bobcat_smith

Thanks Jan, I've watched that video. Very useful. I've practiced a few manual descents yesterday using lvl change, V/S and the speedbrakes to try and meet the different waypoint restrictions on a STAR without VNAV. It worked better without VNAV on the final approach too. Do you have any thoughts on what distance from the airport is it best to start slowing for flap deployment? I've heard some people say 25NM, some 20NM and some 15NM. In the video you talked about being at 180kts, 10NM from the airfield. Cheers for all your help

Hey, "Picking up the shards of the shattered approach" certainly describe the last couple of experiences I've had ;-) I'm going to do some experimentation with manual descents and see if I can learn. I've been watching a couple of your tutorials as well as the Reflected Reality ones, and they've been really useful. Thanks again for taking the time to respond with a helpful asnwer! Cheers

Hi there, I have another issue as i've been flying this aircraft a lot recently and trying to get my head around it :-) Most of the time when I descend using VNAV, the aircraft does not seem to decelerate appropriately at the decel point, instead it seems to pitch down, causing the speed to shoot up and leaving no time to slow the aircraft down appropriately. - In the attached image I am descending via the LANDU1B STAR into EDDM, for RWY26R - At the decel point (green circle) which I am just passing, the aircraft seems to suddenly pitch forward to maintain it's rate of descent, causing a speed increase (see speed tape climbing beyond 250KTS) instead of slowing to clean config speed. See the aircraft pitch attitude on the PFD in the image. - Sometimes when this happens the FMC calls for drag, but the speed continues to increase regardless So my question is - am I doing something wrong here or is the VNAV a bit buggy from time to time? In most of the YouTube tutorials i've watched, people tend to manually control the speed and descent rate in this aircraft, so I am wondering is this a better approach that gives more control? I know the B737-300 is an older aircraft so perhaps VNAV does not provide the same level of automation and profile reliability as as a more modern airbus for example? Any tips or advice would be appreciated Thanks

Ok, thanks for explaining that. I'll give it a shot! Thanks for the Aircraft too - it's great and a lot of fun Cheers

Hi there, I am having an issue when landing - after I disconnect the auto throttle, the throttles seem to become stuck and I cannot move them to idle with my joystick when performing a flare, meaning the aircraft hits the runway and massively over speeds Any ideas why this might be happening? Thank you