenance options are tracked for individual tail
numbers:

Livery Tail Number

Definition File

Aircraft Menu

Cockpit Setup
Using the AIRCRAFT menu:
When you load a livery from the P3D scenario creation menu and then
launch the simulator, the PMDG 747-400 will load the definition file that
describes how that aircraft is laid out in terms of cockpit equipment,
displays and mechanical fitness.

The AIRCRAFT menu is designed to give you the ability to change the
equipment installed in the cockpit, change the way information is
displayed to you on the cockpit displays, and to interact with the
mechanical reliability of the airplane.

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You do this through the following menu prompts:
 < EQUIPMENT
 < DISPLAYS
 < FAILURES
We will explore the content of these menus in a moment, but for now just
remember that any time you make a change, the PMDG 747-400 will
automatically save the change you made to the aircraft’s definition file.
This has the effect of making the change permanent until you make future
changes.

NOTE: There is no danger to changing the contents of the AIRCRAFT

menu, even while the aircraft is in flight!

Restoring a Definition File:

In the event that you make changes and later wish to revert to how the
airplane was configured at the time you installed the livery, simply press
the RESTORE > prompt on the AIRCRAFT page.

This will copy the original definition file from the backup folder to the
active folder, replacing the one you have already altered. (This cannot be
un-done!)

Using a Different Definition File:

In some circumstances, you may decide that you want to use a different
aircraft configuration than the one that is defined for that livery. As an
example, if you fly with a particular configuration frequently and have
grown comfortable with that cockpit setup, it may not be convenient to
have to remember every single configuration change that you made in
order to get a different livery configured to match your preferred settings.
In order to make things easy, we have allowed you the option to load a
different aircaft definition than the one that is loaded by default with any
livery. You can do this using the Load From ANOTHER > prompt on the
AIRCRAFT menu.

Selecting the ANOTHER > prompt will take you to the following menu:

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This menu will list all of the available aircraft definition files currently
loaded or that you have created.

To load the N744PM configuration displayed in the example above, you

simply press the line select key, and then confirm the entry.

This will cause the configuration definition for N744PM to be used with
whatever livery you currently have loaded.

NOTE: If you switch liveries, you will need to re-select the N744PM
definition if that is your wish. Every time you load a livery from the free
flight P3D menu, the PMDG 747-400 will load that livery’s definition file!

Using a Fixed Definition File for All Flights:

You may find that you settle into a favorite cockpit configuration that you
want to use no matter which livery you are flying. In this case you can set
the configuration as your FIXED CONFIG by using the FIXED CONFIG
prompt to select it from displayed list.

Once you have selected an airline definition file as your FIXED CONFIG it
will remain until you delete. (Press the DEL key, then the FIXED CONFIG
prompt to delete.)

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INTRODUCTION
EQUIPMENT Options:

When purchasing an airplane from Boeing, the airline customer will

choose from a package of equipment options that provide advanced
capabilities beyond what the basic airplane is capable of.

These options are available for you to select from in the EQUIPMENT
pages so that you can experiment with the mix of data equipment options
that are interesting to you as a pilot.

There are numerous pages of options available that will allow you to
customize the displays in the cockpit of your 747. You can use the PREV
PAGE and NEXT PAGE buttons on the CDU to move forward and back
through the pages.

In the list that follows, we have provided images to show you the
difference between equipment types when applicable. We also document
some of the known conflicts between equipment types (if any) so that you
are aware that turning some features ON may disable other features.

You can’t hurt anything by experimenting with combinations of features,

so feel free to turn things on or off and add/remove equipment capabilities
as your needs or interest may allow!

If you get into a simulated flight and decide you’d like to try some
changes, you can do so live, in the simulator, without having to worry
about disrupting your current flight.

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PAGE 1/22 - ADFS, FMS
 GS CAPTURE BEFORE LOC: This option allows you to
determine whether the autopilot/flight director will command the
airplane to follow the glide-slope on an approach even if the
localizer has not yet been captured. Airlines generally provide
specific policy guidance on this topic, and they will select the
equipment option so that the airplane adheres to corporate policy.
Generally speaking, the DENY option is the safer, more
conservative option.
 AUTO LNAV ON GO-AROUND: This option allows the AFDS to
automatically engage LNAV on a go-around with a missed
approach loaded in the FMC.
PAGE 2/22 - ELECTRICAL
 APU TR START OPTION: This determines whether or not a
(Transformer Rectifier Unit) TRU is added to start the APU. This
avoids stressing the battery if AC power is available. The TRU is
also used as a back-up emergency power source.
 ELEC STBY SYSTEM: The updated option powers the Captain
side FMC and displays with the APU Battery.
 ALTN EFIS SWITCH: This option places a switch below the MCP
allowing you to select captain or F/O sources.
PAGE 3/22 - EGPWS
 V1 CALLOUT: Allows you to select the GPWS “V1” callout to ON
or OFF.
 BANK ANGLE CALLOUTS: This option allows you to select
whether or not you will hear aural bank angle warnings if you
exceed prescribed bank angles.
 APPR MINIMUMS CALL: This option selects the aural callout type
that plays when approaching your minimum altitude on an
approach. The airplane can issue no warning, or it can call out
“Approaching Minimums” or “Approaching Decision Height” or
“Plus Hundred.”
 MINIMUMS CALL: This option selects the aural callout type that
plays at your minimum altitude on an approach. The airplane can
issue no warning or it can call out “Minimums,” “Minimums
Minimums,” or “Decision Height.”
 2500 FEET CALL TYPE: Most airlines use the “Twenty Five
Hundred” call, but some airlines have adopted the “Radio
Altimeter” aural advisory instead. You can choose which you wish
to hear.

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PAGE 4/22 – EGPWS 2
 CALL 2500: Here you can set 3 options for the 2500 ft call: YES
(always on), SMART (call will be made only if you are established
on an ILS glideslope), and NO (call will not be made).
 CALL 1000: Here you can set 3 options for the 1000 ft call: YES
(always on), SMART (call will be made only if you are established
on an ILS glideslope), and NO (call will not be made).
 CALL 500: Here you can set 3 options for the 500 ft call: YES
(always on), SMART (call will be made only if you are established
on an ILS glideslope), and NO (call will not be made).
 CALL 400: Set the 400 ft call to ON or OFF.
 CALL 300: Set the 300 ft call to ON or OFF.
PAGE 5/22 – EGPWS 3
 CALL 200: Set the 200 ft call to ON or OFF.
 CALL 100: Set the 100 ft call to ON or OFF.
 CALL 50: Set the 50 ft call to ON or OFF.
 CALL 40: Set the 40 ft call to ON or OFF.
 CALL 30: Set the 30 ft call to ON or OFF.
PAGE 6/22 – EGPWS 4
 CALL 20: Set the 20 ft call to ON or OFF.
 CALL 10: Set the 10 ft call to ON or OFF.
 FLARE TONES: Similar to those used in classic 747 aircraft, this
option determines whether the automated flare tone is played.
The tone provides audible guidance of when to flare.
PAGE 7/22 – FMC DATALINK
 AUTO PREFLIGHT UPLINKS: With this option selected, initiating
a ROUTE REQUEST from the RTE page during preflight will
automatically trigger in sequence WIND DATA and DES
FORECAST requests. The data for each request will become
available once data of the previous request in the sequence is
loaded and accepted.
 AUTO POS RPRT DOWNLINK: With this option selected, position
reports are automatically downlinked during the cruise phase of
the flight each time a waypoint is sequenced. This option is
simulated by the presence of the REPORTING and REPORT
SENT prompts - there is no sending of an actual report to
anywhere.
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INTRODUCTION
PAGE 8/22 – FMS
 TAKEOFF THRUST DERATES: This option determines whether
or not the THRUST LIM page displays the TO-1 and TO-2 fixed
percentage thrust derates for use.
 CLB DERATE WASHOUT TYPE: This option sets the altitudes at
which the climb thrust rating returns to its full maximum value
when using the fixed CLB-1 or CLB-2 derate.
 CLB1 -> CLB: Shows the altitudes related to the above option.
 CLB2 -> CLB: Shows the altitudes related to the above option.
 CRZ PHASE THRUST LIMIT: This option determines whether
the cruise flight N1 limit is CLB or CRZ.
PAGE 9/22 – FMS 2
 FMS DEFAULT ALTITUDES (list of four): These options allow you
to customize the default acceleration altitude, default engine out
acceleration altitude, default thrust reduction altitude, altitude and
default transition altitude in order to comply with the standards
typically used by your airline and/or country.

For example, the transition altitude in the United States is 18,000

feet, but in other countries this value will vary. If you live in a
country where 5,000 feet is normally used then you can set this
value to 5,000 and you will not have to change the transition
altitude in the FMS on every flight.

It’s important to understand that these values will be overridden by

what’s saved in a panel state or saved flight due to the way the
FMC is initialized. If you wish to have these values in a panel
state, load the panel state first, adjust the values, then save the
state with a new name such as “(livery name) _CLDDRK” or
whatever you’d like.

Also, with respect to the THRUST RED ALT/FLAPS setting – this

can be set to a value of 5 instead of an altitude, which causes the
thrust reduction to happen when the flaps are moved from 10 to 5,
regardless of altitude.
PAGE 10/22 – FMC 3
 FMC CALCULATES V SPEEDS: This option determines whether
the FMC will provide V speeds on the TAKEOFF REF page.

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INTRODUCTION
 AUTO SHOW VNAV CLB PAGE: This option determines
whether the FMC will automatically change to the CLB page from
the TAKEOFF REF page after departure.
PAGE 11/22 – FUEL & WT/BAL
 FUEL SYSTEM: The original fuel system is the pre AD fuel pump
and messaging as the original 747-400 was configured. This
system requires the pilot to shut off the pumps with fuel remaining
in the Center and Horizontal Stab in accordance with the Boeing
directive that came out in 1996. EICAS messaging will alert you
when you reach those levels.

The updated fuel system incorporates all the AD requirements

that mandated as part of the final AD rule: auto pump shutoff,
current limiters, revised pump motors and housings, motive flow
scavenge pumps and updated EICAS messaging.
 TAIL XFR TRIGGER: Changes the point at which fuel is
transferred out of the tail tanks.
 WEIGHT BALANCE SYSTEM: This option determines how many
sensors are installed to provide the weight of the aircraft on the
PERF INIT page. NONE requires a manual entry – either ZFW or
GW – by the crew, whereas SINGLE and DUAL provide a weight
value that the crew can verify against the dispatch paperwork,
and select.
 FUEL BALLAST SYSTEM: This option changes the fuel logic to
include a ballast protection for fuel that should not be burned from
the center fuel tanks while in flight to keep the aircraft within CG
limits.
 JETTISON SEL WITH MLW: This option changes the fuel dump
system to allow for the selection of MLW (max landing weight)
instead of having to do the math of how much fuel should remain.
If the option is enabled, the system will automatically dump fuel
until at the MLW of the aircraft.
PAGE 12/22 – FUEL & WT/BAL 2
 STAB TANK INSTALLED: This option determines whether the
aircraft has additional fuel tanks in the stabilizers.
PAGE 13/22 – HYDRAULIC
 HYD1 AUX PUMP INSTALLED: This option determines whether
the aircraft has an AUX pump installed in HYD1.

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INTRODUCTION
 HYD2 & HYD3 DEM PUMPS: This option determines the type of
demand pumps installed: electric or pneumatic.
PAGE 14/22 - INSTRUMENTS
 ADF INSTALLED: This option determines whether the aircraft
has ADF receivers for tuning NDBs installed. INOP stickers will
appear over the EFIS ADF pointer selectors if not installed.
 STANDBY INSTRUMENTS: This option allows you to decide
whether you want to have the ISFD or SEPARATE standby
instrument option installed. The ISFD (Integrated Standby Flight
Display) is an electronic, solid state digital display that contains its
own backup battery source of power. The SEPARATE standby
gauge configuration provides the AI, ASI and ALT as separate
instruments, as pictured below.

ISFD Separate
 RMI INSTALLED: This option determines whether the aircraft has
an RMI installed on the captain side.

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PAGE 15/22 - MISC
 HEADRESTS (list of four): This option determines whether the
headrests are shown. This option also allows users to avoid the
P3D viewpoint shift bug.
 YOKE PLACARDS: This option determines whether the yokes
display the default placard, a custom placard, or none at all.
PAGE 16/22 - MISC
 WINDOW FRAME STYLE: This option determines whether the
window frame is the older, thicker window frame, or the newer,
thinner frame.
 MEM DEVICE ON YOKE: This option determines whether the
memory device is shown on the yoke. This is used to dial in the
flight number to aid ATC calls.
 LAV IN COCKPIT: This option determines whether there is a
lavatory installed in the cockpit.
PAGE 17/22 – PACKAGES
 FLIGHT TEST PACKAGE: We’ve included this package for those
who might enjoy seeing the visual aspects of the standard flight
test gear carried aboard an airliner during flight testing. This
includes a tail drogue and extra air data sensors protruding
through red window plugs in the forward cabin area. This is a
visual model enhancement only and does not provide any data
display anywhere on the flight deck.
 ANTENNAS: This option sets the position of the external
SATCOM, VHF, ELT, and WIFI antennas on top of the fuselage.
 MAIN DECK SIGNALLING (F models only): Changes the location
and type of main deck signaling/alerting functions.
 FIRE DETECT MFG: Changes the fire detection system
manufacturer between Kidde and Systron. These systems are
entirely interchangeable, but they operate differently during the
fire system test.
 5TH ENGINE POD (RR model only): Shows or hides a fifth
engine under the wing for spare engine ferrying. This will also
have associated changes on various FMC pages to
accommodate the additional drag.

