YES. Having RL pilots take the time to explain things to the unwashed masses really makes this forum something special.
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Well, you went and made me curious so I did a quick search through a copy of the FCTM that I found online some months ago. Here’s what Boeing said, at least as of 2005 or so (could be different today).
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Yes, that confused me too. I always set V2 on the MCP, after seeing a couple of tutorial videos by IRL 737 pilots. After take-off I just follow the flight director, bug up at acceleration point and start retracting flaps above the white airspeed bug.
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We always put V2 on the MCP. Initial rotation to 15º nose up (at a rate of 2º-2.5º per second). Once the gear is up follow flight director but try not to exceed 20º nose up even if flight director commands more.
At acceleration height you will start accelerating to UP speed while cleaning up (about 8º nose up but follow flight director). If you took of in VNAV, the bug will move to the UP speed automatically at the height specified in page TAKEOFF REF 2/2 under ACCEL HT). If you didn’t take off in VNAV, you’ll roll the bug to the UP speed yourself.
Acceleration height is 1000ft AAL during NADP2 departures and 3000ft AAL on NADP1 departures.
As the airplane accelerates retract flaps on schedule.
Passing the V2+15 mark (white bug) with positive green speed trend vector select flaps 1. Passing the green 1 mark with positive green speed trend vector, select flaps up.
Once flaps are up with no lights select or verify VNAV, set your altimeter as required and do the after take off checklist.
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Think it’s time to start looking into getting one of these, maybe the -800.
I remember when I first got interested (or more like re-interested) in flight sim when I saw the teaser trailer for MSFS. I was blown away by how far we’d come.
So I got immersed in Twitch streams (anyone remember Pilot_H?) and it was all PMDG 737. That was going to be my favourite, decision made.
Got x-plane, got the Zibo, then MSFS released. Ditched x-plane, and been here ever since.
I’ve turned out to be mainly a GA 414 guy, and also have the Fenix, but now want to reconnect with that initial feeling, that initial buzz and excitement I got when watching streams of the 737.
Wish me luck 
EDIT: One Day Later… that’s the -800 purchased, no turning back now.
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Just watched a live stream with flightdeck2sim. A 6,000hr 737 Captain. First he flew the Zibo 737 in X-Plane 12 and after that flight flew the PMDG 737. Notable negatives for the PMDG 737 is trim control is still not that great (better on Zibo). PMDG VNAV is rubbish. Auto-throttle is bad on the PMDG (dropping 10 kts below bug speed). Positives were the visuals of MSFS and PMDG overall polished systems-wise. Apart from the approach flight model behavior in the Zibo, the rest of the flight handling was better than PMDG. PMDG really need to improve Trim and sort out for once and for all the VNAV and Auto-Throttle in the 737. Especially if this is going to be used for 777 and 747 development. I thought PMDG was a lot more polished but it appears it is more eye candy.
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The A/T issue has been fixed from what it was before and it works just fine. In which ways are you talking about VNAV being rubbish? 737NGDriver is also a 737 pilot and is part of the PMDG tech team. His reviews are always straight forward and informative. Not to pick favorites but someone being on the tech team and a pilot is more believable than someone who is also a pilot but not involved in the development process, just my take.
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Apples to oranges…
These are two different sims. If the pmdg 737 can’t do correctly a few things, does not mean it is definately pmdg’s fault, it may be sim’s fault.
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Elias, when other planes such as the Fenix or the A310 can do said things without fault that indicates this is not a sim limitation. However, I do believe PMDG’s 737 are gettint better and better with every patch, I would not worry about the realism of the 777 and 747, I am sure they are going to benefit from the experience the team has acquired during this initial release.
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As George Martin so aptly puts it, “Words are wind.” And for YouTube content producers, strong words are strong winds that bring clicks, views and monetization. 
PMDG products are excellent and improving constantly. Nice 90 minute cargo ops flight from PAKT to KSEA yesterday, descending through blustery weather into the Puget Sound area. VNAV, autothrottle and manual trim during landing all worked perfectly. YMMV.
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I like eye candy
Flying in Patagonia Chile now (in A320 atm) and after all this I couldn’t go to XPL. I’m happy for XPL users that they have Zibo but I’m staying on MSFS with PMDG
After that I jumped to PMDG 737-700 and took off from Kagoshima, Japan. Awesome part of the world and I’m quite happy how the plane flies.
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Hi,
how do i copy and paste .rte flight plan into PMDG folder?
it seems difficult to find inside windows 11 pro.
i had a hard time searching for it.
can someone help on this?
thx
Is anyone else having issues with fluctuating airspeed on approach?
I suspect it’s to do with the MSFS gusts but when dealing with an approach that has a tailwind on long final (not even particularly strong), I keep getting “airspeed low!” alerts and the occasional stick shaker sound (as the red and yellow airspeed bars jump up and down). This is despite staying at the correct landing speed throughout.
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Same here, think since the last PMDG update
This is covered in the PDF Introduction document provided with the aircraft inside the Documentation folder, and discussed multiple times in this thread, as well as on the PMDG forums.
In the time it took to write that could you not just have helped the guy by giving him an answer instead?
If you are using simbrief install simbrief downloader and enable the options in the image below. This will add the flight plan files from simbrief automatically to your PMDG folder.
The manual address will be something like
C:\Users\Col\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\packages\pmdg-aircraft-738\work\Flightplans
Where it says C:\Users\Col - change Col to your local username. You might need to enable view all files and folders if you are having difficulty locating the folder manually.
Hope this helps.
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Well explained there TactiCol.
Good job 
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While other people explain how to do that (I have no idea) I’d like to mention that it’s better to just enter the flight plan manually from operational flightplan to FMC. It takes 1 minute and that’s how it’s done in real life in most airlines. The 737 is a short/medium haul airplane. The routes are short. Besides it’s the best way to make sure no route discontinuities are created.
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Agreed 100%. Not sure why so many people are hung up on downloading flight plans. As you said, it literally takes a minute to enter the data.
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The -900ER is getting closer …
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