Can’t remember now, pretty sure I did.
Thinking about it, maybe I selected the waypoint immediately before the break and pasted it into the line dashes on the legs page, I think it should be the waypoint after the break.
Would I find that information on the arrival charts?
Other than the surprise, there is nothing wrong with this from a pilotage perspective. Are you using ATC of any kind?
When a STAR does not join the approach procedure, I will sometimes add a waypoint in-between to simulate radar vectoring. This works for me as I don’t use ATC, so it may not work for others or in an ATC environment where radar vectoring is handled by the sim or 3rd party app. Lots of choices!
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I’m just using default atc at the moment, I do have beyond atc as well, which I guess should be better. As I’m still learning the aircraft I just stuck with default atc for now.
It should be available depending where and which country.
Approach plates and skyvector.
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One final question say the FMC sets a cruise level of FL38 and I don’t actually reach that level or plan to, maybe I decide I’m going to stay at fl300, as it’s only a short flight, will the aircraft still start to descend when it reaches TOD?
Choice of cruise altitude suggests a flight planning issue, wether the cruise altitude was chosen in dispatch, i.e., by SimBrief or by the sim pilot input into SimBrief; or by the FMS/FMC as simulated by PMDG. In any case, should the sim pilot decide upon a new or different cruise altitude, this can be changed on the cruise page in the FMC in flight. That should update the ToD if done in time for a feasible ToD to be computed/attained. These are points of pilotage that come with experience, i.e., making mistakes, debriefing, then choosing to make improvements on subsequent sim flights.
As part of confirming the flight plan in the FMC, its a good idea to check the cruise altitude on that page as well, as sometimes that’s where I will spot a flight planning mistake or oversight made in SimBrief, either by SimBrief or by myself. On the ground is the best time to update cruise altitude.
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Yeah so, simbrief plan was a short flight and if I remember simbrief set FL300, when I loaded it all into FMC I got given FL400, I didn’t even reach cruise before TOD come along.
So If I changed it on the cruise page would I need to change anything else or does it recalculate everything else automatically.
I had this on Xbox and for me the problem was in the MCDU in pushback it was showing as the tug was connected and when I chose none I begun to move so might be worth looking here and toggling a bit between tug and none and see if that helps. I have just noticed this post was from a while ago now so most likely you resolved it but just in case 
It sounds like you’re not super familiar yet with setting up the aircraft FMS for a flight. Nothing in the system is “given” to you, really. You as the pilot have to verify everything.
Workflows can vary but what I have found works is this: after loading into the aircraft, in the tablet EFB app, get your data from Simbrief. In the FMC, after you complete the POS INIT page, press the ROUTE button at bottom-right. From there, set your company route and select the Simbrief route. On that page, then SET FUEL, SET PAYLOAD and then SET ROUTE. The route file will load. Once it’s done hit LOAD. Once that is done, enter your departure runway and hit EXECUTE. Next do your PERF INIT page.
PERF INIT is where you can do things a few different ways. The easiest thing to do is hit the REQUEST button at lower-right, then LOAD it. Verify your aircraft ZFW, fuel reserves, etc. You will also see the cruise altitude at upper right. If that lines up with your flight plan and your common sense for the flight, hit EXEC and done. If that cruise altitude isn’t logical (e.g. a short flight but cruise altitide of FL390 or something), just change it. Put in whatever your ATC is giving you or whatever your Simbrief plan calls for.
All of this is covered pretty well in the PMDG Tutorial flight, by the way:
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Hi
That’s looks exactly what I’ve been doing, only difference is I load simbrief fuel/payload from the tablet EFB weights page.
Yesterday I adjusted the flight level as you mention and all was fine.
Thank you
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All I will say about that is be careful. Loading via the W&B page was buggy from day 1 in the 777 lineup and never worked correctly. I have no idea if it’s working correctly in the 737-800 for ‘24 so if you use that method, double check the values to be sure the ZFW and fuel values match what you expect.
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Ha! This actually bugged me too. I opened a ticket on it and was told the team was busy working on the 737 and it was a “minor issue” which does “not affect anything”. Hope they fix it on the 777…still not right.
But, EFB loading does seem to mostly work in the 737 for 2024 but I get a small weight discrepancy (usually less than 500lbs). They use the Simbrief Gross Weight instead of Takeoff Weight (Takeoff Weight=Gross Weight-Taxi Fuel) for the Takeoff Weight. So, much better than the 777 but still a little off. It does work much better though and is my go to now.
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That’s probably the taxi fuel.
I always calculate takeoff performance with that, as it gives a more conservative value than using the lighter estimated takeoff weight.
Exactly! It is the taxi fuel. Small difference – I’m just glad the EFB is working and hope they clean up the 777.
Last time I checked with the 737, I got different numbers when loading weights with EFB vs FMC. I think the ZFWs were the same but they gave different passenger / cargo numbers. The EFB loading matched Simbrief but the FMC did not. Is that still the case?
I think it probably is but it doesn’t bother me. ZFW is what the airplane cares about for performance. Whether 1,000 pounds is 5 passengers and bags at 200 pounds each, or 6 at 167 pounds makes no difference. If you want to manually punch in specific numbers to get it all to match, you can of course. Personally I’m happy to set the ZFW and block fuel and let the plane guesstimate the pax, and distribute payload fore/aft to keep things in the correct CG range.
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Agreed. Just wish the two methods produced the same outputs.
My bigger issue these days is that the A/T disconnects on about 1/3 of my takeoff rolls and I can’t figure out why.
That sounds frustrating. I had an issue a few months ago when MSFS apparently deleted the profile I was using for my TM Boeing yoke, or maybe reverted it to some months-old cloud-saved version from right after I started creating it. The TM yoke has two sliders that the sim assigns as throttle axes by default. My custom profile has those left unassigned. Every so often I would either nudge them or the sim would decide to read one or both of those sliders, kick off my A/T and cause the engine N1 values to go assymetrical. Took me far too long to realize that was what was happening.
I’ve checked all the bindings/profiles and have really stripped the sim down.
There was an early report it was related to GSX so I disabled that. Right now, I am down to Flightbeam SFO, BATC with AIG models, and the 737 with a PMDG livery and everything else is disabled. Will try next without BATC and see what happens.
Aren’t there some options in the FMS under Menu | PMDG Setup | Options | Simulation for A/T related settings? I’m flying the PMDG 777 at the moment, so can’t check 737 options, but I see “A/T Manual Override” in the 777. Worth hunting around to see if there’s anything relevant.