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INTRODUCTION
PAGE 18/22 – PACKAGES 2
 ENG AUTOSTART SYSTEM: Determines whether autostart is
installed. Note that, depending on the engine type, the switches
will show in different locations.
 ICE PROTECTION OPTION: Changes between the basic anti-
ice system, a system with ice detectors, and an auto anti-ice
system.
 DUAL FIRE/OVHT TEST: Determines whether a second switch
is installed on the overhead to test the ENG, APU, and cargo
detection systems separately.
 TAXI LIGHTS INSTALLED: Determines whether the aircraft has
taxi lights installed.
 PARA VISUAL DISPLAY: Changes between no PVD, a PVD built
to the original design spec (barber poles slant inward), and a
PVD that is more commonly seen on aircraft currently using it
(barber poles point in the same direction).
PAGE 19/22 – PANEL OPTIONS
 AFDS MCP STYLE: Switches between the new (LCD) and old
(analog) style MCP.
 RADIO TUNING PANELS: Switches between the original Boeing
radio tuning panel and the Gables unit.
 PUSH-TO-TALK ON GS: Determines whether a PTT switch is
installed on the glareshield.
 INTERCOM HANDSET: Determines whether the handset at the
back of the pedestal is installed.
 EVAC PANEL INSTALLED: Determines whether the EVAC panel
is installed at the back of the pedestal.
PAGE 20/22 – PANEL OPTIONS
 AUTOBRAKES SWITCH: Changes the location of the
autobrakes switch.
 MINIMUMS & BARO KNOBS: This option selects between
realistic spring loaded switches (SLOW/FAST setting) that need
to be held and constant rotation rotaries for the MINS and BARO
knobs on the EFIS control panel. The SLOW/FAST option is
accurate to the real aircraft but may not be as conducive to the
simulator environment as the rotary option.

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PAGE 21/22 - WARNING SYS
 RESETTABLE SIREN: Allows the Master WARNING/CAUTION
siren to be reset by pushing the Master WARNING/CAUTION
reset switch.
 AP DISC WARNING: Here you are able to select between the
WAILER or SIREN Autopilot Disconnect sounds.
 AP DISC SCHEME: Provides options for the behavior of the yoke
AP disconnect button. “1 PRESS” will disconnect the AP with no
warning sound, “2 PRESSES” will disconnect the AP with the first
press and immediately silence the resulting warning sound with
the second press. If the two presses are fast enough, no sound
will play. “2 PRESSES UNSILENCED” always plays a cycle of
the warning sound and will not silence until the playback is over
regardless of how fast the two presses are.
 ALT ALERT SETTING: This option sets the altitudes at which the
airplane will trigger the altitude approach alert and the amount of
deviation from the MCP altitude necessary to trigger the alert
sound and visuals.
 ALTITUDE APPROACH AURAL: This option allows you to turn
the aural altitude approach “C chord” sound ON or OFF.

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PAGE 22/22 - WARNING SYS 2
 MASTER CAUTION SOUND: Here you are able to select
between two versions of master caution sounds.
 CREW ALERTNESS MONITOR: Use this option to turn the
monitor ON or OFF. The aircraft continuously monitors switch
action on the MCP, EFIS control panel, display select panel,
CDUs, and radio transmitter microphone switches. When a
predefined time elapses after the last switch action was detected,
the EICAS alert message PILOT RESPONSE is displayed. The
message is inhibited below 20,000 feet, during climb, and when
flaps are not up.
 RAAS INSTALLED: Enables the Runway Awareness and
Advisory System, which plays aural callouts for a variety of
situations on the ground or approaching an airport in the terminal
area (runway name callouts, warnings if trying to takeoff on the
incorrect runway or a taxiway, etc.)

The RAAS system was developed by FS2Crew and is locked to

the PMDG 747 airplanes. If you would like to use the system on
all of your other P3D aircraft, purchase the full version here:

[Link]

 TERR: WATER IN CYAN: This setting allows you to choose

whether sea-level bodies of water will appear in cyan on the ND’s
EGPWS terrain display.
 TERR: PEAKS MODE: Peaks mode is a refinement on the
original terrain awareness system. The original system only
displayed terrain in proximity to the aircraft (from green 2000 feet
below, to red 2000 feet or more above). Peaks mode displays
terrain at all times within the filter altitudes displayed on the left
side of the ND.

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DISPLAYS Option Pages:

When purchasing an airplane from Boeing, the airline customer will

choose from a package of options describing what data is shown to the
pilots on the cockpit displays.

These options are available on the DISPLAYS pages so that you can
experiment with the mix of data options that are interesting to you as a
pilot.

There are numerous pages of options available that will allow you to
customize the displays in the cockpit of your 747. You can use the PREV
PAGE and NEXT PAGE buttons on the CDU to move forward and back
through the pages.

We have included images where helpful, but you should feel free to turn
items on and off while in the simulator- you won’t hurt anything by cycling
back and forth to see what the options look like or how they change your
flying experience!

The following customization options are available from the DISPLAYS

menu:

PAGE 1/7
 DISPLAY UNIT TYPE: Changes between cathode ray tube
(CRT) and liquid crystal display (LCD) units.
 WEIGHT UNITS: This option selects between metric (KG) and
imperial (LBS) weight units throughout the aircraft's systems.
 ECS TEMP UNITS: This option sets the temperatures displayed
on the AIR synoptic to either C or F.

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PAGE 2/7 - PFD
 FLIGHT DIRECTOR TYPE: Select the style of flight director that
will be displayed. The split axis option provides independent pitch
and roll steering cues, while the single cue option provides a
single chevron shape.
 GROUNDSPEED DISPLAY: Displays your current ground speed
on the PFD as shown here:

 RISING RUNWAY: Turn the rising runway symbol on/off for

display on instrument approaches.
 SHOW V2: Displays the V2 speed on the PFD that has been
selected in the FMS for takeoff.
 SHOW LANDING FLAPS: Displays the landing flaps setting on
the PFD that has been selected in the FMS for the approach and
landing.
PAGE 3/7 - PFD
 RADIO ALT ABOVE ADI: Displays the radio altitude above the
ADI.
 ROUND RADIO ALT DIAL: Allows the radio altitude to be shown
in round dial format.
 LANDING ALT BAR: Displays the landing altitude bar on the PFD
altitude display.
 V/S INDICATOR TCAS: Displays the required ranges for vertical
speed on the V/S indicator to resolve a TCAS conflict.
 PITCH LIM IND POP UP: This option determines whether a pitch
limit indication will appear on the PFD when pitch is approaching
the pitch limit.

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PAGE 4/7 - ND
 TRACK UP: This option selects between a track-up navigation
display or a heading-up navigation display.
 RANGE ARCS: Display range arcs on the navigation display
when appropriate for the selected display mode.
 TCAS 3NM RANGE RING: Display 3nm range ring with TCAS.
 TAS INDICATION: Displays the true airspeed on the ND.
 IRU TIME TO ALIGN: Displays the remaining time to align the
IRUs on the ND.
PAGE 5/7 - ND
 MIN RUNWAY LENGTH: Airports with runways below this length
will not be shown on the ND.
 SHOW NEXT ALT CONSTR: Displays the next altitude crossing
constraint next to the waypoint on the ND without the DATA
switch on.
 OTHER TRAFFIC (TCAS): This toggle allows you to choose
whether TCAS only shows you proximate traffic (realistic) or
shows you all traffic in your vicinity. (Not realistic but convenient
for online flying!)
 RANGE: Allows you to manually change the display range for
TCAS traffic. (Useful for online fly-ins if you need to limit the
number of aircraft displayed on the screen.) We recommend
leaving this set to 40nm.
 ALT SEPARATION: Allows you to manually de-clutter traffic that
is above/below you. (Useful for online fly-ins if you need to limit
the number of aircraft displayed on the screen.) We recommend
leaving this set to 2800FT.
PAGE 6/7 - EICAS
 SHOW GW ON EICAS: Displays the gross weight on the EICAS
above the total fuel indication.
 DOOR ARMING INDICATION: This option determines whether
or not the arming status of each entry door is shown on the lower
EICAS DOORS synoptic.
 LIST DISABLD HYD SYSTEMS: This option determines whether
or not the affected hydraulic systems will be listed on the lower
EICAS HYD synoptic.
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 ECS PAGE SHOWS BULK CGO: This option determines
whether or not the bulk cargo zone will be shown on the lower
EICAS ECS synoptic.
 GEAR PAGE TIRE PRESSURE: This option determines whether
or not the tire pressure will be shown on the lower EICAS GEAR
synoptic.
PAGE 7/7 – EICAS
 APU OIL QTY DISPLAY: Determines whether the oil quantity is
displayed only when the APU selector switch is in the ON
position, or always.
 FLT CTL DISPLAYED ON: Determines whether the flight control
indications are displayed on the ENG or the STAT page.

FAILURES Customization Pages:

The failures and maintenance logic is covered in great depth in the
FAILURES AND MAINTENANCE section.

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OPTIONS MENUS

The configuration options located under the OPTION menu provide you
with the opportunity to modify your simulation experience to suit your
tastes. These include performance tweaks, assigning key-driven
commands to cockpit functions, adjusting the way the sound environment
is simulated and many more. The OPTIONS menu is broken into sub-
menus to categorize options for ease of organization.

 <SIMULATION: This menu will allow you to change a number of

features in the simulation such as maintenance failures, user
interface items and other global features that apply across all
aircraft tail numbers to customize the simulation to your tastes.
 <PERFORMANCE: The options contained in this menu will allow
you to tweak slightly certain items that may be of benefit to users
suffering from poor performance on older machines. Going
through these items will help you to avoid using unnecessarily
performance hungry options if you are concerned about
performance on your computer.
 <KEY COMMANDS: This menu will allow you to assign various
key commands to knobs, buttons switches or controls on the
flight deck. You can use these key commands to interface actions
with your flight simulation hardware, or just to simplify actions
while flying the airplane.
 <COLORS: This menu will allow you to customize PFD, MFD,
instrumentation and cockpit lighting colors in the simulation.
 <SOUND: This menu will allow you to customize some areas of
the sound environment in the simulation.

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SIMULATION Configuration Menu:

PAGE 1/10
 CORRECT LOC CRS TO P3D: When it comes to navigation
data, P3D has an inherent weakness in that data related to
ILS/LOC stations is hard coded into the simulator and is not
updated to keep it current with the normal magnetic shift. The
end result is that the localizer final approach course in the P3D
world will sometimes vary from the real world. Since many users
are also using real-world navigation charts, this can create some
confusion and can also create problems if the LOC course is not
correctly set to match the P3D hard-coded information. (The
airplane cannot fly the localizer properly if the CRS on the CDU
NAV RAD page is set incorrectly) To compensate for this, we
recommend setting this option to ON, and we will read the
appropriate P3D localizer course and adjust the setting for you,
thus saving you time and frustration.
 REALISTIC AP ENGAGEMENT: This option can be used to
simplify the autopilot engagement process if desired. When set to
“Realistic Engagement” the autopilot will require that the airplane
is in a balanced trim condition prior to accepting a pilot command
to activate. Thus, if you are holding control input in place to
maintain the desired flight path, you would need to re-trim the
airplane until control force is no longer required to maintain the
desired flight path. Selecting “OFF” will simplify the engagement
logic for those who are just learning how to fly the simulator, thus
reducing your workload. If you notice the autopilot failing to take
control of the airplane when you press the AP button, refer back
to this paragraph as a refresher!

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If you set the autopilot engagement limitations to REALISTIC,
then you must be within a small margin of “in trim” (no control
forces required to keep airplane on desired path), you cannot be
actively trimming, and the flight director should be nearly
centered. If you violate any of these conditions, the autopilot will
not engage.
 SHOW THRUST LEVER POS: When the airplane is being flown
using auto-throttles, the throttle position quickly gets out-of-sync
with the position of your joystick throttle. This can create an
uncomfortable change in thrust when you disconnect the auto-
throttle on approach or immediately prior to landing. In order to
eliminate the need for you to quickly adjust your throttles to avoid
a thrust change we have devised a system that will allow you to
easily sync your throttle position to the auto-throttle position:
By selecting Show Thrust Lever Position to ON, you will notice
that moving your throttles while the auto-throttles are engaged
will cause a small cyan marker to appear on the EPR/N1 thrust
tapes on the upper EICAS. The cyan mark is showing you the
current physical position of your joystick throttle. Simply put the
cyan mark to the same location as the white throttle tick mark
displayed on the same tape, and you will have your throttles
properly synchronized with the current auto-throttle setting.
 A/T MANUAL OVERRIDE: This option allows you to decide how
you want the autothrottle to react to changes in your joystick
throttle position. In the airplane, moving the throttles will
momentarily change the thrust of the engines, but they will return
to the previous position when released, unless the autothrottle is
in HOLD mode. You can realistically simulate this by selecting
the <IN HOLD MODE ONLY option.

