Doing a cross country flight in msfs on the pmdg777-300er. Ive been a simmer for nigh on 30+ years and a licensed rc pilot since the late 1990’s and I am very proficient with the PMDG 737-700/800 series aircraft. But tonight? 90 minutes into a near 5 hour flight LA to JFK? The complexity and realism in this aircraft (it functions to 99% the EXACT SAME ((fuses not functional and some systems to come down the road)) as its real would counterpart) just absolutely HUMBLED me over something mind blowingly SIMPLE! A simple input error in my CDU … this thing and that exact page in the stupid thing too lol.
left side: RESERVES 10.0
This page sent me into a panic. All because I borked THAT SINGLE ENTRY!!! In mine I had my reserves set way way too high. I uplifted about 98,000 pounds into my tanks. Im expected to burn about 79,000 pounds leaving me about 19,000 pounds in reserve. I screwed my entry up by having my reserves fractionally too high at 60. I didnt notice my glitch until:
count right 3 screens from image left (ignore the little one that looks like screen 1 on left, its a back up, just count the larger screens) and take note (btw not my image but same issue i was having) that amber warning message. I spent a solid 100nm chasing numbers from 1 screen, 1 page to another across my CDU, my flight plan and my phone. Then after adding in fuel via a menu on the cdu to deleting fuel the same way I broke and googled it. Im an idiot that got rushed and made an error. On a real flight my FO would have caught it before push back. I need my reserves to equal at least what my flight plan says i should have after expected flight and taxi burns consume whats uplifted to be equal or greater than what id require for diversion after reaching the target airport. Namely that 19,000 pounds needs to be able to get me to Philadelphia with fuel left over should JFK become unsuitable or for any inflight emergency. My error panicked me. Then after reading the reports of others and real would pilots i checked my perf init and redid my math to see that yup im a derpy dope. Preflights and double checks and your checklist will save you!
Remember: "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” I rushed. I screwed up. Now you get to both laugh at my error and learn from it. Apply it to everything!
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