Gents,i am trying to fly as smooth as possible since I dont have that many sicksacks for all my passengers. Most of the time i let the AP get me established on the ILS. At 1000 ft AGL I am in full landing configuration and from that point I like to take over handflying it down to touch down. I disconnet the AP and everything is fine (AT at Vref+5). At 100 ft I disengange autothrust because if I dont the power reduction sets in rather late and I float down way beyond the touchdown zone (this is the only thing i dont like about autoland with the PMDG737). How do you all disengage the autothrust? My problem is that when I have to concentrate on staying on LOC and GS and then steer the mouse with my left hand to click on the AT-button I sometimes get of course as i stop scanning the instruments for a short time. I tried to assign a key but when I hit that key the button does not move although AT was disengaged. Thanks for all input in advance!CheersDavid

I make sure my mouse is already over the A/T button so all I have to do is push a mouse button, not drive it around the screen, with my left hand.Actually, if the aircraft is trimmed properly, you ought to be able to take your hand off the yoke/stick briefly and not have it leave glideslope.Lee Hetherington (KBED)

Pilots do it different ways, here is what a pilot posted a while ago that makes good sense: In our company A/T use is recommanded even in manual flight.All the way to touch down with auto retard.However if to much hunting by A/T is better to DESELECT MCP speed mode leaving A/T in ARM mode which keeps alpha protection active just in case speed drops below target or gust or windsheer.[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smith [/4]P M D G 7 3 7 NG[/h4]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/196432/mineimage.jpg [h3]Moving forward one step at a time AMD XP 2200 |MUNCHKIN 512 DDR RAM |ECS[/b ][i] K7S5A MB[/i] |GF2 MX 32 MEG and still runs GOOD!|WIN XP PRO |MITSUBISHI DIAMOND PLUS 91 19"[/h3]

david,i've been flying on the jumpseat a lot. with half of my family working at lufthansa, i've seen a touchdown in almost every type of plane they fly. what i observed was, that (on LH flights) pilots use to diconnect the A/T BEFORE the AP. most of the time, they swiched it of after reaching full landing config. keeping the speed manually stable, they diconnect AP at approx. 1000 ft. over ground.many airlines handle this the same way. and so do i.happy landings,stu

I'll give it a try. I did an ILS approach in a 737-300/500 full motion simulator. I didnt use AT at all and when I was established the instructor said to just keep it on 51% N1. The speed was very very stable but it is not that easy with a tiny little wheel on my joystick. :)David

i know what you mean. but i find the PMDG 737NG manual speed very easy to keep stable. and also the rest is not too sensitive. i can take my hands off the joystick for several seconds, the plane flys itself. just stay calm and don't steer to much. and if you have additional knobs on your stick, use them to trim to keep on g/s.stu