If you wish to simplify the process a bit while learning to fly the
airplane, you can select <NEVER (in which case any movement
of your joystick throttle will be ignored by the auto-throttle) or you
can select <ALWAYS (in which case the auto-throttle will always
allow you to override the desired thrust by simply moving your
joystick throttle.

We recommend setting this to <IN HOLD MODE ONLY.

NOTE: If the autothrottle is in HOLD mode and you move your

joystick throttles, the engine will change power. If you have
trouble with this, then simply set this option to NEVER.
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 A/T FLARE IDLE OVERRIDE: This option allows the physical
throttle to override the autothrotle’s retard to idle during the flare
sequence. This may be useful to some users who feel their thrust
reversers are not engaging fast enough. In the real airplane pilots
often manually pull the thrust levers to idle manually quickly
during the flare in order to get the reversers activated right as the
main landing gear touch down.
 IRS OPTIONS>: The IRS Options sub menu at LSK 6R provides
you with options to customize the way the Inertial Reference
System operates within the simulator. You can choose the length
of time it should take for the IRS to align and whether or not the
IRS will retain the last known memory position of the airplane at
the time it was powered down.
PAGE 2/10
 HI IDLE ON FLARE: Determines whether the thrust is maintained
at high idle through the flare. While setting the option on may
more faithfully simulate approach idle, due to P3D limitations, it
may also delay thrust reverser deployment after touchdown.
 CTL INPUT WITH AP ON: This option allows the sim to ignore
any hardware connected to the simulator when the AP is on. This
is particularly useful if your hardware is prone to send spikes that
occasionally disconnect the AP.
 CTL COLUMN NULL ZONE: This option sets the percentage of
your controller’s total movement in the pitch axis required before
the pitch mode changes to manual control from the hands-off
speed stability or path hold modes.
 CTL WHEEL NULL ZONE: This option sets the percentage of
your controller’s total movement in the roll axis required before
the roll rate demand mode engages.
 AP/AT TURB MODE TRIGGER: P3D’s turbulence modeling is
unrealistic and results in constant severe G loads on the aircraft
that can interact negatively with realistic autopilots. This option
sets the threshold for engagement of special turbulence stability
modes of the autopilot and autothrottle. The threshold is set in
knots of average deviation of the tail wind component (a measure
of wind fluctuation). The allowable range is 0.5 to 5.0 knots and
the default value is 1.0 knot.

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PAGE 3/10
 SERVICE BASED FAILURES: When using service based
failures, you will experience a highly realistic statistical model for
mechanical failures that uses the airplane’s age and operating
experience in order to predict equipment failures in a fashion
similar to the real world operating experience of 747 operators.
This model was created using real world data defining the Mean
Time Before Failure for nearly every operational part of the
airplane. This being the case, equipment will wear out, and
mechanical failures will happen, requiring you to use the Quick
Reference Handbook to manage mechanical failures, and the
Aircraft Maintenance menus in the FMS to service the airplane as
you use it.
 USE LAST FLIGHT ENG OIL: This option stores the remaining
engine oil at the end of a flight so that it will be the level at the
beginning of the next flight (in the particular tail number, unless
using a fixed config).
 DISPLAY UNITS POWERUP: Realistic mode takes several
minutes for the cockpit to “boot” from cold and dark. Fast mode
significantly decreases the wait time.
 TAB KEY FOR CDU INPUT: This feature uses our Keyboard
Direct Entry methodology for simplicity. To activate the function,
simply hold down the TAB key and type on your keyboard as you
normally would (as if you were holding shift to type capital
letters). Releasing the TAB key will return keyboard functionality
to normal.
PAGE 4/10
 SYNC CAPT AND F/O BARO: Normally both pilots are
responsible for setting their own altimeter’s barometer setting. For
simplicity, we have allowed you the option to have all the
altimeters in the cockpit set to match, without regard to which
altimeter you set. This will prevent you from having to move
around the cockpit in order to sync the altimeters. Note that we
recommend turning this feature off if using a multi-crew cockpit.
 SYNC CAPT AND STANDBY BARO: Same as the above option,
only it relates to setting the standby/ISFD altimeter’s barometer
setting.
 PNF CALLOUTS (3 options): Selects voice callouts by the pilot
not flying (PNF) for airspeed, 80 knots, and V1.

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PAGE 5/10
 PNF CALLOUTS (3 options): Selects voice callouts by the pilot
not flying (PNF) for VR, V2, and positive rate.
 GROUND COMMS: Selects between voice, text, both voice and
text, or no comms for the pushback sequence.
PAGE 6/10
 AUTO STEP CLIMBS: Automatically increase the MCP altitude
at step climb points and climb to the new altitude. Useful if you
are flying long haul while not at your computer.
 PAUSE AT TOP OF DESCENT: Some users appreciate having
the simulation pause when the aircraft reaches the VNAV Top of
Descent for the programmed route of flight. This allows the user
to step away from the simulation without having to worry that the
airplane will overfly the T/D point. You can select the function
on/off here as desired
 REACHING TANK/ENG: This option allows the user to select
between the pilot handling the TANK/ENG actions, pausing the
simulator when TANK/ENG actions are required, or the sim
handling the TANK/ENG actions.
 AUTO TIME COMPRESSION: Selects the maximum time
compression rate for the PMDG automatic time compression
feature (this can also be set on the AUTO CRUISE page).
 CHR BUTTON RIGHT CLICK: Selects whether right clicking the
clock’s CHR button turns on PMDG automatic time compression
or standard P3D time compression.
PAGE 7/10
 PILOTS IN EXT VIEW: You can remove the pilots from the
cockpit (such as when parked at the terminal) by selecting HIDE,
and place them back in the cockpit by selecting SHOW.
 SPLASHES IN DAYLIGHT: Allows the external model light
splashes to function in the daytime. Note that this may cause
visual artifacts due to the specifics of the lighting technique used.
 FLOODS IN DAYLIGHT: Allows the cockpit flood lights to
function in the daytime. Note that this may cause visual artifacts
due to the specifics of the lighting technique used.
 FLOOD LTS DEFAULT LVL: Sets the default value in percent of
the cockpit flood lights.
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 PANEL LTS DEFAULT LVL: Sets the default value in percent of
the cockpit panel backlighting.
PAGE 8/10
 ACP CONTROLLING P3D: In the real aircraft, each Audio
Control Panel (ACP) is configured for transmission and reception
only for the person using it. If the captain configures the left ACP
to transmit/receive on COM1 and the F/O configures the right
ACP for COM2, then the captain will not be able to transmit to
COM2 or be able to monitor the COM2 frequency, unless the
VHF2 receive switch on the left ACP is pressed.

In P3D there is only one person interacting with the radios.

Normally this is assumed to be the captain, meaning the ability to
transmit/receive only on radios that are properly configured on
the left ACP.

The ACPs should not be confused with the Radio Tuning Panels
(RTPs), which are not side specific.

Three alternatives are provided for this option:

- CAPT ONLY (Default – Left ACP controls radios, as above)
- F/O ONLY (Right ACP controls radios)
- EITHER CAPT OR F/O (Either ACP can be used)

In the first two cases, only the selected ACP will be functional.
The other two will not interfere with P3D radios at all.

Example 1:
If the left ACP is selected, to transmit on VHF2 you have to press
the VHF2 MIC switch on the left ACP. If you want to monitor
COM1 at the same time you have to also press the VHF1 receive
switch on the left ACP. The position of the MIC and receive
switches on the right and OBS ACPs will be irrelevant.

Example 2:
If the VHF1 receive switch is pressed on left ACP and the VHF1
MIC switch is pressed on the right ACP you will be able to
transmit on COM2 and receive on both COM1 and COM2.

Example 3:
If the VHF2 MIC switch is pressed on the left ACP and the VHF1
MIC switch is pressed on the right ACP, you will be transmitting
and receiving on COM1. Obviously you can't transmit on both
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radios, so COM1 is selected (COM1 will be preferred over COM2
in these cases)
 P3D COMMS DISABLED: In case COM1 or COM2 cannot be
used, either because of a failure or because the controlling ACP
is not properly configured for transmission/reception on this radio,
the radio can be disabled in P3D. In these cases the P3D radio is
masked by tuning it to a fake frequency of 136.975. The RTPs
will still display the selected frequency, but internally the disabled
radio will be tuned to 136.975.

This feature has caused some problems with 3rd party add-ons
and radio hardware that use the P3D frequencies directly. This
combined with some FSUIPC "features" can create a mess
sometimes. So we are providing the following alternatives for this
option:

- WHEN FAILED/MISCONFIG – DEFAULT

- NEVER

WHEN FAILED/MISCONFIG will work as described above.

NEVER will disable this feature and will never tune P3D to the
fake frequency of 136.975.

If you are experiencing any problems with hardware radio panels,

FSUIPC, SquawkBox, FSInn, etc. set this option to NEVER
 YOKES: This option controls the behavior of the yokes when they
are hidden (lowered). Note that this is not a real option on the
actual 747, the yokes only have one position (normal) in real life.
 SIM PLN FILE FOR WX: Automatically exports the active FMC
route into a P3D format [Link] file saved in My
Documents\Prepar3D v3 Files for loading into external weather
programs. This file is created and subsequently updated each
time the user selects a CDU page that contains a weather data
related REQUEST prompt (RTE DATA, DES FORECAST, ALTN
pages).
PAGE 9/10
 SHAKING OPTIONS (List of five): Enables or disables shaking in
the VC to simulate rough surfaces, aerodynamic effects, and
turbulence.

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PAGE 10/10
 GROUND SERVICE OBJECTS: Shows or hides the built in
ground service objects. If SHOW SELECTED is chosen, the next
option allows various ground service objects to be selected.
 GROUND SERVICE OBJECTS (dependent on above option):
Allows specific ground service objects to be selected.
 GROUND CONNECTIONS: Determines whether the ground
service objects will be animated on arrival, or instantly appear.

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IRS Options Sub-Menu:

Under the SIMULATION menu (page 1) there is an IRS OPTIONS sub-

menu at LSK 6R that contains a group of options related to the Inertial
Reference Systems on the airplane.

 ALIGNMENT TIME: Normally, the IRS takes approximately ten

minutes to align, a period of time during which the airplane
cannot be moved. Sometimes this is not convenient in a
simulation so we have offered some alternatives to allow you to
align the IRS more quickly:
o REALISTIC: This option will force the minimum ten
minute alignment while the IRS senses planetary rotation
in order to bring itself to full alignment.
o FAST (30 SEC): This option will align the IRS in 30
seconds, thus requiring that you be aware of the
alignment requirement without making you wait ten
minutes.
o INSTANT: Just as it says.
 USE LAST MEMORY POSITION: A modern IRS/FMS is capable
of remembering where it was when it was powered off. You can
simulate this by setting this feature to YES.

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PERFORMANCE Options:

With the performance tuning menu, you can adjust the update rates of the
cockpit displays in order to optimize their influence on your simulation
experience. You can also turn off the first officer’s displays in the VC.

In general, we recommend that users adjust their scenery, traffic and

simulator settings in order to improve performance of the simulator. As a
last resort, you can adjust the rate of frame updates in on the displays
within the PMDG 747-400. The performance tuning methodology
operates under the premise that fewer updates to the displays in the
cockpit will mean greater performance in the simulator itself. Your results
will vary depending upon your hardware and your simulator settings, and
we generally recommend leaving this performance as it is set in the
default.

For those who are not interested in having all of the displays powered at
all times, you can gain back some performance by disabling the first
officer’s displays in the VC. You do this via the toggle in the
PERFORMANCE TUNING menu.

NOTE: We recommend that users follow the optimization guidance

provided at the beginning of this document. This will give you the best
performance for your machine!

