Hi All,Like many others last night, I went tooling around DC ARTCC to experience the winds from hurricane Isabel.Autoland worked perfectly on the two approaches I shot - KRDU & KORF, despite gusts up to 60 mph.In fact, I fooishly disconnected the AP at 100ft going into KRDU with a 90deg 40 mph crosswind and had an ...er interesting touchdown with full left rudder to keep straight.I 'trusted' autoland on the approach into KORF, and the system tracked perfectly all the way down despite the appalling winds.Many thanks, PMDG.

That's really strange as even in reality the autolant feature is restricted by any tailind over 15-20 knots (not exactly sure) and a crosswind of 25 (I think that's it)...to me it sounds absolutely impossible for any aircraft to land in those conditions-even in a sim.JohnP 2.53 GHZ512 RAMWINXPGFORCE 4 128MB Ti4600http://homepage.eircom.net/~eamonnmca/images/logo_ba.JPGwww.bavirtual.co.uk Senior Captain Simflight.com Staff Reviewerhttp://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg

Hi,One would think the restrictions are set with some safety margins so it would be possible to land even with conditions worse than limits.Don't know what those maximum limits would be though.Regards,

>That's really strange as even in reality the autolant feature>is restricted by any tailind over 15-20 knots (not exactly>sure) and a crosswind of 25 (I think that's it)...to me it>sounds absolutely impossible for any aircraft to land in those>conditions-even in a sim.>It is not the autoland capability that is being restricted, it is the ***use*** of the autoland capability that has the restrictions.As another poster stated - it is for safety reasons. Normal operations restrictions are NEVER set equal to the technology restrictions - to do so would be to trust the technology to perform without fault in each and every situation. That is not done - especially when there are life and death implications.-michael

I never said the 737NG couldn't peform a successful autoland in winds in excess of the saftey margins, but if the safety margin is sated as a 25 knot corsswind( hyphothetical) then I think it's safe to assume that techincally an aircraft cannot perform an autoland with winds in excess of 80 knots... 50 knots maybe but certainly not 80.Just clarifying by point of view ;)JohnP 2.53 GHZ512 RAMWINXPGFORCE 4 128MB Ti4600http://homepage.eircom.net/~eamonnmca/images/logo_ba.JPGwww.bavirtual.co.uk Senior Captain Simflight.com Staff Reviewerhttp://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg

Michael,Yeap absolutely correct. I shoudl add that the problem is not for the aircraft to maintain a certain track in the air (after all there is no restriction on the amount of X-wind in LNAV for instance). The problem with autoland starts at the minute the plane will touch. The aircraft heading should be that of the runway. This means rudder at 30-50ft agl or so before touch which in turn means aileron the other way so that **the plane lands level** otherwise (a) either one will shred the tyres in case of severe Rwy misalingment or (:( hit the engine pod which hangs really really low, if not almost level at touch. The former is impossible in FS, the latter is. The ** demonstrated ** crosswind capability refers to this flight phase. By the way autoland is used for reduced visibility operations not for landing VMC (visual meteorological conditions) or severe weather. Low vix and severe wind almost never go together.Regards,VangelisPS. I sincerely hope you all set VREF+5 in the MCP during your aprroaches yes ? That is +5 correct. Aircraft of this type never approach at VREF+0. VREF is essentially the threshold speed.===================================== E. M. Vaos Presicion Manuals Development Group www.precisonmanuals.com======================================

"This means rudder at 30-50ft agl or so before touch "Hmmm...I remember a conversation in this forum only a few days ago stating that the NG doesnt use any rudder action in the autoland sequence, it just uses roll???HmmmJohnP 2.53 GHZ512 RAMWINXPGFORCE 4 128MB Ti4600http://homepage.eircom.net/~eamonnmca/images/logo_ba.JPGwww.bavirtual.co.uk Senior Captain Simflight.com Staff Reviewerhttp://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg

just a tip--is crosswind component-- not crosswind value. I.E If it is a 40 knot wind but the crosswind component is only 25 then its still manageable. (The component allows for angle of the wind, i.e. if its at say 2 oclock instead of 3 oclock (perfect cross wind) ) Also, yea there are huge safety margins in a plane. Remember the other info is right, in the air it isnt really a problem, you just want to ground-track the runway, when you it the runway and skid you are in a problem.

The autopilot uses roll, correct, and does not do cross controls at touch. The PILOT uses rudder when flying manually the last segment of the approach. In real life it is unthinkable to have severe wind or turbulence or gusts and perform an autoland. And why should one ? The real pilot flies the aircraft much better than the autopilot... In the FS world the situation is on occasion the other way around mainly (a) due to lack of organised and very very specific aviation education by presumably a flight instructor and (:( pathetic flight models that do harm in the sense that one gets used to completely wrong performance. Hence, one of the main purposes of this project apart from entertainemnt is to provide simmers with a state of the art realistic flight model and allow them to practice and perfect their *FS* "flying" skills. The 737 is the best possible platform for a medium size transport class aircraft.Cheers,Vangelis VaosPS. Minute rudder movement is effected by the yaw damper (regardless of the flight phase). This is modelled as well in our (and I mean all of us) NG.========================================== E. M. Vaos Precision Manuals Development Group www.precisionmanuals.com==========================================