Can anyone please explain how the speed brakes 'arm' function should work in both real life and on FS2002?I would have thought that it was similar to the auto wheel brakes ie. as soon you're on the deck the brakes come on and if the speed brakes (aka lift dumpers) are armed then they would also be raised / switched on. I never see any effect from arming the speed brakes either in the air or after touch down ... ???Many thanks.

Auto spoilers or speedbrakes are armed in flight just before landing on most Boeing aircraft by moving the speedbrake lever just out of its detent. Upon touchdown the weight of the aircraft on the landing gear will cause an electric motor on the speedbrake lever to run and move the handle to the aft (deployed) position. This will deploy all spoilers on touchdown. After landing the handle can be returned to the stowed (forward) postion either by hand or by moving the throttles forward. This action also ensures that the spoilers retract in case of a balked landing.In FS2002 you can arm the autospoilers by clicking on the speedbrake lever. It should move only a little bit.Sadly on most FS2002 aircraft you have to have reverse thrust selected to get the spoilers deployed. I don't know why, because it used to work correctly in FS 2000 and FS98.(Reason for a patch?) This is why I deploy the spoilers manually in FS2002.Hope this helps.

Many thanks - this is what I figure should happen (although I didn't know about the go-round safety retraction).In FS2002 (default Boeing aircraft), even though I select reverse thrust (3 on numeric keypad), the spoilers still don't deploy from the armed position - any further ideas?Many thanks.

This has been discussed before, but I'm not sure we really came to any great conclusions. Some have suggested that you can fix the reverse thrust problem by using FSUIPC to fine-tune your throttle, and others have suggested using an add-on gauge, such as this one:http://flightsimmers.net/aindex/gauge1/armspoil.zipThis one adds a little toggle switch with a red light. When you turn it on to arm it, the spoilers will be deployed at *any* time you're on the ground. The idea is that it'll deploy them for you when you first touch down. Unfortunately, you have to turn off the switch in order to retract the spoilers, so the chances of leaving them deployed during your next takeoff are fairly good.I've chosen to just deploy them manually, as 72737 said above.I've also noticed that it works sometimes, but often doesn't. The consensus seems to be that it's a bug in FS2002.Russell