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PAGE 1/2
 FPS LIMIT: Here you can adjust the frame rate (FPS) limit of the
PFD, the ND, EICAS and lower EICAS by entering the desired
FPS limit. Enter the desired limit into the scratchpad and press
the LSK of the value you want to change. When the entries are
blanked with two dashes, the display is unlocked and will display
the highest FPS it can.
 DISABLE DISPLAYS: This setting allows you to disable the First
Officer’s display or the Captain’s display. To show both displays,
set this value to NONE.
PAGE 2/2
 TERRAIN IMAGE DETAIL: This setting controls the ND range at
which the terrain display begins averaging individual terrain
samples together so as to not affect performance. If you
experience a performance hit with the terrain display on, try
setting this option to medium or low.
 TERRAIN IMAGE SIZE: This setting controls the resolution of the
internal bitmap terrain cells are drawn to before being displayed
on the ND. Higher settings look better at the possible expense of
performance.
 TERRAIN DITHER COLORS: This setting determines whether or
not the terrain map is dithered, which results in a realistic “dot”
type look to the display. If turned off, the display will be drawn
with solid colors. This setting is mainly visual and you can set it to
your preference.
 TERR SWEEP: This setting turns the raster sweep effect on or
off. In the real aircraft, the terrain mode draws to the ND using the
same internal hardware that the weather radar does. This is
simulated and you will see a sweep effect across the ND
simulating the raster hardware’s buffered display method.

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KEY COMMANDS Options:

In order to offer the widest variety of functionality to the broadest sector of

users, we have made many functions in the cockpit “assignable” to a key
command, thus giving you the ability to control various functions using
key commands directly or via your flight sim hardware as desired.

You can assign key commands to functions within the cockpit by locating
the desired switch from the list of functions presented in the KEY
COMMANDS menu. (The available assignments are broken into
categories under the KEY COMMANDS menu.)

When you select a component, you will be presented with instructions

that will allow you to assign a custom key command to the desired
function. The currently assigned key command will be displayed in green
in the key command menu.

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COLOR Options:

We have included the color option feature in order to offer you the ability
to customize PFD, EICAS, instrumentation and cockpit lighting colors in
the simulation.

In order to adjust a specific item’s color value, click on the LSK next to it.

In the above image you will see that there are two different methods to
change the color of the PFD SKY:

Method 1:
Enter the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color values in LSK 1 [Red], LSK 2
[Green] and LSK 3 [Blue] by entering the values into the scratch pad and
then pressing the corresponding LSK.

Method 2:
Enter the HEX (hexadecimal) color code into the scratch pad and then
press LSK 4.

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SOUND Options:
During production of the PMDG 747-400 we recorded hundreds of
sounds in order to provide the greatest degree of sound immersion
possible. As part of the process, we have spent a significant amount of
time balancing the sound levels, mixing them based upon volume and
location in the cockpit.

To get the highest degree of sound fidelity, we recommend that you go

into your P3D sound settings and verify that they are set as shown here:

Next, in the SOUND menu, you will find the following settings and options
available to you:

 MASTER VOLUME: This setting controls the overall level of all

custom sounds generated by the 747’s sound processor, as
opposed to the P3D sound engine settings above. We have
balanced the cockpit sounds for the 747 at a default setting of 50.
 <VOLUME LEVELS ADJUST sub-menu: You will be presented
with a series of options that allow you to set the sound volume
levels for various sound components individually. This allows you
to achieve a balance that works best for you based upon your
own sound hardware.

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It is worth noting that the default setup we have provided to you
should provide the best overall realism to replicate the sound
environment of the 747 type airplane.
 IN EXT VIEW: This setting controls whether the custom cockpit
sounds will play while an external view is selected in P3D.
 IN BKGND: This setting controls whether the custom sounds
generated by the PMDG sound processor will continue playing
while the P3D window is in the background (aka not “in focus”).
This is useful for users of addons that force the main P3D sound
engine to continue playing while in the background.
 <DEVICE sub-menu: If you have multiple sound playback devices
attached to your computer, you can choose between them using
this sub-menu.
 PRE-LOAD SOUNDS: This option allows you to choose which
PMDG custom sounds are pre-loaded (cached) into memory at
various times. This can be used to prevent stuttering or reduce the
airplane’s VAS footprint.

The options are as follows:

o NONE: This is the default mode. It does not preload at all
and releases sounds 60 seconds after they’re played and
reduces VAS issues and out of memory errors. More
stutters from sound file loading may result on certain PC
configurations however. If you experience stutters and
are not having VAS/OOM issues, try SELECTIVE or ALL.
o SELECTIVE: This mode will pre-cache only the sounds
most likely to be needed for each phase of flight.
o ALL: This mode pre-loads all sounds upon load of the
panel or switching of the option on. This option will result
in the smoothest experience for users getting frequent
sound related stutters. Please be aware, however, that
this option can cause a very significant increase in VAS
usage. If you are close to the VAS limit and an out of
memory crash during your flights, this setting will
exacerbate the situation! (see page 26 for more
information on VAS and out of memory errors)

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FAILURES AND MAINTENANCE

Due to the depth of information required to adequately describe the
failures and maintenance system, we are giving this topic its own space in
the manual.

For users who do not wish to interact with the potential for mechanical
failure in their simming experience, you can simply skip over this section.
The mechanical reliability of your PMDG 747-400 is set to “perfect” by
default.

If you wish to experience the potential for mechanical failures, there are
currently three ways in which you can challenge yourself:

1. RANDOM: When you activate random failures, you will have the
opportunity to set the rate of random failures while also setting
limits on the total number of events that may be triggered. This
method will allow you to challenge yourself and your airplane
knowledge while also setting limits on the number of times that a
failure will be triggered during the scope period.
2. SERVICE BASED FAILURES: When you activate service based
failures, you will experience mechanical reliability that closely
approximates the mechanical reliability of the airplane in normal
service operation. Each mechanical system aboard the airplane
has been programmed to operate using a “Mean Time Before
Failure” (MTBF) model to determine if/when a component may
fail. The MTBF data is compiled from industry experience with the
747 airplane type, and augmented to make the data compliant
with the expected utilization rate of this simulation product.
3. Programmed Failures: We have provided you with the ability to
set programmed failures for individual sub-systems. You can
immediately trigger a specific system failure by choosing it from a
list, or you can tell the system to randomly select a failure from
within that system.

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INTRODUCTION
Failures: Top Menu:
Entering the failures menu from the SETUP menu will display the following
menu:

From the FAILURES top menu, you can select from individual systems
(use the PREV PAGE and NEXT PAGE to scroll up and down) or you can
go into the ALL SYSTEMS to set random or service based failures, or you
can select an individual system from within which you can set specific
failures.

All Systems: Top Menu:

This menu allows you access to establish the RANDOM and SERVICE
BASED FAILURES modes. This page will also allow you to enter the
maintenance performance section.

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INTRODUCTION
Random Failures Sub-Menu:

The random failures menu allows you to set up a process for random
failures to be triggered at a specific rate, with a limit to the total number of
events that may be triggered.

To turn the random failures mode on, simply set the RANDOM
FAILURES selector to YES. This will turn the random failure settings to
white to indicate that they are now active for manipulation.

Use of the random failure feature is pretty straight forward. First, choose
the approximate number of failure events you would like to see triggered
during an average 10 hour period of simulation. The rate at which failures
will occur will roughly approximate the theoretical [EVENTS PER HOUR /
10 HOURS].

Note that the actual rate may vary slightly so it is possible that you might
see failures triggered in rapid succession, and you may see more than
the desired number of failures in a specific ten hour period, but the
average rate of failures will closely approximate your settings.

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INTRODUCTION
If you wish to limit the number of events that are triggered you can set this
number by turning LIMITED EVENTS to YES and the setting the hard-
limit in the EVENT LIMIT line.

You can use this limit if you want to trigger a rapid series of events, but
also want to limit the total number failures.

Service Based Failures Sub-Menu:

Service Based failures will provide you with a highly realistic simulation of
failures on and operational airplane. As you fly the simulator, the total
flight time and system operation of the airplane is tracked. The
combination of factors will be compared against known data predicting
the Mean Time Before Failure for every component on the airplane.

As failures take place, you will need to use the Quick Reference
Handbook to resolve the failures and your judgment as captain to
determine whether it is feasible to continue on to your destination, or
whether a diversion for maintenance is required.

When operating under the serviced based failures process, you may fly
for many hours without seeing any mechanical unreliability in your
airplane. Conversely you experience a streak of mechanical failures from
the mundane to the critical.

When operating with the Service Based Failures module active, it will be
necessary to occasionally have your airplane “serviced” by your line
maintenance crews.

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INTRODUCTION
Maintenance Sub-Menu:

The following functions are available to you in the maintenance page:

 <CLR ACTIVE: When failures are triggered, you can use the CLR
ACTIVE button to reset any failures that have already been
triggered.
 <CLR ALL: This will clear failures that have already triggered as
well as failures that are armed to be triggered at a later time.
 <NEXT SERVICE IN: This indicates to you the approximate
amount of time until the next service period for the airplane is
due.
 <SERVICE ALL: This setting allows you to simulate the effect of
maintenance personnel servicing the airplane in accordance with
the normal maintenance schedule. It is worth noting that flight
crews normally have very little interaction with the routine
servicing of an airliner. The servicing process is generally
managed by the airline maintenance department and is largely
transparent to the crew. In this case however, you are
responsible for complying with the service requirements for the
airplane to ensure that the airplane remains in proper mechanical
condition.

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INTRODUCTION
System Failure / Maintenance Menu:

If you wish to work with mechanical failures located within an individual

system, you can do so quite easily by selecting the system from the list
displayed under <FAILURES.

In the example graphic shown above, we are shown the ELECTRICAL

page of the failures menu. There are four items displayed here from
which you can choose:

 <PROGRAMMED: This menu will display all of the potential

mechanical failures that the system is capable of simulating. You
can then individually activate, arm, disarm or deactivate the
failures listed.
 <RANDOM: This menu will allow you to activate/deactivate
random failures within this system, just as you would with the
global random failures method described above.
 <SERVICE BASED FAILURES: Allows you to interact with the
service based failures just as you would in the top menu
described above. (Will be grayed out if service based failures are
not selected active in the top menu.)
 <MAINTENANCE: Allows you to interact with the maintenance
functionality for the selected system.

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INTRODUCTION
Failures Master List:
The following failures are possible:

Air Conditioning: (44)

 Pack Temp Control A
 Pack Temp Control B
 Zone Temp Control
 Pack 1 FCV Valve
 Pack 2 FCV Valve
 Pack 3 FCV Valve
 Pack 1 Overheat
 Pack 2 Overheat
 Pack 3 Overheat
 Pack 1 Internal Fault
 Pack 2 Internal Fault
 Pack 3 Internal Fault
 Master Trim Valve
 Trim Air Valve L
 Trim Air Valve R
 Trim Air Isolation Valve
 Lower Lobe Forward Trim
 Lower Lobe Aft Trim
 Recirc Fan Upper Left
 Recirc Fan Upper Right
 Recirc Fan Lower Left
 Recirc Fan Lower Right
 Flight Deck Fan
 Forward Cargo Heater L
 Forward Cargo Heater R
 EQ CLG Exhaust Fan
 EQ CLG Supply Fan
 Cargo Heat Override Valve
 Aft Cargo Heat Valve
 Bulk Cargo Heat Valve
 EQ CLG Inboard Supply Valve
 EQ CLG Inboard Exhaust Valve
 EQ CLG Bypass Valve
 EQ CLG Ground Exhaust Valve
 EQ CLG Smoke Override Valve
 EQ CLG E6/E9 Valve
 EQ CLG Card
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INTRODUCTION
 Cabin Press Control A
 Cabin Press Control B
 L Cabin Press ICU
 R Cabin Press ICU
 L Outflow Valve Fail
 R Outflow Valve Fail
 Rapid Decompression
APU: (7)
 Starter Motor Failed
 Overheat
 Overspeed
 APU Oil Leak
 Shutdown Failure
 Air Inlet Door Failed
 Critical System Error
Automatic Flight: (5)
 Autothrottle INOP
 Left AFDC INOP
 Right AFDC INOP
 Center AFDC INOP
 AFS Failed
Communications: (13)
 Audio Control Panel Captain
 Audio Control Panel First Officer
 Audio Control Panel Observer
 Radio Tuning Panel Captain
 Radio Tuning Panel First Officer
 Radio Tuning Panel Observer
 VHF Left Radio Fail
 VHF Right Radio Fail
 VHF Center Radio Fail
 HF Left Radio Fail
 HF Right Radio Fail
 ACARS System Fail
 SATCOM System Fail

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Doors: (17)
 Door 1 Left
 Door 1 Right
 Door 2 Left
 Door 2 Right
 Door 3 Left
 Door 3 Right
 Door 4 Left
 Door 4 Right
 Door 5 Left
 Door 5 Right
 Door Upper Deck Left
 Door Upper Deck Right
 Forward Cargo Door
 Aft Cargo Door
 Bulkhead Cargo Door
 Side Cargo Door (F, BCF, M)
 Nose Cargo Door (F)
Electrical: (52)
 Generator 1 Fail
 Generator 2 Fail
 Generator 3 Fail
 Generator 4 Fail
 Generator 1 Breaker
 Generator 2 Breaker
 Generator 3 Breaker
 Generator 4 Breaker
 Generator 1 Drive Disconnect
 Generator 2 Drive Disconnect
 Generator 3 Drive Disconnect
 Generator 4 Drive Disconnect
 Bus Tie 1
 Bus Tie 2
 Bus Tie 3
 Bus Tie 4
 APU Generator 1
 APU Generator 2
 APU Generator 1 Breaker
 APU Generator 2 Breaker
 Split Sys Breaker

