I have some questions to those of you who did this golden intro-mission (VIP Charter KLAX-KSFO):
Is this the mission that opens up higher (3-star) VIP Charter Missions so that I can finally use my PC-12 or so?
I am used to fly the 737 PMDG a lot so I know how to do all the stuff incl. GSX etc. - so that’s not the problem. But I do not understand this whole groundhandling stuff. I ask for boarding, luggage and catering and wait maybe 10 or so minutes - baggage and catering is done but no info on boarding. When I hit ALT-N to go to next step I fail the mission (you did not finish groundhandling)… Any tipps here?
How do I connect the GPU? My plane loads in “kinda” no longer C&D but I don’t know how to connect the GPU
Any other tipp you may think would be usefull to pass the mission? Again - not so much on “how to fly the 737” - more on “how to complete the steps the missions wants me to do” to succeed.
Boarding is the first thing that your crew will ask for your permission to start. Acknowledge their request, and you will then see beording progress at the bottom of the mission objectives list while you continue to request for baggage, catering, and finally IFR clearance.
After about 20 min for ramp stairs or about 5 min for gateway, your crew will tell you that boarding is complete
*** YOU MUST then contact your ground services to request the end of passenger boarding. ***
I believe forgetting to do this causes the game to start slamming the aircraft up and down and insta crashing you making that last 30 minutes and going forward worthless for career progession and credits.
Finally, release your brakes, and the request for pushback and/or startup clearance will follow.
Then, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to taxi out and take off without a different bug to make the mission worthless except maybe unlocking other missions.
After 3 attempts, I haven’t gone back to that mission yet.
At least that’s how the current required progression works for completing the ground servicss in game. Although, I would like to see how other’s completed this mission without bugs and their tips. Too much info in long threads to read through make it restrictive to keep up.
Also, I’ve noticed that many of the 737 missions will autoskip straight to taxi without you doing anything - even when don’t touch anything and are verifying that the missions are actually doing that to you. I just exit to menu rather than find out 4 hours later, the game only pays out 10000 credits (due to the autoskip) for my 2 to 4 hours. I could cheat and use simrate, but I want to enjoy flying - not totally vest myself in the career minigame.
This mission is bugged. I finally got it to spawn, then I was on the ground and shift-c into cockpit to turn on battery, etc and got an instant failed mission.
Made zero sense. No instructions on what to do, nothing to hit “enter” on to get a response to anything, it was literally during cold/dark setup.
I’ve not tried the missions yet, but the 737 max has a problem on its own with ground power. It shows as being available, but won’t ever connect/provide power. So I’ve had to run on battery and gpu instead (not ideal).
Yes APU starts fine. It doesn’t have the 0-100% apu gauge in the OHP like the PMDG 737, but it does come on and work (apu gen switches illuminate). I wouldn’t have been able to start it up otherwise.
Note. Don’t wait around before starting the APU. Maybe take on extra fuel for it and start it up right after the battery turns on.
Finally got the same mission to work but from Hong Kong to Tokyo. I did nothing differently… so the mission is definitely bugged and works sometimes, other times won’t even load, other times does an immediate fail.
The 737 Max is such a let down. Needs so much work.
Thats strange as mine is definitely OFF. Do you start in walkaround mode?
Not sure if it makes a difference, but I’m using the passenger variant. Default one isn’t.
Also using a United livery, again not sure if that is a factor or not.
When you start your APU, the only indication of it inside the cockpit is that the APU light comes on during it’s spool up (in the caution lights indicator/acknowledge button).
If you miss seeeing the light, you will also shortly hear the packs come online when the bleed air starts flowing into the cockpit/cabin. (I typically switch on the bleed and packs before I start the APU for this in game reason)
GPU:
The in game 737 Max 8 must be equipt with a fission flux capacitor. I’ve run on its batteries for the duration of the 20-30 minute ramp stairs boardng time without any repercussions or in game penalties. Very powerful indeed.
Now that I think about it, maybe I did do a Golden Unlock mission from KSFO to KLAX, I forget.
Finally got into the Hong Kong to Tokyo 737 Max career mission; performed it perfectly and yet got a C on my rating afterward for not following ATC procedures yet I followed exactly what MSFS ATC said and told me to do, including my arrival, etc. How in the world are we stuck with such a terrible career mode?
I was now able to do all the ground stuff and then proceeded to take off. Again - I have hundreds of hours in 737’s of PMDG.
But - this Asobo plane was surely a strange experience. Upon take off the plane wanted to veer heavily to the right - not due wind or so - it was just behaving like nothing I have ever seen. In flight I could only keep her under control with AP. Even though I did trim her well etc.
When flying straight the AP makes the plane bank to the left by like 30 degrees lol.. What is this?
This is for sure a weird 737 - almost not flyable no?
The AP logic is seriously flawed, or rather has a ways to go. On almost all default aircraft, autopilot will attempt to intercept at 90 degrees - even if you’re only a few degrees offset from the route. The aircraft AP overshoots and then follows with overcorrections. It will also sometimes do so by banking over 30 degrees and then penalize your for: 1) passenger comfort or 2) Pan Pan … returning to departure emergency for EMS flights. The Pan…Pan call was actually really cool when it happened to me though. I wasn’t expecting it and having to redirect while still on climbout.
Recommend full manual control until established on the route and at proper climbout attitude before engaging AP.. It’s a decent default rendition, but it is not a high fidelity addon experience. I also set my bank angle limit to 20 or below for added protection from the AP.
Also, the throttle surging has carried over in dramatic fashon. I like to fly in formation, and many times I thought streamers were messing with me by wildly varying their throttle inputs. As it turns out, it is apparent that both 2020 and even more so in 2024, AP surges the throttle almost to the extents to maintain FMS or Commanded speed. People may not notice the surging in an Airbus set at CLB, but the throttles in Boeings will dance all the way to touchdown. ( i.e. not a very “stable” approach") - recommend manual throttle for now to stabilize the approach with confidence.
Even with all the shortcomings of the AP and flight model, I still don’t get too frustrated with it. I figure I was hired by a budget Airline that has questionable maintenance practices, and I need to work through the problems so I don’t end up a virtual fatal mishap statistic and FAA/NTSB investigation. (Which is too close to reality now days) IMO
Yes! Now - there seems to be another one again (a golden) - again same routing. Don’t know why? Gonna do this as well - hoping that then I get better charter missions…
I had an almost perfect flight in the launch mission. Of course, compared to the PMDG, this 737 sucks, but it was still a good flight. And what I have after taxi???
