Hi,
How do I fill the extra center tanks in the 737-900ER? It’s like they are disabled. I get to maximum of 6800Gallons though I do see in the msfs load menu there are two additional tanks that are empty. Also, do someone else feels the thrust is very week? Plane hardly climbs to 30,000 feet, it can take it around 40 minutes to reach this altitude.
When using PMDG aircraft, they recommend that you do NOT use the MSFS load and balance menu.
In the FMC, there is pages for loading the plane with PAX, Cargo, and Fuel. (Menu > FS Actions) Either use the individual menus for loading instantly, or “Ground Services” for loading things ‘realistically’ as this aircraft has some really unique programming and does a lot of calculations within itself. Note that it will fill your wing tanks before the center tank.
As for climb performance, is the aircraft overloaded? Are you possibly in icing conditions? There is a lot that may prevent your aircraft from climbing efficiently, but those would probably be the first things.
Try loading the aircraft with the FMC menu and then attempt to reach FL300+.
There is also a .pdf in the install location that has a tutorial flight, and I know that was a great help with getting familiar with the aircraft.
Of course I used the Fmc. I just checked changes on the msfs menu… Still, how much fuel does the 739-er should contain? 6800 gallons is less than what I know it should have. As for the climb rate, not sure I understand. It should climb faster? I will check icing again.
The FMC shows lbs or kg, no gallons. The only thing that shows gallons is the MSFS load menu and it being a real time load manager that doesn‘t require an ok button just opening it can spool the aircraft up. Don‘t touch it at all. There is nothing to verify, to verify the fuel level the airplane has fuel indications. Make sure you don‘t confuse the lbs and kg setting.
All - In the root folder of all PMDG airplanes, are two files you need to read. One is the introduction, it covers every aspect of how-to setup this plane, and why you need to do it PMDG’s way.
Because this sim is nonstandard, (much internal coding is just weird), PMDG had to improvise on how some things work (read on their forum about the tablet and its communication issues), so understanding how it works before you use it is important.
FWIW-I have posted this information is so many places because no one READS anymore, did they quit teaching how to read in school. Every software package I have ever installed in the root folder has “HOW TO”, did you forget to read that too?
I cannot speak to the 900 model. However, in the 700 one as a cargo plane and a mixed load of weight, I can get her going to 2000+ FPM on a climb. I am not sure why your 900 with bigger engines cannot do at least that well. Besides here, I would post a comment on PMDG forum and see if one of the real pilots on their team can answer your question/concern. FWIW-I do NOT derate my engines for any reason.
Yes, people don’t like to read anyomre. They prefer the tic toc version. And reading of these manuals is looong. But it still doesn’t confirm or disputes my claim that the plane climbs too slow
To answer your question (as yet no one below has) the extra fuel tanks in the 900ER have to be “enabled” in the sim – in the FMC, go to PMDG menu > Aircraft > Equipment, then on the AUX Fuel page, select the extra fuel tanks for the 900ER. Voila.
Re: performance, as others have stated, once you’ve configured your AC correctly with weight and balance and fuel, it performs just like the real thing. Check out 737Driver’s youtube – you’ll find everything you need to know to fly PMDG 737 series.
i mean its fine if this is how you prefer to learn but most people will tell you won’t get very far unless you’re willing to put in a smidgen amount of work in learning and that just might take a little bit of reading or watching a 15-20 minute tutorial.
Plane performs pretty well for me. No issues with climb performance
What would you consider a “slow” climb rate? How may fpm are you climbing at?
Are you talking about the auxiliary tanks, or the center tank?