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INTRODUCTION
 Static Inverter
 Static Inverter APU
 TRU 1
 TRU 2
 TRU 3
 TRU 4
 TRU A
 TRU B
 Main Battery Charger
 APU Battery Charger
 Main Battery
 APU Battery
 AC Main Bus 1
 AC Main Bus 2
 AC Main Bus 3
 AC Main Bus 4
 Captain Flight Instrument Transfer Bus
 FO Flight Instrument Transfer Bus
 AC Ground Service Bus
 AC Ground Handling Bus 1
 AC Ground Handling Bus 2
 AC Standby Bus
 DC Bus 1
 DC Bus 2
 DC Bus 3
 DC Bus 4
 DC Ground Handling Bus
 DC Battery Bus Main
 DC Battery Bus APU
 DC Hot Battery Bus Main
 DC Hot Battery Bus APU
Engine: (48)
 EEC Mode 1
 EEC Mode 2
 EEC Mode 3
 EEC Mode 4
 ENG 1 Severe Damage
 ENG 2 Severe Damage
 ENG 3 Severe Damage
 ENG 4 Severe Damage
 ENG 1 Flame-out
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INTRODUCTION
 ENG 2 Flame-out
 ENG 3 Flame-out
 ENG 4 Flame-out
 ENG 1 EGT Exceedance
 ENG 2 EGT Exceedance
 ENG 3 EGT Exceedance
 ENG 4 EGT Exceedance
 ENG 1 Oil Leak
 ENG 2 Oil Leak
 ENG 3 Oil Leak
 ENG 4 Oil Leak
 ENG 1 Oil Pressure
 ENG 2 Oil Pressure
 ENG 3 Oil Pressure
 ENG 4 Oil Pressure
 ENG 1 Oil Temperature
 ENG 2 Oil Temperature
 ENG 3 Oil Temperature
 ENG 4 Oil Temperature
 ENG 1 Vibration
 ENG 2 Vibration
 ENG 3 Vibration
 ENG 4 Vibration
 ENG 1 V1 Cut
 ENG 2 V1 Cut
 ENG 3 V1 Cut
 ENG 4 V1 Cut
 ENG 1 VR Cut
 ENG 2 VR Cut
 ENG 3 VR Cut
 ENG 4 VR Cut
 ENG 1 V2 Cut
 ENG 2 V2 Cut
 ENG 3 V2 Cut
 ENG 4 V2 Cut
 ENG 1 Reverser
 ENG 2 Reverser
 ENG 3 Reverser
 ENG 4 Reverser
Fire: (16)
 APU Fire
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 ENG 1 Overheat
 ENG 2 Overheat
 ENG 3 Overheat
 ENG 4 Overheat
 ENG 1 Fire
 ENG 2 Fire
 ENG 3 Fire
 ENG 4 Fire
 Main Deck Cargo Fire
 FWD Cargo Fire
 AFT Cargo Fire
 Equip Cool Sys Smoke
 Smoke Lavatory
 Smoke Crew Rest
 Smoke Rest UPR DR 5
Fire Protection: (92)
 ENG 1 Fire Loop A Fault
 ENG 2 Fire Loop A Fault
 ENG 3 Fire Loop A Fault
 ENG 4 Fire Loop A Fault
 ENG 1 Fire Loop B Fault
 ENG 2 Fire Loop B Fault
 ENG 3 Fire Loop B Fault
 ENG 4 Fire Loop B Fault
 ENG 1 OVHT Loop A Fault
 ENG 2 OVHT Loop A Fault
 ENG 3 OVHT Loop A Fault
 ENG 4 OVHT Loop A Fault
 ENG 1 OVHT Loop B Fault
 ENG 2 OVHT Loop B Fault
 ENG 3 OVHT Loop B Fault
 ENG 4 OVHT Loop B Fault
 APU Fire Loop A
 APU Fire Loop B
 FWD Lower Cargo Fire Loop A
 AFT Lower Cargo Fire Loop A
 FWD Lower Cargo Fire Loop B
 AFT Lower Cargo Fire Loop B
 Main Deck Fire Loop 1 A (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 2 A (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 3 A (Cargo Models Only)
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INTRODUCTION
 Main Deck Fire Loop 4 A (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 5 A (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 6 A (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 7 A (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 8 A (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 1 B (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 2 B (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 3 B (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 4 B (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 5 B (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 6 B (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 7 B (Cargo Models Only)
 Main Deck Fire Loop 8 B (Cargo Models Only)
 Wheel Well Loop A Fault
 Wheel Well Loop B Fault
 Bleed Duct L Loop A Fault
 Bleed Duct R Loop A Fault
 Bleed Duct C Loop A Fault
 Bleed Duct L Loop B Fault
 Bleed Duct R Loop B Fault
 Bleed Duct C Loop B Fault
 ENG Bottle 1 Left Squib
 ENG Bottle 1 Right Squib
 ENG Bottle 2 Left Squib
 ENG Bottle 2 Right Squib
 ENG Bottle 3 Left Squib
 ENG Bottle 3 Right Squib
 ENG Bottle 4 Left Squib
 ENG Bottle 4 Right Squib
 APU Bottle Squib
 ENG Bottle 1 A Squib
 ENG Bottle 1 B Squib
 ENG Bottle 2 A Squib
 ENG Bottle 2 B Squib
 ENG Bottle 3 A Squib
 ENG Bottle 3 B Squib
 ENG Bottle 4 A Squib
 ENG Bottle 4 B Squib
 Cargo Bottle A Squib FWD
 Cargo Bottle B Squib FWD
 Cargo Bottle C Squib FWD

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INTRODUCTION
 Cargo Bottle D Squib FWD
 Cargo Bottle E Squib FWD (Cargo Models Only)
 Cargo Bottle F Squib FWD (Cargo Models Only)
 Cargo Bottle G Squib FWD (Cargo Models Only)
 Cargo Bottle A Squib AFT
 Cargo Bottle B Squib AFT
 Cargo Bottle C Squib AFT
 Cargo Bottle D Squib AFT
 Cargo Bottle E Squib AFT (Cargo Models Only)
 Cargo Bottle F Squib AFT (Cargo Models Only)
 Bottle 1A Discharge
 Bottle 1B Discharge
 Bottle 2A Discharge
 Bottle 2B Discharge
 APU Fire Bottle Discharge
 Bottle 3A Discharge
 Bottle 3B Discharge
 Bottle 4A Discharge
 Bottle 4B Discharge
 Cargo Bottle A Discharge
 Cargo Bottle B Discharge
 Cargo Bottle C Discharge
 Cargo Bottle D Discharge
 Cargo Bottle E Discharge
 Cargo Bottle F Discharge
 Cargo Bottle G Discharge
Flight Controls: (23)
 Flap/LED Control Fail
 Flap Fail
 LED Fail
 Spoiler ACT 1 or 12 Fail
 Spoiler ACT 2 or 11 Fail
 Spoiler ACT 3 or 10 Fail
 Spoiler ACT 4 or 9 Fail
 Spoiler ACT 5 or 8 Fail
 Spoiler ACT 6 or 7 Fail
 Aileron PCP L Fail
 Aileron PCP R Fail
 Flaperon PCP L Fail
 Flaperon PCP R Fail
 Rudder PCA U1 Fail
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INTRODUCTION
 Rudder PCA U2 Fail
 Rudder PCA U3 Fail
 Rudder PCA L1 Fail
 Rudder PCA L2 Fail
 Aileron Lockout
 ACE L1 Failed 777
 ACE R Failed 777
 ACE C Failed 777
 ACE L2 Failed 777
Flight Instruments: (19)
 DU Left Outboard Fail
 DU Left Inboard Fail
 DU Upper Fail
 DU Lower Fail
 DU Right Inboard Fail
 DU Right Outboard Fail
 EIU Left Fail
 EIU Right Fail
 EIU Center Fail
 DSP Fail
 EFIS Control Panel L Fail
 EFIS Control Panel R Fail
 ISFD Fail
 Standby ADI Fail
 Standby ASI Fail
 Standby Alt Fail
 RMI Fail
 Clock L Fail
 Clock R Fail
FMS/NAV/ADIRU: (23)
 FMC L Fail
 FMC R Fail
 IRS Left Fail
 IRS Center Fail
 IRS Right Fail
 IRS Only ATT Avail
 GPS L Fail
 GPS R Fail
 CDU L Fail
 CDU R Fail
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INTRODUCTION
 CDU C Fail
 IRS L Fail
 IRS R Fail
 IRS C Fail
 VOR L Fail
 VOR R Fail
 DME L Fail
 DME R Fail
 ADF L Fail
 ADF R Fail
 Radio ALT Left Fail
 Radio ALT Center Fail
 Radio ALT Right Fail
Fuel: (46)
 Main 1 FWD Pump
 Main 1 AFT Pump
 Main 2 FWD Pump
 Main 2 AFT Pump
 Main 3 FWD Pump
 Main 3 AFT Pump
 Main 4 FWD Pump
 Main 4 AFT Pump
 Main 2 FWD Override Pump
 Main 2 AFT Override Pump
 Main 3 FWD Override Pump
 Main 3 AFT Override Pump
 CWT Left Pump
 CWT Right Pump
 Stab Left Pump
 Stab Right Pump
 Fuel Leak
 Check Valve Leak
 Refuel Manifold Leak
 Crossfeed 1
 Crossfeed 2
 Crossfeed 3
 Crossfeed 4
 Spar Valve 1
 Spar Valve 2
 Spar Valve 3
 Spar Valve 4
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INTRODUCTION
 Engine Valve 1
 Engine Valve 2
 Engine Valve 3
 Engine Valve 4
 Main XFR Valve L
 Main XFR Valve R
 Res XFR Valves L
 Res XFR Valves R
 Stab XFR Valves
 APU Fuel Valve
 APU DC Fuel Pump
 APU AC 2 Fuel Pump
 APU AC 3 Fuel Pump
 Mech Scav Pump
 Aux Fuel Backup System
 Fuel Jett Card A
 Fuel Jett Card B
 Fuel Management Card A
 Fuel Management Card B
Hydraulics: (43)
 ENG Pump 1 Fail
 ENG Pump 2 Fail
 ENG Pump 3 Fail
 ENG Pump 4 Fail
 DEM Pump 1 Fail
 DEM Pump 2 Fail
 DEM Pump 3 Fail
 DEM Pump 4 Fail
 ENG Pump 1 Leak
 ENG Pump 2 Leak
 ENG Pump 3 Leak
 ENG Pump 4 Leak
 DEM Pump 1 Leak
 DEM Pump 2 Leak
 DEM Pump 3 Leak
 DEM Pump 4 Leak
 Sys 1 Overheat
 Sys 2 Overheat
 Sys 3 Overheat
 Sys 4 Overheat
 HYD Isolation Valve L
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INTRODUCTION
 HYD Isolation Valve R
 Sys 1 Quantity Refill Required
 Sys 2 Quantity Refill Required
 Sys 3 Quantity Refill Required
 Sys 4 Quantity Refill Required
 System 1 Data
 System 2 Data
 System 3 Data
 System 4 Data
 ENG Pump 1 Sensor
 ENG Pump 2 Sensor
 ENG Pump 3 Sensor
 ENG Pump 4 Sensor
 DEM Pump 1 Sensor
 DEM Pump 2 Sensor
 DEM Pump 3 Sensor
 DEM Pump 4 Sensor
 System 1 Press Sensor
 System 2 Press Sensor
 System 3 Press Sensor
 System 4 Press Sensor
 RAT Deployed
Ice Protection: (32)
 Pitot Heat Capt
 Pitot Heat L Aux
 L AOA Vane
 L Ice Detect Fail
 TAT Probe Heat L
 Pitot Heat F/O
 Pitot Heat R Aux
 R AOA Vane
 R Ice Detect Fail
 TAT Probe Heat R
 L WAI Valve
 R WAI Valve
 ENG 1 AI Valve
 ENG 2 AI Valve
 ENG 3 AI Valve
 ENG 4 AI Valve
 ENG 1 AI Leak
 ENG 2 AI Leak
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INTRODUCTION
 ENG 3 AI Leak
 ENG 4 AI Leak
 ENG 1 AI Overpress
 ENG 2 AI Overpress
 ENG 3 AI Overpress
 ENG 4 AI Overpress
 L Side Window Heat
 L Front Window Heat
 R Side Window Heat
 R Front Window Heat
 L Side Window Overheat
 L Front Window Overheat
 R Side Window Overheat
 R Front Window Overheat
Pneumatic: (22)
 ASCTU Channel A
 ASCTU Channel B
 ENG 1 HPSOV Valve
 ENG 2 HPSOV Valve
 ENG 3 HPSOV Valve
 ENG 4 HPSOV Valve
 ENG 1 PRV Valve
 ENG 2 PRV Valve
 ENG 3 PRV Valve
 ENG 4 PRV Valve
 ENG 1 PRSOV Valve
 ENG 2 PRSOV Valve
 ENG 3 PRSOV Valve
 ENG 4 PRSOV Valve
 APU Bleed Valve
 L Isolation Valve
 R Isolation Valve
 Bleed Air Leak
 Bleed 1 Overheat
 Bleed 2 Overheat
 Bleed 3 Overheat
 Bleed 4 Overheat
Warning Systems: (12)
 ALT Alert Sys Fail
 Config Warn Sys Fail
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INTRODUCTION
 GND Prox Sys Fail
 Terrain Fail
 TCAS Fail
 XPNDR 1 Fail
 XPNDR 2 Fail
 RAAS Fail
 WX Radar Sys Fail
 WXR RT L Fail
 WXR RT R Fail
 Windshear SYS Fail
Wheels and Brakes: (10)
 Brake Failure
 Tire Failure
 Nose Tire Balance
 Antiskid ALTN Valve
 Antiskid NORM Valve
 Brake Sys Control Unit
 Brake Torque Limit
 Brake Temp Sys
 Autobrake Control Sys
 Truck Tilt

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NOTE: For any failure, we strongly recommend that you use the Quick
Reference Handbook to practice diagnosing the problem. The QRH
makes it extremely easy. Simply look up the warning light or symptoms
that you see in the QRH index and then follow the checklist provided!
NOTE 2: Some failures, particularly those related to engine overheat
warnings, pneumatic bleed over-pressures and door related warnings can
have multiple meanings. For example, and engine overheat warning may
require that you shut down an engine, or it may simply require a reduction
in thrust. A door warning may simply be a faulty warning, or it may
indicate a door seal failure that requires emergency action. This makes
the simulation exciting, and encourages you to use the Quick Reference
Handbook to follow the trouble shooting procedures to deduce what type
of failure you are dealing with!
NOTE 3: We suggest you read the DETAILS AND QUIRKS OF THE
PMDG 747-400 section. You will learn some interesting things about the
simulation you are about to fly!

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INTRODUCTION

FS ACTIONS MENU SYSTEM

The FS ACTIONS menu gives you access to various sub-systems that
will allow you to adjust aspects of your flight in order to realistically
simulate an operational airplane environment.

From the FS ACTIONS menu you can adjust the FUEL, PAYLOAD,
DOORS, PUSHBACK, GROUND CONNECTIONS, SERVICE
VEHICLES, GROUND OPERATIONS, GROUND MAINTENANCE,
CABIN LIGHTS and AUTO CRUISE functionality.

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INTRODUCTION
Fuel Menu:
The FUEL page allows you to manually set the aircraft’s fuel load. Preset
level functions on the lower left side of the display set the load to LONG,
MEDIUM or SHORT RANGE levels. The fuel quantity may also be set as
a percentage of total quantity or as a total numeric value directly.

In order to set the fuel quantity as a total or percentage, type the relevant
number in the scratchpad, and then line select it to the TOTAL LBS (or
KGS) LEVEL line. The simulator will automatically distribute the fuel
quantity properly between the tanks.

On this menu the current gross weight, takeoff center of gravity location,
zero fuel weight and maximum taxi weight values are displayed for your
convenience.

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INTRODUCTION
Payload:
The PAYLOAD menu allows you to change the aircraft loading as desired
right from within the simulator.

You can update the passenger load on your flight by manually line
selecting in the number of passengers seated in the first, business and
economy class cabins.

You can also manually up-select the cargo weights to the forward and aft
cargo holds.

Conversely you can up-select the percentage load factor you would like to
carry to the LOAD LEVEL line on the right side of the display.

You may also use the SET FULL, SET EMPTY or SET RANDOM settings
to establish your payload.

On this menu the current gross weight, takeoff center of gravity location,
zero fuel weight and maximum taxi weight values are displayed for your
convenience. You can alter the ZFW by line selecting a value over top of
it. The system will distribute the load evenly.

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INTRODUCTION
Doors:
The DOORS menu allows you to open and close all of the doors on the
aircraft from a single access menu.

You can open, close, and arm/disarm all of the doors from this menu.

Additionally on the following pages you can open and close the cargo
doors, the forward access door and the electronics and engineering bay
external access door.

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INTRODUCTION
Pushback:
The PUSHBACK menu allows you to manage the pushback process from
within the simulator.

The pushback functionality allows you to set the parameters to be used

during the pushback from the gate. Using this menu you can set the units
to FEET or METERS, enter the total pushback distance, the direction the
nose will be turned and the number of degrees that will be used in the
turn.

Additionally you can determine whether you will hear voice

communication only during pushback, a combination of voice and text, or
text only via the P3D adventure text process.

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Service Vehicles:
The SERVICE VEHICLES menu allows you to select which ground
service vehicles are available and servicing your aircraft.

NOTE: It is important to note that all ground service vehicles require that
the airplane be chocked in place with the engines off before they will be
made available to you by the ground crews. For this reason, you must
select the CHOCKS SET and turn the engines off before you will be able
to make any selections.

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INTRODUCTION
Ground Connections:
The GROUND CONNECTIONS menu allows you to determine which
ground services are currently available to your aircraft.

From the GROUND CONNECTIONS menu, you can choose whether

ground power is available as well as an engine air-start unit, cabin air
conditioning unit, wheel chocks and/or pitot covers.

NOTE: It is important to note that all ground services require that the
airplane be chocked in place before they will be made available to you by
the ground crews. For this reason, you must select CHOCKS SET before
you will be able to use any other ground services.

If you have other ground services selected and you remove the chocks,
the ground crew will also remove the ground services.

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Ground Operations:

The GROUND OPERATIONS menu allows you to control specific ground

operations such as turnaround times, uplifting of fuel based on flight plan,
refueling time, pushback and time to pushback.

 Turn Type: You can choose between the following turn types:
o Manual: In this mode you control turn times, pushback
and uploading of fuel at your discretion and without
assistance from the ground crew.
o Short: In this mode turn time is 55 minutes, and
pushback can be set to either Manual or Auto.
o Long: In this mode turn time is 01hr 30mins (90 mins),
and pushback can be set to either Manual or Auto.
o Custom: In this mode you can enter your own desired
turn time using the scratch pad. Pushback can bet set to
either Manual or Auto.
 Turn Time: This is the total time it will take for your aircraft to be
serviced, refueled and ready to push back.
 Plan Fuel: Use the scratch pad to enter the total amount of fuel
required as per your flight plan.
 Uplift Fuel: This is the current amount of fuel on board, and will
increase once fuel upload starts, until such time that the Plan
Fuel amount is reached.
 Time Required to Fuel: This is the amount of time left/required for
the uplifting of fuel to be completed.

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INTRODUCTION
 Pushback (Type): Here you can choose between the following
pushback types:
o Manual: In this mode you need to manually initiate the
pushback. This is useful for people who need some extra
time before pushback, or for people who are using a
pushback function that is unrelated to PMDG.

Auto: In this mode, the pushback is going to launch on its

own using the internal PMDG pushback process. Shortly
after the turn time has expired, you will get a call from the
ground crew advising you that pushback is about to
commence.
 (Pushback) Time Remaining: Shows the amount of time left
before Pushback. This feature is only operational in Short, Long
or Custom Turn Type modes.
NOTE: If you are still on ground power as the remaining time to the end of
your ground turn winds down, the ground crew will not disconnect ground
power and leave you sitting in the dark, even though this is what happens
in many cases in the real world – especially if your ground crew doesn’t
like you!

1) If you have the APU Generator available and the auto logic of the
electrical system is able to do so, the ground power will disconnect and
the APU will take over both sides of the airplane.
2) If you do NOT have the APU generator available (for example - if it is
deferred, or your APU itself is INOP) then the clock will stop at 10
seconds prior to expiration of the turn. This will give you time to start the
APU, or conversely, if you have a deferred APU and need to start an
engine on the gate, it will allow you to do so before losing ground power.

This is just one of the many ways that PMDG Ground Services makes
pilots’ lives easier.

NOTE 2: It is important to note that all ground services require that the
airplane be chocked in place before they will be made available to you by
the ground crews. For this reason, you must select CHOCKS SET in the
GROUND CONNECTIONS menu before you will be able to use any other
ground services.

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INTRODUCTION
Ground Maintenance:
The GROUND MAINTENANCE menu allows you to request the
maintenance crew to perform specific maintenance tasks on your aircraft.

You can request the following maintenance to be performed:

- Refill Hydraulic Fluid

- Refill Engine Oil
- Refill Fire Bottles
- Refill Oxygen Bottles
- Service APU SCU Motor
- Cool Brakes
- Replace Brakes
- Replace Tires
NOTE: It is important to note that all ground services require that the
airplane be chocked in place before they will be made available to you by
the ground crews. For this reason, you must select CHOCKS SET in the
GROUND CONNECTIONS menu before you will be able to use any other
ground services.

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INTRODUCTION
Cabin Lights:
The CABIN LIGHTS menu allows you to control the lighting that will
appear in the cabin when viewing the external model.

If set to AUTO, the airplane’s internal logic will determine the brightness
that should be used given the current phase of flight and lighting
conditions.

When set to MANUAL, you can choose the desired brightness level
desired.

NOTE: You may occasionally see some texture artifacts in the cabin
during dusk/dawn and certain cabin lighting settings. This results from
certain driver sets and certain hardware configurations, but we thought
you would like to see this capability in the simulation.

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Auto Cruise:
The AUTO CRUISE menu allows you to set up various cruise related
items in your aircraft.

From the AUTO CRUISE menu, you can choose to enable Auto Step
Climb, Pause At Top Of Descent, and the behavior at the TANK/ENG
condition.

You can also set the Auto Time Compression option to On or Off, and
specify the time compression ratio. You can select between 2X, 4X, 8X
and 16X.

The Sim Rate can be increased without having to access the P3D menu.
To reset the Sim Rate, press the <RESET LSK and the rate will be set
back to 1.

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INTRODUCTION

GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR PMDG 747-400

We have collected a few pointers to help you get started with the PMDG
747-400. Whether you are a veteran PMDG customer or completely new
to flight simulation, these tips will help you get more out of the simulation
purchase you have just made!

Virtual Cockpit position and zoom:

Microsoft created an extremely bizarre implementation of “dynamic head
movement” in the ESP software that P3D is based on that cannot be
turned off (though the negative effects have been mitigated in later
editions of P3D Version 3). This system causes the camera’s X, Y, Z
position in 3D space to shift depending on set of parameters that
shouldn’t play any role in such a feature including the aircraft’s compass
heading and physical latitude and longitude on the simulator’s model of
the Earth. In addition to this, the effect becomes more extreme the further
away the cockpit is from the center of the aircraft’s model. As a result, you
are likely to see VC camera viewpoints that do not exactly match what we
intended.

All of the cockpit view presets were created at EGLL – London Heathrow
sitting on Runway 27R. The logic in using this location is that it sits at a
fairly representative latitude for northern hemisphere flying and that the
due west runway heading is representative of the most common takeoff
and approach direction due to prevailing wind flow patterns across the
hemisphere.

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We recommend using the P3D keystrokes for moving the camera position
to account for the P3D engine changing the view away from this proper
setting – it may be easier to assign these to a hat switch on your joystick
or throttle if you have one available:

Move the view forward: CTRL+BACKSPACE

Move the view back: CTRL+ENTER
Move the view right: CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER
Move the view right: CTRL+SHIFT+BACKSPACE
Move the view up: SHIFT+ENTER
Move the view down: SHIFT+BACKSPACE

A zoom setting of 0.8-1.0 in the main view is most realistic based on our
experience in the real life simulator, depending on your distance from
your monitor. Adjust it to your taste, but do be aware that extremely
zoomed out views where you can see the entire panel and the outside
view at once are highly unrealistic. Real pilots develop a “scan pattern” to
keep tabs on their instruments and what’s going on outside at the same
time. The view should look roughly like this and is similar to what your
field of view actually is when sitting in the real life left seat:

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INTRODUCTION
Using the Landing Lights:
The Boeing 747 has four landing light switches. To simplify the activation
of these lights, a middle/wheel click on any of the four switches will move
all four. This simulates the captain reaching up with the side of his or her
hand or four fingers simultaneously to move them all at once. The runway
turnoff light switches also have similar functionally.

TrackIR:
One of the limitations that the P3D world places on you as a pilot is the
inability to easily lean back and forth, or to move your body around to
more easily facilitate reaching or seeing switches, knobs or displays.

We strongly recommend that you explore the possibility of installing a

TrackIR package as this greatly improves the sense of “being there” by
allowing you to overcome this limitation within P3D:
[Link]

For the most part using your mouse to move your head and zoom in/out
is perfectly acceptable, but occasionally geometry within the cockpit can
impede your ability to enter data into the FMS, for example.

In order to reduce this inconvenience as much as possible, we have

made it possible for you to retract the yoke toward the floor of the airplane
in order to “free up” a clear line-of-sight to the FMS keyboard from the
normal head position.

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INTRODUCTION
Alternate TO/GA Click Spot:
When flying the real airplane, the TO/GA buttons are placed quite
comfortably under the tips of your fingers at the top of the throttle
columns.

Unfortunately, we don’t all have fully operable replicas of the 747 throttles
to use with our P3D setups, so we have added a few features to help you
manage the TO/GA process as if it were right under your fingertips.

First, you can click on the actual TO/GA button if you like, but this is
arguably not very convenient, especially when initiating a go-around at
low altitude.

Next, you can assign a key combination using the key commands menu.
This will give you a simple key command of your choice to use in place of
a TO/GA button.

For those of you who are button-assignment savvy, you can also map this
key combination to a button on your flight simulation hardware and this
will give you the best replica of a real TO/GA button.

As a last resort we have placed a “TO/GA Click Spot” on an uninhabited

corner of the MCP for your ease of use. A left click activates TO/GA, a
middle click disconnects the autothrottle, and a right click disconnects the
autopilot.

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INTRODUCTION
Keyboard Direct Entry to CDU Scratchpad:
To enter characters and numbers into the FMS, you can simply click on
the CDU keys with the mouse to simulate your finger.

Conversely, you can also use the Keyboard Direct Entry to CDU
methodology that we have included for simplicity.

To activate the Keyboard Direct Entry capability, simply hold down the
TAB key, then type on your keyboard as you normally would.

When holding down the TAB key, you will see a green rectangle
illuminate around the CDU scratch pad, indicating that direct entry of text
is now possible.

If you wish to manipulate the line select keys in this method, simply hold
down the TAB key, the press any of the Function keys (F1 to F12) to
simulate the 1L through 6R line select keys.

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INTRODUCTION

P3D VIEW SYSTEM AND THE PMDG 747-400

Internal P3D Camera: P3D provides a much greater degree of freedom
for viewing the aircraft than was possible in previous versions of the
simulator. We have included a number of pre-formatted views for you to
use. You can scroll through the view types using the “S” and “SHIFT+S”
combination, and then scroll through individual view positions using the
“A” and “SHIFT+A” combination.

Pre-Formatted views included with this version are as follows:

 Cockpit Views
o VC Captain’s Seat Position (called “Virtual Cockpit” by P3D)
o VC First Officer’s Seat Position
o VC Upper Overhead Panel
o VC Lower Overhead Panel
o VC Pedestal
o VC and CDUs
 Spot View (scroll though cameras using the “A” key).
 Tower View (scroll through towers using the “A” key).
We have found during our own testing of the aircraft that the Virtual
Cockpit is generally easier to use if you can turn your head to look around
the cockpit using the hat-switch on a joystick or the mouse while holding
spacebar. To reset the view position, simply press “CTRL+SPACE,” to
reset the zoom press BACKSPACE.

Monitor Aspect Ratio:

We have included [Link] files for all popular monitor aspect ratios.
These are located in the <P3D root folder>\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG
747-400\Panel folder. To use one simply delete the default [Link]
(which is 16:9), copy one of the others and rename it to “[Link]”

The aspect ratios included are:

 4:3 for older CRT monitors.

 16:9, the most popular widescreen resolution.
 16:10 widescreen.
 21:9 ultra-widescreen.
 Triple monitor configurations for 16:9 and 16:10 without bezel
correction.

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INTRODUCTION

LIMITATIONS OF THE SIMULATOR

In the process of developing this highly sophisticated simulation, it
became apparent to us that many of the default functions are simply not
effective for use when producing a realistic simulation of a complex
airliner. As such, we have developed a simulation that to that largest
degree possible does not use any default functionality.

Systems that have been completely customized for realism and

functionality include:

 Autopilot Functions
 Engine Performance Model
 All Mechanical Subsystems
Limiting our dependence upon the simulator has allowed us to use this
very popular simulation platform as a worldwide operating environment
without being severely limited by the original design of the simulation.
Occasionally however, this means that we had to accept certain
limitations on our simulation in order to accomplish our goals.

The vast majority of limitations we have found will never be experienced

by most users. A few should be kept in mind however, as they are
essential and important to the simulation:

Time Acceleration Limit:

 Time Acceleration should be limited to 16x to ensure proper
autopilot function.
 Time Acceleration should be limited to 16x to ensure proper fuel
system function. (The mathematical iterations required for
damping and control law become prohibitive for most desktop
machines when run at speeds at greater than 16x, so we have
not tuned the autopilot or fuel system for operation at acceleration
rates faster than 16x.)

External Load/Fueling Programs:

 Do not use any non PMDG product to alter the [Link] file.
 Do not use any non PMDG product to alter the fuel load of the
airplane.
 Do not use any non PMDG product to alter the loading of the
airplane. (PMDG uses actual manufacturer data to model the
Cl/Cd, moment influence and drag models for our aircraft. Using
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INTRODUCTION
this data, the aircraft’s reference point is placed realistically
ahead of the nose of the airplane as per the manufacturer’s
specifications. Most addon aircraft use the erroneous concept of
placing the model’s reference point at the center of the airplane.
This results in reduced realism and impacts negatively the
accuracy of the airplane’s behavior.)

Do not use non-PMDG external models:

The PMDG 747-400 has more than 1000 animated parts. With the
exception of a few basic functions, all part animations are controlled by
PMDG’s internal simulation code and are not controlled by the simulator.
If you attempt to replace the PMDG 747-400 visual model with a non-
PMDG model, you will lose nearly all animation and function for the
external model.

Flight recording and playback issues:

Because of the aforementioned custom coding of the airplane animations,
the default P3D flight recorder functionality is not able to track and play
back most of the animations present in the simulation. Many users have
had success using a free utility called FS Recorder, which is able to track
and record most of the custom animations we use.

You can download it here:

[Link]

Hardware toe brakes:

If you use hardware toe brakes such as those created by CH Products,
we would like you to be aware that in order to implement the proper
“tripping off” of the auto-brake system, we had to put some limitations in
place in order to prevent the inherent P3D logic from inadvertently taking
over the autobrake release logic inappropriately:

To release the autobrake with your hardware toe brakes you must:

 Apply the brakes twice, quickly; and

 Apply greater pressure than the autobrake is currently applying.
This is different than the brake-directed disengage function on the
airplane, but it was unavoidable.

External route export programs:

Flight plan .rte files created with external flight planning programs or
websites will have the runways, SIDs, STARs and approaches contained
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INTRODUCTION
within them stripped when importing into the FMC, resulting in just the
enroute portion being entered. Routes saved with the FMC itself will still
retain these items.

This was done because these programs in many cases insert nonsensical
terminal procedure data that will either crash the FMC or cause general
weirdness in the route. In addition, COROUTES do not contain runways
and terminal procedures in real life because they often change with the
prevailing winds and the day’s departure routing. The runways, SIDs,
STARs and approaches are manually entered by the crew when assigned
by ATC even if a COROUTE was used for the enroute portion of the
flight.

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INTRODUCTION

THE COLLINS WXR-2100 WEATHER RADAR

The 747 includes a simulations of the Collins WXR-2100 unit commonly
found on the 747 and other airliners. Most of the major functions are
simulated including manual tilt, auto tilt, gain, WX+T turbulence detection
mode, and the Predictive Windshear System (PWS).

Active Sky Next or Active Sky 2016 requirement:

The WXR-2100 simulation in SP1 requires the most recent version of the
Active Sky Next (ASN) or Active Sky 2016 weather engine by HiFi
Simulations (for simplicity, the following text will refer to both software
versions as ‘ASN’). ASN is the first weather addon to output an external
3D precipitation model, which we’ve used to accurately model the
operation of the radar. The weather radar does not currently function with
default P3D weather or with any other weather addon. We will evaluate
supporting other weather addons on a case-by-case basis if they can
provide similar 3D precipitation data output.

Active Sky 2016 can be purchased here:

[Link]

Many simmers are under the assumption that radar shows the locations
of clouds and could not understand our insistence for many years that
realistic radar wasn’t possible in P3D, mainly due to the presence of other
products on the market that showed the position of clouds or used cloud
positions to make guesses about precipitation levels. This ASN-based
radar system is not showing cloud positions and this is immediately
apparent in the sim.

Basic radar concepts and theory:

Though it’s become a word in its own right in the seven decades since its
inception, radar is actually an acronym standing for RAdio Detection And
Ranging. Radars pulse waves in the radio band of the electromagnetic
spectrum out into space where they reflect off objects and return back to
a dish that collects and focuses them. By measuring the precise timing
and signal strength differences between the pulses and their returns, the
radar is able to calculate and display information about what’s in front of
the aircraft. In the case of a weather radar, the objects it is looking for are
precipitation returns – essentially rain, snow, or ice (hail).

There are physical limitations inherent in how radar works that you need
to be aware of when using the radar in the 747.

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INTRODUCTION
Radar beams are emitted from the nose in a 3-dimensional cone shape.
The cone is very narrow close to the aircraft and spreads out with
increasing distance. Because of this, the radar is showing a larger vertical
cross section of the sky depending on the distance the returns are located
at. This has important implications for determining precisely where
precipitation is vertically in relation to the aircraft. If a return is far away,
the actual precipitation could be within a large block of potential altitudes
and you will need to make use of the tilt control and/or wait for the range
to decrease to determine exactly where the return is vertically.

The physical locations of the radar controls are described in detail in the
FCOM on pages 11.10.14 to 11.10.18 (pages 1220-1224 in the PDF file).

Tilt:
Antenna tilt is one of the key parameters you have control over with the
radar system. Tilt controls the vertical angle that the radar beam pulses
are sent out at by physically pivoting the transmitter and dish in the
vertical plane.

The WXR-2100 is equipped with an auto tilt function that is engaged by

default. For most users, this will be sufficient, but in real life some pilots
like to set their tilt manually. In general here are some guidelines for
manual tilt settings:

Before takeoff and lower part of the climb: +2 to +5 degrees.

The idea here is to see heavy precipitation that you may be climbing into
since you’re gaining altitude so rapidly. You want to keep the tilt high
enough to avoid ground clutter (in real life, clutter is not yet modeled in
the sim version).

Mid to high altitude climb: -2 to +2 degrees.

Here you’re more concerned with storms that are in the in general straight
line path of the aircraft as it climbs at a slower vertical speed up higher.

Cruise: -5 to 0 degrees.

In cruise, you will most often be looking at precipitation that’s either at or

below your current altitude. A storm is still very dangerous even if there’s
not precipitation from it at your current altitude due to powerful updrafts
and turbulence in the core. Pilots will often scan with a downward tilt at
cruise in order see down into the precipitation area of a storm, which
makes it visible for avoidance.

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Descent: 0 to +10
In the descent phases, the nose is pointing at the ground so you’re going
to need to have the radar tilted even more than it was during the climb to
avoid ground clutter and see the main precipitation core of a storm, which
may be thousands of feet above you.

Gain:
“Gain” is a term that essentially means amplification of the radar’s return
signals. As the gain is turned up, lighter areas of precipitation (green
color) will show on the radar display. Think of it like a radio’s squelch
control – you’re setting a “noise floor” where nothing below the setting
gets through. Since light precipitation isn’t generally dangerous to an
airplane, the standard practice is to set the gain so that only the more
severe yellow and red areas show. The default 0 setting generally
accomplishes this and should be sufficient for most use.

WX vs. WX+T modes:

The WX mode shows only precipitation returns. WX+T overlays magenta
areas of suspected severe turbulence over the precipitation returns by
using the Doppler capability of the radar to see areas where the
precipitation is moving quickly (suggesting strong updrafts, downdrafts or
windshear). You will generally only see these magenta areas near the
core of heavy thunderstorms. Many pilots use WX+T mode exclusively
because there’s no downside to having it on vs. the standard WX mode.

Predictive Windshear System (PWS):

The PWS uses the Doppler radar information from particulate matter
(dust, water vapor, etc.) in the air just in front of the airplane when in the
terminal area in an attempt to detect windshear activity. If such activity is
detected, a symbol appears on the ND showing the approximate
magnitude and direction of the windshear and the EGPWS calls out
“WINDSHEAR! WINDSHEAR!” Full TOGA power should be immediately
selected and the airplane flown through the event with careful attention
paid to airspeed and pitch. ASN is capable of simulating windshear and
microburst events and you should be prepared if one happens.

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Limitations:
Active Sky Next range settings:
The radar will technically work out to a maximum range of 250 nm
depending on how high you have the ASN Minimum cloud draw distance
and Maximum cloud draw distance sliders set (note that this does not
imply that our radar is actually showing clouds – the clouds have to be
there for the precipitation to be there).

Please be aware that setting these sliders above their default values can
drastically affect P3D performance on even the highest end computers.
There’s unfortunately nothing we can do about this. It isn’t coming from
the radar itself but rather from the sim’s graphics engine processing and
rendering cloud sprites out to such extreme distances. In real life, the
weather radar is rarely useful for making course deviation decisions
beyond around 100 nm and we feel this is a reasonable level to leave the
maximum range set at.

Future features:
The weather radar is currently considered an “in-progress” feature and
certain functions are not yet simulated. We intend to keep developing it
over time and more features will be added.

Among these planned are:

 Simulation of radar shadows and the path attenuation

compensation (PAC) feature that alerts pilots to the possible
presence of shadows.
 More realistic depiction of longer range radar returns. (beam
spread/loss of resolution)
 Simulation of ground clutter in the WX and WX+T modes and
simulation of returns from the ground MAP mode.

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THE 747 AND TURBULENCE IN P3D

With the inclusion of the weather radar, many users will probably seek out
heavy weather to fly through. It is important to understand the limitations
of P3D’s modelling of turbulence and the likely side effects you’ll
experience if you choose to do this. (It’s worth pointing out that real life
pilots go out of their way to avoid flying through such weather!)

What P3D turbulence does:

Below is a graph recorded over a few minutes of standard turbulence in
P3D. On the Y axis is G-load and on the X axis is time.

P3D is constantly hitting the airplane with G-loads in excess of 2.0 Gs in

both the positive and negative directions. What’s more, the magnitude of
these “hits” actually remains the same regardless of the level of
turbulence happening – the only thing that changes is how frequently they
occur. 2.0+ Gs is extremely excessive and would constitute incredibly
severe turbulence or windshear in real life. No real life autopilot system
could possibly compensate for this. The PMDG 747’s autopilot is
programmed in the same way the real life one is and naturally, it has
issues with these kinds of instantaneous forces jarring it out of its “comfort
zone” so to say.

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The biggest side effect you are likely to see is an inability for the flight
director to precisely maintain speed with pitch while such turbulence is
occurring. The reason is highly technical and involves esoteric concepts
such as the relative contribution of PID controller gains, but the real life
autopilot would react in exactly the same way if put into a situation like
this.

Turbulence filtering:
Despite the above description, we have attempted to average out P3D’s
frenetic G-load hits and make the airplane react better to them. Below is
another graph, this time with the Y axis showing instantaneous tailwind
component resulting from the turbulence and the X axis again showing
time over the course of a few minutes.

The magenta line is the result of a sophisticated mathematical filtering

algorithm we developed to try to deal with the P3D turbulence. This line is
what the flight director and autothrottle are actually “seeing” and reacting
to instead of the wild raw fluctuations. This makes things better, but it’s
not (and can’t be) perfect. Always remember that you are the pilot, not the
computers. If you don’t like what the flight director or the autopilot are
doing, take over manually and make it do what you want it to.

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AP/AT TURB MODE TRIGGER option:
The above filtering algorithm is activated when an average tailwind
component threshold is measured. We have included a new option
accessible at MENU > PMDG SETUP > OPTIONS > SIMULATION on
page 2/10 that allows you to set the exact threshold for the activation of
this filtering mode in knots. We’ve set it to what we feel is a happy
medium with the 1.0 knot default, but if you aren’t happy with its
performance you can play with this setting and tweak it to your liking.
Valid values are 0.5 to 5.0 knots.

Other ways of mitigating turbulence effects:

P3D turbulence settings
In the P3D weather options there is a setting called “Disable turbulence
and thermal effects on aircraft.” This (despite its name) doesn’t actually
disable those things, but has helped users in the past with control issues
in turbulence and seems to help tamper down the wild effects described
earlier.

In the [Link] or P3D_SE.cfg file there is a line under the [Weather]

section that reads TurbulenceScale=1.000000

This setting can be decreased and does seem to lower the severity of the
turbulence “hits” P3D applies to the airplane.

Weather addon settings

Virtually all the commercial weather addons on the market have a setting
or slider for turbulence level or strength. If you’re having difficulties, try
lowering this option – it’s likely defaulted to P3D’s 100% setting and may
be excessive.

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FMC SAVED FLIGHT PLANS

AND COMPANY DATALINK
Flight plan file management:
In SP1 we have added additional functionality to the way that flight plan
files are stored and retrieved.

Flight plan files for all PMDG products are saved in the PMDG .rte format
and are located in the <P3D Root Folder>\PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS folder.
In the original release of the PMDG 747-400, flight plan files were located
either in this folder or in a subdirectory (<P3D Root
Folder>\PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS\747) that is created automatically.

In SP1, the system is able to load or save flight plans from any folder in
the PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS folder. This includes subfolders already
created by other PMDG products (such as the PMDG 737NGX) or folders
created by the user. You can create any number of additional folders to
arrange your flight plan files in any way that is convenient, for example, by
airline routes, short or long range, destinations, local or international, and
so on.

Loading flight plan files

Loading an FMC route is accomplished through the FMC CDU’s RTE
page, using either the CO ROUTE (LSK 3R) or the ROUTE REQUEST
(LSK 3L) prompt.

CO ROUTE is used to directly load a route for which you already know
the file name. Enter the name into the scratchpad without the extension
and press LSK 3R. Initially, the PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS\747 folder is
searched and if the file is not found, the root level PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS
is searched.

ROUTE REQUEST will allow you select a flight plan file located in
PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS or any subfolder within it. Once the file is selected
the route will be loaded by simulating the FMC datalink procedure used to
load routes on the real life aircraft.

The ORIGIN (LSK 1L), DESTINATION (LSK 1R) and FLT NO (LSK 2R)
fields of the RTE page are used to define the request. If you press the
ROUTE REQUEST with these 3 fields empty you will be able to select
any flight plan file manually. If you have already filled in the origin field,
both the origin and destination fields, or the flight number field the FMC

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will filter the available routes it displays based on the criteria you’ve
entered.

Initiating a ROUTE REQUEST at LSK 3R will bring up a new page titled

"REQUEST CO ROUTE" that lists all the subdirectories that include flight
plans meeting the selection criteria and also indicate how many flight plan
files were found in each subdirectory. The PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS folder is
listed as "GENERIC". Selecting one of the subfolders will bring up a new
page listing all the relevant flight plans in it. Once you select one of the
flight plans the name will be highlighted and a REQUEST> prompt will
appear in 6R. Pressing LSK 6R will return to the RTE page and initiate
the uplink procedure for the selected route.

While in the REQUEST CO ROUTE page or in the subfolder files listing

pages, you can further filter the displayed routes by typing on the
scratchpad. Any characters typed on the scratchpad will filter the
displayed routes to those with a file name starting with the entered
characters.

If there is only one flight plan file matching the RTE page selection criteria
(origin + destination or flight number) the REQUEST CO ROUTE page is
not displayed and the uplink procedure is initiated immediately, directly
from the RTE page. This opens up a lot of interesting methods of
organizing your flight plans – you could make a folder with routes
organized by flight number, simply enter that number into the FMC and
press ROUTE REQUEST and the datalink simulation will load the correct
route automatically.

Saving flight plan files

You can save the current flight plan from the ROUTE SAVE prompt on
the FMC RTE page. Pressing LSK 5L will bring up a page named "SAVE
ROUTE", where you can set the name and the location of the flight plan
file.
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The top line fields (1L and 1R) show the folder and file name that will be
used to save the flight plan.

On the left side of this page you can select the desired folder:

<747: The file will be saved in the PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS\747 folder

<GENERIC: The file will be saved in the root PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS

folder

<OTHER: Brings up a new page on which you can select any of the other
folders that may exist under the PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS directory.

On the right side of the page you can select the desired file name:

NEW DEP/ARR>: The file name will be constructed from the ICAO codes
of the origin and destination airports followed by a 3-digit index, selected
so that there is no conflict with any other existing flight plan file for the
same origin-destination pair.

USE CO ROUTE>: The file name will be determined by the CO ROUTE

field of the RTE page. In case the flight plan was originally loaded from a
file (by CO ROUTE or ROUTE REQUEST) this will be the name of the
existing file. Selecting this option will result in overwriting the original flight
plan file.

USE FLT NO>: The file name will be determined by the FLT NO field of
the RTE page. Flight plan files saved using a flight number can be
retrieved by filling the required flight number in the RTE page FLT NO
field before selecting ROUTE REQUEST.

SET CUSTOM>: A custom user entered file name will be used. Type the
desired file name in the scratchpad (with no extension) and press 5R.

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Selecting a folder and/or file name option will update the fields in 1L & 1R.
Pressing the EXE key will save the flight plan file.

Weather Forecast Data

For all weather related uplink requests, (WIND DATA, DES FORECAST,
ALTN WX) weather data is retrieved either directly from P3D or from third
party weather addon applications.

When there is no weather addon application running, data is retrieved

from P3D directly. If the P3D weather is set from the P3D Weather menu
to real-world weather (either static or update every 15 minutes) you must
make sure that you have enabled the following P3D option:

Settings > Display > Weather

If any of the P3D Weather Themes are used instead of the real-world
weather option, you must be aware that although you will receive
forecasts that will correspond to the weather that you will encounter along
the route, themes apply the same weather globally and will usually
contain wind data only for a couple of low altitude flight levels.

If you are running a 3rd party weather add-on application, there will be
some actions you must take in order to retrieve the correct weather data
from the add-on application using the datalink simulation.

The PMDG 747 looks in the <P3D Root Folder>\PMDG\WX folder for a
file named [Link], where XXXX and YYYY are the active route’s
origin and destination airport ICAO codes. This file should contain wind
and temperature data for the waypoints along the route in a specific
format.

Depending on the weather addon application, this file will be created

automatically or by manual action. The MENU > PMDG SETUP >
OPTIONS > SIMULATION page 7 provides two options at LSK 3L and
LSK 4L that can help to automate the process and reduce the required
user actions.

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The following 3 steps are required:

1. Create a flight plan file

Create a flight plan file in P3D format (.pln). This file may be created by
any means. (flight planner applications, waypoint-by waypoint entry in
P3D, a file downloaded from the internet etc.)

You can skip this step if you set the P3D PLN FILE FOR WX option (3L)
to either CREATE FILE ([Link]) or CREATE AND LOAD TO P3D. In
this case the PMDG 747 will automatically export the active FMC route
into a P3D format .pln file. This file is named [Link] and is saved in the
default P3D flight plans directory (My Documents\Prepar3D v3 Files).
This file is created and subsequently updated each time the user selects
a CDU page that contains a weather data related REQUEST prompt
(RTE DATA, DES FORECAST, ALTN pages).

Note that if you want to be able to access weather data for the 4 alternate
destination airports (displayed in the ALTN CDU page) these alternate
airports must be included in the created .pln file as waypoints and be
placed anywhere between the origin and destination airports. In case the
option for automatic P3D .pln file is selected, you may also set the
INCLUDE ALTNS IN PLN option on to automatically include the
alternates in the exported flight plan file.

2. Load the flight plan file into the add-on application

Once the .pln flight plan file is created, either manually or automatically, it
must be loaded into the weather add-on application so that weather
forecasts are produced for each waypoint of the flight plan.

You can automate this process if you are using Active Sky Next. Set the
P3D PLN FILE FOR WXR option at LSK 3L to CREATE AND LOAD TO
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P3D and at the same time set the Active Sky Next "Auto load simulator
flight plan" option in Settings > General Options. (screenshot on the next
page) In this case the PMDG 747 will automatically create the .pln file and
then load it into P3D triggering an automatic loading of the P3D flight plan
into Active Sky Next. This may work with other add-on weather
applications if they provide a similar option for automatically loading the
simulator flight plan.

3. Create the WX file in PMDG\WX folder

Most of the add-on applications (currently confirmed for Active Sky 2012,
Active Sky Next, PFPX, Opus P3D, and FS Global Real Weather) will
automatically create the WX file in the required format and place it in the
[P3D]\PMDG\WX folder. In this case you are now ready to make the
REQUEST from the relevant CDU page and the data will be retrieved.

NOTE: If you have an add-on application running but the required WX file
is not present, the 747 will try to retrieve weather data directly from P3D.
Since the add-on applications generally only set the P3D weather for an
area of 60-100 NM around the current aircraft position and clear the
weather in the rest of the world, you will get wind data only for a few
waypoints ahead, some of the alternate destinations (depending on
distance) and, unless the destination airport is in range, no data at all for
the DESCENT FORECAST. (you'll get an INVALID FORECAST UPLINK
message on the CDU).

Tip:

When you request waypoint winds or descent forecast data for the first
time (the relevant CDU pages contain no data), wind data will be retrieved

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for a predefined set of 4 altitudes depending on the cruise level.
Subsequent requests will update the wind data for these altitudes.

If you want to get data for a different set of altitudes you can delete the
altitude rows that you are not interested in and enter new desired altitudes
without making any wind data entry. On request, wind data for these
altitudes will be retrieved.

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